Building a plugin soft synth for OSX?

DSP, Plugin and Host development discussion.
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

A forum I've never posted in before... so a sort of newby question... :wink:
After years of using soft synths, creating them is an area I've never really looked into before. I've had a play around with Reaktor, MAX Software, SynthEdit, etc. over the years, but haven't delved in deep at all. I would still like to learn a bit more, out of curiosity,... so what is the best route to building plugin synths, on a MAC?
Last edited by Sound Mechanics on Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Post

After having a good read of the 'How to create VST Plugins', it seems like a big jump from using programs like Reaktor to programming in C++ or equivalent for OSX?
Is it a complex world beyond these type of environments?

Post

The jump from reactor etc to C++ is indeed a big one, especially if you haven't programmed before. Building plugins is not the easiest thing to start with when learning programming either.
There are things like csound you could look at too, not really for building plugins but might be interesting enough.
I think MAX might be the best tool if you want to go a bit deeper into the nuts and bolts without going all in to development.
David Guda gudaaudio.com

Post

Where to start? It's a big subject.
For me, the complexity comes from the OS's you have to battle with to achieve anything. Especially these days.
That's why I now use a library called JUCE. It's free to learn, but the free one has to have their logo as a splash screen - no problem while learning.

This guy is good to follow, he's tends to meander a lot and comes across as unprepared (don't start counting his 'urms,' 'aars' and 'kays' :) ), but I like his presentations, his tuts helped me a lot to get started with Juce:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n16Yw51xkI

His Channel:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpKb02 ... X_2xhIoJ1A
...It might help you decide whether you can cut it or not!
Others will probably tell you to start with learning C++ for a couple of years, then do a course in Mathematics & DSP etc etc.
But in the end, enthusiasm, imagination, and experimentation can go a long way.
I wish I could be arsed to be more explanatory, sorry. :hihi:

Post

might want to look at http://www.cabbageaudio.com/
David Guda gudaaudio.com

Post

Others will probably tell you to start with learning C++ for a couple of years ...

It's not that it's really about "many years", but unfortunately - yes - starting right away with a plugin in either less-or-more mainstream language (be it C++ or JavaScript) w/o having a few simplest "Hello, World!"s before that is a perfect way to kill any enthusiasm.

... then do a course in Mathematics & DSP etc etc.

Same here. Even a simplest "Soft Synth" would involve a knowledge of a few not-so-trivial things around "a Math beyond the Sound" so it's again a dead-end to get right to it w/o getting "familiar" with much more simple things first. (There some "building-blocks" libraries out there obviously, but they rather hide the required knowledge from you instead of exposing it).

So getting back to "I would still like to learn a bit more" - it all depends (as always) on what is "a bit" and what is "more".
(I.e. a "plugin" thing indeed may be really a bad "next step" in a generic case).

Post

Thank you for the helpful replies. I'll check the suggested links above, they look very interesting.

These are the sort of answers I expected. As I realise from having a browse in this forum that beyond Reaktor and similar applications it becomes much more complex with a steep learning curve, not so much for the hobbyist but more for those with a background of Maths, programming and commitment.

If time is a big factor it's a bit of a fork in the road, something would have to give if it were all to be done properly.

I wonder if many of the software synthesizer companies started from scratch with the aim of building a synth or if they already had a good grounding in the basics... with maybe a degree in Mathematics or programming under their belt?

Post

All the cool kids are using this these days: https://audiokit.io
Creates Audio Units or standalone apps OSX/iOS, and has a huge array of features.
There's a very nice open source synth made with it available here: https://audiokitpro.com/synth
And a bunch of Swift playground examples included: https://audiokit.io/examples

Post

There are too many questions, like how much time do you have spare, and how are you at teaching yourself?
It all boils down to the individual, for example it's easy for me to forget how steep the learning curve was with some things, because I enjoyed it so much. I've found experimentation and actual coding was the only way to learn ANYTHING programming related.

Dave

Post

My time is limited I must say and my background is technical illustration, which I have been doing for some years now, but no coding experience at all. I do enjoy learning new skills though, hence starting a sound bank website this year, but coding could be one skill too many :wink: I can see that it's an all or nothing decision :?
I can't resist have a little delve though, maybe my son could given me a bit of help :)

Which is the most popular coding program for MAC and what do the major soft synth developers use for producing the various synth formats (MAC & PC)? do they use a combination of C++ and other software?

Post

The best way to start learning programming for OSX/iOS (and that means learning Swift really) is the Playgrounds app for iPad, it's great for kids especially. You can move later to XCode playgrounds and try quick audio experiments using AudioKit or Apple's AVAudioEngine. I started out as a graphic designer many years ago and switched to programming.
https://www.apple.com/uk/swift/playgrounds/

IPlug and JUCE are the two main SDKs used to produce VST/AU/AAX for Mac/Windows. But that means getting into C++, which most people would agree, is more difficult than Swift for a first timer.

Post

Thanks, I did have a brief look at this some time back.
I'll ask my youngest lad if he's come across this in school yet (13 yrs) as syllabuses are forever changing, especially in this field.
It maybe fun for both of us to look at and give him a head start for what's coming.

I've had a look at JUCE & XCode info. pages which look interesting, but Swift looks a good place to start.

Post Reply

Return to “DSP and Plugin Development”