Question

late 2015 iMac i7, 24 gigs ram

OSX 10.11.6

Studio One 3

I have audio and an audio plugin on an audio track and I want to be able to change programs (aka patches/presets) in the audio plugin. In my case, I'm using pizmidi's MidiProgramChange which is a MIDI plugin and it can send program change messages. I can't figure out how to route things so I can send the audio track MIDI information from this plugin.

Is there a way to do this? Or is there another approach that already works in Studio One 3?

thank you!

Greg K.

Answer 1

Unfortunately it's not possible to simply send/forward MIDI directly from a VST to a VST residing on an audio channel.

If the Piz VST has MIDI out, you can create an additional Instrument track where the Instrumet input is routed from Piz's output and the Instrument output is routed to the VST on the audio channel.

You'll then have to arm both the Piz VST track (to receive input from your device) and the Instrument track routed to the audio channel insert (to forward the out of the Piz VST to the VST).

Answer 2

Hi niles, thanks for you response! I tried setting it up the way you say and it still doesn't work for me. Maybe I'm not understanding completely. In Live, a similar setup works fine so I'm not sure what is different with Studio One. Here's a screenshot. Track 1 is audio track with audio sample and audio processing VST. Track 2 is the instrument track with pizmidi MidiProgramChange VST loaded and routed to the VST instrument on the audio track.

As an aside, I do with Presonus would provide a built in program change function in the inspector for these setups. I need to do this on a daily basis! :)

Answer 3

@ gkillmaster answer In your image you have routed the Instrument track's output to Quadrant, that's good, now the question is: Is that Instrument track's input the midiProgramChange? If yes it should work. I'm not familiar with Quadrant and unfortunately there's no demo. But if Quadrant supports standard MIDI program changes you won't even need the midiProgramChange because there is a Program and Bank change feature in the Inspector for VST's that support program changes. However I'm fairly sure it can't be accessed by automation directly.

Alternatively Program Changes and Bank Select MSB/LSB can be triggered from the Instrument tracks controller lane (Part Automation), what happens when you try to change the preset there.

Answer 4

O man, I got it working. And I didn't use pizmidi at all!

To answer your response, the track I need midi routed to didn't allow setting the input to MidiProgramChange. As you said though, I just used track 2's inspector to change programs and it worked! thanks so much!

And yes, I can automate it by adding a Program Change parameter in inspector.! Which is fantastic.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "track's controller lane (Part Automation)"? Is it possible to send a screen grab and show where that is?

Thanks again for leading me to the solution!

Greg K.

Answer 5

@ gkillmaster answer Great it works now 

Part Automation basically is continuous controller data 

Answer 6

Thanks a lot! Now I get it so thanks for the image! To be clear, in case anyone else is reading this with the same question, the Program Change message actually did come from the MidiProgramChange VST. I was just able to get it passed to the audio track via the Inspector Parameter I added.

Answer 7

Your thread and info got me working with a MIDI Foot controller and a VST, thanks so much for getting me through the final mile. I'm not sure if I can post as many pics as I have created, but I'd like to give a step by step of how I got it working in case anyone else needs more info.

Sending from Rocktron MIDI Mate to Positive Grid BIAS FX VST in Studio One (v3.5.2 tested)

Grab the pizmidi MIDIProgramChange vst here: https://thepiz.org/pizmidi/pizmidi_x64.zip

Place files in Program Files\VSTplugins\PizMIDI 

Notice settings for BIAS_FX external application. These are setup before opening Studio One. I set these up manually using the MIDI learn feature to setup the expression pedal and the MIDI PC Number to select a preset.

 

 

Open Studio One

Select External Device Setup

Add New Keyboard 

​

Create New song

New audio track

Drag BIAS_FX VST to track

Drag MIDIProgramChange Instrument to create new track

Set Direct Input CH1 to MIDI Mate

Set Instrument track Output to BIAS FX_x64

Edit Mapping for Program Change – not sure is this was necessary, not needed for new songs since first working.

Now, I can create presets in BiasFX, set the preset edit to any number from 0-127 (MIDI Mate 1-128) and be able to change presets and use the expression pedal seamlessly during tracking. This has the added bonus of working in live scenarios where you want to run the band through an interface, run my guitar rig virtually and provide live monitoring from the cue mixes.

Answer 8

I got it working for two controllers and two tracks, didn't even need PizMIDI.

1. Setup your external hardware device to use a specific MIDI channel.
2. On an audio track, add the VST you want to control.
3. Ensure the VST is set to all/any/omni MIDI channels.
4. If using Guitar Rig, go back to the Presets section and select a list with the presets you want.
5. Add a new track manually.
6. Setup the input as the External device, notice the only selection is “any” channel.
7. Setup the output as the VST on the channel of the external device.
8. Arm both the audio track and the newly created instrument track.                         
9. Bob is your preverbal uncle.

This also works with multiple instances of the same VST (BiasFX and Guitar Rig tested) in case two musicians like using the same software.