User manual

Table Of Contents
256
VST instruments and instrument tracks
Instrument tracks
To open the control panel for the VST instrument, click the “Edit Instrument”
button in the Inspector.
As with MIDI tracks, you can perform the usual MIDI editing procedures on the
instrument track, like duplicate, split, or repeat the track, drag and drop the MIDI
parts of an instrument track, etc. For more information, see the chapter
“MIDI
realtime parameters and effects” on page 449.
As with the MIDI track inspector and track controls, you can adjust track delay,
choose MIDI input, work with VST instrument panels, etc. For more information,
see the chapter
“MIDI realtime parameters and effects on page 449.
Instrument tracks have all options that VST instrument channels have, i. e. inserts,
sends, EQ, etc.
Ö VST instruments used in instrument tracks do not appear in the VST Instruments
window. For an overview of all used VST instruments, open the Plug-in Information
window via the Devices menu. For further information, see the section
“The Plug-in
Information window” on page 249.
Restrictions
Instrument tracks have no MIDI sends.
MIDI volume and pan cannot be controlled (there is no “MIDI fader” tab in the
Inspector); instead, the VST instrument volume and pan are used (via the
“Channel” tab in the Inspector). This applies also to the respective automation
parameters.
Ö Due to there being only one volume and pan control for the instrument track, the Mute
button will mute the complete track including the VST instrument. (As opposed to a
MIDI track with an assigned VST instrument, for which muting the MIDI track still
allows you to monitor and record the VST instrument.)
Instrument tracks always have one stereo output channel only. This means that
VST instruments that do not provide a stereo output as their first output channel
cannot be used with instrument tracks, and must be loaded via the VST
Instruments window.
Due to the limitation to one output channel, instrument tracks play only the first
voice of a multi-timbral VST instrument. If you want to use all voices, you have to
load the instrument via the VST Instruments window and set up a MIDI channel to
play it.
Import and export options
Importing MIDI loops
You can import MIDI loops (file extension .midiloop) in Cubase. These files contain
MIDI part information (MIDI notes, controllers, etc.) as well as all the settings that are
saved in instrument track presets (see
“About track presets and VST presets” on
page 260). This way, you can easily reuse instrument patterns you really like in other
projects or applications, for example.