Roland Sound Canvas

Cubasis
1

I’m new to Cubasis. I just bought the Roland Sound Canvas. It does not appear as an instrument. Is there something I need to do to load it?

2

Hi rtorstrick,

welcome to Cubasis!

Roland indicates support for Inter-App Audio for Sound Canvas. So technically it should work. Since you are new to Cubasis here are the steps again to open a

http://www.roland.com/products/sound_canvas_for_ios/

What iPad and iOS are you using?

Audiobus is also supported:

Thanks
RG

3

Thanks for your reply. I am on an iPad Pro 9.7, iOS 9.3.1. I own a UR-242, but I typically work without it, only with the built in speakers (or headphones) and an iK Multimedia iRig Keys Mini plugged into the Lightening adaptor. The whole point was to have an ultra-light workstation I can work on when away from my studio.

I am working with Cubasis SE which I upgraded, supposedly to provide the full feature set for Cubasis.

I cannot find anything helpful in the Roland support link you sent, and no steps of any sort. Even the supposed user manual on that site is only a set of the most generic sort of FAQs.

I want to be able to use Sound Canvas as a sound engine to be triggered by MIDI tracks in Cubasis, which I assumed it would be capable of given the listed support. As an example, I also bought the Arturia iSEM, which lists the same supported protocols as the Roland. Yet, the iSEM appears in both of the Instruments/Inter-App and Instruments/Audio Units menus in Cubasis, and the Souund Canvas item is NOWHERE to be found in those menus, whether it is running or not.

My original question was, do I have to point Cubasis somewhere to find it, or is there something I missed?

4

As a diagnostic step try creating an audio track and see if Sound Canvas shows up as an IAA generator in there

5

Curious, the presenter in this video you supplied says Inter App audio doesn’t work between the Roland and Cubasis! I just noticed that the Roland App DOES appear as an Inter App device in Garage Band, but not in Cubasis. Hm… Now I’m not sure which app is to blame.

I’ve been able to get it working in Audiobus mode, like the presenter here, but for some reason, MIDI signals from Cubasis don’t always trigger the Sound Canvas, and I haven’t been able to figure out why it works sometimes, but not always. Very frustrating.

6

Hi rtorstrick,

This is Lars, managing the Cubasis project for Steinberg.

IAA allows to route audio, MIDI and effects between Cubasis (host) and compatible node apps in realtime. There are three basic types of nodes:

  • Effects can be set as insert or send effects
  • Instruments are assigned to a MIDI track and automatically receive MIDI from Cubasis
  • Generators are inputs for audio tracks

It depends on the app manufacturer what type of nodes are available.
IAA apps that are not listed as instruments (only for audio track inputs) are in fact IAA generators (= only for audio tracks) and not IAA instruments, i.e. they cannot receive MIDI via IAA (only via CoreMIDI).

For more information and step descriptions how to load the various types of IAA effects, instruments and generators please refer to the Accessories/Inter-App Audio chapter in the Cubasis in-app help.

As a side note, I suggest to get in touch with Roland regarding the issue.
We’re glad to provide them with a Cubasis promo code for evaluation purpose if required.

Hope that helps,
Lars

7

As an addition, please have a look at this topic which includes solutions/workarounds for IAA instruments that do not offer full IAA support:

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=98393&p=544063&hilit=inter+app+audio#p544063

Best,
Lars

8

Lars,

Thank you for your response. It helped me get as far as I did.

Using this procedure, I was able to convert MIDI tracks to audio using the Sound Canvas app. The process was anything but smooth, however. I began by soloing a MIDI track, creating an audio track to record into, then naming Sound Canvas as the inter-audio source, re-naming the audio track to the instrument name I wanted (must the track ALWAYS rename itself to the audio source or can I turn this off somehow?) and hitting record. Most of the time, this worked. There were several instances in which the patch setting in the MIDI track did not go through and I got the default piano instead of the instrument I wanted. Never figured out why but eventually, I was able to get the sound I wanted.

The big headache was that to redo anything, I had to kill the process completely and start again at the beginning. I literally had to reset the track input to mono, then double tap and remove the Sound Canvas from the iPad as an active process, then go back into Cubasis, reset the input to the Sound Canvas, etc. I had to do this even after merely a stop/undo when for instance the patch didn’t go through correctly. I learned if I didn’t reset from the beginning no audio would come through to Cubasis, even though I could see the meters moving in the Sound Canvas. I can’t tell you how many times I had to repeat this procedure because on the re-take, I would forget to re-rename the track, because EVERY time the Roland app is reassigned to the same track it gets renamed! Of, course, I could just rename the track itself, but I wanted to preserve the correct audio file names for when I transfer them back to Cubase on my computer.

What a clunky and cumbersome routine. Fortunately, I don’t have that many old MIDI files to convert where I literally spent hours getting the sounds just so. For the rest, I’ll just play with the instruments that work correctly and save myself the trouble.

9

Hi rtorstrick,

Thanks for your message.

Cubasis provides the current standards such as Audiobus as well as Apple’s Inter-app audio and Audio Unit to establish a connection between instruments or effect apps and Cubasis.

As mentioned before, it depends on the instrument app provider what options are available in regards to Inter-app audio.

As a suggestion, please have a look at the accessories chapter of Cubasis’ in-app help to learn more about each standard and it’s pros and cons.

Furthermore feel free to have a look at our available tutorials:

Audiobus*

Inter-app audio

Audio Unit

* Audiobus has evolved in the meantime, it might make sense to browse the web for additional tutorials from other users or reviewers.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Lars

10

You can set a cubasis project with 16 tracks and 16 different Virtual MIDI channels. SC (SOUNDCanvas) can receive them. This is good enough for -my- workflow atm. If you just make tracks mentioned to be played in the SC MIDIplayer, i think you can export the MIDI file from Cubasis and open it in the SC.

However, if the SC would appear as an Audio-Unit, it would be the perfect GM-Workstation and the homebutton of my iPad could rest. But for now this app prevented me from buying an old SC on ebay…

EDIT:
The above described works with the cubasis virtual keyboard, not with a real keyboard.

11

Did roland update the app yet? I have been searching for info but found nothing that reads that the instruments can be used in ios cubasis already like poison 202.

I really like the sound canvas instruments but it is not a cheap app and if cubasis can not easily use it then it probably not worth it.

12

Hi Pakz001,

I suggest to get in touch with Roland to ask them…

Best,
Lars