Hello,
I’m building a setlist from scratch for a new project. I’m rethinking the structure and would like your opinions.
option - Every plugin is in its own rack and using rack states for different sounds and checking host parameters for plugins inside racks (in “State Behaviour - Plugin”). This is what I have been using so far. It works fine but for every change in the plugin I have to double click the rack, go to the “rack states pane” and update the locked rack state manually, then exiting the rack to go back to setlist. Leaving rack states unlocked proved to be a source of trouble for me.
option - Using only “selected programs” in “State Behaviour - Plugin” inside a rack - I would put different sounds of individual plugins in the “Programs” section of cantabile when the plugin is open. I would leave host parameters in the “State Behaviour” unchecked. Then I would lock those programs and when editing the plugin settings I would unlock and relock the selected program. Seems much less work, however in some cases and plugins like B-3X I would rather not save the CC11 for example. I haven’t found a way to do it this way. Another drawback - while I can lock the program itself, when doing some (unwanted?) copy/pasting, the program name gets updated even if the program is locked. I haven’t found a way to update/save the program settings only on my manual intervention which is another drawback.
option - A combination of both - different plugins ask for different ways. However, then I would need to remember which plugin uses which way to deal with it so it’s inconsistent.
I’d like to hear how other people make their life easier.
I’m still working on expanding my use of racks so very interested in further advice shared here. I just searched “rack organize inputs routes” and @Torsten and @dave_dore (others too but these two dominate the results ) come up with many posts sharing advice and experience - it’s worth a look although can be overwhelming.
I use your option 1. I started out a few years ago saving each plugins programs, which is crucial if you are going to use the plugin standalone or in another host. Since I use c3 exclusively, That’s not an issue for me, so in rack state behavior I make sure that " entire bank" is selected, so I only have to save a rack state for each tone. I also usually check all of the boxes in rack state behavior, because I want everything saved.
The more you work with it, the more you will stop forgetting to relock the state when you’re done editing. For me, I find it best to not have c3 automatically save anything, but I have gotten in the habit of doing a “save all” quite frequently when editing.
I think corky first suggested to me the best approach when setting up racks, is to work with just the one plug in, let’s say a VSTI, and get all the tones you think you’ll want, saving each as a rack state. Then when you go to build a song you just have to select from the tones you already created. This doesn’t mean you can’t add new ones, which I do all the time, but it does make setting it up quite a bit faster.
For instruments and guitar amps I typically put the one plug in a rack. But for effects, I stack them all serially into one rack, and use suspend and bypass as needed. I do have one rack for guitar effects and another rack for synths and keys effects. It’s all personal preference though. While it’s true that each rack does cause a very small CPU hit, it appears to be negligible, and I often run seven or eight racks in one song.
) come up with many posts sharing advice and experience - it’s worth a look although can be overwhelming.