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Installing the CLAP plugin

The CLAP build is a single dynamic library that ships two descriptors: Patches (an instrument) and Patches FX (an audio effect). Most hosts surface them in two slots — instruments and effects — from the same .clap bundle. No separate effect build, no extra install step.

Prebuilt release archive

The release archives described in the previous chapter contain Patches.clap alongside patch_player. To install just the CLAP plugin from those archives, copy the bundle into your CLAP search directory:

OSInstall path
macOS~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Patches.clap
Windows%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\CLAP\Patches.clap
Linux~/.clap/Patches.clap

macOS

tar -xzf patches-<version>-macos-aarch64.tar.gz
cd patches-<version>-macos-aarch64
./macos-unquarantine.sh

macos-unquarantine.sh strips the Gatekeeper quarantine flag from Patches.clap and copies it into ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/. For a manual install, skip the script and run:

mkdir -p ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP
cp -R Patches.clap ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Patches.clap

If a host rejects the plugin with “cannot be opened” after install, repeat the xattr -dr step and rescan.

Windows

Right-click Patches.clap → Properties → Unblock, then copy:

mkdir "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\CLAP"
copy Patches.clap "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\CLAP\"

The system-wide path C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\ works too but requires elevation.

Linux

No prebuilt artefact yet — build from source.

Build from source

The fastest macOS recipe is the deploy.sh script at the repo root. It release-builds patches-clap, strips quarantine from any previous install, and copies the dylib into ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Patches.clap. It also packages and installs the VS Code extension; read the script first if you only want the plugin.

./deploy.sh

For the underlying steps on any OS:

cargo build --release -p patches-clap

This produces a platform-specific dylib in target/release/:

OSBuilt artefactCopy to
macOSlibpatches_clap.dylib~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Patches.clap
Linuxlibpatches_clap.so~/.clap/Patches.clap
Windowspatches_clap.dll%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\CLAP\Patches.clap

The destination filename ends in .clap regardless of source extension — hosts identify the bundle by name and load whatever shared object is inside.

Linux dependencies

Same as the player: ALSA dev headers (sudo apt install libasound2-dev or equivalent).

Verification

  1. Start your DAW (REAPER, Bitwig, Ableton 11.3+, FL Studio 21.2+, Studio One 6.5+, …).
  2. Trigger a plugin rescan if the host doesn’t scan on startup.
  3. Patches should appear under the Instruments category.
  4. Patches FX should appear under the Effects (or Audio Effects) category.
  5. Load Patches on a MIDI track, open its UI, and load a patch from examples/ via the file picker.

If only one of the two descriptors shows up, the host is likely filtering by feature tag; check both the instrument and effect sections of the plugin browser. The dylib is the same — no second install needed.

If neither shows up:

  • macOS — quarantine. xattr -l ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Patches.clap will list it if present; re-run macos-unquarantine.sh or strip manually.
  • Windows — Unblock the file via Properties; SmartScreen blocks load until you do.
  • All OSes — confirm the host is actually scanning the directory you copied to. Some DAWs maintain a per-host CLAP path list that doesn’t include the user-local default.