I am trying to use VST Connect Pro to teach music lessons, and also to use it for regular vocal sessions with very spotty results.
On my session today I am now of the conclusion that if you try and connect with some else’s internal mic–say a laptop or an iPad, I experience loads of sync errors. This today, after confirming that we both had 50 mph download and 6 upload. Then-we switched to his external mic and had no issues at all, except my “Monitor” functions on my end would not highlight for me to use. So, am I to understand that when using VST Connect we must always connect to someone else that has an actual audio interface, and not use any internal stuff? If so it’s a drag, because it would be so good to be able to connect with people that only have iPads…
Second-it seems like on my system that VST Connect Pro AND VST Connect SE are always both engaged, which seems to make conflicts. Why, if you purchase VST Pro, would not VST SE just go away in the GUI?
Do I need to always start with a brand new VST Connect Pro connection every time I use it in a session? In other words, can I not just save a VST Connect Pro connection into a session and reopened it when I need to use it?
Hi spongetone
(I am able to read and write English but not enough.so If this post makes you confused,sorry.)
I’ve purchased VST Connect Pro recently but not get started yet. And I have a teaching project that is almost same way wtih you.
I understand of your post as below;
1.You want to use VST Connect with Performer’s internal device(Mic).
2.When you do above, Sound performance via VST Connect is not comfortable.
I can advice as below ;
Please open VST Connect Pro Manual, and refer Page 6, You could be find a sentence below.
“For a test, even the built-in hardware can be used, but for reasonable quality recordings, a good audio interface like the…… ”
About second issue
VST Connect needs new connect process each time for each performer. You(engineer) and Your student(Performer) needs communicaton of “Key” for connection each time.
With Cubase 8 on, Cubase has a VST Connect SE, and can be installed VST Connect Pro too. You have now both VST Connect SE and VST Connect Pro so You can select which one.You can find two menu of VST Connect but one is SE and other one is Pro. And You cannot use both SE and Pro simultaneously on a Cubase.
While you can save project file including VST Connect configuration as template. But you need to operate of Network Login as above mentioned. In other words, you can save project as VST Connection config, but you cannot save each “specific session” as a template.
For point again;
1.use always audio interface
2.you can save project including VST Connect configuration
3.you can save a “session” as a file(; take each time login process)
I don’t have strong confidence of my understanding of above.
Thanks for responding! Now-if we could just get someone from Steinberg to answer. I am hitting nothing but dead ends. I paid up for the pro version and it really doesn’t work well at all. I love the idea of this thing-the concept, etc–but I am just not sure if it will ever be reliable or really work as they say it should.
I use it like-it-is with clients every week-one yesterday in fact, and 9/10 the “monitor” controls on my side aren’t available. We go until red lights occur and wreck a take. Then I have them reconnect. Usually 5 or 6 times. They never are impressed with this-neither am I.
I also don’t know anyone in the business that uses stereo files on vocal takes-or guitar tracks. Yet, for some silly reason the files are stereo only. Why even add this step of having to convert? Just have them be mono…
Mainly, I just want it to work as advertised. All my people have good, solid connections-hard wired. Me too. No Wifi used. They and I both have proper interfaces and up-to-date gear and software.
KeySteering --thanks for the reply. I have pretty much figured out these things you mention, by trail and error. I do appreciate you’re taking the time to respond–and your English was fine!
I still have the other issues I posted below, which hopefully someone from the manufacturer will address.
Which Monitor controls are you refering to?
The (white/yellow) Track Monitor buttons should not be used on Performer tracks. If they work, there will be a long delay. You don’t need them, as the Performer can be heard at any time thru the Control Room VST Connect Monitor plugin which resides after the Main output.
Make sure to understand automatic Monitor switching. When playback is engaged, the Performer should not hear you so to not be confused during his performance. If you want to coach, enable the Rehearse button.
Otherwise pls be more specific about what doesn’t work as you expect it to.
Did you read the manual? You should make sure that you have cable connection and in case of dropouts increase the Remote Latency value in the VST Connect plugin setup (cogwheel). Also make sure to disable browser, email etc actions that might get in the way. This counts for both ends, a shaky WiFi connection is not guaranteed to provide sustained performance. Reduce bandwidth settings etc. Many professional recordings have been made with VST Connect over long distances but system requirements must be met.
We’re trying our best. As said above, if you are on wired good connections there should be no problems unless you either have too much going on in your system or you messed with VST Connect settings on either end. Try the lowest bandwidth settings first and increase Remote Latency to 2 seconds. Does that help? If not, which of the LEDs turn red? They are there to provide hints for where problems may occur.
Thanks so much for the response!! So to address these comments below:
<<Which Monitor controls are you refering to?
The (white/yellow) Track Monitor buttons should not be used on Performer tracks. If they work, there will be a long delay. You don’t need them, as the Performer can be heard at any time thru the Control Room VST Connect Monitor plugin which resides after the Main output.
Make sure to understand automatic Monitor switching. When playback is engaged, the Performer should not hear you so to not be confused during his performance. If you want to coach, enable the Rehearse button.
Otherwise pls be more specific about what doesn’t work as you expect it to.>>
Ok-I do understand all of this part. The “Monitor” section I refer to is on the VST Pro GUI, located just under the “Network Login”. It says “Record” and then below that it says “Monitoring”. It’s where I can supposedly get to his interface controls and “run the session” from my end. It is usually always greyed out.
,Did you read the manual? You should make sure that you have cable connection and in case of dropouts increase the Remote Latency value in the VST Connect plugin setup (cogwheel). Also make sure to disable browser, email etc actions that might get in the way. This counts for both ends, a shaky WiFi connection is not guaranteed to provide sustained performance. Reduce bandwidth settings etc. Many professional recordings have been made with VST Connect over long distances but system requirements must be met.>>
I did read the manual several times. I will admit that I have not tried increasing that setting, though-“Remote Latency”. I will try this next session. Thanks for bring this to my attention! For the record too-I keep nothing else open, such as email, browser, Dropbox–nothing like that. Hard-wired internet on both ends. Anything else obvious here?
<<We’re trying our best. As said above, if you are on wired good connections there should be no problems unless you either have too much going on in your system or you messed with VST Connect settings on either end. Try the lowest bandwidth settings first and increase Remote Latency to 2 seconds. Does that help? If not, which of the LEDs turn red? They are there to provide hints for where problems may occur.>>
I appreciate that. The LED’s turning on are the ones in The Event Monitor section. Syncing usually.
Another question: does my buffer size effect this? I have tried low and high-seems to make no difference. And how about if I am using any VST Instruments, such as Addictive Drums 2. Do I need to freeze all of these?
Thanks again for you time, efforts, and posting! It mean a lot!
Ok, yes, that’s the mixer where you control the Performers’ monitoring (what he hears).
It should not be greyed out at all. This is another indication of a somewhat shaky connection (although I must admit that it also happens due to a bug which we still try to catch and hope to have fixed soon). Try to close and re-open the VST Connect plugin; does it become functional then?
Not really, again, of course all of the bandwith settings will have an impact but I guess you knew that already.
Also try to raise your ASIO buffer size. On the studio end, it shouldn’t bother you, while the Performer of course wants low latency, but you might want to give it a shot to exclude stress situations on the audio end.
Ok, but which ones? Performer or Studio?
Ah, I just mentioned buffer sizes
As for plugins…it depends. You may want to try to disable some to see if they are the culprit. If your system isn’t stressed they should do no harm. Plugins with internal latencies might get in the way (check plugin info) and possibly this can be overcome by higher Remote Latency settings.
In general, I’d try to exclude (disable) everything and if it works, bring back on each one by one so you may find out what “hurts”.
<<Ok, yes, that’s the mixer where you control the Performers’ monitoring (what he hears).
It should not be greyed out at all. This is another indication of a somewhat shaky connection (although I must admit that it also happens due to a bug which we still try to catch and hope to have fixed soon). Try to close and re-open the VST Connect plugin; does it become functional then?>>
I actually do this-it’s the only way to make it work-but it doesn’t always work, and boy -they get irritated. Cool-hopefully the fix is on the way soon.
I have been freezing midi and not having any plug ins. Hmm. Hopefully this latency thing will help. Thanks again for your time and help!
So with the latest sessions I have been doping VST Connect, the new weirdness is this:
Now, the “Monitor” section is occasionally available (not grayed out), but the only thing you can do is move the faders. You still can’t get to the Performer’s interface to choose inputs, etc.
Even with both the Performer and with me having hard wired internet connections, if we happen to stop to discuss something for a minute or two, then, when we resume there is usually always a bad sync error and we have to go back and re-record asap.
Get these two issue down and we’ll have something pretty good to work with (:-), although I’ll have to say I will not feel safe recording a seroius multitrack session (drums) with VST Pro yet…too much at stake for “trouble” to happen throughout the session. That is something I need to work in the future, as I live somewhere now where I will need to track drummers that are in other states, etc. due to noise reasons in a tight neighborhood.
Last thing still…why no mono tracks yet?? I don’t know anyone who tracks drums in stereo pairs, personally.
Try to open the editor once more until it works.
We have found the bug and prepare for a new version.
You mean when you just let it sit there? That’d be weird indeed.
Well, at least the recordings take place on the performer end, so nothing gets lost. Several professional multitrack recordings have been reported successfully finished.
You can get mono if you create a Mono VST Connect Input channel instead of the default stereo one. So you may go to Devices/VST Connections/Inputs, delete the VST Connect Input channel, create a new Mono Input Channel and insert the VST Connect plugin there.
Thanks so much for this info! I just tried to inset the mono situation–we’ll see how it works tomorrow. If so-this is a big help! Can’t wait for the fixes to happen. Is there a way, when someone replies to one of my posts for me to receive an email? I had no idea you’d responded. Thanks again!!
And by the way–today in finally had an error free-really great VST session! I don’t know what might have changed-except my Time Warner Cable access is now much faster, both up and down. 345 mbps download/23.44 upload. I actually had full function of my “monitor” controls too-I could mover faders and get to his interface. AND-your suggestion of how to make the Performer track mono works fine–but you really have to be careful to get it perfectly right. I would suggest you post that process somewhere with screen shots maybe. Inserting the VST Connect Plugin–in particular, was confusing. I just compared the older stereo track and saw it then. It won’t let you have two, as near as I can figure.
