Questions & Answers

StudioLive 16 Series III: Use of VST plugins in a live situation

+1 vote
2,563 views
asked Jan 1, 2020 in StudioLive Series III by juergenboehme (1,430 points)
Current situation:

I have the complete FAT channel plugins (15 compressors and EQ's) installed on my StudioLive 16 series III. Also they are installed in Studio One.

I have some additional VST plugins (e.g. from Universal Audio) which are working in Studio One.

If I want to use them in a live situation on stage, is there a possibility to address them directly or do I need to work with Studio One on stage (just monitoring the signals without recording anything) and have the mixer routed as audio interface for the software?

Regards

Juergen

6 Answers

+1 vote
answered Jan 1, 2020 by wahlerstudios (105,350 points)
selected Mar 3, 2020 by jonnydoyle
 
Best answer

There is this new AVB soundgrid thing from Waves (https://www.waves.com/hardware/soundgrid-br1), but this is a solution for Waves plug-ins only. This is the only AVB solution on the market, so you will have to live with Studio One as plug-in host. Which is not a "bad" thing, not at all, because you can use DAW Mode and delegate a lot of control to the StudioLive mixer. If I remember it right, you are using a SL 16, which (fortunately) has the Fat Channel/DAW Mode scribble strips, buttons and encoders.

Here is an example how to use DAW Mode for third-party plug-ins:

In Studio One you would insert your "smart:EQ live" plug-in to track 1, which receives audio from channel 1 of the SL 16 and sends the processed audio back to channel 1. Then you press the DAW Mode button. The mixer automatically switches to the User layer, which is the standard mix bus of Studio One. Select track 1 (should be selected already) and look at the touchscreen. You will see "smart:EQ live" listed under Inserts. Touch/highlight "smart:EQ live", the plug-in will now show up on your computer screen.

Each plug-in has a yellow "UCNET REMOTE" marker with a wheel left of it. Click on the wheel and find "UCNET Remote" under Handling Options (Bedienelement). Just click on the right arrow/triangle. Select "UCNET Remote", the UCNET console will show up. It would take a long time to explain what this console does, so the only thing to add here is that this console allows you to delegate functions of the plug-in to the DAW Mode scribble strips, buttons and enocders. The Studio One plug-ins have this "delegation" already, for any other plug-in this has to be made from scratch. Settings can be stored and are recalled anytime the plug-in is used.

What this does is simple: You SEE the plug-in on the computer screen and you have full and real time visual control over everything changed on the mixer. This workflow might look somehow complicated, but it is not. Once things are set and stored, it's totally easy in a live mix to switch to DAW Mode, change some settings in a track (plug-in) and switch back to the live mix again. I have done this quite often and I have to say that it really is fun. It works phantastic. But it might be quite some work at the beginning.

0 votes
answered Jan 1, 2020 by juergenboehme (1,430 points)
Of course this doesn't mean that VST plugins should run on the mixer itself. There should be a seperate computer used to run the VST plugins. The idea is to have the audio from the VST plugins in the AVB stream and that you can control the software parameters from the Universal Control software. Currently VST-Plugins can only be managed from Studio One. This software is powerful but has not an ideal layout for a live situation (too much small buttons).
0 votes
answered Jan 1, 2020 by juergenboehme (1,430 points)

The main intention of this thread is as following:

I have purchased two interesting plugins for live operation from Sonible: Smart EQ live (https://www.sonible.com/de/smarteq-live) and Smart comp (https://www.sonible.com/de/smartcomp). I would like to use them when mixing bands on stage. What would be the best way to integrate them in the audio routing?

0 votes
answered Jan 1, 2020 by juergenboehme (1,430 points)
Ok, will check it out. I had some sound issues with a Shure SH55 (the Elvis-mic), will see if this can fix the situation.
0 votes
answered Mar 1, 2020 by baokhuyenhuynh (140 points)
Please help me.I come from VietNamese
I can"t authorize
Error product key has been registered already
0 votes
answered Sep 4, 2020 by wapperdude (3,470 points)

According to posted support from Sonible:

Does smart:EQ live support Waves SoundGrid (WSG)?  No, smart:EQ live can only be used on Waves MultiRack Native systems. Unfortunately, current technical limitations of Waves SoundGrid do not allow to run smart:EQ live on Waves SoundGrid or Waves SuperRack systems.

I've not used Waves MultiRack, but, it should allow you to send outputs to AVB net via USB port.

...