VSTi Host is an application that allows a VST instrument plugin (VSTi) to be used as a standalone synth, without the use of a bulky host environment (like Cubase, Logic, etc). It's perfect if you have an extra Mac that you'd love to put to use as a virtual synth. (This is the reason I developed it). VSTi Host was created using Max/MSP.
Requirements:
Ñ a PowerPC Mac; speed dependent on the complexity of the plugin you're trying to run
Ñ a VST instrument
Ñ OMS
Instructions:
Make sure the on/off box is toggled on, and make sure the volume is turned up.
Choose a VST instrument (click the Select VSTi box to do so). To be sure that the synth loaded correctly, you can check the Status window (zM); if you see a message saying "PluginYouSelected has XX parameters", then it loaded OK. An example would be "Neon has 14 parameters". If the status window says something else, then the plug probably didn't load correctly. If it didn't, you could try quiting the program and increasing the memory allocation, that may work.
Click the Edit box to bring up your VSTi's editor. If it has a custom editor, you will see that, if not you'll see a generic one.
Load a bank of patches for your plugin by clicking the Load Bank box. Similarly, save a bank of patches by clicking the Write Bank box.
Set the MIDI channel of the synth from 1 to 16; use 0 if you want it to respond to all channels. Select the channel by clicking the box and scrolling up or down.
If you have loaded a bank of patches, you can choose the patch number by clicking the patch # box, and scrolling up or down. If you try to select a number for a patch that is not programmed, you will see an error in the Status window.
Drawbacks:
Ñ Haven't figured out how to run two or more instances of VSTi Host - OMS doesn't want to allow it.
Ñ No visual indication of which plugin is loaded into VSTi Host.
Ñ No visual indication of which patch is loaded.
Ñ Reports of some plugins not working, no matter how much memory is allocated.
Ñ Many other drawbacks and bugs, so I won't bother to spell them all out - but hey, it's free, and it does what I originally wanted it to do!
