Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 MIDI Devices And Features Manual

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 21
Seasoned Cubase users may recall the MIDI Mixer, which allowed you 
to create similar control setups, called Mixer maps. Third-party devel-
opers created Mixer Maps for hundreds of popular devices at that time.
But in Cubase SX the concept has been taken to a higher level, offer-
ing a much deeper and more intuitive integration of the control fea-
tures in the program.
Overview (Cubase SX only)
Device panels in the program
In this section we shall take a look at a...

CUBASE SX/SL1 – 22 MIDI devices
3.When you select a device setup XML file and click Open, the Import 
MIDI Devices dialog appears where you can select a device for import.
A device setup file can contain one or several MIDI devices.
4.When you select a device and click OK, the device is added to the list 
of installed devices in the MIDI Device Manager. Select the correct 
MIDI output from the Output pop-up menu, select the device in the list 
and click “Open Device”.
The device control panel opens in a...

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 23
5.Close the Device panel and return to the Project window.
6.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 button in the In-
spector or in the channel strip for the corresponding track in the Mixer.
•Note that [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the Open Device button allows you 
to open a subpanel via the panel browser pop-up...

CUBASE SX/SL1 – 24 MIDI devices
Showing panels in the Inspector
1.In the Inspector, open the User Panel tab and click on the User Panel 
icon.
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. 
•Select a panel by double-clicking it in the list.
The panel opens in the Inspector.   

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 25
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 icon shown in 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...

CUBASE SX/SL1 – 26 MIDI devices
Automating device parameters
Automation works just like for normal audio and MIDI tracks:
1.Open the device control panel by clicking the “Open Device” button 
in the Inspector.
2.Activate Write automation on the device panel.   

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 27
3.If you now go back to the Project window, there will be a MIDI Device 
Automation track in the Track list.
If you click in the name field, all parameters in the device are shown and can be se-
lected for automation. You can automate the device by either moving knobs and sliders 
on the control panel itself or by drawing curves on the automation track for a selected 
parameter.   

CUBASE SX/SL1 – 28 MIDI devices
The main edit windows (Cubase SX only)
To edit device panels you use two main windows; the Device window 
and the Edit Panel window. In this section we will describe 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 
dialog 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...

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 29
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 page 18), or as in this case, one of the 
preset devices, which all have the same structure (all 16 MIDI chan-
nels activated).
Device node
This...

CUBASE SX/SL1 – 30 MIDI devices
•The “Add Parameters” button opens the “Add Parameter” 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. Param-
eters are assigned to objects (see page 32), 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...