multiple channel/instance x-fade (newbie q)

philter5 · 7 Jun 2012

hmmm, never thought about multiple instances of a SM plugin that work together as one. only solution i can imagine is a global sender that sends 0-n (e.g. via via MIDI cc) to every channel, where it will read the actual index and set the volume of the channel. either send the midi directly t the hosts vol control fpor each channel or buid an extra VST FX RECEIVER for that

EDIT: sorry, think i don´t get you. are you talking about audio channels INSIDE a host or inside SM? 😕

belowski · 7 Jun 2012

philter5 wrote: hmmm, never thought about multiple instances of a SM plugin that work together as one. only solution i can imagine is a global sender that sends 0-n (e.g. via via MIDI cc) to every channel, where it will read the actual index and set the volume of the channel. either send the midi directly t the hosts vol control fpor each channel or buid an extra VST FX RECEIVER for that

EDIT: sorry, think i don´t get you. are you talking about audio channels INSIDE a host or inside SM? 😕

yes i was indeed talking about individual channels inside a DAW, and for the plugin instances to 'talk' to each other. if however there would be a way to use a multi-channel channel (like a surround channel in cubase) and be able to have only a sigle instance of a SM plugin that could crossfade between the different audiostreams being sent to it, that would work too i suppose.

Dell · 7 Jun 2012

Are you refering to something like this?

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2j2cbw7&s=6

belowski · 7 Jun 2012

Dell wrote: Are you refering to something like this?

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2j2cbw7&s=6

yes -- however ideally it would be a vst solution and something that allowed to crossfade (or 'morph' if you will) between more (arbitrary) amount of signal sources.

you know what, it's basically what ableton does here, but i was thinking about a DAW-unspecific solution to this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRAk5W3XMRg#t=4m55s

Dell · 7 Jun 2012

What I shown in the video is merely one part of a DJ Mixer. Pending on how many inputs is needed, you can add faders for each channel and assign two channels (out of how many is needed) for cross fading.

There was a two-channel mixer offered here a few years ago in which, you could modify to your requirements.

Here it is.

belowski · 7 Jun 2012

Dell wrote: What I shown in the video is merely one part of a DJ Mixer. Pending on how many inputs is needed, you can add faders for each channel and assign two channels (out of how many is needed) for cross fading.

There was a two-channel mixer offered here a few years ago in which, you could modify to your requirements.

Here it is.

thank you! i really am not sure however how i would feed more than two mono sources of audio into the plugin in a daw like cubase :[ that is the why i'd thought a solution using multiple instances of a plugin inserted on different channels [of a DAW] performing simultaneous volume changes [whereby one instance controls all the other instances] would be best. (?) like this guy basically -- this plugin can 'chain' its instances into groups where turning the knob of one instance controls the whole group it belongs to; it still cannot 'volume-morph' though (as demostrated in the ableton video).

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_GainSuite/

Dell · 7 Jun 2012

I am not a Cubase user. I would imagine you would need to route your source to the VST mixer's input and send the VST mixer's output to one of the input channels on Cubase’s mixing board.

That is how one would do it if they wanted to attach a DJ Mixer to a Live Mixing Board.

I am more of a hardware person when routing is needed so possibly a Cubase user can help.

trogluddite · 7 Jun 2012

Welcome to the forum,I

'd agree with Philter's suggestion - a 'Master' plugin that hosts the GUI etc. and 'Slave' volume control plugin for insertion on the audio tracks. I would imagine that most DAWs can route MIDI flexibly enough to get the control data from master to sllaves. There are two reasons that I think Philter is right...

1) Technical - one way communication (master->slaves0 is simple to route. Two way communication is much more tricky, and not all hosts might allow the routings that you'd need (potential for feedback loops). Sadly, there is no way for SM plugins to share a section of memory to store 'global' settings - so communicating via the VST host is the only option (only Reaper's JS plugins offer 'shared memory' as far as I know)

2) User Interace - having a single 'Master' plugin will make managing VST presets and control automation much, much simpler. The slaves would have no need of preset management etc. except for each one to store a "channel" parameter. If you had two way communication between identical plugins, then loading a project would cause mayhem as each individual plugin's presets loaded all at the same time and started fighting over which one had priority.

Allowing for those factors, what you want to do is certainly possible. In some DAWs it is even possible to use audio signals to send control data (kind of like using a compressor side-chain) - but the MIDI method is probably safest for better DAW compatibility and to keep the routing as simple as possible.

belowski · 8 Jun 2012

Dell wrote: I am not a Cubase user. I would imagine you would need to route your source to the VST mixer's input and send the VST mixer's output to one of the input channels on Cubase’s mixing board.

That is how one would do it if they wanted to attach a DJ Mixer to a Live Mixing Board.

I am more of a hardware person when routing is needed so possibly a Cubase user can help.

thanks dell; the issue with cubase in particular is its i/o modularity, or lack thereof: you cannot augment the I/Os of a channel. :/

Dell · 10 Jun 2012

Hi.

You could pan one track to the Left and the other track to the right. Insert the “MIXER” on the “Pre-Master” slot then, set the Master Channel to “Mono.”

http://tinypic.com/r/2wnnszc/6

Since I use an external board and assign each track to it’s own soundcard, the above may be closest alternative based on how your DAW handles routing.

Other than the on-board plug-ins that is featured in Samplitude and, a few plug-ins offered by fellow Synthmaker members, I don’t bother with commercially sold third party plug-ins anymore. So, I won’t be able to help you on plug-ins in which you did not design yourself.

Do keep that in mind if for some reason the above method does not work under the given conditions.

Cheers!