Quick question. Whats the fastest way to convert a midi item in the project into audio.
Hi,
There are several ways. IMO, the fastest is to freeze the track then import the resulting wave file from the “freeze” folder. BTW, is this API?
Sincerely,
J.L.
That works great! What would you say is a good workflow approach around this, trying to turn midi items into audio for further editing. I don’t see the folder in the audio pool, just import from media bay or drag/drop is best for this?
The freeze folder won’t show up in the audio pool. It is in the project folder (where the audio folder is).
Not sure if drag and drag works from Windows Explorer but give it a try. Otherwise, just go to File → Import Audio File, navigate to the project\freeze folder and select the file (named by track). As far as a efficient way to convert MIDI into audio frequently and for multiple tracks, the “Channel Batch Export” function in the audio mixdown is probably best.
HTH.
J.L.
Ok great, i had not taken a close look at the audio mixdown window, can do batch export like u mentioned, and import to audio tracks all in one step!..it even has them named appropriately also.
one thing im noticing, and this is after restarting the project several times, is that the imported freezed item, it like plays the first bar or 2, then dropsout, and comes back in, in random places, and does it randomly hen the project is started/restarted, can any1 else freeze a vsti them import the audio, and see if that happens for them in the project?
When a VSTi track is frozen, the resulting waveform is compacted to save space. It is not the same thing as Exporting a mixdown of the same track.
This screenshot should show you what’s going on:
Kinda, sorta the fastest way … after you get your routing set up, but definitely the best!
Google “cubase internal summing” or http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUzNzExNTU2.html
There is a link in a post here somewhere … but I can’t recall the thread. Here is a ‘technical’ discussion from the old forum Cubase: Music Production Software | Steinberg.
This is a little promoted but extremely powerful and useful features.
Basically, it goes like this.
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You add additional busses in VST Connections output tab (which may be the answer to your other post about using your additional soundcard outs), but you leave then “not connected” in the drop down box for routing in the window. For a stereo pair, name the buss something like ‘VSTi 1’ or the name of the instrument or track … something short and easy to remember as tied to that midi track.
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You output your VSTi with the midi track to that new buss.
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You add an audio track and then record the input from your new buss by selecting that buss as input in the inspector.
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Voila! Now you have a prisitine, complete, audio file perfectly lined up with your project … and of course you can rerecord smaller sections for FX, etc.
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If you really want to cut your CPU load, simply do this for all your midi tracks and then resave the project with a new name … like add ‘mix’ to the end of the former name. In mix simply delete all your VSTi instruments and midi tracks and save. Now you have a lean, mean all audio project for mixdown.
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As a final related tip … back in step one, save your new VST Connections Input as a preset to handily recall internal summing for future projects.
Como
Don’t drag stuff from the freeze folder!!! It has got the blank space stripped out of it!
Instead, try this:
- Go to the “export audio mixdown” window
- Tick the VSTi you want to mixdown
- Tick the box that says “import into audio track”
- Press export
como thanks, i was about to start a post called "how to route audio from midi/vsti to record on another audio track.
funky drummer thanks also, that seems like a real solid approach to doing it, thanks for all the tips guys!
What Funky Drummer says is, of course, true and the Cubase intended way to get the audio into your track.
But I find several advantages with ‘internal summing.’
- You don’t have to leave the project.
- The real time recording is about the same as leaving the project and rendering.
- You get what you hear as you can monitor the recording track … not wait till after rendering to monitor and see if it came out right.
- You can quickly delete what’s recorded and start over if you don’t like how it’s sounding at the start.
- You can route the original VSTi output to multiple tracks to record at the same time with different FX for easy future chopping, submixing, etc.
- I could probably think of several more … but my coffee cup is empty and needs refilling.
Como
[quote="
- You don’t have to leave the project.
- The real time recording is about the same as leaving the project and rendering.
- You get what you hear as you can monitor the recording track … not wait till after rendering to monitor and see if it came out right.
- You can quickly delete what’s recorded and start over if you don’t like how it’s sounding at the start.
- You can route the original VSTi output to multiple tracks to record at the same time with different FX for easy future chopping, submixing, etc.
- I could probably think of several more … but my coffee cup is empty and needs refilling.
[/quote]
1:well thanks como, batch conversion is real fast, even with 3 tracks that it converts from what ive just seen,
2:would i want to sit 3 minutes a pop for 40+ tracks? or even sit and route all that? please correct me if im not seeing the big picture, or hearing u correctly, perhaps i would “NEED?” to do that to maintain a proper non artifact render in cubase? i know in reaper if ur rendering a track with lots of vst and modulation u have to record output first in realtime to get a phase cancel-able wav render.
3:do i need to be worried about it “not coming out right” using cubase 6?
4: These midi tracks are usually already committed so the like of the sound is there hopefully.
What I’m probably not saying clearly is that you can record them all in one pass. You can make as many output busses as you want routed to as many tracks as you want … setup 10 or 20 output busses if you like. The limiting factor is going to be how many VSTis you can run at a time anyway, which ever way you do it.
And, as I said you can make a preset for the output busses and you don’t have to worry about ones you don’t use … no cpu load if they are not used. I have an output preset like: Stylus A, Stylus B, etc. … for whenever I want to record out the output from different Stylus RMX channels. Plus, if you tend to use the same VSTis in most projects, for example Stylus RMX, Kontakt and something like EZ Drummer, BFD, etc, you can make yourself a project template with all the routing set up and identified. So after the initial setup, it’s pretty instant.
There has been more than one discussion over the years as to whether or not ‘rendering’ gives the exact same audio file as recording. It’s a reason some folks swear by summing through external hardware to a DAT. You often hear people say something like, “it doesn’t sound the same when I rendered it as it did in my project.” Whatever the the true case may be … when you record, you do hear exactly what you get … and to my ears it always sounds identical to the project file output.
Finally, this is also a convenient way to process VSTi output through external gear.
Maybe I just love to see those wav form images roll across the red background from left to right.
Como
cool!, thanks for all the info, im finding navigating in cubase much easier now thanks to all the help on this forum.
All,
Sorry for the bad information about importing the freeze file. I should have known better. I assumed it would work but never confirmed it first. 
Sincerely,
J.L.
you can import the freeze, its just a wav. file right? only thing is for some reason the playback of that particular wav drop ouy out randomly? never had a wav file drop out in a daw before like that
Yes you CAN drag it into your session, but you are not supposed to! They are not intended to be re-imported into a DAW (or anything else), it is unsupported, and the results cannot be guaranteed. They are in a special compressed format, which is why you hear “dropouts”.
There are plenty of other ways to get audio into your session without messing with Cubase’s internal freeze files!
You wanted to know “the fastest way to convert a midi item in the project into audio” - - - the mixdown dialogue is still the fastest way to do this…
Thanks funky drummer,right exactly, i think we had established that batch conversion/import to session is best and fastest way to convert midi tracks to audio.
i just needed further clarification on the freezed wav file. i didn’t know it was a special kind of file that was tied in with the freeze function. its just the first thing that was mentioned here, so i tried it : )