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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Extracting sounds from Track Presets
You can extract a sound from a Track preset (disregarding
any track/channel settings) and save it as a VST preset.
Proceed as follows:
1. Click the button “Extract sound from Track Preset” be-
low the Output Routing pop-up menu in the Inspector.
This opens a dialog where all Track Presets are shown.
2. Select an instrument track preset or VST preset by
double-clicking it.
The VST Instrument and the settings (but no inserts, EQs or modifiers) of
the existing track are overwritten using the data of the track preset. The
previous VST Instrument for this instrument track is removed and the
new VST Instrument with its settings is set up for the instrument track.
Track Presets are described in detail in the chapter
“Working with Track Presets” on page 155.
About earlier VST Instrument presets
You can use any VST 2.x Instrument plug-ins in Cubase AI.
Installing VST Instrument plug-ins works the same way as
for audio effects – see “Installing additional VST plug-ins”
on page 96.
When you install a VST 2 instrument, any previously stored
presets for it will be of the old FX program/bank (.fxp/.fxb)
standard. You can import such files, but the preset handling
will be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new
features like the Preview function until you have converted
the old “.fxp/.fxb” presets to VST 3 presets. If you save new
presets for a VST 2 plug-in these will automatically be
saved in the new “.vstpreset” format in the default location.
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
To import .fxp/.fxb files, proceed as follows:
1. Load any VST 2 instrument you may have installed, and
click on the VST Sound button to open the Preset Ma-
nagement pop-up menu.
2. Select “Import FXB/FXP” from the pop-up menu.
This menu item is only available for VST 2 instrument plug-ins.
3. In the file dialog that opens, locate the .fxp file and
click “Open”.
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect programs.
If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected effect pro-
gram only. Note that such files exist only if you created your own .fxp/fxb
presets with a previous program version (or any other VST 2 application).
• After importing, you can convert the current program list
to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to VST
Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up.
When the presets are converted, they will be available in the Presets
browser. The presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
About latency
Depending on your audio hardware and its ASIO driver,
the latency (the time it takes for the instrument to produce
a sound when you press a key on your MIDI controller)
may simply be too high to allow comfortable realtime VST
Instrument playback from a keyboard.
If this is the case, a workaround is to play and record your
parts with another MIDI sound source selected, and then
switch to the VST Instrument for playback.
Ö You can check the latency for your audio hardware in
the Device Setup dialog (VST Audio System page).
The input and output latency values are shown below the ASIO Driver
pop-up menu. For live VST Instrument playing, these values should ide-
ally be a few milliseconds (although the limit for “comfortable” live playing
is a matter of personal taste).
Constrain Delay Compensation
Cubase AI features full delay compensation throughout
the entire audio path. This means that any delay inherent in
the VST plug-ins you use will automatically be compen-
sated for during playback, so that all channels are kept in
perfect sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on
page 87).
However, when you play a VST Instrument in realtime or
record live audio (with monitoring through Cubase AI acti-
vated), this delay compensation may sometimes result in
added latency. To avoid this, you can activate the Con-
strain Delay Compensation button on the Project window
toolbar. This function tries to minimize the latency effects
of the delay compensation, while maintaining the sound of
the mix as far as possible.