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Steinberg Cubase
VST 5
Interactive Phrase
Synthesizer
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Steinberg Cubase VST 5
- Interactive Phrase Synthesizer Overview
+ a step by step "how to" example for INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
Steinberg
Cubase VST's ISP (INTERACTIVE PHRASE SYNTHESIZER) is a
hidden little secret that few musicians take advantage of...
Have you played with it yet? If not - you'll be hooked when you
try it!
Click to enlarge
I had stumbled
upon the ISP before and did a quick test and moved on, but again
recently ran across the manual text describing it in the Acrobat
PDF file (PDF's suck!) and my curiousity was again tweaked.
So I read up on it again over some Asparagus & Snowpeas
with Chicken, and soon after proceeded to sit down and try this
Cubase VST feature on my Mac and later the PC... (basically
the same on the PC)
So what is the
Interative Phrase Synthesizer? Well, it is NOT a SYNTHESIZER...
It is a cool feature within Cubase that allows you to take previously
entered part data (musical phrases) and transform them into
new music such as arpeggios and one finger accompanyment. It
then allows you to further mutate the resulting music by setting
parameters such as dynamics, pitch & rhythm. In short it
is a real time midi mutator...
The ISP
is best summarized by Steinberg as what it ISN'T...
"It is primarily
not a random music generator, instead it relies heavily on your
real time input. In fact you play it like an instrument..."
And that is exactly
what I did... I ran through the PDF examples in the manual (in
DOCUMENTATION folder within Cubase) and tried the accompanying
ISP files and wow - I was floored! This baby is one powerful
dynamo of an idea generator... It takes what you give it and
tweaks away at it according to parameters you feed it... The
great thing about the INTERACTIVE PHRASE SYNTHESIZER is the
amount of CONTROL you have on affecting the output...
It has a lot
of user input options which determine the random output it
will generate... Glistening arpeggios... Incredible rhythm
jabberings... and if you want - constantly looping and evolving
phrases based on your input... At first glance it may seem
like a toy, but this thing is so powerful that once you master
it you can RECORD some intense shit into the MIDI TRACKS in
Cubase VST... And if you desire you can take that further
by editing the parts data after recording the midi. Intense.
This feature is particularly useful for creating rhythmic
grooves which yield pleasantly unpredictable results. That
is what makes it so much fun!
For INSTANT
GRATIFICATION just follow the simple steps below.
Simplified STEP
BY STEP guide to recording IPS output into a PART in VST on
a MAC (also PC).
* select
a blank midi track to record a short riff.
* Record
a few bars of playing to your liking.
* Trim,
quantize and/or edit if desired and select PART with mouse (in
EDITOR or in ARRANGE).
* Go
to menu bar and select FUNCTION/CONVERT TO IPS PHRASE - save
in empty slot
It will then be
named whatever the track was named and will be available in
the phrase presets.
* Mute
that track you just recorded
* Bring
up the IPS from PANELS
* Select the new
phrase you just converted in the PHRASE INPUT popup in the ISP
window
* Choose
new track in Cubase which you are going to play and record live
on
* Select OUTPUT
as CUBASE in IPS (not MROS as suggested
in manual - PC use MROS)
NOTE:
you need to have CUBASE selected in the input options in MIDI
SYSTEM before you can select it as an instrument.
* Hit
ACTIVE button on IPS and make sure that IPS A is ON (or IPS B
or both if you desire).
* Play
keyboards to test and then hit RECORD and boom - whatever you
play and hear on the IPS is what you will be recording.
Stop and play
it back... It is all there to edit and tweak away on if desired!
NOTE: We had
a LATENCY problem with the Interactive Phrase Synthesizer
on our PC (also ARPEGIATTOR as well) with a severe delay when
striking a note on the keyboard and a mondo lag before the
results came out. Turns out that the SYSTEM PREROLL setting
was 500 (in SYNC settings). We changed this to 5 and voila
- it worked.
Now if only
we could get Steinberg to help us figure out why the ISP and
the ARPEGIATTOR does not work with VST INSTRUMENTS on the
PC (it works fine on the Mac???). We asked support for help
but never got a response. I guess that PC folks simply do
not care enough about these features, otherwise Steinberg
would certainly provide a cure. So if you plan on using the
ISP or ARP with VST Instruments on the PC - good luck trying
to record the data AND audition it at the same time. We gave
up trying to get this to work. Do you have any suggestions?
Let us know. Send an email to us at music@beatmode.com
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