Overdraw is an audio plug-in that implements a waveshaper in which the transfer function of each channel is an automatable spline.
- The transfer functions are smoothly automatable splines.
- Optional Mid/Side Stereo processing.
- All parameters, and all splines, can have different values on the Left channel and on the Right channel - or on the Mid channel and on the Side channel, when in Mid/Side Stereo Mode.
- Dry-Wet.
- Up to 32x Oversampling with either Minimum Phase or Linear Phase Antialiasing.
- VU meter showing the difference between the input level and the output level.
- Customizable smoothing time, used to avoid zips when automating the knots of the splines, the wet amount, or the input and output gains.
Pre-built binaries:
- macOS (universal — Apple Silicon + Intel): see the Releases page. Each macOS zip contains the AU + VST3 bundles, the
legal/folder, and aREADME.txtwith install instructions (including thexattr -dr com.apple.quarantinestep needed for unsigned OSS plug-ins). - Windows / Linux: https://www.unevens.net/overdraw.html
Clone recursively:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/unevens/Overdraw
Overdraw uses the JUCE C++ framework, referenced as a sibling checkout at ../JUCE. Clone JUCE 8 next to this repo before building.
The authoritative build is CMake (CMakeLists.txt at the repo root). The old Projucer .jucer file has been removed — see git history if you need it.
Apple's bundled Clang (Xcode 17, Command Line Tools 21) and any upstream Clang older than 22 hit a NEON-intrinsic codegen bug in Source/OverdrawDsp.cpp. The fix shipped in upstream LLVM 22, so build with Homebrew Clang ≥ 22:
brew install llvm
cmake -S . -B build \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang \
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++
cmake --build build -j8
CMakeLists.txt enforces this — configuring with Apple Clang or any clang older than 22 fails immediately with a message pointing at the right compiler. It also auto-derives llvm-ar / llvm-ranlib from the chosen compiler's toolchain dir.
This produces Standalone, AU, and VST3 in build/Overdraw_artefacts/Release/. The plug-ins are also copied to your user plug-in folders for an immediate DAW reload:
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Overdraw 1.2.component~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Overdraw 1.2.vst3
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
UNIVERSAL |
ON |
Build a universal arm64+x86_64 binary so a single zip serves both Apple Silicon and Intel users. Disable with -DUNIVERSAL=OFF for ~2x faster single-arch dev iteration. |
INSTALL_TO_USER_PLUGINS |
ON |
Copy AU/VST3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/* after build. Disable with -DINSTALL_TO_USER_PLUGINS=OFF for CI builds or when you don't want the build to touch your live plug-in folder. |
cmake --build build --target package-zip produces both a staging folder and a ready-to-upload zip:
build/release-zip/
├── Overdraw1.2_mac/
│ ├── Overdraw 1.2.component
│ ├── Overdraw 1.2.vst3
│ ├── legal/
│ └── README.txt
└── Overdraw1.2_mac.zip
The platform suffix becomes _win / _linux when built on those hosts.
The CMake build is cross-platform via JUCE's juce_add_plugin. Windows is the next platform to be re-validated since the migration off Projucer. Adapt the cmake invocations above for MSVC, build, and please report any breakage.
The Linux build worked under the old Projucer setup but is not actively tested right now. The CMake setup should be cross-platform via juce_add_plugin, but expect to fix things if you build there. PRs welcome.
- oversimple wraps two resampling libraries:
- HIIR by Laurent de Soras — a 2x Upsampler/Downsampler with two-path polyphase IIR anti-aliasing filtering.
- r8brain-free-src by Aleksey Vaneev — a high-quality pro audio sample rate converter / resampler C++ library.
- audio-dsp, my toolbox for audio DSP and SIMD instructions, built on Agner Fog's vectorclass.
- juicy, my JUCE-side UI/glue components (spline editor, attached controls, oversampling attachments).
Overdraw is released under the GNU GPLv3 license. Full license text and third-party notices are in the legal/ folder.
VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.