abacab

Ableton finally added VST3 support to Live (10.1 build). The only plugin host that I use without any VST3 support yet is Akai VIP. Come on Akai... As far as I know, only VST2 plug-ins and virtual instruments are currently compatible with Reason 11, but ironically the Reason Rack plugin is VST3 only... but coming from a company that lacked any VST support for years not surprising... There are probably others...

SynthMaster One and 2 are by far the most bang for the buck synths in the sub $99 price range, easily equaling or exceeding many above that! But getting both for that! A no brainer!

They have added some nice new factory presets to SM One. And a new skin.

They were releasing both VST2 and VST3 up through the 1.6.x releases. 1.7.0 is the first with the new skin, and VST3 only.

The four audio outputs let you send up to 4 audio sub-mixes from the TTS-1 plugin to the Cakewalk mixer. There you could do additional processing on them with audio fx plugins way beyond what you could do in TTS-1 alone. For example, you probably wouldn't want the same reverb on all instruments. Maybe just send a submix on one of the outputs for the sounds that you wish to share a reverb, similar to a reverb bus, and send the rest of the instruments on another output. You probably won't need all 4 if you are just doing a simple two track project, just know that they are available to use if you need them. I think Colin answered your question about how to send MIDI to a different instrument in TTS-1, you will need to add another MIDI track for that, using a different MIDI channel number. You can either have both instruments output to the same audio output, or you could spread them across two different audio outputs. Your choice. Here is how to assign the 4 internal audio outputs to the 16 MIDI channels available:

That's probably a good deal, because then you could upgrade to SynthMaster 3 for $30 when (?) it's released. They are still trying to finalize v2.9.9 before they go all out on v3 though. So at least you would get v.2.9.9 with some enhancements soon for no extra. The last update for SynthMaster One v1.4.1 was very nice. https://www.kvraudio.com/news/kv331-audio-updates-synthmaster-one-and-synthmaster-one-ios-to-v1-4-49075

Yes, Cakewalk has an internal bit bridge for 32-bit plugins. If you have one that doesn't work right with that, there is always jBridge to try: https://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/ Assuming that you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, of course. Cakewalk is only available as 64-bit.

Good discussion! But to prevent me from further hijacking this thread, I have started a new topic here:

We knew this was coming for years... VST 2 coming to an end https://www.steinberg.net/en/newsandevents/news/newsdetail/article/vst-2-coming-to-an-end-4727.html ... and this recently from the developers of the free and open source Surge Synth. Obviously your old VST2 plugins will continue to work, and developers wishing to create commercially licensed software that already have a Steinberg VST license can still do so. But this will exclude new developers and those wishing to go down the open source road. Opinions? ?

VST2 is officially dead as far as new developers are concerned. Steinberg, the proprietary owner of the VST development kit, has discontinued the licensing for it. VST3 is the future...

Take a look at the VirusTotal website. It seems that there may be a small number of false positives... you can submit the installer and see the results of scans for 60-70 AV scanners... https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload

Got it! I let it slip away the last time it was on sale. Was running the extended trial deal that Arturia ran earlier this summer, and I assumed that the sale price would be good until the end of the trial. Not. I had already decided to purchase, just hadn't pushed the button yet. But then I didn't want to pay full price. All is good again! I had tried the demo of Pigments 1 when it was first released, but wasn't completely sold. I really like Pigments 2! It really pairs well with Analog lab where you can do multis with the other analog classics! Some nice factory multi presets in the Lab to show you how to do it. ?

As was mentioned earlier, Cthulhu by Xfer Records has an arpeggiator. And a demo version to try out with a 15 min limit. Also Plugin Boutique Scaler 2 https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/3-Studio-Tools/93-Music-Theory-Tools/6439-Scaler-2 Scaler 2 has an arpeggiator, and some chord goodies, and you can control an instrument on another track with it. https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/3-Studio-Tools/93-Music-Theory-Tools/6439-Scaler-2

Don't forget to check out the new 3rd party presets! Some of them are excellent, and show off the capability of this synth! Especially those by Jacky Ligon.

It shouldn't be an issue for most folks but the Surge Synth team are only distributing built binaries of v1.7 as a VST3 and AU plugin. Details here from the developers: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/formats It has mainly to do with the open source licensing path that has been chosen by the team. But you are free to build your own VST2 from the source code, if so desired. VST2 is not free and open source software, and Steinberg, the copyright owner of the VST2 code, is no longer making licenses available to developers.

This has an internal arpeggiator and is on sale for $32. Kontakt Player compatible. https://soundiron.com/products/hyperion-strings-micro

I already had it, and it appears to be 32-bit only. Good old rgc:audio synth, before Pentagon I, and z3ta+ ...

I did mention above that the Reason Rack works OK in Studio One 4. And yes it was a VST3.

Changelog here: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/changelog/ Some very good new 3rd party content: New dark skin:

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Same here! I guess that Reason Rack isn't communicating correctly with Cakewalk, or vice versa. If I use another VST, such as IK Sampletank, I can use the search box within the plugin and 'T' doesn't trigger a hotkey in the host. If I try Reason Rack with another host such as Studio One the plugin search box works, even if I type a letter assigned to keyboard shortcuts in that host. Close the plugin window, and the shortcut works in the host. By the way you posted this issue in a thread about an entirely different topic. Might try starting your own thread. The original post was about using the computer keyboard as a MIDI keyboard to send MIDI to the plugin. ?

Element 2 working fine with Cakewalk here. Both the VST2 and VST3 versions.

And also nothing quite as cool as using an internal sequencer/arpeggiator in one VST to drive the tone generator in another. For one example the Ample Sound bass riffer can do that. So if you have another instrument you would rather use for the audio, just send the riff over to it via MIDI and mute the audio in the source VST. ? One problem that this solves for me is the Ample bass that I have only has picked samples. By using MIDI output I can send the riff to a fingered bass instrument...

Yes, ProjectScope. From a thread on the old forum: http://forum.cakewalk.com/ProjectScope-for-Sonar-Project-Files-CWPs-updated-to-support-new-Sonar-project-features-m3584169.aspx

Yes, you were correct with the multi-timbral setup. It usually works with Xpand!2, so I don't understand why you had an issue with it. But I frequently use it with SampleTank and/or Kontakt Player. Both are 16 channel multi-timbral, like TTS-1, but capable of much more interesting instrument sounds! ? Your 2nd point regarding multiple instances is a good one. I have found that using multi-timbral mode in the latest version of SampleTank 4 MAX brings my DAW to its knees with more than 2 or 3 tracks. Apparently the plugin instance flows most or all of the signal processing through a single core. Since IK Multimedia has optimized the memory footprint of the ST4 plugin, it would probably be advisable to use multiple instances of the plugin, rather than load up one instance multi-timbrally. Unless you are running the latest multicore beast CPU. Plus with multiple instances you always have the option to freeze any tracks you are not working with at the moment, thus freeing up mucho CPU!