Thanks for your input civilization 3, I appreciate it!
Still can't wrap my head around this though, so please bear with me. The channel strips you are talking about sound like just what I am looking for. Since there is no timeline in VEP I presume this automation has to be sent from inside my DAW, right? Alas, I just can't find a way to do this anywhere.
What I have been able to do is route an instrument track in Pro Tools to VEP, have that track return on the same instrument track and then use the audio volume automation lane in Pro Tools to automate volume. Basically I'm doing here the exact same thing as having a VI instance on the instrument track in Pro Tools, but letting it reside in VEP instead. This is all fine, but what I really want to do is get back stems from VEP and not every individual track.
Basically, I just want those darn faders in VEP to move when I press play in my DAW! Sorry if I'm daft here, but I've tried everything I can think of and I'm getting nowhere. If anyone can spell this out for me I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Erik