Design and implementation of virtual studio technology instrument plug-in for Kirar

Abstract

With the rapid increase of computing resources within the last decade, several real-time applications such as sound editing and processing are becoming more popular. Virtual Studio Technology (VST) was introduced by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH in 1996 which provided a platform for sound effect developers to implement their own effect plugins. In 1999 a standard framework for software sequencers, so called VST instruments (VSTi), was introduced in which music instruments are simulated in the virtual studio. To design an instrument as part of the virtual studio, a series of steps from audio sample collection and recording to integrating the samples using a plug-in to the VST is required. To the best of our knowledge, there is no VSTi plugins developed for Ethiopic music instruments so far. Therefore, we have effectively used the structure of the VSTi API and its Software Development Kit (SDK) tools to design and implement a plugin for Kirar (Ethiopian music instrument) and effectively integrated and tested. Our plugin was successfully recognized and operated in the Cubase5 and FL studio Digital Audio
Workstations (DAWs) as a VSTi instrument which initiates its own graphical user interface (GUI) with full mouse and keyboard controls having 3 level Musical Instruments Digital Interface (MIDI) mapping.

Keywords: DSP, Kirar, MIDI, VSTi