Switched from Sonar to Cubase -- 2 short questions

Cubase
#1

I recently switched from Sonar to Cubase 5. I have figured out most of the work flow. But two issues remain unresolved.

  1. Is there a shortcut to quickly access a midi track’s corresponding audio track parameters/channel settings, mainly Volume fader and Send levels?
    I have tried to accomplish this via Quick Controls with no success. Hitting F8 to open the mixer means a lot of side scrolling to locate the channel when working with dozens of tracks.

  2. Is there a way to hear the instrument assigned to a midi track when working either on its audio track or FX/Group tracks? Sonar was no problem here.

Thanks.

#2

I used CW back at rev 9, before I switched to SX, lol, in the last century, so I’m not sure I can help directly… But are you wanting the “solo” button for a midi track? That would give you just the midi track and the VST / Instrument it’s attached to for fiddling (specifically to fix your wet/dry mix to your fx channels)… Is there something more interesting that this?

As for corresponding audio and midi, I’m not sure exactly what this means. A midi track sends data to a midi device (either hw or plugin), but there’s no associated audio track… Well, if you freeze the VST there’s an implied audio track… Are you meaning midi/control parameters for a midi track? Or are you recording the audio froim the VST/Hw driven by a midi track, and then wanting to correlate those (which I could imagine might be useful)…

I apologize if I’m missing something obvious here…

#3

Thanks CrypticMystic. To clarify, I have several VST instances set up, each with 8 midi channels and 8 stereo outs. I need to be able to access the stereo output/audio channels from the midi tracks very quickly. Right now, if I am working on a midi track and want to adjust the output volume or reverb send levels, I have to scroll down, open the VST folder, click on the audio track and then open its channel settings. AND, while I am on the audio/output track and adjusting the channel settings, I can’t hear the midi track instrument anymore. In Sonar, when working in the audio/output channel, I would still hear the instrument assigned to the corresponding midi track. I hope that clarified the issue.

#4

The command you want is Edit VST Instrument. You can configure a key command for that.

Also have a look at the lowest-most module in the inspector for some other stuff regarding the instrument if it’s a midi track you are using, (as opposed to an instrument track)

edit: yes, I see you are using midi tracks…

#5

Steve. That solved the problem! Those modules were actually “hidden” by default and I had to add them in the inspector set-up which I found by right clicking the inspector. Wow…this will definitely make things a lot easier. One thing though, I still have to click the drop down and select the audio track in the inspector module…it doesn’t sync with the midi track. For example, if I select midi track 2, I will have to click the VST drop down in the Inspector and select the corresponding audio track. But still a lot better than the multi-steps I had to perform before.

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: I stumbled into the answer to this one. Once I associate the audio track with the midi track in the Inspector drop down, it’s permanently done and will remember the association next time I come back to the midi track. That’s wonderful.

#6

Ah, excellent!! Thanks for the clarification.

This project I do want to sort out having my drum vst create different audio tracks for each drum output (for offsite mixing/mastering)… So I’ll give this a try also :slight_smile:

#7

Great, glad to be of help. For some reason I didn’t get a notification on your posting!

#8

You can also use instrument tracks for stereo only instruments.

#9

also, very helpful and quite neglected power feature of cubase is the multiple mixer views, you can
customize each of the three mixer views to show the devices of choice