Steinberg Cubase LE - 1.0 Getting Started

Getting Started

Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger Wiklander Quality Control: C. Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg

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 2000 and Windows XP are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks.

7 Introduction

8 Welcome, 9 About the manuals and the

Help

12 How you can reach us

13 Installation and

Requirements for Windows

14 About this chapter 14 Requirements 18 Hardware installation 20 Installing Cubase LE

23 Installation and

Requirements for Mac OS X

24 About this chapter 24 Requirements 27 Hardware installation 28 Installing Cubase LE

31 Setting up your

system

32 Setting up audio 40 Setting up MIDI 44 Connecting a synchronizer 44 Setting up video 45 Optimizing audio

performance

51 Guided Tour

52 The main windows in

Cubase LE

61 Tutorial 1:

Recording and playing back audio

62 About this chapter 63 Creating a new project 65 Preparing to record 69 Recording 69 Playing back what you just

recorded

70 Recording more events 71 Playing back in a cycle

73 Tutorial 2: Recording

and playing back MIDI

74 About this chapter 75 Setting up for recording

MIDI

79 Recording MIDI 79 Playing back what you just

recorded

80 Playing back in a cycle 81 Transposing the MIDI track

85 Tutorial 3: Mixing

86 About this chapter 87 Opening the Mixer 88 Setting the level 88 Setting pan 89 Using Mute and Solo 90 Adding EQ to an audio

channel

92 Adding audio effects 94 Automating a fader

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4 Table of Contents

97 Tutorial 4: Editing in

the Project window

133 Basic Cubase LE

concepts

98 About this tutorial 98 Preparations 99 Overview 100 Moving and copying events 102 Muting and erasing events 103 Splitting and resizing events 105 Adding a fade

107 Tutorial 5: Using

VST Instruments

108 About this tutorial 108 Preparations 110 Activating a VST Instrument 112 Routing 113 Playing back 114 Adding another instrument 116 Playing a VST Instrument in

real time

118 Recording

119 Editing audio

120 About this chapter 120 The Sample Editor 124 Processing audio

134 About this chapter 134 The project 136 Audio terminology 138 MIDI terminology 138 Video terminology

139 Basic Methods

140 About this chapter 140 Using menus 142 Using tools 143 Changing values 148 Selecting objects 149 Zoom and view techniques 152 Window handling 155 Undo

159 Shortcuts &

key commands

160 About this chapter

167 Index

125 Editing MIDI

126 About this chapter 126 Opening the Key Editor 127 Drawing events in the Key

Editor

128 Selecting and moving

events

129 About quantize 131 Editing velocity in the

controller display

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Table of Contents 5

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6 Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome,

and congratulations, because with the purchase of this product you’ve just become a member of the Cubase family. Maybe this is your first step into the world of computer-based music production, or maybe you’ve just added new hardware to your studio. In any case, you now have the chance to explore the world of Cubase, one of the world’s most popular music workstation systems.

Experience for yourself how much fun it is to work with Steinberg Cubase LE. Whether you want to control your MIDI keyboards, play virtual software instruments, record your vocals or acoustic instruments or arrange, edit and master your finished songs: Cubase LE has everything you need for running your entire studio. It offers a wealth of features your wouldn’t normally expect in this class. Its 24-bit / 96kHz audio resolution guarantees the same sound quality found in $100.000 studios. Cubase LE comes with dozens of professional-quality effects plug-ins and is compatible with hundreds of 3rd-party VST plug-ins and virtual instruments.

But maybe the best thing about Cubase LE is: it will grow with your needs and experience. At any time, you can upgrade to a higher version of Cubase. In addition, we have special offers for our acclaimed VST Instruments which integrate seamlessly with your Cubase LE system. And last but not least: the things you learn when using Cubase LE are the foundation for future work with our professional high-end systems Cubase SX and Nuendo. You can become a power user now and upgrade later. But you will always feel at home with any Steinberg system. Learn more about Steinberg’s line of products and get in touch with Cubase users all around the world:

See you at www.steinberg.net!

Your Steinberg Cubase Team.

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1 – 8 Introduction

About the manuals and the Help

The documentation is provided in the Adobe Acrobat pdf format. An

Acrobat installer is provided on the program CD.

The Getting Started book

The document you are reading now covers the following areas:

• Computer requirements.

• Installation issues.

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

• A guided tour of the main Cubase LE windows.

• An introduction to the most common procedures for recording, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase LE.

• Basic concepts and terminology.

• A description of the general methods used when working in Cubase LE.

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

The Operation Manual

This document contains the main Cubase LE reference documentation, with detailed descriptions of Cubase LE operations, parameters, functions and techniques. You should be familiar with the concepts and methods described in the Getting Started book before moving on to the Operation Manual.

• You can open the Operation Manual pdf from the Help menu in the program.

• Under Windows you can also open this document from the Cubase LE Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu.

• Under Mac OS X the Operation Manual pdf is located in the folder /Library/ Documentation/Cubase LE.

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Please also check the documentation subfolder in the Program folder (Win) or in the folder /Library/Documentation (Mac) for additional documentation files.

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Introduction 1 – 9

The Help System

Cubase LE comes with a detailed help system, making it easy to look up procedures and descriptions from within the program. The contents of the help basically mirror the complete Operation Manual text. The help systems are slightly different depending on which operating system you use, Windows or Mac OS X:

HTML Help (Windows)

You use the HTML Help in the following way:

• To open the HTML Help for browsing, select “HTML Help” from the Help menu in the program.

This brings up the HTML Help browser in which you can browse the help table of contents, search the index or perform a free text search.

• To get information about the active window or a dialog, press [F1] on the computer keyboard or click the Help button in the actual dialog.

Within a topic, related topics are sometimes directly accessible via clickable links.

Apple Help (Mac OS X)

You use the Apple Help in the following way:

• To open the Apple Help for browsing, select “Cubase LE Help” from the Help menu in the program.

This brings up the Apple Help Viewer window. There, you can either browse the help table of contents, use the index or type any words into the Search field at the top of the window.

• To get information about the active window or a dialog, press [F1] on the computer keyboard or click the Help button in the actual dialog.

Within a topic, related topics are sometimes directly accessible via clickable links.

Please note that you can open the Cubase LE Help even when the program isn’t running:

Select “Mac Help” from the Help menu in the Finder.

In the Apple Help Viewer, bring up the “Help Center”.

Click the “Cubase LE Help” link in the Help Center.

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About the versions for the differents platforms

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

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

The screenshots are taken both from the Windows version and the Mac OS X version.

Key command conventions

Many of the default key commands in Cubase LE 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 form:

[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]

For example,

[Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z]

means “press [Ctrl] under Win-

dows 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 [Z]”.

Introduction 1 – 11

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How you can reach us

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

•

On the “Steinberg on the Web” submenu you can find links to various Steinberg websites. 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.

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Installation and Requirements

for Windows

About this chapter

This chapter describes the system requirements and installation procedures for Cubase LE for Windows. Installing Cubase LE for Mac OS X is described on page 24.

Requirements

To use Cubase LE, you need the following:

•

A PC with either Windows XP or Windows 2000 installed.

For more details about the computer requirements, see below.

•

Compatible audio hardware.

By audio hardware we mean a card capable of recording and playing back digital audio using your hard disk as a storage medium. It must also have an appropriate ASIO driver, see page 16, or be Windows Multimedia compatible.

For MIDI

•

At least one MIDI interface.

•

At least one MIDI instrument.

•

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

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Computer requirements

Hardware – PC

The absolute minimum requirements for running Cubase LE on a PC are as follows:

•

A 500 MHz Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM or an equivalent AMD processor.

Recommended configuration for optimum performance: 1 GHz or faster PIII/Athlon with 512 MB RAM.

RAM

Audio work requires a lot of RAM! In fact, there is a direct relation between the amount of available RAM and the number of audio channels that you can have running. As specified earlier, 256 MB 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 LE 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 regular mouse will work perfectly fine with Cubase LE, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse, as this will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably. See page 144 and page 149.

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Installation and Requirements for Windows 2 – 15

Audio hardware

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

• Stereo.

• 16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Is supplied with a special ASIO driver, or a DirectX or Windows Multimedia compatible driver as described below.

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 LE to use the audio hardware. For audio hardware, there are three different cases, each 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 LE 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 LE or using VST Instruments. The ASIO driver may also provide special support for multiple inputs and outputs, 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.

❐

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

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2 – 16 Installation and Requirements for Windows

If the audio card communicates via DirectX

DirectX is a Microsoft “package” for handling various types of Multimedia under Windows. Cubase LE 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 LE to communicate with DirectX. This driver is included with Cubase LE, and does not require any special installation.

If the audio card communicates via Windows Multimedia system

If the card is Windows compatible, it can be used in Cubase LE. The card then communicates with Windows Multimedia system, which in turn communicates with Cubase LE. This requires two types of drivers:

• A Windows Multimedia driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with the Windows Multimedia system. This driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer, and is normally installed when you install the audio card.

• The ASIO Multimedia driver, allowing Cubase LE to communicate with the Windows Multimedia system. This driver is included with Cubase LE, and does not require any special installation.

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Installation and Requirements for Windows 2 – 17

Hardware installation

Installing the audio hardware and its driver

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

Install the driver for the card.

There are three types of drivers that could apply: card-specific ASIO drivers, DirectX drivers and Windows Multimedia drivers.

Specific ASIO driver

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.

DirectX driver

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

Windows Multimedia driver

These drivers are normally included with all types of regular PC audio cards. Some are even included with Windows itself. Depending on whether the audio card is “Plug’n’Play compatible” or not, the installation of the card is done differently:

•

If the card is “Plug’n’Play compatible”, Windows will detect the card once it is plugged in, and ask for the necessary driver disks.

•

If not, you need to use the “Add New Hardware” feature in the Control Panel to install the card and its drivers.

Refer to the documentation that comes with the card.

❐

Should you have an audio card but no driver, please check the manufacturers web site, or ask your music or computer dealer for help.

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2 – 18 Installation and Requirements for Windows

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 Windows driver, use the Media Player application (included with Windows) to play back audio.

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:

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.

If the interface has a power supply and/or a power switch, turn it on.

Install the driver for the interface, as described in the documentation that comes with the interface.

It is likely that you will need a CD ROM or floppy disk supplied by the manufacturer of the MIDI interface.

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Installation and Requirements for Windows 2 – 19

Installing Cubase LE

Defragment the hard disk

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. In Windows XP, for example, you might look for the “Disk Defragmenter” utility.

❐

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

Installing the files on the CD-ROM

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

1. Insert the Cubase LE CD-ROM.

2. A pop-up dialog appears automatically, containing three items for in-

stalling, browsing the CD and exiting.

If this dialog doesn’t appear, open the CD-ROM on the desktop, and double click the “Autorun.EXE”.

3. To start the installation process, select “Install”.

A number of dialogs now appear:

• In one dialog you will need to fill in your name and the serial number of your Cubase LE copy, and click OK.

You will find the serial number on the CD sleeve. Check the name and number in the confirmation dialog and click “Yes” if they are correct. Clicking “No” brings back the previous dialog.

4. Now the actual Cubase LE installation procedure starts.

A number of dialogs will appear, allowing you to select in which folder on your hard disk you want to install the program, etc. To advance to the next “page” in the installation procedure, click the “Next” button. The “Previous” button takes you back to the previous page.

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2 – 20 Installation and Requirements for Windows

5. Finally, a dialog box informs you that the installation was successful. You are now ready to launch Cubase LE!

Remove the CD-ROM and store it in a safe place.

This completes the installation of your Cubase LE program!

Registering your software will make sure you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Cubase LE.

If your computer has a working Internet connection, you can register online. From the Help menu of Cubase LE, select “Register Online…” and follow the instructions.

If your computer does not have a working Internet connection, you can also register from another computer.

The items on the start menu

If you open the Windows Start menu, you will find a Cubase LE group on the “Programs” submenu. This contains the following items:

• Documentation.

On this submenu you can access the documentation in the Acrobat pdf format.

• ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Setup.

This is where you make settings if your audio hardware uses DirectX for audio playback and recording.

• ASIO Multimedia Setup.

This opens a dialog with settings for the ASIO (Audio Stream Input Output) system, which handles audio recording and playback in Cubase LE, if you are using the ASIO MME driver. This dialog can also be opened from within Cubase LE. See the chapter

“Setting up your system” in this book.

• Cubase LE.

This launches the actual program.

There may also be additional items (such as Readme files) available on the Start menu. Please read all such files before launching Cubase LE, since they may contain late information not included in the manuals.

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Installation and Requirements for Windows 2 – 21

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2 – 22 Installation and Requirements for Windows

Installation and Requirements

for Mac OS X

About this chapter

This chapter describes the system requirements and installation procedures for Cubase LE for Mac OS X. Installing Cubase LE for Windows is described on page 14.

Requirements

To use Cubase LE, you need the following:

• A Macintosh computer running Mac OS X (version 10.2 or later).

For more details about the computer requirements, see below.

• Mac OS X compatible audio hardware.

While the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh may be adequate for basic audio playback, we strongly recommend audio hardware that is specifically designed for audio recording and music applications.

For MIDI

• At least one MIDI interface.

• At least one MIDI instrument.

• Any audio equipment necessary to listen to the sound from your MIDI

devices.

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3 – 24 Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X

Computer requirements

Hardware – Mac

The absolute minimum requirements for running Cubase LE on a Macintosh are as follows:

• Macintosh with a G4 processor, 256 MB RAM and OS X 10.2.

We recommend 512 MB RAM or more.

RAM

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

Hard disk speed

Mouse

Although a regular mouse will work perfectly fine with Cubase LE, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse with two mouse buttons.

• Having a wheel mouse will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably.

• If your mouse has two mouse buttons you should program the right mouse button to generate a [Ctrl]-click (this is typically the default behaviour of the right mouse button).

This will allow you to bring up context menus by right clicking (see page 141).

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Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 3 – 25

Audio hardware

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

• Stereo.

• 16 bit.

• Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate.

• Is supplied with proper Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers.

A basic rule of thumb is: if the hardware works under Mac OS X, you can use it in Cubase LE.

• Cubase LE also supports audio hardware with Mac OS X compliant ASIO drivers.

ASIO drivers may provide special support for routing, monitoring, synchronization, etc. Note that the ASIO drivers must be written specifically for Mac OS X – Mac OS 9.X ASIO drivers cannot be used.

Using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh

As of this writing, all current Macintosh models have built-in 16 bit stereo audio hardware. Depending on your preferences and requirements, this may be sufficient for use with Cubase LE (although we recommend using multi-output audio hardware). The built-in audio hardware is always available for selection in Cubase LE – you don’t need to install any additional drivers.

❐

Some Macintosh models have audio outputs but no inputs. This means that you can only play back audio – recording is not possible without additional audio hardware.

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3 – 26 Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X

Hardware installation

Installing the audio hardware and its driver

1. Make sure you have the latest Mac OS X drivers for the audio hardware!

Please check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest versions.

2. Install the driver(s) for the audio hardware.

This is usually done by running an installer application.

3. Install or connect the audio interface, as described in the card’s documentation.

Installing a MIDI interface

1. Make sure you have the latest Mac OS X drivers for the MIDI interface!

Please check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest versions.

2. Install the driver(s) for the interface.

This is usually done by running an installer application.

3. Connect the MIDI interface to the computer, as described in the interface documentation.

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Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 3 – 27

Installing Cubase LE

Defragment the hard disk

❐

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

Installing the files on the CD-ROM

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

1. Insert the Cubase LE CD-ROM.

2. Open and read the file “Read Me First” before continuing.

This may contain late braking news pertinent to the installation.

3. Locate the Cubase LE installer and run it.

The installation procedure starts. This will create a Cubase LE folder in your Applications folder and add various required files to your system.

• At one point during the installation you will need to fill in your name and the serial number of your Cubase LE copy.

You will find the serial number on the CD sleeve.

Finally, a dialog box informs you that the installation was successful.

4. You are now ready to launch Cubase LE!

Remove the CD-ROM and store it in a safe place.

This completes the installation of your Cubase LE program!

You can now start the program from your Applications folder. When you launch Cubase LE for the first time, you will be asked whether you want to add a Cubase LE icon to the Dock.

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3 – 28 Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X

Registering your software will make sure you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Cubase LE.

If your computer has a working Internet connection, you can register online. Launch Cubase LE, select “Register Online…” from the Cubase LE menu and follow the instructions.

If your computer does not have a working Internet connection, you can also register from another computer.

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Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 3 – 29

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