Best Free Vst Editor

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VSTs revolutionized mixing music.

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Instruments and effects that used to cost thousands became accessible to every musician with a computer.

If you produce music in a DAW, VSTs are probably a key part of your workflow.

But sometimes you want to use your plugins without launching a full fledged DAW. Maybe you just want your jam with your virtual synths, or play live with a VST rig on stage.

To run VSTs without the extra functionality of a DAW you’ll need a VST host.

In this article I’ll go through the 8 best VST host apps available today.

What is a VST host?

A VST host is a software program that can load VST instruments or effects plugins. A VST host can be a DAW or a dedicated software program just for running VSTs.

While a traditional DAW can be used for live performance, many musicians prefer the stability and ease of use that comes with dedicated VST hosts.

While a traditional DAW can be used for live performance, many musicians prefer the stability and ease of use that comes with dedicated VST hosts.

These purpose-built software programs don’t need the extra features and functionality of full recording apps.

That makes them simpler and more efficient for your computer to run.

Even if you’re just playing through a handful of instruments or effects, a VST host can help when a standalone version of the plugin doesn’t exist.

The 10 best VST hosts

With the basics out of the way, here are the 10 best VST hosts available today.

1. Apple Mainstage

Apple’s Mainstage is one of the most well-known VST hosts for live performance.

It includes many of the respected plugins, presets and effects from Apple’s flagship DAW app Logic Pro X.

Built specifically with live shows in mind, Mainstage has many impressive features for performers.

Guitarists will love the virtual pedalboards and amp rigs that come complete with tuner, tap tempo and spillover features.

And keyboardists can take advantage of the excellent built-in emulations of classics the Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes, Hohner Pianet and more.

Unfortunately, like all Apple software, Mainstage is only available on Mac OS X. But if you’re a Mac user looking to play VSTs live, Mainstage is probably your first option to try.

2. Topten Cantabile

Topten Cantabile is a high performance VST host that’s tailor-made for live playing.

With robust MIDI routing and impressive real-time features, Cantabile is an excellent choice for using VSTs on stage.


Cantabile was purpose-built for the stage, so it’s among the most stable and efficient hosts you can find.

If you’re a keyboard player looking to ditch a heavy hardware rig for simple laptop setup, Cantabile could be your best choice.

It comes in three editions, including a free tier with Cantabile Lite.

Unfortunately, Cantabile is Windows-only, so you’ll have to choose another option if you want to turn your MacBook into the ultimate plug-in based synthesizer.

3. Your DAW

Any application that can run VSTs is a VST host.

That means your DAW is a perfectly good option for playing VSTs live.

Any application that can run VSTs is a VST host. That means your DAW is a perfectly good option for playing VSTs live.

DAWs are more complex than basic VST hosts, so your system will naturally have to do a bit more to keep the gig running.

Walking war robots download mac. But there are some upsides to using a DAW as a live VST host. You won’t have to learn a new program to be able to build your stage setup.

And you can easily translate your projects from tracking and mixing to live performance.

Some DAWs are lightweight enough that they’re well suited for live performance. For example, Ableton…Live is often used as a performance DAW.

4. Audiostrom LiveProfessor 2

Audiostrom LiveProfessor 2 is another feature-rich option for live VST use.

It features impressive preset capabilities, performance-oriented cue lists, flexible signal chains and impressive hardware control.

LiveProfessor 2 was developed in collaboration with industry professionals to create an app rugged enough for live use.

It’s popular among front-of-house engineers for mixing live sets with VST plugins.

5. Niall Moody Pedalboard 2

Niall Moody Pedalboard 2 is a simple and effective VST host that’s designed to work just like a guitarist’s pedalboard.

Set your I/O, load your VSTs and patch between them to create a pedalboard-style signal flow.

The best part? Pedalboard 2 is free, lightweight and easy to use.

Nyquist vst plugins. If you’re looking to chain together a few virtual stompboxes and amp simulators in a digital guitar rig, Pedalboard 2 is a great choice.

6. Hermann Seib VSTHost

VSTHost is a simple but effective hosting app created by independent developer Hermann Seib.

The project started as a plugin testing platform but became popular among keyboardists for playing live in the early days of VSTs.

It’s still a great choice for a simple and effective VST host.

VSTHost lets you load plugins, edit them, send MIDI and save your setups to recall later.

7. Kushview Element

Kushview Element is a modular plugin host that can run VST and AU instruments in flexible configuration.

Its unique matrix style patchbay and graphical editor lets you draw in complex effects racks and signal chains with ease.

If you’ve ever tried to use your plugins in a live performance, you’ll know the challenges that can arise.

Element features easy integration with hardware controllers and easy external sync to MIDI clock sources.

Free Vst Downloads

It’s also free and open-source for you to experiment with and shape to your needs.

8. Tone2 NanoHost

Tone2 NanoHost is the most lightweight VST host on this list—in fact it’s barely a host at all.

NanoHost acts as a wrapper to turn a VST plugin into a standalone application.

If your favourite VST instrument doesn’t come bundled with a standalone app, NanoHost will do the job—for Windows users only.

It’s perfect for those who just want to boot up a single VST without the hassle of a complicated program.

Play VSTs live

VST hosts may seem like an extremely specific type of software, but they fulfill an important purpose.

If you’ve ever tried to use your plugins in a live performance, you’ll know the challenges that can arise.

VST hosts can help, and if you’ve made it through this article you’ll have a handle on some of the best options available today.

New heavy metal vst plugins 2018. Everybody needs a good audio editor.
and you can get it for free !
Here, in the Wavosaur team we know what we are talking about ! If you need a freeware for audio editing, here’s a selection of the best free audio editors available in 2014 :

1. Wavosaur

We created Wavosaur in 2006 because we needed a light / portable / VST compatible audio editor, with the same professional workflow you can find on Soundforge (this one wasn’t portable) or Wavelab.
By the years we added a lot of features, suggested by our users, and we’ll continue to improve the software !

pros:

  • full VST support
  • VST effect chaining
  • batch processing
  • loop point support
  • can be controled with MIDI surface control (BCR 2000 or UC 33e, etc.)

cons:

  • memory problems with very large file on “old” or small configurations
  • redo is not yet implemented

2. Audacity

Audacity !

download : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Audacity exist since always. It’s not really the same philosophy as Soundforge / Wavelab etc. => Audacity is multi track : you can play multiple audio files at a time : so it’s nice for basic sequencing.

pros:

  • multi-track
  • cross platform
  • open many audio formats

cons:

  • VST plugins are nearly unusable : you can just preview 5 seconds, and you can’t change the parameters while it’s running
  • no support for loop points
  • can’t zoom with mouse wheel

3. Ocenaudio

Info & DL : http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

Ocenaudio is available for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux, it supports VST plugins.
Some may prefer its look over the more “classic” audio editors.
It’s one of the most featured audio editor, and has many configuration options.

pros:

  • cross platform
  • full VST support
  • VST effects available from the Effects menu (we have to add this to Wavosaur 🙂 when you don’t need to chain effects, and just want to load a single VST effect)
  • loop points support !

cons:

  • can’t have two (or more) waveforms view at the same time, the navigator windows is easy and fast to use but sometimes we need to have two or more files (old school MDI style !)
  • i experimented some recurrent bug ( like a playing problem when hitting “play”)
  • bugs with many VST plugins we tested (the magic of VST…)

4. TWE by Yamaha

Tiny Wave Editor

direct download : TWE for Windows

In the last century, Yamaha was giving this useful tool for free.
It works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
The workflow and the philosophy of the software make it suited for small samples. The program is MDI, you can work on more than one file at a time. It doesn’t have many effects and of course is not VST compatible, but it has all you need for working on sample.

pros:

  • light & efficient
  • support for loop points !
  • the time compress / expand is nice ! it has the good old school speed garage style (you have to apply many time the effect, as the max is set to 125%)

cons:

  • development has stopped for a looong time
  • no plugin support
  • experienced some crash when using the effects on samples with duration > 1 ~2 minutes

5. Waveshop

download and test it : http://waveshop.sourceforge.net/

One of the latest audio editor, first alpha was releaded in 2013. It already has all the basics you need for audio editing. It’s open source, so the development should continue.

pros:

  • you can work with multiple files (application is MDI) at once
  • can zoom with mouse wheel ! (CTRL + mousewheel)
  • many audio format are supported

cons:

  • no VST plugins support
  • no loop points support
  • it has less features than the others (but the development is still active !)

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1) You are working with samplers (software or hardware), you make sound banks, you work on one-shot samples, you record small samples:

– Wavosaur
– Yamaha TWE
– Ocenaudio

Loop points support is important, fast workflow and some basic effects (like pitch shift).

2) You want to record very long piece of audio : a DJ mix, a radio broadcast, and just do basic editing (cut at start / end, fade in / out or split in 2 or more) :

– Audacity
– Ocenaudio

3) You want to do sound design, mastering or pre mastering, FX creation:

– Wavosaur
– Ocenaudio

VST support is important, so you can use effects as compression / equalization / reverb / echo / distorsion / phaser / flanger / etc.

4) You just need basic editing : cut / copy / paste / fade out for your songs / samples :

– Wavosaur
– Audacity
– Waveshop
– Ocenaudio

Best Vst Website

5) you want to do analysis (statiistics, spectrum, sonogram) :

– Wavosaur
– Ocenaudio

You need FFT / stats but also a good VST support for using more analysis tools

6) you want to work with multichannel wav files :

– Wavosaur
– Waveshop

Audacity can import multichannel wav files but can’t export as multichannel, it mixes all channels into a stereo file. More info on multichannel wav files : http://acousmodules.free.fr/infos.htm

7) if you want to edit mp3 files without re-encoding :

You don’t need any of these audio editors ! you want : mp3DirectCut

Of course if you save your mp3’s in wav or any loosless format, you can use Wavosaur / Audacity / Ocenaudio / etc. for editing.

————————————————————————————————————————————-

If you just need very basic audio editing, there are also some free audio editors that are worth mentioning, unfortunaly, some of these softwares are discontinued and sometimes buggy. Anyway, here’s the selection :

6. Acoustic Cutter by Digilogue

Acoustic Cutter audio editor

About & dl : http://www.digilogue.de/

By the maker of the fantastic Blueline plugins, this Audio editor is promising, still in beta / dev, but already usable for basic editing. Let’s hope the development will continue.

7. Quickaudio editor by Sion Software

download for free : http://www.sionsoft.com/qaudio.html

This one could have been nice but the workflow is ruined by a very annoying feature : as soon as you make a selection, a drop down context menu appears, and the selection disappears with the menu. Quickaudio can use VST plugins : i wasn’t able to have any VSt plugins recognized, but i remember it was working in a old test (but with many bugs on VST host)

8. SoundEngine Free

download here : http://soundengine.jp/software/soundengine/

Best Free Audio Editor Vst

Warning : when installing, don’t forget to uncheck the crappy toolbars that want to be installed with the software.

This one look nice, but i admit i haven’t understand all of the features, and many options seems cryptic.
The last version doesn’t work with Windows XP, it’s ok with Windows 7.
I had some crashes (when doing some basic operations)

Audio Editor Vst

8. Audioblast by Moor software

Best Free Vst Effect Plugins

Audioblast

download on archive.org : here

It’s 100% free, you just can work on one file at a time.
Very limited but can be helpful.

9. Sound Editor free

info and dl : http://www.freesoundeditor.com/accueileng.html

This one looks nice, can work on multiple files. Unfortunaly it seems to be discontinued : it’s quite unstable. And it only displays one channel.