VST, RTAS and Pro Tools

[seths374]

Hey,

I will be getting Pro tools soon and I am somewhat confused with the VST wrapper concept. Is there many choices for a wrapper? Can I run more than one VST plugin through the wrapper at a time? I am looking to get some plugins for acoustic and electric piano and mellotron. Some offer them in the RTAS format and VST. Would one format be better for PT if I have the option to choose? Does anyone have any suggestions for some good piano and mellotron plugins? And is there a website that I can check out to make more sense of the whole VST thing?

Thanks for reading

[stillafool]

As far as I know, fxpansion makes the only one. I've heard it works pretty well, with most plugins.

[stillafool]

Vst is the most well supported. Go to the KVR Vst forum (just do a google search; I can't remember the exact URL). The best mellotron plugin seems to be the g-media mellosoftron. They even have a few extra sample CDs of sounds that were sampled off of some famous mellotrons, for not that much money. I think it's at gmedia.com, or something. As far as VST pianos, Steinberg's The Grand is supposed to be excellent, depending on your style.

[No Wave Casio Kitsch]

reFuse also makes one. It's free and there is an OSX and OS 9 version. It will only load VST instruments.....no effects. I don't know how good it is because i've never used it, but you can download it here.


Here is a review of it.


-Giahni

[wenley]

You can try Ugly VST too. Look it up online. It's free, and there's a review of it in one of the Brit sound mags--I think Sound on Sound. I use it to run the B4 in ProTools. The whole VST wrapper thing is really confusing, especially if you don't really understand MIDI all that well. But I've gotten it to work, and the ability to use VST plugs really opens up the sonic palate. Good luck!

[seths374]

Alright, cool. Thanks guys, I know whats going on now.

[joel hamilton]

ReFuse was a pain in the ass IMO. I used it with reason along side PTLE, and it had to be loaded in a very specific way (in 9.2.2) and crashed a lot.

All the other functions had been very stable for me in a professional environment.

[alexdingley]

FXpansion is now touting that their VST->RTAS wrapper for Pro Tools LE will enable you to use Univeral Audio's UAD-1, and TC's Powercore Powered plugin systems....

has anyone got a report on how well these things work? I'm looking into the Powercore because it gives you a lot of really cool options, and it offers the Access Virus Synth.

[blacklodge ed]

forget the fxpansion wrapper. get bidule. it's free and it rules. check it out here:
http://www.plogue.com/

[dubphaser]

Hey seths,
Let's see what I can answer...

Is there many choices for a wrapper?

Yes. I use the FXpansion VST-to-RTAS adapter with Pro Tools LE/001 on an Athlon XP PC, so I'll comment on that.

Can I run more than one VST plugin through the wrapper at a time?

The amount of plug-in instances you can run at a time depend on your system speed. More processor/RAM = more plugins.

I am looking to get some plugins for acoustic and electric piano and mellotron. Some offer them in the RTAS format and VST. Would one format be better for PT if I have the option to choose?

RTAS is the native plug-in on the PTLE platform. VST has become a pretty universal format that can run on a bunch of different DAW systems. That being said... when budget allows, I prefer to use RTAS plugs because they're specifically written for PTLE. The VST-to-RTAS wrapper works really well and the amount of freeware VST plugs available alone is worth the $99.00 price tag of the FXpansion adapter. Although some badly written freeware plugs have crashed my system.

Does anyone have any suggestions for some good piano and mellotron plugins?

I use the Lounge Lizard plug-in for electric piano sounds and the G-Media M-tron for Mellotron sounds. Both of these are very stable and are totally RAD!!!

And is there a website that I can check out to make more sense of the whole VST thing?

You can check out people's experiences with VST to RTAS adapters at http://duc.digidesign.com/

Peace!