Steinberg V-Stack Instruction Manual

Operation Manual

Operation Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger Wiklander

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as speciﬁcally allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows 2000 and Windows XP are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Table of contents

Introduction

Guided tour

8 Welcome! 9 About the program and the

manual

Installation and

requirements for Windows

12 About this chapter 12 Requirements 16 Hardware installation 18 Installing V-ST

Installation and

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requirements for Mac OS X

22 About this chapter 22 Requirements 25 Hardware installation 26 Installing V-ST

Setting up your

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system

28 About this chapter 29 Setting up audio

(stand-alone)

33 Setting up MIDI

(stand-alone)

35 Setting up VST System Link 41 Activating VST System Link 43 Setting up MIDI for

VST System Link

45 Optimizing audio

performance

50 The main windows in

V-ST

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VST Instruments

58 Introduction 58 Installing VST Instruments 60 Activating and using

VST Instruments

The Mixer

68 About this chapter 68 About the signal flow 69 A word about window

handling

70 Mixer overview 76 Mixer View options 82 Basic mixing procedures 85 Making EQ settings 89 Routing 93 Utility functions

Audio effects

101

102 Background 103 Installing effect plug-ins 105 Using effects 118 The Plug-in Information

window

Remote controlling

123

the Mixer

124 Background 124 Operations 127 Remote control device

specifics

V-ST

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4 Table of Contents

File handling

141

142 File Operations

Menu reference

145

146 About this chapter 146 V-ST

146 File menu 147 Edit menu 148 Devices menu 149 Help menu

151

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(Mac OS X only)

Index

Table of Contents 5

V-ST

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V-ST

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6 Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome!

Thank you for purchasing V-ST

Since Steinberg introduced the VST 2.0 plug-in format a few years back, there’s been a rapid development of VST Instruments – software synthesizers and other sound sources played and controlled from within a host application. There is now a huge number of VST Instruments available, ranging from simple synthesizers and drum machines to exact software replicas of vintage synths and extremely advanced sound modules with no equivalent in hardware.

VST Instruments can often be more flexible than hardware synthesizers, allowing for total recall and full automation of all parameters, patching and mixing in the digital domain, graphic interfaces and solutions that wouldn’t be possible in hardware, etc. However, any computer can only play so many VST Instruments at a time – and typically, the more advanced a VST Instrument is, the more processing power it requires.

Enter Steinberg’s VST System Link! This revolutionary system makes it possible to have several computers working together as one large system, with no other requirements than ASIO compatible audio interfaces with digital audio connections. Computers connected via VST System Link will freely exchange audio and MIDI data, all in perfect sync, creating a digital audio network system.

This provides an excellent solution to the problem of CPU-hungry VST Instruments: let one computer play audio and MIDI tracks and dedicate another computer to running VST Instruments only, taking full advantage of all available processor power!

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V-ST

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is the perfect application for this: a stand-alone VST Instrument host, supporting up to 16 VST Instruments with full mixing capabilities and VST effect support. The VST Instruments are controlled via MIDI over VST System Link or from a regular MIDI interface (e.g. for live use) and the audio can be freely routed to any outputs on your audio interface. Since there is no editing, event handling, etc. all processing power can be focused on VST Instruments and effects!

We hope you will enjoy working with V-ST

Your Steinberg team.

V-ST

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1 – 8 Introduction

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About the program and the manual

V-ST

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comes for two different operating systems or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X. This manual describes all features in the program, for both platforms. While all features are available for both platforms, items and naming may differ slightly – whenever this is the case it is clearly mentioned in the manual text. In other words:

• If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid both under Windows and Mac OS X.

The screenshots are taken from the Windows version.

Key command conventions

Some key commands in V-ST

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use modifier keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. For example, the default key command for Copy is [Ctrl]-[C] under Windows and [Command]-[C] under Mac OS X.

When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following form:

[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]

For example,

[Ctrl]/[Command]-[C]

means “press [Ctrl] under Win-

dows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then press [C]”.

V-ST

Introduction 1 – 9

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V-ST

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1 – 10 Introduction

Installation and requirements

for Windows

About this chapter

This chapter describes the system requirements and installation procedures for V-ST

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for Windows. Installing V-ST

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is described on page 21.

Requirements

for Mac OS X

To use V-ST

•

A PC with either Windows XP or Windows 2000 installed.

A USB Port is also required.

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, you need the following:

For more details about the computer requirements, see below.

•

A compatible audio hardware.

By audio hardware we mean an audio interface capable of recording and playing back digital audio using your hard disk as a storage medium. For use with VST System Link, the audio interface must have an appropriate ASIO driver (see page 14) and digital inputs and outputs. For using V-ST Windows Multimedia or DirectX drivers can be used, although we strongly recommend ASIO drivers for best performance.

•

To be able to play VST Instruments in V-ST

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without VST System Link, audio interfaces with

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without using VST

System Link, you will also need at least one MIDI interface.

V-ST

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2 – 12 Installation and requirements for Windows

Computer requirements

Hardware

The absolute minimum requirements for running V-ST

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on a PC

are as follows:

•

A 233 MHz Pentium computer with 128 MB of free RAM or an equivalent AMD processor.

Recommended configuration for optimum performance: Dual PIII or Athlon procesor, 1 GHz or faster with 512 MB RAM.

RAM

VST Instruments don’t necessarily require a lot of RAM. However, if you are using a software sampler or drum machine, these typically play the samples from RAM memory. This means the amount of RAM in the computer limits the number (and size) of samples you can play. So, as a general rule, “the more RAM the better” applies.

Wheel mouse

Although a regular mouse will work perfectly fine with V-ST

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, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse, as this will speed up parameter editing considerably (allowing you to change parameter values by scrolling).

V-ST

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Installation and requirements for Windows 2 – 13

Audio hardware

V-ST

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will run with audio hardware that meets the following basic

specifications:

• Stereo.

• 16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Is supplied with a special ASIO driver, or a DirectX or Windows Multimedia compatible driver as described below.

❐

To be able to use V-ST dio interface with ASIO drivers and digital inputs and outputs!

About drivers

A driver is a piece of software that allows a program to communicate with a certain piece of hardware. In this case, the driver allows V-ST

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to use the audio hardware. For audio hardware, there are

three different cases, each requiring different driver configurations:

If the audio hardware has a specific ASIO driver

Professional audio cards often come with an ASIO driver written especially for the card. This allows for communication directly between V-ST

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and the audio card. As a result, audio cards with specific ASIO drivers can provide lower latency (input-output delay), which is crucial when using VST Instruments. Furthermore, the ASIO driver provides the means to communicate with another computer via VST System Link.

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with VST System Link you must have an au-

Audio card-specific ASIO drivers are provided by the card manufacturers. Make sure to check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest driver versions.

❐

We strongly recommend that you use ASIO compatible audio hardware (even if you don’t plan to use VST System Link).

V-ST

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2 – 14 Installation and requirements for Windows

If the audio card communicates via DirectX

DirectX is a Microsoft “package” for handling various types of Multimedia under Windows. V-ST

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supports DirectX, or to be more precise, DirectSound, which is a part of DirectX used for audio input and output. This requires two types of drivers:

• A DirectX driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with DirectX. If the audio card supports DirectX, this driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer. If it isn’t installed with the audio card, please check the manufacturer’s web site for more information.

• The ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, allowing V-ST DirectX. This driver is included with V-ST

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to communicate with

, and does not require any spe-

cial installation.

• DirectX drivers allow you to use V-ST

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as a stand-alone VST Instrument host, played via a regular MIDI interface. VST System Link functionality is not supported.

If the audio card communicates via Windows Multimedia system

If the card is Windows compatible, it can be used in V-ST

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. The card then communicates with Windows Multimedia system, which in turn communicates with V-ST

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. This requires two types of drivers:

• A Windows Multimedia driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with the Windows Multimedia system. This driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer, and is normally installed when you install the audio card.

• The ASIO Multimedia driver, allowing V-ST dows Multimedia system. This driver is included with V-ST

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to communicate with the Win-

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, and does not

require any special installation.

• Windows Multimedia drivers allow you to use V-ST

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as a stand-alone VST Instrument host, played via a regular MIDI interface. VST System Link functionality is not supported.

Note also that with Windows Multimedia drivers, the latency is often too high to allow comfortable real-time VST Instrument playing.

V-ST

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Installation and requirements for Windows 2 – 15

Hardware installation

Installing the audio hardware and its driver

Install the audio card and related equipment in the computer, as described in the card’s documentation.

Install the driver for the card.

There are three types of drivers that could apply: card-specific ASIO drivers, DirectX drivers and Windows Multimedia drivers:

Specific ASIO driver

If your audio card has a specific ASIO driver it may be included with the audio card, but you should always make sure to check the audio card manufacturer’s web site for the most recent drivers. For details on how to install the driver, refer to the manufacturers instructions.

DirectX driver

If your audio card is DirectX compatible, its DirectX drivers will most likely be installed when you install the card (as with the Windows Multimedia driver). If you have downloaded special DirectX drivers for the audio card, you should follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions.

Windows Multimedia driver

These drivers are normally included with all types of regular PC audio cards. Some are even included with Windows itself. Depending on whether the audio card is “Plug’n’Play compatible” or not, the installation of the card is done differently:

• If the card is “Plug’n’Play compatible”, Windows will detect the

card once it is plugged in, and ask for the necessary driver disks.

• If not, you need to use the “Add New Hardware” feature in the Control

Panel to install the card and its drivers.

Refer to the documentation that comes with the card.

❐

Should you have an audio card but no driver, please check the manufacturers web site, or ask your music or computer dealer for help.

V-ST

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2 – 16 Installation and requirements for Windows

Testing the Card

To make sure the audio card will work as expected, perform the following two tests:

• Use any software included with the audio card to make sure you can

play back audio without problems.

• If the card is accessed via a standard Windows driver, use the Media

Player application (included with Windows) to play back audio.

Installing a MIDI interface

Installation instructions for a MIDI interface should be included with the product. However, here’s an outline of the necessary steps:

1. Install the interface inside your computer or connect it to a “port” (con-

nector) on the computer.

Which is right for you depends on which type of interface you have.

2. If the interface has a power supply and/or a power switch, turn it on.

3. Install the driver for the interface, as described in the documentation

that comes with the interface.

It is likely that you will need a CD ROM or floppy disk supplied by the manufacturer of the MIDI interface. Also please make sure to check the manufacturer’s web site for updated drivers.

V-STACK

Installation and requirements for Windows 2 – 17

Installing V-STACK

Defragment the hard disk

If you plan to record audio on a hard disk where you have already stored other files, now is the time to defragment it. Defragmentation reorganizes the physical allocation of space on the hard disk in order to optimize its performance using a special defragmentation program.

❐

It is crucial to the audio recording performance that your hard disk is optimized (defragmented). You should make sure to defragment regularly.

Installation

To install V-STACK, simpy run the V-STACK installer application and follow the directions in the dialogs that appear.

• At one point during the installation, you will be asked to fill in your

serial number.

You should have received this serial number when purchasing and downloading the program over the internet. If you purchased the CD version of the program, you will find the serial number on the registration card in your package.

This completes the installation of your V-STACK program!

Registering your software will make sure you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and news regarding V-STACK.

If your computer has a working Internet connection, you can register online. From the Steinberg V-STACK program group on the Windows Start menu, select the Registration item and follow the instructions. You can also select this option from the Help menu of the program.

If your computer does not have a working Internet connection, you can also register from another computer.

The items on the start menu

If you open the Windows Start menu, you will find a V-STACK group on the “Programs” submenu. This contains the following items:

V-STACK

2 – 18 Installation and requirements for Windows

• V-STACK Operation Manual.

Opens the manual you are reading right now.

• ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Setup.

This is where you make settings if your audio hardware uses DirectX for audio playback and recording.

• ASIO Multimedia Setup.

This opens a dialog with settings for the ASIO (Audio Stream Input Output) system, which handles audio playback in V-STACK if you are using the ASIO MME driver. This dialog can also be opened from within V-STACK. See the chapter “Setting up your

system” in this manual.

• V-STACK.

This launches the actual program.

There may also be additional items (such as Readme files) available on the Start menu. Please read all such files before launching V-STACK, since they may contain late information not included in the manual.

V-STACK

Installation and requirements for Windows 2 – 19

V-STACK

2 – 20 Installation and requirements for Windows

Installation and requirements

for Mac OS X

About this chapter

This chapter describes the system requirements and installation procedures for V-STACK for Mac OS X. Installing V-STACK for Windows is described on page 11.

Requirements

To use V-STACK, you need the following:

• A Macintosh computer running Mac OS X (version 10.2 or later).

For more details about the computer requirements, see below.

• Mac OS X compatible audio hardware.

While the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh may be adequate for basic audio playback, we strongly recommend audio hardware that is specifically designed for audio recording and music applications.

For MIDI

• At least one MIDI interface.

• At least one MIDI instrument.

• Any audio equipment necessary to listen to the sound from your MIDI

devices.

V-STACK

3 – 22 Installation and requirements for Mac OS X

Computer requirements

Hardware – Mac

The absolute minimum requirements for running V-STACK on a Macintosh are as follows:

• Macintosh with a G4 processor, 256 MB RAM and OS X 10.2.

We recommend 512 MB RAM or more.

RAM

Audio work requires a lot of RAM! In fact, there is a direct relation between the amount of available RAM and the number of audio channels that you can have running. As specified earlier, 256 MB is the minimum requirement, but as a general rule “the more the better” applies.

Hard disk size

• The size of the hard disk determines how many minutes of audio you

will be able to record.

Recording one minute of stereo CD quality audio, requires 10 MB of hard disk space. That is, eight stereo tracks in V-STACK use up at least 80 MB of disk space per recording minute.

Hard disk speed

The speed of the hard drive also determines the number of audio tracks you can run. That is the quantity of information that the disk can read, usually expressed as “sustained transfer rate”. Again, “the more the better” applies.

Mouse

Although a regular mouse will work perfectly fine with V-STACK, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse with two mouse buttons.

• Having a wheel mouse will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably.

• If your mouse has two mouse buttons you should program the right mouse button to generate a [Ctrl]-click (this is typically the default behaviour of the right mouse button).

This will allow you to bring up context menus by right clicking.

V-STACK

Installation and requirements for Mac OS X 3 – 23

Audio hardware

V-STACK will run with audio hardware that meets the following basic specifications:

• Stereo.

• 16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Is supplied with proper Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers.

A basic rule of thumb is: if the hardware works under Mac OS X, you can use it in V-STACK.

• V-STACK also supports audio hardware with Mac OS X compliant ASIO drivers.

ASIO drivers may provide special support for routing, monitoring, synchronization, etc. Note that the ASIO drivers must be written specifically for Mac OS X – Mac OS 9.X ASIO drivers cannot be used.

Using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh

As of this writing, all current Macintosh models have built-in 16 bit stereo audio hardware. Depending on your preferences and requirements, this may be sufficient for use with V-STACK (although we recommend using multi-output audio hardware). The built-in audio hardware is always available for selection in V-STACK – you don’t need to install any additional drivers.

❐

Some Macintosh models have audio outputs but no inputs. This means that you can only play back audio – recording is not possible without additional audio hardware.

V-STACK

3 – 24 Installation and requirements for Mac OS X

Hardware installation

Installing the audio hardware and its driver

1. Make sure you have the latest Mac OS X drivers for the audio hardware!

Please check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest versions.

2. Install the driver(s) for the audio hardware.

This is usually done by running an installer application.

3. Install or connect the audio interface, as described in the card’s

documentation.

Installing a MIDI interface

1. Make sure you have the latest Mac OS X drivers for the MIDI interface!

Please check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest versions.

2. Install the driver(s) for the interface.

This is usually done by running an installer application.

3. Connect the MIDI interface to the computer, as described in the inter-

face documentation.

V-STACK

Installation and requirements for Mac OS X 3 – 25

Installing V-STACK

Defragment the hard disk

❐

It is crucial to the audio recording performance that your hard disk is optimized (defragmented). You should make sure to defragment regularly.

Installing V-STACK

To install V-STACK, simpy run the V-STACK installer application and follow the directions in the dialogs that appear.

• At one point during the installation, you will be asked to fill in your serial number.

This completes the installation of your V-STACK program! The installation procedure puts all files in the right places, automatically.

You can now start the program from your Applications folder. When you launch V-STACK for the first time, you will be asked whether you want to add a V-STACK icon to the Dock.

Registering your software will make sure you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and news regarding V-STACK.

If your computer has a working Internet connection, you can register online. Launch V-STACK and select “Register Online…” from the V-STACK menu.

If your computer does not have a working Internet connection, you can also register from another computer.

V-STACK

3 – 26 Installation and requirements for Mac OS X

Setting up your system

About this chapter

This chapter describes how to make the necessary connections and set up audio and MIDI in V-STACK. As already mentioned, there are two different ways to use the program:

• As a stand-alone VST Instrument host, played via MIDI from a regular MIDI interface.

• With VST System Link, where the VST Instruments are played by MIDI signals from another computer in the VST System Link network.

Connections and settings are different for these two methods, and they are described separately on the following pages.

• If you just want to get started and try out V-STACK, we recommend that you start with setting up the program for stand-alone (non-VSL) use (see

page 29) and then move on to the chapters about VST Instruments and

mixing.

After you’ve got to know the program, go back to the section about setting up VST System Link (see page 35).

This chapter also contains a section about optimizing your performance – see page 45.

V-STACK

4 – 28 Setting up your system

Setting up audio (stand-alone)

This section describes how to set up your system for basic VST Instrument playback – setting up VST System Link is described on page 35.

❐

Always make all connections with all equipment turned off!

Connecting audio

Making audio connections is a relatively simply matter in V-STACK: you just need to connect the outputs on your audio interface to your listening equipment, recording devices, etc.

• If you are using an audio interface with a single stereo output, you would typically connect the outputs to an amplifier, powered monitors, headphones, etc.

• If your audio interface has more than a single stereo output, you would typically connect the outputs to a hardware mixer.

Driver and helper application setup

The audio hardware setup application

Most audio cards come with one or more small applications that allow you to configure the inputs of the hardware to your liking. This includes:

• Selecting which outputs are active.

• Setting levels for the outputs, so that they match the equipment you use for monitoring.

For more details about your audio hardware setup application please refer to the documentation that came with the hardware.

V-STACK

Setting up your system 4 – 29

VST Multitrack setup – Basic Settings

1. In V-STACK, select Device Setup from the Devices menu and click on

VST Multitrack in the list.

Make sure the “Setup” tab is selected.

The VST Multitrack panel in the Device Setup dialog.

2. Select your audio hardware from the ASIO Driver menu.

There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hardware:

❐

We strongly recommend that you access your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifically for the hardware, if available. If no ASIO driver is installed we recommend that you check with your audio hardware manufacturer if they have an ASIO driver available, for example for download via the Internet.

3. Bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and adjust the set-

tings as recommended by the audio hardware manufacturer.

V-STACK

4 – 30 Setting up your system

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