I cannot create a vst3 file in Visual Studio

Audio Plugins
1

Hi I’m quite new in Juce development. I have done an audio plug-in. I am able to create a standalone version successfully (.exe file). But I cannot create a vst3 file.
In my projucer I have selected ‘Plugin Formats’ VST3.
I have an error when I select the VST3 project as my ‘Startup Project’ in my Solution Explorer in VS and I build it. This error says: “Unable to start program: […] Distotion.vst3 - Distotion.vst3 is don’t a valid Win32 application.”
I don’t know if this relates to the VST SDK.
I have downloaded the VST SDK from 3rd-Party Developers Support & SDKs | Steinberg but I don’t know where I should set these folders.

Please, let me know what could be the problem of my error.
Thanks so much

2

The error is telling you what’s wrong. The built VST3 is not an executable, so you can’t just run it. Instead, you need to load it into a host application.

In order to use your VST3, you need to:

  • Build it (from the Build menu)
  • Install it (there’s an option in the Projucer to automatically install the plugin after building it, but you might need to adjust the permissions of the target folder)
  • Run a plugin host app, such as the AudioPluginHost or your favourite DAW. Your plugin should show up automatically in the plugin list in that application, but you might need to force the host to rescan all plugins
3

Thanks, My problem is when I try to get my vst3 plugin to use it into the AudioPluginHost I get an old version of my plugin, so when I go to the path where the .vst3 file is created “F:\UWE\PORTFOLIO\Types of Distortion\Builds\VisualStudio2019\x64\Release\VST3” my .vst3 file is not updated (date from yesterday) If I build my VS project in release mode with the standalone set as Startup Project, my .vst3 file is not updated. I tried to delete this file and build it again but now is not been created.
For what you said to me. Do I need to have the Distotion_VST3 project set as Startup Project in my Solution Explorer in order to create or update the .vst3 file?
Thanks

4

Use the “build solution” command in Visual Studio (In the main menu, Build->“Build solution”) to ensure everything in the solution is built properly to the latest version. If you just use the “start debugging” command, that only builds what is necessary for the “start up project”.

1 Like
5

oh! that was the reason! Thank you so much