X-Spat Setup for Steinberg Cubase SX
To control an X-Spat system in a Windows XP or Mac OSX environment, using Steinberg Cubase SX, you can use a specific configuration file, i.e. a personalised working environment.
As an illustration, A&G provides some practical examples contained in the installation CD ROM of the software. One of them is described here:
Open the XspatTemplate.cpr file in Cubase SX for Mac OS X.
Select Mixer in the Devices menu.
In the MIDI channel you can use the User Panel that we have prepared with some of the main parameters of X-Spat. You may of course personalise the panel at any time, changing the parameters as you wish. If you don’t know how to do it, consult the Cubase SX manual.
Use the MIDI Control plug-in of Cubase SX, open as insert in the MIDI channels assigned to X-Spat in order to control the other parameters of the system.
In order to move the audio sources, you can use the Source Position Manager of our X-Spat Controller software, and send the data, via an interapplications driver (i.e. MIDI Yoke for Windows XP or Apple IAC bus), to the input of the desired MIDI channel.
Remember, however, that the A&G X-Spat Controller software can always be used in the background, and it may be the best solution to manage X-Spat set-ups that do not require automation in real time.
For instance you may control X-Spat from its own software and use Cubase SX, without the help of any custom set-up, only to control the audio and those control parameters you wish to automate (source positions, filters, etc.).
You only have to change the MIDI output of X-Spat Controller after sending the data to the card, or use the MIDI Thru function of the Steinberg software. Change from X-Spat #1 #0 MIDI out 1 to any bus in your MIDI virtual driver and set the same bus to input for a Cubase SX track that can receive on all MIDI channels. Set the X-Spat MIDI driver as MIDI out of the track and it’s all done.
You may also record all the card set-up data inside your Cubase SX project.
There are many items of freeware or donation-ware that can control the movement of the audio sources in X-Spat. We have tested some of them and we recommend, amongst others, the excellent CC-Control by Tobybear Productions, for Windows XP (you will find the application inside the MIDI Bag bundle that you can download from http://www.tobybear.de), or ControlAid for Mac OS X, that you can find at http://www.charlie-roberts.com/controlAid/.
Note that CC-Control, as a VST plug-in that can be perfectly integrated into Steinberg sequencers, allows you the direct recording and editing of the automation from the main window of the plug-in itself.
We invite you once again to consult the Cubase SX manual for further information regarding the setting of the Device Setup window. This is necessary for the X-Spat card to be recognised by the Steinberg VST management, which,in any case, is simple and intuitive.
TheBat Controller and Steinberg Nuendo for Windows XP.
Steinberg Cubase SX with Tobybear CC-Control for Windows XP.
