Steinberg Cubase Essential - 5.0 Getting Started

Getting Started

Tutorials by Steve Kostrey
Revision and Quality Control: Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling

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.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh
are registered trademarks.

Release Date: June 30, 2009
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2009.
All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

5 Introduction

6 Welcome
6 About the manuals and the help
7 About the program versions
7 Key command conventions
7 How you can reach us

8 System requirements and installation

9 About this chapter
9 Minimum requirements
10 Hardware installation
12 Installing Cubase Essential
12 Defragmenting the hard disk (Windows only)
12 Register your software

13 Setting up your system

14 Setting up audio
18 Setting up MIDI
20 Connecting a synchronizer
20 Setting up video
20 Optimizing audio performance

23 Tutorial 1: Recording audio

24 Creating a new project
25 Setting up the VST connections
26 Level settings and recording
28 Playback
29 Recording modes with cycle off
30 Cycle recording

47 Tutorial 4: Working with loops

48 Loop Browser
48 Adding loops
49 Making copies
49 Insert into Project

50 Tutorial 5: Mixing and effects

51 Introduction
51 Setting levels
51 Setting panorama
52 Mute and solo
53 Adding EQ
54 Audio effects
56 About automation
57 Exporting

59 Tutorial 6: Media management

60 Background
60 MediaBay, Loop Browser and Sound Browser
61 Scanning with the browser
63 Searching for media
63 Auditioning media with the Scope
64 Tagging

65 Index

32 Tutorial 2: Editing audio

33 Event operations
37 Processing audio
39 Offline Process History

40 Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI

41 Introduction
41 Creating an instrument track
42 Browsing sounds
42 MIDI recording
43 MIDI playback
43 Recording modes with cycle off
44 Cycle recording
45 The Key Editor
46 The Controller lane

Table of Contents

4

1

Introduction

Welcome

Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Stein­berg Cubase Essential. 2009 marks the 25th anniversary
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH and our key
message “Creativity First” has never had more meaning
than today. Over many years and many product genera­tions Cubase has grown from a classic MIDI sequencer to
possibly the most powerful music production software
money can buy. And as a Cubase Essential user, you have
now become a member of the largest community of music
software users on the planet!

With Cubase Essential you have chosen a music produc­tion system which will take you from the very first idea to
the final mix. Whether you’re a keyboard player, a song­writer, an instrumentalist or a mixing engineer – Cubase
Essential has it all covered and gives you the tools you
need to record, edit, mix and master your music. The intro­duction of industry standards like VST and ASIO are good
examples for how Steinberg technology has always driven
music technology and paved ways for others to follow.

Designed by the software engineers at Steinberg and the
hardware experts at Yamaha, Steinberg Advanced Inte­gration hardware is the ideal choice for you as a valued
Cubase Essential customer. Full plug&play connectivity
and True Integrated Monitoring™ are only two of the many
advantages that come with hardware and software that
have been made for each other.

Cubase Essential 5 puts new creative tools into your hands,
which allow you to realize your musical ideas more easily
and intuitively than ever before. The new Pitch Correct
plug-in in Cubase Essential 5 introduces easy and auto­matic intonation control and scale correction of vocal and
monophonic instrument recordings. And the Beat Designer
plug-in allows you to get hands-on with beats for step pro­gramming and designing drum patterns in an easy yet pow­erful way. The exceptional new synthesizer Prologue
combines multi-mode variable resonance filters, powerful
modulation capabilities and excellent onboard effects and
includes a library with 230 designed sounds with unique
character – from cutting leads to earthshaking basses and
ultra-expressive pads. These are just a few examples of
how Cubase Essential 5 supports and expands your cre­ative vision.

Don’t forget to register at MySteinberg and get access to
online support offers and additional exclusive services.
We also welcome you to the Cubase community at our
online forum cubase.net.

See you around! Your Steinberg Cubase Essential Team

About the manuals and the help

The Cubase Essential documentation is divided into sev­eral sections, as listed below. Some of the documents are
in Adobe Acrobat format (extension “.pdf”) – these can be
accessed in the following ways:

• 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 Essential Documentation subfolder on the Start menu.

• Under Mac OS X the pdf documents are located in the folder
“/Library/Documentation/Steinberg/Cubase Essential 5”.

Ö To read the pdf documents, you need to have a suit­able pdf reader application installed on your computer.

An installer for Adobe Reader is provided on the program DVD.

The Getting Started manual

This is the manual you are reading now. It covers the fol­lowing areas:

• Computer requirements.

• Installation issues.

• Setting up your system for audio, MIDI and/or video work.

• Tutorials describing the most common procedures for record­ing, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase Essential.

In other words, this manual does not go into detail on any
Cubase Essential windows, functions or procedures.

The Operation Manual

The Operation Manual is the main Cubase Essential refer­ence documentation, with detailed descriptions of Cubase
Essential operations, parameters, functions and techniques.
You should be familiar with the concepts and methods de­scribed in the Getting Started manual before moving on to
the Operation Manual.

6

Introduction

Plug-in Reference

This manual describes the features and parameters of the
included VST plug-ins, realtime audio effects, VST Instru­ments and the MIDI effects.

Remote Control Devices

This pdf document lists the supported MIDI remote control
devices.

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

Ö Please note that this manual often refers to “right­clicking”, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a
Macintosh computer with a single-button mouse, hold
down [Ctrl] and click.

Menu Reference

This pdf 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 two different operating systems
or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X.

Some features and settings are specific to one of the plat­forms, Windows or Mac OS X. This is clearly stated in the
applicable cases. In other words:

Ö If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures
in the documentation are valid for both Windows and Mac
OS X.

The screenshots are taken from the Windows version.

Key command conventions

Many of the default key commands in Cubase Essential
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]

How you can reach us

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

• On the “Steinberg on the Web” submenu, you can find

links to various Steinberg web sites. Selecting one will au­tomatically launch your browser application and open the
page.

You can find support and compatibility information, answers to frequently
asked questions, links for downloading new drivers, etc. This requires
that you have a web browser application installed on your computer, and
a working Internet connection.

7

Introduction

2

System requirements and installation

About this chapter

!!

This chapter describes the requirements and installation
procedures for the Windows version and the Mac version
of Cubase Essential.

Minimum requirements

To use Cubase Essential, your computer must meet the
following minimum requirements:

Windows

• Windows XP (Home or Professional, Service Pack 2),
or Windows Vista (32-bit – see below)

• 2 GHz processor (Dual Core processor recommended)

•1024MB RAM

• Windows DirectX compatible audio hardware; ASIO compati­ble audio hardware recommended for low latency performance.

• Display resolution of 1280x800 pixels recommended

• 4GB of free hard disk space

• USB-eLicenser and USB component connector

• DVD ROM drive with dual layer support required for installation

• Internet connection required for license activation

• 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 Essential use up at least
80 MB of disk space per recording minute.

• 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 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 Essential, we recommend that you
use a wheel mouse.

This will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably.

MIDI requirements

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

• A MIDI interface to connect external MIDI equipment to your
computer.

•A MIDI instrument.

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

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.5.5

• PowerPC G5 (Intel Core Duo processor recommended)

•1024MB RAM

• CoreAudio compatible audio hardware

• Display resolution of 1280x800 pixels

• 4GB of free hard disk space

• USB-eLicenser and USB component connector

• DVD ROM drive with dual layer support required for installation

• Internet connection required for license activation

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.

System requirements and installation

Audio hardware

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

•Stereo.

•16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Windows – The audio hardware must be supplied with a spe­cial ASIO driver, or a DirectX compatible driver, see below.

• Windows Vista only – 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 X­compatible drivers (CoreAudio or ASIO).

9

Using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh

!!

!!

(Mac only)

As of this writing, all current Macintosh models provide at
least built-in 16 bit stereo audio hardware. For detailed
information, refer to the documentation describing your
computer.

Depending on your preferences and requirements, using
the built-in audio hardware may be sufficient for use with
Cubase Essential. It is always available for selection in
Cubase Essential – you don’t need to install any additional
drivers.

About drivers

A driver is a piece of software that allows a program to
communicate with a certain piece of hardware. In this
case, the driver allows Cubase Essential to use the audio
hardware. For audio hardware, there are two different
cases, requiring different driver configurations:

If the audio hardware has a specific ASIO driver

Professional audio cards often come with an ASIO driver
written especially for the card. This allows for communica­tion directly between Cubase Essential and the audio card.
As a result, audio cards with specific ASIO drivers can pro­vide lower latency (input-output delay), which is crucial
when monitoring audio via Cubase Essential or using VST
instruments. The ASIO driver may also provide special sup­port for routing, synchronization, etc.

Audio card-specific ASIO drivers are provided by the card
manufacturers. Make sure to check the manufacturer’s
web site for the latest driver versions.

Ö Though the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver provides
low latency for all audio cards, you might get better results
with on-board audio cards than with external USB audio
devices.

If the audio card communicates via DirectX
(Windows only)

DirectX is a Microsoft “package” for handling various types
of multimedia data under Windows. Cubase Essential sup­ports DirectX, or to be more precise, DirectSound, which is
a part of DirectX used for playing back and recording audio.
This requires two types of drivers:

• A DirectX driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate
with DirectX. If the audio card supports DirectX, this driver
should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer. If it isn’t
installed with the audio card, please check the manufacturer’s
web site for more information.

• The ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, allowing Cubase Essential
to communicate with DirectX. This driver is included with Cu­base Essential, and does not require any special installation.

Hardware installation

Copy protection

Please read the following section before installing
the Cubase Essential software.

Many Steinberg products use the USB-eLicenser (also re­ferred to as a “dongle”), a hardware copy protection device.
Cubase Essential will not run if there is no USB-eLicenser
containing an activated license.

If your audio hardware comes with a specific ASIO
driver we strongly recommend that you use this.

If the audio card communicates via the Generic Low
Latency ASIO driver (Windows Vista only)

If you are working with Windows Vista, you can use the
Generic Low Latency ASIO driver. This is a generic ASIO
driver that provides ASIO support for all audio cards sup­ported by Windows Vista, thus allowing for low latency.
The Generic Low Latency ASIO driver provides the Win­dows Vista Core Audio technology in Cubase Essential.
No additional driver is needed.

The USB-eLicenser

The USB-eLicenser is a USB device on which your Stein­berg software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected
Steinberg products use the same type of device, and you
can store more than one license on one device. Also, li­censes can (within certain limits) be transferred between
USB-Licensers – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a
piece of software.

10

System requirements and installation

The License Control Center (which can be found on the
Start menu on Windows systems or the Applications
folder on a Mac) is the place where you can check the li­censes installed on your USB-eLicenser.

• If you are using other copy-protected Steinberg prod­ucts, you may want to transfer all licenses for your applica­tions to only one USB-eLicenser, thus using up only one
USB port of your computer.

To transfer licenses between USB-Licensers, launch the License Trans­fer wizard of the License Control Center and follow the instructions.

• Cubase Essential is sold with an USB-eLicenser and an
Activation Code, which is found on the Essential Product
License Information card within the product package. The
USB-eLicenser already contains a time-limited license
that allows you to use Cubase Essential out-of-the-box for
a total of 25 non-consecutive hours. However, to be able
to make unlimited use of your version of Cubase Essential,
you must activate your permanent license manually, using
the activation code.

To do so, launch the License Download wizard of the License Control
Center and follow the instructions.

• Steinberg software products always come with a license
activation code, but not always with an USB-eLicenser.

If you want to activate a license for such a Steinberg software (e.g. an up­date/upgrade, or a VSTi) on the USB-eLicenser you received with your
original version of Cubase Essential, launch the License Download wizard
of the License Control Center and follow the instructions.

More information on the transfer or activation of licenses
can be found in the help for the License Control Center.

Installing the audio hardware and its driver

1. Install the audio card and related equipment in the
computer, as described in the card’s documentation.

2. Install the driver for the card.

Depending on the operating system of your computer, there are different
types of drivers that could apply: card-specific ASIO drivers, the Generic
Low Latency ASIO Driver (Windows Vista only), DirectX drivers (Win­dows) or Mac OS X (Mac) drivers.

Specific ASIO drivers

If your audio card has a specific ASIO driver, it may be in­cluded with the audio card, but you should always make
sure to check the audio card manufacturer’s web site for
the most recent drivers. For details on how to install the
driver, refer to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver (Windows Vista only)

On Windows Vista systems, you can also use the Generic
Low Latency ASIO Driver if there is no specific ASIO driver
available. This driver is included with Cubase Essential and
does not require any special installation.

DirectX drivers (Windows only)

If your audio card is DirectX compatible, its DirectX drivers
will most likely be installed when you install the card. If you
have downloaded special DirectX drivers for the audio
card, you should follow the manufacturer’s installation in­structions.

Mac OS X drivers (Mac only)

If you are using a Macintosh computer, make sure you are
using the latest Mac OS X drivers for your audio hardware.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to install the driver.

Testing the card

To make sure the audio card will work as expected, perform
the following two tests:

• Use any software included with the audio card to make

sure you can record and play back audio without problems.

• If the card is accessed via a standard operating system

driver, try playing back audio using the computer’s stan­dard audio application (e.g. Windows Media Player or
Apple iTunes).

Installing a MIDI interface/synthesizer card

Installation instructions for a MIDI interface should be in­cluded with the product. However, here’s an outline of the
necessary steps:

1. Install the interface (or MIDI synthesizer card) inside

your computer or connect it to a “port” (connector) on the
computer.

Which is right for you depends on which type of interface you have.

2. If the interface has a power supply and/or a power

switch, turn it on.

3. Install the driver for the interface, as described in the

documentation that comes with the interface.

You should also make sure to check the manufacturer’s web site for the
latest driver updates.

11

System requirements and installation

Installing Cubase Essential

!!

Register your software

The installation procedure puts all files in the right places,
automatically.

Depending on your system, the Cubase Essential 5 Start
Center program on the DVD may start automatically. If no
interactive start screen appears, open the DVD and double­click the file “Cubase Essential 5 Start Center” to launch
the interactive start screen. From there you can start the in­stallation of Cubase Essential and browse through the ad­ditional options and information presented there.

In case you don’t want to install Cubase Essential via the
interactive start screen, follow the procedure below:

Windows

1. Double-click the file called Setup.exe.

2. Follow the instructions on screen.

Macintosh

1. Double-click the file called “Cubase Essential 5.mpkg”.

2. Follow the instructions on screen.

About the tutorials

The program DVD also contains several tutorial project files
and videos. These are not installed during the installation,
but can be added manually from the DVD.

The tutorial chapters in this manual all refer to these tutorial
projects. So, to be able to follow the instructions in this
manual, you have to drag the files to your computer.

You will find the tutorial projects in the folder “Additional
Content”.

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 Essential.

You can register in the following ways:

• In Cubase Essential, open the Help menu and select

the Registration option.

This option is an Internet link that will open the Registration page of the
Steinberg web site. To register, simply follow the instructions on screen.

• When you launch Cubase Essential, you will also be

prompted to launch the registration process.

Defragmenting the hard disk (Windows only)

If you plan to record audio on a hard disk where you have
already stored other files, now is the time to defragment it.
Defragmentation reorganizes the physical allocation of
space on the hard disk in order to optimize its performance.
It is done with a special defragmentation program.

It is crucial to the audio recording performance that
your hard disk is optimized (defragmented). You
should make sure to defragment regularly.

12

System requirements and installation

3

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 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 Es­sential, 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.

• 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
have mixing hardware that can be connected via FireWire.

• When using the Mixer inside Cubase Essential, you can

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

A 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.g. a microphone, to your audio
interface and start recording.

Multi-channel input and output

Mixing inside Cubase Essential

Most likely however, you will have other audio equipment
that you want to integrate with Cubase Essential, 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 inside Cubase Essential.

14

Setting up your system

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 Essential (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
Essential (see the chapter “File Handling” in the Operation
Manual).

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
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 in­puts are matched. Typically, different inputs may be de­signed for use with microphones, consumer line level
(-10dBV) or professional line level (+4dBV), or you may
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 Essential 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).

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 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 Essential as described below (or opened
separately, when Cubase Essential 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 Essential. These devices can be plugged in
and switched on while the application is running. Cubase
Essential will automatically use the driver of the MR816 se­ries and will re-map the VST connections accordingly.

• Please note that 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.

15

Setting up your system

Selecting a driver and making audio settings

!!

!!

in Cubase Essential

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

1. Launch Cubase Essential, select Device Setup from
the Devices menu and click on VST Audio System in the
Devices list to the left.

The VST Audio System page in the Device Setup dialog

2. Select your audio hardware driver from the ASIO
Driver menu.

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 available. 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.

• Under Windows, you open the control panel by clicking

the Control Panel button.

The control panel that appears when you click this button is provided
by the audio hardware manufacturer – not Cubase Essential (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 Vista 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 hard-

ware 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.

5. If you plan to use several audio applications simulta-

neously, you may want to activate the option “Release
Driver when Application is in Background” on the VST
Audio System page. This will allow another application to
play back via your audio hardware even though Cubase
Essential is running.

The application that is currently active (i.e. the “top window” on the desk­top) will get 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 Essential can use it when it be­comes the active application again.

6. 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” in the Operation Manual.

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

On Windows Vista systems, you can also use the
Generic Low Latency ASIO driver if no specific
ASIO driver is available.

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

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

16

Setting up your system

If you are using audio hardware with a DirectX driver

!!

!!

(Windows only)

If your audio hardware does not have a specific ASIO
driver and your Windows version does not support the
Generic Low Latency ASIO driver, a DirectX driver is
the next best option.

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

Ö To be able 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 dialog for details
about how this is reported).

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

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 Essential and the audio
card. While larger buffers ensure that playback will occur without glitches,
the latency (the time between the moment Cubase Essential 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 should be used and name these:

1. In the Device Setup dialog, select your driver in the De-

vices list on the left to display the driver settings for your
audio hardware.

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 aren’t visible cannot be selected in the VST Connections win­dow where you set up your input and output busses – see “Setting up

the VST connections” on page 25 and the chapter “VST Connections:

Setting up input and output busses” in the Operation Manual.

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.

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

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

your changes.

17

Setting up your system

About monitoring

!!

!!

In Cubase Essential, 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 Essential) 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 Essential

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

This allows you to control the monitoring level from Cubase
Essential 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 Essential. This means that
the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be
turned on or off automatically by Cubase Essential.

Monitoring is described in detail in the chapter “Record­ing” in the Operation Manual. However, when setting up,
there’s one thing to note:

• If you want to use the external monitoring via your audio
hardware, make sure 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 -3dB 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 Essential’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

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 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.

18

Setting up your system

Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off

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

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

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”

On the MIDI page in the Preferences dialog (located on the
File menu under Windows and on the Cubase Essential
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 Essential
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 ports in Cubase Essential

The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system
in the following ways:

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
should be 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 Essential, 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 should be 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.

• If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not pro­duce any sounds itself – MIDI Thru in Cubase Essential 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 Essential 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” in the Operation Manual for more information.

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.

19

Setting up your system

Connecting a synchronizer

!!

!!

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

When using Cubase Essential 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” in the Operation Manual.

Setting up video

Always make all connections with all equipment
turned off!

Cubase Essential plays back video files in a number of for­mats, including AVI, QuickTime or MPEG. Under Windows,
video can be played back using one of the following play­back engines: Video for Windows, DirectShow or Quick­Time. This ensures compatibility with as wide a range of
video files as possible. Under Mac OS X, QuickTime is al­ways used as playback engine. Which formats can be
played back depends on the video player and the installed
codecs.

Generally there are two ways to play back video:

• Without any special hardware at all, using the computer

CPU.

In this case, the “codec” is in software. While this will be fine in many sit­uations it does put a limit on the size of the video window as well as the
quality of the image.

• Using video hardware that for example connects to an

external monitor.

Mac OS X: Using a FireWire port, you can play back video on an external
monitor using a DV-to-analog converter or a DV camera (see also the
chapter “Video” in the Operation Manual). This is valid for DV video and
QuickTime is used for playback.
Windows: Multi-head graphics cards which support overlay functionality
can be used to display the video picture on an external monitor. The fol­lowing manufacturers have working (and tested) solutions available:
nVIDIA and Matrox.

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 Essential,
you should test the hardware installation with the utility
applications that came with the hardware and/or the
Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player (Mac OS X)
applications.

Optimizing audio performance

This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get
the most out of your Cubase Essential 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 Essential web site (see “How

you can reach us” on page 7)!

Two aspects of performance

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

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.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 Es­sential mixer and effects. However, very long latency times
(several hundred milliseconds) can also affect other pro­cesses like mixing, e.g. when the effect of a 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.

20

Setting up your system

• 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

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 Es­sential relies heavily on floating point calculations. When
shopping for a processor, please make sure you get one
that is powerful in calculating floating point arithmetics.

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

advanced options” on page 22.

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 Essential 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.

Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)

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

1. Open the Windows Control Panel from the Start menu
and select System.

2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button
in the Performance section.

The Performance Options dialog appears.

3. Select the Advanced tab.

4. In the Processor Scheduling section, select “Adjust

for best performance of: Background services”.

5. Click OK to close the dialogs.

21

Setting up your system