The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I know quite a few people here use Cubase, and some even use the same version as the one I just switched to. So lay it on me: what kind of stuff did you wish someone had been there to tell you earlier? Tips, tricks? Advice? Anything helps.

Cool, what were you using before?

Hotkeys.

That's for SX3, but I'm pretty sure it all transfers even to 5, which I now have. Congratulations, your productions now take 30% less time.

If you're on a laptop that doesn't have the 10-key thing pictured, seriously go get one.

Sober wrote:Cool, what were you using before?

Adobe Audition 1.5. When it was working right, it was great for recording live instruments, and I'll miss the individual take editing, but it was way too buggy for me to keep using it as my primary DAW. Plus, the MIDI support was virtually non-existent.

Thanks for the tip! That'll be my new Windows wallpaper for a while!

I remember when I figured out that I can change touchy knobs on EQs and VSTs that you normally control with your mouse cursor, by holding down the shift, Ctrl or alt key to switch the touchy knob to a slow moving slide fader, etc.

When I discovered this method, I imagine I had the same feeling as the guy got that first rounded out square wheels.

Ah, we use Audition 1.5 at the Defense Information School. I just put 3.0 on my sister's computer, and it seems like a measurable improvement, maybe worth looking into. Cubase is a super-solid platform, though, and definitely worth becoming familiar with.

Neat tip: You can link channels (I think the hotkey is ctrl+U? maybe?), which lets you adjust things like volume, pan, etc. to several channels at once. Very useful trick when you want to bring down a background vocal group all at once, or try other stuff with groups of instruments.

Sober wrote:Ah, we use Audition 1.5 at the Defense Information School. I just put 3.0 on my sister's computer, and it seems like a measurable improvement, maybe worth looking into. Cubase is a super-solid platform, though, and definitely worth becoming familiar with.

Neat tip: You can link channels (I think the hotkey is ctrl+U? maybe?), which lets you adjust things like volume, pan, etc. to several channels at once. Very useful trick when you want to bring down a background vocal group all at once, or try other stuff with groups of instruments.

The more I use Audition, the more I get the suspicion that it's not built to do the sorts of things that I want to do on it. It gets really buggy when I add more than six or seven tracks, it slows down considerably when you try to use loops, and it has no MIDI input support at all.

Linking channels... now THERE'S a time-saver! Thanks!

Linking is cool. Group Channels are also very useful. They let you collectively increase/decrease the gain of a bunch of channels, as well as apply effects and EQ to all of them at once. Perhaps you know this already, though. A typical project for me when I have real drum tracks is to have individual tracks plus group tracks for the drums, for the guitars, and for the backup and main vocals. I also typically have a couple of stereo effects tracks that I just put some reverb on and use as sends for doing some subtle reverb on group channels.

I tried to mix down my song, and it gave me a message saying "Left/Right Locators must be set!" and wouldn't let me proceed. What are the Left/Right Locators, and how do I set them?

Never mind. Google helped.

So I imported a VSTi. I'm fairly certain I dropped it in the correct folder, because it then became a choosable option when I created a New Instrument Track. But when I tried to select it, Cubase gave me some rigamarole about how the instrument defaults were for one mono left, one mono right, when the mixer was expecting it to be Stereo out, and as a result, the instrument will be silent. Sure enough, I can toy around with the instrument, and I can use the piano roll, but it won't make any noise.

I assume I either need to edit the default settings of the VSTi or change Cubase's expectations. Sounds like the latter would be easier, but I'm not sure how to do that. Any insight?

Doesn't 1 mono left & 1 mono right = stereo out? Does the instrument track itself have settings that can change? Just like you can change an audio track to be mono/stereo?

Jon, I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about, but this may be helpful.

If you have a track with a stereo file on it, then you add a mono file on the same track, the track auto sets to the first file added to the track. So now the track is a stereo track and the mono file you added will be silent. This same rule applies vice versa if you add a mono file to the track first.

Another thing. If a track auto sets to mono and you later add a stereo file, even though you removed all the files on the track, it may not change to stereo, so you simply manually change the track to stereo.

Also, a lot of vst plug ins will only work with the format they are made for. So a mono vst might not work with a stereo file. Most of my normally used VSTs work with mono or stereo, but I have a few that are format specific.

ujnhunter wrote:Doesn't 1 mono left & 1 mono right = stereo out?

From what I've been told, that would just be two channel, not stereo. Stereo deals with specific level and phase relationships to each other.

Cubase LE came with my TD-4 kit, so I'm on the learning curve too. Before this was using Multiquence.

My PC has multiple sound cards (a 2496 and a Tascam 122 Mark II, as well as the onboard card). With Multiquence, I could record simultaneously from multiple cards. But with Cubase LE, so far I can only see the inputs for one card at a time. Is this a limitation, or is there something I can try?

This .pdf file should help you in figuring out if you're hitting a deliberate limit in the LE version of Cubase or just something that Cubase doesn't do, etc.

http://www.steinbergusers.com/cubase/Cu ... pChart.pdf

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Jon, I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about, but this may be helpful.

If you have a track with a stereo file on it, then you add a mono file on the same track, the track auto sets to the first file added to the track. So now the track is a stereo track and the mono file you added will be silent. This same rule applies vice versa if you add a mono file to the track first.

Another thing. If a track auto sets to mono and you later add a stereo file, even though you removed all the files on the track, it may not change to stereo, so you simply manually change the track to stereo.

Also, a lot of vst plug ins will only work with the format they are made for. So a mono vst might not work with a stereo file. Most of my normally used VSTs work with mono or stereo, but I have a few that are format specific.

That all makes perfect sense to me. But it doesn't really explain what to do about this:
http://www.jon-eric.com/Images/VSTi.bmp

Some say remove and re-add the VSTi to the instruments panel:

http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic. ... 2eefabaa6d

Can you provide a screenshot of all the configuration options for the VSTi?

Lunkhead wrote:Some say remove and re-add the VSTi to the instruments panel:

http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic. ... 2eefabaa6d

Can you provide a screenshot of all the configuration options for the VSTi?

I could, but it wouldn't do much good; I get that error message before it even allows me to configure anything.

What is the difference between loading an instrument into the VST rack (as explained in the forum post to which you linked - thanks!) and what I'm doing?

I right-clicked on the track list and select "Add new instrument..." Then I chose the DSK instrument which I had previously downloaded and dropped into my VSTi folder. Apparently, this isn't the right way to go about it.

D'oh.

I'm not sure what the difference is. I would try out that specific VST myself but it's Windows only and I'm Mac only.

Lunkhead wrote:I'm not sure what the difference is. I would try out that specific VST myself but it's Windows only and I'm Mac only.

I'll keep playing with it. Now that I know the language to look up, the answer I need is probably only a couple of clicks away. Thanks!

Haven't read all the details, but this is how I go about setting up VST instruments:

• Open VST instruments. F11 because hotkeys make Jesus smile. Pick your VST.
• Add new midi track. Set that track's midi input to whatever my interface's input is. Set the midi output to the VST. The input and output options should be simple drop-downs over on the left side.
• Play. You can hit the tiny keyboard icon on the left to bring up the VST's window. Recording is done as normal on the midi track. Cubase will mixdown the VST's output as you hear it automatically.

Some details may differ slightly, as I'm working off my memories of Cubase SX3, mixed with my current knowledge of Cubase 5.

Also: wtf .bmp?

I think Sober is correct. You also have to be careful because Cubase will seemingly by default change the MIDI input channel (1-16) on each track, so you may be transmitting on channel 2, but the instrument is looking for channel 1. This is mostly a concern if you have multiple tracks going to the same VSTi.

Ken

Sober wrote: Also: wtf .bmp?

Yeah, I don't know. When I hit "Print Screen," that's what it saved as, and I was more interested in trying to get music out of my software than I was in uploading my screenshot in a more web-ready format. At least the durn things still work.