Is there a tutorial on Plug-ins?

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
Hi there, Sunday morning here in Oz.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to "connect" plug-ins to recording software, and wondered if there's any help that anyone knows about. I've been using computers since forever, but have never done any audio-recording on a computer.

I'm running Windows 10 64-bit, latest version, on a reasonably decent HP Laptop with 8GB RAM.

I've got Audacity, Song Surgeon, Studio 1 Version 5 as recording applications. All work fine.

I don't have a working guitar amplifier, but I use a Vox Amplug I/O (USB interface) to connect the guitar to the computer. Then there's an application called JamVox that takes the signal from the Amplug and adds all sorts of fantastic stuff to the raw guitar. And here comes the problem....

The JamVox software says that it's a compatible ASIO plug-in, but I can't get it to "talk" to any of the recording apps. I can get the raw guitar input into all of the programs, but I can't get the JamVox-processed signal into any of them.

Is anybody willing to offer advice? Your reward will be a warm fuzzy feeling for having helped a fellow-BGU-er (y):)
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Hi Chris,
I have the JamVOX I/O also. I normally only use it on my Mac but I just installed JamVOX III on Windows 10 just for you :) :Beer:

I'm using Audacity as the guinea pig here. I can't speak to your other recording software.

1. First check if you have it available to Audacity (I know this is a dumb first step but sometimes its best to start from ground zero). Click on the Effect menu and it should be listed below the line. (Audacity plug-ins show above the line, VST's and Nyquist plug-ins show below the line.

no-vst.jpg



2. Go to the top of the menu and click Add/Remove Plug-ins...

add.jpg




3. See if it just needs to be enabled. Check the New button, if not there, check the All button. If it is installed on your system then it should be there. If it isn't listed then the VST isn't installed.

enable.jpg



4. If it is not there then it will be easiest to re-run the Jamvox III installer. If you don't have it, or want the latest version download it from your account at the JamVOX site.
When you start the installer MAKE SURE THE "Install JamVOX 32bit plugin" is selected as well as the 64bit plugin. Audacity for Windows cannot use 64bit VST's (as of this date). Your other software probably does so install both.

JamVox.jpg




5. You can either have the installer put it into the C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\Plug-Ins folder as below or let it go to the default folder (Steinberg, see screen shot after this one) and copy it over manually, but for Audacity it should be in this folder. You can keep copies of the 32bit and 64bit in the default folder for your other software. I chose the Audacity folder for the 32bit and the Steinberg for the 64bit since Ableton uses 64bit VST's.

32bit.jpg

Continued in next post because the Forum software only allows 5 screen shots per post...
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Continued from previous post...



vst.jpg




6. Once you have the 32bit version installed in the proper folder start up Audacity. I currently have version 3.0.2 installed.


audacity.jpg



7. Go into Audacity's Effect menu and go to Add/Remove Effects.... (see step 2 above), make sure the path is to the Audacity folders and not the Steinberg and click "Enable" then "OK"

activate.jpg






8. After you enable it pull down the Effect menu in Audacity and JamVOX... should be there.


installed.jpg



9. Add a new track (or use one you've already recorded) and select JamVOX... as above and your new plug-in can be configured for this track. You'll get a pop-up window and it may take a minute or so the first time so be patient.

useit.jpg




10. Happy camper!!! :LOL: :Beer: :Beer: :Beer:

Eric
 

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
Thanks Mega Eric !! Fantastic documentation, and it works (y)
(y)
Install the 32-bit plugin -- Baboom !!
(y)
I had to re-install Audacity as well, because apparently in my mucking around I had broken something and although the JamVox GUI window opened in Audacity, it gave me an error about the audio device. All's good now.
 
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Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
That thing about the 32bit VST's in Audacity for Windows is a bit buried in their docs. The Mac (and I assume Linux) have no trouble using 64bit VST's so there must be something internal to Windows that is causing them to lag behind. It certainly is not intuitive.

I'm glad it is working for you!

Eric
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
That thing about the 32bit VST's in Audacity for Windows is a bit buried in their docs. The Mac (and I assume Linux) have no trouble using 64bit VST's so there must be something internal to Windows that is causing them to lag behind. It certainly is not intuitive.

I'm glad it is working for you!

Eric

It's more of an Audacity failing. Audacity is still a 32 bit app in Windows and won't see 64 bit VSTs. The same applies if you have a 32 bit version of Audacity on a Mac. Version 3.0.2 for Mac is now 64 bit. From what I have read, it appears that the Version 3.0.2 compiled executable for Windows is still 32 bit, but If you have the tools, you can compile the source code for Windows in either 32 or 64 bit.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Hi Doug, that link is an example of what I mean about the docs are buried. That web page is seriously out of date and doesn't reflect the current state. One example, for instance, that web page's docs say that Mac OS X Audacity is a 32-bit application...


Screen-Shot-2021-06-01-at-12-44-05-PM.png


but my activity monitor shows clearly that it is a 64-bit application (compare that with Photoshop Elements 8 below). And I do run 64-bit VST plug-ins (though not many as AU plug-ins are Mac native). And activity monitor aside Etrecheck pro shows it as 64 bit.

aud32.jpg


Sometimes you have to dig a while before finding the current docs, or sometimes they haven't been written yet. It's a downside of open source.

It's all good though, Chris is working now. :Beer: :thumbup:

Eric
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
It's more of an Audacity failing. Audacity is still a 32 bit app in Windows and won't see 64 bit VSTs. The same applies if you have a 32 bit version of Audacity on a Mac. Version 3.0.2 for Mac is now 64 bit. From what I have read, it appears that the Version 3.0.2 compiled executable for Windows is still 32 bit, but If you have the tools, you can compile the source code for Windows in either 32 or 64 bit.
Interesting. I assumed, since Windows tends to get priority over Mac, that there'd be a 64bit executable already. Thanks for the info. You know what they say about "assume" :LOL: I should have seen that x86 in the path as a clue as to 32-bitness.

Eric
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Version 3.0.2 for Mac is now 64 bit
I didn't realize that I was back leveled on my Mac. I'm still at version 2.4.2, and it is 64bit.

3.0.2 is still early in a release cycle for my Mac, maybe I'll update at 3.1.

Screen-Shot-2021-06-01-at-3-21-16-PM.png


Not intentionally highjacking Chris' thread but I just learned that Muse (the makers of MuseScore) are taking over development of Audacity. They say they'll keep it open source but have big changes planned. Cool! (I think :) )

Eric
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
Interesting. I assumed, since Windows tends to get priority over Mac, that there'd be a 64bit executable already. Thanks for the info. You know what they say about "assume" :LOL: I should have seen that x86 in the path as a clue as to 32-bitness.

Eric
Some armchair quarterbacking... Since Win 10 will support 32 or 64 bit apps, there is less urgency about upgrading. I'm not Mac literate, but from the scuttlebutt I've heard in the Studio One Forums, the newest Mac OS doesn't support 32 bit apps at all. That info may be incorrect, but I've heard it more than once.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Some armchair quarterbacking... Since Win 10 will support 32 or 64 bit apps, there is less urgency about upgrading. I'm not Mac literate, but from the scuttlebutt I've heard in the Studio One Forums, the newest Mac OS doesn't support 32 bit apps at all. That info may be incorrect, but I've heard it more than once.
Yes it is correct. Version 10.15 (Catalina released 2018) and 11.0 (Big Sur released 2020) are 64bit apps only. Support was dropped for 32bit programs. My Mac laptop is frozen at 10.13 so I can run either 64 or 32 bit programs. It's frozen because the processor isn't upgradable and the one it has won't run MacOS 10.14 or newer.

My MacPro runs 10.15 as the host and 11.0 in a VM (as well as Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.8, and Ubuntu Linux in VM's).

I am going to keep the host at 10.15 until MOTU updates their drivers for 11.0. Even then I'll test them in the VM prior to upgrading the host.

Sorry about the thread drift Chris! I'm done.

Eric
 

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
@PapaRaptor , @Jalapeno , @dvs . Thanks for the in-depth discussion. I had read elsewhere on the forum of Muse's accessioning of Audacity, and hoped for some action in bringing it up-to-date. Actually, I seem to recall from "many years ago" that Audacity began life as a copy of a thing called SoundForge that I used to use way back then.

One last thing - PapaRaptor, do you think that this topic is worth putting up as a pinned item in the Recording Tips and Tricks Thread? Perhaps edit out some of the waffle so it's a bit more succinct?
 
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