JS steals MIDI signal, VST (MIDI) doesn't.

I want to use EnergyXT as an FX chain MIDI arpeggiator instead of the JS MIDI one. If I insert the JS arp on a track, it takes in the MIDI chord and then spits out an arpeggiation. (which is just peachy!) If I insert the VST EnergyXT2 on a track, it takes in the MIDI and spits out an arpeggation and the original chord on top. If I completely disconnect the MIDI IN from the MIDI OUT on the EnergyXT2 VST, I shouldn't be hearing anything at all, but yet the original chords are coming out as though the VST chain hasn't stolen it at all. I don't want MIDI being sent in parallel down the chain, I want it completely stopped by EnergyXT2 (so EnergyXT2 can spit out a purely arpeggiated sequence) but I'm completely baffled as to where this parallel MIDI signal is coming from. Is this a work-a-round that was implemented for having several synths layered? (i.e., only the first one would be played because the MIDI signal wasn't going through it?) I must be missing an option to get a VST to completely absord the signal that then goes on down the chain.

I also have some VSTs that don't eat the MIDI signal (for example free Elektrostudio plugins), and some that do (for example, Korg Legacy Collections). It's up to plugin I guess.

I'm interested in knowing the cause of this behavior. What I'd like to know is if the VST "standard" defines the appropriate behavior, ie if a VST should or not "eat" the MIDI notes. Anyone ? Thank you.

I don't know anythin about FL but I know a bit about JS and when you write a JS plug in you can decide if you want the MIDI to be "eaten" by the plug in or passed on in the chain. Regards, - Jonas

i've had this problem with energyxt as well, and i've also NOT had the same problem with energyxt. i never did find out what the cause is eventually i stopped using eXT in Reaper, as i found that adding/removing instances of energyXT caused Reaper to vanish.

Aha! Thanks guys, you're absolutely right. Seems to be just EnergyXT (I get this with both XT 1.4.1 and XT 2). I tried inserting the Sanford Arpeggiator and sure enough, it steals the signal just fine. Ah well, I've been losing faith in EnergyXT more and more since it went to version 2 and will probably stop using it altogether.

Different MIDI channels were concieved to avoid just that.

DarkStar: Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just pick up the Sanford Arpeggiator as Leslie's a cracking bloke and I have some of his other plugs and I'd like to support his work. Apologies to the others, but I don't think I explained things as well as I could. I know there's sometimes a language barrier here, but no matter how many times I rewrote the post I couldn't quite convey the technical problem I was trying to describe accurately and it seems to have been misinterpreted/confused. My bad.