VST is an abbreviation of Virtual Studio Technology. Steinberg (of Cubase) is the developer of this.
The audio software in Cubase is enriched with plugins (programs/modules processed in Cubase).
This gives you real-time beautiful extensions that you can add to your Cubase sequences or play with it yourself.

Instead of buying expensive Studio Modules or Synthesizers, Pianos or Hammond Organs, you can purchase Virtual Instruments.
You place it on the computer as software and you often see very nice instruments with lots of buttons and controls on the screen.

De mogelijkheden zijn enorm.

And..... A lot of this software is often free too.

VST Plugin

Examples of these plugins include "Effectizer_1.1", "MrDonald", "KTrancer" or "ORGANized_trio".
These plugins can be effects modules or complete organs/synthesizers
These can be downloaded for free from the internet.

Here on the left the VST module/plugin "ORGANized_trio". With this you can imitate a Hammond organ. All virtual instruments like the "ORGANized_trio" is a VSTi. (VSTi is a VST instrument) You can operate all Drawbars and buttons and they all still work. Have fun playing along. Really worth it. And..... it costs nothing.

VST Host

"It often costs nothing", I hear you think? For these modules/plugins I need Cubase and that is an expensive program. For a plugin you need a Host program, such as Cubase for example. Otherwise the plugin cannot run. But Cubase is not the only one that supports VST plugins. So you also have: Cakewalk, Fruityloops and Ableton Live. But we aim for fun and free, right? There are also free (freeware) Host programs such as: VST-host. The advantage of VST host is that you have a VST tool can load but also various VST effects can link. For example, consider a Hammond VSTi together with a digital Leslie. Click here to download VST-host	Above you see the program VST-host with the plugin  ORGANized_trio
	The VSTis: ORGANized Trio and AM Freehand synthesizer linked to this are the effects: Reverb, Phaser and Chorus. Advice: Use 2 monitor screens next to each other. This way you can link all modules on the left and the modules on the right see and sit comfortably on all the buttons. (<= Click on image to see it enlarged)
Savihost
Sometimes it's more convenient to have fun standalone synthesizers and others VST instruments. The maker of VST host (Hermann Seib) also has a host program created that you can boot standalone with the VST instrument. How do you do that: Download Savihost (Here) Rename savihost.exe to the DLL file of the concerning VSTi So, for example, the piano VSTi (piano.dll) Rename savihost.exe to piano.exe Leave the piano.dll in the same folder (directory) as piano.exe start piano.exe, Midi and Wave settings Enjoy playing.	Above you see the program Savihost with the plugin AM Freehand Free

 What does ASIO mean ?

ASIO is a driver developed by Steinberg for virtual organs, synthesizers or effects devices.
Many programs today support ASIO because it is a widely used driver.

ASIO stands for "Audio Stream Input Output".

If you have installed this ASIO driver it is not yet activated.
Make sure in your settings that this driver is active instead of the windows driver.

The better sound cards have their own ASIO drivers.

What is Latency ?

Latency is the delay you hear between pressing the key of your organ/keyboard and actually hearing the sound.

Many Midi enthusiasts suffer from this.
Because VST instruments are often used nowadays, you can understand that this requires a lot of calculations.
Software synthesizers often had a delay when playing.
So are VST instruments.

Now we are working hard to ensure that the delay (latency) is as low as possible.
Good sound cards already have virtually zero latency (approx. 6 milliseconds).

You will hear a clear difference at about 40 milliseconds.
The latency of a regular windows driver (the ASIO Multimedia driver) is about (don't be alarmed) 750 milliseconds.
either press a key, go have a coffee, come back and you will hear the tone of your VST organ. (so to speak then)

	The default Windows Asio Multimedia Driver has very poor Latency. You can see the "Output Latency" is almost a second. Very annoying if you want to play Realtime.
	The Asio DirectX Driver is already a lot better. As far as output is concerned. You can clearly hear the difference.
	The newer Asio drivers from Creative can already be played well. A latency of 20 milliseconds is virtually inaudible.
	I prefer the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card. This has an average latency of 6 milliseconds. If you lower the buffer size even more, the M-Audio Delta can even achieve a latency of 2 milliseconds.

Here is a good example of buffer sizes you can set. A larger buffer ensures a nice stable sample. But at the same time, this increases latency. 256 samples as buffer size is the minimum. If you make it lower, the sample will irrevocably falter and stutter.

But as you will understand, you can influence the Latency and thus make it smaller in most cases.

There is also a Universal ASIO driver (so driver) for WDM Audio or ASIO4ALL
The latency of ASIO4all is about 11 milliseconds. That in itself is fine.
To download: look at www.asio4all.com

There is a lot to be found in the field of software for the free VST instruments.
Still, I do want to notify you a collection of Freeware VST instruments from you.

Elektrostudio offers a collection of 10 analog synths. Familiar sounds can be heard here. Even a rhythm box that surprisingly resembles an accompaniment by Jean Michel Jarre. Just look at their site elektrostudio.org and especially try out all the buttons. With "tapeotronic" the flap can also be raised. Nice to see.

These VSTs have already been made self-bootable (Standalone Windows only, built-in VST host) or can be used separately as a DLL file (So also for Mac).
With the standalone version you can first select your sound card in the settings (with Wave) when starting up.
Also set the Midi in settings. All this is one time.
Then start the engine with the spacebar. Then he does.
The program often already has presets. F8 is one preset ahead and F7 one back.

My Favorite VST plugins are the plugins of Kjaerhus VST.

A few examples of these plugins are: Classic Reverb Classic Phaser Classic Chorus But there are even more free plugins available. To download the entire package, visit the site of Acoustica

You will be amazed at the overwhelming amount of good and quality VST instruments and effects.

You can link everything together and build a real music studio.

 

A few simple Midi keyboards	a	computer	and ... ready to play !!