Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

171
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
If you do not want the plug-in control panels to open ev-
ery 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...

172
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
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 num-
ber of audio busses, which may be confusing. Click one of the entries in 
the pop-up list to activate/deactivate output busses...

173
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
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 Instru-
ment volume and pan are used (via the “Channel” tab in the 
Inspector). This applies also to the respective automation 
parameters.
ÖDue to there being only one volume and pan control for 
the instrument track, the Mute button will mute the com-
plete track including the VST Instrument. (As opposed...

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Exporting instrument tracks as MIDI file
You can also export instrument tracks as standard MIDI 
files, see “Exporting MIDI files” on page 464.
Please note: 
As there is no MIDI patch information in an instrument 
track, this information is missing in the resulting MIDI file.
If you activate “Export Inspector Volume/Pan”, volume 
and pan information of the VST Instrument will be con-
verted and written into the MIDI file as controller data.
What do I need?...

175
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
The Freeze Instrument Options dialog appears with the 
following options for the Freeze operation:
Select “Freeze Instrument Only” if you do not want to 
freeze any insert effects for the VST Instrument channels.
If you are using insert effects on the VST Instrument channel(s) and want 
to be able to edit, replace or remove these after freezing the VST Instru-
ment, you should select this option.
Select “Freeze Instrument and Channels” if you want to 
freeze all...

176
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
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 178.
ÖFor further information on Track presets and VST pre-
sets, see the chapter “Working with Track Presets” on 
page 288.
Browsing for sounds
One important and often time-consuming aspect of music 
creation is the search for the right sounds. You might spend 
a...

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
8.Double-click the desired preset to select it and close 
the dialog.
Using the “Browse Sounds” dialog
1.Open the Project menu–Add Track submenu and se-
lect “Browse Sounds…”.
The Browse Sounds dialog is opened. It contains the same sections as the 
Apply Track Presets dialog (Browser, Viewer and Filter).
The Viewer section of the Browse Sounds dialog displays 
all preset sounds for all track types and all VST Instru-
ments. To preview the presets, you have play...

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
ther subfolders inside the instrument’s preset folder.
Under Windows, the default preset folder is in the fol-
lowing location: Boot drive\Documents and Set-
tings\\Application data\VST3 Presets.
Under Mac OS, the default preset folder is in the follow-
ing location: /Users//Library/Audio/Presets/
/.
2.Enter a name for the new preset in the File name field 
in the lower part of the dialog.
If you wish to...

179
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Constrain Delay Compensation
Cubase 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 compensated 
for during playback, so that all channels are kept in perfect 
sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on page 
152).
However, when you play a VST Instrument in realtime or 
record live audio (with monitoring through Cubase acti-
vated), this delay...

13
Surround sound (Cubase only)