KORG Sessions ft. Eddie Brown, Yuki "Lin" Hayashi & Yoshiya Matsuura

Cubase 13: Creating Lo-Fi Effects

By John Walden

The full signal chain I used for my lo‑fi processing experiment including Grungelizer, BitCrusher and FX Modulator.

Want to get the lo‑fi vibe using Cubase’s stock plug‑ins? Here’s how.

Whether it’s within the abundant supply of relaxation‑meets‑study music, embedded firmly in some types of hip‑hop, or just blended subtly into a whole range of other popular genres, lo‑fi is very much back in fashion. If you want to take your pristine recordings and add a touch of sonic degradation to create a warm, nostalgic sound there are some very popular third‑party effects plug‑ins tailor‑made for the job. But if you have Cubase, it’s also a style you can achieve using just the stock plug‑ins — with no need for additional expenditure required. So let’s see how Cubase can help you embrace all those perfect imperfections!

Tools Of The Lo‑Fi Trade

Typically, signal‑chains for lo‑fi feature a number of elements. For example, electrical noise or vinyl crackles might be applied. Tape (whether real or emulated) can be used to simulate the pitch modulation caused by varying tape speed or wow, flutter and dropouts. Distortion can be added via real or virtual analogue circuity or tube distortion. Sample degradation through bit‑depth or sample‑rate reduction can be used to ‘downgrade’ the sound. Pitch modulation or resonator components are often added to reverb or delay effects. And, finally, the bandwidth of the sound can be restricted using filters.

As with any effects chain, changing the order of the effects in the chain can lead you to different results, and you can use as few or as many of these options simultaneously as you wish, and adjust the wet/dry balance of individual effects or the whole chain to taste.

Stock Options

Given the typical processing options described above, the first screenshot shows some obvious candidates from Cubase’s bundled plug‑in collection that might fulfil each role. To give you a better idea of the kinds of effect this example signal chain can deliver, I’ve created some audio examples that you can find on the SOS website (https://sosm.ag/cubase-1124). These are based around two particularly common targets for lo‑fi processing: a piano part and a drum loop.

So, what have I got in my example effects chain and why? For ‘turntable noise’, Grungelizer is definitely the plug‑in for the task. It lets you add noise, crackle (with a turntable speed switch) and distortion effects as well as an element of mains hum. For this workshop’s experiments, I started with the suitably named LoFi 1 preset and dialled in to taste from there. Really, the only thing to note is that the noise elements added by Grungelizer are ‘always on’, whether or not the instrument it’s applied to is playing. Now you might want the sound all through your track, but often you won’t, particularly if you’re processing multiple parts in this way, where the effect will ‘stack’ unhelpfully. Here, I’ve added an (optional) instance of the standard gate plug‑in immediately after Grungelizer and set its threshold so that it mutes the noise from Grungelizer when there’s no instrument signal playing.

For a tape‑style detuning effect (caused when the tape’s playback speed varies, resulting in variations in pitch), I’ve used the FX Modulator plug‑in. This includes a preset called Old Tape Record, and I used this as my starting point. I then focused on just the Pitch module (I removed the Reverb, Chorus and Filter modules). The result is a long, slow, gentle modulation curve that’s applied to the pitch of the incoming audio. I tweaked the default curve to make the effect a little more obvious in the audio examples, but you can push things much harder and fully customise the modulation curve to suit your needs. Cubase Elements users could replace FX Modulator with one or more of the modulation‑style plug‑ins such as Chorus or Flanger: add a little parameter automation and you can recreate much the same sorts of gradual pitch‑drift.

I used a single band of Quadrafuzz to add some tube distortion to my lo‑fi processing, but there are other distortion options within the Cubase plug‑in collection that could serve a similar role.

For distortion duties, there are lots of options but I chose Quadrafuzz. I added a single band of tube‑based distortion in the 1‑5 kHz frequency range and boosted the output gain a few dB to make it more obvious. On its own, this gave a somewhat crunchy, crisp, and bandwidth‑limited flavour, but you can then use Quadrafuzz’s built‑in mix control to dial in the effect to taste. Elements users could easily substitute in DaTube, or either the Tape or Tube Saturation modules of the MixConsole’s Channel Strip to achieve an effect that’s in the same ballpark.

BitCrusher is the obvious choice for downgrading your sounds. Again, there’s a preset called LoFi that provides a good starting point, but the plug‑in’s Depth control makes it easy to dial in whatever degree of bit reduction your ears are comfortable with. The Sample Divider and Mode buttons provide plenty more variation, while the Mix knob can again be used to blend the wet/dry balance to taste.

By this stage, you may well have all the options you need to downgrade your sounds to pleasingly lo‑fi status but, just for good measure, I finished off my example effects chain with instances of ModMachine and RoomWorks (choosing the Rhodes Beneath The Waves and FX LoFiverb presets, respectively). The former works well on my drum loop, adding a subtle movement, but you can raise the Mix value to increase the amount of ‘seasickness’ it induces. The latter works better with the piano part, injecting an additional element of lo‑fi to the ambience. Again, you could easily substitute alternative plug‑ins for either task or both, but these options are built into Cubase.

It makes better sense to have the whole signal chain sitting on an FX Channel.

Insert Or Send?

The whole chain can be set up using the insert slots on the relevant instrument’s track, of course, but you may well want easier control over how much of this lo‑fi processing you hear versus the dry sound, and in that case it makes better sense to have the whole signal chain sitting on an FX Channel that’s fed by a send from the instrument track. That’s the approach I adopted here, and I chose to make the send pre‑fader. That way, you can set‑and‑forget the actual send level, and simply use the instrument’s track fader (unprocessed signal) and FX Channel fader (processed signal) to set the desired blend of clean and lo‑fi.

As shown in the screenshot, I also used the High‑Cut and Low‑Cut filters in the FX Channel’s Pre section to bandwidth‑limit the lo‑fi processed element between 250Hz and 5000Hz, for an even less hi‑fi sound. Again, I’ve provided audio examples to illustrate the possibilities.

On, Off, Wet, Dry, Up & Down!

With the initial plug‑in selection and settings sorted, it’s then a case of dialling in exactly what combination of these effects you wish to use in any particular case. The options are pretty much endless: turn individual plug‑ins on/off via their bypass buttons; finesse the unprocessed to processed balance further using the wet/dry mix controls found in many of these plug‑ins; or drag individual plug‑ins up or down in the FX Channel’s insert slots to change the order in which they process the sound. The choice is yours, but I’ve included another audio example to illustrate some of the possibilities with the same drum and piano examples.

Free Lo‑Fi Plug‑ins

Hopefully you can see, then, that Cubase’s bundled plug‑in collection can do a decent job of pushing your sounds into lo‑fi territory, but that’s not to say we couldn’t identify a couple of areas that aren’t quite so well catered for. And if you’re not ready to stump up for one of the dedicated third‑party lo‑fi effects processors such as XLN Audio’s RC‑20 Retro Color (probably the most well‑known), you can still usefully supplement Cubase’s plug‑ins with some rather good freebies.

For example, for those turntable‑style noises, iZotope’s free‑to‑download Vinyl plug‑in is an excellent alternative to Grungelizer. It includes emulated turntable noise based on different decades (with more sonic compromises the further you travel back in time) and speed settings, as well as a whole range of noise types that you can sprinkle across your audio to give it a more lo‑fi retro sound.

If you feel the need to expand your lo‑fi processing options, there are some excellent third‑party free‑to‑download options including iZotope’s Vinyl and Caelum Audio’s Tape Cassette 2.

Another personal favourite is Caelum Audio’s Tape Cassette 2, which is also a free download. As the name suggests, it emulates the distinctive sound of cassette tape (anyone under 25 might need to ask their parents about this), including tape saturation, noise, and the wow and flutter created by variations in the tape speed on playback. For a degraded tape sound, this perhaps does a more convincing job than just adding pitch modulation using FX Modulator, Chorus or Flanger, but a combination of both can also be very effective.

Again, I’ve included some audio examples to make a comparison between the stock plug‑in approach and what additional lo‑fi character these third‑party options can deliver. Oh, and while we are on the subject of ‘free’, don’t forget Steinberg’s own and rather excellent free‑to‑download Lo‑Fi Piano expansion for HALion/HALion Sonic. This is a cool piano library in its own right, but there are also a number of lo‑fi effects options within it. 

Published November 2024

Meet the KORG Handytraxx Play - Portable Record Player

Cubase 13: The VST Plug‑in Manager

By John Walden

The VST Plug‑in Manager, with its multi‑panel layout, lets you create custom collections of both VST Effects and VST Instruments to streamline your workflow within Cubase.

Organise your plug‑in folder with VST Plug‑in Manager.

With so many bundles, demos and tempting offers around, many of us probably have more plug‑ins than is really manageable when we go to choose one in the middle of a busy mixing session; it’s all too easy to get lost among the possibilities. Thankfully, though, Cubase makes it easy to get your plug‑in folder under control, thanks to its VST Plug‑in Manager. It offers plenty of options to customise which plug‑ins are visible and how they’re arranged when you open a plug‑in selection panel, and a little time spent here can repay itself many times over when your projects are in full swing.

Call The Manager

When you first launch it, Cubase scans your computer and creates two default plug‑in lists (Steinberg call these lists ‘collections’): one for VST Effects and another for VST Instruments. It also does a quick scan every time it is subsequently launched, so it can detect any new plug‑ins you’ve installed. By default, these collections are what’s shown to you whenever you go to select a plug‑in effect or instrument.

The Studio menu (or a key command) access the VST Plug‑in Manager, in which you can view the contents of these two default collections. In its left window, you can view three different categories of plug‑in that, between them, should include all of the plug‑ins that are installed. These are: VST Effects, VST Instruments and the Blocklist. The latter, which may well be empty, is simply a list of plug‑ins that Cubase has scanned, but thinks might have compatibility issues — if you can’t find one you’ve installed it’s worth checking here; you can force a plug‑in off the Blocklist if you are feeling brave, but I’d probably test that in a fresh project just in case! If you select an individual plug‑in in any of these three panels, the bottom‑left panel shows further useful information about it, including where on your machine it is installed.

The panel on the right shows the plug‑ins in the current ‘collection’, depending upon which tab (VST Effects or VST Instruments) is selected in the left‑side panel. These will, at first, be the Default collections (this name appears in the tab at the top of the panel). But you can move, remove, or add plug‑ins to the current collection within this panel, including reordering (almost) any folder structure. For the default collections, via the top‑right drop‑down menu, you can choose to show the plug‑ins organised by Category (eg. EQ, Dynamics etc.) or Vendor; this choice is reflected in how the plug‑ins are shown when you’re making selections in your Cubase project.

You can compile a ‘favourites’ list — a compact selection of your current ‘go‑to’ plug‑ins that make it easy to find the right effect or instrument.

List Of Lists

The VST Plug‑in Manger also lets you create your own custom collections, and there are a number of reasons why these might prove advantageous compared with the catch‑all ‘default’ list. For example, you can compile a ‘favourites’ list — a compact selection of your current go‑to plug‑ins that make it easy to find the right effect or instrument — or to hide expired demos, duplicate versions of plug‑ins or any plug‑ins installed within a bundle to which you don’t actually have a licence.

The drop‑down menu located top right lets you create new plug‑in collections and instantly switch between any of the existing collections.

Alternatively, it could be useful to create collections with only the plug‑ins available to any collaborators you work with — a collection containing only Cubase Elements’ stock plug‑ins, for example, the more comprehensive Cubase Pro options, or a specific third‑party developer’s bundle. Another possibility is more streamlined collections designed for specific tasks, such as composing, tracking, mixing or mastering. In each case, you can customise what’s visible so that you don’t get bogged down with certain plug‑ins or plug‑in formats that you don’t currently use or need to see (for example, mono versions, VST2 versions or older trial plug‑ins).

Two points are worth emphasising. First, adding or removing a plug‑in from a particular collection doesn’t change its actual installation status on your computer, just its visibility in Cubase’s various plug‑in selection panels. Second, whether in the default collections or new custom collections, your VST Effects and VST Instruments form separate lists.

New From Old

Creating a new collection is easy. Select the VST Effects or VST Instruments tab in the VST Plug‑in Manager window, then simply choose one of the New Collection options from the drop‑down menu located top‑right. Any of the three options (Empty, Add All Plug‑ins or Copy Current Collection) can be used, but if you’re currently using the Default collection, the last one is probably the most sensible choice, as it may take less time to move or remove plug‑ins from an existing collection than to start from scratch. Collections can be named, edited or deleted, and allow you to create custom folder structures that can be populated with your chosen plug‑ins.

Let’s imagine we’re creating a ‘favourites’ VST effects collection. First, create a New Collection from the menu using the Copy Current Collection option. This will prompt us to give our collection a suitable title (you can change it later). Once done, the new collection will become the active collection; its name will appear at the top of the VST Plug‑in Manager’s right‑hand panel and the plug‑ins within it will be what we see if, for example, we try to add a plug‑in by clicking on a channel’s insert slot.

With its custom folder structure and just a few ‘go‑to’ plug‑ins within each category, a ‘favourites’ VST Effects plug‑in collection lets you quickly pick what you need and get on with your mix.By default, our new ‘favourites’ VST Effects collection will contain folders based on Vendor. I prefer to organise my go‑to plug‑in options by type, though, so a useful second step is simply to create a new folder (just click on the New Folder button located top right), name this folder ‘Vendors’, and drag and drop all the individual Vendor folders into this one. This folder will serve as a useful catch‑all category in any collection; while it hides them in a subfolder, if your current ‘favourite’ selections don’t offer you quite what you need for a specific task then you can still easily seek something out here.

At the top level of this folder structure, alongside the Vendors folder, you can now use the New Folder button as many times as required to create your own custom list of categories. For example, in my own VST Effects ‘favourites’ collection for mixing duties, I’ve got folders such as EQ, compression, limiting, saturation, amp modelling, pitch‑correction, creative, vocals, drums, bass, reverb, delay and tools.

Finally, you can find those favourite plug‑in choices and then drag and drop them into their appropriate place in the new custom folder structure. This drag and drop can be done in two ways. First, you can drag them from the catch‑all folder you created (the Vendors folder in our example) or, second, if you want a particular plug‑in to appear in multiple folders (for example, a channel strip plug‑in might appear in a dedicated channel strip folder and also within an EQ folder), then you can simply find it within the main left‑side panel and drag and drop it from there as many times as needed.

In my case, my selection of VST Effects favourites might only consist of three or four go‑to plug‑ins in each category. When subsequently adding plug‑ins to my project, this makes finding those go‑to choices in the plug‑in selection panels much faster. Creating a favourites collection for VST Instruments can be done in exactly the same fashion. And, of course, you can easily edit/update any collection as your tastes change or new plug‑ins replace older favourites.

Switch & Find

Custom plug‑in collections exist globally on your host system so, once created, they can be accessed in any Cubase project. A further neat element of these custom plug‑in collections is that you can quickly switch between them: just visit the VST Plug‑in Manager, select either the VST Effects or VST Instruments tab, drop down the menu from the top left and you can then choose the required collection. The change is applied instantly so, next time you go to select a new plug‑in instance within your current project, you will see your plug‑in choices as organised in the currently selected collection.

Finally, note that changing the collection doesn’t influence any plug‑ins already inserted into your project — a plug‑in that isn’t included in the current collection won’t suddenly disappear from your project; you simply won’t be able to ‘see’ it in the plug‑in selector panel to insert a new instance.

Pick & Mix

As soon as your plug‑in collection starts to expand beyond the stock Cubase offerings, the workflow advantages of creating custom collections via the VST Plug‑in Manager is an absolute no‑brainer. So don’t let your plug‑in addiction slow you down!

 

Published December 2024

Kronos First Look Featuring: Jordan Rudess

Cubase 14: Clean Guitar Tones With VST Amp Rack

By John Walden

VST Amp Rack can get you a nice clean(ish) Fender sound but, unfortunately, matching SRV’s playing style is entirely up to you!

Some software amp sims can struggle with clean guitar tones — is Cubase’s stock VST Amp Rack up to the challenge?

The plug‑in marketplace is awash with more guitar‑rig simulations than I care to count, but might you already have what you need in your DAW? Cubase’s stock VST Amp Rack (included in Cubase Pro, Artist and Elements) is not only easy to use, but also very capable. To demonstrate this, I thought it would be fun to try and create something inspired by a couple of classic clean (well, clean‑ish) guitar tones. So, with a few suitable audio examples to accompany us along the way (available on the SOS website: https://sosm.ag/cubase-0225), let’s get started.

Jimi Meets Stevie Meets John

Inspired by Jimi Hendrix (think ‘Little Wing’), and a source of inspiration for countless others not least John Mayer, it doesn’t get any more classic than the glassy cleans of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Lenny’. In a hardware world, the most obvious choice would be a Strat‑style guitar into a Fender amp — unless you have a superstar budget, in which case perhaps a Dumble amp. In practice, though, plenty of combinations can work, and the key element is finding the sweet spot for the amp’s input gain. This needs to be set just high enough that the dynamics of the playing can control: the sound is super‑clean when played softly, but becomes lightly overdriven when the playing is harder, as the valves start to generate more harmonics.

So, let’s assume you have a suitable guitar that’s equipped with single‑coil pickups. Can VST Amp Rack get us in the right ballpark? It certainly offers a number of Fender‑inspired amp models. The other obvious element of SRV’s ‘Lenny’ sound is a healthy dollop of a fairly expansive reverb (more ‘hall’ than ‘spring’?), and again the plug‑in ought to have us covered here.

The first screenshot (above) is a composite created from VST Amp Rack’s virtual amps, mics and post‑effects tabs, and shows the key settings I used to capture the essence of the overall sound. I picked the Tweed amp model and its associated cab, and to my ears it does the Fender clean sound very well, but it would also be well worth you experimenting with the Blackface or Deluxe models.

Note that your mileage may vary depending upon the output of the pickups on your guitar, just how hard you play, and your gain staging. At first, I found that I had to crank pretty much every control on the amp to get the Tweed model to start to overdrive when I played more forcefully! Of course, in the virtual world, you can easily fine‑tune the input gain of your DI signal: you can use your audio interface’s instrument preamp gain to drive the amp model harder, or to back things off a little. You could also look to the gain at different stages inside the plug‑in. For instance, you can put the Overdrive pedal into the Pre‑Effects section, set with a low gain, and then set the Level control so that it provides a ‘clean boost’ that drives the amp that little bit harder. However you achieve it, finding that ‘just about to go into overdrive’ tone is based on getting the right balance between the input signal level, the amp’s gain/volume controls, and how hard you play. So do be prepared to experiment.

The cabinet and microphone choices are perhaps secondary elements to the overall sound in this case. I simply went with a position nearer the speaker edge and backed away from the speaker slightly, as I felt this let the sound ‘breathe’ in a more natural way than when positioned right up against the cone centre.

Finally, to emulate the other key element of the tone, I added both delay and reverb effects in VST Amp Rack’s Post‑Effects section. The delay is not actually doing a great deal here: with a short delay time setting, low feedback and low mix settings, it’s just there to give the faintest of slapback‑style effects. In contrast, the reverb’s Type and Mix controls have been adjusted to add a very healthy dollop of ambience to the sound. The Type control lets you move between Studio, Plate, Room and Hall (which was my choice here), while the Mix control allows you blend in less/more of the reverb effect, as required. I constrained myself to creating the complete tone inside VST Amp Rack, but you could, of course, add the reverb as a send effect using one of Cubase’s various studio‑style reverb plug‑ins if you wanted further options.

The audio examples that accompany this workshop step through each of the stages involved in creating this tone, and explore how changing the input gain influences the clean/overdriven balance. Obviously, I’m no Steve Ray Vaughan, and the result is not identical to the iconic original, but it does capture the essential characteristics of the sound in a way that lets you explore that mood and playing style. Incidentally, for comparison, I also provided three more examples of the same tone that I recreated using well‑known third‑party virtual guitar rigs. They do all have their own character but, importantly, the version captured through VST Amp Rack is not shamed by the comparison. For a stock plug‑in, that’s really impressive.

On The Edge

For my second example, I chased a sound with the overall character of U2’s The Edge, as heard on their classic track ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. This is also a clean(ish) tone that results from a Strat‑style guitar being plugged into a finely balanced (in terms of the input gain) tube amp. However, The Edge is all about sound design and, in this case, the ‘iconic’ element is delivered as much by his use of effects as it is the guitar/amp combination.

Getting close to The Edge with dual delays in the VST Amp Rack’s Post‑Effects section.

The second screenshot shows the settings I ended up with. At this time, The Edge was noted for his use of Vox amps, so I’ve picked the British Custom model (and matching speaker cabinet) in VST Amp Rack. Again, I’ve dialled in the gain and master volume controls so that the amp is pretty clean when the guitar is played more softly (for example, arpeggiated chords) but starts to break up when played more aggressively (strummed chords). There is perhaps more obvious contrast here between the ‘clean’ versus ‘overdriven’ elements of the sound, and maybe that’s a characteristic of the amp choice. Again, experimentation is required to find a sweet spot where the dynamics of the sound feel right with your guitar choice and playing style.

In the Pre‑Effects section, a Compressor has been added to provide a little additional ‘always on’ sustain to the sound, while an Overdrive pedal is available as an optional extra. The settings are designed just to add a little extra push to the overdriven element of the sound as and when required, rather than pushing things into full‑on distortion.

It’s in the Post‑Effects section that the magic happens, though. A Reverb has been included but this is set to add only a very modest amount of studio‑style reverb. The key element of the sound is achieved through the use of two delays, each with a different delay time. VST Amp Rack’s effects selection includes three different delay options, and in this case I combined the Tape Delay (which has a nice analogue‑style sound) and Delay (a bit more clinical) pedals in the Post‑Effects section.

In terms of the feedback and mix settings for both delays, I aimed for about three repeats before the signal fades away — the best way to set this by ear is simply to isolate each delay in turn as you tweak the controls. The fun part is then setting the delay times for each pedal using their respective Delay (time) controls. I used Beats mode (engage the red LED next to the Delay knob) so that the delay times sync to time divisions based on Cubase’s tempo. In this case, I set the Tape Delay to quarter‑note repeats and the Delay time to dotted eighth notes.

It’s a classic combination: whether you play an arpeggiated chord/note pattern, or a very simple rhythmic strummed part, the result sounds almost instantly Edge‑like. Incidentally, it would have been nice to have these delays panned left and right, but although VST Amp Rack does support dual amp signal chains (check out the Configuration page), the signal is summed again before reaching the Post‑Effects section! If that bothers you, you could always use delays outside of VST Amp Rack — Cubase has plenty to choose from. Finally, with plenty of ‘space’ added by these effects, I didn’t feel the need for additional ‘room’ from the microphone position, so I simply placed the virtual mic right against the cone edge.

VST Amp Rack stood its ground very well when compared with some popular third‑party amp emulations.

I’ve provided a similar set of audio examples that step through the development of the VST Amp Rack configuration. It’s a super‑cool sound, but it’s also one that requires you to play ‘with’ the effects, by which I mean that if you overplay the part then the dual delays can soon get a bit messy. Again, I found that VST Amp Rack stood its ground very well when compared with some popular third‑party amp emulations.

No Pain, No Gain

As these examples hopefully demonstrate, Cubase’s humble VST Amp Rack is perfectly capable of generating some very usable clean(ish) guitar tones, and it can do so with the minimum of fuss too. So, that’s the box ticked for clean tones. What of the higher gain options, I hear you ask? Well, that’s a topic I might well return to another day. Until then, may all your cleans be sparkly, courtesy of VST Amp Rack! 

Published February 2025

Introducing the Handytraxx Tube: A New ‘Spin’ on Analog