My roughly annual request for a scriptable router/transformer in VEPro

[dragsquares]

Hi folks -

So what I would love to see in VEPro is the ability to take a MIDI input and apply modifications or rules to it before sending it to any instrument loaded.  To be able to load up sounds in VEPro and then be able to do things like  

CC-based articulation switching, even across libraries.

conditional layering (e.g. adding chamber staccatos to other libraries above a certain velocity) with key ranges.

constrained randomization of parameters including timing. pitch and cc values.

divisi logic that could handle voice-splitting and also switch articulations as section sizes changed - scalable from solo to chamber to standard to appasionatas, for example.  That could be set so that one had normal access to one's instrument targets, but also could have an input for chordal/polyphonic playing that would address these same targets via the divisi logic - with an option to capture the resulting splits as MIDI data to be drag/dropped into the daw.

library-agnostic combinations with modifiers to either unify the response of different libraries or cause one in a combination to respond on a curve - say, if I were using Synchron Strings Pro but wanted to make the orchestra even larger by layering it with some other library, but only as the CC dynamics approached 110 and thus scaling up the other library's dynamics at that point.

being able to easily combine sounds from different percussion libraries on the same incoming channel while still maintaining the sounds' separate mix settings.  So a master orch perf patch with elements from all over, balanced and reverb-matched, addressed with a single MIDI channel.

Yes, I know many of these things can be done within a sequencer - especially one like Cubase.  And I have Divisimate and TransMIDIfier.  But I'd like to have as simple of a master sequence as possible, with as few tracks as possible.  And I figure it could be the job of the plugin host to do useful things to whatever the user sends it.  And I feel like it could be very elegant to do it that way.  I love VEPro, and I want more from it.

[richhickey]

+1. There are several of us who ask for this regularly over the years, but to no avail.

VSL instruments frequently need scripting and VSL does not provide it - neither in the players nor VEP.

Kontakt instruments get KSP scripting (for MIDI input transformation) right in the player. It would be a great feature for VEP.

[fatis12_24918]

+ 1

MIDI processing is provided by DAW and Notation with increasing features and power as a trend, but still a consistent VSL VE Pro MIDI manager should help a lot.

[dragsquares]

@richhickey said:

Kontakt instruments get KSP scripting (for MIDI input transformation) right in the player. It would be a great feature for VEP.

Yes, and I have many scripts that kind of do those things, but not flexibly enough and not outside that instance of Kontakt - so not that flexible. Rather than make a limited transformer that lives in the Synchron or VI player, why not put it where it does the most good?

[dragsquares]

@fatis12_24918 said:

+ 1 MIDI processing is provided by DAW and Notation with increasing features and power as a trend, but still a consistent VSL VE Pro MIDI manager should help a lot.

I agree. Because it would make one’s template (which naturally would include some setups using this tech) sequencer platform agnostic. I can’t help but wonder if this is an issue with MIDI coding and timing that would not work outside of real-time - that if one were doing a non-real-time bounce that somehow that makes it too hard for them to do.

[PaoloT]

I second this request. Layering different libraries with different articulation maps now requires creating duplicate tracks/staves at the source. A router with some data processing in VEPRO would make wonders. 

Paolo

[dragsquares]

I also think this should happen because I’m not sure where they are going with this software but other than built-in early reflections placement software, I don’t know what will justify the next big version.

[dragsquares]

Also, to put a finer point on it - I’d like to see a divisi ensemble maker mode, where one could either: assign targets defined by their size (which would then combine or split based on divisi rules), that could be told what the largest ensemble you want is and the largest one you have - say, if you had a solo viola and a four-viola ensemble, it could auto-create another instance of the four-violas to make 8, with randomization applied. It could be aware of what VSL libraries you have, for example, and make those automatically. Or, one could build ensembles using solo instruments. Obviously this would work best with modeled instruments, but would be great for extending their functionality. It could also engage layers as desired. My goal is to be able to create a sketch on a piano track, then send some of it to a track that would output something useful as multi instruments. To write a four-voice thing, send it to “horns” and have it played back by four horns, and possibly using sustain pedal to indicate to VEPro that a line needed to be a4.