In this tutorial we will build a simple VST plugin host application in C++.
Topics include: displaying information about the plugin, processing MIDI events and playing MIDI tunes through the plugin, saving audio output to a .wav file, and displaying the plugin's editor (if it has one). The development environment for the project is Visual Studio C++ and Steinberg's VST SDK 2.4. A framework, such as JUCE or iPlug, will NOT be used.
This tutorial is now presented as a series of videos. The following is a summary of the material in each video, as well as, links to the videos on YouTube.
Tut 1: Starting out. Setting up, tools needed, goals of the project. Where to find useful information. A brief look at some of Steinberg's VST program samples. Writing our first simple program to display information about a plugin.
Tut 2: Detailed explanation of audio data processing. Reading a MIDI (.mid) file and processing MIDI events through a VSTi plugin, i.e. generating audio output.
Tut 3: Explanation of the WAVE audio format. Saving the audio output generated in Tut 2 to a WAVE (.wav) file.
Tut 4.1: Interfacing to the computer's audio driver. Playing audio output from the plugin in (almost) real-time. Buffers play a crucial role in the implementation.
Tut 4.2: Testing with a number of different plugins and fixing errors.
Tut 5: In this 5th episode plugin generated audio data is output in real-time through the computer's audio interface.
Tut 6: Further enhancements are added to the program.
Tut 7: In this tutorial the Host will display the plugin's editor in a window.
A menu driven user interface is also provided. To play MIDI songs with the plugin's editor open makes using the application more enjoyable.
Tut 8: In this last episode of the tutorial series we add a piano keyboard and play tunes through the plugin. An implementation of a circular (or bounded) buffer is presented. Program execution is runnning on different threads.
