I’m experiencing an issue with VST Live while trying to control my Kemper Profiler via MIDI. I’ve imported a MIDI file into VST Live and assigned the output device. The MIDI commands are partially working: the performance changes correctly on the Kemper, but the amplifier selection within the performance does not occur (as if some MIDI commands do not arrive to the Kemper).
The same MIDI file has no problems when played back using Logic Pro or a Cymatic LP-16 player, so the file itself looks correct.
It also used to work fine on my previous laptop and previous version of VST Live.
I have a very similar issue specifically communicating between VST live and My KEMPER via MIDI. I has improved with later versions, but I still experience random drops during rehearsals and performances (i.e. a patch change just… wont happen). Its very hard to reproduce as it seems so random. Wonder if theres any tests we can do to help developers see if its a MIDI issue of something specific about the kemper?
Couple of quirks:
If you dont re-set a morph before you move to another track it seems to permanently confuse the Kemper as to what morph state its in until you reset both Kemper and VST live
If you have rig manager open to edit whilst sending midi commands from VST live (i.e. tweaking tones during a rehearsal) it can absolutely loose its mind. I have had many instances of Kemper just overwriting performance slots with other presets but not changing the name. So you can end up with your van halen setting copied into your ‘soft country’ sound. Advise never using the two programmes at the same time.
There are multiple events with the same values at almost the same time.
That will probably confuse the Kemper.
One thing you could try first is Edit/Preferences/MIDI/Controller Tracking.
There is also Edit/Reduce Selected Events, but I just realized that it doesn’t work for MIDI yet. We’ll improve that to reduce duplicate events.
Note the density of your events (matrix midi file imported). While times in bars and beats are even equal, they do differ by a few milliseconds (use time display instead), but are very close to each other. That will probably confuse the Kemper, remove all unnecessary controllers. See selected events, but also continuously dense superflous data throughout the entire midi file.
Thank you both to HonkyTonk and musicullum for the answers!
This is a great question! Is it possible to monitor the midi out from VST live and midi in in the kemper? That would probably help!
oh, I think this happened to me as well, but I didn’t know it was due to the morph setting…thanks!!
Yeah, I’m aware the midi are written in a quite stupid way…this is due to the fact that I start writing them before actully understanding how a midi file works .
I will simplify the midi file and report back, but I have to say I’m a bit skeptical this is issue. The same midi file works fine with the LP-16 player, and we had no problems during rehearsal yesterday. Moreover, the midi files used to work on previous versions of VST Live (1.0.7 if I remember correctly), whereas we are now using VST Live 2 (on Windows). We also tested with version 1.4. However, if we run the old projects on the newer versions, the midi file no longer sends the signal, except for the initial performace change. It might be irrelevant, but we also changed the laptop on which VST Live is running on.
Yes. Route the track output to a virtual midi out (say Virtual MIDI Out 3), then open Devices/MIDI Monitor and set its input to Virtual MIDI In 3.
Well, it’s nice that you provide test files, but it takes us quite some time to do all these tests…
Try again with todays’ version and make sure not to send confusing stuff to your device
Ah yes mate I have to stagger my commands, if you send two at the same time to the Kemper it cant cope. So as an example (the track starts at 2.2.1) I load up the Kemper with a command on each sub-beat as the song counts in. Same during a song if I need changes, always sequential. Usually its fast enough that its not noticeable when your playing.
Its not so much the morphing that overwrites presets, its having VST live send MIDI changes to your kemper while you have rig manager open. Rig manager is ropey at best so its cant seem to cope with midi sent to its connected device.
So, I tried using new MIDI files in which I reduced the amount of redundant inputs, I’m attaching them. I have to say I’m extremely confused
simply replacing the old midi with the new ones in the existing performance in VL 2.0 does not solve the problem. The Kemper still does not receive any input other than the performance change.
Creating a completely new project in VL 2.0 and importing just the midi file and nothing else seems to work with the new midi, but not with the old ones.
Sometimes, the old midi files work on a new project in VL 1.4 But in a quite inconsistent manner. It happens that after reloading the project they don’t work anymore.
From these tests, it looks like we might be able to resolve the issue if we recreate all the projects we have in VL 1.0 from scratch in VL 2.0, but this would take a lot of time and not give any insight into what I’m doing wrong.
Does anyone see any sense in this? Thank you very much!
Have not read all. But our guitar player had a similar problem.
Check out if your Kemper did a software update and check the input midi channel.
One of the last updates changed the input midi channel back to omni instead of the exact channel.
Moin,
did you try to send the Midi from another program (e.g. Cubase…) to the Kemper? Same behavior? If yes → Kemper Support should double check it. If not, try to connect some other Midi devixe (e.g. keyboard or Midi Monitor…) to VL and check if the commands are received correctly.
Good luck!
Cheers, Rainer
legra-man and I are working together on this issue.
I’ve done some more testing, and here are the results:
I exported all songs (VST/trigger only, no MIDI, no audio tracks) from a previous VL project and imported them into a new project. I then imported the audio files and finally the MIDI for Kemper. The MIDI interface and audio card were plugged in when I saved. I ran all the songs, and the MIDI correctly sent signals to the Kemper.
I tried to open the same VL project without the MIDI interface plugged in, made a few changes (signal routing, VST triggers), and then saved. When I opened it again with the MIDI interface plugged in, it did not work.
Both tests were done with VL2, using the MIDI created as suggested by Musicullum and HonkyTonk.
I ran a MIDI monitor check with VL2 on the working project and on a project saved with the previous version of VL, using the MIDI monitor as per Musicullum’s suggestion (VM out → VM in). In both cases, the MIDI monitor received signals, and as far as I can tell, both signals were valid and correct.
I haven’t tried Rainair’s suggestion yet, but I will as soon as I can.
At this point, I believe the only reason this is happening is that VL is unable to safely recover the MIDI configuration when the MIDI interface is disconnected and then reconnected.
Can someone confirm this? Any other ideas that might make more sense?