Linking to Your Sequencer
Linking with Steinberg Cubase VST/24 (Mac OS)
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Beatnik has verified compatibility with Cubase VST/24 for Mac OS, versions 4.1 through 5.0.
Setting Up
  1. Install MIDI linking software on your computer, following the supplied installation instructions. We support the Open Music System (OMS), which can be downloaded from the Web. OMS is available at:

http://www.opcode.com/downloads/

For best results, make sure to get version 2.1 or greater. If this site is inaccessible, do a Web search using your favorite search engine.

  1. Install Cubase VST, VST Score, or VST/24 on your computer, following the supplied installation instructions.
  2. Restart your computer.

This will enable the MIDI linking software, so that Cubase and the Beatnik Editor can detect it.

  1. Launch the Beatnik Editor.

Always launch the Beatnik Editor before Cubase. Otherwise Cubase won't detect the Beatnik Editor at the other end of the linking utility.

  1. In the Beatnik Editor, select the linking utility as your MIDI input source.

Go to the Edit menu and select the Preferences... command, then in the Preferences dialog box select OMS as your MIDI input source.

  1. If OMS prompts you to turn off AppleTalk, answer OK.

AppleTalk is known to interfere with MIDI, and can cause both Cubase and the Beatnik Editor to hang.

  1. In the Beatnik Editor, make sure you have one or more Session windows open.
  2. If you want visual linking, click on the Instruments tab in a Session window.
  3. Launch Cubase.
  4. If this is the first time you've opened Cubase, it will prompt you to select a MIDI routing utility. Select OMS In and Out.

Working with Cubase and the Beatnik Editor

Remember: Always launch the Beatnik Editor first.
  1. Launch the Beatnik Editor.

Launching the Beatnik Editor first ensures that Cubase will be able to find it when Cubase starts up.

  1. Launch Cubase.
  2. In Cubase, open your sequence.
  3. Set up your Tracks to play back on the Beatnik Editor MIDI synthesizer.

Highlight any MIDI track, then:

Click in the Output box (in the Track Info section) and select Beatnik from the pop-up menu:


  • For all tracks that you want to play through the Beatnik Editor, select Beatnik as the MIDI Output.
  • Click and hold on the Prg box, then select 0-127 from the pop-up menu:

This is the patch numbering system that the Beatnik Editor uses.

  • Click and hold on the Bank box, then select Swap Value Bytes (Roland) from the pop-up menu: (Leave Send MSB First checked.)

  • Double-click in the Bank box, then type the Bank number that you want to use for this track:

Use Bank 0, 1, or 2:

Bank 0: General MIDI Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: General MIDI Percussion Instruments)

Bank 1: Beatnik Special Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: Beatnik Special Percussion)

Bank 2: Custom Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: Custom Percussion Instruments

Note: You can also adjust the Bank number by clicking the top or bottom of the box.

  • Double-click in the Prg box, then type the patch number that you want to use for this track:

  1. Verify that the link is working.

MIDI events on MIDI channel 1 are visually linked to the Beatnik Editor. This gives you an easy way to verify that the link is working: Just send a Program (patch) Change from Cubase on channel 1, and look at the Beatnik Editor to see whether that same patch number is highlighted in the Instruments tab of the current Session window.

Note: If you want to access the Beatnik Editor's Percussion Banks, then select channel 10, set the Prg to OFF, and select the Bank of your choice (again, 0, 1, or 2):


As with most MIDI Percussion Banks, each MIDI note number (pitch) plays a different Percussion Instrument, all at natural pitch instead of transposing to different pitches. (To get pitch control over a Percussion instrument, use the Beatnik Editor to copy it into your Custom Melodic Bank.)

Inserting MIDI Bank Select and Program Change (Patch Change)
Events Into Your Sequence

In order for you to be able to export a MIDI file from Cubase, import it into the Beatnik Editor, and convert it to an RMF file that plays the same MIDI Instruments every time, you'll have to insert Bank Selects and Program Changes into your tracks' MIDI event lists. This is especially important if you're using Instruments that you've created in the Beatnik Editor.
  1. Open a Track in the Event List window.

Select a Track that contains notes that you want to drive the Beatnik Editor, then go to the Edit menu and select the List command. An Event List window will appear, looking something like the following:


  1. In the Event List window, insert a Bank Select event at the very start of the Track. This will be a Continuous Controller message for controller number 0.
  • Click in the Insert choices pop-up menu, then select Control Change:

  • Change your cursor to the Pencil tool by control-clicking and selecting the Pencil tool from the pop-up box:

  • Since you want this to be the first event in the Track, click your pencil in the top left corner of the Event List's graphic part:

A new Control Change event will appear at the start of the Track.

  • Beatnik uses the MSB form of the Bank Select message, so double-click on the new Control Change event in the Val.1 column, and type in 0. Then, double-click in the Val.2 column enter your desired Bank number.

The Bank number should be 0, 1, or 2:

Bank 0: General MIDI Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: General MIDI Percussion Instruments)

Bank 1: Beatnik Special Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: Beatnik Special Percussion)

Bank 2: Custom Melodic Instruments (on channel 10: Custom Percussion Instruments

  1. Still in the Event List window, insert your Patch Change events.
  • Click in the Insert choices box, then choose Program Change from the pop-up window:

  • Change your cursor to the Pencil tool by control-clicking and selecting the Pencil tool from the pop-up box.
  • Since you want this to be the second event in the Track - directly after the Bank Select event - click your pencil just below the Bank Select event. A new Program Change event will appear. Or, to insert additional Program Changes at other times, you can insert them here and then drag to the desired time.
  • To set the Program (Instrument) number, double-click on the new Program Change event in the Val.1 column, and enter your desired Program number. The Program number should be in the range 1-128:

Note: Although Cubase uses Program numbers 1-128, the Beatnik Editor uses Program numbers 0-127. As a result, you need to enter a program number one higher than the one you want the Beatnik Editor to receive.

Moving Your Sequence Into the Beatnik Editor and the RMF Format

When you're finished inserting all your Bank and Patch changes, and your notes are all sounding the way you want them, save your sequence as a Standard MIDI File. Then, in the Beatnik Editor, Import that MIDI file into a Session window (or just drag it into the Songs tab of a Session window ), Play the song as a check, and finally export it as an RMF file.

Linking to Your Sequencer  / Linking with Steinberg Cubase VST/24 (Mac OS)    top previous page next page