Steinberg Cubase 4.0 Instruction Manual

MIDI Devices

Revision and Quality Control: Cristina Bachmann, Marion Bröer, Heiko Bischoff, Sabine Pfeifer

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

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Release Date: October 19, 2007

Table of Contents

5 MIDI devices

6 Background 6 MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 14 About Device panels (Cubase only) 14 Overview (Cubase only) 17 The main edit windows (Cubase only) 20 Operations in the Edit Panel window (Cubase only) 23 Building a control panel – a tutorial (Cubase only) 29 Advanced Panel handling 33 Building panels for VST Instruments 34 Exporting and importing device setups

(Cubase only)

34 SysEx messages (Cubase only) 39 Defining a SysEx device – a tutorial (Cubase only) 44 Important files 47 About Studio Connections (Cubase only)

49 Index

Table of Contents

MIDI devices

Background

The MIDI Device Manager allows you to specify and set up your MIDI devices, making global control and patch selec-

banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instruments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank field (Bank Selector) in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the Program field to select a program in this bank.

tion easy.

But the MIDI Device Manager also features powerful editing functions that can be used to create MIDI device panels (Cubase only). MIDI device panels are internal representations of external MIDI hardware, complete with graphics. The MIDI device panel editor provides all the tools you need to create device maps where every parameter of an external device (and even an internal device like a VST instrument) can be controlled and automated from inside Cubase.

For descriptions of how to create device maps and the powerful device panel editing features, see “About Device

panels (Cubase only)” on page 14. For additional informa-

tion on how to create panels for VST instruments, see

“Building panels for VST Instruments” on page 33.

Unfortunately, different instrument manufacturers use different schemes for how Bank Select messages should be constructed, which can lead to some confusion and make it hard to select the correct sound. Also, selecting patches by numbers this way seems unnecessarily cumbersome, when most instruments use names for their patches nowadays.

To help with this, you can use the MIDI Device Manager to specify which MIDI instruments you have connected by selecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specifying

MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling

On the following pages, we will describe how to install and set up preset MIDI devices, and how to select patches by name from within Cubase. This section also describes how to create a MIDI device from scratch.

the details yourself. Once you have specified which MIDI devices you’re using, you can select to which particular device each MIDI track should be routed. It is then possible to select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.

Opening the MIDI Device Manager

Select MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu to bring up the following window:

About program change and bank select

To instruct a MIDI instrument to select a certain patch (sound), you send a MIDI Program Change message to the instrument. Program Change messages can be recorded or entered in a MIDI part like other events, but you

Cubase:

This is the list of MIDI devices you have connected. The first time you open the MIDI Device Manager, this list will be empty.

can also enter a value in the Program (prg) field in the Inspector for a MIDI track. This way, you can quickly set each MIDI track to play a different sound.

With Program Change messages, you are able to select between 128 different patches in your MIDI device. However, many MIDI instruments contain a larger number of patch locations. To make these available from within Cubase, you need to use Bank Select messages, a system in which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into

Here you specify to which MIDI output the selected device is connected.

This button opens a selected device.

These buttons let you manage the list of installed devices.

These buttons are used to import/export XML Device setups.

This button allows you to import Mixmaps.

MIDI devices

Cubase Studio:

This is the list of MIDI devices you have connected. The first time you open the MIDI Device Manager, this list will be empty.

This pop-up menu lets you edit the selected device (provided that “Enable Edit” is ticked).

These buttons let you manage the list of installed devices.

Here you specify to which MIDI output the selected device is connected.

This area shows exactly which MIDI messages should be sent out to select the patch highlighted in the list to the left.

Here, the patch structure is shown for the device selected above.

When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first time, it will be empty (because you haven’t installed any devices yet). On the following pages we describe how to add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit the settings and how to define a device from scratch.

Installing a MIDI device

To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows:

1. Click the Install Device button.

A dialog appears listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we assume that your MIDI device is included in this list.

2. Locate and select the device in the list and click OK.

• If your MIDI device isn’t included in the list but is com-

patible with the GM (General MIDI) or XG standards, you can select the generic GM or XG Device options at the top of the list.

When you select one of these options, a name dialog will appear. Enter a name for the instrument and click OK.

Now the device appears in the Installed Devices list to the left.

3. Make sure that the new device is selected in the list and pull down the Output pop-up menu.

4. Select the MIDI output that is connected to the device.

5. If you are using Cubase, click the Open Device Panels

button.

Now a separate window opens for the selected device, showing a node structure in the left half of the window. At the top of this structure is the device itself, and below it the MIDI channels used by the device. For more information about the Device window, see “The main edit windows

(Cubase only)” on page 17.

6. Select Patch Banks from the pop-up at the top of the window.

Ö Note that there is an important difference between installing a preset MIDI device (“Install Device”) and importing a MIDI device setup (“Import Setup”):

• The presets do not include any device mapping of parameters and controls and no graphic panels.

They are simply patch name scripts. When you install a preset MIDI device, it is added to the Installed Devices list. For more information about patch name scripts, see “Patch name script text files” on page 46.

• A device setup can include device mapping, panels and/or patch information.

Device setups are also added to the list of installed devices when imported. For more information about setups and device panels, see

“About Device panels (Cubase only)” on page 14.

MIDI devices

The Patch Banks list in the left half of the window shows the patch structure of the device. This could simply be a list of patches, but it’s usually one or several layers of banks or groups containing the patches (much like a folder structure on a hard disk for example).

• You can rename a device in the Installed Devices list by double-clicking and typing – this is useful if you have several devices of the same model, and want to separate them by name instead of by number.

• To remove a device from the Installed Devices list, select it and click Remove Device. The device will be deleted immediately.

Ö Note that if there already exists a panel for the device, opening the device might open this panel first. In this case, click on the Edit (“e”) button to open the Device window.

About Patch Banks

Depending on the selected device, you may find that the Patch Banks list is divided in two or more main banks. Typically, these are called Patches, Performances, Drums etc. The reason for having several patch banks is that different “types” of patches are handled differently in the instruments. For example, while “patches” typically are “regular” programs that you play one at the time, “performances” may be combinations of patches, which could e.g. be split across the keyboard, layered or used for multitimbral playback.

For devices with several banks, you will find an additional item labeled “Bank Assignment” in the pop-up at the top of the window. Selecting this opens a window in which you can specify for each MIDI channel which bank it should use.

The selection here will affect which bank is displayed when you select programs by name for the device in the track list or Inspector. For example, many instruments use MIDI channel 10 as an exclusive drum channel, in which case you would want to select the “Drums” (or “Rhythm Set”, “Percussion”, etc.) bank for channel 10 in this list. This would then let you select between different drum kits in the track list or Inspector.

Limitations

There is no easy way to import a patch name script into an existing MIDI device. For a complex workaround based on XML editing, see “Editing the device setup XML files di-

rectly” on page 45.

MIDI devices

Selecting a patch for an installed device

If you return to the Project window at this point, you will find that the installed device has been added to the MIDI Output menus (in the track list and the Inspector). Now you can select patches by name, in the following way:

1. Pull down the Output menu (in the track list or Inspector) for a track that you want to play the installed device, and select the device.

This directs the track to the MIDI output specified for the device in the MIDI Device Manager. The bank and program fields in the track list and Inspector are replaced by a single Programs field that currently reads “Off”.

2. Click the Programs field to display a pop-up menu, hierarchically listing all the patches in the device.

The list is similar to the one displayed in the MIDI Device Manager. You can scroll the list up and down (if required), click the plus/minus signs to show or hide subgroups, etc.

Renaming patches in a device

The pre-configured devices list is based on the factorypreset patches, i.e. the patches included in the device when you first bought it. If you have replaced some of the factory presets with your own patches, you need to modify the device so that the patch name list matches the actual device:

1. In the MIDI Device Manager, select the device in the Installed Devices list.

2. If you are using Cubase, click Open Device.

Make sure that Patch Banks is selected on the pop-up at the top of the window.

3. Activate the Enable Edit checkbox.

When this is turned off (default), you cannot edit the pre-configured devices.

4. Use the Patch Banks display to locate and select the patch you want to rename.

In many instruments, the user-editable patches are located in a separate group or bank.

5. Click on the selected patch in the Patch Banks list to edit its name.

6. Type in the new name and click OK.

7. Rename the desired patches in this way, and finish by

deactivating Enable Edit again (to avoid modifying the device by accident).

You can also use a filter function here. For this, enter the search term in the Filter field, e.g. “drum”, and press [Return] to display all sounds with “drum” in the name.

3. Click a patch in the list to select it.

This sends the appropriate MIDI message to the device. You can also scroll the program selection up or down, as with any value.

MIDI devices

Ö You can also make more radical changes to the patch structure in a device (adding or deleting patches, groups or banks), see below.

For example, this would be useful if you expanded your MIDI device by adding extra storage media such as RAM cards, etc.

Patch Structure

Patches are structured as follows:

• Banks are the main categories of sounds – typically patches,

performances and drums, as described above.

• Each bank can contain any number of groups, represented by

folders in the list.

• The individual patches, performances or drum kits are repre-

sented by presets in the list.

The Commands pop-up menu contains the following items:

Create Bank

Creates a new bank at the highest hierarchical level of the Patch Banks list. You can rename this by clicking on it and typing a new name.

New Folder

Creates a new subfolder in the selected bank or folder. This could correspond to a group of patches in the MIDI device, or just be a way for you to categorize sounds, etc. When you select this item, a name dialog will appear, allowing you to name the folder. You can also rename the folder afterwards by clicking it and typing in the list.

New Preset

This adds a new preset in the selected bank or folder.

• To change which Program Change value should be sent out to select the patch, adjust the number in the Value column for the Program Change event.

• To add another MIDI event (e.g. Bank Select) click directly below the last event in the list and select a new event from the pop-up menu that appears.

After adding a new event, you need to set its value in the Value column, as with Program Change.

• To replace an event, click on it and select another event from the pop-up menu.

For example, a MIDI device may require that a Bank Select message is sent first, followed by a Program Change message, in which case you would need to replace the default Program Change message with a Bank Select message and add a new Program Change after that.

• To remove an event, select it and press [Delete] or [Backspace].

Different devices use different schemes for Bank Select. When you insert a Bank Select event, you should check the device’s documentation to find whether to choose “CC: BankSelect MSB”, “Bank Select 14 Bit”, “Bank Select 14 Bit MSB-LSB Swapped” or possibly some other option.

Add Multiple Presets

This opens a dialog, allowing you to set up a range of presets to be added in the selected bank or folder.

You can rename the preset by clicking it and typing a new name.

When the preset is selected, its corresponding MIDI events (Program Change, Bank Select, etc.) are shown in the event display to the right. The default setting for a new preset is Program Change 0 – to change this, use the following procedures:

For details on which MIDI events are used for selecting patches in the MIDI device, consult its documentation.

MIDI devices

Proceed as follows:

1. Add the event types required for selecting a patch in the MIDI device.

This is done just as when editing the settings for a single event: clicking in the event display brings up a pop-up menu from which you can select an event type.

2. Use the Range column to set up either a fixed value or a range of values for each event type in the list.

This requires some explanation: If you specify a single value in the Range column (e.g. 3, 15 or 127), all added presets will have an event of this type set to the same value. If you instead specify a value range (a start value and an end value, separated by a dash, e.g. 0-63), the first added preset will have an event set to the start value, the next value will be incrementally raised by one and so on, up to and including the end value.

Ö The number of added presets depends on the Range setting.

This will generate eight presets, each with a Bank Select event set to 2, but with different Program Change events (ranging from 0 to 7).

3. Specify a Default Name below the event display.

The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can rename presets manually in the Patch Banks list later.

4. Click OK.

A number of new presets are now added in the selected bank or folder, according to your settings.

Other editing functions

• You can move presets between banks and folders by drag-

ging them in the Patch Banks list.

• You can remove a bank, folder or preset by selecting it in the

Patch Banks list and pressing [Backspace].

• If you specify more than one bank, a Bank Assignment item

will be added to the pop-up menu at the top of the window. Use this to assign banks to the different MIDI channels (see

“About Patch Banks” on page 8).

Defining a new MIDI device

This section describes how to define a new MIDI device.

If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-configured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you need to define it manually to make it possible to select patches by name. This is handled slightly differently for Cubase and Cubase Studio.

Cubase:

1. In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device button.

The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.

2. Select “Define New...” and click OK.

The “Create New MIDI Device” dialog appears. For a description of all the options in this list, see “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 12.

3. Activate the MIDI channels you would like the device to use in the Identical Channels list.

This means that the device will receive Program Change over any MIDI channel. For a description of Identical and Individual channels, see the section “The Create New MIDI Device dialog” on page 12.

4. Enter a name for the device at the top of the dialog, click [Enter] and then OK.

The device appears in the Installed Devices list, and the device node structure for the device is shown automatically in a new window.

5. Select Patch Banks from the pop-up at the top of the window.

As you can see, the list is currently empty.

6. Make sure the Enable Edit checkbox is activated.

Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu to the left to organize the patch structure of the new device.

Cubase Studio:

1. In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device button.

The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.

2. Select “Define New...” and click OK.

A dialog appears.

3. Enter the name of the device and the MIDI channels you would like the device to use and click OK.

The device appears in the Installed Devices list.

4. Select the device in the list.

As you can see, it currently contains only an Empty Bank item.

5. Make sure the Enable Edit checkbox is activated.

Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu to the left to organize the patch structure of the new device.

MIDI devices

The Create New MIDI Device dialog

When you select “Define New” in the Add MIDI Device dialog, the Create New MIDI Device dialog opens.

Ö If you are using Cubase Studio, this is where you can enter a name for the new device and specify which MIDI channels you want the device to use.

Ö If you are using Cubase, the dialog contains the following settings:

Item Description

Identical/ Individual Channels

Channel Settings

Preset Type Preset References contain the patch name and a corre-

Here you can specify which MIDI channels you wish the device to use. Identical channels share channel settings and parameters, whereas Individual channels are “exclusive”. An example for this are GM/XG devices – in these devices, the channels are all identical, except channel 10, which is always the drum channel.

This specifies which MIDI messages should be supported by the MIDI device (for each Identical channel).

sponding MIDI message (typically Program Change/ Bank Select). Snapshots also contain a patch name but in addition complete parameter settings, which are reset when such a preset patch is recalled. For more information about snapshots, see “Working with snapshots” on

page 32.

Item Description

Global Settings SysEx Parameters

Global Settings Snapshots

Once you set the attributes (identical/individual chan-

Activate this checkbox if you wish the device to use System Exclusive messages. For more information about SysEx messages, see “SysEx messages (Cubase only)” on page 34.

This specifies whether the device supports global snapshots, which memorize all parameters in a device. For more about snapshots, see “Working with snapshots” on

page 32.

nels, snapshots) here, changes can only be applied with major effort like direct editing in XML, see “Edit-

ing the device setup XML files directly” on page 45.

However, there is a little workaround for channel settings, see below.

Ö If you create identical channels with the Channels setting “Snapshot” and delete one of them and create a new channel instead, this channel will be individual and without the snapshot ability! For more information about the Snapshot options, see “Working with snapshots” on page 32.

Creating a new MIDI device without channels/subnodes

It is possible to create a new device without any channels/ subnodes. For this, deselect all channels in the Create New MIDI Device dialog. (If you want, you can activate the options SysEx Parameters and Snapshots in the Global Settings section.)

The Device window is opened.

You can now add sets of identical MIDI channels/subnodes via the Add Subnodes button. However, if subnodes are added directly to the device node, the MIDI connections are not automatically created. (In this case, the variables column remains empty for the new channel and the Device panel will not send data to the MIDI device.)

MIDI devices

To build the MIDI connection, you have to activate the Create Multiple option in the Add Subnodes dialog.

Proceed like in our following example:

1. Select the device in the list to the left.

2. Click on the Add Subnodes button.

3. Enter a name for the Subnodes, e.g. “Channel”, and

activate the Create Multiple option.

4. Enter the Variable Name “channel”, the Variable Range, e.g. “1-12”, and click OK.

This way, 12 channels with identical settings are generated.

Ö If you want to create only one MIDI channel, e.g. Channel 9, simply enter “9” as range.

5. Add more multiple subnodes, e.g. “channel B” and a range from “13-16”, with the Create Multiple option activated.

This way, you will generate a second set of four subnodes with identical settings.

6. You can now test the resulting configuration by adding a parameter to channel 1. The parameter will appear in every channel from 1-12, because of their identical setting, but not in the channels 13-16.

For a practical example of this approach, see “Defining a

SysEx device – a tutorial (Cubase only)” on page 39.

If you want to give the subnode “Channel 5” an individual setting now, you have to delete “Channel 5” and add it as a new subnode (with the Create Multiple option activated).

Ö A drawback of the approach described here is that you can never activate the Snapshot option for Channels, see “Working with snapshots” on page 32.

MIDI devices

About Device panels (Cubase only)

Although these powerful editing features are there if you need them, you do not have to use them to use MIDI devices.

Seasoned Cubase users may recall the MIDI Mixer, which allowed you to create similar control setups, called Mixer maps. Third-party developers created Mixer Maps for hundreds of popular devices at that time.

But in Cubase, this concept has been taken to a higher level, offering a much deeper and more intuitive integration of the control features in the program.

Overview (Cubase only)

Device panels in the program

In this section we shall take a look at a pre-configured MIDI device panel to illustrate how it can be used in Cubase. Several device setups complete with panels are included with the program. These are located in the “Device Maps” folder inside the application folder.

On the following pages we will describe how to use MIDI Device panels and the powerful MIDI device panel editing features of the MIDI Device Manager.

Ö We recommend that you first configure the patch banks, then export the device setup before editing the panels. This way, most of your settings will be saved in case of panel configuration problems.

The panels are saved in XML format. For more information, see “Panel XML files” on page 45.

Basic concept

The panel editing features in the MIDI Device Manager can be seen as a separate application or entity within Cubase. It allows you to build device maps complete with control panels, with all parameters controllable from within Cubase. Building more complex device maps requires that you are familiar with SysEx programming (see

“SysEx messages (Cubase only)” on page 34). But you

can also create simpler panels by assigning MIDI Control Change messages to control objects, which does not require any programming skills.

Opening a device setup

Proceed as follows to open a MIDI device setup:

1. Open the MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu.

2. Click the “Import Setup” button.

A file dialog opens.

3. Select a device setup file for import by navigating to the Device Maps folder (see above).

The Device setup files are saved in XML format; for more information about them, see the section “Device setup XML files” on page 44.

MIDI devices

4. Click Open. The Import MIDI Devices dialog appears where you can select one or several devices for import.

A device setup file can contain one or several MIDI devices.

5. Select a device and click OK.

The device is added to the list of installed devices in the MIDI Device Manager.

6. Select the correct MIDI output from the Output popup menu, select the device in the list and click the Open Device button.

The device control panel opens in a separate window. The Edit (“e”) button at the top opens the Edit Panel window, the main edit window, see

“The Edit Panel window” on page 19.

8. Select the device from the “Out” pop-up menu for a MIDI track.

Note that for some devices, you may have to set the MIDI channel to “ANY”.

Now the Device panel can be opened by clicking the Open Device Panels button in the Inspector or in the channel strip for the corresponding track in the Mixer.

Ö Note that [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the Open Device Panels button allows you to open a subpanel via the panel browser pop-up menu.

Showing panels in the Inspector

1. In the Inspector, open the User Panel tab and click on the arrow to the right.

A “Panels” folder is shown with the selected device in a node structure below it. If you open all the folders, you can select any individual panel from the device that “fits” into the User Panel space.

A device control panel representing an Access Virus synth.

7. Close the Device panel and return to the Project window.

MIDI devices

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