In the first class, Charles walks you through the setup, which is more involved than simply downloading Visual Studio Community and JUCE, so pay attention! He goes over the setup in detail for both Windows and Mac users in the class.
He also discusses how you may use a Slack Workspace to contact him for help during the course if you get stuck on anything. This course is not intended for complete beginners, and a prior understanding of C++, music, software development, and computers, in general, is required.
There are a lot of concepts at play, and 8 hours isn’t long enough to go through everything. Expect to spend a significant amount of time repairing faults and error codes.
Consider taking the PFM::C++ Language Fundamentals course to receive a fast overview of C++ from the perspective of a music software developer. This could be a good starting point before you start building full plugins from scratch.
DSP and GUI are the two sections of the course. The first section demonstrates how to code your plugin’s Digital Signal Processing and essential features. The second section explains how to include the functions of your plugin into a graphical user interface.