Mixing Down MIDI In Cubase SX3 (SOS)

[Anthony_Musician]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to start off by saying that I am new to all this stuff and I just needed a little bit of help. Sorry if this is long but it's a complicated situation for me. Ok so first off, the main issue that I am facing is that whenever I try to mix down my MIDI tracks in Cubase SX3 a dialogue box pops up saying: "Error while Exporting". This happens right when I press ok for the two channels to be mixed down. Basically what I am trying to do is mix down my tracks to make a song. I have two tracks, 1 being the soft synth (A1) and the other being Drum patterns (Microsoft Wave Synth or whatever its called). These are all on the computers soundcard. I am not using any external gear. Nothing is connected to my computer. All I have done is made beats with the drum and percussion connected to my computers soundcard.

I am not sure if you need any external gear in order to record the MIDI so that it can be mixed down or can it be mixed down as it is...like step edited? Sorry if this is confusing cause it is confusing for me.

If anyone is able could they please help me out by letting me know if it is possible to mix down midi that has been step edited and without and external gear and also how to do this --- O! And what my set up should be if I am just using what has come with the computer (XP Home Edition)

And if anyone has any questions please ask and I will try to answer them to the best that I can.

Thank you,
Anthony Hirst

[Anthony_Musician]

Hey once again,

I just went away and thought for a bit and I found a much easier way of telling you my problem....so here it is....narrowed down...

I am making a MIDI production. I have used my mouse for the GM Map and I have stepped edited for the soft synth (A1). I have no external gear what so ever. i just want to know how I go about mixing down my track because when I try to do audio mixdown it comes up "Errr while mixing down".. if anyone could help it would be great..thanks a lot.

[liquidair]

Anthony, the most common way to get an error mesage like that is that you have your flags not set right. Make sure your song is completely highlighted blue (not red) with the record markers/flags. Then try it. Another problem you are going to run into is that your drums may not show up in the mix down. I have never used the MS wave synth, so I can't say for sure if there's a way to even route it internally in Cubase.

[Anthony_Musician]

Hey, thanks so much..u were right...but the only problem now that I am having is the drums like you said...do you have any idea how to fix this or should I make a whole new post on this issue?

Thanks my friend

[liquidair]

No prob!

I am trying to remember what I had to do back in the day. I am pretty sure what I did was to mute everything but say the kick drum, pan it hard left and take my left out and connect it to the right in. I'd make a pass recording the audio for the whole song, or if I looped I would just record the loop and duplicate it. Then I would do the same for the snare and so on. This was I can mix each track, compress, eq, the works. You could do it without panning if you wanted to do the whole kit in one pass. Just take the left out to the right in and mute the right out, do a pass and then swap.

There's a big problem when you do this however and that is the tracks will drift due to latency. The drums won't sync up anymore. The way around this is to put a click (1, 2, 3, 4) at the very beginning of the song or part(just pick a sound with a quick attack, like a stick or something). Then when you record each pass the clicks at the beginning will delayed the exact amount of your latency, so you can cut the silence right before the click and pull the track back and everything will line up perfect again.

I know it's a pain in the ass, but it might be the only way for you to do it if you are set on using those drums. I had to do that for like a year until I got LM-4 and now I use Battery. These programs will mixdown just like the A1 does. Let me know if you need anything!
Brian

[Anthony_Musician]

Hey Thanks Again,

Sorry to say but I am sooo confused at what you just posted lol.

All i know is that I used a drum map (Drum editor) and used a mouse to place all the notes...everything is on one drum map..(e.g. the kick, snare, whistle..everything)...so im kida confused....

[liquidair]

ya don't worry, it was very complicated to do. If you plan to attempt the method I described I remember what I would do is copy the midi track I worked with in the drum map editor to a new midi track and call it say kick drum. I would then delete everything on that drum map except for the kik, then do the same for snare etc. Then I would do the panning method I decribed, but it is really easier to use battery or something, I mean much easier. Try the demo of it...not to mention the drum sounds will be better and it's not that pricy.

[Anthony_Musician]

Sounds like a plan but sorry last question and i'll stop herassing you lol...is it a must to use battery or can I just use the wave table blah blah blah thingy and do what you said from there...and if this is the case , why doesnt the drums just mix down when they are all on one drum map...why must they be broken down to different tracks..

[liquidair]

well you could do it that way, I did outline that method very quickly. You could just play the drum track and record it, first the left side output to the right input, and then swap it and do another pass this way you keep your stereo image. The reason I used to break everything up is cause I would Eq, compress and add reverb after the fact. Doing so can change the relationship of the individual instruments and thus the mix you made in the drum map editor of those drums may no longer work overall together like you had it.

Sorry, I am having such a tough time breaking this down to words for some reason, prolly cause it is a very tricky thing to do. And that most people never need to do it. I wish I could just draw you a pic or something. The reason it has to be left output to right input is so you don't have a feedback loop.

Don't worry about harassing me, I enjoy helping. I got a paid leave to my work while they remodel so I just get to kick back and do nothing. It's great. Let me know what you get and don't get, I'm here for ya!
Brian

[Anthony_Musician]

You're the best.... guy. So i just read over your last post and that sounds like a better plan then the first one. I'm actually doing hip-hip, R&B, Jazz and Funk and the drums I have sound good because Trumpets and stuff will be added in later. There's just one part of your post that I need help on and then I should be set to go and i'll start working on my mix tomorrow when I get back from school (High school errrrr, thank God last year). You stated "first the left side output to the right input, and then swap it and do another pass, this way you keep your stereo image." Could you just expand on that and add defenitions if possible because I dont really understand Left side input and so forth or pass...srry I am really new to this. Just an amature looking to be a pro some day. Also if you don't mind telling me how you would go about recording your drums because I read the manual but i still dunt get it...like do you make a new audio track and have record activated on both tracks or what?

God Bless,
Anthony Hirst