How to change VSTi channels?

Hi!
I’m currently using EDIROL Orchestral HQ 1.0 VSTi. Does anybody know how to change VSTi channels directly from pattern editor? I tried 90, 91 and 92 in pan/vol column (as help page said) but the status bar says “VolumeGlide Left…etc…” and the channels remains the same I set in the intrument settings tab. I have to make many VSTi instances for every channel (instrument) I need! :(

many thanks in advance!

your last resort is probably the *VSTautomationDevice

Sorry, can you shortly explain how it works? just a brief explanation…

thanks

could you be a little more exact in what you are trying to do? why do you make several instances of the vstis? you want to use them on different channels?

VstAutomation device works like this: choose the track your instrument is running in, scroll down the TrackDSP section to find VstAutomation and add it to the track like putting on a normal effect. then focus on the ‘linked Instrument’ section in there and scroll trough the channels until you find the Vsti you want to automate. you then have a number of parameter-sliders you can use like you want. i think the number of parameters to edit is limited though.

anyway hope i could help a bit

cheers
die tonschabe

yep…but in some instruments you#ve got so many controllers to automate that reoise simply ignores some…sometimes it’s a pity that you can automate any osc but not the cut off frequency…

yes, same goes for Native Instruments FM7.
automating the filters in that VSTi is impossible with renoise since the filters are somewhere behind the parameter number 1000, which is where renoise has reached its parameter maximum for a VSTi. :(

yeah i have this problem with reaktor too. can’t get all sliders/knobs activated with that VstAutomation.

a possible field for improvement?

And the names of the parameters in vstAutomationDevice are way to short. It can be a nightmare to find the right parameter. Why dont make a drop down meny/box like the way you select VSTinstrument? You could just click/rightclick on the parameter text to get a list af all parameters.

tonschabe : can you automate Reaktor at all ? If I go for “midi learn”, renoise and reaktor (dont know which one actually) is surely to crash sooner or later. any hints on that ?

Hi tonschabe!
before all, thanks for answering me…you’re kind! B)
EDIROL Orchestral VSTi provides an instrument for every channel (1-16). If I want to use more instruments from it (i.e. a violin and a trumpet) I must create TWO instance and assign a different channel to each of them (i.e. 2 for violin and 7 for trumpet). in this way I must use many VSTi instead of an only one from which I could choose which sound I want simply selecting its channel from the pattern editor.
I tried many ways but I can’t figure out how to make 92 xxxx work for that VSTi, just because every instance of it reset itself to the original state and I should save a preference file for every instrument and load each of them manually… frustrating! :blink:
ok…however, if anyone had similar problems with program/channel changes in VSTi…suggestions are welcome! :D

thanks!

:guitar: :drummer: :guitar:
:yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

I’ve had a similar experience with Yamaha’s S-YXG50 VSTi (and my DB50XG probably, but that’s been in a closet for 5 years). There’s no way to do a program change via it’s GUI either, so there you have 15chns of piano and one drumkit. I can’t remember much of it, only that I eventually gave up after trying C-4 00 00 92 xxxx and CC. And John, this sudden interest in MIDI, is it because you finally got hold of a beaten-up SynthAxe?

if you have problems such these you mentioned aobut VSTautomationDevice, consider using MIDICCdevice instead.

if your VSTi supports MIDI learning, use it to associate a knob (or whatelse) to a MIDI CC number, and then control it via the MIDICCdevice.

IT ALIEN!!!

Once again you’ve managed to solve a huge problem for me :D

Thanks alot, I can get sliders on everything I want now :)

:yeah:

yo peeps. hope everything is allright in patternland.

@looza: well i havn’t really used VstAutomation that much (cos of the beforementioned problems). i allways assign a few nice parameters to the knobs of my oxygen8 and work with them live when renoise is in record mode. works fine.

as for Reaktor/Renoise crashing: i’ve had massive problems with that after i upgraded to R4. crashes all the time. it was breathtaking (i recorded the crash sounds and plan to make a tribute-track from that material. ones gotta take its chances…). well after i deinstalled Reaktor 3 and erased the old *.dll files from the vstdirectory i havn’t had problems at all. only thing pissing me off a bit is that the Reaktor4 vstis don’t save automatically like in R3. but anyway me loves this beast.

@It-Alien: good idea with the MidiCCDevice. i’ll test that out.

@j_petrucci: sounds tricky, honestly i got no idea how to solve that problem. a voice tells me it could be something about a lack of polyphony of your vsti. on the other hand that voice could be bullshiting me completely. hmm, maybe the developers crew knows more.

at least you can create several instances…

good night everyone
tonschabe

uhm, you guys keep talking about automation, but that’s not what the original question was about at all … you see, I have the exact same problem :) … let me try to clarify:

some VSTi’s are multi-timbral, meaning that several different sounds (one per each of 16 channels) can be played by a single instance … the problem is, that you can only choose one channel in your VSTi instrument settings, so you’ve only got access to one of the 16 possible sounds in your instrument.

so why not just create another instance of the VSTi, and choose a different sound number, you’re wondering? … well, yeah, that works of course - except, multi-timbral VSTi’s usually come with built-in send effects - such as the Edirol Orchestral, which comes with a (very nice) reverb and chorus, with send amounts for each of the 16 internal channels/sounds. So the problem is, if I create another instance of the VSTi, I’m creating another instance of the reverb/chorus effects, which naturally eats up a dogpile of CPU power.

So basically, what we’re looking for, is a way to route notes to different channels on the same VSTi instance … this could be made possible, for example, by adding a channel-change command for VSTi’s - or simpler (from the user’s point of view), by making it possible to create multiple “instruments” (in the tracker) that send to the same VSTi on different channels … e.g. if it were possible to pick an EXISTING VSTi from the popup menu in instrument properties, or if copying one VSTi instrument from one slot to another would copy by reference instead of automatically creating a second instance of the VSTi.

j_petrucci, I think that’s what you meant? … I hope this clarifies the problem … and I hope the developers come up with a solution :)

mindplay: renoise does not currently support multiple outputs from a VST(i), but probably will in the future some time. Exactly when we don’t know yet.