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📘 VST Saturator — Build & Installation Guide

This guide explains how to set up your environment, build the steverator plugin, and install it on your machine.

🛠 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

1. CMake

CMake is the build system used to generate project files (VS Solution, Xcode Project, Makefiles).

  • macOS: brew install cmake
  • Windows: Download installer from cmake.org

2. C++ Compiler

  • macOS: Xcode (install via App Store) + Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).
  • Windows: Visual Studio 2022 (Community Edition is free). Ensure "Desktop development with C++" workload is selected.
  • Linux: sudo apt install build-essential (GCC/Clang).
    • Note: JUCE on Linux requires additional libraries: 
      sudo apt install libasound2-dev libjack-jackd2-dev \
    ladspa-sdk libcurl4-openssl-dev libfreetype6-dev \
    libx11-dev libxcomposite-dev libxcursor-dev \
    libxext-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev \
    libxrender-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev \
    libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev

3. Git

  • Required to clone the repository and the JUCE submodule.

🚀 1. Cloning the Repository

Since this project uses JUCE as a submodule, you must clone it recursively or initialize the submodule after cloning.

Option A: Clone with submodules (Recommended)

git clone --recursive https://github.com/your-username/steverator.git
cd steverator

Option B: If you already cloned without --recursive

git submodule update --init --recursive

🏗 2. Building the Plugin

We use CMake to build the project. This is platform-agnostic.

macOS (Terminal)

  1. Configure the project:

    # Create a build directory
mkdir build
cd build

# Generate Xcode project files
cmake .. -G Xcode

  2. Build: You can either open the generated steverator.xcodeproj in Xcode and click "Build", or run:

    cmake --build . --config Release

  3. Locate the Artifact: The compiled VST3 file will be located in: build/steverator_artefacts/Release/vst3/steverator.vst3

Windows (PowerShell / Command Prompt)

  1. Configure the project:

    mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..

  2. Build: You can open the generated steverator.sln in Visual Studio, or run:

    cmake --build . --config Release

  3. Locate the Artifact: build/steverator_artefacts/Release/vst3/steverator.vst3

📦 3. Installation

To use the plugin in your DAW (Ableton, Logic, Reaper, etc.), you need to move the .vst3 file to the system's plugin folder.

macOS

Move steverator.vst3 to: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ (Or ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ for user-only install)

Windows

Move steverator.vst3 to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

🐞 Troubleshooting

  • "CMake Error: Could not find JUCE":
    • Did you run git submodule update --init --recursive? Check if libs/JUCE contains files.
  • "Architecture mismatch" (macOS):
    • The project is set up to build Universal Binaries (arm64 + x86_64) by default if you are on an M1/M2/M3 mac.
  • Plugin not showing in DAW:
    • Ensure you placed the .vst3 file in the correct folder.
    • Rescan plugins in your DAW settings.
    • Check if you built the Debug or Release version. Release is recommended for actual use.

📚 For Developers: Project Structure

  • CMakeLists.txt: The build configuration.
  • Source/: Contains all C++ code.
    • PluginProcessor.cpp/h: The audio engine (DSP, Parameters).
    • PluginEditor.cpp/h: The GUI.
  • libs/JUCE: The JUCE framework source code.