VI Labs, Good Yet Hard

David Lai · 2024-07-05T09:19:51+00:00

Hi friends! WARNING: long post ahead. David the completely blind guy here. I'm sure to some (or most) of you, I'm not a new name, but if you don't yet know of my dissability, well, here goes. Though I've worked with VI Labs Audio using UVI WorkStation, the process can't be done without sighted (and distanced) assistance. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have someone taking me through the software and getting me set up. I've even been helped by Lance from the company, VI Labs. But, I know this won't be a long-term solution. Also, if I want to tweak settings based on a different controller, or just simply try out different settings / combinations, I can't do it. For Ivory III, Garritan CFX, and Universal Audio's Ravel Grand Piano, I can load the VST plugin into Reaper, and by pressing up or down arrow keys to select and arm the audio track containing the VST instrument, I can then pres P to bring up the parameters dialogue box. Once it's up, I can use Tab to cycle between different combo boxes and sliders, adjusting different effect parameters. For those who are interested, you can load up Ivory or Garritan CFX and look at it yourself. Kontakt is also accessible, but at a different framework. Some items on the UI needs tweaking from the screen reader end, but once a patch is loaded, I can pres P and adjust details just like the other tools mentioned above. The bad news is that UVI WorkStation doesn't provide adjustable parameters based on this logic. Once I open the parameters dialogue after inserting the VST plugin, all I can do is hearing combinations of letters and numbers, which I don't know what they do. Up to now, Ivory III is the most accessible plugin I've used, and I can tweak to my heart's content should I choose. After a bit of googling, I found this link containing a 8-year-old thread describing a similar problem. This person was able to use midi / automation to make it work, as he said on post 9: "I was able to E-mail VI Labs support and apart from showing off one of the quickest response times I've ever seen, they helpfully explained that every control in their interface can be linked directly with midi CC or host automation, and told me how to do it. Using sighted assistance we automated True Cowbells in less than 10 minutes once we figured out what we were doing. They weren't lying when they said everything can be automated either. Even loading and unloading of the mics is possible via automation, as well as basic velocity curve adjustment, reverb selection, and volumes of various elements. WE have saved UVI multi files for easy recall of this setup, and I've also saved fxp files for the X64 vst, which I can confirm are working on my other machine without any hassle. Once I have purchased the Ravenscroft and True Keys, we will hopefully be doing the same with those as well. I'm just waiting for end-of-year sales to begin. After all that, I will probably distribute these templates for the benefit of other visually impaired musicians, along with the manual steps I took to get everything working." I don't have another midi device to help me in China, only the Yamaha NU1. And his solution, I believe, is to use UVI WorkStation's standalone software. Now that I'm porting all my music-related things under one platform, it may not fit what I'm doing. I'm trying to get some ideas on how I can continue, either advocating for UVI to become more accessible, or maybe talking with VI Labs to see if they could come up with their own sample player / interface that can be inspired by Ivory? Or maybe some new path that you might know? Any ideas on how to handle the UVI WorkStation platform would be greatly appreciated! I know this was a long post, so I'll stop here. With kindness, David

David Lai

RIP Looks like the only way we can use something is, at least, involve some sighted assistance, and then find ways to adapt. That's life, can't complain.

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