I've found an alternative way to do the same thing in Cubase.
I'm posting it for future reference. It works for any VST instrument plugin. I've Cubase Elements 10.5 but it should work for any other recent version (Cubase LE has some limitations).
First a quick recap. In Cubase you have various way of twiddling VST parameters:
- Using MIDI directly
- Using Track Quick Controls
- Using VST Quick Controls
- Using custom mappings with a Generic Remote
To use the 1st option, the plugin must have an embedded option for MIDI Learning (or a predefined CC assignment), there's not a global Learn option like the ones in Ableton Live or Bitwig. Some plugins do have this option, some (as Waverazor apparently) don't. There's nothing you can do about it.
The 2nd option (the ones you can find at the bottom of an instrument track Inspector) shouldn't be used for instruments, but for mixing (i.e. Channel Settings: Inserts/Sends/EQs/...). The reason is that they're relevant only for the track they're set up in. If you add another instance, the assignments starts from scratch.
The 3rd option (the ones you can find in VSTi rack, not available in Cubase LE) allows you to set up to 8 VST instrument parameters to any control surface thing (typically a set of knobs). You can have only 8 of them at a time, but they can be paged in an unlimited(?) number of so called layers, so you can switch among small sets of 8 parameters (note: at the moment, you can switch layers only using the mouse on VSTi rack as far as I can understand!). You can reorganize and edit all these (including the first) layers through the Remote Control Editor. You can save a mapping from the instrument/rack and have different layouts and a default one that gets loaded at every new track with that instrument.
In Waverazor you can set, for example, these to the 8 macro knobs, save it as default and you'll be ready to twiddle for the rest of your life as soon as it loads!
Unfortunately a problem arises when your synth has XY pads and you have a control surface for knobs (I have a Behringer X Touch Mini with 8 rotary knobs) plus some other device with XY pads (a Korg nanoPad in my case). I want to use the 8 knobs (which would anyway be impractical to control XY, 2 knobs and 2 hands!) for the macro controls and the pad for the pad (quite obvious!), but only for some instruments (the pad should continue to work as usual on other instruments).
4th option. The solution is to create a Generic Remote device and assign the XY pad only to specific instruments. First of all add a track with the instrument (ie. Waverazor). Just open Studio > Studio Setup and add a new device using the "+" symbol at the top left corner. Choose "Generic Remote" and delete, for example in my nanoPad case, all the entries. Now add 2 new entries for the X and Y pad movements (type in the CC parameters or use the Learn function) in the upper table (leave an R only flag on those rows, if your device is a simple pad with no visual feedback like mine, or RT if it accepts feedback) and add a new bank in the lower table (note: in the upper you set any device elements you might use, in the lower a bank-able series of function assigned). Edit the assignments on the lower table. Click on the "Device" value of the corresponding row and you'll find at the bottom of the list a set of entries for your current active VST instruments. Click on "Waverazor". The "Channel" column should be left to "Device". Click on the 3rd column ("Value") and assign it to the X movement parameter ("vector 1 x" in Waverazor). Do the same for the Y axis. Apply the settings. Now if you move your finger on the pad, you should see it moving in Waverazor too!
Only one problem is left. If you change track, the pad remains assigned to Waverazor! You can easily solve this by adding a new bank in the lower table in the Generic Remote page, leaving the entries unassigned. Rename this bank "Blank" (or whatever) and the Waverazor one as "Waverazor" (or whatever).
Now, if you go to the menu Studio -> "More Options", you'll find an entry for the Generic Remote device you added (you can add many, BTW, they get progressively numbered). It'll open up a small pop-up window where you can select the assignment bank. If you select Blank, the XY pad will have no effect, if you select "Waverazor" it'll work again in the synth. You can proceed with the same logic to create custom assignment banks for any VST instrument you might like to control this way and just switch to the required bank, even in realtime!
If you're adventurous and have the proper devices, you can assign the bank switching to some button/knob (using again the above procedure, assign it to Command/Remote/bank_name), so you can do that in real time without even touching the mouse!
Hope this helps! :)
Let me know if you have further informations to add or if I wrote something wrong.