Asseca VST-plugins

Introduction

Current Status: v1.5.9.8 - 28 Nov 2007.
The Asseca mGUI VST-plugin was initially programmed to create custom skins for non-GUI VST-plugins, however the code seems to allow easy programming of MIDI plugins. mGUI now also supports wrapping of GUI-less plugins, offering a GUI plus MIDI for these plugins.
Asseca VST-plugins are written in Delphi 6, avoiding the use of SysUtils and the Delphi VCL. This results in much smaller code. Some use have been made of the KOL and PNGdelphi libraries.

Forum

Forum online support forum for mGUI and mGUIman, hosted by KvR

mGUI WIKI pages

mGUI beta version downloads...
mGUI downloads, e.g. asMidiMon, skins, VST wrappers ...
mGUI issues, e.g. Bug Reports, Feature Requests ...

Downloads

File	Date	Link	Description
mGUI VST plugin v1.5.9.8	28 Nov 2007	mgui.exe	contains ONLY mGUI.DLL, mGUIman.exe, the CHM and PDF help files if this is an update from v1.5 of higher then in mGUIman, click on Update ALL DLLs
mGUI VST plugin Pack #1	03 Oct 2007	mgui-pack1.exe	contains ONLY the asGrey, asCream, asBlack, asBlackBL themes, templates, bitmaps and 2 demo "projects": mGUI and demo

NOTE: please MANUALLY REMOVE all templates and "bcrxxx.skn" files older than 03 Oct 2007, these files are located in asData\inifiles\Templates\, asData\skins and asData\skins\Templates.

How to install

Standard-procedure:
1. download and install mgui.exe, remember/write down the exact folder location where you install: this could be e.g. C:\VstPlugins\Asseca\.
  NOTE: this MUST be a Plugins root-folder which your host can access to search for plugins placed in the Asseca folder !!
2. download and install mgui-pack1.exe to exactly the same folder location as in step 1
3. download and install for example ariesverb-as.exe to exactly the same folder location as in step 1
4. run mGUIman, which will automatically add the new plugin(s) to mGUIman's list
  (mGUIman.exe is located in the folder e.g. C:\VstPlugins\Asseca\asData\)
5. click on Update ALL DLLs (only needed when running mGUIman the 1st time, or updating mGUI)
6. if migrating from pre-mGUI-v1.5 then, MainMenu > Help > Update SKN and THM files to v1.5
  (also needed when installing a pre-mGUI-v1.5 skin)
7. the mGUI-derived DLLs (plugins) are now placed in e.g. C:\VstPlugins\Asseca\ you may change the location of a DLL by clicking on DLL Folder (the new location of the mGUI-derived DLL will be saved in the mGUIman.ini file, so mGUIman where the DLL is now located, mGUIman uses this information to update/delete mGUI-derived DLLs)
8. you can now load these plugins in your host ... if you use energyXT or VstHost, you can drag a DLL from Windows Explorer on energyXT to load
9. the example AriesVerb images are located in the folder e.g. C:\VstPlugins\Asseca\asData\skins\sk-AriesVerb\
--- or ---
Advanced-procedure steps 1 to 3 may be done manually as follows:
by opening the installer's built-in 7-zip archive using either 7-zip or WinRAR and then copying the files to a Vst-folder of your choice, you need to preserve the sub-folder structure in the 7-zip file.
File contents:
- mGUIman.exe, placed in asData\
- Global.ini, placed in asData\
- plugin.dl (e.g. mGUI.dl), placed in asData\orgdlls\
- plugin.ini (e.g. mGUI.ini), placed in asData\inifiles\
- the skin folder contents: placed in asData\skins\
  the bitmaps for the plugin and optionally the SKN and THM(skin-definition) text-files must be placed in sub-folders of asData\skins\
Continue with the Standard-procedure from step 4

How to uninstall

run mGUIman
click on menu File
click on menu-item Uninstall mGUI..., all the mGUI-derived files will be deleted from your system, also the asData entry will be removed from the Windows Registry
exit mGUIman
delete the Asseca-folder

Features / Characteristics

The DLL is stripped to facilitate heavy customization outside the Delphi code.
The DLL does not contain a VST ID/name/NrOfPresets, no parameters, no presets, no graphics.
Uses Global.ini for customizing the Asseca family of VST-plugins.
Uses an ini-file per VST dll-file to customize VST ID, VST name, number of programs, parameters, variables, visual controls, bitmaps and fonts.
Skinable, bitmaps are in a seperate folder, so easy to modify.
Skin definitions can be defined in either the Plugin.ini file, or in a seperate Skin.ini file which may be placed in the corresponding bitmap folder.
Each Control can automate:
- VST-MIDI input with direct external MIDI(e.g. BCR2000/BCF2000) feedback
- VST-MIDI output
- MIDI messages: CC(7-bit & 14-bit), NoteOn, Poly-AfterTouch, Channel-AfterTouch, ProgramChange, PitchBend(7-bit), NRPN(7-bit & 14-bit), RPN(7-bit & 14-bit)
- PC KeyBoard input
- Parameter output for a wrapped VST plugin

Comments & Feedback

If you have any improvements on the code of an asseca VST-plugin or cMiniHost you wish to share with other users/developers, or found any bugs, or have other comments on how to improve or extend this open source code, please email me, or send me a pm via KvR audio.

License

You are welcome to use and/or develop freeware and commercial plugins using parts or all of the files, but although all information is given to the public for free, I take no responsibility if things go wrong in any way on other systems. Use at your own risk...

Credits

Steinberg's VST SDK - www.steinberg.net.
Hermann Seib's VSTHost source code - www.hermannseib.com.
Christian W. Budde's VST components - www.savioursofsoul.de/Christian.
Tobias Fleischer's VST components - www.tobybear.de.
Frederic Vanmol's Delphi conversion of the VST SDK - www.axiworld.be.
Gustavo Huffenbacher Daud's PNG library - pngdelphi.sourceforge.net
Vladimir Kladov's KOL library - www.kolmck.net.
KvR member "comxed" (for the original knob-design used in most asseca-skins)

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH www.steinberg.net

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