If you are keen on playing and recording OP-X and Stringer on your Mac although they
natively only are compatible to Windows, then the new VM Bundle makes this possible.
The free VFX application from SM Pro Audio allows to play the VM editions of OP-X
and Stringer on intel Macs as well as recording the audio to a track of your sequencer
using the free Cycling74 SoundFlower.
Have a look at some videos:
Playing OP-X (included in VM Bundle) hosted in VFX while recording the audio output of
VFX to a track of GarageBand using SoundFlower to route the audio there.
Playing Stringer (included in VM Bundle) hosted in VFX while recording the audio output of
VFX to a track of GarageBand using SoundFlower to route the audio there.
A visual installation and application guide for VFX, VM Bundle Demo and full version as
well as SoundFlower. Use this together with the pdf manuals.
Using with a sequencer
Have a look at the video above to learn how you can use the free Cycling74 SoundFlower
to route the audio output of VFX to a track of your sequencer in order to record it
there. There was the question if it's also possible to route the MIDI from a sequencer
to VFX to use VFX like a ReWire application. Yes, it can be done with the OS-X internal
IAC driver, which is a virtual MIDI driver. To activate it, goto the Auidio/MIDI setup
of OS-X (Applications/Utilities), choose the "MIDI-Devices" tab and be sure you are in
the "standard" area. Doubleclick on the IAC icon on the left and activate it by checking
"device is online", then close again. Now IAC is a virtual device in the standard MIDI
input area, and VFX will receive MIDI from it too if used. In your sequencer MIDI track
use "IAC" as output to route MIDI from it to VFX. For playing in a sequence deactivate
the IAC output, otherwise VFX will receive double MIDI (from your MIDI keyboard and IAC).
You can activate it again to play back your sequence to VFX. With the help of SoundFlower
(see video) you now can play back the MIDI sequence and record it at the same time to an
audio track of your sequencer, just like with ReWire. Note that GarageBand offers no
MIDI output. But you can add MIDI output to a track with this free AU plugin:
Since the VM Bundle is custom made for VFX it also offers a guided installation
with every step explained in detail. Licensing is extremely easy and can be done
directly within VFX. As a visual assistance to the pdf guides you can have a look
at the installation video above to see the steps in action.
Although the free SM Pro Audio VFX application is mainly made as a preparation
host software for their VST hardware players V-Machine and V-Rack, it does not
need any of those hardware devices to run. It's an all independend WINE based VST host
by itself that is sort of a software based clone of the hardware devices that allows to
use windows plugins on intel Macs.
Free Demo Version
To get an idea of how it works you can check it all out with the free demo version
of VM Bundle, with no time limitation, only some restrictions (see below). The VFX
application and SoundFlower are free.
For a detailed guide on how to install VFX, VM Bundle and Soundflower have a look at
the included pdf manuals and the comprehensive visual video guide above.
Full version
Buying the full version will free you from the repeated audio breaks of the
demo version and will give you the full key range and sample set for Stringer.
You can buy the full version of VM Bundle on the buy site or on the product site of
VM Bundle. Delivery is immediate. You can download and install it right after your purchase.
As an owner of the OP-X Reaktor edition you can get the VM Bundle for a cheap crossgrade
price taking the blue crossgrade offer link next to the buyme button.
