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Managing Vamp Plugin Paths

Source: vignettes/vamp-paths.Rmd
vamp-paths.Rmd

Overview

Vamp plugins are distributed as separate binary libraries that ReVAMP loads at runtime. Understanding how Vamp finds plugins is important for:

  • Installing new plugins
  • Troubleshooting missing plugins
  • Managing multiple plugin versions
  • Deploying applications that use ReVAMP

This vignette covers plugin search paths, installation locations, and troubleshooting.

Plugin Search Paths

Viewing Current Paths

Use vampPaths() to see where ReVAMP searches for plugins:

# View plugin search paths
paths <- vampPaths()
print(paths)

This returns a character vector of directories searched in order. ReVAMP will find the first matching plugin in this list.

Default Search Paths

Search paths vary by operating system:

macOS

  1. ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp (user plugins)
  2. /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp (system plugins)

Linux

  1. ~/.vamp (user plugins)
  2. /usr/local/lib/vamp (locally installed)
  3. /usr/lib/vamp (system packages)

Windows

  1. %APPDATA%\Vamp Plugins (user plugins)
  2. C:\Program Files\Vamp Plugins (all users)
  3. C:\Program Files (x86)\Vamp Plugins (32-bit on 64-bit)

Custom Search Paths

You can add custom plugin directories using the VAMP_PATH environment variable:

macOS/Linux 

# In ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export VAMP_PATH=$HOME/my-vamp-plugins:/opt/vamp-plugins

# Or for single R session
Sys.setenv(VAMP_PATH = "/path/to/plugins:/another/path")

Windows 

# PowerShell (persistent)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("VAMP_PATH", 
  "C:\MyPlugins;D:\MorePlugins", "User")

# Or in R session
Sys.setenv(VAMP_PATH = "C:\\MyPlugins;D:\\MorePlugins")

Path separator is : on Unix/macOS and ; on Windows.

Verifying Installation

After installing plugins, verify they’re detected:

# List all plugins
plugins <- vampPlugins()

# View plugin details
plugin_info <- plugins[plugins$id == "vamp-aubio:aubiotempo", ]
print(plugin_info)