Cubase AI 7 - New User

Hey there,


I’m a new user to Cubase and I’m having trouble transferring VST instrument midi tracks to audio tracks. help?



thanks,

It’s impossible to “transfer” the content of a MIDI track to an Audio track. If I understand you correctly, you want to make an Audio version of your Instrument Track. One way of doing this is exporting the track as an audio-file and then re-import it to the arrangement on a new Audio Track. Just drag and drop the audio-file from the desktop to your arrangement, and a new audio-track will be created automatically.

Just remember to mute the Instrument Track, after you’ve imported the audio-file. Otherwise, the track will play back twice!

Another option is to “freeze” the Instrument Track, but I’m not sure that Cubase AI has this option. When you “Freeze” the Track, Cubase does all the exporting and importing for you (so to say). The best thing with Freezing is that you can easily “Un-Freeze” the track, edit your MIDI data and then “Freeze” the track again.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant, sorry. I have watched a few videos and heard about the “Freeze” button. Cubase AI 7 does carry the option. I attempted to export the .midi track as a .wav but I have not been successful. Any way I can route the VST instrument midi track to an audio track? I saw someone do that on a video but it hasn’t worked out for me. As you can tell I’m having a real hard time figuring out the software. It is WAY different compared to protools-when it comes to bussing midi/instrument tracks at least.

Thanks,


Appreciate the help.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant, sorry. I have watched a few videos and heard about the “Freeze” button. Cubase AI 7 does carry the option. I attempted to export the .midi track as a .wav but I have not been successful. Any way I can route the VST instrument midi track to an audio track? I saw someone do that on a video but it hasn’t worked out for me. As you can tell I’m having a real hard time figuring out the software. It is WAY different compared to protools-when it comes to bussing midi/instrument tracks at least.

Thanks,


Appreciate the help.

You have to do an audio mixdown, here you can select the track you want to export.

Freeze makes your midi track a frozen audio track, not much you can do with it beside playback.

Not directly, but there is a work-around. Create a Group Channel track. Now, route the output of the Instrument track to this Group Channel track. Next, create an Audio track. You then select the Group Channel track as the input of this Audio track. Now, you can record your Instrument track as an ordinary Audio track.

Yes, it’s is a bit complicated, but until Steinberg allows us to route Instrument tracks to Audio tracks, this is how you do it. Mind you, you loose the conveniences of “Freezing” the track. (see below)

On the contrary, my dear mroekalea. You can easily unfreeze the Instrument track, and continue editing the MIDI.

The benefit over exporting is that you don’t have to re-import the audio file and remember to mute the Instrument track. Cubase takes care of all this for you, by the click of a button. If you then find that you need to change a note, just click the “Freeze” button (now called unfreeze) again, edit your MIDI and hit “Freeze” again. Much faster and more convenient than “messing about” with manual exporting/importing.

On the contrary, my dear mroekalea. You can easily unfreeze the Instrument track, and continue editing the MIDI.

Indeed ‘unfreezing’ gives back the editing options while exporting gives you all remix and editing option. Depends on what your goal is, hopelfully thing becopme clearer for the orginal Poster,.

I’m not sure what you mean by “remix” option? There is absolutely nothing you can’t do with an “unfrozen” Instrument track, that you couldn’t do before it was “frozen” in the frost place.

The difference between “Freezing” and “Exporting” is that the first is a one-step process, while the second is a multi-step process.

That being said, I use “Exporting” aswell. When I’m finished with a song, I usually make full length audio files (sometimes carelessly referred to as “stems”) of all tracks (including Audio, MIDI, Instrument and FX channel tracks), as a safety measure. That way I can always recreate the mix on any DAW, anytime in the future!

What I try to say is that freezing is convenient when trying to reduce the workload for your system, but everytime you want to tweak something (remix, edit e.g.) you have to unfreeze.

My preference is not to freeze but to get the vst or midi channel converted to audio, or keep working in midi format untill I am satisfied, but then again workflow can be very personal.

well, to be fair. Both “Freezing” and “Exporting” does the exact same thing; convert the Instrument track data to Audio data. The difference is that “Freezing” is fast, while “Exporting” is slow. You are correct, I need to unfreeze the track before I can edit the MIDI data (takes a couple of seconds), while you can jump in directly and edit the MIDI track. On the other hand, when I’m finished I just hit the “Freeze” button again (again only takes a couple of seconds). You, on the other hand, have to to go through the whole exporting process again (which takes considerably longer). Do this a number of times and the time saved by “Freezing” adds up.

However, when I’m sure I’ve finished editing the Instrument track. I also prefer the “Exporting” option. As far as I’m concerned. “Freezing” is the best option during production. “Exporting” is the best option for back-up as storage.

I’d love to take that route aswell, but until I can afford a supercomputer that will make NSA envious, I’m afraid I’ll have to continue conserving computer resources whenever I can. :wink:

But as you, so rightly, point out, workflow can be very personal.

“Recording from busses” is only available in the full Cubase.

@EVERYONE Thank you all for the support. I guess I underestimated the power of the “Freezing” button. I’m just so used to just seeing an audio track before me that I forget about Software innovations. I will try the “group” send @Svenne as another option, but I am liking this “freeze” button so far-now that I am understanding it, of course. Thanks again for the informations, guys. Happy tracking!

God bless,



Eckos