Hi all,

This must have been asked before but I didn't have any luck with the forum's search form... Are the VEP faders designed to received MIDI volume messages? And if so, how can I use them from within Logic (which, as you know, messes up the instrument plugin track fader itself if the latter receives MIDI volume data)?

Thanks.

Indeed a problem with Logic. Even though sample accurate automation is turned off in its preferences, it will override this setting when bouncing, resulting in improper operation of the networking unless using 0 latency.

Crystal. Thank you. I now understand why it didn't work for me before. I'm actually using an audio object with VEP on it, to which I connect a multi-instrument in the environment. In the Arrange window I work with the multi-instrument, which is why I couldn't see any of the VEP parameters in the automation lane. The reason I use this setup is that I had too many bugs/crashes and mishaps when adding and deleting tracks in the arrange window (even with "automatic handling" turned off), that I decided to separate the MIDI and audio objects completely. Now I'm having second thoughts... I'll see what I can come up with that would be the easiest setup to deal with. But in any case, thanks a lot for your explanation which has been very helpful to me.

Sure, some info on the VEP fader values would be nice — I was trying to figure them out myself but I don't see how to get MIDI data out of VEP and into a Logic monitor. I could set up the transformers myself (at least I could try, and come back here if I can't figure it out...)

As a side note, I've been working for so long in the above fashion (multi-instrument into a VEP instrument track, and using a customized Environment window instead of the Mixer window) that I can't understand how other setups work... If I assign an arrange track directly to a VEP instrument object (in order to test out your instructions above), then when I do "New track with next MIDI channel" I get another audio object in the Environment, using the same INST channel — what could possibly be the use of that (since their volume faders are linked)?

Thanks again.

EDIT : FredB, thanks to your help I've come up with the following transformer settings:

Apply and let non-matching pass thru

Status=Control

Channel All

Byte 1=7

Byte 2 All

Status Fix Fader

Channel Fix 2

Byte 1 Use Map

Byte 2 Thru

Connect Byte 1 (Use Map) to get its data from the Channel field. The map simply maps 0 to 6, 1 to 12 ... 15 to 96.

This seems to work fine (and don't require single midi instrument objects, multi-instruments seems to work fine). Just insert a single transformer between the multi-instrument and the VEP audio object.

I need to use "Use Map" because channels are numbered 0-15 internally (instead of 1-16) and I can't find a way to simply tell Logic to do N=(CH+1)*6. But setting a map for 16 values isn't such a big deal.

This is *extremely* helpful for VSL instruments — you have a single MIDI track for both notes AND volume automation (AND expression, articulations etc). It's less than ideal for Kontakt-based libraries such as LASS — because the above method should control the VEP input channels (presuming you're using a multi-output version of Kontakt).

Anyway, it's nice to see that Logic's Environment is still an extremely capable beast after 15 years... Kudos to the talented visionaries at emagic. 

Thanks again.

Currently VE Pro doesn't support automation of hosted plugin parameters yet. Most instruments offer the ability to control parameters by MIDI CC however.

There have been no changes to MIDI for ages. VE Pro just passes MIDI on as usual without filtering.

This most likely means that your master host is "eating" CC 7 before it can be sent to the VE Pro Server.

Am I missing something? I have always set up tracks with VSTi's the same way, but maybe its changed? Or maybe I am doing something wrong with the instance inside and instance thing?

In DP 7.2x I do this:

1. create a VE Pro instrument track in DP

2. create a MIDI track in DP

3. Open up VE Pro Server either locally or on a farm machine

4. Create a new VEP instance and add a new VSTi channel, selecting play_VST_64 (or Kontakt, or VI of course but VI works no problem)

5. Open the PLAY instrument I want in the PLAY instance in the VEP instance

5a. assign a VE Pro MIDI OUT channel (lets say channel 1) and leaving the MIDI OUT of the PLAY instance inside as OMNI

5b. leave MIDI IN as OMNI in both VE Pro and PLAY

5c. assign an audio out channel (NET 3/ NET 4 in this case)

6. Connect to the instance from the DP VE Pro instrument track, choosing the server and instance name

7. Create a VE Pro output bus to pickup NET 3 / NET 4 and send it to my main outs; add in altiverb aux send and return, etc, etc

8. change the MIDI channel on the MIDI track in DP accordingly and record on the MIDI track in DP

9. Draw in CC#7 and enable automation on that track in DP

10. stab myself with a fork or something more blunt when it records all the midi data and CC info in DP, triggers the sounds of the PLAY inside VE Pro, but ignores the volume

Im hoping that I am just doing something wrong here in my setup, am I?

Thanks!