Forgive a newbie (to Cubase anyway) question - I loaded HALion in as a VST and hit record enable on the track. I clicked the O record down the bottom and the slider moves along. I tap in notes and I hear them but nothing appears in the actual track itself. I have record enable running and the instrument shows levels in the input and output meters, but nothing actually goes into the track. I did a little looking in some of the documents and some videos online, it seems like what I am doing, “on paper” is correct, but nothing is making it from the instrument keyboard to the track. I changed instrument ‘patches’ to another one (using Iconica Sketch instruments, I tried Harp and Lute, both are the same). I am not sure what I am missing to get it to take the output of HALion into Cubase and then work on the tracks. Do I need to record it as a separate MIDI track elsewhere and then I can add it? Seems unlikely since I see folks online using keyboards (my MIDI keyboard is on loan so I am just using the on-screen keybaord in HALion) and recording, so I am sure I am making a dumb mistake. I tried the help and it tells me to go to settings like Add Expression Maps that I don’t have. If I click the ‘e’ I see some, but nothing I try to do in it changes anything - I hear and see levels, the instrument sounds fine, but I can’t get it to record audio to the track.
Thanks for all help! (Note in the screenshot the green |> play is lit, but that was me trying to play it back, I had the red O lit and I see the slider moving along, but it doesn’t record a peep.)
the virtual on-screen keyboard at the top pf the screenshot works by mouse-clicking on its fields or by pressing down the displayed keys on your keyboard.
The attached Halion keyboard below does not record any signals by mouse-clicking on the keys although you can hear the signal. Tricky, right?
If you don’t have a master keyboard you must use the virtual on-screen keyboard in order to record a signal (Studio > On Screen Keyboard or Alt + K on Windows // Option + K on Mac).
OK, that sort of makes sense I guess, the OSK from HALion is a to test it. Got it.
I followed your suggestion (thanks for that, I haven’t seen that anywhere else) and I get note input now. I see notes in the field but it’s silent! I can hear PC sounds through my headphones, so not sure if I clicked something on/off by accident.
I see the slider scrolling when I go to Play/ but nothing comes out of the speakers. Hmmm. Thanks for your help and information!
Can you press F4 and check if your Outputs (Stereo Out) are properly assigned to physical outputs? Control room is disabled so that’s out of the picture. It’s strange, though, that you were able to hear a signal before. Can you also check if there are any plugins on your Stereo Out or if your Stereo Out is muted (Studio > Mix Console - you’ll find the Stereo Out to the right)?
Last but not least and please, don’t take this as an insult - have you turned the volume up on your Stereo Out and your audiointerface (if you’ve got one).
If this doesn’t do the trick, could you provide more info about your setup (system, audiointerface, Cubase version etc), please?
I checked what you suggested and it all appears normal. I even completely closed (didn’t save) Cubase and reopened it and still the same thing. I did check the outputs and they are set t o 0 dB level (which I hadn’t changed). I do notice when the HALion player comes up the OSK for the instrument is also silent, making me think the two are related. I opened another score and started playing as well as prior music and I can hear it. I tried to import a .mid file in and it throws an error, so not sure there.
I am on Cubase Pro 15 Version 15.0.30 Build 287 (x64) - Built on Jun 1 2026
I did the steps to get the sound back, it appears I set it to the wrong output messing around, so I got that back, but the sounds aren’t making it in…
Hmmm I brought the Alt+K keyboard back and got notes in! Small steps haha! It sounds bad, it seems like they are just an instance (i.e. the note doesn’t have any duration if I hold it down - but I think I am finally getting a little further along. Thanks again for your patience and excellent help!
Is there a way to get the on-screen one to act more like a real keyboard (it’s also tiny!) - I tried the keyboard but that doesn’t appear to be accepting (have to play around with that). I sometimes have the computer travelling and don’t have a midi keyboard so I am trying to figure out if I can make something passable, even just to play with ideas and sounds, etc.
