I recently bought a digital piano. It was mainly to learn piano, but also as a controller to use with Omnisphere. I really did think it would be as simple as installing the discs, connecting the keyboard by USB to my PC and then synthesizing away.I thought I didn't need anything else and that I could get to grips with DAWs at a later date, but clearly I was wrong! So my question is: what is the simplest — ie. most idiot-proof — way of getting sound from Omnisphere on my PC that won't require too much technical ability and know-how?

• Best Free Vst Host
• Vst Host Program

Easy VST Host VSTHost by Hermann Seib is a free VST host. Perfect if you are new to VST's and just want to try them out and see what they can do, or for live performances where ease of use and stability is an issue. With low frequency oscillators (LFOs), you can add vibrato to a vocal and formant correction and warping further extend the capabilities of this surprisingly versatile plugin, truly the best example of the book hidden by its cover. Dig the fundamental design and revel in this low-latency VST. Download StudioGrid by Waves Free Host VST, VST3, AU, AAX Host. Win 64Bit, Mac 64Bit. And without any perceptible latency – helping them nail their best takes. An alternative, if you can't get it now enough, may be to record it with a less resource intensive vst, to get the midi notes into your daw etc with a low latency that won't distract your playing. Then, you could switch over to the vst you actually want, so that the finished track would have that. 64-bit plugins can’t work in 32-bit hosts even if the operating system is 64-bit. Do NOT use 32-bit plugins in 64-bit hosts. They would have to be bridged and can become slow and unstable. Mac OS X (10.7 and newer, 32-bit or 64-bit) VST / VST3 / AU / AAX compatible host. 12 Best Synth VST Plugins 2020/2021 – What Are The Best Synth Plugins? TAL Bassline 101 Review – Better Than Roland’s Own Emulation? U-He Diva Review – Updated 2021 – How Good Is Diva? Recent Comments. The Guitarist’s Guide to Home Music Production on The 250 Best Free Vst Instruments: 2020 Edition.

This is Spectrasonic's Omnisphere running as a stand-alone soft synth inside Herman Seib's excellent Savihost utility. Savihost is one of the simplest VST hosts, as well as being a valuable test tool.

Via SOS web site

Best Free Vst Host

SOS contributor Martin Walker replies: To use a plug-in like Omnisphere without a DAW, you require a host application capable of loading VST instruments. Examples of suitable 'full-featured' hosts include Ableton Live, Cubase, GarageBand, Logic and Reaper. Developers do get occasional complaints from users if they don't provide a standalone version of their software instruments as well as the plug-in version, but there's really no need for them to take the time, trouble and expense of creating their own stand-alone application when so many simple host utilities are also already available to let you run any VST instrument in stand-alone mode.

Mac users can download VST Lord (http://arne.knup.de/?page_id=32) for OS X use, while PC users have several choices, including the free Cantabile Lite (www.cantabilesoftware.com), Tobybear's donationware Minihost (www.tobybear.de/p_minihost.html), and Herman Seib's Savihost (www.hermannseib.com/english/Savihost.htm).

Savihost is probably the simplest to use of all of those listed above. It was created for the sole purpose of automatically loading only one VSTi, is extremely quick to load, is light on system resources, is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions to suit whichever format of soft synth you're using, and also supports ASIO drivers for low latency during performance. You just unzip the Savihost file into the same folder as the DLL file for your VST instrument (in this case Omnisphere.dll), then rename the file Savihost.exe to the name of your instrument (so, in this case, Omnisphere.exe).

Finally, double-click on this renamed file and your instrument will appear in all its glory. Just use Savihost's Devices menu to choose your MIDI input device and audio output device and you can start playing it. Even if you don't have a keyboard controller on hand, you can download a different version of Savihost including its own software version that you can play with your mouse.

I've used Savihost myself on quite a few occasions over the years, and not only for playing soft synths as stand-alone applications. It's also a very useful tool if you have any problems running a particular soft synth in a DAW, since you can use it to check that the synth is installed and running correctly without all the extra paraphernalia associated with sequencers, editors and so on. As before, just drop the Savihost file into the same folder as the problem synth DLL, rename it and then double-click on it. If the synth works properly in Savihost, any problem is most likely to be with your DAW. The other advantage of the renaming process is that you can have several instances of Savihost in one 'vstplugins' folder, each launching a different stand-alone synth.

LiquidSonics’ Reverberate LE is a highly efficient convolution reverb audio processor without the modulation or true stereo capabilities ofReverberate. It is available in a standard CPU edition and a version taking advantage of NVIDIA CUDA for the main convolution processing tasks reducing CPU usage where a G80* and above compatible card is found in the system.

Convolution Reverb Essentials
Reverberate LE provides a basic stereo convolution tool for Windows PCs.The essential parameters found on all good reverbs such as a pre-delay, gate and early onset control are all provided in a simple to use set of controls. Advanced reverb decay shapes can be sculpted using the envelope controls, and pitch corrections are possible using the stretch parameter.

High Quality Filtering
The essential filtering tools to place a reverb in the mix are covered with Reverberate LE’s oversampled paragraphic equaliser. Choose from all major filter topologies in a very simple to use interface.
Presets and IRs
Reverberate LE is supplied with a basic bank of 15 stereo presets. Compatibility with various online sources of free IRs ensures the reverb can be used for a wide range of applications.

Reverberate LE is a well featured convolution reverb, a complete list of capabilities is as follows:

• Stereo convolution reverb
• Zero latency CPU edition (or up to 8192 samples for lower CPU usage)
• Low latency GPU edition (512 – 8192 samples delay)
• Wav, Aiff and Flac support
• ADSHR envelopes
• 50%-150% stretch
• Double oversampled IR-EQ
• Pre-delay up to 500ms
• GPU Edition utilises the power of NVIDIA CUDA

Note that Reverberate LE is available for 32-bit PC VST only.

Reverberate LE supports all major VST DAWs on Windows

• Windows XP and above
• VST 2.4 host
• Pentium 4 and above recommended
• NVIDIA 8 Series GPU (and above) with Compute Capability 1.1 for GPU Edition *

Vst Host Program

* The GPU Edition Requires NVIDIA GeForce 8 series and above for CUDA support. Compute Capability 1.1 is required to run the GPU Edition which excludes some GeForce 8800 series cards (i.e. those based on the G80 architecture). All other CUDA enabled cards are thought to be compatible but neither system or device compatibility is guaranteed. Correct operation of the GPU edition is highly dependent on a valid CUDA install by the user and no guarantee of compatibility with any card, system or configuration can be provided.