Thursday, March 26, 2026
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Cubase 13: Convincing String Arrangements
By John Walden
Screen 1: The Iconica Sketch patch and MIDI track layout required for the workflow described here is very straightforward. Based on a simple chord sequence, some ‘before and after’ example MIDI clips are shown on the right.
Get better results from Iconica Sketch’s strings with the Cubase Logical Editor.
Iconica Sketch is an excellent, compact orchestral library (it’s under 5GB) included in the Pro, Artist and Elements versions of Cubase 13. As the name suggests, it’s pretty good for sketching out ideas, but the sounds themselves are capable of much more than this — they come from Steinberg’s full (190GB) and very impressive Iconica. Sketch includes multi‑articulation patches for each major instrument section, but there are no ‘full’ ensemble patches. This is perhaps not such a bad thing, because although ensemble patches can provide instant gratification from a few simple chords, they’re of little use if you’re trying to write something a real orchestral string section might play — to do that, you really need to create separate lines for each string sub‑section.
To turn your simple chords into those individual MIDI lines for Iconica Sketch, Pro and Artist users need to do just a little patch configuration, and then take a quick dip in Cubase’s Logical Editor. Although we’re looking at strings here, the process can easily be adapted for the brass and woodwind sections.
Patch Work
The workflow I propose comprises two main steps, but there’s an optional third one too. For the first step, the basic configuration is shown in Screen 1. This includes arranging the instrument patches in a single instance of HALion Sonic: these run from Violin I on MIDI channel 1 through to Basses on MIDI channel 5. Note that I’ve also edited the keyswitch assignments for the individual patches to span C‑1 to F#‑1. As I’ll explain shortly, this will allow you to include real‑time articulation switching for all the sub‑sections. It’s worth mentioning that all these patches offer the same seven performance articulations. For the shorter articulations, velocity controls dynamics, while for the sustained articulations you use the mod wheel to add crescendo/decrescendo to the performance.
Finally, alongside the Instrument track that’s hosting HALion Sonic, I’ve added five suitably named MIDI tracks to the project. In their individual Inspector panels, I have set all of these to send MIDI data to HALion Sonic, but note that each uses the MIDI channel number required to target the desired instrument patch (channel 1 for Violins I, channel 2 for Violins II, and so on).
Now, select these five MIDI tracks (to record‑arm them all) and play some four‑note chords on a MIDI keyboard, plus any keyswitches needed to switch articulations in your performance. These full chords will get transmitted to all five tracks, and if you engage record when doing this, you’ll end up with five identical MIDI clips. This might initially sound fairly epic — there are a lot of strings, so it makes a big sound — but it’s not really what we want here, because every note in the chord is being played by all five sections. In a real string section, when it comes to basic chordal parts each sub‑section usually tends to play a single note of the chord (unless a sub‑section is playing ‘divisi’ and being divided into further sub‑groups).
Think Logically
So, how do you thin out the five identical MIDI clips such that each one contains one particular note from the full chord and, when combined, the section as a whole plays the full chord, as might be the case with a real string section? You could edit each clip manually, of course, muting or deleting notes from each one to leave each sub‑section playing a single note at a time. But that task gets tedious very quickly, and can interrupt your creative flow. Thankfully, with just a little work in the Logical Editor, you can automate this process pretty easily.
Screen 2: Two examples of Logical Editor presets that allow each string sub‑section to play a single‑note line from a four‑note chord.
Screen 2 shows two examples of the Logical Editor presets required for this. The main part of the screen shows a preset I’ve named Isolate String Basses Celli. There are two filters specified in the Event Target Filters panel, and both act to select/deselect specific notes. Thanks to the Context Variable entry in the second line, the first two lines only select notes within the clip when Note Number in Chord is not zero. Zero represents the lowest note in a chord, so this selects every note within a MIDI chord except the lowest one. Lines 3 and 4 apply a second note‑based filter that selects notes only if their pitch is greater than or equal to C0. This criterion means that any keyswitches used during a performance (all of which lie below C0) will not be selected. There are no entries in the Event Transform Actions panel, but note that it is set to Delete. When these criteria are combined, then, and the Logical Editor preset is executed on one of our MIDI clips (either the Basses clip or the Celli clip) Cubase selects and deletes all notes above C0 that are not the lowest note in the chord and are above C0. In other words, we end up with a clip containing just the lowest note in the chord plus any keyswitches, meaning our bass (or cello) patch will now just play a single line from the full chord.
You’ll need five similar Logical Editor presets in total, one for each sub‑section/part. They all follow a similar pattern, but obviously some tweaks are required. As an example, the second part of Screen 2 shows just the Event Target Filters for my Isolate Strings Violins I preset (the Event Transform Actions panel remains the same). Note that the only difference is that, in this case, the filtering leaves in the fourth highest note within the chord (Parameter 2 is set to 3) as well as the keyswitches.
Make Mine A Macro
Once the five Logical Editor presets have been created, thinning out each MIDI clip simply involves selecting the clip and executing the appropriate preset. If you wish, this can be achieved from a menu: MIDI/Logical Editor/Apply Preset. This pops open a panel with all the Logical Editor presets listed, and it’s very easy to step through the five MIDI clips to do what’s necessary. You can also assign any Logical Editor preset to a key command. But for a faster approach, check out the Macro shown in Screen 3, which can be executed with a single keystroke. Providing you have the MIDI tracks laid out in the way suggested here, selecting the topmost MIDI clip (for the Violins I MIDI track) and executing the Macro will execute the required Logical Editor preset for Violins I, then select the next MIDI clip (thanks to the Navigate – Down command) and repeat the process. In all, it takes less than a second to transform your chord into five MIDI clips, each with the desired single‑note line, and with your keyswitches remaining intact.
Screen 3: If you want to work fast, try chaining the various Logical Editor presets into a Macro that you can execute with a single keystroke.
Make It Real (Time)
To close, let’s consider one question that the above approach raises: why can’t this ‘chord separation’ task be carried out in real time, as you play the MIDI chords? Well, unfortunately, Cubase’s MIDI Input Transformer (the real‑time version of the Logical Editor) doesn’t support the Context Variable option, I suspect because the unpredictable timing of incoming notes makes this sort of processing trickier to perform reliably. I do wonder, though, whether Steinberg might be able to add such capability to the (already excellent) Chord Pads system. Those trigger the whole chord at once, so in theory at least, it would be possible — in fact, it would be a very cool solution to this problem, and could also have applications beyond just orchestral strings. Pretty please, Steinberg?
In the meantime, in case you do a lot of orchestral composing, would like to do this in real time and have some money to throw at the problem, it’s worth drawing your attention to a Mac/Windows app called Divisimate (https://divisimate.com), which you might want to check out. This software sits between your MIDI keyboard and Cubase and, amongst other things, allows you to split out the notes of an incoming live chord onto different MIDI channels.
Of course, whether a part is sustained or played rhythmically, there can be (much!) more to creating a string performance than relying exclusively on block chords. Indeed, for a convincing result, further refinement of the parts may well be required. You might try lowering the basses by an octave, or revoicing the other notes within the chord to create different inversions. Equally, you might edit the Violins I and II lines to let them ‘cross’ in pitch, and create more harmonic interest. Or perhaps you could let the basses, celli, violas and second violins carry the chord and add a melodic top line in the first violins. While it would be great to see a real‑time option for this sort of thing in the Cubase feature set in the future, the Logical Editor approach I’ve described here already gives you a great starting point for creating more detailed string (or brass/woodwind) arrangements in double quick time. And if you’d like to hear what all this can sound like, check out the two audio examples we’ve put on the SOS website (https://sosm.ag/cubase-0424).
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Monday, March 23, 2026
Cubase 13: Using The VocalChain Plug-in
VocalChain: all you need to add polish to your vocals in a single plug‑in.
Cubase’s VocalChain can polish and add character to your vocals in an instant.
For Artist and Pro users, the return of the Vocoder plug‑in (which we explored in the March 2024 column) was not the only significant addition in Cubase 13: Steinberg also added the new VocalChain plug‑in. While this essentially combines the facilities offered by a number of Cubase’s existing plug‑ins, it’s impressive just how quickly it lets you go from raw vocal to a polished mix‑ready sound. So, with a few vocal examples at hand (you can listen on the SOS website: https://sosm.ag/cubase-0524), let’s explore the possibilities.
Go With The Flow
The main screen above shows VocalChain in action. Arranged down the left edge is the full set of processing modules offered, and these are arranged as three sections, Clean, Character and Send. Your audio is processed through these in order to apply ‘corrective’ processing, add character/sonic flavour and then ambience/stereo imaging. Individual modules can be engaged or bypassed as required and, in a section, you can change the order of individual modules (drag a module up/down to reposition it). With a total of 16 modules (you can use them all if you need to), this is quite a toolkit. But because it loads as a single plug‑in and everything’s available in a single window, it’s very easy to navigate.
The GUI provides three different levels of control. In the screenshot, the Overview tab is selected (top‑left, highlighted in yellow), and beneath the spectrum display you then get access to the most significant parameter from each module. However, select the Clean, Character or Send tabs (when selected, these are highlighted in blue, cyan and green, respectively), and the choice of controls changes to focus on the modules in this section, with more control over specific modules. Finally, select an individual module, and the display changes again to provide access to the full control set for that module. It’s a clever bit of design that means you can quickly switch between different levels of editing.
There’s also a set of style/genre‑based presets to get you started, and these should not to be underestimated. OK, so there’s no AI involved here (VocalChain doesn’t listen to your audio and then make some setting suggestions in the way that, say, iZotope’s Nectar might) but they’re well worth exploring and can get you off to a flying start. You just find a preset that provides a suitable starting point and then tweak to taste, using any of the three control levels described above.
Time To Tweak
In terms of that tweaking, a sensible initial task is to use the input and output metering on the right to set your levels. Setting the input level control to get your signal into the green coloured range of the meter is a good start, as it will most likely ensure your signal hits the first active dynamics stage in the preset’s design at an appropriate level. You can then adjust the output level to find the happy place where the vocal sits most comfortably in the mix. It’s also interesting to watch the two meters during playback: with two compression stages, two dynamic filters and two de‑essers available, there can be a serious amount of dynamics management going on, should you need it.
While tweaking, one further feature makes it much easier to evaluate the impact of the changes you are making: the ability to solo each module. In the list of modules, this solo mode can be activated via the small ‘s’ button located to the left of each module’s name. Once activated, all other modules are bypassed (so the overall signal level might also change), but it allows you to more easily focus on what the current module is doing to your vocal’s sound. And, by also using the selected module’s bypass button, you can easily assess the impact the module is having on the unprocessed signal. These auditioning options are particularly useful for the various EQ, dynamics, filter and exciter/saturation modules.
Make It Pop
So, what about the processing itself? As I said, there’s a lot packed in here, but a few highlights can serve as examples — remember to check out the audio examples on the SOS website if you want to hear some of these options in context.
Let’s start with a ‘pop’ vocal example. VocalChain includes a number of suitable presets, such as Perfect Pop Dry Vocal or Shiny Pop Vocal, that can deliver a very crisp and compressed, if (deliberately) not particularly natural starting point. Another common pop production technique is to add some ‘weight’ to a lead vocal by blending in a vocal double an octave below the main sung line, and the Lead Vocal Reinforce preset does just that. While it also provides dynamics and EQ settings that are suitable for modern pop, the ‘weight’ is added using the Pitch module.
As shown in the screenshot, this can be used to apply some automatic pitch correction (either subtle or not so subtle — try the Trap Icon preset), but that’s not being used here. Instead, this preset uses the Detune and Formant controls to pitch‑shift the vocal down by an octave, along with a suitable downward shift of the formants that makes this down‑pitched voice sound a little more natural. Finally, the Mix control has been used to set the blend of the original voice and the ‘octave down’ version. So it’s the same vocal, but with more ‘weight’.
The Pitch module does automatic pitch correction but can also be used to fake a vocal double.
Rock On
Lots of rock or metal singers can achieve aggressive vocal distortion through their singing technique, but this is also something you can enhance or create through processing. Here, the Hot Rock Hot Valve Mic Chain preset does just that. While the Character section’s Exciter module contributes, it’s the Saturator module that does the heavy lifting.
As shown in the screenshot (and can be heard in the audio examples), using the Distortion mode and the Drive control maxed out, this preset doesn’t hold back, but it illustrates what’s possible. It’s also worth noting that the Filter Bank is engaged — this focuses the distortion in the 500Hz‑3.5kHz region. It’s a very useful option and, in this case, it enhances the gritty, lo‑fi nature of the sound. If you want to dial it back a bit, then Tape and Tube modes, and different Drive and Mix settings, make that easy. And, of course, all these controls can be automated in Cubase if you want to add that saturated edge just to specific words or phrases in the performance.
The Delay module also features a Filter Bank, but this feature really shines in the Ducker, where it can help prevent your ambience effects from adding clutter to a busy mix.
Duck Duck Go
The benefit of the Send section is that it avoids the temptation of sending your lead vocal to reverb or delay effects used for more general duties in your project and, instead, you can configure settings specifically for the vocal part. In busy mixes (for example, an uptempo EDM project), too much delay or reverb can easily muddy a mix. However, as the Platinum Female Vocal Chain preset illustrates, VocalChain’s toolset allows you to manage this while still getting epic with your vocal ambience.
The Filter Bank feature in the Saturator module lets you target the specific frequency range for any distortion.As shown for the Delay module in the final screenshot, two particular features are useful. First, as with the Saturator module, both the delay and reverb modules offer a Filter Bank, allowing you to trim out frequencies in the delay repeats (or reverb) so you don’t get excessive low mids (to clog up the mix) or (at the top end) repeats fighting with your hi‑hats. However, it’s the ducker’s Amount and Release controls that are the stars of the show. They allowing you to suppress the level of the delay (or reverb) while the source vocal is present, and then control how quickly that ducking is released (so you hear the delay in all its glory) between the vocal phrases. It’s a classic trick, and VocalChain makes it very easy to pull off.
Join The Chain Gang
There are plenty of very capable third‑party ‘vocal signal chain’ plug‑ins designed to tackle the same task, including some powerful ones that feature AI assistance. But until AI can read our minds, it can’t know exactly what kind of sound we’re trying to create, so there is always going to be project‑specific tweaking to be done. Arguably, VocalChain’s presets can provide just as valuable a starting point as many AI plug‑ins, and because the GUI makes it really easy to adjust every component in a single window, it’s super easy to tweak your vocal sound to suit the mix. Of course, the potential of getting quick results is only one aspect of using VocalChain.
There’s a lot more to explore in the plug‑in, so it’s a topic I’ll probably return to in a future column.
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Friday, March 20, 2026
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.