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VST 3 Plug-in Examples

On this page:

• Introduction
• ADelay
• AGain
• AGain Sample Accurate
• TestChannelContext
• DataExchange
• HostChecker
• TestLegacyMIDICCOut
• mda plug-ins
• Note Expression Synth
• Note Expression Text
• Panner
• PitchNames
• Test Prefetchable Support
• Test Multiple Program Changes
• Test Program Change
• Sync Delay
• UTF16Name

Related pages:

• VST 3 Plug-in Test Host
• AAX, AUv3, AU and VST 2 Wrappers
• Building the examples included in the SDK on Windows
• Building the examples included in the SDK on macOS
• Building the examples included in the SDK on Linux

Introduction

The SDK includes some Plug-ins implementation examples. The Legendary AGain and ADelay, thanks Paul Kellet the Open-source mda Plug-ins, a basic "Note Expression Synth" supporting "Note Expression Event", an example of pitchnames support Plug-in, a VST 3 Host Checker which checks if a host is VST 3 compliant and more...

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst" of the SDK!

ⓘ Note
They use cmake as project generator: Using cmake for building VST 3 plug-ins
In order to add your own Plug-ins check: Generate a new plug-in with the Project Generator App

ADelay

Very simple delay plug-in:

• only one parameter (a delay)

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/adelay" of the SDK!

Classes:

• ADelayProcessor
• ADelayController

AGain

The SDK includes an AGain plug-in which is a very simple VST 3 plug-in. This plug-in:

• is multichannel compatible
• supports bypass processing
• has an automated gain parameter
• has an Event input bus (allowing to use noteOn velocity to control the gain factor)
• has a VU peak meter
• uses the VSTGUI4 library
• a version of this plug-in with side-chaining is available (showing a plug-in using the same controller and different - components)
• an AAX version is available
• a AUv3 version is available

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/again" of the SDK!

Classes:

• AGain
• AGainWithSideChain (used for side-chain version)
• AGainController

AGain Sample Accurate

Simple plug-in showing how to achieve sample-accurate processing.

Based Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/again_sampleaccurate" of the SDK!

TestChannelContext

Very simple plug-in:

• showing how to use the Steinberg::Vst::ChannelContext::IInfoListener interface
• using a generic UI

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/channelcontext" of the SDK!

DataExchange

This plug-in:

• shows how to exchange data (waveform) between processor (in the realtime thread) and controller using the VST Data Exchange API: Vst::IDataExchangeHandler
• shows how easy it is to use VSTGUI

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/dataexchange" of the SDK!

HostChecker

• Instrument, Panner and Fx plug-in checking the VST 3 support of a host
• It uses VSTGUI
• an AAX version is available

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/hostchecker" of the SDK!

TestLegacyMIDICCOut

Very simple plug-in:

• showing how to use LegacyMIDICCOutEvent which allow to generate MIDI CC as output event
• VST parameters change which creates LegacyMIDICCOutEvent Event

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/legacymidiccout" of the SDK!

Classes:

• LegacyMIDICCOut::Plug

mda plug-ins

• Effects (stereo to stereo plug-ins):
  • Ambience: Reverb.
  • Bandisto: Multi-band Distortion.
  • BeatBox: Drum Replacer.
  • Combo: Amp and Speaker Simulator.
  • DeEsser: High frequency Dynamics Processor.
  • Degrade: Sample quality reduction.
  • Delay: Simple stereo delay with feedback tone control.
  • Detune: Simple up/down pitch shifting thickener.
  • Dither: Range of dither types including noise shaping.
  • DubDelay: Delay with feedback saturation and time/pitch modulation.
  • Dynamics: Compressor / Limiter / Gate.
  • Image: Stereo image adjustment and M-S matrix.
  • Leslie: Rotary speaker simulator.
  • Limiter: Opto-electronic style limiter.
  • Loudness: Equal loudness contours for bass EQ and mix correction.
  • MultiBand: Multi-band compressor with M-S processing modes.
  • Overdrive: Soft distortion.
  • RePsycho!: Drum loop pitch changer.
  • RezFilter: Resonant filter with LFO and envelope follower.
  • RingMod: Simple Ring Modulator.
  • Round Panner: 3D panner.
  • Shepard: Continuously rising/falling tone generator.
  • SpecMeter: Stereo 13 Bands spectral Meter.
  • Splitter: Frequency / level crossover for setting up dynamic processing.
  • Stereo Simulator: Haas delay and comb filtering.
  • Sub-Bass Synthesizer: Several low frequency enhancement methods.
  • TalkBox: High resolution vocoder.
  • TestTone: Signal generator with pink and white noise, impulses and sweeps.
  • Thru-Zero Flanger: Classic tape-flanging simulation.
  • Tracker: Pitch tracking oscillator, or pitch tracking EQ
• Instruments (1 Event input, 1 stereo Audio output):
  • DX10: Sounds similar to the later Yamaha DX synths including the heavy bass but with a warmer, cleaner tone.
  • EPiano: Simple EPiano.
  • JX10: The plug-in is designed for high quality (lower aliasing than most soft synths) and low processor usage.
  • Piano: Not designed to be the best sounding piano in the world, but boasts extremely low CPU and memory usage.

Based on the OpenSource mda plug-ins (http://mda.smartelectronix.com/), this set of plug-ins demonstrates how wrap DS- code in a VST 3 plug-in.

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/mda-vst3" of the SDK!

Classes:

• BaseProcessor
• BaseController
• BaseParameter

Note Expression Synth

• Instrument plug-in supporting note expression events
• It shows how easy it is to use VSTGUI
• a AUv3 version is available

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/note_expression_synth" of the SDK!

Classes:

• NoteExpressionSynth::Processor
• NoteExpressionSynth::Controller
• NoteExpressionSynth::Voice

Note Expression Text

• Plug-in visualizing the NoteExpression as Text
• It shows how easy it is to use VSTGUI4

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/note_expression_text" of the SDK!

Panner

• Simple Panner plug-in showing how to support Panner category (mono to Stereo)
• It shows how easy it is to use VSTGUI

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/panner" of the SDK!

Classes:

• PlugController
• PlugProcessor

PitchNames

• Instrument plug-in showing PitchNames support
• It shows how easy it is to use VSTGUI

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/pitchnames" of the SDK!

Classes:

• PitchNamesController
• PitchNamesProcessor
• PitchNamesDataBrowserSource

Test Prefetchable Support

Very simple plug-in:

• showing how to use the Steinberg::Vst::IPrefetchableSupport interface
• using a generic UI

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/prefetchablesupport" of the SDK!

Test Multiple Program Changes

Very simple plug-in:

• showing how to support multiple ProgramChange parameters: 16 slots with one associated program change parameter and a program list for each slot.
• using a generic UI

Test Program Change

Very simple plug-in:

• showing how to support Program List
• using a generic UI

Sync Delay

Very simple delay plug-in:

• showing how to support IProcessContextRequirements

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/syncdelay" of the SDK!

UTF16Name

Very simple plug-in:

• with UTF16 characters in plug-in and company name

Check the folder "public.sdk/samples/vst/utf16name" of the SDK!