DDMF Metaplugin: manual

Version 2.3.5

Thank you for using DDMF’s Metaplugin! The following should help you to get the most out
of this audio plugin. The possibilities are enormous but the principle is actually very simple.
If, after reading, you still have questions about the usage of this software, don’t hesitate to
contact [email protected] !

Setup:

Metaplugin consists of the main plugin plus two helper plugins (MidSidePlugin and
Crossover). The following steps have to be performed for all three of them.

PC (VST): You need a VST host to use this effect. Copy the dlls into your VST effect folder (e.g.
C:/Program Files/Steinberg/VSTPlugins) and start your host. You might have to perform a
rescan of the installed VST plugins for the Metaplugin to be recognized.

PC (AAX): you need ProTools 10 or ProTools 11 to load these plugins. Unzip everything and
copy Metaplugin.aaxplugin and MetapluginSynth.aaxplugin to C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Avid\Audio\PlugIns. ProTools should then recognize them during the next startup.
The .dll helper plugins can be stored anywhere you want. They are VST plugins and are as
such not used by ProTools directly, but can be loaded into Metaplugin/MetapluginSynth.

Mac (VST/AU): you need an Audio Unit (AU) or a VST host to load Metaplugin. Copy the
.component files to your standard Audio Unit folder (e.g.
Library/Audio/Plugins/Components) and the .vst files to the respective VST folder (usually
Library/Audio/Plugins/VSTs).

Mac (AAX): you need ProTools 10 or ProTools 11 to load these plugins. Unzip everything and
copy Metaplugin.aaxplugin and MetapluginSynth.aaxplugin to /Library/Application
Support/Avid/Audio/PlugIns. ProTools should then recognize them during the next startup.
The .component helper plugins can be stored anywhere you want. They are Audio Units and
are as such not used by ProTools directly, but can be loaded into
Metaplugin/MetapluginSynth.

Usage:

Metaplugin produces no sound of its own, but can load other VST/AU plugins (both synths
and effects) and chain/connect the in- and outputs of these effects. This way complex effect
arrangements can be created which are not available as a single effect plugin. All created
configurations can be saved for repeated usage.
Let’s look at a typical example as shown in the image above: loaded plugins are represented
by green rectangles, with the name of the plugin written onto it. The input channels of the
plugin are located above the rectangle, the output channels below them. Channels of
different plugins can be connected by dragging the mouse from an output to an input
channel. The green rectangles named “Audio Input” and “Audio Output” are always present
and represent the in- and output channels of Metaplugin itself. The “Midi Input” contains the
midi signals that are routed to Metaplugin in your host. Midi pins and cables are drawn in
orange, to distinguish them from the audio part. In the above example, two synths (Crystal
and Zebra2) are receiving MIDI signals from your MIDI input, while the audio input is routed
through an instance of IIEQPro (a DDMF equalizer). The audio output here consists of 6
channels, and the various signals can be distributed among them as you like.

But how are plugins loaded into Metaplugin in the first place? There are two ways to
accomplish this: one is by dragging and dropping a plugin file onto Metaplugin’s checker
board; another is by right-clicking onto Metaplugin and choosing “Load plugin”. A file dialog
will appear which will let you load one of the plugins available on your computer. Finally,
plugins that have already been loaded before in a session appear as possible choices in the
menu that appears after right-clicking. Also, audio inputs and audio outputs can be added
that way. Of course, in principle you can use just one audio input or audio output element,
but when the networks become more complex it is often easier to overlook the structure
with more than one input or output element.
When double-clicking onto one of the rectangles representing a plugin, the factory graphical
user interface of that plugin will appear in a separate window. Here you can change the
plugin’s settings in the usual way. Of course, Metaplugin remembers all these settings when a
project is being saved in your host (not true for the demo version ).

Another option that appears on right-clicking is “Load graph” and “Save graph”. Let’s say you
have created the perfect effect chain for the singer of your band, consisting of an EQ, two
compressors and a pitch shifter. Instead of having to load all the plugins in this chain again
for every new song, you can simply save the chain/graph in a .metaplugin file and load it
whenever you need it.

Every loaded plugin gets an ID, where 1, 2 and 3 are given to Audio in/out and Midi input, so
the first loaded plugin will usually get ID 4. This helps to distinguish between multiple
instances of the same plugin. The ID is displayed in the small green rectangles and in the
header of the GUI of each plugin.

The interface is resizable via the little triangle in the lower right corner. Just click on it and
move the mouse around to make as much space for your networks as needed.

Variable send amount

In Metaplugin you can change the Wet/Dry ratio of the signal going through each of the
loaded plugins. You can do this by Shift-dragging the mouse horizontally over a plugin
rectangle. A full green rectangle means 100 % wet signal, while the slider pulled all the way
to the left means the plugin will be bypassed completely.

Channels:

Metaplugin supports up to six parallel channels. The number of actually available channels is
a bit different for the VST version compared to the Audio Unit version. The VST version will
always show all six channels at input and output, even when Metaplugin is loaded into an
ordinary stereo channel (the first two pins then contain the stereo signal, the remaining four
are empty). When using the Audio Unit version, Metaplugin will only show two pins at input
and output when loaded into a stereo channel, but six when, e.g., loaded into a 5.1 channel.

PDC (Plugin Delay Compensation)

Some plugins, due to the internal structure of their audio algorithm, cause a delay of a
certain number of samples (latency). Most hosts compensate for this delay so that tracks
with different latency are played back in sync. Metaplugin takes care of Plugin Delay
Compensation as well. This means that you can build a graph of plugins with different
latencies without having to worry about timing issues. The total latency is reported to the
host dynamically.

There’s one caveat, however: when using more than one “Audio Output” unit and creating
graphs with different latencies for each of these output units, the PDC algorithm will not
work. In other words, proper delay compensation is only guaranteed when using a single
output unit.

The overall PDC is reported in the upper right corner (in samples). Here, you can also set the
overall PDC that Metaplugin reports back to the host by entering an arbitrary number and
pressing “Set PDC”.

Adjusting the BPM ratio: Metaplugin reads the beats per minutes (BPM) from the host and
transmits it to the loaded plugins. Temp-synced plugins will play at the right playback speed.
But you can also adjust the BPM ratio freely: let's say your project BPM is 120 but you want
your drum loop to play with only 60 BPM. All you have to do is enter “0.5” in the “x BPM”
entry box. Now every plugin that is being loaded will play back at half the host's BPM. Please
note that you have to load a plugin anew after adjusting the BPM.

Oversampling: Metaplugin can operate the whole plugin chain with 2x-oversampling.
Oversampling refers to the process of increasing the sample rate in order to avoid possible
artefacts when, e.g., harmonics are being generated that are higher than the maximum
frequency that is supported by the current sample rate and will therefore fold back into the
usable spectrum, creating unpleasant results (look up “aliasing” if you want to know more
about this). To operate in 2x oversampling mode, just press the 2x-over-button which will
then be shown in red. Please note that you'll have to delete and reload all plugins after that
if you want the “new” samplerate to be transmitted to them.

Accessing plugin parameters

Metaplugin exposes 100 parameters to the host. These parameters can be mapped onto the
parameters of loaded plugins using the three parameter mapping drop-down menus in the
top row. For instance, if you have loaded an effect called SuperEQ which has an internal
parameter called HighGain and you want to map that onto parameter1 of Metaplugin, simply
set the left drop-down menu to parameter1, the middle one to SuperEQ and the right one to
HighGain. Now, when you automate parameter1 in your host program you will actually
automate the HighGain parameter of SuperEQ...

Helper plugins

As an extra bonus, two DDMF plugins are included in the package that were specifically
designed for what we think are typical usages of Metaplugin: in the Crossover plugin you find
a flat-summing four band crossover filter using Linkwitz-Riley filters, while in MidSidePlugin
there is a Mid-Side matrix which can encode a stereo left-right signal into a mid-side signal
and the other way round.

The GUIs of these two little helpers are stripped down to the absolute minimum, but
especially the crossover filter gives you a lot of control with the few knobs it has. In the first
row, the frequencies that divide the four bands can be set. The second row contains the gain
stages for each of the four frequency bands. The plugin has two “In” and eight “Out”
channels (the latter ones being the left and the right channel of each of the four frequency
bands). This way you can use the crossover filter in Metaplugin to create multiband versions
of all possible VST plugins!

The GUI of the Mid-Side matrix consists of only one knob: when in “LR->MS” mode the
plugin takes a stereo signal on input and delivers the mid and the side part of this signal on
output. In “MS->LR” mode the reverse thing happens. This way, mid-side treatment for all
kinds of plugins and even chains of plugins become possible.

Limitations: unfortunately, Waves® plugins don’t load into Metaplugin because of the special
Wavesshell that is being used by them. And: feedback loops are not supported at the
moment. Other than that, go wild!

One more note for Mac users: when experiencing issues with the loading of older AU plugins,
it usually helps to use the corresponding VST versions. There are some things that have
changed over the last few years in the AU standard (especially concerning the handling of
GUI commands), which can occasionally lead to non-responsive GUIs in Metaplugin.

Demo restrictions: If you use the demo version of Metaplugin, the settings will not be saved
when saving a project/song. Apart from that there are no other restrictions so you can fully
explore the possibilities of this effect.

Questions/feedback: [email protected]