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  4. VE Pro - Separate VST/AU plugins for MIDI and Audio?

  • VE Pro - Separate VST/AU plugins for MIDI and Audio?

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    I would like to propose a feature that I know would be useful to many people, and make VE Pro's implementation more modular and flexible for larger scale operation.

    In addition to having the current VE Pro plugin that both sends MIDI and returns audio, would it be also possible to create two separate plugins that perform this function? Here is my reasoning:

    A case example (this is an actual setup of a composer I work with, and we would like to maintain this workflow):

    A sequencer Mac Pro runs DP and runs a few internal sounds but the sessions are largely MIDI tracks that are sending MIDI-over-LAN to eight PCs all running as external samplers. Each of these PCs has an audio interface outputting 8 analog lines back into a dedicated Pro Tools HD computer (with enough analog inputs to accommodate all of them). In order to mix, the DP computer slaves to the Pro Tools machine via MTC sync and the MIDI sequence is played live, triggering the PC samplers, which output the audio stems directly into Pro Tools on aux tracks, and those aux tracks are automated to perform the mix.

    Here is the problem:

    Currently VE Pro will only return audio to where the MIDI came from. So in this case, you can only return audio to the DP computer.

    Ideally what I would love to have happen is:

    (#1) Either:
    - (A) for VE Pro to have a "MIDI VST/AU" insert we can throw into DP and wire up all the MIDI sends to these eight PCs running VE Pro servers, or
    - (B) for the VE Pro servers to accept external MIDI inputs (for example, MusicLab MIDIoverLAN inputs)

    and:

    (#2) Be able to insert the VE Pro audio return VST/AU/RTAS directly onto Pro Tools aux tracks.

    Currently, it might be possible to do this with a large-scale workaround: insert the VE Pro plugins into Pro Tools, but set up dozens of MIDI tracks in PT to simply "pass through" the MIDI. As in: DP sends MIDIoverLAN into Pro Tools and the MIDI tracks inside Pro Tools echo those incoming MIDIoverLAN ports directly into its hosted VE Pro plugins. But that's a huge headache.

    Any thoughts?
  • M
    M

    I think what you are looking for will be released today or tomorrow. We have intorduced a "decouple" mode for the plugin, which makes the plugin NOT save any data - basically just act as an audio return and MIDI sender.

    We have also added external MIDI ports to the VE Pro when running in server mode.

    I guess this should cover all of your suggested cases?
  • O
    O
    I love you guys ;)
  • M
    M

    I don't know if I should be thankful or scared [:D]
  • O
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    Martin - the latest update is great. External MIDI has really opened up a lot of possibilities. I've spent a few hours playing around with this and there's still a few issues that are problematic for complicated setups.

    Example:

    Computer A runs Cubase and VE Pro servers. Computer B runs Pro Tools. I want to sequence MIDI on A but have VE's audio return to PT on B.

    IAC MIDI is fed from Cubase to VE Pro all on comp A, which enables the VEPro plugin to be inserted on comp B running Pro Tools and have the audio return there. Works great. BUT...

    #1) Because of the current implementation, you lose the tempo sync feature because VE Pro is now grabbing tempo from Pro Tools and not Cubase. and..

    #2) You lose the ability to save non-persistent VE Pro instance data inside your Cubase sequence now, which also means it won't auto load on opening the Cubase sequence. Instead it is saved in Pro Tools.

    So my argument and request still stands that it would be nice to have a way of modularizing VE Pro a little more for the "power users." One way might be to allow more than one connection to a VE Pro Server and be able to select which connection it receives tempo sync data and/or MIDI from. Or perhaps have separate VST/AU plugins as an option, a "Sync" plugin, a "MIDI" plugin and an "AUDIO" plugin.

    Is that feasible?

    Another thought struck me while working through this.. what do you think of an AudioOverLAN-only plugin in addition? Basically a point-to-point audio over LAN plug that exists purely as a VST/AU/RTAS insert in both locations. (Totally separate and independent from VE Pro). You already have all the code to make it work. It's just that currently you can only get audio originating from within VE Pro to be sent over LAN. What if I have audio or software instruments natively within Cubase that I want to send over LAN?