vst.media_addon

Documentation

Author: Christopher Lenz
Version: 0.4.0 Beta 1

The most current version can be obtained at http://members.tripod.de/cell/vst_addon

The vst.media_addon is an implementation of Steinbergs VST PlugIn Interface Technology for BeOS. By providing an Add-On to the BeOS Media Services, VST PlugIns are completely integrated into the system, and all applications that make use of the Media Kits sophisticated features should be able to make use of them.

• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Known Bugs & Limitations

Installation

You should have downloaded a zip archive containing the following files:

• [Drop vst.media_addon here]
• docs/vst.media_addon Documentation.html
• docs/vst_logo.jpg
• Report Bug
• vst.media_addon

To install the Add-On, simply drop the file vst.media_addon onto the [Drop vst.media_addon here] folder. That folder is actually a symbolic link to the directory

	/boot/home/config/add-ons/media

You can put the other files whereever you want, they are not actually necessary to run the add-on.

Configuration

Launching the file vst.media_addon opens a configuration panel which you can use to set the directory containing your VST PlugIns. The default directory is

	/boot/home/config/add-ons/media/vstplugins

This panel will also display a list of installed plugins. By selecting a plugin in the list, you can get some basic information about it (like the number of parameters, input and outputs, and if it is supported by the current implementation).

Using the Add... and Remove buttons you can install/deinstall plugins. Installing a plugin will simply copy the specified file into the plugins directory, after checking that it actually is a VST plugin. Deinstallation moves the selected plugin to trash.

Usage

To make any use of the vst.media_addon, you'll need two things:

• One or more VST plugin(s)
• A Media-Kit savvy application (currently Cortex is the only one I know of)

I maintain a list of plugins currently available for BeOS (note that they will have to be explicitly compiled for the platform) on my homepage at http://members.tripod.de/cell/vst_addon/plugins.html.

After you've installed some plugins, launch Cortex. You should see the plugins listed in Cortex' Media-AddOns window. To instantiate a plugin, just drop its entry into the main window, where a corresponding panel should appear. For a test, try dropping a WAV or AIFF file into the main window and connect its output to the input of the VST plugin, then the plugins output to one of the 'Be Audio Mixer's inputs. After starting the nodes (by having either the file or the plugin selected, and pressing the Start button in the Transport window) you should hear the audio file being routed through the plugin.

You should be able to do the same thing with many other nodes, your audio input for instance. Also, be sure to try this procedure with ObjektSynth, it's fun!

Known Bugs & Limitations

As of version 0.4.0 Beta 1 the following features of the VST specification are not yet implemented:

• MIDI input/output
• VST Instruments
• VST TimeInfo
• VST Offline
• Surround sound

Other limitations that will be resolved shortly:

• Selection and Import/Export of program and bank presets not implemented
• Number of inputs/outputs per plugin is limited to 1 (albeit stereo)
• You should always connect the input of the VST PlugIn node first and the output afterwards, otherwise format negotiation might fail.

Note that close to no optimizations have gone into this version, so the plugins will likely need more resources than you might be used to from other VST environments.

VST is a trademark von Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH