KVR Audio

adfielding · Post by **adfielding** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:50 pm

Hi everyone! Glad to be on the boards (finally).

I have a bit of a problem at the moment and so far I haven't found any solution to it myself, so I thought I'd turn to the boards. My problem is this: I'm using Reason to write most of my songs, but I'm looking at using VSTis so, naturally, I'm looking for a host. However, all of the hosts I've tried are just way more than I need - I've tried Tracktion and Live, but they both support so many features I'm never going to use and are completely over the top. Add that to the fact that I'm looking for something that doesn't eat my system resources and you can see I'm in a spot of bother.

What I'm looking for is a simple VST sequencer that can be Rewired to Reason. Really, what I'm looking for is something like VSTSeq but with Rewire support and I'm starting to think that such a thing doesn't exist. If anyone has come across anything like this (for Windows, that is) then I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers!

mauseoleum · Post by **mauseoleum** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:52 pm

no way.

Wormhelmet · Post by **Wormhelmet** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:05 pm

What about n-track?

http://www.fasoft.com/what_is.shtm

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:12 pm

Or FL Studio Fruity Edition - I think this supports Rewire (the Express doesnt though or maybe does but just one way)

http://www.e-officedirect.com/FLStudio/ ... rames.html

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:08 pm

aMUSEd wrote:Or FL Studio Fruity Edition - I think this supports Rewire (the Express doesnt though or maybe does but just one way)

I'd suspect that if Tracktion was a bit much for his needs, then FLStudio would be over the top.

Part of the issue is that last time I looked, the Prop's policy on the Rewire SDK did not allow for freeware/non-commercial licensees. That will limit the number of simple/inexpensive Rewire-compatible hosts or clients.

As much as I like FLStudio and Sonar (both of which do Rewire) they are probably not the right choice in this case. I'd stay with Tracktion, or look at Sonar's little brother Home Studio 2 - it does rewire as well.

Doug

adfielding · Post by **adfielding** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:41 pm

Thanks for the quick response guys, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, the problem here is that a lot of what's out there just seems like overkill for what I need - I have Tracktion as a result of the free giveaway, but it just canes my computer when I have that, Reason and EWQLSO Gold running at the same time (the problem isn't entirely EWQLSO - Tracktion tends to eat more RAM than that does most of the time). It does strike me as being a bit strange that I'm the only one looking for a simple sequencer that plays VSTs and supports Rewire, but I guess I am

I tried FL out and that falls in the "overkill" category I'm afraid. I'd consider using something like Buzz if it wasn't for the fact that it's so horribly unstable and the Rewire generator is unstable at best (the same can be said for Tracktion - it doesn't play the first note where I set the marker and VST notes tend to get stuck, which is really, really infuriating).

Part of the problem is resources, but it's also the fact that a lot of host apps have a lot of features I'll never use which clutter up the interface. Maybe Tracktion will grow on me, but I'd like to check for alternatives first.

Thanks again everyone!

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:53 pm

The down-side of Tracktion 1, if I remember right, is that it's far better at handling audio than MIDI. I don't know about the resource issue you mentioned.

If Muzys were still available, I think it did Rewire, and had competent MIDI implementation. Alas, it's not buyable any more

Doug

braj · Post by **braj** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:27 am

I'm guessing if Tracktion was too much for your computer, then anything else will likely be as well. Maybe save for a new comp and use Tracktion, since you already have that for free? I can't think of anything more straightforward as a ReWire host (besides Live anyway).

adfielding · Post by **adfielding** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:45 am

Thanks again everyone. It's not that I particularly dislike Tracktion, and it runs fine on my cmoputer until I start trying to use VSTis as it's such a memory hog (I'm using a 512mb system), but the processor handles it fine. I'm guessing from this that my prayers will remain unanswered for now... I'll give Computer Muzys a try sometime as I never did get round to trying that out properly. Cheers.

duncanparsons · Post by **duncanparsons** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:52 pm

I would give another point to NTrack.

It has recently moved from v3->v4, and has achieved stability again. It has Rewire (as a host, but then I guess thats what you are after), and from what I understand on the forum it works as it should.

It has a low resource footprint, and copes with most things. It's MIDI editting is basic but very serviceable.

HTH
DSP

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:15 pm

adfielding wrote:I'll give Computer Muzys a try sometime as I never did get round to trying that out properly. Cheers.

ComputerMuzys did not have Rewire unfortunately.
Only the full version of Muzys did. But alas it's no longer available.

Caleb

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:47 pm

I recommend you persevere with Tracktion..

Investigate the freeze and render funtions if your machine can't keep up..

Shamanix · Post by **Shamanix** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:55 pm

I'd recommend Fruity or Orion

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:36 pm

adfielding wrote:It's not that I particularly dislike Tracktion, and it runs fine on my cmoputer until I start trying to use VSTis as it's such a memory hog (I'm using a 512mb system), but the processor handles it fine.

In other words I hear you saying that the problem is not with Tracktion itself but with the VST's you feed it with. Then I can tell you that you'll get simular problems in other hosts when you feed them the same VST's.

Any VSTi's in particular you have a problem with? Some are notorious... Maybe inserting more RAM sticks is an option. Sometimes these kind of issues can be resolved by optimising the Windows page file settings.

Also there is a temp file for Tracktion initially set to 64MB. Maybe that is too much for your needs. And how do you use ReWire? One stereo pair (most efficient) or a channel for each instrument (less efficient) ?

Mephit Blue · Post by **Mephit Blue** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:46 pm

I agree with the others that Tracktion is likely the best you are going to find.

Instead of getting a different sequencer, perhaps you should invest in more memory. The cost of 512mb is just a bit more than an inexpensive host.

The freeze function in Tracktion is also a godsend to help in these situations. I used it for the first time on the KVR project and freezing a couple of tracks dropped the CPU usage down a lot. If you've finished the Reason part(s), freeze those tracks and CPU usage jumps way down.

A couple of people mentioned N-Track. I had the previous version and abandoned it for Tracktion. The new version might be much better, but I would have trouble seeing it being more light weight than Tracktion already is.

Simple, Rewire-able VST sequencer