Multi Aria in Cubase 10 Pro

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Paul Kearns Posted December 20, 2019 10:43

I'm new here - so pardon me if this has been covered elsewhere.

I'm running Cubase 10 Pro on Windows 10 Pro (on i7 based rack).

What I want to do is the following:-

Load the "Multi" vst as an instrument track in Cubase
Create 16 midi tracks and assign them the individual sounds in aria
Map each channel to the corresponding outputs in Aria (Ch 1 to output 1/2, Ch 2 to output 3/4 etc.)
Send each of the 16 stereo tracks to 16 stereo audio channels in Cubase for mixing etc.
Use Cubase and my 48 channel mixer to mix the track (using motorised faders and automation).

The first few steps and the last are no problem - and it all works fine.

My problem comes on the audio side of the Aria outputs. There seems no way to map the 16 stereo outputs to 16 audio tracks in Cubase. Only output 1/2 appears in the Cubase mixer panel.

If I select anything but aria outputs 1/2 no audio is heard on tracks 2 through 16.

For example:- Cubase supply Halion as part of the software and this works in much the same way as Aria (in that it's a multi instrument vst plug-in), but it automatically creates a mapped output for each channel selected. For example, in Halion, if I select channel 2 audio to output to "slot 2", a new audio channel appears in the Cubase mixer.

If I try the same thing with Aria, and select channel 2 to output to 3/4, the audio output mapped to 3/4 just disappears. I've tried creating more inputs in Cubase - but there's no way to map the outputs from aria to these inputs.

Does anybody know how to do this - or if it's even possible?

One "workaround" is to simply use multiple instances of the single Aria - but this loses the overall "sound" of the orchestra playing together. Instead, it sounds like each player is in his own "box" and the overall sound is "flat" (compared with the multi version).

The other "workaround" is to simply allow everything to go to output 1/2 in Aria and mix the incoming midi signal for each channel (Cubase can do this). This "works", just as long as the fader values never drop to 0 (otherwise it "resets" to 127 - don't know why) - so it's not ideal. It also prevents audio "tweaking" of individual instruments

Again - apologies if this has been dealt with before but, I love the software and the sounds - I just can't figure out how to do what I want to.

If this can't be done, what's the point of the " Multi" version of Aria having all these "outputs" (as they appear to go nowhere)?

I have asked Steinberg, but they said to ask you - so I am.

Hope you can help and it's just me being dumb (having a senior moment 😀).

Paul.

5 comments

Date Votes

Joel Mankey Posted June 23, 2020 18:07

Hi Paul. I know this post is 6 months old, but I'm having exactly the same problem you describe. Thanks for your thorough description of it. The MM help site stops short of providing the details you are asking for, and I see there have been no responses, but I wanted to check in with you and see if you had figured it out. Please let me know if you have any insight.

My setup:

Cubase 10.2.5 on Windows 10

Aria Player

Garritan PO5

Cheers and grattitude,

Joel

Joel Mankey Edited June 23, 2020 18:19

Nevermind! I figured it out!

In the VST Instruments area, you have to select outputs and enable the specific outputs you want to have show up in Cubase.

Paul Kearns Posted June 24, 2020 15:14

Hi Joel,

Well - a big thanks to you. I never actually figured it - mainly because I found that having multiple instances of the single player sufficed for what I wanted - so I sort of lost interest.

I never got a reply - so figured it might be impossible in Cubase - which made me wonder "why bother with a multiple copy if you can't use it"?

I never ran out of RAM - even with 100 instances loaded (I've got 32 GBytes - so it didn't become a serious issue)

Anyway - very grateful for the heads up - I'll try that next time I use Garritan.

It'll save time setting things up.

Thanks again

Paul.

Joel Mankey Posted June 24, 2020 18:20

My pleasure!

Glad you had a work around. For anyone else who reads this post, it turns out the ARIA individual instance (As opposed to the multi-out) looks EXACTLY the same in Cubase's VST Instruments rack, EXCEPT that the circled button, which only appears on the multi-out instances of ARIA's VST plugin (And probably other companies VST's as well, come to think of it)

Happy musicking!

Brian Roland Edited October 17, 2020 20:55

Yes, make sure to use the multiple output version of ARIA.

You can activate the outputs on the Cubase mixer in the instrument rack.

Also be aware that it's possible to load an instance in 'rack mode' and use MIDI tracks instead. Advantages there are separate faders for 'MIDI' controllers and true VST audio faders. MIDI tracks also have more advanced offerings in the track inspector for things like MIDI AUX sends.

The disadvantage of going with MIDI tracks to a Rack-Mode instance is that you can't export the tracks as midi-loops directly. The nice thing about MIDIloops is that they store end-point information along with them (the which plugin, and state of the VST plugin of which it is connected). MIDIloops can be 'auditioned' directly in the Cubase Media Bay without 'loading and setting up your instrument first', and pulling them into a project brings it in with your instrument(s) already set up.

Side-note: built in aria effects like reverb will always be mixed and come out of outputs 1 and 2.

Using multiple instances with instrument tracks shouldn't a problem, as multiple instances actually tie into the same base ARIA engine and can share resources (my understanding...so if you use lots of instances and get pops/clicks, tweak the memory/buffering settings in at least once instance). It might actually help with thread management depending on your PC.

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