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ARA plugin support

JUCE supports the development of ARA enabled hosts and plugins. Since the ARA SDK is not included in JUCE there are some steps you need to take to enable all ARA related functionality.

External dependencies

  • ARA SDK 2.2.0

You can download the ARA SDK from Celemony's Github. The command below will recursively clone the right version into the ARA_SDK directory

git clone --recursive --branch releases/2.2.0 https://github.com/Celemony/ARA_SDK

Enabling ARA features in JUCE

Once you have downloaded the ARA SDK you need to configure JUCE to use it.

The Projucer

Add the path to the Global Paths settings.

CMake

Use the juce_set_ara_sdk_path function in your CMakeLists file.

Alternatively, if you are building the examples and extras with CMake from the JUCE repo directory you can also specify -DJUCE_GLOBAL_ARA_SDK_PATH=/your/path/to/ARA_SDK parameter to CMake to enable ARA.

Building the AudioPluginHost with ARA

The AudioPluginHost has simple ARA hosting features, but you need to modify its build configuration to enable them.

The Projucer

After opening AudioPluginHost.jucer go to Modules → juce_audio_processors and enable the JUCE_PLUGINHOST_ARA setting.

CMake

Set JUCE_PLUGINHOST_ARA=1 inside AudioPluginHost/CMakeLists.txt.

Loading ARA plugins

ARA capable plugins will now have two entries in the Create plugin menu, and the one saying (ARA) will activate additional ARA features. If you right click on the plugin in the graph, you can use the “Show ARA host control” item to assign an audio file that the plugin can read through the ARA interfaces.

Adding ARA features to existing plugins

The Projucer

Check the Enable ARA option in the Plugin Formats settings. ARA is an extension to VST3 and AU plugins, hence you need to have at least one of those options enabled too for valid build targets.

CMake

Add the property IS_ARA_EFFECT TRUE to your juce_add_plugin call.

Modifying the plugin code

In addition to the createPluginFilter() function that is needed for all audio plugins, you will now need to provide an implementation to the createARAFactory() function as well. You can do this by inheriting from juce::ARADocumentControllerSpecialisation and using its helper function. The class documentation should make this clear by also providing an example. You can also find an example in the ARAPluginDemo.

Learning about ARA

ARA provides an extensive API that allows you to exchange information with the host in completely new ways. To understand the basics and to build up your knowledge it’s best to read the official ARA documentation, which has approachable introductory sections. You can find the documentation in the SDK directory at ARA_SDK/ARA_Library/html_docs/index.html.