VST and MIDI Instruments panel

The VST and MIDI instruments panel contains the VST and MIDI instruments available and used in your project, and allows you to edit their settings. It is located on the right of the window in Play mode.

Figure 1. VST and MIDI Instruments panel

The VST and MIDI Instruments panel contains the following sections:

  1. VST Instruments

  2. MIDI Instruments

VST Instruments

The VST Instruments section of the panel contains plug-in instances that each contain a VST instrument plug-in. Dorico Elements automatically loads plug-ins and enough plug-in instances for the instruments you add to your project according to the current playback template, but you can also load VST instruments manually.

Plug-in instances are automatically numbered to help you differentiate between instances when you have multiple instances of the same plug-in.

Note

Dorico Elements only shows VST 3 instruments in the VST Instruments section by default. If you also want VST 2 instruments to be available, you must allow them. Only Kontakt and NotePerformer are allowed by default.

Each plug-in instance contains the following:

  1. Activate Instrument

    Activates/Deactivates the plug-in instance.

  2. Edit Instrument

    Opens/Closes the VST instrument window.

  3. Endpoint Setup

    Opens the Endpoint Setup dialog for the corresponding plug-in instance.

  4. VST Instruments menu

    Displays the VST instrument currently loaded in the plug-in instance and allows you to select another available VST instrument from the menu.

The action bar at the bottom of the section contains the following options:

  • Add : Adds a new empty plug-in instance.

  • Duplicate : Creates a copy of the selected plug-in instance that you can edit separately from the original.

  • Save Endpoint Configuration : Opens the Save Endpoint Configuration dialog, which allows you to save the current state of all plug-in instances in the section as a custom endpoint configuration.

  • Delete : Deletes the selected plug-in instance.

MIDI Instruments

The MIDI Instruments section of the panel contains plug-in instances that each contain a MIDI device to use for output during playback. Which MIDI devices are available depends on your operating system.

  • On Windows, you can select any MIDI device that is plugged into your computer.

  • On macOS, you can select any MIDI device that is plugged into your computer, and any other device set up in the Audio MIDI Setup application. For example, this allows you to use MIDI from one application in another application.

Tip

We recommend plugging MIDI devices into your computer before starting Dorico Elements. Similarly, if your device is not recognized, we recommend restarting Dorico Elements.

Plug-in instances are automatically numbered to help you differentiate between instances when you have multiple instances of the same plug-in.

Each MIDI instance contains the following:

  1. Activate Instrument

    Activates/Deactivates the plug-in instance.

  2. Endpoint Setup

    Opens the Endpoint Setup dialog for the corresponding plug-in instance.

  3. MIDI Instruments menu

    Displays the MIDI device currently loaded in the plug-in instance and allows you to select another available MIDI device from the menu.

The action bar at the bottom of the section contains the following options:

  • Add : Adds a new empty plug-in instance.

  • Save Endpoint Configuration : Opens the Save Endpoint Configuration dialog, which allows you to save the current state of all plug-in instances in the section as a custom endpoint configuration.

  • Delete : Deletes the selected plug-in instance.