VEP Feature suggestion

[Talino]

Hi,

Would it be possible to remotely called up the VIP window for a specific channel in VEP by using MIDI CC?

Example : Use a specific MIDI CC# to put VEP in a mode where it waits for the next MIDI Note-On. Then, when VEP gets a Note-On message, it shows the VIP interface for the instrument corresponding to the channel the note was received on, and turns the "wait mode" off.

When using VEP remotely with a large template, if I have a problem with an instrument and want to see what's going on, I always have to dig through several viframes and channels to find the right instrument, and I feel this can be avoided by the above method.

BTW, I had proposed something similar for the VSL iOS remote controller a year or two ago I think...

Thanks. 

[Paul]

Hi Talino, 

Check out page 38, the "MIDI Activity Focus". 😊

Best, 
Paul

[Talino]

Sorry, I've read that page again but it doesn't work here. I open the VIP interface for, say, the celli on VEP. Then I play some notes on the violins track in Cubase. I see the meter for the violins move (on the channel list to the left of the VEP window) but the window doesn't switch to the violins instrument, although the "MIDI" button is lit in orange.

[Paul]

Hi,

Just checked here with Cubase and VE PRO 5, works fine. Hm. 😕

Best, 
Paul

[Talino]

Let me post a quick video for you then :)

[Talino]

Please have a look at the video. Unless I really don't understand something, I'm expecting the VIP window to switch to the instrument I'm playing in Cubase. The screen on the left is my Mac Pro slave, the one on the right is my main DAW (cf. my signature).

https://vimeo.com/173493038 (password: vep)

[Paul]

Hi Talino, 

Thanks. It´s not that I didn´t believe you, but I cannot reproduce the problem here...

Best,
Paul

[Talino]

OK, so what now? Obviously VEP is receiving the MIDI data so there is no network configuration problem. Rather, VEP isn't responding to the data as it should. Surely there's some sort of test or diagnostic I could perform?

[Paul]

Hi Talino, 

Does it work when you connect to a local VE PRO instance?

Best,
Paul

[Talino]

Locally yes, I just made a quick test with 2 empty VIPs with no real instruments (I have no instrument licenses on this machine). The instruments were properly selected in VEP when switching MIDI tracks in Cubase. Seems to be an issue only on the remote machine.

[Paul]

Hi Talino,

We checked with networked macs as well, no troubles with this feature.

Are you using the latest VE PRO 5.4.14074 on both computers?

Best,
Paul

[marnix]

Hi Talino,

Just to rule out your template being corrupted - would you please try and create a simple instance with two empty instruments on your Slave just like you did locally on your Master.

Does the MIDI Activity Focus work in this instance?

Best, Marnix

[Talino]

I'm indeed using 5.4.14074 on both computers.

Marnix's suggestion was instructive. Here's what happens :

Running a test instance of VEP with only two VIP channels, I got the feature to work on the slave, too. 

So I came back to my template and tried again. My template has VEP running three instances : one for winds and percussion (VIP only), a second one for strings and percussion (a mix of VSL and Kontakt) and a third one loaded with various EW Play instruments.

The MIDI Activity Focus works fine on the VIP-only instance, but not on the other two. On the mixed-format instance, the feature doesn't work even when triggering events on a VIP channel while viewing another VIP channel. 

So I'm wondering whether VEP "doesn't like" having none-VSL instruments loaded (which would be weird). Could this be a bug?

[MS]

@Talino said:

I'm indeed using 5.4.14074 on both computers. Marnix's suggestion was instructive. Here's what happens : Running a test instance of VEP with only two VIP channels, I got the feature to work on the slave, too. So I came back to my template and tried again. My template has VEP running three instances : one for winds and percussion (VIP only), a second one for strings and percussion (a mix of VSL and Kontakt) and a third one loaded with various EW Play instruments. The MIDI Activity Focus works fine on the VIP-only instance, but not on the other two. On the mixed-format instance, the feature doesn't work even when triggering events on a VIP channel while viewing another VIP channel. So I'm wondering whether VEP "doesn't like" having none-VSL instruments loaded (which would be weird). Could this be a bug?

What could confuse this feature, is when an instrument is set to receive MIDI on all channels.

[Talino]

I can confirm this is most definitely the cause of this issue. Thank you Martin.

Can you think of a way I could work around this limitation when working with multitimbral plugins such as Kontakt. or Play? Loading a separate Kontakt instance for each instrument wouldn't be considered a workaround in this case :) You must be familiar with the way keyswitching and divisi is implemented in LA Scoring Strings – loading several instruments inside a Kontakt instance is practically a must – and it's also much more sensible to group articulations inside the same plugin instance.

Or, maybe, there could be a way to make the MIDI Focus function address only the MIDI channel the note is being received on. This could be done by adding an option to VEP channels (right-click or a small box next to the channel dropdown), "Trigger MIDI Focus when receiving Channel #", which could still allow using the "All" option for playback at the same time.