Using 3rd Party Virtual Midi Keyboard or Midi Effects

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I see that each instrument has a "midi" tab that allows you to enable midi input and output, but I can't seem to get them to work properly, these might not be for what I am trying to achieve.
Say you have a 3rd party virtual midi keyboard VST (I know LMMS has one at the bottom of each instrument) you are trying to use to control a virtual instrument in LMMS, is there a way to route the midi from the 3rd party keyboard to control a virtual instrument?
I tried inserting the 3rd party keyboard VST as a Vestige instrument track in the Song Editor and setup its midi inputs and outputs along those that belong to the virtual instrument I am trying to control (say for example TripleOscillator).
I also wanted to try out some VST midi effects as well (tried same method as above with the virtual midi keyboard) but didn't work either.
Are these inputs and outputs not for what I am trying to achieve, or am I just not setting them up properly?

Thank You for any help

Windows 7 64Bit
LMMS 1.2.0 RC4
I am using this one, and it works in LMMS.
Image

Midi usb connection.

Plug and play, I connect the midi keyboard to my pc, and it shows up in lmms on the midi tab.

I have no idea if all the function work, volume knob does not seem to work, but I never looked into that.
I only have so I can play notes and record.
Gps wrote:
Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:13 pm
I am using this one, and it works in LMMS.
Image

Midi usb connection.

Plug and play, I connect the midi keyboard to my pc, and it shows up in lmms on the midi tab.

I have no idea if all the function work, volume knob does not seem to work, but I never looked into that.
I only have so I can play notes and record.
I have this too and it works, for the volume knob you have to set it up by right click on the volume of one segment, then the option of connect to controller and move the volume knob for the program to detect it, then acept. Then move the volume knob of the keyboard and you will see how it moves into the program, but at the moment for me only works for each segment I set up. not for general volume. Im using Windows 10 with LMMS 1.2.0 RC4
Thank you guys for the responses but you might have misunderstood what I am looking for.
I am looking to use "virtual" midi devices in the form of VSTs, not physical hardware.
From what I know there is no real MIDI routing available in LMMS. Vestige handles VSTi instruments but only expects them to output audio not MIDI. But I don't know of any way to put anything before the VSTi that passes MIDI to it, so MIDI effects are out.

The MIDI tab is for MIDI In i.e. external keyboard/drumkit into LMMS or MIDI Out i.e. LMMS MIDI out to external synth etc. There are ways of running things like virtual keyboards or sequencers etc.as standalone applications and routing them into LMMS via additional software like LoopMIDI or similar but they can be fiddly to get working.

Steve
@slipstick
Thank you for your response.
That is pretty much what I figured, that LMMS does not have the ability to route midi this way.
Using the items in the midi tab to hookup my hardware midi keyboard I was always just curious if any of these options could be used for virtual routing.
Thanks again