Midi VS Instrument Tracks : Which ones should you use?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- On this video, I answer one of the most common asked questions about Cubase midi and instrument tracks. And clear up some common misconceptions too ;)
DAW: new.steinberg.net/cubase/
Awesome Studio Desk bit.ly/3hfKi0K
4K 32'' Studio Monitor amzn.to/3hbdq9g
Desk monitor Lamp: bit.ly/37dvnzt
amzn.to/2Ymbq5t
New Cool Controller amzn.to/2UrzOS4
TC Plugin/controllers amzn.to/3cMOt0y
amzn.to/3dP4lRs
The box that enhances EVERYTHING: blackboxanalog.com/hg-2/
Analyzer: amzn.to/3f5u1JJ
Mastering AD/DA Converter www.lynxstudio.com/products/h...
Retro Computer Keyboard amzn.to/2XLuXwY
My favourite Trackball Mouse amzn.to/2zhEfaA
High-End Monitors bit.ly/3cOq3np
Acoustic Panels/ Bass Traps gikacoustics.co.uk/
Legacy Audio Interface bit.ly/30lHBoe
Current Audio Interface new.steinberg.net/audio-inter...
Fantastic Recording Channel Strip rupertneve.com/products/porti...
Digital Mastering Processor bit.ly/2YhXJ7A
Live Audio Interface/ ADAT Expansion new.steinberg.net/audio-inter...
Groove and Groove Agent Controller amzn.to/3f6Jnxx
Proper midi keyboard amzn.to/2YhZjpX
The Ultimate Synth yamaha.io/3f5vfoj
Favourite Polyphonic Analogue Synth www.sequential.com/product/ob-6/
Best piano keybed synth yamaha.io/3f5vfoj
Favourite mono analogue synth bit.ly/37mL5Iv
Synth/Guitar FX Pedal uk.line6.com/hx-stomp/
Amp Sim bit.ly/3hcn5wg
Drum Machine/Sampler amzn.to/2AjlELR
Experimental/Fun Synth amzn.to/2YmVEqQ
Fast and Furious FM Synth yamaha.io/37k8VEW
My DAW Computer bit.ly/3f5vZtA
Montage Screen
I had a few questions about you guys on what gear I use to record the Montage screen. Here's what I use:
USB to HDMI from Montage: amzn.to/2yEy4wz
Video to USB video capture: amzn.to/39XnihQ (not sure why it's so expensive now, but that's what I got ages ago!)
My computer retro keyboard: amzn.to/2Zxp2Nk
The Ultimate Trackball Mouse for editing: Slimblade: amzn.to/2Zrch77
Best wireless trackball: amzn.to/2KJliR4
Best mobile audio interface for iPad, OS and Windows: amzn.to/3gmnLyT
Where I get my hoodies from: bit.ly/2WZylCT
Instagram ➡︎ dom_sigalas
My latest single ➡︎ spoti.fi/36N1QMH
My latest album ➡︎ spoti.fi/3deu59x
LINKS USED IN THE DESCRIPTION MAY OR MAY NOT BE AFFILIATE LINKS
By using the affiliate links I earn a small fee of your purchase, it does not cost you anything extra to use them. They help me to be able to create more videos for you. Thank you for supporting the channel! - เพลง
Instrument track!! 💯💯💯 “Keep your life simpler”
You became my number one cubase tutorial guy really fast and helped me tons already. Just wanted to say thank you :)
Greg is still the best!!!
Totally agree.
Don't forget... if one sets up their Hardware as a Cubase "External Instrument", there's no need to use Midi tracks at all. The Hardware will load as an instrument track, Midi and Audio combined, in realtime (if you set it up right).
dont worry he don’t know what you talking about , cheers 🥂
How do you use the external instrument as a Cubase Instrument if that is a multi timbral instrument? In this case you should use MIDI channels.
@@vegsozoltan5283 Cubase "External Instruments" works for multitimbral instruments too, but yes, you'd need midi tracks for the extra midi channels to route to the "master" instrument track for the external hardware.
If you use MIDI tracks, it is much more simple to change the entire instrument afterward. Your MIDI track is then assigned to an instrument instead of connected to it and fully integrated. Change an entire instrument on an instrument track is much more complex than with a MIDI track assigned to a Rack Instrument. So that is for me an important pro-MIDI track argument.
agreed , unfortunately there is something of an issue here if you have not made up your mind what instrument to use then if you change to something even relatively close but not the same then the way you play it often needs to change. For example a bass track. Many different acoustic or electric basses you need to play differently because of the way each responds to velocity or note duration these effect the way it sounds and often needs you to replay it again. So its really good to decide first what exact sound you are going to use so your MIDI is played in in a way , for example the piano you choose of bass responds. Of course you can do this later but rerecording a track. its small but important thing to keep in mind to help your work flow be as efficient as possible, Choice of sounds is extremally import in the final mix. planning as much as possible before can help. of course sometimes we may like to just wing completely but in that case at least having a good grasp of what sounds fit well in the mix can help so you grab good ones
Just for fun I quickly benchmarked (very non-scientifically) single patch per instance vs. multitimbral on my AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (32 cores, SMT disabled), using Omnisphere 2 in Nuendo 10.2.20. I picked Omnisphere, because anecdotally it seems like it has one of the highest per process overheads out of all my VST instruments, so it should provide a "worst case scenario" baseline.
I loaded the first eight patches in the Omnisphere 2 default list and had them play a scale with 1/8s at 120. I kept duplicating the tracks until the machine would play no more, with ASIO Guard at high and my RME HSDPe AIO set to 512 samples.
Results: multimbral Omnisphere capped at 136 patches. Single instances at 152. That's a 12% improvement in the single instances favor, which, while not huge, is still significant. However, I was expecting actually a bit more on my machine, given how much the CPU favors parallel workflows. Clearly the multitimbral Omnisphere utilizes multithreading quite well already.
RAM usage doubled from 10GB to 20GB, so RAM is the currency with which you pay for this improved parallelization (and routing convenience). Calculating the RAM difference per instance here, there's roughly a 81MB RAM cost per instance of Omnisphere, so for each eight patches, you use an extra 567MB. That's quite high, so it's something to keep in mind.
Maximum RAM is going up way faster than single thread perfomance in CPUs, so I agree with the idea that it's definitely time to consider leaving multitimbral workflows behind. The day to do that won't be here for every system yet, especially if you have a CPU with a lower core count and less RAM. But it's coming for sure.
Im happy with my omnisphere. Really happy.
Thank you for this test, that's informative.
No one of us loads 152 instance of Omnisphere. So multitimbral has still his place....as he told in the video for instance for Groove Agent or multilayered Sounds in Halion Sonic
Going by your test, the best would be to have 2 or 3 instances and then do everything internally. Just a theory.
This topic had been confusing me for years - makes perfect sense now. Thanks, man.
I totally agree with you. But since you asked about ways I use instrument channels:
I pretty much use one instrument track per patch/sound. But I have found that some libraries, like for example Hollywood orchestra, where you need several patches in one instrument (for example violins - could be up to 10 patches), I use expression maps in order to trigger various channels (one patch per midi channel).
That is, only one instrument track and no midi channels in cubase, but the sampler (in this example "play") have several patches loaded, and each patch is dedicated to a midi channel. The old way was to then have several midi channels in cubase, connected to the instrument channel/rack, but now the map is instead controlling what sound is heard.
I can either change the sound with keyswitches/controller, or I can change it in the key editor.
I recently came across this trick and it is a massive time saver and workflow enhancer. For example, the violins could go from pizzicato to legato to marcato etc, and it is all controlled in the key editor with "articulations". Keyswitches are actually eliminated this way, it is faster, and no need for alignment and having midi notes in the score who are just there for the switching, but I can still control what sounds I want to hear with a controller if needed.
This can be done with any sampler, and is very useful for any patch with no keyswitches built in. But so far this can only be done in Cubase as far as I know.
Thanks for taking the time Dom!
I use midi channels for layering. For example I may create low and high layers of sound on synthesizers and then send midi channel to them so I don't need to always input midi on two channels.
Greetings from Vegas Dom! There is great value in having both options - I use both MIDI and Instrument Tracks. So many Cubase users are doing cool creative projects - I do jingles, and often I have to work fast. In my situation, the drawbacks of using MIDI tracks with a frequently-used Multi-timbral synth (Halion Sonic, etc.) are overcome with preset templates. In other words - the template loads preset MIDI tracks, and audio pre-routed to preset Group Channels. (In my case - 4, labeled "drums", "bass", "keys", "guitar". I have 4 tracks in Halion preset and prerouted accordingly. Make sense? If i'm on a deadline, I know where to choose patches, and they are already routed.
All that said - these days - there are SO many cool instruments out there, it's completely reasonable as you're saying in the video to use Instrument tracks. You're not going to use them on every project, and you're not likely to have them pre-loaded in your template.
I think the bottom line is to be aware of both types, and be willing to use either depending on your workflow.
SUPERB !! Many Thanks Dom. Sooooo many tutorials still opening midi tracks & racks, then routing, then grouping mix channels, really confusing when getting started. Very clear, very concise Dom. As always !!
Thanks so much!........I need to watch this again.......and then again to absorb it all. I'm a real newbie to virtual instruments and midi. So much to learn!!
Brilliant and informative demo. Thanks Dom!
I am totally with you. But I really miss that there is no easy way to convert them into each other (MIDI instrument). This is completely incomprehensible to me.
Instrument tracks are faster but the rack is still useful for layering, to give one example. I've also had issues with multi-out instruments like Superior Drummer when not using the rack, so I just use it for all multi-out instruments. You can do some interesting things with midi tracks like use them for patterns using the step sequencer or as events that hold automation that can then be moved around the timeline easily. It can also be conceptually useful to think of a part as notes rather than locked into a sound. I like that Cubase offers such flexibility.
You can multi output instrument tracks too
Thanks Again Dom! Nothing beats the access to all the plugin power of an audio track over a midi track. Greetings from Oz!
I just went back over this a day later & assigning the kit to individual outs is a BONUS, thanks again!
Very useful discussion on separating the output channels. Loved the Groove Agent Trick! Gold level content once again!!
when you load one instance of VST instrument, Cubase will instantiate that instrument and reserver like 1.5GB memory. When you instantiate second VST instrument, it will reserver more memory. If you load one VST instrument, it will only instantiate memory once. Basically if you have tons of ram, you can just always instantiate new VST instrument, no need just basic midi tracks.
Makes a lot of sense man! :-) There is a lot of "suggestions" in the production world that seems to just be information left over from the legacy days.
I'm never disappointed with these videos, there is always something to be learned! Now I understand the concept of "rack mounted" instruments (it seemed like an odd option). It makes far more sense with its historical context as "genuine virtual outboard midi gear" .
One crucial piece of info here is that for those who load lots of tracks in templates - the disable track feature is useful. Nothing is active but all tracks can be ready at your fingertips without having to add tracks repeatedly in every big project.
Man how do I insert a vsti if I import a midi track i create with other software.
Bcs in cubase it is created as midi track, since you need instrument track to play the midi
@@firmans12 Two ways I can think of would be - select "Destination" to be instrument tracks in the import options. See the help here for more info:
steinberg.help/cubase_ai/v10/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/importing_audio_and_midi/importing_audio_and_midi_import_options_for_midi_files_r.html
Otherwise, just create instrument track, and then drag the midi events you imported over to that track from the midi track and delete the midi track afterwards. Hope that helps.
Helps a Lot! Thank you : )
Your videos have been really helpful, thank you
Thanks a lot. This questions bothered me for years.
Great explanation, Dom. Very useful!!!
Cheers my man,always easy to understand.
Very very very helpful; thanks for this one!
Really helpful and concisely explained. Thanks!
That is the most amazing intro track I have ever heard dom! It’s so exciting everytime I hear it 😍. I’ve just gone back to Cubase after years and years of neglecting it. I’ve never been able to fully get my head around it but I must say you have helped re-enthuse me. I loved your cc121 video and I was torn between that and a keyboard controller. I ended up getting a nektar P6 and it’s taking some getting used to.....but I think it’s going to be really good. I have about three albums worth of unfinished stuff on nuendo 2 (yes lol) that I was going to re-do on an akai force! Instead I’ve managed to get Cubase 5 up n running so I’m bringing them all into that 😍
I have seen many videos on this subject, but yours is the best by far.
Thanks Dom! Another great tutorial!
Thank you for this, Dom. I have had that question in the back of my mind about using MIDI tracks and since I don't use outboard instruments besides guitars, I now know I don't need to worry about it!
Fantastic Dom. Always learning new features and concepts with your videos and comments. Olé.
Great info Dom!
Love those little explanation bubbles
Another great informative video. Thanks Dom.
I have been a Cubase user for 6 years and always thought that Groove Agent would be pointless for me, so thank you for that output tip, I can now see it becoming a part of my work flow
I build large orchestral templates. I halion\kontakt per track. I agree with you. It would also be so good if the track name would take the name of the preset it allocated to by default. This could be an option in preferences “default track name takes preset name” . Also additionally the actual sound being played I.e. the name of the preset or even its full articulation name could be seen in the track., not just in the tiny expression map panel but clealrly in the project window so when the track is stopped the cursor position might show “staccato” . So much time is spent typing in track names simply calling them by the preset names in most cases.
I used to use midi chanels as an old user of Cubase. Thaks for the update!
thanks dude this was superhelpfull!!
You can load a HALion (Sonic) full of the same sound in several slots with variation you've made and then use an expression map to switch between MIDI channels in one instance you have on screen all the time. You can have one big phat Anima (or Trium or SkyLab or ... n), or one thin one with some hi pass filter, one with some flanger or chorus super stereo etc.. It's less of a hassle to my brain to have the variations in one plugin unit but everybody's different.
In the same manner you can save a little orchestra with leads, pads and basses as a template if you save the sounds as a bank. Then you're ready to go in a similar project.
I don't like the mess in the inspector with both MIDI and audio inserts sends and whathaveyou. It's hard to teach an old dog to shit! :D
There are benefits of both ways so I use both. Monotimbral VSTi:s I sometimes use Intrument Tracks for like most bass tracks only need one.
Maybe I should have more of a method to my madness? 🙃😂
I love your stuff 💖
Thank you Dom!
Tis was very helpful, thank you kindly.
Hey thanks! Very useful and I enjoyed your style of teaching, and, like you, I'm gonna continue to use Instrument Tracks a lot!!
You saved my life today!
Thank you very much for this tutorial!
Glad to hear that! :) :) :)
This is gold, cheers.
Dom, as usually great video and tips.
Really helpful tutorial thank you very much
Thanks Dom .....really nice and clear....you stay safe!
Thanks, you too!
Definitely enjoy working with Instrument tracks more than MIDI for the same reasons you highlighted!
This channel is so promising with good content. Intro gets me pumped up. Wish you good luck for your channel.
Great tutorial. Thanks
Thanks friend !
Thanks again, Dom! This was the clearest explanation I've seen. Having used Cubase all the way back to Steinberg VST on an Atari, I have some long ingrained habits and have been averse to switching from rack instruments to instrument tracks. You have led me to see the light!
Same here. Exactly.
Snap! Though I changed about 2 weeks ago. Haven't seen any CPU issues and the flexibility is so much better. Goodbye MIDI track you served me well :-) Actually MIDI tracks can be useful for sending controller commands to multiple instruments using MIDI sends.
thank you! Been using Cubase for 20 years didn't realize the new way was better
Thank you... Great info..
You don’t have to load instruments into the rack for multi out instruments anymore.
Since about Cubase 8 or 9 the instrument tracks were overhauled to handle multi timbral instruments. You can add additional outputs to an instrument track now & just add MIDI tracks to route MIDI to the additional instruments in Halion or whatever sampler you are using
Dom Great videos ! Cubase users should be verryyyyyy happy about this channel! Greeting from GR! Keep it up!
tnx for video!
Learned lots of things bro.. Big thumb from Sri Lanka ❤️
Simple answer - create templates - the number of steps (midi tracks) is done once. I use both because sometimes you need midi only e.g. Original groove agent or having visual cues on the arrangement page (not as nice if embedded within several takes of single instrument track)
brilliant video Dom. i've always wondwered about this. i use instrument tracks most of the time, and in fact midi tracks very rarely nowadays. Usually only use midi tracks if i'm importing a midi drum groove form a 3rd party developer - although not exclusively.
Thank you Dom👋👍
wow, i dont comment often, but very good video! you just got yourself a new subscriber! very helpful info!!
Great info given, the section at Export mixer to Cubase , I will find very useful.
Thank you so much, Dom! Will be sticking to instrument channel. Seems the most logical for me at this moment.
Good job , and this, works .👍
Great work Dom! I have used instrument tracks from the time I started using Cubase. As yet I have not had a problem with overloading the CPU at all. It is so much easier to use multiple instances of Halion or Halion Sonic or Groove Agent. There is too much to think about if you use midi tracks!
Thanks Dom. Just learning Cubase and was wondering about this.
Thanks! Since I started with Cubase many years ago I was using one instance of HAlion Sonic. Now based on your advice I' changing my project to have one per track. I also was using MIDI tracks and now using Instrument tracks. Great advice especially for Groove Agent SE outputs.
Great videos dom.
Dom, you’ve done it again. I know all about instrument versus midi track but..........reminding me of the GA mixer to Cubase that I had forgotten about. I gave myself a slap.
So many years as a semi pro dabbler and never really spending enough time on individual beneficial tweaks. At last I learn the right way. Cheers
nicely done sir
Very interesting, thanks for the clear explanation, Dom. I am also on the instrument tracks wagon :-)
Hey, Dom. Love your videos and have learned a lot from watching them. Thanks for posting!
This video asks a question I have wondered about for a long time. I too come from the olden days when one tried everything one could find to save computer resources. And the reason you are giving here for performance gains is that using multiple instances of multitimbral plugins like HALion and/or Kontakt allows the spread of different instruments to multiple cores or, more appropriately, to additional single cores. However, in looking this up on the Steinberg and Native instruments websites it shows that a single instance of both HALion and Kontakt can indeed use multiple cores. So I wonder if this changes anything in regards to this specific reason you use multiple instances of HALion, etc.
Thanks again for the great work!
Very good!
Great info as always. I use a 32 channel halion 6 sampler midi rack filled with my fav sounds. I have lots of converted EMU, Ensoniq & Giga lib patches that I still use. Then ASAP I render the parts 2 audio, so I don’t have to assign multi outputs. Love that Halion
Great video...it cleared up a lot. I tend to use the rack feature only when I'm starting a project and I'm 'sketching' an initial arrangement and just want a Halion instrument with a preset containing basic instruments; Drums, bass, piano, etc.. I then put the drums into Groove Agent and select different instruments and put them on instrument tracks. So I don't really use the rack feature any longer.
The one thing I was not aware of was the quick way you assigned the drums, with names, to each output. I always did the slow, tedious way. It made the whole video worth the watch. Since I've been using Cubase since VST32, I tend to miss some subtle improvements that are great time savers. Thx.
I use midi tracks to automate some elements in fabfilter plugins.
I also use separate midi channels for some other data besides notes. A lot of times when creating, it's very convenient to have some extra track that only does the cutoff frequency or some other parameter. I use a lot of outboard gear. So in the end, tracks are merged. The cpr is exported as a midi file and imported in the MPC. It plays all synths and modules and sets the effect processor to the desired program. In a few cases I exported some audio as well and used that in the sampler, but sinds it's the intention to play and sing along live, I only use that for drum loops and strange effect samples.
You don't need to activate the audiotracks per se, if you assign outputs in the plugin, they will be activated automatically.
Hi Dom, great advice as always. I'm basically a novice. I use outboard gear and soft synths but usually only one patch per synth so instrument tracks are fine. Where I do vary is with drum machines like Battery. I'll have one instance of Battery and one midi track for each drum sound, then when I'm happy with the arrangement I bounce to audio. I'm sure I'm probably missing a trick and could simplify but I do like each drum sound in its own midi track.
thank you :)
thanks brother
I'm a little bit late to the party, but it really makes little sense to use complex MIDI/Output routing with the same plugin, because this is how modern OSes work. Anything that can run-executable files, plugins etc-internally consists of _sections._ A section may contain executable code, read-only (RO) data, or read-write (RW) data. The read-write data is not stored in file, rather declared only (I'm omitting unnecessary details). Now, executable code is always read-only, it's just like RO memory: it never changes, it what was put in there by the compiler, the tool that programmer used to create the plugin file. Since there's no difference between code and RO data for our purposes, I'll be speaking of RO code only.
Modern OSes use _virtual memory:_ a section loaded from the file is _mapped_ into the host's _virtual_ RAM, and this mapping is separate from the occupied physical address. Cubase is even unaware of that, the OS hides this unneeded info from the program. This is in fact done with the help of the CPU memory manager. Each program has access to insane virtual memory, about 10 quintillion bytes, and each byte is numbered from 0 to 10 quintillion. But it's linear, just like the timeline of a song has a beat number. Let's better measure memory in beats-why not? Just like a DAW's track, virtual memory is empty, and the OS adds _(maps)_ continuous "events" so many beats long here and there-exactly like audio events in a track, which may have gaps (but no overlaps). You can think that each program is a separate track; a Web browser has its own "track" 10 quintillion beats long. But we'll focus on one, single Cubase "track", its virtual memory.
When you load an empty Halion, its executable code and RO data (which contains various baked-in DSP tables, for example, also baked in when the plugin was created, strings for messages etc) is loaded from the Halion.vst3 file into the main physical memory (RAM). Of course, it creates some RW data to keep track of what programs are loaded, the controls positions, connections with the host (e.g., Cubase) etc. But these tables are small when empty, and 16 or 64 empty slots take very little RAM. Now, Halion's RO code is loaded from the file Halion.vst3 into physical memory and _mapped_ into Cubase's insane address space. Suppose Halion's code got loaded at the beat 100, and is 400 beats long. Some RW data, private to this Halion instance, is also placed somewhere into its own "event" somewhere in this "track". Now, imagine you load a second Halion. Now something interesting happens. Program code (RO) is _never loaded the second time._ The OS remembers where it's in physical memory. Even better, you load it into the same host. The OS figures out: RO code from Halion.vst3 is already loaded into this copy of Cubase, so let's just reuse it. It's already in the beats 100 to 500 in its memory. Only a small chunk of private RW data for the second Halion is created, because it has its own 64 slots, an audio connection with the host, etc. The executable code never changes, so that totally fine to do: unlike a song track that also _plays_ from lower to higher beat numbers, memory is only accessed by address, our analogy of the beat number, but in random order.
Does the overhead of the little RW memory chunk, individual to each Halion (say, the first one gets private "event" in beats 700 to 800, and the second in beats 900 to 1000) matter? I'd say no, because for a multi-timbral instrument Cubase also creates extra data for each used slot: a new MIDI track and a new output. These also unpredictable in advance, and needs allocating private RW memory as needed. Dom is totally right: it will save you no memory in the end.
When you load a sampler… now that's where memory-heavy stuff really begins. Halion reads samples from disk when playing a track, or even preloads then if you play live. _This_ is what eats enormous amount of memory for high-quality library. Synths, like analogue or FM zone, take much less space: they need to store a hundred or two of numbers for knob positions, and some more to track every voice phase, LFO phases, envelope time position etc. But this is nothing compared to a sample library with 5 articulations, 5 expressions and 6 levels of loudness for each group of 3‒4 notes. This dwarfs the extra overhead, whether you use a Halion per track or multiple inputs or outputs. Since Cubase virtual memory ("track length", including empty space and "events") is limited to quintillions of bytes, the first limit you hit is the amount of allocated physical memory, say, 64GB ≈ 70 billion bytes, of which only 55 is available to _all_ user programs. This is why the number of Halions playing at once is not that important: they share all memory that never changes, which is very economical if your instruments don't depend on samples (Analogue, FM, Organ zones) or use small samples (loops, sampler tracks, Wavetable, Granular and Spectral zones). This is where sharing code between all instances of the same VSTi saves a lot of physical RAM. With high-quality sample libraries, even this optimisation drowns in the ocean of memory required for keeping samples in RAM. BTW, samplers may or may not share samples between the same instrument loaded into multiple tracks. Good programming techniques permit mapping sample files directly into memory, and the OS plays the same trick: gives each use of the sample a separate virtual space (range of beats) while using one shared copy of the sample, as it never changes, too.
Even more interesting, the same physical memory is mapped into _different_ programs! If you open another program that loads Halion, the same physical memory will be mapped at zero cost into other program's virtual memory, as if into its own separate track (compare with Cubase's shared events, where you may clone events to different tracks without making a copy of an audio file on disk-this is a nearly exact analogy). I can't think of using two DAWs at once, but if you open, say, Cubase and WaveLab and load the same effect into both, its physical copy of executable code will be loaded only once, and shared between the two programs. In fact, parts of the OS are loaded using the same mechanism into a hundred or so of running processes at once.
The only thing to be aware of is VST plugin graphics windows. Loading 100 Halions and making them play at once is totally fine and results in little memory overhead, but don't open the windows of all 100 of them at once: you'll deprive the system of graphics resources, as they are expensive, each window needs much more private RW memory than 63 of 64 empty slots in each instance, and the system needs even more for each open window. But I'd say if you have 64GB, opening 5-10 Halion windows is fine. You'd rarely need even 5.
Wow. I had not even thought about those differences. I mainly used instrument tracks so far. I really like the tip about routing Groove Agent to different tracks. Thx Dom.
Heads up:
- for those who like to route the Groove Agent individual sounds to different output tracks (as shown in the video) ... This only works when you use drumsets from "The Kit Se".
- If you use a different kit (for example Beat Agent), then the "Export mixer to Cubase" will be missing from the menu.
Best 12 minutes ever!! Yup, I arrived at the same conclusion (instrument track), but what you really clarified was how the computer processing was great for that decision now. Ahhhhh.
Thanks!
Thank you so much Isaac, highly appreciate it ❤️
Nice Tip Dom✌️
After almost 20 years of screwing around with FL, I'm finally here 😊 really helpful this guy. Love his enthusiasm
Welcome!
Great explanation and video. I still use Rack Instruments when using Vienna Ensemble Pro because I like to freely move the outputs next to each one of my midi channels in the arrange window. The Instrument track locks the outputs all to it so the additional midi tracks (channels 2-16) can not have the outputs next to them (midi track 2, output 2, etc). I like to have them next to each midi track so I can do automation in the arrange window and such. I think when one just wants a single instrument, instrument tracks are great because the midi and audio are together as a hybrid but for VE PRO environments with multi-timbral it doesn't quite work as well for me.
If I need to choose an instrument I add a MIDI track, and different instruments or samplers. Then I can send my MIDI-track to any instrument and choose what I need.
Thanks for the video, Dom! One quick question: would you also recommend instrument tracks over MIDI tracks when using expression maps? Until I watched your video I was more inclined to MIDI tracks than to instrument tracks in that case.
thank you
Thank you so much for these useful information. Stay blessed. Greetings from Pakistan.
Awesome Dom ! I will follow your way of doing things, let's keep it simple, why complicate :) I'm using MIDI for my Yamaha PSR-SX900 and Yamaha P515. Thank you for sharing !
Respect, Respect, Respect
Useful vid, thanks. I use Cubase Elements for VSTi projects and use individual instrument tracks. I don’t really need any more than the 24 tracks included but could always use the midi track/rack instrument method if needed.
Fantastic Dom, definitely instrument track is better :) well done, you are the man
One (bug?) I've noticed about using instrument tracks, certainly with EZ Drummer, is that the instrument track name is always the same as output 1, changing one changes the other and vice versa. This means you can't meaningfully name your track if you also want to meaningfully name output 1. For example, output 1 is Kick - you whole drum track is now called Kick. This is why I stick with using the VST Rack 😐
Hi Dom , thanks for the great advice . I just realized that I uselessly use multiple rack instruments and probably waste cpu power. I am switching over to instrument . All you videos are really helpful. I use your tricks daily,. Thank you.