[SOLVED]How to add an insert effect on a MIDI track?

Here’s my scenario, simplified:

  1. Start an empty project

  2. Click F11, Add a new VST Instrument (I select Kontakt 5) and click Add

  3. Straight away I get one Track created, called “Kontakt 5 01” → Input routing is “All midi inputs”, Instrument is “Kontakt 5”. Channel is set to 1.

  4. In Kontakt, I add 2 intruments. Let’s say Instrument A and Instrument B. First instrument is Output: “St 1” and Midi Ch is “[A] 1”. Second instrument is Output: “St 1” and Midi Ch is “[A] 2”.

  5. Now, I want to add a new track. In the main window of cubase, I right-click and select “Add MIDI track”. The count is set to 1, and I click “Add track”.

  6. The newly created track is as follows: “Midi 01”. Input routing is “All midi inputs”, Output routing is “01. Kontakt 5 - Midi In”. Channel is set to 2.

Al works as expected, in the first track I get Instrument A, and in the second track I get Instrument B.
If I go to the mixer console, on the 1st track, I can insert an effect on the “Inserts” section, but on the second track, I can’t, and that’s what I ultimately want to do.. How can I add, for example, a reverb to the 2nd track? Imagine that the 2nd track is too dry, and I just want to apply an effect on that track.

I’m using Cubase Elements 8.

Can you guide me in the right direction?
(Basically I want to achieve what’s in this video: Let's Play Audio! #004 - Setting up an orchestral template from scratch in Cubase 6.5 - YouTube ). I just simplified my requirements to make it easier for someone to explain this to me.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Instead of the MIDI Track 1 (with Channel 1), you can use the Instrument Track itself.

To apply any Insert effect to the dedicated “Instrument”, you have to use dedicated Outputs from the VSTi.

  1. Don’t use Kontat Stereo Out. Use Kontakt 8 Outputs.
  2. In Kontakt’s output, route the 1st Instruments outout to St1 and the 2nd instruments’ output to St2.
  3. Click to this icon [-> in VST Instrumnets Rack (or in the Inspector) and enable multiple Outputs from Kontakt (St1 and St2).
    → New Return Buses are created.

Now you can apply independent Inserts to the instruments.

You can’t add reverb to MIDI tracks…they only contain data. You can only add reverb to an audio track or the audio out of a VSTi. Use multi outputs in Kontakt not stereo.

You want to configure Kontakt to provide multiple audio outputs. It has been awhile since I did that, but I recall it being a bit fiddly to setup within Kontakt (maybe I had to restart Cubase? check the NI docs). Once that’s done you can go to the Instrument Rack and enable one or more of these additional outputs (the symbol that looks like [-> ). The outputs will now appear in the Cubase MixVonsole. Inside Kontakt route the instrument playing midi channel 2 to this second output and its audio will show up on the new mixer channel. Now you can use different sends, inserts, etc. for each instrument via the MixConsole.

Thanks, guys! You guided me in the right direction. Within each instrument in Kontakt, in the output, I select “Create separate master output channel”, and then on the physical out of that new channel I select a different aux channel (which gets sent to the mixer) - all of this within Kontakt. Thank you for the replies! :slight_smile: