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Old 05-24-2020, 04:16 PM   #1
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Default Virtual Guitar Pedalboard, with external controller?

I just purchased a second large pedalboard, plus $200 for a good iso power supply, to hold all my extra studio stompboxes. While I have a lovely collection or real tube amps, I usually find myself recording with Amplitube. However, you can't beat the convenience (tweakability) and coolness-factor of stompboxes.

But now I'm thinking - Other than an analog wah (still no great digital equivalent) do I really need external stompboxes at all?

I have several VST-based plugins that are either dedicated pedal emulations, or included with amp modelers. However, what I'm looking for is the hardware-software integration that would make it seem like I still have the external boxes underfoot.

so:
------------------------

Can anyone recommend both an excellent suite of vst stompboxes (or singles) plus some kind of midi foot-controller, that can be easily integrated so as to have tweakability of the most important parameters? Ideally it would also have the ability to store / change macro setups, but I can live without that.

Again, I'm not looking for amp models, per se. What's important is to be able to assign various parameters to the external controller, and to do so for a number of different virtual-stompboxes at the same time.


thx.
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Old 05-24-2020, 10:12 PM   #2
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The sticky thread here provides some links to guitar-centric implementations. E.g. "Pipelineaudio" did some amazing stuff.
-Michael
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Old 05-25-2020, 09:31 AM   #3
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Thanks, but I can't find those links, nor that post.

Which sticky are you referring to?
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Old 05-25-2020, 10:29 AM   #4
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Default A RELATED QUESTION:

Also -


I have many beloved "virtual stompbox" plugins, which are single FX, not complete pedalboard emulations. (From Mokafix, PSP, etc) I'd like to combine them into one vst window, using some kind of host plugin. I know these exist, but have little knowledge of the details.

Can anyone recommend one, that would be particularly useful for a virtual pedalboard setup?
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Old 05-25-2020, 11:10 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cableaddict View Post
Also -


I have many beloved "virtual stompbox" plugins, which are single FX, not complete pedalboard emulations. (From Mokafix, PSP, etc) I'd like to combine them into one vst window, using some kind of host plugin. I know these exist, but have little knowledge of the details.

Can anyone recommend one, that would be particularly useful for a virtual pedalboard setup?
maybe LBX stripper?
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Old 05-25-2020, 02:16 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cableaddict View Post
Which sticky are you referring to?
Just above: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213568
-Michael
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Old 05-26-2020, 07:15 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschnell View Post
I read that whole thread, but I don 't see anything at all that applies to my question / scenario.

(Nor did I see any post from Pipeline Audio)

Am I overlooking something?
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Old 05-26-2020, 10:36 PM   #8
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In the first message in the sticky thread:

Guitar setups with VSTs for sound modification. (see e.g. -> http://pipelineaudio.net/2018/02/07/...er-fcb-1010/6/, https://pipelineaudio.net/guitarjack...-lbx-stripper/ )

Unfortunately one of the links has been removed by pipeline Which I can't help.

-Michael (usual browsers do have a "search page for text" function...)

Last edited by mschnell; 05-27-2020 at 10:12 PM.
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Old 05-27-2020, 01:15 PM   #9
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I did a setup witch pretty much what you said and a little more using reaper and lbx stripper.

And I can confirm that the pipeline way shown in that video did tremendously helped achieve the alll thing for me.
So it can do it briantly, but it was kind of a big big pita to figure all it out.

In the end, I was able from my pedalboard to trigger samples, use a looper, control all sounds and fx for my guitar and the flamenco dancer who performed with me (using motion sensors, she controlled some parameters too when I allowed it...). By muting/demuting tracks using lbx stripper snapshots.

In some short words, with lbx stripper you can control all reapers and plugins parameters, save presets, create macros, modulate them with a step sequencer, link them to midi controller. But there is a big learning curve and not so much documentation...

Regarding stompboxes replacement, there are a lot plugins for very good sounding fx, i use meldapoduction's a lot. Some jsfx can do really amazings things, just check saike's reflectosaurus, or floaty delay for example...
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Old 05-27-2020, 10:14 PM   #10
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Unfortunately there is no written documentation on LBX stripper. So nobody can know in advance what it can do for creating a live playing setup. That is why I never bothered to try it, but stick with a LiveConfigs based setup until I finally will manage to create a Reaper extension as an upgrade to LiveConfigs.

-Michael
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Old 05-27-2020, 11:28 PM   #11
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LBX Stripper can do some CRAZY awesome stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ5fu66jwS4

SWS With mschnell's stuff can be uber ridiculously powerful

https://pipelineaudio.net/the-reaper...board-project/
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Old 05-28-2020, 06:42 PM   #12
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I kinda' need this too be somewhat simple right now, so no LBX stripper/ (Yet)

FWIW. I've decided to try Blue Cat's "Audio Patchwork." The GUI is ugly, but from its description, it ssould be exactly what I need, and not much else. (software-wise)


I should rpobably look into NI's KORE as well, but it's hard to find time for this stuff....



As for hardware, I'm surprised no company seems to make anything specifically for this task. Well, at least I haven't found anything yet. What would be ideal is something like the Behringer foot-controller (or Roland) but with a section that has knobs for parameter control. - And maybe a numeric pad for preset selection.

Maybe one of those pedalboards, combined with a tablet, running the right software.... Then the tablet could be mounted on a mic stand, for even more convenience.

But ughhh.... this is going to take a lot of research & work !

Last edited by Cableaddict; 05-30-2020 at 07:07 PM.
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Old 05-28-2020, 08:23 PM   #13
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I was going to gut a wireless Korg Nanostudio 2 or whatever its called
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Old 05-28-2020, 10:03 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cableaddict View Post
I should rpobably look into NI's KORE as well.
Are you trying to be funny ?

Before I decided to go with Reaper for my Live setup many years ago, I intended to buy Kore as a self-contained LIVE-instrument builder, but NI dumped the product.

Hence I did not even mention Kore in "Alternative stand alone software for Live playing with plugins" in the sticky thread above here, where you can find several other alternatives that might be interesting for you.

-Michael

Last edited by mschnell; 05-29-2020 at 07:37 AM.
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Old 05-28-2020, 10:49 PM   #15
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Gig performer is pretty incredible for standalone
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Old 05-29-2020, 08:51 AM   #16
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I actually bought a couple of nanokontrols with the intention of hacking them into some sort of pedalboard controller thing, but kind of never got around to it. I even set up a bunch of plugins and mapped the various faders and knobs and buttons so that it would work pretty much exactly like the analog pedalboard I was using, complete with “true bypass” feedback looper and a wah pedal that I don’t actually usually carry.

Honestly it was so long ago that the details are hazy. I remember I had built JS plugins to translate the CC inputs in various ways. For example, I had it so the wah would bypass when it went all the way to the toe position and probably scaled and maybe adjusted the taper of some of the others. I was able play the whole thing from the nanokontrol itself, but of course it was laid out all weird so remembering exactly which knob did what wasn’t easy. More importantly, you can’t really stomp on it to bypass things.

The idea was to take it apart, put it in a more robust enclosure, and then replace all the knobs, faders, and switches with stompbox-worthy components. Include a simple analog buffer with balanced output for the guitar itself and ideally have an expression pedal input for some if not all of the parameters. There are a lot of reasons that never happened, but I think mostly just that I already have a pedalboard that does what I want. It’s sort of still “on the list”, but way down toward the bottom.
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Old 05-29-2020, 08:56 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschnell View Post
Are you trying to be funny ?

Before I decided to go with Reaper for my Live setup many years ago, I intended to buy Kore as a self-contained LIVE-instrument builder, but NI dumped the product.

Hence I did not even mention Kore in "Alternative stand alone software for Live playing with plugins" in the sticky thread above here, where you can find several other alternatives that might be interesting for you.

-Michael
Wow. I didn't realize they discontinued it. (Thx.)

Sadly, this is very typical for NI, which is why I typically don't use their products any longer. (Except for Kontakt & Traktor.)
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Old 05-29-2020, 09:25 AM   #18
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The original nanokontrol, btw, is practically free and still works just fine. Compared to the v2, it has one more whole “channel strip”, meaning another fader and knob, but one less button per strip. For my uses the real continuous controls were a bigger priority, but I guess you’d have to decide that for yourself.
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Old 05-30-2020, 07:23 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pipelineaudio View Post
Gig performer is pretty incredible for standalone

Say, that does look good. It seems to be an evolution of a simple host I used to use, many years ago. (It had a different name, but the basic GUI looks identical.)

Having assignable soft-knows & sliders would vastly simplify things.


I'm wondering now if maybe I should try to use this, or mainstage, or some other stand-alone app, then route the output into Reaper digitally. If it works, it would offer at least 3 major benefits:

1: Easier routing of the external midi controller(s to specific parameters. (It can sometimes be tricky with Reaper.)

2: Much quicker access to the "pedalboard" GUI, since there would be an icon for it sitting at the bottom of my desktop.

3: I assume the host's GUI could take up my entire desktop, vs only part of it when using a vst-plugin host, so easier navigation.
------------------------------------


I may give this a go, and see if Rearoute will do the deed. I don't really need to send sync or timing info, though that would be icing on the cake for delays & such.


For the hardware, it's looking more and more like a pedalboard + a tablet/iPad running something like Hexler TouchOSC.
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Old 05-30-2020, 10:00 PM   #20
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As described in the sticky thread, a third party stand alone host software would potentially be a lot easier to configure than a Reaper based setup, but it of course limited to exactly what it is designed for.

An appropriately tuned Reaper project can be extended to do close to anything you like.

And many 3rd party products are a lot more expensive than Reaper, while using Reaper for this essentially costs nothing, as you will buy and use Reaper for it's "normal" purpose, anyway.
-Michael
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Old 05-31-2020, 03:54 AM   #21
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The challenges of this desire are, in order:

Latency
Control Paradigm
DSP Processing

Anything more than about 6ms round trip will be noticeable, which is achievable with the right interface, drivers, DAW Host and Plugs.

Once you have solved that, then the question is control, and this is typically the most fun, as there are heaps of options. My fave is the Teensy.

Now those two issues are resolved you can think about sounds. Its a bit of work getting this far, but it’s usually worth it.
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