Remote Control - how to use it in ableton.

[goorec]

Hi.
I downloaded demo of BC remote control and i have no idea how to assign knob's to vst plugins. I need to use specific routing or something ??

For example i want do assign remote control knobs to Serum and then assign these knobs to hardware controller.

I cant find any tutorial how to use Remote control in Ableton

[Blue Cat Audio]

Hi,

Remote Control sends MIDI messages, so it's a bit like a control surface. In Live you simply need to create a MIDI track to carry the MIDI events from the Remote Control to the MIDI controllable plug-in, then MIDI learn in the target plug-in.

[mandawah]

Hello,
Thanks for posting, but I cannot get it to work, really. (I think) I am quite familiar with how midi routing works in Ableton but still I cannot have anything received in the dedicated midi track.
So here is what I have:
- A midi track with Bluecat Remote Control in it (nothing else). This track is named "1 MIDI"
- I am using default sking in Remote Control and I made sure I enabled midi output in settings (I chose channel
- I have another Midi track ("2 MIDI") which "midi from" is set to "1-MIDI", Monitor to "In"

I am expecting to see some MIDI activity on this "2 MIDI" track but it is not the case. If I would I would then set Midi Output to an internal midi chanel (LoopBE) and from there I should be able to map anything with CC from this LoopBE.

@Blue Cat Audio: could you help? Could you post a link to a working ableton project for instance? Thanks in advance!

[Blue Cat Audio]

The issue is the fact that you are using the Remote Control on a MIDI track and selecting the track as input. There is unfortunately no such thing as MIDI effects in the VST plug-in world, so the setup is a bit awkward in most hosts:
1. Please use the VST2 version (not VST3 or Audio Unit) as I don't think Live supports MIDI output from any other type of plug-in.
2. Tracks and routing setup should be the following:
- Insert the Remote Control on an audio track (it will not affect the sound anyway).
- Create a MIDI track to carry the events: select the Remote Control plug-in as MIDI In, and the destination of your choice as MIDI out (virtual instrument or physical device).
- Make sure to have input monitoring on for the MIDI track.

I hope this helps!

[mandawah]

Hello, thanks!
The trick was indeed to use the VST2 version of the plugin! (I was using VST3 in my test) When using VST2, BC Remote Control plugin can be either used on an audio track (as you suggested) or on a midi track (as I described in my post).

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the poor support Live offers for VST3 midi things.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Hello, thanks!
The trick was indeed to use the VST2 version of the plugin! (I was using VST3 in my test) When using VST2, BC Remote Control plugin can be either used on an audio track (as you suggested) or on a midi track (as I described in my post).

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the poor support Live offers for VST3 midi things.

Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware that it would work directly on a MIDI track. That's good to know!

MIDI support for VST3 is very poor anyway, as Steinberg wanted to remove it completely, and it was added later after the fact...

[mandawah]

Actually in Live a midi track become similar to an audio track if you add a VST with some audio out in the track. I don't know internally but from a user perspective the visible difference in mainly the type of clip you can add to the track, for the rooting it is very similar. The intermediate Midi Track Input is set to a track and a plugin anyway, so as long as it is VST2 it works.

I was not aware of this fact about VST3, I saw every manufacturers moving toward VST3 support (sometime exclusively) and so I was thinking that this was the (near) future of VST. I started using only VST3 versions for my new projects whenever both VST2 and VST3 were available, thinking I would get some benefit in terms of long term support, stability and CPU consumption (when Idle).

So lesson learned today: VST2 version should be at least kept at hand, if not used instead of VST3 actually.