template or tutorial for custom c++ scriptnode?

[Morphoice]

@ustk don't VST3 plugins in general only waste cpu when they detect the presence of an audio signal?

[Christoph Hart]

@Morphoice might be true but you can‘t rely on every host to implement this, also there are other plugin formats which you need to factor in.

[sletz]

In the meantime, written in Faust: https://faustlibraries.grame.fr/libs/basics/#bamulaw_bitcrusher
and the code here https://github.com/grame-cncm/faustlibraries/blob/a222717339e5f528787080e5e5438ffef8da22a9/basics.lib#L2429 and https://github.com/grame-cncm/faustlibraries/blob/a222717339e5f528787080e5e5438ffef8da22a9/basics.lib#L2371

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice

Yes there are a few ways. The best is probably to use the built in flags at the top of the c++ node. But you can do custom detection too, which I sometimes use if I need specific behaviour.

You'll probably want to optimise the nodes in the first place, I see you've got all the random example scripts (smooth gain ect) that aren't super necessary for your use case. I can give you a more simple template if you want one.

I intend to go back and cover this c++ node stuff better and in more detail but I'm short on time currently. I will be releasing a proper template in the future, with a lightweight library to go along with it, containing efficient approximations of math functions (rather useful for your bitcrusher script), automatic lookuptable creation, and hopefully some tools for SIMD.

And yes - you are progressing really quickly! I get the feeling that you are going to do really well. I don't think I'll have a plugin released until at least two years time Too much perfectionism

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy thanks man! a simpler template would be awesome, I also figured It would make sense to do the calculations only if samples[i] isnt zero, that should take most of the load in my case.

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice

Yep that makes sense, since you don't need to process the zero crossings for your effect.

C++ Node Templates – Google Drive

Google Drive (drive.google.com)

Here's a more up to date version of the template. You'll have to wait until I've got time, for me to release the official version of this, which will have many more improvements

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice Did a small fix there was an error in the template

C++ Node Templates – Google Drive

Google Drive (drive.google.com)

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy said in template or tutorial for custom c++ scriptnode?:

C++ Node Templates – Google Drive

Google Drive (drive.google.com)

thanks so much! I'll use this wisely to make new nodes ;))

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy btw just tried compiling the node on PC but that didnt work at all it's throwing a ton of errors. you wont happen to have any idea what I did wrong?

// ==========================| muLawBitCrusher v1.0 by Morphoice |==========================

#pragma once
#include <JuceHeader.h>
#include <cmath>


namespace project
{
    using namespace juce;
    using namespace hise;
    using namespace scriptnode;

    template <typename T> int sgn(T val) {
        return (T(0) < val) - (val < T(0));
    }

    template <int NV>
    // --- Replace with Name
    struct muLawBitCrusher : public data::base
    {   // ------ Replace with Name
        SNEX_NODE(muLawBitCrusher);

        struct MetadataClass
        { // --------- Replace with "Name"
            SN_NODE_ID("muLawBitCrusher");
        };

        // ==========================| Node Properties |==========================
        static constexpr bool isModNode() { return false; }
        static constexpr bool isPolyphonic() { return NV > 1; }
        static constexpr bool hasTail() { return false; }
        static constexpr bool isSuspendedOnSilence() { return false; }
        static constexpr int getFixChannelAmount() { return 2; }

        static constexpr int NumTables = 0;
        static constexpr int NumSliderPacks = 0;
        static constexpr int NumAudioFiles = 0;
        static constexpr int NumFilters = 0;
        static constexpr int NumDisplayBuffers = 0;

        // ==========================| Global Variables |==========================

        // ==========================| Prepare |==========================
        // Called on init, and when sample rate changes
        void prepare(PrepareSpecs specs)
        {
            float sampleRate = specs.sampleRate;
            float numChannels = specs.numChannels;

            leftChannelEffect.prepare(sampleRate, 5.0); // 5ms smoothing on the gain parameter
            rightChannelEffect.prepare(sampleRate, 5.0);
        }

        // ==========================| Reset |==========================
        // Called when the plugin is reloaded
        void reset() {}

        // ==========================| Process |==========================
        // Blocks of audio enter the script here
        template <typename ProcessDataType>
        void process(ProcessDataType& data)
        {
            // Convert the audio data to a fixed-channel format for efficient processing
            auto& fixData = data.template as<ProcessData<getFixChannelAmount()>>();

            // Get pointers to each channel's audio data
            // Changes to these variables will now directly modify the original audio buffer
            auto audioBlock = fixData.toAudioBlock();
            auto* leftChannelData = audioBlock.getChannelPointer(0);
            auto* rightChannelData = audioBlock.getChannelPointer(1);

            // Get the number of samples (one channel) for this block
            int numSamples = data.getNumSamples();

            // Pass each channel's audio to the appropriate AudioEffect class
            leftChannelEffect.process(leftChannelData, numSamples);
            rightChannelEffect.process(rightChannelData, numSamples);
        }

        // ==========================| AudioEffect Class |==========================
        class AudioEffect
        {
        public:
            AudioEffect(float initialGain = 1.0f)
            {
                smoothGain.set(initialGain); // Initialize sfloat with initial gain
            }

            void prepare(double sampleRate, double timeInMilliseconds)
            {
                smoothGain.prepare(sampleRate, timeInMilliseconds);
            }

            void process(float* samples, int numSamples)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < numSamples; ++i)
                {
                    float val = samples[i];
                    
                    if (val!=0) {
                        
                        // mu-law compress signal
                        int max = 255;
                        float valmu  = sgn(val) * log( 1.0f + max * abs(val) ) / log( 1.0f + max);
                        
                        // Quantize to 8 bits
                        float valmu8 = valmu - fmodf(valmu, 1.0f / max);
                        
                        // mu-law expand signal
                        float valex = sgn(valmu8) * (1.0f / max) * ( pow(max + 1.0f, abs(valmu8)) - 1.0f );
                        
                        // Apply Demo Gain
                        samples[i] = valex * smoothGain.advance();
                        
                    }
                    /*
                     float rem = fmodf(val,1/max);
                     
                     // Linear quantized to 8 bits
                     float val8 = val - rem;

                     */
                    
                }
            }

            void updateGain(float newGain)
            {
                smoothGain.set(newGain);
            }

        private:
            sfloat smoothGain; // Declare smoothGain variable, using sfloat type for smoothing
        };

        // ==========================| Set Parameter |==========================
        template <int P>
        void setParameter(double v)
        {
            if (P == 0)
                leftChannelEffect.updateGain(static_cast<float>(v)); // Update gain for left channel
            else if (P == 1)
                rightChannelEffect.updateGain(static_cast<float>(v)); // Update gain for right channel
        }

        // ==========================| Create Parameters |==========================
        void createParameters(ParameterDataList& data)
        {

            {   //                             { min, max,  step }                 { id }
                parameter::data p("LeftGain", { 0.1, 2.0, 0.01 }); registerCallback<0>(p);
                p.setDefaultValue(1.0);
                data.add(std::move(p));
            }
            {
                parameter::data p("RightGain", { 0.1, 2.0, 0.01 });
                registerCallback<1>(p);
                p.setDefaultValue(1.0);
                data.add(std::move(p));
            }
        }

        // ==========================| External Data |==========================
        void setExternalData(const ExternalData& data, int index) {}

        // ==========================| Handle HISE Event |==========================
        void handleHiseEvent(HiseEvent& e) {}

        // ==========================| Modulation Slot |==========================
        // ( first enable isModNode() at the top of script )
        /*
            ModValue modValue;
            int handleModulation(double& value)
            {
                return modValue.getChangedValue(value);
            }
            // Creates callback so that altering the 'modValue' var elsewhere will now update the mod slot
            modValue.setModValue(0);
        */

        // processFrame: Needed for compiler, does nothing
        template <typename FrameDataType>
        void processFrame(FrameDataType& data) {}

    private:
        AudioEffect leftChannelEffect;
        AudioEffect rightChannelEffect;
    };
}

what works on mac doesn't on PC

error C3203: 'muLawBitCrusher':
unspecialized class template can't be used as a template argument for template parameter 'T', expected a real type

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice

it compiles on my end.
Did you make sure to name the .h file as follows:

muLawBitCrusher.h

The c++ file always needs to share the same name as the node.
Also by the way, your effect has a heck ton of aliasing.

Edit: *facepalm, aliasing is the point, please ignore me lol

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy ;-))) yes it's named correctly, the VS compiler seems to take offense of my sgn function I got off the webs which is weird as it works fine on mac

template <typename T> int sgn(T val) {
        return (T(0) < val) - (val < T(0));
    }

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice

Yeah it works on my machine... try a fresh hise project.
You could also always try recompiling the latest hise.
If those two things don't fix it, then it's a tricky one

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy i'm getting rid of that template thing for that stupid sign function, which is a syntax beyond my c++ knowledge

this should work too, at least on mac it compiles fine, gotta try on the pc later

                        // mu-law compress signal
                        int max      = 255;
                        int sign     = (0 < val) - (val < 0);
                        float valmu  = sign * log( 1.0f + max * abs(val) ) / log( 1.0f + max);
                        
                        // Quantize to 8 bits
                        float valmu8 = valmu - fmodf(valmu, 1.0f / max);
                        
                        // mu-law expand signal
                        float valex = sign * (1.0f / max) * ( pow(max + 1.0f, abs(valmu8)) - 1.0f );

[Morphoice]

@griffinboy on second thought sign probably only needs to calculate once and should be the same on compressing and expanding a sample so even more calculations can be avoided

[Lindon]

@griffinboy said in template or tutorial for custom c++ scriptnode?:

@Morphoice Did a small fix there was an error in the template

C++ Node Templates – Google Drive

Google Drive (drive.google.com)

Sadly this is pretty unusable - as it blocks chrome from looking at it if adblockers are turned on...

[griffinboy]

@Lindon

Thanks for the heads up

[griffinboy]

@Morphoice

Doesn't even need to be used once. There are approximations or lookup tables that can be used.