Does MIDI CC > CV work in VST?

I have Rack Pro and can’t seem to get the the MIDI CC → CV module to process CC messages from a MIDI Controller when using the DAW plugin (VST) in Ableton Live. Any cable I hook up to a module output emits 10V, no matter what, and is unresponsive to the MIDI controller (I tried a MIDI Fighter Twister and a 16n). The same exact patch in a non-VST context works fine with my MIDI controllers.

Is this a known issue (couldn’t find anything in search) or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks, Rob

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Sorry, I’m not connecting the dots between your links and my question about whether a the CC-CV module works in the VST.

I know how to do the mapping other ways. I was just wondering why this particular method isn’t working for me in the VST.

Maybe your VST host has exclusive use of the midi device ?

Make sure the host is not using it - you can’t use it in both the DAW and VCV (on windows at least)

Need more details about what OS and DAW you’re using - and a picture/patch file perhaps.

One way of using the controllers is described in the video I linked - by forwarding to the VST midi input from a seperate track in Ableton.

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Maybe your VST host has exclusive use of the midi device?

Not sure what you mean by this. I don’t have any other instances of VCV Rack open and no other software is using the MIDI devices.

I’m using Ableton Live on a 2022 Mac Studio with MacOS Monterey.

The patch I’ve attached as a screenshot works as expected in regular (non-VST) Rack Pro, but the exact same patch is unresponsive to any MIDI CC messages from the CC->CV module in Rack VST.

If I use Configure and Ableton’s MIDI Map, my MIDI Devices can control knobs fine in Rack VST (see 2nd screenshot).

So that suggests to me that the CC->CV module doesn’t work in Rack VST. Can anyone confirm? Should I not expect it to work in Rack VST?

Thanks for the help!

On Windows, I have to turn off the devices in the Ableton midi menu - or VCV won’t be able to use them.

I think the default is that the 16n gets set to “track” - change that.

image

I have no idea about mac.

15.3.1 The MIDI Ports List in the Preferences

Routing and I/O — Ableton Reference Manual Version 11 | Ableton

Edit, add: It’s been a while since i used the VST - now I can’t get it to work. I don’t get any midi from the Windows midi devices in the vst.

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I set up a user controller config to get the midi forwarding like described in the video to work with the 16n.

I use CC’s from 32 to 47 for my 16n faders 16n web-config. I changed the “Encoder” lines to the same 16 CC’s in a custom UserConfiguration.txt (see https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/206240184-Creating-your-own-Control-Surface-script).

UserConfiguration.txt Changes to template file
# Lines 114-129 commented out
#
# Encoder1: -1 
# Encoder2: -1
# Encoder3: -1
# Encoder4: -1
# Encoder5: -1
# Encoder6: -1
# Encoder7: -1
# Encoder8: -1
# Encoder9: -1
# Encoder10: -1
# Encoder11: -1
# Encoder12: -1
# Encoder13: -1
# Encoder14: -1
# Encoder15: -1
# Encoder16: -1
#
# CC's as configured in the 16n web configurator.
# must be changed to your settings, as they are changed from the default !
#
Encoder1: 32 
Encoder2: 33
Encoder3: 34
Encoder4: 35
Encoder5: 36
Encoder6: 37
Encoder7: 38
Encoder8: 39
Encoder9: 40
Encoder10: 41
Encoder11: 42
Encoder12: 43
Encoder13: 44
Encoder14: 45
Encoder15: 46
Encoder16: 47

UserConfiguration.txt (8.3 KB)

The file is placed under a dir I created, called “fader-16n” under Preferences\User Remote Scripts\

Now I can use the 16n faders to control the 16 first knobs/parameters of the active Live device.

image

I have to change “Control Surface” → “fader-16n :small_red_triangle_down:” to “none” to be able to map the cc’s in VCV-vst.

image

To get the CC to the VST, you have to set up a MIDI track to forward from the controller to the VST MIDI input, like described in the video.

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To get the CC to the VST, you have to set up a MIDI track to forward from the controller to the VST MIDI input, like described in the video.

By “get the CC to the VST”, do you mean that the CC->CV module will now work?

Maybe we’re talking about two different problems (one on Windows), because I have no trouble mapping cc’s to Rack parameters on my Mac when I use Configure mode on the Rack VST (https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209073089-Saving-plug-in-parameter-configurations). My only issue is that I can’t get the MIDI CC > CV module to work in Rack VST.

UPDATE: Just tested and found the Midi Map module (part of VCV Core) also won’t map MIDI CC messages in Rack VST.

Unless someone can explain why I shouldn’t expect these modules to map cc messages in Rack VST, I’m going to file a bug report through the proper channels.

Thanks!

Yes, the MIDI CC->CV module works from the 16n through Ableton Live to the VCV Rack2 Pro VST, using the setup I have just described.

VST parameter mapping is something else - it uses 0.0 - 1.0 floating point numbers (32bit ?) for the parameters.

Midi CC’s are only 0-127 integer values. Both on the physical midi in/out - and the midi CC channel in the VST implementation. (excluding 14 bit CC+32 / RPN / NRPN)


What does not seem to work, is using a midi device (not the DAW) in the VST - if this is by design or a bug, I don’t know. I barely remember if we were promised that the VST could use external midi and audio devices early in the Rack2 development process. I’m not sure of the status on all platforms and DAW’s

OK I’ll try that. Thanks.

The VST parameter mapping seems to work fine though for what I originally wanted from the CC>CV module. I just want to control a knob with my controller, so I can map the knob value directly to the VST parameter and get the same effect as running a cable from CC>CV (if it worked in Rack VST the way it does in non-VST Rack).

I think this is the answer to the OP.

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Reaper automagically forwards CC’s to the VST

And the VST CC>CV doesn’t do anything with the windows devices - only works with “DAW”