Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 MIDI Devices Studio Manual

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MIDI devices
Adding objects
You build a panel by dragging objects from the Objects 
area on the right hand side of the window into the rectan-
gle in the edit area.
Assigning parameters
Parameters can be assigned to control elements (switches, 
faders, etc.). This is done in the Control Parameter Assign-
ment dialog. This dialog is opened automatically when you 
add a control object, but you can also open it later to 
change the assignment for existing objects.
When you add control objects, the Control Parameter 
Assignment dialog is opened:
In this dialog you can create and define a name for the pa-
rameter and set the parameter value range and a transmis-
sion message (see below). On the left, you can also select 
any parameters that were defined for this subnode. When 
you have set up the parameters as desired, click OK to 
close the dialog.
To open the Control Parameter Assignment dialog for 
an already existing control object, double-click on the ele-
ment.
If you want to assign an already defined parameter from 
another node, proceed as follows: 
1.Click on the control object.
2.Select a parameter in the device structure area on the 
left. 
The parameter data is displayed on the bottom left.
3.Click on the Assign Parameter button in the Control 
Assignment area (below the Edit area).
Editing parameters
You can either edit parameters in the Control Parameter 
Assignment dialog or you click on the Parameter in the 
Device structure on the left to display its Parameter data 
(see “Properties area (bottom left)” on page 19) and edit 
them in the following sections:
Parameter name
Here you can enter or edit the parameter name. 
Parameter value
In the “Min” and “Max” fields you can set the value range 
for the parameter. The Default value determines what the 
value will be when you open the device.
Transmission
Here you set the parameter assignment. Clicking in the 
value field opens the Transmission pop-up menu where 
you can select either “Channel Messages”, i. e. MIDI Con-
trol Change messages, or SysEx messages. 
If you wish to create custom SysEx messages, click the 
“Create SysEx” button to open the respective dialog.
For information on SysEx and SysEx editing, see “SysEx 
messages (Cubase only)” on page 34 and “Working with 
System exclusive messages” in the Operation Manual.
Object handling
Selecting objects
You select an individual object by clicking on it.
 Select multiple objects by pressing [Shift] and clicking on 
each object in turn.
 You can also click in an empty area and drag a selection rect-
angle around one or more objects to select them.
 To select the complete panel, press [Ctrl]/[Command]+[A]. 
This way, the panel items also “remember” their place in the 
panel arrangement.
Moving objects
Simply click-drag an object to a new location and drop it. 
You can also use the arrow keys to move a selected ob-
ject one pixel horizontally or vertically. 
If you press [Shift], the arrow keys will move the object 
in steps of 10 pixels. 
						

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MIDI devices
Using cut/copy/paste 
You can use standard key commands ([Ctrl]/[Command] 
+ [X], [Ctrl]/[Command]+[C], [Ctrl]/[Command]+[V]) or 
the corresponding Edit menu items to cut, copy and paste 
selected objects.
Deleting objects
Select any object(s) and hit [Backspace] or [Delete] or se-
lect “Delete” from the context menu.
Resizing objects
Click on any object to make resize handles appear. Click 
and move the handles to resize the object.
Sending objects to front/background
Select an object and right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) to 
bring up the context menu. 
 Choose “To Front” to make the selected object the topmost 
one. 
 Choose “To Background” to place the object behind all other 
objects.
Editing text
Double-click on any text (text object or text label on a con-
trol object) and enter the text.
Aligning objects horizontally/vertically
Select multiple objects, then right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click 
(Mac) to open the context menu. 
 For horizontal alignment, your options are Left, Centre and 
Right. 
 For vertical alignment, you can choose Top, Middle and Bottom.
Spacing objects evenly
Select multiple Objects and open the context menu. Se-
lect “Space Evenly Horizontally” or “Space Evenly Verti-
cally” to place the objects in a row or column with identical 
distances between the objects.
Making objects the same size
Select multiple Objects and resize one of them. All se-
lected Objects will be resized in accordance with the 
source Object.
Import Bitmap
You can use bitmaps (pictures) as backgrounds as well. 
Open the context menu and select “Import Bitmap…”. 
You can import custom bitmaps in the following formats: 
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), PSD (Photoshop) or 
BMP (Windows bitmap).
ÖTo change an imported bitmap in the panel, double-
click on the bitmap. The Select Resource dialog opens, 
where you can choose a bitmap from the list of already im-
ported bitmaps or import a new one.
Edit object parameter
Double-click on a control object (knob, fader, data entry, 
switch) to open the Control Parameter Assignment win-
dow, see “Editing parameters” on page 21.
Panel edit settings
Test Template
Puts the currently edited panel into live test mode. All con-
trols will be fully functional, transmitting MIDI data to the 
device when an output is set. Activate this mode when you 
want to try out the panel to make sure that all parameters 
are set up correctly or if you want to take snapshots of 
your settings (see “Working with snapshots” on page 32). 
ÖYou cannot edit objects while in test mode. 
						

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MIDI devices
Depth Focus
This is useful when editing very complex panels, or panels 
featuring nested views (subpanels). By enabling Depth 
Focus, you get a red rectangle around the area whose 
level is currently in edit focus. By double-clicking inside a 
subpanel, the red rectangle will mark the boundaries of 
the subpanel and you can only edit objects inside the fo-
cus area. For each double click, you go down one level. To 
go up one level, press [Return].
Use Raster
This activates an invisible grid that objects will snap to 
when moved. The value (5 by default) dictates the resolu-
tion of the grid. With a value of 20, the raster will be made 
up of squares of 20*20 pixels in size. The raster is an-
chored in the top left corner of the actual panel (not in the 
edit area).
Building a control panel – a tutorial 
(Cubase only)
In this tutorial we will create a simple control panel for a 
device in the following steps:
“Installing a Device” on page 23
“Adding a panel” on page 24
“Adding a background” on page 24
“Adding control objects” on page 25
“Copying control objects” on page 25
“Aligning control objects” on page 26
“Defining parameters for control objects” on page 26
“Adding more background elements” on page 27
“Adding control objects – faders” on page 28
“Adding control objects – switches” on page 28“Testing the template and exiting the panel dialog” on page 29
“Using the new device panel in the Inspector” on page 29
Installing a Device 
1.Open the MIDI Device Manager window, and click the 
Install Device button.
Here you can choose from a list of pre-defined devices, or define a cus-
tom device. In this example we will use a Triton (Korg) preset.
2.Once you have installed the Triton (Korg) device, se-
lect it by clicking on its name in the Installed Devices list 
and click Open Device.
Now you will see the Device structure to the left of the 
window.  
						

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MIDI devices
Adding a panel
In this example, we will select Channel 1 to add the panel.
1.Select the Channel 1 node and click the Add Panel 
button.
Now you can set a size for the panel – see “The Add Panel Dialog” on 
page 18 for details.
2.For this tutorial, select “Inspector size” and click OK.
The main Panel Edit window will now open. The blue rectangle is the 
panel edit area.
Adding a background
Now you can begin adding objects to the panel. Let’s start 
with a suitable background. Backgrounds are selected 
from the area to the right of the edit area.
1.Drag a background object into the blue rectangle (in 
the edit area) and release the mouse button.
Once an object is selected you can adjust its size to your 
liking using the resize handles. 2.Stretch this background so that it covers the entire 
panel area.
All objects, both backgrounds and other, can overlap. By 
right-clicking (Win)/[Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) the object you 
can bring up a context menu with the items “To Front” and 
“To Background”. If you select an object and then select 
“To Front”, it will become the foremost object (while “To 
Background” results in the opposite). This is useful when 
you’re dealing with backgrounds, labels and controls shar-
ing the same panel space.
Now that the panel has a background, we can move on to 
control objects.  
						

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MIDI devices
Adding control objects
1.Select “Knobs” from the Objects pop-up menu.
This brings up an assortment of rotary knobs.
2.Select one and drag it into the panel.
Once you have dropped a control into the edit area, the 
Control Parameter Assignment dialog will open. In this 
window you can define the parameters and other data 
pertaining to the control. 
3.Click the Create button in the bottom left corner. 
4.Enter a name.
Note that this is not the name of the control object itself, but the name of 
the actual parameter, an item which exists independently from objects. A 
logical and intuitive naming convention will help!
Now it’s time to select the control change (CC) number in 
the Transmission field. At this point it may be required to 
consult the MIDI Implementation Chart of the device 
you’re creating the panel for. 
In the case of Korg Triton, we find that LPF Cutoff corre-
sponds to control change 74, “CC: Brightness”. 
5.Select Brightness from the Transmission pop-up 
menu.
6.At this point we’re done with the Parameter window, 
so just click OK.7.If the knob type you have chosen has a text label, you 
can edit this by double-clicking on the label under the knob. 
Enter an appropriate title in the window that appears.
Now the knob is finished, and we can use it as a starting 
point for additional knobs. 
Copying control objects
1.Select the knob and select Copy from the Edit menu.
2.Select Paste from the Edit menu to paste in another 
instance of the knob. 
A pasted object will be placed at the same coordinates as the original 
object. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to move the new knob to an 
empty space.
Since the new knob needs a different name and a different 
parameter assigned to it, we need to do some editing:
3.Double-click on the copied knob to open the Parame-
ter window.
Here you will notice that the assigned parameter is LPF Cutoff (the only 
parameter we’ve created so far). 
4.Click the Create button again to define a new para-
meter, “Resonance”. 
5.Enter this name in the Parameter name field. 
According to the Triton MIDI Implementation Chart, Reso-
nance corresponds to controller 71 (CC: Harmonic Con-
tent).
6.Select controller 71 (CC: Harmonic Content) from the 
Transmission pop-up menu and click OK. 
7.Double-click on the name label to edit the label text. 
8.Enter “Resonance” and click OK. 
Done! Now you have two knob controls with different parameters assigned 
to them. 
						

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MIDI devices
Aligning control objects
You may find that the knobs aren’t properly aligned, hori-
zontally and/or vertically. The Panel Editor can assist you 
with this. 
1.Press [Shift] and click on both knobs to select them. 
2.Right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) to open the con-
text menu, and you will see a range of alignment and spac-
ing commands. 
In this case we’re interested in vertical alignment, so we’ll choose Align 
Bottoms.
Now the bottom edges of the two objects are aligned ver-
tically.
Defining parameters for control objects
We’re going to create two more control knobs, but this 
time we’ll define the parameters first. As stated earlier, pa-
rameters exist independently from objects and can be cre-
ated in a separate process, which is useful when you have 
the MIDI Implementation Chart in front of you anyway. 
In the main window of the Editor, below the Device “tree” 
(known as the Device structure), you’ll see an area called 
Variables. In this area you’ll find the Add Parameters button. 1.Click the Add Parameters button to open the Parame-
ter window and create two new parameters, “EG Intensity” 
(CC 79) and “EG Release” (CC 72). 
2.When you’re done, duplicate the two existing knobs 
and place the copies in an empty space. Double-click on 
the title to enter the correct parameter name, then double-
click on the control to assign the parameters that you cre-
ated before.
You can select multiple knobs and use the alignment and spacing com-
mands to get all the controls in neat and tidy rows and columns.
These four knobs are known as “Realtime Controls A” on 
the Korg Triton. It might be a good idea to add a title ob-
ject to this group, for easy identification. 
3.Switch to Labels on the Objects menu, pick a title ob-
ject and drag it to the edit area.
4.Double-click on it, enter “Realtime Controls A” in the 
text dialog and click OK.
It’s starting to look good, but perhaps we should add some 
kind of frame around this group of controls to distinguish 
them from others.  
						

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MIDI devices
Adding more background elements
1.Go back to Backgrounds on the Objects menu and 
drag one of the backgrounds to the edit area.
Since the most recently added object automatically ends up on top of all 
others, we must rearrange the order here. 
2.Select the object you just added, then right-click 
(Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) to open the context menu. 
3.Choose “To Background” – this will send the object to 
the back.
At this point the object is no longer visible, simply because 
it ended up behind the large grey Background that we 
added in the beginning.
4.To solve this problem, click on the grey background to 
select it, then open the context menu again and select “To 
Background” once more. 
Now the objects are in the correct order, and you can go on to resize the 
additional background so that it encompasses the title and the knobs.
Now let’s create a second group of controls. 5.Drag another background like the one we just added 
and drop it in the empty space below the existing group.
6.To make the new background the same size as the 
first one, press [Shift], select both objects and then use 
the resize handles of the original object.
The second object will assume the same height and width as the first.
The obvious thing to do now is to make the second group 
“Realtime Controls B”, but since we’ve gone over rotary 
knobs already let’s try a few other Korg Triton controls.  
						

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MIDI devices
Adding control objects – faders
The Triton has a slider called “Value” (commonly known as 
a data entry slider), whose function is doubled by two but-
tons, increase and decrease. To mimic these controls we 
need a Fader and a Data Entry object. 
1.Switch to Faders on the Objects menu, then drag and 
drop a vertical fader into the edit area.
The Parameter window appears. 
2.Create a new parameter called “Value” (CC 18, Gen-
eral Purpose 3).
To edit the “min” and “max” labels on the fader, double-click on each la-
bel and enter “0” and “127”, respectively. 
3.Select Data Entry from the Objects menu. 
4.Pick one of the objects featuring up/down arrows and 
drag it to your panel.
In the Parameter window that pops up, don’t create a new 
parameter.5.Instead, click on the previously defined parameter 
“Value” in the list and then click OK. 
When the same parameter is assigned to two or more 
controls, the controls become linked so that when you 
move one of them, they all follow.
We’re almost done. Let’s add a couple of switches as well. Adding control objects – switches
1.Select Switches from the Objects Menu and drag a 
switch from the On/Off subcategory to the edit area.
Unlike faders, knobs and data entry objects, switches can 
only send two values. Normally, hardware controls that 
function like switches only respond to 0 and 127, or 0 and 
64. The Min and Max values in the Parameter window cor-
respond to the two alternate states (on/off) of the switch. 
The Korg Triton’s realtime controls SW1 and SW2 respond 
to CC 80 (General Purpose 5) and CC 81 (General Pur-
pose 6), respectively. 
2.Define the two parameters and assign them to the 
switches, SW1 and SW2. 
Now we’re nearly there, but before we might want to test it. 
						

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MIDI devices
Testing the template and exiting the panel 
dialog
1.Activate the test mode by checking the “Test Tem-
plate” option at the top of the edit area.
This will make the panel “go live” and transmit MIDI data over the output 
port when you move the controls.
If everything appears to be functioning OK, we can con-
sider the panel completed, and it’s time to start using it! 
2.Click the Exit button on the Panel Edit window, and 
click Save in the dialog that appears.
Using the new device panel in the Inspector
1.To use the new panel in the Inspector, go back to the 
main Project window, create a MIDI track and assign its 
output to the device the panel was made for, i.e. Triton. 
2.Now click the User Panel tab at the bottom of the In-
spector. 
Click the button to open the device structure and choose the desired 
panel.
Done! Now the device panel is displayed in the Inspector 
and ready for automation recording.
Advanced Panel handling
In the following section, basic knowledge of the Device 
and Panel windows is assumed. We also assume that you 
have followed the tutorial.
ÖWe highly recommend that you export the current de-
vice setup as a backup before moving on to advanced 
panel editing.
Copying panel elements
Copying panel elements only copies the graphic panel el-
ements, but not the parameters. This way, you can quickly 
copy a pre-designed panel to various subnodes and de-
fine the parameters afterwards.
ÖThere is one exception to the rule: If the panels belong 
to the same level of subnodes in the same device, the pa-
rameters will not get lost during the copy and paste.
Panel elements can be copied from the same device or 
from different devices. 
						

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MIDI devices
Proceed as follows:
1.In the All Templates list, select the template (panel) you 
want to copy. 
2.Select the panel elements that you want to copy and 
press [Ctrl]/[Command]+[C].
When selecting various elements with the mouse, it can happen that the 
order of the elements gets lost. To avoid this, select the complete panel 
with [Ctrl]/[Command]+[A] to preserve this information during copying.
3.Open another template (or add a new panel) for this or 
another device.
4.Paste the copied elements into the new template. 
Only the graphic elements are transferred. If you click on an element, the 
message “Not Assigned” will be displayed in the second text line below 
the Edit area.
Creating complex panels
If you want to create a complex panel, it is useful to set up 
panels and parameters at channel (subnode) levels and 
then combine them in one large panel, instead of simply 
putting all parameters in one panel. (The parameters can 
always be moved to another subnode in the Device win-
dow, if necessary.)
Creating subpanels
1.Let’s start with a device called e.g. “MotifMixer” with 
16 identical channels and the main volume as parameter. 2.Add a channel strip panel with the name “Channel” to 
the first channel. To this, add a background and a volume 
slider and assign the parameter CC: Main Volume to the 
latter.
Since you have 16 identical channels, the panel now 
exists for every channel of the MIDI device, with the re-
spective parameter assigned. To see this, click on the re-
spective channel node – you will find that the Channel 
panel is available in the Views area of all channels.