2013

Table Of Contents
Software / VST instruments 219
Instrument panel and parameter dialog
The instruments editor (panel) is opened when an instrument is loaded and can be
opened again at any later time by right clicking the VSTi slot displaying the instrument
name. Alternatively, the VSTi editor can also be opened by right clicking the record
button on the track -> Instrument output -> VSTi editor.
The graphical interface opens by default. If the selected instrument (or plug-in) does
not have its own interface, the parameters dialog will open. This display mode is
limited to just a few control elements and can only be opened via the menu of the
instrument window. Use this mode if you find the panel of the plug-in too unclear or if
it takes up too much space on the screen. In this dialog eight freely selectable
parameters of the instrument are clearly and numerically displayed. Bar controls can
be used to adjust the parameter values.
The parameter selection is saved for each plug-in so that the next time you use the
same plug-in in a different project, the same parameters are used. This way you have
the advantage that every frequently used parameter of the corresponding instrument
is available immediately after it has been opened.
Dialog menu
Further options can be found in the menu of the instrument window:
Bypass: Deactivates the instrument and mutes it. Note that some instruments use up
processing power if bypass is switched on but are still located in the insert slot. In
such cases, the instrument should be removed completely from the insert if it is no
longer required.
Monitoring: This option must be switched on if you wish to be able to hear the
instrument when it is being played or recorded. If you wish to always have monitoring
active when the track's record button is pressed, then please select the "Tape
monitoring" option in the system/global audio options ("Y", "Audio setup" tab)
dialog.
Loading/Save patches/banks: Here you can save an instrument's settings and
sounds. The standard formats for this are: *.fxp for patches or *.fxb for whole banks.
Some instruments have their own patch/bank format, settings are then loaded and
saved directly via the instrument's interface.
Set parameters randomly: Use this function to set all parameters of an instrument to
a random value. This option can lead to surprising results and provides interesting
ideas for sound design, thanks to the random generation of a new sound. However,
you should note that parameters can only be set when they are accessible via the
interface. For some very complex virtual synthesizers (e.g. modular systems), some
parameters may not be modifiable using this option. Please note that thanks to the
random placement of various parameters, very extreme sounds can be generated.
This may lead to no sound being produced at all or extremely loud volumes and