Multitimbral VSTs Guide - Plogue Bidule and MIDI Loopback

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Lempface
Posts: 183
Joined: 27 Jan 2018

27 Jan 2018

Hey guys, this is my first post and hopefully will help at least one person enjoy their multitimbral VSTs in Reason. I've been searching for a way to do this since VST support was released.

Disclaimer: I'm a Windows user and am not sure if this works on Mac but I assume it would if Mac has any proper MIDI loopback solutions. Also, I have no affiliation with any of the manufacturers of any of these products, just an @home user who likes to toy with this kind of stuff.

First, let's take an inventory of what we'll need for this.

Reason 9.5+ (I'm using 10)
Plogue Bidule VST https://www.plogue.com/products/bidule/
MIDI Loopback Solution (I'm using LoopMIDI and Windows 10 https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html)
A Multitimbral VST, I'll be using LuSH-101 to demonstrate http://d16.pl/lush-101

Install Bidule and your Loopback MIDI solution.

For LoopMIDI you can access the configuration panel from the system tray on the task bar. Double click the icon and add some ports. I've added 5 and labeled them Loop1-Loop5.
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Once you've got the ports in place, we can get into Reason and start wiring things up!

For this example, I'll be wiring up 3 layers of LuSH-101, controlled by 3 separate tracks and output to 3 separate mix channels.

Add 3 EMI (External MIDI Instruments) to your rack. For each, choose the same loopback port and increment the EMI's midi channels so they should read channel 1, channel 2, and channel 3 for each of the rack units respectively.
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Now, lets add an instance of Bidule to the rack, making sure we pick one of the options with multiple audio outs. For this example I'll choose the instance with 16 outs. I'll drag it into the rack while holding shift so we don't get a mix channel, and then I'll right click on the rack unit and delete the associated track that was created as we won't need it.

Now let's open the VST interface for Bidule. The first thing I'll do here is delete the current routings and the channel mixer but leave the Bidule Plugin_0 nodes. It should look like this:
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Now I'll bring up the palette window and expand the MIDI devices and subsequent input nodes. I'll find the same loopback port that I assigned to the EMIs and drag it onto the Bidule surface.
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I'll let you check the Bidule manual for how to get your VST plugins to show up in the palette, and I'll similarly drag an instance of LuSH-101 onto the Bidule surface. Next I'll connect the loopback port to the MIDI in on the LuSH-101 by dragging from one node to the other, and then do the same for each of the audio outputs. When you're done it should look like this:
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I'll double click the LuSH-101 node to open up the VST interface and I'll configure the first three layers. Layer 1 will respond to MIDI channel 1 and output to audio out 1, Layer 2 will respond to channel 2 and send to audio out 2, and Layer 3 will respond to channel 3 and output to audio out 3. Check your multitimbral VSTi's manual for information on how to configure this specifically.
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That's all we need for the VST part, now lets add 3 mix channels to the rack. Our rack should now look like this:
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Now lets flip to the back of the rack and wire things up. First expand the CV Programmer of the Bidule VST rack unit. I'll then route audio out 1 and 2 to the first mix channel, audio out 3 and 4 to the second mix channel, and audio out 5 and 6 to the third mix channel.
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That's it! Now you can enjoy sequencing multiple tracks to the same VST and send their outputs to individual mix tracks.

Bonus #1 Parameter Modulation:
In Bidule you can open the parameters window and map the parameters of Bidule to any VST loaded to the Bidule surface. In this example, I've mapped Bidule parameter 1 and 2 to LuSH-101 layer 1 LFO 1 and 2 rates. Now I can use the CV inputs on the VST rack unit to modulate the LuSH-101.
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Bonus #2 VSTs that output MIDI:
In Bidule you can insert a VST that outputs MIDI in between the loopback port and the instrument and enjoy things like Chordz or Xfer Cthulhu or one of my favorites, Sugar Bytes Consequence https://sugar-bytes.de/consequence routing altered MIDI signal to your VST.
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I hope this was helpful! Happy Reasoning!
-Stephen
Reason 11 Suite | Bitwig Studio 3 | Native Instruments Komplete 13 Ultimate Collector's | Komplete Kontrol M32 | Maschine Mikro MK2 | Maschine Jam

DMhotep
Posts: 1
Joined: 10 Jul 2018

10 Jul 2018

Is there any way to do this without Bidule?

Lytz1
Posts: 7
Joined: 19 May 2018

15 Aug 2018

Awesome! Thanks for that, never thought about this.
So I have a use for Bidule after all... :puf_bigsmile:

Best,
tL.

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