David’s Adventures Through the World of Music Creation and Sonic Exploration

Cubase is a wonderful sequencer application. The little tick box called “Insert ID3 tag” in the Export Audio Mixdown window does exactly the same as the Undo button on a Waldorf Microwave XTk, or the Sequence button on the Waldorf Wave. Absolutely nothing!

I wonder if the coders over at Steinberg forgot to implement the code. Maybe they wrote it but forgot to check it in to the repository?

When working with both hard- and software synths, I do tend to use the Track Control module as an insert on the MIDI or instrument track. It’s nice way to easily set the modulation to a fixed value. It would, however, tend to do the whole process of using that one a lot easier if the little bugger would store its value when I’m saving and closing the project. Sigh…

I guess this just adds up to my previous posts on Strangeness in Cubaseland.

I’m buying the MusicTech magazine from time to time since I like their articles. They don’t write contradicting Pro’s and Con’s boxes to their reviews which I found Computer Music doing, as I wrote in this post. But in the latest issue of CM they’ve actually shaped up. I wonder if they’ve read my post?

Anyhow. Attached to every issue of MT there’s a DVD. Every DVD contains samples ready to use in Kontakt 2.20 and Reason NN-XT by PinkNoise Studio. On the cover of the lastest issue it says “Summer Chill - Beat the heat with this pro-quality collection of laid-back leads and pads”. If you then open the folder where the samples are (there are both 44.1 kHz, 16 bit and 96 kHz, 24 bit - so no doubt about the pro-quality .. regarding the file formats at least) you’ll find a nice and tidy PDF file stating the following:

“You may use this sample library and patches in a non-melodic, solo-ed context in a musical recording”

What is a non-melodic lead? Why have they bundled that on the DVD? How should I use it then?

I guess I could run the lead sounds through a couple of nice plugins, like CamelAudio CamelSpace and OhmForce Ohmicide and turn it in to a distored pad which by definition should be non-melodic (I hope), but I already have enough pad sounds (haha - just kidding - you can NEVER have enough pad sounds - but still).

Feel free to add a comment saying your story of what a non-melodic lead really is.

I posted this over at the Cakewalk forum, but never got a reply. Beware of grammar error ahead…

Hi,

New guy here. I’ve glanced through the thread but didn’t find what I was looking for so here we go:

. Modulate the Shaper parameters from the Modulation matrix is my first and top prior wish
. Drag and drop to re-order the Modulation matrix rows
. The LFO can modulate itself, the Envelope can’t
. Even though that are only 4-5 options in a setting I’d prefer the option of having a drop down just like the settings with a lot of options
. When setting the range in the Modulation matrix, you’re using the left mouse button to change the right side (the highest value) of the range and the left mouse button to change the left side (the lowest value) of the range - isn’t that backwards to you guys? I think I know why it’s like it is today, but I still think it’s backwards…
. Double click in a numeric field to type the new value won’t hurt

Okay, I know I might sound picky and nagging but I really like this instrument and when I programmed some automation in Cubase last night I really got some extra life into the patch - but having the modulation available in the Modulation section would be more convenient than doing automation i Cubase - especially when I’m running the synth in stand-alone mode.

This is a fantastic sounding instrument and I love to program sounds in it - I really do!

Thanks,

Shouldn’t it be wise by a product vendor to actually listen to their users and paying customers?

I know someone who does though. Gforce Software and Sonalksis does, so I’ll keep them busy with my findings ;o)

I am one of the synth nerds that still haven’t got any of the Arturia products yet, but I’ve tested the demo versions of the Jupiter-8V, the Minimoog V and the Prophet V. They all well-sounding and convenient to to work with. Some of the knobs might be a little too small on the resolution I’m using (1600 x 1200 on a Dell 2007FP) and the Minimoog V on the other hand was designed with an awful lot of scrolling. Modular synthesis is nice though since you most often can do so much more than on a normal (sometimes dull and boring) subtractive synthesis synthesizer.

Luckily for me, I can now buy two Arturia products to the price of just one. Hooray! They have a fantastic offer that ends on the 31st of August, so if you have €199 to spare Arturia.com is the place to spend it. It gives me 1½ month to save up for it.

Personally, I’ll go for the Jupiter-8V and the Prophet V. They are really nice emulations of the old classics, and you cannot have enough of those - can you?

One thing struck me last night while working on a new track.

GenesisCM started to behave a bit funny (didn’t trigger any notes when playing the keyboard) so I decided to reboot.

Square 1
I saved my project to a new file, and rebooted. When opening the project again after the reboot it totally hung Cubase, and clicking “Close program” in the Vista popup shutdown my computer in a fraction of a second. I tried again and this time read through the error message. Cubase4.exe has stopped responding due to some error in GenesisCM.dll. GenesisCM is a new software synth (or VSTi, if you prefer) that came along the second last issue (CM127) of Computer Music.

I had to boot my PC, rename the GenesisCM.dll to GenesisCM.dll.bak, then fire up Cubase 4. Accept that GenesisCM.dll is missing and remove it from the instrument tracks where it was loaded. Save the project, close Cubase, rename it back to GenesisCM.dll, fire up Cubase again and load the project. When done, I had to select the track where I wanted GenesisCM and load it. Now it worked fine. Until loading a second instance of the plug. Goto Square 1.

When I’ve done it all over again, I only loaded one instance of GenesisCM and tweaked a similar sound on Discovery Pro instead so I could save and bounce the track.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m really impressed by the little bugger, but it’s a waste of time trouble-shooting none working plugins when you can spend the same amount of time programming sounds and composing instead. GenesisCM sounds in fact fantastic and is a great complement to Gforce Minimonsta and FabFilter Twin.

And the thing that struck me was that this never happened when I had 11 hardware synths in the studio. Cubase never crashed just because my Clavia Nord Lead 2 (which parts of me regrets for selling - it’s a darn fine piece of hardware and I shall get one again) wasn’t powered on, or had a cable disconnected, or was totally broken. Sure there’s a lot of hassle with MIDI cords, sound cabling and syncing issues, but you could at least load your Cubase projects.

After some digging on the Interweb I found the explanation to the GenesisCM problem all the way down on this site.

It would be a nightmare turning up at a gig and having your projects crashing because some software plugin decides to break. But then again, it’s a nightmare turning up a gig with at a broken hardware synth too…