are there audio interfaces that accelerate VSTs and the like

I've seen one or two audio interfaces that have their own proprietary effects that I guess put no strain on the computer itself/done onboard the interface but are there any interfaces where I could just run any VST through it and it would have some special processor for audio-related math/basically what a GFX card does but for audio. Or is it something like the audio interface people would have to take every individual VST into account and make it compatible/logistical nightmare

as far as i know there isn't anything internal that would do this, besides maybe a UAD card. The UAD only uses its own proprietary plugins though, you cant just use any VST. They do make rack mount external breakout boxes that are meant to run several VSTs independent of a computer, they are pretty pricey though and usually cost about the same as a decent laptop. I know a keyboardist for a band that uses one of these at live shows, most of his favorite keyboard sounds are off the computer so he just loaded the rack with his favorite plugins and plays on those live with almost no latency.

I think some of the old Emu cards used to do this, but good luck finding drivers that actually work, especially seeing as they never worked properly in the first place.

no soundcards that can do this that i know of apart from extremely high-end cards with synth chips kind of built-in, but there is the the use audio plugiator which i think lets you upload and store up to 8 vst's and run them on it's internal DSP chips, plus tweak them etc from the onboard controls...

http://www.use-audio.com/plugiator.htm

this thing seems really inexpensive but i can't find anything on the site about it being able to load 3rd party vsts.

  On 3/10/2013 at 10:06 PM, futureimage said:

I think some of the old Emu cards used to do this, but good luck finding drivers that actually work, especially seeing as they never worked properly in the first place.

yeah, the Emu cards before Creative bought them out and eviscerated their creative design team were theoretically supposed to do this. Although i think these too didn't have the ability to use their DSP chips for 3rd party stuff, as far as i know they let you use the same thing in the Audigy / Sound Blaster AWE32, environmental audio like DSP reverb and delay as a VST plugin in a session.

  On 3/10/2013 at 11:58 PM, Awepittance said:

 

 

 

  On 3/10/2013 at 10:06 PM, futureimage said:

I think some of the old Emu cards used to do this, but good luck finding drivers that actually work, especially seeing as they never worked properly in the first place.

 

yeah, the Emu cards before Creative bought them out and eviscerated their creative design team were theoretically supposed to do this. Although i think these too didn't have the ability to use their DSP chips for 3rd party stuff, as far as i know they let you use the same thing in the Audigy / Sound Blaster AWE32, environmental audio like DSP reverb and delay as a VST plugin in a session.

Yeah I think it was only ever their own DSP effects... which were kinda cool but restricted due to lack of DAW integration.

so in short, the answer to this poster's question is a firm no. The closest things out there for what the original poster wants are UAD cards and plugins and a Protools HD system with TDM plugins. There are a handful of other things like Pulsar Creamware, Korg Oasys, the Yamaha PCi cards, but those are all very outdated with no modern drivers or software. UAD and Protools TDM are still being widely used and are pretty much the standard for having hardware devices accelerate or off-load the work from the actual CPU of the computer

The only thing I can think of that exists are plugins that offload some of the VSTs to another machine -

I'm sure there was a free one but I can't think of the name.

Muse's Receptor can do this. it uses PC-style x86 architechture. cost is around 1500 euro.

they market it as a "road-worthy VST player" http://www.museresearch.com/products/receptor-promax.php

there is research being done on using GPU for audio, and somne VSTs already have GPGPU features. i know that Nebula3 and LiquidSonic Reverberate have options for nvidia's CUDA-assisted processing.

the problem with GPGPU & audio is apparently that it mainly speeds up parallel processing which the most audio applications dont have much use for, in fact it often enlarges bandwidth but also introduces lots of latency. so, overall not very useful yet. but they are working on it. here's a recent technical paper on GPGPU processing (for 3d audio) http://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/172440/2/phd_unimi_r08168.pdf

wormhole2

https://code.google.com/p/wormhole2/wiki/MainPage

would be a free "audio over network" plugin..available as audio unit and vst

in conjunction with a vst chainer or a modular audio environment on a 2nd machine..latency/jitter nightmares included!!!

  On 3/12/2013 at 2:17 PM, iococoi said:

wormhole2

 

https://code.google.com/p/wormhole2/wiki/MainPage

 

would be a free "audio over network" plugin..available as audio unit and vst

 

in conjunction with a vst chainer or a modular audio environment on a 2nd machine..latency/jitter nightmares included!!!