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Getting started

There is no installer yet. You build Antiphon from source, which on Linux takes one command and a cup of tea.

Build it​

You need CMake, a C++17 compiler, and git.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/chalkwalk/antiphon.git
cd antiphon
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j $(nproc)

If you cloned without --recurse-submodules, run git submodule update --init --recursive before configuring.

That produces three things:

  • Standalone -- build/src/Antiphon_artefacts/Standalone/Antiphon
  • VST3 -- build/src/Antiphon_artefacts/VST3/
  • CLAP -- build/src/Antiphon_artefacts/CLAP/

Copy the VST3 or CLAP into wherever your DAW looks for plugins. On Linux that is usually ~/.vst3/ and ~/.clap/.

Which platform?

Everything so far has been built and tested on Linux, in the CLAP format. Windows and macOS are in the build matrix so the gap is visible, and they are expected to fail today. If you get it building elsewhere, that is the single most useful contribution the project can receive.

Where to put it in your DAW​

Antiphon is an effect, and it belongs on the master bus in most setups. It passes your audio through untouched and adds the remote players to the mix.

If you want to record each player separately, it needs to be somewhere its extra output buses can reach the tracks you want them on -- see Recording the jam as stems.

Your first connection​

  1. Open Antiphon (standalone, or on the master bus in your DAW).
  2. Click Connect.
  3. Either pick a room from the server browser -- a live list from ninbot.com -- or type a host and port directly.
  4. Connect as anonymous unless you have an account on that server.

ninbot.com:2049 is the usual busy public server, and a reasonable place to find out whether any of this works.

What happens next​

Nothing, for one interval. The first interval after you connect is silent, because nobody's audio has arrived yet. Then the room fades in.

This is the point at which people conclude the plugin is broken. It is not. Read Your first jam.

Running standalone instead​

The standalone build goes straight into an audio interface, no DAW required, and is a supported way to use Antiphon rather than a development convenience.

It has one limitation worth knowing up front: the standalone host gives it a single input bus and a single output bus. So multi-channel transmit and per-player stem recording -- the features that motivate the plugin -- are not available there. Plug a guitar in and jam; reach for the plugin when you want to record the result apart.