This has been a bug forever, it seems, and I believe that it is ONLY broken on Mac - Windows supposedly works correctly. For years I’ve been duly upgrading Cubase, paying my $99, hoping that friggin’ finally this would be fixed. Alas, so far it is NOT fixed in v10 Pro.
Here it is:
- Create an Instrument track for an External synth, e.g., Moog Voyager.
- Record something, then Freeze, making sure to check the option, “Unload Instrument When Frozen” as that’s exactly the behavior you want. (The Voyager is monophonic, and you want, say, to record a lead sound on another track, now that you’ve recorded - and Frozen - that killer Moog bass line on the first track.)
- Create another instrument track for an External synth. “Moog Voyager” is still available as an Instrument in the dialog box, so click Add Track. (If you click the Instrument drop-down, it shows “Moog Voyager (Used)”, but there is NO instrument configured for the resulting Instrument track. And it is not available in the “External Plug-Ins” list, either.
Why why why why why? The VST is unloaded after Freeze. Cubase isn’t sending MIDI or audio to it anymore; it’s friggin’ FROZEN, so it’s just an audio clip, right? Therefore:
BUG: External instruments should be available for re-use after their Instrument track is Freeze’d.
And, just to show that there isn’t some weird routing reason why this can’t work, I came up with a heinous workaround:
- In “MIDI Device Manager” create additional devices, e.g., “Moog Voyager 2”, “Moog Voyager 3” and so on, selecting the proper Output port (which can all be the same, i.e., the port for the one, actual Moog Voyager!)
- In “Audio Connections” | “External Instruments” add additional instruments, selecting the same audio ports in “Device Port” (Cubase will complain, since you’ve already used that audio port, but that’s ok.) and select the MIDI device you just created in step #1, above. (Note that, alternately, you can skip step #1 and select “Create Device” in the menu popup for “MIDI Device”.)
- Now you have a new “External Plug In” to use on another Instrument Track, just as if Cubase didn’t have the bug described above. What a PITA!!!
Steinberg, PLEASE fix this bug, finally. Previously, I was actually told that this was “not a bug” - that it’s supposed to work this way. But that makes no sense, whatsoever, esp. since it works properly (I’m told) on Windows. Obviously, I don’t know your code, but as a long-time software engineer, I have got to believe this is a pretty easy one, esp. since it works properly for other VST instruments; just not External Instruments.
Thanks in advance,
– jdm