VST Instruments Menu: X Symbol?

Cubase
1

Hello folks,

When adding a VST instrument, the menu shows a grey X symbol in front of some VSTi name, in the same spot where a grey III symbol would be displayed in case of a VST3 instrument.

Like this:

Please, what is this X symbol supposed to mean?

Thank you for your help,
Roland

2

X-ternal…

3

Thank you thinkingcap,

however, I don’t seem to understand “external” in this context. Also, why are there the same entries with and without the X symbol?

Please help me understand :blush:

Thanks,
Roland

4

Maybee the ones without the X are VST 2.x plugins, they do not have the extended routing capabilities of vst 3.x plugs.

It still is a guess!!! :mrgreen:

5

External in contrary to (internal) fully software VSTi. And Googling Virus TI / Snow seems indeed that the devices are Hardware. but handled inside software with some “Pseudo VST Plugin”. I´m not reall interested to dig into that deeper, so I might be wrong.

I don´t know, maybe due to the fact, that there is a hardware and a software part. Since I can´t try and see what happens, I can´t tell you, but since usually the VSTi installer is from the manufacturer, you should maybe check the Virus manual first…

6

Or maybe that…

7

So here is what I found out over at the Virus support forum:

  • The X symbol means “instrument using external hardware”, which is exactly what the Virus TI is.

  • Only VST3 instruments have this symbol, so the other Virus TI entry, the one that is not marked with an X, is the VST2 plugin. In the current Virus TI software version, both the VST2 and VST3 plugins are installed.

Took some time to find out about that. I tell you I searched in the Cubase and Virus TI documentation, also used Google, but did not find this mentioned anywhere.

Probably, I did not use an appropriate search phrase - no, I did not search for “X” :laughing:

Thank you all for your help,
Roland