Possible ways to get around the lack of VST2 support?
So. This is all motivated from my lack of being able to put some really good vst2s in musescore. Most notably NES vst (found here: https://www.mattmontag.com/projects-page/nintendo-vst )
Anyway. This is a bit crazy but bear with me. Plugins like kontakt/opus/play are basically vsts that are players for other vsts right? You also have stuff like sforzondo that is a vst for sfz files. So the question is, are there any vst3 players that can play other vsts including vst2 plugins?
And if not, would you theoretically be able to circumvent the licensing restrictions of vst2 (which is the reason why it is not supported) by creating a vst3 player that acts as a universal plugin player which can also play vst2? You could perhaps even be able to add AAX or AU support?
The only thing online I can find similar to what I'm talking about is this, but I have no clue if it would run in musescore:
https://www.stagecraftsoftware.com/advanced-features/universal-plug/
Interested in hearing thoughts about this or potential suggestions.
Comments
I was searching for the same thing when the first sound engine came out.
On this link, https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=468358
I saw that "Patchwork" by BlueCat can be downloaded as a vst3 plugin that can host vst2 plugins, but it's around $100 USD, which I'd rather not spend on musescore playback. But in theory, it is possible. I've tried looking for some free alternatives, but at the moment, nothing that downloads as vst3 and can host vst2 is easy for me to find.
I didn't even know that VST 3 instruments already exist. I have many VST3 (effect-)plugins but all my virtual instruments are still VST 2.
In reply to I didn't even know that VST… by oMrSmith
On my Win10 system all 'old' Garritan libraries can be selected in MuseScore by using the current version of the Aria player, which itself is a vst3.
Idem for the Kontakt Player, Halion Sonic SE, Opus and Play of East West.
Try updating the players to get your 'old' sounds back!
Location on WIndows is C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
In reply to On my Win10 system all 'old'… by MichLeon
Additional info: using jbridge a 64 bit version of NES was created.
Tested the 'universal plug'. In MS4 it appears in the mixer only as an effect. It started to scan all plugins.
This took a very long time. I cancelled the scan. The universal plug hang and blocked entrance to all apps - even Process Explorer - except the taskmanager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) by which I finally could quit MS4 and the universal plug.
In reply to On my Win10 system all 'old'… by MichLeon
Hi I am trying to put one of my Garritan libraries on Musescore4. How did you get your Aria Player to show up in your mixer VST3 options? I dragged the Aria Player into the VST3 folder but it didn't work. Thanks.
In reply to Hi I am trying to put one of… by ULTJeremy
Have a look at https://musescore.org/en/node/338162#comment-1156554
In reply to I didn't even know that VST… by oMrSmith
As far as I know, most of the major vendors are using VST3 instruments and have been for some years now.
Update to all - I found something free (and open source)! Kushview Element https://kushview.net/element/
is a VST3 / standalone plugin host. And after testing, I find that it works very well! I just had to load up the standalone application to add the folders my plugins are stored in so I could scan them in. Then in musescore, I was able to load up the plugin version and as you can see in the picture I just had to drag the orange dot from 'midi in' to my plugin then drag the two audio channels to the two channels in 'audio output.' Very simple to do and it works easily!
Only downside I currently notice is that it does not play the first note of playback, so you would always have to start one note before your desired playback selection.
In reply to Update to all - I found… by speedmeteor101
Something else that was reported in a Discord channel for MuseScore is the possibility of using a separate program to split a single SF2 file into individual ones. See for example https://github.com/schnitzeltony/soundfont-cmdline-tools. There was another mentioned but it wasn't open source and I think was Windows-only.
Probably someone could build a nice GUI around the command line tool linked above.
In reply to Update to all - I found… by speedmeteor101
Dear, Speedmeteor,
I tried the element and it worked great ! But only with one plugin. I tried a first instance of g-player sampler and when I assigned the second instance it crashed musescore and I could not open the file anymore.
G-player is multichannel. Can I address each stave of musescore to different midi channels ? Do you know where ? Thank you
As is posted in other threads, Steinberg has depreciated VST2. This means that current developer toolkits must support VST3 only.
There are some freeware and shareware hosting utilities that may or may not work. This gets a little more complicated in Macs with Apple Silicon but still, they do exist.