VSTi Question

[mos6502]

Alright, I've searched for about 20 minutes trying to find a thread addressing the complete usage of ModPlug with VSTis... but to no avail, even after reading the wiki, I'm at a loss with this question:

How do you get a VST instrument to play notes via the computer keyboard, like any other sample while you're tracking?

I'm a tracker of 13 years experience and despite my love of the tracking world, I've been pretty much forced out of it in favor of "pro" software like Cakewalk Sonar (so I can record/effect/master audio etc.)  I still, however, can compose a tune on a tracker (MPT specifically) faster than I ever could using some god-awful piano roll editor like you'll find in most workstations... but I got tired of exporting WAVs of my .ITs and got cozy with the power of software synths in Sonar.  

I would love to be able to compose, in full tracker glory, softsynth based music.  I could export the MIDI into Sonar for the final mix... I just want a tracker-style interface when I'm writing music, basically.  I tried reViSiT and it didn't even work well enough to play the demo song.

Enough with my intro to the board then :-) If anyone knows the answer to the above question, please tell me!

Much appreciated,
mos6502

[Reenen]

Hi, I'm Reenen, and a n00b at tracking (about 1 month).  And have no idea how or even what a VST instrument is.

I'd like to say though, welcome to the forums, and through all the spam, I hope you find what you are looking for.

[Reenen]

Did you read this thread?

[speed-goddamn-focus]

[list=1]

• install a VSTi (depending on the plugin, this is done using an installer provided with it or just unzipping it in a folder of your choice)
  
• start MPT
  
• on the General tab, click Select to open the Mix Plugin window
  
• click Add Plugin...
  
• go to the folder where the plugin is installed, select the DLL, click Open
  
• select the plugin you loaded and click OK in the Mix Plugin window
  
• create a new instrument by clicking the New Instrument button on the Instrument tab
  
• in the combobox beneath the text saying Plugin/Midi, select the plugin
  
• play your heart away
  [/list:o]
  
  tips:
  the Midi/VSTi Channel combobox is useful for multi timbral plugins that can play more than one instrument at a time (several mpt instruments can use the same VSTi this way)
  Midi Program and Midi Bank are often used to select presets in a VSTi plugin
  for information on how to control parameters of plugins in MPT, I made a little flash tutorial
  make sure you use the latest development build of OpenMPT, it's usually more bug free than the stable releases ;-)

[speed-goddamn-focus]

I would love to be able to compose, in full tracker glory, softsynth based music.  I could export the MIDI into Sonar for the final mix... I just want a tracker-style interface when I'm writing music, basically.  I tried reViSiT and it didn't even work well enough to play the demo song.

Midi export in MPT more or less sucks, I think the best way to integrate a tracking environment with Sonar would be with MadTracker and ReWire. I have no personal experience of neither Sonar nor Madtracker or ReWire tho, so it's a very loose recommendation.

[LPChip]

I think that after you've got the hang of modplug, exporting the channels to wav and use that in sonar or do it entirelly in mpt (as I'm doing) would be sufficient.

Note that you can chain several plugins to eachother by setting the output to a next slot (so if you have slot 4, you can output it to 5 and later)

[Asharin]

I've used modplug for years, when I found out it could use VST stuff I was ecstattic, and now I pretty  much use VSTi's exclusively,  the only samples in my stuff these days is my singing :p