Creating Windows VST 2.4 Plugin using Visual Studio 2015

Creating VSTs (2.4) using Visual Studio

 * Download VST SDK 2.4 . Note that Steinberg no longer hosts the SDK, so you'll have to go looking elsewhere.
 * Unpack API pluginterfaces/vst2.x/*.h to a common include dir
 * Unpack base classes public.sdk/source/vst2.x/*.* to your project dir
 * Create an empty VS project and add the base class source files
 * Create a text file, myplugin.def with this content:

LIBRARY   myplugin EXPORTS VSTPluginMain main=VSTPluginMain


 * Set project properties:
 * General:
 * Target Platform Version: 8.1 works
 * Platform Toolset: Visual Studio 2015 (v140) works
 * Configuration Type: Dynamic Library (.dll)
 * VC++ Directories: Include Directories: Add the API include dir here
 * C/C++:
 * Preprocessor: Preprocessor Definitions: Add: 'WINDOWS;_WINDOWS;WIN32;_USRDLL;_USE_MATH_DEFINES;DEBUG=1;_DEBUG=1' (Note WIN32 is added even in x64 builds. WIN64 wasn't common in 2006 when VST 2.4 was designed.)
 * Code Generation: Runtime Library: Multi-threaded Debug (to avoid depending on a specific MSVCRT.DLL version)
 * Linker:
 * Input: Module Definition File: myplugin.def
 * System: SubSystem: Windows
 * Create myplugin.h and myplugin.cpp. If you're making an insert FX, check out VST Audio Effect Example. If you're making a synth, check out VST Synth Example.