Is it possible to directly record the audio part of a Midi Device

I have in my project a midi track that records midi from either a keyboard or a midi guitar.
I installed a midi device for my Microfreak, specifying the input port of my audio interface on which the microfreak is connected and I created an instrument track with it.
The input port assigned to the Microfreak device is therefore no longer available on the audio interface.
In my midi track, I have a send to the Microfreak.
Everything is working.

When I record all these tracks, the Microfreak track only records the midi.
If I want to record the audio from the Microfreak, I have to go through a render in place which creates a new audio track for me.

I would like to be able to directly record the audio of the Microfreak in the recording session without having to come back to do this render in place, is there a way to do this?

Yes, for example. by plugging the audio outputs of the hardware into your audio interface.

would be easy, but…

So this is not the answer :wink: .

you mean the device’s audio output is already plugged into your interface? You can’t record the audio on that route?

Have you already added an external midi device as the Microfreak (or any physical synth) ?

Not in the past decade or so!

Have you tried routing a send on the Instrument track to a group track, and that to an input on an audio track?

Thanks but my question was very simple, I am not requesting more tracks to be added, simply recording directly the audio output of this device track, keep (or not) the recorded midi part but add a recorded audio part in same track, just as if it was a mixed midi-audio track.
It seems to be a missig feature.

Actually the midi device is useless, sending the midi through the midi port out of my audio interface and creating an audio track for the microfreak seems to be an easier way to go than having the over complicated but feature-poor midi device architecture…

Well, if you need to do it without adding tracks, your exact use-case isn’t addressed by the External Instrument feature. The the narrow answer to your original question

is, ‘no’.
Of course Cubase is enormous, so there might be another way which someone more knowledgeable than me will post, hopefully.

I think you should add your synth as an External Instrument in Audio Connections, rather than in MIDI Device Manager… That will most likely solve your problem :wink:
Correct me if I’m wrong, because I’ve never used External Instruments. Are you, @steve , saying that when we add External Instruments we can no longer access the corresponding input channels to record audio directly ? The only way is to make in-place renders of MIDI data and wait for the synth to play by itself ?

The simplest way would be to remove both the External Instrument and the MIDI Device, and create one MIDI track routed to your Microfreak, then an Audio track with the Microfreak as the input, so you can both record live audio by either playing your synth manually or by sending the MIDI track to it.
This is quite very simple.

Thank you but that’s not my question.
Why so many people having never used a synth as a Cubase device try to answer on this subject ???
Thanks but…

Hello csurieux,

After watching the video you posted, it seems you want to record audio from an instrument track?

Because if you set up an external instrument with the associated midi device, as described in the video, Cubase treats your external synth like a vsti. This is really handy, but now you need to set up Cubase a little differently than when you want to record an external instrument.

What you are looking for is how to record audio and midi from VST instruments at the same time.

Here is one example from Greg

In a nutshell it should be easy as create a group track from your instrument track → create audio track → route group into audio track → record group audio into audio track.

You cannot record MIDI and audio together on one track in Cubase, so your best chance is what you already wrote yourself, create a MIDI track, connect the MIDI devices, create an audio track and route your synth output to that. Record, done. Tried and tested method for many many years…
The midi devices on an instrument track are probably OK if you record your MIDI first or generate it in Cubase…

Thank you for taking time to answer.
But I was knowing this video from Greg (Google yes, me too).
Cubase has such a byzantine architecture that there are often solution by adding tracks, groups, routing, sending to reach any target…but at the cost of complex workflow and CPU eating.
I was asking myself : may be they have thinked to a simple process to record midi AND audio in same track. It would have been so helpful.
But it seems out of reach and to do it I would have to ‘bysante’ again and again :frowning: :wink:

Yes actually but I loose some of the facilities bought by a midi device as for exemple the possibility to select the bank I want to play from the Cubase Inspector interface.

Currently every DAW I know, is doing it the same way - external instrument just records midi only.
The solution with creating a midi track (can also be an external midi device) and audio track and group them to record both for sure is working great.
Also, to mention, with external instruments there are some benefits - besides the program changes (presets list) there is an add, delay compensation and the cubase device panels).

So currently in my default template file, I’ve created for every external device that setup, but I would love to have a more comfortable solution added to Cubase - I am thinking of just adding external devices like plugins including the recording audio option - this would make my template file much clearer and efficient because if that’s possible, there is no need to add them to the template file.

Thank you for confirmation, which DAWS please ?
But the fact that none of the other Daws you know don’t propose mixed midi-audio tracks should not be a reason to not do it in Cubase ?

I have not used this, but, yes it seems to be another parameter. I am not sure to understand its usage when reording, especially if you record in same time ‘normal’ audio ttacks directly from your audio interface ?

That is my point, it would be very easier to integrate external synths and audio sources.

For years I keep requiring to have a RECORD button on VST-Audio-Channels.

I know there are different ways to do that. But the record button would be straight forward.

Isn’t that possible with MIDI tracks, too? I’m pretty sure I had my DSI evolver controlled by a traditional MIDI track, but also had the ability to select banks and patches and I think I even found a device panel for it that I could use (never did, though)… it’s a long time ago, so I don’t exactly remember how I did that, but I am 100% sure I didn’t do it as described in your video, with an instrument track (not sure they even existed back then)

There are things like this that might be useful

Yes, but as usual, more complex to integrate if doable.
Having one device Midi-Audio track with midi and audio, and real time recording with Cubase tracks workflow, would be nice.