Stompy – VST Effect / Instrument Host for Traktor

Features:

• Apply VST effects to Mic input, Line in or to any software that allows you to choose an audio out device
• Add VST effects to any or all of Traktor’s decks (Soundflower required)
• Syncs to MIDI Clock & Traktor’s BPM for delay / glitch / time-based FX
• Instantly map VST parameters to any MIDI controller
• Store your favourite controllers / VST parameters as presets
• Route VST instruments through Traktor’s live input and sync these to Traktor’s BPM
• TouchOSC and Lemur layouts included so you can control your VST with your iPad

About:

Why was it made?

Although there are plenty of free VST hosts around, there don’t appear to be any that will allow you to use multiple audio channels, sync to a MIDI clock AND to map effect parameters to a hardware MIDI device. Although such features exist in DAWs such as Ableton, Logic or Cubase, these are quite expensive. We’ve been looking for months for a free alternative to this and couldn’t find one that offered all of these features in one package.

Stompy was designed specifically for people who want the versatility of using external VST effects / instruments in their DJ performances but don’t want to spend £300 on a fully-fledged sequencer / DAW. There are thousands of free VST effects and instruments around and Traktor users are normally missing out on these. Now you can use them quickly and easily (and for free!)

If you do own Ableton Live and you want to route Traktor through VST effects, we recommend that you watch this excellent tutorial video by armyofme4340.

System Requirements:

• Mac OSX

Optional:

• Traktor Pro 2 – v2.1.1 or above
• Soundflower – Use this if you want to connect Stompy to Traktor
• TouchOSC or Lemur – Required if you want to control Stompy with your iPad / iPhone. Templates are provided in the download.
• A MIDI controller

Setup & Usage Instructions:

General Setup:

Download and install the free Soundflower software from Cycling 74.
Open your Mac’s System Preferences > Sound and make sure the Input is set to Soundflower (16ch).

VST Effect Setup:

Traktor:

Open Preferences > Audio Setup and set the Audio Device to Soundflower 16ch.
Open Preferences > Output Routing and select External Mixer. Route as follows (click image to enlarge):

You can opt for Internal Mixer here (by setting the Master Output to Soundflower 16ch Out 0 and Out 1), but you will only be able to apply FX to Traktor’s master output, not each deck individually.

Open Preferences > MIDI Clock. Ensure this is ticked. Leave the Sending Offset as 0.
Open Controller Manager and click Add. Select General Midi. Set the In Port as None and the Out Port as Traktor Virtual Output
Back on the main Traktor screen, click the Metronome and click the Start button to send a MIDI Clock signal (Stompy will sync to this).

At this point you should connect your MIDI controller. If you’re using the TouchOSC or Lemur layout, you need to connect your iPad to your Mac at this stage.

Soundflower:

Make sure that both Soundflower (2ch) and Soundflower (16ch) are set to None (OFF).

Stompy:

Open Stompy and click on Settings. Select ‘Stompy Settings’ from the menu.
In the pop-up window, set as follows:

Audio In – Soundflower 16ch
Audio Out – CoreAudio Built-In Output
CTRL In – The name of your MIDI controller (if you don’t see this, click Refresh)
BPM In – Traktor Virtual Output

Click the On switch and set the volume. You should now hear whatever’s playing in Traktor and see the volume meter moving.
Click the Load button and select your plugin. By default they are stored in Mac HD/Library/Audio/Plugins/VST/
Click the Open button to show the plugin’s GUI

VST Instrument Setup:

Traktor:

Open Preferences > Audio Setup and set the Audio Device to Soundflower 16ch.
Open Preferences > Output Routing and select Internal Mixer. Route as follows (click image to enlarge):

Open Preferences > Input Routing and select Soundflower 0 (16ch) and Soundflower 1 (16ch) for the deck you wish to use.

Open Preferences > MIDI Clock. Ensure this is ticked. Leave the Sending Offset as 0.
If you haven’t already done so, open Controller Manager and click Add. Select General Midi. Set the In Port to None and the Out Port to Traktor Virtual Output
Back on the main Traktor screen, click the Metronome and click the Start button to send a MIDI Clock signal (Stompy will sync to this).

At this point you should connect your MIDI controller. If you’re using the TouchOSC or Lemur layout, you need to connect your iPad to your Mac at this stage.

Soundflower:

Make sure that the Soundflower (16ch) ‘Built-In Output’ is ticked.
In the Soundflower (16ch) Menu, ensure that Channel 1 and 2 are set to None.
Set Channel 3 to Built-In Output [1] and set Channel 4 to Built-In Output [2].

Stompy:

Open Stompy and click on Settings. Select ‘Stompy Settings’ from the menu.
In the pop-up window, set as follows:

Audio In – You can choose anything here as long as it’s not Soundflower
Audio Out – Soundflower (16ch)
CTRL In – The name of your MIDI controller (if you don’t see this, click Refresh)
BPM In – Traktor Virtual Output

Click the On switch and set the volume.
Click the Load button and select your VST Instrument. By default they are stored in Mac HD/Library/Audio/Plugins/VST/
Click the Open button to show the plugin’s GUI
You should now hear whatever’s playing in your VST Instrument and see the volume meter moving.

Usage:

Select which decks you want to apply the effect to by using the A, B, C, D toggle buttons when using Stompy as a VST effect host.

MIDI keyboards will map automatically to your chosen VST Instrument or effect. Dials, sliders and buttons need to be mapped manually. To map a VST parameter to a dial, fader or button on Stompy, first click the parameter you want to assign in the VST’s window, then click the ‘V’ button just above the dial you want to assign in Stompy. Now when you move the dial in Stompy it should also move the assigned parameter in your chosen VST instrument or effect.

To map a MIDI controller to the same dial, just do exactly the same thing, ie., move the dial on your MIDI controller but this time press the appropriate ‘C’ button on Stompy. The dial on your MIDI controller should now be controlling the chosen VST parameter.

Remember that you can apply your chosen VST effect to any audio source, not just Traktor. Try setting the Audio In on Stompy to Mic or Line-In and using VST effects on other live sound sources.

Setup with iPad as a controller:

TouchOSC:

First you will need the latest version of TouchOSC (£2.99 from iTunes). You will also need TouchOSC Editor and TouchOSC Bridge, available for free from the Hexler website.

– If Stompy is already open, shut it down / exit.

– Install TouchOSC on your iPad and run it

– Ensure that your iPad and Mac are connected to the same network, either through a router or an Ad-Hoc network. An Ad-Hoc network is recommended for the best performance.

– Download, install and run TouchOSC Bridge. Open TouchOSC on your iPad and go to Settings > MIDI Bridge. Ensure this is enabled and you should see the name of your computer appear. Press this to connect. If you don’t see your computer name here then there’s a problem somewhere with the network setup. Check that your iPad and computer are both on the same network. There’s more info on connecting through TouchOSC Bridge on the Hexler website’s MIDI Bridge Connection page.

– Download, install and run TouchOSC Editor. Open TouchOSC Editor and open the supplied template then press the ‘Sync’ button. In TouchOSC, go to the Layout menu and press ‘Add’. The name of your computer should appear in the ‘Found Hosts’ section. Press your computer name to upload the template. If you’re having trouble uploading through TouchOSC Editoir, hexler.net recommend that you try uploading the template to your iPad using iTunes instead. Just connect to iTunes, select your iPad, click the ‘Apps’ tab, click on TouchOSC and drag and drop the template in. Once loaded, click the ‘Info’ button in TouchOSC and ensure that coreMIDI is enabled.

– Open Stompy and select ‘TouchOSC Bridge’ from the ‘CTRL’ drop-down menu in the Settings screen. You should now have 2 way communication between your computer and iPad.

Lemur for iPad:

You will need the latest version of Lemur for iPad (£34.99 from iTunes). You will also need Lemur Daemon and Lemur Editor, available for free in the Lemur Installer from the Liine website.

– If Stompy is already open, shut it down / exit.

– Install Lemur on your iPad and run it

– Ensure that your iPad and Mac are connected to the same network, either through a router or an Ad-Hoc network. An Ad-Hoc network is recommended for the best performance.

– Follow the video guides on the Lemur support page for instructions on how to connect Lemur with your Mac.

– IMPORTANT! Make sure you connect through Daemon Input 0 and Daemon Output 0.

– Once connected, load the layout (included in the download) through Lemur Editor and press the small Play button in the top right hand corner. The layout should appear on the iPad.

– Open Scratchy and select ‘Daemon Output 0′ from the ‘CTRL’ drop-down menu in the Settings screen. You should now have 2 way communication between your computer and iPad.

Download (Mac only):

To download this software, you must first register as a website member.

Once you have registered and logged in, you’ll automatically be able to see the download link below. Registration is easy and free and gives you access to download all the templates and free software available on this website. It also allows you to post comments in the forum and registers you for our newsletter. Your email address will not be passed to third parties.

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Download includes the software, setup instructions and the TouchOSC & Lemur templates for iPad.

Known Issues:

Stompy is still in beta, so it’s possible that you may encounter some problems. Please report any bugs / issues in the Forum.

– You may experience crackles, pops or audio dropouts using Stompy as a VST Effect host. If so, increase the latency in Traktor > Preferences > Audio Setup.