Altar is a free, open-source guitar amplifier.

Built with HISE: https://hise.dev/

https://github.com/christophhart/HISE

Altar depends on several small fixes to the HISE source. I recommend using my fork:

https://github.com/nytemairqt/HISE

Altar uses multiple HISE ThirdParty nodes with their own dependencies. They are included in the /DspNetworks/ThirdParty/src/dependencies folder and are (should be) compatible with GPL-3:

JSON: https://github.com/nlohmann/json/
math_approx: https://github.com/Chowdhury-DSP/math_approx
RTNeural: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/RTNeural
RTNeural-NAM: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/RTNeural-NAM
Rubberband (0.3b & below): https://github.com/breakfastquay/rubberband signalsmith-stretch (0.4b & above): https://github.com/Signalsmith-Audio/signalsmith-stretch xsimd: https://github.com/xtensor-stack/xsimd

Read DEPENDENCIES for more information.

TBA

Built and tested with macOS Monterey 12.6.1.

Latest versions of XCode will likely cause problems when compiling HISE.

I used 13.2, available here:

https://xcodereleases.com

You might need to use a later version depending on your version of macOS.

Use my fork, which includes a template patch to fix an SIMD related error.

git clone https://github.com/nytemairqt/HISE.git

Extract the SDK:

HISE/tools/SDK/sdk.zip

The ASIOSDK2.3 and VST3 SDK folders need to be in the SDK folder, NOT the auto-generated "sdk" folder created by unzipping:

HISE/tools/SDK/ASIOSDK2.3
HISE/tools/SD/VST3 SDK

Now open the Projucer HISE/tools/projucer/projucer and drag the HISE Jucer file:

HISE/projects/standalone/HISE Standalone.jucer inside the Projucer.

Click "Save & Open In IDE"

Once XCode launches, click Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme.

Under Build Configuration, select "Release".

Product -> Clean Build Folder Product -> Build

git clone https://github.com/nytemairqt/altar.git

Start HISE, File -> Load Project -> Altar Root Folder

DON'T OPEN THE XML. Instead, compile the ThirdParty Nodes:

Export -> Compile DSP networks as dll

Open HISE again, this time you can open the Altar.xml.

Export -> Export as FX plugin

This will create a Binaries subfolder, and attempt to compile the plugin:

Altar/Binaries/

These are the modified instructions from David Healey's Bootcamp Cheat Sheet. I highly recommend signing up for the bootcamp:

https://audiodevschool.com/courses/hise-bootcamp/

Assuming a fresh install (I used Linux Mint 21):

sudo apt update

sudo apt-get -y install \
  build-essential \
  git \
  make \
  mold \
  binutils-gold \
  libfreetype6-dev \
  libx11-dev \
  libxinerama-dev \
  libxrandr-dev \
  libxcursor-dev \
  mesa-common-dev \
  libasound2-dev \
  freeglut3-dev \
  libxcomposite-dev \
  libcurl4-gnutls-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev \
  libjack-jackd2-dev \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libfftw3-dev

Edit bashrc: nano ~/.bashrc

# Add these lines at the end:

# mold linker alias
alias gold="mold"

# fftw3
export FFTWROOT=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
export CPATH=$FFTWROOT/include:$CPATH
export LIBRARY_PATH=$FFTWROOT/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$FFTWROOT/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Apply & verify changes:

source ~/.bashrc

gold --version (should say mold)

Download: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro Extract to: ~/.fonts/SourceCodePro Move fonts from static/ subfolder to the top-level folder.

Use my fork, which includes several minor fixes to resolve annoying gcc errors.

git clone https://github.com/nytemairqt/HISE.git

Extract the SDK:

HISE/tools/SDK/sdk.zip

The ASIOSDK2.3 and VST3 SDK folders need to be in the SDK folder, NOT the auto-generated "sdk" folder created by unzipping:

HISE/tools/SDK/ASIOSDK2.3
HISE/tools/SD/VST3 SDK

Now open the Projucer HISE/tools/projucer/projucer and drag the HISE Jucer file:

HISE/projects/standalone/HISE Standalone.jucer inside the Projucer.

Add to Extra Preprocessor Definitions:

AUDIOFFT_FFTW3=1
HI_ENABLE_CUSTOM_NODES=1

Add to Extra Linker Flags:

-lfftw3f

Enable in modules -> juce_dsp:

JUCE_DSP_USE_STATIC_FFTW

Save Projucer project (File -> Save)

cd projects/standalone/Builds/LinuxMakefile
make clean
make CONFIG=Release -j 4

Ctrl + H to view Hidden Files.

~/.config/HISE/compilerSettings.xml

Add the HISE Root folder to the HisePath variable.

Then copy the entire file to:

~/.hise/compilerSettings.xml

Start HISE, File -> Load Project -> Altar Root Folder

DON'T OPEN THE XML. Instead, compile the ThirdParty Nodes:

Export -> Compile DSP networks as dll

This will generate:

Altar/DspNetworks/Binaries/

Run ./batchCompileLinux.sh to compile the ThirdParty Nodes.

Open HISE again, this time you can open the Altar.xml.

Export -> Export as FX plugin

This will create a Binaries subfolder:

Altar/Binaries/

Open the directory, and run the ./batchCompileLinux.sh script here to export the plugin.

The final export is the ENTIRE Altar.vst3 folder.

Altar is capable of running on non-AVX & embedded CPUs, just start compilation as usual:

Export -> Export as FX plugin

Cancel the operation with CTRL + C, then open the Jucer file:

altar/Binaries/AutogeneratedProject.jucer

Select the relevant IDE settings, and remove this from "Extra Compiler Flags":

/arch:AVX

Then compile in IDE. There might be some post-build errors but we can safely ignore them.

You can also try enabling:

Legacy CPU Support

in the HISE Project Settings, but it never made a difference in my tests.