I told in previous post setting up Cubase to work with hardware synths have taken lot of time. Some of that time was wasted trying to work with device panels. Good idea I know because I have used Ableton Live and Max for Live devices. After that I even considered getting back to Live. Live had Black Friday sales. Haven’t updated to Live 11. Still have Push 2. Monetary investment to get back wouldn’t have been huge. Time investment would have been. I have learned how to do things in Cubase. Getting back Live requires learning same things in another DAW. I don’t spend so much time making music having two DAWs makes sense.
Well I have two now since I haven’t uninstalled Live 10 but I only use Cubase. Cubase has few feature I don’t want to give up. Live doesn’t have similar features I want but can’t get in Cubase. Push and session view are nice but I get similar results in Cubase different way. Cubase has arranger track which gives what I used Live’s session view for. Live is better for jamming and playing live but I don’t want to learn two DAWs just to have one which is better for jamming and another which is better for everything else.
I started to use VSTs to control hardware synth after I learned device panels didn’t work way I wanted. Managed to get VSTs from Black Friday sales. I should have gone VST route earlier. I though it was harder. After learning to use macros setting instrument and audio track has become easy. Not as easy as using VSTs but quite easy. Best thing is I can automate using synths’ controls. That wasn’t possible with device panels. Max for Live devices can do that. Max for Live device can save settings to project and sent those to synth when ever you want. With VSTs you need to save presets to synth and load correct preset. How easy this is depends on VST. Some VSTs let you save to synth. With some you need to do the saving on synth.
One reason why I wanted to use device panels is I wouldn’t have to rely on someone else to make VST controller. For example there is no VST controller for Bass Station 2 with latest features for Windows. There is one with previous firmware’s features. I had device panel which had all features I wanted. Please let me know if there is relatively easy way to make own VST controllers. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Just that I can send and receive midi messages with it and automate it in DAW. I have done these with Cubase’s device panels and Max for Live. I want something which isn’t connected to specific DAW.
Checked what I can still connect to music PC. I should still have one free USB port and six audio channels. Not sure which ports are free because all USB ports have something and there is only one free slot in audio interface. I could free couple USB ports easily. But I think I don’t do that. I am going to something goes out when something comes in mode for USB devices. Don’t have room for tons of gear and want to keep setup somewhat limited. Don’t think I need more than four analog polyphonic synths in set up. One or maybe two of those will change in near future. Out of three midi controlled monophonic analog synth one will change. 2600 will make number of analog monophonic synths to four. I think four polyphonic and four monophonic is good size of setup for now.
Those six free slots on audio interface. Now that I know there are that many empty slots using OB-6 and Tetra stereo sounds like good idea. 2600 is also stereo. And maybe I could add Lyra 8 there too. Yes. I have Lyra 8 and I have actually used it for something. It is just hard to figure out how to use it in musical context. It is fun to play with but hard to have something useful from it. Maybe I just need more practice.
I have other synths I could add to those six audio slots without buying anything new. But for now I plan to go with eight synths and software. Synths change but number should be same. I know quite well which synths will change. After learning need of VST control that has become key criteria selecting synths. But maybe I shouldn’t think about buying new synths right after buying most expensive instrument I have ever bought. It is just that I want setup “ready”.
If you wonder why Cubase has weird colors in picture it is because I tried custom colors with it. Not sure if I keep it looking like that. Just wanted to try when I learned it is possible. Colors will probably change after I figure out what makes most sense. Considering making new template with all analog synths routed to project with required instrument, midi and audio tracks. Have to figure out how to deal with over twenty tracks which I don’t want to use that time.