Steinberg Studio Case VST Instruments Operation Manual
Have a look at the manual Steinberg Studio Case VST Instruments Operation Manual online for free. It’s possible to download the document as PDF or print. UserManuals.tech offer 523 Steinberg manuals and user’s guides for free. Share the user manual or guide on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
VST Instruments Introduction 1 – 11 ENGLISH Optimizing the hard disk before installation The VSTi installer installs about 1 GB of data on your hard disk, and if your drive is quite full, or has not been defragmented recently, it’s pos- sible that the install data will get split (fragmented) into many parts over the disk. This can affect the performance of some VSTis, and it can lead to longer loading times of library files. Therefore we recommend that you defragment the target hard disk before you start the installation. This can be done with the defragmen- tation system software on Windows, or with Norton Utilities (or another defragmentation program) on the Macintosh. Latency Although VST instruments are practically latency-free, high latency times (which result in delays between pressing keys on your MIDI key- board and hearing a sound) can occur when you play VSTis via your MIDI keyboard in real time. This is often caused by the audio card or the MIDI interface, although it won’t be an issue when playing back a song with a VSTi MIDI track. To get rid of annoying real time latency, we recommend that you re- place your current soundcard with a professional audio card for which an ASIO driver is available. Most soundcards built into off-the-shelf computers don’t use an ASIO driver and usually produce latencies of up to several hundred milliseconds.
VST Instruments 1 – 12 Introduction Minimum system requirements (PC version) •A PC with an 800 MHz Pentium or Athlon processor (2.8 GHz or faster recommended). •384 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended). •1.1 GB of hard disk space. •Windows® XP Home or Professional. •Windows MME compatible audio hardware (an ASIO compatible audio card is recommended). •The Steinberg Key and an available USB port. •Monitor and graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 resolution (dual monitor setup and 1152 x 864 resolution recommended). •A DVD ROM drive is required for installation. •When you are upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE, a working internet connection is required for the licence activation. Note that The Grand SE requires 85 MB of RAM! Minimum system requirements (Mac version) •A Power Mac G4 867 MHz computer (Power Mac G5 Dual and 1.8 GHz or faster recommended). •384 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended). •1.1 GB of hard disk space. •Mac OS X version 10.3 or 10.4. •CoreAudio compatible audio hardware. •The Steinberg Key and an available USB port. •A DVD ROM drive. •Monitor and graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 resolution (dual monitor setup and 1152 x 864 resolution recommended). •When you are upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE, a working internet connection is required for the licence activation. Note that The Grand SE requires 85 MB of RAM!
VST Instruments Introduction 1 – 13 ENGLISH About the Steinberg Key Please read the following section before installing the instruments included with Studio Case. New users Included with the Studio Case package you will find a hardware key (sometimes referred to as “dongle”) that is part of the Cubase SE and the Virtual Bassist SE copy protection scheme. The licenses for both the program and the instrument are stored on that key. Cubase SE and Virtual Bassist SE will not run if this key isn’t installed properly. • You should first install the program (and any necessary hardware, see below), then insert the protection key and finally launch the program. This is because the necessary drivers for the key are installed when you install the program. If you’re upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE Included with the Studio Case package, you will find a Virtual Bassist SE activation code for the Steinberg Key, a hardware copy protection device that is part of the Virtual Bassist SE copy protection scheme. Virtual Bassist SE will not run if there is no Steinberg Key present or if this key has not been properly activated. • If you already own a copy protection key, you need to activate that key for use with Virtual Bassist SE. This is done by means of the activation code included in the upgrade package, after the installation procedure, see page 15. • If your previous version of Cubase SE/LE was not hardware-protected by a Steinberg Key, you need to purchase this key separately. The key then needs to be activated for use with Virtual Bassist SE. This is done by means of the activation code included in the upgrade package, after the installation procedure, see page 15. Both licenses can be stored on the same Steinberg key. If you have already downloaded the Cubase SE license to your Steinberg key, proceed the same way for Virtual Bassist SE. If you have not installed Cubase SE yet, please read the following sections and follow the in- structions carefully.
VST Instruments 1 – 14 Introduction The Steinberg Key The Steinberg Key is, in fact, a little computer on which your Steinberg software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected Steinberg prod- ucts use the same type of key and you can store more than one license on a key. Licenses can also (within certain limits) be transferred be- tween keys – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a piece of software. • If you have a Windows PC and have never used a dongle on your computer before, the installation routine will initiate a restart of Win- dows after installation of the key drivers. After the restart, the key must be plugged into the USB port for the installation routine to continue. When the key is plugged into the USB port, Windows will automatically recognize it as a new hardware device and will attempt to find drivers for it – these necessary drivers won’t be present until Virtual Bassist SE has been installed and the computer restarted. • If you have an Apple Macintosh computer, there will be no automatic restart. Be sure to read the information regarding the Steinberg Key that is displayed during the installation process. • If you already own copy-protected Steinberg software, you should re- move any existing Steinberg Keys from the computer’s USB port dur- ing the installation routine. You can load your Virtual Bassist SE license and the Cubase SE license onto the same Steinberg key. The Steinberg Key must not be plugged in before or during the installa- tion of Virtual Bassist SE if this is the first time you use such a key. Otherwise the operating system of your computer will register it as new USB hardware and try to find drivers that won’t be present before Virtual Bassist SE installation.
VST Instruments Introduction 1 – 15 ENGLISH Activating the Steinberg Key (only if you’re upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE) •For the activation of the copy protection key, you need a working internet connection, as this is performed online. In case you have no connection to the internet on the computer on which you wish to use Studio Case, you can always use a different computer for activation. Simply install the License Control Center separately on the internet computer, without installing the complete product. Windows: To do this, the product installation DVD contains a dedicated installer called “SyncrosoftLicenseControlSetup”. Mac: Double-click the installer file, and select the “Custom” installation type. Deactivate the installation of the VST instruments and only install the License Control Center. You can also find up-to-date versions of this installer (for Mac and for PC) on the inter- net at www.syncrosoft.com/downloads/index.html. Your Steinberg Key does not yet contain a valid license for Virtual Bassist SE. You must download a license to it before you can launch Virtual Bassist SE! Use the activation code supplied with the program in order to download a valid Virtual Bassist SE license to your Stein- berg Key. Proceed as follows: 1. After installation of the dongle drivers and the software (and, on a Windows PC, after restarting your computer), plug the Steinberg Key into the USB port. If you are unsure of which port this is, consult the computer’s documentation. 2. If this is the first time a copy protection device is plugged in, it will be registered as a new hardware device. On a Mac, drivers are found automatically, without further user interaction. Windows will display a dialog asking you whether you would like to find drivers for the device manually or automatically. Under Windows, choose to find drivers au- tomatically. The dialog closes and you may have to reboot your computer. 3. Make sure that your computer has a working internet connection. 4. Launch the “License Control Center” application (found in the Win- dows Start menu under “Syncrosoft” or in the Macintosh Applications folder). This application allows you to view your Steinberg Keys and to load or transfer licenses.
VST Instruments 1 – 16 Introduction 5. Use the License Control Center “Wizard” function along with the ac- tivation code supplied with Virtual Bassist SE to download the license to your Key. Simply follow the on-screen instructions. If you are uncertain about how to proceed, consult the help for LCC. Installation To install the VST instruments included in Studio Case, proceed as follows: Windows 1. Start your computer and launch Windows. 2. Make sure that no Steinberg Key is connected to the USB port. 3. Insert the plug-in installation DVD into your DVD-ROM drive. 4. A pop-up installation dialog appears automatically. If this dialog does not appear, open the DVD on the desktop and double click the installer file. 5. Follow the instructions on the screen. 6. During the installation process, you will be asked to select the instru- ments to be installed and to select the target folders for the audio content (for all instruments except D’cota SE). The audio content folders contain specifically designed samples for the different instru- ments. Please note that the audio content takes up about 1 GB of hard disk space. Make sure to check the DVD for “read first” or “late changes” files. Please read all such files before launching any of the instruments, since they may contain late information not included in this manual. Please note that the installation routine will take some time to install all plug-ins and the content files.
VST Instruments Introduction 1 – 17 ENGLISH Removing the instruments To remove the VST instruments from your computer: 1. Open the “Add or Remove programs” control panel. 2. Select “Steinberg VSTi Collection” and click “Add/Remove”. 3. Follow the instructions on the screen. • The instruments and the respective audio content are removed from your computer. Macintosh 1. Disable any anti-virus software. Then insert the plug-in DVD into the computer’s DVD drive. 2. Double click on the icon for the plug-in DVD. A window opens. 3. Double click on the VSTi installer (the .mpkg) file. The installation procedure starts. 4. Follow the instructions on screen. • At some stage, you will be asked to read and confirm the license agreement (shown on screen – this is required for the installation to proceed) and to select a destination for the software installation. •When the actual software installation starts, a second window will open. Note that this must not be closed during the installation process, other- wise installation will not be successful. Finally, a dialog box informs you that the installation was successful. Please note that the installation routine will take some time to install all plug-ins and the content files. • For each of the available instruments (except D’cota SE), there are au- dio content folders with specifically designed samples available. Please note that the audio content takes up about 1 GB of hard disk space.
VST Instruments 1 – 18 Introduction Make sure that you have enough free hard disk space on your system partition for the installation procedure. Make sure to check the DVD for “read first” or “late changes” files. Please read all such files before launching any of the instruments, since they may contain late information not included in this manual. Removing the instruments To remove the instruments from your computer, delete the respective files in the vstplugins folder in your system folder. Things to note • The first time you launch HALion SE, Groove Agent SE, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE, Virtual Bassist SE and The Grand SE, you might have to specify the path to its content folder on your hard disk (e.g. if you chose the custom installation). A dialog will be opened where you can navigate to the desired folder. • When you are launching Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE for the first time, the player content may not be localized automatically and you will get the message “Content not found”. In this case: 1. Click OK. The dialog “Please locate the content folder” appears. 2. Locate and select the folder “Virtual Guitarist EE SE” and click OK. Under Mac OS X, the path is /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/VSTi Collection. 3. In the VST Instrument rack, it now reads “Please reload the plug-in”. 4. To “re-load” the plug-in, deselect it in the instrument slot (select “No VST instrument”) and re-select it from the pop-up menu. Register your software ! Before getting carried away with the software, which we’re sure you will do, please take a moment to complete and return the registration card enclosed with the Studio Case package. This will entitle you to techni- cal support, and we’ll also keep you up to date with the latest news and updates.
VST Instruments Introduction 1 – 19 ENGLISH Activating VST instruments in Cubase SE This section describes how to set up any of the VSTis in Cubase SE. Make sure Cubase SE has been correctly installed and set up to work with your MIDI and audio hardware (e.g. a MIDI keyboard and a sound card) . We’ll show the process of setting up a VSTi instrument using HALion SE as an example. 1. In Cubase SE, open the VST Instruments window. 2. Click the “No VST Instrument” label. In the pop-up menu choose HALion SE. 3. Open the HALion SE window by clicking the Edit button (e) in the VST Instruments window. 4. In Cubase SE, select HALion SE as the output for a MIDI track, and make sure this track is set up to receive MIDI data from your MIDI key- board and to transmit on channel 1. 5. HALion SE is now set up properly. •Please note that for some instruments, you have to choose the content folder when you launch the instrument for the first time (see page 18).