Useful Third Party Software
Many software utilities exist that can enhance the functionality of PARIS. (The excellent AnalogX has written a number of utilities specific to PARIS; click here for more great AnalogX utilities, or see below):
Donationware/Freeware:
- NEW Sun May 8 2016: AudioMove (by Meyer Sound) - batch audio conversion utility for OSX, PC and Linux that will take your .paf files (and a lot of other formats) and make WAV, OGG, FLAC or AIFF files out of them. Minimalist, fast and looks solid so far.
- NEW Sun Apr. 17 2016: Reaper Libsndfile Wrapper (by Matthias Kronlachner and Xenakios) - The Reaper libsndfile wrapper is a must-have extension for users who work in both PARIS and Reaper (see below). It permits Reaper to work with PARIS' native .paf audio file format - the only file format PARIS can do 24 bits in - as a supported file type, meaning that you'll be able to both open .pafs in Reaper and render out .pafs that PARIS can see directly. Installers are available for Mac OSX, Windows 32 and 64. Big ups to Matthias and Xenakios for this incredibly useful extension - and if you're going to use it please consider sending Matthias a donation via his website!
- StripWave (by Timothy John Weber) - Stripwave is a must-have Windows utility to remove header information from WAV files; ideal for cleaning up WAV files that PARIS finds problematic.
- PARIS Performance (by AnalogX) - Paris Performance (PP) is a CPU performance meter, designed with the same GUI (graphical user interface) as the Ensoniq PARIS Digital Audio Workstation.
- PARIS MIDI Automation (by AnalogX) - It's the Paris. It's got MIDI. Nuff' said. Automation of ALL of the controls on the WindowMiniMixer Mini Mixer display...
- PARIS AutoAdd (by AnalogX) - If you've ever needed to add more than a few files to a Paris project, you quickly learned that the only way to do it was one at a time... Until now!
- PARIS AutoSave (by AnalogX) - Ever wished that you would have a handy way to AutoSave your Paris projects, to go along with the Paris's ability to save undo-s in your Project? Well, your wishes have become reality with Paris AutoSave from AnalogX!
- Interleave (by AnalogX) - Undo the evils of defrag on multitrack digital audio files, or restore your archived tracks for maximum disk performance...
- DriveTime (by AnalogX) - Ever wanted to know how much space is on you HD, in people terms like minutes and hours? If so, then check this out...
- Delay Calculator (by AnalogX) - Handy little utility that calculates millisecond delays from beats per minute (tempo).
- Sample Slide (by AnalogX) - Very useful delay utility that lets you tweak track latency (thanks KimW!)
- FFX-4 Rack (by VB Audio) - Break PARIS' "64 Native Inserts" barrier with this new freeware wrapper [at bottom of link] that acts as a "virtual rack/mini-patchbay" to allow four DX plug-ins in a single PARIS slot. May inadvertently work as a cure for some DX plugin stability issues for PARIS!
- VB Plugman (by VB Audio) - Manage Plug-ins registered on your system. A list shows you all the Audio Direct-X Plug-in and all VS3 Plug-ins. Select one or several plug-ins by name, and click on one of the 3 buttons to disable, enable or remove plug-ins from your system.
- Senderella (by Subminimal) - Senderella is a free VST plug-in for Windows that can transmit stereo/mono signals from one instance to another. Use it as a send in hosts that do not provide proper sends, or for feedback loops in modular hosts that do not support them. It has just been updated to v1.0.6. There are now two versions of the DLL included: Original and Simplified. [be warned: discontinued, and can potentially cause problems]
- r8brain (by Voxengo) - This utility program was designed to allow both amateur and professional users to perform high quality sample rate conversion of WAV files. For example, if your WAV file was recorded or saved as 48000 (or 96000) file and you need it to burn onto a CD you will likely need to convert it to 44100 before that. This utility will help you to perform such conversion. r8brain also supports batch processing which is essential if you need to transfer all your project's audio data from one sample rate to another.
Shareware:
- REAPER (by Cockos) - The "Swiss Army Knife" of the DAW world, Reaper's worth its unbelievably low shareware fee if all you do is use its batch converter to strip WAV headers for import into PARIS - or use the PARIS BWF Export Script to turn timestamped WAVs into rendered audio for timestamp-accurate import into PARIS. But it's a killer DAW as well, with PAF import capabilities via Xenakios' free "libsndfile wrapper" extension, and full PARIS session compatibility via OMF and AATranslator. Shareware $240 if you make $10,000/year or more from it, $60 if not.
- FFX-16 Rack (by VB Audio) - The "big brother" of the freeware FFX-4 above. Acts as a "virtual rack/mini-patchbay" plugin that allows four DX plug-ins in one PARIS slot. May inadvertently work as a cure for some DX plugin stability issues for PARIS! Commercial, € 116,00 EUR (currency conversion)
- VstNotesXL - A flexible VST plugin that can store text or images in a variety of ways. Useful for storing session notes, digital photos of settings for outboard gear, or lyrics. Shareware, $21.55 USD (currency conversion)
Commercial:
- NEW: AATranslator (bySuite Spot Studios) - AATranslator has given the PARIS community an enormous breakthrough - PARIS OMFs can now be read almost perfectly by AATranslator, and the contents converted into a wide range of broadly compatible formats. A must-have for PARIS studios that need to send PARIS sessions out in compatible formats. Standard Edition ($59) supports a very comprehensive range of DAW formats; Enhanced Edition ($99) has added support for PT5 sessions and additional OMF formats beyond PARIS'.
- Macro Express (byInsight Software) - the longtime community favorite for PARIS workflow automation; $39.95 Standard Version, $59.95 Pro Version.
Donationware/Freeware:
- PAF-SDII Utility (by Intelligent Devices) - this utility converts PARIS' native .paf audio format into SD2 files and vice-versa. Note that an undocumented bug means that your files must reside on the same partition as the application, so simply copy the application onto your files volume and run it from there.
- Joliet File System Extension (by Thomas Tempelmann) - this System Extension enhances the way your Macintosh computer can read CD-ROMs from other platforms, mainly Windows. Until now, if you inserted a Windows CD-ROM in your Mac, file names appeared to be crippled (in the so-called 8.3 format) or files may have been inaccessible. This Joliet extension is designed to solve these problems. Freeware (scroll down at link for details)
