Feature Request: Global "Standby Click" / Tempo Preview without starting the Transport

VST Live
1

Hello Steinberg Team,

first of all, thank you for developing VST Live. We have been using it live since V1 and it has become the heart of our complete live setup.

Our cover band uses VST Live 3 (3.0.10.88) for

  • Backing Tracks
  • Click Tracks
  • Cue announcements
  • MIDI automation
  • Lighting control
  • Recording
  • Virtual musicians during rehearsals

After several years of live use we have one feature request that would significantly improve the workflow for live performers.

Current Situation

During a live show, songs do not always start immediately after pressing Play.

Very often we have spontaneous transitions:

  • interacting with the audience
  • letting the audience sing
  • extending an ending
  • playing an improvised groove
  • waiting for the singer
  • reacting to the atmosphere in the room

In these situations the drummer needs to establish the tempo of the next selected song to play a basic beat, but the actual playback should not start yet.

Currently the only available solutions seem to be

  • Count-In
  • Precount
  • FlexLoops
  • Empty bars at the beginning of every song

While these are useful workarounds, they require modifications to the project structure and have to be implemented individually for each song.

Requested Feature

We would love to have a global Standby Click (or Tempo Preview) which works independently from the transport.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Select the next song.
  2. Press a dedicated “Standby Click” button (or assign it to MIDI/Keyboard or have the possibility to start it as default automatically).
  3. VST Live immediately starts the metronome using the tempo and time signature of the currently selected song.
  4. The transport remains stopped.
  5. The click continues as long as needed.
  6. When ready, press Play.
  7. The song starts normally, including the existing Count-In if configured.

Why this would be useful

This feature would be valuable for many live situations:

  • Cover/Tribute bands
  • Worship teams
  • Musical directors
  • Playback productions
  • Theatre productions
  • Any live performer who wants flexible transitions between songs

The important point is that this should be a global tool, available at any time during a show.

It should not require changes to the song structure, adding FlexLoops or inserting empty bars into every project.

This would make VST Live even more powerful as a live performance platform rather than only a playback system. In our opinion this would be one of those small features that dramatically improve real-world live usability while leaving all existing workflows completely unchanged.

Do you think this would be a good idea?

Viele Grüße aus dem Süden,

Martin

2

That is a great idea and I support it, but can be done as now.

A way to do it as it is now, is 1 bar part at the beginning of all songs, flexlooped infinite repeat, then press next part with flexloop quantized at part end (or bar end)

So you press play and it loops the first bar forever until you press next part and it seamlessly start remaining on click (cue one two three four in ear and go)

I do this in a couple songs.

Cheers, Ciro.

3

It’s a good idea but I agree with @ciro1983811

If you use a flex loop and set your song to auto start on activation you can achieve exactly what you describe.

4

Joining the thread, I’m doing exactly the same as @ciro1983811 if such is needed. I dont think there is any simpler solution than that for your needs :slight_smile: highly suggested solution

Announced here in forum, a kind of precount might be avaiable to be saved for each songs is a : “precount only” then start song w.o. click btw

5

Hi guys,

thanks for your feedback! I completely understand your point, and this was actually one of the workarounds I considered myself.

The challenge is that our show is already fully built, with a large number of tracks and cues in every single song. Retrofitting all existing songs would be a huge amount of work. On top of that, I’d have to repeat the same manual setup for every new song we add in the future.

Even if I include it in my project template, I still have to make sure the FlexLoop is configured correctly, enabled by default, and saved for every song and every new version of the project.

Unfortunately, I’ve already experienced cases where VST Live didn’t reliably save all song-specific settings. Most recently, the MIDI Monitor states were not always restored as configured. That makes me a little concerned that I might miss a song and only notice it during a live show.

That’s why I would really appreciate a built-in solution that can be configured once, works globally, and doesn’t require any per-song maintenance. I think it would make this workflow much more reliable for live use.

Martin

6

Can you say which settings are not restored?

MIDI Monitor is a helper tool, it is not Song specific at all, and saves its state (actually that’s just the input selection) locally.

If you mean MIDI Track Monitor instead, you probably did not activate this Preference:

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7

thanks, that’s what I ment - MIDI Track Monitors, sorry. Have to check fot that.

8

So you’re saying that EVERY song may be started with click and drums? Surely not.