Played a big festival yesterday and it threw up some issues/thoughts

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)

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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 ā€˜offstage’ prep can take place and then connected.

And i’d 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.

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Hi! Unfortunately that is impossible. If computer can’t see last used/selected it will fallback to available one. Reaper does it a bit differently but in return it doesn’t allows you do do anything and annoys you with an popup-alert until select an available interface.

Regards internet: someone’s 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 ā€œnewly connected ā€œ devices

I’d launched it 3 days before, so it seems quite a tight window.

As for the interface i/o how come it’s impossible? Just have a pop up saying not currently connected to an interface or something?

Or have a stage prep mode that specifically allows pre loading, setting interface outputs etc without being currently connected.

That cannot be.

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. It’s 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 don’t think so. I have only used native plugging except for 2 vst instruments, but both are ones that don’t 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 I’d 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.

I’ve seen people have some performance issues with the newer editions and I’m therefore nervous of upgrading, as all other functions are working as I need them.

Sure, that’s what it’s supposed to do then.

But when you save a project, and load it later with the same hardware, it should restore it.

See above, you shouldn’t 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 don’t change the name of that port, it should find it, provided you saved it once.
If it doesn’t 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.

Thanks for the response.

It definitely isn’t performing correctly then, as it is saved as the same project and with the same hardware, but needs manually reconfiguring each time.

I’ll create a project with minimal audio and send it when I can.

@birdmug Suggestion: try to erase all ā€œrememberedā€ 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, you’ll 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!

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll try this today.

This worked! Thank you so much. But for anyone following the same steps on a Mac please note you hold Command not Ctrl.

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