To all you hardcore coding animals....

gaffa

gaffa

Recalcitrant Member
OK, this is not strictly computers and recording, but....

Are any of you out there having a crack at writing DirectX or VST plug-ins?

Cos I'm such a cheapskate, I thought why buy a plug in when you can make it? (It's this approach to life, which I inherited from my old man, that explains the 55 year old lawn mower that we use that is held together with wire, gaffer tape and luck, and why the only amps I have are ones I've built (and blown up and rebuilt) myself.)

Just interested to see whose doing what. I'm thinking about going the DirectX option (I'm using n-Track, so no VST), but it's being a pain in the arse.

If there are any masochists out doing this, can you drop me a line re decent resources for creating this stuff. I'm an accomplished net surfer/searcher, but I'm having major issues finding anything.

Downloaded the DirectX SDK, and that looks like a barrel of laughs. Also got the Sonic Foundry's DX kit, but it's not helping me much.

Clues anybody?

- gaffa

PS. Found this brilliant program that downloads stuff much, much faster, called FlashGet (from www.amazesoft.com ). Have a look - if you've got a fast net connection, this will be a bonus. Downloaded the DX SDK (128Mb) in 18 minutes, averaging 150K/sec!!! Last time I tried, I got 64% through in 4.5 hours, averaging ~9K/sec.

Finally got this thread posted. Failed twice cos of the site upgrade.
 
That FlashGet ROCKS! I'm getting unreal download rates that more often than not fill my allotted bandwidth. Thanks for the link.
 
Gaffa,

I've been thinking of taking a crack at something similar just for the fun of it. However, this type of thing is going to be very hard:

1) Don't expect there to be simple to use "formulas" for creating good sound processors. There's more to it than what's in your physics book. AND, nobody's going to give this stuff away.

2) The DX interface is probably the simplest portion of the code. The actual algorithm efficiency is going to be the key (after sound) to developing a good plug-in.

3) A software project like this will probably take you several months if you're starting from scratch. How much time are you willing to spend on this instead of recording. I have several different "models" of every effect I need, and I downloaded them all for free. Is it really necessary to write your own? Here's a hint: download the DX VST wrapper and you can use VST effects (and there are SOOO MANY free VST effects).

Anyway, are you going to use VC++? Which version? Perhaps we could collaborate.

Your best bet for information is MSDN. If you have a MS compiler then you got a couple fat CD's loaded with information. Also the SDK's are usually packed with good stuff. You know, I'm not sure that DX MEDIA is the same as "regular" DX (for games and such). For instance, if you download DX7, you don't get DX Media Runtimes 6.1...or do you? I don't think so.... DX Media API's are what you'll be coding with...and, as I said earlier, the DX interface is probably easier than shit compared to creating the actual processor/effect.

I'm going to look myself, but could you post a link to Sonic Foundry's kit just in case I can't find it? I've never heard it. Thanks.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Doc - that was the reaction I had when I used FlashGet for the first time. Pretty cool :)

Slack & Dingo - OK. I want to write plugins not because I think I can do a better job (cos I probably can't) but cos it looks like a bit of a challenge, and I'm always up for a coding challenge. I wrote the first email just after downloading the DX SDK (6.1 Media is no longer available - I tried everywhere, including all the warez sites. Apparently it is now ALL included in the DirectX 7.0a SDK, which is only supposed to run on 95, 98 and 2000 - portions (including the media sections) WILL work on NT

I don't actually know what kind of plugins I want to write - it's really just for the experience. I'll probably write the first couple in VC++, cos I'm a bit rusty in C++, so it'll be a good chance to get back into the groove. Thinking about then writing one in VB, cos that looks like a challenge (and cos I'm a much better VB coder than C++ coder). Wonder how hard it would be to write a VST-DX adapter? Probably not too difficult.

Love to collaborate Slack - especially since I don't know the first thing about the models required for this - I should probably look into that soonish. A couple of the guys here are also interested in giving me a hand (one of them wants to write the entire thing in ASM - mad bastard :) - although it's probably quite feasible if you do it inline....something to think about). The guys here have no interest in audio per se - they're just in it for the fun as well

I cruised my MSDN but I don't have the DX 7 updates, so I'll have to locate them before I get too keen.

I'll have a further look into it - I know it's not going to be easy, but where's the fun if I can write on in six hours?

- gaffa

Yay - my 200th post. Break open the bubbly...

[This message has been edited by gaffa (edited 04-23-2000).]
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaffa:
I cruised my MSDN but I don't have the DX 7 updates...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

DX7 - huh, that takes me back...

OK, sorry, I know what you meant...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Yay - my 200th post. Break open the bubbly...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Congrats, and only since March this year... Where do you find the time to actually work ;-)

I for one would be very interested if you keep us informed of your progess. It does sound like a fun, if time consuming, task. I'd be very interested in doing something like that, if I could only find the time...

--Dingo
 
I dunno if you've seen this (I'm guessing this is where the idea came from), but there is a guy on the n-Track message board who's just written a VST Reverb plugin that is free to everyone who wants it. Maybe you should contact him for some advice or perhaps to collaborate.
 
Well, I don't know why you'd bother writing these things in VB. VB WILL be less efficient regardless of how much you scale it down due primarily to its external dependencies. Not to mention the difficulties involved in calling C dll's
from it. What a pain that can be.

Doing it in asm would be nuts! Challenging though. I just seriously doubt that I can optimize assember code better than a good C compiler.

Thanks for clearing up the DX issue. Here's a link to the 6.0 Media runtimes though: http://microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wuother/directxruntime/default.asp?site=95

I'll be looking up information on this topic over the next few weeks since you sparked my interest. If you let me know what you find out I'll let you know what I find out :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
Ok, here's what I found out so far:

1) Writing a DX plugin is equivalent to writing a DirectShow Effect Filter.

2) You need to download the DX Media SDK 6.1 AND the current Platform SDK...
http://download.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/beta2plus/en/iBLDENV.Exe
http://download.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/i386/iDXMEDIA.Exe

Install them in order. This is 35+MB total BTW.

3) The MS DirectShow docs can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/DirectX/dxm/help/ds/c-frame.htm#default.htm

Slackmaster 2000

[This message has been edited by Slackmaster2K (edited 04-24-2000).]
 
Slack, seems you like this idea - you've done even more research than me.

I haven't had a chance to download the other stuff you mentioned, cos it's four days of public holidays here, and I'm crook as a dog, holed up at home, and I don't actually own a computer (at home anyway. Using my brothers for this post). Kind of looking forward to having a crack at it.

Cooperman, I did get the idea (and the Sonic Foundry link) from the n-Track forum, but I haven't got around to mailing the guy who posted it. Probably tomorrow if I'm feeling healthier.

- gaffa

[This message has been edited by gaffa (edited 04-24-2000).]
 
Success!

I built one of the demo plugins included with the SFP SDK and it WORKS! Pretty cool.

You definately have to download this thing if you're going to write a plugin. It's probably the best resource out there...and honestly I'm suprised it exists.

I even got email support from the guys at SF which was a shock because the SDK is unsupported. (I couldn't register the plugin because I forgot to include the .def, duh)

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slack,

Where's the AnalogX DX-VST wrapper? I can't seem to find it on the AnalogX site (probably can't see the forest for the trees....)

- gaffa
 
I'm not a happy little camper....

I just re-installed Visual Studio 6 Enterprise, in the vain hope of getting VC++ going, and the bloody thing still doesn't work.

It's looking like I'm going to have to do a complete rebuild, cos a lot of stuff is failing.

Damn. Not looking forward to it....

- gaffa
 
I dunno exactly. VB is OK, VC++ crashes with an execption somewhere useful (love those hex memory references) when loading msdev.exe, Interdev (I've no idea why I installed it, and it's never worked) loads the splash screen up, then exits. Stupid bloody programs.

IE5 is pissing away memory like there's no tomorrow, but that's not a huge problem - I don't think it's ever been hugely stable.

I don't know - it's probably about time I rebuilt the box anyway.

I'll leave that until next weekend, once I've worked out what has to be re-installed where, and what I can get rid of.

- gaffa
 
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