[Guide] Cubase + Maschine MIDI Routing & Integration

D-One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dV3G7wlGTY

This guide will have as an example a simple pre-existing project with 3 groups:

• 🟧 A1 - Only One-Shot samples (Drums)
• 🟨 B2 - 0nly one Sound, an Instrument on Pad-1 (Bass)
• 🟩 C1 - 2 instruments, one on Pad-1 and another on Pad-2. (Keys)

Here is the routed and fully integrated Cubase and Maschine example Project for download in case anyone needs it for anything: Download Link.

Settings in Maschine for 🟧 Drum Group A1

• Open Cubase, create a new Instrument track and select Maschine 2.
• Load example project on Maschine, click the routing button, and use the following settings:

Group MIDI Input settings:

1. Set Key Mode to Manual.
2. Set Source as None.
3. Select Channel 1
4. Set Start Note to C3
5. Turn off Thru

Sound MIDI Input settings:

1. Select all Sounds in the Group (Select one then press CMD+A / CTRL+A)
2. Set input Source to Default
3. Select Channel 1
4. Turn Thru off

Sound MIDI Output settings:

1. Make sure all your sounds inside the group are still selected.
2. Set Destination to Host
3. Select Channel 1
4. Don't touch the transpose.

After that's all done your settings should look like this:

Make sure all the sounds inside the group are still selected and right-click the Group and select Group MIDI Batch Setup > Sounds to MIDI notes.

(This will make sure all the sounds inside the Group are triggered by MIDI notes starting on C3 and up)

These will be the default settings for any Group with only samples/one-shots and no instruments, the only thing that needs adjusting based on the project is the MIDI channel you want to use. Do not use MIDI Batch Setup for the instruments!

Settings on Maschine for 🟨 Bass Group B1

Group MIDI Input settings:

1. Set Key Mode to Manual.
2. Set Source as None.
3. Select Channel 2
4. Leave the root note alone (we don't need to transpose instruments to C3)
5. Turn off Thru

Sound MIDI Input settings:

1. Select all sounds in the group (CMD+A on Mac / CTRL+A on Windows)
2. Set input Source to Host
3. Select Channel 2
4. Turn Thru off

Sound MIDI Output settings:

1. Make sure all your sounds inside the group are still selected.
2. Set Destination to Host
3. Select Channel 2
4. Don't touch the transpose.

After that's all done your settings should look like this:

• Note: Since this is a Group with only 1 instrument we do not need to use Group MIDI Batch Setup.

Settings on Maschine for 🟩 Keys Group C1​

The settings for this group change a little from the previous because it contains more than one instrument, everything is the same with the exception of the Input MIDI channel on each sound, and the Group MIDI input should be ALL. Each Pad/Sound/Instrument in Sound > MIDI-Input needs an exclusive MIDI Channel, in this case, MIDI channels 3 and 4.

Settings should look like this:

• PAD-1:

• PAD-2:

If this Group had more instruments instead of just 2 the same logic applies, use all settings from the above picture but just make sure each instrument has its own exclusive midi channel unless you want your DAW to trigger 2 sounds at the same time for some reason, like a layered synth.

Add 4 new MIDI tracks, one for each Group.

Name and color the MIDI tracks to match your Maschine groups (not mandatory but useful for quick reference)

Click the Setup Window Layout button and make sure Inspector is on.

Make sure each Cubase MIDI track has:

• 'Maschine - MIDI Out' as the Input of the Cubase MIDI Track
• 'Maschine - MIDI In' as the Output of the Cubase MIDI Track
• It should look like this for our first group (🟧Drums A1, using MIDI Channel-1)

Confirm that all the Cubase MIDI tracks are using the correct MIDI Channels (Channel-2 For Bass, Channel-3 for Keys1, and Channel-4 for Keys2)

The routing on your Cubase Mixer Rack should look like this:

Transfer the MIDI Patterns from Maschine to Cubase by simply clicking and holding the MIDI button at the top right of the piano roll of each pattern and dragging it to each corresponding Cubase MIDI track.

When you drag the first pattern Cubase creates a bunch of extra MIDI tracks.

NOTE: @backbeat2 explained that in Cubase Preferences > MIDI > MIDI Fille you have an "import dropped File as single Part". Checking this option will avoid the creation of a bunch of extra dummy MIDI tracks.

Create a new scene on Maschine and make sure it's empty (no patterns on it) and selected, press Play on Cubase and you should hear Cubase using the patterns you've transferred and triggering the sounds in Maschine.

Audio Routing (optional):​

Now all you need is to set up some Audio Channels.

• On Cubase click the tiny Activate Outputs button on the Maschine Instrument Track inspector and select how many Audio Channels you want.

• In Maschine go to each Sound that you wish to have a separate Audio Channel and select a stereo out. (There's only 16 per Maschine instance so choose wisely, more than one Sound can be routed to the same output)

• Hoover with your mouse in the corner of the Cubase Maschine Instrument Track, a little arrow will appear and show automation lanes for each Audio Track, from there you can open Channel Settings and the usual stuff.

Optional: If you want to keep things tidy open your Cubase Mixer (F3) then press Shift+F2 to display the Mixer Inspector and Hide the MIDI track channels since Volume and Pan don't really work, for that you use the audio tracks you just made.

Your end result should look something like this:

If everything was done correctly you can now record MIDI in Cubase using Maschine's Pads and have it trigger sounds in Maschine.

If you made it this far grab a beer and pat yourself in the back.

D-One

Reserving Post #2 to add a FAQ later.

Sunborn

I read that and download the example a long time ago from the old forum, didn't had the chance to say thank you, since i wasn't a member (for some totally strange and unknown reason i couldn't signup, no matter how many times I've tried!)... so, thank you!

beatN00B

Hello man, new owner of the maschine mikro mk3 and still trying to find a workflow integrating the thing to a DAW (preferably without using the vst plugin...).

The way you propose, seems to be a proper fit to my needs and although I have tried to follow the steps from other tutorials too it seems that I don't have a "Host" option under the MIDI Sound Output.

Played around with the midi options by selecting / deselecting the maschine from midi input / output devices did not do the trick. no matter what I was not able to send midi to the DAW (ableton for instance).

Only when activating the machine through the vst plugin in the DAW made the "Host" option available... But then I would have to use the hardware from the vst instance... which sucks!

Am I missing something. Shouldn't be the hw be able to export midi and sound through the USB interface to the the DAW? (new to the scene, hobbyist and embedded systems engineer here. really scratching my head on this 😅 )

Last but not least. Is there a way to manually edit (with a text editor lets say) the (user) library file? Has anyone located where the schema of the template is stored / named ? To me it sounds much easier to "import" my kits and everything through my text editor and not by clicking on 10 different location to add tag attributes...

Any word would be more than appreciated 😀

Peace

D-One

@beatN00B said:

it seems that I don't have a "Host" option under the MIDI Sound Output.

The standalone Maschine App doesn't have the HOST option because it's not hosted (inside a DAW), that's only an option for MAS Plug-in. To send MIDI directly from the Maschine standalone app to a DAW in realtime you will need to use a Virtual MIDI Driver instead of HOST. On a macOS we have the "Maschine 2 Virtual Output", there should be something similar in windows, no idea what the name is.

@beatN00B said:

Am I missing something. Shouldn't be the hw be able to export midi and sound through the USB interface to the the DAW? (new to the scene, hobbyist and embedded systems engineer here. really scratching my head on this 😅 )

Not the HW, the SW... The HW is just a controller. You can export MIDI and Audio thru drag-and-drop, this is not real-time tho.

Audio directly from one application to another? No, low-end USB interfaces are generally not designed to do that at all but there are 3rd party drivers out there for Virtual Audio cables in between applications, like BlackHole for example.

If you want to use Maschine standalone app alongside a DAW both playing at the same time you have more things to worry about than this tutorial covers...

1. You need to sync them via MIDI Clock or Link.
2. You need a virtual Audio Cable solution/driver as mentioned before.
3. Use Virtual MIDI instead of Host.

Everything else in the Guide would still apply.

Sunborn

On a macOS we have the "Maschine 2 Virtual Output"

For Windows, the best (and most tested) solution is the LoopBe1 Virtual MIDI Driver

There are others too but this one is the only one that works 100% for Maschine.

For Virtual Audio cables between applications, my top choice is the VB CABLE Driver, by VB-Audio.

beatN00B

@D-One and @Sunborn thank you both for your replies! Really to the point guys!

Since all hw interfaces are usb 3 there is more bandwidth (technically) than required for any kind of real time processing. I would except some short of a DSP inside maschine doing the heavy stuff but then... the price whould not be at the 300$ range :P

In any case, I m gonna give a try to the midi driver and the midi clock settings options! I tried Linked but got some serious delay...

Thanks again guys!

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/3132#Comment_3132

No problem 😁. No NI device is USB-3, not even Maschine Plus, everything is USB-2.

There's also no connection between USB3 and DSP, but yeah, DSP would be a LOT more expensive, UAD-Apollo-like expensive... A 900$ Mikro would be sort of ridiculous.

starcorp

this is about the midi remote function in Cubase 12, onother way to make Maschine controller useful within cubase:

https://www.emxr.com/cubase-midi-remote-templates-for-ni-maschine/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiFZ8Y5vOfU

joseluisrevelo

Hi all. Just a quick tip. I've been able to use the Track Preset function on Cubase to save my configuration in Maschine.

Afterwards, you just load up a new Maschine instance and load the Track Preset you saved and it's all there.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19186#Comment_19186

Same. Input 1 is missing, no idea if it's a bug or if there's some kind of valid reason for it.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19320#Comment_19320

I'm not not so familar with Reaper, could you share a screenshot showing the 4 sidechain inputs available in Reaper ? I can confirm that only input 2, 3 and 4 are available in Cubase.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Milkman

@D-One this is jeremy s from the old forum -- you helped me so well on the topic of routing when I first came to the forums that I havent needed any other help in like a year!! Thank you. 😄

This is embarrassing based on the amount of time I have working in maschine2 + cubase 10/11/12, but... I think I fail to understand the difference between loading something as "audio" vs "sampler", lol. Ive not run into this problem before, and I think its been dumb luck. =P

I have a blank project for testing. Maschine2 is plugged in as VST. Bank A has the "Chromatic Fire" group loaded, which has 15 drum 1-shots and a single 10-second bass sample on pad 16. My routing is standard drum-kit routing (My 'MIDI batch setup' is in sample mode). Pads 1-15 are normal drums, and pad 16 is a nice, long, nasty bass note that I want to use. The bass note is "audio" and every other pad is "sampler."

I can play live & record MIDI no problem, and I can play back MIDI from pads 1-15. But when I go to play back MIDI data for pad 16, the bass sample, it is silent. I can hit the piano roll on cubase, or I can hit pad 16 on the MK3, and it plays. I can record those notes in as MIDI. But playback is silent. The way I use my MK3 has caused me, I think, to miss the difference between "audio" and "sampler" when on a pad.

I can locate that sample (Synth[89] Cm OrangeTen) and load it by itself as a one shot or loop in an empty bank, and still I cannot get MIDI data to trigger it from my DAW. I can play it back with MIDI batch set to "channel" or "sample" mode and get the same result. No other routing changes have worked.

Im pretty sure Ive missed something obvious. Please be gentle. 😂