VST hosts

sheppo wrote on 9/27/2022, 5:22 PM

Hi,

I stumbled across a really interesting update to Waves Studio Rack that released earlier this month. Studio Rack is a plugin host, that can be used within any DAW. Before the recent release Studio Rack could only host Waves plugins, so was useless if you did not have Waves plugins.

The recent release adds support for VST3 plugins, and works like a charm in Acid. Best of all, it's free.

This is particularly useful because the plugin itself appears within Acid as a VST2 or VST3 plugin. Although I personally have experienced no problems using this plugin in its VST3 form, others might. Using the VST2 version allows you to operate VST3 plugins in Acid with better compatibility - as an example of that, I have an issue with Kilohearts plugins and automation, but using Waves Studio Rack I no longer see that particular issue.

Prior to this you would have to resort to something like DDMF MetaPlugin, or SuperPlugin - neither of which are free.

Studio Rack does not support VSTI plugins, so you can still resort to DDMF's solutions for that. SuperPlugin is a super easy way to get things like Reason working within Acid.

Better plugin compatibility would be better, obviously. Until then, there's VST hosts!

Comments

SP. wrote on 9/27/2022, 6:23 PM

@sheppo I personally use Plogue Bidule (also not free) to host multiple plugins. Never found something more useful, especially since it comes work a lot of additional features.

sheppo wrote on 10/1/2022, 2:13 PM

I looked at that, but it's twice the price of DDMF's metaplugin, or superplugin, so I couldn't justify it.. or really see what the advantages of Bidule was. Still, it's good to hear it's working well.

I've noticed since switching to using Studio Rack and SuperPlugin that acid is waaaay more stable. Since moving plugin chains and buses in to instances of both plugins I've not had a single crash... days of editing.

The ironic thing is, the flow structure diagrams in Metaplugin and Bidule look eerily similar to that in Acid's Morphpad edit patch view to the point where I could swear Morphpads are using either third party tool, licensed, internally. Which is such a shame it's tucked away in a (currently) fairly useless feature.

SP. wrote on 10/1/2022, 2:34 PM

@sheppo I don't know Metaplugin in detail but Bidule comes with a lot of building blocks (What the developer calls bidules) which you can use to basically create your own instruments like in NI Reaktor. https://www.plogue.com/bidule/help/ch04.html But I don't have the patience to do this. 😅

I've noticed since switching to using Studio Rack and SuperPlugin that acid is waaaay more stable. Since moving plugin chains and buses in to instances of both plugins I've not had a single crash... days of editing.

Which basically shows that the stability problems are caused by the VST integration.

james-h wrote on 10/4/2022, 2:32 AM

Thanks for this. It could be the answer to our prayers! Had a go last night, loads Ozone & BWX plugins very quickly and seems very solid!

SporkimusPrime wrote on 10/4/2022, 7:03 AM

Thanks for this! I just tried it and works well.

james-h wrote on 10/5/2022, 7:42 AM

Its actually amazing!! Solid, quick and can save your chains as a preset. Why couldnt magix make their own software run this well?!