Build a minimal VST3 host in C++

Question

I'm struggling to find a basic example on how to set up a minimal plugin host with VST 3.x SDK. The official documentation is absolutely criptic and brief, I can't get anywhere. I would like to:

1. understand the minimal setup: required headers, interfaces to implement, ...;
2. load a VST3 plugin (no fancy GUI, for now);
3. print out some data (e.g. plugin name, parameters, ...).

That would be a great start :)

Answer 1

Yeah, VST3 is rather mysterious and poorly documented. There are not many good examples partially because not many companies (other than Steinberg) actually care about VST3. But all cynicism aside, your best bet would be to look at the Juce source code to see their implementation of a VST3 host:

https://github.com/julianstorer/JUCE/blob/master/modules/juce_audio_processors/format_types/juce_VST3PluginFormat.cpp

There's a few other VST3-related files in that package which are worth checking out. Anyways, this should at least be enough information to get get you started with a VST3 host.

It's worth noting that Juce is GPL (unless you pay for a license), so it's a big no-no to borrow code directly from it unless you are also using the GPL or have a commercial license. Just a friendly reminder to be a responsible programmer when looking at GPL'd code on the net. :)