Steinberg Cubase 5.0 Operation Manual

Operation Manual
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer Thanks to: Georg Bruns The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica­tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
Release Date: January 07, 2009 © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2009. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

10 Part I: Getting into the details
11 About this manual
12 Welcome!
13 VST Connections: Setting up input and
output busses
14 About this chapter 14 Setting up busses 18 Using the busses 20 Setting up Group and FX channels 20 About monitoring 20 External instruments/effects (Cubase only)
25 The Project window
26 Background 28 Window Overview 34 Operations 56 Options
59 Playback and the Transport panel
60 Background 61 Operations 63 Options and Settings 65 The Virtual Keyboard
66 Recording
67 Background 67 Basic recording methods 69 Audio recording specifics 79 MIDI recording specifics 84 Options and Settings 87 Recovery of audio recordings after system failure
88 Fades, crossfades and envelopes
89 Creating fades 91 The Fade dialogs 92 Creating crossfades 93 The Crossfade dialog 94 Auto Fades and Crossfades 95 Event Envelopes
103 The Transpose functions
104 Introduction 104 Transposing your music 107 Other functions
109 The mixer
110 About this chapter 110 Overview 112 Configuring the mixer 116 The audio-related channel strips 117 The MIDI channel strips 117 The input and output channels 117 Basic mixing procedures 121 Audio-specific procedures 128 MIDI-specific procedures 129 Utilities 132 VST Mixer Diagrams
135 Control Room (Cubase only)
136 Background 137 Control Room operations 137 Configuring the Control Room 140 The Control Room Overview 141 The Control Room Mixer 146 Studios and Studio Sends 149 Direct Monitoring and latency
150 Audio effects
151 About this chapter 151 Overview 152 Insert effects 157 Send effects 161 Using the Side-Chain input 163 Using external effects (Cubase only) 163 Editing effects 164 Effect presets 166 Installing and managing effect plug-ins
96 The Arranger track
97 Introduction 97 Setting up the Arranger track 98 Working with arranger events 100 Flattening the Arranger chain 101 Live Mode 102 Arranging your music to video
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Table of Contents
169 VST Instruments and Instrument
tracks
170 Introduction 170 VST Instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 170 VST Instrument channels 172 Instrument tracks 174 What do I need? Instrument channel or Instrument
track?
174 Instrument Freeze 175 VST instruments and processor load 175 Using presets for VSTi configuration 178 About latency 179 External instruments (Cubase only)
180 Surround sound (Cubase only)
181 Background 182 Operations
188 Automation
189 Introduction 189 Enabling and disabling the writing of automation
data
190 What can be automated? 191 The Automation panel 191 Automation modes 193 Automation performance utilities 195 The Settings section 196 Hints and further options 196 Automation track operations 199 Working with automation curves 202 MIDI Controller automation
204 Audio processing and functions
205 Background 205 Audio processing 213 Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 214 The Offline Process History dialog 215 Freeze Edits 216 Detect Silence 217 The Spectrum Analyzer (Cubase only) 218 Statistics (Cubase only)
219 The Sample Editor
220 Background 221 Window overview 224 General Operations 230 Options and settings 231 AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio 234 Working with hitpoints and slices 238 Free Warp 241 Flattening the realtime processing 243 VariAudio (Cubase only)
254 The Audio Part Editor
255 Background 255 Opening the Audio Part Editor 255 Window overview 257 Operations 258 Common methods 259 Options and Settings
260 The Pool
261 Background 261 Window overview 263 Operations
273 The MediaBay
274 Introduction 276 Window overview 276 Browsing for media files 279 Finding files in the Viewer section 283 Previewing files in the Scope section 284 The Tag Editor (Cubase only)
288 Working with Track Presets
289 Introduction 289 Types of track presets 290 Applying track presets 292 Creating a track preset 293 Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets 293 Previewing MIDI, instrument and VST presets
independently of tracks
295 Track Quick Controls
296 Introduction 296 Setting up the Quick Controls tab 297 Setting up quick controls on an external remote
controller
298 Quick controls and automatable parameters
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Table of Contents
299 Remote controlling Cubase
300 Introduction 300 Setting Up 301 Operations 302 The Generic Remote device 304 Track Quick Controls 304 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)
305 MIDI realtime parameters and effects
306 Introduction 306 The Inspector – General handling 306 The Inspector sections 310 MIDI effects 313 Managing plug-ins
314 Using MIDI devices
315 Background 315 MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 320 About Device panels (Cubase only) 323 About Studio Connections (Cubase only)
325 MIDI processing and quantizing
326 Introduction 326 The Quantizing functions 331 Making your settings permanent 332 Dissolve Part 333 Bounce Selection 333 Repeat Loop 333 Other MIDI functions
337 The MIDI editors
338 Introduction 338 Opening a MIDI editor 340 The Key Editor – Overview 342 Key Editor operations 356 The In-Place Editor 358 The Drum Editor – Overview 359 Drum Editor operations 361 Working with drum maps 364 Using drum name lists 365 The List Editor – Overview 365 List Editor operations 368 Working with System Exclusive messages 370 Recording System Exclusive parameter changes 370 Editing System Exclusive messages
372 VST Expression
373 Introduction 374 VST Expression in Cubase 377 Creating and editing Expression Maps
380 The Logical Editor, Transformer and
Input Transformer
381 Introduction 381 Opening the Logical Editor 382 Window overview 382 Setting up filter conditions 386 Selecting a function 387 Specifying actions 389 Applying the defined actions 389 Working with presets 389 The Input Transformer
391 The Project Logical Editor
392 Introduction 392 Opening the Project Logical Editor 392 Window overview 393 Setting up filter conditions 397 Specifying actions 399 Selecting a function 399 Applying Macros 399 Applying the defined actions 399 Working with presets
401 Editing tempo and signature
402 Background 402 Tempo and signature display 404 Editing tempo and signature 406 Process Tempo (Cubase only) 406 The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 407 The Beat Calculator 408 Merge Tempo From Tapping 408 The Time Warp tool
413 The Project Browser
414 Window Overview 415 Editing tracks
419 Export Audio Mixdown
420 Introduction 420 Mixing down to audio files 422 The available file formats
6
Table of Contents
427 Synchronization
428 Background 428 Synchronization signals 429 Synchronizing the transport vs. synchronizing audio 430 Making basic settings and connections 431 Synchronization settings 436 Machine Control 437 Sync Options 438 Working with VST System Link 438 Preparations 440 Activating VST System Link 443 Application examples
445 Video
446 Background 446 Before you start 448 Operations
451 ReWire
452 Introduction 452 Launching and quitting 453 Activating ReWire channels 453 Using the transport and tempo controls 454 How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase 454 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 454 Considerations and limitations
455 File handling
456 Working with Projects 459 Importing audio 462 Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 464 Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 465 Exporting and importing MIDI loops 466 Exporting and importing tracks (Cubase only) 467 Other Import/Export functions 467 Cleanup
468 Customizing
469 Background 469 Workspaces 471 Using the Setup options 472 Customizing track controls 473 About preference presets (Cubase only) 474 Appearance 475 Applying track and event colors 478 Where are the settings stored?
479 Key commands
480 Introduction 480 Setting up key commands 483 Setting up tool modifier keys 484 The default key commands
487 Part II: Score layout and printing
488 How the Score Editor works
489 About this chapter 489 Welcome! 489 How the Score Editor operates 489 MIDI notes vs. score notes 490 Display Quantize 492 Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes
493 The basics
494 About this chapter 494 Preparations 494 Opening the Score Editor 494 The project cursor 494 Playing back and recording 495 Page Mode 495 Changing the Zoom factor 496 The active staff 496 Making page setup settings 496 Designing your work space 498 About the Score Editor context menus 498 About dialogs in the Score Editor 499 Setting key, clef and time signature 503 Transposing instruments 503 Printing from the Score Editor 503 Exporting pages as image files 504 Working order 504 Force update
505 Transcribing MIDI recordings
506 About this chapter 506 About transcription 506 Getting the parts ready 506 Strategies: Preparing parts for score printout 507 Staff settings 507 Situations which require additional techniques 508 Inserting Display Quantize changes 509 Strategies: Adding Display Quantize changes 509 The Explode function 510 Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
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Table of Contents
511 Entering and editing notes
512 About this chapter 512 Score settings 513 Note values and positions 514 Adding and editing notes 516 Selecting notes 517 Moving notes 518 Duplicating notes 518 Cut, copy and paste 519 Editing pitches of individual notes 520 Changing the length of notes 521 Splitting a note in two 521 Working with the Display Quantize tool 521 Split (piano) staves 522 Strategies: Multiple staves 522 Inserting and editing clefs, keys or time signatures 523 Deleting notes
524 Staff settings
525 About this chapter 525 Staff settings 525 Making settings 525 Working with staff presets 526 Staff names 526 Key and clef 526 Display Quantize and interpretation Options 529 Display Transpose 529 The Options tab 530 The Polyphonic tab 530 The Tablature tab
540 Additional note and rest formatting
541 About this chapter 541 Background: Note stems 541 Setting stem direction 542 Stem length 542 Accidentals and enharmonic shift 543 Changing the note head shape 544 Other note details 545 Coloring notes 545 Copying settings between notes 545 Handling beaming 549 About tied notes 550 Graphic moving of notes 551 Cue notes 552 Grace notes 552 Tuplets
555 Working with symbols
556 About this chapter 556 Background: The different layers 557 The Symbols Inspector 558 Important! – Symbols, staves and voices 559 Adding symbols to the score 565 Selecting symbols 566 Moving and duplicating symbols 569 Changing length, size and shape 570 Deleting symbols 570 Copy and paste 570 Alignment 570 Symbol details
531 Polyphonic voicing
532 About this chapter 532 Background: Polyphonic voicing 533 Setting up the voices 535 Strategies: How many voices do I need? 535 Entering notes into voices 535 Checking which voice a note belongs to 536 Moving notes between voices 537 Handling rests 537 Voices and Display Quantize 538 Creating crossed voicings 539 Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 539 Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices
Table of Contents
576 Working with chords
577 About this chapter 577 Inserting Chord symbols 579 Global chord settings
580 Working with text
581 About this chapter 581 Adding and editing text symbols 583 Different types of text 587 Text functions
8
590 Working with layouts
591 About this chapter 591 Background: Layouts 591 Creating a layout 591 Opening a layout 591 Layout operations 592 Using layouts – an example 592 Marker Track to Form
593 Working with MusicXML
594 Introduction 595 Importing and exporting MusicXML files
597 Designing your score: additional
techniques
598 About this chapter 598 Layout settings 599 Staff size 599 Hiding/showing objects 600 Coloring notes 600 Multiple rests 601 Editing bar lines 602 Creating upbeats 602 Setting the number of bars across the page 603 Moving bar lines 604 Dragging staves 605 Adding brackets and braces 606 Auto Layout 607 Reset Layout 608 Breaking bar lines
617 The score and MIDI playback
618 About this chapter 618 Scores and the Arranger mode 618 The MIDI Meaning function 619 Dynamic crescendo symbols
620 Tips and Tricks
621 Overview 621 Useful editing techniques 622 Frequently asked questions 624 If you wish you had a faster computer
625 Index
609 Scoring for drums
610 About this chapter 610 Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 610 Setting up the drum map 612 Setting up a staff for drum scoring 612 Entering and editing notes 612 Using “Single Line Drum Staff”
613 Creating tablature
614 About this chapter 614 Creating tablature automatically 615 Creating tablature manually 615 Tablature number appearance 615 Editing 616 Note head shape
9
Table of Contents
Part I:
Getting into the details
1

About this manual

Welcome!

This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase. Here you will find detailed information about all the fea­tures and functions in the program.
About the program versions
The documentation covers two program versions; Cubase and Cubase Studio, for two different operating systems or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X.
Some features described in the documentation are only applicable to the Cubase version. Whenever this is the case this will be clearly indicated in the heading of the re­lated subject.
Similarly, some features and settings are specific to one of the platforms, Windows or Mac OS X. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. In other words:
Ö If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for both Cubase and Cubase Studio, under Windows and Mac OS X.
The screenshots are taken from the Windows version of Cubase.
Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in Cubase use modifier keys, some of which are different depending on the oper­ating system. For example, the default key command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Command]-[Z] un­der Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key] For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl]
under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then press [Z]”.
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win­dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
Ö Please note that this manual often refers to right-click­ing, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.
About this manual
12
2
VST Connections: Setting up input and
output busses

About this chapter

!
Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to trans­fer audio between the program and the audio hardware.
• Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio
hardware into the program. This means that when you record audio, you will always do this through one or several input busses.
• Output busses let you route audio from the program to the
outputs on your audio hardware. When you play back audio, you will always do this through one or several output busses.
As you can see, the input and output busses are vital when you work with Cubase. This is why you find this chapter at the beginning of the Operation Manual – once you under­stand the bus system and know how to set up the busses properly, it will be easy to go on with recording, playing back, mixing and doing surround work (Cubase only).

Setting up busses

Strategies
In Cubase, you can create any number of busses. A num­ber of surround formats are supported (Cubase only). In Cubase Studio, busses are in mono or stereo.
Ö The bus configuration is saved with the project – therefore it is a good idea to add and set up the busses you need and save these in a template project (see “Save
as Template” on page 457).
When you start working on new projects, you start from this template. That way you get your standard bus configuration without having to make new bus settings for each new project. If you need to work with different bus configurations in different projects, you can either create several dif­ferent templates or store your configurations as presets (see “Other bus
operations” on page 17). The templates can of course also contain other
settings that you regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc.
So, which type of busses do you need? This depends on your audio hardware, your general audio setup (e.g. sur­round speaker setup) and what kind of projects you work with.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog
inputs and outputs and digital stereo connections (10 in­puts and outputs all in all). Furthermore, you work with a surround setup in 5.1 format (Cubase only). Here’s a list of busses you may wish to add:
Input busses
• Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input pair. This would let you record stereo material. If you want to be able to record in stereo from other analog input pairs as well, you add stereo input busses for these, too.
• Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a ste­reo input, it may be a good idea to add a dedicated mono in­put bus. This could be assigned to an analog input to which you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp for ex­ample. Again, you can have several different mono busses.
• You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to the digital stereo input, for digital transfers.
• Cubase only: If you want to transfer surround material directly to a surround track, e.g. from surround-configured location re­cording equipment, you need an input bus in that surround format – in this example, this would be a 5.1 input bus.
Output busses
• You probably want one or several stereo output busses for monitoring and listening to stereo mixes.
• For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the digital stereo output as well.
• Cubase only: You need a surround bus in the format of your speaker configuration (in this example, 5.1) assigned to the correct outputs (which in turn are connected to the correct speakers). You may want additional surround busses if you tend to work in different surround formats.
Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on the audio hardware! For example, you may want a stereo output bus assigned to the same outputs as the front stereo channels in your surround bus – this makes it easy to listen to stereo mixes without having to reconnect your speakers.
14
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Preparations
Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs and outputs on your audio hardware. For example, if you are us­ing a 5.1 surround speaker setup, you should name the outputs according to which speaker they are connected to (Left, Right, Center and so on).
The reason for this is compatibility – it makes it easier to transfer projects between different computers and setups. For example, if you move your project to another studio, the audio hardware may be of a different model. But if both you and the other studio owner have given your in­puts and outputs names according to the surround setup (rather than names based on the audio hardware model), Cubase will automatically find the correct inputs and out­puts for your busses and you will be able to play and record without having to change the settings.
Use the Device Setup dialog to assign names to the in­puts and outputs of your audio hardware:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
2. Make sure that the correct driver for your audio hard-
ware is selected on the VST Audio System page, so that the audio card is listed in the Devices list.
3. Select your audio card in the list.
The available input and output ports on your audio hardware are listed on the right.
4. To rename a port, click its name in the “Show as” col­umn and enter a new name.
If needed, you can also disable ports by deactivating them in the “Visible” column.
Disabled ports will not show up in the VST Connections window when you are making bus settings. If you attempt to disable a port that is used by a bus, you will be asked whether this is really what you want – note that this will remove the port from the bus!
5. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.
Mac OS X only: Retrieving channel names
For some audio cards, you can automatically retrieve the ASIO channel names for the ports of your audio hardware:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu.
2. On the VST Audio System page, select your audio
card on the “ASIO driver” pop up menu.
3. In the Devices list to the left, select your audio card.
The available settings are displayed.
4. In the settings section to the right, click the Control
Panel button.
This opens the control panel for your audio hardware.
5. Activate the “Use CoreAudio Channel Names” option.
6. When you now open the VST Connections window to
set up the busses in your system, you will find that the port names in the Device Port column correspond to the names that are used by the CoreAudio driver.
Ö If you want to use the project later on with an earlier version of Cubase, you will have to re-assign the port con­nections in the VST Connections window (see below).
Mac OS X only: Port selection and activation
On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the Device Setup dialog, see above), you can specify which input and which output port should be active. This allows you, for example, to use the Microphone input instead of the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or output completely, if required.
Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, stan­dard USB audio devices and a certain number of other au­dio cards (e.g. Pinnacle CineWave).
Ö If you open a project created on another computer and the port names do not match (or the port configuration is not the same – e.g. the project is created on a system with multi-channel i/o and you open it on a stereo in/out system), the Pending Connections dialog will appear.
This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports available in your system.
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
15
The VST Connections window
You add and set up busses in the VST Connections win­dow, opened from the Devices menu.
This window contains the following tabs:
• The Inputs and Outputs tabs are for viewing input busses or output busses, respectively.
• The Group/FX tab allows you to create Group and FX chan­nels/tracks and to make output assignments for these. See
“Setting up Group and FX channels” on page 20.
• The External FX tab (Cubase only) allows you to create effect send/return busses for connecting external effects which can then be selected via the effect pop-up menus from inside the program. See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on
page 20 and “Using external effects (Cubase only)” on page 163 for further information.
• The External Instruments tab (Cubase only) allows you to cre­ate input/output busses for connecting external instruments. See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on page 20 and the chapter “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on
page 169 for further information.
• The Studio tab (Cubase only) is where you enable and config­ure the Control Room. See the chapter “Control Room (Cu-
base only)” on page 135.
For the time being, we shall focus on how to set up input and output busses.
Depending on which tab you have selected, Inputs or Out­puts, the window lists the current input or output busses, with the following columns:
Column Description
Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select busses and rename
Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, sur-
Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.
them by clicking on them in this column.
round formats) of each bus.
Column Description
Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button
Click You can route the click to a specific output bus, regard-
in the Bus Name column) this column shows which phys­ical inputs/outputs on your audio hardware are used by the bus.
less of the actual Control Room output, or indeed when the Control Room is disabled.
Adding a bus
1. Click the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on which you want to add.
2. Click the Add Bus button.
A dialog appears.
3. Select the desired (channel) configuration.
The pop-up menu contains Mono and Stereo options as well as several surround formats (Cubase only). To select another surround format, use the “More…” submenu.
Alternatively you can right-click in the VST Connections window and add a bus in the desired format directly from the context menu.
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4. Click in the Device Port column to select an input/out­put port for a channel in the bus.
The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have as­signed in the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.
Adding a child bus (Cubase only)
A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels – 6 channels in the case of the 5.1 format. If you have a mono track in the project, you can route it to a separate speaker channel in the bus (or route it to the parent sur­round bus and use the SurroundPanner to position it in the surround image). But what if you have a stereo track that you simply want to route to a stereo channel pair within the bus (Left and Right or Left Surround and Right Surround for example)? For this you need to create a child bus.
16
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
1. Select the surround bus in the list and right-click on it.
!
A pop-up menu appears.
2. Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child
Bus” submenu.
As you can see, you can create stereo child busses (routed to various speaker channel pairs in the surround bus) or other surround bus formats (with fewer channels than the “parent bus”).
The child bus you created will be available for direct rout­ing in the mixer. It is a part of the parent surround bus, which means there will be no separate channel strip for it.
Although child busses are probably most useful in output busses, you can also create child busses within a sur­round input bus – for example if you want to record a ste­reo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in the surround bus to a separate stereo track.
Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)
The Main Mix is the output bus that each new channel in the mixer will be assigned to when it is created.
Any of the output busses in the VST Connections window can be the default output bus. By right-clicking on the name of an output bus, you can set this bus as the Main Mix bus.
When creating new audio, group or FX channels in the mixer, they will automatically be routed to the default bus.
The default bus is indicated by an orange colored speaker icon next to its name in the VST Connec­tions window.
Presets
On the Inputs and Outputs tabs, you will find a Presets menu. Here you can find three different types of presets:
A number of standard bus configurations.
Automatically created presets tailored to your specific
hardware configuration.
On each startup, Cubase will analyze the physical inputs and outputs provided by your audio hardware and create a number of hardware­dependent presets with the following possible configurations:
• one stereo bus
• various combinations of stereo and mono busses
• a number of mono busses
• Cubase only: one 5.1 bus (if you have 6 or more inputs)
• Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and stereo busses (if you have 6 or more inputs)
• Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and mono busses (if you have 6 or more inputs)
You can also save your own setups as presets.
To store the current configuration as a preset, click the Store “+” button and enter a name for the preset. You can then select the stored configu­ration directly from the Presets pop-up menu at any time. To remove a stored preset, select it and click the “-” button.
Other bus operations
To change the port assignment for a bus, you proceed
as when you added it: Make sure the channels are visible (by clicking the “+” button next to the bus, or by clicking the “+ All” button at the top of the window) and click in the Device Port column to select ports.
To remove a bus you do not need, select it in the list,
right-click and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up menu, or press [Backspace].
Setting the default output bus in the VST Connections window.
17
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Using the busses

!
This section describes briefly how to use the input and out­put busses you have created. For details refer to the chap­ters “Recording” on page 66 and “The mixer” on page 109.
Routing
When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-re­lated channel in the mixer – VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, etc.), you route it to an output bus. In the same way, when you record on an audio track you se­lect from which input bus the audio should be sent.
You can select input and output busses in the Inspec­tor, using the Input and Output Routing pop-up menus.
You can also select busses in the Routing panel at the top of each channel strip in the mixer.
Ö If the Routing panel is not shown, click the Show Rou­ting button in the extended common panel or open the Mixer context menu and select “Show Routing View” from the Window submenu (see “Normal vs. Extended channel
strips” on page 112).
Ö For audio-related channel types other than audio track channels (i.e. VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, Group channels and FX channels), only the Output Rou­ting pop-up menu is available.
If you press [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select an input or
output bus in the Track list or the Mixer Routing View (Cu­base only), it will be chosen for all selected channels.
This makes it easy to quickly set several channels to use the same input or output. Similarly, if you press [Shift] and select a bus, the following se­lected channels will be set to use incrementing busses – the second se­lected channel will use the second bus, the third will use the third bus and so on.
When selecting an input bus for a track you can only se­lect busses that correspond to the track’s channel config­uration. Here are the details for input busses:
• Mono tracks can be routed to mono input busses or individual channels within a stereo or surround input bus (Cubase only).
• Mono tracks can be routed to External Inputs configured on the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These can be mono or individual channels within a stereo or surround bus (Cubase only). They can also be routed to the Talkback input.
• Mono tracks can also be routed to mono output busses, mono group output busses or mono FX channel output busses, pro­vided that these will not lead to feedback.
• Stereo tracks can be routed to mono input busses, stereo in­put busses or stereo child busses within a surround bus (Cu­base only).
• Stereo tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are config­ured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These can be mono input busses or stereo input busses. They can also be routed to the Talkback input.
• Stereo tracks can also be routed to mono or stereo output busses, mono or stereo group output busses and mono or stereo FX channel output busses, provided that these will not lead to feedback.
• Surround tracks can be routed to surround input busses (Cu­base only).
• Surround tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are con­figured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, pro­vided that these have the same input configuration.
• Surround tracks can also be routed to output busses, provided that these have the same input configuration or will not lead to feedback.
For output busses any assignment is possible.
Assignments that will lead to feedback are not avail­able in the pop-up menu. This is also indicated by a one-way symbol.
To disconnect input or output bus assignments, select “No Bus” from the corresponding pop-up menu.
18
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Viewing the busses in the mixer
Hide Input Channels (Cubase only)
Hide Output Channels
!
In the mixer, busses are represented by input and output channels (shown in separate panes to the left and right in the window). You can show or hide these independently by clicking the Hide Input Channels and Hide Output Channels buttons in the common panel:
Ö In Cubase Studio, only the output busses are visible in the mixer!
The input busses you have created in the VST Connections window are available for selection on the Input Routing pop-up menus, but you will not be able to make any specific mixer settings for the input busses.
Input channels (Cubase only)
Here you can do the following:
Check and adjust the recording level using the Input
Gain knobs and/or the level fader.
See “Setting input levels” on page 71.
Change the phase of the input signal.
This is done by clicking the Input Phase button next to the Input Gain control.
Add effects or EQ to the input bus.
See “Recording with effects (Cubase only)” on page 78 for an example of how to add effects to your recording at the input bus stage.
The settings you make in the input channel strip will be a permanent part of the recorded audio file!
Output channels
The output channels are shown to the right in the mixer. Here you can do the following:
Adjust the output level for the busses with the faders.
Open the Channel Settings window to add effects or EQ.
These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add here include compressors, limiters and dithering. See the chapter “Audio
effects” on page 150.
The input channels are shown to the left in the mixer. As you can see, each input channel resembles a regular mixer channel strip.
19
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Setting up Group and FX channels

!
The Group/FX tab in the VST Connections window shows all Group channels and FX channels in your project. You can create new Group or FX channels by clicking the corre­sponding Add button. This is the same as creating Group channel tracks or FX channel tracks in the Project window (see “Using group channels” on page 127 and the chapter
“Audio effects” on page 150).
However, the VST Connections window also allows you to create child busses for Group and FX channels (Cubase only). This is useful e.g. if you have Group or FX channels in surround format and want to route stereo channels to spe­cific channel pairs in these.
To create a child bus for a Group channel or FX channel in surround format, proceed as follows:
1. Open the VST Connection window and select the Groups/FX tab.
2. Select the Group or FX channel in the list and right­click it.
3. Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child Bus” submenu.
The child bus you created will be available for direct rout­ing in the mixer. It is a part of the parent Group or FX channel, which means there will be no separate channel strip for it.

About monitoring

By default, monitoring is done via the Control Room (see the chapter “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 135). When the Control Room is disabled on the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, the Main Mix bus (see “Set-
ting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)” on page 17)
will be used for monitoring.
Ö In Cubase Studio, the Main Mix bus is always used for monitoring.
Setting the monitoring level
When you are using the Control Room for monitoring, this is set in the Control Room Mixer, see “The Control Room
Mixer” on page 141. When you are monitoring via the Main
Mix bus, you can adjust the monitoring level in the regular Project Mixer.

External instruments/effects (Cubase only)

Cubase supports the integration of external effect devices and external instruments, e.g. hardware synthesizers, into the sequencer signal flow.
You can use the External Instruments tab and the External FX tab in the VST Connections window to define the necessary send and return ports and access the instru­ments/effects through the VST Instruments window.
External instruments and effects are indicated by an “x” icon in the list next to their names in the respec­tive pop-up menus.
Requirements
To use external effects, you need audio hardware with
multiple inputs and outputs. To use external instruments, a MIDI interface must be connected to your computer.
An external effect will require at least one input and one output (or input/ output pairs for stereo effects) in addition to the input/output ports you use for recording and monitoring.
As always, audio hardware with low-latency drivers is a
good thing to have.
Cubase will compensate for the input/output latency and ensure that the audio processed through external effects is not shifted in time.
Connecting the external effect/instrument
To set up an external effect or instrument, proceed as fol­lows:
1. Connect an unused output pair on your audio hard-
ware to the input pair on your external hardware device.
In this example, we assume that the hardware device has stereo inputs and outputs.
20
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
2. Connect an unused input pair on your audio hardware
!
to the output pair on your hardware device.
Please note that it is possible to select input/output ports for external effects/instruments that are already used (i.e. that have been selected as inputs/outputs in the VST Connections window). If you select a used port for an external effect/instrument, the exist­ing port assignment will be broken. Note that you will not get a warning message!
Once the external device is connected to the audio hard­ware of your computer, you have to set up the input/out­put busses in Cubase.
Setting up external effects
1. Open the VST Connections window from the Devices menu.
2. Open the External FX tab and click “Add External FX”.
3. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the exter-
nal effect and specify the Send and Return configurations.
Depending on the type of effect, you can specify mono, stereo or surround configurations.
You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the external effect. You can then click the Associate MIDI De­vice button to connect the two.
You can use the MIDI Device Manager to create a new MIDI device for the effect. Note that delay compensation will only be applied for the ef­fect when you use MIDI devices. For information about the MIDI Device Manager and user device panels see the chapter “Using MIDI devices” on page 314.
4. Click OK. This adds a new External FX bus.
5. Click in the Device Port column for the Send Bus
“Left” and “Right” ports and select the outputs on your au­dio hardware.
6. Click in the Device Port column for the Return Bus
“Left” and “Right” ports and select the inputs on your au­dio hardware.
7. If you like, make additional settings for the bus.
These are found in the columns to the right. Note that you can adjust these while actually using the external effect – which may be easier as you can hear the result. The following options are available:
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware effect device has an inherent delay (la-
Send Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal being sent to
Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal coming in from
MIDI Device When you click in this column, a pop-up menu opens
Used Whenever you insert an external effect into an audio
tency), you should enter this value here, as it allows Cu­base to compensate for that delay during playback. You can also let the delay value be determined by the pro­gram: Right-click in the Delay column for the effect and select “Check User Delay”. Note that you do not have to take the latency of the audio hardware into account – this is handled automatically by the program.
the external effect.
the external effect. Note however that excessive output levels from an external effect device may cause clipping in the audio hardware. The Return Gain setting cannot be used to compensate for this – you have to lower the output level on the effect device instead.
where you can disconnect the effect from the associated MIDI device, select a MIDI device, create a new device or open the MIDI Device Manager to edit the MIDI device. When Studio Manager 2 is installed, you may also select an OPT editor to access your external effect.
track, this column shows a checkmark (“x”) to indicate that the effect is being used.
8. When you are done, close the VST Connections win-
dow.
Ö Note that external device ports are exclusive, see
“Connecting the external effect/instrument” on page 20.
How to use the external effect
If you now click an insert effect slot for any channel, you will find the new external FX bus listed on the “External Plug-ins” submenu.
When you select it, the following happens:
• The external FX bus is loaded into the effect slot just like a regular effect plug-in.
• The audio signal from the channel is sent to the outputs on the audio hardware, through your external effect device and back to the program via the inputs on the audio hardware.
21
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
• A parameter window appears, showing the Delay, Send Gain
Measure Effect’s Loop Delay button
and Return Gain settings for the external FX bus. You can ad­just these as necessary while playing back. The parameter window also provides the “Measure Effect’s Loop Delay for Delay Compensation” button. This is the same function as the “Check User Delay” option in the VST Connections window. It provides Cubase with a Delay value to be used for delay com­pensation. When you have defined a MIDI device for the ef­fect, the corresponding Device window will be opened. When Studio Manager 2 is installed, and you have set up a corre­sponding OPT editor, this OPT editor will be displayed.
The default parameter window for an external effect
Like any effect, you can use the external FX bus as an in­sert effect or as a send effect (an insert effect on an FX channel track). You can deactivate or bypass the external effect with the usual controls.
Setting up external instruments
1. Open the VST Connections window from the Devices menu.
2. Open the External Instrument tab and click “Add Ex­ternal Instrument”.
You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the
external instrument. You can then click the Associate MIDI Device button to connect the two.
You can use the MIDI Device Manager to create a new MIDI device. For information about the MIDI Device Manager and user device panels, see the chapter “Using MIDI devices” on page 314.
4. Click OK.
This adds a new external instrument bus.
5. Click in the Device Port column for the “Left” and
“Right” ports of the Return Bus and select the inputs on your audio hardware to which you connected the external instrument.
6. If you like, make additional settings for the bus.
These are found in the columns to the right. Note that you can adjust these while actually using the external instrument – which may be easier as you can hear the result. The following options are available:
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware device has an inherent delay (latency),
Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal coming in from
MIDI Device When you click in this column, a pop-up menu opens
Used Whenever you insert the external instrument into a VST
you should enter this value here. This allows Cubase to compensate for that delay during playback. Note that you do not have to take the latency of the audio hardware into account – this is handled automatically by the program.
the external instrument. Note however that excessive output levels from an exter­nal device may cause clipping in the audio hardware. The Return Gain setting cannot be used to compensate for this – you have to lower the output level on the device in­stead.
where you can disconnect the instrument from the asso­ciated MIDI device, select a MIDI device, create a new device or open the MIDI Device Manager to edit the MIDI device. When Studio Manager 2 is installed, you may also select an OPT editor to access your external instrument.
Instrument slot, this column shows a checkmark (“x”) to indicate that the instrument is being used.
3. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the exter­nal instrument and specify the number of required mono and/or stereo returns.
Depending on the type of instrument, a specific number of mono and/or stereo return channels is required.
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
7. When you are done, close the VST Connections win-
dow.
Ö Note that external device ports are exclusive, see
“Connecting the external effect/instrument” on page 20.
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How to use the external instrument
!
!
Once you have set up the external instrument in the VST Connections window, you can use it as a VST Instrument. Open the VST Instruments window and click on an empty instrument slot. On the Instrument pop-up menu, your ex­ternal instrument is listed on the External Plug-ins submenu:
When you select the external instrument in the VST Instru­ments window, the following happens:
• A parameter window for the external device is opened auto­matically. This may either be the Device window, allowing you to create a generic device panel, an OPT editor window or a default editor. For information about the Device window, the MIDI Device Manager and User device panels, see the chap­ter “Using MIDI devices” on page 314.
To send MIDI notes to the external instrument, open the Output Routing pop-up menu in the Inspector for the corresponding MIDI track and select the MIDI device to which the external instrument is connected. This ensures use of delay compensation. The instru­ment will now play any MIDI notes it receives from this track and return them to Cubase through the re­turn channel(s) you have set up.
The external instrument will behave like any other VST In­strument in Cubase.
About the Favorites buttons
In the VST Connections window, both the External FX tab and the External Instruments tab feature a Favorites button.
Favorites are device configurations that you can recall at any time, like a library of external devices that are not con­stantly connected to your computer. They also allow you to save different configurations for the same device, e.g. a multi-effect board or an effect that provides both a mono and a stereo mode.
To save a device configuration as a favorite, proceed as follows:
When you have added a new device in the VST Con­nections window, select it in the Bus Name column and click the Favorites button.
A context menu is displayed showing an option to add the selected ef­fect or instrument to the Favorites.
You can recall the stored configuration at any time by clicking the Favorites button and selecting the device name from the context menu.
About the “plug-in could not be found” message
When you open a project that uses an external effect/in­strument, you may get a “plug-in could not be found” mes­sage. This will happen when you remove an external device from the VST Connections window although it is used in a saved project, or when transferring a project to another computer on which the external device is not defined. You may also see this message when opening a project cre­ated with an earlier version of Cubase.
In the VST Connections window, the broken connection to the external device is indicated by an icon in the Bus Name column.
To reestablish the broken connection to the external de­vice, simply right-click the entry for the device in the Bus Name column and select “Connect External Effect”. The icon is removed, and you can use the external device within your project as before.
Note that busses set up for external effects or exter­nal instruments are saved “globally”, i.e. for your par­ticular computer setup.
The Favorites button on the External FX tab
23
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Freezing external effects/instruments
!
Just as when working with regular VST instruments and effects, you can also choose to freeze external effects and instruments. The general procedure is described in detail in the chapters “Audio effects” on page 150 and “VST In-
struments and Instrument tracks” on page 169.
Note that you have to perform Freeze in realtime. Oth­erwise external effects will not be taken into account.
When freezing external instruments or effects, you can ad­just the corresponding tail value in the Freeze Channel Options dialog:
Use the arrow buttons next to the Tail Size value field to
set the desired Tail length, i.e. the range after the part boundary that should also be included for the freeze. You can also click directly in the value field and enter the de­sired value manually (the maximum value being 60s).
When the Tail Size is set to 0s (default), the freezing will
only take into account the data within the Part boundaries.
24
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
3

The Project window

Background

The Project window is the main window in Cubase. This provides you with an overview of the project, allowing you to navigate and perform large scale editing. Each project has one Project window.
About tracks
The Project window is divided vertically into tracks, with a timeline running horizontally from left to right. The follow­ing track types are available:
Track type Description
Audio For recording and playing back audio events and audio
Folder Folder tracks function as containers for other tracks,
FX Channel FX channel tracks are used for adding send effects. Each
Group Channel
Instrument This allows you to create a track for a dedicated instru-
parts. Each audio track has a corresponding audio chan­nel in the mixer. An audio track can have any number of automation tracks for automating mixer channel parameters, effect settings, etc.
making it easier to organize and manage the track struc­ture. They also allow you to edit several tracks at the same time. See “Folder tracks” on page 53.
FX channel can contain up to eight effect processors – by routing effect sends from an audio channel to an FX chan­nel, you send audio from the audio channel to the effect(s) on the FX channel. Each FX channel has a corresponding channel strip in the mixer – in essence an effect return channel. See the chapter “Audio effects” on page 150. All FX channel tracks are automatically placed in a special FX channel folder in the Track list, for easy management. An FX channel can also have any number of automation tracks for automating mixer channel parameters, effect set­tings, etc.
By routing several audio channels to a Group channel, you can submix them, apply the same effects to them, etc. (see “Using group channels” on page 127). A Group channel track contains no events as such, but displays settings and automation curves for the corre­sponding Group channel. Each Group channel track has a corresponding channel strip in the mixer. In the Project window, Group channels are organized as tracks in a special Group Tracks folder.
ment, making e.g. VST instrument handling easier and more intuitive. Instrument tracks have a corresponding channel strip in the mixer. Each instrument track can have any number of automation tracks in the Project window. However, Volume and Pan are automated from within the mixer. It is possible to edit Instrument tracks directly in the Project window, using the Edit In-Place function (see
“The In-Place Editor” on page 356). For more information
on instrument tracks, see the chapter “VST Instruments
and Instrument tracks” on page 169.
Track type Description
MIDI For recording and playing back MIDI parts. Each MIDI
Marker The Marker track displays markers which can be moved
Arranger The Arranger track is used for arranging your project, by
Ruler (Cubase only)
Signature Time signature events can be added and edited on the
Tempo You can create tempo changes within a project using the
Transpose The Transpose track allows you to set global key
Video For playing back video events. A project can have only
track has a corresponding MIDI channel strip in the mixer. It is possible to edit MIDI tracks directly in the Project window, using the Edit In-Place function (see “The In-
Place Editor” on page 356).
A MIDI track can have any number of automation tracks for automating mixer channel parameters, insert and send effect settings etc.
and renamed directly in the Project window (see “Mark-
ers” on page 54). A project can have only one marker
track.
marking out sections in the project and determining in which order they should be played back. See the chapter
“The Arranger track” on page 96.
Ruler tracks contain additional rulers, displaying the time­line from left to right. You can use any number of ruler tracks, each with a different display format if you wish. See “The ruler” on page 33 for more information about the ruler and the display formats.
signature track, or in the Tempo Track Editor window. A project can have only one signature track. See the chap­ter “Editing tempo and signature” on page 401 for details.
tempo track. A project can have only one tempo track. See the chapter “Editing tempo and signature” on page
401 for details.
changes. A project can have only one transpose track. See the chapter “The Transpose functions” on page 103.
one video track.
About parts and events
The tracks in the Project window contain parts and/or events. Events are the basic building blocks in Cubase. Different event types are handled differently in the Project window:
• Video events and automation events (curve points) are always viewed and rearranged directly in the Project window.
• MIDI events can always be found in MIDI parts, which are con­tainers for one or more MIDI events. MIDI parts are rearranged and manipulated in the Project window. To edit the individual MIDI events in a part, you have to open the part in a MIDI edi­tor (see “The MIDI editors” on page 337).
26
The Project window
• Audio events can be displayed and edited directly in the Project window, but you can also work with audio parts containing sev­eral events. This is useful if you have a number of events which you want to treat as one unit in the project. Audio parts also contain information about the time position in the project.
An audio event and an audio part
Audio handling
When you work with audio files, it is crucial to understand how audio is handled in Cubase:
When you edit or process audio in the Project window, you always work with an audio clip that is automatically created on import or during recording. This audio clip re­fers to an audio file on the hard disk that itself remains un­touched. This means, that audio editing and processing is “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can always undo changes or revert to the original versions.
An audio clip does not necessarily refer to just one origi­nal audio file! If you apply e.g. some processing to a spe­cific section of an audio clip, this will create a new audio file containing only this section. The processing will then be applied to the new audio file only, leaving the original audio file unchanged. Finally, the audio clip is automati­cally adjusted, so that it refers both to the original file and to the new, processed file. During playback, the program will switch between the original file and the processed file at the correct positions. You will hear this as a single re­cording, with processing applied to one section only. This feature makes it possible to undo processing at a later stage, and to apply different processing to different audio clips that refer to the same original file.
An audio event is the object that you place on a time po­sition in Cubase. If you make copies of an audio event and move them to different positions in the project, they will still all refer to the same audio clip. Furthermore, each au­dio event has an Offset value and a Length value. These determine at which positions in the clip the event will start
and end, i.e. which section of the audio clip will be played back by the audio event. For example, if you resize the au­dio event, you will just change its start and/or end position in the audio clip – the clip itself will not be affected.
An audio region is a section within a clip with a length value, a start time, and a snap point. Audio regions are shown in the pool and are best created and edited in the Sample Editor.
Ö If you want to use one audio file in different contexts, or if you want to create several loops from one audio file, you should convert the corresponding regions of the audio clip to events and bounce them into separate audio files. This is necessary since different events that refer to the same clip access the same clip information.
27
The Project window

Window Overview

Project overview
The event display, showing audio parts and events, MIDI parts, automation, markers, etc.
Inspector
Ruler
Info line
Toolbar
The Track list with various track types
Mute & Solo
Record Enable & Monitor
Track name
Lane Display Type
Show/hide automation
Indicates whether effect sends, EQ or insert effects are activated for the track. Click to bypass.
Musical/Linear Time Base
Lock track
Automation Read/Write Edit channel settings
Track activity indicator
Freeze Audio Track
Automation Read/Write
Automation parameter (click to select parameter)
Append auto­mation track
Mute
Lock track
Record Enable & Monitor
Track name
MIDI Output
Bank Patch MIDI channel
Drum map, Lock track and Lane display type
Automation Read/Write
Edit channel settings
Mute & Solo
Effect sends/in­sert effects indicators and bypass
Edit In-Place
Track activity indicator
The Track list
The Track list displays all the tracks used in a project. It contains name fields and settings for the tracks. Different track types have different controls in the Track list. To see all the controls you may have to resize the track in the Track list (see “Resizing tracks in the Track list” on page 35).
The Track list area for an audio track:
The Track list area for an automation track (opened by
clicking the Show/Hide Automation button on a track):
The Track list area for a MIDI track:
28
The Project window
The Inspector
The area to the left of the Track list is called the Inspector. This shows additional controls and parameters for the track you have selected in the Track list. If several tracks are se­lected (see “Handling tracks” on page 38), the Inspector shows the setting for the first (topmost) selected track.
To hide or show the Inspector, click the Inspector icon in the toolbar.
The Inspector icon
For most track classes, the Inspector is divided into a
number of sections, each containing different controls for the track. You can hide or show sections by clicking on their names.
Clicking the name for a hidden section brings it into view and hides the other sections. [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the section name allows you to hide or show a section without affecting the other sections. [Alt]/[Op­tion]-clicking a section name shows or hides all sections in the Inspector.
You can also use key commands to show different In-
spector sections.
These are set up in the Key Commands dialog, see “Setting up key com-
mands” on page 480.
Ö Hiding a section does not affect its functionality.
For example, if you have set up a track parameter or activated an effect, your settings will still be active even if you hide the respective Inspector section.
Which sections are available in the Inspector depends on the selected track.
Ö Please note that not all Inspector tabs are shown by default. You can show/hide Inspector sections by right­clicking on an Inspector tab and activating/deactivating the desired option(s).
Make sure you right-click on an inspector tab and not on the empty area below the Inspector, as this will open the Quick context menu instead.
The Inspector Setup context menu
Inspector sections
The Inspector contains the controls that can be found on the Track list, plus some additional buttons and parame­ters. In the table below, these additional settings and the different sections are listed. Which sections are available for which track type is described in the following sections.
Parameter Description
Auto Fades Settings button
Edit Channel settings
Volume Use this to adjust the level for the track. Changing this
Pan Use this to adjust the panning of the track. As with the
Delay This adjusts the playback timing of the audio track. Posi-
Input Routing This lets you specify which Input bus or MIDI input the
Opens a dialog in which you can make separate Auto Fade settings for the audio track. See “Making Auto Fade
settings for a separate track” on page 95.
Opens the Channel Settings window for the track, allow­ing you to view and adjust effect and EQ settings, etc. See “Using Channel Settings” on page 122.
setting will move the track’s fader in the mixer window, and vice versa. See “Setting volume in the mixer” on page
117 to learn more about setting levels.
Volume setting, this corresponds to the Pan setting in the mixer.
tive values delay the playback while negative values cause the track to play earlier. The values are set in milli­seconds.
track should use (see “Setting up busses” on page 14 for information about Input busses).
29
The Project window
Parameter Description
Output Routing
Inserts section Allows you to add insert effects to the track, see the
Equalizers section
Equalizer Curve section
Sends section Allows you to route an audio track to one or several FX
Studio Sends (Cubase only)
Surround Pan (Cubase only)
Channel section
Notepad section
User Panel (Cubase only)
Quick Controls Here you can configure quick controls, e.g. to use remote
Here you decide to which output the track should be routed. For audio tracks you select an output bus (see
“Setting up busses” on page 14) or Group channel, for
MIDI tracks you select a MIDI output and for Instrument tracks, you select the Instrument to which it is routed.
chapters “Audio effects” on page 150 and “MIDI realtime
parameters and effects” on page 305. The Edit button at
the top of the section opens the control panels for the added insert effects.
Lets you adjust the EQs for the track. You can have up to four bands of EQ for each track, see “Making EQ set-
tings” on page 123. The Edit button at the top of the sec-
tion opens the Channel Settings window for the track. Lets you adjust the EQs for the track graphically, by click-
ing and dragging points in a curve display.
channels (up to eight), see the chapter “Audio effects” on
page 150. For MIDI tracks, this is where you assign MIDI
send effects. The Edit button at the top of the section opens the control panel for the first effect in each FX channel.
The Studio Sends are used to route cue mixes to Control Room Studios. For a detailed description of Studios and Studio Sends, see the chapter “Control Room (Cubase
only)” on page 135.
When the SurroundPanner is used for a track, this is also available in the Inspector. For further information, see
“Using the SurroundPanner” on page 184.
Shows a duplicate of the corresponding mixer channel strip. The channel overview strip to the left lets you acti­vate and deactivate insert effects, EQs and sends.
This is a standard text notepad, allowing you to jot down notes about the track. If you have entered any notes about a track, the icon next to the “Notepad” heading will light up to indicate this. Moving the pointer over the icon will display the Notepad text in a tooltip.
Here you can display device panels, e.g. for external MIDI devices, audio track panels or VST insert effect panels. For information on how to create or import MIDI device and user panels, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”.
devices. See the chapter “Track Quick Controls” on
page 295.
Audio tracks
For audio tracks, all settings and sections listed above are available.
Instrument tracks
As explained in the chapter “VST Instruments and Instru-
ment tracks” on page 169, the Inspector for an Instrument
track shows some of the sections you would find for VST Instrument channels and MIDI tracks.
MIDI tracks
When a MIDI track is selected, the Inspector contains a number of additional sections and parameters, affecting the MIDI events in realtime (e.g. on playback). Which sections are available for MIDI tracks is described in the chapter
“MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 305.
Arranger track
For the Arranger track, the Inspector displays the lists of available Arranger chains and Arranger events. See “The
Arranger track” on page 96 for details.
Folder tracks
When a folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and its underlying tracks, much like a folder struc­ture in the Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finder.
Ö You can click one of the tracks shown under the folder in the Inspector to have the Inspector show the settings for that track. This way, you don’t have to “open” a folder track to make settings for tracks within it.
FX channel tracks
When an FX channel track is selected, the following con­trols and sections are available:
• Edit button
• Volume control
•Pan control
• Output Routing pop-up menu
• Inserts section
• Equalizers section
• Equalizer Curve section
• Sends section
• Studio Sends section (Cubase only)
• Surround Pan section (Cubase only)
• Channel section
• Notepad section
30
The Project window
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