SOLUTION: Correctly Importing SampleRobot instruments to Waldorf Quantum and Iridium

 As a long-time user of SampleRobot and a recent owner of a Waldorf Iridium Core synthesizer, I was excited to learn that SampleRobot 6 has explicit support for the Waldorf Iridium and Quantum instruments. After working with the synth for several days, however, I encountered a number of unexpected roadblocks when attempting to import my own SampleRobot recordings into my Iridium Core that the existing documentation and tutorial videos didn't cover. After a couple days of research and experimentation, I have finally figured it out, and wanted to share my findings for future users.

Recent developments

So far I have only found one video describing the process of importing SampleRobot instruments, and it's the one Waldorf published to their YouTube channel, however that video glosses over a very important fact: If you follow their steps exactly as described, it will work at first- but only if you leave your USB drive or SD card inserted in the synthesizer. If you try to load any instruments you created without the original storage device connected, the synth will complain that it can't find the samples!

If you want to permanently import your SampleRobot instrument without having to leave the USB/SD storage connected, you must import the samples into flash memory, and create the instrument from there. But that leads us to another problem: YouTuber Tim Shoebridge has the most popular video that covers the process of importing samples into a Quantum or Iridium, and it is very good, but it was recorded before the 3.0 update to the Iridium system software, which changed how sample storage works. His steps involve using an "Import" action which no longer exists in current Iridium/Quantum software. That functionality has been combined with the pre-existing "Add" action, but the workflow is different from what you'll see in Tim's video.

My steps below will show you how to correctly (and permanently) import your SampleRobot instruments into your instrument, as of the 3.2.0 version of Iridium Core OS (January 16, 2024).

Importing the samples

These steps assume you have already recorded your instrument in SampleRobot and exported the project in "Waldorf Quantum and Iridium (*.map)" format. I am a heavy SampleRobot user, and have already written some guides on working with it. If you'd like to see some more info on using it to make instruments for Quantum/Iridium, let me know.

First off, after you export your instrument to Waldorf format, make sure that you copy the resulting files to your USB drive or SD card exactly as follows: The USB drive/SD card must have a directory named "samples" at the root, and that directory must contain one or more instrument directories, each one containing the instrument's samples and MAP file. There can be other stuff on the drive/card, but all your Waldorf files must follow the above directory structure.

In this image you can see we have a USB drive named "IRIDIUM" and it contains a folder named "samples" with a subfolder named "The Giant Piano" which contains all necessary samples, plus the MAP file.

Note: Because some physical buttons on these devices have the same text as some on-screen buttons on the touch screen, I will try to use the word "press" for physical buttons and "touch" for on-screen controls.

1. Insert your USB drive or SD card into your synthesizer.
2. Press the physical Load button on the synth.
3. On the Load Patch screen, touch Init to create an empty patch.
4. Press OSC 1.
5. Touch Wavetable and then touch Particle to select the standard sampler engine.
6. Touch Actions, and then touch Add.
7. In the upper-left corner of the touchscreen, toggle to the correct storage device for your samples (USB Drive or SD Card).
8. In the left pane of the touchscreen, touch samples.
9. In the right pane of the touchscreen, touch the directory name of the instrument you want to import (for the instrument in my screenshot above, I'd touch "The Giant Piano").
10. Leave the directory name selected (don't select any individual files), and then touch Add.
11. An "Add Samples" dialog will appear, asking if you want to copy the files to internal flash memory. Touch Copy.
12. The samples will be copied into the "samples" directory on the synth's internal "Samples" storage. (For example, my "The Giant Piano" directory now appears between the factory "Tanya Samples" and "Vocal chika" directories in my internal storage.)

Loading the instrument map

The MAP file contains all the information your Waldorf synth needs in order to place each sample in the correct pitch and velocity ranges.

1. With your USB/SD storage still connected, press the physical Load button.
2. On the Load Patch screen, touch Init to create an empty patch.
3. Press OSC 1.
4. Touch Wavetable and then touch Particle to select the standard sampler engine.
5. Touch Actions, and then touch Load Map.
6. Use the touchscreen to navigate inside the original directory that contained your samples on your USB stick or SD card, and touch the name of the MAP file. (In my example, I'd navigate to "USB Drive > samples > The Giant Piano > The Giant Piano.map".)
7. Touch Load.

Your samples should now be mapped the way you set them up in SampleRobot.

Testing and saving the instrument

You should now have a very basic sample-mapped instrument. Use the pads or fire up your DAW to play around with it to make sure your velocity layers are mapped properly (if you used more than one layer) and the pitches are mapped across the keyboard as you expected. You can make the necessary changes in the Timbre page of OSC 1, on a per-sample basis if only minor changes are needed. If you find massive changes are required, it might be best to go back to SampleRobot and re-record. (Again, if anyone needs tips here, let me know.)

Your freshly-imported instrument has a "gated" envelope (extremely fast attack and release) and does not adjust volume in response to velocity changes. It WILL trigger the appropriate samples if you imported multiple velocity layers, but it won't adjust their playback volume without some modifications.

To change the amp envelope to attack/release like you want, press the Envelopes button, and then make the appropriate adjustments on the Amp tab. (For example, I increased the Release to 1.54 seconds for my piano instrument.)

To make the instrument adjust volume in response to different velocities, touch Mod Targets on the Amp tab and then dial in the appropriate "Amp VeloAmt" value. In my case, 80% gave me the best velocity curve for my MIDI controller and playing style.

When your instrument is ready to save, do the following:

1. Press the physical Save button.
2. Enter a name for your patch and fill out the appropriate attributes. (I put all my patches into an "ultimateoutsider" bank so I can find everything I've created quickly by just selecting that bank in the preset browser.)
3. Touch the blank space beneath the Save and Cancel buttons on the touchscreen to bring up the patch number entry dialog.
4. Type in a patch slot number as a starting point to find where to save your patch. At least on my unit, the first available patch slot was 164. You can use the selector dial to scroll through existing patch slots until you find a blank one.
5. Touch the red Save button to store the patch in the current slot.

And that's it! I do hope I save some future Waldorf-owning SampleRobot fiends some time with these updated steps!

Tutorial: Making a Multi-output Drum Kit in UVI Falcon

UVI Falcon has taken the soft synth world by storm since its release, but there's not a whole lot of information out there yet on how to do certain things with this powerful instrument.

This tutorial walks you through the following aspects of building your own sample-based drum kit in Falcon:

• Using layers in Falcon to send different drum sounds to separate audio output channels that you can mix and process individually in your DAW.
• Setting up an exclusive group (or "choke group") to simulate real hi-hat behavior.
• Using Falcon's "custom drop" feature to import multiple samples into a single keygroup.
• Using the round robin trigger mode to add variety to individual percussion sounds.
• And finally, we'll see how to apply some of this knowledge to modifying kits in UVI's excellent Beat Box Anthology collection of classic drum machine samples.

To help you get up to speed quickly I've put together a free mini sample pack for this tutorial, which you can download from the Ultimate Outsider Software page. We'll start off by building the kit's layers and importing samples, and then complete the kit by setting up the multi-channel audio routing in a DAW. As an added bonus, I'll show you how to create or modify your own kits using samples from UVI's Beat Box Anthology. I'm using Ableton Live 9 in my examples, but most of what's covered here applies regardless of what DAW you're using. (Part 5 of the written tutorial also includes configuration steps for Steinberg Cubase.)

TUTORIAL VIDEO

I produced a YouTube companion video that covers everything in this written tutorial except for Cubase configuration.



If you prefer written tutorials, read on!

PART 1: ADDING THE KICK LAYER

1. Open up a new DAW project and create an instance of Falcon. Make sure your left and right panels are both visible. You toggle the panels on or off using the Show/Hide Panel buttons at the top of the Falcon window. Also make sure all the sections of the Edit tab (Program, Layer, Keygroup, Oscillator, Mapping, etc.) are visible by enabling their respective icons. Falcon automatically creates a new, empty program (patch) when you start a new instance.
   
   
   
   
2. Download the Falcon tutorial sample pack from the Ultimate Outsider Software page. Extract the samples to a local folder and then browse to them in the file browser tab of Falcon. I've added my copy of the folder to the Favorite Places section of the browser.
   
3. Click the wrench icon near the top of the Falcon window to open Falcon Preferences. On the General tab, enable the One Shot option next to Sample drag'n'drop mode. This will ensure that our drum samples automatically play all the way through when triggered.
   
4. You'll notice that each of the samples includes the intended MIDI note value in its name. Drag the Kick C1 sample to the C1 key on Falcon's virtual keyboard. This creates a new layer ("Layer 1"), a new keygroup ("Kick C1.wav"), and a new oscillator that contains your sample. You should be able to trigger the sample with your MIDI controller or by clicking its note on the virtual keyboard. If you select the List pane in the left tab of Falcon, you can see the new layer and keygroup.
   
   
   Tip: The lower you click on the virtual keyboard, the higher the velocity of the auditioned sound. This velocity sensitivity happens by default, and is the result of velocity modulation to the amp envelope, as shown in the above screenshot (bottom of the window). If you disable or delete the Amp. Env modulator, you will disable velocity sensitivity for this keygroup.
   
   Note: If you didn't set your drag'n'drop preferences to One Shot in step 3, you can apply one-shot mode to an individual sample oscillator by right-clicking inside the waveform and choosing Set as One Shot on the shortcut menu.
   
5. In the List tab of Falcon's left pane, rename the current layer by double-clicking the layer name and typing: Kick
   

PART 2: ADDING THE SNARE LAYER

1. Click the + sign in the Layer(s) row to add a new layer.
2. Double click the new layer's name and rename it to Snare. Leave this layer selected (so that it's highlighted.) The Keygroup(s) pane should appear empty.
   
3. Drag the Snare D1 sample from the file browser to the D1 key of the virtual keyboard.
   

PART 3: PUTTING HI HATS IN AN EXCLUSIVE GROUP

1. In the List tab, click + in the Layer(s) row to add another layer, and rename the new layer to Hi Hats.
2. Making sure that only the Hi Hats layer is selected, drag the Closed Hat F#1 and Open Hat A#1 samples to their respective places on the virtual keyboard. Your single Hi Hats layer should now have two keygroups, each containing a single sample oscillator.
3. In order to make the hi hats behave more like real cymbals, we're going to put them in an "exclusive group," where one hi hat sample cuts the other one short when playing. With the Hi Hats layer selected, scroll the Keygroup(s) view all the way over to the right so you can see the ex. group column.
   
   Note: If you can't find ex. group, right-click any of the column headers in the Keygroup(s) pane and make sure to check ex. group in the list.
4. For each of the keygroups under Hi Hats, set the ex. group field to 1. (You can change the values by dragging your left mouse up or down on the fields, or by double-clicking them and entering a new value.) This puts the hi hats into the same exclusive group. Now when you play the two hi hat samples very quickly, triggering one of them will cut the other one short.

PART 4: IMPORTING ROUND-ROBIN SHAKER SAMPLES

1. Add a new layer in the List tab and name it Shaker.
2. Make sure that only the Shaker layer is selected, and then SHIFT-select all of the Shaker A3 samples in the file browser. Notice how all of these samples end with something like "rr1?" Falcon recognizes this as an indication that these are intended for a round-robin keygroup.
   
3. Hold down ALT on Windows (or OPTION on Mac) while dragging the shaker samples to the A3 key. This brings up the Sample Drag'n'Drop dialog. Select NoteName RoundRobin under Mapping method and make sure Destination points to your Shaker layer, and then click OK.
   
4. You should now find that your Shaker layer has a single keygroup that contains all eight shaker samples. Each time you press A3 on your keyboard you will hear a slightly different shaker sample.
   
5. At this point we have a basic drum kit that sends all audio to the plugin's "Main Out" bus. Save your work now by clicking the wrench icon and selecting Save Program and Samples. In addition to saving your program as a UVIP file, this command is supposed to create a folder in the same directory containing all samples used in that program.
   
   Note: On version 1.0.1 of Falcon, Save Program and Samples doesn't appear to actually save the samples (not on my Windows DAW PC anyway). I have found that the Save Program and Samples as command, however, does correctly export the samples. Something to keep an eye on.

PART 5: PREPARE YOUR DAW FOR MULTIPLE PLUGIN OUTPUTS

Before we start setting up our Falcon kit to use multiple outputs, we should make sure our DAW is ready to receive audio from the plugin's various outputs.

Ableton Live

The easiest way to do this in Ableton Live is to make use of the External Instrument device (only available in the Standard and Suite versions of Live).

1. The MIDI track hosting our Falcon instance receives audio from Falcon's "Main Out" master stereo output. When you're working with multiple outputs, it's best not to assign any parts to Main Out, since that bus is also shared by Falcon's four Aux buses. What this means for our DAW setup is that we'll need four additional MIDI tracks to receive audio from the four layers in our drum kit. I've named my additional tracks Kick, Snare, Hi Hats, and Shaker.
   
2. Drag an External Instrument device to the Kick track. Point its MIDI To to the Falcon track, channel 1. Under Audio From, select the Falcon 2 output.
   
3. Repeat this for the Snare, Hi Hats, and Shaker tracks, only set their Audio From entries to Falcon 3, Falcon 4, and Falcon 5, respectively.
4. Select the Falcon track and make sure that it's armed for MIDI input.
   

Steinberg Cubase

Since all the screenshots up to this point use Ableton Live, we'll take the Cubase setup from the top. I'm going to use the "Rack Instruments" approach (versus the "Track Instruments" approach), because you can use the rack method in all versions of Cubase from 5.0 on. These steps will definitely work in the Pro and Artist editions of Cubase, but probably apply to the limited editions as well.

1. In a Cubase project, go to Devices > VST Instruments an add Rack Instrument instance of Falcon.
2. When Cubase asks if you want to create a MIDI track assigned to Falcon, click Create.
3. Back in the VST Instruments window, click the Activate Outputs icon on the Falcon instance.
   
4. In the menu that appears, make sure to enable outputs Falcon 1-Falcon 5. The plugin's Main Out goes to Falcon 1, and the other four outputs are for the individual drum layers.
   
5. If you expand the Falcon folder under VST Instruments in your arrangement view you should now see five separate VST channels, one for each output pair enabled on the plugin. You can set up inserts and sends on these channels just like regular audio tracks. In my example, I renamed the VST channels to represent which drum parts they would receive. I also renamed the MIDI track that's routed to the Falcon instance.

   

   The Cubase project, after renaming the VST channels and MIDI track and importing a MIDI loop.

PART 6: ASSIGN LAYERS TO SEPARATE OUTPUTS

1. Back in Falcon, locate the output column in the Layer(s) tab of the left pane (you may have to scroll right to see it). This column is actually hidden by default, so if you cannot find it, right-click one of the column headers in the Layer(s) list and then click output on the shortcut menu. 
   
2. For each layer in your kit, select a different individual output to match the Audio From selections you picked in the previous section. (Kick = Out 2, Snare = Out 3, Hi Hats = Out 4, Shaker = Out 5.)
   
3. Now when you play the appropriate notes on your MIDI controller you should see audio coming in on separate tracks in your DAW. Use Save Program and Samples as to save the multi-output version of your kit if you like.
4. The sample pack I put together for this tutorial includes a MIDI drum loop that you can import in your DAW to test the kit out. Drag the clip onto the MIDI track where your Falcon plugin instance is hosted. You can now apply your own effects and EQ to each drum part in your Falcon drum kit!
   
5. At default track volume, the shaker layer is pretty loud in relation to the rest of the kit. If you'd like to adjust the volume of a specific layer, go back into Falcon and locate the volume column in the Layer(s) pane of the List view. You might have to scroll to see it. Also, the volume column is hidden by default, so right-click one of the other column headers and then click volume on the pop-up menu if it's not currently shown. Make sure that only the layer (or layers) you wish to adjust is selected and then adjust the volume field for that layer by dragging down or up.
   

PART 7: MODIFYING KITS IN BEAT BOX ANTHOLOGY

UVI's Beat Box Anthology is a great collection of kits and samples of dozens of classic drum machines. All of the kits in the collection are set up to send all sounds to the instrument's Main Out. Users of the free UVI Workstation are stuck with this limitation, but Falcon gives you the ability to tweak these kits to suit your needs. Beat Box Anthology is included in UVI's Vintage Vault bundle, and the following steps assume you have both Falcon and Beat Box Anthology installed.

1. Let's start with a new instance of Falcon, and expand the Soundbanks category to locate the GM Kits under Beat Box Anthology. (The General MIDI kits will work with the MIDI loop included with my Falcon tutorial sample pack.)
   
2. Double-click one of the kits to load it into the currently selected Falcon part. I've selected the DR Tracks kit, which is based on the Sequential Circuits Drumtraks unit from 1984.
   
3. On the List tab of the left panel we can see that this kit contains two layers. One layer is for the hi hat choke group, while all other sounds in the kit reside on the other. We can assign the hi hats to their own output the same way we did in Part 6 earlier. First, make sure that only the HH layer is selected in the List view, and then scroll over to locate the output column in the Layer(s) section. If you don't see it, right-click one of the column headers and then click output in the shortcut menu to add it to the Layer(s) view.
   
4. Change the output setting for this layer to Out 4 (to match the assignments we used in part 6).
   
5. For the rest of the drum sounds, we'll need to edit the keygroups assigned to individual samples in the kit. First, make sure that only the Drums layer is selected, and then ensure that you can see the output column in the Keygroup(s) view. Like with the Layer(s) view, the output column is hidden by default.
   
6. Now assign the outputs of the individual keygroups to your desired output channels. You might want to hide some columns in your Keygroup(s) view for this step so you can see the keygroup names and outputs without scrolling. You might also find it easier to work in this view by sorting it in root key order, and you can SHIFT-select and CTRL-select multiple keygroups to change their output settings at the same time. Here are output assignments that match what we did when building our own kit in the previous sections, in order of root key note value:
   
   B0 & C1 (kicks): Out 2
   D1 & E1 (snares): Out 3
   (The HH layer should already be on Out 4)
   A3 & A#3 (shaker): Out 5
    
7. Next set up your DAW to accept multiple plugin outputs just like we did in section 5 above, and don't forget to arm the Falcon track to intercept your MIDI if you're planning to test your setup out with your keyboard controller.
8. If you have my Falcon tutorial sample pack, drag the Falcon Drum Loop MIDI clip onto your Falcon plugin track and loop it.
   
9. Important: Don't forget to save the modified versions of your kits! Click the wrench icon and use Save Program as or Save Program and Samples as to back up your work.
10. Unlike most of the UVI libraries, Beat Box Anthology includes individual drum samples that you can access in the file browser to create or modify your own kits. If you have the auto preview button activated, you can audition the samples while you browse by selecting them with your mouse or the arrow keys.
    
11. You can drag these samples from the file browser right into your kit.
    

Well, that's it for now. Check out the Ultimate Outsider YouTube channel or the blog at UltimateOutsider.com for more production tips. Enjoy!

Recording Virtual Instruments with SampleRobot Part 1: Getting Started

SKYLIFE's SampleRobot is an excellent tool for recording hardware MIDI instruments, but did you know that it can make multi-sample recordings of your softsynths as well? I've experimented with four different ways to use SampleRobot to record virtual instruments, whether they're VST plugins or standalone applications. Each different method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and some methods are more difficult than others. I'll walk you through all of them in the following articles.

Here's a quick index to the different tutorials:

• Part 1: Getting Started
• Part 2: Virtual Audio Cable with Windows Audio
• Part 3: Virtual Audio Cable with ASIO
• Part 4: Interface to Interface (Analog)
• Part 5: Interface to Interface (Digital)
• Part 6: Tips and Troubleshooting

WHY SAMPLE A VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT?

The benefits of sampling a hardware instrument are pretty obvious: You can build a compact and portable library of your not-so-compact, not-so-portable hardware synth's patches to take on the road. Or perhaps you could record patches designed on an extremely rare and expensive instrument to share with people who don't have access to such exotic hardware.

But virtual instruments are cheap, and you can fit literally thousands of them on a hard drive. Why bother sampling them? Well, I can think of plenty of reasons!

• If you use libraries or plugins that are protected by iLok or eLicenser dongles and you fear losing your dongles while on the road, you can multi-sample the sounds you need for your live sets and leave the dongles at home.
• If you like to build your own instruments in tools like MachFive, HALion , or Kontakt, you can mix and match patches you design with your arsenal of soft synths to create rich, layered soundscapes.
• Perhaps you're switching platforms (going from Windows to Mac, for example) and some of the plugins you rely on only have Windows versions. You could use SampleRobot to bring your favorite PC-only sounds with you into the Mac realm.
• Similarly if you're trying to switch plugin types (like going from 32-bit to 64-bit), and the instruments you use aren't available in the latest format, you can record the sounds you need with SampleRobot and then retire the plugins.
• And one reason that I personally have for recording my soft synths is that sometimes I really like the way a particular instrument sounds, but I don't like how it works. Maybe it's buggy or has a difficult workflow. By making sample-based versions of the sounds I like, I can use them in a tool and workflow that suits me best.

(MOSTLY) FREE SOFTWARE USED IN THESE TUTORIALS

Depending on which recording method you plan to use, you might need to download and install some additional software. The good news is that most of it is free! I'll tell you which specific tools you in the sections that follow, but here are the download links and some quick descriptions of the various tools I used.

Please note: While SampleRobot works on both Windows and Mac OS, this is a Windows-specific tutorial, and not all of this software is available (or perhaps even necessary) on Mac. Also, this tutorial is specifically on how to get virtual instruments to work with SampleRobot. It is not an all-purpose SampleRobot guide by any stretch; if you've never used SampleRobot before, I strongly recommend you get familiar with using the tool to record some hardware instruments first so you know how to navigate its interface and export your samples.

• SampleRobot (SKYLIFE). You'll need some version of SampleRobot for all methods, obviously. I use SampleRobot 4 Pro, but you can accomplish most of what I describe below with the Multi-X or Single-X versions. Just note that only the Pro and Sampling Suite versions of SampleRobot can record bit depths higher than 16-bits. This is the only piece of required software listed here that isn't free or donationware.
• LoopBe1 (Nerds.de). This is a virtual MIDI cable. It can send MIDI information from one music app on your computer to another.
• ASIO4ALL (Michael Tippach). This is a tool that translates Windows audio streams using the ASIO format that many professional Windows recording programs use. It offers some advantages over strict Windows audio, including the potential to record at bit depths greater than 16-bit.
• VB-CABLE (VB-Audio). This is a virtual audio cable that can send Windows audio streams from one audio application to another application that supports recording Windows audio. Note: Get the version just called VB-CABLE Driver, not the "hi-fi" version.
• VSTHost (Hermann Seib). If the virtual instrument you wish to sample is a VST plugin that doesn't come with its own "standalone" version, you will need to load the plugin into a DAW or plugin host in able to record it. VSTHost is small and reliable, and it comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. But you can use any plugin host you're comfortable with. All you need is something that can load plugins, receive MIDI, and output audio.
  
  Note
  VSTHost can seem a little daunting at first, but I've written some quick, easy steps for loading a plugin with it for use with SampleRobot in the next section.

SETTING UP VSTHOST

You can skip this section if the virtual instrument you're planning to record has a standalone mode, or if you already have a VST plugin host that you're comfortable with.

1. Download the appropriate version of VSTHost for your operating system and plugin type. (Get vsthostx86.zip if you're running on 32-bit Windows, or if you're on 64-bit Windows but need to host a 32-bit-only plugin. Get vsthostx64.zip if you are on 64-bit Windows and you need to host a 64-bit plugin.)
2. Extract the ZIP contents to your local drive and then launch vsthost.exe. This is what you'll see:
   
3. The first time you run VSTHost you'll have to tell it where to locate your plugins. Go to File > Set PlugIn Path and click the ... button, then browse to the folder containing your plugins. Remember to choose the right location depending on whether you're running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of VSTHost. You can add multiple folders if you need to. Here I've selected my 64-bit plugin folder location.
   
4. When you've added the necessary paths to this list, click OK to trigger VSTHost to scan your plugin folders. Note: It may take VSTHost a couple of minutes to do this, but it won't show any alerts or dialog boxes that this is what is happening. The program will probably seem unresponsive until the scan is complete.
5. After the plugin scan is finished, you should now be able to go to File > Plugins and see a list of your installed plugins.
   
6. Select the plugin you would like to load. I chose to load reFX Nexus, and this is what it looks like:
   
7. Click the little knob icon in the plugin node to see the plugin's interface.
   
8. To set the MIDI input device, you first have to go to Device > MIDI > MIDI Input Devices and make sure that the MIDI device you want to listen to is both listed and selected. The tutorials that follow will indicate exactly which devices to select, but this is where you do it.
   
9. Next, click the MIDI port icon on the left side of your plugin node and choose the desired MIDI port in the list of MIDI Input Devices. Again, the port you need to select here will vary depending on which tutorial you're following.
   
10. To set the audio output device, go to Devices > Wave and choose the appropriate device for Output Port. The exact device you select depends on which tutorial you're following.
    
    Tip
    I strongly recommend using a high sample buffer setting. I have found that the default buffer of 4410 samples isn't always high enough to prevent glitching while recording. Here I have 6300 samples selected for Buffer, and this setting has worked well for me at 44.1kHz sample rate. Don't worry about latency times or whatever; SampleRobot takes care of all that in the recording and exporting process.
    
    
    
11.  If you'd like to save the current VSTHost configuration for future use, go to Performance > Save As and select an empty entry in the performance list. Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, and click OK.
    
12. Now that you've created a custom performance, you can select it any time from the drop-down menu.
    

NEXT STEPS

Ready to start recording? Move on to the tutorials about different recording methods.

• Part 2: Virtual Audio Cable with Windows Audio
• Part 3: Virtual Audio Cable with ASIO
• Part 4: Interface to Interface (Analog)
• Part 5: Interface to Interface (Digital)
• Part 6: Tips and Troubleshooting

SOLUTION: Fixing Problems with Missing Sounds and Plugins in HALion 5 and HALion Sonic 2

In February 2014, I took advantage of Steinberg's upgrade pricing to buy the Absolute VST Instrument Collection and HALion 5 . (If you already own a recent version of Cubase Pro or Cubase Artist , you get a discount on the VST collection, and if you already own the VST collection, you can get a discount on HALion 5.) These download-only upgrades were attractively priced, but I had some significant issues with both products once they were installed, and it took a fair amount of time to troubleshoot and fix them. Here's a rundown of the issues I had, and what I had to do to get things working properly.

Locating the Installers

After you order these upgrades from the Steinberg Shop and Steinberg processes your payment, you receive an Order Confirmation email from the Steinberg Online Shop that contains the activation code and download link for your product. The link goes to the download page of the Steinberg Shop and requires you to sign in with your Steinberg Shop credentials. These may be different from what you use to log in to your My Steinberg account.

This is really important to know, because if you happen to lose your email, you may be startled to find that unlike other Steinberg software you may own, you won't find installers for HALion 5 or the VST Instrument Collection listed either on the main Steinberg Downloads page or the Downloads tab of your MySteinberg account.

Another thing to note is that at least when I purchased my copies, the files Steinberg made available to me were a single EXE file for Absolute VST Instrument collection, and a single ZIP file for HALion 5. (I am a Windows user, obviously. There were also DMG files for the Mac versions of those products.)

Restoring Missing Sound Files

I am very familiar with Steinberg's software product line and many of the installation-related issues people commonly encounter with their products. Some of the most popular articles on this blog are about how to restore VST presets for a number of Cubase plugins, for example. But I was really stumped by this problem for several days. Basically, once I had installed both Absolute VST Instrument Collection and HALion 5, I found that a large number of the presets wouldn't load due to missing sample files.

In HALion Sonic 2, frequently when I attempted to load a patch I'd be greeted with an error message that said, "Some audio files are missing. Please check installation."

With the same patches that didn't work in HALion Sonic, HALion 5 would display errors that said: "Missing sound archive (double click to register)."

Sometimes a problem patch would appear to load (I wouldn't be prompted with an error message), but no sound would come out when I tried to audition the patch. Here are the names of some specific patches I had problems with, but there were many others: 12 String Acoustic, Xylophone, Zed Leppelin Kit.

I am very familiar with Steinberg's software products, and I spent a couple of days scanning my hard drive for extra VSTSOUND files and importing them into HALion's library, but it did no good. I was simply missing a whole lot of content.

To solve this problem I had to log in to my MySteinberg account and open a support ticket with Steinberg by clicking My Support > Create support request. When Steinberg responded to me, they sent me links to ISO files (these are copies of the disc images used to create the install discs for the boxed copies of the products). Upon downloading them, I immediately noticed how much larger the ISO images were than the installers available in my Steinberg Online Shop account:

•  Absolute VST Collection EXE: 1.9GB, ISO image: 3.5GB (1.6GB difference)
• HALion 5 ZIP: 2.0GB, ISO images (combined): 12.8 GB (10.8GB difference)

So clearly, a fair amount of content simply was not present in those first installers. Anyway, I was able to use the ISO files to successfully re-install both products. Here's a quick run-down of the steps I followed:

1. Download the ISO files for the product you need to re-install. I do not think these are secret links, so I am providing the ones that Steinberg Support sent me here. If the links don't work, you will have to create a support request in your MySteinberg account and request new links.
   
   Absolute VST Instrument Collection disc.
   
   HALion 5 Installer disc.
   HALion 5 Content disc.
    
2. You have a choice of either burning disc images from the ISOs or mounting them directly using a third-party utility when it is time to install. I used the free tool SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive.
3. Go to the Programs and Features control panel on Windows and uninstall the existing product(s). You might actually have to uninstall a lot of stuff to completely remove Absolute VST Instrument Collection. I found it helpful to sort the list of programs by Installed On, and I just uninstalled every Steinberg product from that day.
4. Using discs you made from the ISO images, or by mounting/unmounting the ISO files as needed with a virtual drive program, install your products again.
   
   Important note
   Even after I had uninstalled all my old software (and even rebooted my computer), when I ran the installers from the ISOs, the setup programs seemed to think some of the content was already on my computer. For all of these options, I manually selected the item in question and chose Reinstall to make sure that all of the correct content actually did get copied to my system. Below you can see that I had to choose HALion Content and select Reinstall when re-installing Halion 5.
   
   
   
5. After installation is complete, and depending on which products you just installed, launch either HALion Sonic or HALion 5 in Standalone mode and don't quit the application until it has a chance to scan your computer for presets. This may take several minutes. You will know the scan is complete when you no longer see an animated cube in the field where the number of presets is displayed:
   
   

   

   Do not exit if you see this animation.

6. Quit the application once the library's finished importing and repeat step 6 for the other product if you have both HALion Sonic and HALion 5.

No HALion Plugins in Ableton Live

While the versions of Steinberg plugins that ship with Cubase are often designed to only work inside of Cubase or Nuendo, the standalone VST packages Steinberg sells at the online shop are designed to work with third-party DAWs with VST support, including Ableton Live .

When I first launched my copy of Ableton Live 9 Suite , neither HALion 5 nor HALion Sonic appeared in Live's Plug-ins browser. I quickly realized why: Neither of the installers for HALion 5 or the Absolute VST Instrument Collection had prompted me for an install directory, so their plugins must have been placed in a default location outside of the VST Plug-in Custom Folder specified in Live's Preferences > File / Folder tab.

After a quick search, I located the Steinberg plugins. Here's where you will probably find them on your system:

If you're running 32-bit Windows, the 32-bit plugins will be located here: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins

If you're running 64-bit Windows, the 32-bit plugins will be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VstPlugins and the 64-bit plugins will be in: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins

The Absolute VST Collection is a bundle of individual products, so here are all the folders I found in the default location: Dark Planet, HALion 5, HALion Sonic, Hypnotic Dance, Padshop, Retrologue, and Triebwerk.

I moved all of these folders to the VST Plug-in Custom Folder specified in my Live preferences. (In my case that was C:\Program Files\Vstplugins.

After re-starting Ableton Live, I was now able to use all of my Steinberg plugins.

Note: At this time Ableton Live only supports VST 2.x plugins, and those are the ones described above. The current versions of all Steinberg VST products also install VST 3.x versions under the Common Files\VST3\Steinberg folder in your Program Files directory. These files end with a VST3 filename extension, and you shouldn't move those.