VST automation

[gsagostinho]

Hello all,

I am having a hard time dealing with automation and VSTs in LMMS. Here are a couple of questions, all of which are connected to each other:

- if I load two instruments in the Kontakt Player via VeSTige (so one in ch. 1 and one in ch. 2), how can I send a channel change to it?
- VeSTige can automate the pitch wheel, but how can I control the mod wheel? Or other parameters that can be connected to a CC value in Kontakt?
- VeSTige has this "VST plugin control" window with 512 knobs. I play around with them but none of them do anything. How can I use them to control Kontakt?

Thanks a lot in advance. Best regards,
Gilberto Agostinho

[musikbear]

unfortunate i have no knowledge on 'kontakt player'
I cant help you with that. If its an vst-effect-interface, then you must put the dll in the VST path, and load it through the effects'tab in either an instrument or in the mixer

It worries me a little that you write '512 knobs'
Thats a lot :)
Are all those knobs 'named'?
If they do not have a white 'name' each, then you have a vst, that wont work with lmms. Could because its a kit-build, or some non-Steinberg code.
Nothing to do there, and not lmms fault

Whitch
*lmms ver?
*OS & spec

[gsagostinho]

Hi musikbear,

First of all, thanks for your reply. So, here are the answers for your questions:

- I am running Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 64-bit
- My LMMS is version 1.0.3 (I couldn't get 1.1.0 on Linux yet, although it seems to have been released for both Windows and OS X)
- Kontakt Player is a Windows native VST which I load via VeSTige

So: loading the VST works fine, but LMMS only allows us to control knobs that are native to LMMS itself, not from the GUI of an VST. The thing is: certain controls, such as MIDI panning, volume and pitch bend have knobs in VeSTige that can be automated (which is wonderful!). But certain others, such as modulation wheel, breath control, etc. cannot because they don't have knobs and apparently they can't be automated! (As an example, Ardour 3 does have controls for all MIDI controlers, it is a pity we don't have the same in LMMS).

As for the 512 knobs, they are located via an icon of a wrench (shows the label "Control VST-plugin from LMMS host" when the cursor is hoovering above it). It simply shows 512 knobs numbered from #0 to #511 and each can be attributed a value between 0 and 1. There is an option to sync them with the current loaded VST (which brings all them to 0) and they can be automated, but I don't know how to use them properly!

Thanks again and take care,
Gilberto Agostinho

[musikbear]

512 knobs numbered from #0 to #511 and each can be attributed a value between 0 and 1.

ok numbers from 0..512 is a problem. They should have had names corresponding to actual controllers in the orriginal VST-interfase.
Like if you in the orriginal VST-interfase has a dial for Master-Volume, then one dial in the 0..512 array, would have a name like Master or Volume. It may be that the dials in the 512 array, actually does connect to the VST, but it is next to impossible to figure out whitch one connect to what :/
That is a problem, that we want to adress in a later release -Some kind of 'search' in the dial-array. For now, all you can do is the set something to play in a loop, and then simply turn each dial, and see if any is connected. It is going to be frustrating, and i have no idear if anything connect, but the fact that the dials has gotten a label, shows that there was indeed a connection in the load-phase.. But to actually find one specific controller in that array.. Quite tedious, im afraid :/
But if you do find the dial, then it is connetable to either a controller, and, or an automation track. I doubt its worth the efford mapping those annonymous dials in kontakt-player, unless it can do something strickingly unique -sadly :/
_________
oki looked at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C7kcS3mztM
It is a very impressive plugin!

[gsagostinho]

That is a very big pity, Kontakt is really one of the main VST nowadays, there are so many interesting libraries for it (there is even a free symphonic orchestra created only with public domain samples!: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/the-tot ... tant-audio ).

ok numbers from 0..512 is a problem. They should have had names corresponding to actual controllers in the orriginal VST-interfase.
Like if you in the orriginal VST-interfase has a dial for Master-Volume, then one dial in the 0..512 array, would have a name like Master or Volume. It may be that the dials in the 512 array, actually does connect to the VST, but it is next to impossible to figure out whitch one connect to what
!

Indeed I tried other VST's, such as the DSK ones, and they show the names of the controllers. Kontakt is having this problem, as is the othe VST that I use named Plogue Sforzando (an .sfz player).

On the other hand, as I wrote before, LMMS's dials for panning, volume and pitch bend do work with Kontakt and Sforzando (they move knobs on their GUIs)! I wonder why don't we have more default knobs (since certain MIDI controllers are tied to certain parameters: CC#1 is modulation wheel, CC#7 is volume, CC#10 is pan, etc.). Kontakt can also configure each of its knobs to receive information via any CC controller, so as long the program is sending MIDI messages to that controller number then Kontakt will do what is requested of it (I believe this is why volume, pan and bend are working fine), so I wonder why don't we have an option of configuring a knob to any CC # (e.g., as I mentioned before, Ardour 3 can automatise all 127 possible controllers regardless of the plugin being used, Ardour is still sending CC messages even if a plugin does not make some/all of them!). Maybe this could go to the list of wished features (e.g., a button on VeSTige that opens a panel with some unnamed knobs that can be configured to any CC from 0-127)

Thanks a lot for your help and take care,
Gilberto Agostinho

[tresf]

This may be a duplicate of a bug reported here:

https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/1049

-Tres

[gsagostinho]

Indeed it seems to be related! BTW, just like the person who registered the bug, I also get the problem when loading a saved file and having a VST plugin hanging. Thanks for pointing this out, I hope this will be fixed when 1.1 goes final.

Best regards,
Gilberto