Usine Hollyhock allows for many advanced things, and I'm not using nearly 10% of what it can do, but it really helped me a lot. Here's how I'm using it.
As a musician playing keys in a band, I needed a host for VST instruments controlled by 2 MIDI keyboards. More specific needs were:
- the possibility to build a kind of setlist, allowing to save and recall the keyboard/input and VSTi preset configurations so that, when a song is finished, I can quickly load the right setup for the next song;
- to be able to control some specific VSTi parameters through physical knobs/buttons/faders;
- to have several VSTi playing at the same time (layering sounds).
There are several programs which can do this, more or less (Cantabile, Gig Performer, Live Professor, AKAI VIP, etc...), but they can be either lacking of developer support (not future-proof), or unstable, or not flexible enough for my needs.
With Usine I got everything! Now, my setup is accomplished: For a gig I use a total of 6 VST instruments (Arturia B3 V2, AIR Velvet, AIR XPand!2, AIR Structure, Kontakt Player, AIR Vacuum Pro) for which I saved presets (1 VSTi = 1 patch in 1 rack). The racks also have their presets alowing me to control which keyboard plays which instrument for which song. Racks and preset are dropped in the grid (which constitutes my setlist, with 1 section = 1 song or part of a song).
I assigned the DAW transport buttons on my main keyboard to the previous/next section actions, so with the push of these buttons, I can load the presets for the previous/next song.
What Usine can do that other programs I've tried canot, is also play along audio files so I can practice along the real songs, that's pretty neat!
Below is a screenshot of what my workspace looks like, with a hint on the setup of the B3 organ patch which combines both the Arturia B3 V2 and Melda MRotary plugins in the same patch (I can control the B3 drawbars from my keyboard faders, and also the MRotary speed and overdrive from physical knobs).
How I'm using Usine HH as a VSTi host for gigs
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- KVRAF
- 2797 posts since 26 Jul, 2015 from Philadelphia
Yes, Usine HH is a nice one. I never got around the quirkiness of the user interface but in terms of functionality it is one of a kind.
Follow me on Youtube for videos on spatial and immersive audio production.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 94 posts since 22 May, 2019
Actually, I found the other programs specialized for this kind of stuff, not much more user friendly. It was not easy to get started with HH, but I always got useful answers within a 24 hours when I posted my questions on their user forum, which is a plus.
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el-bo (formerly ebow) el-bo (formerly ebow) https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=208007 - KVRAF
- 16369 posts since 24 May, 2009 from A galaxy, far far away
Glad it ended up working out for you. The good thing about HH is that you also get access to tons of really good sound-design goodies, if you ever get bored 
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- KVRist
- 59 posts since 24 Mar, 2014
Just to set the record straight, Gig Performer (of which I'm one of the developers) has an 8-track audio file player (AIF, WAV, MP3) plugin so you can most certainly play along with audio files. In fact many users do this in a live situation to get background tracks.What Usine can do that other programs I've tried canot, is also play along audio files
There's also a vibrant community forum (https://community.gigperformer.com) and new features/updates are added quite regularly.
