VCA works inconsistently with MIDI

Cubase
,
1

Since there doesn’t seem to be additional input into this in General, I’m going to assume this is a bug in 8.0.10 (tested on Win7 x64, but nothing about this seems platform-dependent), so reporting it here.

Step to reproduce:

  1. Create two MIDI tracks,
  2. Set them to the same volume.
  3. Create automation to MIDI track #2, leave track #1 as is.
  4. Select the MIDI tracks in MixConsole, right click and “Add VCA Fader to Selected Channels”

Result: MIDI track #1 is at original value, except capped at 100. MIDI track #2 is at ~22% reduced value.

If you create two audio tracks for comparison, you can see the behavior is as expected there, the automation and non-automation tracks remain at the same level when the VCA fader is at 0dB.

For demonstration see: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8520185/cubase8_vca_midi_vs_audio.gif

Workaround: Verify all MIDI tracks have automation, and create separate VCA faders for MIDI tracks set to +6.02dB.

2

Tested on 8.0.20 as well, behavior is as described.

3

Hello,

VCA Faders are not designed to work with MIDI channels this way. Please only use audio-based channels with this function.
In other words, VCA does not work in MIDI channels this is by design.
It is explained on our Issues and solutions document: https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/cubase-8-version-history-and-issues-and-solutions

Best regards,
GN