Steinberg Cubase SX - 1.0 User Manual
Cubase 5 Effect Plug-ins
Operation 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 AG. The software
described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied
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© Steinberg Media Technologies AG, 2002.
All rights reserved.
Introduction
This document contains descriptions of the effects from version 5 of
Cubase. These can be found on the “Cubase 5 Plug-ins” submenu on
the effect pop-up menus in the program, if you chose to install them during the Cubase SX/SL installation. Note that some of these plug-ins are
duplicates of the standard Cubase SX/SL plug-ins.
Mac OS X disclaimer
Mac users should be aware of the fact that although these older effects have been updated to function under OS X, they have not been
thoroughly tested in this environment. These effects could be viewed
as a “bonus” part of the package, and should be used at one’s own
risk. Steinberg will not officially offer support for these older plug-ins
under OS X.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 3
Table of Contents
•
Autopole – see page 5.
•
Chopper2 – see page 29.
•
Distortion – see page 28.
•
Karlette – see page 37.
•
Metalizer2 – see page 33.
•
MIDI Comb – see page 9.
•
MIDI Gate – see page 13.
•
Mysterizer – see page 16.
•
Phatsync – see page 19.
•
Reverb – see page 31.
•
Reverb 32 – see page 32.
•
Ring Modulator – see page 23.
•
subBASS – see page 26.
•
Tranceformer2 – see page 35.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 4
Autopole
The Autopole is a filter effect containing two separate filters capable
of operating in four different modes, an Envelope Generator and an
LFO with four different waveforms. It also lets you choose between
three different signal routing modes to control how an incoming signal
should be sent through the filters.
The Autopole should be used as an insert effect. If you wish to apply it
on several channels at once, you can use it as an insert effect on a group
channel and then route the desired channels to the group channel.
The parameters for the different “sections” of the Autopole are the
following:
CUBASE SX/SL
– 5
The Filters
Parameter Description
Filter Mode buttons
(LP, BP, HP, Notch)
Cutoff This is used for setting the Cutoff frequency, i.e. the threshold
Resonance This affects the resonance of the filter. Increasing the reso-
LFO Mod These sliders govern how the filter cut-off frequencies are af-
EG Mod These sliders work in conjunction with the Envelope Genera-
These buttons let you decide in which mode the Filter should
operate:
LP: This is a Low-Pass Filter that “filters out” the high frequency content of the incoming signal, according to a certain
set threshold level. Only signals below the threshold will pass
through.
BP: This is a Band-Pass filter that only lets signals around the
set frequency through, filtering out all other content.
HP: This is a High-Pass Filter that “filters out” the low frequency content of the incoming signal, according to a certain
set threshold level. Only signals above the threshold will pass
through.
Notch: This is a filter that cuts off the signals around the set
frequency, leaving all other content unaffected.
at which the filter should “kick in”. The farther to the right you
drag the sliders, the higher the frequency.
nance gives a more pronounced, lively filter sound. Be wary
of extremely high levels of resonance since they might induce
unpleasant distortion.
fected by the LFO (see below). The sliders are “zero-centered”,
meaning that in the middle position (zero), no LFO modulation
will be applied. By dragging the sliders to the left or right, you
cause an increasing amount of modulation to the cut-off frequency. The difference is that if you drag the sliders to the left,
the waveform of the LFO is inverted, creating a different effect.
tor settings (see below). They control to which extent the cutoff frequencies of the filters should be affected by the Envelope Generator. Drag the sliders to the right if you want to
raise the cut-off frequencies and if you want to lower the frequencies, drag the sliders to the left. Leave the sliders in the
middle position if you don’t want Envelope data to affect the
cut-off frequencies.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 6
Signal Routing
By clicking one of the three buttons, you choose how an input
stereo
signal will pass though the filters. The signal flow chart to the left of
the buttons indicates the path:
•
Option # 1 will have the signal from each channel pass through both
of the filters in series (one after the other).
•
With option # 2, the signal from each channel will pass through both
of the filters in parallel, and then be mixed at the output.
•
Finally, option # 3 causes the signals from both channels to each
pass through a separate filter. I.e. the left signal only passes through
Filter A, and the right signal only passes through Filter B.
❐
When using the Autopole with mono material, options 1 and 2 are the
best choices (sending the signal through the filters in series or in parallel,
respectively).
Envelope Generator
This section controls how the input signal is converted into Envelope
data. This, in its turn, affects the EG Mod sliders in the Filter sections
and the Modulation slider in the LFO section:
Parameter Description
Attack This regulates how fast the Envelope Generator will respond to
an input signal as it rises in sound level. The farther to the left you
drag the slider, the faster the response will be.
Release This governs how fast the Envelope Generator will respond to an
input signal as it drops in sound level. The farther to the left you
drag the slider, the faster the response will be.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 7
LFO
These are the controls for the Low Frequency Oscillator, used for
adding continuous filter movement, wah-wah effects, etc:
Parameter Description
Frequency This slider controls the speed of the LFO. The farther to the right
you drag the slider, the faster the oscillation will be.
Modulation Use this slider to control how the speed of the LFO should be mod-
ulated by the Envelope Generator (and thus by the level of the input
signal). If you drag the slider to the left, a loud input signal will cause
the LFO to slow down and if you drag to the right, the LFO will
speed up. In the middle position, the speed of the LFO is unaffected.
Waveform Buttons These buttons are used for choosing a waveform for the LFO. You
can choose between Square, Sine, Saw and Triangle.
Output Controls
Parameter Description
Mix This controls the balance between the output from the Autopole
and the input signal. In the middle position, both signals are
equally mixed. The higher you drag the slider, the more dominant
the effect will be. Conversely, with lower settings the unaffected
original signal will be more pronounced.
Gain This slider regulates the output level from the Autopole. The
higher you drag the slider, the higher the level.
Sync When this is activated, the LFO will restart in intervals according
to the current Song tempo, which is useful for tempo sync and
special effects. Click the button to activate sync, and then click
in the small display to the right to select at which note values the
LFO should be restarted: 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16.
For example, setting this to 1/4 will make the LFO restart on
each beat (quarter note) according to the current tempo.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 8
MIDI Comb
This is a comb filter, which can be described as one or several very
short delays with high feedback, causing resonating peaks at certain
frequencies. While the MIDI Comb is used as an insert effect on an
audio channel, the signals that actually trigger it are the ones sent
from a MIDI track.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 9
Setting Up
The MIDI Comb requires both an audio signal and a MIDI input to
function.
To set it up, proceed as follows:
1.
Select the audio to be affected by the MIDI Comb.
This can be audio material from any audio track, or even a live audio input routed to a
audio track (provided you have a low latency audio card). If a live audio input is used,
the track has to be record enabled or in Monitor mode.
2.
Select the MIDI Comb as an Insert effect for the audio channel.
3.
Select a MIDI track.
This can be an empty MIDI track, or a MIDI track containing data, it doesn’t matter.
However, if you wish to play the MIDI Comb in real-time – as opposed to having a recorded part playing it – the track has to be record enabled or in Monitor mode for the
effect to receive the MIDI output.
4.
Open the Output pop-up for the MIDI Track.
The MIDI Comb is now added to the list.
5.
Select the MIDI Comb from the Output pop-up menu.
The MIDI Output from the Track is now routed to the MIDI Comb.
What to do next depends on whether you are using live or recorded
audio and whether you are using real-time or recorded MIDI. We will
assume for the purposes of this manual that you are using recorded
audio, and play the MIDI in real-time.
Make sure the MIDI Track is selected and start playback.
6.
Now play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard.
As you can hear, the audio track material is affected by what you play on your MIDI keyboard.
❐
The MIDI Comb is polyphonic with up to 8 voices, i.e. you can play up to 8
MIDI notes at once and each note will produce a separate resonating tone.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 10
You can now make settings for the MIDI Comb using the following
parameters:
Amp e.g.
Parameter Description
Atk Use this slider to set the attack time of the resonant tones created
by the comb filter – i.e how soon they will start to resonate after
being triggered by MIDI notes. The farther down you drag the
slider, the shorter the attack.
Rel This controls the release time of the resonant tones created by
the comb filter – i.e. how soon the sound will be cut off. The farther up you drag the slider, the longer the sound will resonate.
Key Velocity Modifiers
Parameter Description
Level This determines how the filter responds to MIDI notes with differ-
ent velocity values. At the middle setting, all tones produced by the
filter will sound at an equal level regardless of the velocity values of
the MIDI notes that trigger them. If you move the slider upwards,
MIDI notes with higher velocity values will produce louder comb filter tones. Conversely, moving the slider downwards causes the
level of the filter tones to increase with lower MIDI note velocities.
Res This affects the resonance (feedback) of the produced tones de-
pending on the velocity value of the MIDI notes that trigger them.
In the middle position, the resonance is unaffected regardless of
velocity. By dragging the slider upwards, tones triggered by MIDI
notes with a high velocity value will get increased resonance. By
dragging the slider downwards, tones triggered by MIDI notes
with a low velocity value will become more resonant.
HPF & LPF The MIDI Comb features both a High-Pass filter and a Low-Pass
filter (see “Filters” below) that can be used for “filtering out” certain frequencies of the resonating tones according to a certain set
filter cutoff frequency. These two sliders determine how much the
High-Pass and Low-Pass filters should be affected by the MIDI
note velocity values. Positive values cause higher velocities to increase the effect of the filters, negative values cause higher velocities to decrease the effect.
CUBASE SX/SL
– 11
Feedback
Parameter Description
Feedback This slider governs the amount of effect output from the MIDI
Comb that is fed back in again. The more effect feedback, the more
complex the sound. Drag the slider upwards to increase feedback.
Filters
Parameter Description
LP Cut-off Use this to set the frequency threshold of the Low-Pass Filter.
This filter cuts off all of the high frequencies relative to the set
threshold. The farther up you drag the slider, the more of the high
frequencies will be allowed to pass through.
HP Cut-off Use this to set the frequency threshold of the High-Pass Filter.
This filter cuts off all of the low frequencies relative to the set
threshold. The farther down you drag the slider, the more of the
low frequencies will be allowed to pass through.
Output
Parameter Description
Mix Use this to set the balance between the original, unprocessed
signal and the signal affected by the MIDI Comb. In the middle position, they are equally mixed. Drag the slider upwards for a more
dominant effect sound and vice versa.
Gain This controls the output level from the MIDI Comb. Drag the slider
upwards to increase the level.
CUBASE SX/SL
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