{"id":516,"date":"2019-04-27T00:22:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T14:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/?p=516"},"modified":"2023-01-13T15:51:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T04:51:41","slug":"vcv-rack-and-cubase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/music\/vcv-rack-and-cubase\/","title":{"rendered":"VCV Rack and Cubase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This post was written using Rack v0.6. The following will continue to work until Rack v2, however this information is now largely obsolete given that VCV Bridge<\/em> is deprecated and unsupported as of Rack v1<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently started using VCV Rack<\/a>. Rack is a cross-platform open-source modular synthesizer that aims to model Eurorack standards in software. While it is yet to hit version 1.0, Rack already has a sizeable number of free (and paid) plugins<\/a> that extend functionality of the software, and an active community<\/a>. Rack runs as a standalone application, but also plays nicely with other DAWs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rack manual outlines how to use it with several audio applications, but details for integrating it with some of the software I often return to\u2014Max and Cubase\u2014was missing from the Bridge<\/a> page at the time of this writing. It seems that some updates to the manual (detailing how to use Rack with Cubase) are waiting for review in GitHub, but the steps listed don\u2019t appear to work with Cubase on macOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, though here are the steps I have used to get audio from Rack in and out of Cubase. A post about using Rack with Max will follow.<\/del> [See above]<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Rack to Cubase<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To send audio from Rack into Cubase, add a mono\/stereo FX Channel Track<\/i> to your project, and select \u2018VCV-Bridge-fx\u2019 as the effect <\/span>[Fig 1]. Give your FX Channel Track<\/em> a useful name, such as Rack Input Port 1<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Load
Fig 1. Load VCV-Bridge-fx onto an FX Channel Track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the plugin editor window for VCV-Bridge-fx<\/em>, choose a unique Port (eg. Port 1).  In Rack, set the \u2018Audio driver\u2019 of your Audio output module to Bridge<\/i>, and under [No Device] <\/i>select the same Port as set in the plugin in Cubase. [Fig 2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"et
Fig 2. Set Rack’s Audio module to ‘Bridge’ and choose a Port that matches the plugin settings on your FX Channel Track in Cubase.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Audio from Rack should now be redirected into Cubase. To record the audio sent from Rack into Cubase, add a new Audio Track<\/em> and set the input bus to be the FX Channel with the VCV-Bridge-fx plugin. [Figs 3 and 4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Add
Fig 3. Add an Audio Track to record Rack’s output.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Choose
Fig 4. Choose the FX Channel Track as the input bus on your Audio Track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[Caveat: In Cubase, mono Audio Tracks<\/em> only accept mono FX Channel Tracks<\/em> as input, however stereo Audio Tracks<\/em> accept both mono and stereo FX Channel Tracks<\/em> as input.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record Enable<\/i> your Audio Track,<\/i> hit record, and make some sounds in Rack. <\/i> Note: If Monitor<\/em> is enabled on the audio track you are recording to [Fig 5], be sure to set the output bus of your FX Channel Track<\/i> to No Bus<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"You
Fig 5. You don’t need to monitor the input here as the FX Channel sends audio to the Master bus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Cubase to Rack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To send audio from Cubase into Rack, create a mono\/stereo FX Channel Track, and select \u2018VCV-Bridge-fx\u2019 [as in Fig 1].  <\/span>In the plugin editor, choose a unique Port (eg. Port 9). <\/span><\/i> Give your FX Channel<\/em> a useful name, such as Rack Output Port 9.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set the output bus on the Audio Track<\/em> that you want to send into Rack to the FX Channel<\/em> added in the previous step, eg. Rack Output Port 9.<\/i>  In Rack, add an Audio output module.  Similar to Fig 2, set the Audio driver to Bridge<\/i>, and select the same Port as set in the plugin in Cubase.  Audio from Cubase will be routed into Rack through the outputs of the Audio module [Fig 6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fig 6. Audio routed from Cubase into Rack via an FX Channel Track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When loaded as an insert effect or on an FX Channel Track<\/i>, the ‘VCV-Bridge-fx’ plugin stops audio pass-through, so there is no need to set the output bus of the FX Channel Track<\/i> to No Bus<\/i>.  If however, you need to monitor the audio sent to Rack in Cubase, you can instead load Rack Output Port 9 <\/i>as a send effect<\/i> on that audio channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post was written using Rack v0.6. The following will continue to work until Rack v2, however this information is now largely obsolete given that VCV Bridge is deprecated and unsupported as of Rack v1] I recently started using VCV Rack. Rack is a cross-platform open-source modular synthesizer that aims to model Eurorack standards in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4SgL0-8k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/x37v.com\/x37v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}