Hi everybody. I hope that someone can set me straight here…
[I’m running Cubase 8.5.15 x64; Win7 x64]
Arturia’s ARP 2600 synth used to install two separate things: there was an ‘ARP 2600 V2’ instrument that could only be loaded on an Instrument Track, and an ‘ARP 2600 V2 Efx’ version which could be loaded as an Audio Insert on any track.
Arturia’s brand new ARP 2600 V3 synth (installed as VST3) no longer comes with a separate ‘Efx’ version.
It does have an audio input, although it’s not visible. It has a “Preamplifier” module at the top. This module only has an output jack, but it is ‘pre-wired’ to receive external audio, which can be patched between that output jack and the other synth modules. My issue is being able to get audio from another Cubase track into that “Preamplifier” module.
Right now, I can’t figure out how to either:
(1) load the ARP 2600 V3 as an Audio Insert on another track, or
(2) load a Kontakt piano on ‘Instrument Track 1’ . . . and then load the Arturia ARP 2600 V3 on ‘Instrument Track 2’ . . . and then route the ‘Instrument Track 1’ Kontakt piano’s audio (as generated by the live playing or pre-written MIDI notes) into the ‘Instrument Track 2’ ARP 2600 V3 for processing.
An Arturia forum member is doing it quite easily, in Ableton Live, here:
About 30 seconds into the above-linked video, you can see that the 2600 V3 appears as an output (“Audio To”) to his audio Track 3. In Ableton Live, that was enough to route his Track 3 audio directly into the 2600 V3.
[The above-linked video, BTW, is one of several nice intro videos that he’s produced for the V3.]
In a different thread, an Arturia Forum admin wrote:
I’ve been unable to route audio into an instrument track in Cubase.
Maybe there’s a way but i didn’t find it. I know that this routing work great on Live for instance.
I don’t whether it has to do with the ARP 2600 V3’s architecture, or whether it has something to do with it being a VST3 plug-in, or whether it has to do with Cubase’s routing structure, but I cannot get any audio into the ARP.
There is no way to load the ARP 2600 V3 as an Audio Insert.
When loaded as a Rack Instrument:
(1) the ARP 2600 V3’s ‘audio track’ is output only—it doesn’t allow me to select an input buss at all, and
(2) the ARP 2600 V3’s MIDI track only allows MIDI sources as inputs, and I can only output via MIDI (to the 2600’s “MIDI In” or various MIDI ports on my sound card).
I created a dummy buss, that was “Not Connected” to anything. I routed the Kontakt piano’s audio track to the dummy buss. I hit a key, I saw the short meter burst on the piano MIDI track, and I saw sustained meter bursts on both the piano’s audio track (“Kt. st. 1”), and the dummy buss meter. Okay.
But then I can’t route either “Kt. st. 1,” or the dummy buss, or anything besides MIDI, into the ARP 2600 V3.
All I know is, (i) I didn’t have this problem with the ARP 2600 V2, and (ii) I know of two Ableton Live users for whom routing one track’s audio into the ARP 2600 V3 was a trivial exercise.
Am I missing something basic? Is there some other esoteric way to load the 2600 that would make it easier to route audio into it? I can’t be the only person facing this problem…
Thank you all very much for any wisdom or guidance that any of you can impart.
