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  • VEP and volume automation

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    Hi all!

    A bit of a newbie qustion here I suppose, but I can't seem to get this right:

    I've just made the switch from working with VI inside my DAW (Pro Tools 9) to working in VEP. All seems fine except for one thing - volume automation. When working inside my DAW I could of course use the Audio Volume paramenter on my instrument track to automate fader movements over time. Now that I'm sending MIDI data to VEP instead, how do I achieve this? I want to send the same automation that made my faders move in Pro Tools to VEP and have those faders move correspondingly.

    I understand that one option is to do this volume riding on the return aux back to Pro Tools, but that would mean I would need one return for every instrument within VEP. I was hoping to just send stems of the sections back to PT.

    The feature list for VEP states :

    Mixer Automation
    Use AU/VST/RTAS automation from your sequencer to control Vienna Ensemble PRO’s mixer (volume, pan and sends).

    Which sound exactly like what I want to do, but I just can't seem to find how to do it, and the manual is of no help on that subject. Can anyone point me in the right direction here? (Or set me stright if I am misunderstanding something)

    Thanks a lot!

    Erik
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    If you are trying to automate the channel volume in the VE Pro mixer, this is done from the main or parent VE Pro instrument track in a menu which you might need to enable, one at a time, in order to see them. ordered from left to right as the strips appear in VE Pro, beginning with 1 for what by default is the master bus. in addition to volume you should see pan and a list of sends levels per channel strip.

    you have three ways of controlling the volume of a track: the midi track (which does not control any mixer function in VE Pro but the amount of volume to the instrument); these channel strips; and the return of them as individual instrument tracks as you have enabled as stereo outs back to the sequencer - their parent being the one that contains the mixer automation lanes that move the faders in VE Pro. The return from VE Pro will be in the sequencer's mixer of course.
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    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
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    I don't know Pro Tools. The best I can do for you is show you what it looks like in Cubase and it might resemble something in PT.

    there are audio tracks which are stems coming from VEP and above that are [more or less] the instrument tracks which were their origin. As you can see there are only a few lanes of the instrument track, which is just a matter of VEP as a submixer, using limited outputs assigned as needed. Pretty much a groups approach to aux tracks.

    additionally, per the next question, they are sent to VEP via Audio Input to that instance, as it turns out.
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    edit: earlier - Oct 2011 image not found, subsequent description of earlier functionality of VE Pro not pertinent.
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    Sorry for a late reply, I've been away for a few days.

    Many thanks for your help though. The screens from Cubase that you are showing are just what I figured I needed to find in Pro Tools. I am not able to do so though, am I'm actually questioning at this point if this is at all possible to do in Pro Tools. I think I'll head on over to the Avid Audio Forum and ask those guys this same question. If it can be done, someone there will surely point me in the right direction.

    Again, thanks for your help and time Civ, I appreciate it!

    Erik
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    Hi Erik, I just saw your post on the Avid DUC. The way i do it in Pro tools, is as follows:

    1. Your VE Pro instance plugin is loaded normally on an Stereo Instrument Track in pro tools.

    2, click on the VE PRo plug-in (where it says you need to connect to a VE Pro isntance), now up on the right, just under 'Auto', there is a button (looks lke a folder) that you need to click, and a list of possible automation Ve Pro channels is listed on the left side

    3. Select (double click) on these channels and add the volume channels that you would like to automate, so they show up on the right side. You can also automate Sends and Pans.

    4. Once you selected all that you want, close that window, and click the instrument Track Volume Automation lane, you will now have available something that looks like "Inst 1 (fxa): Vienna Ensemble Pro" " in addition to the usual Volume send, Pan, Controllers). Click on that and select the VE Pro Volume Channel that you want to automate

    5.From there Add (+) more automation lanes that have become available for each Volume Channel in VE Pro. You can Add all the automation lanes for all VE Pro Channles under the Instrument track.

    5. Et Voila ! hope this help

    best
    Jean Paul

    P.S. This procedure applies to autoamting any parameter in any any plugin you want.
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    Jean Paul,

    Thanks a million, that did the trick! I don't know why I didn't think of looking there. Now everything is working as I want. Again, many thanks for your help!

    Erik
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    last edited
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    @Erik Olsson said:

    Jean Paul,

    Thanks a million, that did the trick! I don't know why I didn't think of looking there. Now everything is working as I want. Again, many thanks for your help!

    Erik


    You're most welcome 😊
    Best
    Jean Paul
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    Hi Civilisation, I'm setting up automation in ensemble pro 5 from cubase. I've had success using the automation panel in ensemble with midi tracks using the learn function for source and destination. Struggling with audio tracks. I have an audio track in cubase with a volume automation lane which I've used to trim the volume. That track is routed to an VSL ensemble input track using the VSL Input Vst as an instert in the cubase audio track. What I would like to do is automate the volume fader for the input track in Ensemble using the cubase voume automation data in the cubase audio track. Have you found a way of doing this? I've tried using the learn feature in the ensemble automation panel but it doesn't pick up the cubase audio track fader movements. Regards sean g Melbourne Windows 7, cubase 7.03, VSL ensemble pro5
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    I use the parameter automation VEP provides Cubase to mix with; except really, for instance for a send from Cubase to an FX channel which is VEP Audio Input.


    IE: mixing in Cubase is after-the-fact of an elaborate sub-mix procedure; once accustomed to using VEP to mix, there isn't so much remaining to do in Cubase
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    "I've tried using the learn feature in the ensemble automation panel but it doesn't pick up the cubase audio track fader movements."

    No, the VEP automation mapping won't control Cubase's audio track's volume lane, nor will it control Cubase's (returned from eg., VEP) Instrument Track's volume lane. it's for control of the faders and controls in VEP strictly.

    per my first post, using VEP as mixer rather duplicates some procedures. Only, Cubase's mixer is not controlled by VEP automation per se.