Getting those filter loops right with Cubase

Post by **Neil B** » Fri May 03, 2002 4:02 am

Getting those filter loops right with Cubase.
One of the great aspects of using Pulsar with a sequencer like Cubase is the amount of instant control you can have over the Pulsar synths. There are many ways of achieving this but here is a little tip or 2 on adding controller events to your midi recording.
As an example, take a bass or bass synth, perhaps to be used for dance/techno tracks – perhaps a 303 sound.
1. Select your Pulsar synth patch and assign a controller number (e.g 16) to the cut off dial. Repeat for the resonance dial using another controller number (e.g 17)
2. In Cubase record a loop of perhaps 4 bars. The accent here is on short staccato bass notes, perhaps with very small changes in pitch (1 chord trick!)
3. Create a new track with the same midi channel number. It is much easier to keep your controller events away from the note events (easier for editing anyway)
4. There are many ways of putting in the controller values. You can draw them in, in key edit. You can paint them in etc, but for the purpose of this example we'’ll record them in.
5. Set the quantise above the arrange window to, say, 32 if your bass line has been played in 32 beats to the bar.
6. Click on the AQ auto-quantise button in the transport bar and the punch out button.
7. Ensure that “Play in Background” is ticked.
8. Click on record and switch to the Pulsar screen. While the 4 bars are played back move the cut off filter dial. You should now have 4 bars of music with the controller effectively clocked to the beat due to the auto-quantise feature.
9. Create another track for the same midi channel and repeat the process if you like for the resonance dial. Why not reverse it to give a nice short filter sweep?

Of course you may need to edit and tidy up the controller curves a bit afterwards – I prefer to work with the editors and draw them in.
This leads to another possibility if you think about it –
1. If you have recorded the controller with AQ on the beat, then the attack or first portion of the note is instantly different from the previous note by the value change of the controller. If you have longish note, why not change the quantise value to 64 and then kick the controller settings 1/64th to the right. In this way the first part of the note retains the frequency of the tail of the previous note and then changes mid note to the new frequency.
2. Add a bit of clocked delay to the above and you’re really cooking on gas!
3. When you think about it, you now have 4 bars that you can copy and paste ad infinitum. They will all have the same controller/frequency changes and therefore make a consistent ear-pleasing loop. Because they are the same you only need to record just the 4 bars to audio instead of perhaps 32 bars due to the controllers being different throughout. Saves a bit of disk space!

Finally, why not try it with longer notes and the volume controller switching between extreme values – instant clocked gating.

Hope this is of some use to you.

cook · Post by **cook** » Sat May 04, 2002 2:36 am

Thx, Neil for this little tutorial. Drawing the controller data always works for me (Nuendo), but recording them - not yet.

I've assigned MIDI Channel 1 to the synth, another MIDI-Track also on Channel 1 for recording the controller data,

and then the synth-cutoff-knob assignment to #15:

and

also in the editor of the sequencer #15, (drawing controller-data works then!), but the sequencer still wouldn't record the knob-tweaking directly from the synth.

Can u see what I'm doing wrong?

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sat May 04, 2002 3:03 am

Your synth needs to output to your sequencer. Connect Synth Midi Out to Seq Dest now, then tweak your knobs. For more info, look here, this guy had the same problem.

cook · Post by **cook** » Sat May 04, 2002 3:43 am

Many thanks, at0mic, that was it.

I had to engage that MIDI-Merger, to be able to play the keyboard. Now it records!
Screenshot from project-window:

Now I can try the above recommendations.

cook · Post by **cook** » Sat May 04, 2002 9:38 am

now...

Acid Man · Post by **Acid Man** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 2:23 pm

Hi Cook,

I saw your print scrn and I was wondering whether you can create as many Sequencer source modules as you need? Let's say I want to use the STS5000 and 3 synths. According to your print I should need 4 source modules. Is this correct?

Appreciate any comments.

Cheers,

Acid

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 2:34 pm

One source will do, connect all devices (up to 16, as there is only 16 channels per port) set the devices to different channels.

The reason he's using multiple sources IMHO, is that Three-O-Three's presets set the device to MIDI ch.5, which is a minor bug...

More on MIDI/ http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/midispec.htm

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 3:47 pm

On 2003-06-16 15:23, Acid Man wrote:

I saw your print scrn and I was wondering whether you can create as many Sequencer source modules as you need? Let's say I want to use the STS5000 and 3 synths. According to your print I should need 4 source modules. Is this correct?

each sequencer source gives you 16 midi channels and you may get until 8 modules.
device manager/audio,video+game controllers/creamware driver/settings and in the midi setup input how much devices you want. 1 till 8 are possible.
luck

Acid Man · Post by **Acid Man** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 2:51 am

Ok, that's clear.

Now what about connecting an sts sampler? Should I connect it the same way as on the print scrn? And where should I connect the 16 outs to? Should I connect it to an ASIO dest mmodule or to a mixer and from there connect to an ASIO dest module?

Acid

DIXSTER · Post by **DIXSTER** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 11:48 am

Hi Neil Like the sound of this idea but when
i tried it although all controller sweeps were recorded into cubase (vst 5.1)Ok the controller data wasnt Quantised in any way although any note events I recorded were ?
and the only way i could get the controller data clocked to tempo was to copy the note data onto the controller track and then convert it to controller data using logical edit .If you have any ideas on this when youve
got time it would be much appreciated but if not at least its got me thinking in a new direction wich is always good

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:10 pm

Hi Dixster,
Neil is offline for few days because he has some problems with his PC. Once everything works again, he will answer your questions.
Meanwhile, welcome Dixster!

Post by **Neil B** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:26 am

Hi Dixster,
sorry about the delay in responding.
As Chris said, welcome to "Z".
While I was rebuilding my pc, I was able to try this out again on my music pc. Surprise, surprise, it recorded every movement of the controllers. I wasn't concentrating too hard on it (just a quick check), so I'll have another go in a few days time.
I'm glad some of the article was of use to you though (lateral thinking eh?).

BTW - which part of England are you from?

Oh - Chris - thanks - this pc has been seriously sick!

DIXSTER · Post by **DIXSTER** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:18 am

Thanx for the welcome guys and taking the time to reply.I could record all the knob movements of the synth(ie c/off cc74)into cubase but it wasnt quantising them in any way that i could see even though auto quantise was on,What i was expecting was that
the controller data would be stepped in say
16th note steps if quantise was set to 16 but it didnt seem to happen.
ps I come from Buckinghamshire

Post by **Neil B** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 11:33 am

Sorry Dixster, but you are right. I was sure that I'd done this. I've tried everything, including recording whilst in the editors so I can set the snap value. It seems that this value only applies to controller data input with the pencil or drawing tool. Sorry to mislead you.
Having said that, your first response was that you had gained from this thread so opefully I'm forgiven

Pip · Post by **Pip** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:14 pm

Very interesting posts - I'm new to the pulsar platform (from the UK). I paint my cc's in SX it seems easier (I even do it with hardware synths like the Virus)My issue are :
I do not use XTC mode - I have a delta 10x10 as my asio driver - so synths do not remember cc's within a project and have to be re-assigned at start up ?? How to clock pulsar synths - I'm sending MTC from cubase to the synths - does not appear to clock?