Autimatically create new instrument for VSTis

[Diamond]

It would be nice to have the option to automatically create a new instrument and associate it with a VSTi when it's first loaded.  MadTracker has this feature and I think it makes adding VSTis to a project much simpler.

[Harbinger]

I'm trying to think of a time when i would load a VSTi but NOT need a new instrument, and i can't think of one. Everytime i wanna use a VSTi, i need an instrument to play it, even if it's second instance of the same VSTi.

The only problem might be if MPT can tell the difference between a VST Instrument and a VST Effect. That might cause a problem. But except for that i think this is an excellent idea. I second it!

[Diamond]

The only problem might be if MPT can tell the difference between a VST Instrument and a VST Effect. That might cause a problem. But except for that i think this is an excellent idea. I second it!

Actually, this shouldn't be a problem because I'm pretty sure that VST effects and instruments are somehow flagged as such internally since MPT and every other host I've ever seen automatically organizes them into different groups when you add new ones.

[Saga Musix]

The only problem might be if MPT can tell the difference between a VST Instrument and a VST Effect. That might cause a problem. But except for that i think this is an excellent idea. I second it!

Ahem, in case you didn't notice, MPT does distinguish between the both in the "add" dialog. It's pretty easy to differ between them.
Also, the request is profound and not too complicated to implement, so it should be there "soon".

[Harbinger]

Excellent! I don't know code so i don't like to assume anything, that's all. Good work!

[Saga Musix]

instead of just saying that "an instrument has to be assigned first", openmpt will prompt you in the next version whether you want to automatically create an instrument or not (after having tried to play a note in the VST editor, that is). is this good enough for now?

[Diamond]

Absolutely, although in the long term it would definitely be more convenient to just make automatic creation/association an option in the settings dialog.  This is certainly progress though.
Thanks.

[Saga Musix]

Ok, I've now modified the behaviour when adding instrument plugins to automatically create an associated instrument if possible.

[Diamond]

Excellent.  Thanks for this.

[Diamond]

I don't know if you care enough to put any more effort into this feature or if this suggestion makes sense, but I noticed that when you replace a VSTi in a slot, it creates yet another instrument in addition to the one initially created when you first add a VSTi to the slot.  Perhaps you could modify the behavior so when a VSTi is replaced, it checks to see if that slot is already associated with an instrument and if so prevent it from creating another one.

[Saga Musix]

Argh, I knew I forgot to fix a bug. This will actually just happen if the already existing instrument is the last instrument, because the three hardest things in programming are naming things and off-by-one errors.