VST 3 Links
On this page:
- Getting VST SDK
- Online Documentation
- VST 3 Forum
- VSTGUI
- External Links to VST 3, DSP, Conferences and Plug-ins development
Related pages:
Important links you will need for working with VST 3.
Getting VST SDK
You have 2 possibilities for getting the VST SDK:
| Component | as zip package | as GitHub repository |
|---|---|---|
| VST 3 API | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Helpers classes | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| AAX, AUv3 and AU wrappers | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| iOS Inter-App Audio support | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| VST 3 Plug-ins Examples | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Validator command line | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| AudioAudioHost | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| EditorHost | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| VST 3 Inspector | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| VSTGUI | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| VST 3 Project Generator | ✔️ (as exe only) | ✔️ (as source code) |
| VST 3 Plug-in Test Host (exe only) | ✔️ | ❌ |
| VST 3 Licensing | ✔️ MIT License | ✔️ MIT License |
Download the full VST 3 package as zip file
Download a full VST SDK package which includes everything you need to build a VST 3 plug-in or host. Test your VST 3 plug-in in real-time with the included VST 3 Plug-in Test Host and execute automated tests (See What is the VST SDK?):
https://www.steinberg.net/vst3sdk (direct link to zip file, ~100 MB)
Clone VST 3 repository from GitHub
Clone the VST SDK repository from GitHub for easy integration into your workspace:
Online Documentation
Browse the VST SDK's online documentation including API reference and sample code:
Browse the VST portal for the whole documentation and tutorials:
https://steinbergmedia.github.io/vst3_dev_portal/pages/index.html
VST 3 Forum
Visit Steinberg's VST Developer Forum in order to get help with development, submit bug reports, request new features and connect to other VST 3 developers:
VSTGUI
When you download the VST SDK, the last official release version of VSTGUI is included, but you can get it (the release and the development branches) from github:
External Links to VST 3, DSP, Conferences and Plug-ins development
Here, you can find some links to external resource about VST 3, DSP and Plug-ins development:
| Category | Links |
|---|---|
| YouTube | • ADC 2020: Support of MIDI 2.0 and MIDI-CI in VST 3 instruments, Arne Scheffler and Janne Roeper • ADC 2017: VST 3 history, advantages and best practice, Yvan Grabit • ADC 2016: The Golden Rules of Audio Programming, Pete Goodliffe• How to setup the VST SDK's Sample Plug-in Projects |
| Forums / Mailing List | • KVRAudio Forum: DSP and Plug-in Development • music-dsp mailing list at columbia.edu • music-dsp Web • Sursound mailing list at Virginia Tech • DSP Stack Overflow: DSP Developer community • Stack Overflow: Developer community |
| Tools / Libraries | • MATLAB®: Audio Plug-in Creation and Hosting • Blender: A free and open source 3D creation suite • Armadillo: C++ library for linear algebra & scientific computing • lapack++: Linear Algebra PACKage in C++ • dlib: Dlib is a modern C++ toolkit • Intel MKL: Intel® Math Kernel Library • CMSIS-DSP: CMSIS-DSP is an optimized compute library for Arm CPU (filtering, mathematics,...) |
| Books | • DSP related.com: Articles, news, and blogs about basic and modern DSP topics • Introduction to Signal Processing by Sophocles J. Orfanidis • DSP Guide by Steven W. Smithn (The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing) • Online Books by Julius O. Smith III (Mathematics of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Introduction to Digital Filters, Physical/Spectral Audio Signal Processing) • Seeing Circles, Sines, and Signals: A visual and interactive introduction to DSP • The ART of VA Filter Design by Vadim Zavalishin (theoretical and practical aspects of the virtual analog filter design in the music DSP context) • Stackoverflow - The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List: Nice list of C++ books (for beginner to advanced levels) |
| Conferences | • ADC: Audio Developer Conference • DAFx: Digital Audio Effects • ICASSP: International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing • ISMIR: International Society for Music Information Retrieval |
| Other | • VST on wikipedia • VST Story Interview • Steinberg Media Technologies ![]() |


