Dude, I didn’t chime in to get chewed out.
My understanding was that you need GA to be on the new licenser system, perhaps because you have it on a dongle rather than the old soft-licenser, and don’t always have that dongle with you.
I just offered a tip for situations where you might have Cubase 12 in front of you, but not all your other keys for stuff like GA5 working! You’d still have access to GA SE, and anything you built in there could later be pulled into GA5 when you get your full system back if you want/need it.
No, it is NOT 10 times as much work. Not even close. Multiple steps to route inputs into, and then record directly into a plugin that’s being hosted in a DAW. Perhaps even fewer to simply record straight to a DAW track, optionally do some analysis/editing/slicing on the arrange window of the DAW (Cubase has power user features to help with all this), and ‘drag elements straight to pads in the plugin’.
My point is that you can sample in the DAW, which integrates quite well with GA. Its sample editing/hit-pointing/slicing/processing, and more is just as, if not well more powerful than anything built into GA (also integrates with macros, remotes, logical editors, and more).
The user interfaces are MUCH larger and user configurable (size/colors/highlights/markers), one can see it from across the console. You can take advantage of quite a lot of DAW features in the sampling/editing process that simply do not exist in very many instrument plugins. You can also do more of it via remote control (foot pedals, scrubber controllers, transport keys on your MIDI keyboard, MPC buttons, your android or ipad tablet/phone, etc).
Sample, instant render effects if you want anything hard rendered into the sample, drag to pad (optional if you’d rather slice it in the DAW first, or in GA itself), tweak. When you get ready to export a kit, you can choose if you want to keep it all in longer continuous audio files, or chop it up into properly trimmed samples.
Finding loop points and setting crossfades is about the only thing I’d rather do in the plugin than with the DAW when it comes to sampling stuff. How often to you need loop points with GA though?
As opposed to: Setup input(s) into plugin (can be a pita, requiring finnicky re-routing/crossfaders/etc, punching sidechain buttons if resampling other plugins, and all kind of mess). Record in very basic featureless plugin transport (which doesn’t function by remote like the DAW), tediously, one thing at a time. Work with tiny user interface of a sample editor that doesn’t come anywhere close to being as nice as the one in the DAW, etc…
I am not ‘comparing’ GA to H6. I’m speaking of ‘sampling in the DAW, and then moving those samples to just about ANY sample player you like’. Be it GA, HAlion, or any other one that supports simple drag and drop of parts/elements from the Cubase arrange window into the plugin’s UI.
In its simplest form…assuming you already have a basic project template ready to record tracks from any/all inputs on your rig to established audio tracks.
Step 1: Arm track(s). No problem to sample many channels at one time. (Add some steps mixing all that down to a single stereo sample if you’re doing several tracks at once)
Step 2: Start DAW Transport recording and trigger whatever you are sampling. Stop recording when done (the transport can continue playing while you work if need be).
If you want, while the transport is recording, go ahead and make several samples…on as many inputs/tracks as you like. No reason to stop/start things every time. After all, it’s bone head easy to use the scissor tool…also bonehead easy to just drag the whole thing into GA and cut it up there if preferred.
Step 3: OPTIONAL…use the extensive Cubase sample editing features to edit/slice/dice/process. Do mixes/submixes if required.
Step 4: Call up GA if not already visible.
Step 5: Locate the target pad if not visible and Drag element(s) from Cubase Arrange Window to GA pad(s).
Step 6: Do what you’d normally do inside GA to the sample(s) from there (as if you’d recorded it there in the first place).
VS
Step 1: Route the proper set of inputs into GA.
Step 2: Pull GA to foreground if not already.
Step 3: Locate the pad you wish to record and click it.
Step 4: Click the Recorder Tab in GA if not already there.
Step 5: Click the record button in GA. Trigger your sound. Click stop.
Step 6: Edit your sample and tweak the sounds.
So really, it’s about the same number of steps/clicks to get a BASIC sample into GA using either technique. With the latter however, you miss out on the ‘option’ of extensive post sampling analysis, editing, and processing capabilities of Cubase, your eyes will likely work harder if there’s much sample editing going on in that cramped GA GUI, and you’ll have a much harder time doing it with remote controls if that matters.
Only reason I mentioned H6 had to do with sampling multiple channels (beyond simple stereo stuff) in a single pass for surround sound. It’s where I learned the trick, but it can also apply to GA, or any other sample playing plugin.
Personally, that comes in handy pretty regularly for sampling drum kits aimed at stereo as well, since when I sample percussion stuff, I tend to use MULTIPLE MICROPHONES/channels, all open at the same time (I.E. Top and bottom heads of a single drum, plus an ambient mic in the distance). I can sample all of those channels in one go, then get it mixed down to whatever I’m trying to build to live as a triggered sound inside some kind of plugin.
As for ‘resampling’ stuff from other plugins/synths…doing it in the DAW is way much easier. Can make a MIDI template in a MIDI editor in minutes flat at all the durations, intervals, and velocities required, hit play (or instant render in the case of a VSTi), go have coffee, come back, and I’m pretty much done with the recording part.
