User manual

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Synchronization
4. Route the VST Instrument channel to the desired out-
put bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5. Create a new MIDI track in the Project window of
computer 2, and assign the MIDI output of the track to the
VST Instrument you created.
6. Assign the MIDI input of the track to be VST System
Link port 1.
Now, the MIDI track on computer 1 is routed to the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, which in turn is routed to the VST Instrument.
7. Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI com-
mands coming in.
In Cubase, you would click the Monitor button in the Track list or Inspec-
tor.
8. Start Playback on computer 1.
It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST Instrument
loaded on computer 2.
Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a
whole bunch of extra VST Instruments this way, expanding
your sound palette considerably. Do not forget that VST
System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has
much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever
invented!
Creating a virtual effect rack
The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can ei-
ther be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated
Group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate
computer as a “virtual effect rack”, by setting things up in
the following way:
1. Go to computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect
rack) and add a new stereo audio track.
You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must
have an audio input.
2. Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track.
Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in.
3. In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link
busses as input for the audio track.
You want to use a separate System Link bus, which will only be used for
this purpose.
4. Route the channel to the desired output bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5. Activate monitoring for the track.
6. Now, go back to computer 1 and select a track to
which you want to add some reverb.
7. Bring up the effect sends for the track, in the Inspector
or the mixer.
8. Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the
sends, and select the VST System Link bus assigned to
the reverb in step 3.
9. Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as
usual.
The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and pro-
cessed through its insert effect, without using any proces-
sor power on computer 1.
You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the
“virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this way
is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST Sys-
tem Link connection (and of course by the performance of
computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any re-
cording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of
effects).
Getting extra audio tracks
All computers on a VST System Link network are locked
with sample-accuracy. Therefore, if you find that the hard
drive on one computer is not fast enough to run as many
audio tracks as you need, you can record new tracks on
one of the other computers instead. This would create a
“virtual RAID system”, with several disks all operating to-
gether. All tracks will remain locked together just as tightly
as if they were all running on the same machine. This
means that you effectively have an unlimited track count!
Need another 100 tracks? Just add another computer.