Mephisto
a Just-in-Time FAUST compiler embedded in an LV2 plugin
Write LV2 audio/cv instruments/filters directly in your host in FAUST DSP language without any need to restart/reload host or plugin upon code changes.
Use it for one-off instruments/filters, prototyping, experimenting or glueing stuff together.
Note: This will need a fairly recent libFAUST and/or bleeding edge GNU/Linux distribution.
Note: libFAUST 2.20.2 has a broken LLVM C-API and thus will be non-functional with this plugin.
Build status
Binaries
For GNU/Linux (64-bit, 32-bit).
To install the plugin bundle on your system, simply copy the mephisto.lv2 folder out of the platform folder of the downloaded package into your LV2 path.
Stable release
Unstable (nightly) release
Sources
Stable release
Git repository
Packages
Bugs and feature requests
Plugins
Audio 1x1
1x1 Audio version of the plugin.
Prototype new audio filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
Audio 2x2
2x2 Audio version of the plugin.
Prototype new audio filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
Audio 4x4
4x4 Audio version of the plugin.
Prototype new audio filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
Audio 8x8
8x8 Audio version of the plugin.
Prototype new audio filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
CV 1x1
1x1 CV version of the plugin.
Prototype new CV filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
CV 2x2
2x2 CV version of the plugin.
Prototype new CV filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
CV 4x4
4x4 CV version of the plugin.
Prototype new CV filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
CV 8x8
8x8 CV version of the plugin.
Prototype new CV filters and instruments in FAUST directly in your favorite running host, without the need to restart the latter after code changes.
Dependencies
- LV2 (LV2 Plugin Standard)
- FAUST (Faust Programming Language >=2.14.4)
- OpenGl (OpenGl)
- GLEW (GLEW)
- VTERM (Virtual terminal emulator)
Build / install
git clone https://git.open-music-kontrollers.ch/lv2/mephisto.lv2
cd mephisto.lv2
meson build
cd build
ninja -j4
ninja test
sudo ninja install
UI
This plugin features a native LV2 plugin UI which embeds a terminal emulator which can run your favorite terminal editor to edit the plugin’s FAUST source.
Currently, the editor has to be defined via the environment variable EDITOR:
export EDITOR='vim'
export EDITOR='emacs'
If no environment variable is defined, the default fallback editor is ‘vi’, as it must be part of every POSIX system.
Whenever you save the FAUST source, the plugin will try to just-in-time compile and inject it. Potential warnings and errors are reported in the plugin host’s log and the UI itself.
On hi-DPI displays, the UI scales automatically if you have set the correct DPI in your ~/.Xresources.
Xft.dpi: 200
If not, you can manually set your DPI via environmental variable D2TK_SCALE:
export D2TK_SCALE=200
Controls
The plugin supports up to 16 controls implemented as LV2 Parameters. To have access to them, simply use one of FAUST’s active control structures with ordering indeces (monitonically rising starting from 0) in their labels in your DSP code:
cntrl1 = hslider("[0]Control 0", 500.0, 10.0, 1000.0, 1.0);
cntrl2 = hslider("[1]Control 1", 5.0, 1.0, 10.0, 1.0);
cntrl3 = hslider("[2]Control 2", 0.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.1);
Read-only controls are also supported and will be shown as waveforms in the UI:
_ : hbargraph("[3]Probe 3", 0, 1);
MIDI and polyphony
The plugin supports building instruments with MIDI polyphony. For this to work you have to enable the MIDI option and declare amount of polyphony (maximum polyphony is 64).
The plugin automatically derives the 4 control signals:
- gate (NoteOn vs NoteOff)
- freq (NoteOn-note + PitchBend), honouring PitchBend range RPN 0/0
- gain (NoteOn-velocity)
- pressure (NotePressure aka polyphonic aftertouch)
Additionally, the following MIDI ControlChanges are supported:
- SustainPedal
- AllNotesOff
- AllSoundsOff
Other MIDI events are not supported as of today and thus should be automated via the plugin host to one of the 16 control slots.
declare options("[midi:on][nvoices:16]");
freq = hslider("freq", 0, 0, 1, 0.1);
gain = hslider("gain", 0, 0, 1, 0.1);
gate = button("gate");
pressure = button("gate");
pressure = hslider("pressure", 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.1);
cntrl1 = hslider("[0]Control 0", 500.0, 10.0, 1000.0, 1.0);
cntrl2 = hslider("[1]Control 1", 5.0, 1.0, 10.0, 1.0);
cntrl3 = hslider("[2]Control 2", 0.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.1);
OSC
OSC events are not supported as of today and thus should be automated via the plugin host to one of the 16 control slots.
Time
The plugin supports LV2 time position events. To have access to them, simply use one of FAUST’s active control structures with the corresponding time metadata in their labels in your DPS code and additionally enable the time option:
declare options("[time:on]");
barBeat = hslider("barBeat[time:barBeat]", 0.0, 0.0, 32.0, 1.0);
bar = hslider("bar[time:bar]", 0.0, 0.0, 400.0, 1.0);
beatUnit = hslider("beatUnit[time:beatUnit]", 1.0, 1.0, 32.0, 1.0);
beatsPerBar = hslider("beatsPerBar[time:beatsPerBar]", 1.0, 1.0, 32.0, 1.0);
beatsPerMinute = hslider("beatsPerMinute[time:beatsPerMinute]", 1.0, 1.0, 400.0, 1.0);
frame = hslider("frame[time:frame]", 1.0, 1.0, 400.0, 1.0);
framesPerSecond = hslider("framesPerSecond[time:framesPerSecond]", 1.0, 1.0, 96000.0, 1.0);
speed = button("speed[time:speed]");
License
Copyright © 2019-2021 Hanspeter Portner (dev@open-music-kontrollers.ch)
This is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0 as published by The Perl Foundation.
This source is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the Artistic License 2.0 for more details.
You should have received a copy of the Artistic License 2.0 along the source as a COPYING file. If not, obtain it from http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0.