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User Reviews for Steinberg V-Stack

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By johnrule
On 12th June 2009
Version: 1.2.0.22

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johnrule

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Yes | No		 I am not sure why this thing is such an 'abandoned child' because it is extremely useful and powerful. I have been trying out different VST hosts on different platforms for several years now, and I still gravitate back to VSTack. It seems solid, and I just finished testing it in Wine version 1.1.23 (Ubuntu Studio) and it works great (you need to add some fonts though)! I also recently tested it successfully on Windows 7, so it looks like it will be around for a while. Unfortunately, the MacOS version is compatible only with PPC processor machines. I haven't tried it in any kind of emulation mode on MacIntel machines though; it is fairly encapsulated (i.e. it is not dongle or hardware dependent) so it might work.

The engine is built on Steinberg’s SX engine, so you get much of the mixer and routing capabilities of their full blown sequencer, along with some decent EQ (parametric and waveform). The main function of this application is organizing VST instruments and FX, and it does that quite well. You get 16 slots for Instruments and 17 slots for FX (5 insert, 8 sends, and 4 Master). Each instrument is dynamically assigned channels in the main mixer according to its outputs, so a Kontakt instrument with 8 outputs (for example) will show up with eight mixer channels when it is loaded. You can also use external controllers (like Houston or Mackie) for controlling the mixer section, or you can assign a 'generic' controller using any incoming midi port.

What do you need this for? You can setup an external computer to offload your VST synths and/or FX easily…without the hassle of a proprietary VST hosting system. And because it will run under Wine in Linux, you will have more freedom from a specific operating system or hardware. Even though we have computers with 8 cores now, it seems like they are never powerful enough…so it is good to have an option.

The only downside is the disconnect that you have from the rest of your system; there is no facility for recalling presets through midi (or any other native function). It is certainly possible to script something that will do this, but that is beyond the capabilities of many. I am hoping that this review will reinvigorate interest in this product, and that Steinberg might add simple features like snapshot recall through midi (or network). Regardless, it is definitely worth the $49 dollars they are asking for whether they add these features or not.

A few more interesting features:

- System Link support
- Midi stacking
- Multiple controller input support
- Key Zone and transpose
- EQ waveform curve
- Channel grouping/linking
- DirectX support
- Almost everything in the mixer is controllable through midi

I know that it may seem rather outdated to some of you, but I find that it is still a useful and versatile tool, and a very inexpensive alternative to very expensive hardware/software.
 
    
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