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C:\Program Files\VSTHost>vsthostregclean /slave
Mouse junkies can right-click on vsthostregclean.exe, select “Create Link” (or whatever that’s called
in your local version of Windows) to create a link, then modify the link’s properties to include the
/slave parameter on the invoked program’s command line, save the new properties, and then doubleclick
on the link (and remove the link again, since this is a one-time operation).
If you’re also using the Open Source variant of VSTHost, vsthostregclean has the unfortunate side
effect of removing all the settings for this one, too; for such an environment, you can pass the
additional parameter /keep to vsthostregclean so that it doesn’t remove the Settings and Load subkeys
from the registry.
Then, there’s one more possible parameter – this deals with the fact that in previous versions VSTHost
used its own file name (normally “VSTHost”) as its start point in the registry. If you renamed
VSTHost (or created a hardlink for it), the key in the registry isn’t VSTHost, either. For such
situations, you can append the parameter /app=appname so that vsthostregclean uses appname instead
of “VSTHost” for its operation.
That’s it – there isn’t any more to it. Simply start VSTHost for the next task:
Configuration
When you start VSTHost for the first time, it comes up with a minimal configuration. A “deaf, dumb,
and blind kid”, as The Who would have called it. You’ll see a window like this (the exact look, of
course, is determined by your Windows setup):
Figure 1: Initial VSTHost window
Hmmm. Well. OK. So what does that mean…? Let’s start with the obvious first task:
Audio Configuration
When VSTHost comes up the first time, it doesn’t know anything about the computer’s configuration.
Being rather conservative in its views, it doesn’t preload any specific driver. In Windows systems,
there’s something called the Wave Mapper device. The user can predefine an audio device as the
default device – the thing that is used whenever Windows needs to issue a “Ping!” or “Bleep!” or
“Whoop!” to indicate certain conditions. VSTHost preloads this standard device as its Audio output
device, and that with a very large buffer size. This, however, is probably the worst possible solution –
but one that’s practically guaranteed to work.
To set up a better configuration, we have to enter the Wave Device Settings dialog by choosing its
menu entry:
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