Hosting library and audio plugin for JSFX

This package provides support for audio and MIDI effects developed with the JSFX language. These effects exist in source code form, and they are compiled and ran natively by hosting software.

This contains a hosting library, providing a JSFX compiler and runtime. In addition, there is an audio plugin which can act as a JSFX host in a digital audio workstation.

Installation should be as easy as dropping the plugin into your VST3, AU or CLAP folder.

First install the MSVC redistributable.

You can download the 64-bit version here: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe And the 32 bit version here: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe

Note that the plugin may crash if you have an outdated version of the MSVC redistributable on your system.

Alternatively, you can use the portable version of the plugin, which has the redistributable baked into the plugin.

Binaries are not signed. That means you have to explicitly allow it to be run (since it is not from an identified developer). Usually it involves invoking:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Path/To/Plugin/VST3/ysfx-s FX.vst3 xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Path/To/Plugin/VST3/ysfx-s instrument.vst3

Where you should fill in the path where the plugin is located on your system.

On some versions of Linux (reported for Debian Trixie at least), the native file file chooser may fail to open. If this happens, you can set an option in the preferences file to use a built-in file browsing dialog instead.

• Go to your application config folder, (likely ~/.config, though this depends on your system configuration).
• Locate a file named ysfx_saike_mod.prefs.
• Open the file and find the field ysfx_use_native_file_picker.
• Set its value to 0 and save the file (make sure the plugin is not running while you make this change).
• Next time you run the plugin, it should use the fallback file dialog.

It may not be as nice as native, but at least you'll be able to load files.

The best way to help out is by using the plugin and reporting bugs you run into. While I do make an effort to try builds prior to release in different DAWs, it is pretty likely that certain things get missed or overlooked. If you run into incorrect behavior, please report it using the issue tracker above and I will do my best to fix it. Thank you!

Note, this is a fork of YSFX with a few modifications to support newer JSFX features and fix some existing bugs.

Despite what the name might suggest, JSFX is not JavaScript. These technologies are unrelated to each other.

This project is not the work of Cockos, Inc; however, it is based on several free and open source components from the WDL. Originally, this project was based on jsusfx by Pascal Gauthier, which was then rewritten by jpcima.

Some time after the realization of this project, Cockos announced the release of JSFX as open source under the LGPL. This does not affect the development of this project, which remains a custom implementation based on the liberally licensed bits of the WDL.

Unfortunately, the original maintainer (jpcima) seems to have disappeared, so I (Joep Vanlier) have decided to fork the project to update it with some more recent JSFX features and bugfixes.

The audio plugin will initially present the JSFX effects available in the REAPER user folders, if these exist.

The effects are source code files which end with the extension .jsfx, or with no extension at all.

Note that, unlike REAPER, ysfx will let you install JSFX wherever you want. If you use effects from a custom folder, ysfx will usually figure things out, but not always.

The ideal hierarchy is one where there exists at least a pair of folders named "Effects" and "Data" side-by-side, which receive the code files and resource files respectively.

Example:

• My JSFX/Effects/guitar/amp-model
• My JSFX/Data/amp_models/Marshall JCM800 - Marshall Stock 70.wav

There are still quite a few differences between ysfx and jsfx and some things may not work as well. Please report bugs and missing features, but also be mindful of the limited time I can spend on fixing them.

I will keep a list of differences I have noticed so far here:

• Do not load images in @init, it is terrible for performance in ysfx. While it will work, it will reload those images on every @init. Better is to either use the file syntax at the top of the script, e.g.

  filename:0,img/background.png
  filename:1,img/poti_low_gain.png

and use those values there. Or load them in @gfx on the first pass. So something like:

@gfx
(!imgs_loaded) ? (
    // load images here
    imgs_loaded = 1;
);

You can find the most recent builds here. Note that I don't know how to do code signing yet, so the Mac builds are not signed.

To build the project, one must first set up a C++ development environment equipped with Git and CMake. One can then build the library and the audio plugin, by entering commands as follows:

git clone https://github.com/JoepVanlier/ysfx.git
cd ysfx
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ..
cmake --build .

There are many JSFX out there!

• Saike (my own): https://github.com/JoepVanlier/JSFX
• Geraint Luff: https://github.com/geraintluff/jsfx
• tilr JSFX: https://github.com/tiagolr/tilr_jsfx
• Mawi JSFX: https://github.com/mawi-design/JSFX
• Justin Johnson: https://github.com/Justin-Johnson/ReJJ
• Tukan Studios: https://github.com/TukanStudios/TUKAN_STUDIOS_PLUGINS
• Jozmac: https://github.com/jozmac/reapack-jm
• JClones: https://github.com/JClones/JSFXClones
• Sonic Anomaly: https://github.com/Sonic-Anomaly/Sonic-Anomaly-JSFX

For a list with many more, please see: https://www.keithhaydon.com/Reaper/JSFX2.pdf