User manual

36
VST Connections
External instruments/effects (Cubase only)
When you select the external instrument in the VST Instruments window, the following
happens:
- A parameter window for the external device opens automatically. This may either
be the Device window, allowing you to create a generic device panel, an OPT
editor window or a default editor. For information about the Device window, the
MIDI Device Manager and User device panels, see the chapter
“Using MIDI
devices” on page 460.
The external instrument will behave like any other VST instrument in Cubase.
About the Favorites buttons
In the VST Connections window, both the External FX tab and the External
Instruments tab feature a Favorites button.
Favorites are device configurations that you can recall at any time, like a library of
external devices that are not constantly connected to your computer. They also allow
you to save different configurations for the same device, e.
g. a multi-effect board or an
effect that provides both a mono and a stereo mode.
To save a device configuration as a favorite, proceed as follows:
• When you have added a new device in the VST Connections window, select it in
the Bus Name column and click the Favorites button.
A context menu is displayed showing an option to add the selected effect or
instrument to the Favorites.
• You can recall the stored configuration at any time by clicking the Favorites button
and selecting the device name from the context menu.
About the “plug-in could not be found” message
When you open a project that uses an external effect/instrument, you may get a “plug-
in could not be found” message. This will happen when you remove an external device
from the VST Connections window although it is used in a saved project, or when
transferring a project to another computer on which the external device is not defined.
You may also see this message when opening a project created with an earlier version
of Cubase.
In the VST Connections window, the broken connection to the external device is
indicated by an icon in the Bus Name column.
To reestablish the broken connection to the external device, simply right-click the entry
for the device in the Bus Name column and select “Connect External Effect”. The icon
is removed, and you can use the external device within your project as before.
!
To send MIDI notes to the external instrument, open the Output Routing pop-up menu
in the Inspector for the corresponding MIDI track and select the MIDI device to which
the external instrument is connected. This ensures use of delay compensation. The
instrument will now play any MIDI notes it receives from this track and return them to
Cubase through the return channel(s) you have set up.
!
Note that busses set up for external effects or external instruments are saved
“globally”, i.
e. for your particular computer setup.