Recording & Editing Music Using MIDI in Cubase 6- Downloading & Installing the Tutorial Files

There are many ways to startup Cubase 6 to create new music. But, if you're new to Cubase, getting started can sometimes seem like a daunting task. Cubase is a massive software application and if you don't have a little guidance at first, it's easy to get frustrated and lost.

This is why I decided that it would be great to give you a head start. There's something very satisfying about instant gratification. The files I've created can be downloaded and loaded into Cubase in less than 5 minutes. Afterwards, you can push play and hear some MIDI at work. Remember- MIDI is just a digital representation of music. It isn't actually audio. When you load the program file into Cubase, it will not only display the MIDI data, it will also load some VST instruments so you can actually hear the MIDI data.

"But wait", you say."I want to create the music. I don't want to hear YOUR music, Steve!". Okay. Okay. I understand. We'll defintely get to that. But by simply altering my silly song, you'll quickly learn how you can make the magic happen to your own music. In next week's blog, I will actually teach you how to record some MIDI for yourself.

First you need to visit my website at http://www.stevepacey.com/StevePaceyBooks.html. Here, you will find a little more information about my book "MIDI Editing in Cubase". To the right of the text, you'll find a box containing the files that you'll need to continue these tutorials. The files are hosted by a website called 4Shared. Follow the instructions (which I've included on my site) to download the file Song1.cpr from 4Shared. 4Shared is a legit FREE site paid for with advertising. Do not worry-you aren't going to be downloading anything weird to your computer (unless you think my music is weird). If you just can't wait the 20 seconds that it takes to download the file, you can always join ($$$) 4Shared to get faster downloads-but this isn't necessary at all. If you have any problem downloading the file, please feel free to leave a comment below this page and I'll look into it.

I haven't actually gone over installing Cubase 6. Hopefully with a little help from the Cubase 6 manual, you got THAT far without my help. Song 1 should load properly in Cubase 4, 5 and 6, and also Cubase Artist 4, 5 and 6 using either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions. If you have Cubase 6 Elements, it might still work .However, there are going to be missing elements. In fact, there is one missing element when using any version of Cubase and that is the M-Audio Keystation keyboard controller which I used to program the MIDI. But- that's okay. You don't need the Keystation keyboard. It is also possible that you might be missing HALion One (a VST instrument), If so, do not worry. It come's with Cubase 6 and I'll explain how you can fix the little problem right here.

First, launch Cubase. You'll probably see this thing called the Project Assistant when Cubase first boots up. If you see it, just select the Cancel button located in the bottom right corner of the Project Assistant. If you don't see the Project Assistant, read on. From the menu bar located at the top of the Cubase window, select the File menu. Next select, Open. A browser will appear. Use this browser to locate Song1 where you decided to save it (probably your desktop). Once you've found Song1, select it and then select the Open button in the browser. Cubase will load Song1.

Most likely (unless you happen to own a Keystation 49e from M-Audio), you'll get this little dialog box after you load Song1. This is not a problem. However, if a warning comes up and reads something like "Missing HALion One" or "Could not locate HALion One", then you have a problem. If you don't see anything regarding HALion One, just select Cancel and skip down past the next paragraph. If HALion One is missing, read on.

If HALion One is missing, first close the dialog, then close Song1 and shut down Cubase. Next, you'll need to get your hands on your original Cubase 6 installation CDROM and put the disc into your drive as if you were installing Cubase 6. Open and browse the contents of the disc so that you can see the contents of the disc such as shown below. Next, select either the Mac or Windows directory, then once that has opened, select the "Additional Content" directory. Inside this directory, you'll find a folder called HALion One. Open the HALion One folder the select either HALionOne_Setup if you're running Cubase 32-bit or select HALionOne_64bit if you're running Cubase 6 64-bit. Follow the installation instructions on the screen, then re-launch Cubase and once again load Song1 as I described earlier.

Once you close the missing Keystation port window, you'll be viewing what's known in Cubase as the Key Editor. There's a keyboard that runs along the left side of the editor. Those little red "boxes" represent actual MIDI data. You might think that this doesn't seem too musical, but later you will see how this all makes sense.

The Key Editor is where you'll spend a majority of your time editing MIDI.But when it comes to recording MIDI, you'll most likely spend most of your time in the Project window. To see the Project window, close the editor by clicking the "x" in the top right hand corner of the editor window (NOT the top right hand corner of Cubase--that will close the program!). The Project window is a little more colorful and provides an overview of the entire song (see the photo at the start of this page). Now that you have the Project Window open, select the Play button located either on the menu bar or on the transport (type F2 if you can't see your transport and want to view it). If you have your audio interface and your speakers/headphones hooked up properly, you should hear my funky little song. If you're having some sort of audio problem, make sure the proper audio driver is selected. You can learn more about this in "System requirements and installation" located in the Quick Start Guide which you can find by selecting Help from the menu bar.

This wraps up my little tutorial on downloading and installing source files for my MIDI tutorials. I will be using more files located in the same location, so you might want to refer to this page once in a while. Feel free to mess around with my Song1. I'll give you more guidance in a couple of weeks. If you're having any problems, feel free to leave me a comment below.