If you’ve got one and are stuck then I sympathize.

• EDIT: Before you go onto the written tutorial have a look at this post,
• X-Session UC-17 & ACT Sonar setup FX

Continue…

Basically to setup in Sonar you have to create a generic controller…

If you follow the tutorial for the Setting up NANOKontrol and sonar you will be able to get the gist of setting up the X-Session.

If you instead want to set the X-Session up to control FX then you have to go about it in a slightly different way.

First install your software and and drivers. The installation is pretty pain free.

If you need them you can get them all in the  Evolution X-Session article on this site.

——>>>>Side Note<<<<—–

My setup:

Korg Nanokontrol for mixing – panning, volume, mute, solo, transport, arm and record etc.

I use the X-Session to control my vst fx.

I have both installed and ready to setup.

For this session I’m going to setup on my laptop, which is a virgin setup.

I’ve already setup the Nanokontrol and know that works.

I’ve previously setup the X-Session and know that works.

This article is,

1. About how to setup the X-Session to control VST

2. How to use the X-Session or Nanokontrol with other controller devices.

——>>>>Side Note End<<<<—–

Important – (make sure devices are plugged in and are seen correctly in device manager)

Fire up Sonar – Open up MIDI Devices

Shortcut = ALT O M

Or Options – Midi Devices

Hopefully among the devices you’ll see the following device present,

nanoKONTROL and EV-XS USB MIDI In1 are the ones we need for this.

If they don’t have ticks next to them do that now.

Outputs are not necessary.

Click OK to proceed.

Next we need to create a new Control Surface.

Click controller surfaces,

This box will appear, As you can see from the picture there are no Surfaces setup.

In my current setup I have 2 surfaces.

Cakewalk Generic 1 and ACT MIDI Controller 1.

If you already have a controller setup here then you need to create a new one.

‘Cakewalk Generic 2′ – if you have none then create ‘Cakewalk Generic 1′

Click this icon

to add new controller.

Choose ‘Cakewalk Generic Surface’

The picture has nanoKONTROL – switch this to ‘EV-XS USB Midi In1′

- if nothing is there then something went wrong – if another device is listed check for Nano in dropdown…

Click Ok.

And close box.

——->>>

Now you need to look for the following,

The ‘v’ at the top right hand side of the picture will pull down a list of surfaces.

Click the new controller you set up

Click the button next to the ‘a’,

This will open the following screen,

In presets enter a name, I’ve entered, ‘NanoKONTROL’ – change this too ‘X-Session’

——>>>>>NEXT>>>>

I’m going to presume that because you want to set this up you know how to add an effect to the FX Bin to a track.

Pick an effect, I’ve chosen the ‘Sonitus Compressor’

There are only 4 parameters I’m going to map for this.

Threshold, Gain, Attack and Release.

I’m only going to map Rotarys for these.

I’m leaving the ‘Buttons’ alone.

—–>>>>>>

Look at the top of the plugin, next to presets there’s a large button called ‘aCT’

Click that.

It should light up.

Now in order using your mouse move the sliders of each in order -

‘Theshold’,

‘Gain’,

‘Attack’

‘Release’

Now move Rotary 1, 2, 3 and 4 on your X-Session.

Click the ‘aCT’ button again – it should come with a message

’4 Parameters and 4 controls were touched do you want to save these assignments?’

Click yes.

If this message does not come up then something is wrong with your setup.

Check Drivers and that Sonar sees them correctly.

Start again from beginning.

Related Video on YouTube:

ACT Part 1 – Dynamic Control Of Effects

ACT Part 2 – Dynamic Control Of  Effects

Speed MIDI editing with SONAR 7′s Smart MIDI Tools

SONAR 7 Masterclass Workflow

Articles worth reading,

Using Sonar’s ACT With Hardware Controllers

I hope to make this more advanced and hopefully I can do some kind of recording to make it simpler anyway good luck…

Its warm sound and simplicity of using makes this exciter very suitable

to add some subtle brightness in the high frequencies, and also make the lows more dense.

Apart from the mastering stage, you’ll find that it can also make a good work on individual tracks. – link

Storm Recording Studio -

A set of simple mastering plugins available to download here

Includes an Aural Exciter and Stereo Enhancer.

Barricade -

VST brick wall limiter
JB Barricade is a simple yet effective brick wall limiter.

The gain ride curve is very smooth and its time derivative is continuous,

to ensure minimum distortion and aliasing artefacts.

The gain knob adjusts the signal level before entering the limiter.
For analog-style tube warmth a tube-emulation circuit is provided as well. link

Also available in PRO version.

Also available for download are Vintage Tape Modeller, Psychoacoustic Compressor plus more

Kjaerhus Audio-

The Classic Master Limiter VST plugin is specially designed to boost the overall level of your final mixes,

but is also highly useable on very dynamic instruments.

With just one control on the front panel operation is as simple as it gets;

just turn the Threshold down and hear how your mixes gets louder and louder.

Very high compression ratios can be obtained without changing the balance of the mix. – link

Classic EQ is a 7 Band Stereo Equaliser with a warm analog sound,

well suited to make non-surgical tonal corrections on all instruments, vocals and final mixes.

The passive and additive structure, together with unique “Warm” and “Saturation” algorithms,

produces warm and pleasant sound, just like some of the most expensive vintage gear.

The left and right channels can be adjusted individually or linked together. -link

MDA-VST

VST Pack, contains the following -

BeatBox – Drum replacer
Combo – Amp & speaker simulator
De-ess - High frequency dynamics processor
Degrade - Sample quality reduction
Delay – Simple stereo delay with feedback tone control
Detune – Simple up/down pitch shifting thickener
Dither – Range of dither types including noise shaping
DubDelay – Delay with feedback saturation and time/pitch modulation
Dynamics – Compressor / Limiter / Gate
Envelope – Envelope follower / VCA
Image - Stereo image adjustment and M-S matrix
Leslie - Rotary speaker simulator
Limiter – Opto-electronic style limiter
Loudness – Equal loudness contours for bass EQ and mix correction
Multiband – Multi-band compressor with M-S processing modes
Overdrive – Soft distortion
Re-Psycho! – Drum loop pitch changer
RezFilter – Resonant filter with LFO and envelope follower
Round Panner – 3D panner
Shepard – Continuously rising/falling tone generator
Splitter – Frequency / level crossover for setting up dynamic processing
Stereo Simulator – Haas delay and comb filtering
Sub-Bass Synthesizer - Several low frequency enhancement methods
Talkbox – High resolution vocoder
TestTone – Signal generator with pink and white noise, impulses and sweeps
Thru-Zero Flanger - Classic tape-flanging simulation
Tracker – Pitch tracking oscillator, or pitch tracking EQ
Vocoder – Switchable 8 or 16 band vocoder
VocInput – Pitch tracking oscillator for generating vocoder carrier input - link

- Range of free audio plugins – Compressor, Delay, Chorus and more…

Voxengo

- Host of great free plugins – needs a bit of a search – but worth it.

KRISTAL Audio Engine is a powerful multi-track recorder, audio sequencer and mixer – ideal for anyone wanting to get started with recording, mixing and mastering digital audio.

It is designed as a modular system. The main application provides a mixing console, while the audio sequencer, live audio input and so on are loaded as separate Plug-Ins.

KRISTAL Audio Engine is free for personal, educational and non-commercial use.

For commercial use we offer the following licensing options: Click to collapse

• We grant a trial period of 30 days. Please try before you buy!
• Simply download the KRISTAL installer and legitimate it for commercial use by paying the license fee.
• You will receive a personalized License Key via E-mail.

Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

Download it here

The Philharmonia Orchestra Sound Exchange

Downloads are individual – which can take a while if setting up multiple instruments.

Also they’re in mp3 format 96kps.

But beggars can’t be choosers.

A variety of orchestral instruments are available with articulations.

Check it out.

The Philharmonia Orchestra Sound Exchange

Guitar amplifier plug-in with a variety of sound shaping
features as well as cabinet impulse response emulation module.

This plug-in can be used to add a tube-like warmness to any audio material.

Review:

Both of these are pretty damn cool – I’ve used both together to create some pretty nasty and some pretty tasty sounds. Normally I use outboard equipment, I used these on my laptop setup for on the fly recording and they’re great.

Get both of them here.

What they say:

With LoopAZoid, you get an easy to use and powerful tool for playing one-shot samples in your songs. One instance holds up to 48 different samples, which can be freely assigned to up to 96 different MIDI notes – two each, for forward & reverse playback.

Review:

Used it a few years ago now but at the time was quite a cool little vst. From what I remember could only handle samples at 41000hz and 16bit.

You’ll need kit samples and also you’ll have to figure out kit arrangement.

Requires some work and research, but it’s free so it’s worth the graft.

Download

———————————-
Mdrummer:

No Review as yet.

What they say:

MeldaProduction finally developed total drum solution – MDrummer is a highly sophisticated (not-only) percussive instrument engine which extends features of all existing products on the market together.

MDrummer is so splendid, that we could talk about it for hours, but maybe it would be easier to try it.

Download MDrummer for free.