Hi, when I’m playing a song and make realtime changes, like changing drawbars in a hammond, if I go to another song but later decide to play the first song again, it does not return to initial/saved state. It returns to the state I left it, with the drawbar changes I would only do later in the song. How can I avoid that and make each song sound exactly as it was last saved anytime I choose to play that song?
That is the intention. Also, changes like drawbar settings belong to the Instrument, so if you want to preserve those, you will need to save it as a preset inside or outside the Instrument (plugin).
Furthermore, you may save, load, duplicate, copy etc all relevant VST Live objects such as Songs, Parts, Layers, Stacks etc.
You should also want to check the Media Bay (right view, check right icon at the bottom right), where you can drag and drop all of these objects to save and restore as desired.
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In my Korg Kronos, Modx and other hardware instruments the programs/combis always return to the saved state if selected again. Couldn’t this be a user choice per layer/part/song? That would be a lot more versatile.
Yes, but VST Live is not a plugin, but a plugin host. Each Song is like a Cubase project. Unless you save it, it will not revert.
In my opinion, and by the experience I’ve had for so many years with a hardware Midi player, the loop status between the locators should be recalled with each song.
I use this cycle to repeat a section as long as I’m inspired enough to play a solo, and when my imagination dries off, I hit a footswitch to continue to the rest of the tune.
If I’m asked to play that same song again before the end of the show, I will probably forgot to reactivate the cycle, and the bars of my solo won’t repeat as I expected them to…
Talking about it, the only thing that I really miss is a second looping range. All my Midi files are programmed to be played with 2 repeatable sections, the more that my Miditemp MSX can do. That’s the only reason I still don’t use VL for me solo performances. For some songs, one or the second or both loops are preactivated.
Have a good musical week.
Jihem
There’s an argument for two approaches here and I can see merits in both.
- Song should always revert to a known start condition. This would require each song to be reloaded on selection. Caveat - switching songs may be slow due to the reload.
Or - Different sounds should be stored in the song parts and not altered during performance. Caveat - you would be unable, for instance, to manually sweep a filter as part of the performance which is limiting.
My suggestion would be a “Reload” button against each song, or a per song setting that forces a reload on selection if that’s viable. It would also help in rehearsal when setting up a performance but I can see that automatically reloading could be problematic as required changes may be lost. Maybe both options and a configurable rehearsal mode that can limit when reloads are applied?
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I’m sorry, but for eg. the way how I’m using that is completely unlikely/unwanted
It would be quite an effort, because each song would have to be entirely copied internally for a Revert action. Also you may undo, save, load, copy and save in Media Bay.
But how do you ever unset it then?
Hello @musicullum ,
If I play Song 1 containing a preactivated loop between bars 34 and 40 for a solo, I press a footswitch to exit the loop and play the rest of the song. The cycle is now deactivated for this song.
Then I play other songs, and for any reason I have to play that Song 1 again later. I have to remember that the cycle is off, that I have to reactivate it by pressing the pedal at the start of the solo, and I will probably forget it!
I wish that the cycle is set to its initial state (On or Off) when calling a song. It would be really great!
But what is that state? If you ever change it to either on or off, that becomes the “initial” state, how else can you ever change it?
I think that’s the point. Maybe there should be a stored initial state that would be recalled with the song, and a live and momentary state.
This could be a main switch at the top of the VL window to choose between EDIT mode and PLAY mode.
-
EDIT MODE
All changes in mixer and cycle state are stored with the song -
PLAY MODE
Changes are momentary and will be overridden by initial state when calling the song
Some lighting programs work this way. What do you think?
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Another idea for what is my cycle issue is to add an “Autoloop” parameter, as you did for Autostart.
And also “Autoloop 2” when my request for a second loop range has been granted 
I meant for VL to reload a single song from the project file.
That may take long, that’s not what you want?
There are obviously different ideas about which areas and states should be preserved.
If any, the “Edit Mode” idea stands out; this would internally make a copy of the current Song when set to “Edit”, so far so good. But how would you “Revert” then? When you switch to “Play”, you would not want to loose those edits. In any case you would need an additional function, so at least “Edit/Play” and “Revert”.
Actually makes no difference to me - that’s not how I use VL.
Was suggesting how you could satisfy the OPs request, and it would seem the simplest solution assuming the project file can be accessed on a song by song basis. And given that it would be predominately in a live situation I would not see preservation of edits to be needed.
Maybe you can make your own inital state with a midi track and virtual midi to “actions & shortcuts”, where you set your controller to the state you like at the first beat. This will be executed everytime, when the song starts at the beginning.
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seems a genious, clean, practical, working one
@Jihem , do u like it?
I’ve tested it quickly (to you and for my entertaining).
Play → cycle set via vMIDI → release-cycle → goes forward (as expected) → set Song back to zero and Play → cycle set via vMIDI again…
Also tested if conflicts with MIDI chasing, but works like charm.
one only thing need @Jihem to find out, that depends how u use:
- if set to “Button”: it activates at the beginning (but then can’t toggle it with MIDI-foot-ctrl)
- if set to “Toggle”: … it toggles anytime, regardless if you used-to-release or not.
- if set to “Slider”: 0(-63) is no-cycle / 64(-127) is cycle activated
Wish come true 
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For drawbar change, as @Jihem was asking for, it should work, as it send continous data.
But I found a use case for me. With this workflow I can make an inital state of the volume of the mixer channels for every song. Especially the global ones, which I now change manually befor the song starts.