VSTi/DXi to MIDI hosts?

n-Track Studio Discussion Forum
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Slightly OT

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I’m looking for an app that will allow me to send MIDI data to a VSTi or DXi as if it was a MIDI port from an app that does not have native VSTi/DXi capability (specifically, Encore). To rephrase: I’d like to compose in Encore while using sounds from a VSTi/DXi rather than the default Microsoft wavetable sounds.

Does anyone know of an app that will do this, or am I missing something in my Windows (XP) configuration? Searching on Google has not been fruitful.

Thanks,
KªRL

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Hey Karl,

I don’t know Encore, but for VSTi plugins you should be able to use a combination of MIDI Yoke (virtual MIDI I/O ports) and MiniHost (a standalone VSTi host). Install them both as instructed, then (1) set your app’s MIDI output to one of the MIDI yoke ports, then (2) set MiniHost’s MIDI input to the same MIDI Yoke port as in Step (1) via the MIDI menu. Set up your VSTi plugin in MiniHost, and you should be off and running…

Also, I believe MiniHost needs ASIO drivers, so if you only have WDM and not ASIO, you can use ASIO4ALL.

Not sure how robust this solution is for serious work (MiniHost crashed on me sometimes–Win 2K), but I tried the concept in N-track and it worked. For DXi, I don’t know of anything similar (but I haven’t looked, either).

HTH!

Tony

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An alternative to Tony’s solution MiniHost, can be Chainer that works pretty nice, at least in my computer. You need also the midiyoke drivers

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Oooooo…that looks cool, marce. Thanks for the link.

Tony

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Thanks guys! I’m halfway there. The issue now is that I’m not getting any sound when triggering via midi. I’m using Midi Yoke as suggested or another I found called Maple Leaf for virtual midi ports to trigger Drumkit From He!l which has NI Kompact for a host. I’m routing things so that Encore causes the keys on DFH/Kompact to move but there’s no sound; however, if I click on one of the keys I get sound. Any ideas?

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Hi Karl. Look at midiyoke page, they have a nice utility called “midiox”, it allows to monitor what is going trough midiyoke or any other midi driver.
If the keys are moved but no sound, maybe velocityes values are to low or a low volume message is sent. Check it in the midiox monitor to get an idea.

luck!