User manual

21
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
2. Connect an unused input pair on your audio hardware
to the output pair on your hardware device.
Once the external device is connected to the audio hard-
ware of your computer, you have to set up the input/out-
put busses in Cubase.
Setting up external effects
1. Open the VST Connections window from the Devices
menu.
2. Open the External FX tab and click “Add External FX”.
3. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the exter-
nal effect and specify the Send and Return configurations.
Depending on the type of effect, you can specify mono, stereo or surround
configurations.
• You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the
external effect. You can then click the Associate MIDI De-
vice button to connect the two.
You can use the MIDI Device Manager to create a new MIDI device for
the effect. Note that delay compensation will only be applied for the ef-
fect when you use MIDI devices. For information about the MIDI Device
Manager and user device panels see the chapter “Using MIDI devices”
on page 314.
4. Click OK. This adds a new External FX bus.
5. Click in the Device Port column for the Send Bus
“Left” and “Right” ports and select the outputs on your au-
dio hardware.
6. Click in the Device Port column for the Return Bus
“Left” and “Right” ports and select the inputs on your au-
dio hardware.
7. If you like, make additional settings for the bus.
These are found in the columns to the right. Note that you can adjust
these while actually using the external effect – which may be easier as
you can hear the result. The following options are available:
8. When you are done, close the VST Connections win-
dow.
Ö Note that external device ports are exclusive, see
“Connecting the external effect/instrument” on page 20.
How to use the external effect
If you now click an insert effect slot for any channel, you
will find the new external FX bus listed on the “External
Plug-ins” submenu.
When you select it, the following happens:
• The external FX bus is loaded into the effect slot just like a
regular effect plug-in.
• The audio signal from the channel is sent to the outputs on the
audio hardware, through your external effect device and back
to the program via the inputs on the audio hardware.
!
Please note that it is possible to select input/output
ports for external effects/instruments that are already
used (i.e. that have been selected as inputs/outputs
in the VST Connections window). If you select a
used port for an external effect/instrument, the exist-
ing port assignment will be broken. Note that you will
not get a warning message!
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware effect device has an inherent delay (la-
tency), you should enter this value here, as it allows Cu-
base to compensate for that delay during playback. You
can also let the delay value be determined by the pro-
gram: Right-click in the Delay column for the effect and
select “Check User Delay”. Note that you do not have to
take the latency of the audio hardware into account – this
is handled automatically by the program.
Send Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal being sent to
the external effect.
Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal coming in from
the external effect.
Note however that excessive output levels from an external
effect device may cause clipping in the audio hardware.
The Return Gain setting cannot be used to compensate
for this – you have to lower the output level on the effect
device instead.
MIDI Device When you click in this column, a pop-up menu opens
where you can disconnect the effect from the associated
MIDI device, select a MIDI device, create a new device or
open the MIDI Device Manager to edit the MIDI device.
When Studio Manager 2 is installed, you may also select
an OPT editor to access your external effect.
Used Whenever you insert an external effect into an audio
track, this column shows a checkmark (“x”) to indicate
that the effect is being used.