STEINBERG Cubase SE 3 User Manual

Operation Manual

Original Manual: Synkron Revision and 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 XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks.

Table of Contents

9 About this manual

10 Welcome!

13 VST Connections:

Setting up input and output busses

14 About this chapter 14 Setting up busses 18 Using the busses

132 Using the Marker track 136 Marker key commands

137 Fades, crossfades

and envelopes

138 Creating fades 142 The Fade dialogs 145 Creating crossfades 147 The Crossfade dialog 150 Auto Fades and Crossfades

21 Playback and the

Transport panel

22 Background 26 Operations 29 Options and Settings

33 Recording

34 Background 35 Basic recording methods 40 Audio recording specifics 50 MIDI Recording Specifics 62 Options and Settings

67 The Project window

68 Background 70 Window Overview 81 Operations 113 Options

119 Folder tracks

120 About folder tracks 121 Handling folder tracks 123 Working with folder parts

127 Using markers

128 About markers 128 The Marker window

153 The mixer

154 About this chapter 155 Overview 157 Configuring the mixer 160 The audio channel strips 161 The MIDI channel strips 162 The common panel 163 The output channels 164 Basic mixing procedures 168 Audio specific procedures 180 MIDI specific procedures 181 Utilities

187 Audio effects

188 About this chapter 188 Overview 190 Insert effects 195 Send effects 204 Making settings for the ef-

fects

206 Installing and managing ef-

fect plug-ins

213 VST Instruments

214 Introduction 214 Activating and using

VST Instruments

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221 Automation

222 Background 225 Automation track operations 231 Using Write/Read

automation

235 Working with automation

curves

240 Tips and common methods 241 Options and Settings

243 Remote controlling

the mixer

244 About this chapter 244 Setting Up 246 Operations 248 Remote control device spe-

cifics

250 The Generic Remote device

255 Audio processing and

functions

256 Background 257 Audio processing 274 Freeze Edits

275 The Sample Editor

276 Background 276 Opening the Sample Editor 277 Window overview 282 Operations 290 Options and settings

293 The Audio Part Editor

294 Background 294 Opening the

Audio Part Editor

295 Window overview 298 Operations

301 Common methods 303 Options and Settings

305 Working with hitpoints

and slices

306 Background 307 Using hitpoints 311 Editing hitpoints 317 About Q-points 318 Using the Audio Tempo

Definition tool

322 Creating slices 323 Other hitpoint functions

327 The Pool

328 Background 330 Window Overview 333 Operations 350 Options and Settings

351 MIDI realtime para-

meters and effects

352 Introduction 353 The Inspector – General

handling

354 Basic track settings 357 Track parameters 362 MIDI effects 367 Managing plug-ins 368 Merge MIDI in Loop

371 MIDI processing and

quantizing

372 Introduction 373 Quantizing 384 Other MIDI menu functions 390 Dissolve Part

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393 The MIDI editors

503 VST System Link

394 About editing MIDI 395 Opening a MIDI editor 398 The Key Editor – Overview 404 Key Editor operations 427 The Drum Editor – Overview 430 Drum Editor operations 433 Working with drum maps 441 Using drum name lists 442 The List Editor – Overview 443 List Editor operations 450 The Score Editor – Overview 453 Score Editor operations 468 Common MIDI editor options

and settings

471 Working with the

Tempo track

472 Background 473 The Tempo Track Editor –

overview

476 Operations 481 Options and settings 482 The Beat Calculator 484 Merge Tempo From Tapping

485 Export Audio

Mixdown

486 Introduction 487 Mixing down to an audio file 489 File format specifics

497 Synchronization

498 Background 500 Window Overview 502 Options

504 Introduction 505 Preparations 511 Activating VST System Link 518 Application examples

521 Video

522 Background 523 Operations 528 Options

529 ReWire

530 Introduction 531 Launching and quitting 532 Activating ReWire channels 533 Using the transport and

tempo controls

534 How the ReWire channels

are handled in Cubase SE

535 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 536 Considerations and

limitations

537 File handling

538 File Operations 555 Options and Settings

557 Customizing

558 Background 559 Customizing the Transport

panel

561 Customizing the toolbars 563 Appearance 563 Applying track and event

colors

566 Where are the settings

stored?

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6 Table of Contents

569 Key commands

570 Background 571 Setting up Key Commands 579 Setting up tool modifier keys

581 Index

Table of Contents 7

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8 Table of Contents

About this manual

Welcome!

This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase SE 3. Here you will find detailed information about virtually all features and functions in the program.

How to use the manuals and the Help

When it comes to manuals, different users look for information in different ways, depending on their previous knowledge and personal preferences. You may be looking for a complete description of a procedure, you may just be trying to find a certain function in the program, you may have found a function in the program and want it explained – or you may simply want to learn it all!

Therefore, there are several ways to enter the documentation and get help:

•

Use the Table of Contents to browse the manual or the Help and find the section you need to know more about.

You can click directly on a chapter or section to go there.

•

Use the Index to look up specific features and functions.

Again, you can click directly on the page number for an index entry to go to there. The help also allows you to perform a free search of any term.

•

In the program you will find Help buttons in most dialogs – click to get information about that specific dialog.

Similarly, you can press [F1] to get information about the current window.

•

If you want information about a specific menu item, use the Menu Reference section in the Help.

All main menu items in Cubase SE are listed and explained there.

•

Finally, you could read the manuals from start to end if you like.

See below for a description of all parts of the Cubase SE documentation package.

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1 – 10 About this manual

About this chapter

As described in the Getting Started book, Cubase SE 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.

As you can see, the input and output busses are vital when you work with Cubase SE. That’s the reason why you find this chapter in the beginning of the Operation Manual – once you understand the bus system and set up the busses properly, it will be easy to go on with recording, playing back and mixing.

Setting up busses

Strategies

You can create any number of busses in Cubase SE in mono or stereo.

• The bus configuration is saved with the projects – therefore it’s a good idea to add and set up the busses you need and save these in a template project (see page 541).

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 could either create several different templates or store your configurations as presets (see page 17). The templates can of course also contain other settings that you regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc.

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You can add the following busses:

Input busses

• Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input pair. This would let you record stereo material. If you want to be able to record in stereo from other analog input pairs as well, you could 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 could be assigned to an analog input to which you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp for example. Again, you could have several different mono busses.

• You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to the digital stereo input, for digital transfers.

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.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 15

The VST Connections window

You add and set up busses in the VST Connections window, opened from the Devices menu.

There are two tabs in the window: the Input and Output tab for viewing input busses or output busses, respectively.

For the time being we shall focus on how to set up input and output busses.

Depending on which tab you have selected, Input or Output, the window lists the current input or output busses, with the following columns:

Column Description

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

on them in this column.

Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo) of each bus.

Audio Device This shows the currently selected Master ASIO driver.

Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button in the Bus

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2 – 16 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Name column) this column shows which physical input/output on your audio hardware is used by the bus.

Adding a bus

Click the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on which you want to add.

Click the Add Bus button.

A dialog appears.

Select the desired (channel) configuration.

The pop-up menu contains Mono and Stereo options.

•

Alternatively you can right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) in the VST Connections window and add a bus in the desired format directly from the context menu that appears.

The new bus appears with the ports visible.

Click in the Device Port column to select an input/output port for a channel in the bus.

The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have given them in the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.

Other bus operations

•

To change the port assignment for a bus you proceed as when you added it – make sure the channels are visible (by clicking the + button next to the bus, or by clicking the “+ All” button at the top of the window) and click in the Device Port column to select ports.

•

To remove a bus you don’t need, select it in the list, right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up menu.

•

You can store and recall bus presets with the pop-up menu at the top of the window.

To store the current configuration as a preset, click the store (+) button and enter a name for the preset. You can then select the stored configuration directly from the Presets pop-up menu at any time. To remove a stored preset, select it and click the (-) button.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 17

Using the busses

This section describes briefly how to use the input and output busses you have created. This is described in more detail in the chapters “Re-

cording” and “The mixer”.

Routing

When you play back an audio track (or any other audio channel in the mixer – VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, etc.), you route it to an output bus. In the same way, when you record on an audio track you select from which input bus the audio should be sent.

•

You can select input and output busses in the Inspector, using the “In” and “Out” pop-up menus.

For channel types other than audio tracks (VST Instrument channels, FX channels, etc.), only the “Out” pop-up menu is available. To access the “Out” pop-up menu for such a channel in the Inspector, select one of its automation subtracks in the Track list.

When selecting an input bus for a track you can only select busses that correspond to the track’s channel configuration. Here are the details:

• Mono tracks can be routed to mono busses or individual channels within a stereo bus (input or output).

• Stereo tracks can be routed to stereo busses.

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Viewing the busses in the mixer

Only the output busses are visible in the mixer! You cannot make any specific mixer settings for the input busses.

Output channels

The output channels are shown to the right in the mixer. Here you can do the following:

• Adjust the total output level for the busses with the faders.

• Add effects or EQ.

These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add here include compressors or limiters. See page 193.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 19

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Playback and the Transport

panel

Background

This chapter describes the various methods available for controlling Playback and Transport functions in Cubase SE.

The Transport panel

Below you can find a brief description of each Transport panel item.

• You can customize the look of the Transport panel, hiding unneeded controls and moving controls as desired – see page 559.

The pictures below show the Transport panel with all controls visible and in their default position. The Transport panel is divided into sections, from left to right.

Left locator: record start point, punch

Record mode pop-upCycle Record

mode pop-up

in point and beginning of Cycle

Preroll setting and on/off switch

Postroll setting and on/off switch

CPU load and Disk Cache meters

Primary Time Display and format pop-up

Nudge position right/left

Position slider

Go to previous marker or project start

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Rewind Stop

Activates Auto Quantize

Fast forward

Go to next marker or project end

Right locator: punch out point and end of Cycle

Exchange time formats

Cycle on/off

Secondary Time Display and format pop-up

Record

Play

Metronome click on/off

)

Tempo track on/off

Synchronization on/off The tempo and time signature display

MIDI In (left meter)/ MIDI Out activity

Precount on/off

Level Control (Output bus 1

Audio activity (Output bus 1)Audio input activity (Input bus 1)

Show Markers (opens Marker window)

Jump to Marker

• The main Transport functions (Cycle/Stop/Play/Record) can also be shown on the toolbar.

In addition, various play options are available on the Transport menu.

Hiding and showing

The Transport panel is shown by default when you launch a new project. To hide or show it, select the “Transport Panel” item from the Transport menu (or use a key command – by default [F2]).

About Preroll and Postroll

These items are described in the chapter “Recording” – see page 62.

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 23

Customizing the Transport panel

You can customize the appearance of the Transport panel by rightclicking (Win) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) anywhere on the panel and making selections on the pop-up menu that appears.

• On the upper half of the pop-up menu you can hide or show elements on the panel by activating or deactivating the corresponding menu items.

• Selecting the Show All item displays all sections of the Transport panel.

• Selecting Default shows all sections in their default positions on the panel.

• The items in the lower half of the pop-up menu are preset configurations for the Transport panel. You will find all your own stored presets here, for quick selection.

• Selecting Setup brings up a dialog where you can set show/hide status for the separate sections, configure where the sections should be placed on the panel and store different Transport panel layouts as presets for instant recall.

For more about customizing the Transport panel, see page 559.

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The numeric keypad

In the default Key Command settings, the numeric keypad on the computer keyboard is assigned various Transport panel operations:

Numeric Key Function

[Enter] Play

[+] Fast Forward

[–] Rewind

[*] Record

[÷] (Win) or [/] (Mac) Cycle On/Off

[,] Return to Zero

[0] Stop

[1] Go to Left Locator

[2] Go to Right Locator

[3 - 9] Go to marker 3 to 9

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 25

Operations

Setting the project cursor position

There are several ways to move the project cursor position:

• By using Fast Forward and Rewind.

• By dragging the project cursor in the lower part of the ruler.

• By clicking in the ruler.

Double clicking in the ruler moves the cursor and starts/stops playback.

• If the option “Locate when Clicked in Empty Space” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page) you can click anywhere in an empty section of the Project window to move the cursor position.

• By changing the value in any of the position displays.

• By using the position slider above the transport buttons.

The range of the slider relates to the Length setting in the Project Setup dialog. Hence, moving the slider all the way to the right will take you to the end of the project.

• By using markers (see page 128).

• By using playback options (see page 30).

• By using functions on the Transport menu.

The following functions are available:

Function Description

Locate Selection / Locate Selection End

Locate Next/Previous Marker

Locate Next/Previous Event

Moves the project cursor to the beginning or end of the current selection. For this to be available, you must have selected one or more events or parts, or made a selection range.

This moves the project cursor to the closest marker to the right or left (see page 128).

This moves the project cursor forwards or backwards respectively, to the closest beginning or end of any event on the selected track(s).

• If Snap is activated when dragging the project cursor, the Snap value is taken into account. This is helpful for finding exact positions quickly.

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• There are also numerous key commands available for moving the project cursor (in the Transport category in the Key Commands dialog).

For example, you can assign key commands to the “Step Bar” and “Step Back Bar” functions, allowing you to move the project cursor in steps of one bar, backwards and forwards.

About the Transport panel display formats

Primary time display (left) and secondary time display (right).

The time unit shown in the ruler can be independent from the time unit shown in the main time display on the Transport panel. This means that you can display timecode in the transport position display and bars and beats in the ruler, for example. In addition, there is a secondary time display to the right of the primary time display which is also independent, giving you three different time units shown at the same time.

The following rules apply:

• If you change the time format from the primary time display on the Transport panel, this will apply to the ruler as well.

This is the same as changing the display format in the Project Setup. Therefore, to have different display formats in the ruler and the main time display you should change the format in the ruler.

• The primary time display format is set on the pop-up menu to the right in the main position display.

• The setting here also determines the time format displayed for the left and right locators.

• The secondary time display is completely independent, and the display format is set on the pop-up menu to the right.

• You can swap time formats between the primary and secondary time displays by clicking the double arrow symbol between them.

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 27

The left and right locators

The left and right locators are a pair of position markers used for specifying punch-in and punch-out positions during recording, and as boundaries for cycle playback and recording.

• When cycle mode is activated on the Transport panel, the area between the left and right locator will be repeated (cycled) on playback.

However, if the right locator is positioned before the left, this will work as a “jump” or “skip mode” – when the project cursor reaches the right locator it will immediately jump to the left locator position and continue playback from there.

There are several ways to set locator positions:

• To set the left locator, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click at the desired position in the ruler.

Similarly, pressing [Alt]/[Option] and clicking in the ruler sets the right locator. You can also drag the locator “handles” directly in the ruler.

The locators are indicated by the “flags” in the ruler. The area between the locators is highlighted in the ruler and in the Project window (see page 563). Note that if the right locator is before the left locator the area will be red in the ruler to indicate this.

• Click and drag in the upper half of the ruler to “draw” a locator range.

If you click on an existing locator range, you can drag to move it.

• Pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] and pressing [1] or [2] on the numeric keypad sets the left or right locator to the project cursor position.

Similarly, you can press [1] or [2] on the numeric keypad (without [Ctrl]/[Command]) to set the project cursor position to the left or right locator position. Note that these are default key commands – you can change these if you like.

• By creating cycle markers you can store any number of left and right locator positions, which can be recalled by simply double clicking on the corresponding marker (see page 132).

• The “Locators to Selection” item on the Transport menu (default key command [P]) sets the locators to encompass the current selection.

This is available if you have selected one or several events or made a selection range.

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• You can also adjust the locators numerically in the Transport panel.

Clicking the L/R buttons in the locator section on the Transport panel will move the project cursor to the respective locator. If you press [Alt]/[Option] and click the L or R button, the corresponding locator will be set to the current project cursor position.

Options and Settings

The “Return to Start Position on Stop” preference

This setting is found on the Transport page in the Preferences dialog (found on the File menu under Windows, on the Cubase SE menu under Mac OS X).

• If “Return to Start Position on Stop” is activated when you stop playback, the project cursor will automatically return to the position where recording or playback last started.

• If “Return to Start Position on Stop” is deactivated, the project cursor will remain at the position where you stop playback.

Pressing Stop again will return the project cursor to the position where recording or playback last started.

About track disable/enable

For audio tracks, the track context menu contains an item named “Disable Track”. This shuts down all disk activity for the track, as opposed to using Mute, which merely turns down the output volume for a track. For example, if you often record “alternative takes” you can easily build up a large number of takes on different tracks. Even though these tracks are muted, they are actually still “playing back” from the hard disk during playback. This puts an unnecessary load on your disk system, so using “Disable Track” is recommended for such situations.

• Select “Disable Track” for tracks that you want to keep in the project for later use (but don’t want to play back now).

Select “Enable Track” from the track context menu to re-enable disabled tracks.

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 29

Playback functions

Apart from the standard transport controls on the Transport panel, you can also find a number of functions that can be used to control playback on the Transport menu. The items have the following functionality:

Option Description

Play from Selection Start/End

Play until Selection Start/ End

Play until Next Marker This activates playback from the project cursor and stops at the

Play Selection Range This activates playback from the start of the current selection

Loop Selection This activates playback from the start of the current selection

Activates playback from the beginning or end of the current selection.

Activates playback two seconds before the start or end of the current selection and stops at the selection start or end, respectively.

next marker.

and stops at the selection end.

and keeps starting over again when reaching the selection end.

The functions listed above (except “Play until Next Marker”) are only available if you have selected one or more events or made a selection range.

About Chase

Chase is basically a function that makes sure your MIDI instruments sound as they should when you locate to a new position and start playback. This is accomplished by having the program transmitting a number of MIDI messages to your instruments each time you move to a new position in the project, making sure all MIDI devices are set up correctly with regard to program change, controller messages (such as MIDI Volume) etc.

For example, let’s say you have a MIDI track with a program change event inserted at the beginning. This event makes a synth switch to a piano sound.

In the beginning of the first chorus you have another program change event which makes the same synth switch to a string sound.

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+ 566 hidden pages