KVR Audio

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:41 pm

...Is there anyone here who uses plugin chainers or racks in their hosts? I do some pretty heavy processing with electronica and, it might sound nuts, but I run out of mixer racks even with 64x8 channels. It means I have to open new instances of my host, process stuff in it...gets a little tiresome. I don't use another host, so I can't rewire.

I just wanted to hear what anyone in the knowing has to say about these plugins before I decide to buy one...your experiences and perhaps things to look aout for or avoid...CHEERS!

LBN · Post by **LBN** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:02 pm

I have Chainer and I love it. It's great for creating combinations that you can call up in any host. It also makes a nice host itself when you just want to play VSTis or do some sound designing. Unfortunately it's no longer in development.

My new host, Tracktion, has incredibly useful rack filters that duplicate and expand a lot of the functionality of Chainer. Very cool.

If you're in the market for a new one I would suggest energyXT. It's a host, chainer, sequencer, arp, filter, sampler, and billions of other things I haven't discovered yet. It seems to offer endless ways to combine things. Sometimes you see people post pics of their setups in the energyXT forum and it gives you a new burst of creativity. You can use instances of energyXT within itself. The possibilities seem endless. It's also extremely affordable.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:07 pm

I use either the one built into Tracktion ('rack filters') or eXT. The latter is certainly a bargain, and well worth it just for the wealth of tools it also offers. I admit to hardly using the extra 'tools', but they're there when I DO want them. (ie. the arp, the sampler, and if you want to switch hosts entirely, it's a full-featured sequencer).

Greg

Newbie Brad · Post by **Newbie Brad** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:50 pm

CTAF's free MultiFXVST

Max el Belga · Post by **Max el Belga** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:48 pm

Chainer is my try-out rack by exelence ! If it would have had nice tits and a good as, I´d marry it ! (don´t tell my wife, please )... .. .

SoftJunkie · Post by **SoftJunkie** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:58 pm

chainer is a basic host but extremely fast and stable. how stable is energyXT? i am very interested.

asseca · Post by **asseca** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:05 pm

energyXT is very stable, and has more flexible routing than Chainer. Download and test it yourself...

liquid circuit · Post by **liquid circuit** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:26 pm

A werd of note... CTAF's free MultiFXVST allows you to use (almost?) ANY VST effect in directX-only hosts (ie: Sonar 4). The VST-DX adapter proggie that comes with Sonar cannot convert some effects (ie: SIR) to DX, but it can successfully convert MultiFXVST. So, you can just pop that in, and then open whatever VST effect you want. I've used SIR successfully... but the SIR-Delay plugin is of course needed to successfully sync up tracks not processed with SIR.

Rangtangtang · Post by **Rangtangtang** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:42 pm

Try Console(there is a demo), you can use vsti and vst, route them anyway you like. AnalogX is got something you can use to match SIR up with, that is you got to delay each track to match.

.....................in the hay with mary

djastroboy · Post by **djastroboy** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:55 pm

I tried Console for a while and gave up on it (see my review http://www.kvraudio.com/get/267.html. Now I use eXT to do chains inside my main host.

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:10 pm

I just picked up a Art Teknika Console license so I could use my DX and VST plugs in Magix Audio cleaning lab since there is only 1 external plugin slot per track and 1 on the master. It seems pretty good so far and development is ongoing - don't know about the support yet.
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/267.html

PS - I also have had Xultop Chainer for a number of years and like it a lot...it would not load my DX plugs though so I had to get Console.

cold c · Post by **cold c** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:07 pm

I originally purchased energyXT just for the arpeggiator component, but I have since used it in various other ways including as an effect in SX3 as it allows some nice ways to route and pan other plugins before a delay or reverb (for example distortions, pitch effects, etc) in a simple and non-limiting way.

Trying to do similar routing in SX3 (for example) wouldn't be as simple to set up, or see an overview of, or make changes to, due to the more traditional rack style slots (which don't currently allow an effect to be 'simply moved' to a different slot maintaining its settings, whereas in eXT a plugin's input/output can just be disconnected/reconnected to a different place etc).

/ends energyXT evangelism

AD80 · Post by **AD80** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:16 am

Mr. Slater's Parrot · Post by **Mr. Slater's Parrot** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:46 am

Chainer in every project.

Ext, occasionally.

jeswa · Post by **jeswa** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 4:09 pm

Are there any plugin chainers that can read Nuendo (or Cubase) preset files?
Not the .fxp effect file, but the .xml preset file.
Most people I know have tons of these stored and they refer back to them all the time.

Alternately, is there a utility to convert a .xml file to a .fxp?

Plugin Chainers/Racks