Vienna Ensemble Pro: Inspector volume settings are ignored

Cubase
#1

I have a large orchestral template with Vienna Ensemble Pro and Cubase Pro 8 using various libraries (EW Hollywood Series, Cinebrass, LASS, etc.). I am using the MIDI volume settings in the Inspector a lot to do quick volume adjustments. Unfortunately, when I save the project and reload it, my volume adjustments are all gone - they still show up in the Inspector, but VEP plays the tracks at their default volume. I have to re-enter the values on every track to restore them.

Shouldn’t the volume settings in the inspector be sent to VEP when I load a project? This doesn’t seem to happen.

In other words: When I load a “normal” project with all the plugins hosted in Cubase, all my volume settings are restored, including my adjustments in the inspector. I want the same behavior with my VEP template. Is this possible?

#2

Hi,

If you have MIDI Tracks (no Instrument), then this Volume fader sends MIDI Controller 7. This message has to be sent while loading the project. But, question is, if the VE Pro set is loaded before the project. I would say, it isn’t. So the project sends the data, but the source doesn’t receive it.

I’m not using this MIDI CCs at all. For mixing, I’m using Return Instrument Channels, which are audio channels, in fact.

#3

Thanks for your reply. Of course I load my VEP template before loading my Cubase project. It definitely looks as if the volume data in the inspector is never sent.

I mostly use MIDI CC’s to control the volume of my percussion instruments. This is because I don’t want to use a separate audio channel for each and every percussion instrument I use just to be able to adjust the volume - this would result in 22 stereo tracks only for percussion in my current template!

#4

You could check it. Just create another MIDI Track and route it to any MIDI Monitor (for example MIDI Monitor is good app for Mac OS X or MIDI-OX for Windows). Test, if MIDI CC7 is transmited/received when loading the project.

#5

I tried what you suggested and did some testing. The results are strange:

  • If I route a track of my template to MIDI-OX (I’m on PC), I see that the volume data in the inspector is sent correctly when I load the project. So Cubase doesn’t seem to be the cause.

  • If I create a small VE Pro instance with only one plugin and one MIDI track, everything works as expected and the volume is set correctly on load. I tried it with Kontakt and EW Play and both work fine in this scenario.

  • If I load my large template, MIDI volume is only recalled on two Kontakt tracks. All the Play tracks and the third Kontakt track stay at default volume.

I really don’t understand what’s going on here, but Cubase doesn’t seem to be the cause.

#6

I would say, Cubase sends the data before VE Pro is loaded completely.

#7

No, that’s definitely not the cause.

I always wait several minutes till my template is loaded completely before I even start Cubase.

#8

I have no more idea, sorry.

#9

It was a glitch in Cubase.

I did some extensive testing in the last hours, and I found the solution. I just deleted the broken MIDI tracks and created new ones and now it all works as expected. (And no, there wasn’t any unwanted controller data or something similar on those tracks - it’s a template and therefore all the tracks are completely empty.)

Thanks for your help.