New user - help understanding ARA

Synthesizer V Studio
1

Hi all, new user here - got Synth V Pro 2 a couple of days ago. Haven’t had a great deal of chance to use it yet but really enjoying it so far, and the tutorial videos have been great.

One thing I’m trying to understand is the ARA mode - what exactly are the benefits (if any) of using ARA instead of just as a plugin. I have Cubase 13 Pro and can go into ARA mode, but I’m uncertain of how it differs to the plugin. I thought it might allow me to drag/drop midi sections directly into SV or use the C13 Piano Roll for the SV5 instrument track and have the pattern duplicated/linked to SV.

The video for the plugin was great, but totally glossed over the ARA side. I’ve read the manual and can get ARA Bridge etc. going, and the green 'ARA Bridge Link’showing in the instrument, but don’t understand what the purpose is.

Any help or insights greatly appreciated!

Thanks

2

The chief job of an ara plugin is to sync the play stop seek operations between the ara plugin and the host DAW. The synth plugin will have the green ara bridge link means that that instance can also control play stop seek etc. Across DAWs that support ara. The other trick is the voice to MIDI that with word recognition is icing on the cake.

3

For me, it’s much faster to make songs using the VST plugin directly and completely skipping ARA. The ARA mode involves too much extra clicking switching back and forth between SV and DAW.
Don’t give up on ARA if it offers something you need but I encourage trying it both with and without ARA and stick with whichever approach gets your style faster at making music.

4

Thanks guys - I found the video in Japanese with the English subtitles which helped too. The voice to midi is definitely something I’m going to have a whole load of fun with :D.

The syncing to the DAW looks like it will be useful too - I’ll experiment some more with it.

Thanks again :+1:

5

I’ve been using SV on Cubase 14 since first getting SV last year, but always with the ARA bridge function.

I can’t seem to get the ARA plugin working at all - but that is fine for me, so I haven’t delved any deeper.

The ARA bridge syncs the DAW playback (either from DAW transport controls or within SV) perfectly, so that is pretty much all I need.

1 Like
6

One of the reasons why ARA is useful: If you have a tempo change, for example from 120 bmp to 130 bmp, the ARA connection will automatically sync the voice to the tempo of your DAW. I tested that with Cubase 14 (which I have). It works even if you let the tempo slowly accelerate from 120 bpm to 130 bmp, for example.

7

This is true. However I found that for me setting the same tempo changes on both the DAW and the vsti plugin manually works as good and let me skip the ARA annoyances.