Up until now, I’ve been using HSO in FL studio without any problems. Because of certain limitations of FL, I opened up HSO in Cubase. I opened a patch, but no sound came out. Other plugins (and the Lite samples) work fine. I then searched the internet and found that HSO required mod wheel input to make sound. I don’t have a mod wheel! I don’t want to be limited in my use of software by my hardware. How do I work around this?
It might be that you’re using a patch from the Xfade or Xswitch categories. Have a look at page 28 of the manual for an explanation. Alternately, you could map another controller to produce CC1 or just use auomation and write it in.
I’m almost completely new to Cubase; how would I go about doing either of these things?
A couple of questions first:
- Just to confirm – this “no sound” issue is only in Cubase 5?
- Can you hear sound from any of the patches loaded in HSO when loaded in C5?
- Have you already checked the manual to HSO regarding setting the outputs etc.?
If you can load the standalone version of HSO and pick a patch that does work (i.e. produce sound for you), then tell me the name of that patch so we have somewhere to start.
- Yes, I only have this problem in Cubase Studio 5. It works fine in FL studio.
- The Lite patches work, but only those.
- Considering that it outputs sound when I select the lite patches, I would assume the outputs are set right.
I loaded the standalone version and any patch I tried worked (Lite patches, xfade, xswitch, etc)
The idea you had about making an automation envelope seems like it would work, I just don’t know how to do that in Cubase.
I think it’s probably still an issue with the outputs of the VSTi. This is a common problem but it helps if you know that HSO is a multitimbral VSTi, i.e. it’s intended to play more than one patch simultaneously but on different MIDI channels. This means you would generally only have one instance of HSO loaded (via the VST Instruments rack – F11), then create seperate MIDI tracks for each part, route the MIDI output of each track to the same HSO instance, and use different channels for each.
HSO also has multiple VST audio outputs which by default are not all activated. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
Start with a new empty project, press F11 and load HSO, and when asked if you want to create a MIDI track, click “Create”. Set the output of the MIDI track in the Track Inspector to HSO (it will appear like “1 - HALSymphOrch - MIDI in” in the drop-down list. Save the project.
Now, when I do this I can load a patch (e.g. “Hrn 4Pl accent Vel_16”) and I can see that it loads, but if I click on a key of the virtual keyboard within HSO, I hear nothing. I think this is similar to your case.
There are two places to look. The first thing to do is look under the “Out” column of the slot you have loaded your patch; it probably says “Program” (see p. 25 of the manual). If you click you’ll see the other outputs listed, with names like “Hso1 Violin”, “Hso2 Viola” etc. These outputs are named after the orchestra sections that one might typically want to group together when later mixing down the performance.
Not everyone wants 16 outputs from a VSTi so by default, HSO only activates the first one, namely “Hso1 Violin”. In the example above however, we’ve loaded a patch which clearly is part of the horn section; and, because the information on which output to use is saved with the patch, by default it routes it’s output to the virtual audio output called “Hso9 Horn”.
So here’s the magic bit: go back to the VST Instruments rack (F11) and look just to the left of the word HALSymphOrch where you loaded HSO and click on the little box with the arrow coming out its left side. A drop-down menu will appear and you’ll see that there’s only one checkmark against the first output “Hal Hso1 Violin”. Click against “Hal Hso9 Horn” and you’ll see another channel appear, and you’ll be able to play the patch via the virtual keyboard and hear sound – hopefully a lovely French horn!
This may seem unduly complicated but it offers tremendous flexibility for processing and positioning later in the production.
Thanks, that was exactly what I needed. I also never understood what the point of having 16 slots was, and now I do, so thanks again!
Brilliant! I had a similar problem (HSO woring fine standalone but only a few patches would sound when running as a VST) even after reinstalling and updating HSO. But now I’ve found this post, fixed the problem and even understand why it wouldn’t work!. Thanks Mr Soundman.
Mazz
OMG! Why didn’t I read this first!
Cheers
Shayne
At the moment I am somewhat unable to set up QQ’s properly. I have eight knobs which attach to the eight QQ knobs in the player. However, I cannot unasign QQ5 from pan. Which is extremely annoying. Any idea?
DUDE. Mr. Soundman. You rule. 
Thank you for not only (probably) solving the exact same problem I’ve been having with sound, but for explaining the “why” and the “how” so well that I actually had an epiphany about it and learned something.
Aaaw jeez :-} – thank you!
Mr Soundman I love you! I had the same problem and now its fixed! Deep unrelenting joy!
Your joy gives me joy!