Cycling '74 Releases Pluggo Technology for Creating Custom VST PlugIns
September 26, 1998Cycling '74 today announced the availability of Pluggo, a new technology that enables Macintosh signal processing applications developed with MSP audio objects to work as a VST PlugIn. MSP is a set of DSP extensions to the MAX 3.5 graphical programming environment. MSP consists of over 75 objects that synthesize, process, analyze and delay audio signals in realtime on a Power PC Mac OS computer. VST is a PlugIn format developed by Steinberg and is utilized by major digital audio software programs such as Cubase VST, Logic Audio, Vision DSP, and Metro, and is supported by over a dozen PlugIn developers. Pluggo is a shell that allows the signal processing patches created with MSP to work in other programs as VST PlugIns, thus making MSP's individually customized approach to DSP sound design available to a broader audience of sequencer users.
Pluggo will be included with MSP and sold as an inexpensive standalone product (US $74) that will include a number of unique and innovative effects built in MSP. Cycling 74 will also introduce a web site where new effects patches will be made available to Pluggo and MSP users at regular intervals -the Pluggo-of-the-Month Club.
The Pluggo interface can alternate between two different plug-in views: one view provides a set of sliders that display the effect's parameters, while the other shows the MAX interface that can be directly controlled by the user. The MAX interface can be disabled by the plug-in developer if it is desired to hide the details of the DSP algorithm. In addition, multiple views of the Max patch can be defined by the user, as well as an about box picture and text.
Requirements:
No additional hardware is required to run Pluggo or MSP. A Power PC MacOS computer with Apple's Sound Manager provides 16-bit stereo audio input and output at 44.1kHz. MSP also directly supports 16-bit and 24-bit PCI-based audio hardware from Digidesign, Sonorus, Lucid Technology and Korg. MAX 3.5 is required to create and edit MSP applications and is available from Opcode Systems at www.opcode.com. MAX and MSP will also be available in a bundle direct from Cycling '74.
Availability:
Pluggo and MSP can be downloaded at the Cycling '74 web site at http://www.cycling74.com. Users transform the trial version into a fully-functional copy by purchasing an authorization code online for US$74 (Pluggo) and US$295 (MSP).
Cycling '74 distributes and supports music software by David Zicarelli, including Pluggo, MSP and M 2.5 (a new version of the classic interactive algorithmic composition program). He wrote the first graphical patch editor, Opcode's DX7 Editor in 1985. Zicarelli also wrote a collection of innovative compositional programs in the 1980s that were distributed by Intelligent Music. These programs included M, Jam Factory, Ovaltune and UpBeat. In 1989, he developed a commercial version of MAX for Opcode Systems in conjunction with Miller Puckette at IRCAM. With a Ph.D in Hearing and Speech Sciences from Stanford University, Zicarelli also teaches and lectures on computer music. Visit Cycling '74 on the web at www.cycling74.com. | 
