I haven’t used automation much in Play mode and want to explore its limits.
Is it currently possible for CC automation to control effects plugins on an instrument, not just the instrument itself?
If not, This would be very useful for mocking up guitar pedal changes etc.
If those effects can be triggered with MIDI CCs, then yes.
Either do it with a MIDI Trigger Region, or ‘drawn’ data in the CC lanes.
That’s great news!
Should I see the FX names popping up in the automation? I’m testing with a few plugins on the same instrument, but only seeing CC numbers to choose from. so do I need to make sure that the FX have CC control numbers that don’t overlap? And write down which channel is what?
You’ll need to look at the docs for those plug-ins, and see what MIDI triggers the effects.
Hmm. Actually, now I think about it, surely an effects plug-in just deals with the audio ‘the other side’ of the MIDI VST.
So I don’t think it will work, unless the plug-in explicitly receives MIDI.
I’ll explore and report back
You can’t yet automate the parameters of the plugins of Dorico’s Mixer, only of the VSTs themselves provided they know how to interpret incoming CC data (you could use CC7 to automate volume, for example).
If this is really important to you, you could look into using Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 to manage your VST hosting. Apart from other benefits, this would allow you to map incoming CC data to pretty much all parameters of the plugins in its Mixer.
For example, here are some accessible parameters of a Shreddage 3 VST.
I don’t think I have enough need to invest in Vienna Pro, but you’ve got me thinking about other software that can host VSTs…
VCV rack (but it’s a drain on my system and probably will crash)
Plogue Bidule (I don’t know it but have heard good things)
What I need is a simple VST that can act as a host for a VST instrument and route through VST effects plugins. Something like MainStage but itself as a VST.
Seems like a good Avenue to explore
