KVR Audio

nrcpma · Post by **nrcpma** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:28 pm

My wife produces her own music using Sonar 4 Producer and is looking for an EQ that is accessible with some knobs. The mouse driven EQs are not at all accessible for her. Are there any software EQs that you can use with a breakout box? This is what blind musicians need. We have a midi keyboard with all kinds of additional knobs and faders but I have not been able to get any of them to work with plugins.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Sat May 06, 2006 5:28 pm

With midi learn, any VST can be controlled with a fader box or any other hardware controller.

There was a thread here recently how midi learn exactly works in each host, but Sonar was skipped.

But I did find this: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117794

[edit: the conclusion seems to it can't be done (easily) in Sonar, but other hosts than Sonar seem to do it fine.)

And welcome to KVR !!

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Sat May 06, 2006 5:53 pm

But surely C00kie there must be some eq plugins that respond to MIDI?

I'm also quite sure that all the keyboards with faders and knob have facilities to configure the controllers to send any CC value, to match those of the plugin.

Parametric eqs might not commonly support MIDI control, but maybe some graphic eqs? Anyway a workaround is energyXT as a wrapper - load the eq plugin inside energyXT plugin, and energyXT will allow to map VST plugin parameters to MIDI CCs, even if the plugin does not respond to MIDI.

sunny days,

.jon

nrcpma · Post by **nrcpma** » Sat May 06, 2006 6:09 pm

Thanks you guys. Can you tell me what energyXT is? Is is a vst rapper? I would like to try it out. Also where can I get it.

Thanks for your time and comments!!
Chris

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Sat May 06, 2006 6:23 pm

energyXT is a unique thing - it can be used as a VSTi, a VST effect or as a standalone host (I use it as my main host). It has many uses, best description is a swiss-army knife of the virtual studio as I honestly don't know any other ausio program with so many uses.

Many use it to enhance their host's capabilities, as a wrapper with extra functionality. Download the demo here:

http://www.xt-hq.com/

it's fully functional, only restriction is that you can't load the saved files.

aetmos · Post by **aetmos** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:32 pm

This is what blind musicians need.

Is she actually able to produce tracks in Sonar blind? That's really interesting. Do you just have all of the functions routed to external controllers?

nrcpma · Post by **nrcpma** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:07 pm

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Yeah, she uses some very specialised scripts for a screen reading software called JAWS. It is what Ray Charles used to use. The scripts are called Caketalking 4. Basically, they read the screen in a very very sophicsticated way. They also create a huge range of keyboard shortcuts that let you do just about anything. I am a decent engineer, but my wife is much much quicker using her shortcuts and JAWS scripts. I'd say she is a lot quicker than virtually anyone on 90% of the tasks. BUT and here is where she struggles, anything that is graphic is very difficult. Any wave editing, she gets me or another engineer to do. And although she has access to her keyboards and many soft synths, the things she doesn't have access to are plugins like compressors, eqs, reverbs etc. It is a bit frustrating for her because she knows exactly what she wants to do but has to tell someone else and it doesn't always work out. That is why we want to find something hands on that we could use with Sonar.

Chris
www.kiskadee.net (http://www.kiskadee.net) (my wifes site)

multree · Post by **multree** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:11 pm

what about this liquid channel from focusrite.... ?

aetmos · Post by **aetmos** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:58 pm

Wow, that's really interesting. I never would have guessed it would be possible to use a DAW without being able to see it. Best of luck finding a solution that works with Sonar. I'm fairly certain both Cubase and Logic allow you to map MIDI controllers to effects, if that's at all helpful.

EQ Breakout box?