Help understanding Vst Hosts, DAWs and Vst plugins

[Torsten]

@RonArt

Today I decided I wanted to include some non-wav files, like DSK Brass.dll. I downloaded a DAW called Savihost3x64, but that seems to want .vst3 files.

Bottom line is I think my problem is that don’t have a handle on how to make Cantabile Solo aware of DAWs. I got Cantabile Lite (now Solo) to work with .wav files using Grace; I just don’t remember how I did that. Maybe I just need a hint.

I’ve concatenated the directories at Tools>Options>Plugin Options, but I get a message 13205 “the plugin is not built for this platform” when I try to Add Object>By Folder>Browse for plugin>DSK Brass.dll.

I’ll look for .vst3 files in the meantime but I need to know what is what. (It’s like giving a pistol to a child, this).

OK, it looks like you’ll need to read up on the whole universe of computer audio and VST technology - you’ll need more basics to get anything useful out of Cantabile. Can’t do the whole lecture here - but I’ll try to clear up some things.

First: you’re confusing plugins, DAWs and VST hosts.

• a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is a piece of software to record, edit and mix audio (mostly music ). Typical programs here are Cubase, Logic, Studio One, Reaper and tons of others.

• Within practically all DAWs, you can use plugins - these are smaller programs, designed to run within another program and process an audio or a MIDI stream, to provide a specific processing task like an equalizer, compressor or reverb. Some plugins also can generate sounds from a MIDI input - these we call instruments.

• plugins can’t run on their own, they need a host program to run them. A DAW can be such a host, but there are also other host programs that are not DAWs. Cantabile is one of them - it is a plugin host specifically built to play these plugins live. SaviHost is another very specialized host, designed to run only one plugin.

• Plugins come in different technologies: the most widespread standard is VST (virtual studio technology), developed by Steinberg. Another important one is AAX (Avid audio extension) - this one is specific to ProTools (the de-facto standard DAW in professional studios). To make matters worse, there are currently two active versions of VST plugins: VST2 and VST3. Cantabile can only deal with VST2 plugins, so any VST3 or AAX plugins are of no use here.

• to make matters even worse, nowadays you have a choice between 32 bit and 64 bit technology - to make use of ever-increasing amounts of RAM, programs need to address memory using 64 bits. This means that DAWs and VST hosts can be built in two versions: a 64 bit and a 32 bit version. You need a 64 bit host to run 64 bit plugins and a 32 bit host to run 32 bit plugins. If you want to e.g. run a 32 bit plugin inside a 64 bit host, you’ll need a special “bridging” software inbetween - that’s what software like JBridge is for.

• VST plugins live in specific directories on your PC, which your VST host needs to be made aware of. Depending on the plugin technology (32 bit or 64 bit), these directories are different. Typically, on 64 bit windows these are C:\ProgramFiles\Steinberg\VstPlugins for 64 bit plugins and C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\Steinberg\VstPlugins for 32 bit plugins (if you don’t use Cubase, frequently the default install path doesn’t have the “Steinberg” in it).

So to explain your experience with SaviHost: SaviHost3x64 is specifically built to run 64 bits VST3 plugins - unfortunately DSK Brass is a 32 bits VST2 plugin (no other versions available) - SaviHost3x64 will not know how to deal with this. You’ll need SaviHostx86 to run DSK brass.

Same with Cantabile: to run DSK brass, you’ll need to either run 32 bit Cantabile or, if you want to run Cantabile 64 bit, you’ll need JBridge so that it can run 32 bit plugins.

So, to use the simpler case: move the DSK Brass DLL to your 32 bit VST plugin folder (e.g. C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\VstPlugins. Then run Cantabile 32 bits and make sure that Cantabile is aware of this folder (Tools->Options->Plugin Options). When you now scan for plugins, either on startup or via Add Object->Plugin->More->Rescan Plugin Folders, your DSK Brass should appear in your list of available plugins.

Hope this gives you some clarity on what is what - yes, it’s all a bit overwhelming , but you’ll get there!

Cheers,

Torsten