This is a walkthrough of a very simple Tremolo plugin that I created for my senior progject at University. Creating a plugin is as simple as modifying the example provided in the Steinberg Software Developers Kit (SDK) that you can download from Steinberg at: http://www.steinberg.net (visit support and then "3rd Party Developers). The SDK is freely licensed and all you need is a C++ compiler and a text editor to start creating.

With the software developers kit, Steinberg includes the source code for a fully functional gain changing plugin called AGain. This simple plugin reads a sample of audio and adjusts the volume from unity (no adjustments are made) to infinity (no output) depending on the value of the single user adjustable parameter called “Gain”. AGain is the basis for the tremolo plugin, however where tremolo adjusts the volume periodically with time, AGain does not change the volume over time unless the user manually adjusts the settings during playback. The code presented in this tutorial is really just a simple modification of the code from the SDK. If you have read the VST Example Plugin Walkthrough on this site then the following pages will make perfect sense. If not, I suggest you read or print out that tutorial first. Here we go!