Cubase - loading one instrument considered surround out make full project surround, kind of?

[lfm]

All panners change to surround type panner.

Two options:

#1. Is there a way to just use a plugin with Dolby music 7.1 output and mix that to stereo with MixConvert plugin and the rest remains the same?

#2. Tried to edit VST2 info xml to make this plugins look like 4 stereo outs, like another plugin that works do. But still Cubase handle it as 7.1 Dolby music.

For some reason Metaplugin is identified like having one output 7.1 channels, and not 4 stereo. Even though it says Multi[4] in pluginmanager. Really weird.

Any ideas to come around this?
Either change how a plugin is perceived, or make project look like any other.

Thanks.

[SJ_Digriz]

I'm not sure I am answering the question correctly or in the context you want .. but I'll give it a go.

Cubase VST Connections don't really care if it is 7.1 or 4x2. Only the plugin cares. So, you can assign a 4x2 or a 7.1 VST Connection to the buss and the plugin will hook up. The only downside of the 4x2 is that I've had a hard time finding the low freq buss on a couple of occassions (it wasn't input 8 when the plugin started processing, so I had to go move the audio input assignments on the VST Connection until the LF showed on the right channel).

I'm surprised editing the info.xml worked at all ever... I was under the impression that Cubase interrogates the plugin and writes to the file, not the other way around.

So, my recommendation is to make a couple of VST Connections in various configs to see if you can trick the plugin into behaving the way you want. And yes, the MixConvert should drop a stereo output for you, however it can be tricky to mix that output.

[lfm]

Many thanks.

Yes, the MixConvert is inserted by Cubase when plugin is inserted since it sense stereo out from track, and 7.1 needs to be mixed down.
And looking at activating outputs - there is only one called Dolby music 7.1.
Don't know how to force that plugin to not be handled not like surround.
I tested creating a surround bus to see if that made it easier to handle audio channels, but not really.

And that plugin could use an makeover with meters at least, so you see what you are doing.

You could be right about info-files, that they are just used for present stuff - don't know.
I changed settings to same as Patchwork, which do show itself as 8 stereo out - and still I get 7.1 on Metaplugin.

Metaplugin works with 4 stereo out in Sonar, and no sweat over that - maybe because the simple version I have is not supporting surround.

Anyway, I have it all working nice in Patchwork, with normal outs, but kind of like the oversampling for synths in Metaplugin.

I will look for another host that can do oversampling for any plugin in Cubase.
Sonar has it built in to use right out of the box for any synth, without needing to run full projects at 96k.

EDIT: I reverted Metaplugin to v2.6.0 and got normal behavior again. Luckily I had that license file with a little different structure still, and could activate that again.

[Akanishta]

Not sure about Cubase, but in Nuendo you can create a Quadro (4.0) audio/fx track, then in device manager open VST Connections, then click on output buss on the top, then add, then select Quadro, then ok. That will add a 4 channel master. On the Quadro audio/fx track, open the routing section on top and select the output to be the Quadro master. That will convert the audio/fx panner to Quadro and route the audio out of the Quadro master. For instrument tracks, create the track and then change the output routing to convert it to Quadro.

[Akanishta]

For 8 channels, there should be an 8.0 Cine and 8.0 Music track option. On track type, mouse over 'more', then 'others'. They're on the last page. That would be for both audio/fx and master tracks.

I just checked it and it does work. I inserted a plugin that can handle a lot of channels and it automatically converted to 8.0 Music for the plugin configuration on an 8.0 Music audio track feeding an 8.0 Music master..

[lfm]

Thanks for input.
I read the plugin reference, and there are some plugin version for surround in Nuendo and not in Cubase.

Fiddling a bit with surround now, and confusion was caused by that so many visible changes appeared as I load MetapluginSynth, which were considered a surround component and changes everything to a surround project.

Also did a surround bus, but did not help anything.

So most of confusion was my inexperience with surround, that component became a single output with 7+1 channels, and not 4 stereo outs. And Cubase inserts the MixConvert6-2 to mix down at least 6 channels to stereo and you need Nuendo to get the MixConvert8-2 to get use of all outs.

So DDMF changed something in latest version so that component is considered surround.

Reverting to previous version 2.6.0 fixed that, so everything looks as I am used to.