FXpansion VST to AU Wrapper

[DaveDC9]

Greetings Fellow DP'ers. Would anyone have the installer for the FXpansion VST to AU wrapper 1.34 or 2.0 you would be able to provide me? I'm resurrecting a G5 to slave to my Mac Pro and would primarily like to regain the use of my HALion String Edition 1 software. Over the decades I've been doing this I've retained most if not all of the installers, updates, receipts, authorization numbers etc.........but somewhere along the line I lost this one.

I've been in touch with Roli, the company that took over support for FXpansion but to no avail. I'm sure this software is considered "abandonedware" but I can provide the original receipt and authorization number. I have found this thing digging around on the internet but the websites are questionable at the very least and downright unsafe at worst. Would hate life if I bit on one of these places and wound up with some weird malware or something on the system. Have infinite more faith and trust from you fellow DP users here. Or, in the alternative, if someone has downloaded the wrapper from a safe site would you provide me with a link?

As a side note, I am having one hell of a time pulling all of this together. The G5 is running OSX 10.13.1 Tiger and just getting on the net is almost impossible. Safari is so old and out of date in Tiger that even though I can access some sites, the majority of the sites I need to go to it just won't do it. "Safari cannot establish a secure connection" is the usual error. Even digging around the net on the Mac Pro is very contingent on search words, phrases etc....... and frankly is exhausting. Don't think I'll have a problem slaving the two Macs as a few folks here have provided some very good resources to accomplish this. Perhaps I should be working on this first. Cart before the Horse? Probably. Gonna find out though. lol I know, I like pain. Should anyone have some insight into all of this it sure would be appreciated and if by chance someone has the wrapper I would be forever grateful.

Thanks guys, you folks are an encyclopedia of knowledge, skill and talent here. This place is "First Call" even before MOTU. The times I've called them they've been very helpful of course but frankly, most of the time I find the answer or solution to a problem here at MOTU Nation first.
I salute you guys!!!
David Caudle
o7

[HCMarkus]

Thanks for the kind words about The Nation Dave.

I can't help with the immediate question you pose, but as a G5 owner who still boots up his machine once a year to use FileMaker database software (tax season studio gear depreciation and amortization), might I suggest you consider moving from Tiger (10.4) to Mac OS X 10.5.8 "Leopard", the last version of OSX that the machine will run. It might get you a bit more compatibility with current stuff.

Maybe Mike or someone else will chime in with some solid info for you. Good luck!

[mikehalloran]

Your only chances are JBridge ($14 or so) or 32Lives v.2 ($99) v.1 won’t work.

You sill need to find a version that runs over OS 10.4 or 10.5. The JBridge developer is very good about answering email and pointing you in the right direction — if he says it can work, pay the $14 and see.

32Lives did not add VST support till version 2. I don’t think v.2 runs on a PPC but I’d be happy if I’m wrong.

[Michael Canavan]

Roli took over FXpansion, but their website still exists.
https://fxpansion.com/

I would get ahold of them, in my account there, my serial for the AU-VST adapter is still there, but there's no download. I would bet if I asked they could provide one though.

[cuttime]

I've heard through the grapevine that the FXpansion programmers have already moved on. I hate to say it, but you may be SOL.

[Michael Canavan]

I've heard through the grapevine that the FXpansion programmers have already moved on. I hate to say it, but you may be SOL.

He didn't take the code with him. Angus, the main man, works for Image Line now, but that doesn't stop someone at Roli/Fxpansion from giving out a link to the VST/Au wapper, looking up a serial for a customer etc.

DaveDC9 should get on it quick though, Roli are changing their name to Lumi and focusing on beginers, i.e. they hemorrhaged money investors had in them and are cutting back to what they think will sell that will keep them from going under entirely.

[DaveDC9]

Thanks for the replies guys.
HC, you are probably right about moving to leopard to facilitate getting on the net. I’ll look into that. Thank you sir!!!

Mike, I have jBridge and have used it on my Mac Pro to bridge Kitcore at the time. But the issue isn’t really a 32 bit to a 64 bit move. HSE 1 will run on the PPC Mac on OSX Tiger and Leopard but only if it’s wrapped to be a Audio Unit. I think by the time HSE 2 came out Steinberg made it AU compatible. OSX and DP didn’t move to support the VST format until sometime later. Forget when. The FXpansion wrapper did a pretty good job with HSE 1.

I looked at both SoundRadix 32Lives and Bridgewize and I had several back and forths with 32Lives support guy who kept telling me that the 32 bit VI’s could be installed on the 64 bit Mac. I kept telling him “no they can’t” but if I am wrong please tell me how to do it!!! lol……….. A few replies later he said he “you’re right”. He had talked to one of the programmers at Soundradix who explained the issue to him.

Here is the odd thing about this. I downloaded the trial 32Lives and ran it. To my surprise there were a few, 7 or 8 32 bit VI’s on my system and it converted them to 64 bit. I’m running OSX 10.13.4 HS and DP 10.1. So I went looking in the library>audio>component and vst folder to see if those VI’s were in there and they were. Did the “get info” thing on them and they show a install date compatible with my old G5. Have no idea how they got there!!! THEN……………………I booted the G5 in TDM and took the .vst files and transferred them to the same folder on the MP. My thought was that 32Lives would look in this folder as it did for the others, see the newly placed 32bit .vst files and do it’s thing. It didn’t. Also tried jBridge and it didn’t work either. Really wouldn't be a need to bridge anything on the G5 for obvious reasons. Can’t say if 32Lives runs on the PPC but I wouldn’t think so as the PPC processor wouldn’t know what to do with a 64 bit, bridged plugin. The jBridge doesn't’ run on the PPC either. Jao, I think the fellow’s name is, was always very helpful and replied in a timely manner.

Michael, I have been in touch with Roli as I mentioned above. And like you, the wrapper is still showing on my product page in my account there. Authorization number is there also. Andy is the guy I’m dealing with at Roli. He told me he would look for the installer and appears to be making a good faith effort to do so. He was quite amused when he got my first email about this.

Cuttime, you may just be right!!! I may just be p*ssing up a rope here but I think I can pull this off. How and when? Don't know but I'll keep trying.

Guys, thank you all for replying. Perhaps some other Nation dwellers will wonder in here as time goes by and be able to help me with my quest. Surely I'm not the only user here that kept all that old stuff in a folder for all these years!!
Thanks Again!!!
David

[DaveDC9]

Just had another thought from another thread here. Would VEP 7 be of any use to me? I'm over on the site right now digging. Maybe someone here is already using this to accomplish what I'm trying to do.

[mikehalloran]

I have jBridge and have used it on my Mac Pro to bridge Kitcore at the time. But the issue isn’t really a 32 bit to a 64 bit move.

No, it’s bridging VST to AU which is what you are trying to accomplish. That’s one of the things that JBridge does.

[DaveDC9]

That's true Mike but on the Mac Pro, not the G5. The VST to AU wrapper is still within the 32bit, PPC realm. jBridge will not work there. I had a discussion with Jao about this at the time. I've also been looking for a OSX ,PPC VST host, like a mini host in the same mode as the Rax thing was. I have Rax but it's AU only and the company has morphed to some kind of "comic" thing. Doesn't really matter as it can't be reauthorized.

I think a simple, no frills, PPC compatible VST host would work. Do you know of one? I've actually seen quite a few but they are recent apps. Nothing so far for the G5.

[mikehalloran]

Then I don’t believe that what you want exists — if it ever did.

[DaveDC9]

Mike, the jBridge does not convert a VST to an Audio Unit. It converts a 32 bit VST so that it will run on a 64 bit system. And it's VST only.
Directly from Joao's site:
jBridgeM aims to make it possible to run 32bit bit VST plugins in 64 bit VST hosts and vice-versa, as well as do 32bit to 32bit bridging, allowing you to use all the available RAM in your machine, overcome the memory limitations of your 32bit VST host, or use your favorite 32bit plugins in your 64bit VST host.

"Then I don’t believe that what you want exists — if it ever did".
Hmm..............are you serious? Reference the name of this thread.

[Michael Canavan]

I'm resurrecting a G5 to slave to my Mac Pro and would primarily like to regain the use of my HALion String Edition 1 software.

I hate to be that guy, but if this is your main goal have you though about just getting the latest version of Halion and using the library that way? Crossgrade price is $249

[mothra]

I knew there was a reason Ive kept this around even though I haven't needed to use it in over 10 years now. I was a beta tester for this way back when. Had to use this in the early days when Waldorf refused to put out AudioUnit versions of their plugins and blamed whatever reason they couldn't on Apple heh. Hopefully this is ok sharing the installer here??
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ozdiebofpav49 ... 0.dmg?dl=0

[DaveDC9]

Michael, I do have the HSO that I can use via the HALion Sonic 3 LE I believe. Steinberg at the time went back and reworked the samples of the string section and frankly, it never sounded the same for me. Can't put my finger on it but it was just different.

Mothra my Brothra!!!! Just downloaded the wrapper and I thank you profusely sir!!! I too, have always kept the installers, even for things that I'll probably never have the need to use again but you never know. Somewhere down the line, changing computers etc........I lost it.
Thanks my friend!!! You have made my day!!!! And a big THANK YOU to everyone who responded!!!! Including you Mike H. Damn grump. lol