VST & VSTi

VST stands for "Virtual Studio Technology". They are basically software plug ins you can use with software production programs such as FL Studio, Reason, Cubase, etc.. There are a multitude of VST instruments and VST effects available all over the internet and at music stores - some of them are free and some you will have to buy. You could also try your hand at making your own VST!
VSTs are becoming increasingly more popular because of how practical they are. They are user friendly - extremely simple to setup and use. A lot of them also produce higher quality sounds than a lot of the stock patches in some software programs. In addition, VSTs are usually a lot cheaper than hardware, and may produce similar, if not better sound

VST plugins are generally run within a Digital Audio Workstation, providing the host application with additional functionality. Most VST plugins can be classified as either instruments (VSTi) or effects, although other categories exist. VST plugins generally provide a custom GUI, displaying controls similar to the physical switches and knobs on audio hardware. Some (often older) plugins rely on the host application for their UI.

VST, VSTi whatever you want to call them, these plug-ins are such an important part of your sound system. Plug-ins can either be effects, or software- such as synths and samplers.

Revolutionary is not a word used lightly, but with VSTs I would call them the next stage in music making. Why?

1 Well, they are cheap (with repect to the big hardware keyboards and sound modules), or free.

2 They allow completley endless possibilites to sound generation, and editing,

3 the best vst plugins bring expensive studio type effects and systems to the homebased musician,

4 allow you to gig with just your laptop,

5 the best vst plugins allows the homebased musician to compete musicially/ professionally with studio based musicians- bringing the whole system down to a level playing field.

6 Many manufacturers are converting old style hardware synths into software synths (soft synths). So you can pick up the TB303 for free (as shown in the best techno making equipment page) instead of paying $600+ for one. Or the old Korg machines- having 3 korgs in one software app is crazily great- the space and cash saving is great- and re-living some of those great sounds is cool.

There are many, many plug-ins available to the homebased musician and on a daily basis there are hundreds of new ones being released, so it is very hard to keep up with the pack. That is why this page only deals with the best VST plugins that you can get or where they can be found- that are free.

VST instruments include software emulations of well-known hardware synthesizer devices and samplers, emulating the look of the original equipment and its sonic characteristics. This enables VSTi users to use virtual versions of devices that may be otherwise difficult to obtain.

VST instruments require notes to be sent via MIDI in order to output audio, while effect plugins process audio data (some rare effect plugins do require a MIDI input too though, for example they might use MIDI sync to sweep the effect in sync with the tempo). MIDI messages can often also be used to control parameters of both instrument and effect plugins. Most host applications allow the audio output from one VST to be routed to the audio input of another VST (known as chaining). For example, output of a VST synthesizer can be sent to a VST reverb effect for further processing.

Appropriate hardware and drivers, such as a sound card that supports ASIO, VST plugins can be used in real-time. ASIO bypasses Windows' slower audio engine, offering much lower latency.

Apple Power Macintosh VS Windows PC

Apple Power Macintosh

The Macintosh has been the computer of choice of creative types for nearly twenty years. Most major recording studios and record companies use Macs to control their digital audio installations. The MacOS is "user friendly," and Macintosh computers are relatively easy to upgrade and maintain. Although Macs are expensive when compared to typical Windows PCs, the extra cost is well worth it for many people. Should you decide to base your studio around a Mac you'll want the following...

1) A recent-issue Power Macintosh. Even a humble eMac, iMac or iBook can be equipped with a FireWire multichannel interface like the Mark of the Unicorn 828, while a G4 or G5 "tower" can house one of the several PCI card/audio interfaces available, such as the RME Hammerfall DSP or Mark of the Unicorn 2408 MkIII. In some cases, you can upgrade an older PowerMac with a G3 or G4 processor upgrade.

• Get as much RAM installed as you can afford. The absolute minimum you should have for MacOS 9.x or higher is 256MB; 384MB or more will make things run much more smoothly.

• There is no reason to play around with older, pre-PowerPC Macintosh computers. Sound editors and MP3 encoders rely heavily on a fast floating point processor ("FPU" or "math co-processor") for processing their data. All PowerMacs have an excellent FPU integrated into the main processor, while some older Macintosh computers don't have any FPU at all.

• The PowerMac G4 and G5 processors in new Macintosh computers are actually faster cycle for cycle than any Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon. This means that a Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz is really no faster than a Mac G5 at 1.6 GHz. Forget the bigger numbers; a Mac G5 will be a lot faster than a Pentium 4 at the same clock speed.

• The eMac, iMac, G4 and G5 come standard with an IDE hard drive and a CD-R or combo CD-R/DVD drive, as well as decent quality 16 bit audio playback built in. The eMac/iMac/G4/G5's major selling points are their speed, easy Internet connectivity, ease of use, and the fact that they're very nicely styled. You may have noticed that these new Macs have no serial ports (the old "modem" and "printer" ports) for connecting older MIDI interfaces or Mac-compatible printers. Instead, these new Macs have USB and FireWire (IEEE-1394) ports. This means that Mac users upgrading from older PowerMac G3's up to an eMac, iMac, iBook, G4 or G5 will have to buy brand-new USB MIDI interfaces. Also, only the G4 and G5 tower models have PCI slots — and only the G4 notebooks have CardBus slots — so a FireWire audio interface will need to be installed for recording high-performance multitrack audio to an eMac, iMac or iBook.
  • Mark of the Unicorn offers two FireWire digital audio interfaces, the MOTU 828 and 896. These can be used with any Mac G4, iBook, iMac or eMac equipped with a FireWire port. The Digidesign Digi 002 also connects using FireWire.
  • Digidesign offers an entry-level ($500) Pro Tools interface called the Mbox, which connects to the host computer through USB and uses Digidesign's Pro Tools LE software. If you want to play with what the big boys use, here's your chance.

• The Apple G4 and G5 lack the old, familiar Mac SCSI port, so if you already have a SCSI hard drive, CD burner and/or scanner, you will need to buy and install a PCI SCSI accelerator card to make use of them. The Cube, eMac, iMac, iBook and PowerBook have no PCI expansion slots, so a SCSI accelerator card cannot be installed in these computers.
  • The eMac, iMac, iBook, G4 and G5 PowerMacs do come with FireWire interfaces (also known as IEEE1394). The FireWire interface is the interface of the future. It can be used for hard drives and CD-Recordable drives, and there are now audio interfaces that connect via FireWire too (see the description of the Mark of the Unicorn 828 and 896 in the soundcards page). FireWire allows for hot-swappable connection of up to 64 devices, and allows for a theoretical maximum throughput of around 40MB per second. You can now find plenty of FireWire hard drives in the online e-stores, or even at your local CompUSA. (You can roll your own by taking any IDE hard drive and putting it in a FireWire enclosure.) These new FireWire hard drives are advertised as having a throughput of 15MB/second, which is about as fast as UltraWide SCSI, but not nearly as fast as Ultra2Wide (LVD) or Ultra320 SCSI — or ATA-133, for that matter. But maybe FireWire 800 will change that.

• The latest G4 and G5 computers come equipped with Apple's new Unix-based operating system, OS X ("OS Ten"). OS X is radically different from previous versions of the MacOS, so a few music equipment manufacturers may not have updated their drivers and applications to work well with it. If you're planning an upgrade, you should first make sure that your music hardware and software is fully supported in OS X.

2) A big IDE, SCSI or FireWire hard drive, at least 20GB. If you have a G4 or G5 tower, it's best to install a second internal ATA hard drive (7200 rpm with 8MB cache, 80GB or larger). If you have an older SCSI-equipped Mac, getting an internal SCSI hard drive will save you a good chunk of money, as long as you're willing to open up your Mac and install it yourself. For a G4 laptop, iBook, eMac or iMac, you'll want an external FireWire drive. USB hard drives are too slow for working with multitrack audio.

TIP: If the thought of opening your Mac's case makes you shake with fear, you'll probably be better off spending the extra $75 to $150 on an external hard drive.

3) Software is generally more expensive on the Macintosh platform, but some of it is as good as it gets, like emagic Logic, Mark of the Unicorn Digital Performer, TC|Works Spark XL and BIAS Peak for example. There is some Mac music shareware available, though not nearly as much as exists for Windows.

It should be noted that most of the "heavy hitters" in music software developed their applications for the Mac long before they started coding for Windows.

Windows PC

For the more budget-conscious, there's the "Wintel" or "PC" platform. It used to be that the "Wintel" PC was an artistically-inclined person's worst nightmare, but things have really changed since MS-DOS was put out to pasture. Even though Windows 95 and Plug 'n Play made PC's much easier to use, they're still more of a challenge to configure and use than Macintosh computers. But if you're willing to become a bit of a computer nerd you can get a lot of power for less money. Here's what you'll need to get started:

Recommended PC configurations:

• Processor:
  – If you are getting a new Windows PC, I would recommend an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.6 GHz or faster running on an 800 MHz front side bus, using dual-channel DDR SDRAM.
• Motherboard:
  – for Pentium 4: Asus P4B800 series with i865 or i875 chipset.
• AMD Processors:
  – If you need to pinch pennies, a good choice would be an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or faster running on an Asus A7N8X or other name-brand motherboard based on the nForce2 chipset.
• RAM:
  – 512MB minimum, 1024MB better (PC3200 or faster DDR SDRAM recommended).
• Hard drives:
  – One 20GB or larger IDE drive to hold your Windows installation and programs, along with a separate, 40GB or larger Maxtor or Western Digital 7200 rpm ATA-100 or ATA-133 drive for your audio files.
• CD-Recordable drive:
  – Plextor (internal IDE, or external FireWire or USB 2.0 interface)
• AGP video card:
  – Matrox DualHead or other twin monitor card, with two reasonably good video monitors. Audio apps take up a LOT of screen space — and once you get used to having your mixer in one screen and your track view in another, you'll never want to go back to a single monitor again.

Tips : Recording Equipment

The keys to high quality home recordings exist as a computer, soundcard, microphone, microphone stand, microphone preamplifier, headphones, headphone amplifier, cables and recording software (Gonzales, 2004). This equipment is described in detail below:

1. Computer

Nearly every computer is suitable for audio recording, regardless of brand names. Laptops and desktops perform similarly and are equally capable of producing quality recordings. As long as the computer and additional audio hardware are compatible, the process of home audio recording should run smoothly.

2.Soundcard

Typical computer soundcards are built for gaming and controlling desktop speakers, and they lack the ability to record efficiently. “Full duplex” soundcards, those able to record and play back music simultaneously, are very important to computer audio recording. They recognize fuller, clearer sounds and record at higher resolutions, making the projects more crisp and precise.

3. Microphone

Condenser microphones are the most popular for home audio recording, as they are extremely sensitive and pick up the ambient nuances of acoustic guitar and like instruments. Whether large or small, cheap or expensive, condenser microphones perform much better than standard computer microphones and are important for producing quality sound.

4. Microphone Stand

Depending on available space, all sizes and styles of microphone stands work well for home recording. Stands free up artists’ hands and keep microphones at good angles to instruments and vocalists so that the most accurate sounds may be acquired. Since unnecessary vibrations and background noise are often picked up when they are not used, microphone stands are a computer recording necessity.

5.Microphone Preamplifier

Microphone preamplifiers connect microphones to computer soundcards. In the recording process, condenser microphones convert sound into inaudible electric signals. Preamplifiers are used to boost these signals up before they reach the soundcard, where they may be transferred to digital sound and saved to computer hard drives.

6.Headphones

Oftentimes, artists record multiple tracks, or blocks of music, over one another. To do this, the artist must record one track and play it back while recording a second track simultaneously, and so on. Music is played back to the artist through headphones, because, if played through desktop speakers, these previous recordings would be needlessly picked up by microphones while recording other tracks.

7.Headphone Amplifier

Some computers produce ample sound through their headphone jacks. Others, unfortunately do not. Headphone amplifiers are purchased and connected to soundcards so that artists may experience clear and audible playbacks.

8. Cables

Sturdy audio cables are necessary for transferring sound and connecting audio hardware. Two or three cables complete the basic home recording setup, connecting the microphone to the microphone preamplifier, the microphone preamplifier to the soundcard, and the headphone amplifier to the soundcard.

9.Recording Software

Computer programs designed for recording music vary as much as the musicians themselves do. Popular software such as Cakewalk, Cubase, and ACIDPro allow artists to record and edit multiple tracks, convert recorded files to a number of audio extensions, and transfer music onto CDs. In addition, recording software allows artists to enhance their music using a number of mixing and mastering features (Hermitage Acoustics, 2006).

Recording Software Features

Most computer recording programs provide artists with the ability to record and play back multiple tracks, whether instrumental or vocal. Multitrack recording produces a fuller sound with vocal harmonies and instrumental accompaniment. If necessary, shorter recordings may be looped, or repeated, to complete a song or maintain continuity.

Once recorded, the tempo and key of these tracks may be altered using features of recording software. Programs such as ACIDPro allow artists to change recorded tracks by selecting certain time signatures and keys. The program then modifies the recording to fit the artists’ selections.

Recording software provides musicians with special audio effects that are added to tracks to alter signals and frequencies, produce echoes and delays, and block out unwanted noise. These effects are described in the following table:

Audio Effects and Their Purposes in Recording

Effect	Function
Amplitude Modulation	Changes strength of track signal
Chorus	Combines track with delayed copy of itself
Distortion	Alters track signal
Dither	Varies strength of track signal, adds noise
Flange/Wah-wah	Combines track with slightly delayed, modulated form of itself
Resonant Filter	Alters track signal
Reverb	Produces selected form of echo or reverberation
Simple Delay	Combines track with measured delay of itself
Smooth/Enhance	Enhances lowest and highest frequencies
Track EQ	Amplifies or reduces selected frequencies
Track Noise Gate	Controls allowed or disallowed signals

ronald wilson