Progress Report Some More

Hi! If those of you who want Airwindows VST plugins for Mac M1 processors (or signed Intel VSTs for use with Big Sur and later) could try this out I’d appreciate it. I’m beginning to do all the ports for the VSTs, having finished doing all the ports for all of the AUs. I’ll continue to make both kinds available but for now, these are just the ‘A’ plugins, as in those starting with A.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/scmhxt7lpynjeqb/SignedVSTs.dmg/file

I’ve got hundreds more to do, so if I’ve got anything wrong now is the time to fix it :) otherwise I will have to go back and do them all over…

The video here also crudely demonstrates something that took many hours of work building cables and setting stuff up: the E-mu e6400 Ultra sampler. I need to learn how to use this to the fullest so that I can then study what it’s doing, and make plugins that convey what this nifty old hardware does, much beloved by DnB heads since the Nineties.

This brings me to another sort of announcement. I’ve been telling everyone that if I hit $2000 a month I’d launch a DIY synth livestream in addition to what I already do, and would set aside anything I earned beyond that to give back to the community in the form of electronics parts, like chips and stuff. And I’m all set to do that… but the streams have gone SO slowly that I had to wonder if anyone with any sense actually wanted to do this, or if I was fooling myself. So I asked: my most recent Patreon post asks whether people want that, or if they’d rather I saved up to get other old gear and make plugins out of it.

And oh my, did I get an earful.

With totally overwhelming force people wrote in the comments to say that they all wanted the PLUGINS and had no or little interest in building DIY circuits… or if they did, they could get their own parts. They all said I should save up for fancier stuff (you know, sp1200s, 808s, all that sort of thing) instead. Except when they told me I should just take their money and go on a vacation :)

So, first things first: getting the Apple Silicon/signed VSTs working. I’ve got the ones starting with A, for now. Please test ’em. My hope is that some people will find they work better than the retro ones for their machines. Then, I’m going to need to spend some time getting good at the Emu sampler so I know what I’m shooting for, and then I’ll keep working on the Emu-related plugins such as the filters I’ve been developing, bit by bit, on Monday livestreams. Wednesday can continue to be DIY synth building as I’ve got all the parts I need, but I might do some VCV weeks or modular-jamming weeks, since I can’t seem to fit that in any other way and I miss it.

And we shall trundle along, steadily making some progress towards good things. All this is brought to you by my Patreon, which is apparently now about earning me money to buy REALLY vintage samplers such as the SP1200 and such things. I’ll set up some kind of thermometer showing how much progress that’s making, and once I’ve got some basics like that taken care of I’ll open it up to the Patreon as to what I should aim for next.

The signed .dmg file of all the new AU compiles is still at https://www.mediafire.com/file/yocowl32i440e7h/SignedAUs.dmg/file and the signed .dmg file of the new VSTs as they get added to the collection is at https://www.mediafire.com/file/scmhxt7lpynjeqb/SignedVSTs.dmg/file, and once I’m done with all that it will be time to overhaul the ENTIRE Airwindows website to include these downloads off the main site. Until then I’m handing them off to Mediafire, by the time this is done there won’t be any massive download waves to knock my site off the internets, because you’ll all have everything already :)