5 ms·

This might be a bit tangential, but does anyone know a way to host a VST plugin in a container you can send midi notes to programmatically?

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
I didn't even know I wanted this answer, but now I do... I wonder if just opening the VST in FL Studio and sending using mido would do it? (https://github.com/mido/mido https://github.com/mido/mido)
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
"Container" is a very overloaded term in this context. Plugins run inside "host" applications. I do not know of any way to do this inside a browser. Running it inside a Docker-like container seems to have more or less zero purpose from my perspective.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- genericacct 6y ago
  If i were running windows I'd be extremely suspicious of free VSTs as they are basically executables; running them in a virtualized environment would give me peace of mind.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    Bitwig might do something like that i.e. Ableton crashes if a VST goes, Bitwig doesn't
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      Bitwig runs plugins in a separate process. That process has full access to the same environment as Bitwig (filesystem, network, machine state, etc. etc.)
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Then you'd choose to run the DAW/host in a virtualized environment too.
6AA4FD 6y ago
This might not be the answer you are looking for, but this is one of the things you use a DAW for. If you have a project where you need to use a programming language to live generate midi, I would recommend taking a look at puredata for generating that MIDI, and a plugin host from this list[1]. You could probably use one of the programming libraries in that list for jack to write a program that uses the jack midi api directly. 1: https://jackaudio.org/applications/ https://jackaudio.org/applications/
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  There's absolutely no reason to use JACK to write such a thing. Native audio/MIDI APIs on every platform are a better fit in almost every way. ps. I wrote JACK (with a lot of excellent help)
  - mcdevilkiller 6y ago
    Oh, damn!
  - 6AA4FD 6y ago
    Oh okay, thank you for the correction. ps. I love JACK and Ardour, you are awesome!
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      Delighted if they've been useful to you.
snarfy 6y ago
You could use Renoise. It has a lua api [1]. There are some examples of using midi specifically [2]. [1] https://files.renoise.com/xrnx/documentation/Renoise.Song.API.lua.html https://files.renoise.com/xrnx/documentation/Renoise.Song.AP... [2] http://neurogami.com/blog/neurogami-using-lua-to-process-midi-messages-in-renoise.html http://neurogami.com/blog/neurogami-using-lua-to-process-mid...
tekstar 6y ago
On iOS you could do this with AUM, Mozaic, and your audio unit synthesizer of choice.
junon 6y ago
Surprised nobody told you to just get the SDK from Steinberg. It's C++ and super easy to integrate with (I was making a DAW a while back). You can send it midi notes in a strict, basically. SDK is free.
- reitzensteinm 6y ago
  After reviewing the many options posted (thanks everyone!), I think this is probably the right answer. A barebones CLI program that can accept commands over TCP. It looks like it would be fairly short.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Why TCP? CLI vst hosts already exist on Linux (at least).
    - reitzensteinm 6y ago
      Could you give me an example of one? I've seen a couple but they seemed to be for batch processing, not for live use.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
        Gah. Now that you've put me on the spot for my stupid remark, I confess that I can't think of any VST CLI hosts (there are ones for LV2, but's that a different plugin API). I'll ask around and see if I can turn anything up.
        PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
        So here's one: https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson
        reitzensteinm 6y ago
locusofself 6y ago
REAPER has support for multiple programming languages including python, I bet you could program MIDI output to a VST in it. Or maybe max/MSP ?
Cloudef 6y ago
Check out bipscript. You can use carla to host vst as lv2 plugin. http://www.bipscript.org/ http://www.bipscript.org/
spacechild1 6y ago
You can host VST plugins in Pd and Supercollider with the following extension: https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin. Possibilities are almost unlimited.
- spacechild1 6y ago
  Or just use Pd or Supercollider to generate the MIDI and send it to your DAW via loopback (e.g. LoopMidi on Windows)

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago

I didn't even know I wanted this answer, but now I do... I wonder if just opening the VST in FL Studio and sending using mido would do it? (https://github.com/mido/mido https://github.com/mido/mido)

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

"Container" is a very overloaded term in this context. Plugins run inside "host" applications. I do not know of any way to do this inside a browser. Running it inside a Docker-like container seems to have more or less zero purpose from my perspective.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
genericacct 6y ago
If i were running windows I'd be extremely suspicious of free VSTs as they are basically executables; running them in a virtualized environment would give me peace of mind.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  Bitwig might do something like that i.e. Ableton crashes if a VST goes, Bitwig doesn't
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Bitwig runs plugins in a separate process. That process has full access to the same environment as Bitwig (filesystem, network, machine state, etc. etc.)
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  Then you'd choose to run the DAW/host in a virtualized environment too.

6AA4FD 6y ago

This might not be the answer you are looking for, but this is one of the things you use a DAW for. If you have a project where you need to use a programming language to live generate midi, I would recommend taking a look at puredata for generating that MIDI, and a plugin host from this list[1]. You could probably use one of the programming libraries in that list for jack to write a program that uses the jack midi api directly. 1: https://jackaudio.org/applications/ https://jackaudio.org/applications/

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
There's absolutely no reason to use JACK to write such a thing. Native audio/MIDI APIs on every platform are a better fit in almost every way. ps. I wrote JACK (with a lot of excellent help)
- mcdevilkiller 6y ago
  Oh, damn!
- 6AA4FD 6y ago
  Oh okay, thank you for the correction. ps. I love JACK and Ardour, you are awesome!
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Delighted if they've been useful to you.

snarfy 6y ago

You could use Renoise. It has a lua api [1]. There are some examples of using midi specifically [2]. [1] https://files.renoise.com/xrnx/documentation/Renoise.Song.API.lua.html https://files.renoise.com/xrnx/documentation/Renoise.Song.AP... [2] http://neurogami.com/blog/neurogami-using-lua-to-process-midi-messages-in-renoise.html http://neurogami.com/blog/neurogami-using-lua-to-process-mid...

tekstar 6y ago

On iOS you could do this with AUM, Mozaic, and your audio unit synthesizer of choice.

junon 6y ago

Surprised nobody told you to just get the SDK from Steinberg. It's C++ and super easy to integrate with (I was making a DAW a while back). You can send it midi notes in a strict, basically. SDK is free.

reitzensteinm 6y ago
After reviewing the many options posted (thanks everyone!), I think this is probably the right answer. A barebones CLI program that can accept commands over TCP. It looks like it would be fairly short.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  Why TCP? CLI vst hosts already exist on Linux (at least).
  - reitzensteinm 6y ago
    Could you give me an example of one? I've seen a couple but they seemed to be for batch processing, not for live use.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      Gah. Now that you've put me on the spot for my stupid remark, I confess that I can't think of any VST CLI hosts (there are ones for LV2, but's that a different plugin API). I'll ask around and see if I can turn anything up.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
        So here's one: https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson
        reitzensteinm 6y ago

locusofself 6y ago

REAPER has support for multiple programming languages including python, I bet you could program MIDI output to a VST in it. Or maybe max/MSP ?

Cloudef 6y ago

Check out bipscript. You can use carla to host vst as lv2 plugin. http://www.bipscript.org/ http://www.bipscript.org/

spacechild1 6y ago

You can host VST plugins in Pd and Supercollider with the following extension: https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin. Possibilities are almost unlimited.

spacechild1 6y ago
Or just use Pd or Supercollider to generate the MIDI and send it to your DAW via loopback (e.g. LoopMidi on Windows)