Cubase's Device Panel problems

UPDATE: Turns out you can’t automate or use quick controls with device panels. This makes the feature pretty useless. This make Ableton Live much more tempting since I plan to use analog synths more in the future and I haven’t had issues with Max for Live. I can get all controllers cheap or free.

This is sequel to post where I told how Softube could make Modular more usable with couple simple fixes that shouldn’t take more than two weeks. These changes should be easier. At least if it doesn’t require upgrades. Before I go into them little bit background. I like Softube Modular and Cubase’s Device Panels for most parts but both have usability issues. Device Panels are Cubase Pro feature which lets you create control panels for hardware synths and treat them like VST instruments for the most parts but we get into that. You can list these instruments among VSTs. When you drop them to track you get audio routings done automatically and can use it almost like VST. It should be like VST but I will get to that.

I don’t know what is correct term for this functionality. It could be Midi Device something. Device Panel is the thing you use for controlling external instrument and that is where usability issues are. Other way to get this functionality is to have midi and VST sending midi message to external synth on one track and taking audio from synth to another track. That is harder to set up and two tracks is more than one track. Having everything on one track makes everything easier. You can get this on Ableton Live with simple Max4Live midi control. Don’t know how you do it in other DAWs. I had midi and VST on one track and taking audio to other track solution for DSI Tetra. November seems to be my make Device Panels month. So I did panel for Tetra because having everything on one track makes everything easier. Had made device panels for other synths about year ago. Have made couple Max4Live controllers when I still used Live.

Device panels haven’t got any attention for ages. I am one of probably four people around the world who cares about them. Manual refers to PDF but doesn’t give links to it. It is not complicated to get something that works. It is harder if you want something more complicated. There is a reason why you can’t find Device Panels as easily as Max4Live devices. It is hard to get them to state where you want to share them and if you get them to that state I don’t know how to export single device panel.. If you haven’t tried doing one yourself you don’t understand why someone made Device Panel like they did. Some of the blame goes to synth manufacturers' and their midi implementations but those don’t cause similar problems in Max4Live.

I won’t go into everything wrong. I don’t have high hopes everything will ever be fixed. I can still make not pretty but usable device panels. What I go into should be easy to fix and would make creating and using Device Panels easier. You create functionality by adding controls and connecting parameters to them. Parameters set minimum and maximum values and which messages it sends to external synth. You can copy and paste controllers as much as you want. But you can’t copy parameters. You can only create or remove parameters. It shouldn’t be hard to add one button which copies selected parameter. You can have parameters with same names so it doesn’t even have to change name. Just create a copy.

Now you have to create default parameter with default values. You have to change control type every time. With Tetra I use NRPN but I have to change to it with each parameter. In this case about 90 times. It isn’t easy with CC either because you have to select correct CC from dropdown where all CCs doesn’t have number. Letting me copy parameters would give message type and default values correctly and I only need to change name and NRPN number. Much faster and I wouldn’t get temptation to write angry blog post.

What I told earlier is annoying only when you create Device Panel. Bigger problem happens when you use it and don’t know couple things. Device Panel’s setting are not saved when you save the project and device panel snapshots don’t send all parameters to synth. This makes snapshots pretty much usable. At current state you should not select preset options. It will replace bank and program selection by something completely useless. Required functionality make this work is already there. You can save snapshots and when you load snapshot some of its values are sent to external synth. But not all. I don’t know how it is defined what values are sent.

We should be given easy option to send them when we want. Cubase should save current settings to project and sent them to synth when you open project. When Device Panels were created usability wasn’t the most important thing. I found one version of PDF I mentioned before. It is dated to 7th of January 2009. Whole thing still looks the same as in that PDF. Document helped with aligning controls which help making better looking panels. But it didn’t help with everything. For example I still don’t know how to make control which gives values between 0 and 127 with certain number of steps. I assume I should make control with maximum value of number of steps - 1 and multiply control’s value. It works in Control Parameter Assignment but not in panel. Like there is a bug or something.

I would be happy with Device Panels if these three things were fixed. They don’t look too sexy like in picture above but they are extremely useful. My educated guess is fixing there three things I mentioned here wouldn’t take too much time. Someone just have to give these some priority.

I am currently trying to find out way to save sounds so that I get correct sound from synth when I reopen project. Currently testing possibility to save synth preset on track and have Cubase send program change message when I open synth. In this way it is good device panels don’t send values to synth when you open project or device panel. I hope it doesn’t send. This requires making device panel again because it looks like I can’t change preset mode afterwards or add more channels or change anything I selected when I created panel first time. Makes me reconsider Ableton Live where this works better and you can find controller for most of synths.

Singles' day, Black Friday and what ever

Singles’ day was last week and Black Friday is next week. If you don’t know what Singles’ day is it is Chinese version of Black Friday on eleventh of November. It isn’t that popular but few places try to introduce it to Finland. Don’t know if that is the case elsewhere. Price reductions were quite conservative in some places. Some had similar price drops as they have on other sales. Didn’t get anything because stuff I wanted was just released and is not in sale few weeks after the release.

I think same happens during Black Friday. There have been sales during November. I was curious about Softube’s sale. I have Softube Modular. They have “Modular ready” software on sale. Opened music computer first time in months to check how I like Softube Modular. Since building pedalboard for guitar and bass I haven’t opened music computer that often. I am learning to play guitar and bass better at the moment and I don’t need music computer for that.

Softube really need to spend week or two on Modular usability. It needs few usability tweaks which should be easy to do. First is you should be able to drop modules between other modules and other modules make room for new one when you do that. Now you need to move other modules first to make room and then move them back. This is just a simple change which is huge improvement to usability. Second is you should be able to see only modules you own and order them in way you want. Now you see everything. Modules you don’t own are greyed. You have to go through few lines of greyed modules before you get to DAW connectivity modules which usually are first ones you want to add. This doesn’t make me want to buy those modules or synths/effects they come from. This makes me use the synth less and makes me less likely to buy other modules.

Softube Modular sounds great and have few great modules but usability is really bad. Those changes would be huge improvements to usability. I don’t think those would be that hard to implement. Other problem was modules I don’t own come from synths I don’t want or have other better options for. I don’t want to buy synth just to have couple usable modules in software modular. Model 72 and Model 84’s modules would be interesting but I already have Native Instrument’s, Arturia’s and U-He’s versions of Moog Model D. Also one analog synth heavily inspired by it. Arturia and U-He have done good versions of Roland’s Juno synths and I have Roland Boutique version too. I have no need for other versions even if they sound marginally closer to original units. If Softube Modular was more usable then I might reconsider them for modules.

Softube Modular test made me update almost everything on music computer. Still need to do that for few companies’ plugins. It made me realize I have too many plugins. I probably just need to focus on few of them. U-He’s Dark Zebra can probably do most of what I want from synths. Exception being MPE. For that I have Equator 2 and Pigments. Arturia’s Collection V and U-He’s Diva manage vintage sounds. Current Kontakt libraries should be able all sampled instrument needs. For effects I have same situation except I don’t know which ones do all I need. I assume Valhalla DSP, iZotope, FabFilter and Unfiltered Audio have made few of those plugins. FabFilter Timeless 3 is interesting but after watching few demos it doesn’t inspire like some other plugins I have. On simple delays Valhalla Delay with EQ after it should give better results. Unfiltered Audio have plugins for crazy modulation.

There is probably use case where Timeless 3 is better than what I have but I don’t want to add more options. I want to limit options. Having too many option take me out of zone when I am trying to do something. Rather have fewer options which I know what they do. Pedalboard showed that. Before pedalboards I played to DAW and had many plugins to choose from. Now I play more when I have only what is on board. Next I do same to Daw and plugins. Maybe not delete plugin from computer but hide them in DAW so I have few option for delay, reverb and everything else and use only those. This means no more buying new plugins. This Black Friday might turn into buy nothing day for me.

There are two or three hardware synth I want to my setup but I need more room and money from them. There is need for more than four voice analog synth and Hydrasynth with polyphonic aftertouch is quite tempting. Third could be really versatile monophonic analog synth. Analog polyphonic synth is probably Arturia’s PolyBrute. Not sure if need versatile monophonic synth like MatrixBrute with it.

Cosmic Odyssey

Jim Starlin wrote Infinity Gauntlet which was basis for MCU’s Infinity War and Endgame. Mike Mignola is best know for Hellboy. Got this rather for Mignola’s art than Starlin’s writing. Infinity Gauntlet was good but I haven’t liked DC’s cosmic side that much. I am more Marvel guy. My favorite DC comics are not part of main continuity if there is one. Cartoonist Kayfabe interviewed Mignola. They mentioned this was one of turning points of him finding his style. I got interested enough to finally read the comic. Got it from sale some time ago.

This is Darkseid story. You can call me Marvel fan boy but to me Darkseid is boring version of Thanos. I know Darkseid was created first. In this book it is more like Thanos than some other books I have read. Starlin’s writing has something to do with it. This isn’t his best work even though it has some great moments. Greatest being when Superman and Orion meets again after they were separated. That spread was best art in the book and lead into it worked well. Superman and Orion were over all best part of the book. I didn’t thing Superman could be most interesting character in anything. To be honest it was contrast to Orion which made him interesting.

Story’s main problem is it is so convoluted and childish. There is Anti Life entity which tries to come to our universe. Its minions need to destroy two out of four solar systems to destroy the Milky Way. Destroying those solar systems would make gravity to destroy the Milky Way. I know superheroes are not meant to be realistic but that went too far. Later one character said five character draw nearly unlimited power from five different sources. Few panels later it was told two draw power from same source and others draw it from whatever. In cosmic DC tradition ending is huge deus ex machina. Good guys win because something comes out of the blue. I don’t mean the character but what character does.

I didn’t read this for the story I read this for Mignola’s art. Mignola said in interview his drawing were more like what his art became later but inker made it look more traditional art. Still there are some hints of things to come. Mostly when Superman fights big robot and when Batman fight monster with hole in its chest. Hellboy is known for use of color and black. This use more traditional coloring. Using color as story telling device makes Mignola’s art work. This is Mignola before he only draws what he is good at and before colors and inking lifts his art to new heights. There is only one thing I didn’t like about art. It happens three times. I don’t know if it was Starlin or Mignola but there are three times when art repeats telling something earlier panels already told us. It happen with after Orion and Superman meets again, after Starfire and others don’t find their bad guy and at the end of third issue and beginning of fourth. You can say four times because third issue ends with repetition and fourth starts with repetition. This was waste I have not seen from older Mignola. His art has evolved to have only what is necessary.

Don’t know how popular the story was or is. It is Starlin doing Thanos story with DC characters and art by Mignola who is becoming what he will be without aid of color and inking his work needs. For me Mignola’s art is only reason to get back to this later and in those cases it is to study few pages which work really well. I think I will keep reading Mignola’s work before Hellboy. I have few of those waiting to be read.

Music favorites of September and October of 2021

I think it is Bandcamp Friday when this comes out. I hope so. Last time I mentioned Bandcamp Friday in post it was only month of the year when there wasn’t Bandcamp Friday. Speaking of Bandcamp I start to put Bandcamp links in this list for albums I got from Bandcamp. Saves me time to search for the videos and helps you finding and buying the album from Bandcamp. I assume some of the albums don’t have videos.

Before getting any further this list doesn’t albums I have mentioned in previous post. Hiemis good. Kuutanic good. Rivers of Nihil good. Archspire good. We Butter the Bread with Butter good. Now we can move on.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe: Candyman

It has been a while since I bought movie soundtracks. I got few good ones during these two months. First is Candyman soundtrack. Haven’t seen the movie and not going to. There was Bandcamp post about album which made me check it. Weird interesting electronic music from horror movie.

Halloween Kills OST

Another horror movie soundtrack from movie I am not going to see. If you like John Carpenter’s soundtrack music this is as good as it gets. His soundtrack for previous Halloween movie is also good.

The Art and Soul of Dune Official Soundtrack

Latest Dune movie got three soundtracks. Real one, sketch version and one for companion book. I got all of them. I think one for companion book is best of them. Sketch version have tracks with themes which have moments of silence between them. Soundtrack is made to work with moving pictures. Companion book music is best one for background music. Even when I bought all three albums I think there could have been better artists for this kind of music. But Hans Zimmer wanted to do this and he has done some good soundtracks.

Planet Supreme: Creation of a Star

When I said I could think better artist for Dune soundtrack than Hans Zimmer most of them release music on Cryo Chamber. If they make God Emperor of Dune movie they should ask Cryo Chamber collaboration to make music for it. I don’t have much to say about Planet Supreme. This album is just album I like.

Beyond the Ghost: The Desolation Age

Another Cryo Chamber release I just like. Don’t know much about the artist. If you listened Dune video and these two albums don’t you think these two do the other worldly sound better?

The Bridge City Sinners: Unholy Hymns

I had hard time waiting for next Bandcamp Friday after I learned about The Bridge City Sinners. They have excellent videos but I got this Bandcamp so Bandcamp link. Gothic americana with punk attitude. Found them when I was looking for similar bands to…

Heathen Apostles: Bloodgrass Vol. 3 EP

Gothic americana with little less punk attitude. It has been a while since Heathen Apostles released full length album. Releasing first two Bloodgrass EPs as one album doesn’t count. But at least we get new music every now and then.

Enji: Ursgal

I might be weird but I get Blade Runner & Cowboy Bebop feeling from this album. Found this when saw Bandcamp post about the album. If I remember correctly these songs tell about her life as outsider in big city. That is what Blade Runner and Cowboy Bebop tell about. I guess jazz and subject matter connects this to those.

Wytch: Exordium

I might have mentioned Cryo Chamber before. Ripple Music could became similar label for stoner and doom for me. I am trying to limit my music purchases. I had hard time doing that when I checked few albums from the label. Everything just seemed to work. Wytch is good example.

Steve Von Till: A Life Unto Itself

Went to check this because this was name your price record for one week. Steve Von Till is member of Neurosis. I like the band but have never checked his solo material. Based on this album that has been mistake. Man and guitar with some supporting instruments giving weird feeling. Loving it.

Lana Del Rey: Blue Banisters

I usually limit these lists to ten entries. This time I have to go to eleven. Blue Banisters is Lana Del Ray’s second album of 2021. I remember waiting for new Lana Del Rey album for ages. Now we have got three albums in relatively short time. Both 2021 albums have songs which could have been easily dropped but both are mostly solid albums with some really good songs.

That was it for this time. I had to drop Kadavar, Lucifer, Heldom and many Ripple Music artists from list. I think two months was too long period for the list this time.

I think I will concentrate on liquid ink on Corel Painter

I know the picture has many things wrong and I have not reached point where we learn to draw poses on figure drawing course. It was experiment on quite a few things. Some worked better than others. It was first time I finished anything with Corel Painter’s liquid ink. I have tried to find brush technology to concentrate on and I think I found it. Liquid ink wasn’t my first choice. Thick paint and watercolor were but I couldn’t get anything ready with them on time I wanted.

Picture above took way too much time but with thick paint or watercolor I couldn’t have done anything on time I spent on the picture. Some of the time was spent learning how each brush works and to be honest I used most of them wrong. That is why it looks too much like made with Microsoft Paint. Later I learned how I should have done few things differently to get more artistic look. I use that picture because there are few things I like about it and I don’t want to spent another evening doing it again. Someone said you should finish your work and then move next project instead of trying to make one project perfect and never finishing anything. I follow that rule.

Thick paint and watercolor get closer to where I want my paintings and drawings to get. Liquid ink lets me get more done which is better on learning colors, composition and other drawing skills. At this point it is better to get more done than trying to learn too many things at ones. Liquid ink is quite simple and I don’t need to learn how different brushed mix paint. And I have good excuse to watch more Cartoonist Kayfabe where they talk about inking among other things.

Inktober just ended. Might take part next year if I feel confident I can keep up with one picture a day schedule. To prepare for next year and to learn I am trying to get something done every week. Not sure if I post everything I get done. Goal is to get build habit and find working work flow.

I found Hiemis or they were thrown towards me and I missed them first time

It was first time someone gave me anything for free because of this blog and I completely missed it. Someone sent me codes for new Hiemis album La Chose last May and it took until October until I found out about it. This is how professionally I run this blog. I missed first notification back then. I thanked them and apologized for late reply. Checked album with idea I will forget if it didn’t work. I didn’t promise blog posts or anything.

Turns out they knew my music taste and my love of Cryo Chamber releases. I don’t know how they label their music. I would use label dark cinematic ambience Cryo Chamber use for their music. Hiemis’ music is more melodic the Cryo Chamber’s releases. I would say it is more cinematic thanks to more melodic nature.

You can guess I liked La Chose because you are reading this post. I don’t think I have told why I like cinematic ambient music. It is perfect background music taking your mind to different levels without needing too much concentration to music itself. You are in this mental place and suddenly you realize it was music you are listening that took you there. It is bit like soundtrack to science fiction movie but it doesn’t need to react to movies cuts and scene changes. I want that mental place to be somewhat enjoyable. Maybe little dark with some sadness. Place feeling otherworldly is plus.

It is sometimes frustrating trying to find that kind of ambient music. Some ambient artists don’t aim to create pleasant places. They may create feeling of automated factory with unpleasant sounds. I have so specific taste of ambient music it is hard to find artists who have similar taste. Hiemis seem to share that taste.

Post has links to three Hiemis’ albums. You can check them if they take you to place you like to be or find interesting. If you want to send me your music I promise to check it when I finally see the message but I don’t promise to write post about it. I wrote this because I wanted to share the music. If I don’t write about your music it doesn’t mean it is bad. It is just that it is not to my taste or I have completely missed your message. I probably missed your message.