Mac OS 9 Lives

Classic Mac OS Software => Digital Audio Workstations & MIDI Applications => Plugins (VST,TDM,RTAS,MAS) => Topic started by: IIO on February 02, 2023, 10:49:38 PM

Title: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 02, 2023, 10:49:38 PM
in this thread i will upload one plug-in per month, in no particular order, effective as of today.

the plug-ins have been published on the one or other form already 15-20 years ago, but most of you will probably never have seen them.

the format is pluggo, which means that they require the free runtime from cycling74.

the pluggo runtime will install a single supporting files subfolder in /system extensions and have no effect on the operation of your host program unless you load the first pluggo plug-in. if you do, it might take a few secodns to load the runtime for the first plug-in in a session, similar to the initialisation process of a powercore or UAD card.

unless otherwise noted, they will run as RTAS, MAS and VST.
 
 
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 02, 2023, 10:52:38 PM
02/2023

Mid/Side Encoder & Decoder

 
 
how to use:

insert the encoder before and the decoder after one (or more) stereo processor(s), which you want to use in M/S mode.

the plug-in does not have a GUI and no parameters. to switch between M/S and stereo, just turn the processing (for both plug-ins) on and off in the host program.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Philgood on February 08, 2023, 02:39:58 AM
Thanks a lot.
I only know the application of M/S in recording with stereo-mics.
Didn’t know you can get quite creative when mixing.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 08, 2023, 04:56:25 AM
it is quite common as option in mastering EQs and dynamics processors, and it is the basis of stereo wideners & co.

but feel free to abuse for everything else.

in MacOS9 it is almost exclusively present in the waves plug-ins.

having individual MS plug-ins is also great for learning what it is about and how it works; just listen to different material after the encoder.

simple and effective tech. hail gerzon.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on February 08, 2023, 07:16:25 AM
Does it reduce gain when going from L/R -> M/S?
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on February 08, 2023, 07:54:00 AM
Does it reduce gain when going from L/R -> M/S?

It should depend on the Pan Law it uses. Could be -3 or -4.5 or -6 dB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_law)

The interesting thing with L/R to M/S conversions is to treat mono and sides with different sonic routes.

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 08, 2023, 08:16:43 AM
no pan law or weighting.

the only thing i do is *0.999 in the encoder. irrelevant nerdstuff for technical use cases only.
 
 
btw. they should work in OSX, too, as long as we are in a 32 bit architecture. instead of MAS, AU is supported.
for OSX there is no free runtime, but you can install the free "pluggo junior".
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on February 08, 2023, 08:37:18 AM
IIRC, Waves did (2.x - 3).
I am seeing all sorts of weird things on more recent systems with various dedicated M/S decoders. Just load Bitter after them. I'm not sure if I should trust them.  :(
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 08, 2023, 09:11:50 AM
if it is built-in into a plug-in it can make sense to set the side to a higher amplitude so that you can make use of the controls of the plug-in in a similar manner between M and S.

but otoh, then you dont really see how loud the channels are and that is not very useful.

it is also a philosophical problem. because changing the gain of either channel creates a drastic effect itself. it is only one of many use cases. if you need this, use waves S1´s vertical controller. it does exactly that, mixing M and S against each other.
or use a 2-channel gain plug-in on your M/S signal.

a proper encoder should do (a+b)/2 and (a-b)/2 and nothing else.
only then you can be sure you dont touch the amplitude relations when you insert 2 identical filters. all you have to do is to set the volume parameter in the filters to the same level for L and R (which are now M and S), and the matrix of the output will be identical to the input.

i have also seen all kind of weird stuff by industry guys who should know it better. trust is good, control is better! :)
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Nesufire on February 08, 2023, 07:11:31 PM
Would Soft Synths/Samplers with Instruments count under this category? Would be killer to see an upload of Bitheadz Unity DS-1 with it's original banks still present. that is if anyone has them. I've been interested in older mac vsts/samplers for a long time. already have ISO rips of a bunch of Samplecell format discs myself. I'd be pleased to upload them but I'm not entirely sure if I have permission from the original ripper of these discs to do so.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Nesufire on February 08, 2023, 07:15:33 PM
I have been inquiring the 200 mb sampleset for the Unity DS-1 sampler because I'm in a large community for video game instrument origins (1700+ Members if I recall) that has been searching for a copy for a few years due to it's confirmed usage via the composer that it was used heavily in a video game called "Spyro the Dragon" The full Unity Session would be preferred but anything with complete contents works. Thanks a bunch!
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on February 08, 2023, 08:58:19 PM
Would Soft Synths/Samplers with Instruments count under this category?

Probably not, unless IIO coded something of this kind. Starting your own thread would be better.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 25, 2023, 09:16:09 PM
i made like 100 or so instruments, but the question is if they would be worth sharing.

if you have some patience, we might see the one or other here, though. :)

for now we start slooowly with small technical utilities and midi plug-ins and a few other things which are not available otherwise (which is the main idea behind rolling your own, isn´t it?).

i found the GUI for the MS, so please download again.

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on February 26, 2023, 08:33:15 PM
03/2023

ReSend=
 
send and receive audio anywhere in your host program.
 
 
possible applications:

 - use regular mixer channels as (additional) subgroups

 - send subgroups back to regular channels

 - split channels for parallel processing
 
 
how to use:

the sender plug-ins have dynamic targets (4 stereo groups), the insert plug-ins have fixed IDs. this should prevent you from creating feedbackloops too easily - but you can still do that by not understanding how your host program works.

for parallel processing (copying the channel elsewhere while keeping the audio on the channel) you have to use the splitter plug-in, as the sender plug-in always mutes the channel it takes the audio from.

you can always send multiple streams to the same insert, the audio will simply be summed.

in logic audio inter plug-in streaming causes unpredictable latencies and you might sometimes need to reload a sender plug-in when the project is opened the next time. there is nothing i can do against this.


Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on April 01, 2023, 01:56:29 PM
04/2023

Bankomat


one of the first i ever made. a multitap delay with resonators/bandpassfilters... with a highly questionable parameter scaling.


Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on April 02, 2023, 12:17:01 PM
3 in a row !

Thanks !

Post made sticky
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on April 12, 2023, 08:57:30 AM
I´m looking for a loudness meter plugin (vst / au, or both) capable to measure in LUFS that can be installed on 10.5. Does such a thing even exist? LUFS became a standard loudness measure circa 2012, I think. So it may exist for PPC or not. Any info will be very appreciated. Thanks!

Could you give us in the future a LUFS vumeter?

Math needed is a root square per channel

Check http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6736.msg51236.html#msg51236 (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6736.msg51236.html#msg51236) post for the exact aproach.



Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on April 12, 2023, 09:09:35 AM
After reading the paper twice I think it would be dificult to implement anything but stereo LUFS meter, and even that stereo is really hard to implement with as much "fps" or measurements per second as the modern solutions has just because of the brute CPU power we have today.

Thanks IIO for the hawk-eye vision.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on April 12, 2023, 01:34:22 PM
i know how to do it, but it is a bit laborious in OS9 and in my existing plug-in i dont fully follow the specs.

given that when i started this the EBU R128 was not even in sight and the struggle between a-weighting and k-weighting was not yet fought out.

i used FFT for both, L-a and L-k... but i might change the k-weighting to IIR or FIR filters, then it will be less labourious (for the cost of more CPU)

note that - just as with stereo to surround matrix conversion or dithering - loudness correction is one of the cases where it would be better to make standalones only, because you can easily use it wrong when you have it as plug-ins. :)

apropos "stereo". normally you do it per channel, as you say, and that is cool because then you can see and treat the gain per channel. but for the "loudness issue" itself and for normal stereo format (i.e. not encoded surround) you can also work with summed to mono.

the more difficult task today is to find out what certain broadcasters actually want and for what formats, because it is different between compressed and uncompressed, between DTS:Neo and dolby E as well as between german and austrian TV stations. and between music and speech, for that matter.

and relative to inter-samplepeaks? seriously? just substract another -0.3db (or -0.35 for compressed) from the value you should go, and you should be fine. :)

maybe it shows up here in 6 weeks, but i dont promise a certain order.

as you can guess, i do not play the "monthly" game to annoy you but to force myself to make fresh builds and libraries and correct bugs in the GUI´n stuff. it is about time after 20 years. :P
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on May 11, 2023, 09:14:03 AM
Time is running Out...  ;D
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 28, 2023, 09:03:14 AM
05/2023

SampleFlange

another classic from 2001.

use on percussive material. otherwise it will produce clicks, which is intended.

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on May 28, 2023, 02:44:35 PM
Interesting choice of GUI design...
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 28, 2023, 10:10:50 PM
haha, yeah, when you start out you try to make a little artwork out of each small thing.
later you prefer generic, recognizable and reusable schemes and obeye the basic rules of UX and graphic design.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on May 29, 2023, 05:09:12 AM
Well, that's not what I ment ..
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 05:29:09 AM
i think it looks like a jacket.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on May 29, 2023, 07:02:14 AM
I'm now a Fan of the author of these plugins..always interesting and particular.. congratulations! only question: the loading times of the plugins are very long..to tell the truth all the Pluggo style plugins and I don't understand if it depends on my computer or it's like this for everyone, but it's strange..maybe I have to configure extensions or preferences ? let me know, thanks.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 07:18:55 AM
unless i made an error or a software is really complex, this should only happen for the first plug-in you load, as this it loads the whole runtime (similar situation with the initialisation process of a powercore or UAD card)

if you find this is not true, let me know.
 
 
i had serious issues with audio apps here, hence the delay. just figured that it must be faulty RAM. in the last years the problems with my G4 raised in number. ;/
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 10:18:21 AM
you are right: the majority of third party plug-ins including my own are very slow compared to the cycling ones (on manual load, not on recalling a cubase/nuendo session)

the only ones which do not do this are the percolate.

i guess i should know what is going on, but i cant really remember if and how it can be releated to the building process.

and as it seems PNGs end up both as resource AND in the data fork, this is suspicious, too.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on May 29, 2023, 10:41:09 AM
my observation is only constructive..don't forget..congratulations for your plugins..I was wondering if you were looking for a faster way to load plugins..I don't know..moving files or folders..I took the times of the Uad and powercore, Uad is instantaneous, Powercore 20 seconds.. the SampleFlanger 2 minutes and 10 seconds... then loads the others pretty fast. Let me know if you find a method to shorten the access times. Thank's for your job.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: ssp3 on May 29, 2023, 10:47:43 AM
and as it seems PNGs end up both as resource AND in the data fork, this is suspicious, too.

I was wondering what that SIT! resource with compressed jpg's inside is doing there
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 11:04:18 AM
those are nonsense caused by me :) you can delete them. but they are not causing the 3 seconds load time.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 11:05:40 AM
Quote
the SampleFlanger 2 minutes and 10 seconds...

ok THAT is not normal. :P 2-4 seconds would be normal.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 11:46:25 AM
found it. my old builds mostly dont do it.

one of the things i do different from 2003 is that i am using background color in custom subpatches/classes.

but this is done by a special max object which in OS9 - unlike later - requires a commercial jitter license.

there are 3000 custom patches in my library and it is out of question to change the background color for repatching old pluggos. :P

but moving the unregistered object into the pluggo runtime already causes a different error message - and now the plug-in loads instantly. i will try using an emtpy patch instead and then we are hopefully done.

thanks for the notice, redstudio, you saved all of us quite some extra work and waiting time.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 29, 2023, 12:02:34 PM
this is required for some of the plug-ins
download and install as shown

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on May 30, 2023, 06:06:43 AM
06/2023

NiftyShifter


a through-zero, fullrange frequency shifter effect
 
 
stereo only - sorry. and built for 44.1kHz. (it will operate at higher rates, but filter out >20khz)

the range settings only affect the range of the GUI for better control in not-so-experimental use cases.

the "ultra high quality" mode doubles the steepness of the antialiasing filters to 96 db/oct and is normally only required for the higher range setting (10,000Hz), but you might want to check if it makes a difference depending on your input material.
 
 
nifty comes with a little testtone generator, which can teach you a bit on the topic of bandlimiting:
if you send a 20khz tone into a frequencyshifter which shifts for 20 kHz - while your samplingrate is 44.1kHz - the 20 Hz tone will be mirrored at 22kHz and hence end up at -4kHz. this is called aliasing, and we dont want to hear that shit.
on the lower end the problem is even worse.

the only option to get rid of that in an effects circuit (audio in, process, audio out) is to have filters before the effect, whose frequency follows the setting of the pitch shifter or frequency shifter in opposite direction.
 
 
Nifty is the base model of a series of shifters i made. to my knowlegde is was the first (and only?) FS for OS9.

in 2006 the algorithm had been upgraded to a better quality, which finally allowed these extreme settings of +- 20kHz.


Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on June 02, 2023, 04:50:24 AM
wow NiftyShifter has become one of my favorite plugins..fun! to try on masters and separate tracks..surprising ..also to look for new harmonies.. excellent work " IIO" !
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on June 02, 2023, 06:08:46 AM
loadtime is zero for you now?
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on June 02, 2023, 07:18:29 AM
unfortunately the loading is not yet instantaneous. I added the additional file "bgcolor" as described in the photo of the attached file above..times have improved..now about 1 minute and 15 (half of before..).in the "objects" folder in your photo c 'is a folder, which I don't have, named " patches ".. what are they ? additional preset for your plugins? if yes, I would love to have it..(very curious..
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on June 02, 2023, 08:39:31 AM
hm, i will habe to investigate further.

for me it is instant now.

but the point is, my pluggo runtime also is unmodified, just like yours. there must be something wrong with path calling or something.

which host program? i only test cubase and nuendo.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on June 02, 2023, 12:00:50 PM
yes, i use cubase 5.2 on mac os9.. (mdd dual 1.5, with 2gb ram, 180gb hd ssd). In the VST folder, however, I created a "Pluggo" folder to keep all its plugins inside..another "Additional Pluggo" folder where I'm putting your plugins..maybe this slows down the system?
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on June 02, 2023, 12:18:52 PM
no, subfolders is fine, i do that, too. (by vendors.)

in a week or so i will ask you to open a few test files, because locally it is difficult to always unmount volumes to remove paths from the system.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on June 03, 2023, 08:00:42 AM
All right. thank you for your interest and your work.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on August 31, 2023, 05:37:01 PM
07/2023

The Midi Suite: 127-Control, PocketFader and XY-Control

Midi Plug-ins which sends Continuous Controllers to VST Plug-ins or physical Outs.

(127-Control does not remember its settings, this is intented.)

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on August 31, 2023, 05:37:21 PM
08/2023

CombiControl

the light version of my morphing controller; one mouse controls up to 8 targets.

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on August 31, 2023, 05:37:28 PM
09/2023

BlackAndWhite

a MIDI Keyboard with 127 keys and up, down, or fixed Velocity Mode.

Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: teroyk on September 01, 2023, 12:52:19 AM
the format is pluggo, which means that they require the free runtime from cycling74.

Is free runtime still available from cycling74 for MacOS9?
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on September 01, 2023, 07:59:15 AM
the html elfs removed the OS9 version 2 years ago. somehow they must just think the OS would be dead.^^
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on September 24, 2023, 10:08:22 AM
Here I am! downloaded your "beautiful" midi controllers.. unfortunately I didn't understand how to use them.. they are seen as "effects" and not "instruments".. I can't address any midi message with anything.. what should I do? ( Excuse my ignorance..
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on September 24, 2023, 11:56:38 AM
yes that´s correct beeing an effect.

plug-ins which can send MIDI always send the MIDI to the MIDI track which is currently selected (in cubase or nuendo), and if you plan to adress more than one MIDI channel, that MIDI track has to be an "Any" Track.

so you use them basically like you would use a hardware controller, with the difference that there is only one port available.

btw, while the other ones should load instantly, the keyboard is slow loading by design, because of the way i built the keybord GUI (such seemingly simple tasks are really complicated in max. in OSX the situation (with loading 100 identical files or resources) is better)
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on September 24, 2023, 12:27:53 PM
.....
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: daddyjeff on September 29, 2023, 05:20:30 PM
I can only thank you for sharing these digital tools, my congratulations for being able to give Mac Os9 a little more variety in music production with these everything makes more sense.

Thank you very much for the work and for sharing.
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: redstudio on September 30, 2023, 10:12:29 AM
the controller plugins are beautiful, too bad I haven't been able to use them yet.. I thought you could control both the VSTIs and external hardware via midi.. nothing, I haven't been able to do anything yet.. I put them as inserts on the track but they don't send any midi messages or control.. could you explain to me, step by step, as if I were a child, how to use them? (maybe the guide will be useful to others too...) thanks
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on September 30, 2023, 10:48:14 AM
i will be glad to help, but i dont really know where to start.

allow me to ask back first:

 - what happens if you try to recreate what is shown in the picture above?
 
 - can you modulate a PPG knob from a hardware controller?
 
 
the midi routing and VST2 itself, as well as cubase, nuendo and protools, are in fact highly idiosycratic systems and the opposite of linear and obvious.

pluggo is VST 2.0. this means that they can only send midi from effects, but not receive.

sending midi from effects is ultra rare anyway, which is why your question is totally justified.

the only plug-in i could name by heart which can do this beside pluggos is TC filtrator - which sends controller #1 (modwheel) to the host when its LFO is turned on. (or when you patch instruments to show up as effects)

as for cubase, which is admittedly the only host i tested this stuff in, any midi coming from plug-ins goes to the mysterious "cubase" midi port, which has to be routed by track selection as seen in the image above.

it might be that you have to turn this on somewhere in cubase, but i am not aware of this atm.


Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: Protools5LEGuy on December 26, 2023, 12:14:44 PM
I want a christmas plug!
Title: Re: Plug-in of the Month
Post by: IIO on December 26, 2023, 07:28:37 PM
sorry, i noticed that i am behind. wanted to switch to a three months rythm but miscounted.^^ now it will be 2024.