I miss the option of being able to take a kind of “snapshot” of a plugin. I don’t want VST Live to save the entire plug-in for me, but only the currently set host values of the plug-in. I would find it practical to be able to save these (separately definable) in the layer as well as in the automation. It would be great if you could quickly “insert” (save) all of the plug-in’s 512 values into the automation at a certain point in the timeline with just one click and, for example, save new parameters for another part, so that VST Live would then set the plug-in’s host values to what they were at a certain part call or at a certain position in the timeline during playback. For example, I would like to be able to set the stops of a church organ in this way without having to load the same church organ ten times as a separate layer…
Ok. But if I don’t want to save the whole VSTi but only recall the host information? I think currently, the only way I can do it is to add a part and then manually do track automation for it.
The thing is that I need to automate every single host controller of the VSTi. I can not just click “new snapshot” and VST Live will create all the current host automation states for me that I can quickly recall when I click on a new part. It also saves the whole VSTi which will be using RAM what I would like to avoid…
That’s a Preset then.
Also “host information” is given and taken only by the plugin, we call it its state. And the state is stored when editing, and recalled when a plugin (Layer, track etc) gets activated (e.g. Part or Song select).
Yeah. I would like to save this host information - state, whatever 
only and not the whole plugin. How can I achieve this? I only want to load the VSTi once and recall these states from the part or the automation configuration (that I also would like VST Live to create for me, sort of as a snapshot in the tracks view)
presets
Ok, and how can I create such a preset?
Alright, thank you. So how can I only load the preset after clicking on a new part without double loading the VSTi?
Combine… the question is too simple, there are further thoughts…
What if using shared instances?
What if using global instances?
Maybe there are methods that can help you find the best methods for your needs
Hm, as far as I can see, these presets do not only save the host information or state - the whole plugin gets saved including its ‘states’.
Means no RAM can be saved at all here?!
Could you tell me where on the hard drive the presets are being saved? For some reason I find them again in VST Live when I open a new project, but I don’t find them on the hard drive.
Thanks for showing me @fkalmus
What is that supposed to mean?
Please, one more time: a plugin is instanciated, that is, we load the dll and ask it to open. What that means is up to the plugin.
We then ask for its state (a block of memory) which is entirely opaque, we have no idea what’s in there.
When the editor is opened, we set it dirty because the state may change.
When the plugin is closed, we ask it for ists state and store it.
And when that instance (Layer, track) is loaded, its state is passed to the plugin again.
You appear to think the state is just what Quick Controls provide, that is not so. Quick Controls are what a plugin offers to the host to change as parameters during runtime, all other changes happen in its editor and the host does not get any information about that. The plugin also stores these values (QC) in its state.
In any case, the amount of memory for QCs is neglible. But you apear to be very anxious about that, so pls let us know which of your plugins use that much memory that it is of so much concern for you?
Btw. you can run “Preload” to see how much memory the states provided to all plugins use.
One last time, a plugin is a black box, consisting of the plugin itself, ist state, and some parameters (Quick Controls). There is nothing else we can save or load. And whenever you use a plugin in VST Live and store the project, the plugins’ state must be saved (and later restored), there is no such thing as an “empty” plugin.
Finally, Felicians suggestion is your first stop when trying to reduce resource consumption, although it looks like it may not even be necessary to care about it that much in the first place.
I’m talking of Komplete Kontrol that has Kontakt instruments inside, that use so much RAM if not purged (but then they might not work as reliable anymore for live performance)…
As far as I understand comparable software like Cantabile Performer, it is possible to only save the plugin parameters (see here: Preset Models - Cantabile - Software for Performing Musicians). And also as much as I understand the concept of Live Professor it is also possible there.
But ok. I’m not a programmer and I have not developed the VST standard. So maybe I should believe that it’s right what you are telling me and give up on that idea (still wonder how Brad Robinson, the developer of Cantabile, was able to make it though. I’ve also just read in another thread, that VST Live loads up only the song with its parts that is currently opened if preload is deactivated. Maybe this helps me reducing RAM usage, even if I would like VST Live to load a bit more than one song, but okay ).
Could you please answer me this question?
Local : C:\Users\UserName\Documents\VST3 Presets
Global : C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\VST3 Presets
See you
Michael.
Thanks. The last path isn’t working…
May I know why these presets aren’t being saved in the users folder?
Is the globals path for presets that are used for the global’s part only? Or why do you distinguish them?
Also I don’t understand why I cannot rename or delete them in VST Live, nor see them in the browser, nor being able to drag them from the browser (like a sound or layer) in the layers section or in the tracks section (as a preset for my output source, so that I don’t have to select the plugin first and then load the preset after…)
Not true. VST Live always keeps everything once activated, preload just enforces that all is preloaded in the first place.
It is important that Songs switch rapidly. We do have on our (long) list to offer a special purge function, but that is a lot against the architecture and again the question is when to do that, because again it takes time during which you cannot play w/o the possibility of artifacts.
How much RAM do you have? Maybe add some?
Already upgraded to the maximum of 16 GBs…
Means it doesn’t load the whole parts inside a song once I open any of its parts?
No. All Parts are inactive until selected (or preloaded via p"File/Preload (Parts)"). And it keeps its assets thereafter until removed.
I’m not sure I understand: So what user ciro1983811 wrote here (Set the amount of songs being pre-loaded - #9 by ciro1983811) is definitely wrong? All parts of a song are not automatically preloaded when you open one of the parts?
What exactly do you mean by the sentence: And it keeps its assets thereafter until removed.