AudioPlugSharp

Easily create VST3 audio plugins in C#

AudioPlugSharp provides a C++/CLI bridge to load managed audio plugins into VST hosts. User interfaces can be created with built-in support for WPF. Windows Forms interfaces are also possible.

Current Release

NuGet packages are available:

AudioPlugSharp (Needed for all plugins)

AudioPlugSharpVst3 (Need for all VST3 plugins)

AudioPlugSharpWPF (Also needed for WPF user interfaces)

AudioPlugSharpHost (For createing stand-alone Windows applictions)

AudioPlugSharpJack (For createing cross-platform Jack Audio clients)

Plugin Project Setup and Deployment

NuGet Packages

Using the NuGet packages is the recommended way to build a project using AudioPlugSharp.

If you use the AudioPlugSharp/AudioPlugSharpWPF NuGet packages, copying the appropriate files to your output folder will be handled for you. You simply need to copy the files from the output folder to a folder on your VST plugin path (usually "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3").

Direct Referecing

If you are referencing AudioPlugSharp manually, your plugin project will need an assembly dependency on AudioPlugSharp.dll (and AudioPlugSharpWPF.dll if you are using it).

For deployment, you need to copy "AudioPlugSharpVst.vst3" to your output folder, and rename it to be "YourPluginDllNameBridge.vst3". So if your plugin dll is called "MyPlugin.dll", then you would rename "AudioPlugSharpVst.vst3" to "MyPluginBridge.vst3". You also need to copy "AudioPlugSharpVst.runtimeconfig.json" (or "wpf.runtimeconfig.json" if you are using WPF in your plugin) to your output folder as "YourPluginDllNameBridge.runtimeconfig.json". You also need to copy "Ijwhost.dll" to your output folder.

These steps can be done using a Post-build event. Have a look at the included sample plugins for examples - keep in mind you may need to change the source folder of the "copy" commands depending on where your copy of AudioPlugSharp is.

Examples

See the SimpleExample, MidiExample and WPFExample projects for example usage.

Here are some examples of some larger projects using AudioPlugSharp:

ChartPlayer, an app for playing along to song charts synchronized to music recordings.

Stompbox, guitar amplifier and effects simulation.

LiveSPICE VST, real time SPICE simulation for audio signals.

Creating a Stand-Alone Application

The AudioPlugSharpHost library can be used to easily create a stand-alone Windows application for your plugin.

AudioPlugSharp Building Instructions

You will need to have CMake (https://cmake.org) installed.

From a shell, run the following:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/mikeoliphant/AudioPlugSharp
cd AudioPlugSharp
cd vstbuild
cmake.exe -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 ../vst3sdk -DSMTG_CREATE_PLUGIN_LINK=0

Then you can load the solution in Visual Studio and build. Note that you will need to change the last line above if you have a different version of Visual Studio.