I’m trying VST Live and it seems amazing as Idea, but up to now to be used in professional scenarios it has some very big limitations.
Don’t know if it’s me who didn’t undestand how to do it, but it seems that midi tracks cannot store cc data and program changes data, but only notes and their velocity, It’s very BIG limitation;
There are too few inserts and sends for stacks, audio tracks (also group etc)… No audio effects for layers (I know I can route them to a group for example and insert here fx, but it’s to verbose) and no midi effects for midi tracks and layers (for example when I perform in cubase or MainStage I use them for example to gate midi notes or generate others and so on);
Cue-sends to route signal to different outputs? It is Essential for monitoring among musicians on stage. I know it can be done throw send, but they are already too few for fx-send purpose! Also for the program’s logic (that is different for example from MainStage or Logic Pro were all is a bus usable as send or cue monitoring) it should be great if: Send could be route only to fx tracks (available in mixer and timeline) and cue send (more than 4 please!!!) that can be routed only to output tracks;
Automations for plugins or others stuffs in timeline (also for group tracks that up to now are not even visible in timeline)?
Up to now the only way I found to perform live with my projects (trust me very large projets) is using two powerful pc with loaded on one cubase and to another MainStage:
I prepare songs in studio and once mixed and finished the song I create Midi tracks in cubase for send cc or program changes to output midis (for example program change to Kemper or cc messages to control daslight on another pc). In other pc with MainStage loaded (sync to cubase throw midi clock) I load virtual instruments I need to play real time and routing the outputs (I do it throw two audio interfaces RME connected via Madi) to cubase’s audio tracks (one track per main stage patch) were I load fx and make automations. Finally in cubase I have a long timeline with each song put one after the other (this because cubase doesn’t has a project preload so having only a project per song should mean having long times to load a project after another and in live this times are not acceptable) and I Automate (with midi track that send messages to IAC midi bus routed in a generic midi device where are assigned stuffs o project) activations of tracks monitoring and the shout down of plugins not used in current song to not stress cpu.
As idea VST Live seems GREAT and it I think that with a software like this all stuffs I do with 2 pcs linked, 2 audio interfaces and two programs could be simplified in a unique software solution and with a really short time for preparing it (passing from cubase to this). Infact It should be great if the user could also drag a track from cubase or Nuendo directly in software without losing informations.
They should, either by recording or importing. Also Layers can send those when selected (when a Part is selected).
You can chain Group channels if you need more.
You can do that, send to output channels.
But that’s purely cosmetic, right? Send to Group = “Fx”, send to Out = “Cue”. Also note that each Layer, Stack, Track etc have their own channel to send from.
Automation in tracks is not available yet (except for MIDI and DMX data), but planned.
“Static” automation is implemented thru Layers, Stacks, Notes etc, i.e. when they are beeing selected, they can send data. Each Layer can map and send any cc, program change, and bank lsb/msb plus 8 freely assignable controllers.
Drag tracks/events from Cubase is certainly appealing, the problem is that some systems don’t accept twa DAWs running at the same time (audio device issues).
Ok I’ll check it, it seems that they are not showing in clip, are stored (it seems a bug, also if there’s not the possibility to modify them in clip, quen I open clip editor and I click on button Velocity it’s opened a menu with only the voice “Velocity”).
yes, but the purpose of the software should be “live performace” use and speed as well as versatility in being able to program live shows, doing these things becomes a bit cumbersome and in the moment of an impromptu change, during a performance, not very maintainable and also it could means a lot of work in programming (imagine a live with 20 songs and per song 4/5 tracks that needs this…)
Yes but actually it’s the main output: In most of scenarios it should be the main out or some chains that at the end goes at main out, I mean the possibility to route signal of a track to other submix to be monitored for example by musicians on stage (for example we are 7 in a band and each one would like to have different levels of main guitar signals)
Yes it is, but for this kind of program I think it’s not a minor thing for the same reasons explained before of speed programming and impromptu changes. I think, recalling things that attract attention at a glance is the best thing (among other things, my compliments because actually the program is already thought of almost everything to show its parameters at a glance, it would be a shame not to have that is).
Yes, I hope they’ll came very soon, actually they are the only think that makes for me this software impossible to use (ps: also automation on monitoring of track!! also in cubase there’s not! yes it should be pretty also that this parameter being mapped throw midi as in cubase, but much better don’t losing times in too much mapping to having at the end just an automation!).
Sorry if I’m so verbose, but It’s a life that I work hard in live scenarios and I’m not satisfy of commercial softwares for live purpose, I have tried almost all of them and I have always been very disappointed by the often meaningless limitations they had (especially for my very meticulous way of working, where I prepare live projects with cubase making sure that nothing is left to chance and then I need to bring them back to a live management platform, eliminating the recorded clips to make them sound to the musicians ( but going through the same process chain in the trace)). out of desperation I even started creating my own live management software with juce for a few years now, experiencing the various possibilities, needs, problems etc., but vst live pro really looks like what I was doing and it would be a dream to be able to abandon programming to use a thing done permanently by a company like steinberg!
But in fact, as I told you, nothing is missing, but at a glance having a separate send and one section (where the send cannot go to an output, while the cue can only go to an output) would be much more orderly and therefore easy to manage
Automation will take a bit, sorry. But you can send MIDI data to actions. As an example, create a Layer with Retrologue (delivered with VST Live), open Retrologue Editor and click “QC” at the top right. Set the first one to “Filter Cutoff”. Go to menu Devices/Actions and Shortcuts, open Layer tab and “+” to add an action. Set “Name” to “Quick1” and press “Learn”; now use whatever controller to assign and you can use it to control Retrologues Filter Cutoff.
With the “R” Layer button you create a track to record it all to. If the MIDI controller is on a different device, you can create a MIDI track to record it seperately.
You can send to Groups and Outs. We will add more sends soon, but you can create another Group and use one send with Group 1 to send to Group 2, which gives you 7 sends in all, and you can expand further by adding more Groups. From Group 1 and 2 you can then send to seperate outputs (or send there directly).
