Any decent VST instruments that work with LunaFree?

[casualdave]

Funny, I just saw the previous post about tutorials. That's exactly what I'm working on to post to my Youtube account. The main idea of the tutorial is not just Luna(Mulab) but of setting up a free digital recording studio on your home pc. So the vid will include installation, setup, getting started type stuff of Luna as well as VST plugins. It will have links in the description so people will be able to download as they're watching and be jamming in <10 minutes. The problem I'm having is finding VST instruments that work in LunaFree. I have the unlimited version myself and will recommend buying it and/or getting a copy of Computer Music Mag but I want to be able to get people going right away (and it be FREE) with the basics like a drum machine, bass, some keys and maybe a guitar though I don't know any decent free guitar and some effects. I think the problem is that LunaFree doesn't support multitimbral vst's so if somebody has some idea's that would be great! I don't want to use another host/sequencer/whateveryoucallit because 1) I don't have time to learn something else and I think Luna really has a very easy learning curve for introducing musicians to this type of thing 2) I don't want to use a demo that's just going to shut down or emits noise 3) I been hooked on Jo's stuff since I got my first CM Mag 2-2 1/2 years ago, still use cmuzy's mostly because the version of unlimited I use bogs down(wish you could still buy a key for muzy's but hey, that's how I found Luna) 4) I think it's a very cool and supportive community here at kvr and on this forum. I've gotten a lot of help by reading people's posts and nobody craps on anybody like you see in other forums. I'd like to hopefully finish this weekend since I've got 3 days off so any help is definitely appreciated.


Thanks,
Dave

[pljones]

SFZ. Load multiple copies and load a soundfont or SFZ mapped instrument into each. Done.

Other cool stuff:
Most things by krakli are fun.
LinPlug FreeAlpha (is it still on the CM cover disk?)
MinimogueVA for that Moog essential...

[DaveL60]

Well, the question puzzles me a little, because lots of VST instruments work in LUNA Free, just not multi-timbral ones. One good place to start would be to get a copy of CM's free software special from last spring. And there's always the CM Suite, distributed with the magazine every month.

But, for a candidate set:
* Crystal, for a very versatile synth
* Dr-Fusion2, for a nice drum set
* MrRay (any version) for a good EP
* 4Front Bass Module for a quick and easy bass guitar sound.

With that you can do a nice demo with a bass, drums, and Rhodes trio backing a lead-line in Crystal. Add in the Kjaerhus Classic suite of plug-ins for processing and you should have everything you need to produce a nice tutorial. Now, get to it: I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

DaveL

[muzycian]

Note that multitimbral VSTs do work in LUNA Free, but they only receive on channel 1.

In the Unlimited version, multitimbral VSTs can receive midi events on all 16 channels. (right-click a Part -> "Choose MIDI Channel")

[casualdave]

SFZ. Load multiple copies and load a soundfont or SFZ mapped instrument into each. Done.

Other cool stuff:
Most things by krakli are fun.
LinPlug FreeAlpha (is it still on the CM cover disk?)
MinimogueVA for that Moog essential...

Cool suggestions, man, thanks. I tried getting SFZ last weekend but the site was down but I'm trying again. Looks like they got bought out by cakewalk.

Well, the question puzzles me a little, because lots of VST instruments work in LUNA Free, just not multi-timbral ones. One good place to start would be to get a copy of CM's free software special from last spring. And there's always the CM Suite, distributed with the magazine every month.

But, for a candidate set:
* Crystal, for a very versatile synth
* Dr-Fusion2, for a nice drum set
* MrRay (any version) for a good EP
* 4Front Bass Module for a quick and easy bass guitar sound.

With that you can do a nice demo with a bass, drums, and Rhodes trio backing a lead-line in Crystal. Add in the Kjaerhus Classic suite of plug-ins for processing and you should have everything you need to produce a nice tutorial. Now, get to it: I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

DaveL

yeah, you're right. I just loaded my regular plugin folder and so far everything has worked I've tried. That was a cool special and I was trying to use that drum plugin that looks like a drum set(I had just wanted to download a few easy plugins to keep it simple and uncluttered) and it wasn't working for me so I thought that was it because I tried a mono-timbral drum and that worked. Love Mr Ray and Kjaerhus Classic suite. I use them all the time. Checking the others now. Thanks.

Note that multitimbral VSTs do work in LUNA Free, but they only receive on channel 1.

In the Unlimited version, multitimbral VSTs can receive midi events on all 16 channels. (right-click a Part -> "Choose MIDI Channel")

Thanks, man, that helps a lot. That's why I haven't posted here before, because I didn't want to sound like a dumb@$$. oh, well, maybe my question should be what would be good in a short starter tutorial?

[muzycian]

oh, well, maybe my question should be what would be good in a short starter tutorial?

Imho:

1: setup audio (and midi) so we have sound
2: explain very briefly the basic concepts
3: play around with the startup demo:
-> assign targets
-> plugging in another synth
-> tweak rack level
-> insert effect in rack
-> edit the sequence
-> transpose the sequence
-> ...

So it's just about highlighting the very basics of LUNA / MU.LAB.

In fact i want to make such tutorial(s) too once MU.LAB goes into PreRelease.

But maybe we can bundle our energies and work together on it.

First question: which format are we going to use?

I vote for using simple HTML pages, cfr the docs, because:

-> everyone can use that
-> it's very user friendly as you can just step thru as slow/fast as you want
-> you can simply use links to the docs, or even to other tutorials

I think making a tutorial goes like this:

-> make a scenario = write down what the tutorial should contain and how you're going to arrange this
-> make the necessary screenshots, mp3s, ...
-> write the html page

Then the html page is named as the tutorial e.g. "Setting Up Audio.html" and all the related files for this tutorial (html, png, mp3, ...) go in a single folder which also gets the name of the tutorial, in this case "Setting Up Audio" (thus without the .html extension)

And then the tutorial file + folder goes into the "Tutorials" folder in your MU.LAB folder.

This way tutorials can link to each other.

And in fact we can make the intro tutorial by making 3 smaller tutorials:

1: setting up audio
2: explain very briefly the basic concepts
3: play around with the startup demo

and just make a "intro-tutorial.html" that lists/links to these 3 tutorials.

What do you think about all this?

Oh, last but not least:

Note that MU.LAB has built-in synth sounds and plugin effects. So i would rather focus on using them in an intro tutorial as they're instantly and readily available

You'll see how easy it is to use them (from beta D on)

[casualdave]

Man, I can't wait to see it! I'd love to be a part of the cause if I can but I'm no tech writer. For that part of it you may want to bring in jpumphandle. He's got a nice tutorial that got me really going and he just posted the link again in "Tutorials with Screenshots; Windows and Mac.." forum topic. I'm planning on a video tutorial which will mainly consist of screenshots with me talking over top of it. I am planning on covering the installation and setup including audio and midi as well as installing vst's and if you're going to have some stuff built-in that'll make it easier but I also think installing a vst should be part of a tutorial. Will there still be a free version and will it have the plugin's? At this point I'm planning on using vb-1 bass , GTG DrumSampler II and MrRay73 because they're simple, are tweakable but not confusing and look neat. I hope to have that up this weekend and I'll give you the link and you can tell me what you think and maybe we can work on a more professional version (I don't want to give a 100% commitment because I'm not sure how much free time I'll have, what all you expect and the timeframe but I'll do what I can). The nice thing about youtube video is you can embed it on your site and it will use youtube's bandwidth instead of yours and it will also be a good way to publicize your product. I will be including direct links in the video description so people can just click as they're watching the video on youtube and it will pull up a new browser window with your website. Youtube doesn't really support downloading but something else can be setup up for that, too. How's that sounding?

[muzycian]

Man, I can't wait to see it! [...] I will be including direct links in the video description so people can just click as they're watching the video on youtube and it will pull up a new browser window with your website. Youtube doesn't really support downloading but something else can be setup up for that, too. How's that sounding?

Well, sounds very good

One important thought: i think it would be best to use the latest MU.LAB to make the tutorial so that it is as up to date as possible.

Not only the skin has changed between LUNA and MU.LAB, but also a lot of tweaks and tunings have been done, and of course there also is the addition of the new MuSynth, the MUX, the MuVerb, ...

Please email me so that i have your email address.

Then i'll send you the very latest MU.LAB beta (C2) so you can use that one to make the video.

Oh, and please include whether you're on OSX or Windows.