Maybe you want to be able to use your favorite amp simulation plugin on stage
Maybe you’d rather use your virtual rhodes instead of lugging the real thing
Maybe everything you do musically in the studio is done with software instruments and fx, and you want the same instruments on stage with you.
Heck maybe you use a mack and have an old pc sitting around that you’d like to turn into a vst module.
Whatever the case may be, BloXpander may be the answer
What is BloXpander?
It is basically an asio based vst/vsti host created specifically for use by engineers and musicians in a live situation.
It’s for those that want to use their plugins, but don’t really want to deal with a full DAW on stage just to do it.
It has a pretty slick interface, which is optimized for touch screen use. So it’s easy to navigate, with a mouse or with your fingers.
There’s a bunch of audio/midi routing options, including 24 channels, 4 bus channels, and 1 master bus.
You get 6 “inserts” or slots per channel…
this is where you can load either a vst instrument or effect.
How about control and routing?
There’s tons of it, depending on what you want to do you can map you midi controller accordingly.
You can even have it control up to 8 parameters of 8 different plugins with only 8 knobs and 8 buttons, easily switchable.
The midi and audio routing options are just as deep.
With midi you can send any channel or number of channels to another or other multiple channels.
Easy to create splits, stacks, and layers with.
You can also route the multiple outputs of your multi out plugins, to their own channels for individual processing on each channel.
How fast is it to load your plugins?
This is what I really like, all you have to do is double click on one of the squares to load a plugin.
This takes you to the “case” where all your plugins are stored. They can be searched or separated according to various parameters.
Once you load a plugin for the first time, the software takes a screenshot of it, so now all of your plugins are represented by a graphical representation of each.
I really liked how this system was setup.
In addition to loading one at a time, you can save scenes or libraries. Libraries are more like a “collection” of plugins you want to draw from for a specific purpose. Maybe for live use, one for studio use, one for pop, etc.
Scenes recall the entire state of BloXpander so you can think of these like songs, where everything you need is in there. Collections of scenes can be stored in sets, for recalling entire shows with one double click or midi messge.
So what’s final thought on this product?
I think it’s a really useful product for those in live situations, or those that simply want to turn a pc into a sound module/fx rack. Those with hardware gear can use something like this without needing to purchase a full daw specifically for using as a vst rack.
You can use this to expand/offload your vst processing to another computer, the options are pretty much endless.
A few gripes I had was that the program is full screen, period, there is no in between. But then again, for live use, that’s good, all you have to deal with is this interface.
I also wish it could be loaded as a vst itself, I could see many uses for this in the studio as a vst rack for gathering all of your favorite plugins in one place, the organizational features alone would be worth it.
All in all, I think it’s a great product, I really like how simple and efficient the interface is, and I can only imagine how it feels to use a touch screen monitor or device with this thing.
Go checkout the demo, and see what you think for yourself. Eareckon BloXpander
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ether you have a old computer.. or that program has bug’s cus it was pulling the hell out of your CPU…
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saintjoe Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
@01halo, I think the little “gauge” on the left is more accurate than the digital read out. Plus everything I do jumps up in cpu when I’m running the screen capture software…it’s a monster, especially when running it with audio software.
Once I get my new pc built, faster processor etc, that shouldn’t be a problem when running camtasia.
As far as audio goes, I don’t have any problems or cpu issues, only when I open up this screen capture software. To be fair, I’m not running the newest version of it either lol, I’m sure they (screen capture software company) optimized it in their newer version, which I’ll probably get at some point, but it works for now.
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Hey Joe, that’s a pretty slick application. Its kinda like Open Labs Karsyn which does the same thing. Yo man, I got my Timbaland Special Edition Miko last night. I’m really digging this thing man. Its fully maxed out and fast as hell. I’m working on a track using Presonus Studio One. Not a bad DAW I have to say. If not for your review I wouldn’t even know about that thing. I may end up buying it after my demo expires.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
@Madbull1971, man that sounds dope! lol…I know you havin fun over there, and yes Studio One is a very nice daw
Good stuff bro!
Yeah this is like Karsyn a lil bit, but I think Karsyn can be used as a rack in your daw correct? Like you can use it and sequence the stuff in it from Reaper or whatever?
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madbull1971 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
@saintjoe, I think you can use Karsyn in your DAW…still going through a lot of the documentation. If I read it right it is also a VST as well as a standalone app. I’ll have to read up on it.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
@madbull1971, yeah I think it is, I remember from my extensive research lol, I was dead set on getting an openlabs joint for a long time lol.
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SaintJoe! you’ve done it again man. This thing is Sick! Downloaded the demo last night and am definitely copping it. Running it alongside Maschine Standalone feels amazing! It’s like you have access to all your VST’s and the easy workflow of maschine. Good drop man. You always know how to bring the good tools and sounds to the forefront.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 10:48 am
@Beatworkx, no doubt fam! Thanks for checkin it out, it’s a nice lil joint for sure I really like the layout of it! It’s very easy to route as well.
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That looks niiiiiiiice. I need to start getting into MIDI and VSTs with my software but I’m still recovering from a hard drive loss and @#$@# it I’m lazy 8^)
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saintjoe Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
@Coruscate aka The Incomplete Orchestra, thanks for checkin it out yo, it’s pretty nice
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Hey Joe just wanted to through out some info,
For anyone that has 2 or more computers and wish to run a huge amount of VSTs you can use MidiOverLan this will also eliminate the issue of switching Dongle keys back and forth between computers being that you can have access to all of your VSTs on multiple PCs that can be running simultaneously and use less CPU & Ram. I just setup this up on my system and it works flawlessly.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 9:03 pm
@Madbull1971, yeah man midi over lan is dope, they also have an audio over lan type of app as well. So you using your old pc as a module for the miko now?
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
@saintjoe, Yes sir. My old PC is a Core 2 Quad as well with 4GB of RAM so I when I ran across MidiOverLan I figured the benefit for one was that I’ll still have access to the apps on that PC that required dongles which also lets me eliminate reinstalling those apps onto my Miko again. New apps will go on the Miko and most of the apps I’ve been using up to this point will be housed on my other PC. Doing this I get the best of both processors without taxing the RAM out on either PC. (Also the other benefit of this is that I’ll still have access to my Motif XS which I have connected to my other PC) and I can rotate the host from PC to PC and easily have access to the sounds stored on either PC at the same time depending on the project I’m working on (the same could be said for my midi controllers) I’ll have total control of midi and how to deploy it.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 9:59 pm
@Madbull1971, no doubt man, that makes sense. So when you ready to bounce the track, you have audio over lan or are you physically tracking the audio from one pc into the other?
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:08 pm
@saintjoe, The Miko uses the Firebox and the audio for my other system is using the Audio Interface provided within the Motif XS6. I have both going into my Mixer then out to my Monitors.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:13 pm
@Madbull1971, yeah…but what about when you want to export the track? Say you made it on the Miko, and you used some sounds from the pc via midioverlan, how will you get those sounds to be bounced in the same track?
That’s what I was asking about, like when you post tracks up online, you have to export them from whatever daw you are using, if you have sounds coming from two machines and you’re not using audio over lan, how you plan to do it?
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:48 pm
@saintjoe, I got a easy answer for ya on that. You know how Maschine can export separate instrument tracks for each instrument.
Well Presonus Studio One can do the same thing once I bounce the midi to audio (which is done very quickly in that application). From that point I can just send those tracks via the network over to which ever PC I’m using as the host and BAM those tracks are now in the DAW that I’m using.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:51 pm
@Madbull1971, yessir, didn’t know you were using S1
I like the midi bounce function. So you record the midi into s1 from the miko then just bounce those to audio…nice.
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:55 pm
@saintjoe, You got it…nice setup right
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:09 pm
@Madbull1971, for sure man!
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:07 pm
@saintjoe, I might have to check out that AudioOverLan and see whats up. I’m open to anything that allows me to be faster.
Is AudioOverLan the name of the software? Unfortunately I’m having trouble reaching Musiclabs site right now if they are the manufacturer of that software. I’ll have to check it out when I get home.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:09 pm
@Madbull1971, I’m not sure if that’s the name but I know there are apps that let you send audio over the network, I remember one named wormhole lol…but I know they are out there.
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Madbull1971 Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:44 pm
@saintjoe, cool bro I’ll see if I can track them down.
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saintjoe Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Madbull1971, no doubt
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Madbull1971 Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 1:21 am
@saintjoe, I think I found something that will do the trick with both midi & audio over LAN.
See:
FX-Teleport
http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/index.html
I’ll be testing this out and I’ll let you know whats up.
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saintjoe Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Madbull1971, yeah man, I knew there were some out there, keep me posted, I may do something similar with my laptop once I finish building this new pc.
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madbull1971 Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 1:27 pm
@saintjoe, Yeah bro FX-Teleport will do nicely. It allows me to open up the VSTs from my 2nd computer and I’m not getting any latency (Its creating VST wrappers with the suffix (LAN) attached and putting those in my VST folder on my HOST PC where my DAW is so once I open the DAW I have access to all the VSTs from the slave PC. Also the audio is being brought over to my DAW as well. I just bounced a midi track of a VST that’s on the slave PC using Studio One and it works great.
FX-Teleport has a 14-day trial but it only cost $99 so its not a bad price for what it does. I’m gonna mess around with it some more and after my trial ends I’m sure I’ll buy it unless I find something better but I doubt I will…this app is dope.
Hi everyone!
First of all, Saint Joe, thanks a lot for demoing BloXpander and being the first to review it!
FYI, Wormhole 2 is now free (open source as well) and it works like a charm. Here’s the link : http://plasq.com/wormhole
All the best to soundsangear.com and everyone discussing BloXpander here!
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saintjoe Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:03 pm
@PFozz,thanks for the response man! Awesome! And thanks for the link too.
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That’s whasup, so you still need to bounce midi to audio on the slave pc? I thought the app would just let you do it on your main host? Either way, good stuff, i knew there was something like that.
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madbull1971 Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:15 pm
@saintjoe, I bounced the midi to audio from the host. The sounds just came from the slave. Its like the other computer (slave PC) isn’t even there…I guess the word I’m looking for is seamless.
Trust me this app will make it do what it do man.
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saintjoe Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:20 pm
@madbull1971, cool, that’s what I thought but they way you stated it had me confused lol, I knew there were apps that could do it, good stuff man.
keep bangin! Glad you found it
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madbull1971 Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:27 pm
@saintjoe, Thanks bro. I’ll send you some screenshots so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.
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saintjoe Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
@madbull1971, yeah I got it, that’s how I thought they worked, that’s why I mentioned them in the first place, glad it worked out for ya.
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I’ve been considering a setup like this for a while now. Currently I have 4 PC’s, 3 tweaked as DAWS and the 4th could go that route with a $60 RAM upgrade. Of course in true DAW tweaker style I’ve disabled anything remote or LAN based on my PC’s to save clock cycles:) I’m gonna re-configure that and demo these 3 apps mentioned here. Bloxpander looks dope, but I’ll want audio/MIDI so maybe FX teleport is the move.
Thanks SaintJoe and Madbull for the info!
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saintjoe Reply:
June 6th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
@Metatron72, yeah man, I know there is vienna ensemble pro as well, but I’d want audio/midi myself…I just couldn’t think of the name of the app I had saw lol…Madbull was on it tho!
it’s really handy if you have multiple machines.
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