Steinberg Cubase SX - 3.1 User Manual
New Features in 3.1
Manual by 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
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© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2005.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
7 Introduction
8 Working with the new features
11 Working with the new features
12 Editing – General
12 New Preferences options
20 Key Commands
21 Track Folding
23 Gluing events/parts together
26 Metronome settings
27 Synchronization settings
28 Duplicating tracks
28 Exporting selected tracks (Cubase SX only)
28 Importing Track Archives (Cubase SX only)
31 The Stereo Pan Law modes
31 Resizing tracks in the Track list
32 Inspector sub panels
33 Editing – MIDI
33 Freezing track parameters
34 Dissolving parts
34 The Legato dialog
35 Selecting notes of equal pitch (Edit menu)
36 Extracting MIDI automation
37 External instruments/effects (Cubase SX only)
46 Mixer operations
46 The context menu functions
48 Copying channel settings to/from several tracks in one go
48 Mixer key commands
49 Panning Bypass
50 The Tempo Track (Cubase SX only)
52 Pool Operations
52 The extended search functionality in the Pool (Cubase SX only)
54 Pool key commands
54 Video
57 Score editor operations
59 Remote Control
59 Accessing user panel parameters via remote control devices
(Cubase SX only)
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4 Table of Contents
60 General improvements
60 Recovery of audio recordings after system failure
61 About the Dolby Digital and DTS Encoders (Cubase SX only)
63 Index
Table of Contents 5
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6 Table of Contents
Introduction
Working with the new features
Welcome to Cubase SX/SL 3.1! This document lists and describes
all features that have been added to or modified in the program since
the original 3.0 version. To read more about a feature listed below,
please click the respective green link.
Some of the new features described in this document only apply to
the Cubase SX version. Whenever this is the case, this will be clearly
stated in the heading of the related subject.
Editing – General
•
New Preferences options. See page 12.
•
Key Commands. See page 20.
•
Track folding. See page 21.
•
Gluing events/parts together. See page 23.
•
Metronome settings. See page 26.
•
Synchronization settings. See page 27.
•
Duplicating tracks. See page 28.
•
Exporting Selected Tracks (Cubase SX only). See page 28.
•
Importing Track Archives (Cubase SX only). See page 28.
•
Stereo Pan Law modes. See page 31.
•
Resizing tracks in the Track list. See page 31.
•
Inspector sub panels. See page 32.
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8 Introduction
Editing – MIDI
•
Freezing track parameters. See page 33.
•
Dissolving parts. See page 34.
•
The Legato dialog. See page 34.
•
Selecting notes of equal pitch. See page 35.
•
Extracting MIDI automation. See page 36.
External instruments and effects
•
Working with external instruments and effects (Cubase SX only).
See page 37.
•
About the Favorites. See page 43.
•
Freezing external effects/instruments. See page 45.
Mixer operations
•
The context menu functions. See page 46.
•
Copying channel settings. See page 48.
•
Mixer key commands. See page 48.
•
Panning Bypass. See page 49.
The Tempo Track
•
The Process Bars dialog. See page 50.
Pool operations
•
The extended search functionality in the Pool. See page 52.
•
Pool key commands. See page 54.
Introduction 9
CUBASE SX/SL
Video
•
Generating thumbnail cache files during video import. See page 54.
•
Generating thumbnail cache files manually from within the Pool .
See page 55.
•
Thumbnail cache usage. See page 56.
Score editor operations
•
The selection indicators. See page 57.
•
Showing/Hiding the custom colors. See page 57.
•
The Set Note Info dialog. See page 58.
Remote Control
•
Accessing user panel parameters via remote control devices.
See page 59.
General improvements
•
Recovery of audio recordings after system failure. See page 60.
•
About the Dolby Digital and DTS Encoders (Cubase SX only).
See page 61.
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10 Introduction
Working with the new features
Editing – General
New Preferences options
For Cubase SX/SL 3.1 several changes have been made to the Preferences dialog. The Appearance page has been completely modified
(Cubase SX only), a new subpage “Project & Mixer” has been added
to the Editing page, the VST page has been further subdivided, etc. In
the following sections, the changes are described separately for the
different pages of the dialog.
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12 Working with the new features
Appearance (Cubase SX only)
The Appearance page in the Preferences dialog now contains three
subpages, on which you can adjust the look of the program in the following way:
Appearance–General
The three controls on the General subpage affect the appearance of
the work area backgrounds in Cubase SX.
•
Saturation determines how rich the background colors are, from grey
to blue.
•
Contrast determines how bright or dark the background is in relation
to controls and displays.
•
Brightness lightens or darkens the background.
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Working with the new features 13
Appearance–Meters
The coloring of meters in Cubase SX can be controlled in sophisticated
ways. Multiple colors can help to visually indicate what levels are being
reached, e.g. in a channel of the Mixer. To do this, the meter on the Appearance–Meters page has color handles that allow you to define what
color the meter will have at a given signal level.
The Appearance–Meters page.
•
The default setting has four color handles. Each color handle has a
unique color that gradually shifts as the meter moves towards the next
color handle.
You can click on any color handle and move its position in the meter scale. If you hold
down [Shift] while moving the handle with the mouse, it will move ten times slower for
more precise positioning. You can also nudge the color handle’s position with the arrow
up/down keys. Holding Shift while nudging will move the color handle ten times faster.
•
You can add color handles by [Alt]/[Option]-clicking anywhere along
the side of the meter scale. [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking on a handle removes it from the meter scale.
By adding more color handles to the meter scale, you can define colors for more specific signal levels. Try adding two color handles very close to one another. This way,
you can make the meter color change more rapidly at a specific signal level.
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14 Working with the new features
•
To change the color of a handle, click on the handle to select it. You
can also use the [Tab] key to select the next handle. (To select the previous handle, hold down [Shift] and press the [Tab] key.) Use the hue
and brightness controls on the right to alter the handle’s color.
The currently selected color handle is indicated by a black triangle.
Appearance–Work Area
“Work areas” in this context refers to those places where the actual
data is displayed, such as the Project window event display. In these
areas, there are items such as vertical and horizontal grid lines which
can be altered in intensity by the controls found on this subpage.
Editing
On the main Editing page, the following options have been added:
•
Use Up/Down Navigation Commands for selecting Tracks only
By default, tracks are selected with the up/down arrow keys on the
computer keyboard. These are however also used for selecting events
which can lead to confusing results in some cases. Since track selection is a most vital operation in both editing and mixing, you now have
the opportunity to use the navigation controls for track selection only.
The following applies:
• When this option is deactivated and no event/part is selected in the Project
window, the up/down arrow keys on the computer keyboard are used to step
through the tracks in the Track list – just as you would expect this to work.
• When this option is deactivated and an event/part is selected in the Project
window however, the up/down arrow keys still step through the tracks in the
Track list – but on the currently selected track, the first event/part will automatically be selected as well. If this is not the desired behavior, you have to
activate “Use Up/Down Navigation Commands for selecting Tracks only”.
• When this option is activated, the up/down arrow keys are only used to
change the track selection – the current event/part selection in the Project
window will not be altered.
•
Default Track Time Type (Cubase SX only)
This allows you to specify the default track time type for new tracks
(Audio, Group/FX, MIDI and Marker tracks). When you change this
setting, all new tracks will use the selected time type. You can choose
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Working with the new features 15
between “Musical”, “Time Linear” and “Follow Transport Main Display”.
Selecting “Musical” will cause all added tracks to be set to musical
time type (the respective button shows a note symbol). When you select “Time Linear”, all new tracks will use linear time base (i.e. the button shows a clock symbol). The third option uses the primary time format setting on the Transport panel. When this is set to “Bars+Beats”,
tracks with musical time base will be added. When this is set to any of
the other options (Seconds, Timecode, Samples, etc.), all new tracks
will use linear time base.
Editing–Project & Mixer
This is a new subpage of the Preferences dialog with the following
new options:
•
Auto Track Color Mode
This offers you several options for automatically assigning colors to tracks that are
added to the project.
•
Sync Project and Mixer Selection
This is not a new feature, rather an old one with a new name. In previous versions, this
was called “Mixer Selection follows Project”. It has been renamed because the function really works both ways. For a description of the functionality (with the “old” name
“Mixer Selection follows Project”), see the dialog help for the Preferences dialog or the
chapter “The Mixer” in the Operation Manual.
•
Deep Track Folding
When you activate this option, any folding settings you make (on the Project menu –
Track Folding submenu) also affect the sub elements of the tracks, i.e. if you fold in a
folder track which contains 10 audio tracks 5 of which have several automation subtracks open, all these audio tracks within the folder track will be folded in as well.
•
Enlarge Selected Track
Activate this option to enter a mode where the selected track in the Project window
will be enlarged. (You can adjust the size directly in the Track list if the default enlargement factor does not suit you.) When this option is activated and you select another
track in the Track list, this is automatically enlarged and the previously selected track is
displayed in its previous size again.
Please note that Enlarge Selected Track is also available on the Edit menu.
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16 Working with the new features
•
Select Channel/Track on Solo
When you activate this option, a track in the Track list or a channel in the mixer automatically gets selected when the Solo button is activated.
Deactivating this option always keeps the current selection status, regardless of the
Solo setting for the tracks.
•
Select Channel/Track on Edit Setting
When you activate this option, a track in the Track list or a channel in the mixer automatically gets selected when you click the respective Edit button (e).
Deactivating this option always keeps the current track/channel selection.
•
The “Scroll to selected…” pop-up menu
The options in this pop-up menu work as follows:
• When you select “Track”, the Track list display follows the display in the Mixer,
i.e. when you select a channel in the mixer, the respective track is automatically displayed in the Track list as well. (However, this does not work the other
way around in this mode.)
• When you select “Channel”, selecting a track in the Track list automatically
scrolls the mixer to display the respective channel strip. (Here too, this does
not work vice versa.)
• When you select “Channel and Track”, both Track list and Mixer are automatically scrolled to display the track or channel selected in the other.
• Selecting “Disabled” deactivates this scrolling behavior.
Editing–Tools
•
Cross Hair Cursor options:
This allows you to display a cross hair cursor when working in the
Project window and editors, facilitating navigation and editing, especially when arranging in large projects. You can set up the colors for
the line and the mask of the cross hair cursor, and define its width.
The cross hair cursor works slightly differently for the different tools.
• When the Selection tool (or one of its subtools) is selected, the cross hair
cursor appears when you start moving/copying a part/event or using the
event trim handles.
• When the Scissors tool is selected, the cross hair cursor appears as soon as
you move the mouse over the event display.
• For the other tools, the cross hair cursor is not used.
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Working with the new features 17
General
On the General page, there is one new option:
•
Maximum Backup Files
This allows you to specify how many backup files will be created with the Autosave
function. When the maximum number of backup files is reached, the existing files will
be overwritten (starting with the oldest file).
MIDI
On the main MIDI page, the following options have been added:
•
Insert Reset Events after Record
This is a very handy function for MIDI recording. At the end of each recorded part, a Reset event will be inserted, resetting controller data
such as Sustain, Aftertouch, Pitchbend, Modulation, Breath Control,
etc. This is useful if a MIDI part is recorded and e.g. the Sustain pedal
is still held after stopping recording. Usually, this would cause all following parts to be played with Sustain, as the Pedal Off command
was not recorded. This can be prevented by activating “Insert Reset
Events after Record”.
•
Chase Events – Chase not limited to Part Boundaries
In previous program versions, Chase was only performed on parts
“touched” by the position cursor.
When you activate this option, MIDI controllers are also chased outside the part boundaries, i.e. the Chase will be performed on the part
touched by the cursor as well as on all the parts to the left of it. Please
note that this option should be deactivated for very large projects, as
it considerably slows down e.g. positioning and soloing.
When you deactivate this option, the MIDI controllers are only chased
within the parts under the position cursor.
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18 Working with the new features
VST
The main VST page now has three further subpages. On the main
VST page, the following options have been added:
•
Default Stereo Panner Mode
This allows you to specify the default pan mode for inserted audio
tracks (Stereo Balance Panner, Stereo Dual Panner or Stereo Combined Panner). For a description of these modes, see the chapter
“The Mixer” in the Operation Manual.
•
Activate dialog “Export Warnings as text file”
When you open a project which contains e.g. missing plug-ins, a dialog
opens listing these. When this dialog is closed, a message appears,
asking whether you want to export these warnings as text file. This message can be deactivated, i.e. if you activate the “Do not show this message again” checkbox, it will not be displayed in the future (when opening other projects with missing plug-ins etc.). To display this message
again, and thus be able to export important warnings as text files, activate the option “Activate dialog ‘Export Warnings as text file’”.
•
Warn on Processing Overloads
When you activate this option, a warning message will be displayed
as soon as the CPU clip indicator (on the Transport panel) lights up
during recording.
VST–Metering
•
Map Input Bus Metering to Audio Track (in Direct Monitoring)
When Direct Monitoring is activated in the Device Setup dialog, this
option allows you to map the input bus metering to monitor-enabled
audio tracks. This gives you the opportunity to watch the input levels
of your audio tracks when working in the Project window.
When Direct Monitoring is activated in the Device Setup dialog, this
function works as follows:
CUBASE SX/SL
Working with the new features 19
• When “Map Input Bus Metering to Audio Track (in Direct Monitoring)” is activated, audio tracks show the metering signal from the input bus they are
routed to as soon as the track is record enabled.
Note that the tracks are mirroring the input bus signal, i.e. you will see the
same signal in both places. When using mapped metering, any functions (e.g.
trimming) you apply to the audio track are not reflected in its meters.
• When “Map Input Bus Metering to Audio Track (in Direct Monitoring)” is not
activated, metering works as usual (see the Operation Manual for details).
VST–Scrub
•
CPU Saving Scrub Mode
When you activate this option, scrubbing will be less demanding on the
processor. This can be very useful when scrubbing in a large project,
where the “normal” scrub behavior leads to processing overloads.
When “CPU Saving Scrub Mode” is activated, the effects are disabled
for scrubbing and the resampling quality is lower.
Key Commands
A wide range of new key commands has been added for various areas
of the program. These can be assigned or modified as usual in the Key
Commands dialog (this is described in detail in the Key Commands
chapter in the Operation Manual).
There is now a separate Mixer section in the Key Commands dialog
(see also page 48), allowing you to e.g. hide the different channel
types, to save or load the Mixer settings, etc. In the Edit category, you
can now define a key command for opening the Device panel for the
selected track. Also, please note that the key command that was used
to open the Pool window can now be used to close the Pool as well.
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20 Working with the new features
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