http://ifoundasound.com/liveprofessor/index.php

I dread posting something like this because I'll probably be told it's very old hat and has been discussed to death already - but I don't remember seeing it mentioned in this forum before (and, of course, I have searched).

It's a VST and VSTi host intended for live performance. Its status is alpha 4 (recently updated) and it's free (at least at present).

I've been trying it for half an hour - documentation is limited at present but it's pretty intuitive - and it hasn't crashed, though it's thrown up a few error messages.

I've been able to do two simple things - get a VSTi working (my midi keyboard in, ASIO card out) and also I've got a VST mixer working.

It's the latter that personally I am most interested in, as I've long thought that a PC should be able to replace a digital mixer pretty readily. My prime requirement in that respect would be to be able to set up snapshots of mixer and effects settings and, vitally, to be able to change from one to another smoothly by simply selecting the next snapshot from the list.

LiveProfessor does this very well, I'm delighted to report.

Actually, it uses a better way of doing things - you set up "snapshots" for individual VST / VSTi configurations, then you set up "cues" which are a list of the order in which snapshots should be recalled, with configurable pre-wait, duration, and post-wait. Duration is what makes a fader move smoothly from one position to another over the specified time.

I've yet to explore what many of the icons actually do, but the patchbay is very nice, and cues can encompass routing changes, midi controller layer changes, tempo changes, and workspace changes (in other words, the current view of the setup on the screen).

This won't be of much interest to those only interested in sequencers, but as a whole other way of tackling the kind of territory that VSTHost and Cantabile are good for, it seems to be very, very promising.

Certain looks OK. I was running it under Wine on Linux as a curiosity - but it didn't seem to recognise my WineASIO driver unfortunately so I didn't get any sound out of it.

Regards
Caleb

I found some semi-hidden documentation of the cue list facility - see http://ifoundasound.com/liveprofessor/OnlineHelp/cuelist.htm l and also click on the links there under "in depth". The cue list is very cunning imho.

Main "getting started" guide is clearly linked but for info it's at http://ifoundasound.com/liveprofessor/gettingstarted2.html

Some hints and tips are to be found in the blog at http://ifoundasound.com/liveprofessor/blog/index.htm

Other tips I've gleaned -

Right clicking on the navigator now brings up a menu to Add, remove or clone a unit.

Hold down ALT and scroll to Zoom out the window. This makes it easier to rearrange windows

In the plugin manager (Options > Plugin Manager) right click on a plugin for some handy options.

just posting here to bookmark.. looks interesting.

I see the first beta version is now available. Downloading now...

i dont even know how this thing works

Installed it. Went to run it. Total computer crash. 'ID out of range error'.

Would be nice to check it out, but I haven't had this kind of problem with software in a LONG time.

Greg

It looks like fun. Tempted.

Well I've been pointed to it as an alternative host. Been running it for about 3 days. Seriously thinking of moving my entire catalog over to this. Am currently in the process of formatting a hard drive to do a fresh install on a clean drive..then we'll see. I love that I can load up 5 (that's all I've tested right now) VSTi's and after a bit of tuning of the ASIO driver get glitch free playback from all 5. Running 2 instances of a plugin that would cause my system to stutter under my old host is a treat. THe MIDI controller LEARN capability is EXTREMELY cool...

Steve

need ASIO driver to open program on older versions. still need asio to run on all versions

I use ASIO exclusively.

Greg

wierd. never had any issues with Live Professor. I had that message a long time ago and I think it was related to not having the asio ports ready. havent had any problems with that program since. It's actually my main host for live performance. Definately worth a second glance especially with the updates
Christian

What kind of ASIO sound device do you guys use with Live Professor? I am thinking of getting something as I'm experiencing stuttering with the Realtek onboard crap (unless I really crank the buffers up - and even then it's not 100% stable unless I don't mess with patches and what fun is that?)

I have both 1394 and USB (1.0 I think) on this laptop, I'm slightly inclined to try to go 1394 so that my midi signals don't get bogged down too much. I'm using a Cakewalk UM-1G for MIDI I/O at the moment.

This is a new venture for me, live VSTs...

Thanks,

Steve

I use Creatve ASIO in Audio Creation Mode, can do surround stuff

I've found this sequencer very helpfull in live performance.
You can setup VST(i)'s endlessly and switch the layout with one button.
BUT I really would like to make some sequences with a piano roll or step sequencer, can't fin it. Can anyone help? Or is this sequencer more capable of a live performance with a drummachine?