CakeWalk has published the source code of some CS plug-ins on GitHub. The following is the instruction how to recompile these plug-ins. Note that some C++ experience is required to make something useful with that. I was thought for long time that payed version of Visual Studio is required to do this, but thanks to Paul (pwalpwal) on the Official forum for pointing I was wrong.
It is possible with
free and legal tools.
- Download the installer for Visual Studio Community (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs.aspx) and run it.
- Select customized installation and there in Programming Languages select Visual C++ (all components under it, especially Microsoft Foundation Classes for C++) . You can deselect Windows and Web development to save space/time.
- Download Cakewalk Control Surface SDK (https://github.com/Cakewalk/Cakewalk-Control-Surface-SDK) (press Download ZIP button on the right side) and unpack it.
- Start Visual Studio (select c++ development), select Open project... and let say from MackieControl folder select MackieControl_vs12 (Visual Studio solution), confirm upgrading to this tool-chain and when it is finished...
- Press Alt+F7 to modify project properties. Select Release and platform you need (x64 for 64 bit Sonar). Save settings.
- Press F7 to compile
- To test that it works, copy MackieControl.dll from x64/Unicode Release to Shared Surfaces folder (default in C:\\Cakewalk)
- If after you start Sonar you see it in parenthesis, you most probably compiled wrong platform (32 vs 64 bit). In that example, 64bit DLL will not work with 32bit Sonar, even in case you are running 64bit Windows
Happy hacking!