User manual

213
VST instruments and instrument tracks
As described in the chapter “Audio effects” on page 187,
there are two types of VST presets that can be used: the
VST 2 standard FXB/FXP files and the VST 3 preset stan
-
dard with the extension “.vstpreset”. Some of the included
VST instruments use the VST 2 preset standard, and oth-
ers use the VST 3 standard.
All VST 2 instruments can import FXB/FXP files and also
convert them to the VST 3 standard. Once converted, you
can use all VST 3 features, see
“About earlier VST instru-
ment presets” on page 215.
Ö For further information on track presets and VST
presets, see the chapter “Working with track presets” on
page 331.
Browsing for sounds
One important and often time-consuming aspect of music
creation is the search for the right sounds. You might spend
a huge amount of time trying out the presets for a particular
instrument only to find out later that the preset for another
instrument contains the sound you were looking for.
This is why Cubase features extensive browsing possibili-
ties, allowing you to preview all available presets without
having to load them first!
In addition, you can filter your search by specifying cate-
gory, style, etc. For example, if you are looking for a bass
sound, simply select the Bass category to browse and
preview all bass sounds for all instruments. If you know
you want a synth bass sound, select Synth Bass as sub
-
category to filter out all other sounds, etc.
You can also browse and preview track presets for instru-
ment tracks, i. e. instrument sounds plus all track settings
and all channel insert effect settings for this track.
These features combined speed up the process of finding
the right sound immensely.
• When creating your own presets, it is always a good
idea to set up attributes for them, as it allows you to fully
use the browsing features for your files, too.
This is described in the section “Editing attributes (tagging)” on page 324.
Using the Presets browser
You can open the Presets browser for an existing track or
when creating a new track. Proceed as follows:
• In the Add Instrument Track dialog, click the Browse
button.
The dialog expands to show the Presets browser.
• Click in the “Load Track Preset” field at the top of the
Inspector (above the track name) or right-click the track in
the track list and select “Load Track Preset…”.
The Presets browser opens (see also “Loading track or VST presets in
the Inspector or the context menu of the track” on page 334).
To find an appropriate preset, proceed as follows:
1. Select a preset from the Results list.
If needed, filter the list by activating the attributes you are looking for in
the Filters section. This section is similar to the Filters section in the
MediaBay, see
“The Filters section” on page 321.
2. Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the
preset sound. You can switch between presets and hear
the sound while you play. Alternatively, you can play back/
loop a MIDI part on a track.
Each time you select a preset, all associated track and/or instrument set-
tings are automatically loaded.
3. When you have found the preset that you want, dou-
ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser).
The preset is applied.
• To return to the preset that was selected when you
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last
Setting” button.