It is however possible to have multiple linked groups of slots in a single Part list, so you could link Slot 2 to 1, and Slot 4 to 3, for example.

This is easier to experience rather than explain, and, in practice, it just means you have to plan ahead if you want to create specific layered sounds. The only caveat is that you can only Link a Slot to the Slot or group of linked Slots above, which means Slot 2 can be linked to Slot 1, but Slot 3 can only be linked to Slot 1 if Slot 2 is already linked to Slot 1.

This is a great way to layer sounds, and you can layer anywhere between two and all 16 slots to create fairly vast sonic creations. For example, if you load a piano patch into the first slot and a string patch into the second, you can enable Link mode on the second slot so it also responds to data sent on the first MIDI channel - the result would be piano and strings playing together at the same time. The Link control allows you to 'link' slots together so that MIDI input from one channel can trigger multiple slots at the same time. At the time, Steinberg supplied Cubase with the Neon synthesizer, a simple subtractive synth that didn't sound so great, and used most of the processing of my humble G3 for a few notes, but was still exciting because of the technology and working method it promised! Neon was soon followed by Steinberg's own LM4 sample-based drum module, then other developers started developing VST Instruments and technology to incorporate software instruments into their products, and the rest, as they say, is history. While the idea of a computer program that generated sound was nothing new, VST Instruments represented the first time such a program could be integrated so tightly within a sequencing environment, using the same VST plug-in technology that was already popular for software effects. The use of software instruments is almost ubiquitous in music production today, it's easy to forget that less than five years have passed since Steinberg released the first versions of Cubase with support for VST Instruments.

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