For VSTi outputs, it appears that there is no macro or PLE way to hide the instrument outputs from the mixer view. This seems to be only possible by manually unselecting the tracks in the mixer visibility pane. My goal is to automate the visibility of these outputs by key commands. I am using a Stream Deck to set mix views (ex. All, Buss/Group, Vocals, Guitars, Keys, Drums, etc). Everything is working great, except once I have enabled the view of the VSTi outputs for a particular mix, I cannot use a macro/PLE command to turn them off for other mix configurations.
Thanks for reviewing my post and replying. Unfortunately that does not solve my problem. My scenario is as follows:
I use a VSTi for drums (specifically BFD3). I enable outputs from the BFD3 VSTi for various drums or groups of drums (i.e Kick, Snare, Hat, Toms, Overheads, etc.).
I like to set up mix views and have previously used the visibility configuration for preset mixes (Examples: Everything, Buss Mix, Vocal Mix, Drum Mix, Guitar/Bass Mix, Keys Mix, Orchestra Mix). This gives me the ability to quickly focus on a set of tracks with a keystroke but comes with initial setup effort and visibility configuration maintenance when new tracks are added since new tracks get applied to all configurations by default.
So, I have dug into macros and the Project Logical Editor (PLE) to automate the creation of these views, filtering tracks by key words for each desired mix configuration and hiding all other tracks. My current process flow uses a macro to call two PLE commands. The first PLE command is “Show All Tracks” to reset from any other mix views I have triggered. The second is my custom PLE command that filters tracks by name and hides all others.
The problem is that once the “Show All Tracks” PLE command is issued, the Drum (VSTi) outputs are now part of the mixer and cannot be hidden for any mix views by any PLE command. The only way I can find to hide them again is by manually clicking on those outputs in the “Visibility” tab in the mixer.
In addition, none of the commands available by right-clicking on the track (i.e Hide All Automation) will hide the outputs (specifically in the mixer panel), even though they are kind of treated like automation. The Hide All Automation does hide them from the track view, but not the mixer.
Unless there is something I am missing, I believe this is a bit of an oversight by Steinberg and with a little luck, perhaps they would consider adding a PLE command to hide VSTi outputs from the mixer in a future release.
OK, I figured out a way to make it work.
- I created a Select preset in the PLE where Name – Contains Drum or Hat or Snare etc with no Pre or Post Process Commands
- Then I created another PLE preset (this time a Transform) that once again filters by the same name criteria, then runs a “Channel & Track Visibility / HideSelected” Post-Process Command
- I then created a Macro that runs these two PLE processes in order.
- Then I modified my overall process in “Key Commands”, so that I run this new Macro immediately after my “Show All Tracks” command and before my command to hide all other tracks except the ones I want to see (i.e. Buss Mix, Vocal Mix, Guitar Mix, Keys Mix, Orchestra Mix, etc.).
Here is an example of one of my Mix Macros (this one for vocals):
- Process Project Logical Editor – Show All Tracks
- Macro – Remove Drums (Discussed above)
- Process Project Logical Editor – Mix Vocals (Hides everything but vocals)(This would not hide VSTi Output Faders without the Remove Drums Macro discussed above)
- Process Project Logical Editor – Hide Disabled Tracks
- Process Project Logical Editor – Show Marker-Time Signature and Tempo Tracks
I can now use my Stream Deck to automatically create my mixer views by name track name filtering and only showing the Drum VSTi outputs as part of my “Everything Mix” or my “Drum Mix”. I just don’t include the “Remove Drums” Macro for those mixes. This would also apply to managing fader visibility of any other VSTi outputs (i.e. Halion or anything else). There may be a simpler way, but I couldn’t find it through communication with Steinberg.
OK, one more update with two changes.
- The PLE transform preset in step 2 above needs only filter by “selected” since the mix channels to be hidden are already selected.
- It appears that nesting a macro in another macro doesn’t save, so I have just added both PLE commands, in place of calling the macro to hide the VSTi mix channels (“Remove Drums” in this case) .