VST Explained

Steinberg’s Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is a widely used interface for integrating software audio synthesizers and sound effect plugins on your computer. VST musical instruments (VSTi) such as our pipe organs come in the form of a DLL file (Dynamic Link Library), which is called a “plugin”. These plugins can be played via a MIDI keyboard using any Windows based VST host software, such as Cubase, FL Studio, VSTHost, VFX, etc.

The diagram below shows how it works. A MIDI keyboard is connected with your PC or laptop either via a sound card with MIDI capability, like the Tascam US122L, or a separate MIDI interface, or indeed a USB keyboard, such as the M-Audio KeyRig 49 which has a USB MIDI interface built in.

The MIDI signals from the keyboard go to the VST host software which uses one or more VSTi instrument plugins and, if need be, additional effect plugins to create data which is turned into sound in the sound card and made audible via speakers.

Our organ plugins come complete with a freeware VST host application created by Hermann Seib, so you don’t need any other software to make our organs work. But you can, of course, if you prefer also use your own VST host software if you have any. In which case you would only use the DLL file that comes with the package and use the instructions that come with your own VST host software to install the plugin.

Any MIDI compatible keyboard and MIDI interface should work with this, but you don’t need a keyboard if you intend to use our plugins for compositions you create using studio software, in which case you can simply play the organs using the sequencer. Our plugins work best with ASIO compatible sound cards which reduce the latency. This is the time it takes between pressing the key and hearing the sound. Latencies of less than 15ms are desirable for live performances.