Is multiple MIDI port functionality planned for VST instrument connections?
My VE Pro template (set up for Cubase) has separate instances for instrument families (winds, brass, strings, etc.) and separate MIDI ports for groups within those families (flute family, for example) with individual channels assigned to particular instruments (piccolo, flute 1, flute 2, flute ensemble).
It looks to me like port functionality is not yet set up, and that’s okay. I can make a special template for Dorico limited to 16 channels for each instance. I just hope to find out what is planned and if that functionality is expected, say, within the next six months to a year, or if that is a more long term goal.
The short and honest answer is that I don’t know: we need to dig in to some of the clever stuff that VE Pro can do, but at the moment we don’t have any way of addressing more than 16 channels per VSTi.
This is a catch 22. VST2 can’t access multiple MIDI ports anyway, so the simplest solution would be for the sample player developers to update their software. VSL does it with VEP by using a VST3 connector to a VST2 sample host.
Multiple MIDI port support is probably the distinguishing feature of VST3 vs. VST2, so one would expect that if you require VST3 that sort of implies support for this particular feature. This particular feature is certainly what people tout about Cubase over Logic when a new user asks which sequencer to get.