MixPad supports Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugins. You can use these plugins to enhance MixPad's capabilities. You can use effect plugins to add an effect to one of your tracks, or you can use instrument plugins to synthesize playback of MIDI files. Other plugins may provide some type of visual feedback of the audio signal.

VST plugins are available from a wide variety of sources - some are free, while others require licences. A good place to start your search is here: http://www.kvraudio.com

To add a VST effect to one of your tracks, click the Fx button in the track control panel on the left of the track. In the left hand panel of the dialog that opens you should see a sub-heading VST Effects. Any valid VST plugins you have installed will be listed underneath this sub-heading. If there are no items listed here, it means that you either do not have any VST plugins installed, or you have not configured your VST plugin path. You must tell MixPad where to look for your VST plugins. You can do this by going to the VSTs tab of MixPad's Options dialog.

Playback and Monitoring of MIDI with VST Instruments

A VST instrument (VSTi) is a special type of plugin which takes MIDI as its input and outputs audio. You can use VSTis to playback your MIDI clips and you can also use them to monitor any recordings you make using MIDI hardware. To add MIDI playback or monitoring to a track, open the track options dialog by clicking on the small spanner icon on the track controls. In the dialog that opens you should see a MIDI Playback Options option group. Select the radio button which says "Play MIDI using VST instrument" and then select which instrument you would like to use.

You can do the same for monitoring MIDI recordings in the Monitoring Options option group. Select the radio button which says "Enable MIDI monitoring via VSTi for ASIO devices" and select the instrument you would like to use from the associated pull down list.

Once you have selected a VSTi, you should be able to open your chosen plugins' GUIs via the two small keyboard icons on the control panel of each track. The button on the left opens the VSTi currently assigned for playback and the button on the right opens the GUI of the VSTi assigned to monitoring recordings.