How do I use "VST" instruments that come in .mse files

Having trouble with LMMS? Ask about it here.
98 posts
You are supposed to

> * dl the zip-file

I did that. Maybe not this particular pass through recording it all, but I did that from the link provided earlier in this discussion.

> *, rightclick the zip-file
> * choose unpack with windows-zip

I used unzip from a Zsh command line. Same result.


> * Move or copy the DLL into the folder \Samples/VST_instruments

Samples/VST_instruiments ? Not my usual VST_plugins directory? So some of them use a different VST directory? Where's the documentation on which go to the normal VST_plugins directory, and which go to the one under Samples?

I used the same Zsh command line and "mv mda_piano.dll $VSTdir" (or whatever mda piano's filename is) where $VSTdir is a variable in Zsh (set from ~/.zprofile---remember, I use cygwin with Windows 10 Home):

export VSTdir=/cygdrive/c/VSTplugins

> Open LMMS

Did that in the video (and before doing the video, I made sure LMMS wasn't running on Virtual Desktop 11, as it usually is, so I didn't have any interference from it (as I noted when trying to run a second copy lf LMMS---some things just didn't work...can't remember what, though).

>. load a VST from sidebar, and browse to the DLL in \Samples/VST_instruments

So some VST instruments get loaded from a sidebar, not VeSTige? I just tried that. I opened the usual Instruments Plugins sidebar and didn't see a single VST plugin that I'd added, including mda_piano, nor did I see a single DLL file. Are you sure I'm not supposed to use VeSTige for this one, like the rest? If not VeSTige, where is this spot where I load it directly from the sidebar? And what pulls that sidebar up instead of the Instruments Plugins sidebar?

> What is that grey box?! Zth -And what are you adding to your defined win-path ?

That's my Zsh (pronounced "Z shell)" (command line) window. What is win-path? Is that the M$ equivalent of $PATH, that tells the shell where to find binaries like the lmms executable file? Sorry, I don't use M$ by choice...my graphics card and Manjaro Linux aren't cooperating together when it comes to my external monitor, so I'm forced to use M$ Win 10 Home, with Cygwin to make it at least feel more like Unix (I could use FreeBSD with its Linux compatibility mode, but I'm not sure how that would work with LMMS, Blender, Godot 3, etc.). You wouldn't know it from my horrible typing yesterday[1], but normally I'm much faster from the Unix command line (using Zsh as my shell) than any mouse-based menus).

[1] 14 years now after cancer #1, my typing speed is finally getting back to where it used to be: typing as fast as I can compose OR as fast as the computer and keyboard can keep up with. Why keyboard? Some older and/or cheap keyboards only use a small amount of (if any) buffering of keystrokes. If you're a touch typist, and are flying along the keyboard fast enough, before you're letting off of one key, you've already typed several others. Lack of buffering leads to skied ky i yu tx (how "skipped keys in your text" might come out looking---I had to fake it, since I can't use keyboards without lots of buffering). Note that I've never seen any modern keyboards that have this problem, but that doesn't mean there aren't any out there.
Jinx wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:30 pm
You are supposed to

> * dl the zip-file
I did that. Maybe not this particular pass through recording it all, but I did that from the link provided earlier in this discussion.
It is the wrong one DL MDA-piano
> *, rightclick the zip-file
> * choose unpack with windows-zip
I used unzip from a Zsh command line. Same result.
We need to eliminate all strange stuff in a bughunt.
You need to do exactly as i ask you to.
Dont use Zsh. Unpack with windows!

* Move or copy the DLL into the folder \Samples/VST_instruments
Samples/VST_instruiments ? Not my usual VST_plugins directory?
VST_plugins is for VST-effects Not instruments.

Do this:
Go to C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples
Create new folder C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples\VSTinstruments
Use explorer to copy the dll-file from the zip-file and paste it with explorer into
C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples\VSTinstruments

Reboot
Open lmms
fetch a VST from sidebar
use gren folder icon, and browse to C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples\VSTinstruments
highlight and select the dll
press a key
What happens?

---------
[1] 14 years now after cancer #1
Great! 14 y puts you in the group of absolute reminiscent, so you have beaten the beast! Congratulations!
> VST_plugins is for VST-effects Not instruments.

Not according to everything I've seen, heard, and read, including the documentation on lmms.io.

> Go to C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples

~/Documents is for documents, nothing else. Thus the name. That's where I put stuff like my copy of the least for my duplex, car insurance (pdf copies), medical stuff (again, pdf scans), etc. And that's it.

> Create new folder C:\Users\<name>\Documents\lmms\samples\VSTinstruments

My samples directory is under ~/lmms. It's a directory for LMMS, not a document. And again, even the documentation says VST files all go in VSTplugins. But I did toss the DLL file into ~/lmms/samples and loading an instrument via VeSTige failed to see it at all. So I opened the samples directory and dragged it into the song editor (after restarting LMMS because it had another window on top that was blocking its UI). It changed to VeSTige, so I did the usual and it once again said that no instrument was loaded.

> Use explorer to copy the dll-file from the zip-file and paste it with explorer into

No. I only use explorer when I NEED explorer for something that can't be done via the command line, or is actually more convenient from it (rare, but it does happen once in a century or so). I use cp to copy or mv to move files and get the exact same result (only much faster for me, because I don't need to pull my hands away from the keyboard to:
A) use the mouse to open explorer
B) use the mouse to get it to the RIGHT directory instead of where it chooses to open up this week
C) right click on a file and select one of cut or copy
D use the mouse to go to the target directory and click paste (making sure it goes into the target directory, not one of its subdirectories.

I I just stay one the keyboard, and use either "cp foo bar" or "mv foo bar" (where foo is a file, and bar is the target directory).

> reeboot

Why? You don't need to reboot every time you touch copy or move a file around. Do you reboot every time you add a VST instrument's DLL file? No, of course not. Then you have to set everything on all of your virtual desktops up all over again, and depending on how many different things you're working on in those virtual desktops, that can take a while, even using a batch file and the vdesk command to open stuff in a certain virtual desktop (which actually means open them all in the first desktop (0), no matter which one you told it to use, following the examples given for vdesk). No, I reboot when M$ CrashOS crashes again, and that can be after a few days, weeks, or even months if I'm very lucky.

> fetch a VST from sidebar
> use gren folder icon, and browse to [VSTplugins directory]

The only green folder icon I see is not on the sidebar, it's in VeSTige. And that's not an instrument in itself. That's for loading VST instruments, synths, effects, etc. And that's what I use all the time, btw.

> highlight and select the dll
> press a key
> What happens?

As I've been saying, nothing. I noticed that later (after the bit that I copy/pasted to reply to) that you said I have the wrong mda-piano. I'm using this one: "try MDA-Piano http://mda.smartelectronix.com/synths.htm" (copied from a post you wrote earlier). So what's the right one, then, if that one is the wrong one? I tried both of the MDA-PIANO (PC) links (I'm assuming that one of those is 32 bit and the other is 64 bit, but it doesn't say which is which, so I tried both with no result either way).

And please, don't ask me to waste my time with M$ stuff just because you aren't familiar with the tools I'm using. Both get the job done. What works best for you is what's best for you. What works best for me and gets the exact same thing done is what's best for me. I don't even have winzip so it's going to be difficult to use it. I have the command line unzip, which is what winzip was built from. zip/unzip is a set of free and open source command line tools that came out long before winzip was did. Same for rar/unrar vs winrar. I was going to say that winzip and winrar could have been built from zip/unzip and rar/unrar, but both of those were GNU and under its license. Since neither of those provides source, they were not built based on the free and open source versions (GNU takes a different view of open source). But this is getting WAY off topic, so this is the last I'll say on this off-topic bit..

Thanks.
What musikbear was saying is drag Vestige into the piano roll. (from the left panel)

Then in Vestige click the green folder icon. He did not mean there is a green folder icon in the left panel. :)
Oh, yeah, that's just the normal way, AFAIK. It's how I always load VSTs, anyways.
I just thought of something.... Could those "VST" instruments that aren't VST but MSE be for either Linux or Mac, and not M$?
I used google and now I am only more confused.

https://www.lifewire.com/mse-file-2622073

I also found a post of a fruity loops user , asking the same thing, I don't see a solution though.


What I am assuming is that the vst uses those .mse files to load sounds.

Do you have a link to one of those vst, I am curious.
Yes, Sonatina Orchstra at https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2541/
Nothing but mse files under the instruments directory and a dll. Load via VeSTige as usual, No Instruments Loaded.
Sigh.

I tried to see if file (a Unix util that identifies the type of file something is, e.g., jpg/jpeg image, pdf data, etc.. All I got from it was:

(14:36) % file a\ -Strings\ -\ Violin.mse
a -Strings - Violin.mse: data
(14:36) %
Interestingly, I ran the VST in LMMS by using the dll in the folder.
Instrument seems to have no sounds below C5- at least on the default (Solo Violin) patch.
I think this might be your problem. Maybe you kept trying a key below it.
Also, the volume is rather low- I had to maximise them on both the instrument GUI and the VST host plugin to be able to hear clearly.

I found the instruments loaded- I extracted everything to the same folder called "Sonatina Orchestra" and placed that folder in my VST folder, and it loaded fine from the VST plugin host.
I downloaded the vst, then moved the zip file to my vst folder and extracted it there.

I am on Linux though, but it seems to work. I am getting sound out of the vst. :)

With vestige I opened the .dll file.
98 posts