Introduction
This guide is intended for use by Windows users for the express purpose of building a binary that allows you to use CLAP format plugins in DAWs that do not support them. This may not be the most optimal way to go about doing so, but it has worked for me and others. If you are a seasoned developer who is familiar with these tools, then feel free to do things your way.
If you would like to ensure that this all works properly without affecting your system, consider performing the steps in this guide within a virutal machine. I will not cover this process as it is outside of the scope of this guide.
Disclaimer
Please read carefully - I am not responsible for what happens to your system if something goes wrong. This information can become outdated at any time. Please contact me using Discord if any of this information is outdated or incorrect. My tag is located at the footer of this page.
Prerequisites
These files are required to set up a development environment where we can build the plugin wrapper.
Installing Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a development environment made by Microsoft that will build the code that makes up this wrapper into a plugin we can actually use inside our DAW.
- Run the Visual Studio Installer and look for
Visual Studio Community 2022
in theAvailable
tab. - Click on the
Install
button located at the right side of this entry. - Under
Desktop & Mobile
, click onDesktop development with C++
. - Click the
Install
button on the bottom-right corner of the window.
Installing CMake
CMake will set up our development environment, Visual Studio, to point to all the files it needs to build the code.
- Run the CMake installer.
- Select
Add CMake to the system PATH for the current user
. - Proceed with the installation.
Preparing Files
Now we will prepare the files for CMake and Visual Studio to use.
- Create a new folder somewhere. This will be your workspace folder.
- Open the
clap-wrapper-main
archive and extract theclap-wrapper-main
folder into the workspace folder. - Open the
clap-wrapper-main
folder you’ve just extracted and create a new folder calledbuild
. - Extract the
clap-main
folder from theclap-main
archive to the workspace folder. - Extract the
VST_SDK
folder from thevst-sdk
archive to the workspace folder.
Running CMake
CMake will prepare our files for Visual Studio in this step.
- Open CMake-gui.
- For the box labeled
Where is the source code
, select theclap-wrapper-main
folder in the workspace folder. - For the box labeled
Where to build the binaries
, select thebuild
folder insideclap-wrapper-main
. - In the field named
CLAP_SDK_ROOT
, input the path to theclap-main
folder. - In the field named
VST3_SDK_ROOT
, input the path to thevst3sdk
folder located inside theVST_SDK
folder found within the workspace. - Click
Configure
and selectVisual Studio 17 2022
as the generator of choice. - Click
Generate
thenOpen Project
. Visual Studio 2022 should launch and you may now close CMake.
Building in Visual Studio
This process will create the VST3 plugin file that we want to generate.
- At the top of the screen, ensure
Release
andx64
are selected in the two dropdown boxes located next to the green play button titledLocal Windows Debugger
. - On the menu top of the screen, click on
Build
. - Click on
Build Solution
and wait for the process to finish. Once completed, you can then close Visual Studio.
Using the Wrapper
Now that you’ve built the wrapper, you’re ready to install it to your plugins folder!
- Navigate back to the
clap-wrapper
folder and enter thebuild
folder. - Open the
VST3
folder, then theRelease
folder. Here you will find the plugin! - Make a copy of the
clapasvst3_as_vst3.vst3
file and rename it to the EXACT filename as the CLAP plugin you want to load as a VST3. If your CLAP plugin is namedPlugin.clap
, name this wrapperPlugin.vst3
. - Place your newly renamed wrapper into your VST3 folder typically located in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
. - Rescan plugins in your DAW and enjoy!
If you do not know the filename of the CLAP plugin you are trying to load, you may check in the CLAP plugins folder typically found in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP
.