#1

So for lack of a better word I’m trying to find an application that can host/run Aalto. I purchased it a few years ago and generally run it on my Mac with Ableton Live. Was looking at two scenarios.

  1. Linux (is it an option and what application can it run inside?)
  2. Windows (is there a free DAW that will run it, I can’t use my Ableton copy for reasons and Audacity does not seem to work)

Thanks for any help

#2

Have you looked at ardour? https://ardour.org/

If run using wine apparently vsts can work. Although may be prone to crashing.

It’s now available on windows though… I think car support is included, but don’t quote me on it.

#3

after your question is answered i’d love for this thread to spiral into discussion of each persons setup aalto

i wonder if anyone is running it as a vst with max on windows?

#4

I’ve had a lot of luck running it inside of the PluginHost example app that comes with JUCE. It’s light-weight, and should be cross-platform, but you’ll have to build it yourself

2 Likes
#5

Not free, but Bidule is a great option for running plugins outside a DAW. Much more than a simple host. BTW: well worth the price.

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#6

Reaper - not free, but very cheap.

#7

On Windows, I imagine you’d be able to host it in something like VSTHost

#8

Not a Free Software option but Renoise works awesome on Linux! :smiley:

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#9

Wow, that’s a lot of options. Been testing most of the day on the Win 7 machine.

VSTHost was the fastest in terms of speed from download to running Aalto.

Couldn’t get Audacity to work.

JUCE is promising, but I’m a bit hung up in Visual Studio. Will peruse this.

Ardour worked but the user interface felt very foreign to me.

Will look into Bidule, Reaper and Renoise. Thanks everybody!

#10

I was trying LMMS on my new Surface Pro 4 last night, but the high-rez scaling was a mess. I’ll pipe in if I come upon a useful alternate approach.

#11

You could add Audiomulch to your list of things to try.
It’s what I usually use as a VST host.
Not free, but it does a whole load of other stuff too and I like the way it exposes the VST parameters for manipulation by midi (or indeed its internal modulation sources).
There’s a free demo:
http://www.audiomulch.com

#12

I’m not sure that Audacity can process live audio. If it does, I’ve never tested it. For reference, the hosts that get tested the most here are:

Windows

  • Ableton Live
  • FL Studio
  • Bitwig
  • JUCE Plugin Host
  • VSTHost (Seib)

Mac OS

  • Ableton Live
  • Logic
  • Audiomulch
  • Bitwig
  • JUCE Plugin Host

I have been also testing in Reaper a little lately to fix some timing issues that came up. It’s not the easiest instrument plugin host to use, but if you’re mostly doing audio recording I would definitely look into it.

The JUCE Plugin Host is not a full-featured program, but it starts up quickly and is very handy because of that. Unfortunately you can only get it by downloading JUCE and compiling it. I would have to read the current JUCE license carefully to know if distributing it as binary is allowed.

I don’t yet offer a native Linux version of Aalto but I want to.

8 Likes
#13

+1 for renoise ! stable, reliable, powerful and fun ! oh, and so cheap too, for what it will offer.

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#14

Not free, new 1.1.1 is out (no affiliation, just did beta test and using more and more)

http://www.gigperformer.com

Faster routing in Ableton
#15

I’m also enjoying gig performer too :smiley:

1 Like
#16

Could someone explain to me how to get Aalto running with VSThost?
I tried with Ableton, didn’t get it to work and with VSTHOST, I have no idea what to do.
I admit that I am a dumb person when it comes to technology.
Any help is appreciated

#17

I’ll tell you how I got it running in VSTHost.

  1. Download VSTHost from http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm

  2. Unzip the file and then launch vsthost

  3. Find your aalto.dll (wherever you installed it) and drag it into the VSTHost screen. It’ll show up as a small box. In the top right of that box is a little knob looking icon, if you hover over it’ll say ‘Plugin Edit’ click that and the beautiful Aalto interface will open up.

  4. As a quick test I would suggest clicking on the preset selector (center top) then navigate to Alessandros’ Machines and pick any one.

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#18

Thank you for your help, much appreciated. Unfortunately, there is no box popping up.
One day, I will get it to work, one day

#19

FYI this could be my problem: it’s possible you have one of the Windows systems that the Aalto 1.8.0 release is broken on. Please try the 1.8.1 update coming today or tomorrow.

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#20

The updates are out, please give that a try and if you have any more problems you can let me know here or by email to support at madronalabs.com.

1 Like