Hello everybody!

I would help me a lot if someone could answer my questions:

I am working on a mix created in song mode inside the Xf8, using also cubase 5 for midi recording, as well as the XF editor in its latest version. I don´t have the firewire expansion card. Midi over USB.

Everything works fine for me so far except for 2 things:

1. I tried to put a limiter on the audio motif MAIN buss in cubase, but it doesn´t seem to affect the audio coming out of the motif in cubase.
What am I doing wrong?
Is there a way to put a limiter on the audio to prevent going above 0 db? I set the audio fader of the motif at appr. -6 db.

2. I am also trying to create a “stutter” effect, with fast filter modulation. It works fine when I do it inside the motif, but when I sequence this midi track in cubase, (using CC control 74 for filter modulation) there is latency AND the cc data are not played accurately. Most of the time the audio drops out in this passage.

Do you have any idea?

Many many thanks in advance!!

Benoit

Not sure why you’d need to put a limiter on Motif input? Is what you are playing on the Motif really that dynamic? As to the stutter effect, it may simply be that your system is being asked to handle too much data and so is choking. If you can, and especially if it’s working internally, just create that effect within Motif and then either record it or synchronize to it on your DAW.

Here’s an article you may find interesting on ’Gate FX’.

MrMotif - 17 September 2014 06:18 PM

Not sure why you’d need to put a limiter on Motif input? Is what you are playing on the Motif really that dynamic? As to the stutter effect, it may simply be that your system is being asked to handle too much data and so is choking. If you can, and especially if it’s working internally, just create that effect within Motif and then either record it or synchronize to it on your DAW.

Here’s an article you may find interesting on ’Gate FX’.

Thanks for your reply.

No, my music is not that dynamic, but I want to get close to 0 db!
Therefore, I need a limiter for the highest peaks, and have optimum levels settings.

As for the stutter effect, yes I thought about too much data going on too, but it can´t be this, because there is only filter modulation, and it´s only one midi track.??
Yes, I will probably do it inside the motif, using the job function…

I will also check your article.

Hi benoit,

Any plug in placed on the main stereo buss of a DAW will only process audio routed through the DAW itself.

From the sound of your post, you are not routing the audio from the XF through Cubase and instead would appear to be using MIDI to play sounds on your XF which is fine until you wish to record or process them externally.

Whilst I’m not totally sure how you are working, you probably need to get the audio from your XF in to your Cubase session.

Regarding the limiting…

If you want to squeeze as much level out of your finished mix as possible, simply leave the master fader at 0, group all your other tracks in Cubase (not including the master fader) so they all move together but remain relatively positioned to one another (and retain your balance) and gently ease them up whilst listening for any crispiness.  Try to get as close as you can to distortion without without going into distortion and then ungroup your faders.

if you see the metering dipping in to red, ignore it as long as it doesn’t sound distorted.  Red lights don’t mean a thing unless you can hear the junk they are telling you about.

If that isn’t enough for you, then you can think about using a limiter after. You’ll probably find you need to use less limiting to achieve a good result.

philwoodmusic - 17 September 2014 07:32 PM

Hi benoit,

Any plug in placed on the main stereo buss of a DAW will only process audio routed through the DAW itself.

From the sound of your post, you are not routing the audio from the XF through Cubase and instead would appear to be using MIDI to play sounds on your XF which is fine until you wish to record or process them externally.

Whilst I’m not totally sure how you are working, you probably need to get the audio from your XF in to your Cubase session.

Regarding the limiting…

If you want to squeeze as much level out of your finished mix as possible, simply leave the master fader at 0, group all your other tracks in Cubase (not including the master fader) so they all move together but remain relatively positioned to one another (and retain your balance) and gently ease them up whilst listening for any crispiness.  Try to get as close as you can to distortion without without going into distortion and then ungroup your faders.

if you see the metering dipping in to red, ignore it as long as it doesn’t sound distorted.  Red lights don’t mean a thing unless you can hear the junk they are telling you about.

If that isn’t enough for you, then you can think about using a limiter after. You’ll probably find you need to use less limiting to achieve a good result.

Thank you Philwoodmusic.

Yes, there is no audio going through the output fader of cubase actually. But through the Motif MAIN buss… I couldn´t find how to get the audio from the XF to cubase. 

As for the limiting, thank you for your advices! I don´t need to squeeze too much level, but just reduce the peaks (without exaggerating it). I could also create a first mixdown without caring too much about levels as long as it stays under 0 db, and then process the mix a second time with some limiting or compression.

Initially I would have liked to do it in one pass, but I don´t know if the motif is designed to work in that way (I also liked to know how the firewire interface works, couldn´t find tutorials on internet)

Sorry for my english…

Benoit

No need to apologise for your English at all.

If you have or get a FW16e for your Motif XF then you can output 16 channels of digital audio (16 mono or 8 stereo in one pass).  So it really depends on how many tracks you have.  Unless you are really working against the clock, I’ve never understood the need to record all or lots of tracks in one pass.  I know the technology lets us do it, but the scope for error increases simply because it is easier to pay close attention to one thing at a time in recording

Working with a FW16e is a very simple process, your MIDI data is presumably in Cubase already, so you designate FW16e outputs for your different parts on the XF, then create new audio tracks in Cubase with those FW16e channels as inputs and record it.  Because the MIDI data is already in Cubase, there’s no need to use any sync options.  You press record and Cubase sends the MIDI data to your XF whilst your XF outputs the audio simultaneously back to Cubase preserving the timing.

Everything goes through the FW16e, both MIDI and Audio.

You need to be careful with how you monitor the audio and you can opt to hear the signal after it is routed through Cubase (DAW LEVEL) or you can monitor the signal as you send it to the computer (Direct).

Once you’ve got all your parts recorded as definitive audio versions that you are happy with, you can remove the MIDI tracks.

If your MIDI data is in the internal sequencer of the XF, then that’s when you might want to use synchronisation, slaving the XF to Cubase.  If you don’t want to do that, you could look at exporting MIDI files so that you can import them in Cubase and have Cubase send that MIDI data to your XF to simplify the recording process.

Hope that helps a little.