Designing Software Synthesizer Plug-Ins in C++: For RackAFX, VST3, and Audio Units 1st Edition

by Will C. Pirkle (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1138787070

ISBN-10: 1138787078

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Bridging the gap from theory to programming, Designing Software Synthesizer Plug-Ins in C++ For RackAFX, VST3 and Audio Units contains complete code for designing and implementing software synthesizers for both Windows and Mac platforms. You will learn synthesizer operation, starting with the underlying theory of each synthesizer component, and moving on to the theory of how these components combine to form fully working musical instruments that function on a variety of target digital audio workstations (DAWs). Containing some of the latest advances in theory and algorithm development, this book contains information that has never been published in textbook form, including several unique algorithms of the author’s own design.

The book is broken into three parts: plug-in programming, theory and design of the central synthesizer components of oscillators, envelope generators, and filters, and the design and implementation of six complete polyphonic software synthesizer musical instruments, which can be played in real time. The instruments implement advanced concepts including a user-programmable modulation matrix. The final chapter shows you the theory and code for a suite of delay effects to augment your synthesizers, introducing you to audio effect processing.

The companion website, www.focalpress.com/cw/pirkle, gives you access to free software to guide you through the application of concepts discussed in the book, and code for both Windows and Mac platforms. In addition to the software, it features bonus projects, application notes, and video tutorials. A reader forum, monitored by the author, gives you the opportunity for questions and information exchange.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Will Pirkle is an Assistant Professor of Music Engineering Technology at the University of Miami Frost School of Music and is the author of Designing Audio Effects Plug-Ins in C++. He teaches classes in C++ Audio Programming, Signal Processing and Audio Synthesis Theory, and Mobile App Programming. In addition to ten years of teaching at the University of Miami, Mr. Pirkle has twenty years of experience in the audio industry working and consulting for such names as Korg Research and Development, SiriusXM Radio, Diamond Multimedia, Gibson Musical Instruments, and National Semiconductor Corporation. An avid guitarist and studio owner, Mr. Pirkle still seeks projects that combine all his skills. www.willpirkle.com

Product details

Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 24, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1138787078
ISBN-13: 978-1138787070
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 1.3 x 11 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 15 customer ratings
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #475 in C++ Programming Language
- #357 in Acoustic Engineering
- #185 in Digital Audio Production

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lovedaisies

New Edition To Be Expected!

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019

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The author is currently in flux with the software. He has a new open source tech called ASPiK that is changing the file structure and naming for the projects. This book contains the old way of doing things. Also he does not provide links (as far as I know) to older versions of the software. He has videos for the new stuff that are incredibly useful, but as it stands none of the sample synth projects that can be downloaded work. Nor are there files required in the text, available at the website.

Be prepared to get your hands a little dirty if you get this book.

The RackAFX7 and ASPiK platform looks to simplify the process and it looks great so from here! Just wish I knew a new edition was coming...

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Scott Burgess

Great Book for Learning, Reference, or Just Straight Up Code

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2016

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In addition to explaining the theory and practice behind each part of a synthesizer (filters, oscillators, envelope generators, etc), the author provides the math formulae, DSP theory, extensive graphs and diagrams, AND source code, if that isn't clear enough.

From there, the book creates 4 kinds of software synths: virtual analog, wavetable, FM, and sample playback.

This might not be an ideal book if you have never tinkered with audio code or C++. But if you know the basics, this will absolutely set you on the right path. I had so many "a-ha!" moments just skimming through it, it paid for itself in the first hour.

I've found Focal Press books to be uniformly excellent, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. It's also somewhat massive, in a large format and clocking in at over 700 pages.

Pirkle's effects book is next on my list.

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duck cover

My favorite computer programming book of all time!

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2015

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As the title suggest, this book is about writing Software Synthesizers in C++, so this really implies that this book is not for the weak hearted only from reading the title. So far for the other review, only giving it 3 stars, it's completely useless and has absolutely nothing to do with what this book is about in the first place, and does not assess the quality of the writings in any way.

This book is a god send for me, I have been waiting for this for many years! I am only half through so far (will update this review after I have worked it through) but I can already tell that this is a total quality product as it does not often happen with computer books. I would even go as far as to say that it is stroke of genius. Let me explain.

I am "flitring" with DSP since years, but without a deep academic background, I always faced some hurdles that were very difficult to overcome. First there is the math, and then if you want to do stuff like synthesizers containing a plethora of different objects acting together to form a quite complex network. Sure, all the information found in this book can be found elsewhere online (if you are willing to dig hard enough and bang your head against the wall for many months), but how it is present here in a concise manner is almost too good to be true. You get in depth and current information on how it is done the right way. Oscillator design, filters, envelopes, all explained with cross-references to all the great synthesizers made in the last few decades. Many a nice detail of the history can be found in the texts, e.g. i didn't know that Dave Smith was involved in designed Korgs Wavestation.

Will Pirkle deserves an Oscar just for RackAFX alone, the Windows IDE he designed originally for his students in his DSP classes, an incredible useful tool for learning and experimenting. But now with taking it to the next level, including the two most important plugin-platforms VST3 and AudioUnit, that's the real stroke of genius of this book and sets it apart from everything else currently available.

I find working through his book enormously pleasurable, Wills writing style is on a great level and has a good flow, I would love to go to his DSP classes. Also for a first edition, this book is extremely well edited, there are almost no typos. Check the errata on his page, it is ridiculously short for such a technical book, this fact alone speaks volumes.

This is already my favorite programming book of all time. It is like it was specially written for me. Therefore, I would love to congratulate everybody who was involved in the process of publishing it, this hard work should be rewarded to the fullest.

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Gregory Levin

Good concept

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2018

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Excellent book for DIY

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frankp93

In-Depth Multi-API Approach / Very Well-Structured

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015

I received a free item to review.

This isn’t like those game programming/graphics books from years back where you could just ‘play with the executables’ and skip the explanations and theory (I suppose that’s possible if you’re good enough to simply build it all and let it rip - but I think that defeats the purpose).

The real value in ‘Developing Software Synthesizers Plug-Ins in C++’ is not simply getting the six synths to run with your choice of plug-in container and platform. It’s understanding what Pirkle has to say about software synth design, component details, and recognizing similarities across common plug-in APIs well-enough to customize and extend the designs, or use them as jump-off points for your own.

Depending on your DSP background I’d recommend Polmann’s ‘Principles of Digital Audio’ – as Pirkle does in the very useful bibliographies at the end of each chapter. I still have my second edition of Polmann and, while it’s been updated several times, the fundamentals remain the same and I think it’s one of the more readable DSP books out there that doesn’t drown you in math.

And speaking of math, Pirkle doesn’t drown you here either – although as he states it’s impossible to avoid it completely – even the dreaded C word - calculus. But fear not, to his credit, Pirkle keeps it all very readable and interesting.

And that’s true across the board: While the book is ambitious it will reward those willing to put in the time. There’s quite a lot of discussion of DSP, MIDI and synth theory but Pirkle doesn’t presume much expertise or even advanced knowledge and the writing is very clean and straightforward.
The C++ code is what I’d call early-intermediate level: you should understand pointers, classes and basic OO design, type coercion and casting to work with floating point values. There’s no use of libraries such as Boost, ATL, or of templates in general.

If you focused on Windows you should understand DLL architecture and be comfortable working in Visual Studio (the downloaded code was build with 2008 but compiled with 2013 with no problems).

The code focuses more on class framework architecture, including Pirkle’s own RackAFX introduced in his previous book (which makes a useful companion but not absolutely essential) and API usage rather than extensive algorithms, low-level data structures, and memory manipulation. If you’ve coded against Win32 natively or used MFC, and worked with Audio/MIDI libraries and frameworks Pirkle’s syntax and use of Hungarian notation will feel familiar.

If you’re a C programmer with audio programming experience, such as working through ‘The Audio Programming Book’, you should be OK.
Likewise if you have strong Java skills, especially in library/API design, just watch the pointers and keep a C++ reference handy.

I’m not a Mac developer but the additional requirements Pirkle mentions mostly have to do with building GUIs for the synths – this requires knowledge of Objective C and the XCode compiler. Mac is not shortchanged at all in the book – all synths are presented to run on both platforms.

If you have Pirkle’s previous book and are wondering about overlap, know that this one stands on its own with deliberately new implementation ideas and an emphasis on native code – yet it clearly won’t hurt anyone who first explored plug-in writing and audio effects with RackAFX in the earlier book.

Pirkle chooses three ‘container’ APIs on two platforms RackAFX/Windows, VST/Windows and AU/MacOS and illustrates separate and complete implementations of both a ‘training synth’ to teach core synthesis concepts and implementation, as well as six polyphonic synthesizers that utilize a variety of algorithms including an audio sample playback synth, vector synth, and clones of the Yamaha DX100 and the Moog AniMoog Anisotropic Synth iPad app.

A real strength of the book is its structure. Pirkle first presents the Nanosynth as a ‘training synth’, gradually adding components as he covers oscillators, filters and other core synthesizer concepts. The beauty is you’re learning design as you’re building-out the Nanosynth and Pirkle encourages you to think about ‘countless variations’ all along the way.

By the time you get to the six complete synths you understand enough to choose whichever ones spark your curiosity (hint: they all will).
With all the focus here on technology it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of a simple truth: At the end of the day, you’re building musical instruments in software - regardless of how broad your definitions of music and instruments are.

For those of us who take that notion seriously there’s every reason to approach the software craft with the same thoughtfulness and attention to detail as though you were building a violin or a guitar in wood. I happen to work in both and I think that connection is important and worthwhile.

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A. R. Capon

An excellent book for anyone interested in writing Audio Units or VSTs.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2015

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Anyone interested in writing Audio Units or VSTs should get this book.

It is a large book full of information, excellent.

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Mike Gazzaruso

Da non perdere assolutamente

Reviewed in Italy on November 5, 2016

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Una vera e propria miniera di informazioni per chi ha voglia di iniziare un percorso didattico mirato alla creazione di sintetizzatori virtuali. L'autore è sempre chiarissimo e la lettura risulta essere sempre scorrevole e ben arricolata. Consigliatissimo

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THIERRY CARADEC

Livre de chevet

Reviewed in France on October 18, 2017

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Il s'agit de mon livre d'informatique préféré depuis longtemps.
Les aspects théoriques sur l'échantillonage et les filtres sont un peu ardus pour les gens peu portés sur les maths, mais on se rattrape sur la partie code C++. Pour la théorie, voir du côté de Steve Smith (Dsp blog) qui est bien plus facile d'accès.
En terme de programmation, il n'y a rien de très complexe ici (du c++ basique si l'on veut ...) mais c'est mieux comme ça. Du coup ça se lit comme une BD.
L'environnement RACKAFX et les sources des projets décrits sont disponibles en téléchargement.
De quoi s'amuser un bon moment.
Quand j'aurai fait le tour, je m'interesserai au (1er) volume sur les effets.

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