iPlug 2 is a simple-to-use C++ framework for developing cross platform audio plug-ins/apps and targeting multiple plug-in APIs with the same minimalistic code. It abstracts an audio plug-in (IPlug) and it's drawing engine/GUI toolkit (IGraphics), although IPlug can be used in bring-your-own GUI library mode without IGraphics. IGraphics uses a retained mode paradigm and contains a collection of common controls well suited for audio plug-in GUIs, either using bitmap or vector graphics.
The original version of iPlug was developed by John Schwartz aka schwa and released in 2008 as part of Cockos' WDL library. iPlug 2 (2018) is a substantial reworking that brings multiple vector graphics backends to IGraphics (including GPU accelerated options and HiDPI/scaling), a better approach to concurrency, support for distributed plug-in formats and compiling to WebAssembly via emscripten, amongst many other things.
iPlug 2 targets the VST2, VST3, AudioUnit, AAX (Native) and the Web Audio Module (WAM) plug-in APIs. It can also produce standalone win32/macOS apps with audio and MIDI I/O, as well as Reaper extensions.
iPlug 2 includes support for the FAUST programming language, and the libfaust JIT compiler. It was the winner of the 2018 FAUST award.
You can discuss iPlug 2 on the WDL forum or on the iPlug user's slack channel.
Please consider supporting the project by helping out with bug fixes, features or documentation. You can support the project financially via patreon.
NOTE: THIS IS NOT YET PRODUCTION READY - zero commercial/free plug-ins are shipping with iPlug 2 - there are many bugs still to fix and a few features to add!
You may like to check out the Web Audio Module version of VirtualCZ which has been made using iPlug 2.
