cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

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debmccall
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cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by debmccall » Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:47 pm

Hello Taxi family-

I 've been a member for quite a few years, but I've seemed to have lost ground technically. I have Cubase 10.5 pro...and it's pretty intense. Anyway, I have never used plug ins or virtual inst. and I'm tired of of getting the "too stiff and midi driven" comments.

Not being a techy, it's been enough of a challenge to get the tracks on! LOL In my first few years, I was blessed to get a few forwards. Now, I'm close but no cigar. Most of the problem seems to be from using my keyboards for piano, strings,horns, drums etc... so I was told to start using the plugins/ virtual inst. available on Cubase , to make the sounds more authentic. I don't know how to accomplish that.

I sure would appreciate any advice or help on this.

Thanks! Deb

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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by Telefunkin » Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:49 am

Hi Deb,
I don't know whether you realised, but Cubase comes with several virtual instruments as well as many plugins for sound shaping and effects, and also a useful basic sampler. If you're using it as simply a multi-track recorder then you're missing masses of value from your investment. Its also very easy to add 3rd party virtual instruments and plugins to Cubase, and although some can be quite expensive there's a huge amount of free content out there including some surprisingly good things. When you hear them I'm sure you'll soon realise how much better they can sound compared with typical home keyboard sounds. Just a caveat on that though, when simulating real instruments it doesn't matter how great your virtual instrument samples are if you don't play the instrument like a real player of the real instrument would. Don't let that put you off though. You can soon get a basic understanding of, for example, articulations for string parts, such as legato, pizzicato, etc.

Therefore, I suggest that you try exploring some video tuition that might help you feel comfortable with using the built-in virtual instruments and plugins within Cubase. There's a ton of help on Youtube, and its hard to know where to start. However, once you see how easy it is to employ these things you'll love it! Try these for a start though....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimSZ5N-_JI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgArT0P-SLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KZVfB15SP8

If you are willing to pay for Cubase tuition you might get to what you want to know a little faster, and there are various courses for all sorts of price ranges. I found one for $29,
https://www.borntoproduce.com/products/ ... -beginners
but here's a very good one for $129
https://mixdown.mykajabi.com/the-ultima ... -to-cubase
You might like different music and presenter styles so please do your own research on training courses before buying.

I'd also suggest that you don't suddenly start buying loads instruments and plugins until you decide what you really need, and what might work for you based on the styles of music you make and how you prefer to work. Stick with the things built into Cubase for a while, especially the plugins. The plugins should cover most if not all of your needs for some time. The virtual instruments are largely synth-based so that's where you'd prefer other things, but again, be careful to spend wisely and check out free options first. If you want some good quality free sounds then you can do a lot worse than to check out Spitfire audio. Their premium instruments are quite expensive but their free offerings are highly usable and well worth grabbing, but wait until you get to grips with using Cubase's installed virtual instruments first.
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/free-instruments
There's also the free Orchestra 1 from Project Sam (which runs in the free version of Kontakt).
https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/

I hope that helps :).
Last edited by Telefunkin on Sun Aug 28, 2022 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by cosmicdolphin » Sat Aug 27, 2022 3:39 am

debmccall wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:47 pm
Most of the problem seems to be from using my keyboards for piano, strings,horns, drums etc... so I was told to start using the plugins/ virtual inst. available on Cubase , to make the sounds more authentic. I don't know how to accomplish that.
Do you mean you are using only the sounds that are built in to your hardware keyboard ? And recording the audio from them into Cubase ?

If so that's a very laborious way of doing things and also the quality of the keyboard sounds are likely to be inferior to good virtual instruments that you can use in Cubase and other DAWs

Depending what genre(s) you work in I would suggest exploring whatever comes with your DAW and also grabbing the best free instruments out there like the Spitfire stuff Graham mentions and possibly looks at some others:-

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ete-start/

https://www.orchestraltools.com/sinefactory

https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/

https://vital.audio/#getvital

Also it's probably worth watching this new video from 52 cues where he walks through what you need to get started if you expect to have your music used on TV etc . The section on what tools are required will give you some pointers : https://youtu.be/7VgZC-NI6ow

Mark

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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by debmccall » Mon Aug 29, 2022 4:34 pm

Telefunkin wrote:
Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:49 am
Hi Deb,
I don't know whether you realised, but Cubase comes with several virtual instruments as well as many plugins for sound shaping and effects, and also a useful basic sampler. If you're using it as simply a multi-track recorder then you're missing masses of value from your investment. Its also very easy to add 3rd party virtual instruments and plugins to Cubase, and although some can be quite expensive there's a huge amount of free content out there including some surprisingly good things. When you hear them I'm sure you'll soon realise how much better they can sound compared with typical home keyboard sounds. Just a caveat on that though, when simulating real instruments it doesn't matter how great your virtual instrument samples are if you don't play the instrument like a real player of the real instrument would. Don't let that put you off though. You can soon get a basic understanding of, for example, articulations for string parts, such as legato, pizzicato, etc.

Therefore, I suggest that you try exploring some video tuition that might help you feel comfortable with using the built-in virtual instruments and plugins within Cubase. There's a ton of help on Youtube, and its hard to know where to start. However, once you see how easy it is to employ these things you'll love it! Try these for a start though....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimSZ5N-_JI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgArT0P-SLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KZVfB15SP8

If you are willing to pay for Cubase tuition you might get to what you want to know a little faster, and there are various courses for all sorts of price ranges. I found one for $29,
https://www.borntoproduce.com/products/ ... -beginners
but here's a very good one for $129
https://mixdown.mykajabi.com/the-ultima ... -to-cubase
You might like different music and presenter styles so please do your own research on training courses before buying.

I'd also suggest that you don't suddenly start buying loads instruments and plugins until you decide what you really need, and what might work for you based on the styles of music you make and how you prefer to work. Stick with the things built into Cubase for a while, especially the plugins. The plugins should cover most if not all of your needs for some time. The virtual instruments are largely synth-based so that's where you'd prefer other things, but again, be careful to spend wisely and check out free options first. If you want some good quality free sounds then you can do a lot worse than to check out Spitfire audio. Their premium instruments are quite expensive but their free offerings are highly usable and well worth grabbing, but wait until you get to grips with using Cubase's installed virtual instruments first.
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/free-instruments
There's also the free Orchestra 1 from Project Sam (which runs in the free version of Kontakt).
https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/

Hi Avatar!

Thank you for the input. I appreciate the links and all your advice. Is Cubase tuition available thru Steinberg?
Thanks again,
Deb McCall

I hope that helps :).

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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by debmccall » Mon Aug 29, 2022 4:49 pm

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Sat Aug 27, 2022 3:39 am
debmccall wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:47 pm
Most of the problem seems to be from using my keyboards for piano, strings,horns, drums etc... so I was told to start using the plugins/ virtual inst. available on Cubase , to make the sounds more authentic. I don't know how to accomplish that.
Do you mean you are using only the sounds that are built in to your hardware keyboard ? And recording the audio from them into Cubase ?

If so that's a very laborious way of doing things and also the quality of the keyboard sounds are likely to be inferior to good virtual instruments that you can use in Cubase and other DAWs

Depending what genre(s) you work in I would suggest exploring whatever comes with your DAW and also grabbing the best free instruments out there like the Spitfire stuff Graham mentions and possibly looks at some others:-

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ete-start/

https://www.orchestraltools.com/sinefactory

https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/

https://vital.audio/#getvital

Also it's probably worth watching this new video from 52 cues where he walks through what you need to get started if you expect to have your music used on TV etc . The section on what tools are required will give you some pointers : https://youtu.be/7VgZC-NI6ow

Mark

Thank you, Mark! I copied all the links. I hope the tech part of this doesn't defeat me :) Really appreciate the time you took to share this info!! Deb

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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by Telefunkin » Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:12 pm

debmccall wrote:
Mon Aug 29, 2022 4:34 pm
Is Cubase tuition available thru Steinberg?
Steinberg have online and pdf manuals, which I've always found to be good at telling you what things do but not so good at telling you how to use them.

They also put out Youtube videos, so if you can find what you need from them that would be great, but if you think there's a lot to learn for you the structure of a course is probably better for you.

There's Steinberg Certified Training (scroll down to find your country)
https://www.steinberg.net/education/certified-training/

You might also be able to find private tutors who offer Cubase training in your area, but remember that personal 1-on-1 training or even group training is always far more expensive than online training.
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: cubase 10.5 pro and plugins/virtual inst.

Post by RPaul » Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:26 pm

debmccall wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:47 pm
Not being a techy, it's been enough of a challenge to get the tracks on! LOL In my first few years, I was blessed to get a few forwards. Now, I'm close but no cigar. Most of the problem seems to be from using my keyboards for piano, strings,horns, drums etc... so I was told to start using the plugins/ virtual inst. available on Cubase , to make the sounds more authentic. I don't know how to accomplish that.
The "too stiff" or "MIDI driven" is often not about the sounds themselves but how they are "played". For example, if you just play string parts like a piano, including playing what would be multiple instruments in a real string section from one keyboard performance, odds are it won't sound like real strings. Not only would the individual instruments be playing separately, thus resulting in slightly different timing and feel than however many fingers you are using acting in concert at one time, but, also, strings have different ways of making articulations than a keyboard typically does (e.g. you can make a sustaining sound louder and softer during its sustain, which you can't do on a piano, and there are multiple types of articulations, such as bowing harder or softer, plucking, etc.), and each of the players would be having slight differences with those real-time changes.

Depending on how you are specifically playing your parts, one start could be playing individual parts individually, using whatever facilities your keyboard has that map to virtual instrument articulations as you play them, then using Cubase's controller lanes to edit whatever you need to after that, be it adding additional controllers, editing what you played, or whatever.

If you are already familiar with MIDI orchestration techniques (and I should note I don't use "orchestration" to mean writing orchestral music, but rather just simulating whatever instruments you're trying to simulate to make them more realistic than what a piano-like performance could do on its own -- and different virtual instruments may do more or less than others in this respect, but the ones that do more tend to require learning some modified playing techniques, too, while the others may require more programming to do the same job), and just need to learn the details of how to program and edit MIDI, and do other things, in Cubase, Groove3.com has quite a number of Cubase courses that greatly helped me past the huge Cubase learning curve (I came to Cubase Pro after almost two decades of using Cakewalk SONAR). I recommend their All Access Pass as then you can take as many courses as you want during the term of your membership. And, for Cubase specifically, do also go back to the courses for versions earlier than the version you're using as I've learned things I'd been missing in more recent versions by going back to courses on much older versions.

I don't think you'd find the virtual instruments included in Cubase Pro would be ideal if sound quality is the key reason why you're getting the responses you indicated because the libraries they provide with Halion SE (the included version of their sampler) aren't exactly standouts in that world. Their included synths like Padshop and whatever the analog one is (totally blanking on the name at present), on the other hand, are quite good at what they specifically do (though I much more frequently use third party synths, too). But the Cubase educational videos at Groove3 could be a help in finding your way around Cubase, be it at an introductory level or going much deeper. I think they also have some courses in MIDI orchestration, and I know they have lots of courses on specific virtual instruments, and some of those can be eye openers for getting better results from plugins you might have.

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