Vienna Ensemble Pro & Sibelius MIDI ports selection

[Eric NE]

Hello,

I run one VE Pro Server instance on a W7 slave computer. As this instance allows me up to 32 MIDI ports with 16 channels each, (i.e. VE Pro Plugin MIDI In xx), I organized each instruments section (woodwinds, brass, strings, etc...) on each MIDI port.

In Sibelius (v. 5.2.5 on main computer) however, using VE Pro VST instrument, I did not see any way to select these "VE PRO Plugin IN xx". I only have access to the 1st MIDI port and its 16 channels.

Is there a way to do this ?

Thank you in advance for your support.

Eric

[andi]

Hello Eric and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to say that Sibelius doesn't support multiple MIDI ports of one VST intrument. It's no problem to activate more than one VE Pro instance though.

Best regards,
Andi

[Eric NE]

 Hello Andi,

Thank you for your quick and clear answer.

Actually, I use IPMIDI Ethernet ports (which Sibelius recognizes perfectly) to drive one VE Pro instance via external MIDI inputs on the slave computer.

If I want to change,  it would mean, in my case, to open at least 5x VE instances on the slave computer. What is your opinion from a performance point of view ? CPU & RAM use ? Sync. issue between instances ?

Best regards.

Eric

[andi]

Hi Eric!

The main difference between using an application like ipMIDI and using the direct connection of the VE Pro plugin to VE Pro server is not so much performance or sync issues. If I understood correctly, you are using VE Pro standalone on your slave computer and connect to it with the ipMIDI application. This way your audio output will come from your slave computer. If you connect directly from the plugin to the VE Pro server, the audio is routed back to the host software (in your case Sibelius) and played through the audio hardware of your master computer. Only this way you will be able to export audio files of your project with Sibelius.

As far as I can see (without having tested it), it should be possible with ipMIDI to connect from Sibelius to one VE Pro intance on multiple MIDI ports, but personally I'd still prefer having opened multiple VE Pro instances directly with the plugin to server conncetion.

Best,
Andi

[Eric NE]

Hi Andi,

After having tested the 5 VE Pro instances on the slave computer, directly driven by Sibelius via the server interface, I would say the following :

1. Manipulating 25 instruments with 5 VE Pro instances is not very convenient and easy.

2. With separate instances, you loose the common "master" channel for mixing. You have though 5 independant "masters".

This is why, finally, I chose the following configuration :

I use IPMidi to drive a remote session of VE Pro which I opened with Sonar on main computer via VE Pro Server interface.

This way, I free the slave computer from sound treatment load (which ocasionally produced some "clics" in heavy loaded passage) and I keep the flexibility and the visibility of one VE Pro instance.

I simply hope that in the future VE Pro will keep this ability to be driven by external MIDI ports.

It would be nice also that the VE Pro server interface makes the "VE Pro Plugin MIDI In xx" visible for notation programs to be used as standard MIDI ports with 16 channels each.

Best regards.

Eric

[Bill]

 "Sorry to say that Sibelius doesn't support multiple MIDI ports of one VST intrument"

I thought it was inherent in the VSTi spec that your could only have one port per instance.

Bill

[DG]

@Bill said:

 "Sorry to say that Sibelius doesn't support multiple MIDI ports of one VST intrument"

I thought it was inherent in the VSTi spec that your could only have one port per instance.

Bill

 

 VST2 yes, VST3 no.

DG

[Bill]

 OK.  I guess not that many applications suport that yet.  I also had the impression that VST3 doesn't suport bank/patch chnages, which makes it usless for me.

[DG]

VST3 doesn't support Program Changes. Instead it has a thing called Program Lists. So in order to use multiple MIDI ports with Program Lists you would need Sibelius to support VST3 and also your chosen sample player to have a VST3 version that uses Program Lists. one or other will not work for you.

DG