I played a large French festival yesterday, using VST Live 2.2.33
Ive used it for a few shows now and have pretty much optimised my setup as well as a streamlined process plugging into my rack (audio interface, midi router, headphone amp etc). I coeect it all, then turn it all on.
However at the festival changeover was FAST and i had to open and load VST LIVE before going onstage and being able to connect to the rack to preload parts etc
Heres my thoughts (there might well be user error here, but i feel im fairly competent now)
Out of the blue on start up i had a pop up saying VST Live couldnt open as there was no internet connection. Ive never had this before and rehearse without internet. A mad panic to hotspot in the French countryside saved the day. This coild have been a show ruiner
On opening VSTL defaults to the avialble i/o audio available, in this case the Macbook built in audio.
This is really annoying as whilst i could get VSTL open and working it meant once i did get it onto stage and plugged into the rack i has to reset audio devices and manually go through assigning the audio input to be the interface (it remebered the output for some reason) and then go to connections and reset 3 of my 10 outputs.
I have 3 midi controllers hooked up and none were working. On checking the midi inputs had also reset to some default setting.
Tl/dr
Id like a way to prevent VSTL from going to default midi and audio i/o so āoffstageā prep can take place and then connected.
And iād like to understabd how to avoid needing an internet connection spradically to open VSTL
Apologies for any bad spelling. It was a late night and i dont have my glassss.
Hi! Unfortunately that is impossible. If computer canāt see last used/selected it will fallback to available one. Reaper does it a bit differently but in return it doesnāt allows you do do anything and annoys you with an popup-alert until select an available interface.
Regards internet: someoneās it needs to see outside to renew the license BUT that is a pretty long period so eg giving internet by launching VSTLive a few days before will work flawlessly
Please note: all devices need to be connected before launching VL or need to initiate Reset midi to pick up ānewly connected ā devices
The hub shows news on the left side, it may show that it cannot connect and provide news, but that does not at all prevent VST Live from openening.
Otherwise, probably that message came from some plugin, VST Live does not require an internet connection to run, that would be rediculous. None of my live machines are ever connected to the internet at least 2 rehearsals before a gig.
It defaults to whatever it could connect successfully the last time you closed it. Only if a device is missing, it will attempt to connect to the default hardware.
It is trying everything possible to do exactly that. Itās stored with the local system as well as within every project.
I suspect something went wrong outside VST Live, or with a plugin. Once more you are advised to use exactly the same hardware setup and software versions you tested at least 2 times before a gig. And never connect that system to the internet or WLAN (except for self-maintained local stage networking, which also should never be connected to the internet).
One more thought: if VST Live was not activated on that system, it may indeed require you to activate it, which in turn requires an internet connection, but that appears to be very far fetched, correct? You should certainly make sure that all software is activated and authorized when entering the stage.
Thanks for the response. It is possible it was a plug in, but I really donāt think so. I have only used native plugging except for 2 vst instruments, but both are ones that donāt require Internet connection.
I will try running for a few weeks without going on the interent at all and see what happens.
As for the audio i/o. I have used the same version of VSTL since it was released a couple of months ago. I have also used the same hardware for that whole time in the same configuration. However if I open VSTL without the hardware connected it always defaults to the internal interface and I also always lose 1 output setting that needs to be manually reset.
Ideally Iād be able to open VSTL offstage then plug into my tried and tested hardware when I go on stage without needing to manually reset so many i/o parameters.
Iāve seen people have some performance issues with the newer editions and Iām therefore nervous of upgrading, as all other functions are working as I need them.
But when you save a project, and load it later with the same hardware, it should restore it.
See above, you shouldnāt have to. Even if you set it up with a different hardware, once you configured the target device it should find it, provided you ever once saved that particular project with that particular hardware. VST Live saves up to 32 different hardware ports (right side in connections) for each user named port (left side) with each project. As long as you donāt change the name of that port, it should find it, provided you saved it once.
If it doesnāt work that way, just let us know or provide a project file that we can look at.
2.2.49 is said to have better performance than ever, and that is also what we expect.
It definitely isnāt performing correctly then, as it is saved as the same project and with the same hardware, but needs manually reconfiguring each time.
Iāll create a project with minimal audio and send it when I can.
@birdmug Suggestion: try to erase all ārememberedā connections in connections tab. This is done by keeping ctrl pressed and selecting ND for each port in connections tab, a pop up will be showed asking you if you sure to delete all remembered physical connection for the given in/out/midi.
This way program forget all previously remembered in/out for every audio interface ever assigned to the given port.
After that, configure your in/output ports for internal audio, save close, then connect esternal interface, open the project this time with esternal audio, youāll have to configure all the ports for external audio interface, then save and close.
Now each time you switch interfaces in audio setup, the correct ports will be assigned automatically, that works this way for me, I have three different audio interfaces configured and program switch ports connections as soon as I change audio interface!
Hi @birdmug ! Seems I experienced the same today at line-check, but could calmly solve it with a laptop restart. I rather thing that is caused by licensing engine that VL asks upon launcing. Did a repeated start āno licenseā¦ā. So as next step: restarted computer then all worked like charm (w.o. internet)
Once, once in my life (say 2yrs ago) a popup came during show: āno licenseā but VL remained running while pulled popup-notification further away.
@Spork@musicullum is there anything we can do in such cases other than restart the computer (or I guess manually find corresponding service/daemon and kill/restart it)? Also could you assure us running-VL wonāt be forced to quit in case of lic-agent is experiencing a failure (because of any reason)ā¦ or say within a reasonable timelimit (2-4 hrs or something)?
Yes, this should not happen at all, the license is already tied to the computer (it is already on it), it is a bug
I checked it on Windows without an Internet connection, everything is fine
No, itās not a bug, and absolutely not the fault of VL. VL is just asking the another app, but if e.g. WIN11 mishandles the lic-eng-srv this might happen .
That wasnāt even true with elicenser, but again if VL asks the āquitedā licenser-srv , the processed result will be negative
Offline activation is highly recommended for a computer used on stage, also make sure itās not connected to the internet at least right before dress rehearsal until after the show.
Itās hard to say which of the multiple licenses caused this for you, VST Live only checks its own licensing and does not do any more online connection after a successful start (only local connections to VST Live Mods devices).
Be aware that plugins may check for licensing when activated, or their editor is opened etc. All the more good reason to at least prevent from internet access.
Here is the developerās answer, as they say, learn the material and everything will work!
And it would be nice to pin a link to this instruction somewhere here so that people can read it.
oh, even add this link to the VST Live instructions for autonomous activation, you will still be rewriting the instructions over time, there is already half of what has been added by this time
In a time pressure situation (going onstage at a festival, often 15 mins changeover and all your gear is on a riser backstage, not near power, so you canāt be hooked into the audio interface etc) restarting the computer can take quite a while. If itās say 3 mins from shutdown to being ready and preloaded again, thatās a significant amount of the alloted time.
again seems: