--- name: "ghostess" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "ghostess" version: "20210101-2" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/ghostess" --- # ghostess(1) graphical DSSI plugin host ## NAME ghostess - graphical DSSI plugin host ## SYNOPSIS **ghostess** \[**-debug** *level*\] \[**-hostname** *hostname*\] \[**-projdir** *projdir*\] \[**-uuid** *uuid*\] \[**-noauto**\] \[**-f** *cfgfile*\] \[*-n*\] \[**-chan** *c*\] \[**-conf** *k* *v*\] \[**-prog** *b* *p*\] \[**-port** *p* *f*\] *soname*\[*:label*\] \[*...*\] ## DESCRIPTION **ghostess** is a DSSI host that listens for MIDI events, delivers them to DSSI synth plugins, and outputs the resulting audio via JACK. **ghostess** also supports DSSI plugins having audio inputs (effects), LADSPA plugins, and the use of DSSI-style user interfaces with LADSPA plugins. **ghostess** can host up to 32 plugin instances at one time. Depending on the compile-time configuration, **ghostess** will receive MIDI events from ALSA, JACK MIDI, or CoreMIDI. Unless otherwise specified by the **-chan** option, each plugin instance is sequentially assigned a MIDI channel, wrapping from 15 (zero-based) back to 0 when necessary. Unless **-noauto** is specified, plugin inputs and outputs are connected sequentially to the available JACK physical input and output ports, respectively, wrapping back to the first port whenever the available ports are exhausted. At startup, **ghostess** presents a simple GTK+ user interface. Each plugin instance is represented in a frame, labeled with the plugin name, and containing a MIDI activity indicator and a ´UI´ button. Left-clicking the ´UI´ button will start or hide the plugin's user interface (UI). Right-clicking the ´UI´ button will allowing starting, hiding, showing, or terminating the plugin's UI. The ´Save Configuration...´ option of **ghostess**'s ´File´ menu allows saving the current configuration of all plugins to a file. Basically, the file is just a Bourne shell script that can be used to recreate the configuration. **ghostess** comes with a minimal universal DSSI GUI, **ghostess\_universal\_gui**, that can be used with any DSSI or LADSPA plugin. It does not read RDF files or instantiate the plugin, so it's not as full-featured as a universal GUI could be, but it does allow for adjusting DSSI/LADSPA ports, selecting bank and program (for plugins with select\_program()), and sending test notes (for plugins with any of the run\_synth() functions). If ghostess cannot find a UI for a plugin, and the universal GUI is in the **PATH**, **ghostess** will launch it. ## OPTIONS The following global options are available: - **-debug** *level* Sets bitfield flags which determine which debugging information is printed. The default *level* of 1 shows errors only, 0 shows nothing, and -1 shows everything. See ghostess.h for details. - **-hostname** *hostname* Sets *hostname* as the name **ghostess** uses for itself, for JACK and ALSA clients and GUI window titles. If a JACK port cannot be created with that name, the PID is appended. - **-projdir** *projdir* Sets the project directory passed to both plugins and UIs to *projdir*. The default is none. - **-uuid** *uuid* Sets *uuid* as the UUID used for JACK session management. There is probably no reason to use this outside of a managed session. - **-noauto** Disables automatic connection of plugin outputs to JACK physical outputs. - **-f** *cfgfile* Additional configuration will be read from *cfgfile*, in the same format as command line options. For specifying plugin instances, **ghostess** uses a '\[-*repetition-count*\] \[*options*\] *soname*\[:*label*\]' format, which may be repeated for multiple instances. The plugin-specific options are: - **-***n* Specifies the repitition count, or number of instances, of the following plugin to create, where *n* is an integer between 1 (the default) and 32. - **-chan** *c* Sets the initial MIDI channel for the following plugin instance to *c*. Channels are numbered 0 to 15. If the repetition count is more than one, instances are given sequential channels beginning with *c* and wrapping from 15 to 0. The default is for all instances' MIDI channels to be sequentially numbered, starting from 0. - **-conf** *k* *v* Sets configure item key *k* and value *v* for the following instance. May be repeated for multiple keys. - **-prog** *b* *p* Sets the program change bank *b* and program *p* for the following plugin (numbered from 0). - **-port** *p* *f* Sets the value of port *p* to floating point number *f* for the following plugin. May be repeated for different ports. - *soname* The name of the DSSI or LADSPA plugin library to load, including the ´.so´ suffix. *soname* may be an absolute path to the library file, or just the filename itself, in which case the DSSI search path is searched (see **ENVIRONMENT** below). - *label* The label of the DSSI or LADSPA plugin to load from the library *soname*. If this is omitted, the first plugin in the library is used. ## ENVIRONMENT **ghostess** will search for plugin shared libraries in the directories specified by the environment variable **DSSI\_PATH,** which is a colon-separated list of directories. If **DSSI\_PATH** is not set, a default search path of **/usr/lib/dssi**, **/usr/local/lib/dssi**, and (assuming the environment variable **HOME** is set,) **$HOME/.dssi** is used. Note that while **ghostess** may be used to host LADSPA plugins, the environment variable **LADSPA\_PATH** is not used to search for them. ## EXAMPLES Assuming **DSSI\_PATH** is correctly set, the command: ``` $ ghostess hexter.so ``` will start a single instance of the plugin hexter, listening on MIDI channel 0, with its output connected to the first JACK physical output port. The command: ``` $ ghostess -noauto -chan 2 xsynth-dssi.so -chan 2 xsynth-dssi.so ``` will start two instances of Xsynth-DSSI, both listening on MIDI channel 2, but will not automatically connect the plugin outputs to JACK output ports. The command: ``` $ ghostess -debug -1 -hostname fuzzy -projdir /tmp/proj -2 -conf load mypatches -prog 0 4 -port 7 0.45 effects.so:fuzz ``` will start two instances of the ´fuzz´ plugin within the **effects.so** library, using **/tmp/proj** as the project directory, pass configure key ´load´ with value ´mypatches´ to both instances, set bank 0 and program 4, and set port 7 to 0.45. Assuming it is some sort of effect, the plugins´ inputs and outputs will be automatically connected to the first JACK physical inputs and outputs. Full debugging information will be printed, and **fuzzy** will be used as the JACK client name. ## AUTHOR **ghostess** was written by Sean Bolton, who mercilessly mangled code originally written by Chris Cannam and Steve Harris. This manual page was adapted by Sean Bolton from the jack-dssi-host manual page originally by Mark Hymers.