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Install the AFX SDK#

The Audio Effects SDK for Windows is distributed in the following parts:

  • A core package that contains the API implementation along with dependencies and scripts for downloading AI features and sample applications.

  • AI features, which you can download from NGC by using the download script.

  • A sample application, hosted on GitHub, that demonstrates how to use the SDK APIs.

To develop applications with the Audio Effects SDK, you must download the core SDK package, the AI features, and the sample application. Provide the path to the package by setting the environment variable AFX_SDK_ROOT before compilation and linking. Your app will use the SDK functions that are exposed by the SDK header and feature headers and dynamically link against the provided libraries.

Install the Core Windows SDK#

To install the SDK, extract the contents of the Audio Effects SDK .zip file to the required location on your computer.

Before using the SDK, you must download and install AI features.

For an offline target, download the required features on a connected machine. Place the features under the extracted package’s features directory, and transfer the complete package as one archive. Extract the archive without changing its directory structure so that the core headers, libraries, runtime files, public samples, and downloaded feature roots remain together.

Obtain Windows SDK Features#

You can download SDK AI features from the NGC website or by using the provided download script. Remember to unzip the AI features before use.

Note

If the target machine cannot access NGC because of firewall or airgap rules, you can download features to another machine and transfer them to the target machine. The machine used for downloading features does not require GPUs.

To download features using the NGC website:

  1. Refer to the NGC SDK collection for the required feature (under Entities > Models).

  2. Download the files corresponding to the target machine’s GPU architecture, SDK version, and sample rate along with library and header files. For example, if the SDK version is 3.0.0, the 16-kHz effect is required. If the target GPU architecture is Ampere, download the features for version 3.0.0-16k-ampere.

To download AI features using the download script:

  1. Obtain an NGC API key from the NGC website. For details, refer to the NGC User Guide. The download script prefers the NGC_CLI_API_KEY environment variable and also accepts the legacy NGC_API_KEY name.

  2. Obtain the NGC organization and team from the SDK collection URL. In a URL containing /orgs/<organization>/teams/<team>/, use those exact values for -NGC_Org and -NGC_Team. The following public-release examples use these values:

    • NGC organization is nvidia.

    • NGC team is maxine.

  3. Unzip the SDK and navigate to the features folder.

  4. Download the features using the following commands:

    # Set the NGC API key. Do not place the literal key in scripts or source control.

    $env:NGC_CLI_API_KEY = "<your NGC key>"

# Use the organization and team from the SDK collection URL.
# Replace these public-release example values for a prerelease collection.

$ngcOrg = "nvidia"
$ngcTeam = "maxine"

# Download features

# Syntax: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 [-GPU_Architecture <turing|ampere|ada|blackwell>] [-NGC_Org <NGC org>] [-NGC_Team <NGC team>] [-Effects effect1,effect2,effect3] [-Version <X.Y.Z>] [-Output_Directory <path>]
# -Effects specifies the list of effects to download; if omitted, downloads all non-Early-Access effects.

# For example, the following command downloads the features for Ampere GPU Architecture to features (under the ampere folder) from NGC org "nvidia" and team "maxine" (excluding Early Access features):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -GPU_Architecture ampere -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam -Version 3.0.0 -Output_Directory .

# If -GPU_Architecture is omitted, the x64 script detects the current GPU. To download Early Access features, explicitly name them:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam -Effects "speaker_focus-16k,speaker_focus-48k"

# To download only the Superresolution and Dereverb features from organization 'nvidia' and team 'maxine' for Turing architecture, use the following command:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -GPU_Architecture turing -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam -Effects superres-16k_to_48k,superres-8k_to_16k,dereverb-16k,dereverb-48k

# Discover supported features without downloading payloads.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -list_features -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam

# List published versions for selected effects without downloading payloads.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -list_versions -Effects denoiser-16k,denoiser-48k -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam

# Show the complete CLI contract.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -Help

-Output_Directory selects the installation root. -Version pins all requested effects; when omitted, the script resolves and records the latest published version for each effect. -list_features and -list_versions are discovery-only modes. The downloader stages the complete request under a contained transaction directory, validates NGC MD5 sidecars, records SHA-256 file hashes and resolved artifact identifiers in features-download-manifest.json, and atomically promotes the feature folders. Existing feature folders remain byte-for-byte unchanged if any requested artifact fails. Transient network failures use bounded exponential backoff; HTTP 401, 402, and 403 fail immediately. API keys are read only from NGC_CLI_API_KEY or the legacy NGC_API_KEY and are never written to the manifest or output.

On NVIDIA N1X (ARM64), Blackwell is the only supported architecture. The ARM64 package defaults to Blackwell when -GPU_Architecture is omitted and installs models under each feature’s models\blackwell directory. The following native PowerShell parameter syntax is valid on both x64 and ARM64:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./download_features.ps1 -GPU_Architecture blackwell -NGC_Org $ngcOrg -NGC_Team $ngcTeam