Recommended: PluginWrapper for AudioCubes

If you are using digital audio workstation (DAW) software to make music, we have the perfect AudioCubes software for you — our PluginWrapper.

It’s a VST and AudioUnit instrument and effect host, capable of hosting other VST and AudioUnit effects and instruments. There exist two versions of the wrapper, one hosts instruments and the other can host effects.

The plugin can map parameters of the hosted instruments / effects to the sensors of the cubes without complicated manual configuration.

The plugin works with all  software that hosts VST or AudioUnit instruments or effects, such as Ableton Live, FL Studio, Steinberg Cubase, EnergyXT2, …

Reveal the hidden potential of your VST or AU plugins

There exist a lot of free and commercial VST / AU plugins, which can create interesting sounds if (ab)used in certain ways. However, part of the “parameter space” of these instruments and effects remains unexplored, because with a knob box you can only turn 2 knobs at a time at most.

If you are specially gifted and are able to turn three knobs at the same time you could access a three-dimensional parameter space at best.

With AudioCubes, you could access a 4D space per cube used, because each cube has 4 built-in optical sensors which controls 4 parameters.

Our PluginWrapper lets you play with up to four VST instrument or effect parameters per cube simultaneously, by simply using your hands, fingers and one  audiocube.

Of course there are ways provided to scale and invert parameter data and there is a visual display of the parameter level to give you feedback during your work.

Design sound using only AudioCubes and instrument plugins

Similar to LoopShaper, our PluginWrapper lets you make sound using a single AudioCube and a VST or AudioUnit instrument.

You can host the wrapper in your favourite DAW software and then host your favourite instrument inside the wrapper, and you have instant access to the instrument plugin parameters. You can record some patterns on the MIDI track used with your PluginWrapper plugin and put the sequencer in loop mode, and arm an audio track for recording to capture your interactions with the plugin easily.

The clips you record this way can become a library of sounds and loops which you can then use in your future projects.

Apply effects using only AudioCubes and effect plugins

Do you have someone in the studio which you’re recording and you’d like to play around with a new VST or AudioUnits effect? You can easily put the PluginWrapper effect on one of your audio tracks, connect an AudioCube, select your plugin and you can start playing around with the effect parameters.

Two hands and one cube gives you easy access to four effect parameters simultaneously. All you have to do is play with the AudioCube, listen and record.

The advantage of the optical sensors in AudioCubes is that there is no mechanical resistance as there is with knobs on knob boxes.

Use visuals in your work

The cubes’ colours can be set for visual reference. They help you remember the function of the cubes. You can also send note data to the PluginWrapper, and map these MIDI notes to predefined colours. Last but not least you can mix colours using MIDI controllers, similar to the MIDIBridge which we offer.

Quickly use AudioCubes without mapping

The faces of the cube which is used to control the instrument parameters can be assigned easily to the parameters of the instrument or plugin. There is a drop down menu of parameter names for each of the faces. There is a way to adjust the gain of the sensors for optimal mapping.

Better speed and resolution, better experience

The plugin itself talks directly to the AudioCubes hardware for tight synchronization and rock solid performance (we use USB HID which gives us a 1kHz update rate and 10 bit resolution, so much better than MIDI).

We developed the latest version in C++ with help of the JUCE toolkit, and it looks and works exactly the same on both Mac and PC.

We’ve made the plugin as easy to use as possible, so you won’t be clicking through a series of drop down menus and option menus to find what you need. It’s all there in one screen with clear layout.

Flexible integration

If you use Max/MSP, you’ll be pleased to know we have a software development kit available. For more advanced programming we have a static C library available, to let you integrate AudioCubes in your own software. You can get the development kit from the downloads page here.

More Info

You can read more about PluginWrapper on its application page here.

PluginWrapper is available for download at http://www.percussa.com/downloads/
There is also a user’s manual on our wiki at http://manuals.percussa.com/

If you don’t have any VST or AudioUnits effects or instruments yet you can find some free ones at http://www.kvr-vst.com/. There are quite a few excellent plugins available for free.