Friday, January 9, 2009

virtual studio



today I was downloading some VST plugins for using in Cake Walk Sonar. I have a Korg PA 500 keyboard in my room. It is a great keyboard and I really like it. But when it comes to sequencing your song, it's better to find something more useful. Because when you need to edit your song and move or copy your notes to another place it sucks! the best way to do that is using a sequencer software in your PC. I currently use Cake Walk Sonar, but there is other good sequencers available too.
But I was going to talk about something else. you know it is good to have a hardware MIDI device like a synthesizer but some times you need to use extra devices to do a particular job. If you don't want to spend lots of money for that, Then the best way is to use virtual devices. There are many virtual devices for free or in very cheap price!
The virtual devices and effects are available in different types:
  • DirectX Effects = DX
  • DirectX Instruments = DXI
  • VST Audio Effects = VST (VST = Virtual Studio Technology)
  • VST Instruments = VSTI
  • MIDI Effects = MFX
  • and others!
Maybe there are other virtual effects or instruments out there that I don't know about them. But the point is that, it is very easy to get these great tools, I mean it is a good opportunity that these expensive instruments are available for everybody to try them for free or using them in a very cheap price! right? so what are you waiting for? at least by using them, you can understand the basic concepts of the electronic music.
VST is more common and popular. you can use them as plugins for your VST host. Of course any program has it's own plugin format but VST has a standard interface that most advanced sequencers support it. usually there is a common folder for VST plugins. And all you have to do is to copy the dll file into that folder.
in this link you can see a list of VST hosts with additional information about them:
http://ygrabit.steinberg.de/~ygrabit/public_html/vstgui/listhost.html

you can find many basic and advanced devices like Subtractors, Oscillators, adders, other effects or even samplers, synthesizers and so on in VST format.
here is a site with great free VST plugins to download:
http://www.insidehw.com/Software/Multimedia/Best-Free-VST-Plugins.html

enjoy it!