How to install Paax VST Sampler?

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Project Girl

Guest
Hello people,

I'm trying to install Paax (http://www.kotkasuniverse.com/paax_index.htm)
and I'm an ignorant beginner, and don't know what to do with the "paax2.dll" file. It's not in the manual, and a search of their forums turned up nothing. I guess everybody knows this except for me!!

Here's what I'm using so far:

Cubase LE. Lexicon
Lambda audio interface
Dell Inspiron 9200 laptop
Windows XP SP2
2.1 Gb Intel Pentium processor
1024 Mg RAM
BOSS DR-880 drum machine
Yamaha P-60 piano
Yamaha DGX-202 keyboard

Appreciate any help a whole lot.

Project Girl
 
I'm not sure how Cubase handles plugins, but I'm pretty sure it's explained in the (Cubase) manual...

You only need to put the .dll file into your plugin folder (which is probably selected from within Cubase). The default one is usually something like C:/Steinberg/VSTPlugins. Then do whatever Cubase's manual tells you to do in order to scan/activate VSTs.
 
krushing said:
I'm not sure how Cubase handles plugins, but I'm pretty sure it's explained in the (Cubase) manual...

I took a pretty good look and did several searches, but didn't find anything directly about installing VST samplers. It may be in there, but I can't find it.

You only need to put the .dll file into your plugin folder (which is probably selected from within Cubase). The default one is usually something like C:/Steinberg/VSTPlugins. Then do whatever Cubase's manual tells you to do in order to scan/activate VSTs.

There are two VSTplugins folders, one directly within the Steinberg folder, and one within the Cubase folder. I tried each of them (separately), copying the .dll file into them, then re-starting the program. "Paax3" appears under "VST Instruments", but no instruments are listed.

Also, I thought "VST Samplers" were programs which allowed you to organize and manipulate samples. Is that what Paax is? Or just a collection of samples?

Any further clue or tiny ray of enlightenment would be most welcome!! :-)

Project Girl
 
Project Girl said:
I took a pretty good look and did several searches, but didn't find anything directly about installing VST samplers. It may be in there, but I can't find it.

I'm pretty sure there must be *something* about using VSTs in general. They all work basically the same.

There are two VSTplugins folders, one directly within the Steinberg folder, and one within the Cubase folder. I tried each of them (separately), copying the .dll file into them, then re-starting the program. "Paax3" appears under "VST Instruments", but no instruments are listed.

Again, dunno how Cubase works in this regard specifically, but I'm pretty sure you can either select your VST folder from the Cubase preferences or it's mentioned somewhere in the manual if it's a fixed location.

Also, I thought "VST Samplers" were programs which allowed you to organize and manipulate samples. Is that what Paax is? Or just a collection of samples?

Well, yes, that's what samplers do. You might think of the as instruments that use samples as their rawest ingredient, like synths use/generate waveforms. I don't think PaaX comes with any samples of it's own, though most commercial samplers do boast huge libraries these days...
 
krushing said:
I'm pretty sure there must be *something* about using VSTs in general. They all work basically the same.

Again, dunno how Cubase works in this regard specifically, but I'm pretty sure you can either select your VST folder from the Cubase preferences or it's mentioned somewhere in the manual if it's a fixed location.

Ok, will try again. The manual talks about "installing VST effects", and that seems like something different than "installing a VST sampler plug-in" - but maybe they work the same.

Well, yes, that's what samplers do. You might think of the as instruments that use samples as their rawest ingredient, like synths use/generate waveforms. I don't think PaaX comes with any samples of it's own, though most commercial samplers do boast huge libraries these days...

That helps a lot - much appreciated.

Project Girl
 
You got it working already. The "paax3" (2 or 3?) listed in the VST instruments section is the VSTi.

All you need to do now is to load the vsti in the vst instruments section, add a midi track, set the sample as the output in the midi track and that's all.
 
sleepy said:
You got it working already. The "paax3" (2 or 3?) listed in the VST instruments section is the VSTi.

All you need to do now is to load the vsti in the vst instruments section, add a midi track, set the sample as the output in the midi track and that's all.

Sorry, but I don't understand; I don't see any instruments to load. When I loaded instruments in that panel before from the Univ. Sound Module, there was a drop-down list of instruments. Under "paax" in that drop-down list is just one question mark.

??

Project Girl
 
You need to go back and find out what instrument format this sampler uses, get some of those instruments downloaded, purchased, or whatever, then browse from the Paax3's interface, locate an instrument and load it into the sampler that way. You're looking at a VST preset system which doesn't necessarily have any presets for every instrument. Right now Paax3 is like a blank palette and you must load samples or instruments into it.

At a glance, it looks like Paax3 can play both Kurzweil and soundfont formats. That's good because there's about 40 million freely downloadable soundfonts on the net. Happy downloading.
 
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L. A. Stone said:
Project Girl, Sleepy is right. The Paax3 IS

Um - what? Did you see my post in reply to his?

Project Girl
 
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Project Girl said:
Sorry, but I don't understand; I don't see any instruments to load. When I loaded instruments in that panel before from the Univ. Sound Module, there was a drop-down list of instruments. Under "paax" in that drop-down list is just one question mark.

??

Project Girl

It's because it's a sampler and you're supposed to load up your own sounds in there.
 
sleepy said:
It's because it's a sampler and you're supposed to load up your own sounds in there.

Really? Who knew. :-) Since almost every other "sampler" I looked at consisted mostly of a collection of sounds, I assumed that they all included sounds..

Load up my own sounds. Ok, next mission (will probably take 3 manuals, 2 books and 4 forum posts) is to find out how to do that. :-)

Thanks very much for your help.

Project Girl
 
Project Girl said:
There are two VSTplugins folders, one directly within the Steinberg folder, and one within the Cubase folder. I tried each of them (separately), copying the .dll file into them, then re-starting the program. "Paax3" appears under "VST Instruments", but no instruments are listed.

That means that you installed Paax. Now you have to follow the instructions in the Paax manual on how to load up samples (.WAV files). After that you can send MIDI notes to Paax and it will play the samples.

Project Girl said:
Also, I thought "VST Samplers" were programs which allowed you to organize and manipulate samples. Is that what Paax is? Or just a collection of samples?
Project Girl

Paax is a software sampler. It's a VST instrument. It allows you to load up .WAV files, assign them to zones of keys, and then play them like a piano using incoming MIDI note data. Paax doesn't come with any preset sounds. You have to get your own .WAV files and load them up and create instrument patches.
 
MrHope said:
That means that you installed Paax. Now you have to follow the instructions in the Paax manual on how to load up samples (.WAV files). After that you can send MIDI notes to Paax and it will play the samples.

Ok. I'm a voracious reader of manuals, but the instruction manual for Paax is pretty much unreadable to me, in the sense that there's not a single sentence which isn't full of terminology that I don't understand. I've been over it several times and I don't see anything that basic - nothing referring to loading samples at all. What can I say - I've written books on computer programming, so I'm not really a dumbass, but I simply just don't know how to do this.

I've posted on their forum, but got no replies.

I guess I'll have to wait until I can afford software with some support - this seems to be way over my head.

Thanks very much for the help anyway.

Patty
 
Project Girl said:
Ok. I'm a voracious reader of manuals, but the instruction manual for Paax is pretty much unreadable to me, in the sense that there's not a single sentence which isn't full of terminology that I don't understand. I've been over it several times and I don't see anything that basic - nothing referring to loading samples at all. What can I say

Actually, the "Creating a Preset" part mentions how to load samples - but I do agree, the manual's written for people who already know how samplers generally work and what they're capable of. Not to mention it's pretty messy.

I'd take a look at ShortCircuit as well - it's definitely my favourite softsampler. The interface (while it might be a bit intimidating to look at first) is very clean and to the point, and the full (commercial) version isn't very expensive (because you're not paying for a huge library of sounds). The free version is completely the same as the full one, except that it limits polyphony (=how many notes you can play at the same time) to two, as well as the number of plugin instances.

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sleepy said:
Maybe try another one?

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1203.html

That one is a rip-off, somewhat, of the Reason sampler. Looks simple enough to get you started. Load the sample, tweak away.

Here's more:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=results&st=adv&soft=i&type%5B%5D=4&type%5B%5D=10&f=vst&fe=vst&win=1&free=1&sf=0&receptor=&de=0&sort=1&rpp=45

Most don't look so great really.

Thanks a lot, "Sleepy". I will def. check them out.

Project Girl

krushing said:
Actually, the "Creating a Preset" part mentions how to load samples - but I do agree, the manual's written for people who already know how samplers generally work and what they're capable of...

Yeah, I believe that's the case. It's understandable, for the price, but it isn't for beginners.

I'd take a look at ShortCircuit as well - it's definitely my favourite softsampler. The interface (while it might be a bit intimidating to look at first) is very clean and to the point, and the full (commercial) version isn't very expensive (because you're not paying for a huge library of sounds). The free version is completely the same as the full one, except that it limits polyphony (=how many notes you can play at the same time) to two, as well as the number of plugin instances.

I will most definitely check that one out. I can spend some money, but it's confusing when there appear to be a thousand of these, ranging from free to about $500, and when it's hard to distinguish between what is primarily a collection of sounds (a "sampler") and what is a program designed to manipulate sounds (a "sampler"), and what is both (a "sampler")!!!

Off to look at Short Circuit. Thanks very much for your time, "Krushing".

Project Girl
 
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The vsti's that have a collection of sounds are virtual sound modules. They're really samplers with samples already set up and layered to make a patch. They're not called virtual sound modules by the makers of the vsti's but that's what they are. Most do not allow you to load your own sounds but they allow you to do some basic tweaking of existing patches.

Some samplers come with a collection of sounds but generally you want to load your own or make your own if you're going for a sampler.
 
sleepy said:
The vsti's that have a collection of sounds are virtual sound modules. They're really samplers with samples already set up and layered to make a patch. They're not called virtual sound modules by the makers of the vsti's but that's what they are. Most do not allow you to load your own sounds but they allow you to do some basic tweaking of existing patches.

Some samplers come with a collection of sounds but generally you want to load your own or make your own if you're going for a sampler.

Thanks for the clarification, "Sleepy". This is gradually starting to make sense to me! :-)

Project Girl
 
Hello everyone!
Sorry if I insert myself in this old thread, but I'm trying to find paax3.
This VST had become free, but the kotkasuniverse.com site, from which it was possible to download it, is no longer active.:cry:
Can anyone tell me if there are still some links where this VST can be found?
Thank you
 
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