Using a MIDI pedal to control a guitar amp sim plugin

VST Live
1

Hi,

I read the manual but couldn’t find this feature explained.

I have a MIDI foot controller (FCB1010) that I would like to use to control my guitar amp sim (Overloud TH-U) in order to toggle effects, change channels etc.

In Cubase I do this by inserting the amp sim plugin onto a track then creating a MIDI track that gets its input from the controller and sends the output to the plugin. Easy and works perfectly.
How can I do the same in VST Live? I thought I could insert my plugin in a “Stack” and it would be then visible as a MIDI output in a “Layer” that I’ve created. But it’s not.

In the Layer I can choose an instance of TH-U as an output. Controlling that instance then works as expected, but of course there’s no audio processing through the plugin because it’s on a Layer. It’s not the same instance of TH-U that I have in my Stack insert.

Any help would be appreciated.

2

Layers have nothing to do with Stacks. They are for processing MIDI data, while Stacks process audio.

To control plugin parameters use Quick Controls in “Devices/Actions and Shortcuts”. Click the “QC” button in the plugin editor to see and assign QC.

You can then also just use the “Learn” button at the bottom left. To use those MIDI controllers in a track, route the MIDI Track output to “Virtual MIDI 3” (or any other that is not in use), and in “Actions and Shortcuts”, set to the same Virtual MIDI Input (so in this example, Virtual MIDI In 3) to the action destination.

Virtual MIDI Ports are “cables”, out3 connects to in3 etc. Using your controller as MIDI Track input, you can use track monitor for realtime control, and record an play back too.

controller->midi track in->record/monitor->midi track out: VM 3->Action VM3->Stack 1 QC 1

Hope that helps.

3

Thanks musicullum!
Yes, that helped. Although I didn’t need to edit the quick controls. What I didn’t see earlier was the MIDI input selector in the upper right of the Stack plugin window. From there I could select the virtual MIDI input that my MIDI track was outputting.

So my routing now is:
Controller → MIDI track in → Rec/monitor → MIDI track out: VM 1 → Stack Insert Plugin 1, MIDI Input VM 1

Works perfectly, thanks! Now I can start to explore more of VST Live, just bought it yesterday.

4

You are right, it was late and missed this simpler and better solution.