The Studio Module is a tool for gathering and maintaining settings in your MIDI Devices. It performs this task by retrieving and sending out System Exclusive data, which is a very loosely defined type of MIDI data that each manufacture can utilise for their own purposes.
The Studio Module "knows" how to access all these different MIDI Devices via so called “drivers”. A driver (also called a “device driver” in this manual) is a file that contains information about a certain device. With the Studio Module comes device drivers for more than 150 devices.
There is a special Windows program called DMaker which is used for creating your own Device Drivers. This is free to all Studio Module users and can be downloaded from the Steinberg ftp site <ftp://ftp.steinberg.net> (see the end of this manual). All the ready-made Drivers that come with the Studio Module were created with this program.
P Although many great drivers are created by users, we can in no way guarantee their functionality. Please look at the "Info" about the driver in the Setup window to get information about who created it! (See page 84.)
The Studio Module also extracts “names” out of your MIDI devices (if there are any). As you know, synthesizers and other MIDI devices can be programmed to remember sounds and other settings, with individual names.
One of the unique things about the Studio Module is its total integration into Cubase. It extracts information (such as names and MIDI Channel settings) from the devices and makes this information available in the Arrange window automatically, which makes setting up for a Song much, much simpler.
The Drivers also contain a number of Macro Editors, each adapted to a certain device. These allow you to make swift and powerful changes to the settings in your devices. However, not all devices can have a Macro Editor built for them, due to the nature of their MIDI implementation.
The terminology involved with MIDI System Exclusive handling can be a bit bewildering. We have tried to create as consistent a naming scheme as possible in the Studio Module. We have also included a Glossary at the end of this manual where we describe what terminology we use. We also try to hint at what terminology different manufacturers use in their devices.
We don't mean to discourage you, but getting System Exclusive communication working smoothly may take some initial setup work. There are many pitfalls, due to the lack of standardisation between devices. We have provided as detailed information as we possibly can about how to make your setup work, and there is a Troubleshooting section on page 158. We encourage you to follow the instructions in the Installation and Setup chapters down to the last detail.
This said, once you have your system up and running, the Studio Module will provide an unprecedented level of automation for your MIDI system, removing a lot of the "front panel fiddling" you had to do before this tool was developed.