Hey guys, here's an interesting way to add effects to what is playing on windows, such as EQ, and compression. I've always wanted to do this to help me help other people with mixing. A simpler solution would be to just download the track and open it in your DAW, but I like the idea of just opening a VST plugin and analyzing a track on the spot. This is probably an obscure thing to want to do, but hopefully someone will find it useful.
First you need to download Savihost.
- http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm
If your like me and you have multiple VST effects in multiple formats, then you'll likely have to download multiple, (or all) of the options.
Next you'll need plugins to use. Unfortunately, some of my favorite plugins are native (like the parametric eq 2 from fl studio), and savihost doesn't work with these, so if you don't already have third party vst plugins to use, here are some links to some.
Voxengo Span - A great free spectrum analyzer.
s(M)exoscope - A great free waveform visualizer.
A list of free Eq's
A list of free compressors.
Once you have that setup, copy and paste the savihost.exe files to your vst folder, then rename the exe files to the plugin you want to run. It may take a few tries, since I wasn't sure which plugins were 64-bit or not, I had to use trial and error to figure out which .exe file to use with which dll.
This works best with multiple playback options within windows, so hopefully you have some. Once you renamed the .exe files to the plugins you want to run, and have the plugin running in savihost, go to Devices/Wave.
Once here, choose an input device. This will be whatever device will be playing what you want to mix. For, me this will be Stereo Mix.
Next, choose an output device so you can hear it. You can't use the same device as the input, and you must choose a output that isn't currently playing the stereo mix. I have an audio interface, so I use that as my playback device.
There now you can apply effects and mix what windows is playing. Now you can listen to someones track, and give them accurate eq and frequency advice :).
There are limitation to this however. While you can have multiple savihost windows running at the same time, like say for monitoring with voxengo span and s(m)exoscope, you can only run one plugin effect for playback. Ideally you would want something that also gives you information on the frequency, like a spectrum analyzer/equalizer combo. Unfortunately, the only one's I can find of these are not free, like the Voxengo GlissEQ. Also, you can't use ASIO devices because doing so disables input, so you may have latency issues.
Some DAW's have a vst host option. I tried running the Fl Studo VST host but it didn't work for me. Maybe you'll have better luck then me.
If you happen to own Ozone, then you have all the mixing and analyzing tools you'll need in one plugin :)