Table of Contents:

Creating the project

Lets start by opening the VST project generator. This was created after you built the SDK, you should see as it appears below:

Path:VST_SDK_BUILD\\VST3_Project_Generator\\<your OS>\\VST3_Project_Generator.exe / .app

Proceed to locate the folders it asks for, then click the Create Plug-in Project tab

For this project I will name it Gain Knob but feel free to name it to your choosing. After filling out all the text boxes, click Create. If it says there were errors, ignore them, it succeeded.

note: for this entire guide i will be using Microsoft Visual Studio for the coding side of things. As well as I will be assuming you can find most of the files on your own. If the directory is confusing or unintuitive i will leave a path.

Parameters (your plugin controller)

First we need to create some parameters. Parameters are how users will control your plugin from the UI. In this plugin we will only create one parameter, feel free to name it whatever you want, but i will name it kGain.

//Plugincids.h
namespace Steinberg {
	//...
	enum params {
		kGain = 100,
	}
	
}

This enum serves as an ID for your parameters so the UI can connect to the controller and the processor.

Next we will add this parameter ID to the controller In pluginController.cpp.

//PluginController.cpp
tresult PLUGIN_API GainKnobController::initialize (FUnknown* context) {
	//...
	//Here you can register some parameters
	setKnobMode(Vst::KnobModes::kLinearMode); //set knob mode
	parameters.addParameter(STR16("Gain"), STR16("dB"), 0, 0.5, Vst::ParameterInfo::kCanAutomate, params::kGain);
}

note: the inputs to addParameter() is as follows: