Glitch with MinDy S

[NESynthOrchestra]

First of all, I would like to say hello all the way from Rhode Island! Hopefully, this will be a positive experience for me.

Second of all, I apologize if I've posted this in the wrong section, but I'm having a problem with a VST I downloaded - namely, a version of K Brown's MinDy plugin as enhanced by Spogg. Every time I try to load it into FL Studio, I get an error message telling me that I tried to load an effect plugin into a channel and that it should be loaded into the mixer instead. However, I don't get the error when loading it into Hermann Seib's VSTHost. What's going on?

[tulamide]

Welcome

I answer in the hope, that my name will get the attention of Spogg, because this question would be better placed either in "General", or as a post in Kevin Brown's synth thread.

I'm sure you'll get a helpful answer, once they both notice your question

Moderator comment: Moved from DSP to General.

[Spogg]

Hi and welcome!

The synth has an audio input, like the original MiniMoog. This means Flowstone must export it as an effect, but an effect with a MIDI input. Another example would be a vocoder, where you can have a synth "playing" your vocals. Again, both audio and MIDI inputs are needed.

I came across this issue from a FL user before. It seems this DAW can't handle such a configuration. Maybe a FL user can comment or maybe Image-Line could be persuaded to add the feature. Reaper works just fine BTW.

In the meantime do you have Flowstone? If you do, you can just delete the audio inputs and export as an instrument. It should then work in FL but you won't get to put audio through the filter.
If you don't have Flowstone then why not? It's brill!

I can make such an export if you want...

Cheers

Spogg

[RJHollins]

Is it 'exported' as a VST ? or VSTi ?

[Spogg]

Is it 'exported' as a VST ? or VSTi ?

It was exported as a VST ("effect"). I'll expand on the issue...

When we export a schematic we are required to choose Instrument or Effect. Flowstone automatically chooses the appropriate format as the default option, but you can override this and choose the opposite. I once tried exporting a vocoder as an “instrument”, but Reaper gave me no access to the audio inputs; it had to be exported as an effect. Then I could access the MIDI and the audio inputs.

I imagine there’s a header or something in the dll that specifies whether it’s an “effect” or an “instrument”.

FL Studio is the only DAW I’ve heard of that won’t allow an “effect” to have a MIDI input. I think they should change this limitation. Or maybe if it’s an “instrument” export, FL would accept it whereas Reaper doesn’t. I don’t have FL so I can’t test for it.

Cheers

Spogg

[RJHollins]

Hi Spogg,

Yeah ... the FS Documentation kinda spells it out on page 107

Inputs and Outputs
For a VST instrument your module will need one MIDI input and two mono outputs. This allows the
instrument to send stereo audio data based on MIDI signals sent from a host.

VST effects can vary. You can create a MIDI effect which takes one MIDI input and one MIDI output.

For a standard audio effect you need two mono inputs and two mono outputs.

Of course you can have any number of inputs and outputs but you’ll need a host that can handle the
data you’re requesting from or sending to it.

But it might be confusing after reading further in the manual, and the Dialog export settings:

This plug-in is an:

The plugin type will be set automatically based on the combination of inputs and outputs on your
module. Basically if you have one MIDI input and two mono outputs then Instrument will be selected
otherwise Effect will be selected.

All plugins I've made have had MIDI Outputs, with Pass-thru Audio, as a standard VST.

Now the later versions of FS [3.08] have rewritten the Manual ... stating:

Inputs and Outputs
For a VST instrument your module will need one MIDI input and two mono outputs. This allows the
instrument to send stereo audio data based on MIDI signals sent from a host.

VST effects can vary. You can create a MIDI effect which takes one MIDI input and one MIDI output.
For a standard audio effect you need two mono inputs and two mono outputs.

Doesn't appear any differences from version to version, but maybe the Doc is clearer.

Not really adding anything to the conversation ... but it did make me go back and review [always a good thing].

[Spogg]

They do say that if all else fails, read the manual

However, it's not clear from the manual how to export a plugin that has 2 mono inputs, a MIDI input and 2 mono outputs, like a vocoder, or the MiniMoog which can process incoming audio through its filter. Is this actually an instrument or an effect? Answer: it's both!

In the case of Reaper, which is the DAW I test with, the default chosen by FS happens to work correctly.

Cheers

Spogg