As shown here for Retrologue, Cubase Pro 13 users can now route the output of a VSTi to the input of an audio track.
New routing options in Cubase Pro 13 make it easy to archive virtual instrument parts in Cubase.
There are a number of pragmatic reasons why you might want to capture the output from the virtual instruments used in your Cubase projects to their own audio tracks. Here are two typical scenarios. First, you might need to move the project to a different computer (for example, to a collaborator or mix engineer) that doesn’t have the same VST instruments available. Second, virtual instruments can fall victim to the upgrade cycles of your DAW or OS, and preserving your virtual instrument parts as audio ensures you can revisit projects (for example, for remixes or edits) in the future.
Depending on which version of Cubase you’re using, there are various ways you can approach this audio capture, including the Render In Place function that’s available to both Pro and Artist users. For Pro users, Cubase 13 has a further option that’s both conceptually and practically very straightforward: you can select the audio output of any virtual instrument as the audio input of a separate audio track.
Alongside your audio interface’s audio input sources, you’ll see the output from any virtual instruments in the project.
Find The Source
Let’s start with a simple example: capturing the stereo output of a Retrologue synth to a stereo audio track. Having added an instance of Retrologue and an empty audio track to your project (as shown in the first screenshot), click the input selection option in the Routing section of the audio track’s Inspector panel. This displays a list of the available input sources. Alongside your audio interface’s audio input sources (that you configure in the Routing window), you’ll see the output from any virtual instruments in the project. By the way, you can do this in the MixConsole if you prefer.
As a brief aside, if you record‑enable both the instrument and audio tracks, you can capture both MIDI and audio at the same time. Enabling the Monitor (rather than Record) button on the instrument track, on the other hand, lets you record just the audio as you play the virtual instrument. This might or might not be useful in a real‑life context, but the option is there if you need it!
A couple of additional points are worth noting. First, if your audio track is mono, only mono virtual instrument outputs will be visible in the selection panel; if the audio track is stereo, both mono and stereo virtual instrument outputs will be visible and available for selection. Second, when you record the audio from a virtual instrument using this routing‑based approach, the captured audio will include the result of any active insert effects that are used on the virtual instrument channel (but not any send effects).
Make Mine A Multi
When activated, additional outputs appear in the Rack Instruments section of the input selection dialogue, using the track names assigned to them in the main MixConsole.There are several common situations where a single virtual instrument can generate multiple sounds, and it might be useful to send each one to its own audio track. Virtual drum instruments such as Steinberg’s Groove Agent or Toontrack’s EZdrummer are classic examples, but it’s also true of multitimbral sources such as HALion Sonic, NI’s Kontakt or EastWest’s Opus, or any instrument that might create a composite sound by blending two or more sound layers, where the instrument’s GUI lets you assign those layers to separate outputs.
To send each individual sound or layer to its own audio track, an additional configuration step is required — thankfully, it’s generally very straightforward. In the virtual instrument itself, you need to activate multiple outputs (use the drop‑down menu located top‑right of the standard Cubase plug‑in windows) and then assign each of the sounds/sound layers to a specific output. For your target audio tracks, these new additional instrument output options will show up at the bottom of the input selection panel (the additional inputs beyond the standard stereo output appear in their own sub‑section of Rack Instruments outputs) in both the Inspector and MixConsole.
Here’s a simple example using Groove Agent to illustrate the process, but the same principles will apply for any virtual instrument. As shown in the screenshot, having activated a number of additional outputs in Groove Agent, I gave the channels suitable names in the MixConsole (Kick, Snare, Hi‑hat...). Although those names don’t appear in Groove Agent’s own Mixer page (but do in the Activate Outputs pop‑up dialogue), it’s easy enough in GA to select the appropriate output channel for each of the drum sounds. Then, back in the Project window, I added a suitable number of audio tracks. I named these accordingly, and set the input source for each to the appropriate GA output.
You can activate additional outputs in multitimbral instruments such as Groove Agent, and with a little work in the GA Mixer, each sound can then be routed to its own audio track.
With the audio channels record‑enabled, when GA is triggered the audio for each drum sound is routed to the correct audio track and, when you are ready, can easily be recorded. What’s more, you can record all the record‑enabled tracks in a single pass. When you’re ready to archive your finished project, it’s super‑easy to ‘print’ all your virtual instrument sounds as audio as a single task.
The same principles can be applied to multiple sounds in a single instance of HALion Sonic 7, letting you capture each of HS7’s multitimbral sound elements to their own audio tracks. In HS7, the necessary internal routing is also configured in the instrument’s Mixer page. Things are also quite straightforward in many third‑party multitimbral instruments. For example, in EastWest’s Opus, simply activate additional outputs and you can then assign instruments in Opus’ Instrument Rack or Mix Console pages to these various outputs. Toontrack’s EZdrummer or Superior Drummer are equally easy to configure in their respective mixer pages.
If you want to handle multiple instruments in a single instance of NI’s popular Kontakt sampler, the process is a little more complex. This is purely because Kontakt offers an abundance of internal audio routing options — that necessitates some work in Kontakt’s Outputs panel (and quite possibly a dip into Kontakt’s PDF manual if you’re not familiar with the process!).
The Bus Route
Pro 13’s new routing options also apply to Group channels and FX channels, providing a very straightforward means for stem creation.If you routinely use groups to create buses for instruments in your mixes (drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and so forth), then the new audio routing options in Cubase Pro 13 open up a further option: easy stem generation. Stem generation can be useful in a number of contexts, whether it’s as an alternative form of project archival, to send to a collaborator, or in a music‑to‑picture context, to give a sound mix engineer more flexibility when adding music into the overall balance.
The same principle as outlined above for virtual instruments can also be used to capture audio from Cubase’s Group or FX tracks. For example, via the Routing Input source selection drop‑down for any audio track, you can select the output from any Group or FX Channel. As before, if you then record‑enable such an audio track, it will record the audio output from that Group or FX track. If you configure a suitable stereo audio track for each of the Group tracks (instrument bus) and FX tracks in your project, you can then generate a full set of stems (including effects stems) in a single pass.
Trickle Down Effect?
As mentioned earlier, Cubase offers a number of options for capturing the output of virtual instruments or Group tracks as audio, and the new audio routing possibilities outlined here provide a further method to achieve that. At present, it’s an option that only users of Cubase Pro 13 have available. It will be interesting to see if Steinberg do eventually trickle this possibility down to the Artist or Elements versions. Given just how simple it can be to configure even with most third‑party virtual instruments, I’m sure users of both versions would find the process an attractive prospect.