Automation

Hello,
Is it possible to automate without assigning to quick control before?
I read lot’s of thing on the subject and steinberg is telling me that QC is different than the other automation.
Ok, but in that case, why I can’t just activate the “W” button in haloing and move, let’s say the ADSR cursor and instantaly seen this automation in the project.

Can anyone help to clarify this “un-function”

Thanks for any lead.

Quick Controls are simply a way to use a set of remote devices (I.E. A bank of sliders and knobs on your MIDI keyboard) to record events to a lane. You can snap a Slider/Knob to an automation lane at will as needed. In essence, it allows you to easily use the same bank of remote controls for different purposes in a given Cubase project. I.E. You could record a pass where you’re using the first slider on your keyboard to control a filter or something, but later snap that same slider to control the LFO of a totally different instrument on a new track.

You can also draw right onto automation lanes, and not worry about snapping any Quick Control set at all.

There are several ways to automate Halion.

You can of course use the quick controls. Actually you get two sets. One for VST quick controls, and another set for track controls. These controls would typically be bound by you, to specific instrument controls or automation lanes in your project.

Note, you can choose to keep automation lanes under the VSTi itself, or you can set it up to send events through a performance track (Instrument or MIDI tracks, which can have automation lanes under them).

You can also automate Via MIDI events. This was/is the ‘only way’ to automate hardware synths, and many older VST instruments. Most everything in Halion can ‘learn’ a CC event and be automated via MIDI control lanes (Right click a control in Halion, choose learn, and move a MIDI controller…it will learn it and start moving). You can record or draw such CC data directly in the MIDI parts, or you can separate them out onto automation lanes in your track list. Note, the default set of QC controls also have some default out of the box CC messages assigned to them (it’s all in the Halion Manual).

You can set up VST3 Note Expression to automate Halion. This approach allows you to store automation on individual notes. Moving such notes around will keep the automation relative the note (as opposed to storing it as channel data, or on a track’s automation lane(s)). VST3 Note Expression that is recorded with an Editor (Such as the Key Piano Scroll) Open and in the foreground can also be bound/unbound to Quick Controls as needed.

You can create generic remote mixer maps and bind them directly to VST controls in as many Halion instances as you like. Remote Maps can also be created to remote control pretty much every single feature in Cubase. The number of controls you can assign through a generic remote map, and link directly to individual VST/VSTi controls is something pretty close to ‘unlimited’ if you’ve got Cubase Pro or Nuendo.

So, yes, there are many different ways to remote control and/or automate Halion.

Which method(s) you use can depend on a number of factors.

  1. What do you intend to use as a remote control device, if anything? I.E. Does it have lots of sliders and knobs, just a few, or will you mostly be drawing stuff with one of the many Cubase Editors?

  2. Are your projects heavily rooted in MIDI performance data? Do you typically use many pure audio tracks in projects as well? Do you make extensive use of Halion’s internal Mixers and Effects, or would you prefer to use ‘insert style’ effects in the Cubase mixer (and be able to automate those as well)?

  3. Do you most often find yourself working with Halion loaded onto ‘instrument tracks’, or with ‘midi tracks connected to Halion as a rack instrument’?

  4. Do you anticipate ever wanting to port the ‘performance data’ of your projects for use with different VSTi instruments, or maybe even other DAWs? Do you plan to mix down for ‘General MIDI’ instruments?

Honestly…there are enough ‘options’ to write several books about. I’d suggest starting with simply learning controls as needed and automating them via MIDI in your instrument part(s), or on the MIDI/Instrument track’s MIDI automation lanes. Get some projects under your belt.

Unless you’re trying to do some really intense live recording stuff using a lot of fancy remote controls that you’d like to park in very consistent locations for many current and future projects, the 8 VST and 8 Track Quick Controls should be more than enough to get your tracks and automation lanes down (once it’s on an automation lane, it doesn’t really matter what control(s) you used to get it there…you can snap those remote devices onto something else for a new purpose as needed).

If you’re wanting to build some sort of fancy real time instrument involving multiple MIDI controllers…please be more specific as to the workflow you are hoping to achieve. Cubase has many tools to go about designing almost anything you can imagine in this respect.

Halion itself is designed to work with old school, largely MIDI based DAWs/hosts, as well as the most bleeding edge VST3 hosts with full support for most if not all known VST2 and VST3 controls. It’ll go well with anything from a 1990 hardware MIDI sequencer, or a Scoring Package like Finale or Sibelius…all the way up to flagship DAWs supporting VST3 like Nuendo, Studio One, etc. So…you’ve got PLENTY of options :slight_smile:

Thank you very much Brian for this great demonstration. I’m will install a new PC this week, so maybe I will find that my old pc was the problem.
Most of the time Halion is in cubase as a rack instrument. I always enable the “W” in the vast and then tweak some knob.
From your explanation I’m sure now that there is something wrong in my configuration. When I enable the “W” button in other vst like padshop, all the lane instantatly show.
Thank you again, I will keep you update.

Hi gillesdanger.

I wouldn’t say there’s something wrong with your setup. If you want to automate by activating “W” button and moving a parameter, then you really are limited to quick controls.
Moving other parameters while in “write” mode just won’t register as automation. Why is Halion different than lets say Padshop or Groove Agent in this regard, I don’t know.

But as Brian pointed out there are other ways how to automate things in Halion.

With Halion try right clicking the QC Knob you want an automation lane for (either in the Rack or from inside Halion itself). When the menu pops up click on the option to show the Automation lane. That should cause a lane to pop up in your Track List, and it’ll be under the Halion VST outputs (as opposed to being grouped with the MIDI track) if you’re using Halion in ‘Rack Mode’.

At that point you should be able to toggle W and R buttons for the lane as needed.

Halion is a little different when it comes to assigning QC parameters and such. It can get pretty deep because each ‘layer’ inside a ‘program’ can have independent QC’s laid out inside. Sometimes you have to dig around a bit to set up exactly which things you want to remote control and/or automate. So…it might be necessary to do a little program manipulation to get the kind of QC behavior and automation lanes you want.

Alternatively, you can just control stuff with MIDI CC events instead. Make sure the Halion Track is armed for recording or monitoring and right click the control you want to automate, choose ‘learn’ and move a slider or knob. This is more of an old school MIDI method. Personally, I like this method and use it often…

At that point you should be able to manipulate the control via remote and record it into the MIDI part. You can also elect to keep it in an automation lane of a MIDI track instead of it being embedded in the MIDI part.

Here’s a recent thread that’s related. It might be helpful to browse…