How to input the USB audio from the Virus TI2 synth in cubase 14 and record it?

[J-Unkie]

Hello,

I’ve moved from another DAWs to cubase 14 recently and i can’t find a convenient way to record the USB audio of my Virus TI 2 Keyb. (It’s a Hardware Synth with built in USB asio audio interface and a VST interface)

Before, i just had to insert the virus VSTi interface, create an audio track, select the VIRUS TI asio from the various input list (Rme Fireface Asio, UAD Asio, Virus Ti asio) and hit record.

In cubase 14 the Virus Ti simply doesn’t appear as a selectable device, so i can’t find a way to input the sound to a track and record.
For the Virus ASIO outputs to appear, i have to reach the " studio setup ", switch from my RME Fireface UCX asio to the Virus TI Asio, record my track, reach again the studio setup then switch back to my RME Asio driver to continue mixing.

One other solution i’ve found is to solo the VIRUS midi track i want to record, export and create an audio track from the export.

That workflow is awfuly clunky and unconvenient. I can’t find any workaround.
Any help would be very appreciated.

[Nico5]

For years, I’ve always recorded my VirusTI simply analog, like I would record any other hardware synth, because that seemed to be the simplest workflow for me.

But earlier this year I bumped into this:

OsTIrus Downloads

And here’s a pretty good explanation video:

Classic Synths for FREE???

[J-Unkie]

Thanks very much for the links, i tried ostirus last summer but wasn’t 100% satisfied soundwise. Using phase cancelation reveals some sound differences, especialy around 50-150hz and 500-800 hz.

The USB asio audio on the Virus TI is extremely convenient, i used it for years on other daw without any problem or limitation, you just had to select "Virus TI Asio " on your track input. As explained on the original post, I realy don’t understand how to do it with Cubase 14.

[Jalusblu5]

Hi J-Unkie
Just to be clear about what you’re trying to achieve here - Do you want to use your Virus TI2 as an audio interface or as a vst instrument ? Your Virus TI should load within cubase as a regular vsti if you are simply trying to record the sounds from the synth. You don’t have to change ASIO drivers. Add a vsti – in my case it’s in the Access Virus folder as a track instrument. Record some MIDI data on this track. Then create an audio track with this vsti as the input with record and monior buttons enabled, this will record the audio output of the VIRUS TI to the track. I don’t think you can render MIDI to audio like other vsti’s now… hope this helps.

[Jalusblu5]

It’s weird - I can’t quite figure this out. I’ve been using my access virus for a long time with Cubase. In the past I could just render the midi file to audio - then I started getting the message that I had to do real time conversion as an external instrument was being used. I just opened a new project and tested it all again… at first I got this message, then when I created a new midi track and tried to render it… IT WORKED … without any problems !
I’m confused as to why sometimes I get a message saying it has to be done in real time then at other times it renders fine without any problems - sorry if this is not helping you to solve your problem. If there are any other Access Virus TI owners out there using Cubase Pro 13/14 I would appreciate any insight you could provide in to this matter ! Thanks.

[av_music]

I own a TI2 and use it with any version of Cubase since maybe 2008? Or something like that. I am able to use 3 different audio outputs inside the DAW, so it’s very handy (when works…)

but keep in mind: there are many MANY M-A-N-Y issues, the synth has sync problems, sometimes it doesnt load up, and it’s not rare that completely crashes the DAW and you have even to reboot the machine

but when the virus works and you export the result, there’s nothing like it, best pads basses and leads ever, for pop, edm, hiphop, soundtrack or whatever use. So we have to suffer but for a good musical reason lol

But thats known, it’s due to that old and buggy Access app that make you use the synth like a VSTi, Cubase cant do much. It happens for all DAWs

My experience? Well, as usual in these situations is a mix of science and voodoo magics lol

1 make sure you have the latest Access app installed
2 when you have in mind of using the Virus, when you open Cubase, as first move, just open an empty project with only the basic Virus, 1 output, no plugins and play it. Then close that basic project and WITHOUT quitting Cubase open the most busy project where you have the Virus (I know sounds weird…but thats it)
3 when you have to export Virus make sure you have the audiocard buffer size at THE MINIMUM possible in that project, in that moment, should be 512. If you cant export the midi in audio you have to reboot the machine, open the empty project like in point 1 and try again…if doesnt work…
4 you have to set up a new empty project in Cubase, import the time signature, tempo track and Virus track then export in the new empy project, and later re-import the wav into the original project. It happens rarely, but it happens. Maybe it’s due to a complex patch on Virus, who knows…but thats it

I agree about OsTirus. It is a piece of art of a work, but doesnt sound 100% like the Virus, even if in USB. The analog output sounds obviously very different

There’s another method though, and it is the auraplugins.com editor

That aura virus editor gives a virtual editor in the DAW that is even better than the official Acces editor, and it’s not buggy. But it needs you to connect the virus via midi+analog outs. I dont personally use it now, but I tested it and I have many good feedbacks from colleagues

hope it helps, feel free to ask more.

now I go, I have to make a prayer because later I will try to start a session with our beloved virus ti eheheh…lets hope it will work!

[J-Unkie]

Hi All.

@Jalusblu5 :

This is exactly what i do, i insert the virus VSTi as an instrument track, record midi events on this track.
Then i create an audio track in order to input the Virus audio and record it. In that audio track i can ONLY select hardware input, i can’t find any way to input any instrument track nor any VIRUS hardware output like i always did on other DAWs.

Then create an audio track with this vsti as the input with record and monior buttons enabled, this will record the audio output of the VIRUS TI to the track.

I can’t find any way to do what you describe above.

See below :

On that topic here’s the answer of the official support :

Cubase works with instrument tracks, and you simply use Cubase’ “audio export” option here to export the audio track with the TI to a new audio file. You need to make sure the realtime export option is activated in the audio export window, since the unit cannot create its sound faster than in realtime.
Other option: create a group track with the TI tracks’ output as its input, and then use this group track as the input source for an audio track. This way you can record the audio onto the newly created audio track.

Any group track you want to feed into another audio track cannot be routed to anything else. So, when you create the group track, it cannot have be set to any output, so set to output for the group to “none” or whatever it is called in Cubase. Then use this Group track as the input source of the audio track you want to record to.

Following the process described above, i was able to output the virus to a “test group” but i wasn’t able to output my “test group” into my " test audio track “, moreover i wasn’t able to input my " test group” into my " test audio track ". Any idea on how to make this work ?

@av_music :

Thanks very much for all the info and hints.
I work with access hadware since the Virus B.
Whith my previous daw and the Virus VSTi i’ve indeed experienced various sync problems but never had any load problems or crashes in years.
I just had to activate the " LIVE " mode on the interface to minimize sync problems but it didn’t solve them all.

I own a TI2 and use it with any version of Cubase since maybe 2008? Or something like that. I am able to use 3 different audio outputs inside the DAW, so it’s very handy (when works…)

This is something i don’t understand in cubase, how do you do that ? I’ve spent hours and can’t find a way to do this…
I have a 4 ASIO devices : RME fireface UCX, a UAD Apollo, the VIRUS TI (USB) and a KEMPER profiler (USB).
On previous daw i was able to use them all, since i moved to cubase i can only use one at a time. What am i missing ?

I’ve then connected the VIRUS analog out (OUT1 L+R) to my Fireface using TRS jacks, now the audio is recorded too early. As you can see below the audio is being recorded before the midi events, any idea on how to solve that ? :

(Tried ASIO Latency compensation active by Default on then off, same results)

Thanks all for you help.

[vinark]

Asio can use only one driver at a time at least in cubase, but I believe in every daw that uses asio. Are you sure your former daw used asio? What daw was that?
Or did you set up an asio4all driver?

[J-Unkie]

Yes, it does use asio and has the same limitation to one asio driver at a time.
But you can switch from one to another with ease.
In the case related to this topic, i just have to select the Virus TI ASIO as an input for any audio track and hit record (something i haven’t been able to do with cubase) :

About the aforementioned problem with audio being recorded too early and not aligned with the midi events, if i bypass " asio guard " now the audio is being recorded a bit late :

I might be wrong but i have read somewhere about something similar, the VST was reporting the wrong latency to cubase thus leading to desync problems. So far i haven’t found how to fix that.

[Nico5]

Is there a chance that the difference in behaviour between older versions of Cubase and Cubase 14 is related to differences between the VirusTI VST2 and VST3 plugins?

By default Cubase 14 , disables VST2 plugins.

So someone having been used to running the VST2 plugin might (inadvertently) now be running the VST3 plugin inside Cubase 14.

But (if I remember it correctly), the VirusTI VST3 plugin always came with a warning that it might not be as fully functional as the VST2 plugin.

[wavefunktion]

This is how I record the Access Virus TI2 via USB connection into a Audio Track in Cubase 13.

1. ASIO Driver is set to “ASIO Fireface USB” - (I am using a RME Fireface UCX audio interface, I have never used “Virus TI ASIO driver” before)

2. Insert a Instrument Track and load the Virus TI VST

3. Insert a Audio Track and enable the record and monitor

4. Set the Audio Track routing/input to “Virus TI Instrument Track”

5. Start recording into audio

Here is a visual demonstration:

Can you please clarify which part of this process is not working in Cubase 14 ?

[J-Unkie]

@Nico5 thanks for the hint, you’re right that’s something to be investigated. Which i did, as you can see on the photo below, it is running by default an instance of the VST2 version. (When i installed cubase 14 i went to the settings and enabled vst2 plugins)

@wavefunktion Thanks for the help, i did exactly the same process as you described above ands as you can see on the pic below, the virus instrument is inserted and loaded, on the audio track i have no routing option other than " no bus " and " stereo in ".
I am running Cubase Artist 14.0.5, is routing to an instrument track only available on the pro version ?

I tried to record the same midi events on the Virus instrument track through its analog out several times.
As you can see the recording latency is totaly random, Takes aren’t aligned with each other.
Same goes for the phase, which is random too. What gives ?

[wavefunktion]

The Virus TI Instrument Track should be available in the Audio Track Routing/Input. I think that this is a bug.

Unfortunately I do not own Cubase v14 yet, so unfortunately I am unable to verify that for you.

[wavefunktion]

The latency in the audio recordings doesn’t look completely random, it looks like it is progressively adding a little bit more latency with each pass.

The Virus TI does tend to have latency/sync issues sometimes.

When recording the Virus TI, try using the Cubase “Punch In” and “Punch out” recording method and start the project playback around 1-2 bars before the “Punch In” recording point to give the Virus TI some time to sync more accurately with the project. Does that help with the latency ?

Did you ever experience these latency patterns in Cubase v13 ?

[J-Unkie]

The latency in the audio recordings doesn’t look completely random, it looks like it is progressively adding a little bit more latency with each pass.

At the time i made the screenshot you’re right, but while running other tests i had more random results.

In the meantime the official support answered :

The analog outputs cannot be delay compensated while the plugin is in use, so you would have to manually adjust the track delay for the Midi tracks.

I tried that but the delay is hardly 2 times the same so i can’t use a fixed value !

When recording the Virus TI, try using the Cubase “Punch In” and “Punch out” recording method and start the project playback around 1-2 bars before the “Punch In” recording point to give the Virus TI some time to sync more accurately with the project. Does that help with the latency ?

This is what i did, as i am used with access hardware i tend to let several measures before for the synth to have time to sync correctly.

Did you ever experience these latency patterns in Cubase v13 ?

I am new to cubase and began with the cubase 14 Artist version few weeks ago. I switched from other daw i used for decades.

I’ve switched because i experienced various sync problems with complex routings, i work on projects with 50 to 150 tracks withc true recorded instruments (drums, guitars, bass…) and VSTi as well as hardware synth, not only with the virus.
Cubase seems way more stable until now for those big projects of mine, but i have realy hard time with the virus routing and syncing.
It’s very annoying because i use it A LOT and i am stucked on various pro fessional projects at the moment because of it !

[wavefunktion]

Which version of Cubase v14 are you using now ?

[J-Unkie]

Cubase Artist 14.0.5

[wavefunktion]

Try using a different VST Instrument on a Instrument Track and see if that shows up in the Audio Track “Routing/Input” section. Report back the result.

For your information, here is the Cubase versions feature comparison chart, so you can see the differences in functionality between Cubase Pro and Cubase Artist:

Compare the Versions of Cubase

[J-Unkie]

Thanks for the help, i was well hidden not easy to spot but It’s a limitation of cubase artist.
i’ve upgraded to pro and now the instrument tracks appear as available inputs.

[wavefunktion]

Can you please identify which feature on the Cubase version comparison chart was causing the issue ?