I am 2!

Today, Kapitano is two years old. That's Kapitano the blog, not Kapitano the person, who's 34 and has a different colour scheme. I'm spending my alter-ego's birthday...waiting.



The GTTR should be processing my details, and I'm waiting for them to get back to me so I can start applying for courses.

I bought some amazingly cheap clothes on Ebay, and I'm waiting for them to arrive.

CW is, for slightly mysterious reasons, in Belgium. And I'm waiting for him to come back.

My debit card is cancelled, and I'm waiting for the replacement to come in the post. When it does, I can pay academic entrance fees, get more stuff on Ebay, and take CW out for a drink when he gets back.

While waiting, I've been programming a new analog drumkit to use with song demos, trawling through VSTs for much the same purpose, and sorting through DVDRs of half completed demos from the past. Though it's all really to avoid tidying up the bedroom.

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There's a fair amount of software out there for anyone - with or without competence in programming - who wants to make VST and VSTi plugins for their music.

There was "Plug-In Constructor", but that seems to have been abandoned - even the website is owned by another company. Probably there was just too much competition.



SonicBirth is Mac only, and I'm a PC man.

Max is less a VST designer than a collection of modules for creating sequencers, synthesisers, DSP units, hard-disk recorders etc. It's for those who want to create a whole studio from the ground up, including VSTs.

VAZ Modular is good for analog synths, but not other types. Nothing wrong with it, just too narrow.

Music Workshop (formerly Delta SP) is an all-in-one MIDI sequencer, recorder, synth rack and VST builder.

It looks like a poor man's Reason, except Reason can't record samples (much to many people's annoyance) or make new modules - though it can come close with the Combinator unit.



Reaktor is incredibly versitile, equally complex, and horribly expensive.Tassman...is the same. I've played around with demo versions of both, and the sounds are amazing - some of them are so 'physical' or just so strange you'd never guess they came out of a synthsiser. But the programs are just out of my present price range.

Then there's SynthMaker, SynthEdit and Buzz. These are all actual dedicated VST and VSTi creators, they allow the user to work at the "componant" level and the C++ code level, and all are in late Beta testing.

SynthMaker looks great, is reputedly easy to use, and is surprisingly little used. Perhaps that's partly because you get to use it free for 30 days, before having to buy it for a slightly steep USD110.



SynthEdit looks a bit naffer, is reputedly harder to use, and is far and away the most popular VST creator. The basic package is free in perpetuity, and the advanced version, with loads of extra componants and some extra features goes for a reasonable USD50.

Continuing the theme, Buzz looks extremely naff and when I tried it I found it impossible to use. Then it crashed. However, it is free, and probably has the largest base of users, followed closely by SynthEdit.

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This week I are be mostly listening to...Kate Bush! The "Whole Story" compilation. That strange music that seemed so soppy and girly in my pre-teen years, now sounds inventive and intelligent. So either I'm now old enough to appreciate it, or I've gone all soppy and girly.

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And so, like all good queens, Kapitano has two birthdays. This is the one that doesn't involve a parade of men in uniform. Or indeed bareskins.



So, until next year, god bless you, and all who pale next to you.