Had a band practice this weekend where we used live for 2 guitars, a bassist and 3 vocalists. Didn’t mic the drums but the bleed made it fine for rehearsal purposes. The sound of the vocals through Waves Primary Source Expander, then Omnichannel for dynamics/EQ, then Vocal Rider with a second to Seventh Heaven for reverb was excellent. Best I’ve heard the vocalists sound.
I am going to create different songs on live for each song we play. I’m still confused about using global vs non-global stacks. Let’s say I decide we need to change the settings on EQ or compression for a particular vocalist. If I don’t use global stacks, I would then have to make the same adjustments in every stack in every song for that vocalist. But if I use global stacks, I can’t make song to song level changes (e.g., vocalist was primary on one song but background on another). Has anyone come up with a good way to use VST live as less of a backing track player and more of a processor for a setlist of songs using live inputs?
Hi! for that purpose I would rather use global stacks
For controllling, you have different options:
Create MIDI track and automate your GBL-Stack with…
from that point you have again different options (like adjust a SEND level for paralell compressing or channel strip… it’s up to your emagination.
OR
route your vocalist to and extra OUT channel to virtual audio, route back to additional Song Audio track (inputting virtual audio), leave monitor enabled.
So definitely I would go for Global Stack for that purpose. I hope that helps to give some idea where to start trying
I’ve looked at this. I don’t even see how I can automate the specific parts of each effect. Completely amazing to me the people that put this together didn’t consider automation of audio inputs/tracks. It’s easier for me just to use Cubase 13 and set up a play order track (assuming 13 still has that) and just automate each track in there.
I’m in the same exact place. I’ve decided to go with tracks for everything, so I have realtime processing of vocals, guitars, bass and drums with independent levels for each song.
Tracks are a breeze to copy from song to song, so if I need to add a track on all songs I just have to set in the first one then paste on all others, vs loading a stack for every new part.
I’m yet to do a full band rehearsal, but tests have gone ok so far.
I might also play around with MIDI for automation, and will use a few stacks for specific fx like distortion on a vocal every now and then (though that could also be automated in the track via MIDI).
Guitars use a track per song each, with Neural DSP emulations, plus a midi track for program changes and stuff.
I also play keyboards on a few songs, will see how that goes with tracks as the main container, and Layers to route MIDI in a per part basis.
In Mixer, create a Group Channel, these are global. Route your vocal Stack output to there, and apply additional fx to that Group (“e” button, Inserts). This works for both global and Part Stacks.
Also, as fkalmus pointed out, you can automate that Group Channel like he suggested for an Out Channel, which would also work.
Create MIDI track in any song (name it whatever to remember), create a clip (draw with pencil) and set output to VM Out 1 (or be consequent with input given in Actions and Shortcuts):
Thanks for the explanation. I see how to draw the midi part and see where I can put in midi notes. I’m having a hard time seeing how midi notes can control, for example, reverb presents in a waves reverb. I know VSTi’s (e.g., Guitar Rig) can be controlled by midi, but I’ve never seen that technique used with VST effects. To be honest, if I have to go through the extent of using midi automation, I’d rather just use Cubase 13 with an arranger track for each track and just rearrange the arranger for different sets. Then I can draw automation curves for each aspect of the performance. How is this a better solution?
Either the plugin supports program change, then use Layer instead or send from track. Or plugin supports preset selection via quick controls, which can be set in Devices/Actions and Shortcuts as well (set QC (Quick Control) in the plugin editor first).
Track automation is also in the making. Which is better depends on your workflow. But in any case you should familiarize yourself with Actions and Shortcuts, they provide a powerfiul tool for many operations and are easy to use with the Learn function.
