I am using VST live in combination with mobile sheets pro and receiving via midi programm changes to switch between hundrets of songs.
Our band is normally playning up to 5 hours.
I recognized that after hours of usage in VST live the setting in the menu “connections” is getting lost and need to be manually refreshed.
Below please find how it was configured by me:
INCORRECT (the entry “MSP-an-VSTPRO” is empty, getting lost somewere / somehow)
This is the setting how it should look normally.
MSP-an-VSTPRO is mapped to VirtualMidiPortViaLoopMidi”.
Please can you help to to assure that VST-Live is not loosing this midi connection setting. Within a Gig it would be not good if I am not anymore able to switch songs in VST live.
Please let me know if you need further detailed information.
As I already wrote above I did not changed anything in the connection menue.
The entry got lost without any changes from my side.
That is perhaps not behaving like other MME devices?
VST Live certainly does not remove conenctions or their assignments deliberately, so something must have been initiated by the user, or external events (like whatever external virtual cabling or similar).
Happy End: I found out that Microsoft Rolled out Midi 2.0 via Update of Windows11. It seems that becuase of a bug the functionality of LoopMidi was blocked.
On my Windows11 computer I saw that a preview-update for Feb.-Windows-Update was available. Normally I do not install pre-view-updates for WIndows. But in this case I decided to install it and this pre-view-updated included a bug-fix fir Midi 2.0 @ Windows 11.
After a restart the virtual midi-interface via Loop-Midi was now shown again :-).
Maybe this information is helpful for other users which also use other tools for virtual midi interfaces via Windows 11.
@musicullum: Thanks for your fast feedback. Your analysis was absolutely correct. The Issue was not caused by VST live. It was caused by Windows 11 and a bug in a windows-update for Midi 2.0.
Wouldn’t it be possible that VST-Live could in the future also support virtual midi interfaces @ Windows 11? Then I could prevent an additional tool and could reduce the complexity of my system. I would assume that multiple user have use-cases were virtual midi-interfaces could be very benefitial.
The February update fixed the device count issue for apps which was preventing them from seeing when a system went from 0 MIDI devices to 1 MIDI device.
Additionally, the MIDI service was being demand-started by other apps and the shell when it shouldn’t have. That fix went out in February as well as I recall.
The loopMIDI issue is order of startup. If the MIDI Service is started after loopMIDI, you are good. If it is started before, you are not.
What is likely happening now is VSTLive is starting up the service on first call (you may have noticed it took longer to start), and loopMIDI was already running before that.
However, if you go into loopMIDI now with the service started, and add ports, they will not appear unless you close the app and restart the service.
Dear Pete, Many thanks for your fast reply.
I am quite happy that my virtual midi connection is not working again.
My impression is that since the preview windows update 02-2026 something is working changed. Before the windows update I tried different scenarios but independently from the ranking application starts at the end I was not able to get my virtual midi connection started. But thanks for your explanation I will try to continue to test different scenarios as you described to assure if and how I maybe can reproduce the issue. My standard setting is that Loop Midi is started automatically after windows start via “autostart”. For me the virtual midi is essential because it synchronizes the sound creation (VST live) and my setlist management (via mobile sheets pro"). Thanks again for your great support!
A preview of the service transport with support for loopMIDI and similar is on our Discord server in the #early-preview-releases channel. It will be in Windows in a few months.
Many thanks for your recommendations. Unfortunately I had a new issue and I am not sure if maybe further Windows-Updates had an impact. But the good news is that I was able to find a solution which I want to share with you:
I was using the tool “LoopMidi” until today (as virtual midi interface on my Win11 computer). But unfortunately it was not anymore shown as virtual midi interface at VST live and the communication to my software for visualization of Music score did not working from one day to the other. Strange is, that did not I change anything on my side and only installed the normal windows security updates. I also looked carefully at my windows computer that I started first “Loop Midi” and only afterward “VST Live” (as you described that the ranking of application starts is important).
After further windows security updates I had now a new situation that “LoopMidi” was not anymore shown in “VST Live” and “Mobile Sheets Pro” (software for visualization of scores) but all my midi keyboards were successfully shown at both applications.
Therefor I assumed that maybe something changed on my Windows and maybe with a consequence which caused an issue at “LoopMidi” (my assumption).
Therefor I looked for an alternative tool and I installed finally a different tool for a virtual midi portd called “loopebe1” (source: www.nerds.de).
The tool can be used free of charge in case that 1 virtual interface is enough.
The developer seems to be actively working on their tool and I found fresh notification which made me aware that they try to synchronize with the current windows 11 update situation (they also offer a commercial tool for up to 30 virtual midi interfaces called “LoopBe30”):
After I installed “LoopBe1” I restarted my computer and afterwards “VST Live” and also “Mobile Sheets Pro” (my software for scores) directly detected the new virtual midi interface. I did a re-routing within both applications and afterwards the midi-synchronization betwen both application worked again.
My old tool ”LoopMidi” seems is constantly invisible and is therefor not usable for me. I do not know why “LoopMidi” is not working from one day to the other” but I am happy that I found a good replacement. I am also not sure if the support for “LoopMidi” is continued. The homepage looks outdated and for me it is important to use tools which are supported. I am happy that I could solve this issue quickly by replacing the tool for my virtual midi interface.
Maybe this lessons learned is also helpful for other users which used “LoopMIDI” in the past and maybe had the same problems like I had (invisible midi port). The new tool “LoopBe1” seems to be working more efficiently.
I am sharing this lessons learned with you as I am very thankful for your last tipps and maybe you know some backgrounds or can use this lessons learned for other use-cases as you are a knowledge-multiplicator.
Feedback is always welcome.
Please feel free to share this information also to others which might be affected.
loopMIDI and loopBE work almost the same way. So you are getting lucky with the boot order.
I’ve shared this around a few times now and folks have found it fixes the issues. If you join our discord server Windows MIDI / Audio and then go to the #early-preview-releases channel, there’s a proper fix for loopMIDI, rtpMIDI etc. No more startup order requirement, and it supports more than 16 ports.
That’s a preview of what will be put into Windows at the end of April.
In addition, here’s our native in-box equivalent to loopBE and loopMIDI, which will go into Windows likely in May. You don’t really need the third-party solutions if this does everything you need.
- VST Live - Steinberg Forums
