Psychic Modulation Phonec 2

I should perhaps add that, for those who ever see Computer Music magazine, there is also a free CM version in their free plugins collection.  It’s a cool synth.

Probably something dodgy in th plugin like a memory leak I guess - I have contacted the vendor but as yet no reply.

@robertpeveler

I tested the Demo version of Phonec 2 in the debugger, and it blows up in a spot deep in the JUCE framework, where the following tell-tale comment appears:

// Workaround: unfortunately old JUCE VST-2 plug-ins had a bug and would crash if
// you try to get the speaker arrangement when there are no input channels present.
// Hopefully, one day (when there are no more old JUCE plug-ins around), we can
// comment out the next two lines.

The described "workaround" appears not to work for Phonec 2, so I have devised an interim solution, which you can download here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ja3d5oebbxs3el3/Unify_PluginWrapper_Win64.zip?dl=0

There is a Readme.txt file in that zip archive, but the gist of it is that you move the problematic Phonec 2 DLL to a new folder C:\Program Files\WrappedVstPlugins, then replace it with a copy of the supplied PluginWrapper.dll, which you first rename to match the original. This new DLL works as a proxy for the buggy Phonec 2 plug-in, and should scan normally, but it will appear in Unify's plug-in lists under "PluginWrapper" instead of the original vendor name "Psychic Modulation".

This seems to work OK on my Windows 11 PC. Let me know if it works for you.

Thanks so much for the swift response, will give that a go and report back.  

Any idea why it worked fine before?

Posted by: @robertpeveler

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Any idea why it worked fine before?

Based on postings in the JUCE Forum, it may be related to changes in JUCE itself, and it might even have been a bit of a fluke that it didn't crash, possibly related to which version of the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler was used.

I would hope that this may be resolved in a future release of the JUCE framework. Note even their own AudioPluginHost tutorial app crashes the same way with this plug-in.

Thanks - working again in Unify now.  Don't seem to be able to save that as a favourite now, though?

Posted by: @robertpeveler

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Thanks - working again in Unify now.  Don't seem to be able to save that as a favourite now, though?

This was just a quick hack, so I'm not surprised there are a few glitches. You can save PluginWrapper to one of your favourite-instrument subsets, and it will load Phonec 2 when you select it. Not ideal, but gets the job done.

UPDATE: If you're feeling adventurous, and don't mind editing XML files manually, close all instances of Unify, enter %appdata%\PlugInGuru into the address bar of a Windows Explorer window, open PluginList.xml, and edit the entry for Phonec 2 so it looks like this:

      <PLUGIN name="Phonec_2_x64" descriptiveName="Phonec 2" format="VST" category="Synth"
              manufacturer="PsychicModulation" version="1.0.0.0" file="C:\Program Files\Vstplugins\Psychic Modulation\Phonec_2_x64.dll"
              uniqueId="53373467" isInstrument="1" fileTime="18747ebe6b3" infoUpdateTime="187525a49d6"
              numInputs="0" numOutputs="2" isShell="0" uid="53373467"/>

Note how I changed the "descriptiveName" tag to "Phonec 2" and the "manufacturer" tag to "PsychicModulation". Do NOT change the "file" tag; it will already be set to match exactly where you placed the plug-in on your system.

When you re-open Unify, it should be listed under "PsychicModulation" as you would expect.

Before editing this or any XML file, it's always wise to make a safe copy first, so you can revert to the original if you make a mistake in editing and mess up the XML format.