VST Instruments and Instrument tracks

Introduction

VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound sources) that are contained within Nuendo. They are played internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST Instruments, just as with audio tracks.

ÖThis chapter describes the general procedures for setting up and using VST Instruments.

ÖDepending on the VST version the instrument is compatible with, an icon may be displayed in front of the instrument name, see “About VST 3” on page 169.

ÖNote that VST instruments are only supplied as part of the Nuendo Expansion Kit. You can, however, use your own VST instruments in Nuendo. The VST instrument included in the Nuendo Expansion Kit are described in detail in the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.

VST Instrument channels vs. instrument tracks

Nuendo allows you to make use of VST Instruments in two different ways:

•By activating instruments in the VST Instruments window.

This creates a VST Instrument channel, which can be played by one (or several) MIDI track(s) routed to it.

•By creating instrument tracks.

Instrument tracks are a combination of a VST Instrument, an instrument channel and a MIDI track. You play and record MIDI note data directly for this track.

Both methods have their advantages, and should be selected according to what best suits your needs. The following sections describe the two approaches.

VST Instrument channels

You can access a VST Instrument from within Nuendo by creating a VST Instrument channel and associating this channel with a MIDI track. Proceed as follows:

1. On the Devices menu, select “VST Instruments”.

The VST Instruments window opens.

2.Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument pop-up menu and select the desired instrument.

3.You will be asked if you want to create an associated MIDI track connected to the VST Instrument. Do so.

The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel is opened. A MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the Track list. The output of this track is routed to the instrument.

In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can specify what should happen when loading a VST instrument in an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Create MIDI track when loading VSTi” and select one of the available options:

•When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will always be created.

•When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only the instrument will be loaded.

•Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI track should be created whenever you load an instrument.

You can also use modifiers to specify what should happen when you load a VST instrument (overriding the Preference setting):

•When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST Instrument for an instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track with the name of the instrument is automatically created.

•When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST Instrument for an instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created for the instrument.

• If you don’t want the plug-in control panels to open every time you load a plug-in, open the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page) and deactivate “Open Effect Editor After Loading it”.

You can open a plug-in panel at any time by clicking the “e” button of the corresponding plug-in slot.

4. If you now look in the Project window track list, you will find that a dedicated folder for the chosen instrument has been added, within a “VST Instruments” folder (where all your VST Instrument channels will be listed).

The separate folder for the added VST Instrument contains two or more automation tracks: one for automating the plug-in parameters and one for each mixer channel used by the VST Instrument. For example, if you add a VST Instrument with four separate outputs (four separate mixer channels), the folder will contain five automation tracks. To keep the screen less cluttered, you may want to close the folder for the VST Instrument until you need to view or edit any of the automation tracks. For more about automation, see the chapter “Automation” on page 213.

• When you select the MIDI track routed to the VST instrument, you will see that the Inspector contains a separate section for the instrument.

This section contains the audio channel settings for the VST Instrument (inserts, EQs, Sends and fader settings). The tab has two buttons for opening the Channel Settings window (for the VST Instrument channel) and the Edit Instrument button which opens the control panel for the VST Instrument.

5.Depending on the selected VST Instrument, you may also need to select a MIDI channel for the track.

For example, a multitimbral VST Instrument can play back different sounds on different MIDI channels – check the documentation for the VST Instrument for MIDI implementation details.

6.Make sure the option “MIDI Thru Active” is activated in the Preferences dialog (MIDI page).

7.Activate the Monitor button for the MIDI track (in the Track list, Inspector or mixer).

When this is activated (or when the track is record enabled), incoming MIDI is passed on to the selected MIDI output (in this case the VST Instrument), see the chapter “Recording” on page 64.

8.Open the mixer.

You will find one or more channel strips for the audio outputs of the VST Instrument. VST Instrument channel strips have the same features and functionality as group channel strips, with the addition of an Edit button at the bottom of the strip for opening the VST Instrument control panel. You will also find output routing pop-up menus at the top of the channel strips, for routing the VST Instrument channels e.g. to output channels or groups. Routing is described in detail in the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses” on page 10.

9. Play the VST Instrument from your MIDI keyboard.

You can use the mixer settings to adjust the sound, add EQ or effects, etc., just as with regular audio channels. Of course, you can also record or manually create MIDI parts that play back sounds from the VST Instrument.

You can have up to 64 VST Instruments activated at the same time, either different instruments or several instances of the same instrument. However, software instruments can consume a lot of CPU power – keep an eye on the VST Performance window to avoid running out of processor power. See also “Instrument Freeze” on page 195.

•VST Instrument channels give you full access to multitimbral instruments.

You can have several MIDI tracks routed to the VST Instrument, each playing a different part.

•Similarly, you can route channels to any available output provided by the VST Instrument.

The VST Instruments window

When a VST Instrument is loaded, six controls are displayed for this slot in the VST Instruments window.

Instrument

Freeze

•The second button is used to activate or deactivate the VST Instrument.

When an instrument is selected from the instrument pop-up menu, it is activated automatically, i.e. the on/off control lights up in blue.

For some instruments you may also bypass the instrument by clicking the Bypass button to the right of the on/off button.

•Click the Edit (“e”) button to open the control panel for the VST Instrument.

•Below the Edit button is a small LED that will light up when MIDI data is received by the instrument.

•The rightmost button allows you to activate the desired output for the instrument.

This is useful when you are using VST Instruments that have a large number of audio busses, which may be confusing. Click entries in the pop-up list to activate/deactivate output busses for this effect.

Properties

•Each Instrument track has a corresponding channel strip in the mixer.

•In the Inspector, you can select a VST Instrument from the Instrument pop-up menu.

When you select an instrument from this pop-up, its control panel will open automatically.

•You can also exchange the “sound” of an instrument track (i.e. the VST Instrument and its settings) by extracting these data from another instrument track or a VST preset, see “Extracting sound from an instrument track or VST preset” on page 335.

•On the Input Routing pop-up menu, you can select a MIDI input.

Instrument tracks have only one MIDI input.

Instrument tracks

An instrument track is a combination of a VST Instrument, a MIDI track, and a VST Instrument channel, in other words: it is a track coupled with a sound – it allows you to think in terms of sounds rather than in terms of track and instrument settings.

• To open the control panel for the VST Instrument, click the “Edit Instrument” button in the Inspector.

Adding Instrument tracks

To open and use an Instrument track, proceed as follows:

1.Open the Project menu and select Instrument from the Add Track submenu.

You can also right-click in the track list and select “Add Instrument Track” on the context menu.

2.The Add Instrument Track dialog is opened.

You can select an instrument for the track from the pop-up (but you can also leave this until later if you wish). Specify the number of instrument tracks you wish to create in the “count” field. If you click the “Browse Presets” button, the dialog expands to show the preset browser, where you can browse for sounds.

3. Click OK to add the Instrument track.

When you selected an Instrument in the Add Track dialog, the new track will get the name of the instrument. When no instrument was selected, the track will be named “Instrument track”.

•As with MIDI tracks, you can perform the usual MIDI editing procedures on the instrument track, like duplicate, split repeat or lock the track, use the In-Place Editor, drag and drop the MIDI parts of an instrument track etc. For more information, see the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 342.

•As with MIDI track inspector and track controls, you can adjust track delay, choose MIDI input, work with VST Instrument panels, etc. For more information, see the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 342.

•Instrument tracks have all options that VST Instrument channels have, i.e. Inserts, Sends, EQ, etc.

Ö VST Instruments used in Instrument tracks do not appear in the VST Instruments window.

For an overview over all used VST Instruments, open the Plug-in Information window via the Devices menu. For further information, see the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.

Restrictions

•Instrument tracks have no MIDI Sends.

•MIDI volume and pan cannot be controlled (there is no “MIDI fader” tab in the Inspector); instead, the VST Instrument volume and pan are used (via the “Channel” tab in the Inspector). This applies also to the respective automation parameters.

Ö Due to there being only one volume and pan control for the instrument track, the Mute button will mute the complete track including the VST Instrument. (As opposed to a MIDI track with an assigned VST Instrument, for which muting the MIDI track still allows you to monitor and record the VST Instrument.)

•Instrument tracks always have one stereo output channel only. This means that VST Instruments that do not provide a stereo output as their first output channel cannot be used with instrument tracks, and must be loaded via the VST Instruments window.

•Due to the limitation to one output channel, instrument tracks play only the first voice of a multi-timbral VST Instrument. If you want to use all voices, you have to load the instrument via the VST Instruments window and set up a MIDI channel to play it.

Import and export options

Importing MIDI loops

You can import “MIDI loops” (file extension “*.midiloop”) in Nuendo. These files contain MIDI Part information (MIDI notes, controllers, etc.) as well as all the settings that are saved in Instrument track presets (see “About track presets and VST presets” on page 197). This way, you can easily reuse instrument patterns you really like in other projects or applications for example.

Proceed as follows:

1.Open the MediaBay window via the Media menu.

2.In the Filter section, activate the “Show MIDI Loops” button.

This is not necessary, but will help you locate your MIDI loops more quickly.

3. In the Viewer section, select the desired MIDI loop and drag it in an empty section in the Project window.

An Instrument track is created and the Instrument part is inserted at the position where you dragged the file. The Inspector will reflect all settings saved in the MIDI loop, e.g. the VST instrument that was used, applied Insert effects, Track parameters, etc.

Ö You can also drag MIDI loops onto existing Instrument or MIDI tracks. However, this will only import the part information.

This means this part will only contain the MIDI data (notes, controllers) saved in the MIDI loop, but no inspector settings or instrument parameters.

Exporting MIDI loops

Exporting MIDI loops is a great way of saving a MIDI part together with its instrument and e.g. effect settings. This allows you to easily reproduce patterns you once created without having to search for the correct sound, style or effect.

Proceed as follows:

1.Select the desired Instrument part.

2.On the File menu–Export submenu, select “MIDI Loop…”.

A file dialog opens.

3.Enter the desired name for the MIDI loop in the Name field in the lower section of the dialog.

• If you want to save attributes for the MIDI loop, click the Tag Editor button.

This lets you specify e.g. a category and a sub category for your MIDI loop.

4. Click OK to close the dialog and save the MIDI loop.

MIDI Loop files are saved in the following folder:

•Windows: /Documents and Settings/<Username>/Application Data/Steinberg/MIDI Loops.

•Mac: /Users/<Username>/Library/Application Support/ Steinberg/MIDI Loops/

This default folder cannot be changed, you can however create subfolders within this folder to organize your MIDI loops. Simply click the “Create New Folder” button in the Save MIDI Loop dialog.