Setting up OpenMPT with Chipsynth SFC

[Technetium]

I just got OpenMPT and Chipsynth SFC because I've seen examples that show it's what I want for creating music for a game I'm working on. I have worked with ModPlug Tracker like 20+ years ago but not since, so basically I remember very little, and I know nothing about working with VSTs. Basically it's best just to pretend I've never used any type of music software ever. So I just was hoping someone could help me set this up. Chipsynth SFC is supposed to be able to function as a "VST" which I think means it is like an instrument library? From their own docs, they say "Make sure the chipsynth SFC plugin is within the VST plugin folder used by your host, so that it can be scanned and recognized on startup." However, when I look at the folder for OpenMPT, there is no folder called anything like that. The only folders I have in OpenMPT are: ExampleSongs, ExtraKeymaps, Licenses, and ReleaseNotesImages. So I am not sure where to put this plugin file.

If anyone knows how to get these to work together, that would be awesome. I searched the forum for any previous reference to chipsynth and I came up empty. And my google searches for setting these up together came up empty as well.

[Saga Musix]

OpenMPT doesn't follow the concept of a plugin folder as strictly as more common DAWs - plugins can reside anywhere you like. OpenMPT has a Default Directory for plugins but it will not scan that folder automatically.
Assuming you already have installed Chipsynth, you need to locate its plugin DLL files (typically there's a 32-bit DLL and a 64-bit DLL) and add them through OpenMPT's Plugin Manager using the "New Plugin..." button. Note that you can simply add both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and OpenMPT will automatically pick the one with the matching "bitness" as long as the plugin DLLs have the same name (e.g. if you see "Chipsynth SFC" and "Chipsynth SFC (32-bit)" in the list, it doesn't matter which of the two you load). Once you have added the plugin by clicking the "Put in FX**" button, the plugin will be inserted into the plugin slot mentioned on that button (e.g. FX01).

[Exhale]

hmmm I cant seem to get it to work either - all 3 dlls in the one directory I found dont register as vsts... I only installed the vst2s though
I grabbed a demo to check it out for you but oh well

and saga yeah I scanned the whole directory... it picked up those three and told me they arent valid

[Saga Musix]

That's the wrong path. You need to pay close attention to the paths the installer is asking you to install into: The first one is by default, "C:\Program Files\Plogue\chipsynth SFC": There is a "VST" subfolder in that path that contains the plugin DLL. The second path it asks for, "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2" by default, is a common path shared between plugin hosts: You will also find the plugin DLL there in the subfolder "Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc". You can also load the DLL from there, it won't make a difference.

[Technetium]

OpenMPT doesn't follow the concept of a plugin folder as strictly as more common DAWs - plugins can reside anywhere you like. OpenMPT has a Default Directory for plugins but it will not scan that folder automatically.
Assuming you already have installed Chipsynth, you need to locate its plugin DLL files (typically there's a 32-bit DLL and a 64-bit DLL) and add them through OpenMPT's Plugin Manager using the "New Plugin..." button. Note that you can simply add both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and OpenMPT will automatically pick the one with the matching "bitness" as long as the plugin DLLs have the same name (e.g. if you see "Chipsynth SFC" and "Chipsynth SFC (32-bit)" in the list, it doesn't matter which of the two you load). Once you have added the plugin by clicking the "Put in FX**" button, the plugin will be inserted into the plugin slot mentioned on that button (e.g. FX01).

Thank you. I think I have this part of it done correctly. My view of OpenMPT shows that the "Plugins" folder has a little keyboard icon with "FX1: chipsynth SFC" next to it.

But I am not sure, when it comes to putting notes on the Pattern, how do I get access to the sounds in chipsynth SFC? I did notice that I can just import the sound samples by navigating to the folder of chipsynth SFC where the samples are kept, but I'm wondering what importing it as a plugin accomplished if I do it that way.

[Saga Musix]

but I'm wondering what importing it as a plugin accomplished if I do it that way

Well, from my understanding the value of Chipsynth SFC doesn't come from the samples that ship with it; otherwise you could have just downloaded any random collection of SNES samples. It comes from the fact that Chipsynth closely models the sound of the SNES sound chip, which you won't get when playing those samples in OpenMPT's sampler.
There's a couple of things to know when using plugins; Here's the most important manual chapters:
- https://wiki.openmpt.org/Manual:_Instruments#Plugin_.2F_MIDI - how to configure the module instruments that drive the plugin
- https://wiki.openmpt.org/Manual:_Parameter_Control_Events - automating plugin parameters
- https://wiki.openmpt.org/Manual:_Macro_Configuration - set up custom MIDI commands to send to plugins

Chipsynth can apparently be configured as a monotimbral or multitimbral plugin in its GUI; monotimbral means that the plugin will only be able to play one type of sound at a time (either fixed to a single MIDI channel, or all 16 MIDI channels control the same sound); a multitimbral plugin can instead have a different sound assigned to each of its 16 MIDI channels. Monotimbral thus implies that you need to load the plugin into more than just one plugin slot if you want to play multiple sounds with it, while in multitimbral mode a single plugin instance can control up to 16 instruments.