User manual

31
VST Connections
• You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the
external effect. You can then click the “Associate MIDI
Device” 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 356.
3. Click OK.
This adds a new external FX bus.
4. Click in the Device Port column for the “left” and
“right” ports of the Send Bus and select the outputs on
your audio hardware that you want to use.
5. Click in the Device Port column for the “left” and
“right” ports of the Return Bus and select the inputs on
your audio hardware that you want to use.
6. 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:
Ö Note that external device ports are exclusive, see
“Connecting the external effect/instrument” on page 30.
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.
• A parameter window opens, showing the Delay, Send Gain and
Return Gain settings for the external FX bus. You can adjust
these as necessary while playing back. The parameter window
also provides the “Measure Effect’s Loop Delay for Delay Com
-
pensation” button. This is the same function as the “Check User
Delay” option in the VST Connections window. It provides Cu-
base with a Delay value to be used for delay compensation.
When you have defined a MIDI device for the effect, the corre
-
sponding Device window will be opened. When Studio Man-
ager 2 is installed, and you have set up a corresponding OPT
editor, this OPT editor is displayed.
The default parameter window for an external effect
Like any effect, you can use the external FX bus as an in-
sert effect or as a send effect (an insert effect on an FX
channel track). You can deactivate or bypass the external
effect with the usual controls.
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware effect device has an inherent delay (la-
tency), enter this value here, as it allows Cubase to com-
pensate for that delay during playback. You can also let
the delay value be determined by the program: Right-
click 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 auto
-
matically 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 de
-
vice 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.
Measure Effect’s Loop Delay button