Install MSYS2 : https://www.msys2.org

Once installed hit start and look for and run MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit. This will open a command shell. For visual studio code terminal integration see VSCode terminal integration

In msys install all dependencies using the following command:

pacman --sync --noconfirm --needed mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk3 mingw-w64-x86_64-meson mingw-w64-x86_64-libsamplerate mingw-w64-x86_64-fftw mingw-w64-x86_64-ffmpeg mingw-w64-x86_64-libyaml mingw-w64-x86_64-libsndfile mingw-w64-x86_64-rubberband mingw-w64-x86_64-dlfcn mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 mingw-w64-x86_64-chromaprint guile libguile-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-gtksourceview3 mingw-w64-x86_64-graphviz

Let it run until all packages are done installing. The above will install git as well which is needed for the next step.

Clone Zrythm

cd && mkdir git && cd git

git clone https://git.zrythm.org/git/zrythm && cd zrythm

Clone dependencies

Some dependencies are not yet pulled by meson.

Carla

Carla (source code at: https://github.com/falkTX/Carla ) needs two zip:

https://www.zrythm.org/downloads/carla/carla-64-b082b8b.zip that needs to be extracted in the mysys dir (start /mingw64/lib to locate the lib file for example)
https://www.zrythm.org/downloads/carla/carla-2.1-woe32.zip that needs to be extracted into /mingw64/lib/carla/

Breeze-icons

download zip from https://github.com/KDE/breeze-icons/tree/master/icons-dark
Extract sub folder icons-dark in /mingw64/share/icons
mv /mingw64/share/icons/icons-dark /mingw64/share/icons/breeze-dark

Build

Setup project files with meson

meson build -Dsdl=enabled -Drtaudio=auto -Drtmidi=auto -Dcarla=auto

Compile and finalize

ninja -C build install

Run

The working directory must be the install bin, in the msys root directory:

/mingw64/bin/zrythm.exe

You can locate this exe by executing:

start /mingw64/bin

Copy whichever dll are missing next to the executable. CarlaNativePlugin.dll can be found in the official ZRythm Trial version bin folder.

Debugging ( VSCode )

visual studio code: In VSCode open the root folder of zrythm. Hit F5 and you will be prompted with a selection of environment options. Select C++(GDB/LLDB), this will create a new launch.json file with a configuration for gdb.

Edit the following options:

"program":"${workspaceFolder}/build/src/zrythm.exe"

"externalConsole":true

"miDebuggerPath":"C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/gdb.exe"

hit F5 and the debugger should run.

VSCode terminal integration

VSCode allows you to change the integrated terminal. With this we can make calls to msys directly from VSCode.

Changing terminal from powershell to bash:

Open settings using File > Preferences > Settings or ctrl+, Select Workspace, this will make it so that these changes only apply to the current workspace. Click the "Open settings" button top right (file with arrow icon). This will open the settings as an editable json file.

Add the following lines

"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\bin\\bash.exe",
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": ["--login", "-i"],
"terminal.integrated.env.windows": {
   "MSYSTEM": "MINGW64",
    "CHERE_INVOKING":"1"
 }

The above snippet assumes that msys64 was installed at the default location C:/msys64. Make sure it matches with your installation path.

To open the terminal hit ctrl+`

ASIO

Zrythm uses the RtAudio library on Windows, which can be built with ASIO support, however, ASIO is proprietary and Zrythm uses code under the GPL so distribution of Zrythm with ASIO support is illegal. For more information on why this is not allowed by the GPL, consider:

https://gitlab.com/gnu-clisp/clisp/blob/dd313099db351c90431c1c90332192edce2bb5c9/doc/Why-CLISP-is-under-GPL