Carla is a fully-featured audio plugin host, with support for many audio drivers and plugin formats. It's open source and licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

  • LADSPA, DSSI, LV2 and VST2, VST3 and AU plugin formats
  • SF2/3 and SFZ sound banks
  • Internal audio and midi file player
  • Automation of plugin parameters via MIDI CC
  • Remote control over OSC
  • Rack and Patchbay processing modes, plus Single and Multi-Client if using JACK
  • Native audio drivers (ALSA, DirectSound, CoreAudio, etc) and JACK

In experimental phase / work in progress:

  • Export any Carla loadable plugin or sound bank as an LV2 plugin
  • Plugin bridge support (such as running 32bit plugins on a 64bit Carla, or Windows plugins on Linux)
  • Run JACK applications as audio plugins
  • Transport controls, sync with JACK Transport or Ableton Link

Carla is also available as an LV2 plugin and VST2 plugin.

Screenshot of Carla patchbay
Platform(s)
GNU/Linux
BSD
macOS
Windows
BeOS/Haiku
Software type
ALSA
JACK
PulseAudio
LV2 plugin
VST2 plugin
Software language
C++
Python
Software features
NSM
Modular
LV2 host
VST2 host
VST3 host
Audio input
Audio graph
Audio FX
Sample loading
SF2
SF3
SFZ
MIDI
Virtual keyboard
OSC
CV
Transport/tempo sync
Ableton Link
JACK Transport
License
GPL-2+
Developer(s)
Filipe Coelho (falkTX)

Recent releases Release Date
Carla 2.5.1 30 Sep '22
Carla 2.3.0-RC2 17 Mar '21
Carla 2.3.0-RC1 17 Feb '21
Carla 2.3-alpha2 12 Oct '20
Carla 2.3-alpha1 26 Sep '20
Carla 2.2.0-RC3 21 Sep '20
Carla 2.2.0-RC2 6 Sep '20
Carla 2.2.0-RC1 18 Jul '20
Carla 2.1-RC2 31 Mar '20
Carla 2.1-RC1 19 Jan '20