Nave

Where the sound resonates — impulse-response cabinet simulation for guitar and bass DI.

Work in progress. Nave is pre-1.0 and under active development. Binaries for macOS and Windows are available from the Releases page (currently unsigned — see the release notes); building from source works too. Expect breaking changes until v1.0.0 ships (see Roadmap).

What it is

Nave is a cabinet impulse-response (IR) loader built on JUCE 8, aimed at reamping guitar and bass DI tracks: load a cab (or full-rig) IR captured from a real speaker/mic setup and Nave convolves it with your DI signal using a zero-latency partitioned convolution engine, then shapes the result with a simulated mic-distance control, a pair of post-convolution filters, a dry/wet mix, and an output trim. With no IR loaded, Nave runs a unit-impulse (delta) IR - mathematically a passthrough - so it is a valid, transparent effect straight out of the box. See docs/manual.md for the full user manual.

Features

• IR loading, two independent slots - load any WAV/AIFF impulse response into IR A and/or IR B via file choosers; loading happens off the audio thread and never blocks or allocates during playback
• IR Blend - crossfades between IR A and IR B (e.g. two cabs, or two mic positions on the same cab), with automatic inter-IR phase alignment so blending never introduces comb-filtering from a timing mismatch between the two IRs
• Zero-latency convolution - juce::dsp::Convolution's zero-latency uniformly partitioned algorithm for both IR slots, so Nave never adds plugin delay compensation overhead
• Distance - simulated mic-to-cab distance (a front-loaded proximity-effect bass cut plus high-frequency darkening - driven far more by loudspeaker directivity than literal air absorption at reamping distances - as the value increases); an explicit "off" position at its default
• Presets - 8 factory presets plus full user preset save/load/import/export (single files and zip banks), with German frame-string localisation
• LoCut - post-convolution high-pass, 20 Hz - 800 Hz (default 20 Hz, an explicit "off"/bypassed position), removes low-end mud
• HiCut - post-convolution low-pass, 2 kHz - 20 kHz (default 20 kHz, also an explicit "off" position), tames fizz
• Mix - dry/wet, default 100% (fully wet) - a cabinet IR is normally run fully in the signal path
• Level - output trim, -24 dB to +24 dB
• Full state save/recall via AudioProcessorValueTreeState, including both loaded IRs' file paths

Signal flow

Input --> Convolution (crossfade of IR A / IR B) --> Distance --> LoCut (HPF, 20-800 Hz) --> HiCut (LPF, 2-20 kHz)
                                                                                                      |
                                    Output <-- Level (output trim) <-- Mix <------------------------ +
                                                                          ^
                                                                          |
                                                              delay-compensated dry path

See docs/architecture.md for the full breakdown, including the convolution/latency strategy, the filter-bypass-at-range-extremes design, inter-IR phase alignment, and IR file state handling.

Parameters

Parameter	Range	Default	Unit	Description
LoCut	20 – 800	20 (off)	Hz	Post-convolution high-pass filter; bypassed entirely at its minimum.
HiCut	2000 – 20000	20000 (off)	Hz	Post-convolution low-pass filter; bypassed entirely at its maximum.
IR Blend	0 – 100	0 (IR A only)	%	Crossfades between IR A and IR B.
Distance	0 – 100	0 (off)	%	Simulated mic-to-cab distance coloration; bypassed entirely at its minimum.
Mix	0 – 100	100 (fully wet)	%	Dry/wet blend against the original input.
Level	-24 – +24	0	dB	Output trim, applied last.

Full musical context and usage tips: docs/manual.md.

Roadmap

Milestone	Description	Status
M0	Bootstrap - project skeleton, CI, docs	Done
M1	DSP completion & test coverage - IR Blend, Distance emulation, inter-IR phase alignment, broadened Catch2 suite	Done (IR browser + bundled IR library deferred - see issue tracker)
M2	Presets & state recall - preset system, factory presets, DE frame localisation	Done
M3	GUI & accessibility - custom LookAndFeel, accessibility pass	Planned
M4	Release - code signing, notarization, installers, v1.0.0	Planned

Installation

No pre-built binaries are published yet (see the work-in-progress notice above). Once releases begin, installation will follow the standard plugin locations:

macOS

Format	Path
AU (Component)	~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
VST3	~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/

If Logic Pro doesn't pick up the plugin after installing, force a rescan by resetting the AU cache:

killall -9 AudioComponentRegistrar
auval -a

Windows

Format	Path
VST3	C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

Building from source

Requires JUCE 8.0.14, C++20, and CMake ≥ 3.24. See docs/building.md for full prerequisites and step-by-step build/test commands for macOS and Windows.

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

License

Nave is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3).

This project uses JUCE 8, whose open-source tier is licensed under AGPLv3 (as of JUCE 8; JUCE 7 and earlier used GPLv3), which is why this project is AGPLv3 rather than GPLv3. See docs/adr/0002-agplv3-licensing.md for the full reasoning.

VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

Nave is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any plugin manufacturer.