Here's a chance to incorporate the sound of a classic '60s synth into your latest songs. Stylophone VST lets you recreate the memorable tones of the original Stylophone Classic. Unlike the original, this VST Instrument provides eight notes of polyphony and full MIDI control. It certainly sounds exactly like the original (if my memory serves me well), and in honour of its most illustrious user, Stylophone VST has been dubbed RolfWare. You can download it from www.sparque.co.uk.
This month Martin Walker examines the changes in the latest Cubase VST v3.71 update, and finds you yet more musical freeware!
This month I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time re‑installing and moving plug‑ins. This is partly due to software protection problems (as I discussed in November's PC Notes), but also because of the simultaneous arrival of Wavelab 3.0 and Cubase 3.71. Now that both DirectX and VST‑specific plug‑ins can be accessed by such a wide variety of applications, it makes sense to organise them in a more global fashion, so that a vital folder doesn't disappear during a routine update to another application. Steinberg go along with this policy in Cubase 3.71 (more on this later), and if you are a VST owner it will pay you to read the remainder of this column carefully before installing the latest update.
Cubase VST 3.7 revision 1 appeared on the Steinberg web sites in December (the easiest way to find the download pages is to follow the links from www.steinberg.net), but judging by the amount of traffic on the Steinberg web site at the time, many of you may have given up trying to download it, or have waited for confirmation of its stability before taking the plunge. Steinberg have upgraded their servers considerably, but despite this I experienced severe problems. I tried for three days to get a reliable link, giving up on several downloads when speed dropped to a yawn‑inducing 700 bytes/second. Finally, on the third day I got a reasonable 2kb/second download speed (I can get 5kb/second with some sites), but sadly no file sizes were indicated, so I had no idea how long the download would take. However, having waited this long I stuck with it, and 85 minutes later I finally finished downloading the 9Mb update file for my VST/24!
Thankfully, you can use these latest 3.7r1 files to upgrade any version of Cubase VST from 3.5 to 3.7, but you do need to be careful to get the correct one to suit your own version — Cubase VST, Cubase VST Score, or Cubase VST/24. You can also download a much bigger universal file that copes with all three products, but I doubt that many people will take Steinberg up on this!
Unfortunately I got a couple of problems while running the update. The first time it aborted part‑way through because it couldn't open the Espacial.dll file for updating. This turned out to be because this new version of VST creates an entirely separate VSTplugins folder for global use by other applications, but leaves the original in place inside the Cubase folder itself. My original VSTplugins folder had the Espacial.dll file in it, so acting on a hunch I simply copied this across into the newly created VSTplugins folder (Program_Files\Steinberg\VSTplugins), and the next time the update completed perfectly.
However, during the required reboot a 'file not found' message appeared for Cubase32.vxd. Cubase 3.71 no longer uses this file and had removed it from the Windows\System folder, but neglected to remove the reference to it in my System.ini file. You can either ignore this message, or get rid of it for good by manually deleting the line 'device=cubase32.vxd' in the [386Enh] section of System.ini. Sadly, despite the fact that VST now ignores the Cubase32.vxd file, it is still required by all plug‑ins from Steinberg/Spectral Design that use dongles (such as DeClicker, DeNoiser, Loudness Maximiser, and Spectraliser). You do get the option during the update to create backup versions of every file involved, so that if you run into problems you can 'roll back' to the previous version. I took advantage of this and simply copied the Cubase32.vxd file back into Windows\System from the Backup folder to cure the problem with these plug‑ins (alternatively, you could just re‑install them). You still don't need the entry in System.ini, just the file itself. All in all, this was one of the most long‑winded updates I've installed.
Tweaks And Squeaks
VST‑DX Wrapper Lite SpinAudio software have released VST‑DX Wrapper Lite, a DirectX format plug‑in that allows you to load and use VST plug‑ins in applications that only support DirectX ones, such as Sound Forge, Acid, Vegas Pro, and Cool Edit Pro. Here it is running the free Karlette echo I mentioned in last month's column inside Cool Edit Pro. It works with Windows 95, 98, and NT, and is completely free: you can download it from www.spinaudio.com. A Pro version will be released in February.
So what does the update address? Well strangely the bug that got everyone hot under the collar in 3.7 (that DirectX plug‑ins with stereo in/stereo out capability appeared only in the left‑hand channel) has been fixed, but Steinberg don't mention this in their otherwise comprehensive Version History file, which does list another 11 bugs that have been fixed. These include different latency values for VST Instruments in stop and play modes, and a memory leak in the Dynamics window.
In addition there are several new features. The new freebie plug‑ins (Neon 2 and Karlette) are included, as well as a new VB1 bass Instrument. This has a neat graphic interface showing the business end of a bass guitar with graphic icons that can be moved to change the position of the plectrum, pickup, and damper. All VST Instruments now have an Edit button on their Mixer channel to quickly launch the associated edit window, and you can audition any audio file before Importing it (a real time saver!).
However, the biggest change is that Cubase can now use a common plug‑ins folder, created outside the Cubase folder so that it can be easily accessed by other applications. Any application can use VST plug‑ins inside this external folder, but there is one major implication, as I discovered when subsequently reviewing Wavelab 3.0. Cubase itself looks first in its internal plug‑in folder when looking for DLL plugin files, and uses these if found. If not, it looks in the external folder. The problem is that anyone like me who has already installed many VST plug‑ins 'internally' could suddenly find that they are not accessible to other applications, which now look at the external folder.
To cure this, I simply dragged the entire contents of the internal VSTplugins folder to the new external one, and suddenly several dozen more VST‑specific plugins appeared inside Wavelab and Vaz Modular. Watch out for Neon though — the newer 1.2 version only gets installed in the External folder, and if you still have the original 1.0 version in the Internal folder, this might get used by Cubase instead. After copying across my internal files to the external folder I've actually deleted the internal folder altogether with no problems to date (and fewer future complications).
Sadly I've had a few problems. My SW1000XG and Gina soundcard drivers are now fighting it out for control of MME output busses — when I activate Bus 2 in the Master Section any signal routed to this still appears on Bus 1, although this could be due to the Beta SW1000XG drivers I currently have installed (as I reported last month, one of the most problematic areas for Cubase VST is soundcard drivers). In addition, most of my existing songs load up with the display for the final couple of channels corrupted on the right‑hand side of the Monitor mixer, although this doesn't seem to happen with newly created songs. Overall, this update has both good and bad points, so whether or not you install it is up to you. Take care out there!
Tiny Tips
Have you ever logged onto a web site to see that an upgrade is available for one of your favourite pieces of software, but can't remember the version number that you already have? With some developers releasing updates every couple of months this can happen quite easily, and there's nothing more annoying than downloading the same update twice. Although you could create a document in your word processor containing the latest version numbers for every application you own, I use a much quicker method.
Every time you install an update, rename the shortcut to it in the Start Menu with the new version number at the end. Examples of the entries in mine currently read 'Cubase VST24 3.71', 'Reaktor 2.0.5', and 'XGedit95 2.645'. It's very quick to rename shortcuts in Windows 98 SE (just right‑click on the icon and choose the Rename option) but in Windows 95 you will need to edit them inside the Advanced section of Settings\Taskbar. The next time you are on‑line and debating whether you need to download a file, it only takes a few seconds to check whether you already have it.
I streamlined this technique still further by creating a separate folder on the Start Menu named Audio Editors, holding shortcuts to all my favourite applications (again, in Windows 98 you can simply drag them from their current positions, and in Windows 95 cut and paste them using Settings\Taskbar). This means that you can find and launch them within a couple of seconds, rather than wading through a nest of other folders. Leave the remaining shortcuts (help files, documentation, uninstallers, and so on) in their original positions to avoid clutter.
PC Snippets
Intel will announce a 1GHz processor in February 2000, but the actual shipping date is likely to be much later in the year. However, 750MHz and 800MHz versions of the Pentium III are expected in the last few days of 1999, so unless AMD manage to pull another rabbit out of the hat, this will let Intel reclaim the title of 'fastest chip' (in clock speed at least). Sadly, industry insiders are predicting that it will be almost impossible to actually buy a system with 800MHz processors for some time, and that many people are getting so fed up with having their state‑of‑the‑art PCs superseded within a month or so that initial sales will be very slow anyway.
Emagic have released their first proprietary soft synth. The ES1 (Emagic Synthesizer 1) does not conform to Steinberg's VST Instrument protocol, but runs with any Logic‑series application from version 4.0 onwards, and claims a "rich basic sound, punchy filters, flexible modulation possibilities, and extremely fast envelopes." In the UK it can be ordered direct from Sound Technology for £59 including VAT.
Also available as free downloads are version 4.1.1 updates for Logic Audio Platinum, Gold, Silver, and MicroLogicAV. All products now support the ES1 (handy!), and the entire Logic Audio range now also supports both VST 2.0 and ReWire instruments.
Echo have released yet another set of drivers for the Darla, Darla 24, Gina, and Layla range. The main improvements in version 5.02.0 are ASIO buffer sizes down to 128 bytes (4mS latency at 44.1kHz) for those PCs that can manage it, and a DirectSound Format Lock, to force DirectX 6.1 and 7 to open multiple DirectSound outputs correctly (this is a workaround for a DirectX bug). A selection of minor bugs has also been resolved: in particular, Reaktor users will be pleased to hear that its Input function now works.
Nemesys have finally removed the major barrier to mass acceptance of the Lite version of GigaSampler. The S‑Converter utility that converts standard Akai S1000/S3000‑format CD‑ROMs to GigaSampler format is now bundled with GigaSampler LE (£150). Registered owners of GigaSampler LE purchased after October 1st 1999 can apparently get a complimentary copy of
S‑Converter.
Creamware have now released version 1.3 software for the Pulsar system. This includes eighteen new modules for the Modular Synth, eight DSP effects, as well as rewritten drivers for MME, DirectSound, and ASIO, all with greatly reduced latency. Users can download this upgrade free of charge.