Cubase device maps for hardware synths?

Hello. I got hold of some midi synths that have no device maps in Cubase so I googled to find them on the web. Turned up nothing for any of them (Clavia/Roland/Waldorf/) . So is there some hidden place for device maps? Is there a tool for making them? Would like to select patches above midi program change 128 in the first bank.

There is a tool and it is built-in. It is the MIDI Device Manager. You need Cubase Artist or Pro. However, it is not so easy to use (depending on how much you are into that stuff).
It has its own PDF manual:

Edit: Previous link replaced by above. Thanks to @MrSoundman for pointing out my mistake.

I think the OP means Device Panels, which have been in Cubase since SX3. Thereā€™s a tutorial on how to make them yourself in the ā€œMIDI Devicesā€ PDF on the Cubase documentation website. Thereā€™s also a good Sound On Sound article from 2005 here: Creating Cubase Device Panels.

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Yeah, thanks. My bad, I fetched the wrong link. Now it is corrected.

Thank you. I meant Device panels, but the suggestion for Device Manager was also useful. In placed of that document it mentions device panels and in the last part an editit for patch script Steinberg ScriptMaker 1.0 Download (Free) - ScriptMaker.exe sadly that tool does not run on a modern Mac. Seems like I have to make scripts by edition XML or buying Syquest to do itā€¦ expensive to just get controls. It feels strang and sad that Stenberg have not updated and included the tool inside Cubase.

ScriptMaker is for making patch scripts, which enables the selection of patches by name from within the Inspector. Iā€™ve used ScriptMaker a long time ago, but Iā€™m not sure it will run even on Windows 10 any more either, however the format of the patch script file is fairly simple, and can be made with any text editor. In the Cubase user settings folder, in Scripts\Patchnames, youā€™ll find a text file called ā€œscript documentation.txtā€

The first step is to create a patch name script file for your device, then the Device Panel can be built on top of that. There is a full GUI editor built into Cubase and you donā€™t need any external tool, and indeed I would not recommend trying to build a Device Panel by writing XML. To be able to generate them using MIDI Quest requires the standard (full) or pro versions, which is probably overkill, but it still doesnā€™t generate the Cubase Device Panel, only the patch script, which you could make yourself if you take the time.

I just want to get a midi device so I can change programs on my external synth and recall them when I load the songs. It amaze me that it seems like most donā€™t and why there are so few device patch list synths included with Cubase. It may be easy to edit in the text file. But with hundreds or even thousands of presets it takes a lot of time. Buying Midiquest from Squest software to do it is a bit muchā€¦ maybeā€¦

Buying MidiQuest wonā€™t solve your problem because you can only load one instance of an instrument at a time. So while MidiQuest is loaded you canā€™t use your instrument to record sound.

What you need is a ā€˜patch listā€™ of your instrument(s) so you can select patches from the inspector.

You canā€™t expect Steinberg to have these available for every single instrument on the market.

What you can do is search the web for ā€˜patch listā€™ of your instruments. Or you can create these yourself. But this is not straightforward. You need to be able to understand the midi implementation of your instrument. If you can figure this out then you can use the scripts in c:\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase 11_64\Scripts\Patchnames\inactive\ as an example to build your own.

I assume you donā€™t have MidiQuest or make the wrong assumption. Reading the features of the site MidiQuest can generate Patchlists that can be used I Cubase(and most other DAWs). So I think it would indeed solve the problem.

Tired of using stock Patch Name Lists that donā€™t represent the contents of your instrument (factory settings) or selecting your patch changes by number? Create customized Patch Name Lists for your instruments based on the patches currently in your instrument, not just the factory settings. Supports Sonarā€™s Master.Ins file and Cubase/Nuendo Patch Script files
Midi Quest Details

Being as big as Steinberg is I donā€™t think it is unreasonable at all for them to fix the old patch script generator as a function in cubase to generate patch lists and option to upload users scripts for others to use in the future.

BTW. By reading an old SoS magazine I found this site that have some patch scripts that Steinberg could just add to what is installed as default. https://rivetedstudios.com/patchscripts-individual/?skw=a6&orderby=date&order=desc Sadly not the synths I haveā€¦

Hardware MIDI devices started to go out of fashion with the introduction of VSTis, which probably explain why the entire Device Panels feature of Cubase has remained largely undeveloped since it was introduced.

It really isnā€™t that hard to create a patch script, and you donā€™t even have to list all the presets in your device, only those that you want to select by name in the Inspector. If you know how to send a MIDI program change, or how a bank select works, you probably already know enough about the MIDI implementation of your device to be able to create a patch script.

Midi synths is not the only instruments, but there is a constant stream of new instruments made and sold each year. So there is quite a few of us that would appreciate if Steinberg put in a a few hours to update the tool for them. After all they made the function from the start.

As for making a patch list it was not so easy. I did one ages ago on my PC for another synth. Now. Downloaded one from the web and I can not get it to load on my Mac M1. I think I have installed it in the correct location, but it will not show up. It is not a straight forward and well described process.

Hereā€™s a website you might try: https://www.cubasetools.com/

I have and are using MidiQuest, It can create patchlists. but you first need to make sure your instrument is supported. But getting it to work into Cubase is not that straightforward.
MidiQuest is foremost an instrument/patch/preset manager.

I donā€™t agree that Steinberg should profide patchlists for all instruments.
The DAW market is a lot different from the hardware market.

I wondered why you ask about ScriptMaker until I read the entire manual. One can only be disappointed by the documentation standard of Steinberg.
Anyway, ScriptMaker is integrated in the MIDI Device Manager.
Open your device, then select ā€œPatch Banksā€ in the pop up menu as per the screenshot.
grafik

I would recommend to open some existing MIDI devices to have a look at how the system works.

Also check out the third option from the drop down menu ā€œBank Assignmentā€. It lets you assign MIDI channels to a specific group of patches (called Banks in the editor but are not MIDI banks), e.g. channel 10 to Drums on a GM device.

Good then that is settled. It can generate patch lists and my Synths are not very rare and listed as supported so I could do that, but before I invest in that I need to make sure I can get any patch list imported into Cubase on my Mac M1. From my scrutinies into manuals and google hit(regarding older Mac OSā€™s) so far I have not made it. I have inserted watchlist.txt files in the uninstalled folder and they will not show up.

As for updates. My point is that since they made it from the start it is a good custom to keep it working in updated versions on current platform. After all this is a major brand that we pay yearly for updates. And new midi-hardware synths are made every year and seems to still sell well, would not be very hard to have some small co-op with hardware brands to send in patch-lists for an update. Let agree to disagree on that.

Thank you Johnny for that input. I have been digging around in there as well and lost my way. As I see it this is for editing existing synths and mine are not listed. I guess I could clone one and rename it or something, but so far I have not been able to add any on my Mac os13. Admit I am a very new on Mac and this os so if anybody can give some input on that is would be nice as well.

You can add new ones, no problem. You have to create a new device first. Afterwards you open that device and switch to the Patch Banks page. You then habe to enable edit. It really depends on your synth how you continue from there. E.g. the JV-1080 I used as an example has different modes: Patch and Performance. Furthermore it uses the GM style of having drums on channel 10. So ā€œCreate Banksā€ it is. One for Patch, one for Performance, one for Drums.
With double click you can change names. Use right-click as well to find other options.
You need to have the MIDI implemantion chart of your synth manual in front of you.

Can you tell us exactly which synths you like to integrate?

I am starting with my Roland V-Synth GT that I found a patch list for on a site. I thought it would be easiest to install that in patch scripts. From what I have read it seems it should go in the Application Cubase folder for uninstalled on my Mac. But it does not show up after I have copied it into this folder. See image below. In the mean while I tried your suggestion by making another device. I exported a JV1080 device from the device editor and edited that XML file to show V-Synth as name instead, imported that and managed to make it select the first patches editing the patch-list manually. But that is a very manual process. Doubt I will do that with 1000+ programsā€¦

Honestly, making these scripts was always a very manual typing task. If the makers of the respective synthesizers would share an electronic copy of the patch list it would make life a lot easier. But most of the times it was just typing stuff off the printed manual.

I just looked and found ScriptMaker on the Steinberg server. It was somewhat of a small side project of one of the people working at Steinberg but not in development. Therefore it is only available for PC.
ftp://ftp.steinberg.net/Download/PC_Stuff/Patchname_Script_Maker/English/


I have found a script for Rolandā€™s V-Synth XT on the Roland support pages. If I integrate into Cubase it looks something like thisā€¦


Are these the patches you are looking for? Some of the patch names look a bit weird and would need some adjusting.

As I said before: the features of ScriptMaker are baked into Cubaseā€™s MIDI Device Manager. You are not missing out anything.

If you cannot find a script file and have to start from scratch please note that you can quickly make a lot of patches in one go. However, you will have to enter the patch names manually yourself.

Look here please:
I go to MIDI Device Manager,
click ā€œInstall Deviceā€

In the new window ā€œAdd MIDI Deviceā€ I select ā€œDefine Newā€¦ā€, then click OK.
I then click ā€œOpen Deviceā€ (make sure it is the selected device in the section ā€œInstalled Devicesā€).

grafik

In the new window I will switch the view from ā€œDeviceā€ to ā€œPatch Banksā€.
There I will checkmark ā€œEnable Editā€ first,
then click on the button left of it, which probably will read ā€œCreate Bankā€. Now there is already one bank automatically created, letā€™s use that one.
Therefore I will select ā€œAdd Multiple Presetsā€. That will bring up another window.

grafik

Please note you can edit the columns ā€œMIDI Message Nameā€ and ā€œRangeā€, but Cubase does not like to show that to you because it would rather leave you guessing what to do here.
Anyway, it is time to find out what your synth needs to receive in order to switch patches properly. Look at the synthā€™s manual (MIDI implementation chart).
I created an example where the synth expects a BankSelectMSB first, then the Program Change.
Note the column ā€œRangeā€. You can insert one value here or define a range.
My example will create 128 presets (= patches). All of them call Bank MSB 0 and the Program Change will go up one by one.

If I do thisā€¦
grafik

ā€¦ I will create 32 presets. The first 16 for bank 0, the next 16 for bank 1.

The main typing process is entering the names of the patches one after another.

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