Soon the new AIR Instrument Pack will be updated to include AAX, VST and AU versions, at this time there is no standalone option. However, all is not lost for those wanting to use instruments without the need to fire up a DAW, this FREE tutorial will show you how to use the powerful Plogue Bidule application to create your own standalone versions of VST and AU instruments.
In this tutorial we are going to create a standalone version of AIR Velvet electric piano. All the images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Step 1 - Open Plogue Bidule
Open up Plogue Bidule and you will see the workspace shown above, you will also see a README. You may want to read it, but there are a couple of things on the workspace that we can remove so that we have a simple path.
Step 2 - Simplify Your Path
To simplify the path you can delete things that are not needed for the instrument, so go ahead and highlight the README and the mixer so they show yellow then hit the delete key.This will leave you with a Default MIDI input and a Default Audio Output. If you want to change these you can simply right click on them and navigate to the module to change the settings. For the MIDI input navigate to Replace/MIDI Devices/Input and for the audio navigate to Replace/Audio Devices/Output.
Step 3 - Add An Instrument
Next you want to add an instrument. So click anywhere on the workspace area and then navigate to VST Instruments/AirMusicTech/Velvet. As I want a simple stereo instrument I select 1 in 2 outs.
Step 4 - Make The Connections
Next you want to connect the MIDI in to the instrument and the audio outputs from Velvet to the audio outputs of your device. You do this by clicking on the nodes on the corner of each module. Nodes on the top indicate inputs and on the bottom outputs. Click with you mouse on the output node of the Default MIDI Input and drag it to the white input node on Velvet. Then click on the Left output node of Velvet and drag to the Left input node of the Default Audio Output, repeat this for the Right output.
Step 5 - Save Your Instrument
To see the GUI of your instrument double click on the Velvet module and hey presto you have a standalone version of Velvet.
Save your new creation. It is now ready to be used whenever you need a standalone version.
It really is that simple. the whole process should take you less than a minute.