Integra-7 hardware and saving MIDI tracks presets in Cubase

[galshemesh]

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well. :)

I recently bought a brand new Integra-7 hardware unit and very happy with its sounds, and especially because it's an independent piece of hardware from my PC, so I don't have to install any sounds anymore if I only wish to stick with the incredible sounds that it comes with.

I hooked it up with my iPad Air 13", which I find as a great companion giving its screen size, to selecting the different sounds via the official app. The Integra's USB driver is set to "GENERIC (MIDI only)" for this to work and it is connect to the iPad via the Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter.

To use the Integra with my DAW (Cubase 12), I've connected it via the 5Din MIDI connectors to my Quantum HD 8 USB-C audio interface (both MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT).

I'm adding MIDI tracks and setting them up with different sound patches on the iPad screen and everything feels like a dream. The only issue I'm having is when I wish to save my Cubase projects and to get back to them later. The project file does not contain any information about which patches were used in each track, and so I have to type the patches names on the MIDI tracks themselves in order to manually selecting them when loading the project again, which is time consuming and I don't think that it's the correct route to doing so.

I tried to use the Windows Editor for the Integra, but it only works if you set the Integra's USB driver to "VENDER (MIDI+AUDIO)". However, by doing so you loose the ability to control the unit from the iPad app, and I find the Windows Editor sluggish and much less convenient versus the app. I thought about buying the Onkyo wireless adapter and then to connect the iPad to the Integra wirelessly to be able to control it when it's USB port is already used with the PC, but I'm willing to check first if it will work when the Integra is set to "VENDER (MIDI+AUDIO)" before spending more money.

I wish to note that I've been creating MIDI music for years, but it was many (MANY) years ago, and it was with General MIDI hardware and software that the DAWs had patches for already built-in, and also with VST plugins that had their own editors that got save along with the projects. So I don't have much experience with external hardware synths other than GM ones, up until now. I trust that you guys have much more experience with hardware synths than I do, and would really appreciate if you could kindly shine some light for me in this area, and perhaps guide me how to save my projects along with the selected patches that I set in each track. I suppose that I would also like to save any tweaking that I might do to the sounds from the iPad app, though as for now, I'm only going to use their default setting.

Thanks!

[shiihs]

Assuming you have the correct expansion cards loaded already, you can insert bank and program change midi messages into your tracks that will automatically select the sounds for you. (I have no experience with cubase so I couldn't tell you how to do it exactly... but I found this, which means it is possible: https://archive.steinberg.help/cubase_p ... out_c.html ) You can find an overview of all the required numbers in the "Integra-7 sound list" documentation (can be freely downloaded from the Roland support web site).

[UltimateOutsider]

As shiihs said, you should be able to store the bank and program change values in your Cubase project. In cubase you can do this in the "Inspector" view of a MIDI track. I am not an Integra owner, but I imagine it is a multi-timbral unit. So you could have several MIDI tracks routed to the Integra, and each one could have its own bank/program settings to bring up the correct preset on your device.

Note: Some devices that are capable of more than 127 presets or that don't respond to bank numbers require you to do program change assignment on the device itself. I am not an Integra-7 owner (yet) so I don't know if that device requires any device-side settings for assigning program changes to patches.