Omni DAW

Omni is a professional Digital Audio Workstation written entirely in Rust — combining a lock-free, real-time audio engine with a GPU-accelerated interface (egui/eframe). Designed for producers who demand both reliability and performance, Omni delivers a complete music production environment on Linux and Windows.

**Audio Engine**

Omni's engine is built for zero-compromise real-time performance. The processing pipeline runs with SCHED_FIFO priority, memory-locked pages, FTZ/DAZ denormal protection, and a SIMD-optimized (f32x4) mixing bus. Plugin Delay Compensation (PDC) is automatic and DAG-aware. The engine never allocates on the audio thread.

**Session View — Step Sequencer + Piano Roll + Euclidean Pro**

The Session View offers a clip-launching workflow similar to modern loop-based DAWs. Each clip contains a 32-step pattern sequencer with dedicated lanes for pitch, velocity, gate length, probability, and performance modifiers. The full-featured Piano Roll editor includes scale-aware fold modes, velocity-to-brightness note coloring, snap grid quantization, marquee selection, copy/paste/duplicate, transpose, legato tools, and real-time note audition.

Euclidean Pro — adds a complete rhythmic composition environment: four morphable pattern banks (A/B/C/D) with a Mix Knob and LFO modulation, Boolean logic operations (AND/OR/XOR/AND-NOT) between channels, and Elektron-style step conditions (1:2, 1:4, 2:3, FILL, NOT FILL, RANDOM...). Per-step velocity and probability lanes, per-channel MIDI routing, 24 factory presets, and disk-based preset save/load complete the toolkit.

**Arrangement View**

A timeline-based arrangement editor with waveform display, clip split/resize/fade, system drag-and-drop directly onto the timeline, loop regions, markers, and per-parameter automation lanes. Queued clip sync locks to the longest currently running clip for seamless live transitions. Seamless crossfade switching between Session and Arrangement modes.

**Mixer**

Per-track volume, pan, and trim controls with mute/solo/record arm. Send/return routing with pre- and post-fader sends. Real-time peak metering on every channel. Unified Add FX menu on tracks, returns, and master.

**Expanded Master Console**

A dedicated mastering workspace (shortcut: M) with master and return strips, per-bus fader/EQ/FX chains, and A/B Snapshots for instant comparison of two mastering approaches. Nine monitor modes (Stereo, Mono, L-only, R-only, Swap L/R, Mid, Side, DIM, MUTE) plus polarity inversion, with a live mode indicator chip in the top bar. Metering covers Peak, RMS, Pearson correlation, LUFS, and True Peak with a K-System reference line (K-12/14/20). Advanced PowR dither (Off / TPDF / PowR1 / PowR2 / PowR3) activates automatically for 16/24-bit export and is disabled for Float32 output. Bounce Export is available directly from the console.

**Built-in Instruments**

*PolySynth* — 16-voice virtual analog synthesizer. 2 oscillators (Sine/Tri/Saw/Square/Pulse/SuperSaw + Sub + Noise) with Blend/FM/Ring Mod mix modes and hard sync. 10 filter types (SVF LP/LP24/HP/BP/Notch, Moog Ladder, Diode 303, Sallen-Key LP/HP, Comb) with 2× oversampling and 10 distortion types. 3 ADSR envelopes, 2 LFOs, 8-slot mod matrix, true unison (1–8 voices), glide/portamento, Juno-style chorus. 140+ automatable parameters.

*Bass Synth* — mono/poly bass synthesizer sharing the PolySynth engine core, tuned for low-end: 2 oscillators with FM/Ring Mod/hard sync, SVF + Moog Ladder filters, pre/post drive, 2 ADSR + 2 LFO, 8-slot mod matrix, true unison, legato/retrigger modes with note priority, pitch bend, mod wheel, aftertouch. Braids-inspired oscillator algorithms (25 waveforms including FM, wavetable, formant, noise types) selectable on both oscillators.

*TOMiC* — physical modelling drum machine with per-channel synthesis engine (oscillator, filter, envelope, FX), polyrhythmic step sequencer, per-channel step rate, swing, probability, fills, and archetype-aware randomizer.

*Scratch Deck* — virtual turntable with a hand-drawn pitch/speed curve editor, 9 slot banks (M1–M9), vinyl disc visualization with needle tracking, trim strip, and jog feedback. State (curves, banks, parameters) is saved in the project via bincode serialization. Curves exportable as portable '.scratch JSON' files.

*Piano* — physical modelling piano: hammer-string interaction with soundboard coupling.

*Guitar* — waveguide guitar synthesizer: plucked string physical model with body resonance.

*Violin* — physical modelling bowed string synthesizer: bow-string friction with body resonance.

*Harp* — physical modelling harp: plucked string model with sympathetic resonance.

*Plucked String* — Karplus-Strong plucked string with body resonance.

*Modal Synth* — additive resonator bank for pitched percussion and bell-like timbres (bells, marimba, vibraphone).

*Flute* — waveguide flute synthesizer: STK/Perry Cook digital waveguide with polynomial jet table non-linearity, vibrato, and overblowing.

*Reed* — waveguide reed synthesizer: physical model of single-reed wind instruments (clarinet, saxophone character).

**14 Built-in Professional Effects**

Parametric EQ (3-band biquad) · Compressor (soft knee, auto-makeup, parallel mix, sidechain) · Stereo Delay (tempo-sync, ping-pong, LP feedback) · State Variable Filter (LP/HP/BP/Notch, zero-delay feedback) · Algorithmic Reverb (FDN architecture) · Chorus · Phaser · Saturator/Overdrive · Brickwall Limiter · Sequenced FX (rhythmic effect sequencer, available on tracks, returns, and master) · Resonator (Rings-inspired modal resonator bank — 6 models: Modal, Sympathetic, Inharmonic, FM Voice, Quantized, Reverb String; driven by audio input, MIDI-tunable) · Clouds (Mutable Instruments-inspired granular texture processor — grain position, size, pitch shift ±24 st, density, texture, stereo spread, feedback, freeze, integrated reverb tail) · Insert Chain.

**Plugin Hosting**

CLAP and VST3 plugins are hosted in isolated child processes via shared memory IPC for crash safety. Full parameter automation, state save/restore, and X11 editor window support are included.

**Sampler Engine**

Multi-format audio loading (WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG via Symphonia), automatic high-quality resampling (Rubato, SincFixedIn, BlackmanHarris2), slice detection, MIDI-mapped triggering, and velocity layers.

**ElevenLabs AI Sound Generation**

Describe a sound in plain text and Omni generates it via the ElevenLabs Sound Effects API, placing the result directly into a clip on the selected track. The API key is stored securely at '~/.config/omni/elevenlabs_settings.json' (permissions: 0600) and never enters the project file or audio engine. A local generation history is maintained under 'XDG_DATA_HOME/omni/elevenlabs_history/' with atomic writes.

**Modulation System**

A per-track modulation rack routes any modulator to any automatable parameter with per-slot depth and polarity. Available modulator sources: LFO (6 shapes, tempo-sync, free-running), ADSR Envelope, Step Sequencer (up to 32 steps, per-step values), Macro Knob (assignable UI control), Random (sample-and-hold / smooth), and Marbles (stochastic generator inspired by Mutable Instruments Marbles — probabilistic gate and pitch outputs). OmniScript modulators can be written in the built-in scripting language for fully custom modulation behaviour.

**MIDI FX**

Per-track MIDI FX chains process note data before the instrument. Built-in MIDI FX: Arpeggiator (multiple modes, rate, gate, octave range) · Chord (auto-voice chords from single notes) · Scale Quantize (snap notes to any scale/mode) · Note Delay (tempo-sync MIDI echo with multiple taps) · Note Length (stretch/shorten/legato) · Velocity (shape, compress, randomize velocity) · Random MIDI (probabilistic note generation) · Marbles MIDI (stochastic pitch and gate generator) · Sequenced MIDI FX (transport-synced step grid for MIDI transforms).

**OmniScript**

A built-in scripting environment for writing custom Modulators, MIDI FX, and Audio FX plugins. The 'examples/scripts/' folder includes 15 ready-to-use templates. Full API documentation is available in 'docs/OMNISCRIPT.md'.

**Tech Stack:** Rust 2021/2024 · egui 0.33 · cpal · wide (SIMD) · petgraph + rayon · clap-sys · serde_json.

Omni is currently in early Alpha. It is actively developed and not yet recommended for production use. Feedback and bug reports are warmly welcome.

**Free (Alpha).**