Author Topic: Is there a way to have your MIDI controller change vsti presets?  (Read 1939 times)

Offline martymcfly

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Hello everyone.  This is my first post.

Firstly, I want to thank you Mr. Alexey for creating this brilliant piece if software.  I can see that creating it and then maintaining a forum around it must take a lot of your personal time, so thank you very much for your huge efforts. 

I was able to dust off and reclaim my Akai Midimix, which I virtually gave up on for almost a year, just out of pure frustration with ACT haha.  It was a huge learning curve using your application, but now my Midimix controls every plugin precisely how I had always dreamed of.  So, thank you.

There's just one last feature I'd like to possess though:

I want to be able to flip through presets in any vsti (instruments only) plugins using the bankL/bankR pads on the Midimix.  I've scoured the website for more info on this, but I don't seem to see any conversation that directly addresses this issue?  Is there a link you can point me to that details this process?  Maybe I overlooked it in my first read through of the website because it was all very technical to me lol.  Sorry.

Once again, thanks for all your help!

Offline azslow3

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Re: Is there a way to have your MIDI controller change vsti presets?
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2021, 11:23:32 AM »
Hello and welcome. I am glad you could find a way to use Midimix.

Unfortunately, Steinberg has not foreseen common convenient way to change presets. In old MIDI world, there was banks + programs. That is not brilliant from today's perspective, but at least something with 2 levels structure and standardized along all MIDI synths. That was not taken as  the basis by Steinberg. They haven not prescribed how presets nor banks have to be switched. Some plug-ins have continued to use MIDI standard, but that is not common. In addition, Steinberg has "killed" almost all MIDI extended features, including this one, in VST3 (related messages are no longer delivered to plug-ins, at least not directly).

Cakewalk still use one flat list of presets, which you can see on the top bar of any VST/VSTi (there is no technical difference between them). And the only possibility from surface is to load "next" or "previous" preset from the list. More or less working combination in AZ Controller for that:
* ACT R1
* Function Context Open
* Command "Increment(Decrement) Plugin Preset"

In practice, almost all plug-in was forced to "invent own wheel" for plug-in preset management. Obviously that is not standardized and so host controllers can't work with that universal way (some plug-ins allow MIDI assignments, other expose that as automation parameters, yet another category try to use VST build-in presets concept and so presets are exposed in the presets list, finally most plug-ins support preset loading by mouse only).

No wonder NI Komplete Kontrol and Akai VIP are so popular now. Controlling parameters was the same for decades (a part of Cakewalk ACT, Novation Automap, etc.), but preset (and plug-in) management is what make these "micro hosts" convenient and allow deep hardware integration (for own hardware only... they have learned from Apple that selling dedicated hardware and giving the software free/cheap is way more profitable then selling software for any hardware).


Offline martymcfly

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Re: Is there a way to have your MIDI controller change vsti presets?
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2021, 04:28:16 AM »
Oh okay, that's what I figured: there's probably not a universal standard. That's very unfortunate considering almost everyone would love to have that feature.

I'm going to try those logic instructions you suggested when I get back home to see if that has any effect.  I tried different combinations, but I know I didn't try that exact sequence, so it's worth a shot.

Thank you again, and hopefully they develop a way to implement this feature in the future.