Session notes

Note: the YouTube recordings are ‘unlisted’ videos that are only accessible by persons that have this link. Thus, only you can see it.

Order for1 lessons

13 December 2025 (1 hour)

• Recording
• General introduction to Cubase and Configuration

Order for 5 lessons

3 January 2026 (2 hours )

• Recording
• Saved general preferences as preset. Changed backup time to 3 minutes
• Explained: Color setup (Shift-Alt-S)
• Explained how to organize tracks with Folders
• Explained routing with Group tracks and FX tracks (using reverb)
• Explained the EastWest template that I have setup (type ‘EW’ in color panel to select colors)

10 January 2026 (2 hours; 9.00-11.00)

M4T color schemes

EW and M4T color scheme in Cubase

• Topics:
  • Recording (10 January 2026)
  • Updated template with multiple strings, brass, etc. VST Expression Data problem fixed: Template-Empty-EW.cpr
    • Instructions:
      1. Create new folder E:\Cubase Projects\Full Template
      2. Save this Cubase project file (.cpr) in E:\Cubase Projects\Full Template: right-click on the link and select ‘Save Link As’.
      3. Open the project
      4. File –> Save as template   and in the text box below ‘New Preset’ type the template name. E.g., Empty-Full-EW
    • This is now the template that you can use when starting a new project.
  • Changed Preferences to enable Track colors in Edit –> Preferences –> User Interface –> Track & Mixconsole Channel Colors
  • Added Ancient Kingdom, Iconic, Arturia, Groove Agent
  • Added folders and multiple strings, brass, WW, percussion.
  • Changed some colors
  • We recorded a few notes
  • Saved project as Template
  • Showed the chord tracks
  • Showed how to open/close the left/right/lower panels

Order for 1 lesson (11 January 2026)

17 January 2026 (2 hours; 9.00-11.00)

• Recording
• 1 hour of previous order + 1 hour of new order.
• Solve technical issues with zoom (probably solved)
• Installed the ASIO4ALL driver. If Cubase has no sound, then select the generic  Cubase driver. Then open Control Panel and make sure the Sony speaker is selected.
  • Note: this setting was reset when the bluetooth speaker was not connected. In this case the ASIO driver assigned the laptop speakers. In the sound settings (mmsys.cpl) I disabled the laptop and LG ultrawide speaker.
• We reached the limit of Instrument Tracks for Cubase Elements.
• Consider Samsung T7 for storage of libraries
• Computing is reaching limits in terms of cpu and ram. You can check with the windows task manager.
• Advice: upgrade with external audio interface (e.g., focusrite, or URX22C).
• We had a brief look at MIDI Remote and added the KeyLab Essential 88 mk3 keyboard.

• Could we do tomorrow in this order so I can keep track of everything and have a clear roadmap in mind?
  •  Note: I’ll be away for two weeks to practice on my own, and then we’ll reconvene afterward to tidy up areas I’m less familiar with.
  • Add instruments (add and duplicate) & colours
  • Walk through adding instruments (e.g. double bass to strings).
    • Change track colors in Cubase.
    • Load instruments from the provided list (e.g. saxophone, xylophone) with correct articulations, aiming for about five instruments in each category (e.g. five strings, five brass).
  • Check Arturia & load synths
    • Ensure Arturia opens properly.
    • Load five synthesizers (e.g. Jupiter-8, Synclavia).
  • Check orchestrators
    • Confirm that the Fantasy and Opus orchestrators are working correctly.
  • Fix audio output
    • Set the correct speaker/output for proper sound.
  • Top toolbar overview
    • Quick run-through of the main top buttons and their functions.
  • Groove Agent
    • Spend about 15 minutes exploring Groove Agent.
  • Chord progression (not done)
    • Wrap up with about 30 minutes on chord progressions.
  • Project walkthrough (not done)
    • Show a full project from start to finish, incorporating all the steps above.

Instrument List:
• Hollywood Orchestra Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass – Done
• Woodwinds: Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon – Done
• Brass: Trumpet, Trombone, French Horn, Tuba, Cornet, Saxophone
• Percussion: Timpani, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals, Xylophone
• Hollywood Harp: Harp (Plucked), Harp Glissando, Harp Harmonics
• Ancient Kingdom: Shakuhachi, Viking War Horn, Viking Voices, Irish Whistle, Native American Flute

iconic classic arp hungry like the fox and keys thrilling synclav organ 2 and classic fx beat synclav intro

Order for one lesson (17 January; 2 hours)

24 January 2026  

Meeting postponed because we could not install Cubase Artist due to wrong license code.

31 January 2026 (2 hours; 9.00-11.00) 

• Recording
• Installed Cubase Artist 15 and all libraries.
• Added the tracks in green (see below). This is already too much for 16Gbyte of RAM. I saved this as template_large.cpr. The template_small.cpr is the previous one and can still be used.
• Practice Groove Agent  – Not done
• Practice media samples, and add a few tracks – Not done
• There was no sound. I switched to the generic steinberg ASIO driver. The Sony SBS-XB43 speaker is no longer used, therefore selected the RealTek speakers.

Next step: upgrade computer.

• I will re-install Cubase, Arturia, EastWest.
• Arturia/EastWest libraries don’t need to be reinstalled since these or on an external SSD already.
• HALion libraries / sample libraries need to be reinstalled (currently on C:\)
• Need to make copy of %appdata\Steinberg\Cubase15_64 (i.e., C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg. This directory contains all the settings.
• I assume you will not throw away your computer. Thus, we can always get settings etc from it when we are missing something on the new computer.
• Not required. Laptop will be upgraded. 

Advice for new computer

• Personally, I would go for a desktop (instead of laptop) with sufficiently large case. This makes it more easy to expand later (eg RAM memory, graphics card, ….), which is generally difficult/impossible with laptops.
  • If you go for a desktop, then go for a mother board with M.2 NVMe slots. This can hold internal M.2 SSD drives that are very fast (for sample libraries).
• DDR5 RAM memory: 32 Gbyte (of 64 Gbyte if that is currently affordable). It is difficult to predict what the maximum number of Instrument tracks is with Arturia/Eastwest/etc since some of these samples are quite large.
• Processor: Intel i7  (14700K or 13700K).
• Graphics card: for laptop you normally do not have a choice. But otherwise, something like a cheap NVIDIA card will do.
• I still advice for an external audio card to avoid sound problems, but this can of course wait till the future.
• Outcome: upgrade of current laptop to 40GByte.

• Augmented Brass
• Augmented Mallets
• Augmented Piano
• Augmented Strings
• Augmented Voices
• Augmented Woodwinds
• Augmented Yartse
• DX7
• Emulator II
• Fairlight
• Juno-6
• Jupiter-8
• Jupiter-8000
• Piano
• Prophet-5
• Synclavier
• Sequencer

Synths

1. Roland D-50

• Saxophone (HALion)

• Bass Drum
• Snare Drum
• Xylophone
• Glockenspiel

• Harp Pluck

• Shakuhachi
• Viking Voices
• Irish Whistle

• Classic Keys (Organ 2)
• Classic DX Beat

• Fantasy Orchestrator
• Fantasy Voices
• Fantasy Winds
• Fantasy Percussion

1 February 2026 

• Removed to violin articulations from template
• Enabled, return to start position after playing
• Some Arturia instruments do not load properly and/or are in demo mode. Could not login to Arturia server to check.
• Fixed wrong instrument: DX7 replaced with Jup8000.

Order for one lesson (2 hours)

14 February 2026 (2 hours; 9.00-11.00) 

• RECORDING. Not recording this time. Apparently, OBS could not record the sound of Google Meet.
• Check RAM (should be 40 GB) and Buffer size (in Studio Setup –> Control Panel); Buffer size cannot be changed for Steinberg ASIO driver.
• TEMPLATE AND COLORS
  • Change Orchestrator to dark grey (or orange)? It’s currently too close to the brass/red shades and blends in. I’d like it to stand out more as a control/utility track rather than an instrument.
    • Orange panel  (hsv)
      • 30, 90, 85
      • 30, 85, 92
      • 30, 75, 96
      • 30, 60, 98
      • 30, 40, 100
  • One color family for Fantasy, slight differences for Voices, Strings, Orchestrator. Can we set Fantasy Orchestra to teal/turquoise? It’s not used elsewhere and fits the cinematic/fantasy feel nicely.
    • Teal panel
      • teal-1: hsv(180, 55%, 50%);
      • teal-2: hsv(180, 50%, 65%);
      • teal-3: hsv(180, 45%, 75%);
      • teal-4: hsv(180, 40%, 85%);
      • teal-5: hsv(180, 30%, 97%);
    • Turquoise panel
      • turquoise-1: hsv(170, 60%, 55%);
      • turquoise-2: hsv(170, 55%, 70%);
      • turquoise-3: hsv(170, 50%, 80%);
      • turquoise-4: hsv(170, 40%, 90%);
      • turquoise-5: hsv(170, 30%, 99%);
  • Untick DX7 and Emulator at load—template blank.
  • Rename the top piano to Bösendorfer.
  • Move harp into strings section.  –> Harp is ‘Pitched Percussion’
  • Ancient Kingdom: load Shakuhachi, Viking Voices, Irish Whistle.
  • Iconic: load Classic Keys, Organ 2, Classic DX.
  • Percussion: load Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Xylophone, Glockenspiel.
  • Find a steel drum sample library (EastWest doesn’t have it).
  • Save this complete template as  master copy (template_14feb2026.cpr)
• Cubase split keyboard –> In the OPUS browser or using MIDI modifiers
• Drum patterns
  • Groove Agent or percussion?
  • Show me how to drag-and-drop.
  • I saw “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson recommended (MIDI)
• Integrate Skoove in setup; Play eastwest and have Skoove detect it.  ==> not possible because there is not Windows version of Skoove; only iOS and Android.
• We made a directory E:\Cubase
  • E:\Cubase\_Templates    –> backup of templates that were in %appdata%
  • E:\Cubase\Projects

We started a song: 8-bar-song.cpr from scratch. Contains 8-bar Groove Agent pattern. Audio Click. I added the OPUS Piano. Assignment: make 8 bar melody (2 bar theme, 2 bar repeat theme (with variation), 2 bars go wild, 2 bars to return home).

Order for xx lessons (1 hours)

xx March 2026 (1 hour; 9.00-10.00) 

• Back in March
• In case you don’t want to set up Expression Maps yourself: Art Conductor 26

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