XTC good news and bad news Cubase 5.5.1 and XITE

[dante]

Well I was planning to do some XTC stuff down the track for a ScopeRise article, looks like this might be pre-empted.

You're not the only one having Cubase XTC problems :

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29465 Edit : Woops looks like this was just a feedback loop

Anyways I'll try some of the stuff you're talking about this weekend, I've got Cubase 5.5.0 so maybe I'll do tests, then go 5.5.1 then test again this weekend. Although this will be on PCI not XITE

[siriusbliss]

As mentioned in other threads - Ralf has mentioned that XTC/VSTim mode is not entirely working yet.

Greg

[dante]

I did 5.5.0 => 5.5.1 last night. Will report back on XTC tests this weekend.

[dawman]

Well I always prefer proof through pictures, so I will show the successes
I have had using Modular IV XTC/VSTim.
I use Reaper onstage for hardware effects automations and lighting, real
simple stuff, but it's a real simple app so I figured I could get XTC/VSTIM
a shot and see what it does.
I just started this a week ago but I only really need Modular IV to work
and it works flawlessley for me so far.
Perhaps it's becasue it's a basic meat and potatoes app with 960ppq and
excellent stability.

I'll post more as I dig through other synths and mixers, but I was really
only interested in MIDI automations of presets and effects for live work.
So far it's perfect and I might even start using it to automate the entire
gig including Modular IV w/ Mixers + FX.

Untitled.jpg

[dante]

Trouble is Im an XTC newb so not getting far. Ive engaged XTC mode, then closed down Scope and started Cubase

xtc-01.JPG (13.49 KiB) Viewed 5457 times

Then going to VST instruments, where Kontakt and Halion etc show up - but no Scope instruments. What step have I missed ? As you can see the Scope I/O's are all there but cant find instruments. And the Scope manual about XTC is showing an ancient version of Cubase.

XTC-not-showing-scope-instruments

xtc_no_instruments.JPG (50.29 KiB) Viewed 5457 times

[Me$$iah]

Did ya refresh the plugins list

If not try that

I remember having to do this when I was experimenting with the xtc funtion when I first got my original luna card

[dante]

Thanks for that ...doing it now, taking a long time, getting a few of these.....

preset error

xtc_11.JPG (5.15 KiB) Viewed 5444 times

[at0m]

Dante, and what if you manually load/select the presets file for the device - loading it from the device's front panel? Maybe the devices are trying to load the wrong presets file?

[dante]

Well it seems to be working on mine, some of the Scope devices dont load - LightWave 5 gives an error, so this is just normal LightWave.

LightWave XTC Automated

lightwave-xtc.JPG (119.9 KiB) Viewed 5439 times

Ive got one automation track and its recorded the movement of 3 knobs on the lightwave.

Also not sure why Ive got Scope-PCI as well as XTC synths on the menu - aren't they the same thing ?

xtc-and-scope-pci-synths

xtc-synths.JPG (23.39 KiB) Viewed 5439 times

Dante, and what if you manually load/select the presets file for the device - loading it from the device's front panel? Maybe the devices are trying to load the wrong presets file?

Ok thanks At0m Ill play round with that tomorrow....sleepy now... cyas...

[dante]

Ok will test poison and prisma tomorrow .. On crappy iPhone at the mo. I don't have XITE but I think the cubase plugin scanner picked up my old Scope 4.0 folder in C drive and called that XTC so I will use the synths under Scope-PCI menu.

[dante]

Well I can test the Cubase 5.5.1/Scope PCI 5.0 combo some more with poison/prisma 2night, at least that's half the puzzle and if it works it makes it less likely a steini issue.

[dante]

Its definately buggy. My results with Poison and Prisma were not as successfull as with Lightwave ( although the Lightwave test was only 5 knobs ). Observations :

1) Poison. A few of the knobs worked, and sliders didnt. When I dropped down the Poison Parameter list, the sliders didnt seem to be present.
2) Prisma. 3 out of 4 knobs I tried didnt automate. However, the parameters that didnt automate were actually present in the dropdown parameter list for Prisma.
3) The above observations hold true whether I was using the mouse or external MIDI controller.
4) I was able to record midi controller info from my Phatboy for any control I wanted, and it played back and twisted the knobs accordingly.

So with 1) I thought I had hit on a pattern that Cubase wasnt automating parameters that were not available to it from the dropdown, but this was not born out by 2) which wouldnt automate even if they were in the list.

4) would be my workaround if I was stuck with this scenario - eg just record the midi CC data rather than record automation tracks.

Hope this clarifies. Probably maybe not what you wanted to hear though

[dante]

Thanks for the efforts. I am not sure what you think I wanted to hear

Well I thought you may have wanted an indication that the issue was not widespread so therefore you had a chance of fixing it on your setup. I guess its widespread though.

Whatever the problem, it seems to me that Steini and S|C are out of step, and it would be a problem that they both had to work on so that the correct mapping occur between the 2 environments.

Maybe later versions of Scope synths use different control numbers to what ealrier cubase versions used as mapping. Was it all working back in Creamware days ?

And yeah the board0 thing seems to be xite specific. I got no error messages at all during automation tests (including simultanous midi keyboard recording and Phatboy twiddle automation writing), only a few warnings during plugin scan and also errors when trying to bring up the older scope 4.0 version plugs ( under XTC sub menu ).

[spacef]

*
In case one moves a knob while having write activated nothing gets recorded to Cubase VST automation.

I have this everyday in cubase 5.5.1.... and it's one of numerous bugs that look like will remain unfixed until a paying upgrade...

The solution (at least with "regular " parameters such as channels or vstis):
- save the song,
- the automation track should appear now.
- stupid isn't it

So not having any recorded automation line is "normal" in 5.5.+..75% of the cases (i mostly automate levels and mutes, shouldn't be a big deal, but...).
i discovered that the recorded automation line appears, and is actually playing, only after a "save" or "save as" of the project. You can try to write all day again and again, it will not do anything until you save. There are a lot of those small bugs that did not exist in 5.1 (the best/most stable cubase ever in my opinion).
saving incrementally and often is more useful than ever with this cubase release...

let us know if the "save" solution for automation works for xtc too.
for the other bugs, i don't use xtc at all so cannot comment.