Here’s another confusing one from a Cubase Elements 11 newbie…
I program a beat using Groove Agent, but when I play back, I get no sound.
I research the issue and find a YouTube video (but for 10.5) saying that it’s likely that my Logical Presets dropdown is greyed out (which it is). It says I need to copy a presets folder from the Steinberg folder to RoamingApps.
So I go to the Steinberg folder under Program Files, and there’s no Preset folder there, and nothing like as many folders as the guy on the video had - he had dozens of folders in there. Which is worrying. (See Screenshot). And no sign of Groove Agent.
I do find Groove Agent. It’s under Program Data, with a whole bunch of other stuff. (See Screenshot). I don’t know if that’s normal but everything other than Logical Presets seems to be working, so I’ve decided not to worry about it. I just need to find a Presets folder, like the YouTube guy advised.
I search the whole computer for ‘Presets’. And I find that actually I have a lot of presets in Roaming Apps. They’re not in a single folder - there seems to be a separate folder for each Midi Instrument - but they are there for Groove Agent. (See Screenshot.)
So, now I’m at a loss. The solution to my original problem seemed to be to copy Presets to RoamingApps. That’s not as easy as it sounds, but it appears that that’s not the problem anyway.
Quite possible that video got you to jump way down a rabbit hole.
Logical Presets work on MIDI data. If you don’t have any MIDI Parts or Events selected then the dropdown will be greyed out. Go to MIDI>Logical Presets and see if there are any presets. If you see some, even if greyed out, then you are not missing the presets. It should look like this (ignore the crossed out section - those are ones I created)
Typically presets only go missing when upgrading from one version of Cubase to a newer one. For most folks the install correctly copies them. For some folks this doesn’t happen. But if you are using fresh install that shouldn’t come into play.
I’m a bit baffled why someone in a video would jump from ‘can’t hear Groove Agent’ to ‘missing Logical Editor Presets’
Most likely your inability to hear GA is a routing issue. When you play it back does the Meter on that Track show a signal?
Can you post a screen shot of the Inspector for the Track where you have Groove Agent. Make sure both the top section and the MIDI Inserts are expanded. Like this.
Ah, this suggests that my problem may not be Presets but ignorance. Perhaps I am asking the wrong question.
The screenshot shows what I’ve got. Greyed out Logical Presets, and a different Inspector content to the one you’ve shown. So although I’m using Groove Agent (it defaulted in when I created an Instrument Track), perhaps I’m not using Midi in the sense that my question implied.
So I should start again from first principles… I can see the drums I’ve programmed but I can’t hear them…
OK, it seems you likely have 2 different things going on - not hearing the audio, and something with your logical presets. I don’t think they are interrelated.
AUDIO
When you say you can “see the drums” do you mean A) see the meter on the Track moving around OR B) you see the Notes you programed for the drum part? A is what we want.
In the MixConsole can you screen grab the Routing tab for your GA Track. I think this might only be available in the full window not in the Lower Zone MixConsole.
Can you also screen grab the Audio Connections tabs for Outputs & (if using Pro) Control Room
Which brings us to…
PRESETS
The Logical Editor feature is only available in Cubase Pro. So if that’s what you have, then it’s a problem. Otherwise, yeah you shouldn’t have any LE Presets
Thank you. So second bit first - no, I’ve got Elements 11, so I guess the presets thing is not really a problem at all. Live and learn, sorry to have gone off in the wrong direction on that.
First bit second - audio.
I can see the dots of my one programmed bar. But there’s nothing showing on the meter as I playback. (See Zilch Screenshot).
I’ve attached caps of the whole mixing console, and audio connections for both input and output.
Struggling through this, it seems to me that it might be a good idea for Steinberg to develop a graphic front-end showing the signal paths one has set up - or failed to set up - in Cubase. I mean, the software knows what’s connected and what’s not, and it wouldn’t be too big a deal to represent that graphically. Which then leads to the next step of being able to set it up by dragging wires around in the GUI. I mean, I know it’s not that easy - I’ve spent a career telling people that stuff is not that easy - but neither is it unimaginably difficult. And the volume of to-and-fro on the web concerning the byzantine and complex nature of Cubase routing would suggest that such a tool would be very useful to newbies.
…just a thought.
Here are the screencaps. I suspect they are going to lead to a forehead slapping moment, and cries of “Well, of course you can’t hear anything, you klutz…”
Your audio routing looks fine and I’d assume is working correctly. You can test that by creating an Audio Track and putting any audio clip you have on it and seeing if it plays. The Media Bay will also have a bunch of wav files you can use.
I think something is not setup correctly with the MIDI or GA. Open Groove Agent and load any Preset that has sounds assigned to Pads in the Instrument tab. When you click on a pad with a sound you should see a signal both within GA and also on the Track’s meter. Also when you are having GA play your MIDI Part (but not when clicking on a Pad) the MIDI Indicator in GA should flash.
Okay, I followed your instructions precisely, and I now have sound. I don’t know what was wrong before, but it isn’t now. Except sometimes. And then I start again.
Thank you.
I’ve just posted another question, if you can bear to look at it.
Once you have it sorted and setup how you prefer it is a good idea to Save that as a Template and use that Template as the basis for creating new Projects.
