VST/VSTi windows

[the pannacotta army]

Is it just me or is there no Minimize/Maximize options on VST FX/Instrument windows.

If I don't want a VST cluttering up the screen, the only option is to hit X and close its GUI window. A bit of a pain if I want to keep tweaking its settings.

[Juno]

Yeah, you're not the only one!
Best practise (and it's just 'best' by lack of other options) is to drag a vst down, or to the side. If you have a second monitor, you can drag them there, too.

[the pannacotta army]

Yeah, you're not the only one!
Best practise (and it's just 'best' by lack of other options) is to drag a vst down, or to the side. If you have a second monitor, you can drag them there, too.

OK Cheers,
...another one to add to the suggestions thread

[fredfish]

I know this isn't a complete solution by any means (and I agree you should put it on the suggestions list) but in case you didn't know you can right click on the add vst icon (you know that piano key icon) to immediately display the interface for a vsti on a track and then Ctrl right click to turn the interface off. You can do the same for vst FX as well but be aware that because you can have multiple FX on a track doing so will open multiple interface windows. Come to think of it the same happens if you have multiple instruments on a track.

I completely agree the ability to minimise / maximise individual windows would be great.

Cheers

John

[chibear]

I agree with all the above, but for me I would also love to make some of the complex interfaces larger so I don't mis-point to the wrong doodad. This has been discussed on other forums, especially for Kontakt libraries and the general consensus of those who supposedly know is the VST developer and no one else has control of the size of the UI.

[Mark Bliss]

It would be nice, especially as Chibear points out- in VSTi.
Instruments and samplers and such with a lot of controls or content browsers could certainly benefit from the ability to maximize them to full screen for those of us with tired old eyes.
And as pointed out it would often be handy if you could minimize.

I've often wondered why the vast majority of VST are developed without these functions, and I wonder if its not simply part of how the files are kept so small and agile.
There are a few, (that are resizable) I cant recall any specific examples off the top of my head.

[Juno]

One Acoustica Chorus rolled up, one Acoustica Chorus transparent, one Alpha Sampler minimized to system tray.

im the boss on my pc.jpg (151.99 KiB) Viewed 3965 times

[Rolling Estonian]

Ooooohhhhhh! How did you get the vst to be transparant?!?!?!?!? That's definitely helpful!

M

[fredfish]

Looking at the task-bar it is a great little plug-in called Inkscape

There is a similar plug-in called Photoshop - but that is much more expensive !

Cheers

John

[the pannacotta army]

...in case you didn't know you can right click on the add vst icon (you know that piano key icon) to immediately display the interface for a vsti on a track and then Ctrl right click to turn the interface off.

I didn't know that, so thanks

[Juno]

Ooooohhhhhh! How did you get the vst to be transparant?!?!?!?!? That's definitely helpful!

There are a lot of programs that add transparency, but i found that not all of them work for the vst style windows. Many of these programs are made for Windows Vista or before. I tested a few of those, but even with compability mode activated, they didn't work or seemed a little bugged.

One i haven't yet tested is Peek Through, and it should work in Windows 7. I'm not ready to recommend it, because it needs .NET Framework and not everyone has that, and sometimes things get confusing during an installation that needs it. Also, i haven't tried it so i don't know if it works in Mixcraft.
If you feel like trying it, here's a link. I've added this review for convenience.

The program i used is called Dexpot and it's probably overkill for most. It's free for non-commercial use only, so it's probably not the natural choice if all you're after is transparency. It's basically a virtual desktop application and is highly customizable, and to make the most of it, you'd need to set it up to your wishes, which is something you cannot do in one afternoon (unless you know exactly what you're after). It does a lot of other things you probably wouldn't need, mostly centered around the virtual desktops it supplies.

However, it does roll up vst windows, it does send them to the system tray, and it does make those vst windows transparent (only the ones you want). You can assign hotkeys to the commands, so that for instance CTRL&ALT&SHIFT&R rolls up a window; ALT&NumLock+ makes a window more transparent and with NumLock- less transparent.
You can do much more with it. I suggest to take a look here, it's called Dexpot.
If you need more and/or specific info or have trouble, i'm totally willing to help out.

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Furthermore, i managed to resize my vst windows. I was sure it wouldn't do much, but i had to confirm. Making it smaller simply hides part or all of the interface, making it larger adds empty space but doesn't enlarge the interface itself.
The only way i know how to really resize a vst window (to make it larger), is to have a second monitor with a smaller resolution. My laptop has 1920x1080, my second monitor has 1280x1024. So if i need to, i drag a vst from the laptop to the other monitor where it's displayed in the lower resolution, making it larger.
I tried a program that made it seem i could set a custom resolution per window, but it actually just resized to the size it would have with that resolution (and didn't work with vst windows). If there's a program that really does that -but i don't think there is- well, it'd be interesting to try that.

The reason that most vst windows don't resize is a bit complex (i did some research). Before the days of huge resolutions, most everything would be displayed correctly with a DPI of 96. So programmers used that to more or less make sure their program would always be displayed correctly.
Programs these days may declare themselves "DPI aware", meaning they are capable to resize themselves, in case a (much) higher resolution is used (where the pixels are smaller, so to resize properly a program must use more than 96 DPI). If a program is DPI unaware, Windows does the resizing.
But it's not possible to have a program being both DPI aware and unaware. A lot of vst's are written in VSTGUI or similar programs that don't (yet?) allow rendering to higher DPI's. So, these are not "DPI aware". The host however is, so Windows then expects that host to do the resizing. But the vst's are still fixed to their internal DPI settings and won't play ball.
What's more: it's unlikely, i think, that freebies will ever be rewritten to allow higher resolutions. But that's my opinion.

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Looking at the task-bar it is a great little plug-in called Inkscape There is a similar plug-in called Photoshop - but that is much more expensive !

Yes, you have keen eyes and know what's important! Inkscape is what i use for my artwork and if i'm not making music then i probably have Inkscape open. To me, it's one of the best programs in the world. I wouldn't call it a plugin though.
When i did the screenshot, i didn't have it open, and i really didn't trick that screenshot!

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Final note. After trying out all options (rolling up, send to tray, transparency, etc.) i still think the fastest and easiest is to just drag a vst out of the way, or to close it entirely and keeping this mind:

you can right click on the add vst icon (you know that piano key icon) to immediately display the interface for a vsti on a track and then Ctrl right click to turn the interface off.

[Rolling Estonian]

Well there's two things you've helped me out with today Juno, thanks.

I was thinking a simple program/plugin for transparency but I don't need to get into anything major when, like you said, you can just move the vst to the side (or another monitor).

Thanks again,

M

[Juno]

You're welcome!