Disposable Soft Synth Interface (DSSI) is a virtual instrument (

software synthesizer A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the sa ...

) plugin architecture for use by

music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or O ...

applications. It was designed for applications running under

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

, although there is nothing specific to Linux in the interface itself. It is distributed under the terms of a combination of LGPL-2.1-or-later and some

BSD license BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD li ...

s, all of which are

free software licences A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder (usually the author) ...

Features

DSSI is sometimes described as ''Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API'' (

LADSPA LADSPA is an acronym for Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API. It is an application programming interface (API) standard for handling audio filters and audio signal processing effects, licensed under LGPL-2.1-or-later. It was originally d ...

) for instruments. LADSPA is an audio effects plugin architecture for filters, reverbs and other sound processing software tools, whereas DSSI was designed specifically for instrument plugins that generate sound from note events. DSSI extends LADSPA by adding note event delivery, but it also adds predefined program selections and a method for plugins to provide their own user interfaces, both of which may also be used by effects plugins. This is partly because DSSI was intended to be a lightweight addition to LADSPA that would require little extra effort from authors of LADSPA hosts and plugins to support, and partly to avoid distracting too much developer effort from the

Generalized Music Plug-in Interface Generalized Music Plug-in Interface (GMPI) is a working group of the MIDI Manufacturers Association set up to consider the feasibility of a standard interface for audio and MIDI software plug-ins, to complement or supersede existing vendor-specifi ...

(GMPI) plug-in initiative (which has since stalled). Perhaps as a partial consequence of this early offhand approach to publicity, the number of DSSI plugins available remains small. A successor which reunites the two standards

and DSSI is

LV2 LV2 (LADSPA Version 2) is a set of royalty-free open standards for plug-ins and matching host applications. It includes support for the synthesis and processing of digital audio and CV, events such as MIDI and OSC, and provides a free alternat ...

. DSSI hosts on Linux can also host some

Virtual Studio Technology Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional rec ...

(VST) instruments (VSTi) for Microsoft Windows using the ''dssi-vst'' wrapper plug-in, which in turn makes use of the

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...

compatibility layer. The major programs supporting DSSI are

Qtractor Qtractor is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application for Linux. Qtractor is written in C++ and is based on the Qt framework. Its author is Rui Nuno Capela, who is also responsible for the Qjackctl, Qsynth and Qsampler lin ...

Renoise Renoise is a digital audio workstation (DAW) based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MID ...

and

Rosegarden Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA and Qt4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool. It is intended to be a free alternative to ...

External links

DSSI – API for audio processing plugins

The project's README file
– which includes licence information at the end * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dssi Application programming interfaces Music software plugin architectures Free audio software Software derived from or incorporating Wine

Features

See also

External links