Cakewalk Bandlab MIDI effect difficulty

Getting Started
1

I’m a basic beginning user of Juce. My goal is to produce a MIDI effect plugin that works on MIDI tracks in Cakewalk by Bandlab (CbB). I’ve failed after a half dozen Juce project configuration attempts and I need help to get started.

I figure the ArpeggiatorPlugin example is a good example to start with. When I build it, it appears as an Audio effect and not a MIDI effect in CbB. In other words, the plugin shows up in the list of possible plugins to load on an Audio track but NEVER for a MIDI track.

I’ve been mostly experimenting with various Juce project settings/plugin characteristics with no observable differences.

Help! I’m frustrated. - Thanks

2

No answers yet but I’ve been doing the expected experimentation and research in the meantime. Here’s what I figured out. My conclusions might be wrong and I invite corrections.

  1. Juce will not produce strictly MIDI effects plugins. MIDI features must be implemented in Audio plugins.
  2. Therefore, and since CbB will only allow Audio plugins loaded to Audio or Soft Synth tracks, one must use of three different track types to get the desired MIDI capability. The screenshot below shows how I got it working.

Capture

It shows the Juce MIDILogger example plugin loaded to an Audio track only for some way to “house” the plugin. The MIDI track routes MIDI from my USBMIDI interface to the MIDILogger input. The Soft Synth (aka Instrument) track serves as the MIDI driven audio source. It’s imperative that the VST settings for Enable MIDI Input and Output on the MIDILogger are both enabled. It’s NOT obvious how that’s done and if it’s necessary. Input Echo must be enabled for both MIDI and Soft Synth tracks.

The bottom line is that CbB is just weird about how a MIDI plugin should be wired in. It seems like way more trouble than what could be considered reasonable.

3

MIDI effect plugins are audio plugins with MIDI In support. I think you’d need to check the Plugin is a Synth box in Projucer if you want a plugin that will instantiate on a MIDI track. (Logic allows putting midi effect plugins on a midi/instrument track, and side-chaining in the audio from a separate audio track, but that’s just Logic for you.)

4

Thanks, Howard. I’ll give that a try, despite that it appears counterintuitive. I’ll stress that the problem isn’t Juce. It’s CbB with its strange VST audio endpoint requirements.

5

Here’s what happens in CbB when the plugin includes the Plugin is a Synth setting: It will not load on any track type :frowning: . It appears as a candidate for loading but it never loads when selected and no information is presented to explain why. CbB truly is weird.