Build from source

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.22+
• C++20 compiler
• Git

Platform setup

Pick your platform below to install the required toolchain and libraries, then follow the shared Clone and build steps.

Windows

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 (Community edition is free). During installation, select the “Desktop development with C++” workload.
2. Install CMake (add to PATH during install) and Git.

macOS

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools:

   xcode-select --install
   

2. Install CMake via Homebrew:

   brew install cmake
   

Linux — Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake git libasound2-dev libfreetype-dev \
  libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev libxinerama-dev \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

Linux — Fedora

sudo dnf install -y gcc-c++ cmake git alsa-lib-devel freetype-devel \
  libX11-devel libXrandr-devel libXcursor-devel libXinerama-devel \
  webkit2gtk4.1-devel libcurl-devel

Linux — Arch

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel cmake git alsa-lib freetype2 \
  libx11 libxrandr libxcursor libxinerama webkit2gtk-4.1 curl

Clone and build

git clone --recursive https://github.com/tucktuckg00se/INTERSECT.git
cd INTERSECT
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

Build only the VST3

If you don’t need the Standalone or AU outputs, target just the VST3 to cut build time roughly in half:

cmake --build build --config Release --target Intersect_VST3 -j

Run cppcheck before building (recommended for contributors)

cppcheck --enable=warning,performance --suppress=missingInclude src/

Linux: building inside Ubuntu 22.04 Podman (matches release glibc)

Release Linux builds use a pinned Ubuntu 22.04 Podman image so the resulting .vst3 works on any glibc 2.35+ system. Native Arch (or other modern-glibc distro) builds will link against your local glibc and won’t run on the release baseline.

If you want your local build to be glibc-compatible with the release:

podman build -t intersect-ubuntu2204-build -f .containers/Containerfile.ubuntu2204-build .

podman run --rm \
  -v "$PWD:$PWD:Z" \
  -w "$PWD" \
  intersect-ubuntu2204-build \
  bash -lc 'cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build --config Release --target Intersect_VST3 -j2'

Mount the repo at the same absolute path inside Podman so CMake caches in build/ remain valid.

After the build, sanity-check that the binary doesn’t pull in newer-than-Ubuntu-22.04 glibc symbols:

objdump -T build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/VST3/INTERSECT.vst3/Contents/x86_64-linux/INTERSECT.so | rg 'GLIBC_2\.(4[0-9]|3[6-9])'

The command should print no matches.

ONNX Runtime

The build does not bundle any ONNX Runtime shared library. Only the ORT C++ headers are pulled in at configure time (via CMake FetchContent) so the plugin compiles against the published ORT API. The shared library itself is downloaded at runtime via SET → Stem Separation → ONNX Runtime — see Stem separation setup. This keeps each plugin zip small and lets users pick their GPU (CPU / CUDA / MIGraphX / DirectML / CoreML) without needing a separate build.

Build outputs

• VST3: build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/VST3/INTERSECT.vst3
• Standalone:
  • Windows: build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/Standalone/INTERSECT.exe
  • Linux: build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/Standalone/INTERSECT
  • macOS: build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/Standalone/INTERSECT.app
• AU (macOS): build/Intersect_artefacts/Release/AU/INTERSECT.component

Release workflow (repo maintainers)

Pushing a tag matching v* triggers the GitHub Actions release workflow, which builds and packages four small plugin zips:

• Windows x64
• Linux x64
• macOS arm64
• macOS x64 (no stem separation — ONNX Runtime 1.24 dropped x86_64 macOS)

ONNX Runtime bundles are published separately from the intersect-ort-providers repo and downloaded on demand from the plugin.

Dependencies

• JUCE (git submodule)
• Signalsmith Stretch (MIT)
• Signalsmith Linear (dependency of Signalsmith Stretch)
• Bungee (MPL-2.0)
• ONNX Runtime (MIT) — headers only at build time; shared library downloaded on demand

Troubleshooting build errors

• “Missing submodule” / “JUCE not found” / “signalsmith-stretch missing”: You cloned without --recursive, or new submodules were added since your last pull. Run git submodule update --init --recursive.
• Linux: missing X11/ALSA/WebKit headers: Install the dev packages from the platform setup section above. The package names differ by distro.
• Windows: “Cannot find compiler ‘cl.exe’”: Open a “Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022” before running CMake, or pass -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" so CMake locates the VS toolchain itself.
• macOS: xcrun: error: invalid active developer path: Run xcode-select --install to install the Command Line Tools.
• CMake configure step downloads ONNX Runtime headers slowly: This is a one-time FetchContent download per build directory. Subsequent configures reuse the cached copy.
• Build succeeds but the plugin won’t load in your DAW: rebuild after a cmake --build build --target clean if you switched compiler versions or changed CMake options between builds.