ReWire

[mhschmieder]

I did a search and didn't find this topic discussed in a way that was at all enlightening to me (as a complete novice).

What is ReWire? I have heard it mentioned a few times. I'm curious because Notion (notation program) will add support for it soon, and it is a critical factor in determining whether I will be able to use Symphonic Instrument and/or Mach Five to play back compositions from a notation program.

I also understand it is a protocol used for plug-ins in general, but don't know if it is cross-platform, multi-vendor, an industry standard, proprietary, universally supported, etc.

I am only familiar with Audio Units, and know about but have never used VST. Does ReWire serve an entirely different function, or is it about the same?

And of course I'll want to know whether ReWire is supported (if that word even makes sense) by Digial Performer, Mach Five. MX-4 and Symphonic Instrument.

<small>[ August 11, 2005, 12:03 AM: Message edited by: Mark Schmieder ]</small>

[thracks]

ReWire was developed by Propellerheads. DP can host other ReWire apps such as Reason or Live. The instruments you list do NOT support ReWire. I'm not sure what this app Notion is supposed to do as far as ReWire goes, so I'm afraid I can't help you much more.

[mhschmieder]

Thanks; that makes a lot of sense. So basically it would be redundant in the case of MachFive hosted by DP4.6, since machFive does its own streaming anyway and being hosted by DP4.6 doesn't block that.

I can see how ReWire is very useful for integrating apps that wouldn't have a natural inclination to work well with each other otherwise.

I am looking into this for work reasons as well as personal reasons, so thanks for pointing me to that very useful "main page" for definitions/etc.

"Notion" is an excellent notation package that I am considering, as it is more immediate in its mapping of on-paper workflow than Finale or Sibelius.

They do not plan to support Kontakt Player as Finale (as of 2006) and Sibelius do, and I can see how their adoption of ReWire might be helpful but not a panacea as it requires the hosted app to support ReWire as well (there's a handshake at both ends, so to speak).

I'm guessing this means I won't be able to use Symphonic Instrument for my playback sources if I end up buying Notion. But that apparantly would also be the case if I bought Kontakt or GigaStudio.

<small>[ August 04, 2005, 06:12 PM: Message edited by: Mark Schmieder ]</small>