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Getting Started

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Guillaume Piolat edited this page Jan 31, 2020 · 55 revisions

In this tutorial, we'll see:

  • how to install a D environment
  • how to build a D program
  • how to build the dplug-build tool and its purpose
  • how to build the Dplug example plug-ins. We'll build an existing VST3, Audio Unit and/or LV2 plug-in.

The basics

Step 1: Install a D language environment

Dplug logo

Install a D langage compiler. A good starting point is the VisualD installer: http://rainers.github.io/visuald/visuald/StartPage.html

Alternatively:r

At the end of this process, you should have the dub tool and a D compiler (LDC and/or DMD).

$ dub --version    # the DUB D language package manager
$ dmd --version    # the DMD compiler
$ ldc2 --version   # the LDC compiler

LDC is recommended compiler for all final builds. DMD can be used in development to get faster build times.

A large majority of D programs can be built simply using:

$ dub

Step 2: Clone the Dplug repository

First, make a local copy of the Dplug repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/AuburnSounds/Dplug.git Dplug
$ cd Dplug

Step 3: Build the dplug-build tool

Build the dplug-build tool, which is necessary to bundle plug-ins into the correct structure.

$ cd Dplug/tools/dplug-build
$ dub

Once dplug-build is in your PATH, you can examinate the available possibilities with:

$ dplug-build --help

dplug-build is necessary for several reasons:

  • dplug-build will give to your plug-ins the required structure, which is necessary for most combinations of plugin format and OS (One notable exception to this is VST2.4 plug-ins on Windows: those can be built using DUB directly, or VisualD).
  • dplug-build can build plug-ins in different DUB configurations and bitness in the command-line run, and bundle them together in an installer
  • dplug-build will fake the VST2_SDK environment variable if you don't have a VST2 SDK, so that you can build other formats.

Step 4: Examine and build an example plug-in

Go to the ClipIt or the Distort example directory from the fictional company Witty Audio.

$ cd Dplug/examples/clipit     # a clipper distortion using the `dplug:flat-widgets` set of widgets 
$ cd Dplug/examples/distort    # a tanh distortion using the `dplug:pbr-widgets` set of widgets

Inside the folder, you'll find several directories and files. Below is a breakdown of important items and what they are used for.

  • main.d (audio processing, parameters)
  • gui.d (UI code)
  • dub.json (configuration file for DUB)
  • plugin.json (contains pluginInfo that is parsed during compilation)
  • gfx (images used by the gui)
  • fonts (font used by the gui)

Going further

Getting the VST SDK

In order to build VST2 plug-ins with Dplug, you need to setup the VST SDK on your machine. https://www.steinberg.net/en/company/developers.html

Point a VST2_SDK environment variable to the matching VST2_SDK directory in the SDK.

Example: export VST2_SDK=/Users/MyName/vstsdk3610_11_06_2018_build_37/VST_SDK/VST2_SDK

If you were to distribute VST2 plug-ins, be aware that you need an agreement with Steinberg.

Building a VST 2.4 without dplug-build for ease of development

Use the following command to build a VST 2.4 without dplug-build:

$ dub -c VST    # choose the "VST" configuration with -c or --config

Use the following command to build a VST 2.4 without dplug-build:

$ dub -c VST    # choose the "VST" configuration with -c or --config

Limitations:

  • Note that on macOS, a barebones VST2 plug-in will not be usable by hosts except REAPER.
  • A barebones VST3 plug-in is not usable in VST3 hosts and has to be renamed to .vst3 first, and eventually put into the right system VST3 directory.
  • A barebones LV2 plug-in is not usable in LV2 hosts.
  • A barebones Audio Unit plug-in is not usable in AU hosts.
  • A barebones Audio Unit plug-in is not usable in AU hosts.

Open a terminal in the same directory as distort.d and type dub --compiler=dmd or dub --compiler=ldc2

If the build is successful, it will generate a new file called distort.dll in the current directory.

macOS and Linux

Building on macOS and Linux is slightly more complicated as it requires the use of the included dplug-build tool. Indeed, the generated .dylib binary needs an application bundle in order to work.

Open a terminal in the tools/dplug-build directory and type dub build to build it with the default compiler.

To put it in your PATH:

sudo ln -s /my/path/to/dplug/tools/dplug-build/dplug-build /usr/local/bin/dplug-build

To build the distort example, navigate to the examples/distort directory and type dplug-build. dplug-build uses LDC as the default compiler, but you can use dplug-build --compiler dmd if you prefer to use DMD.

Type dplug-build --help to print the details of available parameters.

The only case that doesn't require dplug-build to build a plug-in is when you're building a VST under Windows (or Linux) with a single configuration, for a single bitness.

Troubleshooting

I don't manage to link to the Microsoft C runtime properly

Use any of the following methods:

  • Run LDC in a 'VS Native/Cross Tools Command Prompt' (LDC checks whether the VSINSTALLDIR environment variable is set). LDC assumes the environment variables are all set up appropriately.
  • Set the LDC_VSDIR environment variable to some Visual Studio/Visual C++ Build Tools installation directory, e.g., 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community'. LDC will invoke a batch file provided by VS to set up the environment variables for the selected 32/64-bit target platform, which adds an overhead of about 1 second for each linking operation. You can also set LDC_VSDIR to some non-existing dummy path; LDC will try to auto-detect your latest Visual C++ installation in that case.
  • Set up the etc\ldc2.conf config file and specify the directories containing the MS libs (appending them to the 'lib-dirs' array; check out the LIB environment variable in a VS tools command prompt) as well as the C runtime flavor (e.g., appending '-mscrtlib=libcmt' to the 'switches' array). In case you prefer the MS linker over LLD, add the switch '-linker=<path\to\link.exe>'.

The dummy path method is recommended, as it's the most painless. Set an envvar LDC_VSDIR to some non-existing path.

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