Rearranging MIDI tracks VST developpement

Hello everyone,

I’m currently working on a project of a VST which should be able to rearranging several MIDI tracks. Here is a simple scheme of what I’m trying to achieve =

As you could notice, this VST is not really a “classic” one meaning that I would like to use several MIDI tracks as input and create the same number of MIDI tracks as output.

I never developed a VST before, would you say that is possible to make a VST like this ? In this case, would it be possible to develop it with Juce ?

Would you rather recommend to achieve this job by developing a stand-alone application ?

This is my first post here, I hope my question is clear and acceptable by the policy. :slight_smile:

Thank you in advance,

Valentin

Standard VST plugins that should run in any VST host can’t manipulate the host application’s tracks or other things of that nature. (The plugins should not even assume there will be anything like “tracks” in the host, since the host could be something like Plogue Bidule or Max/MSP.)

Some hosts such as Cockos Reaper have APIs that allow doing things like that but if the plugin developer uses them, it comes with the downside that functionality in other hosts will be limited or even completely disabled.

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Hello Xenakios,

Thank you for taking the time for answering my question.

I had this feeling that VST can’t manipulate this kind of things… Thank you for attesting this idea.

My other lead was to achieve this job by developing a stand alone application working on a .mid file generated by the host… But after some research I have the feeling that exporting all the MIDI tracks in one .mid file is not allowed by hosts. (I tried unsuccessfully with Ableton Live 9…)

Could you give me your opinion about this last solution ?
Do you think of a different way to make it work ?

Thank you

Valentin

Sounds like a big flaw in Ableton if you cant export midi files with more than one track. How would you create karoake midis then? :slight_smile:

Anyway can’t you let the host produce one file per track then and work from that if you’re stuck with Ableton?

Hello Oxxyyd,

Thank for your answer (and sorry for the delay).
I think I could achieve this job developing a MAX4LIVE plugin. This project look very promising.
Nevertheless I would like my project to work on different host. (not Ableton or Reaper only)
As I can’t find any good trick to perform this with VST or specific script I think I will go for developing a web application with a Drag&drop MIDI files process.

Cheers

V.