I am working as keyboard player with 100% VST instruments and > 250 songs incl. multiple VST sounds per song / part (e.g. ABBA songs with mutiple / differnt synthi sounds in parallel).
In case that I am switching from song1 to song 2 OR from part 1 to part 2 it is important for me that the loading time is very short becaue my band cannot wait 10 seconds for me as their keyboarder until all VST instruments are completely loaded.
In case that I have a song which is working with 5 different VSTs instances this could cause a significant loading time. Below please find an example:
Song 3
VST 1: HALLION 6 Strings
VST 2: Hallion 6 Pano
VST 3: Hallion 6 Organ
VST 4: Padshop: Synth Pad
VST 5: Retrologue: Synth Lead
In my old VST HOST software (Brainspawn Forte) it was possible to create a virtual rack incl. a fix number of VST engines e.g. 3x hallion, 1x padshop, 1x retrologue.
This 5 VST instances were only loaded when I started the application. When I lateron changed from song 1 to song 2 then my old VST host application replaced only the sounds witin the existing / fix VST engines. Benefit: Extremly reduced loading times because for each new song Hallion, padshop and Retrologue were already loaded.
It would be great if VST LIVE also could support a virtual rackspace with a choice of fix VST instances. If you would like to see a live example with a very nice loading performance I can show it to you in a 1:1 online meeting.
Such a feature could help VST live to significantly improve the live system performance and customer satisfaction based on a lean system performance.
VST Live has a preload feature, which you usually run at soundcheck time. It “primes” all parts of all Songs. There are 2 modes, “Preload” “just” opens the plugins while “Preload Parts” also runs each plugins’ audio processing once for a short time because some plugins execute some initialization when called the first time (which they shouldn’t). This allows for very short switching times, because VST Live also keeps everything in memory once instanciated (which also means you should have sufficient RAM).
There is also the “Global Part” feature; assets (like Layers, and Stacks) installed ther run through the entire set; this would somehow resemble a “VST Rack”, but note that actually each and every Part can have its own Layers and Stacks racks, as much as each Song contains an entire “DAW project” with tracks, mixer etc.
A pre-load function sounds great for me but I assume that in my case a pre-load of 250 songs which are based 100% on VST sounds I would expect that this might be to much for my hardware. But I will check on detailed level.
However I will create in VST Live a test project with the complexity of 250 songs and then do some performance tests / simulations (compared to my old VST Host “Brainspawn Forte” which development was stopped / not any more supported). After this I can give detailed feedback to you.
Short question: Is VST live able to recognize that I am using in the current song the same VST instances (2x Hallion + 1x Padshop + 12 x Retrologu) like I need in the 2nd song (2x Hallion + 1x Padshop + 12 x Retrologue)? From my point of view VST Live could re-use the same VST instances for the 2nd song and only would need to replace the sounds + settings for within this VST instances. This could reduce the loading time significantly instead of completly closing all VST instances from Song 1 and completly re-loading the same instances again for song 2. This topic could be interesting for user which maybe work 100% with VSTs, have a hugh repertoire (and limited hardware RAM) and which do not follow a strict rang of setlist / need to have short loading times.
Global LAYERS and STACKS are for this purpose. Have you tryed them already, maybe fits to your needs? Also SONG-PARTS can be shared ones already, maybe that also helps you consolidate your huge project.