Steinberg Cubase Artist - 7.0, Cubase 7.5, Cubase 7.0 Operation Manual

Operation Manual

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Sabine Pfeifer, Benjamin Schütte

This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions of images.

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. 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. For more information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.

Release Date: December 3, 2012

10 Introduction

10 About the Program Versions 10 Key Command Conventions

11 Part I:

Getting into the details

12 Setting up your system

12 Setting up audio 19 Setting up MIDI 21 Connecting a synchronizer 21 Setting up video 22 Optimizing audio performance 24 The VST Performance Window 25 The ASIO-Guard Option

26 VST Connections

26 About this chapter 26 The VST Connections window 27 Setting up busses 31 Setting up group and FX channels 31 About monitoring 32 External instruments/effects

(Cubase only)

37 Editing operations

40 The Project window

40 Window Overview 42 The track list 43 The Inspector 47 The toolbar 48 The status line 48 The info line 50 The overview line 50 The ruler 52 The Snap function 54 Auto-Scroll

55 Working with projects

55 Creating new projects 57 Opening projects 57 Closing projects 58 Saving projects 60 The Archive and Backup functions 62 The Project Setup dialog 64 Zoom and view options 69 Audio handling 69 Auditioning audio parts and events 70 Scrubbing audio 70 Editing parts and events 80 Range editing 83 Region operations 84 The Edit History dialog 85 The Preferences dialog

87 Working with tracks and lanes

87 Setting up tracks 91 Editing tracks 94 Working with lanes 97 Organizing tracks in folder tracks 100 Dividing the track list

101 Playback and the Transport panel

101 Background 102 Operations 106 Options and Settings 108 The Virtual Keyboard

110 Recording

110 Background 110 Basic recording methods 113 Audio recording specifics 124 MIDI recording specifics 130 Options and Settings

134 Quantizing MIDI and Audio

134 Introduction 134 Quantizing Audio Event Starts 134 AudioWarp Quantize (Cubase Only) 135 Quantizing MIDI Event Starts 135 Quantizing MIDI Event Lengths 135 Quantizing MIDI Event Ends 135 Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks

(Cubase Only)

136 AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio

Tracks (Cubase Only)

136 The Quantize Panel 142 Additional Quantizing Functions

143 Fades, crossfades, and envelopes

143 Creating fades 145 The Fade dialogs 147 Creating crossfades 148 The Crossfade dialog 149 Auto fades and crossfades 151 Event envelopes

152 The arranger track

152 Introduction 152 Setting up the arranger track 154 Working with arranger events 157 Flattening the arranger chain 159 Live mode 160 Arranging your music to video

161 The transpose functions

161 Introduction 161 Transposing your music 165 Other functions

169 Using markers

169 Introduction 170 The Marker window 173 The marker track 175 Exporting and importing markers

177 The MixConsole

177 Overview 179 Configuring the MixConsole 183 Keyboard Navigation in the MixConsole 185 Working with the Fader Section 190 Working with the Channel Racks 201 Linking Channels (Cubase only) 203 Metering (Cubase only) 205 Using Channel Settings 208 Saving and Loading Selected Channel

Settings

208 Resetting MixConsole Channels 209 Adding Pictures 210 Adding Notes

211 The Control Room (Cubase only)

212 Setting Up the Control Room Channels 214 Opening the Control Room 215 The Control Room Mixer 221 The Setup Pane 224 Cue Channels and Cue Sends 226 The Control Room Overview 226 Direct Monitoring and Latency

227 Audio effects

227 Overview 229 Insert effects 235 Send effects 240 Using the side-chain input 242 Using external effects (Cubase only) 242 Editing effects 243 Effect presets 248 Installing and managing effect plug-ins

252 VST instruments and instrument

tracks

252 Introduction 252 VST instrument channels vs. instrument

tracks

252 VST instrument channels 255 Instrument tracks 258 What do I need? Instrument channel or

instrument track?

258 Instrument Freeze 260 VST instruments and processor load 260 Using presets for VSTi configuration 264 About latency 265 External instruments (Cubase only)

266 Surround sound (Cubase only)

266 Introduction 267 Preparations 269 Using the SurroundPanner V5 277 Using the MixConvert V6 plug-in

(Cubase only)

278 Exporting a surround mix

279 Automation

279 Introduction 279 Working with automation curves 280 Enabling and disabling the writing of

automation data

280 Writing automation data 283 Editing automation events 285 Automation track operations 289 The Automation panel (Cubase only) 297 Automation Preferences 298 Hints and further options 299 MIDI controller automation

302 Audio processing and functions

302 Background 302 Audio processing 313 Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 315 The Offline Process History dialog 316 Freeze Edits 317 Detect Silence 319 The Spectrum Analyzer 321 Statistics 322 About time stretch and pitch shift

algorithms

325 The Sample Editor

325 Window overview 332 General functions 341 Warping audio 347 Working with hitpoints and slices 353 VariAudio (Cubase only) 367 Generating Harmony Voices for

Monophonic Audio

368 Flattening realtime processing

371 The Audio Part Editor

371 Background 371 Window overview 372 Opening the Audio Part Editor 373 Operations 375 Options and Settings

376 The Pool

376 Background 377 Window overview 380 Operations

393 The MediaBay

393 Introduction 394 Working with the MediaBay 395 The Define Locations section 398 The Locations section 399 The Results list 403 Previewing files 406 The Filters section 410 The Attribute Inspector 415 The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and

Mini Browser windows

416 Preferences 417 Key commands 418 Working with MediaBay-related windows 420 Working with Volume databases

422 Working with track presets

422 Introduction 422 Types of track presets 424 Applying track presets 427 Creating a track preset 428 Creating tracks from track presets or VST

presets

430 Track Quick Controls

430 Introduction 430 Assigning parameters to quick controls 432 Connecting quick controls with remote

controllers

433 Quick controls and automatable

parameters

435 Remote controlling Cubase

435 Introduction 435 Setting Up 437 Operations 438 The Generic Remote device 442 Track Quick Controls 442 The Remote Control Editor 448 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)

449 MIDI realtime parameters and

effects

449 Introduction 449 The Inspector – general handling 450 The Inspector sections 455 MIDI effects 459 Managing plug-ins

460 Using MIDI devices

460 Background 460 MIDI devices – general settings and patch

handling

467 About Device panels (Cubase only)

471 MIDI processing

471 Introduction 473 Making your settings permanent 474 Dissolve Part 476 Bounce MIDI 476 Repeat Loop 477 Other MIDI functions

481 The MIDI editors

481 Introduction 482 Opening a MIDI editor 483 The Key Editor – Overview 488 Key Editor operations 512 The In-Place Editor 514 The Drum Editor – Overview 516 Drum Editor operations 518 Working with drum maps 522 Using drum name lists 522 The List Editor – Overview 523 List Editor operations 527 Working with SysEx messages 529 Recording SysEx parameter changes 529 Editing SysEx messages 531 The basic Score Editor – Overview 532 Score Editor operations

542 Working with the Chord Functions

542 Introduction 542 The Chord Track 545 The Chord Track Inspector Section 548 The Chord Editor 549 The Chord Assistant (Cubase only) 551 Creating a Chord Progression from

Scratch (Chords to MIDI)

552 Extracting Chords from MIDI (Make

Chords)

553 Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with

the Chord Track (Follow Chords)

554 Assigning Chord Events to MIDI Effects

or VST Instruments

555 Expression maps (Cubase only)

555 Introduction 556 Using expression maps in Cubase 560 Creating and editing expression maps

565 Note Expression

565 Introduction 567 Setting up the Note Expression Inspector

tab

569 Mapping controllers 570 Recording 572 Editing Note Expression data 576 Note Expression and MIDI 579 HALion Sonic SE

580 The Logical Editor, Transformer,

and Input Transformer

580 Introduction 581 Opening the Logical Editor 581 Window overview 581 Setting up filter conditions 590 Selecting a function 591 Specifying actions 594 Applying the defined actions 594 Working with presets 595 The Input Transformer

597 The Project Logical Editor

(Cubase only)

597 Introduction 598 Opening the Project Logical Editor 598 Window overview 598 Setting up filter conditions 605 Specifying actions 607 Selecting a function 608 Applying Macros 608 Applying the defined actions 608 Working with presets

610 Editing tempo and signature

610 Background 611 Tempo and signature display 613 Editing tempo and signature 616 Process Tempo (Cubase only) 617 The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 618 The Beat Calculator 619 Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase

only)

619 The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 625 Tempo Detection (Cubase only) 628 Adjusting the audio to the project tempo

629 The Project Browser (Cubase only)

629 Window Overview 630 Editing tracks

638 Export Audio Mixdown

638 Introduction 639 Mixing down to audio files 640 The Export Audio Mixdown dialog 645 The available file formats

650 Synchronization

650 Background 651 Timecode (positional references) 653 Clock sources (speed references) 653 The Project Synchronization Setup dialog 658 Synchronized operation 659 Example scenario (Cubase only) 660 Working with VST System Link 663 Activating VST System Link

670 Video

670 Introduction 670 Before you start 672 Preparing a video project in Cubase 674 Video files in the Project window 675 Playing back video 678 Editing video 678 Extracting audio from a video file 679 Replacing the audio in a video file

680 ReWire

680 Introduction 680 Launching and quitting 681 Activating ReWire channels 682 Using the transport and tempo controls 682 How the ReWire channels are handled in

Cubase

683 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 683 Considerations and limitations

684 File handling

684 Importing audio 690 Exporting and importing OMF files

(Cubase only)

692 Exporting and importing standard MIDI

files

695 Exporting and importing MIDI loops 696 Exporting and importing track archives

(Cubase only)

698 Customizing

698 Background 698 Workspaces 700 Using the Setup options 702 Customizing track controls 704 Appearance 706 Applying colors in the Project window 709 Where are the settings stored?

711 Key commands

711 Introduction 712 Setting up key commands 716 Setting up tool modifier keys 717 The default key commands

724 Part II:

Score layout and printing

(Cubase only)

725 How the Score Editor works

725 About this chapter 725 Welcome! 725 How the Score Editor operates 726 MIDI notes vs. score notes 726 Display Quantize 729 Entering notes by hand vs. recording

notes

730 The basics

730 About this chapter 730 Preparations 730 Opening the Score Editor 731 The project cursor 731 Playing back and recording 731 Page Mode 733 Changing the zoom factor 734 The active staff 734 Making page setup settings 734 Designing your work space 737 About the Score Editor context menus 737 About dialogs in the Score Editor 738 Setting clef, key, and time signature 744 Transposing instruments 744 Printing from the Score Editor 745 Exporting pages as image files 746 Working order 746 Force update

747 Transcribing MIDI recordings

747 About this chapter 747 About transcription 747 Getting the parts ready 747 Preparing parts for score printout 748 Staff settings 749 Situations which require additional

techniques

750 Inserting Display Quantize changes 751 The Explode function 752 Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”

753 Entering and editing notes

753 About this chapter 753 Score settings 754 Note values and positions 756 Adding and editing notes 759 Selecting notes 760 Moving notes 762 Duplicating notes 763 Cut, copy, and paste 763 Editing pitches of individual notes 765 Changing the length of notes 766 Splitting a note in two 766 Working with the Display Quantize tool 766 Split (piano) staves 767 Strategies: Multiple staves 768 Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time

signatures

770 Deleting notes

771 Staff settings

771 About this chapter 771 Staff settings 771 Making settings 772 Working with staff presets 772 Staff names 773 Key and clef 773 Display Quantize and Interpretation

Options

776 Display Transpose 777 The Options tab 778 The Polyphonic tab 778 The Tablature tab

779 Polyphonic voicing

779 About this chapter 779 Background: Polyphonic voicing 781 Setting up the voices 783 Strategies: How many voices do I need? 783 Entering notes into voices 784 Checking which voice a note belongs to 784 Moving notes between voices 785 Handling rests 786 Voices and Display Quantize 787 Creating crossed voicings 788 Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All

Staves

789 Converting voices to tracks – Extract

Voices

790 Additional note and rest formatting

790 About this chapter 790 Background: Note stems 790 Setting stem direction 792 Stem length 793 Accidentals and enharmonic shift 794 Changing the note head shape 795 Other note details 796 Coloring notes 797 Copying settings between notes 797 Handling beaming 803 About tied notes 805 Graphic moving of notes 806 Cue notes 807 Grace notes 808 Tuplets

811 Working with symbols

811 About this chapter 811 Background: The different layers 812 The Symbols Inspector 815 Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices 815 Adding symbols to the score 825 Selecting symbols 826 Moving and duplicating symbols 830 Changing length, size, and shape 831 Deleting symbols 831 Copy and paste 832 Alignment 832 Symbol details

841 Working with chords

841 About this chapter 841 Inserting chord symbols 844 Global chord settings

845 Working with text

845 About this chapter 845 Adding and editing text symbols 848 Different types of text 854 Text functions

858 Working with layouts

858 About this chapter 858 Background: Layouts 859 Creating a layout 859 Opening a layout 859 Layout operations 860 Using layouts – an example 861 Marker Track to Form

862 Working with MusicXML

862 Introduction 863 Importing and exporting MusicXML files

866 Designing your score: additional

techniques

866 About this chapter 866 Layout settings 868 Staff size 868 Hiding/showing objects 870 Coloring notes 870 Multiple rests 871 Editing existing bar lines 872 Creating upbeats 873 Setting the number of bars across the

page

874 Moving bar lines 876 Dragging staves 878 Adding brackets and braces 878 Displaying the Chord Symbols from the

Chord Track

879 Auto Layout 881 Reset Layout 882 Breaking bar lines

883 Scoring for drums

883 About this chapter 883 Background: Drum maps in the Score

Editor

884 Setting up the drum map 886 Setting up a staff for drum scoring 886 Entering and editing notes 886 Using “Single Line Drum Staff”

887 Creating tablature

887 About this chapter 887 Creating tablature automatically 888 Creating tablature manually 889 Tablature number appearance 890 Editing 890 Note head shape

891 The score and MIDI playback

891 About this chapter 891 Scores and the Arranger mode 891 Working with mapped dynamics

895 Tips and Tricks

895 Overview 895 Useful editing techniques 897 Frequently asked questions 900 If you wish you had a faster computer

901 Index

About the Program Versions

The documentation covers two different operating systems or “platforms”, Windows and Mac OS X. Some features and settings are 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 both 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] on Windows and [Command]-[Z] on Mac OS X systems.

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]

Introduction

For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] on Windows or [Command] on Mac OS X systems, then press [Z]”.

Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] on Windows or [Option] on Mac OS X systems, 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 single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.

Part I:

Getting into the details

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 sections can only serve as examples.

How you connect your equipment, i. e. whether you use digital or analog connections, also depends on your individual 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. input source and the outputs to a power amplifier and speaker.

Setting up your system

g. the inputs of your audio card or your audio interface, directly to the

Simple stereo audio setup

This is probably the simplest of all setups – once you have set up the internal input and output busses, you can connect your audio source, e. audio interface and start recording.

g. a microphone, to your

Multi-channel audio setup using an external mixer

Setting up audio

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 MixConsole inside 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.

Mixing inside Cubase

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 have mixing hardware that can be connected via FireWire.

• When using the MixConsole 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 chapters

“VST Connections” on page 26

and “The Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 211).

Setting up your system

Surround

sound playback configuration

Setting up audio

Connecting for surround sound (Cubase only)

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

Cubase supports a number of surround formats.

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 684).

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.

It is very important that word clock synchronization is set up correctly, or you may experience clicks and crackles in your recordings.

About recording levels and inputs

When you connect your equipment, you should make sure that the impedance and levels of the audio sources and inputs are matched. Typically, different inputs may be designed for use with microphones, consumer line level (-10 level (+4

dBV), or you may be able to adjust input characteristics on the audio

dBV) or professional line

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. Adjusting 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 monitoring” on page 18).

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

- Setting levels for the outputs, so that they match the equipment 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

Setting up audio

The Steinberg UR824 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 UR824 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 supports plug and play, please consult its documentation.

If a device that does not support Plug and Play is connected/disconnected while the computer is running, 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.

Setting up your system

Setting up audio

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.

• 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 documentation 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 running.

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 17.

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 “Recording” on page 110.

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

Setting up your system

Setting up audio

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 therefore 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 62.

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 advantage of DirectX Full Duplex, the audio hardware must support WDM

(Windows Driver Model).

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 doubleclicking 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 your system

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.

Setting up audio

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

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 chapter

Connections” on page 26.

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 connections 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:

“VST

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).

Setting up your system

Setting up MIDI

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.

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 hardware, 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 “Recording” on page 110. 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.

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 recording and for playing back MIDI tracks. The sound module 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.

A typical MIDI Setup

Setting up your system

If you want to use even more instruments for playback, simply connect MIDI Thru on

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”

the sound module to MIDI In on the next instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will always 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 instrument should be set to Local Off (sometimes called Local Control Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for details). The MIDI signal from the keyboard will be recorded in Cubase and at the same time be re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard “triggering” its own sounds.

Setting up MIDI

- If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not produce any sounds itself 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 information.

– MIDI Thru in Cubase should also be activated, but you don’t need to look

“Recording” on page 110 for more

Setting up your system

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. However, 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 especially useful if your system provides several instances of the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the duplicates 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.

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

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 depends on the video codecs installed on your system, see the chapter

page 670.

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

671.

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.

“Synchronization” on page 650.

“Video” on

“Video output devices” on page

Setting up your system

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.

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.

Short response times (latency)

Another aspect of performance is response time. The term “latency” refers to the “buffering”, i. 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. MixConsole and effects. However, very long latency times (several hundred milliseconds) can also affect other processes like mixing, e. fader movement is heard only after a noticeable delay.

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

e. the temporary storing, of small chunks of audio data during various

e. when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase

Optimizing audio performance

g. when the effect of a

• 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.

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 this limit is 4 considerably more than 4

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.

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

for recording” on page 114 and “Smart plug-in processing” on page 228).

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

GB.The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X are able to assign

GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X,

GB of RAM to a running 64-bit application.

“RAM requirements

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

Setting up your system

Optimizing audio performance

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 powerful 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, see

“Multi processing” on page 24.

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 enabled 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 dialog.

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 clicking the Control Panel button on the driver page in the Device Setup dialog).

Setting up your system

The VST Performance Window

Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)

To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows (on a singleCPU 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 VST Performance Window

The VST Performance window shows the audio processing load and the hard disk transfer rate. This allows you to verify that you do not run into performance problems when adding effects or plug-ins, for example.

• To open the VST Performance window, open the Devices menu and select “VST Performance”.

• The “Average Load” indicator shows how much of the available CPU power is used for audio processing.

• The “Real-time Peak” indicator shows the processing load in the realtime path of the audio engine.

The higher this value, the higher the risk that drop outs might occur.

• The Overload indicator to the right indicates overloads of the average or real-time indicator.

If it lights up, try decreasing the number of EQ modules, active effects, and audio channels that play back simultaneously. You can also activate the ASIO-Guard, see

“The ASIO-Guard Option” on page 25.

• The disk indicator shows the hard disk transfer load.

Setting up your system

• The overload indicator to the right of the disk indicator lights up, if the hard disk does not supply data fast enough.

Try using the Disable Track function to reduce the number of tracks playing back. If this does not help, you need a faster hard disk.

Ö You can show a simple view of the performance meter on the Transport panel and on

the Project window toolbar. These meters only feature the average and the disk indicator.

The ASIO-Guard Option

The ASIO-Guard option in the VST Audio System page of the Device Setup dialog allows you to shift as much processing as possible from the ASIO realtime path to the ASIO-Guard processing path. This results in a more stable system.

The ASIO-Guard allows you to preprocess all audio channels that do not need to be calculated in realtime. This leads to less drop-outs, the ability to process more tracks or plug-ins, and the ability to use smaller buffer sizes.

To activate ASIO-Guard, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Devices menu, and select “Device Setup…”.

2. Open the VST Audio System page and activate the ASIO-Guard option.

This is only available if the Multi Processing option is activated, see “Multi

processing” on page 24.

The ASIO-Guard Option

Restrictions

Only the audio channels with their plug-ins as well as VST instruments support the ASIO-Guard technology. To get an overview of the plug-ins that support it, open the Devices menu and select “Plug-in Information” to open the Plug-in Information window. To activate or deactivate the processing of a plug-in in the ASIO-Guard path, check or uncheck it in the ASIO-Guard column.

The ASIO-Guard cannot be used for:

- Realtime-dependent signals

- VST instruments with more than on e MIDI source

- External effects and instruments

- Plug-ins that have a different bit version than the operating system If you activate the monitoring for an input channel, the audio channel is

automatically switched from ASIO-Guard to realtime processing and vice versa. This results in a gentle fade out and fade in of the audio channel.

Setting up your system

About this chapter

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

“Setting up the Routing” on page 190.

The VST Connections window

VST Connections

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

- The External FX tab (Cubase only) allows you to create send effect/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

instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on page 32 and “Using external effects (Cubase only)” on page 242.

- The External Instruments tab (Cubase only) allows you to create input/output busses for connecting external instruments. For further information, see

instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on page 32 and the chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page 252.

- The Studio tab (Cubase only) is where you enable and configure the Control Room, see

“Setting up busses” on page 27.

“Setting up group and FX channels” on page 31.

“External

“Setting Up the Control Room Channels” on page 212.

Setting up busses

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

Template” on page 58).

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 save your configurations as presets (see 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. with.

Setting up busses

“Save as

“Presets” on page 31). The templates can of course also contain other

g. surround speaker setup) and what kind of projects you work

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 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 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.

VST Connections

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 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.

Setting up busses

- 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.

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.

g. the project is created on a system 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.

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 required.

Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, standard USB audio devices and a

certain number of other audio cards.

VST Connections

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 clicking

Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, surround

Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.

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

Click (Outputs tab only) You can route the click to a specific output bus, regardless of

Setting up busses

on them in this column.

formats (Cubase only)) of each bus.

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.

the actual Control Room output, or even when the Control Room is disabled.

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.

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 formats are listed on the “More…” submenu.

4. Enter a name for the bus.

If you do not specify a name, the bus is named according to the channel configuration.

5. Click the Add Bus button.

The new bus appears with the ports visible.

6. 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.

VST Connections

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.

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

Adding child busses (Cubase only)

Setting up busses

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.

Proceed as follows:

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

context menu.

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 MixConsole. It is a part of the parent surround bus, which means that it has no separate channel.

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.

VST Connections

+ 883 hidden pages

Steinberg Cubase Artist - 7.0, Cubase 7.5, Cubase 7.0 Operation Manual

Table of Contents

About the Program Versions

Key Command Conventions

Introduction

Setting up audio

Setting up your system

Setting up MIDI

Connecting a synchronizer

Setting up video

Optimizing audio performance

The VST Performance Window

The ASIO-Guard Option

About this chapter

The VST Connections window

VST Connections

Setting up busses