VST - mixer remote control

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Author: admin
Date: 08-Jul-01

VST's mixer like with all the music s/w's has many features and it can be automated so you can record mixer moves of pan or fader or even Eq movements to enhance your mix... The most basic and mostly used or required to have hardware remote control in a mix being the main channel fader, pan, eq frequency (for realtime frequency filter sweeps), and Aux send controls, to add quick sends to an effect at desired points along the track length, and Mute controls... Each mixer channel has many other features, but those to my mind would be the ones most useful to have hardware control over...

Sure, it'd be great to have/afford a full-blown remote with 8, 16 or more dedicated channels, each with controllers for every aspect of a VST mixer channel so one could just reach out and.. 'tweak', adjust the pan, volume fader, all four of the channel Eq' frequencies & level & even the 'Q'... but in reality whilst these to a greater or lesser extent CAN be achived with higher-end more expensive hardware such as the yamaha O1V, O2 or O3 series mixers, or even the dedicated Houston controller interface, in reality few of us have this available.

However, what some of us DO have is lesser controller interfaces... not just those actualy designbed to control such as the JL Cooper or Phatboy units, but some of us have hard disk recorders with midi-sending mixer panels built in, or stuff like the old Fostex 'Mixtab' etc... or even out humble synths... The Syntechno TeeBee for example or the Novation Basstation rack both have a row of dedicated controller knobs which we'd USUALY use to send synth control to our sequencer for tweaking the synths parameters & recording those tweaks in realtime -

Well, in either instance of those two synths (and many many more) the user might have between 4 and 12 or even more dedicated faders or pots on their midi synth or other unit which all send control data... under normal circumstances these controllers are assigned internaly or are fixed internaly on the synth, dedicated to control and internal parameter of the current synth patch selected... BUT there's no reason why we cant utilise these controllers to aid us when we are working on VST...

VST's 'REMOTE' setup already has preset maps included for hardware such as the Yamaha O1V in fact, as well as units from JL Cooper, Tascam, Radical, Roland, and of course Houston... But what if you DON'T have the hardware for which a map is already included?... Well, you can still use your hardware, even your keyboard to control the VST mixer for certain tasks.. Sure, you're NOt going to have total control over all mixer channel parameters etc etc, but we can get enuff sections of the VST mixer mapped for hardware control using VST's REMOTE SETUP 'Generic Device' setup....

What can One Do With That ??

Well, you could use your hardware to record channel fader moves in your mix... or to sweep an Eq, or to Mute & unmute or to do Aux send moves all as noted above.... We dont mebbe want to be able to do all these things to all the channels, because simply, YOU CAN'T do that to more than a few channels at once even IF you have more dedicated controls... You can only adjust & setup & record moves on one or two channels at a time, and with automation, it allows you to setup one channels automation, then move on and do another etc... THAT is the whole point of automation.. you build up the moves as you go... Ok so this article is basicaly about how to use the GENERIC controller device setup in VST to assign your hardware device to control the VST mixer parameters.

Step One

First we go to OPTIONS/ REMOTE SETUP / SETUP... click that...

Then this box appears... Select 'Generic Remote' ....

Then set your midi IN port (to allow control from outboard hardware... set the OUT port ONLY if you require VST's s/w mixer controls to send OUT control data. (this is important, like an idiot I missed this bit when I first tried this setup and spent ages faffing about thinking it didn't work ! - whoops!!)

Ok... everything selected?.. ok.. as soon as you click 'OK'.. this little box appears...

This floating panel is your access point to the setup for 'Generic Remote'.. it defaults to channels 1-16 selected, as this is most likely the option people want to use... It's unlikely you'll have more than 16 dedicated identical controllers even for the basic channel volume faders to cover more channels, and one can and does usualy assign channel requiring any automation to the first 8 or 16 channels anyways where remote control is available... But don't sweat it, this same selector is available once we go inside the remote setup panel, and of course you can assign control to any of the VST mixer channels you require inside... and they can be random... you can if you like setup control for channel_1, 5, 9, 20 and 23 or whatever... Ok... click the EDIT button to open the editor panel...

The Edit Panel

Ok... the TOP part is the incoming controllers... they default to be titled as the VST Mixer's first 16 Volume faders, Pans, Mutes and Aux 1 & 2 sends... but these are just basic template names... they are NOT in any way fixed to those VST mixer parameters as we shall see... they are just ready to go names for the most common required controllable parameters as Steinberg choose it...

Now all the TOP panel rows where INPUT controllers are assigned link to the set of BOTTOM panel Rows, where the destination is assigned... and with the right-side drop-down selector you can flip easily between banks of 16 channels, or use the ADD button on the right-side panel to add another ROW if required to any of the selectable 4 banks (rows 1-16, 17-32, 33-48, 49-64) - You can click and rename these row titles, (Control Name), in the top Row...

To show this, in this example I've renamed the first two rows as 'Aardvark' & 'Wildebeast'... but they could be renamed as anything you like pertaining to the VST mixer, such as 'KICK-Fader' etc..

As soon as you rename the upper row then when you go and click on the lower corresponding Row, the row Title (control Name) automaticaly renames itself to the same as it's renamed corresponding upper panel input row.. so no mistakes or mixups can be made...

Assigning An Input Controller

Ok... This is quite nifty... I have a K2000, which has a dedicated fader slider next to it's volume slider on the front panel... SO.. in my midi setup on the K2000, I've assigned this fader to MIDI_22 controller... and I can change the Midi OUT channel easily with a flip of a control... Ok...

Now I want to assign this K2000 fader to ALL my VST Mixer Volume faders in bank 1-16 which is selected... so I now go to the Upper Panel & click on the Main Heading grey column title called 'CONTROL NAME' -

I've renamed the first 2 Rows which I've now re-set to be titled as 'Fader 1' & 'Fader 2' again... As you can see in the image above, each ROW can have a designated CHANNEL (midi channel) So I can use the exact same hardware fader on the K2000 to control all my VST mixer fader by simply changing my K2000 OUT midi channel and using the same Slider hardware control.... ok - we go to the upper panel, and click on the Column header for 'CONTROL NAME'...

If we now click the right-sided grey panel LEARN button and then move our hardware controller, VST stores the moved controller in it's temporary memory... Until we move another different hardware controller, this controller we just moved is the one VST will use to assign to our next step...

We now go down the 'CONTROL NAME' column high-lighting each INPUT row, and as we do so, we select, then click the LEARN button each time... VST assigns the 'remembered' last-moved hardware controller and assigns it to each selected row's ADDRESS parameter each time we click the LEARN button !!...

Here you can see all my fader INPUT control Rows set to the K2000's slider assignment of Midi 'Control 22' in each ADDRESS column of the rows ... now all i have to do is assign each row to a different midi channel... So click on the channel setting for any selected row to change the channel...

Here's all my Fader control input Rows now assigned to ascending Midi channels !!... If I now go to my K2000 & move the control Slider with the K2000 midi OUT set to midi channel_1, the fader on VST Mixer channel_1 moves!! - I can quickly change the VST channel fader i want to control by changing the K2000 midi ouput setting - I can set the K2000 Midi channel as the highlighted selected parameter on the K2000 that the Alpha wheel is controlling and simply make one click on the Alpha wheel to change the OUT channel on the K2000, move the slider again and the VST mixer channel fader moves for the next selected channel!... simplicity itself!... Now, when I'm working on automated fade moves in the final mix, I can cue the VST transport, change channel on the K2000 to the required VST corresponding mixer channel and quickly use the single K2000 slider to do all my VST channel automation moves channel by channel, building the mix...

In the same way one could then assign the mod wheel etc to the pan.. and any other of your synth hardware controller to other VST channel parameters... all you gotta do is change midi OUT channel on the synth to be suddenly controlling the next VST mixer channel... so on a basstation for example with 8 or more dedicated control knobs sending out midi control, your Basstation panel can easily become your VST mixer controller on a channel by channel basis... just setup the 'Generic Remote' input panel so that the 8 or whatever Basstation controller knobs are assigned to the VST mixer channel: Faderr, pan, eq, aux send level etc, then change the Basstation midi OUT channel to work on the required VST mixer channel one by one...

Changing OUTPUT assignments...

OK... remember the upper Remote panel pertains to the incloming midi control assignment's per row... the lower panel refers to the output destination, per row to the VST mixer parameters, and as noted defaults to the VST channel Fader, Pan, Mute, and Aux sends 1 & 2.... ok fine, BUT, you might want to use your hardware control to work on other parameters of the VST mixer such as to do realtime Eq sweeps etc... ok... we now need to look at the lower GENERIC REMOTE SETUP screen area...

Remember as noted previously, each lower panel row is latched to it's corresponding Input control assign upper panel row ?.. ok so after setting the required Controller source & channel in the upper part of the REMOTE panel, we can go to it's corresponding row in the lower panel and change it from the default.... All you gotta do is go along the row to the column: 'VALUE/ACTION' - then click on it to reveal a select list...

Here you can see, that for the VST mixer Channel_9 I've re-assigned the OUTPUT to the VST mixer that the K2000 slider will adjust from the Volume Fader to instead adjust the EQ 1 Frequency !....

When you click in the 'VALUE/ACTION' column of any row a list appears to select any VST mixer destination; which as you can see includes every VST mixer channel parameter for Eq & Aux sends etc...

Well, I think that is enuff guidelines to get you going... You'll find that by clicking on any control-input/upper panel row, in it's MIDI STATUS column you can select other input control types besides controllers... Experiment and see what you can do with your hardware... it certainly makes a pleasant change from adjusting mix parameters with the mouse when recording automated mix moves!!... enjoy...

COMMENTS FOR:

'VST - mixer remote control'

There are a total: 9 comments posted to this page.

Name: James E. Bonner
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Activity: Professional
Date: 11-Jul-01

shouldn't this document be in acrobat reader form so if you decide to remove it from your webpage, one could just download it for safe keeping on their own computers.

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