VST specific problems

[eidenk]

I make this thread as a placeholder for reporting specific problems with specific synths. I begin with Synth1.

Synth1 :

I have Synth1 on a track with a midi file. I arm the track for recording from the midi keyboard (M-Audio Oxygen 8). Then I press play and stop. If there is a note that is played where I stop, it will remain sustained until I press on the corresponding note of the midi keyboard. If I disarm the track or disable Synth1 in the FX chain, the note will also stop but it will be back if I rearm the track or reenable the synth. It will behave like that (or rather maybe be noticeable) only with presets that are pads and stuff. You won't notice anything with kicks for example. No other synth I have tried so far seem to exhibit this behaviour and both versions of Synth1 exhibit it.

Just toyed a little bit more around that and just discovered I can also stop the sustained note by changing preset but when I will then press on a key of the midi keyboard it will play both presets at once. The original one and the new one. Presets 1 and 56 are good to hear well what happens in this case.

http://www.geocities.jp/daichi1969/softsynth/synth1.zip
http://www.geocities.jp/daichi1969/s...ynth1107a2.zip

Edit : The same problem seems to exist with Hexter :

http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/source...nary_win32.zip

You need to copy and paste the Url in the adress bar for the download to work if it doesn't directly.

And Triangle II :

http://www.rgcaudio.com/downloads/freeware/T2111.exe

[eidenk]

Intro :

Prior to 0.92 Intro was the worst of all plugs with regards to the gap when looping (almost 2 seconds) and the terrible stuttering when using DirectSound. It does now loop seamlessly with both ASIO and DirectSound. Superb.

Nevertheless there is still a big problem here. When I press stop, it will stop but Reaper gets "frozen" for 2-3 seconds before it is actually stopped. And when I will press play again, Reaper will need also 2-3 seconds to restart playback.

The CPU meter in the FX chain will show almost 600% use on stop and start. It does show around 13% when looping.

Measured with my task manager, Reaper uses 100% on start/stop and 24% when looping (with just Intro running of course).

http://www.sitesled.com/members/bksl/INTRO.rar

[malcolmj]

Hi Eidenk,

The MIDI features of Reaper are very primitive, but they're being worked on at the moment and I expect that the held notes problem you are experiencing will be resolved before v1.0.

I think Justin developed Reaper from an audio-only perspective, so any MIDI features will be an additional bonus, as opposed to an integral part of the design.

Rest assured that it's being worked on, but don't expect v1.0 to be anything like FL Studio or whatever super-MIDI-editing host it is you're used to working with.

Cheers,

Malcolm.

[eidenk]

It's getting great Malcolm.

And BTW I don't have FL and I don't want it. I just don't get the feel of it. I mean I've not even tried it so much it does uninspire me going at the imageline website.

I almost bought Ableton Live some time ago and finally did not do it.

I also tried Traktion, Tunafish, Orion, EnergyXT, Podium, DeltaSP asnd others probably and none appealed to me to work with.

Reaper can already play midi, loop midi, record midi, receive midi. It's great already.

So with primitive editing on top of that, it will certainly fit my bill, especially with the timeline editing and automation capabilities it has.

[eidenk]

As an addendum to my first post, I'll say that Synth1 DXi does not exhibit the bad behaviour. Only the VST version does.

All the best.

[synth]

eidenk,why do you use VSTi like INTRO,anyway?
I found it very bloated,eating up over 160MB of RAM easily for only 1 instance,hogging up major CPU time for playing just one MIDI track with a simple gating effect.It takes more than 2 seconds just for playback to start,and that happens in FLStudio as well.Hmmm.
Other free VSTi like the OdoSynths ones,the Minimogue,FreeAlpha and others work perfectly and are optimized.This INTRO synth is full of annoying bugs.It even alters user presets over time.The matrix editor is great,it features cool sounds,but have you noticed everything sounds very muddy compared to ZynAddSubFX,Sytrus,Albino,...
So,I think it's INTRO's fault,not REAPER.


Tunafish? It's an app I find unusable.With latency that huge,it's useless for anything other than non-realtime pattern drum programming.
Using a MIDI keyboard to input data is out of the question here.
And the GUI is horrible:no window resizing,usable only at 1024x768,no quasi-fullscreen/fullscreen mode,very unstable (it crashed a few times when I tested it [v1.4.1])...

[synth]

eidenk,can you recommend some very good VSTi freebies,other than:
ZynAddSubFX,Claw,sfz,Hexter,TriangleI/II,FreeAlpha,Drumatic,Odosynths' stuff,Minimogue,Synth1.
(just VSTi synths,no VST FX)

[eidenk]

With regards to Intro, it does not behave like that in Live Lite 4 in which I have tried it. I press play, it instantly plays. I press stop, it stops without any apparent lag. And I cannot recall having read any post relating such problems with other hosts on KvR in the big recent threads about the Boris K synths. I have been much into those threads as I did create a bank for one of them, Meddle and did post a link to it several time.

This reminds me that Reaper does not currently support loading and saving of VST banks and presets. I feel it is compulsory for Reaper 1.0 to have that feature.

Does ZynAddSubFX work in Reaper for you ? It is not even recognized as a VST by Reaper here. But I haven't bothered to post about it because for this one I know it's certainly not Reaper's fault. AFAIK there are very few hosts in which it runs and the VSTi is removed from the author's page because of it's compatibility problems. FL I have heard is able to run it. Granted it is an excellent synth. Some say the best.

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

Tunafish? It's an app I find unusable.With latency that huge,it's useless for anything other than non-realtime pattern drum programming.
Using a MIDI keyboard to input data is out of the question here.
And the GUI is horrible:no window resizing,usable only at 1024x768,no quasi-fullscreen/fullscreen mode,very unstable (it crashed a few times when I tested it [v1.4.1])...

Bram told me on KvR that he is selling well. I frankly doubt it.

[Newbie Brad]

Not a VSTi, but a problem with loading a great VST.

I experience a refusal to load the VST version or VST bridge of Mobius Looper VST (http://www.zonemobius.com/), which is a shame to me personally as I'm crazy for that one. What about a fix please?

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

eidenk,can you recommend some very good VSTi freebies,other than:
ZynAddSubFX,Claw,sfz,Hexter,TriangleI/II,FreeAlpha,Drumatic,Odosynths' stuff,Minimogue,Synth1.
(just VSTi synths,no VST FX)

Crystal, Voyager, PolyIblit, Augur.

ASynth, Syncaine TM200-X, SuperwaveP8, Lallapalloza ?

The GTGs, The Kraklis, The Fortunes, The Angular Momentums maybe also or some of them.

Some also say the xoxos but I personally never got on well with those ones.

Or Oatmeal, the latest KvR hype.

If you like physical modelling stuff, I don't, there are the Guido Scognamiglios.

ATM I like the Istvan Kaldors, notably Maestro or Earth Synth.

I forgot the Ugos, notably String Theory.

Man there are so many free VSTis out there, it is almost insane. More than 800.

[fluffy]

Very few of the free VSTi's impress me at all. A couple of notable exceptions are Taurus, an emulation of the Moog Taurus, and Topaz Clav, a clavinet. The Topaz Clav is a Synthedit plug, which are almost all worthless. Topaz is one of the few that are pretty good.

Also, try Triangle I and Triangle II. Very warm, for a plugin.


http://antti.smartelectronix.com/
http://www.topazproductions.co.uk/subpages/vsts.html
http://www.rgcaudio.com/products.htm

[petramar]

For what it's worth, Audiomastermind offers a large index of VST plugins, arranged in many categories, user ratings included at:
http://www.audiomastermind.com/brows...5886988-1.html

[RokkD]

Here's a couple of my favourites, Ive mentioned them before, but they're so good, so here they are again..

Evol
http://www.xsynth.com/


Transcender 2
http://www.dreamvortexstudio.co.uk/



--

[synth]

Man there are so many free VSTis out there, it is almost insane. More than 800.

Yes,there's loads of free VSTi,but only a small part of the bunch are really good...it's kinda hard to pick the good fruit from the huge pile of rotten stuff these days.
For example,MiniMogue is so good,performs and sounds like a commercial-quality synth.
ZynAddSubFX is very stable and produces some quality sounds,but it can hog the CPU pretty badly.It's just not optimized well.But it's far better than INTRO:takes very little RAM,starts instantly,and handles arpeggio and gating much better.

Ah,the GTG synths...forgot to list those.

Tested the ZynAddSubFX VSTi - works in Reaper (I can play it with the MIDI keyboard only),just I can't get it to play a track with MIDI data and can't record MIDI input.

!?! Since when REAPER has a MIDI editing window (I see a preliminary "piano roll-wannabe" implementation) in the Source Properties of a selected MIDI file ?
Things are going to get really interesting if Justin begins with some *true* MIDI implementation.This is a good sign
The File Browser window needs more work.Not being dockable is the biggest thing missing currently.

[synth]

fluffy,can you post the Taurus and the Clav at stashbox? I can't access the homepage of the first one,and I can't download the second one

Also,eidenk,post some links.

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

Tested the ZynAddSubFX VSTi - works great in Reaper.I just need some banks for it. The default one that comes with the VSTi is just not enough.

You do you manage that ? It seems I have tried all versions of it I have just in case one would work. And no luck with any. It does not appear in the Add New FX window.

That's all there is for it in the config file :

zynaddsubfx_vst.dll=002E730A417AC401

Just like the all the non VST dlls within Reaper's scan range. just a hash and that's it.

I have even tried to add it's name and then again a !!!VSTi flag but no luck to make it appear in that Add New FX window.

As for banks there aren't any as far as I know besides what is bundled with it.

[malcolmj]

Originally Posted by synth

!?! Since when REAPER has a MIDI editing window (I see a preliminary "piano roll-wannabe" implementation) in the Source Properties of a selected MIDI file ?

Heh. Slowly but surely!

[eidenk]

Synth, could you post the version of ZynAddSubFX you use on stashbox ? I'd like to try it.

[synth]

Native Windows Port. BETA RELEASE 5, Complete distribution

DLL version 2.2.1.1


MD5 7A052B65993BC0E10F7548F23234005B
SHA1 2DF0C8683F05558341C038D7A4BD978F200367BB

It's known as ZynAddSubFX VSTi in the Reaper FX window.
Works perfectly in FL Studio,except that it doesn't store settings for Dirs and Samplerate.Presets are saved.

[Christophe]

Originally Posted by synth

!?! Since when REAPER has a MIDI editing window (I see a preliminary "piano roll-wannabe" implementation) in the Source Properties of a selected MIDI file ?
Things are going to get really interesting if Justin begins with some *true* MIDI implementation.This is a good sign

Ha, it's me working on the new simple MIDI editor. It's a huge work in progress, this wasn't supposed to be in a release yet

-Christophe

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

Native Windows Port. BETA RELEASE 5, Complete distribution

DLL version 2.2.1.1


MD5 7A052B65993BC0E10F7548F23234005B
SHA1 2DF0C8683F05558341C038D7A4BD978F200367BB

It's known as ZynAddSubFX VSTi in the Reaper FX window.
Works perfectly in FL Studio,except that it doesn't store settings for Dirs and Samplerate.Presets are saved.

The last mention there is of the VST on ZynAddSubFX homepage says that the VST is removed from 2.2.0 until it is more stable. On the file repository the most recent VST I can find is 2.0.0-2. And 2.2.1 is a Linux package only. On KvR, its author says that he did not compile 2.2.1 for Windows because of too few changes.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ckage_id=59720
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88484

There is well still this on the homepage that was probably the link to the 2.2.1 Windows VST build but it's dead since a long time AFAIK :

>>For VST version (or DX/ASIO,etc) please download the Windows Native Port beta from here.
http://forum.dizainer.net/viewforum.php?f=48<<

I can't find any download anywhere and I am quite good at googling usually.

So please Synth, post it as you you were lucky to get it.

Edit : I have downloaded the 2.1.1 binaries for Windows from Sourceforge that I did not have and there is a VST inside though it's not labeled as such and this one makes it (it's the most recent I have now) to Add New FX window under the name of "ZynAddSubFX (Nasca O. Paul)" so it's yet not the same build as yours. But it's not really usable. Pretty much the same symptoms as you say. Plays midi but has notes that remain sustained. And GUI can be displayed only once on launch, after that it does not reappear if you toggle to another FX. I will try to run it in VSTHost (It runs in well in SaviHost apparently so I may have a luck with VSTHost), if I can do that I'll probably be able to use it in Reaper thanks to Legree.dll. I'll try that now.

Edit 2 : Yup it does work. So you may want to do this for intense aural pleasure with ZynAddSubFX in Reaper :

Get VST Host : http://www.hermannseib.com/programs/vsthost.zip

Get the VST Host Slavery Suite : http://www.hermannseib.com/programs/Legree.zip

Dump the VST Host Slavery Suite dlls in your Reaper's VST directory.

Run Reaper, create a track, Add FX, choose Legree VSTi.

Now run VSTHost in slave mode (with a /slave argument)

Drag and Drop zynaddsubfx_vst.dll onto VSTHost.

You're done. You can play and record midi with ZynAddSubFX neatly in Reaper. And you can also render to disk and everything I have briefly tried.

I thinks it can compete with the Virus. I understand why some say it is THE best.

Very much worth the little setup effort.

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by RokkD

Here's a couple of my favourites, Ive mentioned them before, but they're so good, so here they are again..

Evol
http://www.xsynth.com/

Transcender 2
http://www.dreamvortexstudio.co.uk/
--

Thanks for pointing out EVOL. It just made it in my permanent residents folder.

[synth]

eidenk,just check if your DLL is the same by comparing the MD5 or SHA-1 hash I posted.It could be the same.
There are 2 versions of it: The DLL-only zipped (beta4) and the complete install package (beta 5)
If you have one of these,it's gonna work in REAPER,just with those bugs.And it displays in the FX window as: ZynAddSubFX (Nasca O. Paul),so you probably got the right one.Just tell me where did you got it from?
The German forum is dead for a few months.I got it the same day it was released It's that good.
I just need a couple more banks of GOOD presets,nothing more.

I'm very picky when it comes to free VSTi,so that's why I don't want to experiment with 100s of crappy SynthEdit VSTi every day.I just try out the best of the pack (recommended by many users),and even then I test them extensively and keep it in my freebie folder if satisfactory.
Only a handful of free VSTi have impressed me so far: Most notably - ZynAddSubFX,Triangle II,sfz,MiniMogueVA
LinPlug FreeAlpha just sounds too "timid" for me,although many give it very high ranks for a freebie.
ReFX Claw is good too,but I find it too harsh for my taste

[fluffy]

Originally Posted by synth

fluffy,can you post the Taurus and the Clav at stashbox? I can't access the homepage of the first one,and I can't download the second one

Also,eidenk,post some links.

Here's a link for Taurus, this one should work:

http://www.smartelectronix.com/refer...tti/Taurus.dll


Here's Topaz Clav, You have to fill out a form to get it.

http://www.shareit.com/demoreg.html?...k%2F&oplayout=

[synth]

fluffy,I can't download either of these.My ISP has blocked these websites,so whenever I go there my browser freezes for a minute or two and the connection to those servers is blocked.Even using a proxy doesn't help here.It displays the page cannot be found when using whatever proxy.
It's really shitty when the ISP puts certain IP addresses (randomly chosen every time) and blocks access to them.For example,I couldn't acess the MSFN forums for 5 days up until today,when they "released" the temporary block

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

eidenk,just check if your DLL is the same by comparing the MD5 or SHA-1 hash I posted.It could be the same.
There are 2 versions of it: The DLL-only zipped (beta4) and the complete install package (beta 5)
If you have one of these,it's gonna work in REAPER,just with those bugs.And it displays in the FX window as: ZynAddSubFX (Nasca O. Paul),so you probably got the right one.Just tell me where did you got it from?
The German forum is dead for a few months.I got it the same day it was released It's that good.
I just need a couple more banks of GOOD presets,nothing more.

No it's not the same.

As said above I have got now 2.1.1 that I did download from the Sourceforge repository and that for some stupid reason (it was not labeled VST on the package)I never did download previously unlike all the other builds there.

That's the last official one that has got a VST bundled with it.

It displays as "ZynAddSubFX (Nasca O. Paul)" in Reaper's Add New FX window.

You told me in a previous post that your build 2.2.1.1 Beta 5 displays as "ZynAddSubFX VSTi" in Reaper's Add New FX window which is enough a difference for the MD5 and SHA1 not to be same. Indeed they aren't. One single bit change will generate entirely different checksums as you cannot ignore. And indeed the MD5 and SHA1 are different from what you did post.

But now you tell me in your last post that your build 2.2.1.1 also displays as "ZynAddSubFX (Nasca O. Paul)" in Reaper's Add New FX window whereas you previously said it displayed as "ZynAddSubFX VSTi".

Why has this now changed ?

Please post somewhere those more recent builds you have so that I can download them and try them.

I can't understand why you haven't done so yet when you asked, in the first place, for the same to be done for you.

ZynAddSubFX is open source software and as such it can be freely distributed by anyone as far as I know unlike the copies of proprietary closed-source software you are asking for.

[synth]

I couldn't find time to post it,sorry.
It was from that German site that had the unofficial Windows port.

Here:
http://www.stashbox.org/uploads/1142...ddSubFX_VST.7z

Changelog:
http://www.stashbox.org/uploads/1142...indowsPort.txt


It's the Beta 4 DLL-only.Beta5 is almost the same.Nearly nothing was changed in b5.This one (beta4) was the only last standalone (DLL-only) Win VSTi version offered.

Beta5 (last release,no changelog [changes unknown],DLL only):
http://www.stashbox.org/uploads/1142...X_VST_beta5.7z

(use WinRAR or 7-zip to extract it)
P.S. OpenSource means you also have to distribute the source with the executable(binary/DLL).There's no source here in these zips

[fluffy]

Ok, Synth. Here You go. There's are on my server. They'll work, I assume.

www.newearthsound.com/public/Topaz_Clav1.zip

www.newearthsound.com/public/Taurus.zip

Stashbox will only allow a 1meg file, and Topaz Clav is a little bigger than that.

[eidenk]

Thanks synth, I'll be trying this.

[synth]

Thanks for the hosting,fluffy.

SynthEdit is not that bad,it depends the programmer,whether (s)he uses just the built-in modules or user-created ones or(s)he actually knows some coding,uses the SDK and creates custom modules and effects.

Hexter - looks UGLY,but it's not bad at all

[synth]

Ah,crap. Now I want to download GalactiX and Asynth and I can't access the Smartelectronix page

Can you mirror the files somewhere?

Also is there a VSTi,program or whatever with which you can draw manually,construct from a screenshot and play/trigger a waveform (WAV/RAW) like an instrument with different parameters?
With Sound Forge you can do the manual drawing,but not the rest.


P.S. Don't remove the readme files,manuals or whatever is in any package as you have done before.I want these too (changelogs and readmes especially)




Offtopic: Foobar 0.9...it's FINALly out!

[nvm about the winamp plugin - I found it]

[eidenk]

Originally Posted by synth

Ah,crap. Now I want to download GalactiX and Asynth and I can't access the Smartelectronix page

Can you mirror the files somewhere?

Synth, do you manage to play Clav ? Did you even try the synths fluffy broke all laws to provide to you for your convenience ?

I would guess not.

What else have you got from the unofficial ZynAddSubFX 2.2.1 Windows release ?

I guess a few peep on KvR would be interested to get all that.

And what sort of weird problems have you got with not being able to download from so many sites ?

I'd change my ISP if they were to block access to certain domains like that.

Anyway here is an archive with all the ZynAddSubFX presets I have :

http://www.mytempdir.com/529273

They are all from Sourceforge except a few I tweaked from the faaaat preset. I hope you can access this server.

[eidenk]

I finally found a working link for the ZynAddSubFX 2.2.1 unofficial Windows build :
http://sharing.dizainer.net/public/Z...ubFX_Setup.exe

It includes everything, standalones, VST, presets, doc and source code.

[synth]

eidenk,
Not many sites,just about 5 or so domains that have been blocked,but it may also be something fishy going with the DNS server or my firewall that does this mess.

Your link works OK,thanks for the file.
I'll see if I got the same stuff here.

There's not much left from the whole package,aside from the standard banks,some incomplete sources of external programs,presets and a few webpage links.
Here's the package:
http://www.stashbox.org/uploads/1142...SubFX_extra.7z

I have done some testing,but I was busy testing other VST plugins (reverbs) such as Ambience and FreeverbToo.
They're both very good stuff for a non-convolution type freeware reverb.I prefer Ambience,though.It also comes with very good presets.

I like to first get the plugins,and then spend a good time testing them one by one all day long until I decide if they're worthy or not.

And while I was away for about half a day,2 new versions of REAPER were released with *shocking* features - TIMESTRETCHING and PITCH SHIFT ! Woo-hoo! The two most requested features are finally here in an ass-kickin' pacakge! Now I can really say it reaps

[Art Evans]

Have you tried Glaceverb also? http://www.dasample.com/index.php?show=glaceverb is the site. Tends to be spoken well of.

[synth]

Yes,that's the one I downloaded before. Seems you're very good at searching for stuff as you found the link pretty fast.
It's strange how the site and the forums are dead,but the file is still on their FTP.

You can download this archive I linked and check the fles against that file of yours and see if you got the same thing.

[eidenk]

Yeah, did it. Thanks synth.

[synth]

Originally Posted by Art Evans

Have you tried Glaceverb also? http://www.dasample.com/index.php?show=glaceverb is the site. Tends to be spoken well of.

Why does he offer such a high-quality (!) reverb for free? There must be some catch...

At least Ambience is "Donationware"

[eidenk]

To the attention of Justin :

The held note problem described in the first post of this topic does not seem to exhibit at all with build 0.87. I can't say from which build it appears as I haven't kept them all.

Please could you look into this with priority as the problem is quite annoying and manifests also by simply playing midi files.

Edit : The problem exists already in 0.89. Just tried that version.

Edit 2 : Unfortunately the 0.88 builds aren't available anymore so I can't look further.