Vamp Plugins

Developing Vamp plugins and hosts

Vamp is an easy system to develop plugins for. It has a standard cross-platform SDK which includes API documentation, example plugins, ready-to-use C++ base classes, the C API header, and a test host.

Vamp plugins use a C binary interface for the greatest level of binary compatibility. However, plugins and hosts are strongly encouraged to make use of the set of C++ base classes provided in the SDK. You can also now write Vamp plugins in Python using VamPy.

• Download the Vamp plugin SDK (new! version 2.2):
  • The development headers and source code: Gzipped tar file or ZIP file (the contents are identical).
  • Pre-compiled library and host binaries for Windows (MinGW), Windows (MSVC: static libraries only), OS/X (universal), 32-bit Linux, 64-bit Linux, and 32-bit x86 Solaris (these are unchanged from version 2.1).
  • API documentation bundle.
  • Example plugin binaries for Windows, OS/X, 32-bit Linux, 64-bit Linux, and 32-bit x86 Solaris (these are unchanged from version 2.0).
  • The SourceForge download area for any files not listed above.
  
  
• Download the Vamp plugin tester (new! version 1.0), a simple command-line utility that tests your plugins for various common failure cases. It can't check whether you're getting the right results, but it can help you write better behaved and more resilient plugins.
  • Source code: Gzipped tar file.
  • Pre-compiled binaries for Windows, OS/X (universal), 32-bit Linux, 64-bit Linux, and 32-bit x86 Solaris.

Developer Documentation

• Read the Vamp plugin SDK Programmers Guide.
• Read a tutorial on building a new plugin: using OS/X command-line tools or using Visual C++ on Windows.
• Read a presentation about the principles of Vamp plugins for potential developers.
• Read the API documentation online. Your plugins will normally derive from the Vamp::Plugin class.
• Read the README file for the SDK.
• Have a look at a simple example plugin: header, source file.
• Read documentation for all the SDK example plugins.
• Browse the SDK and examples code in the Subversion repository.

The entire SDK is published under a very permissive BSD-style license. You are encouraged to copy from it wholesale, whether developing open-source or proprietary plugin or host software.

Mailing list and forum

Vamp plugin and host development may be discussed on the vamp-devel list and the Vamp plugins forum.