Introduction

This project contains the common code used across pongasoft rack extensions (for Reason DAW by Reason Studios)

History

In 2015, I started working on Rack Extensions for Reason and created this mini framework to share code across the various rack extensions subsequently released.

In January 2020, Reason studios opened up the RE platform to allow sharing and distributing this kind of project.

As a result, I have decided to make the code publicly available in the hope that it can help other people to bootstrap their efforts in learning the platform.

Note

This is not a full fledged and well designed framework (like the Jamba VST framework). More a set of concepts and common code used throughout the other projects. The code is, at this time, not well documented.

Note

This project was originally created with RE SDK version 2.2. Although the latest version of this project assumes 4.1+ and some features requires C++17, at this time, not everything has been updated to use the latest features.

Depending on feedback and which direction Reason Studios decide to go, this may turn into something bigger...

List of projects using this mini framework

• CVA-7: free rack extension utility which lets you analyze a CV signal in various ways

Release notes

3.2.1 - 2025-08-16

• Use re-logging 2.0.2

3.2.0 - 2025-08-15

• Use re-logging 2.0.0 (no loguru dependency)

3.1.2 - 2025-05-17

• Use re-logging 1.0.2
• Use googletest 1.17.0 (remove CMake deprecation warnings)
• Use FetchContent_MakeAvailable to remove CMake deprecation warnings

3.1.1 - 2023-04-06

• Use re-logging 1.0.1 (fix Windows build)

3.1.0 - 2022-01-24

• Added maybeWriteAudio call to check for silent buffers when writing
• Added SPLerp/DPLerp and SampleRateBasedClock (imported from Jamba)
• Added CVInProperty
• Added unit test for re-common itself/working on it
• Added pongasoft::common::stl namespace with convenient functions for the Standard Template Library
• Added StaticVector which implements the interface of std::vector while using static storage
• Removed logging (fetch re-logging instead) => need to change #include<logging/logging.h> with #include<logging.h>

3.0.1 - 2021/09/27

• Fixed loguru included in universal45 and failing build

3.0.0 - 2021/02/02

• Added fmt namespace that implements a simplified version of printf mostly for use in property name creation
• Added jbox namespace that implements the JBox_GetMotherboardObjectRef and JBox_MakePropertyRef Jukebox API calls using fmt::printf syntax. For example:

int N = 4;
for(int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
  fSampleNativeObjectRefs[i] = 
    jbox::get_property_ref("/custom_properties/sample_sound_native_object%d", i);
}

• Added StaticString which encapsulates an immutable array of characters (underlying type varies depending on debug or release mode) to provide a simple syntax to create strings:

auto s = StaticString<100>::printf("test %s / %d", "abc", 12);

// ObjectPath is StaticString<kJBox_MaxObjectNameLen + 1>
fSampleObjectRef = JBox_GetMotherboardObjectRef(ObjectPath::printf("/user_samples/%d", 1));

// which is 100% equivalent to
fSampleObjectRef = jbox::get_object_ref("/user_samples/%d", 1);

Warning Warning Warning : Breaking changes

• The AudioInSocket, AudioOutSocket, StereoInPair and StereoOutPair constructors now takes socket name instead of full socket path since the path can be computed by the class (and is less error prone):

// old code
StereoOutPair audioOut{"/audio_outputs/mainOutLeft", "/audio_outputs/mainOutRight"};

// new code
StereoOutPair audioOut{"mainOutLeft", "mainOutRight"};

// which can also be simplified to (new in 3.0.0)
StereoOutPair audioOut{"mainOut"};

• The CVInSocket and CVOutSocket constructors now takes socket name instead of full socket path since the path can be computed by the class (and is less error prone):

// old code
CVOutSocket cvOut{"/cv_outputs/cv_out_socket"};

// new code
CVOutSocket cvOut{"cv_out_socket"};

2.0.0 - 2020/06/20

• Assumes RE SDK Version 4.1.0+
• Use C++17 features
• Added logging (loguru) and re-common.cmake for inclusion in other projects

1.0.1 - 2020/02/21

• Added details and README.

1.0.0 - 2020/02/15

• First release.

Misc

• This project uses loguru for logging (included under src/cpp/logging)

License

• This project is released under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license

• This project uses the Rack extension SDK released under the Rack Extension License agreement