Anybody know whether it’s possible for the Cubase V software to ‘see’ a USB microphone? And if so, how? I’ve tried just about every option but the DAW only seems to recognise line in or the microphone socket inputs.

Hi DaveG38

I’m not really familiar with the Rode NT USB, but I would imagine that any DAW ‘could’ see the mic providing the operating system you are using can see it too.  You didn’t mention any computer/OS info on your profile.

So, logically, it’s probably a question of installing the correct drivers and treating the mic as if it’s an interface, albeit an interface of its own.  I’d be amazed if it really is just plug and play without any kind of driver or additional software.

It could also be a “A new audio device has been discovered and the driver will now be downloaded” type set up, too.

You ‘could’ run into a mismatch of compatibility between the Mic, an older DAW like Cubase 5 and whatever OS you are using.  So it’s best to check that out for sure at their site.

Whilst I haven’t offered you much help, there’s at least a few things to think about there and I’d take a bet on it behaving like an audio interface, simply because of the controls on it are interface type controls and it has a headphones jack.

Ok, a bit more information. I’m running simple Windows 7 PC with a Realtek sound card. The Rode NT USB mic does have its own drivers which are installed when it is first connected to the USB socket of the PC, although the user guide for the Rode does describe it as plug and play. As a mic it’s fabulous, since there is virtually no latency at all when singing over a backing track with headphones.

The problem is that I have no idea how the PC ‘sees’ the mic, since it doesn’t appear in the Realtek control panel at all. All this sees are the line in, the speakers and the microphone inputs. It doesn’t appear to have any functionality to allow it to see the USB mic.

In the ‘Sound’ playback window, the Rode shows up as a speaker - presumably this refers to the out put to the headphones jack on the mic itself. In the recording window, it shows up as a default device, so clearly my overall system is ‘seeing’ the Rode.

What I can’t find is any way in which Cubase can map a link to a USB port as opposed to a line in or microphone jack. So far, my best option seems to be to record my voice performance into Audacity and then export from there to Cubase so that the voice work can be played around with - I don’t like Audacity for this. The interesting thing is that the audacity software ‘sees’ the Rode immediately and has a sub-menu to allow me to chose which mic or source I want to use. Cubase doesn’t appear to be able to do this.

All you can do is check to see if the Rode appears on the Cubase device menu in device setup.

If it does not show up there as an option (given that your usual sound card will likely be selected as the current ‘in use’ audio device) it is likely that your version of Cubase is not compatible.

‘Device set up’ is really the only place it can be.

Thanks for this. The Rode certainly doesn’t show up in the ‘Device Set Up’ so I guess I can’t use it with the Cubase software. At least I can use it with Audacity and then export and import to Cubase for editing etc. so all is not lost.

You might want to get in touch with Rode support, just to make sure.

http://www.rode.com/contact

Set the Rode as an audio interface in Cubase, well at least an audio input interface.

it’s not showing up in the Cubase device set up, yet rather oddly it is for Audacity.