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mlvg

mlvg is a cross-platform application and plugin framework. It can currently generate applications for MacOS and Windows, VST3 plugins for Mac and Windows, and AU plugins for Mac.

to build an app:

First, build and install madronalib as a static library using the instructions in the madronalib project. This should install the madronalib headers and library to where they will be found by other projects on your computer. On MacOS for example, this will be in /usr/local/include/madronalib and /usr/local/lib.

If you haven't already, update the submodules to mlvg:

  • git submodule update --init --recursive

Now install the SDL2 framework. You can get a binary release from libsdl.org. On MacOS this will go into /Library/Frameworks. On Windows into the System directories.

Now use cmake to generate a project for a test application as follows:

  • mkdir build
  • cd build
  • for Mac OS: cmake -GXcode ..
  • for Windows: cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" .. (substitute your compiler of choice)

to build a plugin:

Download the VST3 SDK from Steinberg.

You'll also need to download the CoreAudio SDK from Apple. It's easiest if you put the CoreAudio SDK in a directory next to the VST SDK---this way the VST SDK should find it automatically. The version of the CoreAudio SDK you want comes in a folder "CoreAudio" and has four subfolders: AudioCodecs, AudioFile, AudioUnits and PublicUtility. A current link: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/CoreAudioUtilityClasses/CoreAudioUtilityClasses.zip

To make the VST and AU plugins, first create an XCode project for MacOS using cmake:

  • mkdir build
  • cd build
  • cmake -DVST3_SDK_ROOT=(your VST3 SDK location) -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -GXcode ..

Cmake will create a project with obvious placeholders (llllCompanyllll, llllPluginNamellll) for the company and plugin names.

Then, open the project and build all. Links to VST3 plugins will be made in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3. The au component will be copied to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components.

Creating Windows projects should be very similar. You will need to install python and cmake. Instead of -GXcode for the generator argument you will specify something like -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64".

note: currently using command line on Windows: cmake -DVST3_SDK_ROOT="~/dev/vst3sdk" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" ..

note: currently using command line on Mac OS: cmake -DVST3_SDK_ROOT="~/dev/vst3sdk" -GXcode ..

to clone the plugin project:

The python scripts here in examples/vst make it easy to create a new plugin project. To do this, run ./clonePlugin.py destdir PlugName (company) (mfgr) (subtype) (url) (email). The vst directory will be copied to the specified destination, with a lot of searching and replacing done in various files to make the new plugin project consistent.

example: ./clonePlugin.py ~/dev NewHappyPlug 'Madrona Labs' MLbs hapy http://www.madronalabs.com mailto:[email protected]

Then you can move to the new directory, make a build directory and run cmake as before.

TODO automatically remove the clonePlugin script and related files from the clone, where they are useless after the search / replace operations. For now do this manually.

building - MacOS

Building the (PlugName) target creates the .vst3 plugin in build/VST3/(Debug / Release) and copies it to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.

Building the (PlugName_au) target creates an intermediate .vst3 named (PluginName_vst_for_au), copies that into the (PluginName_au).component and copies that commponent to the /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components directory.

Copyright and license

Mlvg is Copyright (C) 2023 Madrona Labs LLC. Mlvg is licensed under the GPL3.

Licensing options for closed-source use are available. For more information please contact [email protected].