Phat.Boy and Steinberg's Cubase VST.

Now that Steinberg are offering a range of plug-in instruments such as Neon, the Model-E and the Pro-Five, one of the questions we're being asked is "can these be controlled by the Phat.Boy in real time?" The answer is a big YES.

Below is a simple example of how any Phat.Boy can be used to control the major parameters of the Model-E (or any other synth that responds to standard CC's) with some simple re-mapping within Cubase itself.

Set the Phat.Boy to Mode III. In this mode the Phat.Boy transmits standard MIDI continuous controllers (CC's) from its knobs. Knob 1 transmits CC 1, knob 2 transmits CC 2, knob 3 transmits CC 3 etc up to knob 13 which, rather obviously, transmits CC 13.

Each knob is physically numbered on the Phat.Boy's front panel.

Presuming that you have a Cubase VST arrange page open and that you have the Model-E (or any other plug in instrument) active lets do some very simple MIDI mapping within Cubase so that the Phat.Boy's knobs (CC' 1-13) can control the synth. At the bottom of this page you'll find a complete list of the CC's that the Model-E responds to along with a list of parameters that these CC's control.

Open the Options window and select MIDI Setup and then System

options

This will take you to the MIDI System Setup page

Double click on the box labelled Controller and type in the number 1. This relates to CC 1 (knob 1 on the Phat Boy). You'll notice that when you've closed this box you'll see the word Modulation appear, this is because the MIDI standard denotes that CC 1 normally defaults to modulation, it's the controller the mod wheel on your keyboard transmits.

Now double click on the box labelled Mapped and type in 74.

Again double click on the box labelled Controller and type in the number 2. This relates to CC 2 (knob 2 on the Phat Boy).

Now double click on the box labelled Mapped and type in 71.

Again double click on the box labelled Controller and type in the number 3. This relates to CC 3 (knob 3 on the Phat Boy).

Now double click on the box labelled Mapped and type in 40.

When you have closed the MIDI System Setup knobs 1 and 2 on the Phat.Boy will now control the Filter Cut Off and Filter Emphasis and knob 3 will control VCA Envelope Attack of the Model-E .

You can re-map all of the Phat.Boy's knobs as you wish following the pattern above and using the parameter table below. When you get to CC 7 (knob 7) and CC 10 (knob 10) leave these as they are and they will control volume and pan respectively. When the mapping has been completed be sure to save your settings as part of a song.

Utilise the Steinberg Overlay Card and Grease Pencil that came with your Phat.Boy to re-label the function of each of the Phat.Boy's knobs after re-mapping.

For a full list of parameters that the Pro-Five will respond to check the instruments MIDI section within the manual and use the Mapping function within Cubase to allow control of this instrument also.

Model-E controller chart.

Parameter

MIDI CC

Parameter

MIDI CC

Oscillator Modulation

34

Filter Modulation

12

Tune

9

Keyboard Control 1

13

Glide

5

Keyboard Control 2

14

Osc 3 Noise

35

White/Pink Noise

27

Mono Mode

126

Filter Cut Off

74

Osc 3

36

Filter Emphasis

71

Range Osc 1

28

Filter Amount

18

Range Osc 2

29

Filter Envelope Attack

37

Range Osc 3

30

Filter Envelope Decay

38

Frequency 2

31

Filter Envelope Sustain

39

Frequency 3

33

VCA Envelope Attack

40

Waveform 1

24

VCA Envelope Decay

41

Waveform 2

25

VCA Envelope Sustain

42

Waveform 3

26

Envelope-Release On

43

Osc 1 Volume

20

VCF Velo

15

Osc 2 Volume

21

VCA Velo

19

Osc 3 Volume

22

Spread

44

Noise Volume

23

Volume

7

2 Pole/4 Pole

11

Pan

10

If you're a Phat.BoyV2 owner many of the parameters that you will wish to control will be accessible directly from the Phat.Boy's knobs without re-mapping. For a full list of the parameters that the Phat.Boy V2 transmits please visit our specifications page.

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