9 Instruments and effects

Dawesome hosts VST3 plugins: effects, which change a channel's sound, and instruments, which play a pattern's notes as synth rows of the Pattern Sequencer (see 7-3 Rows). It has no built-in effects of its own.

Each mixer channel (every track, and the master) has a chain: the effects its sound goes through, in order. You build chains in the Effects Rack tab, or by dropping effects on the Mixer's strips.

9-1 Finding plugins

Dawesome looks for VST3 plugins in these folders:

System	Folders
macOS	/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
Windows	C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
Linux	~/.vst3, /usr/lib/vst3, /usr/local/lib/vst3

Subfolders are searched too (for vendor folders).

At launch, Dawesome scans plugins that are new or have changed since the last scan. Each plugin is read on its own, so one that crashes or hangs (for more than 15 seconds) doesn't stop the scan or the app. Plugins that fail are skipped until they change, or until you rescan.

What was found is kept in plugins.json in Dawesome's settings folder (on macOS, ~/Library/Application Support/dawesome/).

9-2 The plugin browser

The sidebar has two plugin browsers. Click the effects key on the sidebar's rail (its tooltip says Show effects) for effects, or the instruments key (Show instruments) for instruments.

1. Search effects (Search instruments) — Shows only plugins whose name, maker or category contain every word you type. Searching opens every matching folder.
2. Rescan key — Looks for plugins again, including those already known and those that couldn't be read. While it scans, Scanning n of n… and a progress bar are shown.
3. Category folders — The plugins in folders by category, in alphabetical order with Other last. The number is how many are in the folder.
4. Plugin — Its name and maker. Hover over it to see its version.
5. Couldn’t be read (n) — Plugins that crashed, hung or couldn't be read. Click to see each one and why.

If no plugins are found, the browser says No VST3 effects found (or instruments) and lists the folders it looked in.

9-3 Adding a plugin to a channel

Do one of the following:

• Drag an effect from the browser onto a channel strip in the Mixer. It goes at the end of that channel's chain, and the Effects Rack opens on that channel with the new effect highlighted.
• Drag an effect into the Effects Rack. A line shows where it will go in the chain.

If a plugin can't be loaded, a message is shown and nothing changes.

9-3-1 Instruments

Instruments aren't part of a channel's chain. Each one is a synth row of the Pattern Sequencer, and plays the notes patterns hold for that row. Do one of the following:

• Drag an instrument from the Instruments page into the Pattern Sequencer. It is added as a synth row at the bottom (see 7-3-2 Adding rows). Dropped on a synth row, it replaces that row's instrument; the row's notes and settings stay.
• Drag an instrument onto a track's strip in the Mixer. Dawesome adds a synth row, a new one-bar pattern, and a clip of the pattern on that track at the playhead, then opens the Piano Roll on the new row. This is one step to undo. The master can't take an instrument.

A synth row's notes play through the mixer strip of the track their clip is on. Dawesome keeps a copy of the plugin for each track that plays it, so a track's effects only hear that track's notes. Played on its own (see 7-5), a pattern's synth rows go straight to the master.

9-4 The Effects Rack

Choose Window ▸ Effects Rack, or click a strip's FX jack in the Mixer (see 10-5 FX jack).

1. Channel menu — The channel whose chain is shown: each track, then Master.
2. Count — e.g. 2 effects, No effects.
3. Signal flow — In ↓ at the top, and ↓ Fader (↓ Master fader) at the bottom.
4. Grip — Drag a row by any part except its keys to move it.
5. On — Switches the plugin on, or bypasses it. Its blue light is lit while it's on.
6. Name and maker. A plugin that isn't installed shows Not installed.
7. Open key — Opens the plugin's own interface, in a window or a tab (see 9-5).
8. Remove key — Takes the plugin off the channel.

9-4-1 Chain order

Sound goes through the chain from top to bottom:

1. In ↓ — The track's clips: sample clips, and the rows of its pattern clips, synth rows' instruments included.
2. The effects, in order.
3. The channel's fader, pan, mute and solo (see 10 Mixer).

Effects come before the fader, so a muted track's effects keep running. Effects keep running after you stop, so reverb and delay tails ring out.

9-4-2 Reordering and moving plugins

• Drag a row up or down to reorder it.
• Drag a row onto another channel's strip in the Mixer to move it to the end of that chain. Its settings are kept.

9-4-3 Missing plugins

When a project uses a plugin that isn't installed (or fails to load), its row shows Not installed. Sound passes straight through it, and its saved settings are kept, so the project still works on a machine that has it.

9-5 Plugin interfaces

Click an effect's open key in the Effects Rack, or a synth row's name in the Pattern Sequencer, to show the plugin's own interface. Where it opens is set in Preferences ▸ Controls… under Plugins open:

• In a window of their own (the default) — A floating window.
• In a tab — A tab named after the plugin, in the pane the Effects Rack is in.

A plugin's interface is in one place at a time: opening it in a window closes its tab, and showing its tab closes its window.

9-5-1 Plugin tabs

1. On — Same as in the Effects Rack.
2. Channel name — Click to show the plugin in the Effects Rack.
3. Pop-out key — Opens the interface in a window instead.

An instrument's tab has the synth row's M key (mute) and a Pattern Sequencer key, which shows that tab, in place of On and the channel name.

The tab is named after the plugin. When the project has more than one of the same plugin, the channel is added (Name - Track 2), and its place in the chain when a channel has more than one (Name - Track 2 (3)).

Several plugin tabs can be open at once. A resizable interface fills its tab. A tab closes when its plugin is removed.

If the interface can't be shown in the tab, a message is shown with Open in a window.

NOTE

Plugin windows and tabs are available on macOS only. On other systems, opening one shows "Plugin windows aren't supported on this system yet".