energyXT

I use this VST primarily as a way of chaining other VST-plugins in a non-restrictive way. Especially in hosts that provide very limited chaining capabalities - like Cubase SX - this is a welcome addition. The built-in sequencer is cute, but not quite up to par with other, more mature products like named Cubase. The fact that there is no plugin delay compensation (PDC) in whatever form doesn't help that fact either.

The user-interface is functional but - let's face it - not the prettiest around. Even the fact that you can apply several skins doesn't help that you often have a hard time discerning what the heck it is you're looking at. This is especially true for anything requiring manipulating scores or audio files.

The standalone-version of this plug-in is pretty buggy and will crash and the craziest of times (like, moving a note in the piano-roll). The plug-in is stable when used as a VST, although it is rather cumbersome that the standard-size is rather small and you can't resize it. I complained about this and simply got told that this is the "host's problem". Ah well...

What's even crazier is that it doesn't support multiple VST-outputs from the get go. You have to make copies of the dll and fiddle around with entries in some obscure configuration-file to make that happen. It works, but there sure have to be better and more user-friendly ways to achieve such an important feature.

Support is abysmal and strictly limited to the Kvraudio-forum, where you will often get wildly different (non-working) suggestions to the same problem. The response to several of my feature requests was even downright hostile, leading to a long slew of complaints from the developer. So I guess PDC is out of the question for the time being.

Since I don't expect too much for something costing only $40 I won't be too harsh on the developer, who is likely bogged down by the attention. It is a useful addition as a plugin-chainer and I will keep using it as exactly that.Read Review