Empty Void VST3/AU Plugin

Empty Void is a no-op audio plugin that acts as a MIDI sink. It accepts MIDI input but produces absolutely no audio output. It is designed for music production workflows where you want to route MIDI to a placeholder that prevents the notes from being played by other plugins or interfaces.

Why?

I have some MIDI tracks in Cakewalk, they are only there to generate tabs for reference during recording. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, Cakewalk still sends something to MIDI OUT during initialization even if tracks are muted. Those MIDI commands ended up in my Fractal device, switching presets and causing all sorts of havok. So I needed a bogus synth where all these commands are going to be sent instead.

So it consumes all MIDI going to it and does absolutely nothing, which is exactly what I need.

Building

The code is open-source, so you can compile and install it on your own.

Prerequisites

1. JUCE Framework: Initialize the submodule

   git submodule update --init --recursive

2. CMake: Version 3.22 or higher. Download from https://cmake.org/download/

3. Platform-specific requirements:

   • Windows: Visual Studio 2022 or later
   • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools

4. (Windows only) WiX: Version 7.0 or higher. Download from https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix/releases/

5. (Windows only) Inno Setup: Version 6.0 or higher. Download from https://jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

6. (Windows only) UI Wix Extension (optional, for MSI installer)

   wix extension add WixToolset.UI.wixext

Build Instructions

Windows

All-in-one script (recommended)

This script builds the plugin and creates installers:

.\build_installer_windows.cmd

The build process creates two Windows installers:

• EmptyVoid-Installer-x.x.x.exe - Includes custom scope selection dialog for per-user/per-machine installation
• EmptyVoid-Installer-x.x.x.msi - Simple per-user installation

Manual local build

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build . --config Release

The built plugin will be in build/EmptyVoid_artefacts/Release/VST3/EmptyVoid.vst3

macOS

All-in-one script (recommended)

This script builds the plugin and creates an installer:

./build_installer_macos.sh

Manual local build

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G Xcode
cmake --build . --config Release

The build process automatically installs both VST3 and AU formats to system plugin directories.

If you want a clean build, run the command above with --fresh parameter.

Troubleshooting Build Issues

Windows:

• Ensure Visual Studio 2022 is installed with C++ development tools
• Make sure CMake and Inno Setup are in your PATH
• If WiX installation fails, check that the WiX Toolset is properly installed

macOS:

• Ensure Xcode Command Line Tools are installed: xcode-select --install
• If AU build fails, you may need to sign the plugin for local development
• For AU validation, you may need to run: auvaltool -v au com.sttek.emptyvoid

Installation

Windows

If you want a system-wide install, copy the built EmptyVoid.vst3 directory from build/EmptyVoid_artefacts/Release/VST3/ to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

The build process installs it in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3. Make sure this path is included in your DAW.

macOS

The build process automatically installs both formats to:

• AU: ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/EmptyVoid.component
• VST3: ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/EmptyVoid.vst3

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

You are free to:

• Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following terms:

• Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
• NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes.