Stagewright

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Introduction ​

Stagewright is a live-performance plugin host. You wire your rig on a graph (Wiring), play it from a flat surface of knobs and buttons bound to whatever matters (Stage), and optionally script the show logic in TypeScript (Script). One desktop app, one engine process, three views.

This is a tool aimed at the working musician who:

  • runs a keyboard rig or guitar rig on stage with VST3 / AudioUnit plugins,
  • wants a single screen of large controls bound to live parameters,
  • wants to switch songs / variations without an audible drop,
  • and does not want to rent their stage tools by the month.

If that's you, the rest of this guide gets you running in about 20 minutes.

How it's organised ​

  • Install & first launch, what to download, what macOS will ask you for permission to do, how to point Stagewright at your plugin folders.
  • Concepts, Racks, Variations, Songs, Song Parts. The model that everything else hangs off.
  • The three views, Wiring (Blueprint), Stage (Performer), Logic (Logic). One section per view; each is reachable from the top toolbar in the app.
  • Components & widgets, every kind of node you can drop on the canvas and every widget you can drop on the Stage, with what it does and what it binds to.
  • Scripting, the meat. TypeScript hooks, the widget API, MIDI in / out, common patterns (AKAI MIDI Mix mute / solo lights, an expression-pedal macro, a song-driven panel layout).
  • Project files, the .swproj format, racks, variations, songs, hardware abstraction.

Built to not crash ​

The audio engine runs as its own native process. The editor, the plugin scanner, and the engine are isolated from each other, so a misbehaving plugin or a wedged UI can't take audio down. Plugin scanning is cached on disk by content hash. The audio thread is never blocked on UI work or IPC.

The result: you can leave Stagewright running for a four-hour set without watching it like a hawk.

What's in Stagewright ​

Stagewright runs on macOS (Windows planned). The short version:

  • Blueprint canvas, Performer view, Logic view, all three.
  • VST3 + AU plugin hosting.
  • Hardware abstraction (logical control names).
  • Project save / load.
  • macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel). Stage tier runs at 48 kHz; Studio unlocks higher sample rates.

Required for v1.0 stable:

  • Developer ID code-signing + Apple notarisation.
  • Stripe checkout + licence validation (lifts the sample-rate cap).
  • Windows 11 build parity (no Windows installer yet; engine and frontend compile cross-platform but haven't been tested on a real Windows rig).
  • Crackle-mitigation live-rig verification.

Deferred to v1.x or v2:

  • CLAP plugin format.
  • iPad / LAN web-server thin client.
  • Crossfade-on-rack-switch (rack switching exists; the "glitch-free" claim wants live verification).
  • Rack clone + rename + UNDO.

Why "Stagewright"? ​

A wright is a craftsman of a particular thing: a wheelwright builds wheels, a shipwright builds ships, a playwright builds plays. A stagewright builds the stage, wires the rig, lays out the controls, writes the show logic that runs it. The tool is named after the person it's for.