Cubase 5 VST Instruments
Operation Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger Wiklander Quality Control: C.Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. 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.
Introduction This document contains descriptions for the VST Instruments which can be found in the Cubase 5 Instruments subfolder of your VST plugins if you chose to install any of these during the Cubase SX/SL installation. • JX16 - a software synthesizer. See page 4. • CS40 - a software synthesizer. See page 14. • Neon - a software synthesizer. See page 16. • LM-9 - a drum machine. See page 18.
JX16 Synthesizer The JX16 is a dual oscillator software synthesizer with the following main features: • The JX16 is polyphonic with up to 16 voices. The polyphony setting for each patch is user programmable. • Low CPU load and high quality sound (low aliasing distortion). • Multimode Filter. Lowpass, Bandpass and Hipass filter modes are available. • Oscillator Lock function enables the creation of pulse and square waveforms with classic PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). See page 12.
JX16 Parameters Osc 1+2 Section This section contains parameters affecting both oscillators. Parameter Values Description Octave -2/+2 Tunes the oscillators in octave steps. Fine Tune -100/+100 Cent Tunes the oscillators in cent (100th of a semitone) steps. Vibrato 0-100 Governs how much the LFO should modulate the pitch of the oscillators (vibrato). The Vibrato parameter is also controllable via MIDI by using the Mod Wheel.
The Oscillator 2 Section This section contains parameters that affect oscillator 2 only. Parameter Values Description OSC Mix 0-100 Controls the level of oscillator 2. 100 produces equal level to oscillator 1, which has a fixed output level. Coarse -24/+24 Semitones Tuning of Oscillator 2, in semitone steps. Fine Tune -50/+50 Cent Fine tuning of Oscillator 2, in cent (=100th of a semitone) steps. Vibrato -100/100 This lets you apply vibrato on the second oscillator only.
The Glide/Chorus Section This section contains Glide parameters, and also the Polyphony and Chorus parameters. Parameter Values Description Mode Off/Held/On If set to “On”, the pitch will glide up or down between notes played. If set to “Held”, Glide will only be applied when you press a key while another key is held. Rate 0-100 Controls the time it takes for the pitch to glide from one note to the next when using Glide.
The LFO Section This section contains the LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) parameters. LFOs are used to modulate parameters like pitch (vibrato) or the filter cutoff.
The VCF Section This section contains the filter parameters: Parameter Values Description VCF Mode LP/HP/BP/Off Sets the filter mode to either lowpass (LP), highpass (HP), bandpass (BP) or off. The filter modes are described on page 13. VCF Freq (Cutoff) 0-100 Controls the filter frequency or “cutoff”. If a lowpass filter is used, it could be said to control the opening and closing of the filter, producing the classic “sweeping” synthesizer sound.
VCF Vel -100/+100 Determines how the filter cutoff will be affected by velocity, i.e. how hard or soft you strike a key. Positive values will increase the cutoff frequency the harder you strike a key. Negative values will invert this relationship. VCF Att/Dec /Sus/Rel 0-100 The Filter Envelope Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release parameters. Use these parameters to determine how the filter cutoff should open and close with time, when a note is played.
The VCA Section This section contains the VCA Envelope parameters: Parameter Values Description VCA Att/Dec/Sus/ Rel 0-100 The VCA Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release parameters. Use these parameters to determine how the volume should change with time, when a note is played. VCA Velocity On/Off This determines whether the VCA Envelope should be affected by velocity, i.e. by how hard or soft you strike a note on the keyboard.
About the “Oscillator Lock” parameter JX16 features two oscillators per voice, with fixed sawtooth waveforms. You can, however, generate square waves and PWM (pulse width modulation) with the JX16, by combining the two oscillators using the “OSC lock” and Oscillator 2 “Vibrato” parameters. The following applies: • “OSC lock” allows the phase of Oscillator 2 to be fixed relative to OSC 1, producing pulse waves when Oscillator 2 has the same pitch and level as OSC 1.
About the filter modes The JX16 features a multimode filter. The various filter modes are selected with the VCF Mode parameter, and are as follows: • Lowpass (LP) Lowpass filters lets low frequencies pass and cuts out the high frequencies. This is the most commonly used filter type in analog synthesizers. • Bandpass (BP) A bandpass filter cuts frequencies above and below the cutoff frequency, allowing a specific range of frequencies to pass while attenuating all others.
CS40 The CS40 is a straightforward software synthesizer with the following main features: • The CS40 is polyphonic with up to 6 voices. • The CS40 receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels). You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the CS40. • The CS40 responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume). Volume. Pan. Pitch Bend (± 2 semitones). Modulation (vibrato).
CS40 Parameters: Parameter Description Oscillator 1 Range Selects an octave range for oscillator 1; 32, 16, 8 or 4 feet. Oscillator 1 Waveform The basic waveform for oscillator 1; Triangle, Sawtooth, Square or Pulse. Oscillator 1 Tune Detunes Oscillator 1 ± 7 semitones. Oscillator 2 parameters Same as Oscillator 1. Oscillator Blend Adjusts the relative volume mix between oscillator 1 and 2. LFO Speed Governs the speed of the LFO.
The Neon The Neon is a simple software synthesizer. It has the following properties: • The Neon is polyphonic with up to 16 voices. However, since each added voice consumes CPU power, the maximum polyphony may be limited by the speed of your computer. • The Neon receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels). You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the Neon. • The Neon responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume). Volume.
Neon Parameters: Parameter Description Range Selects an octave range for the oscillators, 16, 8 or 4 feet. Waveform The basic waveform for the oscillators, Triangle, Sawtooth or Square. LFO Speed Governs the speed of the vibrato. The vibrato depth is controlled via MIDI Modulation messages (for example, using the Mod Wheel on your MIDI controller). Osc 2 Detune Allows you to detune the “second oscillator” ± 7 semitones.
LM-9 Volume fader (one for each drum sound). Pad (one for each drum sound). Click to audition the drum sound assigned to the Pad, or to select a sound for adjusting pan. This sets the global velocity sensitivity for LM-9. This adjusts the Pan (the position in the stereo image) for the individual drums. The setting is applied to the currently selected drum, indicated by a lit yellow LED over the Pad button. The LM-9 is a basic drum machine.
LM-9 Parameters: Parameter Description Velocity This sets the global velocity sensitivity for LM-9. The higher the value, the more sensitive LM-9 will be to incoming velocity data. If set to “0”, the sounds will play back with a fixed velocity value. Volume sliders The volume sliders are used to adjust the volume for each individual drum sound. Pad The Pads are used for two things: To audition the individual drum sounds and to select a sound for adjusting pan.
CUBASE SX/SL – 20
