VST Connect & VST Connect SE - Solution Thread

Seems like releasing a product - the “SE” version, without telling folks it’s crippled in the first place everyone will test it is pretty poor planning.

The 1st thing anyone is going to do the moment this is released is exactly what I did.

Fire up my main Cubase PC, get it set up, and then grab a laptop with a dinky USB ASIO interface and give it a shot.

Of course it failed, as you told no one in the first place this wouldn’t work. You opened yourself up for a flood of negative feedback.

So when is the full “VST Connect” version coming out?

Peace

Michael

Good point…we might have a “rehearse” button which keeps it in “chat mode” even when playback is engaged.

With the new version, port forwarding should not be necessary anymore in most cases, most connections should work right away.

Perfect! Rehearse and chat mode sounds like the kind of functions that will get the creativity flowing. :smiley:

Of course there will be times when the producer presses the wrong button and the talent starts singing out of sync, but it’s better than not having the possibility to “rehearse” and when record is engaged Cubase should automatically switch into proper sync mode.

How about I accidentally engage play in “rehearse”-mode, the talent starts singing out of sync and I just disengage the [Rehearse]-button and suddenly get the talent singing in sync without disturbing the playback to the talent. He och she will never know the difference, that would be perfect.

So please add a “Rehearse” button in chat mode enabling the playback along with low-latency chatting and producer singing. :smiley:

I’ll send you a virtual beer, mate!

Perfect! I mean Skype can tunnel through pretty much any intranet without loosing contact.

Thanks for considering my proposals. VST Connect is going to be a killer Cubase feature once it all works. This along with the new Chord Track are the best things Steinberg has come up with since the introduction of the VST plug-in.


Cheers
Fred

Ah, cheater :slight_smile:
No, that would of course not work: in chat/play mode, delay compensation would have to be switched off, and changing any plugin compensation delay involves stopping Cubase/Nuendo.
Otherwise we’d have jamming in perfect sync, which isn’t possible over WAN.

Most likely you didn’t put the “VST connect cue mix” plugin in a group channel .
First you have to create a group channel labelled “playback” in which you route all your playback, then from this group channel , you make a “send” to another group channel labelled “to performer” in which you insert the vst connect cue mix plugin.
It looks a little bit complicated but from what I understood, create a playback group channel and SEND the audio ( not route the output ) from it to another group channel is necessary to make the delay compensation work properly and have everything synced.

Hopefully some of you who have got this working can help me out here.

I am using the included template as a starting point. So I open the main vstconnect window, and my performer runs the stand alone at his and, and connects.

Video works, we can both see each other, he can hear the music mix I am playing at my end, and he can also hear me talk into the mic at my end.

but…I can hear or record him.

At first I thought it was because his inputs were set incorrectly. So I remote desktoped to his pc to check all was fine…and it seems to be.
He has a mixer connected to the line-in on his oundcard, and the mic is connected to his mixer. He can hear himself in his speakers ok, and when we do a local record at his end, it records fine (so his inputs are set up ok)

It just in VST Connect, I get nothing of him (other than video) at my end.
If I look at the config page, everything looks fine there.

Anyone point me in the right direction here?

You don’t need a secondary Group Channel. Create just one, put the VST Connect SE Cuemix plug in there and use sends to transmit whatever the Performer wants to hear to that channel. It’s simple: the cuemix plugin sends whatever it gets to the Performer. You (engineer) don’t want to hear this yourself, so lower the volume of this one Group Channel to zero but don’t mute it. It may also be vital that this Group Channel is sending to the Cubase Master output even though the engineer doesn’t listen to it because of the way delay compensation works.

When the Performer can hear himself thru VST Connect SE Performer (meters move when he speaks? Is it louder for the performer when he raises the Mic Volume fader to the left?), all should be well. Are you sure you have a track set to monitor on your end?
We did have a case where the audio stream just wouldn’t work (fixed in a future version). The workaround is to change the Performers’ audio upstream rate after the connection is established, so give that a try. You can drop me a PM if the problem persists.

Okay. Point taken! :smiley:

Another thing that needs improvement is the login procedure. Sending a key string mean having Skype or an email client running in the background, or sending the key as an SMS. Irritating when the connection hangs and you need to reconnect - though it seems to be stable in the latest update. How about some kind of login procedure, user name and login, then just type in the other persons user name and click Connect. And have VST Connect SE remember any previous collaborator’s name.


Cheers
Fred

So we finally had to time to set up the VST connect feature.

First - we couldn’t connect. Problem solved quickly by bypassing routers, switches and connect directly to the internet modem.

Now everything works fine, BUT when recording, the perfomers’ sync meter is about 30-70% while the studio has 100%. Dropouts all the time! Switching studio and performer - same result. Both with premium internet connections.
selecting different upload speeds doesn’t do the trick. What are we doing wrong?

And… there is more.

After testing it is clear that the performers’ sound card latency setting has inpact on the recording. Choosing a high value makes the recordning go out of sync. The studio setup however is not dependent on it’s latency setting.

We don’t know how to proceed?

Any input it appreciated. Thank you.

Dropouts, the 100% meter, and that Performer settings have impact on recording sync indicate that routing on the Cubase end isn’t set up correctly. The VST Connect Cuemix plugin is often inserted in the wrong place (i.e. master channel…) It must be inserted in a group channel, and that group channel must be routed to the master output channel. This is because the cuemix plug is responsible for adjusting Remote Latency Compensation of the VST Connect system.
If you are still having problems feel free to drop me a PM so we can set up for a test.

I did every step of as written in the manual. CueMix on the group channel and so on. But I would be glad so set up a test with you, musicullum!

I’m having a tough time w/ my setup w/ VST Connect. I do have active connectivity to the performer and talkback is working - actually recording is working as well. My problem is that what I’m recording seems to be everything I’m hearing - this includes the instrument tracks that I’m playing, the performer’s VOX, the reverb, etc…,

I’m not sure if this is how its supposed to work? I was assuming this should record the performer dry (even though reverb may be set in the VST Connect window and I’m playing the instrument tracks).

Did anyone else have this problem?

Thanks,
Peter

Most probably, you have the “Mon” switch in the Performers’ panel activated. This is only meant for checking what the Performer actually hears, you don’t want to record that. I guess there should be a warning when it is activated while recording, OTOH recording the Performers’ cue mix is a valid option for checking sample accurate sync.
Hope that helps, if not feel free to ask again or write a PM.

Hello all,
I would like to share my experiences so far with vst connect se and hopefully find a solution to my issues with it. I am based in the uk and my cousin/gtr talent, lives in miami. I have used all manner of programs in the past with horrible results so was waiting for this for a long time to come around. My net is 100meg down / 10 meg up, cousin has 20 down and 5 up maybe better. We can connect first time every time with no disconnects. Video is fine talkback is fine, i can control his side etc, change settings and the like. The issue is in the recorded audio quality regardless of bitrate, buffer size, video switched off and all in between. I get drop outs, glitching, silence, even though the buffer indicators for both sides are solid blue. However the material i do receive is sample accurate, so the program is working as expected its just the audio quality is nowhere near usable for me. It also sounds like digital clipping is present even though all signals are well below levels that would induce this. We keep trying vst connect hoping to stumble across something we may have missed but i think i have exhausted all avenues outwith the program. I can apprecciate the distance involved etc but i dont think that affects vst connect as the latency compensations side of things takes care of that. i am not looking to jam with this, i am purely trying to record the talent with acceptable audio quality. i.e no drop outs or glitching or clipping. i would love to hear from others who are having brilliant results and not just ones with problems as both sides are valuable to learn from. I cant however rule out that my computer system may be the cause to this issue. I have no problems with running and using C7 localy with large or small projects, no latency issues no drop outs etc. All seems to be correct on the miami side. has anyone used vst connect over such extreme distances and what was your experiences ? Would love to hear. I hope i am just one of the minority that hasnt quite got it sorted. For me this is the way forward. So thx in advance for any help or pointers as to what could be the cause of my particular problem.

Thanks Musicullum. I’ll have to give this a try!
-Peter

rokster: all seems to be set up correctly…I sent you a PM so hopefully we can sort it out. Long distance shouldn’t be a problem because of latency compensation, as you already pointed out.

I did a short test session yesterday with a singer living about 500 km away from me.
She used her macbook on wifi with the built-in soundcard and though this is not recommended everything went smoothly - only one small glitch which I’m sure will go away when she gets a better soundcard.
This is the future! :slight_smile:
Mads

I don’t know what happened… - but after updating to 7.03 VST connect doesn’t work anymore :frowning:
I didn’t change anything. All is set up as it should be - we can hear each other fine and the performers track show activity when she sings. But the moment I press play or record she is muted and nothing gets on the track. She still hears the music.
Anybody else with this problem ?
Mads

im connected with a mac pro user and im on CB7 with win8 we can see each other but I keep getting a wrong sample rate box coming up… we are both set on 48,000 from top to bottom on preferances… but still no audio