RST is small/tiny Cross Platform Audio Framework for developing audio Plugins in C Code. You can use this to make plugins on Windows or Linux. It can be used for making VST2 instruments/synthesizers and effects with graphical user interfaces. It's also possible to make plugin hosts with the The RST header file rst.h

All examples of plugs to compile are directly in the main catalouge.

What you can do with it...

• Plugins for DAW's compatible with the VST2 standard.
• Develop Synthesizer plugins.
• Develop Audio Effect Unit plugins.
• Develop MIDI plugins

The focus is on...

• Super small amout of code and codebase
• 100% identical plugin code compiles for Linux and Window
• Understandabillity
• Control of your codebase
• Fast workflow

What it does...

• Compile 64bit and 32bit plugin versions of Windows and Linux.
• Use 32bit bitmap graphics (24bit color with 8bit alpha channel).
• Give you a listing of events for debuging.

It don't use the VST SDK created by Steinberg. Instead it uses it's own API that makes plugins compatible with the VST2.4 ABI, so the plugs can be used in the most amount of music programs and even older ones. And don't need a licence for using the VST SDK for making ABI compatible plugins without their SDK.

The examples uses ikiGUI for the graphical plugin editors. Information about ikiGUI can be found here ... https://github.com/logos-maker/ikiGUI

To learn about the RST framework and ikiGUI graphics, here is some different examples. Some of the simplest examples is has only 76 lines of code. And the more advanced less than 200 lines of code. All compiles to a loadable plug to Windows or Linux without code changes.

• sin_synth.c This example that demonstrates some of the essentials of making a synth and a GUI.
• transport_display.c This demonstrates how you can read the transport information from the DAW.
• MIDI_Monitor.c This demonstrates how you can read incomming MIDI to your plug.
• MIDI_transpose_NO_GUI.c demonstrates how to make a simple MIDI effect.
• plug_template.c a template for making a simple synthesizer with GUI.
• plug_template_NO_GUI.c a template for a synthesizer without GUI.
• plug_template_NO_GUI_NO_MIDI.c a template for a audio effect, without GUI and MIDI.

• For simple and low amout of code.
• For making it simpler to get started.
• For developing fast and performant plugs in C code and make GUI's in C code.
• To avoid complex build systems. And make it easier to get started and understand.
• For not needing to learn C++ the worlds most complex language, that would take several decades to master.

MinGW-w64 can be used to compile the code on Windows. I would recommend downloading TDM-GCC and downloading the installer named tdm64-gcc-10.3.0-2.exe Then after that you should be able to compile from the CMD Command Prompt. You can compile to generate a plugin .dll with a command like...

gcc plug_template.c -o ../bin_win/plug_template.dll -fPIC -shared -lm -lGDI32

If you don't want to use the CMD Command Prompt you can use a text editor that can run the single command needed for compilation is for example Geany or Sublime Text.

It can easily be done with a command like...

gcc plug_template.c -o ../bin_lin/plug_template.so -fPIC -shared -lm

If you want to compile 32bit linux plugins on a 64bit machine install...

sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib

...and use the -m32 flag for GCC with a command like...

gcc plug_template.c -o ../bin_lin/plug_template.so -fPIC -shared -lm -m32

Install the needed compiler commands with...

sudo apt -y install mingw-w64

If you want a 64-bit Windows plugin compile with a command like...

x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc generic_fx_code.c -o ../bin_win/plugin.dll -fPIC -shared -lgdi32 -lm

And if you want to make 32bit Windows plugs use a command like...

i686-w64-mingw32-gcc generic_fx_code.c -o ../bin_win/plugin.dll -fPIC -shared -lgdi32 -lm