Version 1.2 now available in the App Store

dnigrin

Happy to report that Apple has approved and posted new version 1.2 in the App Store (if you're not seeing it yet, it should appear within 24 hours or so).

What's New:

* MIDI Clock now routed from incoming MIDI to plugin, when in MIDI mode

* New Plugin Effect slot available after Plugin Instrument

* New Qwerty Global mode, transmits key presses to plugin even when plugin's custom GUI window is frontmost

* Input mode, Volume, BPM, MIDI device and channel, QWERTY Global device now remembered between sessions

vic_france

Excellent! :)

(yes, the update was there in App Store France ;).

All working as advertised.. the clock does indeed slave to incoming MIDI, and the new Insert Plugin slot is a wonderful addition!. This becomes a really versatile instrument now. :)

I don't know if maybe I never tried the following with earlier builds of Audio Plugin Player, but I now get "Error Loading Plugin" if I try to load a (VST) plugin which is inside a subfolder rather than in the root VST folder (and, of course, most of my VST plugins and VSTis are inside subfolders! :P )

EDIT: false alarm, sorry...

Subfolders do work, unless there is a "forbidden" character in the folder name.

vic_france

Btw, is there any way to unload a plugin effect? (I know we can simply switch it off ;) )

dnigrin

Phew! Re the subfolders.

Good point re: unloading the effect slot, I'll have to implement that. For now, you can unload by trying to load an instrument in the vst effect slot.

F4LLOUT5HLETER

Any chance of adding "save current state"? So we can save our favorite combinations and load them for live performances.

Also DSPDisco Discovery Pro isn't reporting correct preset selection info to Audio Plugin Player. When the bank is changed the preset information doesn't change in the player. Browsing in Audio Player still does change the preset.

One last request would be three fx chain. Would really like just more than one fx at a time. But I love how light weight and nice this software works. Thanks. Worth every penny.

dnigrin

Re: Save Current State - request noted. If I do this, I may make it a "manual" save and "manual" load, as opposed to what others have requested in the past, which is an automatic "reload what I had running the last time I used the app." I worry about that approach because if a plugin was loaded that caused a problem, you'd get into a vicious cycle that way...

Yes, when presets/banks are changed in a plugin - they are NOT updated in A.P.P. Once the plugin is loaded, the presets displayed in the app are static...

Will consider more FX, depending how stable the current new version is, and what the demand is for it. I just don't want to go down a path of parallel/serial chaining, wet/dry mix, etc... Before long the thing will be too complicated. It's meant to be simple.

Thanks for the feedback and nice words!

Ronn

I wonder if there is another way to purchase this plugin from the developer *without* going through the MAS.

I do not use iTunes or the App Store for both software and reasons of location but I have money and am willing to spend it.

P.S. This is a very useful plugin too, IMHO.

gspro

Hello forum, my first time here.

Have a question about Audio Plugin Player. My DAW is Digital Performer which does not support VST plugins, but I have one in particular called RealGuitar which, also has the ability to output to midi (General Midi) for standard midi files.

If I was to use Audio Plugin Player and load RealGuitar (VST) into it, can Audio Plugin Player pass the midi out from RealGuitar, directly to the DAW?

Thank you

vic_france

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:

One last request would be three fx chain. Would really like just more than one fx at a time.

vic_france

vic_france said:

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:

vic_france

Apologies.. I've no idea what caused all these "quotes".. anyways,

I was simply trying to reply to the above with...

I hope you won't consider this to be "spamming" ;), but, if you have DDMF's Metaplugin, you can load that as either an instrument or as an FX, and then configure as many VST(i)s and AUs as you wish, and connect them as you wish.

(and, btw, Dan, I have just discovered that it also gets around my problem of those "forbidden" folder names ;).

dnigrin

Ronn said:
I wonder if there is another way to purchase this plugin from the developer *without* going through the MAS.
I do not use iTunes or the App Store for both software and reasons of location but I have money and am willing to spend it.

At this time, it's only available via the Apple Mac App Store. The overhead in having multiple distribution channels for the app is more than I want to take on at this point, as a solo developer. Sorry and thanks for understanding.

dnigrin

gspro said:
My DAW is Digital Performer which does not support VST plugins, but I have one in particular called RealGuitar which, also has the ability to output to midi (General Midi) for standard midi files.
If I was to use Audio Plugin Player and load RealGuitar (VST) into it, can Audio Plugin Player pass the midi out from RealGuitar, directly to the DAW?

Not sure - is this the plugin you're referring to? I will download the demo and try it out...(though in the description on that site, I see no mention of MIDI output (just drag and drop onto a host MIDI track - is that what you meant?).

dnigrin

vic_france said:
if you have DDMF's Metaplugin, you can load that as either an instrument or as an FX, and then configure as many VST(i)s and AUs as you wish, and connect them as you wish.
(and, btw, Dan, I have just discovered that it also gets around my problem of those "forbidden" folder names ;).

Yes, that's a nice solution to the current limitation of just one effect in the chain...

dnigrin

dnigrin said:

gspro said:
My DAW is Digital Performer which does not support VST plugins, but I have one in particular called RealGuitar which, also has the ability to output to midi (General Midi) for standard midi files.
If I was to use Audio Plugin Player and load RealGuitar (VST) into it, can Audio Plugin Player pass the midi out from RealGuitar, directly to the DAW?
Not sure - is this the plugin you're referring to? I will download the demo and try it out...(though in the description on that site, I see no mention of MIDI output (just drag and drop onto a host MIDI track - is that what you meant?).

So I'm trying the RealGuitar demo, and it opens up in A.P.P. just fine, and when opening the plugin's "Pattern Manager" window, I can successfully drag and drop a sequence MIDI file onto a DAW MIDI track (Ableton Live and Logic Pro are the two I tested). Is this what you were looking to do?

gspro

The RealGuitar vst plugin is a VIrtual instrument plugin which, is also able to output to midi (VST only). This is useful for standard midi files where everything can be seen note for note.
I have not tried APP demo yet, though. Today I'm painting:)

dnigrin

Unfortunately there's no APP demo for you to try - though it won't break your bank if you do want to purchase it. :-)

That said, when I load the RealGuitar plugin into it, I don't see any way to get MIDI from it into directly into a DAW - APP doesn't itself output any MIDI information, and it doesn't seem like RealGuitar is outputting the MIDI from itself directly to the DAW... So I think it won't work for your use case, unless I'm missing something...

vic_france

dnigrin said:
...I don't see any way to get MIDI from it into directly into a DAW - APP doesn't itself output any MIDI information, and it doesn't seem like RealGuitar is outputting the MIDI from itself directly to the DAW... So I think it won't work for your use case, unless I'm missing something...

Yes, at the bottom-left of the GUI, you can set the output to a) Audio (i.e. the sound produced by RealGuitar itself), or b) MIDI, which outputs the MIDI of those same notes, or c) "Both". :)

So the real question is.. "Does Audio Plugin Player offer a MIDI Output?" (and I think the answer is "no"?)

dnigrin

Ah, thanks - yes, I tried that, and confirm that it does NOT work in APP at the moment. I'm not sure if the Max infrastructure I'm using supports MIDI output from plugins, but will look into it.

gspro

I am Stijl going to purchase APP later tonight or tomorrow morning.
It's still very useful for other things aside for the feature I am looking for. I hope you are able to implement the midi out function.

Thank you

dnigrin

I investigated a bit within Max, and it looks like I may be able to do this (MIDI output) in a future release. No promises, but there's a possibility at least!

gspro

If, it is possible, I will be forever grateful.
Now, off to purchase APP.

Again, many thanks for the quick replies.

F4LLOUT5HLETER

dnigrin said:
Re: Save Current State - request noted. If I do this, I may make it a "manual" save and "manual" load, as opposed to what others have requested in the past, which is an automatic "reload what I had running the last time I used the app." I worry about that approach because if a plugin was loaded that caused a problem, you'd get into a vicious cycle that way...

Yes, when presets/banks are changed in a plugin - they are NOT updated in A.P.P. Once the plugin is loaded, the presets displayed in the app are static...

Will consider more FX, depending how stable the current new version is, and what the demand is for it. I just don't want to go down a path of parallel/serial chaining, wet/dry mix, etc... Before long the thing will be too complicated. It's meant to be simple.

Thanks for the feedback and nice words!

I agree. I don't really believe in last load as I'm also a developer. I'm still new to it though. I know how to design but don't know the language as well as others. Kinda new to Objective C and don't know any C++ which seems all audio based stuff is in.

Is there no way to fix the reporting of preset names? Weird. Couldn't you just add a button to refresh preset list?

Also I think every thing is sable for more fx. And I most plugs have wet/dry adjustments. As for parallel I don't think that is a problem because I think most people think of this as a single instrument.

One last thing. Where you choose the vst could you add a way to select an audio input instead? This way you could use it for real time signal processing also. Such as vocals or guitar.

gspro

Hello forum and developer,

Just purchased A.P.P. and wanted to say that this is a really nice tool. I can just load the plugin(s) without firing up the DAW, or test them.

To the developer:

Really nice work, keep it up.

Adriano

dnigrin

Thanks Adriano, I appreciate the nice words. Positive reviews on the App Store also greatly help me (and keep pushing me to enhance the product further!). :-)

Best,

Dan

dnigrin

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
Is there no way to fix the reporting of preset names? Weird. Couldn't you just add a button to refresh preset list?

Possibly, I will see.

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
Also I think every thing is sable for more fx. And I most plugs have wet/dry adjustments. As for parallel I don't think that is a problem because I think most people think of this as a single instrument.

Will consider it. I also don't want to make the UI too cluttered...

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
One last thing. Where you choose the vst could you add a way to select an audio input instead? This way you could use it for real time signal processing also. Such as vocals or guitar.

And just avoid the use of the VSTi completely? I will consider... Not hard to implement, but again, I want to keep the UI as "clean" as possible....

F4LLOUT5HLETER

I think a refresh button that re-instantiates the plugin preset names would work. I don't know though because, I don't know a lot about how the loading procedure actually works. It might have to re-instantiate the whole plugin which would probably wipe the new load and cause more crashes.

As for the audio input I was thinking of making a drop box that is similar to the midi input settings, but instead have live audio in and vst/au instrument. Very cool. You would be able to audition vocal chains and use it in live situations. Especially with chain save/loading.

(or you could add live audio input to the midi drop box that then greys out and deactivates the keyboard gui and the vst instrument if you can get it not to affect latency)

I really admire your customer support and feedback. I think you have a great product that isn't far away from gaining popularity in the pro audio world. A friend of mine was talking about buying a Nord keyboard or something similar and I told him to just buy Audio Plugin Player and use his mac with a midi controller with DiscoDSP Discovery. You player works great with it.

And last I did get a beach ball earlier that made me force quit. I had Discovery Pro loaded with SoundToys Little Radiator in the FX and went to switch it to Don't Crack's V.I.P. Analoger. It could be the iLok switching to non-iLok plug, or one of the plugins freaking out when switched. I tried to load a plugin without a license and got the error message and switched to Analoger without any problem. I then switched from Analoger to Little Radiator without any problem. I then switched from Little Radiator back to Analoger without any problem. So I don't know what caused it.

P.S. The reason I was thinking three fx's in the chain was because I would like Compression, Eq, and some type of modulation or saturation plugin. So it just makes since to have 3 or 4. Like a typical chain would look.

F4LLOUT5HLETER

Another beach ball hang when switching from WavesArts Tube Saturator to Softube Tube Delay. I notice that so far it only does it when Discovery Pro is loaded. When I tried to replicate earlier I didn't have Discovery Pro loaded yet.

dnigrin

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
I think a refresh button that re-instantiates the plugin preset names would work. I don't know though because, I don't know a lot about how the loading procedure actually works. It might have to re-instantiate the whole plugin which would probably wipe the new load and cause more crashes.

Yes, will see what I can do. No promises, but I will see.

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
As for the audio input I was thinking of making a drop box that is similar to the midi input settings, but instead have live audio in and vst/au instrument. Very cool. You would be able to audition vocal chains and use it in live situations. Especially with chain save/loading.

(or you could add live audio input to the midi drop box that then greys out and deactivates the keyboard gui and the vst instrument if you can get it not to affect latency)

Yes, will explore something along those lines, thanks for the suggestions.

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
I really admire your customer support and feedback. I think you have a great product that isn't far away from gaining popularity in the pro audio world. A friend of mine was talking about buying a Nord keyboard or something similar and I told him to just buy Audio Plugin Player and use his mac with a midi controller with DiscoDSP Discovery. You player works great with it.

Thanks for the nice words and the advertising! Greatly appreciated. :-)

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
And last I did get a beach ball earlier that made me force quit. I had Discovery Pro loaded with SoundToys Little Radiator in the FX and went to switch it to Don't Crack's V.I.P. Analoger. It could be the iLok switching to non-iLok plug, or one of the plugins freaking out when switched. I tried to load a plugin without a license and got the error message and switched to Analoger without any problem. I then switched from Analoger to Little Radiator without any problem. I then switched from Little Radiator back to Analoger without any problem. So I don't know what caused it.

So it sounds like the beach ball from Little Radiator to Analoger was not reproducible then? I don't have either of those plugins, will need to see if they have demos that I can try with... At any rate, the challenge for me with the plugin support is that I am dependent on Cycling 74's plugin hosting infrastructure within Max, for problems with specific plugins. So if there *is* a reproducible problem, the best I can do is report it to them, and hope they see some kind of systemic problem with how they are doing things, and they fix it. I know if the past they have been reluctant to things for specific plugins, especially if they find that the plugin developers themselves are doing things in a non-standard way, and that's what causes the problem. Anyway let me know.

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
P.S. The reason I was thinking three fx's in the chain was because I would like Compression, Eq, and some type of modulation or saturation plugin. So it just makes since to have 3 or 4. Like a typical chain would look.

Understood, thanks. Will consider it for future versions....

dnigrin

F4LLOUT5HLETER said:
Another beach ball hang when switching from WavesArts Tube Saturator to Softube Tube Delay. I notice that so far it only does it when Discovery Pro is loaded. When I tried to replicate earlier I didn't have Discovery Pro loaded yet.

So is it accurate to say that if you start APP fresh, and then load Discovery Pro, that every time after that, when switching from Tube Saturator to Tube Delay, you get a beach ball? I'm primarily looking for reproducible problems that I can point the Cycling folks to. Not to say that the non-reproducible ones are not annoying and deserving of fixes too, but it's harder to get Cycling to look at the problem seriously unless its relatively easily reproducible...

F4LLOUT5HLETER

Yeah, I was trying to reproduce the hang since I know that's the most important part of debugging. I couldn't do it. Little Radiator was free for a limited time. And it sounds amazing. All you need is an iLok and they drop the license in your account. It's one of the most accurate analog modeled plugins I've ever used. Very analog in a real world kinda way. Great for using in the fx section with synths to thicken it up nice.

F4LLOUT5HLETER

I found another bug. When you load V-Station and show the plugin and then click on the player you cannot select the plugin gui without hitting the button for "view plugin". It doesn't do that with Discovery Pro. You can select the GUI of discovery by just clicking on the interface anywhere.

Also I got another hang. I was switching several plugins in and out from the V.I.P. Don't Crack bundle and nothing. Then I started loading other plugins. Finally Lexicon Plate did it. I did a force quit and loaded up the player again and tried to load V-Station for the first time. It also hung and I had to force quit. Then I started up APP again and it finally loaded V-Station and then I noticed the bug. It seems that no specific plugin causes the beach ball. It must be an instantiation problem on your end but I can't replicate it every time. But if you switch enough plugins it will happen.

I'm on a MBP 15" i7 quad 2011 early FYI.

dnigrin

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm suspicious that the problem may occur when the app "unloads" the first plugin, and then immediately tries to load the new plugin; perhaps it is trying to do things too quickly before giving the first plugin time to quit gracefully, before starting up the next one. Not sure - will try to investigate a bit to see if I can find the problem.

Not sure why V-Station didn't load up for you after starting APP fresh the first time; for me here it's working pretty reliably (v1.7). One thing I did notice about the selecting the V-Station (and other plugins) - although the title bar of the plugin does not "activate", you *can* still manipulate the controls on the plugin. Is that not the way it is working for you?

dnigrin

Also, for your testing with V-Station, were you using the AU or the VST?

F4LLOUT5HLETER

Ok, V-Station does come to top of stack when you click the title bar. I'm using version 1.7 vst.

Also can you make it so that when your using qwerty mode that you can still play notes when the plugin GUI is in focus? You probably would still need to leave functions for ctrl, shift, and option active for the selected plugin for typing in values and precision adjustments.

I also would like an unload button for just removing plugins.

dnigrin

Re: QWERTY mode when plugin is in focus: that's what the new QWERTY Global mode is for - give it a try :-)

Plugin Unload function is on my list for the next update.

Thanks for the continued feedback!

dnigrin

Plugin unload function is now in the 1.3 update that is now available (along with many other improvements!)

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