Do you play soft synth live ?

In Sonar, you can load up various soft synth and by selecting a track, you can quickly select which soft synth to play. 

Is there a vst-i host that specialized in doing just this ? ..with features like
 - toggling loaded soft synth via program change number
 - enabling keyboard splits, different zone playing different soft synt

Thanks.

I've yet to find a soft synth that was optimized for live use, which is why I've never been tempted to do so. When I'm on stage, my hands and feet are busy enough without having to reach for a mouse to pull up a patch.

What you really need is a synth that was designed specifically for live use. It would allow you to load up a series of patches and select one with a single keystroke. It would have a performance mode wherein keystrokes are limited to a subset needed for this function. It would not require a separate host, and it would never require looking at the laptop screen after initial setup. It would support patch changes via MIDI keyboard controllers.

If you find such a synth, let me know!

The closest thing I've seen like this have been with samplers: Kontakt and Omnisphere. I've seen the Korg NanoKontrol controller used to quickly toggle between patches, and that's about the slickest solution I've seen so far. Even that's a little constrictive, since you can have a maximum of only 16 patches queued up. But Omnisphere, at least, does have a performance mode intended for live use.

Thanks @bit,

Regarding the vst-i host for multiple synt, after searching for a while, Steinberg started with V-Stack.. but it's no longer available.

A KVR discussion seems to point to these (I'm not sure what Bidule does, and the last time I tested VSTHost, it's latency was higher than X2).

Forte 3
http://www.brainspawn.com...mp;id=44&Itemid=66

Bidule
http://www.plogue.com/products/bidule/

VSTHost
http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm


If it's possible, with a midi controller, we can configure sort of a poor man Kronos, with multiple synth engine.. :)



Edit : Wondering, which Sonar 'view' can be tuned to select a track easily (? matrix ? console ).. 

http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/
 
http://www.eareckon.com/en/products/bloxpander-vst-host-for-live-performance.html

Thanks @jeff,

Cantabile seems perfect fit.

tomixornot


Thanks @jeff,

Cantabile seems perfect fit.

 
 
It works for me.
 
V3 should be around the corner.

Cantibile and Forte were both specifically designed for live use.
Both hosts present your virtual instruments as a virtual rack of synths.
With both, you have the equivalent of a Multi-patch.
You can create complex splits/layers... and soft-synths that aren't being used for a particular "Multi-patch" can be disabled (not loading the CPU).

Once you get used to this level of function, you'll never go back to using hardware synths... at least not for sounds.