Day 2. Hoorah, it almost works.
My problem was using this as a VST. If you try the same, you’ll struggle.
You must use it as an ARA (Audio Random Access if, like me, you’d never heard of it before). In Cubase 11, create an audio track, record some silence, then ctrl-right click and add Synth V ARA2 as an extension ) 4th item down on the popup menu. If you use a genuine vocal track, right click in the Arrangement part of the SynthV interface and you can extract the notes and lyrics and it does a pretty good job.
It seems like a very useful feature now that I’ve used it a bit. There are still some behaviours though that I think could use looking at or fixing (not sure if they are being classed as ‘features’) such as not being having to use the in-VST record button to record (starting recording from Cubase doesn’t activate recording within the VST).
Day 3. If I could only get some audio output I’d be happy. Unfortunately, despite the improvements of the ARA over the VST, the ARA will not produce any audio. I have followed a few leads on sample rate and mono/stereo but found no solution. The ARA output is silent. I can’t find anywhere in Studio or the mix consoles to change anything. All my other tracks play fine. My only solution is to export from the ARA and import into the VST, but that messes up my tempo and time signature settings.
The interface between the ARA and Cubase obviously has some timing issues as the various playheads in cubase, the top and bottom panel of SnythV are stuttering all over the place trying to keep up with each other. The bottom panel is so bad it looks like there are two cursors. @hobbyhorse - how did you get any audio?
When I do the VST import, I get a partial ARA bridge link. I’m not sure that that means. It tells me this:
If I follow these instructions I’ll probably end up with no output again.
I had missed the trick to slip the audio forward a few bars. It didn’t make any difference though. I also don’t get the ARA Bridge Mode lighting up anywhere. That part seems a little hit and miss. I started a new project, recorded a vocal and extracted the notes and lyrics using the ARA 2 extension. It worked great. Slipped it forward a few bars. Still no audio.
Try exporting the project as a .ust file for safekeeping then start again with a new project using my steps. You still have it set up as full ARA so you won’t be getting the ARA bridge signal to light up.
Start over with SV as an instrument track then you can import the .ust track and see how you get on.
This is a screenshot of my setup (with SV shrunk so you can see the ARA Bridge indicator)
SV is an instrument track and above that a stereo audio track with a random audio clip on there named ‘ARA’. Notice on the track inspector for that audio track underneath the track presets dropdown the extension is SV Studio 2 ARA.
Then Add Track> Audio and stick any old bit of audio on that track
The as per the inspector, just below the track Presets dropdown on the audio track you’ll see another dropdown that says ‘No Extension’ so drop that down and choose the SV2 ARA option. Now you’ll see a little @ sign appear on the audio clip - this whole audio track is a dummy and won’t make a sound.
Then when you open up SV2 (as an instrument) you should see the ARA Bridge icon lit up in the top right-hand corner of the SV2 window. If it is not lit, then try just moving the audio clip a bar or two to the right.
Hey @NigelL , didn’t do anything specific that I can think of to get audio but (at the moment), I’m only using ARA to be able to bridge to the VST instrument and have only really played in that environment.
Like you, prior to this I’d never heard of ARA before (or used Cubase extensions!) and still not totally certain on what they are.
I do get the stuttering a bit with the playhead tracking though in the VST with this setup too but more an annoyance than a real show-stopper if I try to ignore it.
With the error you’re getting in the next post, are you recording into the track or using a pre-recorded clip to put the ARA extension on? I think in Cubase it won’t work if you insert a silent audio.
Edit - I see @manassas77 has provided some pretty comprehensive advice - hope you get it sorted.
I’m using a pre-recorded vocal. My best workaround is to use the ARA2 extension. Export. Create a new VST SynthV track and import the exported .ust. I’ve tried everything I can think of and the full ARA2 extension doesn’t create audio for me. My suspicion is that as no-one else has posted on the forum that they’re using full ARA2 on cubase, it doesn’t work. Using the standalone track works, using the bridge mode seems irrelevant and whether it’s switched on or off with the green button makes no difference.
Maybe I misunderstood your described process and/or the aim of what you’re exactly trying to achieve. However, if it comes to “creating audio” directly from any SV2 track within Cubase, I guess you don’t need ARA2 at all to do so.
“Offline” method (preferred from a timely perspective):
Just go back to the main view of your Cubase project, select the (MIDI/Instrument-based) track that contains your SV2 plugin and select a specific range by adjusting the Cubase cycle markers. Then goto File → Export → Audio Mixdown (I have a German Cubase verson, but I guess the menu names should be correct). A window will appear where you can check once again what exactly will be exported. Then confirm the process by pressing “Export Audio”. A new audio file will be created inside your Cubase subfolder “Mixdown” which you may import again into the project (at the positions you selected before), if needed so.
“Online” method:
Aside from the mentioned instrument track holding the SV2 plugin, create a new empty audio track within Cubase. Then go to the inspector and choose the SV2 (MIDI/Instrument) track as input (instead of “none”) for that audio track. Then aim also the audio track (if not done so automatically already), go to the song start and press record. The audio will then be created on the audio track while “listening” to SV2’s output.
Hi @B.Minor. Thanks for your perspective. To be clear, I’m trying to get this thing working as advertised, as a ARA2 extension in Cubase. I want it to work like melodyne. You add your melodyne ARA to a vocal track and fiddle with the vocals. No exports. No imports. No bounces. A simple workflow. Immediate audio output.
I am currently adding SynthV ARA2 to an audio track, exporting the .ust file then importing that into an instrument track with SynthV VST as the instrument. It works fine but it’s a kludge.
Just tested this for you on Cubase 14 Pro / Windows 11.
Add the audio clip you want to convert onto an audio track, at whatever position you want.
Then right-click over the audio clip and choose ‘Add Extensions’ and choose Synthesizer V Studio 2 ARA.
[Edit: Should be Ctrl+Right-Click]
The SV UI appears and you should find there is a group created the same name as your audio clip.
Go to ‘Auto-Process’ on the menu and choose ‘Extract Notes From Audio’ and after choosing any or all of the options … voila … the notes appear as if by magic
Choose your preferred voice bank and away you go. Simples!
Works here straight out of the box. If you don’t choose a voice you get the standard piano sound instead.
Thanks @manassas77. I followed your steps and it worked perfectly for the Version 1 ARA. For the version 2 ARA: nothing at all. It looked similar, but no audio output.
I have another ARA2 called spectralayers. I drew a line on it and sure enough, the output is working fine.
