Modern CMake for Audio Software

Idiomatic CMake 3.24+ patterns for REVITHION STUDIO — C++20, JUCE, RTNeural, CUDA, and Faust.

Target-Based Commands

Attach every flag, path, and dependency to a named target. Never use global commands.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
project(RevithionStudio VERSION 1.0.0 LANGUAGES CXX)
add_library(revithion_dsp_core STATIC src/dsp/Engine.cpp src/dsp/Graph.cpp)
target_compile_features(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC cxx_std_20)
target_include_directories(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC
    $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include> $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include>)
target_link_libraries(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC Eigen3::Eigen PRIVATE xsimd)

FetchContent for Dependencies

Pin every dependency to a tag or commit — never a branch.

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(JUCE GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/juce-framework/JUCE.git GIT_TAG 7.0.12)
FetchContent_Declare(RTNeural GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/RTNeural.git GIT_TAG v6.0.0)
FetchContent_Declare(xsimd GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/xtensor-stack/xsimd.git GIT_TAG 13.0.0)
FetchContent_Declare(Eigen GIT_REPOSITORY https://gitlab.com/libeigen/eigen.git GIT_TAG 3.4.0 GIT_SHALLOW TRUE)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(JUCE RTNeural xsimd Eigen)

JUCE CMake API

juce_add_plugin() replaces Projucer. Declare every format and link JUCE modules as targets.

juce_add_plugin(RevithionAmpSim COMPANY_NAME "REVITHION"
    FORMATS VST3 AU AAX Standalone PRODUCT_NAME "REVITHION Amp Sim"
    IS_SYNTH FALSE NEEDS_MIDI_INPUT FALSE COPY_PLUGIN_AFTER_BUILD TRUE)
juce_generate_juce_header(RevithionAmpSim)
target_sources(RevithionAmpSim PRIVATE src/PluginProcessor.cpp src/PluginEditor.cpp)
target_link_libraries(RevithionAmpSim
    PRIVATE juce::juce_audio_utils juce::juce_dsp revithion_dsp_core
    PUBLIC juce::juce_recommended_config_flags)

GLOB_RECURSE and Generator Expressions

file(GLOB_RECURSE AMP_SOURCES CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/*.cpp")
target_sources(RevithionAmpSim PRIVATE ${AMP_SOURCES})
target_compile_options(revithion_dsp_core PRIVATE
    $<$<CXX_COMPILER_ID:MSVC>:/W4 /fp:fast /arch:AVX2>
    $<$<CXX_COMPILER_ID:GNU,Clang>:-Wall -Wextra -ffast-math -mavx2>)

Cross-Platform Builds

if(APPLE)
    target_link_libraries(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC "-framework Accelerate" "-framework CoreAudio")
elseif(WIN32)
    target_compile_definitions(revithion_dsp_core PRIVATE NOMINMAX WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN)
elseif(UNIX)
    find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
    pkg_check_modules(ALSA REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET alsa)
    pkg_check_modules(JACK IMPORTED_TARGET jack)
    target_link_libraries(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC PkgConfig::ALSA $<$<BOOL:${JACK_FOUND}>:PkgConfig::JACK>)
endif()

CUDA Integration

option(REVITHION_ENABLE_CUDA "GPU-accelerated DSP kernels" ON)
if(REVITHION_ENABLE_CUDA)
    include(CheckLanguage)
    check_language(CUDA)
    if(CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER)
        enable_language(CUDA)
        add_library(revithion_gpu_dsp STATIC src/gpu/ConvolutionKernel.cu src/gpu/FFTKernel.cu)
        target_link_libraries(revithion_gpu_dsp PRIVATE CUDA::cufft CUDA::cudart)
        target_link_libraries(revithion_dsp_core PUBLIC revithion_gpu_dsp)
    endif()
endif()

RTNeural and Faust

Set RTNeural's SIMD backend before MakeAvailable. Faust .dsp compiles to C++ at build time.

set(RTNEURAL_XSIMD ON CACHE BOOL "xsimd backend")
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(RTNeural)
target_link_libraries(RevithionAmpSim PRIVATE RTNeural)

find_program(FAUST_EXECUTABLE faust)
function(revithion_add_faust_dsp TARGET DSP_FILE)
    get_filename_component(N ${DSP_FILE} NAME_WE)
    set(GEN "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/faust_gen/${N}.cpp")
    add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${GEN}
        COMMAND ${FAUST_EXECUTABLE} -lang cpp -o ${GEN} ${DSP_FILE} DEPENDS ${DSP_FILE})
    target_sources(${TARGET} PRIVATE ${GEN})
endfunction()
revithion_add_faust_dsp(RevithionAmpSim "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/dsp/CabSim.dsp")

Install and Export Targets

install(TARGETS revithion_dsp_core EXPORT RevithionTargets
    LIBRARY DESTINATION lib ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib INCLUDES DESTINATION include)
install(EXPORT RevithionTargets FILE RevithionTargets.cmake
    NAMESPACE Revithion:: DESTINATION lib/cmake/Revithion)
include(CMakePackageConfigHelpers)
write_basic_package_version_file(
    "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/RevithionConfigVersion.cmake" COMPATIBILITY SameMajorVersion)

Anti-Patterns

Pattern	Problem
include_directories() / link_libraries()	Global scope leaks flags to every target
file(GLOB_RECURSE) without CONFIGURE_DEPENDS	New files invisible until manual re-configure
Hardcoded paths (/usr/local/lib/libjuce.a)	Breaks on other machines and CI
Mixing add_subdirectory + find_package for same dep	Duplicate targets cause link or ODR errors

Checklist

• All targets use target_* commands — zero global includes or links
• FetchContent pinned to specific tags or commit SHAs
• CONFIGURE_DEPENDS on every file(GLOB_RECURSE) call
• JUCE formats (VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone) tested on macOS, Windows, Linux
• CUDA optional — build succeeds with REVITHION_ENABLE_CUDA=OFF
• RTNeural backend set before FetchContent_MakeAvailable
• Faust custom commands re-trigger on .dsp changes
• install(EXPORT) produces a working find_package(Revithion) config