Never mind about HN as a VST...

Of course a VST plugin would be ideal, but I think that would havt to be a completely different product to be built from the ground up and, there is some pretty robust VST plugin for chord progressions out there already.

A rock solid VST would remember all of it's settings when saved as part of a project, as it stands, HN seems not very good at remembering it's own settings and there are a number of issues even exporting a midi file correctly.

Better that Cognitone get a not so robust product stable reliable, and simple to use first - rather than try to port it into another not very reliable form and probably create even more bugs in the process.

If they are capable of creating something like Synfire, getting rid of all that cumbersome and confusing General Midi setup and offering a straght forward midi out channel template on thier little inbuilt mixer should be no effort for them at all.

I mean, who would have the enthusiasm or confidence to upgrade to such a complexity and price level if thier simple grass roots entry level product is so fiddly and frustrating to set up?

A very admirable and ambitious task and something very much to look forward to - however any thing built must be on a firm foundation. Unfortunately HN does not appear to enjoy that status at present.

HN is a very unique product amongs the family of "auto progression generators, Unfortunately, the General Midi protocol/plugins are and in itself has very little support. It is quite outdated in the contemporary plugin world.

As it stands, with it's coding addressing a on board soft OS/GM soundset synth, it is a lot of fun an quite educational.

Due to it's lack of a simple midi part out to a discreet midi channel record on DAW with solid sync, (as in a rewire ableo/cubase etc.) It just doesn't cut the deal.

Even exporting a simple standard midi file of parts created is very unreliable and unpredicable, there by rendering itself to little use serious composition in a tightly integrated midi production suite.

The choice of desirable all incusive GM Soft synths are limited to Edirol HQ or the now defunct NI Bandstand or a number of over expensive "home keyboard/midi file player"

Of course there are the "multis" of various soft sample players which are far more flexible and creative (as you demonstrate in your video tutorials with HN & Kontakt in reaper for example.

The bulit in OS/GM softsynth of course serves a purpose in generating ideas which is great and can be inspiring and it's understandable why that route was chosen.

However, it comes at a cost (both to yourselves as, for axample the midi file export is a science unto itself as well as the confusion to the end user.

The best thing to do to capitalize on HN is three simple selection boxes.

1) Select OS - GM Softsynth to improvise as standalone.

2) A simple check box to send midi data out to a host GM VST Synth such as ( ? Edirol Hypercanvas ? or NI Bandstand) which is just [1 omni channel GM plugin VST plugin in a single midi track ]

3) A simple check box to select Midii data to discrete multi midi channel to VST/Track/Plugins of the users choice - what better way to improvise then?

You could then even approach Edirol and gt a "HN Lite Bundle" included in thier soft GM synths!

From this side though the most important points are to be able to sync/start/stop/record (via vst instrument tracks) the somwe what "not quite right" midi file export !

Yes, it's good to have constructive conversations in forums.

Midi file problems have been frequent, from completely empty export files through timing errors and not playing the part correctly, that is, not the same as heard from the HN chord arrangement window

I accept the later may be becuase of midi controllers being sent to the OS GM Synth as you mention - hence the need to connect the HN outputs simply and directly into DAW tracks with VST pugin synths of choice so you will hear exactly what you will get (or work towards what you want).
and, be able to record it directly to a midi track rather than export then import a file - hence the need to sync both HN and DAW to stop/start correctly with each other.

Of course all comments and observations are based on experience with HN Le and LoopBe1- not Synfire, which is something of which there is no experience of and discussions on that package are not relevant in this forum.

You say "Either you have a plugin, which has extremely limited choice to control the DAW" - Surely the opposite is the case - that the DAW Automation controls the plugin to precisely control and animate the output sound, which is what contemorary/electronic producers (at any level from bedroom to production suites) want, something which is not or sounds that are not achievable with a simple, self limiting GM soundset.

You also say that "Synching via MTC/ReWire does not work well, because latencies can not be controlled automatically across multiple applications" As far as personal experience goes there have been no major issues with those or other protocol from simple rewire of other applications into Steinberg mixing tracks etc or even different machines hosting softsynth and sample libraries.

Everyone will use or evaluate a application or plugin on the merits bought to the task at hand and the ease of workflow in completing that task.

As far as HN (LE or any other version) goes the ease and availablity to send a midi part to a destination of choice in a DAW with a single click on HN mixer, (without having to fiddling about exporting/importing files that may be out of time or full of unwanted midi controllers) to a multi rack of (for example) Kontakt or to other more abstract VST synths along with the ability to directly record that midi data (in time with other pre-recorded parts) would be something that no doubt any DAW user considering investing in HN would certainly expect....

As previously mentioned HN is a really great product that people of all levels of ability and software DAW's would really enjoy using productively - if only it could do what it is told,simply and quickly and reliably.....

It's encouraging to hear that your researching and implementing better AU/VST support and bug fixing.

There seems to be a few issues that are constantly annoying in HN for example - Some time was spent setting HN to play directly into Cubase, both with a GM plugin and a rack of VSTi's. which was then saved. However, every time it's loaded, it doesn't work properly, if at all and one has to start fiddling around for ages to get it all to work again properly. As such it idoes not seem to be a tool that could be used by clients who pay for studio time and may be looking for some quick ideas.

Every time HN is run and told to export your default demo as a standard midi file it gives the error:-

"Encountered problem with export settings for instrument fills. Could not resolve duration of 1/4 with+202 (120). please try smaller minimum durations"

Looking through other forums, such problems such as setting up for externalVST, DAW exporting of midi and saving templates are quite common with just about everything unless it's a built in OS software GM module.

With regards to your comment "every sound covers the entire 128 note midi pitch range. If the user feels a part should be played at a lower pitch, he turns down the output by one or more octaves. This might work in an electronic music context, but it fails for sound libraries that resemble natural instruments."

It would seem that you are presuming that most people who would purchase HN would want emulate traditional music and scores, when in reality, by looking through the forums, it would seem most people who purchase it or are trying out demo versions are seemingly younger experimental electronic musicians who may be keyboard playing novices, probably into Trance/House/Hip Hop genre and armed with a rack full of red hot synths, does is it not? After all,if one was an acclompished musician and fluent keyboard player, then it's doubtfull HN would not be very high on the shopping list along with sought after plugins for Steinberg/Logic/Protools/Acid and Ableton.

Likewise, in a DAW context, as you mention, if a user finds a chord prgression not quite right, it would be re-arranged in a midi editing page. The same is true of midi files exported from HN, I have no doubt that users of such material would be straght into the midi editor and start playing around with timing,pitch,velocity or even just to get rid of cc commands that are destined for a GM Module.

At the end of the day, what is the point of keeping a GM plugin to hand if there is no reliabilty in saving or loading templates that considerable time may have been taken to create?

At this point, it back to the comments and suggestions in the opening post - pre made templates available at the click of a mouse button for popular DAW's , desgned tried and tested by yourselves.

People want and expect software to work "out of the box" and lengthy manuals,especially in PDF are as un-attractive as lengthy learning curves.

All it should take is a right click selection menu in the routing or mixer window in HN, is it not?