Synchronizing 150 Musicians with VST Live Pro 3 – Practical Experience & Discussion

VST Live
1

Hello everyone,

I’m a keyboard player from northern Germany and I’m managing a project called Rockin Lohne, where 150 musicians perform 8 songs simultaneously.

Inspired by Rockin’1000, the main question is obvious:

How do you get everyone perfectly in sync? And if so – how exactly?

I hope this is the right place to share this format. As the project progresses, there will certainly be questions that might also be relevant for others.

Here is the current setup:

VST Live Pro 3 serves as the host for the entire show.

It runs on a 16” MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro processor, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD.

Audio settings are 48 kHz with a 256 buffer.

Master keyboards:

  • Komplete Kontrol S88 Mk2

  • Arturia KeyLab 61 Mk3

Both are connected via a Swissonic USB hub.

A WING Rack is used as the audio interface.

Within the project, each song is structured with guide tracks and different parts.

The musicians receive click and guide separately and additionally use their private iPads with the VST Mods App, where click, chords, arrangement or lyrics can be selected.

The programmed light show is controlled via an LTC channel sent from VST Live.

For ForScore users, the long-term goal is to switch leadsheets via PC or HEX directly from VST Live.

As the main keyboard player, VST Live also switches my Arturia and Modartt sounds.

The global section is fully populated, and the individual song parts only switch MIDI assignments.

Automatic song switching at predefined cue points is also planned.

Ideally, the whole production will also be streamed or recorded via OBS, but that currently has lower priority.

I’ll be happy to keep you updated here and share experiences or questions regarding the implementation.

Best regards,

Joe

2

VST Mods App…….not working properly, for 1 person, nevermind 150.
you´d be better sticking a video on a screen.

3

Awesome project! Crossing fingers. Try / test out everything as you can and also suggest to prepare some additional pherpherials.

Thinking about a big pole with LEDs driven through MIDI , etc :slight_smile:

4

Wow! Would love to hear how you get on - Maybe you could share some videos when you have it all working.

5

The first synchronization tests with VST Live Mods will start next week using around 10 iPads.

For this, we’re configuring a Swissonic router that connects directly to the Mac via USB-to-LAN.

As additional setup, I’m also sending out the click and guide track as an audio signal to the musicians.

Via DMX, a light pole is also planned — at least for rehearsals and testing.

One major challenge will definitely be the synchronization of lighting, audio and network signals.
Each area has its own latency, so these will need to be aligned accordingly.

There are still quite a few homework tasks to complete.

The songs with chords, lyrics and click track are already stored in VST Live and run in sync with the metronome.

However, the first setback already happened:
My current Mac is too weak.

So I’m now waiting for a new M3 Pro with 24 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD.

The Global Section in my project is quite large, including:

  • Audio Modeling string sections

  • Modartt piano

  • Analog Lab

So things remain exciting.

Best regards,
Joe

6

Aside from iOS Mods:

  1. Cool idea and will be technically “delay” free (until avoiding e.g. Dante DVS)
  1. Highly suggested and don’t worry about latency, I will tell you how to eliminate, but you will get like a pole-band-conductor. I would recomment two or three choises:

a. Using VSTLive’s DMX track you create a clip and repeat it, something like:
Ch1 255/0, Ch2 255/0, Ch3 255/0, Ch4 255/0
Advantage: you can set a delay compensation for DMX track(s), so if in reality you experience latency, can freely adjust a “negative value”, also can “silence” the pole if you want.

b. you can use VL’s DMX plugin, called VDESIGNER, Disadvantages: I’ve found a bug in it that can result, not all 1,2,3,4 lights will lit up with the same intensity also found that delay-compensation is not applyed if using that DMXinsertPlugin

c. (don’t suggest this: you can purchase a MIDI to DMX hardware or software)

In any cases: Good news, that DMX travels, say… quite fast and long distance, therefore with delay-compensation, you can make it 100% precise.

7

If the lyrics and chords do not resize for individual users….. the same as the program…. it will be not usable.

8

FYI :wink:

9

And the first small bug appears. :slight_smile:

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But first, a quick update.

We now switched to a new MacBook Pro 14" M4 Pro, 24 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD.

The Audio Modeling orchestra instruments are now running smoothly, all controlled via Divisimate.
Song changes are as fast as expected and preloading works without any issues.

We have installed the new app on the iPads and I’m currently preparing the first test.

I also connected my lights using a small USB DMX interface (Open DMX) and created a DMX track with red/green and a white/green visual click.

The track delay is currently set to -0.03 and still needs some fine adjustment.

However, the first problems are unfortunately appearing.

The project occasionally freezes for about a quarter of a second – sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.
Depending on the tempo, it feels like an extra quarter or eighth note is added before playback continues.

It does not matter whether:

  • I am playing

  • Only the metronome is running

  • A scene is being changed

At that moment, the small orange microphone icon at the top of the window blinks – it briefly turns off and then on again.

I currently have no idea what could be causing this.

The behavior changes slightly when:

  • I plug the USB cable directly into the USB-C port below the power supply

  • I change the microphone setting to Voice Isolation

It does not completely disappear, but it becomes less frequent.

CPU load shows no spikes and no overload.
The issue occurs both in Multicore and Single Core mode.

I’ll search the forum to see if someone has experienced a similar issue.

So far for now.

Best,
Tom

10

Hello everyone,

after our first large rehearsal with the project, I would like to share my experiences with VST Live Pro 3, Divisimate Micro, and the newer Apple Silicon Macs.

In our setup, multiple Audio Modeling instruments are controlled via Divisimate Micro. My previous MacBook Pro with M1 Pro was reaching its limits, so I upgraded to a MacBook Pro 14” with an M5 Pro chip, 24 GB RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. However, with the new system, unexpected and significant issues appeared, including audio dropouts and MIDI interruptions—not only under heavy load, but even during simple playback. What was particularly noticeable is that these problems occurred regardless of whether additional peripherals like keyboards or a DMX interface were connected, while the old M1 Pro system ran completely stable under the same conditions.

After some research, it seems that Apple has changed USB handling and power management in newer chips, which can lead to USB devices being briefly put into an idle state. As a result, audio interfaces may lose connection for milliseconds, causing audible dropouts. Apple Support was not able to provide a clear explanation for this behavior.

The solution was ultimately to separate the USB structure. The audio interface, a Behringer Wing Rack, is now connected directly to the Mac, while the rest of the peripherals are connected via a separate USB hub, specifically the Swissonic 1916 USB Hub, which handles keyboards, the DMX interface, and other devices. Since making this change, the system has been completely stable with no dropouts.

During rehearsal, an iPad system with around 20 devices was also used over a dedicated network, providing click and lyrics. Synchronization worked reliably as long as all devices were updated to the latest version. Devices running older versions showed latency and incorrect lyric display.

An important point for live use is that if VST Live Pro 3 crashes during a show, all iPads running the VST Mods app need to be restarted. Otherwise, click and lyrics will continue running, but no longer in sync with the song.

In combination with Divisimate Micro, it also became clear that using multiple parts in shared mode within a single song can be unstable in a live context. I therefore switched back to controlling strings via keyboard faders and now only use the breath controller for specific instruments such as trumpet, which significantly improved stability.

Additionally, a redundant click system was implemented, consisting of iPads, a lighting-based click via DMX using Stairville BEL 4 fixtures, and an audio click via the main PA. In the live show, an additional click is provided to the musicians via in-ear monitoring, so multiple parallel timing references remain in place.

Overall, after these adjustments, the system is now stable and performs reliably. The workflow from production in Cubaseto notation in Dorico and finally to live performance is consistent, efficient, and well integrated.

I would be very interested to hear if others have had similar experiences with newer Apple Silicon Macs, USB audio issues, or using Divisimate in a live environment.

11

I still have problems with the Mods app not resizing chords and lyrics… as well as spontaneous loading of lyrics, or not.
Can not be used in a band situation….. and still not looked at.
If this doesnt work, how will you use it?

12

Are you working on a Mac or a PC? If you’re on a Mac, make sure that if your VST folder is stored in the cloud, all files are fully downloaded and not automatically being moved back to the cloud. Also make sure that both apps are up to date, as the Mods app in particular does not reliably indicate when the wrong version is loaded. We encountered this issue multiple times just last weekend.

Additionally, check your lyrics and chords directly in VST Live Pro 3 to ensure everything is set up correctly. Before the last update, there were some issues with text positioning, so it is possible that the problem with the lyrics actually originates in the host rather than in the app itself.