Loading Plugins in a Plugin

[williamk]

I know this is an old question, but before I go nuts trying to figure things all at once, I just want to know if I’m doing things right. I’m using the Plugin example. It compiles a VST DLL and it runs on Orion. Now, I want to load the Wusik Station VST (.dll file) inside it, and play it, without doing anything extra. I’m using the following to load the VST and connect to a graph object, which seems to be working fine.

[code] // Load VST //
AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->addDefaultFormats();
String errorMessage;
AudioPluginInstance* VSTinstance = 0;
AudioPluginInstance* AudioOutinstance = 0;
AudioPluginInstance* MidiIninstance = 0;
PluginDescription PlugDesc;
PlugDesc.pluginFormatName = T(“vst”);
PlugDesc.fileOrIdentifier = T(“c:\vstplugins\Wusikstation.dll”);
VSTinstance = AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->createPluginInstance (PlugDesc, errorMessage);

AudioProcessorGraph::Node* node = 0;

static juce::uint32 MidiInputID = 0;
static juce::uint32 AudioOutID = 0;
static juce::uint32 VstID = 0;

if (VSTinstance != 0) 
{
	node = graph.addNode (VSTinstance);
	VstID = node->id;

    AudioProcessorGraph::AudioGraphIOProcessor p (AudioProcessorGraph::AudioGraphIOProcessor::audioOutputNode);
    p.fillInPluginDescription (PlugDesc);

	AudioProcessorGraph::AudioGraphIOProcessor p2 (AudioProcessorGraph::AudioGraphIOProcessor::midiInputNode);
    p2.fillInPluginDescription (PlugDesc);

	AudioOutinstance = AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->createPluginInstance (PlugDesc, errorMessage);
	MidiIninstance = AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->createPluginInstance (PlugDesc, errorMessage);

	if (AudioOutinstance != 0)
	{
		node = graph.addNode (VSTinstance);
		AudioOutID = node->id;

		node = graph.addNode (MidiIninstance);
		MidiInputID = node->id;

		bool didConnect = true;
		if (!graph.addConnection(VstID,0,AudioOutID,0)) didConnect = false;
		if (!graph.addConnection(VstID,1,AudioOutID,1)) didConnect = false;
		if (!graph.addConnection(MidiInputID,4096,VstID,4096)) didConnect = false;

		if (!didConnect) AlertWindow::showMessageBox (AlertWindow::WarningIcon,T("Error!"),T("Error Connecting!"));
	}
	else
	{
		AlertWindow::showMessageBox (AlertWindow::WarningIcon,T("Error Loading Wusikstation.dll VST!"),errorMessage);
	}
}
else
{
	AlertWindow::showMessageBox (AlertWindow::WarningIcon,T("Error Loading Wusikstation.dll VST!"),errorMessage);
}

graphPlayer.setProcessor(&graph);[/code]

Now I need to figure out how to play graphPlayer, I guess. In any event, I’m sure that once I rest a bit I can figure it out, but just in case I’m doing something totally stupid and wrong, here’s my current code.

Best Regards, WilliamK

[jules]

Surly you don’t want to play the graph through the audio system, you want to expose it as your VST’s effect? A graph is an AudioProcessor, so you’d need to connect that directly to your own AudioPluginInstance, so that any calls are passed straight through.

[williamk]

Got it, thanks. I just need to figure out how to do that. :oops:

Wk

[williamk]

Ok, now, I found a much easier way to load my VST inside my VST. I just wonder if this is the right way to do this… :oops:

AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->addDefaultFormats(); String errorMessage; PluginDescription PlugDesc; PlugDesc.pluginFormatName = T("vst"); PlugDesc.fileOrIdentifier = T("c:\\vstplugins\\Wusikstation.dll"); VstInstance = AudioPluginFormatManager::getInstance()->createPluginInstance (PlugDesc, errorMessage);

VstInstance is declard in my FilterComponent.h. (AudioPluginInstance* VstInstance;)

void FilterComponent::prepareToPlay (double sampleRate, int samplesPerBlock) { // do your pre-playback setup stuff here.. keyboardState.reset(); VstInstance->prepareToPlay(sampleRate,samplesPerBlock); }

[code]void FilterComponent::processBlock (AudioSampleBuffer& buffer,
MidiBuffer& midiMessages)
{

VstInstance->processBlock(buffer,midiMessages);

keyboardState.processNextMidiBuffer (midiMessages,
                                   0, buffer.getNumSamples(),
                                 true);

}
[/code]

[code]FilterComponent::~FilterComponent()
{
ApplicationProperties::getInstance()->closeFiles();

deleteAndZero(defaultSettings);
deleteAndZero(VstInstance);

}
[/code]

It plays and it works. But I want to ask now, am I missing something, or is that all?

Now I need to figure out how to open the VST GUI in my VST Main Window. 8)

Wk

[jules]

Yep, you’re on the right track there!

[williamk]

Ok, adding the VST GUI is easier than I first anticipated. Thanks to Juce’s code. 8)

In

I just do:

vstEditor = 0; if (getFilter()->VstInstance != 0) vstEditor = getFilter()->VstInstance->createEditor();

The vstEditor is “AudioProcessorEditor* vstEditor;”

Now, I just do:

And it shows up and it works.

I just need to figure out a bug with Wusik Station and Juce. When I try to load a new preset. But I’m sure its something wrong I’m doing.

Wk

[williamk]

PRESTO! Its all working now! :mrgreen:

Now I need to handle the plugin state and also some other small things… them I will have a new Wusik Station with the nice TreeView on the Right. Maybe even a global ARP on the side, after I finish this up. With time, I can also replace my current VST loading code for the effects, and use Juce instead. I could keep wrapping the main Wusik Station VST inside it, until I can re-do the whole code with Juce, which may take 2 or 4 months to complete… Eeek… but that would get me MAC and Linux support, not to mention the other plugin formats. :shock:

Wk

[williamk]

Just one small problem I’m facing now… I want to load a file and send as a Chunk to the VST, but I can’t make it work. The setChunk from Wusik Station is not even called with the code below.

MemoryBlock result2; fileLoad.loadFileAsData(result2); getFilter()->VstInstance->setStateInformation(result2.getData(),result2.getSize());

While the below works without problems:

MemoryBlock result; getFilter()->VstInstance->getStateInformation(result); Thread::sleep(1000); getFilter()->VstInstance->setStateInformation(result.getData(),result.getSize()); Thread::sleep(1000);

I added the Sleep so I could check things out.

Wk

[williamk]

Ok, I understand a bit better now. The MemoryBlock must be in FXB/FXP format. I see the loadFromFXBFile code now. :shock:

The problem is that I can’t figure out how to arrange my loaded file into a FXB file. I will have to check how to do that.

Wk

[williamk]

I’m trying to load a FXP file into the memory, and pass it up, but its not working. Does it check the VST ID?

Wk

[williamk]

Surly you don’t want to play the graph through the audio system, you want to expose it as your VST’s effect? A graph is an AudioProcessor, so you’d need to connect that directly to your own AudioPluginInstance, so that any calls are passed straight through.

I still can’t get that to work, do you mind pointing me to the right direction? As I want to add multiple VSTs, and the Graph really helps me out with that task.

Thanks, Wk

[jules]

I really haven’t time to go through it in detail, but you’re basically writing an AudioPluginInstance that contains an AudioProcessorGraph and which just passes all of its method calls straight through.

[williamk]

Thanks Jules, sorry for such basic questions. I will try harder to figure it out on my own. :oops:

Wk