2015-12-20, 14:11
It is great with DSP emerging into KODI. Excellent! I would just like to ask a newbie question regarding this work: Have you considered to create a simple wrapper for VST plugins as one of your first DSP addons?
If I understand this thread correctly, the KODI project has set out to create basic DSP features like biquads, delay, etc. Questions then arrise as all these basic features are available in a zillion variants in the industry standard VST. Thus, to replicate all the features available in VST format is a giant task.
If you made such a simple wrapper, it would most definitely open a floodgate of features for DSP-ing Kodi, and it would surely attract a lot of new (i.e. the advanced DSP) users. It would combine brilliantly into the superior Kodi in general to have advanced DSP.
You can run VST plugins without GUI, so in a basic version the non-crossplatform GUI problems are not showstoppers.
I believe such a wrapper is not hard to do. I have written several VST plugins in Java, then wrapped via simple text files to VST plugin format on Windows, or to VST, AU and LADSPA plugin format on OS X, etc. The reason for using Java (also Windows ASIO compliant, BTW) is crossplatform compliance for the situation when the same software is used as a standalone app on Java compliant platforms, including Android. It means the VST and other plugin variant were a spinoff, but it works very well.
I understand that KODI is open source and free and that this collides with some commercial VST products, however there is also alot of VST freeware. And even if KODI is freeware, why not allow me as a user to freely select free or commercial add-ons? Afterall, I did pay for my laptop and for my Windows 10, and...
Further I salute obviously the KODI cross platform policy, and understand that this would in principle rule out "Windows only" VST standard and the likes as a standard KODI feature, but:
Even with a long term goal of offering such crossplatform compliance, it would still be A VERY GOOD THING if KODI would become an option for being used as a music server on a Windows machine with the integration of VST plugins. This is because, as many others have pointed out, there are basic features like room correction freely available as VST plugins. And audio enhancers like SoundPimp for crosstalk removal are other examples of basic and interesting DSP features. Many of these plugins have reached their level of sophistication after many years of development, so it is not that easy to replicate just like that in a new DSP KODI format. This is a relevant comment, not?
As it seems, a VST setup is available by using JRiver, but that needs further investigation.
I mention also that I used Windows Winamp in the past because it had exactly such a wrapper for VST plugins. The developer of this wrapper may be contacted for advice on how to do it. Such wrapper only needs the buffered audio on such and such format, that's almost all there is to it regarding the connection to KODI. Regarding the connection to the plugin, the interface has been written before, in e.g. that Winamp wrapper. In C, I anticipate.
WHY THIS ELABORATION?
What I am looking for is to play my local music library from my DLNA compliant network player Marantz na6005. It connects to the stereo. I could alternatively use my Android phone instead of the Marantz.
Importantly, both these machines are, at least on given conditions, able to handle e.g. 24bit 192kHz audio streaming formats. For example, I can connect the Android (LG G2) directly to a USB DAC. There is a myriad of options, but now I have this Marantz that I intend to feed with DPSed audio streams.
To be honest (from lack of competence specifically on DLNA server setups) I am not even sure the Marantz or the LG G2 network player will be able to see KODI as a DLNA (or similar) music server, or if it will only continue to see the music sercer directly. (It is a wireless seagate drive). But as I connect-in or hook-up KODI in between, to that Seagate server, I hope this to be the end result. Upon success, I can then start to connect DSP into the audio routing chain in the KODI.
For completeness, I just mention that as long as this whole setup is not a reality, I am using KODI or other players on my laptop, playing through the DSP of choice on that laptop, the DSP then being configured as a default part of the Windows audio, and finally sending it to that Marantz via airplay or chromcast audio or bluetooth. The net end result regarding the audio quality is similar excpt for the lack of high resolution audio formats compliance. I have CD lossless via Airplay, but I do not have high resolution formats. I want that!
I hope this makes sense to the developers.
If I understand this thread correctly, the KODI project has set out to create basic DSP features like biquads, delay, etc. Questions then arrise as all these basic features are available in a zillion variants in the industry standard VST. Thus, to replicate all the features available in VST format is a giant task.
If you made such a simple wrapper, it would most definitely open a floodgate of features for DSP-ing Kodi, and it would surely attract a lot of new (i.e. the advanced DSP) users. It would combine brilliantly into the superior Kodi in general to have advanced DSP.
You can run VST plugins without GUI, so in a basic version the non-crossplatform GUI problems are not showstoppers.
I believe such a wrapper is not hard to do. I have written several VST plugins in Java, then wrapped via simple text files to VST plugin format on Windows, or to VST, AU and LADSPA plugin format on OS X, etc. The reason for using Java (also Windows ASIO compliant, BTW) is crossplatform compliance for the situation when the same software is used as a standalone app on Java compliant platforms, including Android. It means the VST and other plugin variant were a spinoff, but it works very well.
I understand that KODI is open source and free and that this collides with some commercial VST products, however there is also alot of VST freeware. And even if KODI is freeware, why not allow me as a user to freely select free or commercial add-ons? Afterall, I did pay for my laptop and for my Windows 10, and...
Further I salute obviously the KODI cross platform policy, and understand that this would in principle rule out "Windows only" VST standard and the likes as a standard KODI feature, but:
Even with a long term goal of offering such crossplatform compliance, it would still be A VERY GOOD THING if KODI would become an option for being used as a music server on a Windows machine with the integration of VST plugins. This is because, as many others have pointed out, there are basic features like room correction freely available as VST plugins. And audio enhancers like SoundPimp for crosstalk removal are other examples of basic and interesting DSP features. Many of these plugins have reached their level of sophistication after many years of development, so it is not that easy to replicate just like that in a new DSP KODI format. This is a relevant comment, not?
As it seems, a VST setup is available by using JRiver, but that needs further investigation.
I mention also that I used Windows Winamp in the past because it had exactly such a wrapper for VST plugins. The developer of this wrapper may be contacted for advice on how to do it. Such wrapper only needs the buffered audio on such and such format, that's almost all there is to it regarding the connection to KODI. Regarding the connection to the plugin, the interface has been written before, in e.g. that Winamp wrapper. In C, I anticipate.
WHY THIS ELABORATION?
What I am looking for is to play my local music library from my DLNA compliant network player Marantz na6005. It connects to the stereo. I could alternatively use my Android phone instead of the Marantz.
Importantly, both these machines are, at least on given conditions, able to handle e.g. 24bit 192kHz audio streaming formats. For example, I can connect the Android (LG G2) directly to a USB DAC. There is a myriad of options, but now I have this Marantz that I intend to feed with DPSed audio streams.
To be honest (from lack of competence specifically on DLNA server setups) I am not even sure the Marantz or the LG G2 network player will be able to see KODI as a DLNA (or similar) music server, or if it will only continue to see the music sercer directly. (It is a wireless seagate drive). But as I connect-in or hook-up KODI in between, to that Seagate server, I hope this to be the end result. Upon success, I can then start to connect DSP into the audio routing chain in the KODI.
For completeness, I just mention that as long as this whole setup is not a reality, I am using KODI or other players on my laptop, playing through the DSP of choice on that laptop, the DSP then being configured as a default part of the Windows audio, and finally sending it to that Marantz via airplay or chromcast audio or bluetooth. The net end result regarding the audio quality is similar excpt for the lack of high resolution audio formats compliance. I have CD lossless via Airplay, but I do not have high resolution formats. I want that!
I hope this makes sense to the developers.
