New Music Gear Monday: Steinberg VST Live All-In-One Live Performance Platform

Gone are the days when a performer or band goes on stage and performs with just instruments and vocals. These days, performances have become more complex in order to provide a better audience experience, with a combination of backing tracks, lighting and video playback all part of the gig. That’s a lot to contend without a dedicated crew, but Steinberg is endeavoring to make it easier with the release of its new VST Live, an all-in-one solution for live performances.

Many artists are now using a computer with their DAW during a live gig in order to trigger backing tracks, samples, and virtual instruments. The trouble is that DAWs were built for studio recording, and although they can be configured to do all of the above, the workflow can get too clunky and fragile to work well under the gun of doing the show.

It Does It All

VST Live can sequence your backing tracks, trigger samples and virtual instruments, control your light show, provide custom click tracks for every band member, display set lists, lyrics, and chord progressions, and even record your performance all in the same platform.

Its integrated DMX protocol for stage lighting means that you can design and control your light show right in the box, and then have it play in sync with your music without the need for additional software. It can also store up to six video tracks that you can program to trigger during your performance, again without having to use an additional app.

To take it a step further, the Pro version can also deliver lyrics, chord symbols, notes, and click tracks to the performers via WiFi, again all from the same app platform.

The Price Is Right

The price for all this is reasonable too. Steinberg VST Live Pro is currently available at an introductory price of just $99.99, but the offer is only good through July 13, 2022. After that it will increase to $129.99 (still a bargain). There is a stripped down version available as well called VST Live Elements, which includes all virtual instruments and sequencing capabilities, but no DMX, lyrics, click tracks or chord symbol support. This is available for $59.99 but will increase to $79.99 after July 13th.

Yes, the software runs on both Macs and PCs, but the operating system must be pretty new – at least macOS 10.14 or higher or Windows 10 or higher.

You can find out more here, or watch the video below for more details.

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