I sang the bass part an octave high, and let Clone Ensemble transpose and deepen it. A massive 128-voice mixed (male & female) choir from four solo vocal tracks. See the Music page for more examples. Download the DirectX version of Clone Ensemble now (1255k). Download the VST (Windows) version of Clone Ensemble now (1135k). The TS-808 is a software emulation (VSTi plugin) of the Roland TR-808. The TR-808 service notes provide full schematics for each voice. I used them to make SPICE simulations of the circuits. I also analysed the best samples I could find (The Tape808, by Goldbaby), and tweaked the sounds until the waveforms and spectral content were as close as.
Note 2020/01
This project was created in 2018 using the VST3 SDK 3.6.9 which includes VST2. More recent versions of the SDK have removed VST2 support. Although this project is still valid as long as you use 3.6.9, you should check Jamba which offers a very easy way to bootstrap a blank self contained plugin which depends on the SDK. Jamba also offers a lot of additional features.
Why this project?
The latest VST3 SDK (3.6.9) provides instructions to build a VST that doesn't live inside the SDK itself which is a big enhancement from prior versions which did not provide this capability.
That being said, the solution introduced is still backward in my mind: you need to tell the SDK where your plugin is. The name of the project is still vstsdk.
In addition, the VST3 SDK 3.6.9 introduced a couple of issues which makes it impossible to build it without using Xcode.
This project is exactly the again example that ships part of the VST3 SDK but self contained and depending on the SDK (vs being part of the SDK). As a result it can be used as a starting point to build other plugins.
What this project is not
This project is not a tutorial on how to write a VST3 plugin. It only deals with building a plugin outside the SDK.
Configuration and requirements
This project is known to work on macOS High Siera 10.13.3 with Xcode 9.2 installed. It requires cmake version 3.9 at the minimum. Because it uses cmake it should work on other platforms but it has not been tested.
808 Vst
Downloading the SDK
You need to download the VST3 SDK version 3.6.9 (3.6.9 as of 2018/03/01 and what is used in this project) (shasum 256 => 7c6c2a5f0bcbf8a7a0d6a42b782f0d3c00ec8eafa4226bbf2f5554e8cd764964).
Installing the SDK
Unpack the SDK to a location of your choice (in my case the SDK is unpacked and renamed /Applications/VST_SDK.369/).
Configuring the SDK
In order to build both VST2 and VST3 at the same time, you need to run the following commands
Building this project
Create a folder outside the source tree and
cdto it:Generate the Makefile(s):
VST3_SDK_ROOTneeds to point to the root of the VST3 SDK (as installed/configured previously) and provide the path to the source of this project (which containsCMakeLists.txt):Now build the plugin (all its dependencies will be built as well):
Testing that it is a valid VST3 plugin (already run part of the build, but can be run separately):
Testing that it is a valid VST2 plugin (with MrsWatson):
Deploying the plugin and testing in a real DAW
-- For VST2 (like Maschine and Reason) you copy and rename it:
-- For VST3:
808 Vst Plugin
Because this project uses cmake you can also generate an Xcode project by using the proper generator (-G Xcode). You can also load the project directly in CLion.
Licensing
Tr 808 Vst Plugin
Since this project contains an exact copy of the again sample code provided with the VST3 SDK, the licensing is the same as the VST3 SDK: GPL version 3
