Weird midi / vst problem.

Howdy folks, lately I’ve been loading some midi files into Renoise along with various vsts and I’ve come across a weird problem. Normally, I don’t work in real time with vsts, or midi for that matter, preferring to generate specific samples and then use those in my work. Using Renoise like this is a new to me so maybe I’m just doing something wrong.

  1. Load a multi-track midi type 1 file, say a 4 track string quartet with violin, violin, viola and cello (although any multi-track seems to exhibit the same problem).

  2. Then load/assign 4 vst instruments, one to a track in the instrument selector. They can be all be an instance of the same vst instrument using different presets, or different vsts altogether. They can all be either 32 or 64 bit, or they can be mixed.

  3. Play the arrangement.

  4. The vst in slot 0/track 1 won’t output any sound but the other tracks and vsts work normally. There is no activity on track 1 in the mixer at all.

  5. Cut the vst from slot 0 in the instrument selector then reload it again to the same slot.

  6. Restart the arrangement and now Track 1 has output.

If I load either Renoise .xrni instruments or raw samples directly, I don’t have the problem I’ve described. Just with vsts.

The problem doesn’t seem to be associated with any single vst or with any particular midi file. I’ve been using midi arrangements from various sources so I don’t think it’s a midi format problem. These same midi files work just fine in other applications. As well, I’ve been using these vsts in Renoise to generate samples from note input directly in a track via my keyboard and they work as advertised.

Anyone else seen this happen?

Cheers.

Are you sure your VSTis are all playing on separate tracks and the instrument numbers are not spread over multiple tracks?

Are you sure your VSTis are all playing on separate tracks and the instrument numbers are not spread over multiple tracks?

Hi ffx. Yep. I’ve examined the midi file, which is a midi type 1. It shows the note data assigned per track. The instruments are per track and each has it’s own channel. I don’t see any evidence of an instrument being spread over multiple tracks.