Setup guide for Access virus and Cubase 8.5

Zitat von rhbmcse

OK Please explain if what I'm writing is correct:

First of all I create a group track called Virus Recorder. What's the purpose of this ? is this just to group any audio tracks together into this one group track?

Then I set Virus TI Out 1 send output to Group Track ("Virus Recorder") - This is an existing Audio track that Cubase creates for its own Audio from the Virus TI ? So by doing this I'm basically forwarding all audio generated by the virus to the new Group track ?

Group Track ("Virus Recorder") send output to main - Self explanatory so the audio gets routed to my monitors ?

Audio Track set input to "Virus Recorder" - This is the bit I don't get. I need to create one ? - OK I did that. By doing so the newly created Audio track records an audio track of what's coming out of the Virus Group ?

I notice in your screenshot you have "lanes" - I'm not familiar with them. I've turned them on and now when I record a new MIDI track I get a separate audio track in each lane automatically.

Am I correct ?

What's the purpose of this then - not familiar with the 'render in place' in cubase or why I'd be stressing it.

I know you're right, I'd just like to understand.

Screenshot attached of a very simple 8 bars of nothing in particular on the Virus.

Look correct ?

Cheers.

Rob.

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Looks all good, and it seems to work for you. Congratulations!

Your assumptions are correct except for the purpose of the Group Track: Cubase does not allow to route audio freely from track to track (but you can abuse sends - which provides its own challenges), at leadt not in the sense that any track could be used as input to another. So you have to send the input tracks of the Virus Control plugin to a Group Track, which then can be used as input to an Audio Track to be recorded. AFAIK that’s a limitation of Cubase which doesn’t exist in other DAWs.

Regarding the „lanes“, they are layers for takes within a track. Only the selected one is being played back. Mostly used when recording several takes of the same section (e.g. a solo), to later pick the best take or even edit a perfect performance from several takes. Can be highly addictive and lead to spending more time editing than recording.

Render in Place is a function that allows to select parts on a MIDI track and get them directly rendered onto a new audio track, without the need of routing and doing a recording in real time. If applied to an Instrument track with a VST synth plugin, a whole track can be converted to an audio track in a fraction of time necessary to record that track, depending on the processing power of the host computer. However, there are a couple of drawbacks when applying Render in Place to MIDI tracks belonging to a Rack Instrument and/or to VST/Instruments that represent actual hardware such as the Virus. The more obvious one is that the rendering takes place in real time. The less obvious ones are related to MIDI and audio signal routing and how parts are selected. I had situations where I spent the larger part of an hour trying to understand why Render in Place refused to work. Another caveat is that Render in Place starts and ends the audio recording right at the part boundaries. But the Virus needs at least one bar of preroll to get in sync with the tempo, so the parts need to be extended by one or two bars before their actual start. And you have to set up a proper tail length to record after the end of the part. All of that can be learned and becomes routine, but it would probably lead to brain overload right now.

HTH

Hapoy Virus recording!

Zitat von rhbmcse

*Deleted*

Figured a lot out myself tonight, Oli...

Sorry I wasn’t able to assist more, my day job is pretty demanding and there’s little time left to spend on music.

But phantastic that you got there yourself!

Zitat von rhbmcse

If you could leave any instructions on how to manage the patches that would be great.

It is really easy.

The RAM banks are represented as libraries and you can drag and drop patches there. It should be directly written to the RAM.

You can also create new banks from there, but it is a bit hidden under the Save buttons in the list of Parts on the left side. Click on any if the Save buttons and check out all the menus and sub-menus: Aside from allowing to Save the patch from that part, there’s also one entry to ccreate a new library. It will present you with a standard Save As dialog to select a directory and name. It should br saved in the standard location for user libraries (next to “My Presets.mid“). Everything OTTOMH.

I’ll try to make another video if you can way a couple of days. But I’m pretty sure you are able to figure that out as well. BTW it is described in the PDF Tutorial How to operate VirusControl available online.

You're welcome.

Can't help you with the audio interface setup, because that is very individual for each interface. I'm using an RME for years, and still haven't mastered it's Total Mix software beyond a basic setup which is good enough for my purposes. Wouldn't even know where to start with a Saffire.

Regarding splits: You have to do them differently in SEQ mode. The basics are the same as MULTI. You are using several Parts to play at the same time. In SEQ you would instead have to route your incoming MIDI to all the Parts you want to use together and set up the range splits (which is a Note filter) in the DAW. In Cubase you would have to set up a Transformer in the MIDI Insert for a MIDI Track to a Part. The Transformer uses a Filter Target of Type Note and Value1 of Pitch to be less or more than a certain note and apply the Function Delete.

It's a bit more complicated than to set up Parts on the Virus in MULTI Mode, but it is much more powerful because you could to all sorts of processing on the incoming notes for a certain Part, like additional transpositions, automatic chording, enforcing a scale or changing the dynamics.

In the mean time, on another Mac...

Zitat von rhbmcse

Hey Oli - slight problem - I don't have a 'Personal Libraries; - Only Public and my actual virus. Any idea why I don't have a Personal libraries ? I tried doing it in Public libraries but it just doesn't list them...

Figured it out - didn't have RW permissions on the Patches folder - added myself with RW permissions and now it works...

Oh… I thought that was something that went wrong on my system and didn’t expect you to run into the same issue as well. But yes, the installer (sometimes) doesn’t set permissions as they should be for user documents.

Zitat von rhbmcse

Need your help on this one Oli. This is going way over my head

[…]

The TI route seems very restrictive and takes me away from the Synth Hardware which is what I love. Standing in front and performing. I'm not feeling the TI at the moment TBH.

Ok, this is getting more difficult than anticipated.

On the positive side, you have a lot of different options at your disposal. On the negative side, you have a lot of options to choose from. It really comes down to what your goals are, to find a combo of options that suit your workflow.

Basic difference: Do you want to compose, arrange, record and produce? Then using Cubase and TI will be beneficial on the long run, you just have to figure out the details to adapt it to your personal style. Or do you want to perform live? Then Cubase and TI will turn into an obstacle, sooner or later and you should probably stick to the MPC Live and Virus Multis.

By showing you what the TI can do, I just wanted to open you perspectives and also give you the opportunity to use the software you already have, even if simply as librarian for your two Virus keyboards. Because the Virus Control plugin is a phantastic editor and librarian, which IMO is much better than any third party product. The drag and drop ordering of patches in libraries is something I’ve rarely seen in any other editor/librarian. It is also very stable and doesn’t require cumbersome manual synchronization between the editor and the synth.

HTH

Appreciate your thoughts and reflections. You’ve embarked on a journey to discover new ways to create music!

If further questions are about Cubase 8.5 setup, they can be posted here. But in general its more useful on forums to open separate threads for unrelated questions. It will make your question more visible to a larger audience, and therefore increase chances to get more answers. And it will later give other forum users a chance to find answers to similar questions.