Here are a couple nice plugins I recently came across that I thought some here might be interested in. Both are free although AudioSTage is only free for the 'lite' version which is limited to two sound sources.
Lite version is free while the version you'd likely use for orchestra renderings is approximately $300.
AudioStage
Specifically one called MultiToTwo which accepts 24 sources. This site has quite a few plugins for various applications.
AcousModules
Steve Winkler • GPO4 • JAAB3 • Finale 2009c and 2011 • Reaper • Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Sweet, Steve! Thanks for the info - I just now downloaded the free light version of AudioStage after watching the nice video demos. Sounds great!-- I think it will be helpful for some radio drama projects I'm contemplating, getting characters to move around an environment in a more 3D way than can be achieved with just traditional panning.
EDIT: AH! Now I found the "MultiToTwo" plugin from AcousModules--I'll try that out too. Looks nifty!
Thanks!
Randy
Hi guys - is AudioStage usable in SONAR? How does it stack up against Altiverb (which is taking forever to be released for Win7 x64)? The look sort of reminds me of Cakewalk's old Sound-stage FX3 thing - which didn't process things simultaneously, as I recall. Does AudioStage process multiple tracks at the same time?
Any info appreciated.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.
http://reberclark.blogspot.com http://reberclark.bandcamp.com http://www.youtube.com/reberclark
These really look interesting, don't they, Chip? I've downloaded both the free version of AudioStage, and MultiToTwo and hopefully later today I'll be testing them out in Sonar.Originally Posted by reberclark
When I replied earlier, I almost mentioned the old Sound Stage FX3, since it was one of the earliest plugins to do this sort of thing. You're right about that plugin, you had to use a different instance on each track - so I never really used it beyond experimenting. But it had the 3D graphics of various rooms, tilting and moving around etc - a primitive version of what we can see in the AudioStage vids. I'm looking forward to trying these out--I'll post a report when I can.
Randy
Well, darn. I've had a chance to try both AudioStage and MultiToTwo out in Sonar 8.5, and I haven't had success with either one.
I installed them, sent the VST .dlls to the appropriate Cakewalk VST folder. Scanned the folder, and had them acknowledged by Sonar.
Then in a test project, I added MultiToTwo. I could get the effect going while playing back and moving dots in the GUI - but I couldn't automated the moves, which of course is the whole point. When I armed all the plugins parameters for automation recording, lots of control envelopes showed up in the track, but they weren't read by the plugin when I played back over that section. The envelopes kept randomly changing each time I stopped and started.
Also, the built in reverb which is engaged when moving a source farther away isn't a very good reverb, and can't be replaced.
So - maybe there's something I missed, but I couldn't make that work with Sonar.
AudioStage - Couldn't get that one to work at all. I had the plugins show up in Sonar, but after following the PDF manual's instructions, I couldn't get very far. I inserted the "track" VST on a test track, and the "bus" VST on a dedicated bus. But from there on - nothing looked the way it's shown in the manual. I only had two small black boxes with a few windows to type in names of files etc - The manual shows a much larger GUI, in color, with the 3D sound stage as seen in the video. That didn't show up at all - there were no controls for me to try.
So, I might've missed something, but came up dry on both of these, unfortunately!
Randy
Randy - thanks for being the guinea pig! I downloaded the manual and the program for AudioStage but have not installed yet. I don't think I will now.
Man, I wish Altiverb would come out with the Win 7 64x version soon!
Chip
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.
http://reberclark.blogspot.com http://reberclark.bandcamp.com http://www.youtube.com/reberclark
It's always possible that I did something incorrectly, Chip, - so if you're feeling adventurous, you could be the second guinea pig!
Randy
I'm not sure that MultiToTwo is compatible with Sonar. It depends on whether Sonar can deal with multi-channel plugins. I use Reaper and it's no problem there. I agree that the reverb itself doesn't sound all that great, so what I do is size the room down to 010 and have a reverb bus as well that I send the tracks to. That way it sounds like I'm moving the instruments around in the convoluted reverb room rather than the MultiToTwo room.
I think at best it's a poor-man's substitute for Altiverb, but it is free.
As for AudioStage, I believe there's a youtube video to show how it works. In fact it's here.
Steve Winkler • GPO4 • JAAB3 • Finale 2009c and 2011 • Reaper • Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Hi, Steve - Thanks for the new post.
--Hmmm, I guess I don't know what a multi-channel plugin is. Multi-channel synth, yeah,--but a plugin--? Different tracks for all its outs - that sounds possible, - mmm, maybe I need to try again.
I'm still in the dark about AudioStage though - That video is just another demo of showing it in action, like I saw at their site before I installed it.
Randy
I remember having serious issues with multi channel effects in sonar back when I used it (version 7 I think was the last version of Sonar I used). I seriously doubt Sonar supports for this kind of plugin.
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