In order to build VST 3 plug-ins, you need the source code of the VST 3 (interface definition), an IDE/compiler, cmake and a VST 3 host application.
Get the source code
From the downloaded vstsdk.zip file
Download the VST 3 SDK: check VST 3 SDK Download.
Unpack the zip file to a development folder on your computer.From GitHub:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vst3sdk.git
Get a IDE for development
For Windows
On Windows, we recommend that you to use Visual Studio C++ or Visual Studio Code. You can get it for free here https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/free.
For MacOS
On MacOS, a first choice is Xcode (available here https://developer.apple.com/xcode/).
For Linux
In order to build the SDK successfully, you need an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution. Other distributions might work as well, but are not tested.
- Download Linux: http://www.ubuntu.com or https://www.linuxmint.com
- Install it directly or in a virtual machine like Parallels
We used and tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
Package Requirements
Building the SDK examples requires installation of several packages:
Required:
sudo apt-get install cmake gcc "libstdc++6" libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-util-dev libxcb-cursor-dev libxcb-xkb-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libfontconfig1-dev libcairo2-dev libgtkmm-3.0-dev libsqlite3-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev
Optional:
sudo apt-get install subversion git ninja-build
A recommended IDE (optional): QTCreator
sudo apt-get install qtcreator
- Instead of gcc compiler, a recent version of clang compiler will also work!
- libgtkmm3 is required for VSTGUI and the editorhost example!
- Jack Audio (http://www.jackaudio.org) is required for audiohost example!
Get cmake
In order to control the compilation process and create an IDE project, VST 3 SDK uses the open-source and cross-platform tool cmake.
You can download cmake here: https://cmake.org/download/ or use a package manager for your OS (Linux).
You can use it as a command line tool or use the cmake executable with GUI. cmake-gui is included in the cmake package:
Get a VST 3 host application
You can use your favorite VST 3 host application, see here for some examples, or you can use the VST 3 Plug-in Test Host application included in the VST 3 SDK.