How to use a Midi VST effect (arpeggiator) in Mulab?

[outbackyak]

Hi again.

How do I set up a Midi VST effect like an arpeggiator to trigger a separate VST instrument?

I'm playing block chords and using Hypercyclic as an arpegiator, and I want it to send its midi note data to Linplug AlphaCM. Hpercyclic gives the option to either use its own internal synth (no problems - works fine) or send the midi data to the VST host (I can't work out how to do it).

I tried putting Hypercyclic in rack A and putting in a send to AlphaCM in rack B. It sort of works for a few seconds, then it seizes up and the notes hang up, getting louder and louder, but not arpeggiating.

I also tried putting both HyperCyclic (set as midi target) and Alpha CM in the MPA, connecting up the midi out of HC to the midi in of Alpha CM ,and the audio out of Alpha CM to Rack A in. I got exactly the same result.

I don't know if I'm just not connecting things correctly, or if this is a problem with HyperCyclic.

Any help would be appreciated.

BTW - is there an "all notes off" button in Mulab?

Cheers,

[MuTools]

I tried putting Hypercyclic in rack A and putting in a send to AlphaCM in rack B.

That's a correct way.

You can also do it even simpler: HC in rack A slot 1, ACM in rack A, slot 2

I also tried putting both HyperCyclic (set as midi target) and Alpha CM in the MPA, connecting up the midi out of HC to the midi in of Alpha CM ,and the audio out of Alpha CM to Rack A in.

That's also a right way!

I don't know if I'm just not connecting things correctly, or if this is a problem with HyperCyclic.

I quickly tried out HC, and i even don't understand what it's doing using it's built in synth

Do others have experience with HC?

[outbackyak]

I've tried this now with another Midi VST Arpeggiator, Arpimedes (part of the TobyBear Midibag midi plugin pack)

I get a similar, but slightly different result - it arpeggiates fine for one cycle of the arpeggio and then stops, but without the hanging notes and increasing volume. I tried it as per your simple one rack method, in the MPA, and using a send from rack A to rack B - all gave exactly the same result.

Any suggestions?

BTW, this is in Mulab Unlimited 2.6.4 - yep, I bought it today

[Bonteburg]

My impression is that Hypercyclic is a fairly strange (possibly buggy) little plug. it doesn't seem to receive note-offs (at least not all of the time) and felt brittle and erratic. Using it in conjunction with any of the MU.LAB synths (no polyphony limit) killed my cpu dead everytime.

[MuTools]

Arpimedes is not a very usable plug, iirc, because it only output its notes on block boundaries, which makes it timing weird. And indeed it only outputs notes for a limited time, i don't know why.

So i'm afraid both Hypercyclic as Arpimedes are not very useful plugs to tryout midi arpeggiating.

So just to double check whether MU.LAB works fine with vst arps i googled for a good easy and free vst arpeggiator plugin, but that doesn't seem to give much interesting results. Strange! So as a matter of test i tried out the Cantanya plugin. All seems to work well in MU.LAB.

Any other good vst arpeggiator suggestions?

[Eggu]

arpeggiators can be found in the independance free package too
http://www.yellowtools.us/cp21/cms/index.php?id=842

[MuTools]

Is that a separate arp vst plugin then?

[pljones]

Any other good vst arpeggiator suggestions?

Add one to MU.LAB?

Add a plug that can have a Sequence assigned, uses MIDI In for Gate and transpose (default to middle C = not transposed but have a control for that). Edit the sequence in the existing sequence editor. (I'm not a great user of arpeggiators but this would be pretty useful.)

[MuTools]

Any other good vst arpeggiator suggestions?

Add one to MU.LAB?

Yes, absolutely the intention, one day.

Add a plug that can have a Sequence assigned, uses MIDI In for Gate and transpose (default to middle C = not transposed but have a control for that). Edit the sequence in the existing sequence editor. (I'm not a great user of arpeggiators but this would be pretty useful.)

Though this is not the same as an arp, it would certainly be a useful plug too

[TheGuysanIdiot]

Hi Jo

Hope you are well.

I tend to use the arps built-in VSTi like Sylenth1 and SYNTH1 and MULAB has NO problem with these synths. BUT, I quite like the MIDI VST ARP4MIDI by XOXOS search for it in Google.

1) Put ARP4MIDI in Slot 1 of Rack A.
2) Put a VSTi synth in Slot 2 of Rack A.
3) Press play in MULAB transport and then use your external MIDI keyboard.

or

4) Draw a long note in a sequence say c2 and press play.

then

5) Fiddle with all the settings in ARP4MIDI to see what the VST can do.

Anyway, I do not think MULAB has any timing issue itself etc with arp style VSTs if the VSTs do odd things it is more likely to be the arp VST coding etc.

OZ

[outbackyak]

I quite like the MIDI VST ARP4MIDI by XOXOS

Yes! I've been playing around with it for about the last eight hours - xoxos' midi plugins were recommended to me in this post I put up a couple of days ago looking for step sequenceers and arpeggiators http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0 . My write-up on arp4midi is on page two of the post.


It really is incredibly powerful and fun to use. Anyone looking for a good midi arpeggiator should get it.

I'm still looking for a freeware step sequencer. I'm trying to find the equivalent of the old hardware step sequencers: banks of buttons and knobs to spit out midi note messages and (hopefully) midi controller messages so I can step sequence (say) the filter cutoff or whatever on the target synth.

Ideally I'd like one that closely models hardware like the moog sequencer or something like this one from synthesizers.com
because this sort of interface tends to give you very different results than a piano roll type sequencer (I can't quite see the point of a step sequencer that uses a piano roll to input the notes - why not just use the piano roll in Mulab?)

No luck so far, but if anybody knows of one please let me know.

Cheers,

[Eggu]

Is that a separate arp vst plugin then?

... if this question was relating to "independence free",
then the answer is NO.
Besides arps there are a lot of other instruments to choose from.

[TheGuysanIdiot]

[outbackyak]

Two plugins that are good for step type inspiration are:

1) Step Machin

2) Stepbeater

just search Google "stepbeater vst" and "step machin vst".

I like using Step Machin for fun and stepbeater has a drag MIDI button.

Obviously MULAB can do step input via piano roll but sometimes messing about with tools like the two above you can accidentally stumble on nice patterns or riffs.

OZ

[pljones]

Add a plug that can have a Sequence assigned, uses MIDI In for Gate and transpose (default to middle C = not transposed but have a control for that). Edit the sequence in the existing sequence editor. (I'm not a great user of arpeggiators but this would be pretty useful.)

Though this is not the same as an arp, it would certainly be a useful plug too

I've thought of another control I'd want: how far into the sequence playback should start when triggered (negative values causing a delay). Both this and transpose to be automatable, of course. (Including from sequences, even from other seq-plugs.)

Now imagine lots of them, each with one note in, in the MPA... whee... mayhem!

[pquenin]

I think there is something nasty in MULAB concerning midi plugins because I recently create one with Synthedit, and it works fine in Synthedit itself, and in Tracktion too. But in MULAB, after a few notes, all is frozen, and I have to kill the application.

It seems to me that MULAB don't handle correctly the midi events produced by the plugin. All is fine if I play notes on my keyboard, while using the plugin : if there is a "midi in activity", the plugin can generate its own midi events without troubles, but if I stop playing, and only produce midi events inside the plugin, then problems occurs.

Do you see what I mean ????????