acestep-vst

Standalone AU (macOS) and VST3 (macOS · Linux · Windows) plugin for local AI music generation in your DAW — no servers, no cloud, no APIs.

Powered by acestep.cpp.

Features

• Text-to-Music — type a prompt, pick duration and quality, click Generate.
• Cover / Repaint mode — use any WAV/MP3 as a reference; the model transforms it according to your prompt.
• BPM auto-detect — reads BPM from the DAW playhead automatically.
• AudioTransportSource preview — generated audio plays back immediately with proper JUCE transport; loop and stop from the Library tab.
• Generation library — browse, play, loop, delete, and drag previous generations directly into your DAW timeline.
• Import & drag-drop — import external WAV/MP3 files or drag them onto the plugin window.
• Drag to DAW — drag any library entry straight onto the DAW timeline (OS-level file drag).
• Settings — configure binary directory, models directory, and output directory; persisted in the DAW project.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

Platform	File	Formats
macOS (Apple Silicon)	AcestepVST-macOS-Installer.pkg or …AU-VST3.zip	AU + VST3
Linux x86-64	AcestepVST-Linux-VST3.tar.gz	VST3
Windows x86-64	AcestepVST-Windows-VST3.zip	VST3

Each bundle already contains the ace-lm and ace-synth inference engines — no separate binary installation required.

2. Download models (~7.7 GB)

cd vendor/acestep.cpp && ./models.sh

Or download manually from Hugging Face and place the .gguf files in a folder of your choice.

3. Configure paths in the plugin

Open the plugin in your DAW, go to the Settings tab and set:

• Binaries directory — leave empty if using the bundled release (auto-detected).
• Models directory — folder containing the four .gguf model files.
• Output directory — where generated audio is saved (default: platform app-data folder).

4. Generate

Switch to the Generate tab, type a prompt, and click Generate.

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Building from source

See ml-bridge/BUILD_AND_CI.md for full build instructions (macOS · Linux · Windows).

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/audiohacking/acestep-vst.git

# macOS
cmake -B build -G Xcode -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64
cmake --build build --config Release

# Linux (install JUCE deps first — see BUILD_AND_CI.md)
cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

# Windows
cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release

Repo layout

Path	Description
ml-bridge/plugin/	JUCE AU + VST3 plugin source
ml-bridge/BUILD_AND_CI.md	Build steps and CI/release workflow
vendor/acestep.cpp/	acestep.cpp submodule
ROADMAP.md	Feature roadmap

License

Plugin uses JUCE (GPL mode). See repository license.