The video below is a great accompaniment to this article. Check it out:

In the previous installment we covered the basic setup for recording MIDI Tracks in a Cycle (loop) to Cubase using the QUICK SETUP = “MIDI REC on DAW“. This time we’ll pick up with overdubbing a Part that is controlled by an Arpeggio… Using the QUICK SETUP =“ARP REC on DAW”.

This setup template places the Arpeggiator block prior to the USB-MIDI output, so those PARTs set to utilize an Arpeggiator will output the MIDI data of the Arpeggio as opposed to the Notes you use to trigger them directly. One of the important things to realize when you are triggering an arpeggio phrase, the notes you use to trigger them are usually not what you want to record to your MIDI Track, you want the phrase data (the note data) of the Arpeggio.

Selecting this template will automatically set the MIDI OUT of the active arpeggiators so that its data is sent to the DAW while the trigger notes are blocked.
Press [UTILITY]
Touch “Settings” > “Quick Setup”
Touch “ARP REC on DAW”

In the previous article we setup to record Drums, Bass and Clavi, using the “MIDI REC on DAW” template – which allows us to record our keyboard playing directly as normal MIDI data. Now let’s setup the “Mega 60s Clean” Guitar in Part 4 to use an appropriate arpeggio phrase.

When you select an Arpeggiator for a PART, it will automatically reference the tempo as currently set for the PERFORMANCE or for the Montage as a whole (if you are using external clock).

Here is our setup thus far:
Part 1 – Drums (recorded as MIDI)
Part 2 – Bass (recorded as MIDI)
Part 3 – Clavi (recorded as MIDI)
Part 4 – Guitar* w/Arp – which we will setup and record as MIDI.

* Press [EDIT]
Press [PART SELECT 4]
Press the lower [COMMON] button or the “Common” spot in the lower left corner of the screen
Touch “Arpeggio” > “Individual”
Touch the Name of the ARP in the first slot to engage the pop-in ARP SEARCH function… we are looking for the following ARP Phrase:

You can type in “JazzFunk” into the portion of the screen with the magnifying glass to initiate a text search…
We want to assign Arpeggio “[Mg]MB_JazzFunk1_C” to slot 1
Press [ENTER]

In the screenshot above you can see the 8 ARP SELECT locations… (only 5 are currently filled)…
As is true throughout MONTAGE – the important functions that you need to access are repeated on the related screens to give you convenient access. The PART ARP SWITCH “Arp Part” and the MASTER ARP SWITCH “Arp Master” both appear here at the top of the screen. Both need to be activated. The MASTER ARP SWITCH must be ON for any of the ARPEGGIATORS to work and obviously each individual PART has its own switch which must also be activated. Remember, an ARP does not start simply by turning the ARP SWITCH ON. You must also meet the requirements setup for that ARP to play. To see these requirements:

Touch “Common” in the second column to see the requirement and settings that define the arpeggio.

On the PART > “Argeggio” > “Common” screen you can see how this arpeggio has been set to respond.
ARP SYNC QUANTIZE – Sets a value for the accuracy of feeding chord intelligent information to the ARPEGGIATOR. If set to a value like 240 clock pulses (an eighth note, to you and me) then you need only be within an eighth note of the downbeat to correctly have the arpeggio change at the top of the next measure. With computer-based/chip-based artificial intelligence, you can be ANY THING BUT LATE. It is better to feed the information to the technology prior to the downbeat. If you are late (musically, late) you will hear the error as the technology tries to accommodate you. If however, you feed the F7#9 chord within an eight note of when you wish to hear it, the 240 setting will make you sound great, immediately! It QUANTIZES only the start of the ARPEGGIO PHRASE – it does NOT, change the timing of the phrase itself, just the “START” of the phrase. This means if you are late by an eighth note, the phrase will remain clock shifted exactly 240 clock ticks behind the beat!
HOLD – determines how it responds to your key presses. ON means you do not have to hold the keys for it to continue. OFF means you do have to hold the keys for it to continue. SYNC-OFF means you do not have to hold the keys and the arp runs freely in the background, maintaining tempo and positition within its phrasing.
KEY MODE – has to do with how the arpeggiator deals with the phrase data. Currently your Key presses are being sorted by the specific arp phrase. If set to DIRECT, your trigger notes are heard.
CHANGE TIMING – Set to change at the top of the measure. This forces the Arp phrase to always be posititioned properly within the measure count.
Velocity, Gate Time, Arp/MS Grid, Quantize Strength, Unit Multiply, and Swing are a part of the Arpeggio Play Effect and can alter the timing and feel of the arpeggio phrase. (More in a future article)
VELOCITY LIMIT / NOTE LIMIT –  These define which KEYS on your keyboard will control the arpegggio phrase for this PART and at what play strength is required to control it. Phrases can be set to start by triggering specific keys at specific velocities.    
OCTAVE SHIFT – will increase or decrease the octave that the phrase is set to play
OCTAVE RANGE – will allow each successive phrase to transpose up and octave. First time through origianl Octave, next time through the Octave will be offset by the value set here.

In Cubase, if you have Dissolved Parts, or you elect to always record to separate tracks, you can setup to record the Guitar ARP to its own MIDI track. But it is totally possible to continue to use a single MIDI RECORD TRACK in Cubase (Channel = ANY) as MIDI does allow data to remain discreet by Channel alone.

If you create a separate MIDI Track set the Channel to “4” to match the Channel of the MONTAGE; PART 4 is set to transmit on MIDI Channel 4.

You will want to turn the CYCLE RECORD function OFF. When recording arpeggios, you want to record through once, start-to-end, to avoid doubling when it loops around. If you think that you are fast enough to stop it before it begins again, you are not!

Use the Cubase Click and Count-in, because your main job is to trigger that arpeggio chord on the downbeat so that the phrase sits in time with the track.

After recording ARPEGGIO data to an external DAW, you must ensure that on playback you are not triggering the ARPEGGIATORS. Understanding the MIDI signal flow chart will help here. When you setup for “ARP REC on DAW” the routing places the Arpeggiators just after the keyboard and just prior to the MIDI OUT (shown below) so that it is able to filter out your control notes and output the arpeggio phrase data instead.
KEYBOARD > ARPEGGIATOR > MIDI OUT 

The videos below are great accompaniments to this article. Check them out:


Let’s start with a basic MIDI example where you are recording Drum, Bass, Keyboards, Guitar, etc., to Cubase one after the other (traditional). This workflow will be most familiar to those used to working in the Motif/MOXF series, and will work very much like working in PATTERN Record mode. We will use the ability of Cubase to Cycle record (Loop while recording) to build as many as sixteen tracks of MIDI data. In this workflow we will be selecting SINGLE PART programs (only): MIDI RECORD ON DAW

Workflow Example #1: PATTERN Mode like Recording

_ Setup the Left/Right Markers in Cubase to define an eight measure region.
_ Set the CYCLE icon to activate loop recording.
_ Set Record attributes on the TRANSPORT to MIX and set Auto Quantize, if desired.

Press [CATEGORY SEARCH]
Select “Init”

Select “Multi/GM”
This Performance has sixteen Parts, each on a separate MIDI channel. You can see Parts 1-8

To view PARTS 9-16 press [SHIFT] + [PERFORMANCE CONTROL]

POWER TIP: When working in a Multi/GM setup where there is a PART in each slot, turn the KBD CTRL icon OFF for each Part – this will allow you to address just the currently selected Montage Part. You can press the [PART CONTROL] button (right side top row). 
When [PART CONTROL] is lit on the front panel, the first two rows of eight buttons become PART SELECT [1]-[16]. You will use these to select the PART you are communicating with currently. 

You will be triggering just one at a time. The screen will automatically update to Parts 9-16 when you select a PART in that range. Notice on the far right you have [MUTE] and [SOLO] functions that will work with the PARTs [1]-[16].
 
Set your Markers in Cubase to outline the number of measures you would like to Cycle (loop) your recording. Let’s say you want to do 8 measures. This would mean you have a left Marker at measure 1 and the right Marker at measure 9. Click on the CYCLE icon (purple) on the Cubase Transport.

Set the attributes for your MIDI recording on the Cubase Transport bar… Set “Auto Quantize” if that is what you desire, and set it so each cycle allows you to “Mix” new data with existing data as it loops around.

I suggest that you select several instruments first before you ever hit record, this way you don’t have to break your concentration to pick sounds. Besides you can always change your mind and substitute for anything later (it’s MIDI, after all). 

For example, in the MULTI/GM Performance I select the following four Parts:
Real Drums
Velocity Bass
Clavi Stuff
Mega 60s Clean

Touch the TYPE/NAME box on PART 1
An overlay pops in from the left with an option to SEARCH

The SEARCH field allows you to search for any PART that occupies a single Part (thus they are all green). Shown below is the DRUM/PERC Search Results:

I create one MIDI track in Cubase, set to receive Montage 1, set to output to Montage 1, and set to Channel = ANY

The Track Inspector in Cubase will give you the information about the current track. You can see that the INPUT is set to “All MIDI Inputs” _ we defined the MIDI Inputs in the DEVICE SETUP > MIDI PORT SETUP screen
The MIDI OUTPUT is set to my MONTAGE7 PORT 1
The MIDI OUT CHANNEL is “Any” which determines how Cubase will THRU the data – we have selected “Any” so that incoming MIDI is echoed back OUT on the channel it comes in on. This is because we are determining the Channel in Montage.

This “Any” Channel setting is a key – It allows Cubase to THRU the data back out on the channel on which it comes in. How it will work: the Drums [Part 1], when selected, will trigger data as CH1, the Bass in [Part 2] will trigger data as CH2, the Clav sound [Part 3] will trigger data on CH3, and the Clean Guitar sound [Part 4] will trigger data on CH4. Now, remember, that LOCAL CONTROL is OFF, so in order for the Montage Tone Generator to respond a complete circuit must be maintained. The key presses travel OUT via USB-MIDI arrive at this active MIDI Track, which echoes the data back to the Montage Tone Generator on the MIDI channel that the data was generated on. 

Cool thing is: I don’t have to worry about the channel, I just set the instrument sound in the PART and when I select it to play I will be transmitting on that MIDI channel. I don’t have to worry about switching Tracks, I’m using just one initially that will capture all the data, Port 1 represent 16 MIDI channels. Now I can just concentrate on playing.

Later, we can have Cubase split the data to separate tracks for viewing/editing. While I’m recording I don’t even want to deal with creating a track for each Part that I play. Once I select a PART [1]-[16] in the Montage, Cubase is ready to record it. 
Dividing data out to separate tracks for MIDI data is a convenience for viewing and editing the data, and we can deal with that when we have data for viewing and editing.

On Montage, I use the Quick Setup #1 = MIDI REC on DAW

Setup the Cubase CLICK and Count-in; Set the Tempo*… And go.
*Both can be set on the Cubase TRANSPORT. You can view the TRANSPORT by pressing [F2] ([Fn] + [F2] on the Mac) on your computer keyboard. See the Cubase documentation (HELP) for details about CLICK options and Tempo Maps.

Recording is exactly like recording to Pattern mode in a Motif XF/MOXF

You can use the front panel PART SELECT [1]-[16] buttons to directly select the Part you want to play… And you don’t have to hit STOP to switch to the next instrument, or even setup or arm another track, or route via a MIDI channel or any of that. Just continue playing. Get your idea down while you’ve got your musician hat on.

Basically, this is how I build my rhythm section tracks – or the basic core ensemble that will play throughout the composition. For the next “section”, set the left Marker at 9 and the right Marker at 17… and so on.

Extra Credit: Splitting the data (DISSOLVE PART)
If I need to edit the data of one of the tracks you can use the MIDI pull down option: DISSOLVE PARTS _ by channel… This separates the four Parts to four tracks for easier viewing.

Once I have my rhythm section tracks in a reasonably workable state… I render them as audio. (the process of transferring the MIDI data to Audio: simply playing back the MIDI data and recording the Audio Output of the Montage to an Audio Track… rather than utilizing the Montage hardware to recreate the data, I will now have an audio waveform documenting these musical parts.

This allows me to play along with them while I free my Montage for more creative duties. I keep the MIDI Tracks in a muted folder -so that if later I change my mind about what’s there, I have my original data.

I’ve found that working with the rhythm section and rendering audio via the 32 studio bus outputs is awesome workflow… Every Part can use discreet outputs, every Part can have its own dual Insertion Effects… And depending on the Project I can even route each drum on its own discreet output to its own audio track (future article)! Heaven!

Now that the rhythm section is rendered as audio, I’m free to use anything I want on my Montage. Because we have MIDI clock, adding things, after-the-fact, like arpeggios, tempo driven effects and LFOs, even replacing earlier Parts, is totally possible.

Finally, everyone will find their own “best method” of working! Scores of variations exist. Spend time learning the available tools in Cubase. If Pattern mode is your workflow of choice, you can setup Cubase AI (free download) to function this way, as described above. Those with Cubase Pro 8 have more options as there is an ARRANGER – PLAY ORDER feature that makes Chaining Sections, placing/creating fill-ins, and the overall task of arranging your data, a breeze. Enjoy!

Want to join the conversation about this lesson? Post your comments on the Forum here.
Next time: we’ll look at recording Part 4 using an Arpeggio in “CUBASE SETUP GUIDE WORKFLOW 2: ARP REC on DAW” – now available here.