Soundshed Guitar

Soundshed Guitar is a guitar/bass effects app and plugin combining Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) with a modern UI. It targets VST3, AU, CLAP and AAX formats with an extensible signal graph architecture.

Downloads: https://guitar.soundshed.com

Requirements: x64 CPU with AVX2 support (circa late 2015+), or M1 onwards for macOS.

Features

• Neural Amp Modeler DSP for amp/pedal captures
• Flexible signal graph with arbitrary effect ordering and parallel paths
• Preset management with category support and content-addressed resource deduplication
• Remote preset search/download for community sharing
• WebView UI (HTML/CSS/TypeScript)

Documentation

See docs/ for architecture and reference documentation:

Document	Description
Agent Quickstart	Minimal, high-signal guide for AI agents
Architecture Overview	System layers, design principles, performance targets
Signal Chain	Graph model, execution, buffer management
FX Library	Effect types, registry, resource configuration
Data Models	Preset schema, storage layout
User Interface	WebView architecture, message protocol
Network API	REST API, client, plugin formats
Theme System	CSS theming

Agent Context Bundle

For minimal context with high coverage, load these files:

• docs/agent-quickstart.md
• docs/architecture-overview.md
• docs/signal-chain.md
• docs/fx-library.md
• docs/data-models.md
• docs/user-interface.md
• .github/copilot-instructions.md

Quick Start

1. Clone and configure

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd soundshed-guitar
   cmake -S juce -B juce/builds -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo

   CMake fetches core dependencies (for example NeuralAmpModelerCore) via FetchContent.

2. Build

   cmake --build juce/builds --config RelWithDebInfo

3. Install

   • Windows VST3: Copy .vst3 from build/SoundshedGuitar.vst3 to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
   • macOS VST3: Copy to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/

SDK Requirements

Format	Requirement
VST3	Set VST3_SDK_ROOT environment variable
AU	macOS with Xcode command-line tools
AAX	Set AAX_SDK_ROOT (requires Avid SDK access)

Branding

Edit core/config/GuitarFXConfig.h to customize plugin name and manufacturer. Rebuild after changes.

Development

• UI source: core/ui/ts/ (TypeScript)
• Build UI: cd core/ui && npm run build
• Core tests: Enable with GUITARFX_CORE_BUILD_TESTS=ON, run via CTest

Prerequisites

git submodule update --init --recursive

• node/npm, ts (npm install -f typescript)

cd /core/ui/ 
npm install

JUCE Linux Release Build

The JUCE target can be built and staged on Linux with the root helper script:

bash ./build_linux.sh --arch x64 --zip
bash ./build_linux.sh --arch arm64 --zip

This configures juce/builds-linux-x64 and juce/builds-linux-arm64, builds the JUCE Standalone, VST3, and CLAP targets, stages Linux distribution layouts in linux-dist-x64/ and linux-dist-arm64/, writes the standalone app to opt/Soundshed/soundshed-guitar/soundshed-guitar, and creates per-architecture archives for distribution.

To build both Linux targets in one invocation, use:

bash ./build_linux.sh --arch all --zip

When cross-compiling, the helper uses the repo toolchain files under cmake/toolchains/. Install the matching cross compiler plus target sysroot, and set GUITARFX_LINUX_SYSROOT, GUITARFX_LINUX_PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR, and GUITARFX_LINUX_PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR if your distro packages live outside the default search paths.

To include the LV2 bundle in the Linux build and staging layout, enable it explicitly:

bash ./build_linux.sh --arch x64 --lv2 --zip
bash ./build_linux.sh --arch arm64 --lv2 --zip

If you need to match CI dependencies on Ubuntu, install the JUCE Linux packages used by the workflow first:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libx11-dev libxinerama-dev libxext-dev libfreetype6-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libglu1-mesa-dev ninja-build

Windows

Full rebuild:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force juce/builds
cmake -G "Visual Studio 18 2026" -A x64 -S juce -B juce/builds 
cmake --build juce/builds --config Release --target ALL_BUILD --parallel

Debug Tools

Offline Processing Test

cmake --build build --config Debug --target GuitarFX_OfflineProcessingTest
./GuitarFX_OfflineProcessingTest.exe input.wav output.wav [model.nam] [cabinet.wav]

VST3 Debug Host

cmake --build build --config Debug --target VST3DebugHost
./VST3DebugHost.exe --windowed

Testing plugin builds with external resources can be done with pluginval against the generated VST3.

Third-party Libraries and Components

This repository depends on or vendors the following third-party libraries and SDK components:

• JUCE and the CLAP JUCE extensions in juce/
• Microsoft WebView2 for the Windows WebView host path
• NeuralAmpModelerCore and Eigen used by the NAM DSP stack in core/
• nlohmann/json, Signalsmith Audio linear/stretch, stftPitchShift, miniz, and the Wasmtime C API in the core CMake dependency setup
• jszip, TypeScript, and Vitest in core/ui/

Refer to the upstream LICENSE files and package manifests for the exact license terms of each dependency.

License

AGPL-3.0. Third-party components retain their upstream licenses.

Copyright

• Soundshed and Soundshed Guitar are copyright Webprofusion Pty Ltd via soundshed.com and permission to re-use the Soundshed/Soundshed Guitar brand is not granted.
• All services/APIs used by the app are excusively for use by our own software unless permission to use has been granted in writing to your project.
• All content resources (NAM, IR etc) are copyright their respective creators.
• For DMCA requests etc contact guitar at soundshed.com.