I hope this isn’t a stupid question, but I haven’t really been able to find how to use Cubasis and Audiobus to utilize multiple tracks when creating a song, and was hoping to ask this group.
So as an example, I am making a track that utilizes a number of Cubasis instruments, as well as AU’s, and I want to include Waldorf’s Nave synth, and am not sure if I am configuring this in the most efficient way. I am trying to send midi data from a track in Cubasis to the synth, but record the audio back into an audio track through Audiobus to Cubasis. I do the following and I am wondering if this is the best way to do this:
- open Cubasis and create a blank midi track with no instrument
- open Nave and select the sound I am looking for
- go back to Cubasis and in the midi track, select the midi out to go to Nave 1 and make sure Nave is receiving midi notes
- open Audiobus and choose nave as the input and Cubasis as the output
- make sure the audio track is receiving the Audiobus signal
- record the song with the midi track audio channel set to the lowest volume and make sure the midi notes are recorded
- make sure the audio track recorded the audio.
I am doing this as I would like to be able to record the midi information that I want of the other external synth in case I want to make modifications to the sound in the future. That way, I can just delete the audio recorded in the audio lane, and rerecord.
Is this the best way to achieve this goal, or do others know of betters ways to use non-AU synths inside of Cubasis while retaining state-saving settings that Audiobus provides?
Hello,
I’m not seeing a reply to this, so I’ll just give my two cents.
I’m not sure what you mean by utilizing multiple tracks with Audiobus. I record multiple tracks with Audiobus one track at a time much the way you are describing. I imagine you could have a midi out controlling several synth apps (tying them through the routing and setting a different midi out channel to each), and possibly set different input audio for corresponding audio tracks and selecting the different synth apps loaded into Audiobus for each track also through routing, but I don’t know why anyone would bother with this since you could just do it one track at a time with fewer CPU/latency issues.
The thing is that I don’t think you even need to involve Audiobus to record the midi notes. Virtual midi has nothing to do with Audiobus. Audiobus only controls audio. They are two separate systems interacting simultaneously in this configuration. I have seen videos where you can set up the midi input routing on an IOS DAW, create/arm a midi track and hit record and play the synth app and the midi notes will record in the DAW. The reason I never do this is that you can’t control the “Play” button in Cubasis this way so the notes don’t sync. This would be the only reason to involve Audiobus. You have that nice little record button sitting there you can access from the synth app you can control the midi recording while the audio is recording (provided your midi tracks are also armed).
So there is no such thing as “midi track audio channel” as you mentioned. You have a midi track that will record midi notes via virtual midi at the same time that an audio channel records audio via Audiobus.
I have found it much easier to program the midi parts directly into Cubasis, edit and fine tune the midi part and then demo sounds in synth apps via virtual midi and record the ones I like track by track with Audiobus. You don’t have to have anything hooked up through Auidiobus when demoing synth patches. Actually, that is pretty much all I do because I’m not fond of the built in patches in Cubasis. I use Nave a lot. I often program the midi parts with the Cubasis piano patch then switch to “no instrument” when I’m ready to demo other synth app patches. If it sounds good with piano, it will sound good with anything.
For what you’re trying to accomplish, I’m guessing your approach is the way to do it if you want to capture live playing with midi. But you will still need to, and should, do this one track at a time to end up with a multi-track recording.
I hope I understood your question correctly.
On a side note, I have noticed midi from Cubasis “plays” Nave out of tune. I’ve been using a tuner app to check this and many times the incoming audio from Nave is about a whole tone off from what the midi notes are. You can change Nave in the system controls to adjust for this. This isn’t a problem if you only use Nave, but you notice it when you have Nave on some tracks and other synth apps on other tracks because they are out of tune with one another.