Possible to wrap a "midi" vst in mfx?

[fandango]

One of the things I find a little dissapointing in Sonar is that I can't use any VSTs as inserts on MIDI channels. It used to be easy to stick, say energyXT, in front of a synth in Tracktion as an arpeggiator.

I must be doing something wrong, because the in-built MFX Arpeggiator seems to be awful. Despite resetting all the controls, etc., it sometimes misses out notes and, if you push legato up too high, it doesn't play notes at all.

I'd like to use a different arpeggiator in Sonar, but there doesn't seem to be any MFX alternative to the Sonar one and, given that MFX is windows only, and VST is cross-platform, I wondered whether there was a wrapper for VST which would allow VSTs with a MIDI output to be used inside Sonar's MFX area?

[whyterabbyt]

Sonicbytes ERA is available as an MFX, and will do arps.

You should be able to use energyXT within Sonar using DirectiXer, and a MIDI loopback as well. Or, slightly less obviously, use eneregyXT, a MIDI Loopback, and MIDI-over-TCP/IP software (like Tobybears')

[fandango]

Thanks for the heads-up.

ERA is a nice arp/generator, though probably a bit overkill for my needs. I'm wondering if I should just write a CAL script to convert chords to notes manually. A bit like FLStudio's arpeggiator tool for destructive MIDI editing.

I'm curious about the MIDI loopback. Can you have a MIDI track control another MIDI track? Or do you mean have MIDI Track 1 with energyXT output to Midi Yoke 1 and have MIDI Track 2 receive it's MIDI input from Midi Yoke 1?

[whyterabbyt]

Thanks for the heads-up.

No problem.

ERA is a nice arp/generator, though probably a bit overkill for my needs. I'm wondering if I should just write a CAL script to convert chords to notes manually. A bit like FLStudio's arpeggiator tool for destructive MIDI editing.

You should also be able to use the MFX destructively by applying it to a MIDI region. I think.

You could also look at MFXScript if you're doing it offline; Visual Basic scripting as an MFX.

I'm curious about the MIDI loopback. Can you have a MIDI track control another MIDI track? Or do you mean have MIDI Track 1 with energyXT output to Midi Yoke 1 and have MIDI Track 2 receive it's MIDI input from Midi Yoke 1?

The latter. Track 1 MIDI->exT->Loopback In(->)Loopback Out->Track 2

[kevink]

It *ought* to be possible to build a VST->MFX wrapper, but it does not appear as if anyone has done one. I'm seriously considering writing one myself, but it won't be done any time soon...

[deastman]

Another approach is to insert eXT as a VSTi in Sonar, being fed from a MIDI track. Then host your synth VSTi inside the eXT instance.