In this case I don’t recommend trying to use multiple instrument tracks. Most likely, you only want have ONE instrument track pointing to your synth, and then direct subsequent MIDI tracks into it from there.
So, you might have 1 instrument track, and maybe you’ve got the drum work on that.
Then you might have a MIDI track with guitar work, that connects to the MIDI input of your synth. The sound will pipe through that Instrument track, but your sequence will live in the MIDI track.
Later, you might ‘freeze’ all the tracks, and merge them together into that one initial Instrument Track if you like. Then you could ‘dissolve’ everything in that instrument track into ‘lanes’ by channel. (Totally optional…but can really come in handy if you want to export MIDI loops for the Media Bay (instant audition stuff).
OR, just skip instrument tracks all together. Put your synth in rack mode, and sequence exclusively with MIDI tracks.
Since you seem pretty new to this…I think you’ll get more flexibility if you treat outboard gear like a ‘rack instrument’, and play it through MIDI tracks.
When working with outboard gear that doesn’t come with some kind of custom plugin or something, I recommend loading the tone module as a ‘rack instrument’ rather than ‘track instrument’.
Why? MIDI tracks and Instrument tracks both offer some unique advantages, but personally, when working with outboard gear I find MIDI tracks a little more flexible. Mainly because MIDI tracks offer four AUX MIDI sends. Eventually, you might want to take advantage of those!
Also, track instruments set up true VST style faders on the mixing console instead of giving you MIDI faders (that send CC events for internally mixing inside the synth).
So for now…use MIDI tracks rather than instrument tracks. I’ll chime in a bit later on interesting uses for ‘instrument type tracks’.
You will use MIDI faders to mix. Those send CC7 events over the corresponding channels.
You’ll have a set of audio faders on the mixing console from which you can set the master volume for everything the synth plays.
I.E. If you have a single stereo connection into your audio card, then you get one Audio fader for the synth/tone module.
Now lets assume the synth is multi-timberal, and can receive up to 16 MIDI channels. Imagine you have a piano on channel 1, A Bass on channel 2, and a drum set on channel 10.
You’d use 3 separate MIDI tracks, each connected to your synth/tone module’s MIDI input (This is done via the track inspector in the left zone of the main project window).
Piano on MIDI channel 1
Bass on MIDI channel 2
Drums on MIDI channel 10
Each of these MIDI tracks should get faders on the Mixing console. These faders send CC7 events for channel volume, and CC10 events for panning. Using these controls on the Cubase Mixer for the MIDI tracks allow you to do an internal mix in your Synth/tone-module.
So, what if your synth offers more audio outputs than just a single stereo pair? Then you’d set those up in your External Instruments panel (F4). I.E. My Fantom XR can have 4 audio outputs, so I could set it up so I end up with two stereo audio faders on the Mixing console. Or, I could set it up as 4 mono outputs. Or 1 stereo and 2 mono, etc.
I’ll still need to ‘mix’ things internally in my XR using the MIDI faders (or through CC events in my MIDI tracks directly).
I will also need to tweak my XR instruments/patches to assign them to the output(s) I wish them to play over. One thing that is pretty common for me with my XR is to send everything but the drums to Outputs 1&2, and do drum kit work over outputs 3&4. This way I can run a different chain VST effects on the drums than I do everything else the XR is playing.
Unless your synth has a LOT of audio outputs (some models do have up to 8 or even 16 audio outputs), and your computer’s audio interface has lots of inputs, keep in mind that you won’t be able to process every single individual MIDI channel on your synth with the VST effects independently, in real time.
So, what if you do want to isolate and process some instrument from that mix? Then you’d need to ‘solo’ the channel and record a pass in real time to an audio track on his own. Then you could route that audio track through specialized VST effects.
With that in mind, it’s usually best to get a pretty good MIDI mix first if you can. Use the internal effects built into your synth first. From there, if you want to do more with individual instruments then you’d solo those out one by one and make pure audio track that you can further process in isolation with your VST plugin effects.