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I like making music using mostly my computer and especially love using synthesisers. There is a wide range of synthesiser plugins available online which are quite awesome. I have downloaded the VST (Virtual Studio Technology) SDK which is the platform that most plugins I know of use.

I would like to know if you can use the SDK on the .Net framework to write plugins; the only documentation and tutorials I could find is for C++ and I'm not that trusted with C++. I could learn to use C++, I taught myself C# in a week, but to use an unknown language and to learn other new concepts don't seem like a good combination.

Could anyone just give me pointers in the right direction on how to get started and even if it is possible to program it using .Net?

Regards Charl

ChP
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  • A similar question with the probable answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2380520/hosting-a-vst-dx-instrument-in-c-c – vines Sep 24 '11 at 23:45

3 Answers3

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Many beginners find VST.NET the perfect choice to start off with. It comes with some samples and with VS2008/VS2010 project templates that yield working plugins. So its a great way to start.

VST.NET provides a framework that structures and groups the VST API into manageable pieces. Out of the box it provides support for common functionality such as plugin parameters and programs.

So drop by at the VST.NET codeplex site and we'll help you get started.

BTW: To my knowledge the noise project has been abandoned and although VST.NET might not appear to be very active, I still continue to react on the questions posted on its codeplex site.

obiwanjacobi
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I second obiwanjacobi's sentiment. VST.Net is about the only .Net VST bridge out there that I know of and the community is great. It's an excellent framework.

https://vstnet.codeplex.com/

As for the statement: "doubt .NET platform would be adequate concerning the raw performance that a VST plugin requires". This is entirely untrue. My tests have shown that on a decent computer, .Net can very easily handle basic synthesis without even raising the CPU level above a few percent. Of course, it's not going to match C++'s performance for very complex synthesis, but in cases like this, there's no reason why you can't fall back on C++ to do the more complex stuff. In fact that is where Vst.Net excels. It would allow you to build very complex synthesis as a VST, and then leverage that in .Net.

At the same time, I think you'd be hard pressed to say definitively that .Net couldn't do very complex synthesis as well. I haven't really tried, but there's no real obstacles when you pay attention to the performance of your code, which would go for any programming platform.

On top of all that, there is now .Net Native to add to the picture. .Net Native has the potential to be AS fast as C++.

Christian Findlay
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  • Also, I recently released these WPF/UWP controls. They would be a nice compliment for VST .Net. They attempt to replicate the kind of functionality that is available with C++ libraries like JUCE etc. They are skinnable and light weight: https://bitbucket.org/MelbourneDeveloper/vst-controls-.net – Christian Findlay Feb 16 '16 at 04:56
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I remember hearing of noisevst and VST.NET, two C# wrappers for the VST API but I don't know how stable they are. And I really doubt .NET platform would be adequate concerning the raw performance that a VST plugin requires.

So I would recommend learning a little bit of C++. Yes, C++ is so big and complex that nobody on earth knows every feature of it. But for plugin development purposes all you need to do is to implement a couple of methods. You can start from the provided samples in the VST API. Audio DSP code wouldn't look much different if you'd use C#, C++ or any other mainstream language anyway.

If you also want to implement a GUI for your plugin, that's where the things start getting hairy. VSTGUI is simple but lacks many features. I can recommend WDL's iPlug framework but that would require a little more than basic C++.

cyco130
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  • Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately it's just as I thought. I scavenged the KVR Forum and also there is only info on C++. I guess it wouldn't hurt learning C++, even by just starting with the infamous "Hello World!" application... But I'll give noisevst a try, maybe I would just be surprised. – ChP Sep 25 '11 at 00:08
  • You're welcome. I've just edited the answer and added VST.NET too. You may want to take a look at that too. – cyco130 Sep 25 '11 at 00:12
  • "I really doubt .NET platform would be adequate concerning the raw performance that a VST plugin requires." This is not true. I can say from experience that .NET is fine performance-wise for many plugins. You're going to run into performance issues with your code long before the .NET platform becomes the bottleneck. – Josh Noe Apr 13 '20 at 21:36
  • @JoshNoe This answer is 9 years old. I haven't looked into audio DSP programming in a very long time and things may have changed a lot performance-wise. Feel free to update the answer. – cyco130 Apr 14 '20 at 09:46