Cubase Artist 11.0.20.371 Windows 10 64 bit
Can someone tell me the following:
how and where can I download 12 string acoustic and electric guitar sound and harmonica sound?
thank u
snoma01
Several ways.
First lets try this one.
Harmonica: There should be at least one harmonica sound that comes with Artist. Possibly several. Same for Electric Guitar.
For the 12string, I don’t think there is one with Artist, but you can make one pretty easily. More on the guitar later.
In the top menu go to: Media/Media Bay or: Tap your F5 Key to bring up Media Bay, set the Media type to “Plug-in Presets”.
Use the filters and search features to find and audition instruments.
Note, you may single left-click a sound in the Results frame to audition it. Sometimes it takes a moment to quietly load the plugin in the background, but once it’s loaded, if your MIDI controller is setup properly you can play it to audition the sound in the bottom most panel. If you’re not using a controller, you can click the small qwerty UI of a portion of a virtual keyboard showing, or use those computer keys to audition.
Once you find an instrument you like, a double click will load it into an instrument track of your project. Alternatively, you could right click it and choose ‘create track’.
If you happen to have an instance of the plugin a preset uses loaded in your project and its UI is open (I.E. Sonic SE), then you can drag an instrument into an instrument slot there as well.
Here’s a screen shot of Media Bay in action. I’ve set it to only search Plug-in Presets, then entered a search for harmonica. In my case I’ve limited it to only show Sonic SE instruments as well, as I know Artist comes with SE, and I’m pretty sure it comes with the Basic, and Artist libraries for Sonic. If I didn’t do this, I’d see instruments here that you are not likely to have!
Another option is to search inside plugins directly. Sonic SE would be the place to look for these two instruments. Go ahead and search for a 12 string. Artist ‘might’ have one, but I’m just not sure.
Give that a try, meanwhile I’ll prepare a tutorial that demonstrates a way to turn any Sonic SE 6 string guitar sound you have into a standard tuned 12 string guitar.
Use Sonic SE to turn a 6 string guitar into a 12 string.
First I’ll tap F5 and bring up Media Bay.
I’ll find a standard 6 string Steel Acoustic Guitar.
I’ll double click it so a fresh Instrument Track loads into my project.
I’ll be choosing the [GM026] Steel Guitar for this lesson since I’m pretty positive you get this sound in Artist.
Now I’ve made an Instrument Track with Sonic and the guitar loaded, I’ll close Media Bay, and click the “Edit Instrument” in the project view for my new Steel Guitar track.
This brings up the UI for our HALion Sonic SE plugin.
The first thing I need to do here is click the options tab, and make sure that under Program Changes, that the General MIDI option mode is toggled off.
Next, right click the First instrument slot ([GM 026] Steel Guitar), and choose ‘Copy Program’.
Right click slot 2 and choose ‘Paste Program’
Click the MIDI tab, and change the MIDI channel for slot 2 to channel 1.
Click the edit tab.
Click slot 2 to make it the active slot.
Tune it up an octave.
OK, this takes care of the bottom 8 strings. But standard 12 string tuning doesn’t do octaves on the on the 4 high strings.
So clone the guitar sound into two more slots (since it’s probably still in the clipboard from last time, just right-click slots 3 and 4, pasting it into both), set them both in the MIDI tab to use channel 2, but don’t tune either of these up an octave.
Now you have the framework of a 12 String, Standard Tuned Guitar.
Send notes that use the lower 8 strings to channel 1.
Send notes that use the high 4 strings to channel 2.
From here you can click the EDIT tab and make tweaks to the sound of the guitar slots, such as emphasis, EQ, slightly detuning some things, applying resonance filters, ADSR adjustments, and making the upper set of strings have different characteristics to the lower strings.
When you’re done, save this as a multi instrument so you can call it up in the future!
Don’t forget that when hunting this sound with Media Bay or the Sonic LOAD browser, it is a multi-program preset, as opposed to a program or layer preset, so set filters accordingly.
Experiment and have fun!
Also note, if you want to make a version that guesses and averages out when notes should go to strings with or without out high strings up and octave on their own (without having to use a different MIDI channel), you can use the key board range section in the MIDI tab.
These settings make it so any note higher B2 doesn’t get the high set of strings tuned up an octave.
Don’t forget that Sonic SE also has a nice effects tab where you can do even more with your sound. You can also run effect inserts on the Cubase mixing console. Study the EFFECTS and MIX tabs at your leisure.
I hope this little tutorial has been helpful.
Here are two 12 string guitar presets for HALion SE based on the tutorial above.
My 12 String Gtr (1 chan).vstpreset (81.1 KB)
My 12 String Gtr (2 chan).vstpreset (81.2 KB)
Windows users would place the files in:
“%USERPROFILE%\Documents\VST3 Presets\Steinberg Media Technologies\HALion Sonic SE\Multi”
Mac users, I’m not sure. Look for a similar directory structure in your user directory, or place in any directory you know Media Bay keeps scanned for content.
hello brian
I am still a novice at Cubase Artist.
Thank u for the instruction, although it is beyond my comprehension at this stage.
snoma01
hello brian
I was able to locate the above directory/folder up till “%USERPROFILE%\Documents\VST3 Presets\Steinberg Media Technologies\HALion Sonic SE."
The “Multi” folder does not exist in my directory. Should I put the two 12 string files by creating “Multi” folder or can it be put in “HALion Sonic SE.” folder?
snoma01
I understand 
This is why I decided to give a bit of a tutorial that would have you moving around to experiment with modifying a sound of your own.
Yes, you can create the directory yourself if you like.
It would probably still be found if you put it anywhere in the HALion Sonic SE, or any of the sub folders.
If you were to save a Multi-Program from inside Sonic SE, it’d probably create the directory too. That’s the default place for user made Multi-Programs.
As you learn more about Media Bay, you’ll find that over in the left panel, you can also assign new directories on your system that Media Bay will keep scanned for content.
thank you brian
snoma01
Hello Brian
I installed the 12 string guitar files into the folder u had suggested.
Can u please tell me how I can bring up the 12 string guitar sound in Halsion SE?
When I open Halsion SE, I cannot find the 12 string guitar. Under which category and name would they show up as?
snoma01
My 12 String Gtr (1 chan)
My 12 String Gtr (2 chan)
To find them
- Make sure your library is set to All Instrument Sets.
- Make sure the multi-program filter is applied
- It’s a user preset, so make sure you’re not filtering those out.
thank u Brian
snoma01