Play two instruments at once? Not in this day and age.

J

John Jones

New member
If cubase can play back two instruments at once, why can't it play 2 instruments at once. Crazy.
Even my 20 year old ensoniq keyboard can do what modern cubase can't do - play two instruments at once.

Have I missed something? How do I get Cubase to play (from a keyboard) two instruments at once so that I can audition the combined sound?
 
I'm not sure I understand why you are having an issue. You want two separate VSTi's to create sounds from one MIDI input channel? That is exactly the kind of thing Cubase is awesome at.

Add two instrument tracks. Set the track up with the same MIDI input and arm both tracks. MIDI controller gives input to both tracks. Hell, 100 VSTi's at once if your computer can handle it. Done...

:)

You may have missed something in setup.

Here is 'Addictive Drums' and Cubase 'Mystic' being used by the same controller sending the same MIDI notes to each. No special setup. Only 'All MIDI Inputs' selected as input for both VSTi's, and both Instrument Tracks armed to record.
 

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Shoot if you had a computer that was robust enough I could setup cubase to play as many instruments at the same time as you want (play in real time I mean, not playback arrangements).
 
jimmys69 said:
I'm not sure I understand why you are having an issue. You want two separate VSTi's to create sounds from one MIDI input channel? That is exactly the kind of thing Cubase is awesome at.

Add two instrument tracks. Set the track up with the same MIDI input and arm both tracks. MIDI controller gives input to both tracks. Hell, 100 VSTi's at once if your computer can handle it. Done...

:)

You may have missed something in setup.

Here is and Cubase 'Mystic' being used by the same controller sending the same MIDI notes to each. No special setup. Only 'All MIDI Inputs' selected as input for both VSTi's, and both Instrument Tracks armed to record.
Click to expand...



Can't be done. Not even in the music class I attended could they tell me how to do it. I spent ages trying to find this out years ago. It's simply that cubase can't do it. It can only play back many instruments from the cubase sequencer. I'd like to see anyone play two cubase instruments at the same time from a keyboard.
If I use the same midi input for two instruments in Cubase, as you describe, then I can only play ONE of the instruments, not two at the same time.

It can't be done folks. I've never got over how rotten that is.
 
Guitargodgt said:
Shoot if you had a computer that was robust enough I could setup cubase to play as many instruments at the same time as you want (play in real time I mean, not playback arrangements).
Click to expand...

That's not what I mean. I know cubase can play many instruments from its sequencer.
I mean that Cubase cannot play back more than one instrument from a midi keyboard.
 
John Jones said:
Can't be done. Not even in the music class I attended could they tell me how to do it. I spent ages trying to find this out years ago. It's simply that cubase can't do it. It can only play back many instruments from the cubase sequencer. I'd like to see anyone play tqwo cubase instruments at the same time from a keyboard.
If I use the same midi input for two instruments, as you describe, then I can only play ONE of the instruments, not two.
Click to expand...

Um, I just posted a sample of myself doing exactly that. We need to talk about setup then...

John Jones said:
That's not what I mean. I know cubase can play many instruments from its sequencer.
I mean that Cubase cannot play back more than one instrument from a midi keyboard.
Click to expand...

Either we are misunderstanding you, or you are explaining yourself in a way we do not understand.

You have a MIDI keyboard, and want it to send information to multiple VSTi's and hear them live at the same time right? Or am I hearing you wrong?

What I posted is still sitting here setup. I hit the pads on my controller, and both instruments are playing at the same time. Live. No playback. Two VSTi's are playing at the same time via Cubase.

Shall we Skype so I can prove it to you? This is just silly to me. Whomever you studied under, or whatever method you have used-is flawed. This is exactly what Cubase does without fail.

I call. Raise me a troll GT? :)

No offense JJ, but you are misinformed here. Please let us know if we can help in any way. :D
 
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John Jones said:
I mean that Cubase cannot play back more than one instrument from a midi keyboard.
Click to expand...

Sure it can. Any sequencer can.

You can set up any sampler or sequencer to 'split' a keyboard or send tracks to multiple midi channels.

You just need to dig into midi a little bit instead of just flatly throwing up your hands.
 
John Jones said:
That's not what I mean. I know cubase can play many instruments from its sequencer.
I mean that Cubase cannot play back more than one instrument from a midi keyboard.
Click to expand...

You are not correct but that's ok. I'm sorry the instructors of the music class you attended didn't know what the hell they were doing. See post below for proof.
 
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Naw, it was meant to be a theme song. I just can't for the life of me remember the name. It was from a '70 detective show. Dragnet maybe? Dum, da dum dum. Might have been more accurate. I am way too busy to look it up. Wait..LOL!

Dragnet theme song - YouTube
 
5 sounds at once, I didn't plug in the VO mic so just try to fallow along. I use 2 screens so I was flying in the VST instruments I was using to show how they were set. They are loaded in the vst instrument rack.

It's pretty easy to hear that I am controlling multiple instruments at once live (as you can see I am not recording). Also as you can hear I don't/can't play a keyboard to save my life.

 
I suspect it just didn't occur to him to create multiple midi tracks, but then set them all to the same input source.

I have just tried it on my system - and the only thing to remember is that you must highlight the individual tracks or only the selected one plays. For the record, I've just had 3 virtual instruments inside the computer plus 4 external ones via midi, all play what comes out of my master keyboard with no issues at all. I've never done this before - but it works fine.
 
It doesn't make any sense to control more than one VST with one midi track from a recording standpoint. Even when using plugins that host more than one sound (like halion) it makes much more sense to create a midi track for each instrument within the instrument.

Now I did it just to prove a the point, but normally for that example above there would be another 3 midi tracks.

It doesn't make any sense because you would want to control all the perameters of both instruments while recording.

If it was a live situation, well I would just snag a VST that fit the bill for what I was trying to do like Kontakt running a piano and string pad or something OR I would get a multi zone midi keyboard and dictate what each zone controlled.


But either way he just wasn't correct and I suspect that was why he bounced out of here.
 
jimmys69 said:
Um, I just posted a sample of myself doing exactly that. We need to talk about setup then...



Either we are misunderstanding you, or you are explaining yourself in a way we do not understand.

You have a MIDI keyboard, and want it to send information to multiple VSTi's and hear them live at the same time right? Or am I hearing you wrong?

What I posted is still sitting here setup. I hit the pads on my controller, and both instruments are playing at the same time. Live. No playback. Two VSTi's are playing at the same time via Cubase.

Shall we Skype so I can prove it to you? This is just silly to me. Whomever you studied under, or whatever method you have used-is flawed. This is exactly what Cubase does without fail.

I call. Raise me a troll GT? :)

No offense JJ, but you are misinformed here. Please let us know if we can help in any way. :D
Click to expand...

Your examples of an mp3 file and drums program aren't relevant. A keyboard cannot trigger Cubase to play more than one hardware or software/cubase instrument at the same time.
 
It seems that people don't want to accept this major failing of Cubase. It's the same response I had years ago. No-one admits the fact that cubase cannot audition more than one instrument at the same time.

I cannot select more than instrument in Cubase. So I cannot play more than one instrument in Cubase. That's obvious. Not even the music course teacher could do it.

Cubase cannot audition more than one intrument at the same time. Highly frustrating. Even on my 20 yr old ensoniq I could easily select more than one instrument and play them. But not on Cubase. Doesn't anyone miss not having this extremely important musical option?
 
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