Control midi tracks from audio track quick control (possible?)

Cubase
1

I’m working on a pretty niche setup, where I basically want to set up a template to work with audio tracks only.

I have a vst plugin that I send to a bus that eventually lands in an audio track. I like working with vsts as I would a real audio track, so that’s why I keep it like this.

My question though is, is it possible to somehow route things so I can control the parameters of the vst plugin via track quick controls on the AUDIO track?

I basically want to sort my vsts in a folder way in the bottom of my template, and just work with the audio.
I know this is super niche, and I can just render the vst track etc etc… but humor me.

Is there a possibility to control a vst track from an audio tracks quick controls?

2

Quick Controls go to the currently selected track no matter what.

The Generic Remote can route to other tracks, instruments, whatever …

3

Yeah I know, but I am basically wondering if there’s a clever way to make this happen.
Generic remote wouldn’t work, as my generic remote is controlling my quick controls :slight_smile:

4

If you use VST Quick Controls, you can possibly do something like that, by focusing on a different VSTi than the currently selected Audio track.

And in the Generic Remote you can have multiple pages - i.e. the same knobs on your hardware controller could be assigned to different Cubase controls - so there’s some flexibility there.

How many knobs are on your hardware controller? Does it have a paging mechanism on the hardware controller?

5

Well I can set up my controller to control this specific vst, but I like keeping things very simple in my setup, which is why I’d like to be able to do this very niche thing. I don’t think it’s possible, but just wanted to see if there was anyone that had a potential way to solve it within the constraints.

I setup my controller to do quick controls 1-8, and I prefer not keeping more parameters per track than that.
Again… this is so incredibly niche. I could just select my vst track and use quick controls for that, but trying to see if I can get around that :slight_smile:

6

I think your “simple” is fighting the design of the software and thus ends up anything but simple :slight_smile:

7

Yeah I know, but it’s a template. So if it’s a bit complex getting this to work, that’s fine, because then it’ll just be in the template.

And again, I know this is incredibly niche, but just seeing if there’s a way to make it happen without having to assign dedicated controls.

Thanks for replying though :slight_smile:

8

maybe this is a silly question, but are you using “Rack Instruments” or “Track Instruments”?

9

Hmm… not a silly question. I’m using track instruments at all times. I wonder if that might be something that can make this happen in some way or another.

I’ve actually never used rack, and I have never understood the point of them. Definitely an interesting point… I’ll need to do more research into that. You might be on to something.

10

Track Instruments would be the right thing, because those Track Instruments have much of the advantages of Auido Tracks (like Audio Inserts and Sends) in addition to being midi track. And using a Tracks Instrument, the Track Quick Controls can address either both: Audio Channel settings and Instrument settings.

11

Yeah.
My end goal though is to record to audio when I hit record, so I don’t need to render down the track when I’m done.
Again…minor…niche…but I like working with audio.

12

rendering is much faster than recording audio, and once rendered you can deactivate and hide the Instrument Track

Make a macro do all those steps in one go and you are really cooking …

13

Yeah I know it’s faster. But all my other instruments are hardware, so I am always recording anyway :slight_smile:
But you might be right that I should just set up a macro and just be done with it.

14

You could still effectively record your “live performance” of the VSTi by write activating the VST automation for the Instrument Track. So your workflow wouldn’t be hugely different with the exception of that magic macro.

So your one-time investment of time and intellect goes into a macro instead of template design :slight_smile:

Macros and the Project Logical Editor are really cool - once you get into them.

Good luck and have fun!

15

Oh I already have tons in my project logical editor and macro collection. It’s fantastic.

But I’ll evaluate how I can make this work in a convenient way. Thanks for juggling ideas a bit.

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