You've set up your hardware and software and opened a new project file.
Now it's time to start your first project. In this tutorial we're going
to record a MIDI track that will be playing some form of sound generator.
Although this is a relatively simple task there are many ways of routing
audio and MIDI within Cubase.
If
you are a really new newbie we hope you have read the other tutorials
in the Newbie Zone and now have the necessary hardware set up for audio
and MIDI recording.
To start off, open a project file in Cubase. Under the Project menu
go to Add Track > MIDI. A MIDI track should appear in the project
window with the main controls for the track showing. If all you see is
the track, without the Inspector strip to the left, you must click the Show
Inspector icon.
The Inspector has several windows, one of which can be displayed at
a time. For this tutorial you want the main (top) tab open as is shown
in the diagram. At any time during a project, the Inspector shows parameters
for the track that is currently selected.
In the main view in the inspector there are several menus, one of these
menus is labeled In: and another is labeled Out: These two drop-down
menus allow you to select MIDI Input and Output ports for the new MIDI
channel you have created. The Inputs and Outputs available directly correspond
to the hardware inputs and outputs of your MIDI interface. Generally
you would want the In of a track hooked to the Input port that corresponds
with your MIDI keyboard or controller depending on what type of MIDI
data you wish to record.
Once you have this selected, you can choose your Output port based on
what you want to control. For instance, if your MIDI interface has two
outputs each of which are routed to different external sound generators,
you can select the port Out that corresponds with the one that you want
to hear when you record.
If this sounds fairly simple and versatile, that’s because it
is. Usually the confusion seems to come about when people are doing projects
that combine software and hardware sound generators, or they are used
to using one and start to use the other. However, in the case of software
things are actually the same. Once a virtual instrument (VSTi) is loaded
into Cubase, it becomes directly available in the MIDI track’s
output menu along with the MIDI ports. Once you select the instrument
in the output menu it’s ready to go.
Some differences when using hardware
One of the biggest differences in hardware configurations once you have the
MIDI routing figured out, and which effects whether or not you hear sound immediately
upon the press of a key on your MIDI keyboard, is how your audio is routed
when using external sound generators.
Usually you have one of two setups: either the audio out from the sound generator
routes to a mixer then out to your monitoring system, or it routes back into
your audio interface.
If you have the sound routed back into your audio interface, you will have
to create an audio track and enable direct monitoring for that track (unless
your audio interface supports direct monitoring independently). This track
will open a channel strip in the Cubase mixer, and is basically taking the
place of the channel that you would use for the same purpose in a hardware
mixer. If this is confusing to you, the section in the Cubase help files about
direct monitoring is fairly detailed, and should be able to clear up any questions
you might have. |
