Saturday, August 30, 2025
Friday, August 29, 2025
Cubase 13: New Sampler Track Features
Custom modulation envelopes can now be constructed more easily in the Sampler Track’s Pitch, Filter and Amp panels using the new shape options.
We throw some shapes with the powerful new sound‑design options in the Sampler Track.
The Sampler Track (which is a feature in the Pro, Artist and Elements editions of Cubase) is a simple but undeniably creative tool, so it’s great for experimenting with sample‑based sound design. It’s been with us a while, but in Cubase 13 Steinberg added some new features, including some intriguing spectral‑based modes for the sample playback engine. For this workshop, though, I thought I’d explore another of the new options: the shape‑based drawing tools now present in the Pitch, Filter and Amp modulation panels. These make it so much easier to design tempo‑based patterns, so that risers, pitch drops, patterned filter sweeps and rhythmic volume effects should all feel well and truly in sync with your project.
I want to keep things simple to follow, so with that in mind let’s explore some of the possibilities when using just a single sample as a starting point — in this case, I’ll be using a sustained single note from a synth pad. There are audio examples on the SOS website that you can audition (https://sosm.ag/cubase-0624) and, with the aid of a second sample (a drum loop) and a vocal hook, these include putting these Sampler Track‑designed sounds into the context of an initial sketch for a musical project.
Shaping Shifting
We’ve explored some of the Sampler Track’s established features in previous workshops so I’ll not retread that ground other than to remind you that the engine works on a single sample and provides various means of time‑stretching (designed for different use cases), loop slicing (for working with drum loops), sample looping (to create sustaining sounds), automatic mapping of the sample across a user‑defined key range, and pitch, filter and amplitude toolsets, each with envelope and LFO‑based modulation, amongst a bunch of other possibilities.
The new ‘shaper’ tools introduced in Cubase 13 mean more options when creating modulation envelopes. In the Mod panels of the Pitch, Filter and Amp windows, a new toolbar drop‑down provides access to a whole range of Factory curves, and you can save your own user curves too. Once a curve shape is selected, you can add it to the modulation envelope using either the Draw (pencil) or Paint (brush) tools. The former lets you draw a single instance of the selected curve, and you can drag as you draw to resize it. The latter lets you add multiple repeats of the selected curve and uses the panel’s Sync setting to set the beat division (length) of each repeat (so defining a rhythm for the modulation). By dragging up/down as you use the Paint tool you can control the amplitude of each repeat, and therefore the amount of modulation to be applied. And, of course, you can build custom curves by combining different shapes and/or different beat divisions.
A useful selection of factory curve shape elements are included, and you can also save your own user curve creations.
Two other options are worth noting. First, the F button enables/disables Fixed mode. When enabled, adding a new shape (with its curve nodes) replaces any curves/nodes already present in the targeted section of the overall modulation curve. When disabled, existing nodes are automatically shifted to the right along the timeline to make room when new curves/nodes are added. Fixed mode also influences what happens when you edit individual nodes and whether moving one node does (or does not) cause other nodes to the right to also change position.
Second, the Mode types in each Mod panel now include a Shaper option. You don’t have to use this mode in order to create modulation curves using the shape presets but it does allow you to create modulation curves that can cycle perfectly, as it ensures the start and end node values are linked.
One Sample, Many Sounds
In creating different sound types from a single sample, we can make use of the Sampler Track’s full feature set, but these new shape‑based modulation tools can certainly play a useful part. For my (totally arbitrary) mission of generating all my non‑drum sounds from a single source sample, there are some obvious contender sounds that I’ll need to generate. These include bass, lead, and pad/chord sounds, as well as options such as a risers or bass pitch drops that can be used to add some ear‑candy.
Let’s start with a simple case: a short (non‑sustaining) bass sound. The key settings are shown in the screenshot. In the Playback window, I’d engaged Audiowarp and selected one of the new Spectral modes, then tweaked the Formant and Key F controls to alter the tonality to taste, while in the Filter section I chose a low‑pass valve‑style filter. However, it’s the Amp and Filter modulation that then control the nature of the sound, and each is based on one of the new preset curve shapes. The Amp modulation provides a short, ramped attack, short sustain and then a rapid fade, while the filter uses an S‑shaped modulation curve to smoothly but rapidly open the filter as the sound plays to give it a little tonal movement. The Filter panel’s AMT control (far left) can be used to adjust the degree of this tonal shift, while the S‑curve nodes could be manually adjusted, along with the starting cutoff value, for further control. When played in the lower registers suitable for a bass line, the end result is a short, solid bass tone with a little sonic movement.
Even simple curve shapes become easier to generate, as seen here for our simple bass sound with short modulation curves in the Amp (on the left) and Filter (right) panels used to generate a short bass note with a little bit of tonal movement.
A similar filter modulation approach was used to create a lead sound but for this I used a high‑pass filter. In this case, the Mono and Legato options were enabled in the Sampler Track’s main Toolbar area so that the Pitch panel’s Glide control could then be used to provide a pitch slide between overlapping notes.
For this exercise, I created a couple of different pad sounds, both of which involved defining a loop region in the main waveform display (enabling Snap To Zero Crossings and adding a crossfade in/out to the loop region help with creating a smooth looping experience). For the first of these pads, I used a simple curved shape to add a very gentle filter sweep that created a subtle tonal shift as the sound sustained. However, for the second pad, I used the shaper‑based tools to create a custom Amp modulation (the main screenshot shows a similar custom modulation curve). When played, this creates a rhythmic effect that’s automatically sync’ed to tempo. And, with a further custom modulation curve added to the Filter, I was able to add a tonal element.
The various curve shape options were also useful in creating some ear candy elements. For example, for a bass ‘hit and drop’, I duplicated my bass Sampler Track and, as well as making tweaks to the filter settings, I added a short pitch modulation curve that smoothly dropped the pitch by an octave. By using the beat divisions in the display, you can adjust the curve shape as you draw it, so its length locks in sync with the project tempo. Similar curves in the Amp and Filter modulation panels can help emphasise the effect created.
I created a number of different risers. Obviously, the initial element required for this is a volume rise that lasts the required time. Again, the beat grid in the modulation panels lets you draw a suitable curve to exactly the length that’s required, and I created one‑beat, two‑bar and four‑bar versions using this approach. The rise effect can then be enhanced by using a similar modulation curve for the filter, and I used a band‑pass filter this time, to sweep upwards as the riser was playing. In a second version of the four‑bar riser, I added a further element by superimposing a small amount of LFO based modulation (based upon a pulse waveform set to 16ths) on top of the shaper‑based curve to give the riser an additional rhythmic pulse effect.
Lock Then Load
To keep this workshop easy to follow, I confined my experiments to a single source sample — this is a great way to learn what’s possible too! — but in the real world you can use a selection of contrasting source samples to give you a broader range of tonal properties to play with. Also, note that if your modulation curve designs result in something you like, but you’d still like to experiment further, you can try using the same settings with a different underlying sample to produce a variation. To do this, just create a duplicate of your Sampler Track and enable the Lock button (the padlock icon) on the main Sampler Control toolbar strip for the duplicate. You can then load (or drag and drop) an alternative sample into the Sampler Control panel. This replaces the original sample in this instance but retains (locks) all the other settings — including your carefully constructed modulation curves!
As mentioned above, you can hear the results of my shaper‑based modulation experiments in the audio examples on the SOS website, both in isolation and in a short sketch. It’s great that Steinberg are continuing to nudge the Sampler Track feature set forward. No, it’s not a fully blown HALion or Kontakt‑style sampler, but it’s quick and easy to get to grips with, full of creative potential, and well worth digging into if you like to design your own sounds.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Cubase 13: Stock Vocal Compressors Compared
What’s your pick for routine vocal compression duties? Vox Comp, Black Valve or Compressor?
Cubase now boasts a number of decent stock compressor plug‑ins: Vox Comp, Black Valve and Compressor. Which should you choose for vocals?
When it comes to modern vocal production, compression is pretty much a ubiquitous part of the processing chain. In most cases, the primary aim will be to manipulate the dynamic range so that, when placed within the final mix, every part/phrase/word of the vocal comes across clearly. Having achieved this, a secondary consideration might be to impart some character or attitude to further enhance the vocal, either tonally, or in terms of finessing the attack or sustain elements of the individual words.
Cubase now offers a number of stock compressors, including two new choices added in v13: Vox Comp (for Pro and Artist users) and Black Valve (Pro only). So how do you decide which of these compressors to use on your vocals? To help you choose, I grabbed a suitable vocal track and put the two ‘new for v13’ offerings up against the long‑standing standard Compressor plug‑in, to see if I could identify the role that each might play in achieving these typical compression aims. You’ll also find, on the SOS website, some audio examples that demonstrate what I’m talking about: https://sosm.ag/cubase-0724.
One Knob Wonder
As can be seen in the main screenshot, Steinberg have taken the keep‑it‑simple approach to Vox Comp’s control set. The documentation suggests that it features a ‘highly adaptive’ algorithm that’s designed for processing vocals. Given that there is a specific option to engage a low‑latency ‘live’ mode, I assume that there’s usually a ‘look‑ahead’ stage of a few milliseconds that lets the plug‑in see what’s coming and adjust the processing to suit.
Once inserted, you simply dial in Vox Comp’s Threshold knob to achieve the required amount of compression (there is no user control over the attack/release or ratio settings; presumably, these are built into that adaptive algorithm). If you need to level‑match the processed signal to the original, you can adjust the Output knob. I’ve not used it here, but you can also use Vox Comp for parallel compression without setting up any routing in Cubase, thanks to the Dry/Wet knob.
As is easily demonstrated by the audio examples that accompany this workshop, the results can be very good indeed. My example vocal features noticeable level differences between the verse and chorus sections, and several words within the verse section that are quieter than some others. Using the settings shown within the first screenshot, Vox Comp’s one‑knob magic does a very good job of levelling out these quite marked differences (the loudness range across the example goes from 13.1 LUFS unprocessed to 7.8 LUFS after processing) while still maintaining a fairly natural sound.
These changes are reflected in the vocal’s waveform, as shown in the second screenshot. Sonically, it’s impressive stuff: a much more even vocal performance is achieved effortlessly, the words and individual syllables can all be heard clearly, and it still sounds fairly natural. If in doubt about your vocal compression choice, then, Vox Comp should be a very good place to start, regardless of your confidence level and/or experience with compressors featuring fuller control sets.
Changes to the vocal waveform as a result of the compression settings shown in the first screenshot. Each panel shows a short example from the same vocal performance — the top and middle panels are from the quieter verse section, while the bottom panel is from a louder chorus section. The top panel compares the unprocessed vocal (pink) with the Vox Comp version (pale blue). The middle panel shows the three different compressors: Vox Comp (blue), Black Valve (pale red) and Compressor (pale green). The bottom panel shows three different configurations for Compressor, using the settings shown in the other screenshot (in pale green), with the same settings but an 8:1 Ratio (in pink), and with slower attack and release settings (in pale blue).
Added Character
Users of Cubase Pro 13, though, have the option of using the Black Valve plug‑in, which emulates a classic tube‑style compressor. There are more knobs here (five, compared with Vox Comp’s three) and it’s not designed solely with vocals in mind, but it still offers ease of use and is certainly useful in this context. The plug‑in emulates two important characteristics found in Black Valve’s hardware inspirations: a relatively slow attack time and the option to add some preamp‑based saturation to the sound.
The Dry/Wet and Output level controls function as they do in Vox Comp and, again, there are no individual attack, release or ratio controls. But as on lots of hardware valve and optical compressors, the Peak Reduction knob acts as a sort of ‘macro’ control, influencing both threshold and ratio parameters, with higher values providing more overall compression. The Drive knob controls the signal level going into the modelled tube preamp and, pushed suitably hard, adds some saturation to the sound. The gain control then provides a post‑preamp gain‑staging option before your signal hits the compressor.
As shown in the screenshot, I set a pretty high Drive level to make the tube saturation sound a little more obvious in the audio examples (it’s particularly noticeable on the harder consonants), but note that if you wanted to exaggerate this further then you could apply a few extra dB of gain prior to the signal reaching the plug‑in — this would drive the tube stage even harder. I didn’t think it was appropriate for this particular vocal part, but the modelled tube does break up in a very pleasing fashion so it’s an option to bear in mind in a different context.
The combination of saturation and compression resulted in a shift from the original 13.1 LUFS to 6.2 LUFS, and the much more even nature of the processed performance is clearly audible. Looking at the resulting waveform display, my Black Valve settings produced a slightly greater increase in the loudness of the quieter sections, but more noteworthy is the slightly higher levels of some note onsets. This is not a surprise given the somewhat slower attack time, and although it’s a small difference, to my ears it results in the starts of words having a slightly stronger emphasis. That might or might not be a desirable result, depending on the captured performance and the musical context, but it’s a useful option to know about. So if you’re looking for a compressor that might impart a little additional character to your sound, while still being very easy to use, Black Comp is a great candidate — I’d certainly check it out before choosing to splash the cash on a new third‑party compressor plug‑in.
Clinical Precision
Cubase’s standard compressor, called simply Compressor, is designed for those occasions on which you want precise control over all the elements of the compression process. It requires a little more user input (and probably experience), but the results are clean and controllable. As shown in the screenshots, for the main example used here I used a combination of a modest (4:1) ratio and fast attack and release times. I then just adjusted the threshold to taste until I felt the vocal was sitting at a more consistent level. Analysis subsequently indicated this resulted is a loudness range of 8.0 LUFS.
As shown in the short waveform, the most obvious feature of the Compressor processed version is that the loudest parts of the vocal are not compressed as much as with Vox Comp and Black Valve. This is most likely because the fixed 4:1 ratio is lower than the adaptive ones of Vox Comp and Black Valve are on average — a little experimentation revealed that an 8:1 ratio in Compressor produced something closer to the results of Vox Comp. Keeping the ratio and threshold fixed and varying Compressor’s attack and release produced exactly the sorts of changes you might expect in the waveform, making it possible to experiment with the balance between note attacks and note sustains with a level of control that’s not really possible with the simplified controls offered by Vox Comp and Black Valve.
Again, to my ears, the results in this example sound very clean. The overall level of compression achieved in this case was in the same ballpark but, of course, the user has much more precise control over how that’s achieved. If you’re more of a control freak, Compressor is a great choice — and note that if you want a less clinical‑sounding result, you could always use something else to add character: you might insert an instance of something like DaTube into your signal chain in front of Compressor, for example.
Is All Choice Good?
For me, the key lesson from this little experiment is that the differences between the three compressed versions of my example vocal are relatively small when compared with the differences between any one of them and the uncompressed version. Some of those differences between the compressed versions are where that secondary aim (discussed earlier) comes into play, whether it’s adding character or wanting more detailed control. If those things are important to you, Cubase clearly has stock plug‑ins that let you explore that.
But if you’re simply focused on that primary aim of getting your vocal broadly in the right dynamic range, then whichever compressor you go with, be it Vox Comp, Black Valve or Compressor, it can deliver the goods and the ‘right’ choice will probably come down to how quickly, or how easily, you can get to that good result. Yes, you can deep dive on your vocal compression if you wish, but you can still achieve impressive results by turning a single knob. How cool is that?
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Monday, August 25, 2025
Cubase 13: Capturing Audio From Virtual Instruments
As shown here for Retrologue, Cubase Pro 13 users can now route the output of a VSTi to the input of an audio track.
New routing options in Cubase Pro 13 make it easy to archive virtual instrument parts in Cubase.
There are a number of pragmatic reasons why you might want to capture the output from the virtual instruments used in your Cubase projects to their own audio tracks. Here are two typical scenarios. First, you might need to move the project to a different computer (for example, to a collaborator or mix engineer) that doesn’t have the same VST instruments available. Second, virtual instruments can fall victim to the upgrade cycles of your DAW or OS, and preserving your virtual instrument parts as audio ensures you can revisit projects (for example, for remixes or edits) in the future.
Depending on which version of Cubase you’re using, there are various ways you can approach this audio capture, including the Render In Place function that’s available to both Pro and Artist users. For Pro users, Cubase 13 has a further option that’s both conceptually and practically very straightforward: you can select the audio output of any virtual instrument as the audio input of a separate audio track.
Find The Source
Let’s start with a simple example: capturing the stereo output of a Retrologue synth to a stereo audio track. Having added an instance of Retrologue and an empty audio track to your project (as shown in the first screenshot), click the input selection option in the Routing section of the audio track’s Inspector panel. This displays a list of the available input sources. Alongside your audio interface’s audio input sources (that you configure in the Routing window), you’ll see the output from any virtual instruments in the project. By the way, you can do this in the MixConsole if you prefer.
As a brief aside, if you record‑enable both the instrument and audio tracks, you can capture both MIDI and audio at the same time. Enabling the Monitor (rather than Record) button on the instrument track, on the other hand, lets you record just the audio as you play the virtual instrument. This might or might not be useful in a real‑life context, but the option is there if you need it!
A couple of additional points are worth noting. First, if your audio track is mono, only mono virtual instrument outputs will be visible in the selection panel; if the audio track is stereo, both mono and stereo virtual instrument outputs will be visible and available for selection. Second, when you record the audio from a virtual instrument using this routing‑based approach, the captured audio will include the result of any active insert effects that are used on the virtual instrument channel (but not any send effects).
Make Mine A Multi
When activated, additional outputs appear in the Rack Instruments section of the input selection dialogue, using the track names assigned to them in the main MixConsole.There are several common situations where a single virtual instrument can generate multiple sounds, and it might be useful to send each one to its own audio track. Virtual drum instruments such as Steinberg’s Groove Agent or Toontrack’s EZdrummer are classic examples, but it’s also true of multitimbral sources such as HALion Sonic, NI’s Kontakt or EastWest’s Opus, or any instrument that might create a composite sound by blending two or more sound layers, where the instrument’s GUI lets you assign those layers to separate outputs.
To send each individual sound or layer to its own audio track, an additional configuration step is required — thankfully, it’s generally very straightforward. In the virtual instrument itself, you need to activate multiple outputs (use the drop‑down menu located top‑right of the standard Cubase plug‑in windows) and then assign each of the sounds/sound layers to a specific output. For your target audio tracks, these new additional instrument output options will show up at the bottom of the input selection panel (the additional inputs beyond the standard stereo output appear in their own sub‑section of Rack Instruments outputs) in both the Inspector and MixConsole.
Here’s a simple example using Groove Agent to illustrate the process, but the same principles will apply for any virtual instrument. As shown in the screenshot, having activated a number of additional outputs in Groove Agent, I gave the channels suitable names in the MixConsole (Kick, Snare, Hi‑hat...). Although those names don’t appear in Groove Agent’s own Mixer page (but do in the Activate Outputs pop‑up dialogue), it’s easy enough in GA to select the appropriate output channel for each of the drum sounds. Then, back in the Project window, I added a suitable number of audio tracks. I named these accordingly, and set the input source for each to the appropriate GA output.
You can activate additional outputs in multitimbral instruments such as Groove Agent, and with a little work in the GA Mixer, each sound can then be routed to its own audio track.
With the audio channels record‑enabled, when GA is triggered the audio for each drum sound is routed to the correct audio track and, when you are ready, can easily be recorded. What’s more, you can record all the record‑enabled tracks in a single pass. When you’re ready to archive your finished project, it’s super‑easy to ‘print’ all your virtual instrument sounds as audio as a single task.
The same principles can be applied to multiple sounds in a single instance of HALion Sonic 7, letting you capture each of HS7’s multitimbral sound elements to their own audio tracks. In HS7, the necessary internal routing is also configured in the instrument’s Mixer page. Things are also quite straightforward in many third‑party multitimbral instruments. For example, in EastWest’s Opus, simply activate additional outputs and you can then assign instruments in Opus’ Instrument Rack or Mix Console pages to these various outputs. Toontrack’s EZdrummer or Superior Drummer are equally easy to configure in their respective mixer pages.
If you want to handle multiple instruments in a single instance of NI’s popular Kontakt sampler, the process is a little more complex. This is purely because Kontakt offers an abundance of internal audio routing options — that necessitates some work in Kontakt’s Outputs panel (and quite possibly a dip into Kontakt’s PDF manual if you’re not familiar with the process!).
The Bus Route
Pro 13’s new routing options also apply to Group channels and FX channels, providing a very straightforward means for stem creation.If you routinely use groups to create buses for instruments in your mixes (drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and so forth), then the new audio routing options in Cubase Pro 13 open up a further option: easy stem generation. Stem generation can be useful in a number of contexts, whether it’s as an alternative form of project archival, to send to a collaborator, or in a music‑to‑picture context, to give a sound mix engineer more flexibility when adding music into the overall balance.
The same principle as outlined above for virtual instruments can also be used to capture audio from Cubase’s Group or FX tracks. For example, via the Routing Input source selection drop‑down for any audio track, you can select the output from any Group or FX Channel. As before, if you then record‑enable such an audio track, it will record the audio output from that Group or FX track. If you configure a suitable stereo audio track for each of the Group tracks (instrument bus) and FX tracks in your project, you can then generate a full set of stems (including effects stems) in a single pass.
Trickle Down Effect?
As mentioned earlier, Cubase offers a number of options for capturing the output of virtual instruments or Group tracks as audio, and the new audio routing possibilities outlined here provide a further method to achieve that. At present, it’s an option that only users of Cubase Pro 13 have available. It will be interesting to see if Steinberg do eventually trickle this possibility down to the Artist or Elements versions. Given just how simple it can be to configure even with most third‑party virtual instruments, I’m sure users of both versions would find the process an attractive prospect.