Vst turning 20? Really?!!?

[sprnva]

I thought it was VST effects that came first (inside Cubase) and then the instruments came later. Maybe I have it mixed up.

There was also DXi on the Windows side. I guess over time it lost the format war to VST.

[zerocrossing]

So, basically VST's impact on music-making could be on par with the impact of amplification of instruments? Or even greater in the long run? Les Paul = Steinberg? Okay, I guess it might not actually be Les Paul? Too lazy to research it.

He did invent multi-track recording, didn't he? I'd say that's something.

[zerocrossing]

So according to SOS, Steinberg first released the VST sdk in 1996.

That was 20 years ago.



Time goes by way too fast.

I referenced "Going Back to Cali" by LL Cool J to a twenty year old yesterday and she looked at me like I was a thousand years old. When she told me she had not been born in 1988, I went to my front porch and started yelling at kids who were on my yard.

[zerocrossing]

Just makes me wonder if a vst also can be considered to be vintage same as hardware? ..if so I guess Model E should be considered to be vintage by now

I don't think it translates that way. How many kids are playing Pong? Yeah, you might find an emulation running on something and a hipster playing it for hipsterish reasons, but computer tech has moved on in a way that analog tech hasn't. Sure, a Voyager has a digital assist from it's on board computer, but it's analog engine isn't very different from the tech that was in the original Model D.

But if you enjoy Model E and it makes the sound you want in your music, then have at it. Humans haven't gotten smarter in 20 years. Any shortcomings Model E might have are more likely due to limitations of the processing speed an average computer had at the time. Creamware got around that by making hardware cards to give CPUs some help and as an owner of those old emulations, I have to say that they're still very good and have only pretty recently been equaled by Diva and Monark. That said, I don't know how many revisions have been made to Minimax since it's release, but it still sounds good to me. Basically I'm saying that Steinberg had to cut corners to make Model E run, but Creamware didn't have to, as much.

[aMUSEd]

I thought it was VST effects that came first (inside Cubase) and then the instruments came later. Maybe I have it mixed up.

No it was fx first. 3+ years earlier.

[Numanoid]

Time goes by way too fast.

Yeah, Neon is still the VST to get

BTW, how many Cubase versions have there been since '96 ?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I remember using VAZ Modular in 1999/2000 and using Hubri's Loopback device to get it to play nice with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 back in my dorm room. A year or so later (it's so hard to remember), I got a copy of M-Tron (before it went Pro, and when G-Force was still G-Media). This is back in the days of DXi format, and the Fxpansion VST Wrapper (I think at one point they may have been calling themselves Amulet or something like that...could have been a different company). I even met Angus from Fxpansion at an early-2000's AES convention. That was all a long time ago...

It was mind-blowing at the time, and still is to some extent. As someone who loved the sound of The Rentals first album, having a Moog in my computer in the form of Model E was insane! I had no idea how bad it sounded compared to the real thing but didn't care, I was using it in everything I was recording. Now look where we are with something like Diva, Monark, or RePro-1.

Someone may want to debate it, but I'd think VST has been the biggest advancement in studio technology since multi-track recording became possible.

The thing I'm most surprised about: latency still being a thing. 15 years ago, I'm sure I was convinced that there'd be no such thing as latency 10 years later, let alone 15. The other thing that surprised me: CPU's still getting maxed out.

[Numanoid]

but I'd think VST has been the biggest advancement in studio technology since multi-track recording became possible.

You forgetting MIDI ?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

but I'd think VST has been the biggest advancement in studio technology since multi-track recording became possible.

You forgetting MIDI ?

Like I said, someone would argue it! MIDI didn't cross my mind, so yeah, maybe since MIDI.

[Numanoid]

For example, when loading a VSTi like Kontakt, I'm still dealing with MIDI channels when I load more than one instrument, whether to put them to different channels, or omni, so can't really see VST tech without MIDI

[incubus]

And it still sucks ass!



It's been a while!

[lectrixboogaloo]

VST is great. But, it's not like vst was the invention of the audio plug in. Plug ins would have been around anyway.

(for instance, waves is older than vst. sound tools/pro tools already had them. jeskola buzz was around before vst instruments in vst2.)

[waiting man]

I remember wanting Mercury so bad. It had colours!
When I tried again oldies like Plex and Junglist all my happy memories were eradicated.

[herodotus]

VST is great. But, it's not like vst was the invention of the audio plug in. Plug ins would have been around anyway.

(for instance, waves is older than vst. sound tools/pro tools already had them. jeskola buzz was around before vst instruments in vst2.)

VST wasn't the first plugin standard, but it was the first open plugin standard that caught on with developers. It is hard to imagine that the explosion of creativity that is attested to by the kvr database would have occurred without such a popular, robust and open standard.

[chk071]

I'm happy there is ONE standard which is popular. And that i don't own a DAW which wants to establish its own standard, which of course is so much better, yet makes the DAW an island system, giving devs a hard time because they have to support different plugin types.