Steinberg Cubase Artist - 6.0, Cubase 6.0 Operation Manual

Operation Manual

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling

Thanks to: Ashley Shepherd

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 publica tion may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows 7 is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under li cense. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. MP3SURROUND and the MP3SURROUND logo are registered trademarks of Thomson SA, registered in the US and other countries, and are used under license from Thomson Licensing SAS.

Release Date: December 16, 2010

11 Part I: Getting into the details

12 About this manual

13 Welcome!

14 Setting up your system

15 Setting up audio 20 Setting up MIDI 22 Connecting a synchronizer 22 Setting up video 22 Optimizing audio performance

25 VST Connections

26 About this chapter 26 The VST Connections window 26 Setting up busses 29 Setting up group and FX channels 30 About monitoring 30 External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 34 Editing operations

36 The Project window

37 Window Overview 39 The track list 39 The Inspector 42 The toolbar 43 The status line 43 The info line 44 The overview line 44 The ruler 45 The Snap function 47 Auto-Scroll

48 Working with projects

49 Creating new projects 50 Opening projects 50 Closing projects 50 Saving projects 52 The Archive and Backup functions 54 Startup Options 54 The Project Setup dialog 56 Zoom and view options 58 Audio handling 58 Auditioning audio parts and events 59 Scrubbing audio 59 Editing parts and events 66 Range editing 68 Region operations 68 The Edit History dialog 69 The Preferences dialog

71 Working with tracks and lanes

72 Setting up tracks 74 Editing tracks 76 Working with lanes 79 Organizing tracks in folder tracks 81 Dividing the track list

82 Playback and the Transport panel

83 Background 84 Operations 86 Options and Settings 88 The Virtual Keyboard

89 Recording

90 Background 90 Basic recording methods 92 Audio recording specifics 100 MIDI recording specifics 105 Options and Settings

108 Quantizing MIDI and audio

109 Introduction 110 Quantize functions 110 Advanced Quantize functions 111 The Quantize Panel 114 Quantizing multiple audio tracks (Cubase only)

Table of Contents

117 Fades, crossfades and envelopes

118 Creating fades 120 The Fade dialogs 121 Creating crossfades 121 The Crossfade dialog 122 Auto fades and crossfades 123 Event envelopes

124 The arranger track

125 Introduction 125 Setting up the arranger track 126 Working with arranger events 128 Flattening the arranger chain 129 Live mode 130 Arranging your music to video

131 The transpose functions

132 Introduction 132 Transposing your music 135 Other functions

138 Using markers

139 Introduction 139 The Marker window 141 The marker track 143 Marker key commands 143 Exporting and importing markers

145 The Mixer

146 Overview 148 Configuring the Mixer 152 Basic mixing procedures 155 Audio-specific procedures 164 Routing 166 MIDI-specific procedures 167 Utilities 169 VST Mixer Diagrams

172 Control Room (Cubase only)

173 Virtual Control Room – The concept 173 Configuring the Control Room 177 The Control Room Mixer 182 Studios and Studio Sends 185 The Control Room Overview 186 Direct Monitoring and latency

187 Audio effects

188 About this chapter 188 Overview 189 Insert effects 194 Send effects 198 Using the side-chain input 200 Using external effects (Cubase only) 200 Editing effects 200 Effect presets 203 Installing and managing effect plug-ins

206 VST instruments and instrument

tracks

207 Introduction 207 VST instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 207 VST instrument channels 209 Instrument tracks 211 What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument

track?

211 Instrument Freeze 212 VST instruments and processor load 212 Using presets for VSTi configuration 215 About latency 216 External instruments (Cubase only)

217 Surround sound (Cubase only)

218 Introduction 219 Preparations 220 Using the SurroundPanner V5 226 Exporting a surround mix

227 Automation

228 Introduction 228 Working with automation curves 228 Enabling and disabling the writing of automation

data

229 Writing automation data 230 Editing automation events 232 Automation track operations 235 The Automation panel (Cubase only) 241 Automation Preferences 241 Hints and further options 241 MIDI controller automation

Table of Contents

244 Audio processing and functions

245 Background 245 Audio processing 253 Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 254 The Offline Process History dialog 255 Freeze Edits 256 Detect Silence 257 The Spectrum Analyzer 259 Statistics 259 About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms

261 The Sample Editor

262 Window overview 266 General functions 272 Warping audio 276 Working with hitpoints and slices 281 VariAudio (Cubase only) 292 Flattening realtime processing

294 The Audio Part Editor

295 Background 295 Opening the Audio Part Editor 295 Window overview 296 Operations 298 Options and Settings

299 The Pool

300 Background 300 Window overview 302 Operations

311 The MediaBay

312 Introduction 313 Working with the MediaBay 314 The Define Locations section 315 The Locations section 316 The Results list 318 Previewing files 321 The Filters section 323 The Attribute Inspector 327 The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini

Browser windows

327 Preferences 328 Key commands 328 Working with MediaBay-related windows 329 Working with Volume databases

331 Working with track presets

332 Introduction 332 Types of track presets 333 Applying track presets 335 Creating a track preset 336 Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets

337 Track Quick Controls

338 Introduction 338 Assigning parameters to quick controls 339 Connecting quick controls with remote controllers 340 Quick controls and automatable parameters

342 Remote controlling Cubase

343 Introduction 343 Setting Up 344 Operations 345 The Generic Remote device 347 Track Quick Controls 347 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)

348 MIDI realtime parameters and effects

349 Introduction 349 The Inspector – general handling 349 The Inspector sections 353 MIDI effects 355 Managing plug-ins

356 Using MIDI devices

357 Background 357 MIDI devices – general settings and patch

handling

362 About Device panels (Cubase only) 364 About Studio Connections

366 MIDI processing

367 Introduction 368 Making your settings permanent 369 Dissolve Part 370 Bounce MIDI 370 Repeat Loop 371 Other MIDI functions

Table of Contents

374 The MIDI editors

375 Introduction 375 Opening a MIDI editor 377 The Key Editor – Overview 380 Key Editor operations 396 The In-Place Editor 397 The Drum Editor – Overview 398 Drum Editor operations 400 Working with drum maps 403 Using drum name lists 404 The List Editor – Overview 405 List Editor operations 407 Working with SysEx messages 409 Recording SysEx parameter changes 409 Editing SysEx messages 411 The basic Score Editor – Overview 412 Score Editor operations

419 Expression maps (Cubase only)

420 Introduction 421 Using expression maps in Cubase 424 Creating and editing expression maps

428 Note Expression (Cubase only)

429 Introduction 430 Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab 431 Mapping controllers 432 Recording 434 Editing Note Expression data 437 Note Expression and MIDI 439 HALion Sonic SE

440 The Logical Editor, Transformer, and

Input Transformer

441 Introduction 441 Opening the Logical Editor 442 Window overview 442 Setting up filter conditions 447 Selecting a function 447 Specifying actions 450 Applying the defined actions 450 Working with presets 450 The Input Transformer

452 The Project Logical Editor

(Cubase only)

453 Introduction 453 Opening the Project Logical Editor 453 Window overview 454 Setting up filter conditions 458 Specifying actions 460 Selecting a function 460 Applying Macros 460 Applying the defined actions 460 Working with presets

462 Editing tempo and signature

463 Background 463 Tempo and signature display 465 Editing tempo and signature 467 Process Tempo (Cubase only) 467 The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 468 The Beat Calculator 469 Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase only) 469 The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 473 Tempo Detection (Cubase only) 476 Adjusting the audio to the project tempo

477 The Project Browser (Cubase only)

478 Window Overview 479 Editing tracks

484 Export Audio Mixdown

485 Introduction 485 Mixing down to audio files 486 The Export Audio Mixdown dialog 489 The available file formats

493 Synchronization

494 Background 494 Timecode (positional references) 496 Clock sources (speed references) 496 The Project Synchronization Setup dialog 500 Synchronized operation 500 Example scenarios (Cubase only) 501 Working with VST System Link 503 Activating VST System Link

Table of Contents

509 Video

510 Introduction 510 Before you start 511 Preparing a video project in Cubase 513 Video files in the Project window 514 Playing back video 516 Editing video 516 Extracting audio from a video file 516 Replacing the audio in a video file

517 ReWire

518 Introduction 518 Launching and quitting 519 Activating ReWire channels 519 Using the transport and tempo controls 520 How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase 520 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 520 Considerations and limitations

521 File handling

522 Importing audio 525 Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 527 Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 529 Exporting and importing MIDI loops 529 Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase

only)

531 Customizing

532 Background 532 Workspaces 534 Using the Setup options 535 Customizing track controls 536 Appearance 537 Applying colors in the Project window 539 Where are the settings stored?

541 Key commands

542 Introduction 542 Setting up key commands 545 Setting up tool modifier keys 546 The default key commands

550 Part II: Score layout and printing

(Cubase only)

551 How the Score Editor works

552 About this chapter 552 Welcome! 552 How the Score Editor operates 552 MIDI notes vs. score notes 553 Display Quantize 555 Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes

556 The basics

557 About this chapter 557 Preparations 557 Opening the Score Editor 557 The project cursor 557 Playing back and recording 558 Page Mode 558 Changing the zoom factor 559 The active staff 559 Making page setup settings 559 Designing your work space 561 About the Score Editor context menus 561 About dialogs in the Score Editor 562 Setting clef, key, and time signature 565 Transposing instruments 566 Printing from the Score Editor 566 Exporting pages as image files 567 Working order 567 Force update

568 Transcribing MIDI recordings

569 About this chapter 569 About transcription 569 Getting the parts ready 569 Preparing parts for score printout 570 Staff settings 570 Situations which require additional techniques 571 Inserting Display Quantize changes 572 The Explode function 572 Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”

Table of Contents

573 Entering and editing notes

574 About this chapter 574 Score settings 575 Note values and positions 576 Adding and editing notes 578 Selecting notes 579 Moving notes 580 Duplicating notes 580 Cut, copy, and paste 581 Editing pitches of individual notes 582 Changing the length of notes 582 Splitting a note in two 583 Working with the Display Quantize tool 583 Split (piano) staves 583 Strategies: Multiple staves 584 Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures 585 Deleting notes

586 Staff settings

587 About this chapter 587 Staff settings 587 Making settings 587 Working with staff presets 588 Staff names 588 Key and clef 588 Display Quantize and Interpretation Options 591 Display Transpose 591 The Options tab 592 The Polyphonic tab 592 The Tablature tab

603 Additional note and rest formatting

604 About this chapter 604 Background: Note stems 604 Setting stem direction 605 Stem length 606 Accidentals and enharmonic shift 606 Changing the note head shape 607 Other note details 608 Coloring notes 608 Copying settings between notes 608 Handling beaming 612 About tied notes 614 Graphic moving of notes 614 Cue notes 615 Grace notes 616 Tuplets

618 Working with symbols

619 About this chapter 619 Background: The different layers 620 The Symbols Inspector 621 Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices 622 Adding symbols to the score 628 Selecting symbols 629 Moving and duplicating symbols 632 Changing length, size, and shape 633 Deleting symbols 633 Copy and paste 633 Alignment 634 Symbol details

593 Polyphonic voicing

594 About this chapter 594 Background: Polyphonic voicing 595 Setting up the voices 597 Strategies: How many voices do I need? 597 Entering notes into voices 597 Checking which voice a note belongs to 598 Moving notes between voices 599 Handling rests 599 Voices and Display Quantize 600 Creating crossed voicings 601 Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 602 Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices

Table of Contents

640 Working with chords

641 About this chapter 641 Inserting Chord symbols 643 Global chord settings

645 Working with text

646 About this chapter 646 Adding and editing text symbols 648 Different types of text 652 Text functions

655 Working with layouts

656 About this chapter 656 Background: Layouts 656 Creating a layout 656 Opening a layout 656 Layout operations 657 Using layouts – an example 658 Marker Track to Form

659 Working with MusicXML

660 Introduction 661 Importing and exporting MusicXML files

663 Designing your score:

additional techniques

664 About this chapter 664 Layout settings 665 Staff size 665 Hiding/showing objects 666 Coloring notes 667 Multiple rests 667 Editing bar lines 668 Creating upbeats 669 Setting the number of bars across the page 670 Moving bar lines 670 Dragging staves 672 Adding brackets and braces 672 Auto Layout 674 Reset Layout 674 Breaking bar lines

684 The score and MIDI playback

685 About this chapter 685 Scores and the Arranger mode 685 Working with mapped dynamics

688 Tips and Tricks

689 Overview 689 Useful editing techniques 690 Frequently asked questions 692 If you wish you had a faster computer

693 Index

676 Scoring for drums

677 About this chapter 677 Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 677 Setting up the drum map 679 Setting up a staff for drum scoring 679 Entering and editing notes 679 Using “Single Line Drum Staff”

680 Creating tablature

681 About this chapter 681 Creating tablature automatically 682 Creating tablature manually 682 Tablature number appearance 683 Editing 683 Note head shape

Table of Contents

Part I:

Getting into the details

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 Artist, 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 re lated subject.

Some features and settings are also specific to one of the platforms. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for all Cubase versions for both Windows and Mac OS

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 oper ating 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 This manual often refers to right-clicking, for example, to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with a singlebutton mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.

About this manual

Setting up your system

Setting up audio

Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any connections!

Connecting audio

Exactly how to set up your system depends on many different factors, e. g. the kind of project you wish to create, the external equipment you want to use, or the computer hardware available to you. Therefore, the following sec tions can only serve as examples.

How you connect your equipment, i. e. whether you use digital or analog connections, also depends on your indi vidual setup.

Stereo input and output – the simplest connection

If you only use a stereo input and output from Cubase, you can connect your audio hardware, e. g. the inputs of your audio card or your audio interface, directly to the input source and the outputs to a power amplifier and speaker.

Multi-channel input and output

Most likely however, you will have other audio equipment that you want to integrate with Cubase, using several input and output channels. Depending on the equipment available to you, there are two ways to go: either mixing using an external mixing desk, or mixing using the Mixer in side Cubase.

• External mixing means having a hardware mixing device with a group or bus system that can be used for feeding inputs on your audio hardware.

In the example below, four busses are used for feeding signals to the audio hardware’s inputs. The four outputs are connected back to the mixer for monitoring and playback. Remaining mixer inputs can be used for

connecting audio sources like microphones, instruments, etc.

A multi-channel audio setup using an external mixer

Ö When connecting an input source (like a mixer) to the audio hardware, you should use output busses, sends or similar that are separate from the mixer’s master output to avoid recording what you are playing back. You may also

A simple stereo audio setup

have mixing hardware that can be connected via FireWire.

This is probably the simplest of all setups – once you have set up the internal input and output busses, you can con

nect your audio source, e. g. a microphone, to your audio interface and start recording.

Setting up your system

• When using the Mixer inside Cubase, you can use the

inputs on your audio hardware to connect microphones and/or external devices. Use the outputs to connect your monitoring equipment.

Cubase only: You can create very complex setups using external instruments and external effects, and integrate Cubase seamlessly with all your external equipment using the Control Room feature (see the chap ters “VST Connections” on page 25 and “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 172).

Mixing inside Cubase

Recording from a CD player

Most computers come with a CD-ROM drive that can also be used as a regular CD player. In some cases the CD player is internally connected to the audio hardware so that you can record the output of the CD player directly into Cubase (consult the audio hardware documentation if

you are uncertain).

• All routing and level adjustments for recording from a CD (if available) are done in the audio hardware setup application (see below).

• You can also grab audio tracks directly from a CD in Cubase (see the chapter

“File handling” on page 521).

Word clock connections

If you are using a digital audio connection, you may also need a word clock connection between the audio hardware and external devices. Please refer to the documentation that came with the audio hardware for details.

Connecting for surround sound (Cubase only)

If you plan to mix for surround sound, you can connect the audio outputs to a multi-channel power amplifier, driving a set of surround channels.

A surround sound playback configuration

Cubase supports surround formats with up to 6 speaker channels. The figure above shows a 5.1 surround setup.

It is very important that word clock synchronization is done correctly or there might be clicks and crackles in recordings that you make!

About recording levels and inputs

When you connect your equipment, you should make sure that the impedance and levels of the audio sources and in puts are matched. Typically, different inputs may be designed for use with microphones, consumer line level

dBV) or professional line level (+4 dBV), or you may

(-10 be able to adjust input characteristics on the audio interface or in its control panel. Please check the audio hardware documentation for details.

Using the correct types of input is important to avoid distortion or noisy recordings.

Cubase does not provide any input level adjustments for the signals coming in to your audio hardware, since these are handled differently for each card. Ad justing input levels is either done in a special application included with the hardware or from its control panel (see below).

Setting up your system

Making settings for the audio hardware

Most audio cards come with one or more small applications that allow you to configure the inputs of the hardware to your liking. This includes:

• Selecting which inputs/outputs are active.

• Setting up word clock synchronization (if available).

• Turning monitoring via the hardware on/off (see “About moni-

toring” on page 19).

• Setting levels for each input. This is very important!

• Setting levels for the outputs, so that they match the equip-

ment you use for monitoring.

• Selecting digital input and output formats.

• Making settings for the audio buffers.

In many cases all available settings for the audio hardware are gathered in a control panel, which can be opened from within Cubase as described below (or opened separately, when Cubase isn’t running). In some cases, there may be several different applications and panels – please refer to the audio hardware documentation for details.

Plug and Play support for ASIO devices

The Steinberg MR816 hardware series supports Plug and Play in Cubase. These devices can be plugged in and switched on while the application is running. Cubase will automatically use the driver of the MR816 series and will re-map the VST connections accordingly.

Steinberg cannot guarantee that this will work with other hardware. If you are unsure of whether your device sup ports plug and play, please consult its documentation.

If a device that does not support Plug and Play is connected/disconnected while the computer is run ning, it may get damaged.

Selecting a driver and making audio settings in Cubase

The first thing you need to do is select the correct driver in Cubase to make sure that the program can communicate with the audio hardware:

1. Launch Cubase and select Device Setup from the Devices menu.

2. In the Devices list to the left, click on “VST Audio System”.

The VST Audio System page is shown.

3. On the ASIO Driver menu, select your audio hardware driver.

There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hardware. When you have selected a driver, it is added to the Devices list.

Under Windows, we strongly recommend that you access your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifically for the hardware. If no ASIO driver is installed, we recommend that you check with your audio hardware manufacturer if they have an ASIO driver available, for example, for download via the Internet. You can use the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver if no specific ASIO driver is available.

4. Select the driver in the Devices list to open the driver settings for your audio hardware.

5. Bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and adjust the settings as recommended by the audio hardware manufacturer.

Setting up your system

• Under Windows, you open the control panel by clicking

the Control Panel button.

The control panel that opens when you click this button is provided by

the audio hardware manufacturer – not Cubase (unless you use DirectX, see below). Hence it will be different for each audio card brand and model. The control panels for the ASIO DirectX driver and the Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver (Windows only) are exceptions, in that they are provided by Steinberg and described in the dialog help, opened by clicking the Help button in the dialog. See also the notes on DirectX below.

• Under Mac OS X, the control panel for your audio hardware is opened by clicking the “Open Config App” button on the settings page for your audio device in the Device Setup dialog.

Note that this button is available only for some hardware products. If “Open Config App” is not available in your setup, refer to the documen tation that came with your audio hardware for information on where to make hardware settings.

6. If you plan to use several audio applications simultaneously, you may want to activate the “Release Driver when Application is in Background” option on the VST Audio System page. This will allow another application to play back via your audio hardware even though Cubase is run ning.

The application that is currently active (i. e. the “top window” on the desktop) gets access to the audio hardware. Make sure that any other audio application accessing the audio hardware is also set to release the ASIO (or Mac OS X) driver so Cubase can use it when it becomes the active application again.

7. If your audio hardware receives clock signals from an external sample clock source, you may want to activate the “Externally Clocked” option on the page for the driver.

This is described in detail in the section “If your hardware setup is based

on an external clock source” on page 18.

8. If your audio hardware and its driver support ASIO Direct Monitoring, you may want to activate the Direct Monitoring checkbox on the page for the driver.

Read more about monitoring later in this chapter and in the chapter “Re-

cording” on page 89.

9. Click Apply and then OK to close the dialog.

If your hardware setup is based on an external clock source

For proper audio playback and recording, it is essential that you set the project’s sample rate to the sample rate of the incoming clock signals. If you load a project with a sample rate that is different from your clock source, the program will try to change the settings of the clock source, which may not be what you want.

By activating the “Externally Clocked” option, you “tell” Cubase that it receives external clock signals and there fore derives its speed from that source. The program will not try to change the hardware sample rate any longer. The sample rate mismatch is accepted and playback will therefore be faster or slower. For more information about

the Sample Rate setting, see

“The Project Setup dialog”

on page 54.

Ö When a sample rate mismatch occurs, the Record Format field on the status line is highlighted in a different color.

If you are using audio hardware with a DirectX driver

(Windows only)

A DirectX driver is the next best option to a specific ASIO driver and the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver.

Cubase comes with a driver called ASIO DirectX Full Duplex, available for selection on the ASIO Driver pop-up menu (VST Audio System page).

Ö To take full advantage of DirectX Full Duplex, the audio hardware must support WDM (Windows Driver Model) in combination with DirectX version 8.1 or higher. In all other cases, the audio inputs will be emulated by DirectX (see the dialog help for the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Setup di alog for details about how this is reported).

Ö During the installation of Cubase, the latest DirectX version will be installed on your computer.

Setting up your system

When the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver is selected in

the Device Setup dialog, you can open the ASIO Control Panel and adjust the following settings (for more details, click the Help button in the control panel):

• Direct Sound Output and Input Ports

In the list on the left in the window, all available Direct Sound output and input ports are listed. In many cases, there will be only one port in each list. To activate or deactivate a port in the list, click the checkbox in the left column. If the checkbox is ticked, the port is activated.

• You can edit the Buffer Size and Offset settings in this list if necessary, by double-clicking on the value and typing in a new value.

In most cases, the default settings will work fine. Audio buffers are used when audio data is transferred between Cubase and the audio card. While larger buffers ensure that playback will occur without glitches, the latency (the time between the moment Cubase sends out the data and when it actually reaches the output) will be higher.

• Offset

If a constant offset is audible during playback of Audio and MIDI recordings, you can adjust the output or input latency time using this value.

Setting up the input and output ports

Once you have selected the driver and made the settings as described above, you need to specify which inputs and outputs will be used and name these:

1. In the Device Setup dialog, select your driver in the Devices list on the left to display the driver settings for your audio hardware.

2. To hide a port, click in the “Visible” column for the port (deselecting the checkbox).

Ports that are not visible cannot be selected in the VST Connections window where you set up your input and output busses – see the chap ter “VST Connections” on page 25.

If you attempt to hide a port that is already used by a bus you will be asked whether this is really what you want – note that this will disable the port!

3. To rename a port, click on its name in the “Show as” column and type in a new name.

• It is a good idea to give your ports names that are related to the channel configuration (rather than to the actual hardware model)!

For example, if you are using a 5.1 surround audio setup (Cubase only), you could name the six ports Left, Right, Center, Lfe, Left Surround, and Right Surround. This makes it easier to transfer your projects between different computers, e.g. in different studios – if the same port names are used on both computers, Cubase will automatically handle the bus con nections properly when you open the project on the other computer.

4. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog and apply your changes.

About monitoring

In Cubase, monitoring means listening to the input signal while preparing to record or while recording. There are three ways to monitor:

External monitoring

External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it goes into Cubase) requires an external mixer for mixing the audio playback with the input signal. This can be a classic mixing desk or a mixer application for your audio hardware, if this has a mode in which the input audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, “Direct Thru” or similar).

Via Cubase

In this case, the audio passes from the input into Cubase, possibly through Cubase effects and EQ and then back to the output. You control monitoring via settings in Cubase.

This allows you to control the monitoring level from Cubase and add effects to the monitored signal only.

All input and output ports on the audio hardware are listed.

Setting up your system

ASIO Direct Monitoring

If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may support ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be available for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hard ware, by sending the input signal back out again. However, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off automatically by Cubase.

Monitoring is described in detail in the chapter “Record-

ing” on page 89. However, when setting up, there is one

thing to note:

• If you want to use the external monitoring via your audio hardware, make sure that the corresponding functions are activated in the card’s mixer application.

Ö If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hardware, make sure that the pan law is set to -3

dB in the

card’s preferences.

ule is used for playback only. Using Cubase’s MIDI Thru feature (described later) you will be able to hear the correct sound from the sound module while playing the keyboard or recording.

Setting up MIDI

Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any connections!

This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI equipment. If you have no MIDI equipment, you can skip this section. Note that this is only an example – you might need or want to hook things up differently!

Connecting the MIDI equipment

In this example we assume that you have a MIDI keyboard and an external MIDI sound module. The keyboard is used both for feeding the computer with MIDI messages for re cording and for playing back MIDI tracks. The sound mod-

A typical MIDI Setup

If you want to use even more instruments for playback, simply connect MIDI Thru on the sound module to MIDI In on the next instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will al ways play the first keyboard when recording. But you can still use all your devices for providing sounds on playback.

If you plan to use more than three sound sources, we recommend that you either use an interface with more than one output, or a separate MIDI Thru box instead of the Thru jacks on each unit.

Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off

On the MIDI page in the Preferences dialog (located on

the File menu under Windows and on the Cubase menu under Mac OS X), you will find a setting called “MIDI Thru Active”. This is related to a setting in your instrument called “Local On/Off” or “Local Control On/Off”.

• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described earlier in

this chapter, MIDI Thru should be activated and that instru ment should be set to Local Off (sometimes called Local Control Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for details).

Setting up your system

The MIDI signal from the keyboard will be recorded in Cubase

When “MIDI Thru” is active in Cubase, MIDI data received is immediately “echoed” back out.

When you press a key, it is sent out via MIDI to Cubase.

MIDI data coming in to the instrument is played by the “Synth” inside it.

When Local Control is turned on in the instrument, the keys you press will be played by the “Synth” inside the instrument. When Local Control is turned off, this connection is cut off.

“Synth”

and at the same time be re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard “trig gering” its own sounds.

• If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not produce any sounds itself – MIDI Thru in Cubase should also be activated, but you don’t need to look for any Local On/Off setting in your instruments.

• The only case where MIDI Thru should be deactivated is if you use Cubase with only one keyboard instrument and that instrument cannot be set to Local Off mode.

• MIDI Thru will be active only for MIDI tracks that are record enabled and/or have the Monitor button activated. See the chapter “Recording” on page 89 for more information.

Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase

The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system

as follows:

Ö When you change MIDI port settings in the Device Setup dialog, these are automatically applied.

Showing or hiding MIDI Ports

The MIDI ports are listed in the Device Setup dialog on the MIDI Port Setup page. By clicking in the “Visible” column for a MIDI input or output, you can specify whether or not it is listed on the MIDI pop-up menus in the program.

If you are trying to hide a MIDI port which is already selected for a track or a MIDI device, a warning message will appear, allowing you to hide – and disconnect – the port or to cancel the operation and keep the MIDI port visible.

Setting up the “All MIDI Inputs” option

When you record MIDI in Cubase, you can specify which MIDI input each recording MIDI track should use. How ever, you can also select the “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” option for an input port, which causes any MIDI data from any MIDI input to be recorded.

The “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” option on the MIDI Port Setup page allows you to specify which inputs are included when you select All MIDI Inputs for a MIDI track. This can be es pecially useful if your system provides several instances of the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the dupli cates you make sure only the desired MIDI data is recorded.

Ö If you have a MIDI remote control unit connected, you should also make sure to deactivate the “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” option for that MIDI input. This will avoid accidentally recording the data from the remote control when the “All MIDI Inputs” option is selected as input for a MIDI track.

Setting up your system

Connecting a synchronizer

Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any connections!

When using Cubase with external tape transports, you will most likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All connections and setup procedures for synchronization are described in the chapter

“Synchronization” on page 493.

Setting up video

Cubase plays back video files in a number of formats, such as AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG. QuickTime is used as playback engine. Which formats can be played back de pends on the video codecs installed on your system, see the chapter

There are several ways to play back video, e. g. without any special hardware, using a FireWire port, or using dedicated video cards, see

If you plan to use special video hardware, install it and set it up as recommended by the manufacturer.

Before you use the video hardware with Cubase, we recommend that you test the hardware installation with the utility applications that came with the hardware and/or the QuickTime Player application.

“Video” on page 509.

“Video output devices” on page 511.

Optimizing audio performance

This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get the most out of your Cubase system, performance-wise. Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is very brief. Look for details and current information on the Cubase web site!

Two aspects of performance

There are two distinct aspects of performance with respect to Cubase.

Short response times (latency)

Another aspect of performance is response time. The term “latency” refers to the “buffering”, i. e. the temporary storing, of small chunks of audio data during various steps of the recording and playback process on a computer. The more and larger those chunks, the higher the latency.

High latency is most irritating when playing VST instruments and when monitoring through the computer, i. e. when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase Mixer and effects. However, very long latency times (several hundred milliseconds) can also affect other processes like mixing, e. only after a noticeable delay.

While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the problems associated with very long latency times, a sys tem that responds fast will always be more convenient to work with.

• Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible to “trim” your latency times, usually by lowering the size and the number of buffers.

For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are using a DirectX driver under Windows, the dialog help.

g. when the effect of a fader movement is heard

System factors that affect performance

RAM

Generally speaking, the more RAM is installed in your computer, the better.

On computers running a Windows 32-bit operating system, a running application can address a maximum of 2 GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer running Mac OS The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X are able to assign considerably more than 4 to a running 64-bit application.

This limitation is imposed by the operating system, and it is independent of the amount of RAM that you may have installed in your computer!

X, this limit is 4 GB.

GB of RAM

Tracks and effects

Simply put: the faster your computer, the more tracks, effects and EQ you will be able to play. Exactly what constitutes a “fast computer” is almost a science in itself, but some hints are given below.

Setting up your system

Some program functions may “eat up” all the available

memory, e. g. recording, the use of effect plug-ins, and the pre-loading of samples (see also

“RAM requirements for recording” on page 92 and “Smart plug-in processing” on page 188).

When a function has used up all the memory made available by the operating system, the computer will crash.

Always keep in mind the RAM limitation of your operating system when setting up your projects.

CPU and processor cache

It goes without saying that the faster the computer processor, the better. But there are a number of factors that affect the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed and type (PCI is strongly recommended), the processor cache size and of course, the processor type and brand. Cubase relies heavily on floating point calculations. When shopping for a processor, please make sure that you get one that is pow erful in calculating floating point arithmetics.

Note also that Cubase features full support for multi-processor systems. So, if you own a computer system with more than one processor, Cubase can take advantage of the total capacity and evenly distribute the processing load to all available processors. For further information,

“Multi processing” on page 24.

see

Hard disk and controller

The number of hard disk tracks you can record and play back at the same time also depends on the speed of your hard disk and hard disk controller. If you use E-IDE disks and controllers, make sure that the transfer mode is DMA Busmaster. Under Windows, you can check the current mode by launching the Windows Device Manager and looking for properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller’s primary and secondary channel. DMA transfer mode is en abled by default, but may be turned off by the system should hardware problems occur.

Audio hardware and driver

The hardware and its driver can have some effect on regular performance. A badly written driver can reduce the performance of your computer. But where the hardware driver design makes the most difference is with latency.

Again, we strongly recommend that you use audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver!

This is especially true when using Cubase for Windows:

• Under Windows, ASIO drivers written specifically for the hardware are more efficient than the Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver or a DirectX driver and produce shorter latency times.

• Under Mac OS X, audio hardware with properly written Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers can be very efficient and produce very low latency times.

However, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO drivers, such as the ASIO Positioning Protocol.

Making settings that affect performance

Audio buffer settings

Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio hardware. The size of the audio buffers affects both the latency and the audio performance. Generally, the smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency. On the other hand, working with small buffers can be demanding for the computer. If the audio buffers are too small, you may get clicks, pops or other audio playback problems.

• Under Mac OS X, you can adjust the size of the buffers on the VST Audio System page in the Device Setup dia log.

You may also find buffer settings in the control panel for the audio hardware.

• Under Windows, you adjust the buffer size settings in

the control panel for the audio hardware (opened by click ing the Control Panel button on the driver page in the Device Setup dialog).

Setting up your system

Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)

To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows (on a single-CPU system), the “system performance” has to be optimized for background tasks:

1. Open the Control Panel and select the System settings.

2. On the left, select the “Advanced system settings”

option.

The System Properties dialog opens.

3. Select the Advanced tab and click the “Settings…” button in the Performance section.

The Performance Options dialog opens.

4. Select the Advanced tab and activate the “Adjust for best performance of: Background services” option.

5. Click OK to close the dialogs.

Multi processing

On the VST Audio System page you will find the “Advanced options” section. Here you find advanced settings for the VST Engine, including a Multi Processing option. When this is activated and there is more than one CPU in your system, the processing load is distributed evenly to all available CPUs, allowing Cubase to make full use of the combined power of the multiple processors.

• The ASIO meter (at the top) shows the ASIO time usage, i. e. the time required to complete the current processing tasks. The more tracks, effects, EQ, etc. you use in your project, the longer processing will take, and the longer the ASIO meter will show activity.

If the overload indicator (on the far right) lights up, you need to decrease the number of EQ modules, active effects, and/or audio channels playing back simultaneously.

• The lower bar graph shows the hard disk transfer load.

If the overload indicator (on the far right) lights up, the hard disk is not supplying data fast enough to the computer. You may need to reduce the number of tracks playing back by using the Disable Track function (see

“About track disable/enable” on page 86). If this does not help, you need

a faster hard disk.

Ö The overload indicator may occasionally blink, e. g. when you locate during playback. This does not indicate a problem, but happens because the program needs a mo ment for all channels to load data for the new playback position.

Ö The ASIO and Disk load meters can also be shown on the Transport panel (as “Performance”) and on the Project window toolbar (as “Performance Meter”). There they are shown as two miniature vertical meters (by default at the left side of the panel/toolbar).

About the VST Performance window

The VST Performance window is opened from the Devices menu. The window shows two meter displays: The ASIO meter, which indicates CPU load, and the Disk me ter, which shows the hard disk transfer rate. It is recommended that you check this from time to time, or keep it always open. Even if you have been able to activate a number of audio channels in the project without getting any warning, you may run into performance problems when adding EQ or effects.

Setting up your system

VST Connections

About this chapter

Setting up busses

This chapter focuses on the settings you can perform in the VST Connections window. Here you can set up input and output busses, group and FX channels, external effects, and external instruments. Furthermore you can use this window to configure the Control Room (Cubase only) and access the Control Room itself.

Since input and output busses are vital for working with Cubase, a large part of this chapter concentrates on busses and this is also the reason why you find this chapter at the beginning of the Operation Manual. How to use the busses is described in detail in the section

page 164.

“Routing” on

The VST Connections window

The VST Connections window is opened from the Devices menu. It contains the following tabs:

• The Inputs and Outputs tabs allow you to set up and configure

input and output busses, see

• The Group/FX tab allows you to create group and FX chan-

nels/tracks and to make output assignments for these, see

“Setting up group and FX channels” on page 29.

• 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. For further information, see

fects (Cubase only)” on page 30 and “Using external effects (Cubase only)” on page 200.

• The External Instruments tab (Cubase only) allows you to cre-

ate input/output busses for connecting external instruments. For further information, see “External instruments/effects (Cu-

base only)” on page 30 and the chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page 206.

• The Studio tab (Cubase only) is where you enable and config-

ure the Control Room, see “VST Connections – Studio tab” on page 174.

“Setting up busses” on page 26.

“External instruments/ef-

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.

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).

Strategies

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 Tem-

plate” on page 51).

When you start working on new projects, you start from this template. That way you get your standard bus config uration 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 “Presets” on page 29). 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.

VST Connections

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). In this scenario, you may want to add the following busses:

Input busses

• Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input pair. This will 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 can be assigned to an analog input to which you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp, for exam ple. 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 will 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 enables you to listen to stereo mixes without having to reconnect your speakers.

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 con nected 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 in puts 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 out

puts for your busses and you will be able to play and re-

cord without having to change the settings.

To assign names to the inputs and outputs of your audio hardware, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.

2. On the VST Audio System page, make sure that the

correct driver for your audio hardware is selected.

If this is the case, your audio card is listed in the Devices list on the left of the Device Setup window.

3. In the Devices list, select your audio card.

The available input and output ports on your audio hardware are listed on the right.

4. To rename a port, click on 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 are not shown in the VST Connections window. 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.

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. with multi-channel i/o and you open it on a stereo in/out system), the Missing Ports dialog will appear. This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports available in your system.

g. the project is created on a system

VST Connections

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 output ports are active. This allows you to use the Microphone input instead of the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or output completely, if re quired.

Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, standard USB audio devices and a certain number of other audio cards.

Adding input and output busses

Depending on whether you have selected the Inputs or the Outputs tab in the VST Connections window, the corresponding busses are listed, with the following information:

Column Description

Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select and rename busses by

Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, sur-

Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.

Device Port If a bus entry is expanded to show all speaker channels,

Click (Outputs tab only)

clicking on them in this column.

round formats (Cubase only)) of each bus.

this column shows which physical inputs/outputs on your audio hardware are used by the bus. If the bus entry is collapsed, only the first port used by this bus is visible here.

You can route the click to a specific output bus, regardless of the actual Control Room output, or even when the Control Room is disabled.

3. Select a (channel) configuration.

The Configuration pop-up menu contains a Mono and a Stereo option as well as several surround formats (Cubase only). Additional surround for mats are listed on 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. For each of the speaker channels in the bus, click in the Device Port column to select a port on your audio hardware.

The pop-up menu that opens lists the ports with the names you have assigned in the Device Setup dialog.

Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)

The Main Mix is the output bus that each new audio, group or FX channel is automatically routed to.

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 it as the Main Mix bus.

To add an input or output bus, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on the type of bus that you want to add.

2. Click the Add Bus button.

A dialog opens.

VST Connections

Setting the default output bus.

The Main Mix is indicated by an orange colored speaker icon next to its name.

Adding child busses (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 sur round 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.

Proceed as follows:

1. In the Bus Name column, select the surround bus and right-click on it to open the context menu.

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 startup, Cubase analyzes the physical inputs and outputs provided by your audio hardware and creates a number of hardware-dependent 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).

• Your own user presets that you can save by clicking the Store button (“+” symbol). 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 Delete button (“-” symbol).

Setting up group and FX channels

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 that you created will be available for routing in the Mixer. It is a part of the parent surround bus, which means that it has no separate channel strip.

Although child busses are probably most useful in output busses, you can also create child busses within a sur

round 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.

VST Connections

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 cor responding 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 165 and

the chapter “Audio effects” on page 187).

However, the VST Connections window also allows you to create child busses for group and FX channels (Cubase only). This is useful if you have group or FX channels in surround format and want to route stereo channels to specific channel pairs in these.

Creating a child bus for a group or FX channel in surround format is similar to creating a child bus for input and out put busses, see “Adding child busses (Cubase only)” on

page 29.

About monitoring

The VST Connections window allows you to set up the busses used for monitoring, activate/deactivate the Control Room and open the Control Room Mixer. For details about using the Control Room and setting up the Studio tab in the VST Connections window, see the chapter

“Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 172.

When the Control Room is disabled on the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, the Main Mix bus is used for monitoring. In this case you can adjust the monitoring level in the regular Project Mixer, see the chapter

Mixer” on page 145.

Ö In Cubase Artist, the Main Mix bus is always used for monitoring.

“The

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 instru ments/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.

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 hardware to the input pair on your external hardware device.

In this example, we assume that the hardware device has stereo inputs and outputs.

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 exist ing 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

To set up an external effect in the VST Connections window, proceed as follows:

1. Open the External FX tab and click the “Add External FX” button.

A dialog opens.

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.

VST Connections

2. Enter a name for the external effect and specify the send and return configurations.

Depending on the type of effect, you can specify mono, stereo or surround configurations.

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