Supported Architectures
The VMR System works on both Mac and Windows, 32 and 64bit operating systems. The supported plugin formats are: VST2, VST3, Audio Unit, and AAX (32 and 64bit).
About Binary Versions
There is an important thing to know about the VMR System about the way it handles binary versions (for both the Rack Plugin and all the Modules).
Because the VMR System is an Audio Plugin, it is dependent on how the various hosts and plugin formats are defining and implementing the way they communicate and interface with the Plugin. Today’s plugin formats are constantly evolving, they are following the evolutions of the computer based systems, which are not as static as they used to be twenty years ago.
As plugin developers, we are constantly evolving too. Every new plugin we release is built on a slightly better ground that the one we built six months ago. We keep improving, we keep fixing bugs, we keep adapting our codebase to the needs of our latest products, we keep optimizing our core Framework in order to make it use the latest available technologies, we keep looking for ways of optimizing our DSP Processing so we can do more stuff in less time, and then, enhance the way you will use our products, allowing you to use more instances, trying to keep the lowest footprint on your system..
This simple fact is introducing one of the main characteristics of the VMR System: A Module under version X will only work within a Rack that is also under version X, and vice-versa.
It means that, in the future of the VMR Platform, if you install a Module or a Bundle with version 3.2, then you will need to update both your Rack Plugin and all the Modules you have on your system to version 3.2 in order to get everyone working together.
In future updates of the VMR System, we will provide convenient ways of keeping your platform up-to-date.
Modular System
Slate Digital VMR System is a modular architecture that allows the use of processing units, the modules, within a Rack Platform, the Virtual Mix Rack Plugin.
There are two kinds of modular architectures:
- Everything is built in in to the same platform, both the Modules and the Host. Adding new modules then means installing a newer version of the system, since everything is included inside the same package. This is a common thing in the plugin world, plugins like stompboxes, amp. emulations, modular synths often use this model.
- The Modules and the Host leave in two different spaces, and thus don’t need to know each other. Adding new modules then means installing only the new modules, which will be later seen by the Host application or plugin. This model is more suited to complex and wide systems that can be seen as a more opaque and generic platform.
The VMR System uses the second architecture, because it offers a more flexible way of adding new modules in the system, without having to systematically update the entire set of existing modules, and because of the wide range of applications the VMR System aims to target.
System Components
The VMR Platform is made of two components:
- The Virtual Mix Rack Plugin.
- The Virtual Mix Rack Modules.
VMR Plugin
The Virtual Mix Rack Plugin is the center of the VMR System. It is the actual plugin you insert in the host. From this plugin, you can load, use, move and remove Modules.
VMR Modules
VMR Modules are like small plugins. In fact, they are plugins, except that they are living in a plugin format that only the VMR Rack can interpret and use.
From the VMR System perspective, the Virtual Mix Rack is the host, and the VMR Modules are the modular processing units.
Modules can, are and will be of any kind: dynamic processing, EQs, delays/reverbs, mixing utilities, mastering units, metering etc., with the VMR System, we open up a new world of possibilities.
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