NIH-plug is an API-agnostic audio plugin framework written in Rust, as well as a small collection of plugins. The idea is to have a stateful yet simple plugin API that gets rid of as much unnecessary ceremony wherever possible, while also keeping the amount of magic to minimum and making it easy to experiment with different approaches to things. See the current features section for more information on the project’s current status.
Plugins:
Check each plugin’s readme file for more details on what the plugin actually does. You can download the development binaries for Linux, Windows and macOS from the automated builds page. Or if you’re not signed in on GitHub, then you can also find the latest nightly build here. You may need to disable Gatekeeper on macOS to be able to use the plugins.
Scroll down for more information on the underlying plugin framework.
Buffr Glitch is the plugin for you if you enjoy the sound of a CD player skipping This plugin is essentially a MIDI triggered buffer repeat plugin. When you play a note, the plugin will sample the period corresponding to that note’s frequency and use that as a single waveform cycle. This can end up sounding like an in-tune glitch when used sparingly, or like a weird synthesizer when used less subtly.
Crisp adds a bright crispy top end to any low bass sound. Inspired by Polarity’s Fake Distortion video.
Crossover is as boring as it sounds. It cleanly splits the signal into two to five bands using a variety of algorithms. Those bands are then sent to auxiliary outputs so they can be accessed and processed individually. Meant as an alternative to Bitwig’s Multiband FX devices but with cleaner crossovers and a linear-phase option.
Diopser is a totally original phase rotation plugin. Useful for oomphing up kickdrums and basses, transforming synths into their evil phase-y cousin, and making everything sound like a cheap Sci-Fi laser beam.
Loudness War Winner does what it says on the tin. Have you ever wanted to show off your dominance by winning the loudness war? Neither have I. Dissatisfaction guaranteed.
Puberty Simulator is that patent pending One Weird Plugin that simulates the male voice change during puberty! If it was not already obvious from that sentence, this plugin is a joke, but it might actually be useful (or at least interesting) in some situations. This plugin pitches the signal down an octave, but it also has the side effect of causing things to sound like a cracking voice or to make them sound slightly out of tune.
Safety Limiter is a simple tool to prevent ear damage. As soon as there is a peak above 0 dBFS or the specified threshold, the plugin will cut over to playing SOS in Morse code, gradually fading out again when the input returns back to safe levels. Made for personal use during plugin development and intense sound design sessions, but maybe you’ll find it useful too!
Soft Vacuum is a straightforward port of Airwindows‘ Hard Vacuum plugin with parameter smoothing and up to 16x linear-phase oversampling, because I liked the distortion and just wished it had oversampling. All credit goes to Chris from Airwindows. I just wanted to share this in case anyone else finds it useful.
Spectral Compressor can squash anything into pink noise, apply simultaneous upwards and downwards compressor to dynamically match the sidechain signal’s spectrum and morph one sound into another, and lots more. Have you ever wondered what a 16384 band OTT would sound like? Neither have I.
