VSTConnect with Cubase, issues with DI and midi recording

Hi all of you, who also like and use VSTConnect. I generally love that product very much, even though a few aspects still don’t make sense to me, resp. currently make things more difficult than expected. I really hope, anybody solved these issues and can help.
I use Cubase 13Pro on Win11 and the latest VSTConnect Pro/Performer software. In general, this setup works excellent besides the following issues related to VSTConnect:

Situation 1: recording of an analog instrument, e.g., a guitar. I would like to record a DI track in HD at the performer side. There is an amp simulation added as an insert for the guitar in performer, so the artist has a good vibe while playing. When FX in VSTConnect Mixer is enabled while recording, the recorded file itself is wet/ amp sound and not a DI track. When FX is disabled, the artist still hears the amped sound, but in the studio/ in Cubase I only can hear the dry DI sound while recording. Sometimes this is not too bad, but most of the time I would like to hear the performance “with feeling” on the studio side but in the end, I need the dry DI file. How do I achieve this?

Situation 2: recording midi with a remote keyboard (midi out to interface), not as an audio file, but as midi itself. I have a midi track in Cubase with a virtual instrument. Here the VSTConnect midi out is selected as input. The artist at the performer side also has some kind of virtual instrument loaded in performer. When Cubase starts recording via VSTConnect in general it works, and the midi data is created in the selected track – but not in sync. It seems to be placed in the project at that point in time, when the artist hits the keys. I experimented with the midi clock and MMC to have the midi input follow the mid clock, but in the setup, I can only choose my local midi input from the interface but the VSTConnect. Any ideas?

Furthermore, lately I have experienced a general strange behavior in VSTConnect on playback and record. Even though every single track is muted when rehearsal in VSTConnect is set to OFF, the artist gets a very loud kind of digital feedback, making it impossible to work. When rehearsal is set to ON this doesn’t appear, but synced recording is impossible. I have had this several times in the lasts weeks but never experiences something like that before. Seems very strange to me. I checked the signal flow and all buses for loops. Everything is fine and I am 99,99% sure the setup was identical when it worked fine approx. a month ago. No changes in drivers or software versions. No difference if control room sends the mix or queues. I’d be happy for ideas. Thanks.

In case some Steinberg admins are following this, in my opinion two enhancements would make this great product massively better: It would be cool if besides webcam also the desktop or Cubase or at least the stage could be remotely displayed in the performer app. This makes arrangement discussions during recordings much easier. It would also be awesome if the VSTConnect window could be docked like or be integrated into the control room area.

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With the PRO version, you can create up to 16 channels for recording. Set one dry (and possibly lower the fader in the Performer Monitor Mixer), and one to wet with record fx enabled.

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Ah, thanks, great idea. Haven’t yet thought about using the same source twice. Will try that.

Ah, I just found out, that I indeed can share the Cubase desktop - unfortunately only instead of the webcam, but ok, better than nothing :wink: having more than only one video device to chose from, would be very cool :slight_smile:

FYI, the “digital feedback” issue is solved. It was caused by an “experimental option” in the MOTU driver: uncheck the option “use lowest latency safety offsets”. everything fine again.

Still looking for a solution for the midi-audio-sync issue as described above. I’m really hoping for good ideas :slight_smile:

FYI, the midi sync issue can be seen in this video:

FYI: it seesm, that this issues at least occurs with versions 5.5 and 5.6 of VSTPerformer