Using the host PC as an effects processor for your Soundscape DAW
Since version 4.0, the Soundscape Editor supports VST plug-ins, which can be inserted directly in the Soundscape Mixer. A Mixpander is required to take advantage of this facility. The VST plug-ins run on the CPU of the host PC and the audio is routed between the Soundscape system and the PC via the Mixpander. The dll files for the VST plug-ins must be present in the Soundscape VST folder when the Editor starts up, and then the VST plug-ins appear in the mixer creation menu just like other mixer elements.
Since the Soundscape DAW hardware takes care of all the audio playback and recording, running native effects will not affect the track count and the PC will give you a lot more power for effects than it ever could in a stricly native system. The Mixpander ensures fast streaming between the Soundscape system and native hardware, so latency is not an issue. On a PIV computer with a modern motherboard, an audio signal can be streamed to the PC and returned to the Soundscape DAW within 3ms. That’s 1.5ms in each direction! And naturally, this means that Soundscape can also be used in conjunction with the VST plug-ins of third party DSP effects cards installed in the host PC.
The latest version of the VB-Audio FFx-4 DX-VST wrapper is compatible with the Soundscape Editor and therefore allows DX effect plug-ins to be used in the Soundscape Mixer as well.
Useful links:
VB-Audio website.
Detailed article about using the FFx-4 wrapper in the Soundscape environment.
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