Energy XT

[Bill Fox]

Tony Scharf wrote:
> Anyone here using it?  I got an earful on how completely awesome it is
> the other day at the gig, and I was curious what others experience
> with it was.
> I tried the demo of it back when it was just 1.0 (or maybe earlier)
> and it was nice, but obviously incomplete.
> Any avid users around here?
>   
Hi Tony,

I've been using energtXT for a few years.  I was tearing my hair out 
trying to get Live 4 Lite to be my host but it was too restrictive to 
load any more than one VST.  Bleah.  This was at Different Skies.  
http://differentskies.com    One of the other attendees saw my 
frustration and turned me on to energyXT.  This was 2.5 years ago.  I 
now have Sonar, Live 7, and Pro Tools 8 on my laptop and I *STILL* use 
energyXT as my VST hosting program.  I think that eXT uses a lot less 
processing power than the other programs so if I don't need their other 
capabilities, then eXT is the most efficient, flexible, and straight 
forward to use, imo.  Everything is visually laid out in front of your 
eyes like a patched up modular synth where a module could be any VST 
plugin from softsynth to effect.

I'm still using what is now an obsolete version of energyXT because it 
does what I need.  I gleefully plop softsynths onto the screen and 
connect them to mixers directly or through VST effects.  I do all sorts 
of damage quite happily.*  My Prog Rock trio Pinnacle 
http://myspace.com/pinnalcegroup has a much improved sound since I 
started using eXT and my arsenal of softsynths and plugin effects.  I 
have a set of softsynths that I purchased and a slew of softsynths and 
effects that were free downloads.  Hooray for KVR Audio!  
http://kvraudio.com

* One of my favorite things to do is to run three instances of M-Tron 
into a mixer and pan them left, center, and right.  The left M-Tron is 
pitched a little flat and the right M-Tron a little sharp.  All three 
are set up with the same sound.  The mixer then feeds a phaser or 
flanger.  This is a GLORIOUS sound.  It's a keyboard split for the right 
hand.  The left hand has its own split controlling another bunch of 
synths.  And this is just the beginning!  You can get much more complex 
than what I've just described.

Cheers,

Bill