User manual

Table Of Contents
254
VST instruments and instrument tracks
VST instrument channels
9. Play the VST instrument from your MIDI keyboard.
You can use the MixConsole settings to adjust the sound, add EQ or effects, etc.,
just as with regular audio channels. Of course, you can also record or manually
create MIDI parts that play back sounds from the VST instrument.
VST instrument channels give you full access to multitimbral instruments.
You can have several MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, each playing a
different part.
Similarly, you can route channels to any available output provided by the VST
instrument.
In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can specify what happens when
loading a VST instrument in an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Create MIDI
track when loading VSTi” and select one of the available options:
- When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will always be created.
- When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only the instrument will be
loaded.
- Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI track is created
whenever you load an instrument.
You can also use modifiers to specify what happens when you load a VST instrument
(overriding the Preference setting):
- When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST instrument for an
instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track with the name of the instrument is
automatically created.
- When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST instrument for an
instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created for the instrument.
If you do not want the plug-in control panels to open every time you load a plug-in,
open the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page) and deactivate “Open Effect
Editor After Loading it”.
You can open a plug-in panel at any time by clicking the “e” button of the
corresponding plug-in slot.
The VST Instruments window
When a VST instrument is loaded, six controls are displayed for this slot in the VST
Instruments window.
The button on the far left is used for the Freeze function, see “Instrument Freeze”
on page 258.
!
You can have multiple VST instruments activated at the same time, either different
instruments or multiple instances of the same instrument. However, software
instruments can consume a lot of CPU power – keep an eye on the VST Performance
window to avoid running out of processor power (see also
“Instrument Freeze on
page 258).
Instrument on/off
Instrument Freeze
Activate outputs
Bypass
instrument
Open instrument panelEvent received