KVR Audio

KTlin · Post by **KTlin** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:34 pm

Hi folks

I'm looking for a VST host similar to Patcher from FLStudio. I really love that plugin. Especially the fact that you can see all the modules (instruments and effects) stacked one on top of the other, in a rack-like fashion similar to GuitarRig and Reason, so you don't have a mess on the screen when you have a lot of plugins inserted on a track, and you don't have to go back and forth to each plugin's window. I think this is the way any DAW should work with the plugins, all displayed in a rack, so you can have an overview of all the parameters and go from one plugin to the next just by scrolling in that rack. If I'm not mistaken, only Reason and to some extent StudioOne 3 from Presonus have this kind of workflow.

Then, I also love about Patcher the fact that you can host instruments as well, not only effects, make very complex MIDI/audio routings between the modules and then use the Dashboard to create the "macros".

But I don't use FLStudio and unfortunately Patcher is not available as a separate VST plugin.
The ones that I know of, that came pretty close to Patcher are Mutools' MUX and DDMF metaplugin, but those don't have the ability to display VSTs in a rack, one on top of the other.

Anything else?

Cheers

pheeleep · Post by **pheeleep** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:45 pm

MAGMA by Nomad Factory

Taifunk · Post by **Taifunk** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:00 pm

IL Minihost Modular there is no rack but it is very similar to patcher and it's free.
https://www.image-line.com/support/FLHe ... odular.htm

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:33 pm

+1 for Magma.......

Also I really love P&M's Chainer.....

KTlin · Post by **KTlin** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:47 pm

pheeleep wrote:MAGMA by Nomad Factory

I tried Magma some time ago. It does load 3rd party VSTs but unfortunately it doesn't display their GUI in the rack, it opens them in a separate window, and I don't think this has changed in the newer versions.

Taifunk wrote:IL Minihost Modular there is no rack but it is very similar to patcher and it's free.

Yeah, Minihost is very promising, but unfortunately, as you said, it doesn't feature the rack and the dashboard like Patcher does. Also, its development seems extremely slow and a lot of people complained that so far it's very buggy. If they'll add the rack and the dashboard and solve the bugs it will be exactly what I'm looking for.

Teksonik wrote:Also I really love P&M's Chainer.....

I think I tried it some time ago, but I don't remember what I didn't like about it. I'll demo it again in a couple of moments.

Cheers

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:55 am

MuTools Mux

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:40 am

search kvr threads for 'modular host', you'll find multiple existing threads with lists of them.

BDeep · Post by **BDeep** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:40 pm

I don't think there's anything that would display GUI's of 3rd party plugins within a rack. Not sure how that would work either, as a it would have to fit both XFer DJM Filter (very very tiny) and Dmitry Sches Tantra (huge).
Soundtoys V5 looks promising though, which gives you what you want, albeit with only ST plugs.

KTlin · Post by **KTlin** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:50 pm

BDeep wrote:I don't think there's anything that would display GUI's of 3rd party plugins within a rack.

Yeah, unfortunately it seems like there isn't. All the plugins mentioned above (Magma, MUX, Metaplugin, Minihost Modular, P&M Chainer) doesn't display the full GUI of the 3rd party VSTs within a rack.

BDeep wrote:Not sure how that would work either, as a it would have to fit both XFer DJM Filter (very very tiny) and Dmitry Sches Tantra (huge).

I don't see a problem there. The way IL Patcher manage this is good enough for me. It shouldn't be a big deal if you have VSTs with diferent GUI size in the same rack.

BDeep wrote:Soundtoys V5 looks promising though, which gives you what you want, albeit with only ST plugs.

Yes, it's similar to Waves StudioRack which pretty much works only with Waves plugins (and a couple of others), so that doesn't help me.
Also, the signal routing in SoundtoysV5, StudioRack and P&M Chainer is very limited, compared to the possibilities in Patcher, MUX and Metaplugin.

Cheers

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:02 pm

Is this anything like it?

http://www.vstforx.de/

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:11 pm

KTlin wrote:Hi folks

I'm looking for a VST host similar to Patcher from FLStudio. I really love that plugin. Especially the fact that you can see all the modules (instruments and effects) stacked one on top of the other, in a rack-like fashion similar to GuitarRig and Reason, so you don't have a mess on the screen when you have a lot of plugins inserted on a track, and you don't have to go back and forth to each plugin's window. I think this is the way any DAW should work with the plugins, all displayed in a rack, so you can have an overview of all the parameters and go from one plugin to the next just by scrolling in that rack. If I'm not mistaken, only Reason and to some extent StudioOne 3 from Presonus have this kind of workflow.

I don't know the IL patcher but how could you have anything that hosted different VST plugins in a rack when they are all such different sizes and shapes? Reason handles this by having a standardised interface (and I guess Soundtoys will too), the only way I can see a rack working like in Guitar Rig would either be for all plugins from one manufacturer having a rack (as in Soundtoys and Plug and Mix) or the rack not showing the whole GUI but just selected params using a standardised generic interface. The latter is how NI Kore 2 handled it, possibly the closest to what you want, I suspect that new Akai VIP host does something like that too (but I don't think it supports fx yet).

KTlin · Post by **KTlin** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:06 pm

aMUSEd wrote:I don't know the IL patcher but how could you have anything that hosted different VST plugins in a rack when they are all such different sizes and shapes?

At 3:30 in the video you can see how the rack in Patcher looks. It really doesn't matter if the VSTs have different GUI size.

Deep Purple wrote:Is this anything like it? www.vstforx.de

Not really. Like MUX and Metaplugin it does have a very powerful routing scheme, but not a rack.

KTlin · Post by **KTlin** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:17 pm

aMUSEd wrote:....The latter is how NI Kore 2 handled it, possibly the closest to what you want

I never understood why NI discontinued the Kore2 system and didn't replace it with something else.

BDeep · Post by **BDeep** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:55 pm

Maybe Komplete Kontrol will end up in the same ballpark, but I'm pretty sure it won't feature any elaborate routing possibilities.

Anything like IL's Patcher? With GuitarRig / Reason-style rack for VST's