Steinberg Cubase Elements - 6.0, Cubase LE - 6.0, Cubase AI - 6.0 Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

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

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6 Introduction

7 Welcome! 8 About the documentation and the help 9 About the program versions 11 Key command conventions 11 How you can reach us

12 System requirements and installation

13 About this chapter 13 Minimum requirements 16 Installing Cubase 17 License activation and registration 19 Hardware installation

21 Creating your first project

22 About this chapter 22 The Project Assistant dialog 23 Saving, closing, and opening projects 25 Selecting the driver for your audio device 26 Setting up the VST connections

29 Recording audio

30 About this chapter 30 Creating a mono track 31 Turning on the metronome click 32 Setting levels 35 Recording 36 Playback

38 Recording MIDI

39 About this chapter 39 Creating an instrument track 40 Browsing sounds 42 Recording

4 — Table of Contents

44 Mixing and effects

45 About this chapter 45 Setting levels for the mix 46 Setting panorama 47 Mute and solo 47 Adding EQ 50 Audio effects 53 Exporting a mixdown

Table of Contents — 5

Introduction

Welcome!

Congratulations and thank you for purchasing a high-quality Steinberg product! Building on the core technologies used in the Cubase 6 advanced music pro-

duction system, Cubase Elements 6 and the hardware-bundled versions, Cubase AI 6 and Cubase LE 6, offer all the basic tools for composing, recording, editing, and mixing your latest idea into a true masterpiece. Combining the very best sound quality, intuitive handling, and a vast range of highly advanced audio and MIDI tools, the sixth version of the Cubase family condenses over

years of Steinberg development into the cutting-edge line of digital audio

25 workstations used by countless musicians, producers, and composers all over the globe.

Cubase provides the latest computer and audio technologies inviting you to venture into new artistic territory and give your creativity free reign. Whether you are a professional, a hobby musician, a student, or a teacher, Cubase has it all covered and supports you through every stage of music production, from the inception of the first fleeting idea and its development, right down to the final mix. And because it has been built to support individual creativity, Cubase owners are among the most successful artists in just about any musical genre or activity conceivable — from engineers recording and mixing rock albums to dance DJs, hip-hop producers, songwriters creating pop hits, and film com posers scoring for Hollywood blockbusters. If you are entirely new to Cubase, you have just become a member of this large community of professionals and music enthusiasts! Check out the official Cubase community for tips and tons of other useful information at www.steinberg.net/forum.

Please don’t forget to register your Cubase version on MySteinberg in order to gain access to online support offers and additional exclusive services.

We wish you musical inspiration when working with your brand-new Cubase DAW.

See you around! Your Steinberg Cubase Team

Introduction — 7

About the documentation and the help

The Cubase documentation is divided into several sections, as listed below. The documents are available in Adobe Acrobat format (extension .pdf) and can be accessed as follows:

• You can open the PDF documents from the Documentation submenu on the Help menu in the program.

• Under Windows you can also open these documents from the Cubase Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu.

• Under Mac OS X the PDF documents are located in the folder “/Library/ Documentation/Steinberg/Cubase 6”.

To read the PDF documents, you need to have a suitable PDF reader appli-

cation installed on your computer.

The Quick Start Guide

This is the document you are reading. It covers the following areas without going into details:

• Computer requirements, installation procedure, and license activation.

• Setting up your system for audio and MIDI work.

• Creating a project, recording, and mixing.

The Operation Manual

The Operation Manual is the main Cubase reference documentation, with detailed descriptions of operations, parameters, functions, and techniques.

Plug-in Reference

This document describes the features and parameters of the included VST plug-ins and VST instruments.

HALion Sonic SE

This document describes the features and parameters of the included VST instrument HALion Sonic SE.

8 — Introduction

Remote Control Devices

This document lists the supported MIDI remote control devices.

Menu Reference

This document provides a list of all menus and their options with a brief description, for quick reference.

The dialog help

To get information about the active dialog, click its Help button.

About the program versions

The documentation covers three program versions, Cubase Elements, Cubase AI, and Cubase LE, for two different operating systems or “platforms”, Windows and Mac OS X. Whenever the program is only called “Cubase” in this document, this refers to all three program versions.

Some features described in the documentation are not applicable to all three Cubase versions. Whenever this is the case, it is clearly indicated in the head ing of the related subject. For example, if a heading is followed by “(Cubase Elements only)”, the corresponding feature is not available in Cubase AI and Cubase LE. Likewise, if you see “(not in LE)”, the corresponding feature is only available in Cubase Elements and Cubase AI.

Introduction — 9

In some cases the difference between the five available versions of Cubase is not the presence or absence of a feature, but rather how often an element (e.

a certain track type) can be used in a project:

Maximum number of

Audio tracks unlimited 64 48 32 16 MID tracks unlimited 128 64 48 24 Instrument tracks unlimited 32 24 16 8 VST instrument

slots Group channels 256 32 16 8 8 FX channels 64 64 8 4 4 Audio channel

insert slots Audio channel

send slots MIDI inserts/

sends Physical I/Os* 256 32 24 16 8 Max. audio

resolution

* This determines the number of input and output busses that can be defined in the VST Connections window (256 I/Os equal 128 stereo or 256 mono busses, for example).

Cubase Cubase

Artist

64 32 16 8 0

8884 4

4400 0

192 kHz 96 kHz 96 kHz 96 kHz 96 kHz

Cubase

Elements

Cubase AI Cubase LE

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 both Windows and Mac

OS The screenshots are taken from the Windows version of Cubase Elements.

10 — Introduction

Key command conventions

Many of the default key commands in Cubase use modifier keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. For example, the default key command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Command]-[Z] under Mac OS X.

When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way:

[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key] For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] under Windows or

[Command] under Mac OS X, then press [Z]”. Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Windows or [Option]

under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.

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.

How you can reach us

On the Help menu in Cubase you will find items for getting additional information and help.

The menu contains links to various Steinberg web pages. Selecting a menu item automatically launches your browser and opens the page. On these pages you can find support and compatibility information, answers to frequently asked questions, information about updates and other Steinberg products, etc. This requires that you have a web browser installed on your computer, and a work ing Internet connection.

Introduction — 11

System requirements and installation

About this chapter

In this chapter the requirements and installation procedures for the Windows version and the Mac version of Cubase are described.

Minimum requirements

To use Cubase (32-bit or 64-bit version), your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

Windows

• Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)

• Intel or AMD dual-core processor

•2 GB RAM

•4 GB of free hard-disk space

• Windows-compatible audio hardware (ASIO-compatible audio hardware recom-

mended for low-latency performance)

• Display resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels recommended

• DVD ROM dual-layer drive required for installation

• QuickTime 7.1 and video card supporting OpenGL 1.2 (OpenGL 2.0 recommended)

• Internet connection required for license activation and registration

Mac OS X

• Mac OS X 10.6 (32-bit or 64-bit)

•

Intel dual-core

•2 GB RAM

•4 GB of free hard-disk space

• CoreAudio compatible audio hardware

• Display resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels recommended

• DVD ROM dual-layer drive required for installation

• Video card supporting OpenGL 1.2 (OpenGL 2.0 recommended)

• Internet connection required for license activation and registration

processor

System requirements and installation — 13

Starting Cubase 64-bit on a 64-bit Mac OS X system

When you install Cubase on a 64-bit Mac OS X system, the program is set to start in 32-bit mode.

• To start Cubase in 64-bit mode, right-click the application symbol in the Mac OS X Finder, select “Get Info” and deactivate the “Open in 32-bit mode” option in the dialog that appears.

General notes on how to set up your system

On the Steinberg web site, under “Support–DAW Components”, you can find detailed information on what to consider when setting up a computer system dedicated to audio work.

• RAM – There is a direct relation between the amount of available RAM and the number of audio channels that you can have running.

The amount of RAM specified above is the minimum requirement, but as a general rule “the more the better” applies.

• Hard-disk size – The size of the hard disk determines how many minutes of audio you will be able to record.

Recording one minute of stereo CD quality audio requires 10 MB of hard-disk space. That is, eight stereo tracks in Cubase use up at least 80

• Hard-disk speed – The speed of the hard drive also determines the number of audio tracks you can run.

That is the quantity of information that the hard disk can read, usually expressed as “sustained transfer rate”. Again, “the more the better” applies.

• Wheel mouse – Although a mouse without a wheel will work fine with Cubase, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse.

This will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably.

MB of disk space per recording minute.

MIDI requirements

If you intend to use the MIDI features of Cubase, you need the following:

• A USB MIDI keyboard or a MIDI instrument and a MIDI interface to connect external

MIDI equipment to your computer

• Any audio equipment required to listen to the sound from your MIDI devices

14 — System requirements and installation

Audio requirements

In music production it is very important to work with low latencies. Therefore we recommend you to use a dedicated ASIO audio interface. Although Cubase can run with many audio cards that are installed in a computer, they might not offer you low enough latencies. For an overview of the audio hardware offered by Steinberg, see http://www.steinberg.net/products/hardware.html.

Cubase will run with audio hardware that meets the following specifications:

•Stereo.

•16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Windows – If there is no dedicated ASIO driver available, you can also use the

Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver.

• Mac – The audio hardware must be supplied with Mac OS X-compatible drivers

(CoreAudio or ASIO).

Using the built-in audio hardware of Macintosh computers

Depending on your preferences and requirements, using the built-in audio hardware may be sufficient for use with Cubase. It is always available for selec tion in Cubase – you do not have to install any additional drivers.

System requirements and installation — 15

Installing Cubase

Starting the installation

The installation procedure puts all files in the right places, automatically. Depending on your system, the Start Center program on the DVD may start

automatically. If no interactive start center appears, open the DVD and doubleclick the file “Start_Center.exe” (Win) or “Start_Center.app” (Mac). From the Start Center you can initiate the installation of Cubase and browse through the additional options and information presented there.

In case you do not want to install Cubase via the interactive Start Center, follow the procedure below.

Windows

1. Double-click the file “Setup.exe”.

2. Follow the instructions on screen.

Macintosh

1. Double-click the file “Cubase LE AI Elements 6.mpkg”.

2. Follow the instructions on screen.

16 — System requirements and installation

License activation and registration

The process for license activation is described in detail on the Steinberg web site. To open the corresponding page, follow the Activation & Registration link in the Start Center.

Cubase Elements, Cubase AI, and Cubase LE use a software-based copy protection scheme. The so-called Soft-eLicenser is installed automatically with your version of Cubase. It can be accessed via the eLicenser Control Center application that is installed automatically with the product.

Cubase Elements

After installation, you need to activate your product. If you purchased Cubase Elements in a shop, the product package contains the “Essential Product License Information” sheet which contains an activation code and describes the process in detail.

If you purchased the download version of Cubase Elements, you receive an email with the activation code and a description of the activation process.

We encourage you to register your software! By doing so you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Cubase.

• To register your software, open the Help menu in Cubase and select the Registration option.

The Registration page of the Steinberg web site opens in your web browser. Continue by following the instructions on screen.

You can also directly go to www.steinberg.net/mysteinberg, log in to the exclusive MySteinberg online customer portal and register your product by fol lowing the instructions on screen.

System requirements and installation — 17

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