5.1 KiB
Latest release: https://github.com/Birch-san/juicysfplugin/releases
What
juicysfplugin is an Audio Plugin for playing MIDI music through a soundfont synthesizer.
JUCE is the framework for making audio plugins.
fluidsynth is the soundfont synthesizer.
juicysfplugin works as a standalone application (for playing around). You can plugin your hardware MIDI keyboard, or play with the software MIDI keyboard. Or router MIDI messages into it from a virtual MIDI controller (e.g. the macOS IAC Bus).
juicysfplugin is also an Audio Plugin. VST, VST3, AU, AUv3.
Why
I couldn't find a free, easy-to-use macOS audio plugin for making music with soundfonts.
Building from source
Install XCode and XCode command line tools. Accept terms.
Ensure brew and libfluidsynth are installed:
brew install fluidsynth
Install JUCE 5.3 in /Applications.
We expect to find JUCE headers in /Applications/JUCE/modules.
(Optional) To target VST3, install Steinberg VST3 Audio Plug-Ins SDK.
We expect to find a folder ~/SDKs/VST_SDK/VST3_SDK.
(Optional) Install IntelliJ AppCode if you prefer it to XCode.
Open juicysfplugin/Builds/MacOSX/juicysfplugin.xcodeproj in XCode (or IntelliJ AppCode).
Build & run the "juicysfplugin - Standalone Plugin" target.
Testing VST/AU plugins inside an audio plugin host
You'll notice that the schemes for [VST, VST3, AU, AUv3] targets are configured such that "Run" launches the executable AudioPluginHost.app. This lets you run the audio plugin as though it were hosted inside a DAW.
I recommend building (e.g. with XCode) the simple Audio Plugin Host that comes with JUCE Framework:
/Applications/JUCE/extras/AudioPluginHost/Builds/MacOSX/AudioPluginHost.xcodeproj
Then symlink /Applications/JUCE/AudioPluginHost.app to it (simply because that's where I told the Run configuration to look for it):
ln -sf /Applications/JUCE/extras/AudioPluginHost/Builds/MacOSX/build/Debug/AudioPluginHost.app /Applications/JUCE/AudioPluginHost.app
Dependency versions
Known working with:
macOS High Sierra 10.13
XCode 9.3
JUCE Framework 5.3
VST3 Audio Plug-Ins SDK 3.6.9
# brew:
- fluidsynth --version 1.1.10
- libraries in /usr/local/lib
- headers in /usr/local/include
libfluidsynth.1.7.1.dylib
├─libglib-2.0.0.dylib
│ └─libpcre.1.dylib
├─libgthread-2.0.0.dylib
└─libintl.8.dylib
Making portable releases
Follow the steps in Building from source to output a product to the build folder.
The .app, .vst (and so on) that you build will only work on a computer that has brew fluidsynth installed.
If you want to build a truly portable release, you'll need to bundle libfluidsynth and all its dependencies into your product.
cd juicysfplugin/Builds/MacOSX
# first check that you have a Release or Debug product in the `build` directory
# bundles `juicysfplugin/lib` libs into the products you created,
# relinks your executables to use their bundled libs
./relink-build-for-distribution.sh
# follows symlinks, archives Release and Debug folders as tar.xz
./archive-for-distribution.sh
Note: Release and Debug flavors both output targets [VST, VST3, AU] to the same location: ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/$TARGET/juicysfplugin.$EXT.
Whichever flavor you built most recently, wins.
The way I provide archives of both build flavors is by archiving one, building next flavor, then archiving that (i.e. I build serially, not parallel).
But probably people only care about the Release flavor anyway.
Licenses
Tell me if I've missed anything.
Overall, juicysfplugin is GPLv3.
Framework
Built upon JUCE framework under the GPL-v3 license:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html
Libraries
The following external libraries are bundled into this audio plugin and dynamically linked:
libintl LGPL
https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Licenses.html
either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
libglib LGPL
either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
libgthread LGPL
either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
libpcre BSD
Release 8 of PCRE is distributed under the terms of the "BSD" licence.
libfluidsynth LGPL
https://github.com/FluidSynth/fluidsynth/blob/master/LICENSE
(This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the successor of the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version number 2.1.)
SDKs
Steinberg VST3
The VST3 release is built against the Steinberg VST3 SDK.
http://www.steinberg.net/sdklicenses_vst3
This Software Development Kit is licensed under the terms of the Steinberg VST3 License, or alternatively under the terms of the General Public License (GPL) Version 3.