I suggests that Forte 2.0 recognizes and works with the "automap" plugins created by Novation Automap,
In few words Novation Automap creates a copy of a selected VST instrument or effect adding after its name the suffix "automap": e.g. "B4II (automap).vst"
If you load the vst so created in your host the Novation device (e.g. Nocturn) automatically creates and loads the relevant template so you can manage all the vst parameters from the Novation hardware.
The problem is that Forte 2 seems not to recognize the "twin" vst created by AutoMap and loads only the original version.
Many other hosts (EnergyXT, for example) don't have any problem in loading and working with AutoMap VSTs.

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In a typical live situation songs are skipped or inserted on the fly (e.g. in a coverband to adapt to the audience). To achieve this, it would be nice to jump to a specific song in the setlist, by simply sending the Midi ProgramChange for this song. It can be discussed if the current song order in the setlist should have influence on the ProgramChange-Number or if the numbers are really "user-given". However the number of scenes used in the songs should NOT have any influence on the program-number. Right now for jumping to a specific song you exactly need to know how many scenes before the desired one are in your current setlist, thus having song-order and number-of-scenes-per-song changing every ProgramChange you do. Note please that targeting Midi ProgramChanges on songs also allows to jump to a certain scene. If you need this, you would simply make a new Song containing just this one scene and voilá.

You could have an option where forte would count midi note on/off and sustain pedal on/off commands and, after receiving a midi program change command, forte would wait until all keys and sustain switches are released before switching to the next scene. The Axxess Mapper (hardware used by Frank Zappa) did that and it was terrific. It allowed you to hold a chord, press a program change, and the setup would reconfigure when you left go of the chord. It would avoid stuck notes created when the machine changed which channel it was transmitting on because the synth would get the note off commands on the correct channel first. It also avoided having to send piles of all notes off panic commands when switching patches (scenes). You could play and have more opportunities to hit a program change switch because you could play overlapping notes after the command, until the sound change.

take a look at this, for example:

http://www.crystalfontz.com/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?id=762&w=430

( more models at http://www.crystalfontz.com/ )

These devices often come with their own api so the users can build custom applications.

If forte could provide an api for controlling / reading some basic parameters such as:

- get current scene name.
- get / set intrument volumes.
- go to next / previous scene.
(etc, etc, I can think of a lot of things, but you get the idea...)

It would be possible to make some great stuff.

An use case example:

- User has a laptop which displays musical sheets in full screen. However, it needs to know what's going on in forte.
A little lcd screen side by side could provide the necessary info / control such as scene name / scene change.

This could address issues midi control can't.

At the moment the volume of a VSTi is stored in each scene independently from the volume set in other scenes. But if you recognise that a certain plugin is GENERALLY too loud or too quiet in comparison to other plugins you have to adjust the volume in each scene again which is a pain if you have a great amount of scenes.

I would like to see the possibility to raise or lower the volume of a plugin globally. While doing so Forte has to alter the volume in each scene proportionally so that volume changes in the scenes are preserved, of course (but now are louder or quiter in relation to what was altered globally).

Let the image change within a song, although the same scene is used. For example you use 2 scenes in a song with 4 images. To realize this you need 4 scenes at the moment.

Song
scene A1, image 1
scene A2, image 2
scene B1, image 3
scene B2, image 4

You need scene A1, A2, B1, B2. If you could change the image depending on a song, you'd just need scene A and B which is recalled multiple times, but with different images.

Song
scene A, image 1
scene A, image 2
scene B, image 3
scene B, image 4

For compatibility reasons, a standard image per scene could be set, which would be recalled if no specific image per song is defined.

When rearranging a list in the songs by dragging a song to a different place in the order, it would be nice if when I dragged to the top (or the bottom) if the list box would scroll. Now I have to make the setlist manager as big as I can on the screen and move a song to the top of the screen then click the sidebar to page up, scroll down a couple and pick the song again to move it to the top of that page, etc. until I finally get it to the right place. I use the songs box for a set list and sometimes it take me a long time to get the order set for a gig.