Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Monday, January 19, 2026
Pattern-based Sound Design In Cubase
Screen 1: The StepFilter can easily add a cool rhythmic element to even the most basic sounds.
Cubase's stock tools offer plenty of creative potential for pattern-based sound design.
Creative use of effects is a great way to inject some sonic interest into many modern music styles, and it can be particularly effective when effect changes are applied in sync with the project tempo. Some brilliant third-party effects plug-ins are designed for just this task (Sugar Bytes' Turnado and Effectrix, for example), but Cubase Pro and Artist users should find that the stock toolset can also be put to very good use.
Filter Lane
The humble filter is always a good bet for this kind of task. The old favourite Tonic plug-in (see SOS November 2004) is sadly now long gone, but Pro and Artist users do have access to the StepFilter plug-in, which can achieve similar things. Considered purely as a filter, StepFilter is perhaps better described as 'minimal' than 'cutting edge'. At its core, you get three simple filter types (high-, low- and band-pass) plus two 'modes' (classic and modern), and controls for the filter cutoff frequency and resonance. But its two step-based pattern grids allow you to sequence changes in the cutoff and resonance, and combining this with some of the other controls allows you to conjure up some very interesting rhythmic filter effects.
Let's consider an easy example to illustrate the possibilities: using StepFilter to liven up an otherwise static synth pad. In the first screenshot, I've selected HALion Sonic SE's Humble Analog pad sound, which is a perfectly useable but somewhat undramatic pad. Insert an instance of StepFilter on the channel, though, and things can be made much more interesting. For example, the Synced Step preset is shown in Screen 1 (above). This uses a low-pass filter, with the cutoff step sequence set to simply alternate between extremely high and low values relative to the Base Cutoff setting. In this case, with the transport running (you'll only hear StepFilter working when Cubase is in playback), when you play a MIDI Note in HSSE, the pad plays back with a steady, tempo-sync'ed 'pulse'. But you can create more interesting rhythmic results by editing the cutoff step pattern, and its tempo-sync rate can be adjusted via the Rate knob.
By adjusting the Base Cutoff setting (this is the cutoff value around which the step pattern will add variations), you can change the timbre of the sound, while the Mix slider allows you to make the effect more subtle by adjusting the wet/dry balance. In addition, with this sound source, the Glide knob — which smooths the transitions between each step — can take you from a wah-like effect at high values, through a really smooth pulse at intermediate values, to a more percussive, 'clicky' sound at very low values.
Screen 2: In Modern mode, the Hard Clip control can be used to drive the filter into some useful distortion.Despite the modest-looking control set, StepFilter is capable of creating much more dramatic effects than this simple rhythmic pulse. Using the same HSSE pad, Screen 2 shows a different StepFilter configuration, and a couple of things are worth noting. First, I've switched to the Modern filter mode, which activates the Hard Clip knob. With higher settings, you can use this to push the filter into a distortion that responds to both note velocity (volume) and the step-pattern settings. This can yield some very dramatic timbral shifts. Second, I've set the pattern length to 15 steps, and the Rate to 16th notes. Why? Well, for example, in a conventional 4/4 project, this means that the pattern continuously shifts against the timing of other elements in your project, and this can result in some cool evolving rhythmic effects. Or you could use the same approach to to create something quite unsettling; the choice is yours.
Of course, pretty much everything in StepFilter can also be automated. This includes the pattern selection (each instance can store up to eight different step patterns), Mix, Base Cutoff, Base Resonance, Rate, Glide and Filter Type parameters. Right-click on any of these and you can assign them to a Quick Control slot (for hands-on control via an external MIDI control surface) or display an automation track ready for editing. Considering it has such a simple control set, StepFilter really is a surprisingly powerful tool. Of course, the synth-pad cliché is just an example — you needn't limit yourself to such sources, as the approach holds potential for processing any sound source; you could even try using it as a spot effect on your master bus.
Filter Out
For something a little more colourful, Artist and Pro users can try LoopMash FX. As I described in SOS November 2015, this plug-in provides a selection of 19 DJ-style glitch effects that can be sprinkled at key spots in an electronic or pop track. You can trigger these effects in real-time via MIDI input. But one of the attractions of some of the better creative multi-effect plug-ins such as Effectrix is the option to use step-based patterns to control how the individual effects are triggered. There are a number of ways to emulate this effect in Cubase, but perhaps the most interesting one is to create patterns in Cubase's BeatDesigner MIDI plug-in, and use these to trigger LoopMash FX's effects. The initial configuration requires a few steps, but once done the BeatDesigner interface is great for rapid pattern creation and editing, and there's lots of fun to be had.
Screen 3: The combination of LoopMash FX and BeatDesigner can deliver some very creative pattern-based effects.First, instantiate LoopMash FX on the track whose audio you wish to 'mash'. This could be a VSTi (for example HSSE) or an audio track. It's a good idea to match the LoopMash FX triggering interval (indicated by the note icons in the middle of the display) with the step interval of your BeatDesigner patterns. Setting both to 16th notes works best but feel free to experiment, as mismatched intervals can create some very happy accidents! Second, create a separate MIDI track and load BeatDesigner into one of the track's MIDI insert slots. The MIDI output of this track should be routed to the instance of LoopMash FX via the Inspector. (This MIDI destination becomes visible once LoopMash FX has been inserted on a track.)
The LoopMash effects are mapped from F2 to B3 and, if you create a BeatDesigner pattern that triggers notes in this range, they'll activate the appropriate effect in LoopMash FX (Screen 3). During playback, the pattern will loop and if you activate the Jump button (top-right of the BeatDesigner interface), you'll enable pattern switching via MIDI (notes C1 to C4), so you can easily switch between different patterns (including a blank one for when you want no effects to be applied). Note that different patterns in a single instance of BeatDesigner can have different settings for step numbers/divisions, so you can do some interesting things in terms of timing and also create extended patterns (up to 64 steps in length).
Used in this way, LoopMash FX can do all sorts of interesting things to spice up even the blandest source. That said, there are a few catches! First, by default, BeatDesigner only shows 11 rows. Clicking on the '+' icon on the far-right of the bottom lane will add a lane and you can simply expand the pattern grid until it shows 19 rows (one for each of the LoopMash FX triggers). Second, BeatDesigner's grid shows drum labels alongside its MIDI note numbers rather than labels for the LoopMash effects. However, if you add a Drum Map via the Inspector of the track containing BeatDesigner, you can create a custom Drum Map containing the LoopMash effect names (Screen 4). These will then be displayed for ease of reference.
Screen 4: Creating a LoopMash FX-friendly Drum Map makes BeatDesigner patterns easier to follow.
Third, notes in a BeatDesigner pattern are of a fixed length, set by the step division. This doesn't stop you creating cool effects, but some of the LoopMash FX options produce interesting results when triggered for whole beats or even bars. There's no way to 'tie' notes in BeatDesigner. But having used BeatDesigner to create a collection of a patterns, you can drag and drop each pattern from its small virtual MIDI keyboard onto a MIDI track routed to LoopMash FX's MIDI input (you need to turn off the Jump setting for this drag-and-drop process to work). You can then use the standard MIDI Key Editor to edit the pattern further, including extending the length of some note triggers if required.
For those of a particularly experimental bent, a final thing to try is a second MIDI track with a further instance of BeatDesigner routed to the MIDI input of the same LoopMash FX plug-in. If you create patterns with slightly different step numbers in the two different BeatDesigner instances and run them at the same time, your effects triggering will evolve as the different step counts cycle through. This can (sometimes!) create some wonderful results.
Saturday, January 17, 2026
Friday, January 16, 2026
Cubase Pro: VariAudio 3 Smart Controls
The Arranger Track now allows you to construct multiple Arranger Chains — alternative arrangements of your track — in a single Cubase project.
Need to export different mixes from the same project? Cubase Pro 10 makes it easy…
Engineers often need to create alternative mixes of a project. It's common, for example, for a professional engineer to be required to provide a 'vocal up' version of a mix, but there are various reasons any of us might want to create alternative versions of a project — different arrangements that extend or shorten a song, different effects options, or perhaps broadcast-friendly edits to disguise expletives! Whatever the reason, Cubase has a number of tools that can help, and in this article I'll explain how the Arranger Track and Cubase Pro 10's MixConsole Snapshots can help you create alternative mixes and arrangements more easily. Most of what Cubase offers is good, but I'll also discuss workarounds for a few 'cons'.
Power Arrangers
I looked at the Arranger Track (in Pro, Artist and Elements) in SOS July 2010 (https://sosm.ag/cubase-0710), when considering how to create advert-friendly, 30-second cues from a longer project. It basically provides a way to move the playhead to different points in your arrangement on playback, so it can be used for any kind of timeline-based re-sequencing of a song's structure. Having created an Arranger Track (in the same way you create any other kind of track), creating a new arrangement requires just a few simple steps.
First, create some events on the Arranger Track. Each one defines a time/bar range, and they can be played back by the Arranger Track in any sequence you define. Events can be given unique names to replace the defaults (A, B, C etc.), and it's fine for events to overlap — for instance, you could create separate four- and eight-bar events starting at bar 12, beat one. Next, in the Arranger Inspector panel or in the Arranger Editor window, create a chain of these Arranger events; add and move them into the sequence you want to hear on playback. For each instance of each event, you can choose the number of times it should loop before moving to the next event in your chain. Finally, toggle on the Activate Arranger Mode button (next to the 'e' edit button for the Arranger Track in the Project window's channel list). Now, on playback, instead of playing in linear fashion along the timeline, Cubase will follow the nonlinear sequence of events specified in your Arranger chain.
This is all super-easy to do, but it's a really powerful feature because it allows you to experiment with all sorts of timeline-based variations of your musical arrangement without dragging parts around your arrange page. There are a few more detailed considerations though...
Since I first wrote about this in my SOS July 2010 article, Steinberg added the ability to create multiple Chains via the Arranger Track's Inspector panel. Individual Chains can also be duplicated and renamed. So, assuming your Project contains all the necessary materials (audio tracks, virtual instruments, etc.) for all the different mix versions you wish to create, you can now keep all your arrangements in a single master project, simply switching between the different Chains to choose which you'll hear on playback.
Arranger Chains can be 'flattened' into a traditional linear arrangement prior to audio export.
At some stage, you'll want to render your various arrangements using Export/Audio Mixdown, and there are three steps to this process. The first requires you to use the Flatten Chain option (in the Arranger Editor window or the Arranger Track's Inspector). This lays out the current Arranger Chain as a conventional linear project on the timeline. You can choose in the Arranger Editor to create this flattened version in a new Cubase project or, if you prefer to keep everything in a single master project, you can select the Current Project option as the Destination. Once flattened, you can use the Export/Audio Mixdown command, as usual. A third step is to visit your project's History panel and move back to the step where you flattened the project — this will return you to the un-flattened version in the Project window while, critically, retaining the audio mixdown you just created via the export process.
Even if your Arranger Track sequence plays back smoothly, listen carefully to the flattened version prior to the final export. Problems can occur, for example, where audio or MIDI clips have elements that are cut at the start or end of any Arranger Events, and you might find that some minor editing tweaks are needed to address this. If the flattened version requires any major surgery, this is perhaps one occasion when flattening to a new project is a more sensible choice, since it would otherwise require you to undo a lot of steps to move back to another arrangement.
Snap To It
Cubase Pro 10's new MixConsole Snapshots system makes it easy to experiment with different level, pan and processing options, amongst other mixer settings.But what if you're happy with the arrangement and simply want to create and recall different mix versions? This is where Cubase Pro 10's new MixConsole Snapshots feature comes in to play. You can create up to 10 MixConsole Snapshots in a single project, and these are saved within the project file. They're set up via a dedicated tab in the main MixConsole's left zone (alongside the MixConsole History tab, which can also be useful when experimenting with different mix options). The MixConsole toolbar has a button (the small camera icon) for creating Snapshots, and there's a dropdown menu for other Snapshot tasks, such as selecting, updating or renaming. In the main MixConsole tab, you can add notes to each Snapshot too, and that's a great habit to get into, as it's easy to lose track of lots of specific mix changes in different Snapshots.
The key thing you need to note if you're to get the best from this new feature is what information is and isn't stored as part of the Snapshot. Obviously, basic volume and pan settings are stored in a Snapshot, so typical mix-variation tasks (eg. vocals up, guitars panned wider, drums down) can all be managed using Snapshots. More impressively, though, all the main insert, EQ, Channel Strip and send settings are also included. So you can easily audition different send levels to a reverb/delay, different EQ settings or different combinations of insert effects on any tracks. The last of these is a great way to try out different compressor plug-ins on, for example, your drums or lead vocals, or for exploring different stereo-bus processing chains.
What's Not To Like?
It's important to understand that Snapshots recall settings of the MixConsole only, not of the Cubase project as a whole. In particular, note that you can't try different automation moves on, say, a track's volume or send levels and store each version in a Snapshot. And for every track that remains Read enabled, any automation data in your project will override the static settings of your Snapshots. The exception is if you've created automation for an insert effect and then load a Snapshot that doesn't include that instance of the insert effect — in this case, the insert's automation data will be deleted. Cubase can warn that this is about to happen, but it's well worth being aware of! The workaround is to use and save the bypass status for insert effects, sends and the main Rack sections, rather than actually removing the plug-ins. If you want to retain the sort of detailed level automation you might use for a lead vocal, but still create a 'vocal up' mix, then another strategy is to use a VCA Fader to boost/attenuate the vocal track — store the static VCA Fader setting in the Snapshot.
The status of the channel Mute, Solo, Read and Write button are not (yet?) stored/recalled by Snapshots, something which would have been really useful. Taking the Mute buttons as an example, storing the mute status would be handy if you wished to experiment with alternative tracks. Say you had two completely different lead vocals, or perhaps a guitar solo and a sax solo to choose between — you'd be able to simply mute the required combinations of tracks in different Snapshots. Of course, you can achieve the same end result using fader settings and insert/EQ/Channel Strip/send bypass buttons, but that's a little more fiddly.
The MixConsole Snapshot system doesn't include automation data. This is only an issue for insert effects, and then only if you add/remove insert effects via Snapshots when those inserts already have automation data created for them.
Make Your Mind Up
While creativity and experiments are good fun, we all have to exercise a little discipline eventually — you do actually need to declare a mix 'finished' at some point! But having the ability to keep some fairly major mix and arrangement options open until the very end can be incredibly useful in some projects. Despite a few limitations, the Arranger Track and the MixConsole Snapshots facility are incredibly powerful tools that make this possible with a minimum of fuss, and without littering your drive with different project files.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Cubase: Multiband Mastering Template
DIY mastering is a pragmatic necessity for many musicians, and while there are some great third-party software mastering products, Cubase already includes all you need to get started. What's more, any version of Cubase, from Elements to Pro, allows you to perform multiband processing — for example, separating the audio into low, low-mid, high-mid and high frequency bands, to give you greater flexibility/control. In this article, I'll show you how to do just that.
Even if you plan on mixing and mastering in Cubase, it's good practice to keep these two stages of a project separate, so try to resist the temptation to mix through your mastering-style processing. In fact, I think they're best tackled in separate Cubase projects, and certainly at different times, so that you come to the mastering with fresh ears. But in purely practical terms it's sensible too, since the format of different mastering projects is likely to be fairly consistent, so you can save time and effort by creating a mastering template.
Setting Up
While Cubase Pro includes several multiband plug-ins (eg. Quadrafuzz 2, Multiband Compressor and Multiband Envelope Shaper), Cubase Artist and Elements don't. Nonetheless, it's still easy to set up multiband processing using sends, groups and some filtering. And this approach can allow more complex processing in Pro too. You could approach this in various ways, but the main screenshot (of the MixConsole in Cubase Elements 9.5) shows a possible project setup, with seven stereo audio tracks plus the main stereo out.
DIY multiband mastering is easy to set up, even in the Elements version of Cubase.The audio from your mixdown needs to be imported onto the blue Raw Mix Stereo track. Note the settings in the Routing rack — this first track is routed (a) directly to the purple Un-Mastered Mix Group track and (b) via four unity gain sends to the four green Group tracks. High- and low-cut filters in the Pre racks of these Groups give us multiple frequency 'bands' which can be processed independently. After processing, these four bands are recombined by routing them all to the purple Mastered Mix Group track. Both purple channels (the Un-Mastered Mix and Mastered Mix) feed the main stereo out. The purple channels allow you to hear and/or export either just the unprocessed mix, just the mastered mix, or some blend of the two (ie. multiband mastering with parallel processing).
The filters in the Pre rack are used to define which frequency range each Group track will operate upon. In this example, the Low Band channel's 200Hz high-cut filter limits this channel to frequencies below that cutoff point. The Low-Mid Band channel's high- and low-cut filters are both engaged, and configured so the channel only focusses on frequencies between 200 and 2000 Hz; the other channels are set similarly. I chose crossover frequencies similar to those found in Quadrafuzz 2, the Multiband Compressor and (for example) iZotope's Ozone; they can be adjusted, but they serve as a reasonable starting point.
The other detail to note at this stage is that each active filter in the Pre rack is set with a 24dB/octave roll-off beyond the cutoff frequency. The steepness of this slope can be adjusted between 6 and 48 dB/octave, and this affects the amount of frequency overlap between the adjacent channels.
There's an interesting and complex technical discussion to be had about how these settings and the design of the low- and high-cut filters impact on the quality of our mastering process. But that's beyond the scope of this article, and I'll leave it to better brains than mine to explain. Feel free to experiment, but as a guiding principle, make sure adjacent bands share a crossover frequency, and that these filters turn over at the same frequency. For instance, having the high-cut at 200Hz on the low channel requires a low-cut filter at 200Hz on the next.
Multiband Processing
What about the processing in each band? The second screen shows my basic setup for the High-Mid channel. There are four active plug-ins, but I've also inserted an EQ (which is bypassed by default) in case some surgical intervention is required on any band. I've inserted the same processors on the other bands and, with only a few exceptions, the settings could probably be the same for each of the four bands.
For any mastering task, it's sensible to start with some fairly conservative plug-in settings.
Conservative starting points are always a good plan for mastering. For example, for the compressor, I've opted for a gentle 2:1 ratio, a 20ms attack time (to avoid totally squashing the transients), and a 500ms release (faster/slower times can suit higher/lower tempos respectively). Then, it's simply a matter of adjusting the threshold for the desired amount of compression, up to a maximum of about 2-3 dB. You can push some styles of music a little harder, but if you're doing that, then listen particularly carefully for side-effects.
I used DaTube (which comes with all versions of Cubase) for some subtle saturation/distortion, but you could use any similar plug-in (eg. Magneto II, which comes with Artist and Pro) or choose to bypass this stage altogether, depending on the sound you're aiming for. The Stereo Enhancer plug-in allows you to adjust the stereo spread of each band. This is an area where you might use different settings on different bands: keep the Low band where it is, or even try narrowing it; and try opening out the High and High‑Mid bands a little, but do check for mono compatibility when doing so. (Remember, the width of any band can also be manipulated using the relevant channel's pan pot.)
Finally, the Limiter plug-in provides a safety net, just to catch any stray peaks. I simply chose a suitably subtle preset and tweaked the output level to -0.5dBFS, to ensure I've a tiny bit of headroom before clipping might occur. You can, of course, push the input level control if you want to drive things a bit harder. The Limiter on the main Stereo Output channel is set up similarly.
With these initial filter and plug-in settings in place, it's then simply a matter of adjusting the channel faders to taste. As discussed above, the two purple faders allow you to choose to output just the 'mastered' audio or a blend of the original mix and the processed versions . There are no hard and fast rules that will always work; you just have to trust your ears and your speakers, but if using a blend make sure that the combined signal doesn't overload the Stereo Out or drive its limiter too hard.
If you want to adjust the broad EQ balance of the mix, you can obviously use some EQ on the Stereo Out, but the green channel faders also allow you some scope. Care is needed, though — if you need to do more than nudge the balance of these faders, that suggests that the overall tonality of the original mix needs revisiting.
Master Of Mastering?
I'll leave you with a final few comments, including a warning or two. First, if you're using Artist or Pro, the same setup could be created using FX tracks instead of the Groups, though I don't see any advantage in using FX tracks (in large mix projects, they can be shown/hidden en masse, and be assigned different-coloured fader caps, which can be a useful navigation aid). For some reason, in Elements you may only route FX channels to the main Stereo Out; that limitation doesn't apply to Group tracks, hence my use of the latter here.
Second, you don't have to use four frequency bands. Single-band, two-band (a low band versus the rest) or three-band (low, mid, high) setups are perfectly viable. Indeed, when taking your first DIY mastering steps, some of these might make for an easier starting point.
Third, in Elements and Artist the metering options are a little limited, so keep a close eye on the Stereo Out meter to ensure you're not making things too hot. The amount of gain reduction in the Stereo Out track's Limiter plug-in is a useful indicator. (Pro is better equipped in terms of master-bus metering.)
Fourth, with any multiband processing, there's the potential for problems where the bands overlap. I've used the MixConsole's Pre rack filters here, but you could use any EQ to create the frequency band splits, and experiment with linear- or minimum-phase filters. Whatever you use, compare the (blue) original mix and the (purple) mastered mix (but with all inserts bypassed) to check how transparent the filtering and processing is.
Finally, note that while this multiband project template constitutes a useful mastering a tool, it can't help you with the technical or creative judgements required to get that mastering process 'right'! For that, you need experience — get more mastering under your belt, and listen to good commercial tracks. Education helps too, though, so do check the free-to-access archive of articles on the SOS website to learn more about mastering.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Cubase Pro: Reference Tracks
When Sample Magic announced that they'd soon stop supporting their Magic AB plug-in, some of you asked me to recommend other mix-referencing tools. Several plug-in options exist, including Mastering The Mix's Reference, Melda's MCompare, and ADPTR's Metric AB, but you may be able to do what you want using Cubase alone...
Simple A/B'ing
Cubase's Pro's Cue Sends can be used to monitor your reference tracks via the Control Room without the signal flowing through your project's master stereo bus — but while this side-steps any bus processing, it also skips the loudness metering, and it uses up one of only four available Cue Sends.An obvious approach is to put references on a track in your mix project and align the clips with the relevant parts of the arrangement. If you don't use master bus processing, this can work well: keep the reference track muted, and when you solo it, it will play and all the other tracks will be muted. But if you use master-bus processing, as many of us do, you don't want to apply this processing to your references. There are a couple of ways around this.
One is to create a second stereo output in the Studio/Audio Connections window and route your reference track to that. This bypasses the processing but now your references aren't reflected on the master-bus loudness metering. If that's important to you, you could use a Group track as your master bus, and route that and your reference track to the default stereo output (on which you put no processing).
Right On Cue
Cubase Pro's Control Room offers an alternative. Although (curiously) the Control Room doesn't allow you to select different output busses, you can monitor artist cue mixes, and can route your references to one of those. Go to Studio/Audio Connections, make sure the Control Room is activated, and in the Control Room tab hit Add Channel. Select Add Cue, create a stereo Cue Mix with a meaningful name (eg. 'Reference'), and leave it routed to no output.
Again, you'll need a track in your project to host your reference tracks. Set its output to No Bus. Strangely, there's no option to display the Cue Mixes in the Track Inspector, so to send your reference track to your Cue Mix you'll need to open the track's Channel Settings window (you'll find Cue Sends in a tab adjacent to the regular sends) or the MixConsole (if Cue Sends aren't there make them visible via the Racks drop-down). Enable the Reference send and set it to unity gain. In the Control Room section of the mixer, next to the main Mix button, you'll see a button marked C1 (for Cue Mix 1). With your mix playing, hit C1 to toggle between monitoring your reference track and your mix project. If you go to Edit / Key Commands and search for Cue 1 On/Off, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to this action.
It's pretty slick, but there are a couple of down sides. First, Cubase gives you a rather meagre ration of Cue Mixes — you have a maximum of four in your project — which could be problematic if you need them for another purpose. Second, Cubase's master-bus metering continues to tell you what's happening in your mix while you listen to your references — so if you want to match the loudness of the reference to that of your mix (as you should) you'll need a separate loudness meter on your reference track, which is a bit of an inconvenience.
The Logical Approach
The Project Logical Editor can be used to create a handful of basic 'building block' commands to use in Macros (see below).What if you want to meter what you're listening to on Cubase's master meters? Here's an approach that uses Cubase's powerful Project Logical Editor (PLE) and Macro facilities. We'll use these to automate both the 'simple' A/B mute/solo approach described above, and the bypassing of the master bus processing. As with other approaches, you'll need to create a track for your references, but this time leave it and your mix routed to the main Stereo Out. Name this track 'Reference' and mute it.
Next, we'll make four simple PLE presets to use in our Macro. A little quirk of Cubase is that you need to be in the Project page to access the PLE (I have no idea why!). From here, go to Project / Project Logical Editor. The PLE can appear daunting, but we can just customise an existing preset. I started with the 'Visibility — Show Tracks containing Drum in the Name' preset. In the top section, change the second row's Condition from 'Contains not' to 'Equal' and change Parameter 1 from 'Drum' to 'Reference'. The bottom section tells the PLE what action to perform, so change the Operation from 'Hide Track' to 'Solo'. That's your first PLE preset done, so click on the + icon at the top to save this as a new preset called 'Reference — Solo'.
Next change the Operation from 'Solo' to 'Mute' and save it again, this time as 'Reference — Mute'. With the same PLE window still open, in the top section, change the second row's Parameter 1 from 'Reference' to 'Stereo Out', and in the bottom section change the Operation to 'Inserts Bypass'. Save this as a preset called 'Stereo Out — Bypass Inserts'. Finally, change Parameter 1 in the bottom section from 'Enable' to 'Disable', which does the reverse (it will reactivate the Stereo Out bus's inserts) and save this as 'Stereo Out — Activate Inserts'.
These simple Macros run the Project Logical Editor presets and bypass the master-bus processing whenever the reference track is soloed. This way, you always have access to the built-in metering of the master stereo bus, but the bus processors will act only on the mix you're working on, not the reference track.Finally, we'll stitch these presets together using a pair of Macros that we can assign keystrokes. Go to Edit /Key Commands and open the Macro window at the bottom. Hit the New Macro button, and label your Macro 'Reference Track — On'. In the upper pane's search bar type 'Process Project' to take you to the relevant folder (I find this quicker than scrolling). Open this, and locate the PLE presets you just created. Select 'Stereo Out — Bypass Inserts' and hit the Add Command button. Then select 'Reference — Solo' and hit the Add Command button again. Create another new Macro called 'Reference Track — Off' and add the commands 'Reference — Mute' and 'Stereo Out — Activate Inserts'.
You'll find your two new Macros in the Macro folder in the upper pane, and here you can assign them shortcut keys. Sadly, I've been unable to find a way to toggle between the two Macros with a single key command, but I did find easy to remember shortcuts: Ctrl+R for 'Reference Track — On' and Shift+Ctrl+R for 'Reference Track — Off'. It's worth mentioning that I'm on a Mac, so the Ctrl key may be assigned to different functions on Windows, but you get the idea. Now, with your mix playing back, hit Ctrl+R to switch to your references, and Shift+Ctrl+R to switch back to your mix.
Checking reference mixes with this technique can be performed using just a couple of key commands.Note that this won't work if you have other tracks soloed in your mix, or any automation of the master fader. If the solo issue really bothers you, put the 'Deactivate All Solo States' command at the beginning of your 'Reference Track — On' Macro, though note that you'd have to re-solo things when you switched back to your mix. Note also that you won't be able to take advantage of Cubase's Solo Defeat Mode. On the plus side, you can use Cubase's loudness metering to make sure your reference is at the same level as that particular part of your mix (using clip gain on the references is the best approach), and thus ensure that you're making objective comparisons.
Decisions, Decisions...
While none of these options for monitoring reference tracks and clips is perfect, they can all work pretty well if they fit your own workflow. Each one offers different pros and cons — hopefully there's a tactic here that will do the job for you.
Cubase Pro: Riff Maker
By John Walden
Don't fear the Logical Editor! Even a simple preset can help generate some interesting musical ideas.
Stuck in a musical rut? Cubase Pro might just be able to provide the inspiration you need.
A number of third-party tools aim to offer the spark of musical inspiration around which you can build a project. Nobody expects them to cough up the sort of fully formed melody that could grace the next chart-topping hit, but by combining elements of key/scale 'rules', a dose of randomisation and a little user input — to influence the general direction of the riff-making process — they can be a great source of new melodic ideas. Happily, Cubase Pro 10 users need look no further than their own DAW for a toolset that allows you to experiment with this sort of random-but-guided riff generation. To follow the examples, you'll need a MIDI clip as a starting point. Anything will do; a simple two-bar sequence of 16th notes, all set to C3 and a velocity of 80, will suffice. Use this MIDI to trigger a staccato-style synth patch.
Iterative Inspiration
You can manipulate note velocity in various ways using the Logical Editor, whether that's subtle randomisation (above) or note muting (below).Many third-party plug-ins work by applying iterative changes to note pitches and velocities, often snapping notes to a specific key/scale combination. The hope, in repeating this sort of 'guided randomisation', is that something musically interesting will grab your attention. Cubase Pro 10's Logical Editor makes this approach possible — it can be used to select, in a clip, any MIDI data that meet the criteria you define, and then make adjustments. For example, you could use it to select only notes with a velocity under 30 and change their velocity to zero.
To do this, we first have to create the necessary Logical Editor presets, so let's start by tweaking the note pitches. In the first screen, the Logical Editor's upper panel is set so when you run the preset it will select all MIDI notes, and the lower panel defines the changes that will be applied. Two actions are defined. The first randomises the current Value 1 (pitch) by up to three semitones in either direction. The second (optional) line changes the resulting pitches to the nearest note on the specified key/scale. I used E Pentatonic since that was the key/scale of this project, but there are plenty more options in the drop-down menu of the parameter 2 column.
Logical Editor presets can also be used to reset your original MIDI clip, so you can start over.Each time this preset is applied to the selected MIDI clip all note pitches are randomised by a small increment and then nudged to work in the specified key/scale. Importantly, note that a Logical Editor preset can be applied while the MIDI clip is being played; you can hear the changes as you apply them.
The next screen shows two Logical Editor presets to adjust note velocity data. The first again selects the clip's MIDI notes. A single action then applies a small random change (+10 or -10, but you could experiment with other values) to Value 2 (velocity data). Applied iteratively, the note's velocity pattern will slowly evolve.
In the second preset, the upper panel selects only MIDI notes whose velocity is currently 30 or lower. The action then changes their velocity to zero, effectively muting them. This can be fun to apply occasionally, as it removes low velocity notes from playback and can thus help add some rhythmic interest to our (initially) 16th-note-pattern starting point.
It's not hard to imagine creating other similar Logical Editor presets — for example, you might set a zero velocity for specific note pitches if you wanted to exclude some notes from one of the preset scales.
The Key To Success?
By executing the Logical Editor presets via Key Commands, you can generate new ideas more efficiently.Applying randomisation processes in the hope of something good can feel a little crude and won't always bear the tastiest fruit, and in that case you might want to start afresh. The next screen shows the lower (action) panel for two further Logical Editor presets. In both cases, the upper panel is configured to select all MIDI notes. The two actions then reset all notes pitches to C3 (or whatever note you prefer) and reset the note velocity data to 80 respectively. You could combine both actions into a single preset, but I prefer the flexibility of being able to reset this data independently. If I have a melody I like, I can reset just the velocity data, and vice-versa. And don't forget the undo Key Command (by default, Ctrl/Cmd Z), which can be used to undo your iterative changes if you just want to go back a step or two in the randomisation process.
Executing these presets via the Logical Editor window itself is a bit clumsy, as you have to switch between the presets manually via the window's preset panel. A more efficient workflow can be established via the Process Logical Preset section of the Key Commands window, where you can define convenient key commands for your DIY presets. Having selected your target MIDI clip, you can then fire off repeated presets without opening the Logical Editor. If you also have the clip open in the Lower Zone Key Editor, you can combine your 'guided randomisation' with some occasional manual MIDI editing.
More Options
The basic process described here really is very simple, and the idea is that you can use manual editing to refine the results — once this tactic has sparked a fresh musical idea, it's done its job. But if you want different options, you could try giving your initial MIDI clip a more obvious direction and/or rhythmic feel, whether it's different note intervals or leaving some steps blank. There are plenty of options, but one neat example is to copy your kick/snare MIDI data to a bass synth track, reset the pitch values, and see if you can't randomly generate a cool bass pattern to play alongside your drums.
The Chord Track can add a further creative twist to your random melody generation workflow.
For a further creative step, why not try combining your Logical Editor presets with a bit of Chord Track magic? For the final screen, I used my Logical Editor presets to generate an initial two-bar MIDI sequence. Then I made three copies to create an eight-bar sequence, which I set to follow both the chords and scales defined in the Chord Track. So the sequences in bars 5/6 and 7/8 have been subjected to further pitch tweaking by the Chord Track engine, resulting in some nice further variation.
Finally, in the Key Command window, you could easily create a Macro that bundles some of the Logical Editor randomisation presets into a single command... but I've already encouraged you to face your Logical Editor fears, so I'll leave that for another time!