DirectiXer

DirectiXer is an essential tool for Cakewalk SONAR users who wish to use VST effects and instruments in their compositions.

Although Cakewalk now includes their "VST Adapter" VST-DXi wrapper software with both SONAR 3 and Project5, on a per-plug-in basis, it does not always work as well as DirectiXer. With that said, it is great to own both wrappers to have the other to fall back on when issues arise.

User Interface: Very clean and intuitive; much easier to use than Cakewalk's wrapper.

Sound: N/A

Features: Offers very detailed control over how VST effects and instruments should be wrapped, and it includes a MIDI Loopback device driver for routing MIDI output by a VSTi back to the host (very useful for plug-ins like Steinberg's Groove Agent). Includes plug-in delay compensation for VSTi (even works with SIR convolution reverb), has settings for forcing a VST effect to behave as a VSTi (for pitch correction and vocoder plug-ins), allows for alternate VST window sizing methods, and has variable rendering settings per plug-in. One downside that I noticed is some VSTi that sync their tempo to the host do not work correctly, unlike with the Cakewalk counterpart.

Documentation: Very good. Includes description of the technical differences between VSTi and DXi.

Presets: N/A

Customer Support: Excellent. Tonewise even offers a listserv and beta tester program that openly accepts reports on badly-behaving VSTi to improve DirectiXer for later versions. Kirill, the lead developer, went out of his way to support PDC and Groove Agent.

Value For Money: Excellent; I prefer it to the Cakewalk VST Adapter for 95% of my VSTi.

Stability: Very solid. Some wrapped VST plug-ins will crash with it, which I would presume is the fault of the plug-in developer and not a problem with DirectiXer itself in most cases.

Overall, I would recommend this product to Cakewalk users who seek better flexibility, control and organization with respect to their VST plug-ins.