The one thing that would convince me to upgrade (DAW)...

[Sundown]

Hey all,

 

I'm a Steinberg loyalist (I've been using Cubase since VST 3.7 around ~1999), but I only upgrade once in a long while. It's not about money, it's that I insist on a clean, methodical install which is a major endeavor and disruption with plug-ins, patches, other software, and project files. I went from VST 3.7 to VST 5.5, to Cubase SX 2 to Cubase 6.5. That's four versions in about 20 years (and three PCs during that duration). My last change was 2012, so all of the changes were really within 12 years. I don't have a lot of free time with two young kids, but maybe in a year or two I'll get a new PC and all-new software.

 

I know Steinberg and other DAW providers are doing amazing new things with technology, but the single feature that would make me chew through a lead wall and break my slow update cycle is actually quite simple:

 

Allow the user to set VST instrument channels to mono or stereo

 

Right now, all you get is stereo channels when you invoke a VST instrument (or several stereo channels, depending on the quantity of outputs in the instrument). I don't think this has changed with v10.5.

 

Why is this so important to me?

 

I'm a keyboard player that writes a lot of keyboard-centric compositions and a sure way to clog up a mix is to run everything stereo. One of the biggest awakenings for me was learning the value of running some channels mono. Sometimes I'll use a single summed output from a hardware synth (the Left/Mono output), and sometimes I'll record both stereo channels (as dual mono) and drop or mute one of them. If I want some added depth I'll add a delay and pan it to a different position.

 

Right now I have to do a lot of bouncing to get what I want. When I think about how much more efficient and flexible I could be if I could leave VST instrument tracks "live" (yet still mono), it makes me smile. I envision a simple right click or setting at the top of the mixer channel that would allow me to choose stereo, summed mono, right channel, or left channel. That would provide the ultimate flexibility for any situation.

 

I don't know if it would require a change to the VST spec, but I'm sure Steinberg is capable of making the change if they want to.

 

Am I alone in this, or does this make sense to others?

 

Todd

[Anderton]

Does it have to be a truly mono channel, or is having a channel interleave button that changes what the track looks like to a mixer from stereo to mono be good enough?

[Sundown]

Hi Craig,

 

I think your suggestion is more than good enough. If the solution required changing instrument coding and the VST3 spec, it would never happen. Not on it"s own, at least.

 

As long as I have the freedom to dump a channel (right or left) or sum the channel at the mixer to a mono signal, I"m good. The rest of the data stream can just be muted or ignored.

 

Edit: It is important to me that the resulting mixer channel is actually mono (for effect and panning reasons). There are some freebie plugins out there (e.g. Brainworx bx_solo) that will take a stereo data stream and allow you to mute left or right channels, but if you're applying the plugin to a stereo VSTi channel, the panning and insert effects are less than ideal. I'm still looking to see if there is a different plugin that might work better. My ideal state would let me to choose whether the mixer channel I'm using is stereo or mono (and whether it's taking the R or L channel, or summed mono).

Todd

[Markyboard]

 

Allow the user to set VST instrument channels to mono or stereo

 

 

I don't know if it would require a change to the VST spec, but I'm sure Steinberg is capable of making the change if they want to.

 

Am I alone in this, or does this make sense to others?

 

Todd

 

Changing the VST spec isn't needed as Reaper and I assume other DAWs already have this option built into the tracks. Right click on the track record button and under the record output selection select mono or mono latency compensated. These are just 2 of the options. Are you sure Cubase doesn't have something similar?

[Sundown]

 

Are you sure Cubase doesn't have something similar?

 

Hi Mark. It's hard to say since I'm still running v6.5. Maybe I'll download a demo of 10.5 on my leisure laptop and see what's changed.

 

They have changed a lot with routing. For example, later versions allow you to route VST instruments into standard mixer channels as an input. You can't do that with 6.5. Absent busses, there is no routing option in 6.5 for VSTs into a mixer channel other than itself.

 

Way back in the VST 3.7 and VST 5.5 days, you had more control over the channel that a VSTi occupied. With SX and later versions, a VSTi channel was just created in the mixer by default.

 

If v10.5 does have a way to do this elegantly, I'll take the time this Summer or Fall to roll my system. My hardware is still in pretty decent shape, and I could always bump my RAM up for cheap (going from 16 GB to 32 GB). For the flexibility it would give me, it would be worth the time (plus I wouldn't have to deal with software incompatibility issues anymore with newer, Win10 stuff).

 

Todd

[Markyboard]

Understood Todd. I started with Cubase SX3 in 2005 but switched over to Reaper several years later. There may have been a few changes to Cubase since then . I cant remember what issues I had when MS autonomously switched me over to Win 10 but surprisingly it was very minimal. I usually keep my drivers up to date but still I got lucky...real lucky.

 

In case you have any doubts I do not recommend this update approach.