vst and .NET

exonerate · 18 Feb 2009

There's THIS...

Although I've not even looked at it myself, but it seems to give you the ablity to write .NET VSTs

Cheers 😉

Exo

TheAudiophileDutchman · 18 Feb 2009

At least MONO v2.2 C# supports managed SIMD (e.g. SSE) support, which cannot be said of MSVC#!

Andrew J · 18 Feb 2009

Thanks for the pointers exo and TAD. I hadn't heard about MONO and haven't checked in on VST.NET for a while.

Damn - there's not enough time to have all the fun that can be had with all of this stuff!

rl · 18 Feb 2009

Funny, often we're discussing highly optimized SSE assembly code where each CPU cycle/sample counts - managed code is quite the opposite. If I would implement a instrument or sequencer program why not choose a managed system like java or c#/.net. But only for the non time-critical tasks, e.g. GUI, offline processing, etc. but definitely not for audio processing which I would put in a native thread.

Andrew J · 19 Feb 2009

rl wrote: Funny, often we're discussing highly optimized SSE assembly code where each CPU cycle/sample counts - managed code is quite the opposite. If I would implement a instrument or sequencer program why not choose a managed system like java or c#/.net. But only for the non time-critical tasks, e.g. GUI, offline processing, etc. but definitely not for audio processing which I would put in a native thread.

Yep - that's exactly what I'm interested in. From my quick skim at the Mono site, it looks like it's not quite ready for that. Not sure about VS, I need some leisure time to research/understand what's what!

TheAudiophileDutchman · 19 Feb 2009

...so far, unfortunately MSVC# has got no SIMD support at all, though you can indirectly use native/optimized code with MSVC# by using a "p/invoke" call.

milo · 20 Feb 2009

I suppose it would be necessary to have a sequencer implemented in managed code in order to be able to use managed code plugins. I guess C++ will continue to be the linga franca for a while yet.

TheAudiophileDutchman · 20 Feb 2009

milo wrote: I suppose it would be necessary to have a sequencer implemented in managed code in order to be able to use managed code plugins.

That is not necessary at all. Just have a look at the examples included in the VST.NET package: http://www.codeplex.com/vstnet I tested these "Managed plugins" and they run just fine in e.g. Reaper.

obiwanjacobi · 2 Mar 2009

Hi guys,

I'm the author of VST.NET and heard you talking about it.

VST.NET has two sides to it: a plugin-side and a host-side. The project was started to be able to write VST plugins in managed code but that would still work in an unmanaged host. Native VST is a C++ standard, so if you wanna play, you have to talk C++.

The VST.NET Interop uses the managed extensions of the MS C++ compiler to bridge the gap between the managed and unmanaged worlds. At "Core" level there are about 60 methods that are marshalled for a host to talk to a plugin and couple more for a plugin to talk back to the host.

On top of that there is an optional Plugin Framework that further helps the plugin developer to pick and choose the VST features he/she wants to implement. The framework defines interfaces for each VST feature that can be implemented by the plugin. It also provides a handfull of base classes to make common tasks easier.

There are 4 Plugin samples that sort of cover the whole range of plugin audio processing. There is also one sample that demonstrates how to write at "Core-level" (not using the framework).

VST.NET also provides Host Interop. This is the support you need if you want to write a managed Host to host unmanaged plugins. I've just added support to remove the double-marshalling overhead when a managed Host hosts managed Plugins.

Anyway. Come check it out at http://vstnet.codeplex.com and leave your questions on the discussion list. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Grtx, Marc Jacobi

Andrew J · 2 Mar 2009

Hi Marc,

Thanks for touching base with us here in SM land!

I've been using C# a fair bit at work lately (asp.net development) and also some XNA gamestudio stuff for fun at home. So I'm definitely looking forward to having a look at VST.NET when time permits. So I will come and ask some questions at vstnet.codeplex.com if/when I have some troubles.

Thanks, Andrew

obiwanjacobi · 3 Mar 2009

Great. There are already some 'getting started' discussions that should help you to create your first managed Plugin. Also check out the docs (chm) that also has a step by step manual to get you going.

Have fun, Marc