Single merged plugin build #9

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T19:37:29Z

Hello! First off, thank you so much for this project. I tried to do the same thing over the last couple of days, and then found this. Great work 👍

How about building a single binary target that contains all the plug-in formats in one file? You get a file/bundle that's a valid VST3, CLAP and AUv2 plugin, all in one. Just rename it to .component, .vst3 or .clap and put it in the correct folder.

It needs less config and saves build time (one build instead of three). Because the files are 100% identical, you only have to codesign once, and upload once to Apple for notarization.
If you ship a .pkg installer, you can put only the .vst3 bundle in the installer, and then copy it over to AUv2 and CLAP using a post-install script on the user's machine.

SonicCharge MicroTonic does this. The pkg Installer has a script that just copies one plugin over to the other formats. It really uses 100% the same plist with the same bundle ID across all plugin formats. The VST3's plist even contains all the AUv2 AudioComponents stuff. It seems fine.

I also added a configure_info_plist CMake function that's used by both the Standalone App and Plugin target. With the @MY_VARIABLE@ syntax in the plist you can use any CMake variable directly, without passing it to set_target_properties.

I hope this is helpful 🙂
I haven't been able to get the build working on Windows yet, but have tested AUv2, VST3 and CLAP on macOS.

I briefly looked at #4. Giving the structs of different backends all the same name CplugHostContext is probably not compatible with this PR (ODR violation).

By the way, ChatGPT really tried to generate the ASCII art PLUGIN heading. 😆

…plication

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T19:38:49Z

src/cplug_auv2.c

@@ -1322,9 +1322,9 @@ OSStatus ComponentBase_AP_Close(AUv2Plugin* auv2)
    return noErr;
 }

-__attribute__((visibility("default"))) void* GetPluginFactory(const AudioComponentDescription* inDesc)


VST3 also uses the name GetPluginFactory, so I renamed this to avoid clashing. I've changed the factoryFunction in Info.plist.in to match.

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T19:59:37Z

CMakeLists.txt

+# The properties:
+set(MACOSX_BUNDLE_TAGS "<string>Synthesizer</string>") # Predefined tags are: Bass, Delay, Distortion, Drums, Dynamics, Dynamics Processor, Effects, Equalizer, Filter, Format Converter, Guitar, Imaging, MIDI, Mixer, Offline Effect, Output, Panner, Pitch, Reverb, Sampler, Synthesizer, Time Effect, Vocal. But you can use others.
+set(MACOSX_BUNDLE_TYPE "aumu") # "aufx" for Effect, "augn" for Generator, "aumu" for Instrument, "aufm" for Music Effect.
+set(MACOSX_BUNDLE_SUBTYPE "Xmpl") # For AU and GarageBand 10.3 compatibility, the first letter must be upper-case, the others lower-case.


Source: JUCE's Projucer

Good find! Thanks I didn't know about this

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T20:01:28Z

CMakeLists.txt


-endif() # APPLE
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.clap" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.vst3"


Here we simply copy the .clap over to .vst3 and .component.

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T20:13:12Z

example/Info.plist.in

+	<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
+	<string>@MACOSX_BUNDLE_ICON_FILE@</string>
+	<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
+	<string>@bundle_identifier@</string>


Lower-case because it's a parameter to the configure_info_plist function. This way, the standalone app can have a different bundle ID from the plugin.

martinfinke · 2024-12-08T20:13:46Z

example/Info.plist.in

+	<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
+	<string>@PROJECT_VERSION@</string>
+	<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
+	<string>@bundle_type@</string>


This becomes APPL for the standalone app, and BNDL for the plugin.

Tremus · 2025-01-14T00:45:28Z

Hey @martinfinke thanks a lot for this. I absolutely love seeing git diffs with more red than green.

Simplifying the build process and combining all formats into one sounds pretty good to me.

It would be great if CPLUG could build both single targets and all targets, whichever the user prefers. I took a quick look through your commits, and I think both are possible with your changes. Good work!

martinfinke · 2025-02-01T18:33:56Z

Nice, thanks for merging!
I've also been working on AUv3 and VST2. If you're interested, I can share my code for those. But I won't be able to make a full PR for them, because I'm not using CMake and did the AUv3 build setup directly in Xcode.

Tremus · 2025-02-05T07:04:50Z

Thanks for your contributions! It definitely cleaned up a lot of the build script. I'd like to think of ways to simplify things more.

I'd love to take a peek at your AUv3 code. What would you say is the benefit of v3 over v2? Does Logic do a better job at fully supporting v3 than v2? (I hope so).

As for VST2, well CPLUGs VST3 wrapper already works fine (for synths*) in plenty of popular hosts, so I don't think there's a big gain there. There's also the VST2 licensing problem, which I'd like to avoid.

martinfinke · 2025-02-05T11:14:58Z

What would you say is the benefit of v3 over v2? Does Logic do a better job at fully supporting v3 than v2? (I hope so).
I did it for iOS, where AUv3 is the only supported format (no AUv2). And then the same code just builds for Mac.

Here's what I have so far: cplug_auv3.m.zip. It's not very well tested. The AUv3 API is pretty confusing, so hopefully it can be a starting point, or reference on how e.g. buffer handling is done.

Or you could just use AUAudioUnitV2Bridge instead, to make an AUv3 from CPLUG's existing AUv2. Steinberg also has something. I didn't try them, I prefer to see what's going on..

As for VST2, well CPLUGs VST3 wrapper already works fine (for synths*) in plenty of popular hosts, so I don't think there's a big gain there. There's also the VST2 licensing problem, which I'd like to avoid.

I agree: Not much gain for the average case, especially for new projects. So best to not include it in an open-source project like this, especially with the licensing (you can't just put aeffect.h in the repo).

Tremus · 2025-02-06T00:31:42Z

Great thanks for sharing that AUv3 code! This is a helpful starting point

martinfinke added 2 commits December 8, 2024 21:23

Build all plug-in formats in one

0d4632e

Generate Info.plist using configure_file(), use variables to avoid du…

b4ba690

…plication

martinfinke commented Dec 8, 2024

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martinfinke added 2 commits December 8, 2024 21:56

Only compile AUv2 code in example.m when building Plugin target

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martinfinke commented Dec 8, 2024

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martinfinke marked this pull request as ready for review December 8, 2024 20:04

martinfinke commented Dec 8, 2024

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Tremus merged commit 315d157 into Tremus:develop Jan 31, 2025

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Single merged plugin build #9

Single merged plugin build #9

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Tremus commented Feb 6, 2025


		endif() # APPLE
		COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.clap" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.vst3"

Single merged plugin build #9

Single merged plugin build #9

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