What is VST?

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that allow to integrate software synthesizer and effects in digital audio workstations (DAW).

• Use cases

Main benefits of VST 3

Here, you can find a non-exhaustive list of VST 3 benefits.

What is the VST 3 SDK?

The VST 3 SDK (Virtual Studio Technology Software Development Kit) is a collection of software development tools included in one package. This allows plug-in developers to create plug-ins in VST 3 format and host developers to load VST 3 plug-ins into a DAW or audio editor.

VST 3 licensing

• Steinberg VST usage guidelines
• What are the licensing options for VST 3?
• Which files fall under which license?
• Developer use cases (FAQs)

Getting started

• VST 3 Links — Important links you will need for working with VST 3
• How to set up my system for VST 3 — 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.
• Preparation on Windows — Generated VST3 Microsoft Visual Studio Projects using the cmake https://cmake.org/ included in the SDK will create by default symbolic links for each built plug-in in the official VST3 folder, in order to allow this on Windows you have to adapt the Group Policy of Windows. See Here!

Tutorials

• Building the examples included in the SDK
• Using cmake for building VST 3 plug-ins
• Generate a plug-in with Project Generator
• Use VSTGUI to design a User Interface
• Creating a plug-in from the Helloworld template

VST 3 forum

Visit Steinberg's VST Developer Forum in order to get help with development, to submit bug reports, to request new features and to connect to other VST 3 developers:

Technical documentation

Browse the VST 3 SDK's technical documentation. The full VST 3 API reference is only available in the VST 3 Package that you can download or find online here.

Miscellaneous

Copyrights and Glossary