Great news!  Olivier Sens, the creator of (and fully 1/3rd of the development team for) Sensomusic Usine, has set all of the “add-ons” for this greatest of live-oriented, modular VST-hosting DAWs, free:

“Good news for all Usine free Users:
Get more than 200 Add-ons and ready-made patches for free.
Just register on the forum (it’s totally free).”

The “add-ons” of Usine are essentially higher-order preset/patches of core modules, in the following categories:

Audio effects (29), Groove makers (14), Sampling tools (12), Midi tools (29), Data tools (21), Synchro and Time tools (6), Analysis (3), Synthesis (5), Templates and skins (1), Others (45)

 The add-ons come in a wide variety and some are quite complex, useful and/or amazing.  Here’s simple “parallel multi fx”

FX patch made with 3 free VSTs to be installed first :
Chorus : http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-chorus.php
Delay : http://xhosxe.free.fr/ixoxdelay.html
Reverb : http://www.dasample.com/index.php?show=glaceverb
You can set volumes, dry/wet level, and mute each effect with an optional “pre mute” for delay and reverb.
Cut the dry signal on each preset (you can access the VST pannels by clicking on their name in the patch interface).
Of course you can replace these VSTs by your own.

Or check our “ns usinome lite” by nay-seven:

“8 Multi sequences with 4 different direction , each sequence can have his own midi note and synchronization
can be send to a drum VSTI or multi samplers”

Perhaps this will convince you of the Sensomusic team and user community’s ingenuity… Senso’s “Mackie Control Emulation V1“

  ”This patch is an example of a Mackie Control implementation in Usine.

Before to use it, read the tip
How to use Usine as a Midi Controller

It respects the MackieControl specification but the Master Section part is more specifically designed for Ableton Live. Fortunately it can be easily adapted to any host.

General Features
Host independent features (works in all hosts).
For 8 Tracks:
-volume (1-8)
-Mute (1-8)
-Solo (1-8)
-Select (1-8)
-Rec or arm (1-8)
-Pan (1-8)
-Retrieve automatically the track names from the host.

Master section

-Master Volume
-Master Rec
-Start
-Stop
-Forward
-Backward

Ableton Live specific(Features adapted to Ableton Live)

-Show Browser button
-Loop ON/OFF
-Punch In ON/OFF
-Punch Out ON/OFF
-Previous Line
-Next Line
-Launch Clip
-Launch Scene”

Usine is my favorite DAW and a brilliant piece of software which I unabashedly recommend to anyone wishing to explore the absolute cutting edge of computer-hosted live musical performance. It’s been updated to version 5.17, with version 5.15 being the most recent major release:

“Usine 5.15
Another important release which fixes most of reported issues and add few new features.
You should download it.

improvements
- Usine is now 20% faster
- PitchBend midilearn allowed
- new Buses templates
- better zooming in the sequencer
- better zooming in the pianoroll
- new object panel settings in the sequencer
- mp3 files are now converted and stored for a faster reloading
- new MouseDown outlet in faders, buttons, etc.
- new OFFcaption parameter in Switch module

fixed bugs
- midi learn on preset buttons can freeze Usine
- various more or less important bugs.
- MidiYoke issues”

Shameful confession:  I’ve been so busy with my hardware/software/multi-touch/musical communications protocol-project that I allowed my yearly Usine license to lapse (it’s about $43 a year).  Course, the free version of Usine (and Usine VST, which you can load into other DAWs!!!) barely has any restrictions compared to the full version; I pay the license fee because I believe strongly in supporting the Sensomusic team’s efforts.  No one’s living off the proceeds of Usine, even!  Not the least of which is because it is not for beginners, or those with simple, basic requirements from their DAW.  Course, nothing else even remotely compares to the potential of Usine:  if you an idea, it’ll let you implement it somehow.  Something which very much cannot be said for any other DAW.

Here’s what I said in my last post about Usine, in case you’re unfamiliar with it still:

First, to quote rekkerd.org (just because I like the site):

Sensomusic has announced the release of Usine 5.0, a universal audio software especially designed for live or studio utilization.

Usine is made by musicians and audio engineers to respond to their specific problems in a lot of domains like live sampling, effect processing or sound design. Usine is a real musical instrument, flexible and powerful if you like to transform, resample the sound on stage, improvise and create unusual effect.

Changes in Usine v5.0

• Gesture and Multi-touch Implementation – All design modules can receive Multi-Touch and Gesture informations that you can use directly in all the patches to create very ergonomic systems.
• Video Tracker Module – Enables audio interaction with a camera. Motion detection, dark zones and light zones.
• Intelligent Auto Wiring – Fast auto wiring system to build patches faster than ever… For that just Drag&Drop a Module or a VST directly on the wire to insert it in the process chain.
• New Grid concept – The new Grid mode mixes row/cell presentation and interface builder mode.
• Surround – Built-in 16 channels surround mixer and aux buses. If it’s not enough, all audio modules can handle up to 64 channels. Direct surround recording in the Sampler
• VST’s layouts – Total integration of VST’s in personal interfaces. Vst’s forms can now be located in controls panels or in interfaces.
• Patch window – The Patching area is now a stand alone window to improve paching in dual screens systems.
• New layouts – Serious improvements of interface building. All controls are now resizable and with new layouts possiblilities.
• More than 300 improvements and modifications, especially a new engine, more powerful and lighter.

Usine Pro is available to purchase for Windows PC (standalone/VST) for a promotional price of 90 EUR until March 31, 2010 (regular 120 EUR). An educational license is available for 50 EUR, and a limited but fully functional free version can be downloaded.

Usine is it. There’s simply nothing else like it.

Reasons that I love Usine:

1. did you catch the bit about every module being able to receive Multi-Touch and Gesture commands? and the video-tracking module? we’re getting into VR UI terrain, here
2. greatest damned developer and community support – shit, if you have a problem or an idea, they’re likely to simply create the solution for you, out of helpfullness and curiosity
3. song arrangement per part automation Scenes – you can set up songs so that they’ll automatically or at a command (a MIDI button, keyboard note, qwerty key, etc.) change Scene which can reassign all your hardware, VSTs, modules, etc. so that if you’re playing on multi-zone keyboard part for the bridge but change plug-ins, patches, scale/mode, whatever, then it all changes automatically without your having to lift a finger; all MIDI is able to be remapped and transformed so that no matter what hardwired CC#s your hardware sends out, for instance, it can dynamically be re-assigned to the plug-in parameters you actually need to control for that song part, and change them all for the next song, too.
4. the GUI is divorced from the underlying loaded plug-ins – you can create, customize, and assign any Usine UI element (knob, slider, grid sequencer, physics-behavior X-Y pad, etc.) to whatever loaded VST’s parameter you’d like, so that the interface only shows (user-labeled) controls for the things you actually need to control; no having to have 20 plug-in windows visible to see the value change feedback for whatever external hardware knobs and buttons you’ve assigned them to – this is a necessary precursor to using a multi-touch monitor as a control surface, too, as how could you possibly twiddle the tiny VST GUI knobs?
5. it’s damned cheap, and you’re supporting a tiny team of developers who work relentlessly to advance the state of digital music performance – Olivier himself created Usine for himself and only later decided, at great personal cost, to share it with the world, and I thank my blessed start that he did
6. all data and audio signal chains are fully modular – if you want to create abstruse aux buses, parallelized routing splits (one stereo chain split, say, at the third plug-in into three completely unique sub-chains) or side-chains in whatever crazy configuration you’d like – also, these chain’s can be assigned to switch or turn on/off to internal parameter controls, so that you can do something so seemingly simple as have a guitar’s clean, distorted, and lead/solo chains all set up and switchable at the press of a foot controller stomp button… or something vastly more wrongheaded like I personally like to do

Plus, there’s a free version! This included both the standalone free version as well as a VST version, so that Usine can be hosted within your DAW of choice (!?!). So check it out, with these caveats:

Usine’s drawbacks

• the learning curve is steep – I’ve been using it for years and I don’t consider myself an expert in it’s use! the Sensomusic team is working on an “easy” version, so if your needs are simple you may want to check that out; I am of the opinion that Usine’s the only DAW that, if you need to do something, it’s going to have a way to do it, no limitations. I even got, on request, a module to send a non-master tempo to individual VSTs and modules
• you’re not going to want to score too many complex MIDI note parts in Usine – they’re working on that, too, but I’ve been spoilt by FL’s piano roll and arranger which, while it has some drawbacks stemming from the loop-oriented paradigm (how in fuck are you supposed to add a simple flam before a bar? you can, but it’s fiddly and anti-intuitive) but it’s still the best, by far, for workflow of any DAW – Usine’s seen some improvements in this area but, as it’s a live-oriented performance host, it’s just icing on the cake – it has plenty of sequencer modules if you really feel like composing live

Changes: