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 effects 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.

CLAP was created as an open licensed alternative to proprietary audio plugin formats 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 11 DAWs and 64 plugin producers  who have produced 303 CLAP plugins.