ReACTor?! - A VST plugin made in PureBasic!

josku_x · Post by **josku_x** » Sat May 06, 2006 8:28 am

@V2: Sorry for the rough comments, but I was using my other computer and it had a TFT.. And it sucks hard. I looked your GUI's today with my main computer (monitor is CRT), and they both look good! The green one is ok (atleast better than in the TFT display.).

mp303 · Post by **mp303** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:49 pm

Wow, a VST plugin written in PB! That's impressive.

Is there any chance you could provide a "minimal" VST plugin with source code? Like for example, just a simple sinewave, no envelopes or anything - and a primitive GUI with, for example, a single volume control, nothing else.

So that those interested could get to understand the basic mechanics of a working VST plugin in PB.

DSP and GUI stuff is actually the "easy" part, at least for me - turning it into a VST plugin is the difficult bit...

eriansa · Post by **eriansa** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:21 pm

DSP and GUI stuff is actually the "easy" part, at least for me - turning it into a VST plugin is the difficult bit...

DSP easy? Are you a math wonder?

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Thu May 11, 2006 11:07 pm

ha

Its not the gui thats hard. The hard part is: tada... the sound!

mp303 · Post by **mp303** » Thu May 11, 2006 11:09 pm

I wouldn't go that far, no!

But I did use to work for Synapse, where I did a bit of DSP work ... and I also designed and wrote the mpReverb plugin, and the 3-band parametric EQ used in MadTracker and Renoise.

So I do have "a way" with math - I'm not schooled in DSP, but I've always been interested in audio and the math behind it.

As for the VST architecture though, let's just say, I never got around to it - and these days I don't have the time, nor the patience to learn it from the ground up.

If I had a "shell" for a VST plugin, I'm sure I could come up with interesting things though ... I have some ideas still that I'd like to test before I grow old!

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Thu May 11, 2006 11:17 pm

cool!
well, i guess if you first know how it works and are able to translate your ideas to code, perhaps its not too difficult..

but looks like you got a few things on the market .. (MadTracker is a quite famous product..!)

never tried renoise..
perhaps its time to write something "special" with its own sound? a vst..

mp303 · Post by **mp303** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:34 am

I would like to ... I have this idea for a hybrid FM-synth / drum-machine, it would be quite a peculiar little thing - it would make lots of surprising and complex sounds, ambient textures and noises (I know because I've prototyped parts of it in Reaktor and SynC in the past) ...

It would be a fun project to do in PB, but I'd need the basic VST shell to start building it, or I'd end up spending more time on the tecnical stuff than the actual audio generation, and I don't have that much spare time, so...

It would be really cool if someone would make an example available.

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:38 am

mp303; sounds really cool!

eriansa · Post by **eriansa** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:08 pm

If I had a "shell" for a VST plugin, I'm sure I could come up with interesting things though ... I have some ideas still that I'd like to test before I grow old!

I have this VST host (SQ4²) written in PureBasic/Asm(SSE). The next version will host 16 VSTI's/VSTe's. It's rock solid, but there's still a lot of work on the GUI!

Perhaps josku_x is willing to share a basic VST implementation?

If not, I'll try to finish one within the next 2 months.

Let's keep in touch.

josku_x · Post by **josku_x** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:33 pm

Sorry guys but I had this very f*cking situation that my files were deleted. However, I was not able to recover my PB sources (so ReACtor is history)..

However, I am working on a simple VST implementation with a small gui and just a normal sinewave. However, it will take long as I have too much work on my hands.

Thanks for your interest, though.

mp303 · Post by **mp303** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:49 pm

oh no!

that's a shame...

Eriansa: you managed to write a working VST host in PB? that's even more impressive ... you have to know the VST architecture pretty well to do that, don't you? You should know enough to whip up a simple sinewave VST plugin then, perhaps?

josku_x · Post by **josku_x** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:15 pm

@mp303: Creating a VST host and a VST plugin are two TOTALLY different things. In the host for example, you read the DSP which is easy, (you just need the structure AEffect, some more maths and a little more coding). But, writing DSP in the plugin is REAAAAAAALLLY hard. I know that.

If Eriansa could tell me the size of his VST host source (in lines) I could prove you that these are 2 different things.

My ReACTor source was about more than 10000 lines !?!?
And only the DSP took about 700 lines.

eriansa · Post by **eriansa** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:42 pm

But, writing DSP in the plugin is REAAAAAAALLLY hard. I know that.

Absolutely. Way too difficult for me. (I am a math idiot)

About SQ4² (VstHost/StepSequencer/... -> http://www.sq4.net) : version 2.0 had about 30000lines of code, it's successor will have much less. (much better programming and optimizations)
The HOST stuff alone took me 6 months (there are so many plugins, and all of them had to work...FLStudio/VAZ/Absynth were the hardest ones).
The Asio stuff another 3 months. MME was quite simple.

@josku_x : no backups??? Oh man, I had a couple of years the same issue : lost 3 months of work. Now I am paranoid : I make daily backups.
(on 2 different external drives).
Anyway, if you find something about VSTI (no dsp) I'll really would appreciate it if you could share the code.

The same goes for the VstHost : If someone is interested, I'll put a small MicroHost together.

josku_x · Post by **josku_x** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:20 pm

Yeah, I know. I am also making backups not daily, but weekly, however. I lost 2 years of work, way too much more than 3 months. I posted in the offtopic section a post about my files that were deleted.

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:24 pm

Yeah, I know. I am also making backups not daily, but weekly, however. I lost 2 years of work

If you do weekly backups how can you loose 2 years of work???

Well. Better put it on a cd or dvd once in a while (dont "close" the media, but make it open for newer tracks.)