Recording MIDI Using a VST Instrument

Take a moment to play around with your VST instrument by striking keys on your MIDI keyboard. If you are not happy with the sound, go ahead and change it in your VST instrument. (If you need help with this, refer to your VST instrument’s manual, or open Cubase’s Help menu a Documentation, Plug-in Reference). Remember that you’re getting ready to record MIDI, not audio. This means that if you decide you don’t like this sound later on, you will be able to change it. When you’ve found a sound you’re happy with (at least for now), read on.

Whether or not you have any musical keyboard skills, you should be able to record something using the following walkthrough.

1.	First, you need to set the boundaries of the part you would like to record. To set up the part boundaries, set the left locator at the start position and the right locator at the end position on the ruler, which is just above the part display, below the toolbar, and to the right of the track display in the Project window (see Figure 4.6). Once you find the locators, you can move them on the ruler with your mouse using the click-and-drag method. Set the locators to start at measure one and end at measure eight. The ruler should appear shaded in blue where you are set to record. If the ruler is shaded red, you have the left and right locators reversed, and Cubase will not record. Figure 4.6. Setting the locator points on the ruler. [View full size image] Note If your toolbar is not set up to display in bars and beats, you can adjust this under the Project menu’s Project Setup window by selecting Bars and Beats under the Display Format setting. Alternatively, you can right-click on the toolbar to change the same setting.
2.	Next, you need to determine a tempo and time signature. Cubase defaults to 120 BPM in 4/4 time. Those settings will work fine for this example. Cubase gives you the option of using a tempo track, which allows you to program tempo changes throughout the song, or a fixed tempo, which maintains a constant tempo throughout the song. To keep things simple for this example, we will use a fixed tempo. All of these settings can easily be adjusted by using the transport (see Figure 4.7). To get the most out of the transport, make sure that you are displaying all the features by right-clicking on the right side and ensuring that all the display options are checked, as in Figure 4.7. To toggle between a fixed tempo and a tempo track, click on either Fixed or Track (only one type is displayed depending on which type is currently active). If you would like to adjust the tempo or time signature, click in the field and type in a new setting. Figure 4.7. The transport showing all the display options. [View full size image]
3.	This last step is one you don’t always have to perform before recording, but it makes working with Cubase a lot easier. On the transport, there is a metronome (identified on the interface as Click) that can be turned on or off by selecting the word Click. If your metronome is set up properly, you should be able to hear it playing four beeps per measure when you click Play. To assign a standard two-measure count-in before you start recording, you need to set up a preclick. To do so, open the Transport menu (on the menu bar at the top of the screen) and open Metronome Setup. A window appears giving you a lot of different options to adjust your click (see Figure 4.8). At this point make sure that the audio click is activated, the MIDI click is deactivated, the metronome is activated in Play and Record, and your precount bars field is set to 2 (measures). If for some reason you didn’t hear a click when you clicked Play previously, you should hear one now. Close this window and select the symbol that looks like ||*(the activate precount button) next to the metronome (Click) control on the transport. When this button is enabled, your two-bar preclick is ready to go. Figure 4.8. The Metronome Setup window.
4.	Now that you’ve set your recording boundaries on the ruler, set your tempo and time signature (in Fixed Tempo mode), and set up your metronome and preclick, you are ready to record. Later on, when you’re recording audio, you’ll notice that these initial steps usually need to happen before you record anything in Cubase, whether it’s MIDI or audio. If your click is still playing from the previous step, select Stop on the transport. Make sure that your MIDI track is still active (selected), the track is receiving a MIDI signal, and your VST instrument is playing back as you strike a key on your MIDI keyboard controller. It’s a good idea to move the cursor to the start location of your left locator point. A simple way to do this is by selecting the L on the transport. Once your cursor is in place and you’re feeling confident and ready to perform, select the Record button on the transport. Upon selecting the button, you should hear eight preclicks to count you in. When you hear the ninth click, Cubase will start recording every bit of MIDI info that you send it via your controller keyboard and recording will continue until you select Stop on the transport. Congratulations on recording your first MIDI part in Cubase with a VST instrument (see Figure 4.9)! Figure 4.9. A recorded MIDI track! [View full size image]
5.	To make sure you have successfully recorded a MIDI part, select the L from the transport to move the cursor back to the beginning and then click Play on the transport to hear what you’ve recorded. If you can’t hear it, try steps 1 through 4 again. When you have verified your recording, try switching the sound (patch) on your VST instrument during playback to another sound to verify that you have recorded MIDI and not audio. Being able to change the sound after your part has been recorded is one of the greatest benefits of recording with MIDI.

When it comes to recording VST instruments, you should be able to apply the previous section of the chapter to any type of VST instrument, whether it’s a virtual sample player, synth, or musician.

To add additional MIDI tracks, open the Project menu, select Add Tracks, and then select MIDI. When using VST instruments, you usually don’t have to worry about setting up a MIDI channel because most VST instruments allow only one sound to be played at a time. The full version of HALion allows you to load up to 16 MIDI channels at once (meaning you have the ability to use 16 patches at once). When using this, you need to assign your project MIDI track’s MIDI Channel setting to correspond with the patches MIDI channel in the VST instrument you would like to use on that particular MIDI track.

As I mentioned before, you can create several instances of the same VST instrument. When you record another MIDI track, try using another instance of the same VST instrument you used in the previous example by loading an identical VST instrument in the virtual rack. You can have this other instance play a sound completely different from its twin. If you want, you can create several more of these instances. Some VST instruments do get maxed out by too many instances, but this varies from instrument to instrument.

As I mentioned before, VST instruments use your computer’s processing power. Since these VST instruments usually require a lot of processing, they can burden your system’s CPU. To monitor this, Cubase has designed a CPU/hard drive–performance meter (see Figure 4.10) that you can view from your Transport bar or by selecting VST Performance from the Devices menu. VST synths will show up a lot on your CPU (ASIO) meter, whereas VST sample players will cause your hard-drive meter to rise. It’s important that you pay close attention to these meters as you are recording so that you don’t crash your system. You can save valuable system resources by bouncing your MIDI tracks down to audio tracks or by freezing your VST instrument tracks. I go over bouncing and freezing MIDI tracks in Chapter 9.