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Hi,

I am trying to autmate some channels of my V-Rack. It hosts a couple of VIs and I want to automate some plugins that are inserted.

Without a V-Rack that has never been a problem (this is the first time I am trying to work with V-Racks - the current project just has so many nearly identical cues and I need to switch a lot.).

Usually I just draw automation (like bypass, filter frequency etc) onto the track of the corresponding VI, but with the V-Rack, I obvously have no tracks in my sequence that represent it.

I have tried to create an aux track (e.g. with bus 1-2 as an input) and assigned the output of a vi to that.
I would have been able to work the same way as before. But: no luck, didn't get a sound out of the aux track.

I guess I am just not seeing something basic...

Any _quick_ help would be greatly appreciated.

It depends upon what you want to automate. Since tracks in V-racks are not part of the sequence, track parameters like fader level or effects parameters can not be automated. But if you're working with a virtual instrument plug-in that responds to MIDI data, then you can transmit MIDI data from the MIDI track in the sequence to the instrument plug-in the V-rack. That way you can automate things like volume (CC #7) and pan (CC #10).

christopher wrote:
I have tried to create an aux track (e.g. with bus 1-2 as an input) and assigned the output of a vi to that.
I would have been able to work the same way as before. But: no luck, didn't get a sound out of the aux track.

That should work.
Was the Aux assigned to a working output?

Thanks for you answers, guys. Very much appreciated.

1nput0utput wrote:Since tracks in V-racks are not part of the sequence, track parameters like fader level or effects parameters can not be automated..

That's the thing: I do want to automate fader level and effect parameters and via an aux track it should be possible (and, in fact, is possible). See below.

Tim wrote:That should work.
Was the Aux assigned to a working output?

Ok, I tried it again this morning and it worked like a charm. I guess I was to tired yesterday night. Also, I couldn't find anything about it in the manual, which I think is strange, since this seems like a basic funktion to me. Anyway, if anyone else has a problem, here is the simple solution again:

1. create an aux track in your sequence and assign a free input to that (e.g. bus 1-2)
2. switch to your v-rack and assign the output of the channel you want to automate to the input of the aux track (in this case bus 1-2)
3. switch back to your sequence and insert effects on that aux channel/ automate away

Just be aware that the output of that particular channel in the v-rack is now always assigned to "bus 1-2", so you need to create a corresponding aux track in all your sequences that use that channel of the v-rack. Of course, you can have different effects and automate differently (which is the beauty of the whole thing).

christopher wrote:Just be aware that the output of that particular channel in the v-rack is now always assigned to "bus 1-2", so you need to create a corresponding aux track in all your sequences that use that channel of the v-rack.

I usually name my bus pairs for the particular VI in the V-Rack. Also, some VI's in the V-Rack are multi-timbral. In these cases, the methods vary, but a little trial & error will get you there for each VI. For instance, anything that operates in Native Instruments' Kontakt2 Player requires setting up multi-timbral outputs in its internal mixing board. While you can name these tracks, those names don't make it over into DP's Bundles. So, you have to figure out what channels they are sending through, and NI has not made that easy for us at all. Then, you look for the corresponding channel # in DP's Bundles in the "Instruments" section. For some reason, there is some Waves channels (which I have never bothered to figure out) occupying the first 2 channels. That offsets the Kontakt-2 channels by one pair. Like I said, it takes some trial & error until you figure it out, but it's ultimately doable.

In MOTU VI's with multi-timbral capability, such as MOTU Symphonic Instrument or Mach5.2, you can assign them to their busses right in the VI, which is in the V-Rack. But the names of your busses won't show up in the VI's output channel list. It takes a moment to figure out how each implementation works, but it does, and you can send automations on each one.

NOTE: In Native Instruments KONTAKT2-Player, you must set a preference for how you want K2P to respond to automation controllers, here:


Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that in, because you aren't always limited to a single output pair for a VI in V-Racks.

Shooshie