midi controlling fx chains plugin programs & plugin parameters

Written by ZOLAIVE 1

How to switch from one FX Chain to another FX Chain with a MIDI Foot Controller

… and much more

Index I. VSTHost quick overview II. VSTHost installation III. Banks, Performances and Plugin programs, in VSTHost

IV. Loading an FX plugin in a VSTHost performance (here in Song1)

V. The Autosave functions

VI. Audio connections VII. VSTHost audio configuration (audio settings)

VIII. The Run function IX. Switching from one FX Chain to another in a VSTHost performance

X. MIDI connections and general MIDI settings

XI. Switching from one FX Chain to another in a VSTHost performance

with one MIDI Foot Controller pedal

XII. Changing the plugin programs inside one of the plugin modules that are loaded in VSTHost… with a MIDI Foot Controller

XIII. Controlling the wah-wah pedal inside Amplitube 2 module (which is

loaded in FX Chain2) with the expression pedal of a MIDI Foot Controller

Page 2 Page 3 Page 3 Page 8 Page 22 Page 25 Page 26 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 43 Page 56 Page 60

Special thanks to : - Shasha (member of the guitarampmodeling.com

Forum) - HermannSeib (VSTHost) - the authors of the great software used here


How to switch from one FX Chain to another FX Chain with a MIDI Foot Controller

… and much more

In this guide, we’ll see how VSTHost can be used to create different guitar tone presets building different chains of VST effect plugins connected together (we’ll call these chains, “FX Chains”). Then, we’ll see how to switch from one “FX Chain” to another “FX Chain” using one MIDI Foot Controller pedal. We will also see how to switch from one plugin preset (let’s call it a plugin program) to another one inside an effect plugin, how to control any parameter within any effect plugin with a MIDI Foot Controller and especially how to control the Wah-Wah parameter with the expression pedal of a MIDI Foot Controller First, let’s have a look at VSTHost.

I. VSTHost quick overview VSTHost is a free software made to run VST plugins (either instrument plugins or effect plugins). Here we’ll only use effect plugins (let’s call them FX plugins) to shape our guitar tones. As you can see on the following picture, VSTHost can interconnect each of the loaded FX plugins. This way, you can build several “paths” for the audio signal that enters VSTHost. Each “path” (called an FX Chain) is composed of several FX plugins chained together (like real effects pedals connected together with real audio cables) and can be considered as a tone preset. On the following picture, you can also see that each FX plugin is graphically represented by a small rectangular window, called a plugin module. Each module has got a number and the name of the FX plugin it represents. For example, the Voxengo Boogex plugin inserted in FX Chain2 is represented by plugin module n°4, which is named “Voxengo Boogex VST”

FX Chain1

FX Chain2


II. VSTHost installation First, you need to download the last beta version of VSTHost. You can find the latest beta version of VSTHost here: http://www.hermannseib.com/programs/beta/ If you install VSTHost for the first time, use the "vsthostbeta.zip" file which contains everything you need ("VSTHost.exe" plus the Data folder and some default files needed to run VSTHost). Once you’ve downloaded “vsthostbeta.zip", unzip and place the VSTHost folder in the "Program Files" folder (or anywhere else) Later, if you want to update your existing version with a new beta version, you'll have to use the "tvsthostbeta.zip" file which only contains the "VSTHost.exe" file. Once downloaded, you’ll have to unzip this "tvsthostbeta.zip" file and then you’ll have to go to your existing VSTHost folder to replace the old "VSTHost.exe" file with the new one... This way, you shouldn’t loose any of your existing files. When you first open VSTHost, the main window appears with a blank project (performance) loaded:

III. Banks, Performances and Plugin programs, in VSTHost VSTHost allows you to create performances that can be saved and stored into banks. In each performance, you can load several FX plugins and connect them in order to process the sound coming from your audio card. Most FX plugins can save their parameters setups as presets (Amplitube2, Guitar Rig, Revalver, etc). VSTHost allows assigning these internal plugin presets to what is called VSTHost plugin progams. So, to sum up: banks contain performances; performances contain FX plugins; FX plugins contain internal plugin presets which can be assigned to VSTHost plugin programs. About banks: in VSTHost, there are 16384 available banks (bank 0 to 16383). Each bank consists of one bank folder and one bank file with a “.vsthost” extension. These bank files and folders are located in the Data folder of VSTHost. All these banks can be remote controlled VIA MIDI messages.


In addition to these 16384 banks, there’s one special bank called the “internal bank” which is also located in the Data folder of VSTHost. This bank consists of one bank folder named “Bank-1” and one bank file named “#Intern.vsthost”. By default, it’s in this bank that any new performance is stored. Be careful: this “internal bank” doesn’t support MIDI remote control operations. About performances: each bank can store up to 129 performances. All these performances support MIDI remote control (namely, they can be loaded via Program Change MIDI messages), except the Performance 000… Now, the first thing we need to do is choosing the bank in which we’ll save and store the current performance. As I said, don’t choose the “internal bank” since it doesn’t support MIDI remote control operations. Once we chose a bank, we need to configure it (giving the bank file a name and defining the path to it). To do that: in the menu bar, go to “File -> Use Bank…”.

Click once and the following window appears:


Here you can see all the available banks, namely, the internal bank and the others which names and paths are still ‘*undefined*’. Choose one bank (here I chose Bank 0), give it a name and choose the path to it. The default name VSTHost suggest for Bank 0 is “Bank 0”. VSTHost also suggest that the folder where to save this bank should be the VSTHost Data folder (which has been created during the VSTHost installation process).

As shown on the following picture, I changed the default name of Bank 0 to “My First bank”.

As you can see on the following picture, a new file appears in the VSTHost Data folder (My First Bank.vsthost). Associated with this new file, you can also see that a new folder was created (named “Bank0”).


In the “Select VSTHost Bank” window, you’ll see that the path to the bank is now defined (C:\Documents and Settings\Olivier\Bureau\ VSTHostBeta (22122008)\Data)

Now that we chose a bank where to store the current performance, we need to save it. To do that: in the menu bar, go to “File -> Save Performance As…”

The following window appears:


As you can see on the above picture, the “Save VSTHost Performance As…” window shows the list of the 129 performances that your current bank contains. These performances are “blank performances” with the same default name (**Init**). So, as shown on the following picture, select one of these blank performances (here, I chose performance n°001; don’t choose performance n°000 because it doesn’t support MIDI remote control), name it and save it (it will be saved and store in the bank you chose. Here, bank 0 named My First bank)


The name of each performance will then appear in the VSTHost Toolbar:

IV. Loading an FX plugin in a VSTHost performance (here in Song 1) Now, we gonna load an FX plugin. Here, I chose to load Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo). In the menu bar, go to “File -> New Plugin…”


The following window appears. Look after the plugin’s dll file and load it. Here it’s Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo).dll

As shown on the following picture, the new plugin module appears in the VSTHost main window.

If you have not checked “File -> Plugin Auto-Connect…”, the module won’t be connected to any other module. So now, we need to connect Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the Engine Input (a small module that receives the audio signal coming from the inputs of the Audio Card) and to the Engine Output (a small module that sends the audio signal to the outputs of the Audio Card). As shown on the following picture, the FX Chain will look something like that:


So, let’s create this FX Chain using these 2 methods: - Let’s have a look at the first method which is a graphical method (very simple). You have to use the blues points on the modules (on each module, there’s one blue point on the left side and one on the right side) The blue point on the left side is the input point of the module. The blue point on the right side is the output point of the module. Well, to connect the input point of Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the output point of the “Engine input” module, just click on one of these blue points and then go to the other. A yellow line will be created between these 2 points in order to show that the modules are now interconnected. Now, we’re gonna do the same thing to connect the output of Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the input of the “Engine output”. And, here’s the final result:

- Now, let’s have a look at the second method which uses the “After Chain…” button This method should be used if you want to configure in detail the audio connections between 2 modules, especially when one of these modules has got more than one input or output channels (we’ll see that later in this guide). So, here we go : in this method, you’ll have to use the “Chain After…” button which can be found in each module (except for the “Engine Input” module that cannot be chained after any other module… since its purpose is to receive the direct audio signal coming into VSTHost). As you can see on the following picture, the “Chain After…” button is located on the left part of the module:


So, to connect the input of the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the output of the “Engine Input” module, click on the “Chain After…” button of the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module (see the following picture).

As shown on the following picture, clicking on this button opens a new window with the list of all the other plugin modules that Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) can be chained after (here, there’s only the “Engine Input” module).

Actually, when you click on the “Chain After…” button in the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module, you see the list of all the plugin modules that can be put before Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) in the FX Chain. So, the ‘Chain After…” button allows you to chain Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) after these plugin modules… (I guess that’s why it’s called the “Chain After…” button…) Note: notice that if we had more plugin modules loaded, the list would be bigger (see the following window):


Well, let’s come back to our previous situation with only one plugin module loaded:

Here, we want to connect the input of the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the output of the “Engine Input” module. To do that, we need to “activate” the connection between the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module and the “Engine

Input” module by clicking the grey button in the Engine Input line (see the following picture):


Once the connection has been activated, the Engine Input line becomes green and the grey button become green :

And here’s the result:


Now, we need to connect the output of Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) to the input of the “Engine Output” module. Again, we’ll have to click on the “Chain After…” button of the “Engine Output” module (see the following picture):

The « Chain after… » window appears:


Again, we just need to “activate” the connection of the Engine Output with Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) by clicking on

the grey button in the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) line. Once done, the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) line

becomes green and the grey button becomes :

And here’s the final result:


Now, let’s add a new plugin module (here Dirthead plugin module) to our FX Chain. So, in the menu bar, “File -> New Plugin…”, etc… The new plugin module is loaded:

Then, let’s use the “After Chain…” method to connect the output of Dirthead to the input of the “Engine Output” module.


Notice that now there are 3 modules that the “Engine Output” module can be chained after: the “Engine Input” module, the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module and the Dirthead module. Also notice that, the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) line and the Dirthead line are green which confirms that these plugin modules are really connected to the “Engine Output” module. So here’s the result:

Now, let’s use the “After Chain…” method to connect the input of Dirthead to the output of Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo).


So here’s the result:

Now, we need to disconnect the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module from the “Engine Output” module using, as usual, the “Chain After…” method. So, as shown on the following windows, go to the “Engine Output” module, click on the “Chain After…” button to see the list with all the plugin modules that are connected to the input of “Engine Output” module.


Now, let’s disconnect the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) module from the “Engine Output” module by clicking on the green button in the Flanger line. As shown on the following picture, once in the selected connection has been suppressed, the Flanger line becomes grey (the connection is no more activated):


So here’s the final FX Chain we created!

V. The Autosave functions Now, we need to ensure that VSTHost is configured so that it should memorize all your settings, otherwise we will loose them when we quit the current performance. First, in the menu bar, let’s ensure that “File -> Autosave Performance” is checked. If not, we need to check it; the FX Chain we created will now be memorized (see the following picture):


However, if we only check “File -> Autosave Performance”, the settings done inside the FX plugins won’t be memorized when we quit the performance (for example, specific plugin preset loaded inside an FX plugin…) So we also need to ensure that “File -> Autosave Plugins Banks” is checked (see the following picture)

Be careful, now that we have checked “File -> Autosave Plugins Banks”, we also need to tell VSTHost which specific plugins we want the settings to be memorized. To do that, we need to check “Plugin -> Autosave Bank” for each of these plugin modules, selecting them one by one. Let’s do it for the first plugin module in the chain (here Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) plugin). First, we need to select (activate) this plugin module by clicking the empty space in the module.


Now look at the top of the VSTHost main window, and you’ll see that the name of the module we clicked on has appeared. It means that this module has been selected (activated) and that, since now, the Plugin entry in the VSTHost menu bar will only concern this selected plugin module. You can also see, on this top line, the number and the name of the current performance (here Performance n°1 which is named Song 1); the number and the name of the plugin module that is currently activated (here plugin module n°2 named Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo).dll); the number and the name of the plugin program currently loaded inside the FX plugin (here Program n°0 named Default)

So now, go to the Plugin entry and check “Autosave Bank”, as shown on the following picture:

Always keep in mind that if you only checked “Plugin -> Autosave bank” for the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) plugin, all the settings done in the other plugin modules (here, Dirthead) won’t be memorized, when you quit the current performance (even if, “Autosave Performance” and “Autosave Plugin Banks” were checked)!


So, in our example, we need to check “Autosave Bank” for the second plugin module (Dirthead). To do that, let’s select (activate) the Dirthead module, go to the Plugin entry and check “Autosave Bank”, as shown on the following picture:

To sum up, the best thing to do is too keep checked “File -> Autosave Performance”, “File -> Autosave Plugins Banks” and, for each plugin module activated, “Plugin -> Autosave Bank”.

VI. Audio connections Now, we need to connect our audio devices and to configure the audio parameters of VSTHost in order to create the audio signal paths. On the following picture, we can see how different devices can be connected together and how the audio signal (see the green arrows) can pass through these devices and through the FX plugins loaded in VSTHost.


These are the basic connections we need to create. As you can see, we need to connect hardware devices together: The Audio Card (which must support ASIO) must be connected to the computer through the USB (or Firewire) port. The electric guitar must be connected to one of the Audio Card Inputs. The Audio Card Outputs must be connected to the stereo bus of a monitoring system. Once, we have connected these hardware devices together, we need to do the audio settings in VSTHost. So here we go…

VII. VSTHost audio configuration (audio settings) Let’s come back to the performance we saved at the beginning of this guide (performance n°0001 named Song 1).

At this point, we want to configure VSTHost so that the guitar audio signal coming out of the Audio Card can enter our computer, go into the “Engine Input” module, go into the Blue Cat Flanger VST (Stereo) plugin module, go into the Dirthead plugin module, go into the “Engine Output” module and then go to the outputs of the Audio Card… To do that, we’ll have to tell VSTHost:

1. which Audio Card and which Audio Driver to use 2. which input channels of the Audio Card we want to load in VSTHost and which output channels of the Audio Card we want to load in VSTHost 3. how many input channels we want the “Engine Input” module to have 4. how many output channels we want the “Engine Output” module to have 5. for each VSTHost module, how we want to assign the input channels of this module to the output channels of the other modules that are connected with it

Here are the operations we’re gonna do: 1. Choose the Audio Card and Audio Driver we want VSTHost to use As shown on the following picture, in the menu bar, go to “Devices -> Wave…”.


The “Select Wave Devices” window appears:

In this window, go to the “Output Port” area and select your Audio Card and your audio driver. As you can see on the following picture, I selected “ASIO : EDIROL FA-66” which means that I chose my EDIROL FA-66 Audio Card and the ASIO driver associated with it.


2. Define which inputs of the Audio Card (ASIO input channels) will be loaded in VSTHost AND which outputs of the Audio Card (ASIO output channels) will be loaded in VSTHost In the menu bar, go to “Devices -> Asio Channel Selection…”

The following window will appear:


If you want all of the ASIO input and output channels of the Audio Card to be loaded in VSTHost, then keep “Load all input paths” and “Load output paths” checked. Otherwise, uncheck them and then check separately the inputs and the outputs you want to be loaded in VSTHost (look at the following picture, where I checked “MicIn1 left + MicIn1 right”, for the inputs and “LineOut 1&2 left + LineOut 1&2 right”, for the outputs).

So, at this point, we defined which inputs of the Audio Card should go into VSTHost and which outputs of the Audio Card VSTHost should send the out coming audio signal to. Now, you need to configure the “Engine Input” and “Engine Output” modules.


Actually, the audio signal that goes into the input channels of VSTHost is automatically sent to the “Engine Input” module before going through the FX plugin loaded in VSTHost. The same thing happens with the audio signal coming out of VSTHost: it passes through the “Engine Output” module before coming out of VSTHost. The problem is that these Engine modules have got their own audio channels which parameters are default set by VSTHost. These parameters concern the number of channels in each Engine module and the assignments of these channels to the Audio Card channels that are loaded in VSTHost. So, you must ensure that the default settings of these parameters won’t create wrong signal path. You know, if you don’t configure those Engine modules properly, you may orientate the audio signal in an unexpected way… and then, you may have very bad surprises with your final sound… Let’s see an example on the following picture (see the next page): Here are the audio settings, for this example: - The Audio Card has got 6 ASIO output channels and I’ve loaded 2 of them in VSTHost (Output1 Left and Output2 Right). - The Audio Card has got 6 ASIO input channels and I’ve loaded 2 of them in VSTHost (Input1 and Input2). - Input2 is dedicated to the guitar (which means that the guitar has to be plugged in Input 2, for impedance matching reasons) - The audio settings for the Engine modules are default settings (those that were automatically done by VSTHost):

- The “Engine Input” module has got 2 input channels (Engine Input1 and Engine Input2). Engine Input1 is assigned to Input 1 (of the Audio Card) and Engine Input2 is assigned to Input 2 (of the Audio Card) - The “Engine Output” module has got 2 output channels (Engine Output1 and Engine Output2). Engine Output1 is assigned to Output1 Left (of the Audio Card) and Engine Output2 is assigned to Output2 Right (of the Audio Card)

- There’s on FX plugin loaded in the signal chain. The audio settings of this FX plugin are also default settings. With these settings, specific audio paths have been created for the guitar audio signal. All these audio paths are showed on the next picture. Now, if we follow the audio paths, we will be able to see what will happen if we connect our guitar to Input2 (of the audio card)… And, you’ll see that the audio settings in this example are not good at all… Let me explain: - If the FX plugin loaded in the FX Chain has got only one input channel (let’s call it Plugin Input1): VSTHost will assign this input channel to Engine Input1. As a result, since guitar must be connected to Input2 of the Audio Card, then the audio signal of the guitar won’t pass through the FX Plugin and you’ll hear nothing on your monitoring system!!! - If the FX plugin loaded in the FX Chain is a stereo plugin (which means it has got 2 input channels - let’s call them Plugin Input1 and Plugin Input2) : VSTHost will assign Plugin Input1 to Input1 of the Audio Card and Plugin Input2 to Input2 of the Audio Card. As a result, if you plug your guitar into Input2 (of the Audio Card), then only one of the input channels of the stereo FX plugin (Plugin Input2) will be fed with the audio signal of the guitar. So what will be the consequence? Well, it depends… Suppose the stereo FX plugin has got real stereo outputs. By “real stereo outputs”, I mean that the original input signal coming into the FX plugin will be split into 2 signals that will be processed differently. Each processed signal will then be routed to a different output: one will be routed to the first output channel of the FX plugin (let’s call Plugin Output1) and the other will be routed to the second output channel of the FX plugin (let’s call it Plugin Output2) So, in this case, if you plug your guitar in Input2 (of the Audio Card), there will be no signal going to Plugin Input2 and so, there will be no signal coming out from Plugin Output2 Then, due to the default settings of the “Engine Output” module, there will be no signal going to the Output2 Right of the Audio Card and the sound you will hear on your monitoring system won’t be stereo (I mean you will hear a part of the processed guitar sound on the left side but nothing on the right side). If the FX plugin is not a real stereo plugin (which means that it mixes the 2 audio signals before sending the mixed signal to each of its outputs), then there should be no problem (??)


Well, that’s why we have to build a correct audio path… To do that, we’ll have to do 2 things:

- First, we’ll configure the “Engine Input” and “Engine Output” modules. Here, we will choose the number of inputs the “Engine Input” module will have and the number of outputs the “Engine Output” module will have. Then, we will assign each of these inputs and outputs to any of the inputs and outputs of the Audio Card - Secondly, we’ll configure each FX plugin in the signal chain. Each FX plugin has a fixed number of inputs and outputs (I mean, we cannot choose this number). So what we’ll do is assigning the FX plugin input(s) to the output(s) of the previous module loaded in the signal chain

In the following example, we’ll configure the Blue Cat Flanger (Stereo) plugin (which has got 2 inputs and 2 outputs) and then the Dirthead plugin (which has got 1 input and 2 outputs) As in the previous example, let’s suppose that the Audio Card has got 6 ASIO input channels and 6 ASIO output channels and that we loaded 2 of the 6 input channels and 2 of the 6 output channels in VSTHost (using the “Asio Channel Selection…” window). So here’ what we’re gonna do: First: we are going to configure the “Engine Input” and “Engine Output” modules - In the menu bar, go to “Engine -> Configure…”

The “Engine Configuration” window appears (see the following picture). Stay in the “Assign Input Channels” area. In the “Engine Channels” area, set the number of Engine inputs to 1. Then, select the Input of the Audio Card that will be connected your Engine Input1.Of course, you have to choose the input of the Audio Card where you plan to plug your guitar in (here I chose “2: MicIn1 right”).


Now, go to the “Assign Output Channels” area. Set the number of Engine Outputs to -1 which tells VSTHost to match the Engine Outputs number to the Audio Card output channels loaded in VSTHost (remember that in this example, I loaded 2 of the 6 outputs of my Audio Card in VSTHost). So, the “Engine Output” module will have 2 outputs. Then, assign Engine Output 1 to the output n°1 of the Audio Card (Left output channel. Here, “1: LineOut 12 left”) and Engine Output 2 to the output n°2 of the Audio Card (Right output channel. Here, “2: LineOut 12 right”)

- Secondly, we’ll assign the input(s) of each FX plugin we have loaded in VSTHost (here, Blue Cat Flanger VST (stereo) and Dirthead) Let’s begin with Blue Cat Flanger (stereo): Click on the “Chain After…” button in the Blue Cat Flanger (stereo) plugin module. The “Flanger: Chain After…” window appears.


In this window, we can see all the modules which are connected to the Blue Cat Flanger (stereo) inputs (in green). Here, we can see that the Engine Input module is connected to the inputs of Blue Cat Flanger (stereo).

Click on the “Assign input channels” on the Engine Input line

The “Assign Plugin Input Channels” window appears:

As shown on the above picture, in the left column, you can see the inputs of Blue Cat Flanger (stereo): I1 Flanger and I2 Flanger. On the right part of the window, you can assign each of these inputs to the output channel(s) of the “Engine Input” module. Here, we can see that the Engine Input only has 1 audio channel (01 Engine Input). In this kind of situation (where we have 2 plugin input channels with only one audio source, namely the Engine Input channel), VSTHost assigns this Engine Input channel (here 01 Engine Input) to the first input channel of the plugin (here,


I1 Flanger). Then, VSTHost automatically creates a new channel in the “Engine Input” module (called “Auto-Stereo #2 Engine Input”) and assigns this new Engine Input channel to the second input channel of the plugin (here, I2 Flanger). All these are default settings that you should not modify. Let’s go on with Dirthead: Click on the “Chain After…” button in the Dirthead plugin module. The “Dirthead: Chain After…” window appears. In this window, we can see all the modules which are connected to the Dirthead input (in green). Here, we can also see that the Blue Cat Flanger (stereo) module is connected to the input of Dirthead

Click on the “Assign input channels” on the Blue Cat Flanger (stereo) line

The “Assign Plugin Input Channels” window appears:


As shown on the above picture, you can see that Dirthead has only 1 input channel… whereas Blue Cat Flanger (stereo) has 2 output channels. This means that you will lose some audio information if you keep this FX Chain configuration, namely putting an FX Plugin module that only have one input channel AFTER a real stereo FX Plugin module. So, if we don’t want to loose the stereo effect of Blue Cat Flanger (Stereo), we should put Dirthead BEFORE Blue Cat Flanger (Stereo), as shown on the following picture:

With this new FX Chain configuration, here are the settings we should do (as you’ll see, in this configuration, everything works fine): - Dirthead Input Channel assignment:


- Blue Cat Flanger (Stereo) Input Channels assignments: In the following window, we can see that Dirthead has got 2 output channels.

- “Engine Output” Input Channels assignment:

VIII. The Run function When you’ve done all these settings, don’t forget to check “Engine -> Run”, otherwise VSTHost won’t run your “performance” and no audio signal will be monitored!!!


IX. Switching from one FX Chain to another in a VSTHost performance Now that we did the audio settings in VSTHost and that we know how to create FX Chains in a performance, let’s load a new performance. In this performance, let’s build 2 FX Chains (FX Chain1 and FX Chain2). These FX Chains are 2 different audio paths for your guitar audio signal and can be considered as 2 different tone presets. If we plug a guitar in the input of the Audio Card, the guitar audio signal will go into VSTHost (namely into the “Engine Input” module). Here, it will be split into 2 identical signals: 1 going through the FX Chain1 and the other going through the FX Chain2. Then, these 2 different audio signals will be mixed together in the “Engine Output” module and the resultant stereo signal will go to the stereo outputs of the Audio Card. So, at this point, if we play some riff on the guitar, we’ll hear a mix of 2 tone presets (FX Chain1 sound + FX Chain2 sound)… which shouldn’t be very nice… So, let’s “mute on”, one of these FX Chain and we’ll hear only one preset at a time. We can do that by “muting on” all the plug-in modules which compose this FX Chain. To “mute on” one plug-in module, just click the mute button located at the bottom of this plug-in module, on the right side.

When the plug-in module is muted on, a red cross appears on the mute button:


On the following picture, you’ll see a performance (Song 4) composed of 2 different FX Chains (2 different tone presets): FX Chain1 (tone preset n°1) is “muted on” and FX Chain2 (tone preset n°2) is” muted off” (not muted). So, if we play some guitar riff, we’ll hear preset n°2.

Now, if we want to switch from preset n°2 to preset n°1, we only need to "mute off" all the plug-in modules of FX Chain1 while "muting on" all the plug-in modules of FX Chain2. If we want to come back to preset n°2, we'll just have to "mute off" FX Chain2 while "muting on" FX Chain1... OK, now we’ll see how we can “mute on” and then “mute off” any of these 2 FX Chains with one MIDI message coming from one MIDI Foot Controller pedal. After that, we will see how we can use VSTHost and Bome’s MIDI Translator in order to change presets inside any FX plugin loaded in any of the 2 FX Chains…with 2 pedals of a MIDI Foot Controller. Finally, we will see how we can use VSTHost in order to control the wah-wah pedal inside Amplitube 2 plug-in (which is loaded in FX Chain2) with the expression pedal of a MIDI Foot Controller. To do that we now need to do some MIDI settings…

X. MIDI connections and general MIDI settings First, let’s see the MIDI devices we need to interconnect. Here we will use:

• 1 MIDI Foot Controller, with some switching pedals and at least one expression pedal (here I use the BEHRINGER FCB 1010 with 10 switching pedals and 2 expression pedals (A and B)

• 1 Audio Card with at least 1 MIDI input (here I use the EDIROL Audio Capture FA-66) and 1 USB (or Firewire) Port

• 1 Computer with 1 USB (or Firewire) port • 3 software :

- VSTHost - Bome’s MIDI Translator - MIDIYoke

FX Chain1

FX Chain2


The MIDI signal chain will be: MIDI Foot Controller -> Audio Card -> Bome’s MIDI Translator -> MIDIYoke virtual cable -> VSTHost -> FX plugins

- VSTHost will receive all the MIDI messages coming from our MIDI Foot Controller (via the Audio Card and Bome’s MIDI Translator). Thanks to VSTHost, we’ll be able to define which operation each MIDI message will engage in VSTHost. For example, muting on/off FX plugins; muting on/off FX Chains; changing the wah-wah parameters inside amplitube2 (or any other FX plugin that contains a wah-wah effect); changing internal plugin presets inside any of the FX plugin loaded in VSTHost - Bome’s MIDI Translator allows transforming any incoming MIDI message into an outcoming signal that emulates a key stokes sequence. Here this software will allow us to transform the MIDI messages coming from the MIDI Foot Controller into signals that emulate a key stokes sequence. By doing this, we’ll be able to remote control lots of FX plugin parameters with our MIDI Foot Controller (for example, in VSTHost, Ctrl + N allows going from one program (preset) to the Next program; Ctrl + P allows going from one program (preset) to the Previous program …) - MIDIYoke will allow us to install virtual MIDI cables on the computer. This will allow us to MIDI connect Bome’s MIDI Translator to VSTHost. Thanks to this MIDI connection, all the MIDI messages that MIDI Bome’s Translator will receive from the MIDI Foot Controller will be transferred to VSTHost. Then, VSTHost will use them to control all the MIDI controllable parameters we talked about, at the beginning of this chapter Looking at the picture below, you’ll see, in detail, how to connect these MIDI devices and which path the MIDI signal will take from the MIDI Foot Controller to the FX plugins loaded in a VSTHost performance (the MIDI signal path is colored blue).

So, here’s the list of the MIDI connections to be done:

- Hardware connections: - the MIDI output of the MIDI Foot Controller must be connected to the MIDI input of the Audio Card. - the Audio Card must be connected to the computer, via USB (or FireWire) ports

- Bome’s MIDI Translator connections:

- the MIDI input of Bome’s MIDI Translator must be connected to the MIDI output of the Audio Card


- the MIDI output of Bome’s MIDI Translator must be connected to the input of MIDIYoke:1 (virtual MIDI cable)

- VSTHost connections: - the MIDI input of VSTHost must be connected to the MIDI output of MIDIYoke:1 - inside VSTHost, the MIDI input of each FX plug-in module must be connected to the output of MIDIYoke:1

Now, let’s look at that in detail: 1. Install MIDIYoke (it can be downloaded here: http://www.midiox.com/myoke.htm). 2. Install Bome’s MIDI Translator Classic Edition, which is the shareware version (it can be downloaded here: http://www.bome.com/midi/translator/mt_classic.html) 3. Configure the MIDI connections of Bome’s MIDI Translator (ie tell Bome’s MIDI Translator which device you want to connect to its MIDI Input and which device you want to connect to its MIDI Output). Here is what you should do:

- Select the MIDI device which shall be connected to the MIDI Input of Bome’s MIDI translator: in the menu bar, go to “Midi In” and select your Audio Card as shown on the following picture (here, I checked “EDIROL FA-66 MIDI IN)

- Select the MIDI device which shall be connected to the MIDI Output of Bome’s MIDI translator: in the menu bar, go to “Midi Out” and select one of the MIDIYoke virtual MIDI cables (here, I checked “Out To MIDI Yoke : 1”)


4. Configure the MIDI connections of VSTHost. Here is what you should do: As shown on the following window, in the menu bar, go to “Devices -> MIDI…”

The “MIDI Parameters” window will appear:


XI. Switching from one FX Chain to another in a VSTHost performance with one MIDI Foot Controller pedal

So, let’s come back to our last performance (Song 4). We’ve got 2 different FX Chains in it (2 different tone presets): FX Chain1 with AradzAmp2_Green connected to Voxengo Boogex and FX Chain2 with Amplitube2 connected to Voxengo Boogex We have “muted on” FX Chain1 (tone preset n°1) so that we can hear only FX Chain2 (tone preset n°2)

FX Chain1

FX Chain2


Now, we want to switch from Preset n°2 to Preset n°1 and then back to Preset n°2 via one MIDI Foot Controller pedal So let’s decompose what we want: We want one push on this pedal to send a MIDI message to VSTHost (via Bome’s MIDI Translator). We want this MIDI message to “mute on” FX Chain2 which is “muted off” (so it must “mute on” “Amplitube2” module n°2 and “Voxengo Boogex” module n°4 which compose the FX Chain2). We also want this MIDI message to “mute off” FX Chain1 which is “muted on” (so it must “mute off” “AradzAmp2_Green” module n°3 and “Voxengo Boogex” module n°5 which compose the FX Chain1). All this must be done at the same time with the same MIDI message. So, here we go: First, we need to choose which MIDI message will control the mute functions (namely, the MIDI message that is sent by one of our MIDI Foot controller pedals. Then, for each plugin module loaded in our VSTHost performance (Song 4), we’ll have to configure things so that the selected MIDI message should be able to do one of the following actions: either toggling the plugin module from "mute on" to "mute off" or toggling the plugin module from "mute off" to "mute on". But, before configuring all the plugin modules in VSTHost, don’t forget that, according the MIDI signal chain we made, the MIDI message coming from the MIDI Foot Controller will not enter VSTHost… It will first enter the Audio Card then it will go into Bome’s MIDI Translator and if we don’t setup properly Bome’s MIDI Translator, the MIDI message will not go out of Bome’s MIDI Translator and, as a result, it won’t go to VSTHost… - So we need to configure Bome’s MIDI Translator: Open Bome’s MIDI Translator. A new project is opened and the main window appears

Go to “File -> Save As…” to give it a name and save it (here, I will name it essai1) In the main window, we must create what is called a “preset” (BUT don’t make the confusion, these presets are not tone presets!!!). To create a preset, go to the menu; then, go to “Preset -> New…” or go on the Toolbar and click on the 4th button (from

left to right) – it’s the “Create A New Translator Preset” button


In the left column, you see a new line with the name of the Preset (by default, the name is “New Preset):

Now, in this New Preset, we will create “Translators”. In the language of Bome’s MIDI Translator, a Translator is some sort of rule which defines how Bome’s MIDI Translator must transform an incoming MIDI message. To create a New Translator, we must ensure that the Preset in which we want to create this Translator is activated (the line with the name of the Preset must be over-lined). Then, in the menu, go to “Translator ->Add” or go on the Toolbar and

click on the 8th button (from left to right) – it’s the “Add A New Translator” button In the right column, you see a new line with the name of the Translator (by default, the name is “New Translator):

Now, we need to write the rules for this New Translator. That is to define which incoming MIDI message will have to be “translated” and how it will be translated.


For example, we can tell our New Translator to transform a specific Control Change MIDI message into a different Control Change MIDI message. We can also tell this New Translator to transform the incoming MIDI message into a signal which emulates a key stroke sequence… To do that, go on the menu and then go to “Translator -> Edit” or go on the Toolbar and click on the 9th button (from left

to right) – it’s the “Edit The Selected Translator” button The “Edit Translator Entry” window will appear:

In the “Incoming” area, we’ll keep the default settings. What we’ll have to do, is just defining which incoming MIDI message we want the Translator to transform. You can write the complete MIDI message but, if you’re not good in MIDI language, you can just check “Capture MIDI” When “Capture MIDI” is checked, you just have to push the MIDI pedal you want to use to control a parameter and Bome’s MIDI Translator will capture this message and write it in the “MIDI message trigger” line… Then you should go to the “Outgoing” area. Here you will define which action the translator will have to do when it will receive the incoming message.


As you can see on the above picture, you can select the outgoing action type. By default, it’s set to “None”. If you want to transform the incoming MIDI message into a MIDI message, select “MIDI message”. If you want to transform the incoming MIDI message into a Key Stroke Emulation, select “Key Stroke Emulation” If you select “MIDI message” as an outgoing action, the outgoing area will look as follow. Here, you’ll have to keep the default settings. Then, you will just have to specify what will be the new Outgoing MIDI message that will be sent to the MIDI OUT of Bome’s MIDI Translator (writing it or using the “Capture MIDI” function).


If you select “Key Stroke Emulation”, the outgoing area will look as follow. Here, you’ll have to keep the default settings. Then, you’ll just have to specify the precise Key Stoke Sequence you want the incoming MIDI message to be transformed into. Just put the cursor on the “Key Press or Sequence” line and press the exact key sequence you want.

So now, let’s come back to what we wanted, namely sending a MIDI message to VSTHost that could mute on FX Chain2 while muting off FX Chain1… I’ll use the 1st pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller to do this. Here, I don’t need to transform the original MIDI message sent by this pedal. I just want this message to go to VSTHost. Normally, I shouldn’t have to create a translator to let the original MIDI message pass through Bome’s MIDI translator. But I had problems with the MIDI THRU function of Bome’s MIDI Translator (when I wanted to send a MIDI message to VSTHost via Bome’s MIDI translator, it didn’t work). So I created a translator in which the Outgoing message is the same MIDI message as the Incoming one… Maybe, you won’t have to do this if ever you succeed in using the THRU function of Bome’s MIDI Translator. BTW, if ever you had the same problem as me, I give you settings for this special translator. I named this translator the “Thru MIDI Message 1 Mute on off” translator. It sends the MIDI message coming from the 1st pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller to VSTHost. I will use it to switch from FX Chain1 to FX Chain2 in our last VSThost performance (Song 4) So here are these settings for this translator:


As you can see: the incoming message and the Outgoing messages are the same… NOW here’s the FINAL TOUCH… The final settings… we must tell VSTHost what to do with these MIDI messages. Let’s remember what we want:


We want the push on one pedal of the MIDI Foot Controller to send a MIDI message to VSTHost (via Bome’s MIDI Translator). We want this MIDI message to “mute on” FX Chain2 which is “muted off” (so it must “mute on” “Amplitube2” module n°2 and “Voxengo Boogex” module n°4 which compose the FX Chain2). We also want this MIDI message to “mute off” FX Chain1 which is “muted on” (so it must “mute off” “AradzAmp2_Green” module n°3 and “Voxengo Boogex” module n°5 which compose the FX Chain1). So here we go for the MIDI configuration of VSTHost: First, we need to choose which MIDI message will control the mute functions (namely, the MIDI message that is sent by one of our MIDI Foot controller pedals. As a matter of facts, we already chose that when we create the “Thru MIDI Message 1 Mute on off” translator… So it will be the MIDI message sent by the 1st pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller Now, for each plugin module loaded in our VSTHost performance (Song 4), we’ll have to configure things so that this MIDI message should be able to do one of the following actions: either toggling the plugin module from "mute on" to "mute off" or toggling the plugin module from "mute off" to "mute on". Here’s the way to do that: Let’s configure the first FX plugin in FX Chain1, which is AradazAmp2_Green. So, select the AradazAmp2-Green module n°3 in FX Chain1 (to do that just click in the empty space of the plugin module). You can see on the top of the main window the name of this plugin which means that all the settings that you will do through the Plugin Entry of the main menu, will concern AradazAmp2_Green OK, now, as shown on the following picture, go to “Plugin -> Window -> MIDI Parameters”

The following window appears:


Go in the “MIDI Input Devices” area and select which device must be connected to the MIDI input of the plugin module. Here, select “In From MIDI Yoke: 1”(because, due to the previous settings we’ve done in Bome’s MIDI Translator, all the MIDI message coming from Bome’s MIDI are sent to this MIDIYoke virtual cable) Now, go on the “Remote Control Port” area. In the “Input Port” line, again, select “In From MIDI Yoke: 1”


Then, you must tell VSTHost which parameter (here the mute parameter) the MIDI message sent by your MIDI Foot Controller pedal must control and which changes must be done to this parameter. Here we want our MIDI message to command to possible changes: our MIDI message must be able to change the mute parameter from “on” to “off”… and from “off” to “on”. So we need to assign our MIDI message to 2 different actions: the first action is changing the mute parameter from “on” to “off”; the second action is changing the mute parameter from “off” to “on”. If we do that, VSThost will be able to choose which of these 2 actions has to be done, considering the mute status of the plugin which will receive the MIDI message: Let me explain: If the plugin module (here, AradazAmp2_Green) is already “muted on” when we will push the pedal of the MIDI Foot Controller, then the action VSTHost will choose to do will be: changing the mute parameter of AradazAmp2_Green from “on” to “off”. On the other side, if the plugin module is “muted off”, then pushing the pedal of the MIDI Foot Controller will command the opposite action, namely changing the mute parameter of AradazAmp2_Green from “off” to “on”. So we must fill 2 lines in the “Remote Control Port” area (one line for each action that you want your MIDI message to control) - First line (first action to be MIDI controlled): On the left area, write the MIDI message you want to use to control one specific action. Here, we’ll use the “Learn” Function which is exactly the same function as the “Capture MIDI” function we saw in Bome’s MIDI translator. So, in the “Type” menu, select “Learn”

Then, push the MIDI Foot Controller pedal you want to use to control the mute parameter of AradazAmp2_Green (here, I selected the 1st pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller) The MIDI message will be written in the line:


Now, on the right area, let’s define the first action that must be done (here toggling the Mute parameter from “on” to “off”) So, select the parameter that must be controlled (here, select “mute”, in the “parameter” menu). Then, specify how this parameter must be modified (here we want the mute parameter to toggle from “on” to “off”, which means that we need to change the parameter value From 1.000 To 0.000 (when the parameter value is set to 1, the parameter status is “on” ; when the parameter value is set to 0, the parameter status is “off”). Here, the default settings are OK.

1st line

1st line


- Second line (second action to be MIDI controlled): Let's fill the second line to assign the MIDI message sent by your pedal to the second action (here, toggling the mute parameter from off" to “on"). Do exactly the same as above. The only thing that changes here is that we want the mute parameter to change from 0.000 to 1.000.

NOW, do exactly the same thing for each plugin module loaded in Song 4. Here are the settings for the “Voxengo Boogex” module n°5(in the FX Chain1)

2nd line


Here are the settings for the “Amplitube2” module n°2 (in the FX Chain2)

Here are the settings for the “Voxengo Boogex” module n°4 (in the FX Chain2)

So that’s it! Don’t forget to mute on one of the 2 FX Chains. Don’t forget that the Bome’s MIDI translator project must be opened… And everything should work!


XII. Changing the plugin programs inside one of the plugin modules that are loaded in VSTHost… with a MIDI Foot Controller

Now, we will see how we can use VSTHost and Bome’s MIDI Translator in order to change internal plugin presets inside any FX plugin loaded in any of the 2 FX Chains, with a MIDI Foot Controller. As you certainly know, most of the FX plugin has internal presets. In VSTHost, these internal plugin presets are called “plugin programs” and VSThost can use specific key stroke sequences to go from one plugin program to the next plugin program or to the previous plugin program. Ctrl N allows going to the Next plugin program and Ctrl P allows going to the Previous plugin program. So with Bome’s MIDI translator, we can transform an incoming MIDI message (sent by one MIDI Foot Controller switching pedal) into one of these key stroke sequences and, by the way, we can change plugin programs VIA MIDI messages! So let’s do the MIDI settings in Bome’s MIDI Translator. We need to create 2 translators, one per action (one for going to the Previous plugin program and one for going to the Next plugin program) Let’s see the translators I created for the Amplitube 2 module (I called them “Amplitube2 Alt P” translator and “Amplitube2 Alt N” translator) - “Amplitube2 Alt P” translator This translator transforms the MIDI message coming from the 2nd pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller into the following Key Stroke Sequence: Alt P. It sends the Key Stroke Sequence to VSTHost telling VSTHost to go to the Previous Amplitube2 Program. Of course, it only works when FX Chain 2 is not muted Here are the operations done to configure the “Amplitube2 Alt N” Translator:

- In the “Incoming” area:


The MIDI message sent by the 3rd pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller has been captured


- In the “Outcoming” area:


- “Amplitube2 Alt N” translator This translator transforms the MIDI message coming from the 3rd pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller into the following Key Stroke Sequence: Alt N. It sends the Key Stroke Sequence to VSTHost telling VSTHost to go to the Next Amplitube2 Program. Of course, it only works when FX Chain2 is not muted Here are the settings the “Amplitube2 Alt P” Translator:


Notice that you don’t need to configure the plugin modules like we did before. So, now, if we push the appropriated switching pedal on the MIDI Foot Controller, we will be able to change the plugin program of the plugin module that is currently activated in the VSTHost performance. Be careful, as I’ve just said, this will work ONLY for the plugin module that has been initially activated in the current performance… So, you have to choose the good plugin… because you won’t be able to activate another plugin module with your MIDI Foot Controller…

XIII. Controlling the wah-wah pedal inside Amplitube 2 module (which is loaded in FX Chain2) with the expression pedal of a MIDI Foot Controller

First, we have to configure Bome’s MIDI translator. Normally, we shouldn’t have to create a translator to let the original MIDI message pass through Bome’s MIDI translator. But I had problems with the MIDI THRU function of Bome’s MIDI Translator (when I wanted to send a MIDI message to VSTHost via Bome’s MIDI translator, it didn’t work). So I created a translator in which the Outgoing message is the same MIDI message as the Incoming one… Maybe, you won’t have to do this if ever you succeed in using the THRU function of Bome’s MIDI Translator. BTW, if you ever had the same problem as me, I give you settings for this special translator. I named this translator the “Thru MIDI Message2 Amplitube 2 Wah” translator. It sends the MIDI message coming from the 1st Expression Pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller (Pedal A) to the Amplitube2 module that is loaded in FX Chain2. This MIDI message allows me to control the Wah-Wah pedal of the Amplitube2 module. Of course, we can only hear the effect when FX Chain2 is not muted (muted off)… - So here are the settings for this translator:


Now, let’s go for the MIDI configuration of VSTHost: As usual, we need to choose which MIDI message will control the mute functions (namely, the MIDI message that is sent by one of our MIDI Foot controller pedals. We already chose that when we create the “Thru MIDI Message2 Amplitube 2 Wah” translator… So, it will be the MIDI message sent by the A expression pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller. In the current performance (Song 4), select the Amplitube 2 module. Then, in the menu bar, go to “Plugin -> Windows -> MIDI->Parameters”


The “Amplitube 2 MIDI / Parameter Mapping” window appears: On the left area, use the “Learn” Function to write the MIDI message that will control the Wah-Wah parameter. In the “Type” menu, select “Learn”

Then, push the MIDI Foot Controller pedal you chose (here, I selected the A Expression Pedal of my MIDI Foot Controller): the MIDI message will be written in the line. Now, on the right area, select the parameter that must be controlled. If the amplitube2 preset you’ve selected uses the StompA chain, then select “Wah A Wah”, in the “parameter” menu. Otherwise, select “Wah B Wah”, in the “parameter” menu.


Keep the default settings for the parameter values.

So here we are: we’ve got 2 tone presets (FX Chain1 and FX Chain2) in a VSTHost performance. We can switch from one preset to the other with one pedal of a MIDI Foot Controller. When playing with FX Chain2 which contains the Amplitube2 module, we can change the Amplitube 2 presets (Amplitube2 programs) going from one preset to the next with the push of one MIDI pedal or going to the previous preset with another MIDI pedal. In the Amplitude2 presets where the Wah-Wah is loaded, we can control it with a MIDI expression Pedal! You know what… I’m happy…