Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 MIDI Devices Studio Manual

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MIDI devices
2.Use the Range column to set up either a fixed value or 
a range of values for each event type in the list.
This requires some explanation: 
If you specify a single value in the Range column (e. g. 3, 15 or 127), all 
added presets will have an event of this type set to the same value. 
If you instead specify a value range (a start value and an end value, sep-
arated by a dash, e. g. 0-63), the first added preset will have an event set 
to the start value, the next value will be incrementally raised by one and 
so on, up to and including the end value.
ÖThe number of added presets depends on the Range 
setting.
This will generate eight presets, each with a Bank Select event set to 2, 
but with different Program Change events (ranging from 0 to 7).
3.Specify a Default Name below the event display.
The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can re-
name presets manually in the Patch Banks list later.
4.Click OK.
A number of new presets are now added in the selected bank or folder, 
according to your settings.
Other editing functions
 You can move presets between banks and folders by drag-
ging them in the Patch Banks list.
 You can remove a bank, folder or preset by selecting it in the 
Patch Banks list and pressing [Backspace].
 If you specify more than one bank, a Bank Assignment item 
will be added to the pop-up menu at the top of the window. 
Use this to assign banks to the different MIDI channels (see 
“About Patch Banks” on page 8).
Defining a new MIDI device
This section describes how to define a new MIDI device. 
If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-config-
ured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you 
need to define it manually to make it possible to select 
patches by name. This is handled slightly differently for 
Cubase and Cubase Studio.
Cubase:
1.In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device 
button.
The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.
2.Select “Define New...” and click OK.
The “Create New MIDI Device” dialog appears. For a description of all the 
options in this list, see “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 12. 
3.Activate the MIDI channels you would like the device 
to use in the Identical Channels list.
This means that the device will receive Program Change over any MIDI 
channel. For a description of Identical and Individual channels, see the 
section “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 12.
4.Enter a name for the device at the top of the dialog, 
click [Enter] and then OK.
The device appears in the Installed Devices list, and the device node 
structure for the device is shown automatically in a new window.
5.Select Patch Banks from the pop-up at the top of the 
window.
As you can see, the list is currently empty.
6.Make sure the Enable Edit checkbox is activated.
Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu to the 
left to organize the patch structure of the new device.
Cubase Studio:
1.In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device 
button.
The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.
2.Select “Define New...” and click OK.
A dialog appears.
3.Enter the name of the device and the MIDI channels 
you would like the device to use and click OK.
The device appears in the Installed Devices list.
4.Select the device in the list.
As you can see, it currently contains only an Empty Bank item.
5.Make sure the Enable Edit checkbox is activated.
Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu to the 
left to organize the patch structure of the new device. 
						

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MIDI devices
The Create New MIDI Device dialog
When you select “Define New” in the Add MIDI Device di-
alog, the Create New MIDI Device dialog opens.
ÖIf you are using Cubase Studio, this is where you can 
enter a name for the new device and specify which MIDI 
channels you want the device to use.
ÖIf you are using Cubase, the dialog contains the fol-
lowing settings:
ÖIf you create identical channels with the Channels set-
ting “Snapshot” and delete one of them and create a new 
channel instead, this channel will be individual and without 
the snapshot ability! For more information about the Snap-
shot options, see “Working with snapshots” on page 32.
Creating a new MIDI device without channels/subnodes
It is possible to create a new device without any channels/
subnodes. For this, deselect all channels in the Create 
New MIDI Device dialog. (If you want, you can activate the 
options SysEx Parameters and Snapshots in the Global 
Settings section.)
The Device window is opened.
You can now add sets of identical MIDI channels/subnodes 
via the Add Subnodes button. However, if subnodes are 
added directly to the device node, the MIDI connections are 
not automatically created. (In this case, the variables col-
umn remains empty for the new channel and the Device 
panel will not send data to the MIDI device.)
Item Description
Identical/
Individual 
ChannelsHere you can specify which MIDI channels you wish the 
device to use. Identical channels share channel settings 
and parameters, whereas Individual channels are “exclu-
sive”. An example for this are GM/XG devices – in these 
devices, the channels are all identical, except channel 10, 
which is always the drum channel.
Channel 
SettingsThis specifies which MIDI messages should be sup-
ported by the MIDI device (for each Identical channel).
Preset Type Preset References contain the patch name and a corre-
sponding MIDI message (typically Program Change/
Bank Select). Snapshots also contain a patch name but 
in addition complete parameter settings, which are reset 
when such a preset patch is recalled. For more informa-
tion about snapshots, see “Working with snapshots” on 
page 32.
Global Settings 
SysEx 
ParametersActivate this checkbox if you wish the device to use Sys-
tem Exclusive messages. For more information about 
SysEx messages, see “SysEx messages (Cubase only)” 
on page 34.
Global Settings 
SnapshotsThis specifies whether the device supports global snap-
shots, which memorize all parameters in a device. For 
more about snapshots, see “Working with snapshots” on 
page 32.
!Once you set the attributes (identical/individual chan-
nels, snapshots) here, changes can only be applied 
with major effort like direct editing in XML, see “Edit-
ing the device setup XML files directly” on page 45. 
However, there is a little workaround for channel set-
tings, see below.
Item Description 
						

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MIDI devices
To build the MIDI connection, you have to activate the 
Create Multiple option in the Add Subnodes dialog. 
Proceed like in our following example:
1.Select the device in the list to the left.
2.Click on the Add Subnodes button.
3.Enter a name for the Subnodes, e. g. “Channel”, and 
activate the Create Multiple option. 
4.Enter the Variable Name “channel”, the Variable 
Range, e. g. “1-12”, and click OK.
This way, 12 channels with identical settings are generated. 
ÖIf you want to create only one MIDI channel, e.g. 
Channel 9, simply enter “9” as range.
5.Add more multiple subnodes, e. g. “channel B” and a 
range from “13-16”, with the Create Multiple option acti-
vated. 
This way, you will generate a second set of four subnodes with identical 
settings.
6.You can now test the resulting configuration by adding 
a parameter to channel 1. The parameter will appear in ev-
ery channel from 1-12, because of their identical setting, 
but not in the channels 13-16.
For a practical example of this approach, see “Defining a 
SysEx device – a tutorial (Cubase only)” on page 39.
If you want to give the subnode “Channel 5” an individual 
setting now, you have to delete “Channel 5” and add it as a 
new subnode (with the Create Multiple option activated). 
ÖA drawback of the approach described here is that 
you can never activate the Snapshot option for Channels, 
see “Working with snapshots” on page 32. 
						

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MIDI devices
About Device panels (Cubase only)
On the following pages we will describe how to use MIDI 
Device panels and the powerful MIDI device panel editing 
features of the MIDI Device Manager. 
ÖWe recommend that you first configure the patch 
banks, then export the device setup before editing the 
panels. This way, most of your settings will be saved in 
case of panel configuration problems. 
The panels are saved in XML format. For more information, 
see “Panel XML files” on page 45.
Basic concept
The panel editing features in the MIDI Device Manager 
can be seen as a separate application or entity within 
Cubase. It allows you to build device maps complete 
with control panels, with all parameters controllable from 
within Cubase. Building more complex device maps re-
quires that you are familiar with SysEx programming (see 
“SysEx messages (Cubase only)” on page 34). But you 
can also create simpler panels by assigning MIDI Control 
Change messages to control objects, which does not re-
quire any programming skills.Although these powerful editing features are there if you 
need them, you do not have to use them to use MIDI de-
vices.
Seasoned Cubase users may recall the MIDI Mixer, which 
allowed you to create similar control setups, called Mixer 
maps. Third-party developers created Mixer Maps for hun-
dreds of popular devices at that time.
But in Cubase, this concept has been taken to a higher 
level, offering a much deeper and more intuitive integration 
of the control features in the program.
Overview (Cubase only)
Device panels in the program
In this section we shall take a look at a pre-configured 
MIDI device panel to illustrate how it can be used in Cu-
base. Several device setups complete with panels are in-
cluded with the program. These are located in the “Device 
Maps” folder inside the application folder.
Opening a device setup
Proceed as follows to open a MIDI device setup:
1.Open the MIDI Device Manager from the Devices 
menu.
2.Click the “Import Setup” button.
A file dialog opens. 
3.Select a device setup file for import by navigating to 
the Device Maps folder (see above). 
The Device setup files are saved in XML format; for more information 
about them, see the section “Device setup XML files” on page 44. 
						

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MIDI devices
4.Click Open. The Import MIDI Devices dialog appears 
where you can select one or several devices for import.
A device setup file can contain one or several MIDI devices.
5.Select a device and click OK. 
The device is added to the list of installed devices in the MIDI Device 
Manager. 
6.Select the correct MIDI output from the Output pop-
up menu, select the device in the list and click the Open 
Device button.
The device control panel opens in a separate window. The Edit (“e”) but-
ton at the top opens the Edit Panel window, the main edit window, see 
“The Edit Panel window” on page 19.
A device control panel representing an Access Virus synth.
7.Close the Device panel and return to the Project win-
dow.8.Select the device from the “Out” pop-up menu for a 
MIDI track.
Note that for some devices, you may have to set the MIDI channel to 
“ANY”.
Now the Device panel can be opened by clicking the 
Open Device Panels button in the Inspector or in the 
channel strip for the corresponding track in the Mixer.
ÖNote that [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the Open Device 
Panels button allows you to open a subpanel via the panel 
browser pop-up menu.
Showing panels in the Inspector
1.In the Inspector, open the User Panel tab and click on 
the arrow to the right.
A “Panels” folder is shown with the selected device in a node structure 
below it. If you open all the folders, you can select any individual panel 
from the device that “fits” into the User Panel space. 
						

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MIDI devices
2.Select a panel by double-clicking it in the list.
The panel opens in the Inspector.
ÖIf you can’t see any panels in the “Panels” folder, al-
though you have successfully set up a MIDI device with 
several panels, make sure you selected the correct chan-
nel from the Channel pop-up menu, preferably “Any” to 
see all device panels. Also make sure that the panels fit 
into the space, otherwise they will not be available in the 
“Panels” folder.
Showing panels in the Mixer
1.Open the Mixer and make sure the extended channel 
view is shown.
2.Open the View options pop-up for the MIDI channel 
connected to the device and select “User Panel”.
3.Click the arrow next to the label “user” at the top of the 
extended section of the channel strip.
The Panels folder is displayed like in the Inspector, but with different 
available panels. Just like in the Inspector, the panel has to “fit” into the 
available space to be selectable.
4.Double-click to select a panel.
The panel is now shown in the extended section of the channel strip.
Automating device parameters
Automation works just like for normal audio and MIDI 
tracks:
1.Open the device control panel by clicking the Open 
Device Panels button in the Inspector. 
						

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MIDI devices
2.Activate Write automation on the device panel.
You can automate the device by either moving knobs and sliders on the 
control panel or by drawing curves on the automation track for a selected 
parameter. 
3.If you now go back to the Project window, there will be 
a MIDI Device Automation track in the Track list.
If the track is hidden, select “Show Used Automation” on the Track Fold-
ing submenu of the Project menu.
If you click in the name field, all parameters in the device 
are shown and can be selected for automation. 
To open another automation track for the next parame-
ter on the pop-up menu, click the + button (“Append au-
tomation track”) at the bottom left of the automation track.
ÖIf you wrote automation but your MIDI device is not yet 
connected, the panel will not display any parameter 
changes when playing back the track with the Read but-
ton activated.
The main edit windows (Cubase only)
To edit device panels you use two main windows; the De-
vice and the Edit Panel window. In this section we will de-
scribe the main working areas of these edit windows and 
what they are used for.
The Device window
1.Select a device in the Installed Devices list in the MIDI 
Device Manager and click Open Device.
The Device window opens with a node structure in the left half of the 
window. In this example, the top node represents the device and the 
subnodes the MIDI channels used by the device.
2.Click on a node.
Now three areas appear to the right of the node structure: Device Node, 
Panels and Variables.
The Device window.
Device structure
On the left is a hierarchical view of the device’s structure, 
which can consist of nodes, subnodes, and parameters. 
By default, the structure of a newly created device (or a 
device with no panels added yet) will either be based on 
the MIDI channels that have been activated in the Create 
New Device dialog (see “The Create New MIDI Device di-
alog” on page 12) or, as in this case, on one of the preset 
devices, which all have the same structure (all 16 MIDI 
channels activated).
In the Device structure, you can easily move parameters 
between nodes by clicking and dragging them to the other 
node. This is very handy if you want to restructure your pa-
rameters for the panel assignments. 
You can also delete empty nodes and parameters by se-
lecting them and pressing [Delete] or [Backspace].  
						

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MIDI devices
Device node
This shows the name of the selected node. You can rename 
some or all nodes, for example if the device is a typical GM-
compatible synth you may want to rename “Channel 10” to 
“Drums”. 
Panels
In the Panels window area a list of panels assigned to the 
selected node will be shown (currently no panels are as-
signed). 
The “Add Panel” button opens the Add Panel dialog, 
see “The Add Panel Dialog” on page 18.
When an existing panel is selected in the Panels win-
dow area, the “Edit Panel” button will open the panel for 
editing in the Edit Panel window, see “The Edit Panel win-
dow” on page 19.
Variables
The “Add Variables” button lets you define variables. 
Variables are useful when you’re working with multiple in-
stances of the same panel. A typical example is when you 
have a multi-timbral synthesizer with 16 parts, where each 
part is identical in terms of features and functions, and all 
that distinguishes them are the MIDI channel numbers. So 
you create multiple subnodes where the variable is named 
“part” and the variable range is 1–16. This way you can 
repeat the same objects and parameters across all parts.
The “Add Parameters” button opens the “Add Parame-
ter” dialog where you define the parameters that will be 
used in the Panel. A parameter defines how the setting of 
the connected device can be modified, what the valid 
range is and what the current state of the parameter is. 
Parameters are assigned to objects (see “Control to pa-
rameter assignment area (bottom middle)” on page 20), 
i.e. knobs, faders, switches or data entry fields on a panel.
The “Add Subnodes” button lets you create subsidiary 
nodes. This is useful when you wish to create multiple 
panels for one node. When you build a device panel you 
may want to break it up in several parts, or “subpanels” – 
e. g. one for the Envelope section, one for the Filter section 
and so forth. By creating all panel sections under separate 
subnodes, you can show the different sections in the In-
spector or channel strip. From these subpanels you can 
later build a large main panel using the subpanels, see 
“Creating complex panels” on page 30.
The Add Panel Dialog
Clicking the “Add Panel” button in the Device window 
opens a dialog where you select the size and enter a name 
for the new panel. You have three default sizes to choose 
from:
General Size (352*352 pixels by default).
This is the largest view, which is to be used in a separate Panel window. 
The size is customizable, as you often need more than 352 by 352 pixels 
to fit all controls of an entire instrument into one screen.
Inspector Size (157*342 pixels).
The standard size for a Panel to be used in the Inspector. 
Channel Strip Size (84*322 pixels).
The standard size for a panel to be used in a Mixer channel strip. 
						

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MIDI devices
The Edit Panel window
After selecting a name and a panel size in the Add Panel 
dialog, click OK to open the Edit Panel dialog. When a 
panel has been added, you can switch between all edit 
windows (Device/Edit Panel/Patch Banks) by using the 
pop-up menu at the top of the window.
The Edit Panel window contains the following areas:
Device structure (top left)
This is the device “tree” where you can navigate the de-
vice structure and its nodes, subnodes and parameters. It 
is the same as shown in the Devices window, but without 
the possibility to move or delete nodes or parameters.
Edit area (top middle) 
This is the “stage” where you build the panel from various 
object components. Above the edit area are the Panel Edit 
settings which affect the operations you perform in the 
edit area.
Objects area (right) 
This area contains the predefined objects which can be 
dragged and dropped into the edit area. At the top of this 
area there is a pop-up menu where you can select Object 
categories; backgrounds, faders, knobs, data entry, switch-
es and labels, see “The available objects” on page 20.
Properties area (bottom left)
This contains all data and options pertaining to the cur-
rently selected node, subnode or parameter.
 When a node or subnode is selected in the device structure, 
you can rename it and add or remove parameters or variables 
and add subnodes. (Subnodes can only be removed in the 
Device window.)
 When a parameter is selected in the device structure, you can 
edit its name, value and transmission type (Control Change or 
SysEx messages).
Parameter assignment area
Edit area
Device structure
All Templates list
Objects areas
Device item proper-
ties (Device Node, 
Views, Variables) 
						

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At the top you can see and edit the node name. In the 
Views area, you see the list of panels assigned to the cur-
rent node. Using the buttons to the right of the list, you 
can add a new (blank) panel to a node and edit or remove 
an existing panel. 
The way to reach a particular panel or subpanel is to se-
lect a node in the device structure area, and then select 
the desired panel in the Views window area. If you click 
the Edit Panel button, the panel will open in the edit area.
Alternatively, you can click on an entry in the All Templates 
list (see below), which directly opens the respective panel.
It is also possible to drag a subnode’s panel from the 
“Views” area into the panel of a parent node, see “Creat-
ing complex panels” on page 30.
Control to parameter assignment area (bottom middle) 
This area has two functions:
You can link parameters with controls, see “Assigning 
parameters” on page 21.
You can see to which node a panel element belongs, 
see “Identifying the nodes and templates” on page 31.
All Templates list (bottom right)
As panels are created, they are added to the All Tem-
plates list. 
You can switch between templates, copy objects that 
you need, switch back to the panel you’re currently editing 
and paste the objects into that panel.
The available objects
On the Objects pop-up in the top right corner you can se-
lect between object categories. Faders, knobs, data entry 
and switches are control objects, i.e. you have to define a 
parameter assignment to them when inserted into the edit 
area, whereas labels and backgrounds are only graphic 
elements. The object categories are as follows:
Operations in the Edit Panel window 
(Cubase only)
On the following pages, we will describe the basic opera-
tions in the Edit Panel window. For a more “hands on” de-
scription of how to create panels, see “Building a control 
panel – a tutorial (Cubase only)” on page 23.
Creating a panel
1.Either create a new MIDI Device (see “Defining a new 
MIDI device” on page 11), or select a preset device from 
the Add MIDI Device dialog, see “Panels” on page 18.
2.In the MIDI Device Manager dialog, select the device 
in the Installed Devices list and click the Open Device 
Panels button.
Now the Devices window opens with the Device structure 
to the left.
3.Select the node, subnode or parameter you wish to 
add a panel to.
4.Click the Add Panel button, and select a name and size 
for the panel, see “The Add Panel Dialog” on page 18.
The Edit Panel window opens.
When you have created a new panel you will see a light 
blue rectangle which defines the size of the panel. When 
you click on the rectangle, resize handles will appear. 
These allow you to customize the Panel size. 
ÖIf you are creating a specific Inspector or Channel 
Strip panel you should not resize the panel.
Object category Description
Backgrounds Here you can select various background colors and 
borders.
Faders There are four basic horizontal and vertical fader/slider 
types, each with three options: basic, with title field, 
and with title field and min-max values.
Knobs Various types of knobs, with and without title fields and 
min-max values.
Data entry Various types of data entry fields for entering values. 
There are data entry fields for direct entry, and data en-
try types for using up/down arrows or sliders (or both) 
to set values.
Switches Switches can only send two values. There are three ba-
sic types of switches: on/off, momentary and one shot. 
Momentary switches change to the second value as 
long as the switch is pressed and revert back when re-
leased. One shot switches activate a command, e. g. 
resetting a value to a default value.
Labels Labels of various sizes and styles. Object category Description