Leo
DXi VST instrument plugin support
Posted on 7-Mar-07 06:00Viewed 1499 times
I have recently bought another PC (tablet laptop core 2 duo) with the thought of composing in this environment again. Unfortunitly my experience with computers (both Mac and PC) has left a bad sonic taste in my mouth. As a result, I do not nor intend to, use computers with external midi gear. The main appeal of using a laptop/tablet for composing again is the ability to use softsynths as sound sources for true portability.
This has been working quite well for me, using Sonar and a number of softsynth, especially Arturia’s Moog Modular V.
I have been using numerous compositions, algorithm programs that do not support DXi or VSTi. This limits my palette of sounds, and does not allow for improvising with my edited soft synth, soft samplers, drum machines, etc. I feel that this along with the chord calculator feature could very well rival programs such as Reason.
ChordWizard Support
We have looked into supporting VSTi and DXi.
It is very likely that these (particularly VSTi) will be built into our products in the not-too-distant future, but we have decided that the initial release of Songtrix will stick with the traditional MIDI device interface that Windows provides to access sound cards and GM softsynths.
Partly this is to make sure that we can release the product as soon as possible (currently targeting July 2007). But there is also another issue.
One of the main design goals of Songtrix (and our future products) is to facilitate the publication of songs and songwriting collaboration between ChordWizard Network members.
While the advantages of VSTi and DXi instruments are greater flexibility in creating custom sounds on your own PC, this flexibility actively works against the portability of your creations, where the receiver would have to have the same devices on their PC to hear your song correctly.
So we have to consider the implementation of these interfaces carefully. Perhaps GM defaults will still apply per track, with an optional override to access VSTi or DXi.
Most likely we will release an update of Songtrix sometime after its initial launch to include these new facilities.
