CLever Audio Plug-in

CLever Audio Plug-in or CLAP is an open source software architecture, application programming interface and reference implementation suite for audio effect plugins as used in multimedia software such as digital audio workstations, audio editing software, and video editing software with integrated audio workflows. The specification and reference implementation was released in 2022 by the Berlin-based audio software companies u-he and Bitwig.^[2][3][4]

CLever Audio Plug-in

Original author(s)	u-he and Bitwig
Initial release	2022; 3 years ago (2022)
Stable release	1.2.6[1]  / 11 March 2025
Repository	github.com/free-audio/clap
Written in	C
Type	Audio plug-in API
License	MIT License
Website	cleveraudio.org

CLAP was created as an open licensed alternative to proprietary audio plugin formats^[5] such as Steinberg's VST format, Apple's Audio Units format, or Avid Technology's Avid Audio Extension (AAX) format, designed for non-destructive parameter automation, multi-voice envelopes, true MIDI 2.0 support, better multi-core CPU performance and greater ease writing plugins in a non-proprietary licensing framework under the MIT License. CLAP is supported by 15 DAWs^[6] and 93 plugin producers^[7][8] who have produced 394 CLAP plugins.^[9]

See also

• Free software portal

• LADSPA and LV2, similar open-source standards