Welcome to the first tutorial I write here.
In this tutorial, we're going to be making a simple effect plugin using SynthEdit, which inverts the phase of audio.
First, get SynthEdit. You can get it from here. I recommend getting v1.4.
Open up SynthEdit. You should see a window like this:
The panel on the left has shows categories of all modules you have. We are currently interested in the "Input-Output" category.
Open it and drag & drop the Sound In and Sound Out modules. The result should look like this:
Now, at the top of the panel is the Container module. Place it in between the Sound In and Sound Out modules, or anywhere you want.
Double-click it. You should see this window open:
It's pretty empty, but that's not a problem. Go to the main window again, and connect the 1 and 2 outputs to the container's "dynamic" Spare input, like so:
If you don't connect the second output, then the plugin will only be able to output mono audio.
If you look at the container's window, you'll notice the IO Mod module has two new outputs:
Alright, now open up the "Modifiers" category, and place the Inverter2 module into the container's window. Oh, since we're going to deal with stereo audio, place another Inverter2 module.
Connect both of them like so:
And now connect both of their outputs to the IO Mod module's dynamic Spare input...
Looks kinda confusing now. Oh well!
If you look at the container in the main window now, you'll notice it has changed it's shape:
Now connect the two Signal Out outputs to the two Sound Out inputs. Final result:
Alright, now we can export it into an actual VST! But first, I highly suggest you to save your project. You can use this button right here:
Now that that's done, click on File, and select Export VST. This window should pop up:
Here you select enter the name of your VST (product), its file name, its file ID (which is uniquely generated just for you), and manufacturer ID.
In most cases, you should use VST3. If your DAW doesn't support VST3, or you simply don't want to use that, select VST2.
Now click OK. This will pop up:
Press Yes. If the export was successful, you will be met with this:
By default, SynthEdit saves VST3s in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, and VST2s in C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins (or C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTPlugins if its 32-bit).
Now you can close SynthEdit. Open up your DAW, and search for the effect you made. I use Acoustica Mixcraft 9.
Once you find it, you'll notice that it has no UI controls:
But that's because we never gave it any.
Congratulations! You have successfully made your own VST effect. In the next tutorial about this we'll actually add some UI controls.