Step-by-step walkthrough: Create your own VST plug-in with the Matlab Audio System Toolbox, bringing music programming to life in Nashville

Part 1: Introduction and Overview of the Matlab Audio System Toolbox

Dear readers, welcome to this article. As a person who loves music and programming, I am very excited to share my latest learning experience with you here. As the title says, we'll explore a new way to create VST plug-ins, using the Matlab Audio System Toolbox. This post may be inspiring for those like me who are looking for new knowledge at the intersection of music and programming.

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Before we start explaining how to use the Matlab Audio System Toolbox to create VST plug-ins, we must first have a general understanding of the Matlab Audio System Toolbox. Matlab Audio System Toolbox is a powerful audio processing tool that contains many functions and libraries for various operations such as real-time audio input/output, spectrum analysis, and sound design. Its power is that it gives us a way to process, analyze, visualize and generate audio signals without worrying about the underlying audio processing complexities. This is undoubtedly a boon for music producers and audio engineers, because they can focus more on audio effects and innovative implementation.

In the Matlab Audio System Toolbox, we can use time- or frequency-based audio plugins, and also perform multi-channel processing and analysis. More importantly, we can also use it to create our own VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plug-ins. This means we can design a custom audio effect plug-in and use it in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This opens up endless possibilities and degrees of freedom.

So, here comes the question, how do we use the Matlab Audio System Toolbox to create VST plug-ins? Below, I will show you how to achieve this goal using the experience of a project I participated in, "Nashville Music Programmers" as an example.

To better illustrate the problem, let's start by creating a simple audio processing plug-in. For example, we can create a plugin that adds an echo effect. In Matlab, we can achieve this with the following code:

% 创建一个音频插件类
classdef MyEchoPlugin < audioPlugin
% 重载了process方法
    methods
        function out = process(plugin, in)
            echo = delay(in, 48000); % 延迟1秒
            out = in + 0.6 * echo; % 创建回声效果
        end
    end
end

In the above code, we created an audio plug-in class called , and realized the echo effect MyEchoPluginthrough the method. The function is used to delay the input audio, which means a delay of 1 second (because the common audio sampling rate is 48000 Hz). Finally, we mix the original audio with the delayed audio to achieve the echo effect.processdelay48000

This is just the beginning of our creation of audio processing plug-ins using the Matlab Audio System Toolbox. Next, I'll detail how to create a more complex plug-in and convert it to a VST plug-in for use in a DAW. This will be a very interesting and challenging process, I hope you can enjoy it with me.

Part Two: Creating Complex Plugins and Converting to VST Plugins

Going a step further, we'll explore how to create a plug-in with a variety of parameter adjustments, such as a reverb plug-in. We then converted this plugin to a VST plugin.

First, we need to add some properties to our plugin class, which will be used as parameters of our plugin. These parameters can be used to adjust the audio processing effects of the plug-in. Taking the reverb plug-in as an example, we can add two parameters: reverberation time and reverberation humidity. Here is the code for our plugin class:

classdef MyReverbPlugin < audioPlugin
    properties
        % 声明两个属性
        ReverbTime = 1.5;
        WetDryMix = 0.5;
    end
    
    methods
        function out = process(plugin, in)
            reverb = reverbEffect(in, plugin.ReverbTime); % 创建混响效果
            out = plugin.WetDryMix * reverb + (1 - plugin.WetDryMix) * in; % 调整混响干湿度
        end
    end
end

The above code creates a reverb plug-in, which includes two parameters: reverb time and reverb humidity. The Reverb Time is used to adjust the delay time of the reverb, and the Reverb Wetness is used to adjust how well the original audio is mixed with the reverb effect. By adjusting these two parameters, we can achieve different reverb effects.

After creating our reverb plugin, let's convert it to a VST plugin. In this way, we can use our own created plug-ins in the DAW. In Matlab, we can use validateAudioPluginand generateAudioPlugintwo functions to achieve this function. Here is the relevant code:

validateAudioPlugin MyReverbPlugin
generateAudioPlugin MyReverbPlugin

The above two lines of code first validate our plugin and then generate a VST plugin. During validation, Matlab checks that our plugin meets the requirements for audio plugins. For example, it checks that our plugin has processa method, and that the method is implemented correctly. Only after the verification is passed, we can generate the VST plug-in.

The generated VST plug-in will be saved in the current working directory, and the file name is the name of the plug-in class. For example, the file name of the VST plug-in generated by the above code is "MyReverbPlugin.vst". The generated VST plug-ins can be used by any DAW that supports VST plug-ins, such as Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, etc.

Part III: Application of VST plug-in in DAW and conclusion

After the VST plug-in is successfully generated, we can apply and test it in the DAW. This process will allow us to better understand how our plug-ins will perform in the actual music production process, and optimize our plug-ins accordingly.

Taking Ableton Live as an example, the steps to add VST plug-ins to DAW are as follows:

Open Ableton Live's Preferences settings.
In the File Folder tab, set the Use VST Plug-In Custom Folder option to On.
Click Browse, and select the folder containing our VST plugin.
Click Rescan and Ableton Live will scan the folder we specified and add any VST plugins it finds.

After the addition is complete, our plug-in will appear in the list of plug-ins in Ableton Live. We can add it to any audio track and do something with it.

% 如果我们的插件在DAW中不能正常工作，我们可以使用Matlab的插件测试功能进行调试
testAudioPlugin MyReverbPlugin

The above code will launch a test interface where we can perform various operations on our plugin to find possible problems. Matlab will automatically monitor the running status of the plug-in and provide error information.

In the "Nashville Music Programmers" project I participated in, we used the above method and process to create and test our VST plug-ins. By using the Matlab audio system toolbox, we have successfully created many innovative audio effect plug-ins, which have been applied in the actual music production process.

Overall, creating VST plug-ins using Matlab Audio System Toolbox is a fun and challenging process. I hope my sharing can be helpful to music producers and audio engineers, especially those who are looking for new creative tools and methods. Remember, music production is a process of continuous learning and innovation, and new tools and techniques will help us open up even more possibilities.

I look forward to seeing more VST plugins created using the Matlab Audio System Toolbox in the music production process in the future. Whether you are a professional music producer or a beginner who is passionate about music production, I encourage you to try to use the Matlab Audio System Toolbox, I believe you will gain a lot from it.

I hope this article can inspire and help you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a message in the comment area below. I will do my best to answer your questions and refer to your suggestions so that I can provide better content. Thank you for reading, let us continue to explore and move forward on the road of music.

Conclusion: Use the Matlab audio system toolbox to open a new chapter in your music production!