I can't get my microphone assigned to my vocal track

Cubase
1

I’ve been doing a lot of recording using MIDI/VST Instruments and now it’s time to record some vocals. So I’ve plugged my RODE mic into the right-hand XLR input of my UR22 mk II and I can see that there is a signal being picked up
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However, I don’t know how to assign this Stereo In to the Vocal audio track beside it. This is the routing at the top of that strip
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Can anyone please help? I feel really stupid not knowing this, but I’ve only recorded MIDI up to now.
Thank you
Edward

2

You should probably create a mono input bus and use that instead of one side of a stereo input. You can use a mono input on a stereo track also.

The monitor button for the audio track needs to be activated in order to hear the input, in case that might be part of the problem.

3

Thanks - I’ll try that - or at least I’ll try to find out how to do that, never having done anything with busses etc! I tend to use Cubase as it is ‘out of the box’ - I really should explore it a bit more!

4

The input busses that have to be created depend directly of the different ports made available by the ASIO driver of your unit. From what I see about the UR22, you have two combo inputs available, so I guess that you have, in your Studio>Studio Setup>Audio System>Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO (not sure of the name of hte last one…) two inputs listed in the ‘Ports’ section. So…

  1. In the Setup>Audio Connections window, Inputs pane, you’ll have to create accordingly two mono input busses (with the Add Bus button) to be able to use them independently as the UR22 is obviously designed for. This, to get something as below :
Bus                  Speakers         Audio Device              Device Port

Combo 1              Mono             Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO
                                                                UR22 Input 1

Combo 2              Mono             Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO
                                                                UR22 Input 2

(The Combo 1/2 names are from me - IOW, you can name the busses in any way that could be meaningful for you. Beside this, and as for the driver name, I’m not sure of the port ones, but I guess that you’ll get the picture…)

  1. In the track inspector of your ‘Stereo In’ track, there is an Input Routing drop down list : in it, you should be able to select the correct bus (the actual input), now. In your case, it should be the one used with your RODE mic (and, for making everything clear, rename this track to something more relevent…). I would do the same thing for the ‘Vocals’ track, with maybe the other bus as input if you have two mics.

As @Scab_Pickens rightly said previously, nothing prevents you from using a stereo track with a mono input bus : actually, I do this on a regular basis, as I often use the MonoToStereo plug-in with either the DI output of my amp or when recording an acoustic guitar with a condenser mic. Once everything set and working, you can get rid of the previously existing stereo input bus : it is now useless.

5

Thanks to both @Scab_Pickens and @cubic13 - I’m away now until Sunday but I’m sure I’ll get this sorted!

6

I just wanted to thank you both for your help. I’ve just had a very successful recording session with my son and we’re both delighted to be able to record vocals. Now all we have to do is to make them sound good!

Edward

2 Likes
7

I’m so glad to hear you got it working!

Yes, the “make them sound good” part is always a challenge :grinning: .