Operation Manual

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling, Benjamin Schütte
Thanks to: Ashley Shepherd
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Release Date: March 31, 2011
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2011.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
8 About this manual 60 Working with tracks
9 Welcome! 61 Setting up tracks
63 Editing tracks
10 Setting up your system 64 Organizing tracks in folder tracks
11 Setting up audio 66 Dividing the track list
15 Setting up MIDI
17 Connecting a synchronizer 67 Playback and the Transport panel
17 Setting up video 68 Background
17 Optimizing audio performance 69 Operations
71 Options and Settings
21 VST Connections 73 The Virtual Keyboard
22 About this chapter
22 The VST Connections window 74 Recording
22 Setting up busses 75 Background
24 Routing 75 Basic recording methods
24 About monitoring 77 Audio recording specifics
25 Editing operations 82 MIDI recording specifics
86 Options and Settings
27 The Project window
28 Window Overview 89 Quantizing MIDI and audio
29 The track list 90 Introduction
29 The Inspector 91 Quantize functions
32 The toolbar 91 Advanced Quantize functions
33 The status line 92 The Quantize Panel
33 The info line
34 The overview line
95 Fades and crossfades
34 The ruler 96 Creating fades
35 The Snap function 97 The Fade dialogs
37 Auto-Scroll 98 Creating crossfades
99 The Crossfade dialog
38 Working with projects 100 Auto fades and crossfades
39 Creating new projects
40 Opening projects
101 The arranger track
40 Closing projects (Cubase Elements only)
40 Saving projects 102 Introduction
42 The Archive and Backup functions 102 Setting up the arranger track
43 Startup Options 103 Working with arranger events
44 The Project Setup dialog 105 Flattening the arranger chain
45 Zoom and view options 106 Live mode
47 Audio handling 106 Arranging your music to video
48 Auditioning audio parts and events 108 Using markers
48 Scrubbing audio
109 Introduction
48 Editing parts and events
109 The Marker window
55 Range editing
111 The marker track
57 Region operations
113 Marker key commands
57 The Edit History dialog
113 Exporting and importing markers
58 The Preferences dialog

4
Table of Contents
114 The Mixer 165 Audio processing and functions
115 Overview 166 Background
116 Configuring the Mixer 166 Audio processing
118 Basic mixing procedures 171 Freeze Edits
121 Audio-specific procedures 172 Detect Silence
127 Routing 173 The Spectrum Analyzer
129 MIDI-specific procedures 175 Statistics
130 Utilities 175 About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms
131 Audio effects 176 The Sample Editor
132 About this chapter 177 Window overview
132 Overview 180 General functions
133 Insert effects 185 Warping audio
136 Send effects 186 Working with hitpoints and slices
140 Editing effects
140 Effect presets
190 The Audio Part Editor
142 Installing and managing effect plug-ins 191 Background
191 Opening the Audio Part Editor
145 VST instruments and instrument 191 Window overview
tracks 192 Operations
146 Introduction 194 Options and Settings
146 VST instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 195 The Pool
146 VST instrument channels
196 Background
(not in Cubase LE)
196 Window overview
148 Instrument tracks
198 Operations
150 What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument
track? 206 The MediaBay
150 Instrument Freeze 207 Introduction
151 VST instruments and processor load 208 Working with the MediaBay
151 Using presets for VSTi configuration 209 The Define Locations section
154 About latency 210 The Locations section
211 The Results list
156 Automation
213 Previewing files
157 Introduction
215 The Filters section
157 Working with automation curves
217 The Loop Browser and Sound Browser windows
158 Enabling and disabling the writing of automation
217 Preferences
data
218 Key commands
158 Writing automation data
218 Working with MediaBay-related windows
160 Editing automation events
220 Working with Volume databases
161 Automation track operations
164 MIDI part data vs. track automation 221 Working with track presets
164 Hints and further options 222 Introduction
222 Types of track presets
223 Applying track presets
225 Creating a track preset
226 Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets

5
Table of Contents
227 Remote controlling Cubase 296 Export Audio Mixdown
228 Introduction 297 Introduction
228 Setting Up 297 Mixing down to audio files
229 Operations 298 The Export Audio Mixdown dialog
230 The Generic Remote device 299 The available file formats
232 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)
303 Synchronization
233 MIDI realtime parameters 304 Background
234 Introduction 304 Timecode (positional references)
234 The Inspector – general handling 305 Clock sources (speed references)
234 The Inspector sections 306 The Project Synchronization Setup dialog
308 Synchronized operation
238 Using MIDI devices 308 Working with VST System Link
239 Background 311 Activating VST System Link
239 MIDI devices – general settings and patch
handling 316 Video
243 About Studio Connections 317 Before you start
318 Preparing a video project in Cubase
244 MIDI processing 319 Video files in the Project window
245 Introduction 320 Playing back video
246 Making your settings permanent 322 Editing video
247 Dissolve Part 322 Extracting audio from a video file
248 Repeat Loop 323 Replacing the audio in a video file
248 Other MIDI functions
324 ReWire
252 The MIDI editors
(not in Cubase LE)
253 Introduction
325 Introduction
253 Opening a MIDI editor
325 Launching and quitting
255 The Key Editor – Overview
326 Activating ReWire channels
257 Key Editor operations
326 Using the transport and tempo controls
273 The Drum Editor – Overview
327 How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase
274 Drum Editor operations
327 Routing MIDI via ReWire2
276 Working with drum maps
327 Considerations and limitations
279 Using drum name lists
279 Working with SysEx messages 328 File handling
280 Recording SysEx parameter changes 329 Importing audio
280 Editing SysEx messages 332 Exporting and importing standard MIDI files
282 The Score Editor – Overview 334 Exporting and importing MIDI loops
283 Score Editor operations
335 Customizing
290 Editing tempo and signature 336 Background
291 Background 336 Using the Setup options
291 Tempo and signature display 337 Customizing track controls
292 Editing tempo and signature 339 Appearance
294 The Beat Calculator 339 Applying colors in the Project window
294 Adjusting the audio to the project tempo 342 Where are the settings stored?

6
Table of Contents
343 Key commands
344 Introduction
344 Setting up key commands
347 Setting up tool modifier keys
347 The default key commands
351 Index

7
Table of Contents
 1
About this manual
Welcome! Ö This manual often refers to right-clicking, for example, to
open context menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-
This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase. button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.
Here you will find detailed information about all the fea-
tures and functions in the program.

About the program versions

The documentation covers three program versions, Cu-
base Elements, Cubase AI, and Cubase LE, for two differ-
ent operating systems or “platforms”, Windows and Mac
OS X. Whenever the program is only called “Cubase” in
this document, this refers to all three program versions.
Some features described in the documentation are not
applicable to all three Cubase versions. Whenever this is
the case, it is clearly indicated in the heading of the related
subject. For example, if a heading is followed by “ (Cubase
Elements only)”, the corresponding feature is not available
in Cubase AI and Cubase LE. Likewise, if you see “ (not in
LE)”, the corresponding feature is only available in Cu-
base Elements and Cubase AI.
Some features and settings are also specific to one of the
platforms. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. If
nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the
documentation are valid for all Cubase versions for both
Windows and Mac OS X.
The screenshots are taken from the Windows version of
Cubase Elements.

Key command conventions

Many of the default key commands in Cubase use modifier
keys, some of which are different depending on the oper-
ating system. For example, the default key command for
Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Command]-[Z] un-
der 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]
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 Win-
dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.

9
About this manual
 2
Setting up your system
Setting up audio Multi-channel input and output
Most likely however, you will have other audio equipment
! Make sure that all equipment is turned off before that you want to integrate with Cubase, using several in-
making any connections! put and output channels. Depending on the equipment
available to you, there are two ways to go: either mixing
Connecting audio using an external mixing desk, or mixing using the Mixer in-
Exactly how to set up your system depends on many dif- side Cubase.
ferent factors, e. g. the kind of project you wish to create, • External mixing means having a hardware mixing device
the external equipment you want to use, or the computer with a group or bus system that can be used for feeding
hardware available to you. Therefore, the following sec- inputs on your audio hardware.
tions can only serve as examples. In the example below, four busses are used for feeding signals to the au-
How you connect your equipment, i. e. whether you use dio hardware’s inputs. The four outputs are connected back to the mixer
for monitoring and playback. Remaining mixer inputs can be used for
digital or analog connections, also depends on your indi-
connecting audio sources like microphones, instruments, etc.
vidual setup.

Stereo input and output – the simplest connection

If you only use a stereo input and output from Cubase, 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.

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
A simple stereo audio setup have mixing hardware that can be connected via FireWire.
This is probably the simplest of all setups – once you have
set up the internal input and output busses, you can con-
nect your audio source, e. g. a microphone, to your audio
interface and start recording.

11
Setting up your system
• When using the Mixer inside Cubase, you can use the (-10 dBV) or professional line level (+4 dBV), or you may
inputs on your audio hardware to connect microphones be able to adjust input characteristics on the audio inter-
and/or external devices. Use the outputs to connect your face or in its control panel. Please check the audio hard-
monitoring equipment. ware documentation for details.
Using the correct types of input is important to avoid dis-
tortion or noisy recordings.

! Cubase does not provide any input level adjustments

for the signals coming in to your audio hardware,
since these are handled differently for each card. Ad-
justing input levels is either done in a special applica-
tion included with the hardware or from its control
panel (see below).

Mixing inside Cubase

Making settings for the audio hardware
Recording from a CD player Most audio cards come with one or more small applica-
Most computers come with a CD-ROM drive that can also tions that allow you to configure the inputs of the hard-
be used as a regular CD player. In some cases the CD ware to your liking. This includes:
player is internally connected to the audio hardware so • Selecting which inputs/outputs are active.
that you can record the output of the CD player directly • Setting up word clock synchronization (if available).
into Cubase (consult the audio hardware documentation if • Turning monitoring via the hardware on/off (see “About moni-
you are uncertain). toring” on page 15).
• All routing and level adjustments for recording from a • Setting levels for each input. This is very important!
CD (if available) are done in the audio hardware setup ap- • Setting levels for the outputs, so that they match the equip-
plication (see below). ment you use for monitoring.
• Selecting digital input and output formats.
• Cubase Elements only: You can also grab audio tracks • Making settings for the audio buffers.
directly from a CD in Cubase (see the chapter “File han-
dling” on page 328). In many cases all available settings for the audio hardware
are gathered in a control panel, which can be opened from
Word clock connections within Cubase as described below (or opened separately,
when Cubase isn’t running). In some cases, there may be
If you are using a digital audio connection, you may also
several different applications and panels – please refer to
need a word clock connection between the audio hard-
the audio hardware documentation for details.
ware and external devices. Please refer to the documenta-
tion that came with the audio hardware for details. Plug and Play support for ASIO devices
! It is very important that word clock synchronization is The Steinberg MR816 hardware series supports Plug and
done correctly or there might be clicks and crackles Play in Cubase. These devices can be plugged in and
in recordings that you make! switched on while the application is running. Cubase will
automatically use the driver of the MR816 series and will
About recording levels and inputs re-map the VST connections accordingly.
When you connect your equipment, you should make sure
that the impedance and levels of the audio sources and in-
puts are matched. Typically, different inputs may be de-
signed for use with microphones, consumer line level

12
Setting up your system
Steinberg cannot guarantee that this will work with other ! Under Windows, we strongly recommend that you ac-
hardware. If you are unsure of whether your device sup- cess your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifi-
ports plug and play, please consult its documentation. cally for the hardware. If no ASIO driver is installed,
we recommend that you check with your audio hard-
! If a device that does not support Plug and Play is
ware manufacturer if they have an ASIO driver avail-
connected/disconnected while the computer is run-
able, for example, for download via the Internet. You
ning, it may get damaged.
can use the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver if no
specific ASIO driver is available.
Selecting a driver and making audio settings
in Cubase 4. Select the driver in the Devices list to open the driver
settings for your audio hardware.
The first thing you need to do is select the correct driver in
Cubase to make sure that the program can communicate 5. Bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and
with the audio hardware: adjust the settings as recommended by the audio hard-
ware manufacturer.
1. Launch Cubase and select Device Setup from the
Devices menu. • Under Windows, you open the control panel by clicking
the Control Panel button.
2. In the Devices list to the left, click on “VST Audio
The control panel that opens when you click this button is provided by the
System”. audio hardware manufacturer – not Cubase (unless you use DirectX, see
The VST Audio System page is shown.
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 La-
tency ASIO Driver (Windows 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 documen-
tation that came with your audio hardware for information on where to
make hardware settings.
6. If you plan to use several audio applications simultane-
ously, you may want to activate the “Release Driver when
Application is in Background” option on the VST Audio
System page. This will allow another application to play
3. On the ASIO Driver menu, select your audio hardware back via your audio hardware even though Cubase is
driver. running.
There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hard-
The application that is currently active (i. e. the “top window” on the desk-
ware. When you have selected a driver, it is added to the Devices list.
top) gets 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 can use it when it becomes the active
application again.
7. If your audio hardware receives clock signals from an
external sample clock source, you may want to activate
the “Externally Clocked” option on the page for the driver.
This is described in detail in the section “If your hardware setup is based
on an external clock source” on page 14.

13
Setting up your system
8. If your audio hardware and its driver support ASIO When the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver is selected in
Direct Monitoring, you may want to activate the Direct the Device Setup dialog, you can open the ASIO Control
Monitoring checkbox on the page for the driver. Panel and adjust the following settings (for more details,
Read more about monitoring later in this chapter and in the chapter “Re- click the Help button in the control panel):
cording” on page 74.
• Direct Sound Output and Input Ports
9. Click Apply and then OK to close the dialog. 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
If your hardware setup is based on an external clock list. To activate or deactivate a port in the list, click the checkbox in the
source left column. If the checkbox is ticked, the port is activated.
For proper audio playback and recording, it is essential • You can edit the Buffer Size and Offset settings in this
that you set the project’s sample rate to the sample rate of list if necessary, by double-clicking on the value and typ-
the incoming clock signals. If you load a project with a ing in a new value.
sample rate that is different from your clock source, the In most cases, the default settings will work fine. Audio buffers are used
program will try to change the settings of the clock when audio data is transferred between Cubase and the audio card.
source, which may not be what you want. While larger buffers ensure that playback will occur without glitches, the
latency (the time between the moment Cubase sends out the data and
By activating the “Externally Clocked” option, you “tell” when it actually reaches the output) will be higher.
Cubase that it receives external clock signals and there-
fore derives its speed from that source. The program will • Offset
If a constant offset is audible during playback of Audio and MIDI record-
not try to change the hardware sample rate any longer.
ings, you can adjust the output or input latency time using this value.
The sample rate mismatch is accepted and playback will
therefore be faster or slower. For more information about
the Sample Rate setting, see “The Project Setup dialog”
Setting up the input and output ports
on page 44. Once you have selected the driver and made the settings
as described above, you need to specify which inputs and
Ö When a sample rate mismatch occurs, the Record
outputs will be used and name these:
Format field on the status line is highlighted in a different
color. 1. In the Device Setup dialog, select your driver in the
Devices list on the left to display the driver settings for
If you are using audio hardware with a DirectX driver your audio hardware.
(Windows only)

! A DirectX driver is the next best option to a specific

ASIO driver and the Generic Low Latency ASIO
driver.

Cubase comes with a driver called ASIO DirectX Full Du-

plex, available for selection on the ASIO Driver pop-up
menu (VST Audio System page).
Ö 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 di-
alog for details about how this is reported).
Ö During the installation of Cubase, the latest DirectX
version will be installed on your computer. All input and output ports on the audio hardware are listed.

14
Setting up your system
2. To hide a port, click in the “Visible” column for the port ASIO Direct Monitoring
(deselecting the checkbox).
If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may sup-
Ports that are not visible cannot be selected in the VST Connections
window where you set up your input and output busses – see the chap-
port ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be
ter “VST Connections” on page 21. available for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In
this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hard-
! If you attempt to hide a port that is already used by a ware, by sending the input signal back out again. How-
bus you will be asked whether this is really what you ever, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means
want – note that this will disable the port! that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be
turned on or off automatically by Cubase.
3. To rename a port, click on its name in the “Show as”
column and type in a new name. Monitoring is described in detail in the chapter “Record-
ing” on page 74. However, when setting up, there is one
• It is a good idea to give your ports names that are re- thing to note:
lated to the channel configuration (rather than to the ac-
tual hardware model)! • If you want to use the external monitoring via your audio
hardware, make sure that the corresponding functions are
4. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog and apply activated in the card’s mixer application.
your changes.
Ö If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio
About monitoring hardware, make sure that the pan law is set to -3 dB in the
card’s preferences.
In Cubase, monitoring means listening to the input signal
while preparing to record or while recording. There are
three ways to monitor: Setting up MIDI
External monitoring ! Make sure that all equipment is turned off before
External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it making any connections!
goes into Cubase) requires an external mixer for mixing This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI
the audio playback with the input signal. This can be a equipment. If you have no MIDI equipment, you can skip
classic mixing desk or a mixer application for your audio this section. Note that this is only an example – you might
hardware, if this has a mode in which the input audio is need or want to hook things up differently!
sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, “Direct Thru” or
similar).

Via Cubase
In this case, the audio passes from the input into Cubase,
possibly through Cubase effects and EQ and then back to
the output. You control monitoring via settings in Cubase.
This allows you to control the monitoring level from Cu-
base and add effects to the monitored signal only.

15
Setting up your system
Connecting the MIDI equipment Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off
In this example we assume that you have a MIDI keyboard On the MIDI page in the Preferences dialog (located on
and an external MIDI sound module. The keyboard is used the File menu under Windows and on the Cubase menu
both for feeding the computer with MIDI messages for re- under Mac OS X), you will find a setting called “MIDI Thru
cording and for playing back MIDI tracks. The sound mod- Active”. This is related to a setting in your instrument
ule is used for playback only. Using Cubase’s MIDI Thru called “Local On/Off” or “Local Control On/Off”.
feature (described later) you will be able to hear the cor-
• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described earlier in
rect sound from the sound module while playing the key-
this chapter, MIDI Thru should be activated and that instru-
board or recording.
ment should be set to Local Off (sometimes called Local Con-
trol Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for details).
The MIDI signal from the keyboard will be recorded in Cubase
and at the same time be re-routed back to the instrument so
that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard “trig-
gering” its own sounds.

When “MIDI Thru” is active in

Cubase, MIDI data received is
immediately “echoed” back out.

MIDI data coming in to

the instrument is played
by the “Synth” inside it.

A typical MIDI Setup

“Synth”
If you want to use even more instruments for playback, sim-
ply connect MIDI Thru on the sound module to MIDI In on
the next instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will al-
ways play the first keyboard when recording. But you can
still use all your devices for providing sounds on playback. When you press a key, it is sent out via MIDI to Cubase.

! If you plan to use more than three sound sources, we When Local Control is turned on in the instrument, the keys you press
recommend that you either use an interface with will be played by the “Synth” inside the instrument. When Local Control
is turned off, this connection is cut off.
more than one output, or a separate MIDI Thru box
instead of the Thru jacks on each unit. • If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not pro-
duce any sounds itself – MIDI Thru in Cubase should also be
activated, but you don’t need to look for any Local On/Off set-
ting in your instruments.
• The only case where MIDI Thru should be deactivated is if you
use Cubase with only one keyboard instrument and that in-
strument cannot be set to Local Off mode.
• MIDI Thru will be active only for MIDI tracks that are record en-
abled and/or have the Monitor button activated. See the chap-
ter “Recording” on page 74 for more information.

16
Setting up your system
Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase Connecting a synchronizer
The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system
as follows: ! Make sure that all equipment is turned off before
making any connections!
Ö When you change MIDI port settings in the Device
Setup dialog, these are automatically applied. When using Cubase with external tape transports, you will
most likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All
Showing or hiding MIDI Ports connections and setup procedures for synchronization are
The MIDI ports are listed in the Device Setup dialog on the described in the chapter “Synchronization” on page 303.
MIDI Port Setup page. By clicking in the “Visible” column
for a MIDI input or output, you can specify whether or not Setting up video
it is listed on the MIDI pop-up menus in the program.
If you are trying to hide a MIDI port which is already se- Cubase plays back video files in a number of formats,
lected for a track or a MIDI device, a warning message will such as AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG. QuickTime is used as
appear, allowing you to hide – and disconnect – the port playback engine. Which formats can be played back de-
or to cancel the operation and keep the MIDI port visible. pends on the video codecs installed on your system, see
the chapter “Video” on page 316.
Setting up the “All MIDI Inputs” option There are several ways to play back video, e. g. without any
When you record MIDI in Cubase, you can specify which special hardware, using a FireWire port, or using dedicated
MIDI input each recording MIDI track should use. How- video cards, see “Video output devices” on page 317.
ever, you can also select the “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” option If you plan to use special video hardware, install it and set
for an input port, which causes any MIDI data from any it up as recommended by the manufacturer.
MIDI input to be recorded.
Before you use the video hardware with Cubase, we rec-
The “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” option on the MIDI Port Setup ommend that you test the hardware installation with the
page allows you to specify which inputs are included when utility applications that came with the hardware and/or the
you select All MIDI Inputs for a MIDI track. This can be es- QuickTime Player application.
pecially useful if your system provides several instances of
the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the dupli-
cates you make sure only the desired MIDI data is recorded. Optimizing audio performance
Ö If you have a MIDI remote control unit connected, you This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get
should also make sure to deactivate the “In ‘All MIDI In- the most out of your Cubase system, performance-wise.
puts’” option for that MIDI input. This will avoid accidentally Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be
recording the data from the remote control when the “All used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is
MIDI Inputs” option is selected as input for a MIDI track. very brief. Look for details and current information on the
Cubase web site.

Two aspects of performance

There are two distinct aspects of performance with re-
spect to Cubase.

Tracks and effects

Simply put: the faster your computer, the more tracks, ef-
fects and EQ you will be able to play. Exactly what consti-
tutes a “fast computer” is almost a science in itself, but
some hints are given below.

17
Setting up your system
Short response times (latency) Some program functions may “eat up” all the available
memory, e. g. recording, the use of effect plug-ins, and the
Another aspect of performance is response time. The term
pre-loading of samples.
“latency” refers to the “buffering”, i. e. the temporary stor-
ing, of small chunks of audio data during various steps of ! When a function has used up all the memory made
the recording and playback process on a computer. The available by the operating system, the computer will
more and larger those chunks, the higher the latency. crash.
High latency is most irritating when playing VST instru-
Always keep in mind the RAM limitation of your operating
ments and when monitoring through the computer, i. e.
system when setting up your projects.
when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase Mixer
and effects. However, very long latency times (several CPU and processor cache
hundred milliseconds) can also affect other processes like
mixing, e. g. when the effect of a fader movement is heard It goes without saying that the faster the computer proces-
only after a noticeable delay. sor, the better. But there are a number of factors that affect
the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed and type
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the (PCI is strongly recommended), the processor cache size
problems associated with very long latency times, a sys- and of course, the processor type and brand. Cubase relies
tem that responds fast will always be more convenient to heavily on floating point calculations. When shopping for a
work with. processor, please make sure that you get one that is pow-
• Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible erful in calculating floating point arithmetics.
to “trim” your latency times, usually by lowering the size Note also that Cubase features full support for multi-pro-
and the number of buffers. cessor systems. So, if you own a computer system with
For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are us- more than one processor, Cubase can take advantage of
ing a DirectX driver under Windows, the dialog help.
the total capacity and evenly distribute the processing
load to all available processors. For further information,
System factors that affect performance see “Multi processing” on page 19.
RAM
Hard disk and controller
Generally speaking, the more RAM is installed in your
The number of hard disk tracks you can record and play
computer, the better.
back at the same time also depends on the speed of your
! On computers running a Windows 32-bit operating hard disk and hard disk controller. If you use E-IDE disks
system, a running application can address a maxi- and controllers, make sure that the transfer mode is DMA
mum of 2 GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer Busmaster. Under Windows, you can check the current
running Mac OS X, this limit is 4 GB.The 64-bit ver- mode by launching the Windows Device Manager and
sions of Windows and Mac OS X are able to assign looking for properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller’s
considerably more than 4 GB of RAM to a running primary and secondary channel. DMA transfer mode is en-
64-bit application. abled by default, but may be turned off by the system
should hardware problems occur.
This limitation is imposed by the operating system, and it
is independent of the amount of RAM that you may have
installed in your computer.

18
Setting up your system
Audio hardware and driver Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)
The hardware and its driver can have some effect on re- To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO un-
gular performance. A badly written driver can reduce the der Windows (on a single-CPU system), the “system per-
performance of your computer. But where the hardware formance” has to be optimized for background tasks:
driver design makes the most difference is with latency.
1. Open the Control Panel and select the System settings.
! Again, we strongly recommend that you use audio 2. On the left, select the “Advanced system settings”
hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver! option.
The System Properties dialog opens.
This is especially true when using Cubase for Windows:
3. Select the Advanced tab and click the “Settings…”
• Under Windows, ASIO drivers written specifically for button in the Performance section.
the hardware are more efficient than the Generic Low La- The Performance Options dialog opens.
tency ASIO Driver or a DirectX driver and produce shorter
latency times. 4. Select the Advanced tab and activate the “Adjust for
best performance of: Background services” option.
• Under Mac OS X, audio hardware with properly written
Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers can be very efficient and 5. Click OK to close the dialogs.
produce very low latency times.
Multi processing
However, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO
drivers, such as the ASIO Positioning Protocol. On the VST Audio System page you will find the “Ad-
vanced options” section. Here you find advanced settings
Making settings that affect performance for the VST Engine, including a Multi Processing option.
When this is activated and there is more than one CPU in
Audio buffer settings your system, the processing load is distributed evenly to
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the au- all available CPUs, allowing Cubase to make full use of the
dio hardware. The size of the audio buffers affects both combined power of the multiple processors.
the latency and the audio performance. Generally, the
smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency. On the other About the VST Performance window
hand, working with small buffers can be demanding for the
computer. If the audio buffers are too small, you may get
clicks, pops or other audio playback problems.
• Under Mac OS X, you can adjust the size of the buffers
on the VST Audio System page in the Device Setup dialog.
You may also find buffer settings in the control panel for the audio hard- The VST Performance window is opened from the De-
ware. vices menu. The window shows two meter displays: The
ASIO meter, which indicates CPU load, and the Disk me-
• Under Windows, you adjust the buffer size settings in ter, which shows the hard disk transfer rate. It is recom-
the control panel for the audio hardware (opened by click- mended that you check this from time to time, or keep it
ing the Control Panel button on the driver page in the De- always open. Even if you have been able to activate a
vice Setup dialog). number of audio channels in the project without getting
any warning, you may run into performance problems
when adding EQ or effects.

19
Setting up your system
• The ASIO meter (at the top) shows the ASIO time us-
age, i. e. the time required to complete the current pro-
cessing tasks. The more tracks, effects, EQ, etc. you use
in your project, the longer processing will take, and the
longer the ASIO meter will show activity.
If the overload indicator (on the far right) lights up, you need to decrease
the number of EQ modules, active effects, and/or audio channels playing
back simultaneously.
• The lower bar graph shows the hard disk transfer load.
If the overload indicator (on the far right) lights up, the hard disk is not
supplying data fast enough to the computer. Cubase Elements only: You
may need to reduce the number of tracks playing back by using the Dis-
able Track function (see “About track disable/enable (Cubase Elements
only)” on page 71). If this does not help, you need a faster hard disk.
Ö The overload indicator may occasionally blink, e. g.
when you locate during playback. This does not indicate a
problem, but happens because the program needs a mo-
ment for all channels to load data for the new playback
position.
Ö The ASIO and Disk load meters can also be shown on
the Transport panel (as “Performance”) and on the Project
window toolbar (as “Performance Meter”). There they are
shown as two miniature vertical meters (by default at the
left side of the panel/toolbar).

20
Setting up your system
 3
VST Connections
About this chapter When you start working on new projects, you start from
this template. That way you get your standard bus config-
This chapter focuses on the settings you can perform in uration without having to make new bus settings for each
the VST Connections window. Here you can set up input new project. If you need to work with different bus config-
and output busses. urations in different projects, you can either create several
different templates or store your configurations as presets
Since input and output busses are vital for working with
(see “Presets” on page 24). The templates can of course
Cubase, a large part of this chapter concentrates on bus-
also contain other settings that you regularly use – sample
ses and this is also the reason why you find this chapter at
rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc.
the beginning of the Operation Manual.
Input busses
The VST Connections window • Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to
an analog input pair. This will let you record stereo material. If
you want to be able to record in stereo from other analog input
pairs as well, you add stereo input busses for these, too.
• Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a ste-
reo input, it may be a good idea to add a dedicated mono in-
put bus. This can be assigned to an analog input to which you
have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp, for exam-
ple. Again, you can have several different mono busses.
The VST Connections window is opened from the De- • You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to
vices menu. It contains an Inputs and an Outputs tab, the digital stereo input, for digital transfers.
which allow you to set up your busses.
Output busses
Setting up busses • You probably want one or several stereo output busses for
monitoring and listening to stereo mixes.
Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to trans- • For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the
fer audio between the program and the audio hardware. digital stereo output as well.
• Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio
hardware into the program. This means that when you record Preparations
audio, you will always do this through one or several input Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs
busses. and outputs on your audio hardware.
• Output busses let you route audio from the program to the
outputs on your audio hardware. When you play back audio, The reason for this is compatibility – it makes it easier to
you will always do this through one or several output busses. transfer projects between different computers and setups.
For example, if you move your project to another studio,
Once you understand the bus system and know how to the audio hardware may be of a different model. But if
set up the busses properly, it will be easy to go on with both you and the other studio owner have given your in-
recording, playing back and mixing. puts and outputs names according to the setup (rather
than names based on the audio hardware model), Cubase
Strategies will automatically find the correct inputs and outputs for
The bus configuration is saved with the project – therefore your busses and you will be able to play and record with-
it is a good idea to add and set up the busses you need out having to change the settings.
and save these in a template project (see “Save as Tem-
plate” on page 41).

22
VST Connections
To assign names to the inputs and outputs of your audio Adding input and output busses
hardware, proceed as follows:
Depending on whether you have selected the Inputs or the
1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu. Outputs tab in the VST Connections window, the corre-
sponding busses are listed, with the following information:
2. On the VST Audio System page, make sure that the
correct driver for your audio hardware is selected. Column Description
If this is the case, your audio card is listed in the Devices list on the left of Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select and rename busses by
the Device Setup window. clicking on them in this column.

3. In the Devices list, select your audio card. Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo) of
each bus.
The available input and output ports on your audio hardware are listed on
the right. Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.
Device Port If a bus entry is expanded to show all speaker channels,
4. To rename a port, click on its name in the Show As this column shows which physical inputs/outputs on your
column and enter a new name. audio hardware are used by the bus. If the bus entry is col-
lapsed, only the first port used by this bus is visible here.
• If needed, you can also disable ports by deactivating
Click (Outputs You can route the click to a specific output bus.
them in the Visible column. tab only)
Disabled ports are not shown in the VST Connections window. If you at-
tempt to disable a port that is used by a bus, you will be asked whether this
To add an input or output bus, proceed as follows:
is really what you want – note that this will remove the port from the bus!
1. Open the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on the type
5. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.
of bus that you want to add.
Ö If you open a project created on another computer and
2. Click the Add Bus button.
the port names do not match (or the port configuration is
A dialog opens.
not the same), the Missing Ports dialog will appear. This
allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project
to ports available in your system.

Mac OS X only: Port selection and activation

On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the
Device Setup dialog, see above), you can specify which
input and output ports are active. This allows you to use
the Microphone input instead of the Line input or even to
deactivate the audio card input or output completely, if
3. Select a (channel) configuration.
required.
You can add stereo and mono busses.
Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, stan- • Alternatively, you can right-click in the VST Connections
dard USB audio devices and a certain number of other window and add a bus in the desired format directly from
audio cards. the context menu.
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4. For each of the speaker channels in the bus, click in
the Device Port column to select a port on your audio
hardware.
The pop-up menu that opens lists the ports with the names you have as-
signed in the Device Setup dialog.

23
VST Connections
Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output Routing
bus)
When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-re-
The Main Mix is the output bus that each new audio, group
lated channel in the Mixer), you route it to an output bus. In
or FX channel is automatically routed to.
the same way, when you record on an audio track you se-
Any of the output busses in the VST Connections window lect from which input bus the audio should be sent.
can be the default output bus. By right-clicking on the
• You can select input and output busses in the Inspector
name of an output bus, you can set it as the Main Mix bus.
using the Input and Output Routing pop-up menus.
Ö For audio-related channel types other than audio track
channels (e.g. VST instrument channels), only the Output
Routing pop-up menu is available.
When selecting an input bus for a track you can only se-
lect busses that correspond to the track’s channel config-
uration. Here are the details for input busses:
• Mono tracks can be routed to mono input busses or individual
Setting the default output bus. channels within a stereo input bus.
• Stereo tracks can be routed to mono or stereo input busses.
! The Main Mix is indicated by an orange colored
speaker icon next to its name. For output busses any assignment is possible.

! Assignments that will lead to feedback are not avail-

Presets able in the pop-up menu. This is also indicated by a
On the Inputs and Outputs tabs you will find a Presets one-way symbol.
menu. Here you can find three different types of presets:
• To disconnect input or output bus assignments, select
• A number of standard bus configurations. “No Bus” from the corresponding pop-up menu.
• Automatically created presets tailored to your specific
hardware configuration. About monitoring
On startup, Cubase analyzes the physical inputs and outputs provided
by your audio hardware and creates a number of hardware-dependent The Main Mix bus (the default output bus) is used for mon-
presets with the following possible configurations: itoring (see “Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output
• One stereo bus. bus)” on page 24). You can adjust the monitoring level in
• Various combinations of stereo and mono busses. the Mixer.
• A number of mono busses.
• Your own user presets that you can save by clicking the
Store button (“+” symbol). 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
Delete button (“-” symbol).

24
VST Connections
Editing operations Selecting/Deselecting multiple entries
• Using the key commands [Ctrl]/[Command]-[A] (Select
On the different tabs of the VST Connections window the
All) and [Shift]-[Ctrl]/[Command]-[A] (Select None), you
corresponding busses are shown in a table containing a
can select and deselect all entries in the Bus Name column.
tree view with expandable entries. After you have set up all Note that for this to work, the table on the current tab needs to have the
the required busses for a project it might be necessary to focus. This can be achieved by clicking anywhere on the background of
edit the names and/or change port assignments. Cubase the table.
provides a number of features to make such tasks easier.
• By holding [Shift] when selecting entries in the Bus
Expanding and collapsing entries Name column, you can select multiple entries at the same
time.
• Bus entries can be expanded or collapsed to show or This is useful for automatic renaming or changing the port assignments
hide the corresponding speaker channels or sub-busses globally, see below.
by clicking the “+” or “-” sign in front of the corresponding
list entry. Ö If you select a subentry (e. g. a speaker channel in a
bus) the parent entry is automatically selected as well.
• To expand or collapse all entries on a tab at the same
time, use the “+ All” button or the “- All” button (respec- Selecting entries by typing the name
tively) above the tree view.
In the Bus Name list you can jump to an entry by typing the
Determining how many busses a device port is first letter of the bus name on the keyboard.
connected to
! This will only work if the table has the focus. To do
To give you an idea how many busses a given port is al- this, simply select any list entry.
ready connected to, the busses are shown in square
brackets on the Device Port pop-up menu, to the right of Navigating the Bus Name list using the [Tab] key
the port name. By pressing the [Tab] key you can jump to the next entry in
Up to three bus assignments can be displayed in this way. the Bus Name list, allowing you to rename your busses
If more connections have been made, this is indicated by a quickly. Similarly, by pressing [Shift]-[Tab] you can return
number at the far right. to the previous list entry.
Therefore, if you see the following: Automatically renaming selected busses
Adat 1 [Stereo1] [Stereo2] [Stereo3] (+2)… You can rename all the selected busses at once using in-
this means that the Adat 1 port is already assigned to crementing numbers or letters.
three stereo busses plus two additional busses. • To use incrementing numbers, select the busses that
you want to rename and enter a new name for one of the
Identifying exclusive port assignments busses, followed by a number.
In some cases (i. e. for certain channel types), the port For example, if you have eight inputs that you want to be named “In 1,
assignment is exclusive. Once a port has been assigned In 2, …, In 8”, you select all the busses and enter the name “In 1” for the
to such a bus or channel, it must not be assigned to an- first bus. All other busses are then renamed automatically.
other bus, otherwise the connection to the first bus will be • To use letters from the alphabet, proceed as with num-
broken. bers, but enter a capital letter instead of a number.
For example, if you have three FX channels that you want to be named
To help you identify such exclusive port assignments and
“FX A, FX B, and FX C”, you select all the channels and enter the name
avoid accidental reassignment, the corresponding ports “FX A” for the first. All other channels are then renamed automatically.
are marked in red on the Device Port pop-up menu. The last letter that can be used is Z. If you have more selected entries
than there are letters available, the remaining entries will be skipped.

25
VST Connections
 ! When using letters instead of numbers, it is impor-
tant to note that these must be preceded by a space.
If you leave out the space before the letter or if you
do enter neither a letter nor a number, only the first
selected entry is renamed.
Ö You do not have to begin renaming with the topmost
selected entry. The renaming will start from the bus where
you edit the name, will go down the list to the bottom and
then continue from the top until all selected busses have
been renamed.

Changing the port assignment for a single bus

To change the port assignment for a single bus, you pro-
ceed as when you added it: Make sure that the channels
are visible and click in the Device Port column to select
ports.

Changing the port assignment for multiple busses

To change the port assignment (or the output routing in
case of groups/FX channels) for multiple entries in the
Bus Name column at the same time, you need to select
the corresponding busses first.
• To assign different ports to the selected busses, press
[Shift], open the Device Port pop-up menu for the first se-
lected entry (i. e. the topmost bus) and select a device
port.
All subsequent busses are automatically connected to the next available
port.
• To assign the same port to all selected busses, press
[Shift]-[Alt]/[Option], open the Device Port pop-up menu
for the first selected entry (i. e. the topmost bus) and select
a device port.
Ö You can also set all selected busses or channels to
Not Connected.

Removing busses
To remove a bus you do not need, select it in the list, right-
click and select Remove Bus from the pop-up menu, or
press [Backspace].

26
VST Connections
 4
The Project window
Window Overview
The Project window is the main window in Cubase. This provides you with an overview of the project, allowing you to
navigate and perform large scale editing. Each project has one Project window.

Toolbar
Status line
Info line
Project
overview
Ruler

Inspector

The track list with various track types The event display, showing audio parts and events, MIDI parts, automation, markers, etc.

About tracks Track type Description

The Project window is divided vertically into tracks, with a Group By routing several audio channels to a Group channel, you
Channel can submix them, apply the same effects to them, etc. (see
timeline running horizontally from left to right. The follow- “Using group channels” on page 128).
ing track types are available: A Group channel track contains no events as such, but dis-
plays settings and automation curves for the corresponding
Track type Description Group channel. Each Group channel track has a corre-
sponding channel strip in the Mixer. In the Project window,
Audio For recording and playing back audio events and audio
Group channels are organized as tracks in a special Group
parts. Each audio track has a corresponding audio channel
Tracks folder.
in the Mixer.
An audio track can have any number of automation tracks for Instrument This allows you to create a track for a dedicated instrument,
automating Mixer channel parameters, effect settings, etc. making VST instrument handling easier and more intuitive. In-
strument tracks have a corresponding channel strip in the
Folder Folder tracks function as containers for other tracks, mak-
Mixer. Each instrument track can have any number of auto-
ing it easier to organize and manage the track structure.
mation tracks in the Project window. However, Volume and
They also allow you to edit several tracks at the same time,
Pan are automated from within the Mixer. For more informa-
see “Organizing tracks in folder tracks” on page 64.
tion on instrument tracks, see the chapter “VST instruments
FX Channel FX channel tracks are used for adding send effects. Each FX and instrument tracks” on page 145.
channel can contain up to eight effect processors – by rout-
MIDI For recording and playing back MIDI parts. Each MIDI track
ing effect sends from an audio channel to an FX channel, you
has a corresponding MIDI channel strip in the Mixer.
send audio from the audio channel to the effect(s) on the FX
A MIDI track can have any number of automation tracks for
channel. Each FX channel has a corresponding channel strip
automating Mixer channel parameters, insert and send ef-
in the Mixer – in essence an effect return channel, see the
fect settings, etc.
chapter “Audio effects” on page 131.
All FX channel tracks are automatically placed in a special FX Marker Marker tracks display markers which can be moved and re-
channel folder in the track list, for easy management. named directly in the Project window (see the chapter “Us-
An FX channel can also have any number of automation ing markers” on page 108). A project can have only one
tracks for automating Mixer channel parameters, effect marker track.
settings, etc.

28
The Project window
Track type Description The track list
Arranger The arranger track is used for arranging your project, by
(Cubase Ele- marking out sections in the project and determining in The track list displays all the tracks used in a project. It con-
ments only) which order they are to be played back. See the chapter tains name fields and settings for the tracks. Different track
“The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)” on page 101
for details. types have different controls in the track list. To see all
Ruler Ruler tracks contain additional rulers, displaying the time-
available controls, you may have to resize the track in the
line from left to right. You can use any number of ruler track list (see “Resizing tracks” on page 62).
tracks, each with a different display format if you wish. See
“The ruler” on page 34 for more information about the ruler
and the display formats.
Video For playing back video events. A project can only have one
video track.

About parts and events

The tracks in the Project window contain parts and/or
events. Events are the basic building blocks in Cubase.
Different event types are handled differently in the Project
window:
• Video events and automation events (curve points) are always
viewed and rearranged directly in the Project window. The track list showing a MIDI track, an audio track with an automation
• MIDI events can always be found in MIDI parts, which are con- track, and a VST instrument track
tainers for one or more MIDI events. MIDI parts are rearranged • Using the Track Controls Settings dialog you can de-
and manipulated in the Project window. To edit the individual cide which controls are visible for each track type, see
MIDI events in a part, you have to open the part in a MIDI edi- “Customizing track controls” on page 337.
tor (see “The MIDI editors” on page 252).
• Audio events can be displayed and edited directly in the Proj-
ect window, but you can also work with audio parts containing The Inspector
several events. This is useful if you have a number of events
which you want to treat as one unit in the project. Audio parts The area to the left of the track list is called the Inspector.
also contain information about the time position in the project. This shows additional controls and parameters for the
track you have selected in the track list. If several tracks
are selected, the Inspector shows the setting for the first
(topmost) selected track.

Opening the Inspector

To show the Inspector, proceed as follows:
An audio event and an audio part
1. On the toolbar, click the “Set up Window Layout”
Getting on-the-fly info with the Arrow tool button.
A transparent pane appears, covering the Project window.
If the “Select Tool: Show Extra Info” option is activated in
the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page), a tooltip will
be shown for the Arrow tool, displaying information de-
pending on where you point it. For example, in the Project
window event display, the tool will show the current
pointer position and the name of the track and event you
are pointing at.

29
The Project window
2. In the gray area in the middle, activate the Inspector Not all Inspector tabs are shown by default. You can
option. show/hide Inspector sections by right-clicking on an In-
spector tab and activating/deactivating the desired op-
tions on the Inspector Setup context menu.

Inspector handling
For most track classes, the Inspector is divided into a
number of sections, each containing different controls for
the track. Which sections are available in the Inspector
depends on the selected track.
• You can hide or show sections by clicking on their
Ö Make sure that you right-click on an Inspector tab and
names.
not on the empty area below the Inspector, as this will
Clicking the name for a hidden section brings it into view and hides the
other sections. [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the section name allows you
open the Quick context menu instead.
to hide or show a section without affecting the other sections. [Alt]/[Op-
tion]-clicking a section name shows or hides all sections in the Inspector. Inspector sections
The Inspector contains the controls that can be found on
the track list, plus some additional buttons and parame-
ters. In the table below, these additional settings and the
different sections are listed. Which sections are available
for which track type is described in the following sections.
Parameter Description
Auto Fades Opens a dialog in which you can make separate Auto
Settings Fade settings for the audio track, see “Making Auto Fade
button settings for individual tracks” on page 100.
Edit Channel Opens the Channel Settings window for the track, allow-
Settings ing you to view and adjust effect and EQ settings, etc.,
• You can also use key commands to show different In- see “Using Channel Settings” on page 122.
spector sections. Volume Use this to adjust the level for the track. Changing this
These are set up in the Key Commands dialog, see “Setting up key com- setting will move the track’s fader in the Mixer window,
mands” on page 344. and vice versa. See “Setting volume in the Mixer” on page
118 to learn more about setting levels.
Ö Hiding a section does not affect its functionality. For
Pan Use this to adjust the panning of the track. As with the
example, if you have set up a track parameter or activated Volume setting, this corresponds to the Pan setting in the
an effect, your settings will still be active even if you hide Mixer.
the respective Inspector section. Delay This adjusts the playback timing of the audio track. Positive
values delay the playback while negative values cause the
track to play earlier. The values are set in milliseconds.
Input This lets you specify the input bus or MIDI input for the
Routing track. See “Setting up busses” on page 22 for informa-
tion about input busses.

30
The Project window
Parameter Description Arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
Output Here you decide to which output the track is routed. For For the arranger track, the Inspector displays the lists of
Routing audio tracks you select an output bus (see “Setting up
busses” on page 22) or Group channel, for MIDI tracks available arranger chains and arranger events. See the
you select a MIDI output and for instrument tracks, you chapter “The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)” on
select the instrument to which it is routed. page 101 for details.
Inserts section Allows you to add insert effects to the track, see the
chapters “Audio effects” on page 131 and “MIDI realtime Folder tracks
parameters” on page 233. The Edit button at the top of
the section opens the control panels for the added insert When a folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the
effects.
folder and its underlying tracks, much like a folder struc-
Equalizers Lets you adjust the EQs for the track. You can have up to ture in the Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finder.
section four bands of EQ for each track, see “Making EQ set-
tings” on page 123. The Edit button at the top of the sec- Ö You can click one of the tracks shown under the folder
tion opens the Channel Settings window for the track.
in the Inspector to have the Inspector show the settings
Equalizer Lets you adjust the EQs for the track graphically, by click- for that track. This way, you do not have to “open” a folder
Curve section ing and dragging points in a curve display.
track to make settings for tracks within it.
Sends section Allows you to route an audio track to one or several FX
channels, see the chapter “Audio effects” on page 131.
The Edit button above a slot opens the control panel for
FX channel tracks
the first effect in each FX channel.
When an FX channel track is selected, the following con-
Channel Shows a duplicate of the corresponding Mixer channel trols and sections are available:
section strip. The channel overview strip to the left lets you acti-
vate and deactivate insert effects, EQs and sends. • Edit button
Notepad This is a standard text notepad, allowing you to jot down • Volume control
section notes about the track. If you open the File menu and se- • Pan control
lect “Notepad Data…” from the Export submenu, your
data will be exported as text file and opened in an external • Output Routing pop-up menu
text editor from where you can print it. Note that you have • Inserts section
to save your project first.
If you have entered any notes about a track, the icon next
• Equalizers section
to the “Notepad” heading will light up to indicate this. • Equalizer Curve section
Moving the pointer over the icon will display the Notepad • Channel section
text in a tooltip.
• Notepad section
Audio tracks FX channel tracks are automatically placed in a special
folder, for easier management. When this folder track is
For audio tracks, all settings and sections listed above are
selected, the Inspector shows the folder and the FX chan-
available.
nels it contains. You can click one of the FX channels
Instrument tracks shown in the folder to have the Inspector show the set-
tings for that FX channel – this way you do not have to
As explained in the chapter “VST instruments and instru- “open” a folder track to access the settings for the FX
ment tracks” on page 145, the Inspector for an instrument channels in it.
track shows some of the sections from VST instrument
channels and MIDI tracks. Group channel tracks

MIDI tracks When a group channel track is selected, the following

controls and sections are available:
When a MIDI track is selected, the Inspector contains a
number of additional sections and parameters, affecting the • Edit button
MIDI events in realtime (e. g. on playback). Which sections • Volume control
are available for MIDI tracks is described in the chapter • Pan control
“MIDI realtime parameters” on page 233. • Output Routing pop-up menu
• Inserts section
• Equalizers section

31
The Project window
• Equalizer Curve section Option Description
• Sends section Automation Mode When this is activated, the automation mode and a
• Channel section button to open/close the Automation panel are dis-
• Notepad section played on the toolbar. For details, see the chapter
“Automation” on page 156.
Just like FX channel tracks, all group channel tracks are Auto-Scroll When this is activated, buttons for the options “Auto-
placed in a separate folder – when this is selected, the In- Scroll” and “Suspend Auto-Scroll when Editing” are
displayed, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 37.
spector shows the folder and the group channels it con-
tains. You can click one of the group channels shown in the Locators When this is activated, the left and right locator posi-
tions are displayed on the toolbar.
folder to have the Inspector show the settings for that group
channel – this way, you do not have to “open” a folder track Transport Buttons When this is activated, the transport buttons from the
Transport panel are also displayed on the toolbar.
to access the settings for the group channels in it.
Arranger Controls When this is activated, the controls used when work-
(Cubase Elements ing with the arranger track are displayed, see the
Marker tracks only) chapter “The arranger track (Cubase Elements
only)” on page 101.
When the marker track is selected, the Inspector shows
the marker list. For more information, see the chapter “Us- Time Display When this is activated, the Transport panel’s time
display is displayed on the toolbar.
ing markers” on page 108.
Markers When this is activated, the Transport panel’s marker
Ruler tracks buttons are displayed on the toolbar.
Snap to Zero This is described in the section “Snap to Zero
For ruler tracks, the Inspector is not used. Crossing Crossing” on page 37.
Tool Buttons When this is activated, tool buttons for editing in the
Video tracks Project window are displayed on the toolbar. The
tools are also accessible via the toolbox, see “Using
When a video track is selected, the Inspector contains a the toolbox” on page 32.
Mute button for interrupting video playback.
Color menu This shows/hides the color pop-up menu, see “Ap-
Video tracks make use of the Notepad Inspector tab. plying colors in the Project window” on page 339.
Nudge Palette Activate this to display the nudge buttons. These
buttons can be used to nudge events or parts in the
The toolbar Project window or for trimming (see “Moving events”
on page 50 and “Resizing events” on page 52).
The toolbar contains tools and shortcuts for opening other Snap/Quantize These options are described in the sections “The
windows and various project settings and functions. Snap function” on page 35 and “Quantizing MIDI
and audio” on page 89.

Ö How to further set up the toolbar is described in the

section “Using the Setup options” on page 336.
You can show/hide most of the toolbar elements (except
the Activate Project and “Set up Window Layout” buttons) Using the toolbox
by activating/deactivating the corresponding options on
The toolbox can be opened instead of the standard con-
the context menu. The following options are available:
text menus in the event display and editors. It makes the
Option Description editing tools from the toolbar conveniently available at the
Constrain Delay This is described in the section “Constrain Delay mouse pointer position.
Compensation Compensation” on page 154.
• To open the toolbox by right-clicking (Win)/[Ctrl]-click-
Media & Mixer When this is activated, buttons for opening or clos-
Windows ing the MediaBay, the Pool, and the Mixer are dis- ing (Mac), activate the “Popup Toolbox on Right Click”
played on the toolbar. option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page).
Performance Meter When this is activated, meters for ASIO time usage When this option is activated, you need to press any modifier key and
and hard disk transfer load are displayed, see “About right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) to open the context menu. When it is
the VST Performance window” on page 19. deactivated, you need to press a modifier key to open the toolbox instead
of the context menu.

32
The Project window
• To change the number of rows in which the tools are The info line
arranged on the toolbox, keep the right mouse button
pressed on the toolbox until the mouse pointer changes to The info line is displayed below the status line in the Proj-
a double arrow, and drag to the bottom or right. ect window.
The tools can be arranged in one, two, or three horizontal or vertical rows.

The status line

The info line shows information about the currently se-
The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Proj- lected event or part in the Project window. You can edit al-
ect window. most all values on the info line using regular value editing.
Length and position values are displayed in the format cur-
rently selected for the ruler (see “The ruler” on page 34).
It displays the following information: • To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window
Option Description
Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate
the Info Line option.
Record Time Max This displays the time you have left for recording,
depending on your project settings and the avail- The following elements can be selected for display and
able hard disk space. Click in this field to display
the remaining record time in a separate window. editing on the info line:
Record Format This displays the sample rate and the bit resolution • Audio events
used for recording. • Audio parts
Project Frame Rate This displays the frame rate used in the project. • MIDI parts
Project Pan Law This displays the current Pan Law setting. • Video events
• Markers
Ö Clicking on any of the fields except the Record Time • Automation curve points
Max display opens the Project Setup dialog, where you • Arranger events (Cubase Elements only)
can adjust the settings (see “The Project Setup dialog” on
page 44). When several elements are selected
• If you have selected several elements, the info line shows
! Cubase permits different sample rate settings for a information about the first item in the selection. The values
project and the audio hardware. However, as a result are displayed in color to indicate that several elements are
the audio files in a project will not play back in their selected.
original pitch. If the “Record Format” field is high-
lighted in a different color, there is a sample rate • If you edit a value on the info line, the value change is
mismatch and you should check the settings in the applied to all selected elements, relatively to the current
Project Setup dialog. values.
If you have selected two audio events, the first being one bar long and the
• To show or hide the status line, click the “Set up Win- second two bars, the info line shows the length of the first event (one bar).
dow Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deacti- If you now change this value to 3 bars in the info line, the other event will be
vate the Status Line option. resized by the same amount – and will thus be 4 bars long.
• To enter absolute values for the selected elements,
press [Ctrl]/[Command] while modifying the value on the
info line. In the example above, both events would be re-
sized to 3 bars.
[Ctrl]/[Command] is the default modifier key for this – you can change
this in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page, in the Info
Line category).

33
The Project window
Editing transpose and velocity for MIDI parts The ruler
When one or several MIDI parts are selected, the info line
contains Transpose and Velocity fields.
• Adjusting the Transpose field transposes the selected
The ruler at the top of the event display shows the timeline.
parts in semitone steps.
Initially, the Project window ruler uses the display format
Note that this transposition does not change the actual notes in the part
specified in the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project
– it is just a “play parameter”, affecting the notes on playback. The trans-
position you specify for a part on the info line is added to the transposi- Setup dialog” on page 44), as do all other rulers and posi-
tion set for the whole track. tion displays in the project. However, you can select an in-
dependent display format for the ruler by clicking the arrow
• Adjusting the Velocity field shifts the velocity for the se- button to the right of it and selecting an option from the
lected parts – the value you specify is added to the veloc- pop-up menu (you can also bring up this pop-up menu by
ities of the notes in the parts. right-clicking anywhere in the ruler).
Again, this velocity shift only affects the notes on playback, and again,
the value you specify is added to the Vel.Shift. value set for the whole Option Positions and lengths displayed as
MIDI track in the Inspector. Bars+Beats Bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks. By default there
are 120 ticks per sixteenth note, but you can adjust this
with the “MIDI Display Resolution” setting in the Prefer-
The overview line ences dialog (MIDI page).
Seconds Hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.
The overview line is displayed below the info line in the Timecode This format displays hours, minutes, seconds, and
Project window. In the overview line, events and parts on frames. The number of frames per second (fps) is set in
all tracks are displayed as boxes. the Project Setup dialog with the Frame Rate pop-up
menu (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 44).
Samples Samples.
Time Linear When this is selected, the ruler will be linear relative to
time. This means that if there are tempo changes on the
• To show/hide the overview line, proceed as for the info tempo track, the distance between the bars will vary in
line (see above), but activate the Overview Line option Bars+Beats mode.

instead. Bars+Beats When this is selected, the ruler will be linear relative to
Linear the meter position – bars and beats. This means that if
You can use the overview line to zoom in or out, and for there are tempo changes on the tempo track, there still
will be the same distance between bars in Bars+Beats
navigating to other sections of the project. This is done by mode. If the ruler is set to a time-based mode, the dis-
moving and resizing the track view rectangle in the over- tance between seconds will vary depending on the
view line. tempo changes.

• The track view rectangle indicates the section of the

• The selection you make here affects the ruler, the info
project currently displayed in the event display.
line and tooltip position values (which appear when you
• You zoom in or out horizontally by resizing the rectangle. drag an event in the Project window).
Resize it by dragging the edges of the rectangle. You can also select independent formats for other rulers and position
displays.
• To set the display format globally (for all windows), use
the primary display format pop-up on the Transport panel,
• You can drag the track view rectangle to view other or hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and select a display for-
sections of the project. mat in any ruler.
This can also be done by clicking anywhere in the upper part of the over-
• If the “Timecode” option and the “Show Timecode Sub-
view – the track view rectangle will be moved to where you clicked.
frames” option are activated in the Preferences dialog
(Transport page), the frames will also display subframes.
There are 80 subframes per frame.

34
The Project window
Using multiple rulers – ruler tracks The Snap function
As described above, the Cubase Project window contains
The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when
a main ruler at the top of the event display, displaying the
editing in the Project window. It does this by restricting
timeline from left to right.
horizontal movement and positioning to certain positions.
If needed, you can have several rulers in the Project win- Operations affected by Snap include moving, copying,
dow, by adding ruler tracks to the project. Each ruler track drawing, sizing, splitting, range selection, etc.
contains an additional ruler.
• You turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap icon on the
• To add a ruler track, open the “Add Track” submenu toolbar.
from the Project menu and select “Ruler”.
A ruler track showing an additional ruler is added to the track list.

When you are moving audio events with Snap activated, it

is not necessarily the beginning of the event that is used
as Snap position reference. Instead, each audio event has
You can add any number of ruler tracks to a project, and a snap point, which you can set to a relevant position in
position them as needed by dragging them up or down in the audio (such as a downbeat, etc.).
the track list. Each of the rulers can show a separate dis-
play format. Cubase Elements only
• To select a display format for a ruler track, click on its The snap point is preferably set in the Sample Editor since
name in the track list and select an option from the pop-up it allows for a higher degree of precision (see “Adjusting
menu. the snap point” on page 181). However, you can also set
the snap point directly in the Project window, in the follow-
ing way:
1. Select an event.
2. Place the project cursor at the desired position within
the selected audio event.
3. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Snap Point To
Note that ruler tracks are completely independent from the
Cursor”.
main event display ruler, as well as rulers and position dis-
The snap point is set at the cursor position.
plays in other windows. This means that:
• Each ruler track in a project can have its own display format.
• Ruler tracks are not affected by the display format setting in
the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project Setup dialog” on
page 44).
• Ruler tracks are not affected if you set the display format glob-
ally with the primary time display in the Transport panel. The snap point for an event is displayed as a vertical line in the Project
window.
Ö Ruler tracks are affected by the “Show Timecode
Subframes” option in the Preferences dialog (Transport
page, see above).

35
The Project window
The Snap Type pop-up menu For example, if an event starts at the position 3.04.01 (one
beat before bar 4), Snap is set to Grid Relative and the Grid
To determine how the Snap function works, open the
Type pop-up menu is set to “Bar”, you can move the event
Snap Type pop-up menu and select one of the available
in steps of one bar – to the positions 4.04.01, 5.04.01 and
options.
so on. The event will keep its relative position to the grid, i. e.
stay one beat before the bar lines.
• This only applies when dragging existing events or parts
– when you create new events or parts this snap type
works like “Grid”.

Events
This grid type makes the start and end positions of other
events and parts become “magnetic”. This means that if
you drag an event to a position near the start or end of an-
In the Snap Type pop-up menu the following options are other event, it is automatically aligned with the start or end
available: of the other event. For audio events, the position of the
snap point is also magnetic (see “Adjusting the snap
Grid point” on page 181).
If you select this Snap type, the Snap positions are set • Note that this includes marker events on the marker
with the Grid Type pop-up menu. The options depend on track.
the display format selected for the ruler. For example, if the This allows you to snap events to marker positions, and vice versa.
ruler is set to show bars and beats, the grid can be set to
bars, beats, or the quantize value set with the selected Shuffle
quantize preset. If a time or frame-based ruler format is se- Shuffle is useful when you want to change the order of ad-
lected, the Grid Type pop-up menu contains time or jacent events. If you have two adjacent events and drag
frame-based grid options, etc. the first one to the right, past the second event, the two
events will change places.

When Seconds is selected as ruler format, the Grid Type pop-up menu
contains time-based grid options. The same principle works when changing the order of
Grid Relative more than two events:

If you select this Snap type, events and parts will not be
“magnetic” to the grid. Rather, the grid determines the
step size for moving the events. This means that a moved 1 2 3 4 5

event will keep its original position relative to the grid. Dragging event 2 past event 4…

1 3 4 2 5

…changes the order of events 2, 3 and 4.

36
The Project window
Magnetic Cursor Suspending Auto-Scroll
This grid type lets the project cursor become “magnetic”. When editing parts or events during playback with Auto-
Dragging an event near the cursor causes the event to be Scroll enabled, you may suddenly “lose sight” of the ed-
aligned with the cursor position. ited material as the display follows the project cursor.

Grid + Cursor If you do not want the Project window display to change
when editing during playback, you can activate the “Sus-
This is a combination of “Grid” and “Magnetic Cursor”. pend Auto-Scroll when Editing” button. You will find this
button right next to the Auto-Scroll button. When this op-
Events + Cursor
tion is enabled, auto-scrolling is suspended as soon as
This is a combination of “Events” and “Magnetic Cursor”. you click anywhere in the event display during playback.
Events + Grid + Cursor Proceed as follows:

This is a combination of “Events”, “Grid” and “Magnetic 1. Open a project that contains audio or MIDI parts/
Cursor”. events.
2. Enable both the “Auto-Scroll” and the “Suspend Auto-
Snap to Zero Crossing Scroll when Editing” buttons.
When this option is activated on the toolbar, splitting and 3. Start playback.
sizing of audio events is done at zero crossings (positions
in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you 4. Edit an audio or MIDI part/event of your project (e. g.
avoid pops and clicks which might otherwise be caused click and drag it to a different location on its track).
by sudden amplitude changes. The Auto-Scroll button turns orange.
Auto-Scrolling is now suspended, i. e. when the project
cursor moves to the right edge of the Project window, the
Auto-Scroll display will not follow to keep the cursor visible.
When the Auto-Scroll option is activated, the waveform As soon as playback stops or when you click the Auto-
display will scroll during playback, keeping the project cur- Scroll button again, Cubase will return to the normal Auto-
sor visible in the window. You can find the Auto-Scroll but- Scroll behavior.
ton on the toolbars of the Project window and all editors.

“Auto-Scroll” and “Suspend Auto-Scroll when Editing” are activated.

• If the “Stationary Cursors” option is activated in the Pre-

ferences dialog (Transport page), the project cursor will
be positioned in the middle of the screen (if possible).

37
The Project window
 5
Working with projects
Creating new projects Choosing a template
In the category bar of the Project Assistant dialog, the
The Project Assistant dialog is opened by selecting the
available factory templates are sorted into the predefined
“New Project…” command on the File menu. In this dialog
categories Recording, Production, Scoring, and Master-
you can access recently opened projects and create new
ing. Furthermore, there is a More category which contains
projects, which can either be empty or based on a template.
the default project template (see “Setting up a default
template” on page 41) and all templates that are not as-
Category
signed to any of the other categories.
bar
When you click on one of the category items, the list be-
low the category bar shows the available factory tem-
plates for this category that were installed with Cubase.
Template
Any new templates that you create (see “Save as Tem-
list plate” on page 41) are added at the top of the corre-
sponding list for convenient access.
• To create an empty project that is not based on a tem-
plate, select the “Empty” entry in the More category and
click the Create button.
An empty project is also created if no template is selected in the cur-
rently shown category.
• You can rename or delete a template by right-clicking it
Location in the list and selecting the corresponding option on the
options context menu.
• To open the folder in which the selected template is
Open Other button
stored in the Windows Explorer/Mac OS Finder, right-
The Project Assistant dialog will also open in the following click the template in the list and select “Show in Explorer”
cases: (Win) or “Reveal in Finder” (Mac).

• If you launch Cubase with the “Show Project Assistant” Choosing a project location
option selected on the “On Startup” pop-up menu in the
Preferences dialog (General page). The options in the lower part of the dialog allow you to
specify where the project is stored.
• If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while launching
Cubase. • Select “Use default location” to create the project in the
default project location (as shown in the path field), and
click Create.
Opening recent projects In the “Project folder” field you can specify a name for the project folder.
The Recent category in the category bar of the Project As- If you do not specify a project folder here, the project will reside in a
sistant dialog contains a list of recently opened projects. folder named “Untitled”.
When you select an item in this category, the Create but- Ö To change the default project location, simply click in
ton changes to “Open”, allowing you to open the corre- the path field. A file dialog opens, allowing you to specify a
sponding project. This list is similar to the list in the new default location.
Recent Projects submenu of the File menu.
• Select “Prompt for project location” and click Continue
to create the project in a different location.
In the dialog that appears, specify a location and a project folder.

39
Working with projects
Open Other About the “Missing Ports” dialog
The “Open Other” button allows you to open any project If you open a Cubase project created on a different sys-
file on your system. This is identical to using the Open tem (other audio hardware), the program tries to find
command from the File menu, see below. matching audio inputs and outputs for the i/o busses (this
is one of the reasons why you should use descriptive, ge-
neric names for your input and output ports – see “Prepa-
Opening projects rations” on page 22).
The “Open…” command on the File menu is used for open- If the program cannot resolve all audio/MIDI inputs and
ing saved project files. outputs used in the project, a Missing Ports dialog will
Ö If you open a project from a different program version open. This allows you to manually re-route any ports spec-
that contains data for functions not available in your ver- ified in the project to ports available in your system.
sion, this data may get lost when saving the project with
your version. Closing projects
• Several projects can be open at the same time.
This is useful if you want to copy parts or entire sections from one project
The Close command on the File menu closes the active
to another. window. If a Project window is active, selecting this closes
the corresponding project.
• If there is already an open project, you will be asked if
you want to activate the new project. • If the project contains unsaved changes, you are asked
whether you want to save it before closing.
• Click No to open the project inactive. If you select “Don’t Save” and have recorded or created new audio files
This significantly reduces load times, especially for large projects. since saving, you will be asked if you want to delete or keep these.
• Click Activate to open and activate the new project.
The active project is indicated by the lit Activate Project button in the upper
left corner of the Project window. To activate a different project, simply
Saving projects
click its Activate Project button.
Save and Save As
The commands Save and Save As allow you to save the
active project as a project file (file extension “.cpr”). The
Save command stores the project under its current name
and location, while Save As allows you to rename and/or
relocate the file. If a project has not been saved yet or if it
has not been changed since it was last saved, only Save
As is available.

! Generally, we recommend that you save project files

in their project folders, to keep the projects as
• You can also open project files by selecting an entry manageable as possible.
from the “Recent Projects” submenu of the File menu.
This submenu lists the projects you have recently worked with, with the A word about file extensions
most recent at the top of the list. The list can also be found in the Project
Assistant dialog, see “Creating new projects” on page 39. Under Windows, file types are indicated by three letter file
name extensions (such as *.cpr for Cubase project files).
• You can also set Cubase to automatically open a project
when you launch the program (see “Startup Options” on Under Mac OS X, it is not necessary to use file name ex-
page 43). tensions, since the file types are stored internally in the
files. However, if you want your Cubase projects to be
compatible with both platforms, make sure that the “Use

40
Working with projects
File Extension in File Dialog” option is activated in the • Templates can contain clips and events just like regular
Preferences dialog (General page). When this is acti- projects.
vated, the proper file name extension is automatically If this is not what you want, make sure to remove all clips from the Pool
added when you save a file. before you save the project as a template.
Templates are always stored in the Templates folder, see
Save New Version “Where are the settings stored?” on page 342.
This function is only available as a key command, by de-
Setting up a default template
fault [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-[S]. When you use
this function, an identical, new project file is being created If you always want the same default project to open when
and activated. you launch Cubase, you can save a default template. Pro-
ceed as follows:
The new file will get the same name as the original project,
but with an incremental number attached. For example, if 1. Set up a project.
your project is called “My Project”, you will get new ver-
2. Select “Save As Template…” from the File menu and
sions called “My Project-01”, “My Project-02”, and so on.
save the project template with the name “default”.
Save New Version is useful if you are experimenting with
3. Open the Preferences dialog and select the General
edits and arrangements and want to be able to go back to
page.
a previous version at any time. The newest versions are al-
ways listed on the Recent Projects submenu of the File 4. Open the “On Startup” pop-up menu and select
menu for instant access (see also “Opening recent proj- “Open ‘Default’ Template”.
ects” on page 39). The next time you launch Cubase, the default template will
automatically be opened. For details on the other Startup
Save as Template options, see “Startup Options” on page 43.
This function allows you to save the current project as a Ö In the Project Assistant dialog, the default project tem-
template. When you create a new project, the available plate is found in the More category.
templates are listed, allowing you to base the new project
on a template.
Reverting to the last saved version
Proceed as follows: If you select “Revert” from the File menu, you will be asked
1. Set up a project. whether you really want to revert to the last saved version
of the project. If you click “Revert”, all changes you have
2. Select “Save As Template…” from the File menu and
made since saving will be discarded.
enter a name for the new project template.
If you have recorded or created new audio files since sav-
• In the Attribute Inspector section you can assign the
ing, you will be asked whether you want to delete or keep
template to one of the four template categories shown in
these.
the Project Assistant dialog (see “Creating new projects”
on page 39) and/or enter a description for the template.
Simply select a category value from the Template Category pop-up
menu and/or enter a description in the Content Summary field.
Ö If you do not choose a Template Category attribute,
the new template will be shown in the More category in
the Project Assistant dialog.
3. Click OK to save the template.

41
Working with projects
Auto Save Once you have performed a Prepare Archive operation, you
can use the “Back Up Project” function to create a backup
of the project file, containing copies of all necessary media
files (with the exception of VST Sound content, see below).
It is not necessary to archive the Images folder, since
these images can be recreated by Cubase. You may also
find a file with the extension “.csh” in the project folder.
If you activate the Auto Save option in the Preferences dia- This contains image information for edited clips and other
log (General page), Cubase will automatically save backup data that can be recreated, so it can safely be deleted.
copies of all open projects with unsaved changes. ! Video clips are always referenced and not stored in
These backup copies are named “<project name>-xx.bak”, the project folder.
where xx is an incremental number. Unsaved projects are
backed up in a similar way as “UntitledX-xx.bak”, with X Back up Project
being the incremental number for unsaved projects. All
This function is very useful if you want to create a backup
backup files are saved in the project folder.
copy of a project for your archive. It can also be used to
• Use the “Auto Save Interval” setting to specify the time prepare projects for delivery so that they only contain the
intervals in which a backup copy will be created. necessary work data (while leaving the original project un-
touched). When you back up a project, all media files (ex-
• Use the “Maximum Backup Files” option to specify how
cept those coming from VST Sound archives) can be
many backup files will be created with the Auto Save
included as a copy.
function.
When the maximum number of backup files is reached, the existing files ! VST Sound content provided by Steinberg is copy-
will be overwritten (starting with the oldest file).
protected and will not be included in the backup
Ö With this option only the project files themselves will project. If you want to use a backup copy of a project
be backed up. If you want to include the files from the Pool using such data on a different computer, make sure
and save your project in a different location, you need to that the corresponding content is also available on
use the “Back up Project” function. that computer.
1. Select “Back up Project…” from the File menu.
The Archive and Backup functions A file dialog opens in which you can choose an existing empty folder or
create a new folder to save the project.
Prepare Archive 2. Click OK.
The “Prepare Archive” function verifies that every clip ref- The “Back up Project Options” dialog opens.
erenced in the project is located in the same folder, and
takes actions if that is not the case:
• Any files that are located outside the current project
folder will be copied into it.
Please note that audio files residing within the project folder are not cop-
ied to the audio folder. Therefore, you have to copy them there manually
before backing up the audio folder or save them separately during
backup, see below.
• If any processing has been applied, you will be asked
whether you want to Freeze Edits.
If you do this, you do not have to archive the Edits folder. Everything be-
longing to the project will be contained in the project file and the Audio
folder.

42
Working with projects
This dialog contains the following options: 4. When the scan is complete, you can select files by
Option Description
clicking in the list.
Use [Ctrl]/[Command]-click to select several files, and [Shift]-click to se-
Project Name Enter a project name if you want to change it from the de-
lect a range of files. You can also click the Select All button to select all
fault (the current name of the project).
files in the list.
Keep Current When this option is activated, the current project will still
Project Active be the active project after clicking OK. If you wish to switch In the following situations, the Cleanup function will list
to the new backup project instead, deactivate this option. files that are not unused:
Minimize Audio If this is activated, only the audio file portions that are actu-
Files ally used in the project will be included. This can significan- • If you have moved or renamed files or folders (without updat-
tly reduce the size of the project folder (if you are using ing the project files to use the new paths), there is no way for
small sections of large files), but it also means you cannot
use other portions of the audio files if you continue working
Cubase to know that these files are used in a project.
with the project in its new folder. • If you perform the Cleanup function on a folder in which there
Freeze Edits This will perform a Freeze Edits operation, making all pro- are audio files belonging to other projects (outside the folder),
cessing and applied effects permanent to each clip in the these files will be considered “unused”.
Pool, see “Freeze Edits” on page 171.
• Also, make sure that you do not delete any files used in
Remove When this is activated, only files in the Pool that are actu-
Unused Files ally used in the project will be stored in the new folder. other applications, or files that you generally want to keep!
Do Not Back When this is activated, any video clips on the video track However, you can always safely delete image files since
up Video or in the Pool of the current project will not be included in
the backup project.
these can be reconstructed by the program, if necessary.
5. Delete any files you do not want to keep by selecting
3. Make the desired settings. them and clicking Delete.
4. Click OK. 6. Close the dialog by clicking the Close button.
A copy of the project is saved in the new folder. The original project is
not affected.
Startup Options
Cleanup (Cubase Elements only) The “On Startup” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog
The Cleanup function on the File menu helps you to save (General page) allows you to specify what happens when
hard disk space by locating and – if you like – deleting un- you launch Cubase.
used audio files in the project folders on your disk.
1. Select “Cleanup…” from the File menu.
If there are any open projects, an alert shows. Clicking “Close” closes all
open projects and brings up the dialog “Cleanup Cubase Project Folders”.
2. To restrict the Cleanup function to a certain folder,
click the “Search Folder” button and select the folder.
The default setting is that the Cleanup function is applied to all folders on
all hard disks. Only select a specific folder if you are certain it does not
contain audio files used in other projects (outside the folder), see below. The following options are available:
You can reset the function to search all folders by opening the “Search
Option Description
Folder” dialog again and clicking “Cancel”.
Do Nothing Cubase launches without opening a project.
3. Click the Start button.
Open Last The last saved project is opened on launch.
Cubase will now scan the selected folder (or all hard disks) for Cubase Project
project folders and check for audio and image files (in the Audio, Edits
Open ‘Default’ The default template is opened, see “Setting up a de-
and Images subfolders) that are not used by any project. The found files
Template fault template” on page 41.
are listed in the dialog.

43
Working with projects
Option Description The following settings are available in the Project Setup
Show Open The Open dialog opens on launch, allowing you to man- dialog:
Options Dialog ually locate and open the desired project.
Setting Description
Show Project The Project Assistant dialog opens on launch, allowing
Author Here you can add a name that will be written as the project
Assistant you to open a recently opened project or to create a
author into the iXML chunk when exporting audio files with
new project from one of the templates (see “Creating
the corresponding option activated (see “AIFF files” on
new projects” on page 39).
page 300). The default setting for this can be set in the
Preferences dialog (General–Personalization page).

The Project Setup dialog Company Here you can add a name that will be written as the com-
pany name into the iXML chunk when exporting audio files
with the corresponding option activated (see “AIFF files”
General settings for the project are made in the Project on page 300). The default setting for this can be set in the
Setup dialog. This is opened by selecting “Project Preferences dialog (General–Personalization page).
Setup…” from the Project menu. Start The start time of the project. Allows you to have the project
start at another time than zero. Also used for setting the
Ö If the “Run Setup on Create New Project” option is ac- sync start position when synchronizing Cubase to external
tivated in the Preferences dialog (General page), the Pro- devices (see the chapter “Synchronization” on page 303).
The format of this value is always in timecode. When you
ject Setup dialog will open automatically when you create change this setting you will be asked whether you want to
a new project. keep the project content at its timecode positions. “Yes”
means that all events will stay at their original timecode po-
sitions – i. e. they will be moved in relation to the start of the
project. “No” means that all events keep their position rela-
tive to the project start.
Length The length of the project.
Frame Rate This setting determines both the timecode standard and
frame rate for the project, see the section “Timecode
standards” on page 304. The frame rate of a video file
used in a project should match the frame rate set for a
project. The “Get From Video” button allows you to set
the project frame rate to the frame rate of an imported
video file, see the section “Adopting the video frame rate”
on page 319. When synchronizing Cubase to an external
device, make sure that this setting corresponds to the
frame rate of any incoming timecode. However, there
might be situations where perfect synchronization does
not matter to you and you do not want to change the proj-
ect frame rate. In this case, the frame rate mismatch will
be indicated on the Transport panel in the Sync section.
Display Format This is the global display format used for all rulers and po-
sition displays in the program, except ruler tracks (see
“Ruler tracks” on page 32). However, you can make inde-
pendent display format selections for the individual rulers
and displays if you like.
For descriptions of the different display format options,
see “The ruler” on page 34.
Display Offset Offsets the time positions displayed in the ruler, etc., al-
lowing you to compensate for the Start position setting.
Typically, if you synchronize Cubase to an external source
starting at a frame other than zero, you set the Start posi-
tion to this value. However, if you still want the display in
Cubase to start at zero, set the Display Offset to the
same value.

44
Working with projects
Setting Description Zoom and view options
Bar Offset This works just like “Display Offset” described above, in
that it offsets the time positions in the ruler by a number Zooming in the Project window is done according to the
of bars, allowing you to compensate for the Start position standard zoom techniques, with the following special notes:
setting. The difference is that Bar Offset is only used
when the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected (see • When you are using the Zoom tool (magnifying glass),
“The ruler” on page 34).
the result depends on the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode:
Sample Rate The sample rate at which Cubase records and plays au-
dio. The order of the menu items depends on the sample
Horizontal Zooming Only” option in the Preferences dialog
rates available for your audio hardware. Supported set- (Editing–Tools page).
tings are displayed in the upper part of the menu, non- If this is activated and you drag a selection rectangle with the Zoom tool,
supported settings are displayed in the lower part. Re-
the window will only be zoomed horizontally (track height will not change).
garding the sample rate, there are two possible scenar-
ios: Either your audio hardware generates the audio clock If the option is off, the window will be zoomed both horizontally and verti-
signals itself or it is clocked externally, i. e. receives sig- cally.
nals from an external sample clock source (see “If your
hardware setup is based on an external clock source” on • When using the vertical zoom sliders, the tracks are
page 14). scaled relatively.
If the sample rate is generated internally, the following ap-
plies: When you select a sample rate non-supported by In other words, if you have made any individual track height adjustments
your audio hardware (from the lower part of the menu), it (see below), the relative height differences are maintained.
is highlighted in a different color and the corresponding
tooltip shows a warning. In this case you must set a dif- You find the following options are available on the Zoom
ferent sample rate to make your audio files play back submenu on the Edit menu:
properly. When you specify a project sample rate that
your audio hardware supports but which is different from Option Description
the current audio hardware sample rate, and you confirm
your settings by clicking OK, the sample rate setting of Zoom In Zooms in one step, centering on the project cursor.
the audio hardware is automatically changed to the proj- Zoom Out Zooms out one step, centering on the project cursor.
ect sample rate.
Zoom Full Zooms out so that the whole project is visible. “The
Bit Resolution/ When you record audio in Cubase, the files that are cre- whole project” means the timeline from the project
Record File ated will be of this resolution and file type, see “Selecting start to the length set in the Project Setup dialog (see
Type a recording file format” on page 77. above).
Stereo Pan Decides whether panning uses power compensation or Zoom to Zooms in horizontally and vertically so that the current
Law not, see “About the “Stereo Pan Law” setting” on page Selection selection fills the screen.
122.
Zoom to Selec- Zooms in horizontally so that the current selection fills
tion (Horiz) the screen.
! While most Project Setup settings can be changed Zoom to Event This option is available only in the Sample Editor (see
at any time, you should set the sample rate directly “Zooming” on page 180).
after creating a new project! If you change the sam- Zoom In Vertically Zooms in one step vertically.
ple rate at a later stage, you must convert all audio Zoom Out Zooms out one step vertically.
files in the project to the new sample rate to make Vertically
them play back properly. Zoom In Tracks Zooms in on the selected track(s) one step vertically.
Zoom Out Tracks Zooms out the selected track(s) one step vertically.
Zoom Selected This zooms in vertically on the selected track(s) and
Tracks minimizes the height of all other tracks.
Undo/Redo These options allow you to undo/redo the last zoom
Zoom operation.

• If the “Zoom while Locating in Time Scale” option is ac-

tivated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page), you
can also zoom by clicking in the ruler and dragging up or
down with the mouse button pressed.
Drag up to zoom out; drag down to zoom in.

45
Working with projects
• You can zoom the contents of parts and events verti- The upper part of the menu lists the zoom presets:
cally, using the waveform zoom slider in the top right cor-
• To store the current zoom setting as a preset, select
ner of the event display.
Add from the pop-up menu.
This is useful when viewing quiet audio passages.
A dialog opens, allowing you to type in a name for the preset.
• To select and apply a preset, select it from the pop-up
menu.
• The “Zoom Full” preset is always available. Selecting
this option zooms out so that the whole project is visible.
“The whole project” means the timeline from the project
start to the length set in the Project Setup dialog (see
! To get an approximate reading on the level of the au- “The Project Setup dialog” on page 44).
dio events by viewing the waveforms, make sure this
• If you want to delete a preset, select “Organize…” from
slider is all the way down. Otherwise, zoomed wave-
the pop-up menu.
forms may be mistaken for clipped audio. In the dialog that opens, select the preset in the list and click the Delete
• If you activate the option Quick Zoom in the Preferences button. The preset is removed from the list.
dialog (Editing page), the contents of parts and events will • If you want to rename a preset, select “Organize…”
not be continuously redrawn when you zoom manually. from the pop-up menu.
Instead, the contents are redrawn once you have stopped changing the In the dialog that opens, select the desired preset in the list and click the
zoom – activate this if screen redraws are slow on your system. Rename button. A second dialog opens, allowing you to type in a new
name for the preset. Click OK to close the dialogs.
Zoom presets and cycle markers
! Zoom presets are global for all projects, i. e. they are
The pop-up menu to the left of the horizontal zoom control available in all projects you open or create.
allows you to select, create and organize zoom presets.
These are useful if you want to toggle between different The middle part of the pop-up menu lists any cycle mark-
zoom settings (e. g. one where the whole project is dis- ers you have added to the project:
played in the project window and another with a high
• If you select a cycle marker from this menu, the event
zoom factor for detailed editing). With this pop-up menu,
display is zoomed in to encompass the marker area.
you can also zoom in on the area between cycle markers
in the project. • You cannot edit the cycle markers in this pop-up menu.
For information on editing markers, see “The Marker win-
dow” on page 109.

! Only the cycle markers you create in the current proj-

ect are available on the menu.

The Zoom history

Click here…
Cubase maintains a history of recent zoom stages, allow-
ing you to undo and redo zoom operations. This way you
can zoom in several steps and then easily go back to the
zoom stage at which you started.
…to open the context
menu. There are two ways to invoke Undo Zoom and Redo
Zoom:
• Use the items on the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu.
You can also assign key commands for these.

46
Working with projects
• Double-click with the Zoom tool (magnifying glass) to Option Description
Undo Zoom. Edit as Drums If this is activated, parts on MIDI tracks with drum maps
Press [Alt]/[Option] and double-click to Redo Zoom. when Drum assigned will be shown with drum note symbols in the
Map is Project window. Also, the parts will automatically open in
assigned the Drum Editor when double-clicked (overriding the De-
Adjusting how parts and events are shown fault Edit Action setting above).
The Preferences on the File menu (the Cubase menu, un- Note Name Determines how MIDI note names (pitches) are dis-
der Mac OS X) contains several settings for customizing Style played in editors, etc.

the display in the Project window.

The Event Display page contains common settings for all Audio handling
track types:
When you work with audio files, it is crucial to understand
Option Description how audio is handled in Cubase:
Show Event Determines whether the names of parts and events are
Names shown in the Project window. When you edit or process audio in the Project window,
Show Event If this is activated, the contents of events and parts will be
you always work with an audio clip that is automatically
Data on Small shown, even if the height of a track is very small. created on import or during recording. This audio clip re-
Track Heights fers to an audio file on the hard disk that itself remains un-
touched. This means, that audio editing and processing is
The Event Display–Audio page contains settings for audio “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can always undo
events: changes or revert to the original versions.
Option Description An audio clip does not necessarily refer to just one origi-
Interpolate If the option is deactivated, single sample values are drawn nal audio file! If you apply some processing to a specific
Audio Images as “steps”. If the option is activated they are interpolated to section of an audio clip, for example, this will create a new
form “curves”.
audio file containing only this section. The processing will
Show Event If this is activated the “volume curves” created with the
Volume Curves volume and fade handles are always shown – if not, the
then be applied to the new audio file only, leaving the orig-
Always curves are only shown for selected events. inal audio file unchanged. Finally, the audio clip is auto-
Show Determines whether audio waveforms are shown at all. matically adjusted, so that it refers both to the original file
Waveforms and to the new, processed file. During playback, the pro-
Background When this is activated, the backgrounds of audio wave- gram will switch between the original file and the pro-
Color forms are displayed in a different way, reflecting the cessed file at the correct positions. You will hear this as a
Modulation waveform dynamics. This is especially useful to get an
overview when working with small track heights.
single recording, with processing applied to one section
only. This feature makes it possible to undo processing at
a later stage, and to apply different processing to different
The Event Display–MIDI page contains settings for MIDI
audio clips that refer to the same original file.
parts:
Option Description
An audio event is the object that you place on a time po-
sition in Cubase. If you make copies of an audio event and
Default Edit Determines which editor is opened when you double-
Action click a MIDI part, or select it and press [Ctrl]/[Com- move them to different positions in the project, they will
mand]-[E]. Note that this setting is overridden for tracks still all refer to the same audio clip. Furthermore, each au-
with drum maps if the “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is dio event has an Offset value and a Length value. These
assigned” option (see below) is activated.
determine at which positions in the clip the event will start
Part Data Determines if and how events in MIDI parts are shown in
Mode the Project window: as lines, as score notes, as drum
and end, i. e. which section of the audio clip will be played
notes, or as blocks. If “No Data” is selected, events will back by the audio event. For example, if you resize the au-
not be shown at all. Note that this setting is overridden for dio event, you will just change its start and/or end position
tracks with drum maps if the “Edit as Drums when Drum
Map is assigned” option (see below) is activated. in the audio clip – the clip itself will not be affected.
Show Governs whether non-note events (controllers, etc.) are
Controllers shown in MIDI parts in the Project window.

47
Working with projects
An audio region is a section within a clip with a length 3. Click at the desired position of your audio event or
value, a start time, and a snap point. Audio regions are part and keep the mouse button pressed.
shown in the Pool and are best created and edited in the The project cursor moves to the position where you click. The mouse
Sample Editor. pointer is not visible anymore.

Ö If you want to use one audio file in different contexts, 4. Drag to the left or right.
or if you want to create several loops from one audio file, The project cursor moves correspondingly and the audio is played back.
convert the corresponding regions of the audio clip to The speed and thus the pitch of the playback depend on how fast you
move the mouse.
events and bounce them into separate audio files. This is
necessary since different events that refer to the same clip You can adjust the volume of the Scrub function in the
access the same clip information. Preferences dialog (Transport–Scrub page).
Ö When scrubbing with the mouse, insert effects are al-
Auditioning audio parts and events ways bypassed.

Audio parts and events can be auditioned in the Project Ö It is also possible to “scrub” all audio and video tracks
window with the Play tool: of your project with the Jog wheel and Shuttle Speed con-
trol on the Transport panel see “Playing back with the
! When auditioning, the Main Mix bus is used. shuttle speed control” on page 70.
Scrubbing can be quite a burden on your system. If play-
1. Select the Play tool. back problems occur, try deactivating the “Use High
Quality Scrub Mode” option in the Preferences dialog
(Transport–Scrub page). The resampling quality will then
be lower, but scrubbing will be less demanding on the
processor. This can be useful when scrubbing in large
2. Click where you want playback to start, and keep the projects.
mouse button pressed.
Only the track on which you click is played back, starting at the click
position.
Editing parts and events
3. Release the mouse button to stop playback. This section describes techniques for editing in the Proj-
ect window. If not explicitly stated, all descriptions apply
to both events and parts, even though we use the term
Scrubbing audio “event” for convenience.
The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio Ö When you are using the tools for editing, you can in
part or event by playing back, forwards or backwards, at many cases get additional functions by pressing modifier
any speed: keys (e. g. pressing [Alt]/[Option] and dragging with the
Arrow tool creates a copy of the dragged event).
1. Select the Play tool and click a second time on the
icon. On the following pages, the default modifier keys are de-
A pop-up menu opens. scribed – you can customize these in the Preferences dia-
log (Editing–Tool Modifiers page), see “Setting up tool
2. Select “Scrub”.
modifier keys” on page 347.

48
Working with projects
Selecting events • Use the arrow keys on the computer keyboard to select
the closest event to the left, right, above, or below.
Selecting events is done using any of the following
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection will be
methods: kept, allowing you to select several events.
• Use the Arrow tool. By default, tracks are selected with the up/down arrow keys
The standard selection techniques apply.
on the computer keyboard. Therefore using these to select
• Use the Select submenu on the Edit menu. events, too, can be confusing. If you want to use the naviga-
The options are: tion controls for track selection only (a most vital operation
Option Description in both editing and mixing), you can activate the “Use Up/
Down Navigation Commands for selecting Tracks only” op-
All Selects all events in the Project window.
tion in the Preferences dialog (Editing page). The following
None Deselects all events.
applies:
Invert Inverts the selection – all selected events are dese-
lected and all events that were not selected are se- • When this option is deactivated and no event/part is selected
lected instead. in the Project window, the up/down arrow keys on the com-
In Loop Selects all events that are partly or wholly between puter keyboard are used to step through the tracks in the track
the left and right locator. list.
From Start to Selects all events that begin to the left of the project • When this option is deactivated and an event/part is selected
Cursor cursor.
in the Project window, the up/down arrow keys still step
From Cursor to Selects all events that end to the right of the project through the tracks in the track list – but on the currently se-
End cursor.
lected track, the first event/part will automatically be selected
Equal Pitch These are available in the MIDI Editors (see “Select- as well.
ing notes” on page 261) and the Sample Editor (see
“Using the Select menu” on page 182). • When this option is activated, the up/down arrow keys are
Select Controllers This is available in the MIDI Editors (see “Selecting
only used to change the track selection – the current event/
in Note Range controllers within the note range” on page 261). part selection in the Project window will not be altered.
All on Selected Selects all events on the selected track. • If the “Auto Select Events under Cursor” option is acti-
Tracks
vated in the Preferences dialog (Editing page), all events
Events under Automatically selects all events on the selected on the selected track(s) that are “touched” by the project
Cursor track(s) that are “touched” by the project cursor.
cursor are automatically selected.
Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see “Window
This can be helpful when rearranging your project, because it allows you
overview” on page 177).
to select whole sections (on all tracks) by selecting all tracks and moving
Left/Right Selec- These two functions are only used for range selection the project cursor.
tion Side to Cursor editing (see “Creating a selection range” on page 55).

Using the cross hair cursor

! Note that these functions work differently when the
Range Selection tool is selected (see “Creating a Also in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page), you
selection range” on page 55). can find the Cross Hair Cursor section. When enabled, a
cross hair cursor is displayed when working in the Project
• Select all events on a track by right-clicking on it in the window and in the editors, facilitating navigation and edit-
track list and selecting “Select All Events” from the con- ing, especially when arranging large projects. You can set
text menu. up the colors for the line and the mask of the cross hair
cursor, and define its width. The cross hair cursor works
• It is also possible to select ranges, regardless of the
as follows:
event and track boundaries.
This is done using the Range Selection tool (see “Range editing” on • When the Selection tool (or one of its subtools) is se-
page 55). lected, the cross hair cursor appears when you start mov-
ing/copying a part/event, or when using the event trim
handles.

49
Working with projects
• When the Pencil tool, the Scissors tool, or any other • Use the Nudge buttons on the toolbar.
tool that makes use of this function is selected, the cross These move the selected events to the left or right. The amount of move-
hair cursor appears as soon as you move the mouse over ment depends on the selected display format (see “The Project Setup di-
the event display. alog” on page 44) and the value set on the Grid pop-up menu.

• The cross hair cursor is only available for tools where

such a function is of any use. The Mute tool, for example,
does not use a cross hair cursor, as you have to click di-
rectly on an event to mute it.

Moving events
To move events in the Project window, use the following ! When the Range Selection tool is used, the Nudge
methods: buttons move the selection range (see “Moving and
duplicating” on page 56).
• Click and drag to a new position.
All selected events are moved, maintaining their relative positions. You Ö The Nudge buttons are not visible on the toolbar by
can only drag events to tracks of the same type. If Snap is activated, this default. You can decide which items are visible by right-
determines to which positions you can move the events (see “The Snap clicking on the toolbar and activating the corresponding
function” on page 35).
option on the context menu (see “The setup context
Note also that you can restrict movement to be either horizontal or verti-
cal only, by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging.
menus” on page 336).
• Use the Up/Down key commands, found in the Nudge
! You will note that there is a slightly delayed response category in the Key Commands dialog.
when you move an event by dragging. This helps you These commands allow you to nudge one or more events (except folder
avoid accidentally moving events when you click on parts) up or down to the nearest track.
them in the Project window. You can adjust this delay
Nudging up/down will not create new tracks: If there is no
with the Drag Delay setting in the Preferences dialog
destination track that matches the track configuration of
(Editing page).
the nudged event, nothing happens.
• Select the event and edit the Start position in the info line.
• Use the “Move to” options on the Edit menu.
Duplicating events
Events can be duplicated in the following ways:
The following options are available:
• Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the event to a new
Option Description
position.
Cursor Moves the selected event to the project cursor position.
If Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can copy the
If there are several selected events on the same track,
the first event will start at the cursor, and the following events (see “The Snap function” on page 35).
will be lined up end-to-start after the first one.
Origin Moves the selected events to their original positions, i. e.
! If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] as well, move-
the positions at which they were originally recorded. ment direction is restricted to either horizontal or ver-
Front/Back This function does not actually change the position of the tical. That means if you drag an event vertically it
events, but moves the selected events to the front or back, cannot be moved horizontally at the same time.
respectively. This is useful if you have overlapping events
and want to see one that is partially obscured.
For audio events, this is an extra important feature, be-
cause only the visible sections of events will be played
back. Moving an obscured audio event to front (or moving
the obscuring event to back) will allow you to hear the
whole event on playback.
Note that it is also possible to use the “To Front” function
on the event context menu for this.

50
Working with projects
• Audio and MIDI parts can also be duplicated by clicking • Selecting “Fill Loop” from the Functions submenu on
on the part, pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift], and dragging. the Edit menu creates a number of copies starting at the
This creates a shared copy of the part. If you edit the contents of a left locator and ending at the right locator.
shared copy, all other shared copies of the same part are automatically The last copy is automatically shortened to end at the right locator
edited in the same way. position.

Note: Using Cut, Copy and, Paste

You can cut or copy selected events, and paste them in
• When you duplicate audio events, the copies are al-
again, using the functions on the Edit menu.
ways shared. This means that shared copies of audio
events always refer to the same audio clip (see “Audio • When you paste an audio event, it is inserted on the se-
processing” on page 166). lected track, positioned so that its snap point is aligned
with the cursor position.
• You can convert a shared copy to a real copy by select-
If the selected track is of the wrong type, the event will be inserted on its
ing “Convert to Real Copy” from the Functions submenu on original track. See “The Snap function” on page 35 for information about
the Edit menu. This creates a new version of the clip (that the snap point.
can be edited independently) and adds this to the Pool.
Note that no new files are created by this operation – for • If you use the “Paste at Origin” function on the Function
that you need to use the “Bounce Selection” function from submenu of the Edit menu, the event is pasted at its origi-
the Audio menu (see “Exporting regions as audio files” on nal position (the position from which you cut or copied it).
page 203).
Renaming events
• Selecting “Duplicate” from the Functions submenu on
the Edit menu creates a copy of the selected event and By default, audio events show the name of their clip, but
places it directly after the original. you can enter a separate descriptive name for separate
If several events are selected, all of these are copied “as one unit”, main- events if you like. This is done by selecting the event and
taining the relative distance between the events. typing in a new name in the “Description” field on the info
line.
• Selecting “Repeat…” from the Functions submenu on
the Edit menu opens a dialog, allowing you to create a • You can also give all events on a track the same name
number of copies (regular or shared) of the selected as the track by changing the track name, holding down a
events. modifier key and pressing [Return].
This works just like the Duplicate function, but you can specify the num- See “Audio handling” on page 47.
ber of copies.
• You can also perform the Repeat function by dragging: Splitting events
Select the events to repeat, press [Alt]/[Option], click the You can split events in the Project window in the following
handle in the lower right corner of the last selected event ways:
and drag to the right.
• Click with the Scissors tool on the event you want to
The longer to the right you drag, the more copies are created (as shown
split.
by the tooltip).
If Snap is activated, this determines the exact split position (see “The
Snap function” on page 35). You can also split events by pressing [Alt]/
[Option] and clicking with the Arrow tool.

51
Working with projects
• Select “Split at Cursor” from the Edit menu, Functions Resizing events
submenu.
Resizing events means to move their start or end positions
This splits the selected events at the position of the project cursor. If no
events are selected, all events (on all tracks) that are intersected by the
individually. In Cubase, there are three modes for resizing:
project cursor will be split. Resizing mode Description

• Select “Split Loop” from the Edit menu, Functions sub- Normal Sizing The contents of the event stay fixed, and the start or
end point of the event is moved to “reveal” more or less
menu. of the contents.
This splits events on all tracks at the left and right locator positions.
Sizing Moves The contents follow the moved start or end of the event
Ö If you split a MIDI part so that the split position inter- Contents (see the figure below).
sects one or several MIDI notes, the result depends on the Sizing Applies The contents will be time stretched to fit the new event
“Split MIDI Events” option in the Preferences dialog (Edit- Time Stretch length (see the separate section “Resizing events using
time stretch” on page 53).
ing–MIDI page). If the option is activated, the intersected
notes will be split (creating new notes at the beginning of
To select one of the resizing modes, select the Arrow tool
the second part). If it is deactivated, the notes will remain
and then click again on the Arrow tool icon on the toolbar.
in the first part, but “stick out” after the end of the part.
This opens a pop-up menu from which you can select one
of the options.
Gluing events together
You can glue events together using the Glue Tube tool.
There are three possibilities:
• Clicking on an event with the Glue Tube tool glues it to-
gether with the next event on the track. The events do not
have to touch one another. The icon on the toolbar will change, indicating the selected resizing
mode.
The result is a part containing the two events, with one exception: If you
first split an event and then glue the two sections together again (without The actual resizing is done by clicking and dragging the
moving or editing them first), they become a single event again. lower left or right corner of the event. If Snap is activated,
the Snap value determines the resulting length (see “The
• You can select several events on the same track and
Snap function” on page 35).
click on one of them with the Glue Tube tool.
A single part is created.
• When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while clicking on an
event with the Glue Tube tool, this event will be glued to-
gether with all following events on this track.
You can change the default key command for this in the Preferences di-
Normal sizing
alog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).

Sizing moves contents

• If several events are selected, all will be resized in the

same way.

52
Working with projects
• It is also possible to resize events by using the Trim but- 4. Release the mouse button.
tons (located in the Nudge palette) on the toolbar. The part is “stretched” or “compressed” to fit the new length.
This will move the start or end position of the selected event(s) by the
amount set on the Grid Type pop-up menu. The sizing type currently se-
lected applies to this method too, with the exception of “Sizing Applies
Time Stretch” which is not possible with this method. You can also use
key commands for this (by default, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and use the
left and right arrow key).
• For MIDI parts, this means that the note events are
stretched (moved and resized).
Controller data will be stretched, too.
• For audio parts, this means that the events are moved,
and that the referenced audio files are time stretched to fit
the new length.
Ö Note that the Nudge palette is not visible on the tool- A dialog shows the progress of the time stretch operation.
bar by default. See “The setup context menus” on page
336 for instructions on how to show and hide items on the Sliding the contents of an event or part
toolbar. You can move the contents of an event or part without
Ö When resizing events, any automation data will not be changing its position in the Project window. By default,
taken into account. this is done by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift], clicking in
the event or part and dragging to the left or right.
Resizing events using time stretch ! When sliding the contents of an audio event, you
If you want to resize a part and make its contents “fit” the cannot slide past the start or end of the actual audio
new size, you should use this sizing mode. Proceed as clip. If the event plays the whole clip, you cannot
follows: slide the audio at all.
1. Click the Arrow icon on the toolbar and click again to
select the “Sizing Applies Time Stretch” option from the Muting events
pop-up menu. To mute individual events in the Project window, proceed
as follows:
2. Point close to the end point of the part you want to
stretch. • To mute or unmute a single event, click on it with the
Mute tool.
3. Click and drag left or right.
When you move the mouse, a tooltip shows the current mouse position
and length of the part. Note that the snap value applies, as with any part
operation.
• To mute or unmute several events, select them – either
by using the standard selection techniques, or by using
one of the options on the Select submenu on the Edit
menu – and click on one of the selected events with the
Mute tool.
All selected events will be muted.
• You can also click in an empty area with the Mute tool
and drag a selection rectangle around several events you
want to mute or unmute, and then click on one of them
with the Mute tool.

53
Working with projects
• You can mute events by selecting them and selecting Creating new files from events
“Mute” from the Edit menu.
An audio event plays a section of an audio clip, which in
Similarly, you can unmute the selected events by selecting “Unmute”
from the Edit menu.
turn refers to one or more audio files on the hard disk.
However, in some situations you may want to create a new
• You can also change the mute status of selected events file that consists only of the section played by the event.
on the info line. This is done with the function “Bounce Selection” on the
Muted events can be edited as usual (with the exception Audio menu:
of adjusting fades), but are not played back. 1. Select one or several audio events.
2. Set up fade in, fade out and event volume (on the info
line or using the volume handle) as desired.
These settings will be applied to the new file. For details on fades and
Muted events are “grayed out”.
event volume, see “Creating fades” on page 96.

• You can also mute whole tracks by clicking the Mute 3. Select “Bounce Selection” from the Audio menu.
(“M”) button in the track list, the Inspector or the Mixer. You are asked whether you want to replace the selected event or not.
Clicking the Solo (“S”) button for a track mutes all other tracks. Note that • If you click “Replace”, a new file is created, containing
there are two modes for the track solo function: only the audio in the original event. A clip for the new file is
If the “Enable Solo on Selected Track” option is activated in the Prefer-
added to the Pool, and the original event is replaced by a
ences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page) and you have soloed a
new event playing the new clip.
track, selecting another track in the track list will automatically solo that
track instead – the solo state “moves” with the track selection. • If you click “No”, a new file is created and a clip for the
If the option is not activated, the track you solo stays soloed, regardless new file is added to the Pool.
of the selection. The original event is not replaced.
You can also apply the Bounce Selection function to an
Removing events
audio part. In that case, the audio from all events in the
To remove an event from the Project window, use any of part will be combined into a single audio file. If you choose
the following methods: “Replace” when asked, the part will be replaced with a
• Click on the event with the Erase tool. single audio event playing a clip of the new file.
Note that if you press [Alt]/[Option] while you click, all following events
on the same track will be deleted, but not the event you clicked and all
events before it.
• Select the event(s) and press [Backspace], or select
“Delete” from the Edit menu.

54
Working with projects
Range editing Making selection ranges for several non-contiguous
tracks
Editing in the Project window is not necessarily restricted
You can create selection ranges that cover several tracks.
to handling whole events and parts. You can also work
It is also possible to exclude tracks from a selection range:
with selection ranges, which are independent from the
event/part and track boundaries. 1. Create a selection range from the first to the last de-
sired track.
Creating a selection range 2. Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click in the selection
To make a selection range, drag with the Range Selection range on the tracks that you want to exclude from the
tool. selection.

When the Range Selection tool is selected, the Select

submenu on the Edit menu has the following items for
making selection ranges:
Option Description
All Makes a selection that covers all tracks, from the start of
the project to the end (as defined by the Length setting
in the Project Setup dialog).
None Removes the current selection range.
Invert Only used for event selection (see “Selecting events” on
page 49).
In Loop Makes a selection between the left and right locator, on 3. In the same manner, you can add a track to the selec-
all tracks. tion range by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking in the selection
From Start to Makes a selection on all tracks, from the start of the proj- range area on the track.
Cursor ect to the project cursor.
From Cursor to Makes a selection on all tracks, from the project cursor Editing selection ranges
End to the end of the project.
All on Selected Only used for event selection (see “Selecting events” on Adjusting the size of the selection range
Tracks page 49).
You can adjust the size of a selection range in the follow-
Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see “Using the
Select menu” on page 182). ing ways:
Left Selection Moves the left side of the current selection range to the • By dragging its edges.
Side to Cursor project cursor position. The pointer takes the shape of a double arrow when you move it over an
Right Selection Moves the right side of the current selection range to the edge of the selection range.
Side to Cursor project cursor position.
• By holding down [Shift] and clicking.
The closest selection range edge will be moved to the position at which
• Double-clicking on an event with the Range Selection you clicked.
tool creates a selection range encompassing the event.
If you hold down [Shift] you can double-click several events in a row, and • By adjusting the selection range start or end position on
the selection range will expand to encompass them all. Double-clicking a the info line.
second time on an event opens it for editing in the Sample Editor.
• By using the Trim buttons on the toolbar.
The left Trim buttons will move the start of the selection range and the
right buttons will move the end. The edges will be moved by the amount
specified on the Grid pop-up menu.

55
Working with projects
• By using the Nudge buttons on the toolbar. Function Description
These will move the whole selection range to the left or the right. The Cut Time Cuts out the selection range and moves it to the clip-
amount of movement depends on the selected display format (see “The board. Events to the right of the removed range are
Project Setup dialog” on page 44) and the value specified on the Grid moved to the left to fill out the gap.
pop-up menu. Paste Time Pastes the clipboard data at the start position and track
of the current selection. Existing events are moved to
! Note that the contents of the selection are not make room for the pasted data.
moved – using the Nudge buttons is the same as ad- Paste Time at Pastes the clipboard data back at its original position. Ex-
justing the start and end of the selection range at the Origin isting events are moved to make room for the pasted data.
same time, by the same amount.
Deleting selection ranges
Ö The Trim buttons and the Nudge buttons are located
in the Nudge palette, which is not visible on the toolbar by Again, you can either use “regular” Delete or “Delete Time”:
default. • If you use the Delete function on the Edit menu (or press
See “The setup context menus” on page 336 for instruc- [Backspace]), the data within the selection range is re-
tions on how to show and hide items on the toolbar. placed by empty track space.
Events to the right of the range keep their position.
Moving and duplicating • If you use “Delete Time” on the Edit menu’s Range sub-
• To move a selection range, click and drag it to a new menu, the selection range is removed and events to the
position. right are moved to the left to close up the gap.
This will move the contents of the selection range to the new position. If
the range intersected events or parts, these will be split before moving, Other functions
so that only the sections within the selection range are affected.
On the Range submenu on the Edit menu, you will find
• To duplicate a selection range, hold down [Alt]/[Option] three more range editing functions:
and drag.
Function Description
You can also use the Duplicate, Repeat and Fill Loop functions, just as
when duplicating events (see “Duplicating events” on page 50). Global Copy This copies everything in the selection range.
Split Splits any events or parts that are intersected by the se-
Using Cut, Copy, and Paste lection range, at the positions of the selection range
edges.
When working with selection ranges, you can either use
Crop All events or parts that are partially within the selection
Cut, Copy and Paste on the Edit menu, or use the functions range are cropped, that is, sections outside the selection
“Cut Time” and “Paste Time” on the Range submenu on the range are removed. Events that are fully inside or outside
Edit menu. These work differently to their related functions the selection range are not affected.

on the Edit menu: Insert Inserts empty track space from the start of the selection
Silence range. The length of the silence equals the length of the
Function Description selection range. Events to the right of the selection range
start are moved to the right to “make room”. Events that
Cut Cuts out the data in the selection range and moves it to are intersected by the selection range start are split, and
the clipboard. The selection range is replaced by empty the right section is moved to the right.
track space in the Project window, meaning that events
to the right of the range keep their positions.
Copy Copies the data in the selection range to the clipboard.
Paste Pastes the clipboard data at the start position and track
of the current selection. Existing events are not moved to
make room for the pasted data.
Paste at Pastes the clipboard data back at its original position. Ex-
Origin isting events are not moved to make room for the pasted
data.

56
Working with projects
Region operations To undo and redo your actions, proceed as follows:
1. On the Edit menu, select “History…”.
Regions are sections within a clip, with various uses. While The Edit History dialog opens.
regions are perhaps best created and edited in the Sample
Editor (see “Working with regions” on page 183), the fol-
lowing region functions are available in the Advanced sub-
menu of the Audio menu:
Function Description
Event or Range This function is available when one or several audio events
as Region or selection ranges are selected. It creates a region in the
corresponding clip, with the start and end position of the
region determined by the start and end position of the
event or selection range within the clip.
Events from This function is available if you have selected an audio
Regions event whose clip contains regions within the boundaries
of the event. The function will remove the original event
and replace it with event(s) positioned and sized accord-
ing to the Region(s).

The Edit History dialog

In the Edit History dialog you can undo and redo many edit The dialog contains a list of all your edits, with the most
actions. Actions that can be undone include all functions in recent action at the bottom of the list. The Action column
the Project window as well as in the editors. It is also possi- displays the name of the action while the Time column
ble to undo audio processes or applied plug-in effects. tells you when this action was performed. In the Details
column further details are shown. Here you can enter new
Ö In the Preferences dialog (General page) you can limit text by double-clicking in the column.
the Undo function by setting the number in the “Maximum
Undo” field to the desired value. This is useful if you run 2. Move the horizontal, colored line upwards to the de-
out of hard disk space, for example. sired position to undo your actions.
You can only undo your actions in reverse order, i. e. the last performed
action is the first action to be undone.
3. Move the line down the List again to redo an action
that was undone previously.

57
Working with projects
The Preferences dialog Saving a preference preset
When you have made your preferences settings, proceed
as follows to save all settings as a preset:
1. Make sure that the “Store marked preferences only”
option is not activated.
This is because this option is used for saving partial settings (see below),
as opposed to complete settings.
2. Click the Store button in the lower left section of the
Preferences dialog.

A dialog opens, allowing you to type in a name for the

When you open the File menu (the Cubase menu on a
preset.
Mac) and select “Preferences…”, the Preferences dialog
opens. This dialog provides a large number of options and 3. Click OK to save the preset.
settings that control the global behavior of Cubase. Your saved settings are now available from the Preference Presets
pop-up menu.
The dialog has a number of pages, each containing op-
tions and settings belonging to a particular topic. Loading a preference preset
• In the list on the left, click on one of the entries to open To load a saved preference preset, simply select a preset
the corresponding page. from the Preference Presets pop-up menu. The preset is
• You can find detailed descriptions of all Preferences applied immediately.
options in the dialog help, opened by clicking the Help Saving partial preferences settings
button at the bottom left of the dialog.
It is also possible to save partial preferences settings. This
About preference presets is useful when you have made settings that only relate to a
certain project or situation, for example. When you apply a
In the Preferences dialog it is possible to save complete or saved partial preference preset, you only change the saved
partial preference settings as presets. This lets you recall settings. All other preferences will be left unchanged.
settings quickly and easily.

58
Working with projects
When you have made your specific preferences settings,
proceed as follows to save the partial settings as a preset:
1. Activate “Store marked preferences only”.
A new “Store” column is added to the Preferences list.

2. Click in the Store column of the Preferences items you

wish to save.
Note that if you activate a Preferences page that contains subpages, these
will also be activated. If this is not what you want, simply deactivated the
subpages.
3. Click the Store button in the lower left section of the
Preferences dialog.
A dialog opens, asking you to type in a name for the preset. It is a good
idea to choose a descriptive name for a partial preference preset, prefer-
ably relating to the saved settings (for example “Editing–Controls”).
4. Click OK to save.
Your saved settings are now available from the Preference Presets
pop-up menu.

59
Working with projects
 6
Working with tracks
Setting up tracks Naming tracks
To rename a track, proceed as follows:
Adding tracks
1. Double-click in the name field and type in a new name
To add a track to the project, proceed as follows: for the track.
1. Open the “Add Track” submenu from the Project 2. Press [Return] to close the name field.
menu or from the track list context menu.
The new track is added below the currently selected track in the track • If you want all events on the track to get the same name,
list. hold down any modifier while pressing [Return].
• If “Parts get Track names” is activated in the Prefer-
ences dialog (Editing page) and you move an event from
one track to another, the moved event will automatically be
named according to its new track. Otherwise the event
will retain the name of the track it was previously on.

Coloring tracks
All tracks are automatically assigned a color.
• To control which colors are used for new tracks, use the
“Auto Track Color Mode” pop-up menu in the Preferences
2. Select the desired track type.
dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page).
If you select the Audio, MIDI, Group Channel, or Instrument option from
The available options are described in the section “Applying track colors
the Add Track submenu, a dialog opens, allowing you to insert several
automatically” on page 340.
tracks in one go. Just enter the desired number of tracks in the Count
field. • To change the color for existing tracks, use the Select
• For audio and group channel tracks, the channel config- Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar.
This is described in detail in the section “About the Select Colors pop-
uration – mono or stereo – can be set on the Configura-
up menu” on page 340.
tion pop-up menu.
• To change the color for a track you can also press
Ö The “Add Track Using Track Preset” option allows you
[Ctrl]/[Command], point the mouse at the strip where the
to select a Track Preset. This is described in the chapter
track color is shown and click.
“Working with track presets” on page 221.
The color strip is shown, allowing you to select the desired color.
Once you have created tracks, you can manipulate and re- This method works in several places where the track color is visible, i. e.
arrange them in various ways. This is explained in the fol- in the track list, the track name field in the Inspector, and the channel
lowing sections. name field in the Mixer.
• To override the track color for individual events and
Removing tracks parts, use the Color tool or the Select Colors pop-up
To remove tracks, you have the following options: menu.
For more information, see “Coloring tracks, parts, or events manually” on
• Select the track you want to remove, open the Project page 340.
menu and select “Remove Selected Tracks”.
• In the track list, right-click on the track you want to re-
move, and select “Remove Selected Tracks” from the
context menu.
• You can also remove all tracks not containing any
events by selecting “Remove Empty Tracks” from the
Project menu.

61
Working with tracks
Resizing tracks Data display on the tracks
• To change the width of the track list area, drag the bor- Changing the width and the height of tracks naturally has
der between the track list and the event display. an effect on how the track controls and the parts or events
on the track are displayed. The following happens when
• To change the height of an individual track, click on its
you resize a track’s height or width:
lower border in the track list and drag up or down.
• The track controls will be placed where they best “fit in”
• To change the height of all tracks simultaneously, hold
by default. The controls shown for tracks in the track list
down [Ctrl]/[Command] and resize one of the tracks in this
will adapt to the track size.
way.
If you prefer to have the controls in fixed positions, deactivate the “Wrap
If “Snap Track Heights” is activated on the Track Scale pop-up menu
Controls” option in the Track Controls settings dialog (see “Customizing
(see below), the track height will change in fixed increments when you
track controls” on page 337).
resize it.
• The contents of events and parts will not be shown if
! This behavior is different when “Enlarge Selected the height of a track is very small.
Track” is activated on the Edit menu (see “About the You can change this behavior by activating “Show Event Data on Small
Enlarge Selected Track option” on page 62). Track Heights” in the Preferences dialog (Event Display).

• To set the number of tracks to view in the current Project About the Enlarge Selected Track option
window, use the Track Scale pop-up menu (opened by
When this option is activated on the Edit menu (or in the
clicking the arrow button above the vertical zoom control).
The track height will be adjusted to show only the number of tracks speci-
Preferences dialog, Editing–Project & Mixer page), the se-
fied on the pop-up menu. By selecting “Zoom N Tracks” from the pop-up lected track is enlarged automatically. This is useful if you
you can manually set the number of tracks to fit in the current Project are stepping through the tracks in the track list, to check
window. or edit the settings. The tracks will revert to the size they
had before when they are deselected. You can adjust the
size directly in the track list if the default enlargement fac-
tor does not suit you.
While this is the program behavior you will want in most
cases, it may be a disadvantage when changing the track
height you started out with for one or more tracks (i. e. their
“original” height, before “Enlarge Selected Track” was ac-
tivated). As soon as you try to resize a track, it is selected
and automatically enlarged. Instead of turning off “Enlarge
Selected Track”, resizing the desired track(s) and the acti-
vating “Enlarge Selected Track” again, you can resize a
track in the track list without selecting it.
Proceed as follows:
1. Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the
(unselected) track you want to resize.
The mouse pointer turns into a divider symbol.
2. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the lower border of
the track until it reaches the desired height.
Now, when you select this track, (and “Enlarge Selected Track” is acti-
vated), it will be enlarged. It will revert to the changed size, when you se-
lect a different track.

62
Working with tracks
Editing tracks Creating parts
Parts are containers for MIDI or audio events, or even for
Adding events to a track tracks (see “Working with folder parts” on page 65).
There are a number of ways to add events to a track:
Creating MIDI parts
• By recording (see “Basic recording methods” on page
A MIDI part is automatically created when you record. This
75).
will contain the recorded events. However, you can also
• By dragging files and dropping them on the track at the create empty MIDI parts and later add events to them.
desired position.
There are two ways to do this:
You can drag from the following locations: the desktop, the MediaBay
and its related windows (see the chapter “The MediaBay” on page 206), • Draw a part on a MIDI track with the Pencil tool.
the Pool, the “Find media” dialog, another open Project window, the Au- You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow
dio Part Editor, the Sample Editor (press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag to tool.
create an event of the current selection.
• Double-click with the Arrow tool on a MIDI track, be-
tween the left and right locator.

When you drag the clip into the Project window, its position will be in-
dicated by a marker line and a numerical position box.

• By importing an audio or video file using the Import sub- To add events to a MIDI part, you use the tools and func-
menu on the File menu. tions in a MIDI editor (see “The Key Editor – Overview” on
When you import a file this way, a clip is created for the file and an event page 255).
that plays the whole clip is inserted on the selected track, at the position
of the project cursor. Creating audio parts
• By importing a MIDI file using the Import submenu. There is no way of automatically creating audio parts on
See “Exporting and importing standard MIDI files” on page 332. recording. On recording audio events are created always.
• By grabbing audio CD tracks and converting them to au- To create audio parts, you have the following possibilities:
dio files. • Use the “Events to Part” function on the Audio menu to
See “Importing audio CD tracks” on page 329. gather existing audio events into a part.
• By using Copy and Paste on the Edit menu. This creates an audio part containing all selected audio events on the
This allows you to copy all kinds of events between projects. You can same track. To remove the part and make the events appear as indepen-
also copy events within the project, e. g. from the Sample Editor. dent objects on the track again, select the part and use the “Dissolve
Part” function on the Audio menu.
• By drawing.
This is possible for marker and automation tracks e. g. For audio, MIDI • Draw a part on an audio track with the Pencil tool.
and instrument tracks, you can only draw parts (see “Creating parts” on You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow
page 63). tool.
• Double-click with the Arrow tool on an audio track, be-
tween the left and right locator.
Ö You can use Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop in the
Audio Part Editor to add events to existing audio parts
(see “Window overview” on page 191).

63
Working with tracks
Selecting tracks Moving tracks
• To select a track, click on it in the track list. • To move a track, click and drag it up or down in the list.
A selected track is indicated by a light gray color in the track list.
• To move one or several selected tracks to a folder, se-
lect “Move Selected Tracks to New Folder” from the con-
text menu.

This track is selected. Disabling tracks (Cubase Elements only)

Audio tracks can be disabled by selecting “Disable Track”
from the track list context menu. Disabling a track is similar
to muting it (see “Muting events” on page 53), since a dis-
abled track will not be played back. However, disabling a
track not only “zeroes” the output volume from the track,
• To select several tracks press [Ctrl]/[Command] and but actually shuts down all disk activity for it. For more in-
click on them. formation, see “About track disable/enable (Cubase Ele-
ments only)” on page 71.
• To select a continuous range of tracks [Shift]-click on
them.
You can also set up Cubase to select tracks on the follow-
Organizing tracks in folder tracks
ing actions by activating Preferences:
Creating folder tracks
• Selecting a channel in the mixer
Moving tracks into a folder is a way to structure and orga-
The respective track is automatically displayed in the track list as well.
For this to work you have to select “Track” on the “Scroll to Selected…” nize tracks in the Project window. By grouping tracks in
pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer). folder tracks, you can solo and mute them in a quicker and
easier way and perform editing on several tracks as one
• Selecting an event in the Project Window entity. Folder tracks can contain any type of track includ-
The corresponding track is automatically selected, if the “Track Selection
ing other folder tracks.
Follows Event Selection” option is activated in the Preferences dialog
(Editing).
A folder track
• Activating the solo button for the track
The track gets automatically selected, if the “Select Channel/Track on
Solo” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project &
Mixer).
Tracks in the folder
• Clicking the Edit button (e) for the track
The track gets automatically selected, if the “Select Channel/Track on
Edit Settings” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Proj-
ect & Mixer).

Duplicating tracks
• To duplicate a track together with all contents and Working with folder tracks
channel settings, right-click the track list and select “Du- • Creating a folder track
plicate tracks” from the context menu, or select “Duplicate On the Project menu open the “Add Track” submenu and select “Folder”,
tracks” from the Project menu. or right-click the track list and select “Add Folder Track” from the context
The duplicated track will appear below the original track. menu.

64
Working with tracks
• Moving tracks into a folder Working with folder parts
Click on a track and drag it into the folder track.
A folder part is a graphic representation of events and
parts on the tracks in the folder. Folder parts indicate the
position and length of the events and parts, as well as on
which track they are (their vertical position). If part colors
are used, these are also shown in the folder part.
Any Project window editing you perform to a folder part
affects all the events and parts it contains. You can select
• Removing tracks from a folder
several folder parts if you like – this allows you to handle
Drag a track out of the folder and release it in the track list to remove it
from the folder. and edit them together. The editing you can perform in-
cludes:
• Hiding/showing tracks in a folder
Click on the “Expand/Collapse Folder” button (the folder icon) to hide or • Moving a folder part. This will move its contained events and
show the tracks located in a folder. Hidden tracks are played back as parts (possibly resulting in other folder parts, depending on
usual. how the parts overlap).
• Using cut, copy and paste.
• Hiding/showing data on folder tracks
• Deleting a folder part. This will delete its contained events and
Right-click on the folder track to open the context menu and from the
“Show Data on Folder Tracks” submenu select one of the options. This parts.
menu is also available in the Preferences dialog (Editing page). The fol- • Splitting a folder part with the Scissors tool.
lowing options are available: • Gluing folder parts together with the Glue tube tool. This will
only work if the adjacent folder parts contain events or parts
Option Description
on the same track.
Always Show Data The data on the folder track is always visible.
• Resizing a folder part resizes the contained events and parts
Never Show Data The data on the folder track is never visible. according to the selected resizing method.
Hide Data When The data on the folder track is only visible if the • Muting a folder part. This will mute its contained events and
Expanded folder is not expanded. parts.
Tracks inside a folder can be edited as one entity by per-
forming the editing directly on the folder part containing
the tracks. You can also edit individual tracks within the
folder by showing the contained tracks, selecting parts
and opening editors as usual.
Double-clicking a folder part opens the editors for the cor-
responding track classes present in the folder. The follow-
ing applies:
• All MIDI parts located on the tracks within the folder are
displayed as if they were on the same track, just like when
opening the Key Editor with several MIDI parts selected.
To be able to easily discern the different tracks in the editor, give each
track a different color in the Project window and use the “Part Colors”
option in the editor (see “Coloring notes and events” on page 259).
• Muting and soloing folder tracks
Click the Mute or Solo button on the folder track to mute or solo all • If the folder contains tracks with audio events and/or au-
tracks in the folder as one unit. dio parts, the Sample and/or Audio Part Editors are opened
with each audio event and audio part in a separate window.

65
Working with tracks
Dividing the track list • You can resize the upper part by clicking and dragging
the divider between the track list sections.
It is possible to divide the track list into two parts. Both
sections will have independent zoom and scroll controls (if
needed), but resizing the window vertically will affect the
lower section only (if possible). This is useful if you are
working with a video track along with multi-track audio, for
example. This way, you can place the video track in the
upper track list, letting you scroll the audio tracks sepa-
rately in the lower track list, referencing them against the
video track.
• To divide the track list, click the “Divide Track List” but-
ton in the top right corner of the Project window just be-
low the ruler.

• To revert to a single track list, click the button again.

When the track list is divided into two parts, the following
applies:
• If you add tracks from the Add Track submenu of the
Project menu, video tracks, marker tracks, and arranger
tracks (Cubase Elements only) are automatically placed in
the upper part of the track list.
If the track list already contains any video, marker, or arranger tracks (Cu-
base Elements only), these are automatically moved to the upper part
when you divide the track list. All other types of tracks are placed in the
lower part.
• If you add tracks from the context menu invoked by
right-clicking the track list, the tracks are added to the part
of the track list in which you click.
• You can move any type of track from the lower track list
to the upper and vice versa by right-clicking it in the track
list and selecting “Toggle Track List” from the context
menu.

66
Working with tracks
 7
Playback and the Transport panel
Background The MIDI Activity, Audio Activity and Audio Level Control
sections
This chapter describes the various methods available for
These sections are useful to monitor the MIDI and audio
controlling playback and transport functions in Cubase.
input and output signals. The Audio Level Control section
furthermore contains clipping indicators and an output
The Transport panel level control.
The Transport panel contains the main transport functions
in Cubase, as well as many other options related to play- Hiding and showing the Transport panel
back and recording. The Transport panel is shown automatically when you
launch a new project. To hide or show it, select “Transport
Panel” on the Transport menu (or use the corresponding
key command – by default [F2]).

The following sections can be shown on the Transport Changing the Transport panel setup
panel, from left to right: You can customize the appearance of the Transport panel
• Virtual Keyboard, see “The Virtual Keyboard” on page 73. by right-clicking anywhere on the panel and selecting/de-
• Performance, this is related to the VST Performance window, selecting the corresponding options on the context menu.
see “About the VST Performance window” on page 19. This is described in detail in the section “The setup con-
• Record Mode, see “Recording audio” on page 80 and “Re- text menus” on page 336.
cording MIDI” on page 83.
• Locators, see “Setting the left and right locators” on page 70 The numeric keypad
and “About Pre-roll and Post-roll” on page 86.
In the default Key Command settings, various Transport
• Jog/Scrub, “Playing back with the shuttle speed control” on
panel operations are assigned to the numeric keypad on
page 70 and “Project scrubbing – the jog wheel” on page 71.
the computer keyboard. The keypads are slightly different
• Main Transport, see below.
on PC and Macintosh computers:
• Arranger, see “The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)”
on page 101. Numeric Key Function
• Master + Sync, see “Using the metronome” on page 87. [Enter] Play
• Marker, see “Using markers” on page 108, “Editing tempo and [+] Fast Forward
signature” on page 290, and “Synchronized operation” on
[-] Rewind
page 308.
[*] Record
• MIDI Activity, see below.
• Audio Activity, see below. [÷] (Win)/[/] (Mac) Cycle On/Off
• Audio Level Control, see below. [,] Return to Zero
[0] Stop
The main transport controls
[1] Go to Left Locator
In the Main Transport area, you will find the basic transport [2] Go to Right Locator
controls, as well as the time display options, see “Setting
[3-9] Go to marker 3 to 9
the time format in the Transport panel” on page 69.
Ö The main transport functions (Cycle/Stop/Play/Re-
cord) can also be shown on the toolbar. In addition, vari-
ous play options are available on the Transport menu.

68
Playback and the Transport panel
Operations On the Transport menu, the following functions are avail-
able:
Setting the project cursor position Function Description

There are several ways to move the project cursor position: Locate Selec- Moves the project cursor to the beginning or end of the
tion/Locate current selection. For this to be available, you must
• By using Fast Forward and Rewind. Selection End have selected one or more events or parts, or made a
selection range.
• By using the Jog/Shuttle/Nudge control on the Trans- Locate Next/ This moves the project cursor to the closest marker to
port panel (see “Playing back with the shuttle speed con- Previous Marker the right or left (see “Marker tracks” on page 32).
trol” on page 70). Locate Next/ This moves the project cursor forwards or backwards
Previous Event respectively, to the closest beginning or end of any
• By dragging the project cursor in the lower part of the event on the selected track(s).
ruler.
• By clicking in the ruler. Ö If Snap is activated when dragging the project cursor,
Double-clicking in the ruler moves the cursor and starts/stops playback. the Snap value is taken into account. This is helpful for
finding exact positions quickly.
• If the “Locate when Clicked in Empty Space” option is
activated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page) you Ö There are also numerous key commands available for
can click anywhere in an empty section of the Project win- moving the project cursor (in the Transport category in the
dow to move the cursor position. Key Commands dialog). For example, you can assign key
commands to the “Step Bar” and “Step Back Bar” func-
• By changing the value in any of the position displays.
tions, allowing you to move the project cursor in steps of
• By using the position slider above the transport buttons one bar, backwards and forwards.
in the Transport panel.
The range of the slider relates to the Length setting in the Project Setup Setting the time format in the Transport panel
dialog. Hence, moving the slider all the way to the right will take you to
the end of the project.

Primary time display (left) and secondary time display (right, Cubase
Elements only)

The time unit shown in the ruler can be independent from

the time unit shown in the main time display on the Trans-
• By using markers (see the chapter “Using markers” on port panel. This means that you can display timecode in
page 108). the transport time display and bars and beats in the ruler,
• By using playback options (see “Playback functions” on for example. In Cubase Elements, there is an additional
page 72). secondary time display to the right of the primary time dis-
play which is also independent, giving you three different
• Cubase Elements only: By using the arranger function time units shown at the same time. In the Project window,
(see “The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)” on you can also create additional ruler tracks – see “Using
page 101). multiple rulers – ruler tracks” on page 35.
• By using functions on the Transport menu. The following rules apply:
• If you change the time format of the primary time display
on the Transport panel, the time format of the ruler will be
changed 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 time dis-
play you should change the format in the ruler.

69
Playback and the Transport panel
• The primary time display format is set on the pop-up • Click and drag in the upper half of the ruler to “draw” a
menu to the right in the main time display. 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.
• This setting also determines the time format displayed
for the left and right locators on the Transport panel. • By creating cycle markers you can store any number of
left and right locator positions, which can be recalled by
• Cubase Elements only: The secondary time display is
simply double-clicking on the corresponding marker (see
completely independent, and the display format is set on
“Editing markers on the marker track” on page 112).
the pop-up menu to the right in the secondary time display.
• The “Locators to Selection” item on the Transport menu
• Cubase Elements only: You can swap time formats be-
(default key command [P]) sets the locators to encompass
tween the primary and secondary time displays by clicking
the current selection.
the double arrow symbol (Exchange Time Formats) be-
This is available if you have selected one or several events or made a se-
tween them. lection range.

Setting the left and right locators • You can also adjust the locators numerically on the
Transport panel.
The left and right locators are a pair of position markers Clicking the L/R buttons in the locator section on the Transport panel will
used for specifying punch-in and punch-out positions dur- move the project cursor to the respective locator. If you press [Alt]/[Op-
ing recording, and as boundaries for cycle playback and tion] and click the L or R button, the corresponding locator will be set to
recording. the current project cursor position.

Ö When cycle mode is activated on the Transport panel,

the area between the left and right locators will be re- Playing back with the shuttle speed control
peated (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. The shuttle speed control (the outer wheel on the Trans-
There are several ways to set locator positions: port panel) allows you to play back the project at any
speed (four times the playback speed at maximum), for-
• To set the left locator, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click wards or backwards. This is a quick way to locate or “cue”
at the desired position in the ruler. to any position in the project.
Similarly, pressing [Alt]/[Option] and clicking in the ruler sets the right lo-
cator. You can also drag the locator “handles” directly in the ruler. • Turn the shuttle speed wheel to the right to start
playback.
The further to the right you move the wheel, the faster the playback speed.
• If you turn the wheel to the left instead, the project will
The locators are indicated by the “flags” in the ruler. The area between play backwards.
the locators is highlighted in the ruler and in the Project window (see
“Appearance” on page 339). Note that if the right locator is before the The speed depends on how far to the left you turn the wheel.
left locator, the color of the ruler between the locators will change.

70
Playback and the Transport panel
• The “Use Inserts While Scrubbing” option in the Prefer- Options and Settings
ences dialog (Transport–Scrub page) allows you to acti-
vate insert effects for scrubbing with the shuttle speed The “Return to Start Position on Stop”
control. preference
By default, insert effects are bypassed.
This setting is found on the Transport page in the Prefer-
Ö You can also access the shuttle speed control via a ences dialog (opened from the File menu under Windows,
remote control device. or the Cubase menu under Mac OS X).

Project scrubbing – the jog wheel • 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
The middle wheel on the Transport panel serves as a jog
playback.
wheel. By clicking and turning it to the right or left you will
Pressing Stop again will return the project cursor to the position where
move the playback position manually forwards or back- recording or playback last started.
wards – much like scrubbing on a tape deck. This helps
you pinpoint exact locations in the project.
About track disable/enable (Cubase Elements
• Note that the jog wheel is an “endless rotary encoder” – only)
you can turn it as many times as needed to move to the For audio tracks, the track context menu contains an item
desired location. named “Disable Track”. This shuts down all disk activity
The faster you turn the wheel, the faster the playback speed. The original
for the track, as opposed to using Mute, which merely
playback speed is the fastest speed possible.
turns down the output volume for a track. For example, if
• If you click the jog wheel during playback, playback au- you often record “alternative takes” you can easily build up
tomatically stops and scrubbing starts. a large number of takes on different tracks. Even though
• The “Use Inserts While Scrubbing” option in the Prefer- these tracks are muted, they are actually still “playing
ences dialog on the Transport–Scrub page allows you to back” from the hard disk during playback. Because this
activate insert effects for scrubbing with the jog wheel. puts an unnecessary load on your disk system, using “Dis-
By default, insert effects are bypassed. able Track” is recommended for such situations.

Ö You can also use a jog wheel on a remote controller • Select “Disable Track” for tracks that you want to keep in
for scrubbing. the project for later use but do not want to play back now.
The track color changes to indicate that the track is disabled.
Nudging the project cursor • Select “Enable Track” from the track context menu to
The “+” and “–” buttons in the middle of the Shuttle/Jog re-enable disabled tracks.
section allow you to nudge the project cursor position one
frame at a time to the right or left.

71
Playback and the Transport panel
Playback functions At the beginning of the first chorus you have another pro-
gram change event which makes the same synth switch to
Apart from the standard transport controls on the Trans-
a string sound.
port panel, you can also find a number of functions on the
Transport menu that can be used to control playback. The You now play back the song. It begins with the piano
items have the following functionality: sound and then switches to the string sound. In the middle
Option Description
of the chorus you stop and rewind to some point between
the beginning and the second program change. The synth
Post-roll from Starts playback from the beginning or end of the
Selection Start/End currently selected range and stops after the time will now still play the string sound although in this section
set in the Post-roll field on the Transport panel. it really should be a piano!
Pre-roll to Selection Starts playback from a position before the start or The Chase function takes care of that. If program change
Start/End end of the currently selected range and stops at
the selection start or end, respectively. The play- events are set to be chased, Cubase will track the music
back start position is set in the Pre-roll field on the back to the beginning, find the first program change and
Transport panel.
transmit it to your synth, setting it to the correct sound.
Play from Selection Activates playback from the beginning or end of the
Start/End current selection. The same thing can apply to other event types as well. The
Play until Selection Activates playback two seconds before the start or Chase Events settings in the Preferences dialog (MIDI
Start/End end of the current selection and stops at the selec- page) determine which event types will be chased when
tion start or end, respectively. you locate to a new position and start playback.
Play until Next This activates playback from the project cursor and
Marker stops at the next marker.
Play Selection This activates playback from the start of the current
Range selection and stops at the selection end.
Loop Selection This activates playback from the start of the current
selection 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.
Ö Event types for which the checkbox is activated here
Ö In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page) you will be chased.
will find the “Treat Muted Audio Events like Deleted” op- • In this section of the Preferences dialog, you will also
tion. When you activate this option, any events overlapped find the “Chase not limited to Part Boundaries” option.
by a muted event will become audible. 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
About Chase 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 consider-
Chase is a function that makes sure your MIDI instruments ably slows down operations such as positioning and soloing. When you
sound as they should when you locate to a new position deactivate this option, the MIDI controllers are only chased within the
and start playback. This is accomplished by the program parts under the position cursor.
transmitting a number of MIDI messages to your instru-
ments each time you move to a new position in the project,
making sure all MIDI devices are set up correctly with re-
gard to program change, controller messages (such as
MIDI Volume), etc.
For example, let’s say you have a MIDI track with a pro-
gram change event inserted at the beginning. This event
makes a synth switch to a piano sound.

72
Playback and the Transport panel
The Virtual Keyboard • You can also press several keys simultaneously to enter
polyphonic parts. The maximum number of notes that can
The Virtual Keyboard can be displayed in the Transport be played at one time varies between the different operat-
panel. It allows you to play and record MIDI notes by using ing systems and hardware configurations.
your computer keyboard or mouse. This is useful if you have
4. Use the fader “Note velocity level” to the right of the
no external MIDI instrument at hand and you do not want to
virtual keyboard to adjust the volume.
draw in notes with the Pencil tool. The Virtual Keyboard can You can also use the up and down arrow keys for this.
perform all functions that can be controlled by external MIDI
keyboards, e. g. playing and recording MIDI notes. 5. Enter the desired notes this way.
6. When you are done, hit the Stop button and close the
! When the Virtual Keyboard is displayed, the usual key
Virtual Keyboard.
commands are blocked because they are reserved for When the Virtual Keyboard is hidden, all key commands are available
the Virtual Keyboard. The only exceptions are: [Ctrl]/ again.
[Command]-[S] (Save), Num [*] (Start/Stop Record),
[Space] (Start/Stop Playback), Num [1] (Jump to left Options and settings
locator), [Delete] or [Backspace] (Delete), Num [/]
(Cycle on/off), [F2] (Show/Hide Transport panel), and • In piano keyboard mode, you have a wider range of keys
[Alt]/[Option]-[K] (Show/Hide Virtual Keyboard). at your disposal, allowing you to enter two voices simulta-
neously, for example bass and lead voice or bass drums
• You can choose between two different keyboard dis- and HiHats.
play modes: computer keyboard and piano keyboard. To In computer keyboard mode, you can use the two rows of keys that are
switch between these two modes, click the “Change Vir- displayed on the Virtual Keyboard to enter notes. In piano keyboard
tual Keyboard Display Type” button in the lower right cor- mode, you can also use the two rows of keys below these.
ner of the Virtual Keyboard section or use the [Tab] key. • You have seven full octaves at your disposal. Use the
“Octave Offset” buttons at the bottom of the virtual key-
board to offset the octave range of the keyboard.
You can also use the left and right arrow keys to switch the keyboard
range to a lower or higher octave, respectively.

The Virtual Keyboard in computer keyboard display mode

The Virtual Keyboard in piano keyboard display mode

To record MIDI using the Virtual Keyboard, proceed as • In piano keyboard mode, you can use the two sliders to
follows: the left of the keyboard to introduce pitchbend (left slider)
1. Create or choose a MIDI or an instrument track and or modulation (right slider).
You can also click on a key, hold the mouse button pressed until the
activate the “Record Enable” button for it.
mouse pointer becomes a crosshair tool and drag upwards/downward to
2. Open the Virtual Keyboard by selecting “Virtual Key- introduce modulation or left/right to create pitchbend.
board” on the Devices menu, by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[K]
or by right-clicking on the Transport panel and selecting
“Virtual Keyboard” on the context menu.
The Virtual Keyboard is displayed in the Transport panel.
3. Activate the Record button and press a key on your
computer keyboard to enter a note.
You can also click on the keys of the Virtual Keyboard to enter notes.

73
Playback and the Transport panel
 8
Recording
Background
This chapter describes the various recording methods
that you can use in Cubase. As it is possible to record
both audio and MIDI tracks, both recording methods are
covered in this chapter.

Before you start

This chapter assumes that you are reasonably familiar with
certain basic recording concepts, and that the following
initial preparations have been made:
• You have properly set up, connected and calibrated
your audio hardware.
• You have opened a project and set the project setup
parameters to your specifications. Record Enable in the Inspector, track list, and Mixer
Project setup parameters determine the record format, sample rate, proj- Ö If “Enable Record on Selected Audio Track” or “En-
ect length, etc. that affect the audio recordings you make during the able Record on Selected MIDI Track” is activated in the
course of the project, see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 44. Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page), audio
• If you plan to record MIDI, your MIDI equipment has to or MIDI tracks are automatically record-enabled when you
be set up and connected correctly. select them in the track list.
Ö You can set up key commands to record-enable all
Basic recording methods audio tracks simultaneously and to deactivate Record En-
able for all audio tracks (Arm/Disarm all Audio Tracks).
This section describes the general methods used for re- You will find these commands in the Key Commands dia-
cording. However, there are additional preparations and log, in the Mixer category (see “Setting up key commands”
procedures that are specific to audio and MIDI recording on page 344).
respectively. Make sure to read these sections before you
Ö The exact number of audio tracks you can record si-
start recording (see “Audio recording specifics” on page
multaneously depends on your computer CPU and hard
77 and “MIDI recording specifics” on page 82).
disk performance. In the Preferences dialog (VST page),
you can find the “Warn on Processing Overloads” option.
Record-enabling tracks When this is activated, a warning message will be dis-
Cubase can record on a single track or on several tracks played as soon as the CPU clip indicator (on the Trans-
(audio and/or MIDI) simultaneously. To make a track ready port panel) lights up during recording.
for recording, activate the Record Enable button for the
track in the track list, in the Inspector, or in the Mixer. Activating recording
Activating recording, i e. performing and setting up manual
and automatic punch in recording is identical for audio
and MIDI.
Ö Punching in and out on MIDI recordings with pitchbend
or controller data (modulation wheel, sustain pedal, volume,
etc.) may lead to strange effects (apparently hanging notes,
constant vibrato, etc.). If this happens, you may need to use
the Reset item on the MIDI menu (see “The Reset function”
on page 85).

75
Recording
Manually 3. Activate playback from some position before the left
locator.
You activate recording by clicking the Record button on
When the project cursor reaches the left locator, recording is automati-
the Transport panel or toolbar or by using the correspond- cally activated.
ing key command (by default [*] on the numeric keypad).
Recording can be activated in Stop mode (from the current Stopping recording
cursor position or from the left locator) or during playback: Again, this can be done automatically or manually:
• If you activate recording in Stop mode, and the “Start • If you click the Stop button on the Transport panel (or
Record at Left Locator” option is activated on the Trans- use the corresponding key command, by default [0] on the
port menu, recording will start from the left locator. numeric keypad), recording is deactivated and Cubase
The pre-roll setting or the metronome count-in will be applied (see
goes into Stop mode.
“About Pre-roll and Post-roll” on page 86).
• If you click the Record button (or use the key command
• If you activate recording in Stop mode, and “Start Record
for recording, by default [*]), recording is deactivated but
at Left Locator” is deactivated, recording will start from the
playback continues.
current project cursor position.
This is known as “manual punch out”.
• If you activate recording during playback, Cubase will
• If the Punch Out button is activated on the Transport
immediately enter Record mode and start recording from
panel, recording will be deactivated when the project cur-
the current project cursor position.
sor reaches the right locator.
This is known as “manual punch in”.
This is known as “automatic punch out”. By combining this with auto-
Ö If you are synchronizing the Cubase transport to exter- matic punch in, you can set up a specific section to record – again very
nal equipment (Sync is activated on the Transport panel) useful if you want to replace a certain part of a recording (see also “Stop
and you activate recording, the program will go into “re- after Automatic Punch Out” on page 86).
cord ready” mode (the record button on the Transport
panel will light up). In this case, recording will start when a
valid timecode signal is received (or when you click the
Play button). See the chapter “Synchronization” on page
303 for more information. Punch In and Out activated

Automatically Cycle recording

Cubase can automatically switch from playback to record- Cubase can record and play back in a cycle – a loop. You
ing at a given position. This is known as “automatic punch specify where the cycle starts and ends by setting the left
in”. A typical use for this is if you need to replace a section and right locators. When the cycle is active, the selected
of a recording, and want to listen to what is already re- section is seamlessly repeated until you hit Stop or deac-
corded, up to the recording start position. Proceed as tivate cycle mode.
follows:
• To activate cycle mode, click the cycle button on the
1. Set the left locator to the position where you want re- Transport panel.
cording to start.
2. Activate the Punch In button on the Transport panel.

Cycle activated

Punch In activated

76
Recording
• To record in cycle mode, you can start recording from Bit Resolution
the left locator, from before the locators or from within the
The available options are 16 bit, 24 bit, and 32 bit float.
cycle, in Stop mode or during playback.
Use the following guidelines:
As soon as the project cursor reaches the right locator, it will jump back
to the left locator and continue recording a new lap. • Normally, select the record format according to the bit
• The results of cycle recording depend on the selected resolution delivered by your audio hardware.
For example, if your audio hardware has 20 bit A/D converters (inputs),
cycle record mode and are different for audio (see “Re-
you may want to record at 24 bit resolution to capture the full bit resolu-
cording audio” on page 80) and MIDI (see “Recording tion. On the other hand, if your hardware has 16 bit inputs, it is pointless
MIDI” on page 83). to record with a higher bit resolution – this will only make the audio files
larger, with no difference in audio quality.
Audio recording specifics • The higher the bit resolution, the larger the files and the
more strain is put on the disk system.
Selecting a recording file format If this is an issue, you may want to lower the record format setting.
The format for recorded files is set in the Project Setup di- ! For further information on the options in the Project
alog on the Project menu. There are three settings: Sam- Setup dialog, see “The Project Setup dialog” on
ple Rate, Bit Resolution, and Record File Type. While the page 44.
sample rate is set once and for all when you start working
on a new project, the bit resolution and file type can be
Setting up the track
changed at any time.
Creating a track and selecting the channel configuration
Record File Type
Audio tracks can be configured as mono or stereo tracks.
The Record File Type setting determines which type of This allows you to record or import a file containing multi-
files will be created when you record: ple channels and treat it as one entity, with no need to split
File type Description it up into several mono files, etc. The signal path for an au-
Wave File Wave files have the extension “.wav” and are a common dio track maintains its channel configuration all the way
file format on the PC platform. from the input bus, via EQ, level and other Mixer settings
Wave 64 File Wave 64 is a proprietary format developed by Sonic to the output bus.
Foundry Inc. Audio-wise it is identical to the Wave format,
but the internal file structure makes much larger file sizes You specify the channel configuration for a track when you
possible. This is useful for long live recordings, where the create it:
audio files can become huge.
Broadcast In terms of audio content, the same as regular Wave files, 1. Select “Add Audio Track” from the track list context
Wave File but with embedded text strings for supplying additional menu or the Project menu (or, if an audio track is already
information about the file (see below). selected, double-click in an empty area of the track list).
AIFF File Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined by Ap- A dialog opens with a channel configuration pop-up menu.
ple Inc. AIFF files have the extension “.aif” and are used
on most computer platforms. Like Broadcast Wave files, 2. Select the desired format from the pop-up menu.
AIFF files can contain embedded text strings (see below). You can choose between mono and stereo.
• The Browse item in this dialog allows you to browse
• If you select Broadcast Wave File or AIFF format, you
your disks for created track presets, which can be used as
can specify Author, Description and Reference text strings
a basis (or template) for tracks.
that will be embedded in the recorded file.
This is described in detail in the chapter “Working with track presets” on
This is done on the Record–Audio–Broadcast Wave page in the Prefer-
page 221.
ences dialog.
3. Click the Add Track button.
A track is added, set to the specified channel configuration. In the Mixer,
a corresponding channel strip appears. You cannot change the channel
configuration for a track.

77
Recording
Selecting an input bus for a track • It is possible to have different tracks record to totally dif-
ferent locations, even on different disks. However, if you
Here we assume that you have added and set up the re-
need to move or archive the project, there is a risk of miss-
quired input busses (see “Setting up busses” on page 22).
ing some files. The solution is to use the “Prepare Archive”
Before you record, you need to specify from which input
function in the Pool to gather all external files into the proj-
bus the track will record. You can do this in the Inspector.
ect folder first, see “Prepare Archive” on page 204.
• On the Input Routing pop-up menu in the top section,
Select an input bus. Setting input levels
As described in the section “The Inspector” on page 29, the Inspector
shows the settings for the selected track.
When recording digital sound, it is important to set the in-
put levels correctly – loud enough to ensure low noise and
high audio quality, but not so loud that clipping (digital dis-
tortion) occurs.
Clipping typically occurs in the audio hardware when a
too loud analog signal is converted to digital in the hard-
ware’s A/D converters.
Click here to select an input bus for
the track.
You need to check the level at the channel strip for the
track on which you are recording:
Selecting a folder for the recorded audio files 1. Locate the channel strip for the track you are about to
record on.
Each Cubase project has a project folder containing
(among other things) an “Audio” folder. By default, this is 2. Activate monitoring for the channel by clicking the
where recorded audio files are stored. However, you can speaker button next to the fader.
select record folders independently for each audio track if When monitoring is activated, the meter shows the level of the incoming
needed. audio signal.

Proceed as follows: 3. Play the audio source that you want to record and
check the level meter for the channel.
1. To select the same record folder for several audio
tracks, select them by pressing [Shift] or [Ctrl]/[Com- 4. Adjust the output level of your audio source so that the
mand] and clicking on them in the track list. meters go reasonably high without reaching 0.0 dB.
Check the numerical peak level indicator below the meter in the bus
2. Right-click the track list for one of the tracks to bring channel strip. To reset the peak level indicator, click on it.
up the context menu.
Ö You must adjust the output level of the audio source –
3. Select “Set Record Folder”. you cannot use the faders in Cubase to adjust the input
A file dialog opens. level!
4. Navigate to the desired folder (or create a new folder Ö An alternative way of checking the input levels is to
with the Create button). use the control panel for your audio hardware (if it features
Tip: if you want to have separate folders for different types of material input level meters). It may also be possible to adjust the in-
(speech, ambient sounds, music, etc.), you can create subfolders within
put level in the control panel. See the documentation of
the project’s “Audio” folder and assign different tracks to different sub-
your audio hardware for details.
folders. This way, all audio files will still reside within the project folder,
which will make managing the Project easier.

78
Recording
Audio pre-record The disadvantage of monitoring via Cubase is that the
monitored signal will be delayed according to the latency
This feature allows you to capture up to 1 minute of any in-
value (which depends on your audio hardware and driv-
coming audio you play in Stop mode or during playback,
ers). Therefore, monitoring via Cubase requires an audio
“after the fact”. This is possible because Cubase can cap-
hardware configuration with a low latency value. You can
ture audio input in buffer memory, even when not recording.
check the latency of your hardware in the Device Setup
Proceed as follows: dialog (VST Audio System page).
1. Open the Preferences dialog (Record–Audio page). Ö If you are using plug-in effects with large inherent de-
2. Specify a time (up to 60 seconds) in the “Audio Pre- lays, the automatic delay compensation function in Cubase
Record Seconds” field. will increase the latency. If this is a problem, you can use the
This activates the buffering of audio input, making Pre-Record possible. Constrain Delay Compensation function while recording,
see “Constrain Delay Compensation” on page 154.
3. Make sure an audio track is record-enabled and re-
ceives audio from the signal source. When monitoring via Cubase, you can select one of four
Auto Monitoring modes in the Preferences dialog (VST
4. When you have played some audio material you want page):
to capture (either in Stop mode or during playback), click
the Record button.
5. After a few seconds stop the recording.
An audio event is created, starting at where the cursor position was
when you activated recording. If you were in stop mode and the cursor
was at the beginning of the project, you may have to move the event to
the right in the next step. If you were playing along to a project you, leave
the event where it is.
• Manual
6. Select the Arrow tool and place the cursor on the bot- This option allows you to turn input monitoring on or off by clicking the
tom left edge of the event so that a double arrow appears, Monitor button in the Inspector, the track list or in the Mixer.
then click and drag to the left.
• While Record Enabled
Now the event is extended and the audio you played before activating re-
With this option, you will hear the audio source connected to the channel
cord is inserted – this means that if you played along during playback,
input whenever the track is record enabled.
the captured notes will end up exactly where you played them in relation
to the project. • While Record Running
This option switches to input monitoring only during recording.
Monitoring • Tapemachine Style
In this context, “monitoring” means listening to the input This option emulates standard tapemachine behavior: input monitoring in
signal during recording. There are three fundamentally dif- Stop mode and during recording, but not during playback.
ferent ways to do this: via Cubase, externally (by listening
to the signal before it reaches Cubase), or by using ASIO External monitoring
Direct Monitoring (which is a combination of both other External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it
methods – see below). goes into Cubase) requires some sort of external mixer for
mixing the audio playback with the input signal. This can
Monitoring via Cubase be a stand-alone physical mixer or a mixer application for
If you monitor via Cubase, the input signal is mixed in with your audio hardware, if this has a mode in which the input
the audio playback. The advantage of this is that you can audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, “Direct
adjust the monitoring level and panning in the Mixer, and Thru” or similar).
add effects and EQ to the monitor signal just as during
playback (using the track’s channel strip – not the input
bus!).

79
Recording
When using external monitoring, you cannot control the The latency value of the audio hardware configuration
level of the monitor signal from within Cubase or add VST does not affect the monitor signal when using ASIO Direct
effects or EQ to the monitor signal. The latency value of Monitoring.
the audio hardware configuration does not affect the mon-
When using Steinberg hardware (MR816 series) in com-
itor signal in this mode.
bination with ASIO Direct Monitoring, monitoring will be
Ö If you want to use external monitoring, you need to virtually latency-free.
make sure that monitoring via Cubase is not activated as
Ö If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio
well. Select the “Manual” monitoring mode in the Prefer-
hardware, make sure that the pan law is set to -3 dB in the
ences dialog (VST page) and do not activate the Monitor
card’s preferences.
buttons.

ASIO Direct Monitoring Recording audio

If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may sup- You can record audio using any of the general recording
port ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be methods (see “Basic recording methods” on page 75).
available for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In When you finish recording, an audio file is created in the
this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hard- Audio folder within the project folder. In the Pool, an audio
ware, by sending the input signal back out again. How- clip is created for the audio file, and an audio event that
ever, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means plays the whole clip appears on the recording track. Fi-
that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be nally, a waveform image is calculated for the audio event. If
turned on or off automatically by Cubase, just as when us- the recording was very long, this may take a while.
ing internal monitoring. Ö If the “Create Audio Images During Record” option is
• To activate ASIO Direct Monitoring, open the Device activated in the Preferences dialog (Record–Audio page),
Setup dialog on the Devices menu and activate the Direct the waveform image will be calculated and displayed dur-
Monitoring checkbox on the page for your audio hardware. ing the actual recording process. This realtime calculation
If the checkbox is grayed out, your audio hardware (or its driver) does not uses some processing power – if your processor is slow
support ASIO Direct Monitoring. Consult the audio hardware manufac- or if you are working on a CPU-intensive project, consider
turer for details. deactivating this option.
• When ASIO Direct Monitoring is activated, you can se- Undoing recording
lect a monitoring mode in the Preferences dialog (VST
page), as when monitoring via Cubase (see “Monitoring If you decide that you do not like what you just recorded,
via Cubase” on page 79). you can delete it by selecting Undo from the Edit menu.
The following will happen:
• Depending on the audio hardware, it may also be possi-
ble to adjust the monitoring level and panning from the • The events you just created will be removed from the Project
Mixer by adjusting the volume faders, and the input gain window.
controls. • The audio clips in the Pool will be moved to the Trash folder.
Consult the documentation of the audio hardware if in doubt. The recorded audio files will not be removed from the hard
• VST effects and EQ cannot be applied to the monitor disk. However, since their corresponding clips are moved
signal in this mode, since the monitor signal does not pass to the Trash folder, you can delete the files by opening the
through Cubase. Pool and selecting “Empty Trash” from the Media menu,
see “Deleting from the hard disk” on page 199.
• Depending on the audio hardware, there may be special
restrictions as to which audio outputs can be used for di-
rect monitoring.
For details on the routing of the audio hardware, see its documentation.

80
Recording
About overlap and the Audio Record Modes If you have a track with overlapping (stacked) events/re-
gions, use one of the following methods to select the
The Audio Record Mode setting lets you decide what
event/region that is played back:
happens to your recording and to any existing events on
the track where you are recording. This is necessary be- • Open the context menu for the audio event in the event
cause you will not always record on an empty track. There display and select the desired event or region from the “To
may be situations where you record over existing events – Front” or “Set to Region” submenu.
especially in cycle mode. The available options depend on whether you performed a linear or a cy-
cle recording and the record mode you used. When recording audio in
To select an Audio Record Mode, proceed as follows: cycle mode, the recorded event is divided in regions, one for each take.
1. On the Transport panel, click the audio symbol in the • Use the handle in the middle of a stacked event and se-
upper left section. lect an entry from the pop-up menu that appears.
Click here…
Recovery of audio recordings after system
failure
Normally, when a computer crashes, all changes made to
your current project since you last saved it will be lost.
Usually, there is no quick and easy way to recover your
…to open the Audio work.
Record Mode panel.
With Cubase, when your system crashes while you are re-
cording (because of a power cut or other mishap), you will
find that your recording is still available, from the moment
when you started recording to the time when your com-
2. Activate the desired option. puter crashed.
The following options are available: When you experience a computer crash during a record-
ing, simply relaunch the system and check the project re-
Option Description
cord folder (by default this is the Audio subfolder inside
Keep History Existing events (or portions of events) that are over-
lapped by a new recording are kept.
the project folder). It should contain the audio file you
were recording at the time of the crash.
Cycle History + Existing events (or portions of events) that are over-
Replace lapped by a new recording are replaced by the new
recording. ! This feature does not constitute an “overall” guaran-
However, if you record in cycle mode, all takes from tee by Steinberg. While the program itself was im-
the current cycle recording are kept.
proved in such a way that audio recordings can be
Replace Existing events (or portions of events) that are over- recovered after a system failure, it is always possible
lapped by a new recording are replaced by the last re-
corded take. that a computer crash, power cut, etc. might have
damaged another component of the computer, mak-
3. Click anywhere outside the panel to close the Audio ing it impossible to save or recover any of the data.
Record Mode panel. ! Please do not try to actively bring about this kind of
Handling overlapping audio situation to test this feature. Although the internal
program processes have been improved to cope
The basic rule for audio tracks is that each track can only with such situations, Steinberg cannot guarantee
play back a single audio event at a time. If two or more that other parts of the computer are not damaged as
events overlap, you will only hear one of them: the one that a consequence.
is actually visible (e. g. the last lap of a cycle recording).

81
Recording
MIDI recording specifics Naming MIDI ports in Cubase
MIDI inputs and outputs are often displayed with unneces-
Activating MIDI Thru sarily long and complicated names. However, you can re-
Normally, when working with MIDI, you will have MIDI Thru name your MIDI ports to more descriptive names:
activated in Cubase, and Local Off selected in your MIDI 1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
instruments. In this mode, everything you play during re-
cording will be “echoed” back out again on the MIDI out- 2. Select the MIDI Port Setup item in the Device list.
The available MIDI inputs and outputs are listed. Under Windows, which
put and channel selected for the recording track.
device to choose depends on your system.
1. Make sure that the “MIDI Thru Active” option is acti-
3. To change the name of a MIDI port, click in the “Show
vated in the Preferences dialog (MIDI page).
As” column and type in a new name.
2. Record enable the tracks on which you want to record. After closing the dialog, the new name will appear on the MIDI Input and
Now, incoming MIDI is “echoed” back out again for all record-enabled Output Routing pop-up menus.
MIDI tracks.
Setting the MIDI input in the Inspector
Record Enable button Monitor
button You select MIDI inputs for tracks in the Inspector (the area
to the left of the track list in the Project window):
1. Select the track by clicking in the track list.
To select multiple tracks, press [Shift] or [Ctrl]/[Command] and click. The
Ö If you just want to use the Thru function for a MIDI
Inspector shows the settings for the first selected track (for details, see
track without recording, activate the monitor button for the “The Inspector” on page 29).
track instead. This is useful, for instance, if you want to try
out different sounds or play a VST instrument in realtime 2. Click the track name in the Inspector to make sure that
without recording your playing. the topmost section is shown.

Setting MIDI channel, input, and output

Setting the MIDI channel in the instrument
Most MIDI synthesizers can play several sounds at the
same time, each on a different MIDI channel. This is the
key to playing back several sounds (bass, piano, etc.) from
the same instrument. Some devices (such as General
MIDI compatible sound modules) always receive on all 16
MIDI channels. If you have such an instrument, there is no
specific setting you need to make in the instrument. On
other instruments, you will have to use the front panel con-
trols to set up a number of “Parts”, “Timbres” or similar so
that they receive on one MIDI channel each. See the man-
3. Pull down the Input Routing pop-up menu and select
ual that came with your instrument for more information.
an input.
The available MIDI inputs are shown. The items on the menu depend on
the type of MIDI interface you are using.
• If you select the “All MIDI Inputs” option, the track will
receive MIDI data from all available MIDI inputs.
• If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select a MIDI
input, this will be used for all selected MIDI tracks.

82
Recording
Setting the MIDI channel and output Program Change messages give access to 128 different
program locations. If your MIDI instruments have more
The MIDI channel and output settings determine where
than 128 programs, Bank Select messages (set in the
the recorded MIDI is routed during playback, but are also
“Bank Selector” field) allow you to select different banks,
relevant for MIDI Thru in Cubase. Channel and output can
each containing 128 programs.
be selected in the track list or in the Inspector. The proce-
dure below describes how to make the settings in the In- Ö Bank Select messages are recognized differently by
spector, but it can be done in largely the same manner in different MIDI instruments. The structure and numbering
the track list as well. of banks and programs may also vary. Consult the docu-
mentation of your MIDI instruments for details.
1. To select the tracks and show the settings in the
Inspector, proceed as when selecting a MIDI input (see
above). Recording MIDI
You can record MIDI according to the basic recording
2. Pull down the Output Routing pop-up menu and se-
methods (see “Basic recording methods” on page 75).
lect an output.
The available MIDI outputs are shown. The items on the menu depend on
When you finish recording, a part containing MIDI events
what type of MIDI interface you are using. is created in the Project window.

• If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select a MIDI About overlap and the MIDI Record Mode
output, this is selected for all selected MIDI tracks.
MIDI tracks are different from audio tracks when it comes
3. Use the Channel pop-up menu to select a MIDI chan- to overlapping parts: All events in overlapping parts are al-
nel for the track. ways played back. If you record several parts in the same
locations (or move parts so that they overlap), you will hear
the events in all parts.
When recording overlapping parts, the result depends on
the MIDI Record Mode setting on the Transport panel. To
select a MIDI Record Mode, proceed as follows:
1. On the Transport panel, click the MIDI symbol in the
• If you set the track to MIDI channel “Any”, each MIDI lower left section.
event on the track will be sent out on the channel stored in
Click here…
the event itself.
In other words, the MIDI material will be played back on the channels
used by the MIDI input device (the MIDI instrument you play during re-
cording).
…to open the MIDI Record Mode panel.

Selecting a sound
You can select sounds from within Cubase by instructing
the program to send Program Change and Bank Select
messages to your MIDI device. This is done using the
“Patch Selector” and “Bank Selector” fields in the Inspec-
tor or track list. 2. Activate the desired option.

83
Recording
The following options are available: Recording different types of MIDI messages
Option Description
! Use MIDI filters to decide exactly which event types
New Parts Existing parts that are overlapped by a new recording are
kept. The new recording is saved as a new part. are recorded, see “Filtering MIDI” on page 86.
Merge Existing events in parts that are overlapped by a new re- Notes
cording are kept. The newly recorded events are added to
the existing part. When you press and release a key on your synth or other
Replace Existing events in parts that are overlapped by a new re- MIDI keyboard, a Note On (key down) and a Note Off (key
cording are replaced. up) message are sent out. The MIDI note message also
contains the information which MIDI channel was used.
The MIDI Cycle Record Modes Normally, this information is overridden by the MIDI chan-
When you record MIDI in cycle mode, the result depends nel setting for the track, but if you set the track to MIDI
not only on the MIDI Record Mode, but also on which Cy- channel “Any”, the notes will be played back on their orig-
cle Record Mode is selected in the MIDI Cycle Record inal channels.
Mode section: Continuous messages
Option Description
Pitchbend, aftertouch, and controllers (like modulation
Mix For each completed lap, everything you record is added wheel, sustain pedal, volume, etc.) are considered as MIDI
to what was previously recorded. This is useful for build-
ing up rhythm patterns. Record a hi-hat part on the first continuous events (as opposed to the momentary key
lap, the bass drum part on the second lap, etc. down and key up messages). If you move the pitchbend
Overwrite As soon as you play a MIDI note (or send any MIDI mes- wheel on your synthesizer while recording, this movement
sage), all MIDI you have recorded on previous laps is is recorded together with the key (Note On and Note Off
overwritten from that point. Make sure that you stop play-
ing before the next lap begins – otherwise you will over- messages), just as you would expect. But the continuous
write the entire take. messages can also be recorded after the notes have been
Keep Last Each completed lap replaces the previously recorded lap. recorded (or even before). They can also be recorded on
If you deactivate recording or press Stop before the cur- their own tracks, separately from the notes to which they
sor reaches the right locator, the previous take will be
kept. If you do not play or input any MIDI during a lap,
belong.
nothing happens (the previous take will be kept).
Say, for instance, that you record one or several bass
parts on track 2. If you now set another track, like track 55,
About the Automatic MIDI Record Quantize to the same output and MIDI channel as track 2, you can
function make a separate recording of just pitchbends for the bass
If Auto Quantize is activated on the Transport panel (the parts on track 55. This means that you activate recording
“Auto Q” button), the notes you record are automatically as usual and only move the pitchbend wheel during the
quantized according to the current Quantize settings. For take. As long as the two tracks are set to the same output
more information about quantizing, see “Quantizing MIDI and MIDI channel, it will appear to the MIDI instrument as
and audio” on page 89. if the two recordings were made at the same time.

Program Change messages

Normally, when you switch from one program to another
on your keyboard (or whatever you use to record), a num-
ber corresponding to that program is sent out via MIDI as
a Program Change message. These can be recorded on
the fly with the music, recorded afterwards on a separate
track, or manually entered in the Key or List Editors.

84
Recording
System Exclusive messages The content of the MIDI buffer (i. e. what you just played) is
turned into a MIDI part on the record enabled track. The
System Exclusive (SysEx) is a special type of MIDI mes-
part will appear where the project cursor was when you
sage used to send data that only makes sense to a unit of
started playing – this means that if you played along dur-
a certain make and type. SysEx can be used to transmit a
ing playback, the captured notes will end up exactly where
list of the numbers that make up the settings of one or
you played them in relation to the project.
more sounds in a synth. For details about viewing and ed-
iting SysEx messages, see the section “Working with • The Retrospective Record Buffer Size setting in the
SysEx messages” on page 279. Preferences dialog (Record–MIDI page) determines how
much data can be captured.
The Reset function
The Reset function on the MIDI menu sends out note-off MIDI Preferences
messages and resets controllers on all MIDI channels. There are several other options and settings in the Prefer-
This is sometimes necessary if you experience hanging ences that affect MIDI recording and playback:
notes, constant vibrato, etc. when punching in and out on
MIDI recordings with pitchbend or controller data. MIDI page

There are two other options to perform a reset: • Length Adjustment

Adjusts the length of notes so that there is always a short time between
• Cubase can automatically perform a MIDI reset on stop. the end of one note and the start of another (of the same pitch and on the
You can turn this function on or off in the Preferences dialog (MIDI page). same MIDI channel). The time is set in ticks. By default there are 120
ticks per 1/16 note, but you can adjust this with the MIDI Display Reso-
• Cubase can automatically insert a reset event at the end
lution setting on the same page.
of a recorded part.
Open the Preferences dialog (MIDI page) and activate the “Insert Reset Record–MIDI page
Events after Record” option. The inserted Reset event will reset controller
data such as Sustain, Aftertouch, Pitchbend, Modulation, Breath Control, • Snap MIDI Parts to Bars
etc. This is useful if a MIDI part is recorded and the Sustain pedal is still When this is activated, recorded MIDI parts will automatically be length-
held after stopping recording. Usually, this would cause all following parts ened to start and end at whole bar positions. If you are working in a
to be played with Sustain, as the Pedal Off command was not recorded. Bars+Beats-based context, this can make editing (moving, duplicating,
This can be prevented by activating “Insert Reset Events after Record”. repeating, etc.) easier.
• Solo Record in MIDI Editors
Retrospective Record If this is activated and you open a part for editing in a MIDI editor, its track
This feature allows you to capture any MIDI notes you play is automatically record-enabled. Furthermore, Record Enable is deacti-
in Stop mode or during playback and turn them into a MIDI vated for all other MIDI tracks until you close the editor again.
This makes it easier to record MIDI data when you are editing a part – you
part “after the fact”. This is possible due to the fact that
will always be sure the recorded data ends up in the edited part and not on
Cubase can capture MIDI input in buffer memory, even any other track.
when not recording.
• MIDI Record Catch Range in ms
Proceed as follows: When you record starting at the left locator, this setting helps you make
1. Enable the Retrospective Record option in the Prefer- sure that the very start of the recording is included. A very annoying
ences dialog (Record–MIDI page). scenario is when you have recorded a perfect MIDI take, only to find out
that the very first note was not included – because you started playing a lit-
This activates the buffering of MIDI input, making Retrospective Record
possible. tle bit too early! If you raise the Record Catch Range, Cubase will catch
the events played just before the recording start point, eliminating this
2. Make sure a MIDI track is record-enabled. problem.
3. When you have played some MIDI material you want For a description of the other options, click the Help but-
to capture (either in Stop mode or during playback), select ton in the Preferences dialog.
Retrospective Record from the Transport menu (or use
the key command, by default [Shift]-Num[*]).

85
Recording
Filtering MIDI Options and Settings
Recording-related Transport Preferences
A couple of settings in the Preferences dialog (Transport
page) are relevant for recording. Set these according to
your preferred method of work:

Deactivate Punch In on Stop

If this is activated, punch in on the Transport panel is auto-
matically deactivated whenever you enter Stop mode.

Stop after Automatic Punch Out

If this is activated, playback will automatically stop after
automatic punch out (when the project cursor reaches the
right locator and punch out is activated on the Transport
panel). If the post-roll value on the Transport panel is set
The MIDI–MIDI Filter page in the Preferences dialog allows to a value other than zero, playback will continue for the
you to prevent certain MIDI messages from being recorded set time before stopping (see below).
and/or “thruput” (echoed by the MIDI Thru function).
The dialog is divided into four sections: About Pre-roll and Post-roll
Section Description Pre-roll value field and on/off switch
Record Activating any of these options prevents that type of MIDI
Post-roll value field and on/off switch
message from being recorded. It can, however, be thru-
put, and if already recorded, it will play back normally.
The pre-roll and post-roll value fields (below the left/right
Thru Activating any of these options prevents that type of MIDI
message from being thruput. It can, however, be recorded locator fields) on the Transport panel have the following
and played back normally. functionality:
Channels If you activate a channel button, no MIDI messages on
that MIDI channel will be recorded or thruput. Already re-
• By setting a pre-roll value, you instruct Cubase to “roll
corded messages will, however, be played back normally. back” a short section whenever playback is activated.
This applies whenever you start playback, but is perhaps most relevant
Controller Allows you to prevent certain MIDI controller types from
being recorded or thruput. when recording from the left locator (punch in activated on the Transport
To filter out a controller type, select it from the list at the panel) as described below.
top of the Controller section and click “Add”. It will ap-
pear on the list below. • By setting a post-roll value, you instruct Cubase to play
To remove a controller type from the list (allow it to be re- back a short section after automatic punch out before
corded and thruput), select it in the lower list and click
“Remove”. stopping.
This is only relevant when punch out is activated on the Transport panel
and “Stop after Automatic Punch Out” is activated in the Preferences di-
alog (Transport page).
• To turn pre-roll or post-roll on or off, click the corre-
sponding button on the Transport panel (next to the pre/
post-roll value) or use the “Use Pre-roll” and “Use Post-
roll” options on the Transport menu.

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Recording
An example: Metronome settings
1. Set the locators to where you want to start and end You make settings for the metronome in the Metronome
recording. Setup dialog, opened from the Transport menu.
2. Activate Punch in and Punch out on the Transport
panel.
3. Activate the “Stop after Automatic Punch Out” option
in the Preferences dialog (Transport page).
4. Set suitable pre-roll and post-roll times by clicking in
the corresponding fields on the Transport panel and typ-
ing in time values.
5. Activate pre-roll and post-roll by clicking the buttons
next to the pre-roll and post-roll times so that they light up.
6. Activate recording.
The project cursor “rolls back” by the time specified in the pre-roll field
and playback starts. When the cursor reaches the left locator, recording
is automatically activated. When the cursor reaches the right locator, re-
cording is deactivated, but playback continues for the time set in the
post-roll field before stopping.
In the Metronome Options section, the following options
Using the metronome are available:
The metronome can output a click that can be used as a Option Description
timing reference. The two parameters that govern the tim-
Metronome in Allows you to specify whether the metronome is heard
ing of the metronome are tempo and time signature, as set Record/Play during playback, recording or both (when Click is acti-
in the Tempo Track Editor (see “Editing the tempo curve” vated on the Transport panel).
on page 292). The metronome can use a either an audio
click played back via the audio hardware, send MIDI data The following precount options are available:
to a connected device which will play back the click or Option Description
both.
Precount Bars Sets the number of bars the metronome counts in before
You can also set up a precount (count-in) that will be recording starts.
heard when you start recording from Stop mode. This can Use Project If this option is activated, the metronome plays one click
be musical or time based. Count Base per beat according to the project count base.
Use Count If this option is activated, a field appears to the right where
• To activate the metronome click, activate the Click but- Base you specify the “rhythm” of the metronome. For example,
ton on the Transport panel. setting this to “1/8”, gives you eighth notes (two clicks per
You can also select the “Metronome On” option on the Transport menu beat). It is also possible to create unusual metronome
rhythms such as triplets.
or use the corresponding key command (by default [C]).
Use Time Sign. When this is activated, the precount automatically uses
• To activate the precount, click the Precount button on at Rec. Start the time signature and tempo set at the position where
the Transport panel. Time recording starts.
You can also select the “Precount On” option on the Transport menu or Use Time Sign. When this is activated, the precount uses the time signa-
set up a key command for this. at Project Time ture set on the tempo track. Furthermore, any tempo
changes on the tempo track during the precount are
applied.
Click on/off Precount on/off
Use Signature This lets you set a time signature for the precount. In this
mode, tempo changes on the tempo track do not affect
the precount.

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Recording
Further configuration options for MIDI and audio clicks are Ö Note that an automatic punch-out at the right locator
available in the Click Outputs section: position that you may have set on the transport panel, will
Option Description
be ignored in Lock Record mode.
Activate MIDI Selects whether or not the metronome sounds via MIDI.
Click Record Time Max display
MIDI Port/ This is where you select a MIDI output and channel for the The Record Time Max display lets you see how much time
Channel metronome click. you have left for recording. The available time depends on
For the metronome click you can also select a VST instru-
ment previously set up in the VST Instruments window the current setup, for example, on the amount of tracks
(not in Cubase LE). that are record-enabled, your project setup (e. g. the sam-
Hi Note/ Sets the MIDI note number and velocity value for the ple rate), and the amount of hard disk space available.
Velocity “high note” (the first beat in a bar).
You can show and hide the display using the “Record
Lo Note/ Sets the MIDI note number and velocity for the “low
Velocity notes” (the other beats). Time Max” option on the Devices menu.
Activate Selects whether or not the metronome sounds via the Ö The remaining record time is also shown in the status
Audio Click audio hardware. You can set the level of the click with the line above the track list.
slider.
Beeps When this is selected, the audio clicks will be beeps ! If you are storing your tracks on different drives (by
generated by the program. Adjust the pitch and level of
the beeps for the “Hi” (first) beat and “Lo” (other) beats using individual record folders), the time display re-
using the sliders below. fers to the medium with the least storage space
Sounds When this is selected, you can click in the “Sound” fields available.
below to load any audio files for the “Hi” and “Lo” metro-
nome sounds. The sliders set the level of the click.

Lock and Unlock Record

During recording it can happen that you accidentally de-
activate the record mode, e. g. by pressing [Space]. In or-
der to prevent this, you can set up a key command for this
in the Key Commands dialog. If you use the Lock Record
key command, the Record button will turn gray and the re-
cord mode is locked until you use the Unlock Record key
command or enter Stop mode.
• If Lock Record is activated and you want to enter Stop
mode (by clicking Stop or pressing [Space]), you will see
a dialog in which you need to confirm that you want to
stop recording. You can also use the Unlock Record key
command first and then enter Stop mode as usual.
• By default, no key commands are assigned to these
functions. In the Key Commands dialog, you will find the
corresponding key command entries in the Transport cat-
egory (see the chapter “Key commands” on page 343 for
more information on how to set up key commands).
Ö These key commands are especially useful when com-
bined with other commands (e. g. with Record/Stop) using
the macro functions. That way you will receive powerful
macros that can greatly enhance your workflow.

88
Recording
 9
Quantizing MIDI and audio
Introduction Where are the quantize functions located?
Quantize functions on the Edit menu
What is quantizing?
Quantizing is a function that moves recorded audio or
MIDI, positioning it on the nearest grid position that is mu-
sically relevant. Quantizing can be used to correct errors,
or in a creative way.
In Cubase, you can quantize audio and MIDI to a grid (see
“Options for quantizing to a musical grid” on page 93) or
to a groove (see “Options for quantizing to a groove” on
page 94).
Audio and MIDI can be quantized at the same time. How-
ever, what exactly happens during quantizing differs for
audio and MIDI:
• Audio quantizing affects the audio event starts (see
“Audio – quantizing audio event starts” on page 91).
• MIDI quantizing can affect the starts of MIDI events in a
part (see “MIDI – quantizing MIDI event starts” on page
91), the MIDI event lengths (see “Quantize MIDI Event
Lengths” on page 91), or the MIDI event ends (see • To apply the quantize function, you can either open the
“Quantize MIDI Event Ends” on page 91). Edit menu and select Quantize, or use the default key
command [Q].
Ö When you apply quantizing, the result is based on the
original position of the events. Therefore, you can freely try • To apply one of the advanced quantizing functions,
out different quantize settings without the risk of “destroy- open the Edit menu and select the desired function on the
ing” anything. Advanced Quantize submenu.

Quantize functions on the toolbar

The Quantize section on the Project window toolbar pro-
vides the following parameters:
• The “Q” button
If you click the “Q” button, it toggles to “iQ”. This changes the mode from
default to iterative quantize (see “iQ option and Iterative Strength set-
ting” on page 93).
• The Quantize Presets pop-up menu
On this pop-up menu, you can select a preset for quantizing (see “Quan-
tize Presets pop-up menu” on page 92).
• The “Open Quantize Panel” button
By clicking on this button you can open the Quantize Panel (see “The
Quantize Panel” on page 92).

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
Quantize functions on the Quantize Panel MIDI – quantizing MIDI event starts
The Quantize Panel provides different settings and parame- If you select several MIDI notes in a part and use the
ters (see “The Quantize Panel” on page 92). You can open Quantize function on the Edit menu, the MIDI note starts
it by clicking on the corresponding button on the toolbar or are quantized, i. e. The starts of MIDI notes that ended up
by opening the Edit menu and selecting “Quantize Panel”. slightly beside exact note positions are moved to the near-
est position of the grid. The grid is set up in the Quantize
Quantize functions on the Transport panel (MIDI only) pop-up menu. The note lengths are maintained.
On the Transport panel, you can activate the Auto Q button. Ö If you quantize MIDI parts, all events are quantized,
The Auto Q function quantizes MIDI automatically on re- even if none is selected.
cording, according to the settings on the Quantize Panel.
Reset Quantize
This command on the Edit menu reverts your audio or
MIDI to its original, unquantized state. This function is in-
dependent from the regular Undo History.
Ö The Reset function will also reset any length changes
Quantize functions in the key commands
that you performed using the “Scale Length/Legato”
In the Key Commands dialog (Quantize Category), you slider, see “The Length section” on page 256.
can set up key commands for the quantize functions. For
further information about key commands, see “Key com-
mands” on page 343. Advanced Quantize functions
Quantize MIDI Event Lengths
Quantize functions The “Quantize MIDI Event Lengths” function on the Edit
menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, quantizes the length
Quantize of MIDI notes without changing their start positions. At its
The Quantize function is found on the Edit menu. You can most basic level, this function sets the length of the notes to
also use the key command [Q] or the “Quantize” button on the Length Quantize value on the MIDI editor toolbar by
the Quantize Panel. What exactly happens when you use cutting their ends.
the Quantize function depends on whether you apply it to
However, if you have selected the “Quantize Link” option
audio or MIDI.
on the Length Quantize pop-up menu, the function resizes
Audio – quantizing audio event starts the notes according to the quantize grid, taking the Swing,
Tuplet, and Catch Range settings into account.
If you select one or several audio events or a sliced loop
and use the Quantize function, the audio event starts are
quantized.
Quantize MIDI Event Ends
The “Quantize MIDI Event Ends” function on the Edit
The event snap points (or, if no snap point is available, the
menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, moves the ends of
event start) that ended up slightly beside exact note posi-
your MIDI notes to the nearest grid positions, taking the
tions are moved to the nearest position of the grid. The
Quantize pop-up menu setting into account.
grid is set up in the Quantize pop-up menu.
Ö If you use the Quantize function on an audio part, the
event starts inside the part are quantized.

91
Quantizing MIDI and audio
Freeze MIDI Quantize The Quantize Panel
The Freeze MIDI Quantize function on the Edit menu,
You can open the Quantize Panel by clicking on the corre-
Advanced Quantize submenu, makes the start and end
sponding button on the toolbar or by opening the Edit
positions of MIDI events permanent. This is useful in situa-
menu and selecting “Quantize Panel”.
tions where you want to quantize a second time, based on
the current quantized positions rather than the original Using the Quantize Panel, you can quantize audio or MIDI
positions. to the grid or to a groove. Depending on what method you
choose, different parameters are shown on the Quantize
Create Groove Quantize Preset Panel. However, there is also a set of common settings.
This lets you create a groove quantize preset from a MIDI
part, a sliced audio part, or an audio event containing Common settings
hitpoints. Quantize Presets pop-up menu
To extract the timing, i. e. generate a groove quantize map On this pop-up menu, you can select a quantize or a
based on hitpoints that you have created in the Sample groove preset.
Editor, proceed as follows:
Save/Remove Preset
1. Open the Sample Editor for the audio event from
which you want to extract the timing. The preset controls allow you to store the current settings
as a preset, making them available on all Quantize Presets
2. Create and edit hitpoints.
For further information, see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page
pop-up menus. To save a preset, proceed as follows:
186. 1. Set up the quantize parameters as desired.
3. On the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor, click the This includes Swing, Catch Range, etc.
“Create Groove” button. 2. Click the Save Preset button (the plus sign) to the
The groove is extracted. right of the Quantize Presets pop-up menu.
If you open the Quantize pop-up menu on the Project win- A preset name is generated automatically, according to your settings.
dow toolbar, you will find an additional item at the bottom • If you want to rename the preset, open the Quantize
of the list, with the same name as the file from which you Presets pop-up menu, select “Rename Preset” and enter
have extracted the groove. You can select it as a base for the desired name in the dialog that appears.
quantizing, just like any other quantize value.
• To remove a user preset, select it and click the “Remove
4. To save the groove, open the Quantize Panel and store Preset” button.
it as a preset, see “Save/Remove Preset” on page 92.
Non-Quantize
This setting allows you to set a “distance” in ticks (120
ticks correspond to one 16th note), so that events that are
within the specified distance from the nearest quantize
grid position are not quantized. This allows you to keep
slight variations when you quantize, but still correct notes
that are too far away from the grid.

92
Quantizing MIDI and audio
Grid display Ö Iterative quantizing is based on the current, quantized
positions and not on the original event positions. This
In the middle of the Quantize Panel the grid display is
makes it possible to repeatedly use Iterative Quantize,
shown. The green lines indicate the quantize grid, i. e. the
gradually moving your audio or MIDI closer to the quantize
positions that audio or MIDI is moved to.
grid until you have found the desired timing.

Reset Quantize
This button is identical with the Reset Quantize function
on the Edit menu (see “Reset Quantize” on page 91).

! If you move an audio event manually, the original start

time is changed to the new position. Therefore, the
Reset Quantize function has no effect on an event
that has been moved manually.

Quantize
Clicking this button applies your settings.
The grid display showing a 1/32 grid
Options for quantizing to a musical grid
Randomize Quantizing to a grid is useful if you want to place your re-
This setting allows you to set a “distance” in ticks (120 corded audio or MIDI on the nearest position that is musi-
ticks correspond to one 16th note), so that your audio or cally relevant.
MIDI is quantized to random positions within the specified
distance from the quantize grid. This creates a loose
quantizing and allows for slight variations. At the same
time, it prevents your audio or MIDI from ending up too far
away from the grid.

Move MIDI CC
If this is activated, controllers related to MIDI notes (pitch-
bend, etc.) are automatically moved with the notes when
these are quantized.

Auto Apply
If you activate this option, any changes you make are im-
mediately applied to the selected parts or events. A way of
using this feature is to set up a playback loop and adjust Grid
the settings until you get the desired result. On this pop-up menu you can determine the basic value
for the quantize grid.
iQ option and Iterative Strength setting
If you quantize your audio or MIDI with the iQ option acti- Swing
vated, a “loose” quantization is applied. This means that This parameter lets you offset every second position in the
your audio or MIDI moves only part of the way to the closest grid, creating a swing or shuffle feel. When you adjust the
quantize grid position. You can specify an Iterative Strength Swing parameter, the result is shown in the grid display.
value to the right of the iQ option. This lets you specify how
This setting is only available when a straight value is se-
close your audio or MIDI moves towards the grid.
lected for the grid and Tuplet is off (see below).

93
Quantizing MIDI and audio
Catch Range Position
This parameter allows you to specify that only audio or This parameter lets you determine how much the timing of
MIDI within a certain distance from the grid lines is af- the groove affects the music (expressed as a percentage).
fected by quantizing. This allows for complex quantization 0 % means that the timing of the music remains unaf-
tasks, e. g. quantizing only the heavy beats near each beat, fected, while 100 % means that the timing is adjusted to
and not the events in-between. match the groove completely.
With a value of 0 %, all audio or MIDI is affected by quan- Velocity (MIDI only)
tizing. With higher percentages, wider Catch Ranges are
shown around the green lines in the grid display and only This parameter lets you determine how much the velocity
the events within a Catch Range are quantized. values within the groove affect the music. Note that not all
grooves contain velocity information.
Tuplet
Length (MIDI only)
This parameter allows you to create rhythmically more
complex grids by dividing the grid into smaller steps. Use this parameter to specify how much the length of the
notes is affected by the groove. This is done by modifying
Options for quantizing to a groove the note-off value.

Groove quantizing is intended for creating certain rhyth- Ö For drums, the Length setting will be ignored as drum
mic feels by matching your recorded music to a timing grid sounds cannot be sustained.
generated from a MIDI part or an audio loop.
Pre-Quantize
To extract the groove from a MIDI part, from an audio loop,
This pop-up menu lets you quantize your audio or MIDI to
an audio event with hitpoints, or sliced audio, select the
a musical grid before groove quantizing. This helps you to
desired material and drag it onto the grid display in the
get the notes closer to their groove destination.
middle of the Quantize Panel. Alternatively, you can use
the “Create Groove Quantize Preset” function (see “Cre- For example, if you apply a shuffle groove to a 16th note
ate Groove Quantize Preset” on page 92). pattern, you can try to set up a Pre-Quantize value of 16 to
“straighten up” the timing before applying the groove
quantizing.

Max. Move
Here, you can specify a note value that defines the maxi-
mum distance by which your audio or MIDI is moved
within the quantize grid. This prevents you from moving
material that you do not want to move.

Orig. Position
If you activate this option, the selected audio or MIDI re-
verts to its original position on the grid when quantizing.

94
Quantizing MIDI and audio
 10
Fades and crossfades
Creating fades • If the “Show Event Volume Curves Always” option is ac-
tivated in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio
There are two types of fade ins and fade outs in audio page), fade curves are shown in all events, regardless of
events in Cubase: event-based fades that you create by us- whether they are selected or not.
ing the fade handles and clip-based fades created by pro- If the option is deactivated, the fade curves are shown in selected events
cessing (see “Clip-based fades” on page 97). only.
• If the “Use Mouse Wheel for Event volume and Fades”
Event-based fades option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Au-
Selected audio events have triangular handles in the up- dio page), pressing [Shift] while moving the mouse wheel
per left and right corners. These can be dragged to create moves the volume curve up or down.
a fade in or fade out, respectively. When you position the mouse pointer somewhere in the left half of the
event, the fade in end point is moved. When the mouse pointer is in the
The fade handles are visible right half of the event, the fade out start point is moved.
when you point the mouse at
the event. Ö In the Key Commands dialog (Audio category) you can
set up key commands for changing the event volume curve
Creating a fade in. The fade
and any fade curves, see “Key commands” on page 343.
is automatically reflected in
the shape of the event’s Creating and adjusting fades with the Range Selection
waveform, giving you a visual tool
feedback of the result when
dragging the fade handle.

Fades created with the handles are not applied to the audio
clip as such but calculated in realtime during playback. This Event-based fades can also be created and adjusted with
means that several events referring to the same audio clip the Range Selection tool.
can have different fade curves. It also means that having a Proceed as follows:
large number of fades may require more processing power.
1. Select a section of the audio event with the Range Se-
• If you select multiple events and drag the fade handles lection tool.
of one of them, the same fade is applied to all selected
events. 2. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Adjust Fades to
Range”.
• A fade can be edited in the Fade dialog, as described
on the following pages. The result depends on your selection:
You open the dialog by double-clicking in the area above the fade curve, • If you select a range from the beginning of the event, a fade in
or by selecting the event and selecting “Open Fade Editor(s)” from the is created within the range.
Audio menu (note that this will open two dialogs if the event has both
• If you select a range that reaches the end of an event, a fade
fade in and fade out curves).
out is created in the range.
If you adjust the shape of the fade curve in the Fade dialog, this shape
will be maintained when you later adjust the length of the fade. • If you select a range encompassing a middle section of the
event, but not reaching neither the start nor the end, a fade in
• You can make the fade longer or shorter at any time, by is created from the beginning of the event to the beginning of
dragging the handle. the selected range, and a fade out is created from the end of
You can do this without selecting the event first, i. e. without visible han- the selected range to the end of the event.
dles. Just move the mouse pointer along the fade curve until the cursor
turns into a bidirectional arrow, then click and drag. ! You can select multiple audio events on separate
tracks with the Range Selection tool, and apply the
fade to all of them simultaneously.

96
Fades and crossfades
About the volume handle If other events refer to the same audio clip, you will be
asked whether you want the processing to be applied to
A selected audio event also has a square handle in the top
these events or not.
middle: the volume handle. It provides a quick way of
changing the volume of an event in the Project window. • Continue will apply the processing to all events that refer to
Note that dragging the volume handle also changes the the audio clip.
value on the info line. • New Version will create a separate, new version of the audio
clip for the selected event.
The volume change is displayed numerically on the info line.
• You can also activate the “Please, don’t ask again” op-
tion. Regardless of whether you then choose “Continue”
or “New Version”, any further processing will conform to
Drag the Volume handle the option you select.
up or down to change You can change this setting at any time in the Preferences dialog (Edit-
the volume of the event. ing–Audio page), under “On Processing Shared Clips”.

The event waveform reflects the volume change.

The Fade dialogs
Removing fades The Fade dialogs appear when you edit an existing fade or
To remove the fades for an event, select the event and se- use the Fade In/Fade Out functions on the Process sub-
lect “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. menu of the Audio menu. The picture below shows the
Fade In dialog; the Fade Out dialog has identical settings
If you want to remove the fades in a specific range only, and features.
select the fade area with the Range Selection tool and se-
lect “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu.

Clip-based fades
If you have selected an audio event or a section of an au-
dio event (using the Range Selection tool), you can apply
a fade in or fade out to the selection by using the “Fade In”
or “Fade Out” function on the Process submenu of the
Audio menu. These functions open the corresponding
Fade dialog, allowing you to specify a fade curve. Fades
created this way are applied to the audio clip rather than
to the event.

! The length of the fade area is determined by your se- If you open the Fade dialog(s) with several events se-
lection. In other words, you specify the length of the lected, you can adjust the fade curves for all these events
fade before you open the Fade dialog. You can select at the same time. This is useful if you want to apply the
multiple events and apply the same processing to all same type of fade in to more than one event, etc.
of them simultaneously.
• If you later create new events that refer to the same clip, these
will have the same fades.

97
Fades and crossfades
The available options are: The Process Fade dialogs have the following buttons:
Option Description Button Function
Curve Kind These buttons determine whether the fade curve con- Preview Plays back the fade area. Playback will repeat until you
sists of spline curve segments (left button), damped click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during
spline segments (middle button), or linear segments playback).
(right button).
Process Applies the set fade curve to the clip, and closes the
Fade display This shows the shape of the fade curve. The resulting dialog.
waveform shape is shown in dark gray, with the cur-
rent waveform shape in light gray. Cancel Closes the dialog without applying any fade.
Click on the curve to add points, and click and drag
existing points to change the shape. To remove a
point from the curve, drag it outside the display.
Creating crossfades
Curve shape These buttons give you quick access to some com-
buttons mon curve shapes. Overlapping audio material on the same track can be
Restore button This button is only available when editing fades made crossfaded, for smooth transitions or special effects. You
by dragging the fade handles. Click this to cancel any create a crossfade by selecting two consecutive audio
changes you have made since opening the dialog.
events and selecting the Crossfade command on the Au-
Fade Length Value This parameter is only available when editing fades
made by dragging the fade handles. It can be used to
dio menu (or by using the corresponding key command,
enter fade lengths numerically. The format of values by default [X]). The result depends on whether the two
displayed here is determined by the Time Display in events overlap or not:
the Transport panel.
When you activate the Apply Length option, the value • If the events overlap, a crossfade is created in the over-
entered in the Fade Length value field is used when
clicking Apply or OK. lapping area.
When you set the current fade as the default fade, the The crossfade will be of the default shape (linear, symmetric), but you
length value is included as part of the default settings. can change this as described below.
Presets In this section you can set up presets for fade in or
fade out curves that you want to apply to other
events or clips.
To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up
menu.
To rename the selected preset, double-click on the Crossfade area
name and type in a new one.
To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up
menu and click Remove.
As Default button This button is only available when editing fades made
by dragging the fade handles. Click this to store the
current settings as the default fade, to be used Ö The default crossfade length and shape are set in the
whenever you create new fades by dragging event
handles.
Crossfade dialog (see “The Crossfade dialog” on page
99).
Applying a fade • If the events do not overlap but are directly consecutive
(lined up end-to-start, with no gap) it is still possible to
Depending on whether you are editing a fade made with the
crossfade them – provided that their respective audio
fade handles or applying a fade using processing, different
clips overlap! In this case, the two events are resized so
buttons are shown in the bottom row of the Fade dialog.
that they overlap, and a crossfade of the default length
The Edit Fade dialogs have the following buttons: and shape is applied.
Button Function • If the events do not overlap and cannot be resized
OK Applies the set fade curve to the event, and closes the enough to overlap, a crossfade cannot be created.
dialog.
Cancel Closes the dialog without applying any fade.
Apply Applies the set fade curve to the event, without closing
the dialog.

98
Fades and crossfades
• Once you have created a crossfade, you can edit it by Option Description
selecting one or both crossfaded events, and selecting Equal Gain Activate this parameter to adjust the fade curves so
“Crossfade” from the Audio menu again (or by double- that the summed fade in and fade out amplitudes will
clicking in the crossfade zone). be the same all along the crossfade region. This is of-
ten suitable for short crossfades.
This opens the Crossfade dialog.
Equal Power Activate this parameter to adjust the fade curves so
that the energy (power) of the crossfade will be con-
Removing crossfades stant all along the crossfade region.
Equal Power curves have only one editable curve point.
To remove a crossfade, proceed as follows: You cannot use the Curve kind buttons or the presets
when this mode is selected.
• Select the corresponding events and select “Remove
Play buttons These buttons allow you to audition the whole cross-
Fades” from the Audio menu. fade, or the fade out part, or the fade in part. You can
set up key commands for this in the following catego-
• Use the Range Selection tool to select all fades and ries of the Key Commands dialog:
crossfades you wish to remove, and select “Remove Media category – Preview Start (triggers crossfade
Fades” from the Audio menu. playback), Preview Stop (stops crossfade playback).
Transport category – StartStop (triggers global play-
• Select a crossfade by clicking, and drag it outside the back), Stop (stops global playback) and StartStop Pre-
view (triggers crossfade playback).
track. For further information, see “Key commands” on page
343.

The Crossfade dialog Pre-roll and

Post-roll
Activate pre-roll to start playback before the fade area.
Activate post-roll to stop playback after the fade area.
In the time fields you can enter the desired time (in sec-
onds and milliseconds) for the pre-roll and post-roll
length.
Length This specifies the length of the crossfade area. Cubase
tries to center the crossfade, i. e. the length change will
be applied equally to both sides. To be able to resize a
crossfade, it must be possible to resize the corre-
sponding event. For example, if the fade out event al-
ready plays its audio clip to the end, its end point
cannot be moved any further to the right.
Presets section Click the Store button to the right of the Presets pop-
up menu to store the settings of your crossfade so that
you can apply them to other events later.
Options and settings To rename a preset, double-click on the name and type
in a new one.
The Crossfade dialog contains separate, but identical, sec- To remove a preset, select it on the pop-up menu and
tions for the fade-in and fade-out curve settings in the click the Delete button.
crossfade on the left, and common settings on the right: Default buttons Click the As Default button to store the current settings
as default. These settings will then be used whenever
Option Description you create new crossfades.
Fade curve These displays show the shape of the fade out and Click the Recall Default button to apply the curves and
displays fade in curve, respectively. Click on a curve to add settings of the default crossfade to the Crossfade
points, click and drag existing points to change their dialog.
shape, or drag a point outside the display to remove it.
Curve buttons The curve kind buttons determine whether the corre-
sponding fade curve consists of spline curve segments
(left button), damped spline segments (middle button)
or linear segments (right button).

The curve shape buttons give you quick access to

some common curve shapes.

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Fades and crossfades
Auto fades and crossfades 6. If you want to use your settings in future projects, click
the “As Default” button.
Cubase features an Auto Fade function that can be set
7. Click OK to close the dialog.
both globally, and separately for each audio track. The
idea behind the Auto Fade function is to create smoother
transitions between events by applying short (1–500 ms)
Making Auto Fade settings for individual tracks
fade ins and fade outs. By default, all audio tracks will use the settings you have
made in the project’s Auto Fades dialog. However, since
! As event-based fades are calculated in realtime dur- Auto Fades use computing power, a better approach may
ing playback, a higher number of audio events pro- be to turn Auto Fades off globally and activate them for in-
vokes to a higher the demand on the processor when dividual tracks, as needed:
Auto Fades is activated.
1. Right-click the track in the track list and select “Auto
Ö Auto fades are not indicated by fade lines! Fades Settings…” from the context menu (or select the
track and click the “Auto Fades Settings” button in the In-
Making global Auto Fade settings spector).
The Auto Fades dialog for the track opens. This is identical to the project’s
1. To make Auto Fades settings globally for a project, se- Auto Fades dialog, with the addition of a “Use Project Settings” option.
lect “Auto Fades Settings…” from the Project menu.
This opens the Auto Fades dialog for the project. 2. Deactivate the “Use Project Settings” option.
Any settings you now make are applied to the track only.
3. Set up the Auto Fades as desired and close the dialog.

Reverting to project settings

If you want a track with individual Auto Fade settings to
use the global Auto Fade settings, open the Auto Fades
dialog for the track and activate the “Use Project Settings”
checkbox.

2. Use the Length value field to specify the length of the

Auto Fades or Crossfades (1–500 ms).
3. Use the checkboxes in the upper right corner to acti-
vate or deactivate Auto Fade In, Auto Fade Out, and Auto
Crossfades.
4. To adjust the shapes of Auto Fade In and Auto Fade
Out, select the Fades tab and make settings as in the reg-
ular Fade dialogs (see “The Fade dialogs” on page 97).
5. To adjust the shape of the Auto Crossfade, select the
“Crossfades” tab and make settings as in the regular
Crossfade dialog (see “The Crossfade dialog” on page
99).

100
Fades and crossfades
 11
The arranger track
(Cubase Elements only)
Introduction 3. On the Project window toolbar, make sure that Snap
is activated and that the Snap Type is set to a mode that
The arranger track allows you to work with sections of allows your arranger events to snap to appropriate posi-
your project in a non-linear fashion, to simplify arranging to tions in the project.
the maximum extent. Instead of moving, copying and past-
ing events in the Project window to create a linear project,
you can define how different sections are to be played Snap to events is activated, i. e. when drawing in the Project window,
back, like a playlist. new events will snap to existing events.

For this, you can define arranger events, order them in a list, 4. On the arranger track, use the Pencil tool to draw an
and add repeats as desired. This offers a different and more event of the desired length.
pattern-oriented way of working, which complements the An arranger event is added, called “A” by default. Any following events
usual linear editing methods in the Project window. will be named in alphabetical order.

You can create several arranger chains, making it possible • You can rename an arranger event by selecting it and
to store different versions of a song within the project changing its name in the Project window info line or by
without sacrificing the original version. When you have holding down [Alt]/[Option], double-clicking on the name
created an arranger chain that you like, you have the op- in the arranger chain (see below) and entering a new
tion of “flattening” the list, which creates a normal linear name.
project based on the arranger chain. You may want to name your arranger events according to the structure of
your project, e. g. Verse, Chorus, etc.
You can also use the arranger track for live performances
5. Create as many events as you need for your project.
on the stage, in clubs or at parties.

Setting up the arranger track

Let’s say you have prepared a number of audio files that
form the base of a typical pop song, with introduction,
verse, chorus and bridge. Now you want to arrange these
files.
The first step is to create an arranger track. On the ar-
ranger track, you define specific sections of the project by
creating arranger events. These can be of any length, may When arranger events have been created, the music sequence is deter-
mined by the arranger events.
overlap and are not bound to the start or end of existing
events and parts. Proceed as follows: Events can be moved, resized and deleted using the stan-
dard techniques. Please note:
1. Open the project for which you want to create ar-
ranger events. • If you want to change the length of an event, select the
Arrow tool and click and drag the lower corners of the
2. Open the Project menu and select Arranger from the
event in the desired direction.
Add Track submenu (or right-click the track list and select
the corresponding option from the context menu). • If you copy an arranger event (by [Alt]/[Option]-drag-
An arranger track is added. There can be only one arranger track in a ging or by using copy/paste), a new event will be created
project, but you can set up more than one arranger chain for this track, with the same name as the original.
see “Managing arranger chains” on page 104. However, this new event will be totally independent from the original
event.
• Double-clicking on an arranger event adds it to the cur-
rent arranger chain.

102
The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
Working with arranger events • By dragging and dropping arranger events from the list
on the right to the arranger chain on the left.
You now have a number of arranger events that form the A blue insertion line shows you where the dragged event will end up.
basic building blocks for your arrangement. The next step
is to arrange these events using the functions of the Ar-
ranger Editor.

Creating an arranger chain

You can set up an arranger chain in the Arranger Editor or
in the Inspector for the arranger track. The Arranger Editor
is opened by clicking the “e” button in the Inspector or in An event is dragged into the arranger chain.
the track list. • By dragging arranger events from the Project window
Click the “e” into the arranger chain.
button…
If you followed our example, you should now have arranger
events arranged in a very basic pop song pattern. How-
ever, we have used audio files that are only a few bars
long – to turn our pattern into a “song” (or at least into a
basic sketch of the song structure), these files must be
looped. This is where the Repeats function comes in.
…to open the Arranger Editor.
If you want an event to repeat several times, proceed as
follows:
• Click in the Repeats field for an event, type in the de-
sired number of repeats and press [Enter].
When playing back the arranger chain, the Counter column indicates
which repeat of this event is currently playing.

On the right in the Arranger Editor, the available arranger

events are listed, in the order they appear on the timeline.
To the left you find the actual arranger chain, which shows
in which order the events will be played back, from top to
bottom, and how many times they are repeated. • Click in the Mode field for an event and select the de-
sired repeat mode.
Initially the arranger chain is empty – you set it up by add-
Option Button Description
ing events from the list to the chain. There are several
Normal In this mode, the arranger chain will be played back
ways to add events to the arranger chain: as you set it up.
• By double-clicking on the name of an event in the win- Repeat In this mode, the current arranger event will be re-
dow section on the right (or in the Project window). forever peated in a loop until you either click on another
When an event is selected in the arranger chain on the left, this will add event in the Arranger Editor or press play once
again.
the event above the selected event. When no events are selected in the
arranger chain, the event will be added at the end of the list. Pause In this mode, the playback of the arranger chain will
after be stopped after having played back all repeats of
• By selecting one or more events in the list, right-clicking Repeats the current arranger event.
and selecting “Append Selected In Arranger Chain”.
This will add the selected events at the end of the list.

103
The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
When you now play back the arranger chain, you will hear Navigating
the complete arrangement. Proceed as follows:
To navigate between arranger events, you use the ar-
1. Make sure that Arranger mode is activated. ranger transport buttons:
In Arranger mode the project will be played back using the arranger
settings. Previous chain step First repeat of current chain step

Next chain step Last repeat of current chain step

These controls are available in the Arranger Editor, on the

2. Position the Arranger Editor window so that you can Project window toolbar, and on the Transport panel.
see the arranger track in the Project window, and click in In the Arranger Editor, the event that is currently played
the arrow column for the event at the top of the list. back is indicated by an arrow in the leftmost column, and
You will see the project cursor jump to the beginning of the first event the indicators in the Counter column.
specified in the arranger chain.
3. Activate playback, either from the Arranger Editor or Managing arranger chains
on the Transport panel.
You can create several arranger chains. This way, you can
The events are played back in the specified order.
create alternative versions for playback. In the Arranger
Editor, the toolbar buttons on the right are used for this:
Editing the arranger chain
Button Description
In the arranger chain on the left, you can do the following:
Click this to rename the current arranger chain.
• Select multiple events by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking or
[Shift]-clicking as usual.
Creates a new, empty arranger chain.
• Drag events to move them in the list.
• Drag events holding [Alt]/[Option] to create copies of
the selected items. Creates a duplicate of the current arranger chain, containing
the same events.
The insert location for both move and copy operations is indicated by a
colored insertion line. A blue line indicates that the move or copy is pos-
sible; a red line indicates that moving or copying events to the current Removes the currently selected arranger chain. Only avail-
able if you have created more than one arranger chain.
position is not allowed.
• Use the Repeats column to specify how many times
each event is to be repeated. • In the Inspector, these functions are accessed from the
• Click the arrow to the left of an event in the arranger Arranger pop-up menu (opened by clicking on the Ar-
chain to move the playback position to the start of that ranger name field).
event. The arranger chains you create will be listed on the Name
• To remove an event from the list, right-click on it and se- pop-up menu, found in the Arranger Editor to the left of
lect “Remove Touched” from the context menu. To remove the buttons, at the top of the arranger track Inspector, and
several events, select them, right-click and select “Remove in the track list. Please note that to be able to select an-
Selected”. other arranger chain from the pop-up menu, the Arranger
mode must be activated.

104
The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
Flattening the arranger chain In the Source section you can specify which arranger
chains are flattened. The available options are:
When you have found an arranger chain that suits your Option Description
purposes, you can “flatten” it, i. e. convert the list into a lin-
Current If you activate this option, only the current chain will be flat-
ear project. Proceed as follows: Chain tened.
1. Click the Flatten button (or select Flatten Chain from Checked If you activate this option, you can select the arranger
the pop-up menu in the Inspector for the arranger track). Chains… chains you want to flatten in the list to the left.
The events and parts in the project are reordered, repeated, resized, All Chains If you activate this option, all arranger chains of the current
moved and/or deleted (if these are not within the boundaries of any used project will be flattened.
arranger event), so that they correspond exactly to the arranger chain.
The Destination section allows you to choose where the
result of the flattening is saved. The available options are:
The Flatten button Option Description
Current This is only available if you have selected “Current Chain” as
2. Activate Playback. Project Source. If you activate this option, the result of the flattening
The project will now play back exactly as in Arranger mode, but you can of the current chain will be saved in the current project.
view it and work with it as usual.
New If you activate this option, you can flatten one or several
Project chains in a new project. In this case it might be useful to use
! Flattening the arranger chain may remove events and naming options. If you activate “Append Chain Name”, the
parts from the project. Only use the Flatten function Chain Names will be appended in brackets to the project
name. If you activate “Use Chain Name”, the new projects
when you know you do not want to edit the arranger will have the name of the current arranger chains. If you ac-
track/chain any more. If in doubt, save a copy of the tivate “Add Number”, the new projects will be named like
project before flattening the arranger chain. the old ones and a number will be appended in brackets.

Flattening options In the Options section you can make further settings. The
available options are:
Sometimes it might be useful to keep the original arranger
events even after flattening the arranger track. By using Option Description
flattening options you can define which chain is flattened, Keep If you activate this option, the arranger track will be kept
Arranger when flattening the arranger chain. Activate “Rename
where it is stored and how it is named together with other Track Arranger Events” to append a number to the events, ac-
options. cording to their use. For example, if you use arranger event
“A” two times, the first occurrence will be renamed “A 1”
1. Click the Flattening options button. and the second “A 2”.
Make Real Normally, you will get shared copies when flattening the ar-
Event ranger track. If you activate this option, real copies will be
Copies created instead.
Don’t Split If this option is activated, MIDI notes that start before or are
Events longer than the arranger event will not be included. Only
MIDI notes that begin and end inside the arranger event
2. In the window that opens, select the desired options. boundaries will be taken into account.
Open New If you activate this option, a new project will be created for
Projects every flattened arranger chain. If you activate the “Cascade
New Projects” option the opened projects will be cascaded.

3. You can now flatten the arranger track by clicking the

Flatten button.
If you realize that you want to do further arrangements, you can click the
“Go Back” button and make your adjustments. Your Flattening settings
will be kept.

105
The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
4. Click the “Go Back” button to go back to the Arranger In the Jump Mode pop-up menu, you can define how long
Editor or close the window by clicking its Close button. the active arranger event will be played, before jumping to
the next one. The following options are available:
Live mode Option Description
None Jumps to the next section immediately.
If you have set up an arranger track and play it back, you
4 bars, When one of these modes is selected, a grid of 4 or 2 bars (de-
have also the possibility to influence the playback order 2 bars pending on the setting) will be placed on the active arranger
“live”. Note that the Arranger mode has to be activated to event. Whenever the respective grid line is reached, playback
will jump to the next arranger event. An example:
be able to use the Live mode. Let’s say you have an arranger event which is 8 bars long and
the grid is set to 4 bars. When the cursor is anywhere within the
1. Set up an arranger chain in the Inspector or in the Ar- first 4 bars of the arranger event when you hit the next arranger
ranger Editor for an arranger track, activate the Arranger event, playback will jump to the next event when the end of the
mode and play back your project. fourth bar of the arranger event is reached. When the cursor is
anywhere within the last 4 bars of the arranger event, playback
Now you can use your arranger events listed in the lower section of the will jump to the next event at the end of the event.
Inspector to play back your project in Live mode. When an event is shorter than 4 (or 2) bars and this mode is se-
lected, playback will jump to the next section at the event end.
2. Switch into Live mode by clicking on the little arrow in
1 bar Jumps to the next section at the next bar line.
the lower list of the Inspector to the left of the arranger
event you want to trigger. 1 beat Jumps to the next section at the next beat.
The arranger event will be looped endlessly, until you click on another ar- End Plays the current section to the end, then jumps to the next
ranger event. This might be useful, for example, if you want to loop a gui- section.
tar solo with a flexible length.
• You can stop Live mode by clicking the Stop button or
go back to “normal” playback in Arranger mode by clicking
on any arranger event in the upper list.
In the latter case, playback will be continued from the arranger event
where you clicked.

Arranging your music to video

The relative time of your arranger track can be taken as a
reference instead of the project time. This is useful, if you
want to use the arranger track to compose music for video
and fill a specific video section with music, by repeating
the corresponding number of arranger events.
If you position your external sync master device to a posi-
tion that does not match the Project Start time, Cubase
will jump automatically to the right position in the arranger
track and will start playback from there, i. e. the correct rel-
ative position and not the absolute project time will be
found. The reference for the external timecode can be
MIDI or any other timecode that can be interpreted/read
by Cubase.

106
The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
An example:
1. Set up a project with a MIDI track and three MIDI
parts. The first part should start at position 00:00:00:00
and end at position 00:01:00:00, the second should start
at position 00:01:00:00 and end at position 00:02:00:00
and the third should start at position 00:02:00:00 and end
at position 00:03:00:00.
2. Activate the Sync button on the Transport panel.
3. Add an arranger track and create arranger events that
match the MIDI parts.
4. Set up the arranger chain “A-A-B-B-C-C”, activate
the Arranger mode and play back your project.
5. Start external timecode at position 00:00:10:00
(within the range of “A”).
In your project, the position 00:00:10:00 will be located and you will hear
“A” playing. Nothing special!
Now, let’s see what happens if your external sync master
device starts at a position that does not match the Project
Start time:
6. Start at 00:01:10:00 (within the range of what origi-
nally was “B”).
In your project, the position 00:01:10:00 will be located and you will hear
“A” playing, because it plays twice in the arranger track.
7. Start external timecode at position 00:02:10:00
(within the range of what originally was “C”).
In your project, the position 00:02:10:00 will be located and you will hear
“B” playing, because it plays “later” in the arranger track.
Ö If the Arranger mode is not activated or no arranger
track exists, Cubase will work as usual.

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The arranger track (Cubase Elements only)
 12
Using markers
Introduction Editing cycle markers using tools
Cycle markers can be edited on marker tracks using the
Markers are used to locate certain positions quickly. If you
following tools (Snap is taken into account):
often find yourself jumping to a specific position within a
project, you should insert a marker at this position. You Tool Use
can also use markers to make range selections (see “Us- Arrow tool Drag the start or end handle of a cycle marker with the
ing markers to make range selections in the Project win- Arrow tool to change its start or end position, or drag the
upper border to move the whole cycle marker.
dow” on page 112) or for zooming (see “Zooming to cycle Double-click on a cycle marker to set the left and right
markers” on page 109). Markers are located on the locators.
marker track. Selection Double-click on a cycle marker – this creates a selection
Range range spanning all tracks in the project. You can also se-
There are two types of markers: position markers and cy- lect a range inside the cycle marker and press [Ctrl]/
cle markers. [Command]-[X] to trim or to divide a cycle marker.
Pencil Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and use the Pencil tool to create
new cycle markers.
Position markers
Eraser Click with the Eraser tool to delete a cycle marker. If you
As the name implies, position markers allow you to store a hold down [Alt]/[Option] when you click, all consecutive
specific position. Position markers on the marker track are markers are also be deleted.
shown as marker events: vertical lines with the marker de-
scription (if assigned) and number beside it. If you select a Zooming to cycle markers
marker track, all its markers are shown in the Inspector.
• When you select a cycle marker on the Zoom pop-up
menu, the event display is zoomed in to show the selected
Cycle markers range only (see the section “Zoom presets and cycle
By creating cycle markers you can store any number of left markers” on page 46).
and right locator positions as start and end positions of a
• You can also zoom in by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and
range and recall them by double-clicking on the corre-
double-clicking on the cycle marker in the event display.
sponding marker. Cycle markers are shown on marker
tracks as two markers bridged by a horizontal line. Cycle
markers are ideal for storing sections of a project. By de- The Marker window
fining cycle markers for sections of a song, e. g. “Intro”,
“Verse”, and “Chorus”, you can quickly navigate to the Locate Filter Auto-Scroll with
arrow markers Functions Project Cursor
song sections and repeat the section by activating the Cy-
cle button on the Transport panel.

Using cycle markers

Cycle markers represent ranges in your project. Therefore
you can use them for moving the left and right locators:
• If you double-click on a cycle marker or select it from
the Cycle pop-up menu in the track list, the left and right
locators are moved to encompass the cycle marker.
Now you can move the project cursor position to the start or the end of
the cycle marker by moving it to the corresponding locator (e.g. by using
the keys [1] and [2] on the numeric keypad).
In the Marker window you can view and edit markers. The
markers on the marker track are displayed in the marker
list in the order in which they occur in the project.

109
Using markers
To open the Marker window, you have the following possi- Navigating in the marker list
bilities:
You can navigate in the marker list using your computer
• Open the Project menu and select “Markers”. keyboard and select entries by pressing [Enter]. This is a
• Click the Show button in the marker section on the Transport quick and easy way to jump to markers during playback or
panel. recording:
• Use a key command (by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[M]).
• To move to the previous/next marker in the list, press
The Type pop-up menu [Up Arrow]/[Down Arrow].

• By selecting an entry from the Type pop-up menu, you • To jump to the first/last marker, press [PageUp]/[Page-
specify which markers (position markers, cycle markers, or Down].
all) are shown in the marker list.
Marker attributes
Adding, moving, and removing markers
The following marker attributes are shown in the marker
• To select a marker, click on it in the Marker window. list of the Marker window:
• To edit a selected marker, click on it. Column Description
Select multiple markers by [Shift]-clicking or [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking Locate (left- An arrow indicates which marker is at the project cursor
them. most column) position (or closest to the project cursor). If you click in
this column, the project cursor is moved to the corre-
• To add a position marker, open the Functions pop-up sponding marker position. This column cannot be hidden.
menu and select the “Insert Marker” option. ID This column shows the marker ID numbers, see “About
A position marker is added at the current project cursor position on the marker IDs” on page 111.
marker track. You can also use key commands for this, see “Marker key Position In this column you can view and edit the markers’ time
commands” on page 113. positions (or start positions for cycle markers). This col-
umn cannot be hidden.
• To add a cycle marker, open the Functions pop-up
End In this column you can view and edit the end positions of
menu and select the “Insert Cycle Marker” option. cycle markers, see “Cycle markers” on page 109.
This adds a cycle marker between the left and right locators on the
Length In this column you can view and edit the length of cycle
marker track. markers, see “Cycle markers” on page 109.
• To move one or more markers to a specific position, set Description Here you can enter names or descriptions for markers.
the project cursor to this position, select the markers, and
select “Move Markers to Cursor” from the Functions pop- Editing attributes
up menu.
You can also move markers by entering the new position numerically in • To edit a marker attribute, select the corresponding
the Position column. If a cycle marker is selected, the Move operation af- marker, click in the desired attribute column, and make
fects the cycle marker start position. your settings.
• To remove a marker, select it and select the “Remove • To change the attributes of several markers, select the
Marker” option from the Functions pop-up menu. markers and click the checkbox for the desired attribute.
All selected markers will change their attributes accordingly. Note that
Auto-Scroll with Project Cursor this does not work when clicking on a timecode value or a text field.
This option helps you to keep track of the locate arrow, Ö To navigate in the list of marker attributes, you can also
even if your project contains a large number of markers. use the [Tab] key and the arrow keys.
When this option is activated, the Marker window is auto-
matically scrolled to keep the locate arrow visible.

110
Using markers
Sorting and reordering columns Ö If you move a marker from one marker track to another
by drag & drop in the Project window and the marker ID is
You can customize the display of the marker attributes in
already used on this track, the inserted marker automati-
the marker list by sorting or reordering the columns. Pro-
cally gets a new ID.
ceed as follows:
• To sort the marker list by a specific attribute, click on the Reassigning marker IDs
corresponding column header. Sometimes, especially when setting markers on the fly,
• To reorder the marker attributes, drag and drop the cor- you may forget or miss to set a marker. When added later,
responding column headers. this marker’s ID will not correspond to its position on the
marker track. Therefore, it is possible to reassign the IDs
• To adjust the width of a column, place the mouse pointer for all markers on a track.
between two column headers and drag left or right.
The pointer changes to a divider when you place it between two column Proceed as follows:
headers.
1. Open the Marker window.
Ö No matter by which attribute you sort, the second sort
2. Open the Functions pop-up menu and select either
criterion will always be the position attribute.
“Reassign Position Marker IDs” or “Reassign Cycle
Marker preferences Marker IDs”.
The marker IDs of the selected type are reassigned to match the order of
You can access the marker preferences by clicking the markers on the marker track.
corresponding button in the bottom left corner of the
Marker window.
The marker track
The marker track is used for adding and editing markers.
Locate pop-up Cycle pop-up
menu menu

The following marker preferences are available:

Column Description
Cycle follows This sets the left and right locators automatically to a po- Zoom pop-up Position marker Cycle
when locating sition or cycle marker, when locating to this marker. This menu marker
to Markers is useful if you need to set the locators on the fly, e. g. dur-
ing recording for Punch In/Punch Out.
In the track list area for the marker track you can find three
Show marker When this option is activated, the marker IDs are shown pop-up menus, which help you to select or zoom to the
IDs on marker on the marker track.
track markers that you select:
Sync Selection When this option is activated, the Marker window selec- Option Description
tion is linked to the selection in the Project window.
Locate pop-up If you select a position or a cycle marker in this pop-up
menu menu, the corresponding marker in the event display or in
the Marker window is selected.
About marker IDs
Cycle pop-up If you select a cycle marker in this pop-up menu, the left
Each time you add a marker, it is automatically and sequen- menu and right locators are set to the corresponding cycle
tially assigned an ID number, starting from 1. IDs for cycle marker.

markers are shown in brackets and start from [1]. ID num- Zoom pop-up If you select a cycle marker in this pop-up menu, the view
menu zooms to the corresponding cycle marker.
bers can be changed at any time – this allows you to assign
specific markers to key commands.

111
Using markers
Ö Markers shown on the marker track are exactly the • Drawing in cycle markers.
same as shown in the Marker window, and any changes To draw a cycle marker range, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and use the Pen-
made on the marker track are reflected in the Marker win- cil tool or the Arrow tool. If Snap is activated on the toolbar, this deter-
dow and vice versa. mines at which positions you can draw markers.

Adding, moving, and removing the marker

track
• To add the marker track to the project, select Marker
from the Add Track submenu of the Project menu. • Resizing cycle markers.
• To move the marker track to another position in the Select a cycle marker by clicking on it. Two handles appear at the bottom
track list, click and drag it up or down. of the start and end events. If you click and hold one of the handles you
can drag the event left or right to resize the cycle marker. This can also
• To remove the marker track, right-click it in the track list be done numerically on the info line.
and select “Remove Selected Tracks” from the context
menu.
• An empty marker track can also be removed by select-
ing “Remove Empty Tracks” from the Project menu. Note
that Remove Empty Tracks also removes any other tracks
that are empty. • Moving markers.
Click and drag to move the selected markers. You can also edit marker
positions on the info line. As usual, Snap is taken into account.
Editing markers on the marker track
• Removing markers.
The following editing functions can be performed directly
This is done exactly the same way as for other events, i.e. by selecting
on the marker track: them and pressing [Delete], using the Erase tool, etc.
• Adding position markers “on the fly”.
Use the [Insert] key (Win) or the “Add Marker” button in the track list for Using markers to make range selections in the
the marker track to add position markers at the current cursor position Project window
during playback.
Besides enabling you to quickly move the project cursor
Add Marker/Add Cycle and the locators, markers can be used in conjunction with
Marker buttons the Range Selection tool to make range selections in the
Project window. This is useful if you quickly want to make
• Adding a cycle marker. a selection that spans all tracks in the project.
Clicking the “Add Cycle Marker” button in the track list for the marker
track adds a cycle marker spanning the area between the left and right Moving and copying sections
locator.
To quickly move or copy complete sections of the project
• Selecting markers. (on all tracks), proceed as follows:
You can use standard selection techniques like a selection rectangle, or
use [Shift]-clicking to select separate markers. When selecting markers 1. Set markers at the start and end of the section that
on the marker track, they are also selected in the Marker window. you want to move or copy.
• Drawing in position markers. 2. Select the Range Selection tool and double-click on
By using the Pencil tool (or pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow the marker track between the markers.
tool), you can create position marker events at any position on the track. Everything in the project within the marker boundaries is selected. Any
If Snap is activated on the toolbar, this determines at which positions you functions or processing you perform now affect the selection only.
can draw markers.
3. Click on the marker track in the selected range and
drag the range to a new position.

112
Using markers
• If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while you drag the range, Exporting and importing markers
the selection in the Project window is copied instead.
In Cubase, markers and marker tracks can be imported
and exported in different ways. You have the following
Marker key commands possibilities:
You can check or change any key command assignments • You can import/export markers contained in MIDI files.
for the marker commands in the Transport categories of
the Key Commands dialog. In the following section, the Importing markers via MIDI import
available key commands for markers are listed.
You can import position markers by importing MIDI files
Key commands in the Transport Category: containing markers. This is useful if you want to use your
Operation Description Default key marker tracks in other projects or if you want to share them
command with other Cubase users. Any markers you have added are
Insert Cycle Creates a new cycle marker between - included in the MIDI file as standard MIDI file marker events.
Marker the left and the right locator. Make sure that the “Import Markers” option is activated in
Insert Marker Creates a new marker at the current [Insert] the Preferences dialog (MIDI–MIDI File page).
project cursor position. (Windows
only) The following settings are imported:
Locate Next Moves the project cursor to the right to [Shift]-[N] • The start position of position markers and cycle markers
Marker the next marker position (if any).
Locate Previ- Moves the project cursor to the left to [Shift]-[B] For a description of how to import MIDI files, see “Import-
ous Marker the previous marker position (if any). ing MIDI files” on page 333.
Play until next Plays back your project from the current -
marker project cursor position to the next
marker position.
Exporting markers via MIDI
Recall Cycle Moves the left and right locators to [Shift]- You can export your markers as part of a MIDI file. If you
Marker 1-9 encompass the specified cycle marker Num[1] to activate “Export Markers” in the Export Options dialog, any
(1 to 9). Num[9] markers are included in the MIDI file.
Set Marker Moves the specified marker (1 to 9) to [Ctrl]-[1] to [9]
1-9 the current project cursor position. The following settings are exported:
To Cycle Moves the project cursor to the start - • The start position of position markers and cycle markers
Marker 1-9 position of the specified cycle marker
(1 to 9). Ö To be able to export markers via MIDI export, your proj-
To Marker 1-9 Moves the project cursor to the speci- [Shift]- ect must contain a marker track.
fied marker (ID 1 to 9). [1] to [9]
For a description of how to export MIDI files, see “Export-
ing MIDI files” on page 332.
Ö Where no default key command is specified, you need
to define your own stroke sequence in the Key Com-
mands dialog, see “Key commands” on page 343.

113
Using markers
 13
The Mixer
Overview What channel types can be shown in the
Mixer?
The following track-based channel types are shown in the
Mixer:
• Audio
• MIDI
• Effect return channels (referred to as FX channels in the
Project window)
• Group channels
• Instrument track channels
The order of audio, MIDI, instrument, group, and effect
return channel strips (from left to right) in the Mixer corre-
The Mixer offers a common environment for controlling sponds to the track list in the Project window (from top to
levels, pan, solo/mute status, etc. for both audio and MIDI bottom). If you reorder tracks of these types in the track
channels. list, this will be mirrored in the Mixer.

This chapter contains detailed information about the ele- In addition to the above, the following channel types are
ments used when mixing audio and MIDI. You will also also shown in the Mixer:
learn about the various ways you can configure the Mixer. • Activated ReWire channels (not in Cubase LE), see the
Some mixer-related features are not described in this chapter “ReWire (not in Cubase LE)” on page 324.
chapter. These are the following: ReWire channels cannot be reordered and always appear to the right of
other channels in the main Mixer pane.
• Setting up and using audio effects.
See the chapter “Audio effects” on page 131.
• VST instrument channels (not in Cubase LE), see the
chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page
• Automation of all Mixer parameters. 145.
See the chapter “Automation” on page 156. VST instrument (VSTi) channels can be reordered in the track list which
• Mixing down several audio tracks (complete with auto- will in turn be mirrored in the Mixer.
mation and effects if you wish) to a single audio file.
See the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown” on page 296. Output busses in the Mixer
The output busses you set up in the VST Connections
Opening the Mixer window are represented by output channels in the Mixer.
The Mixer can be opened in several ways: They are shown in a separate pane (to the right of the reg-
ular channel strips), with its own divider and horizontal
• By selecting Mixer from the Devices menu. scrollbar. The output channel strip is very similar to other
• By clicking the Mixer icon on the toolbar. audio channels.
If this icon is not visible, you need to activate the “Media & Mixer Win- • You hide and show this pane by activating or deactivat-
dows” option on the toolbar context menu first.
ing the “Hide Output Channels” button on the common
panel (see “The common panel” on page 116).
Ö Note that only the output busses are available in the
Mixer – not the input busses.
• By using a key command (by default [F3]).
• By clicking the Mixer button in the Devices panel.
You open the Devices panel by selecting Show Panel from the Devices
menu.

115
The Mixer
For output channel strips the following controls are avail- Configuring the Mixer
able:
The Mixer window can be configured in various ways to
Pan control suit your needs and to save screen space. The Mixer
shows the channel faders for the various tracks of your
Bus volume fader
Mute and Solo project. On the right of the fader panel you find the output
buttons channel fader. On the left is the common panel which al-
Bus level meter lows for global settings affecting all channels.
Automation controls

The common panel

Inserts and EQ Edit button
The common panel can be found on the left of the Mixer
indicators and
bypass buttons window. It contains settings for changing the look and
behavior of the Mixer, as well as global settings for all
Clipping indicator, see channels.
“Setting input levels”
on page 78. The common panel contains the following controls:
Global channel width
controls, see “Setting the
width of channel strips”
• You can add effects or EQ to the busses. Global Mute, Solo and
on page 118.
Listen buttons
• You can open the Channel Settings window to add ef-
“Command Target”
fects or EQ. Global automation
options, see “About the
Read/Write buttons
These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add Command Target” on
here include compressors, limiters and dithering, see the chapter “Audio page 117.
Reset Mixer/Reset
effects” on page 131. Channels
Channel type buttons,
For information on how to set up input and output busses, Channel settings copy/ see below.
see the chapter “VST Connections” on page 21. paste, see “Copying
settings between audio
How to route audio channels to busses is described in the channels” on page 125.
section “Routing” on page 24.
Opens the VST
Ö The Main Mix (the default output) bus is used for mon- Connections window, View set buttons, see
see “The VST “Channel view sets” on
itoring. For information about Monitoring, see “About mon- Connections window” page 117.
itoring” on page 24. on page 22.

116
The Mixer
Showing/hiding channel types Below the “Hide Channels set to ‘Can Hide’” button, there
are three additional buttons. These have the following
In the lower part of the common panel you will find a vertical
functionality:
strip with icons representing the different channel types:
Option Description
Set Target Channels This activates “Can Hide” for all channels that you
to ‘Can Hide’ specified as “Command Targets”, see below.
“Can Hide” options, see
below Remove ‘Can Hide’ This deactivates “Can Hide” for all channels that
from Target Channels you specified as “Command Targets”, see below.
Remove ‘Can Hide’ This deactivates “Can Hide” for all channels in the
Audio Channels from All Channels Mixer.
Group Channels
ReWire Channels (not in
Cubase LE) About the Command Target
MIDI Channels
Command targets let you specify which channels are af-
VST Instrument Channels
FX Channels
fected by Mixer “commands” (all the functions that key
Output Channels
commands can be assigned to), e. g. the width setting of
Reveal All Channels the channel strips. You can set command targets using
the common panel or the context menu.
• To hide or show a channel type, click the corresponding
icon.
If an icon is lit (orange), the corresponding channel type is not visible in
the Mixer.
• To show all hidden channel types again, click the “Re-
veal All Channels” button. The Command Target Controls on the common panel

The following options are available:

Showing/hiding individual channels
• All Channels – Select this if you want your commands to af-
Additionally to hiding or showing channel types via the
fect all channels.
common panel, you can show or hide individual channel
• Selected Only – Select this if you want your commands to
strips. Proceed as follows:
affect the selected channels only.
1. [Alt]/[Option]-click in the top middle section of the • Exclude Outputs – Select this if you do not want your com-
channel strip to activate the “Can Hide” option. mands to affect the output channels.
The “/” icon is shown if “Can Hide” is activated for a channel strip.
Channel view sets
Channel view sets are saved configurations of the Mixer
window, allowing you to quickly switch between different
layouts for the Mixer. The following settings are stored in
2. Repeat this for all the channels that you want to hide. view sets:
3. On the common panel, click the “Hide Channels set to • Settings for individual channel strips (e. g. narrow or wide
‘Can Hide’” button. mode and whether the channel strip is hidden or set to “Can
This hides all channels set to “Can Hide”. To show them again, click the Hide”).
button again, or click the “Reveal All Channels” button at the bottom of • The global hide/show status for channel types.
the common panel.

The orange color of this control on the common panel indi-

cates that all channels set to ‘Can Hide’ are hidden from view.

117
The Mixer
To create a view set, proceed as follows: • Narrow channel strips contain a narrow fader, miniature
buttons, and the View Options pop-up menu.
1. Set up the Mixer configuration that you want to save.
2. At the bottom of the common panel, click the “Store
View Set” button (the “+” sign).
3. A dialog opens, allowing you to enter a name for the
view set.
4. Click OK to store the current Mixer view set.
• You can now return to this stored configuration at any
time by clicking the “Select Channel View Set” button (the
down arrow to the left of the “Store View Set” button) and
selecting it from the pop-up menu.

A wide and a narrow channel strip

• If you select “All targets narrow” or “All targets wide” on

the common panel, all channel strips selected as com-
• To remove a stored channel view set, select it and click mand targets (see “About the Command Target” on page
the “Remove View Set” button (the “-” sign). 117) are affected.
! Some remote control devices support this function,
which means that you can use the remote device to Basic mixing procedures
switch between the channel view sets.
Setting volume in the Mixer
Setting the width of channel strips In the Mixer, each channel strip has a volume fader.
Each channel strip can be set to either “Wide” or “Nar- • For audio channels, the faders control the volume of the
row” mode by using the “Channel Narrow/Wide” button channels before they are routed (directly or via a group
on the left above the fader strip. channel) to an output bus.
• An output channel fader determines the master output
level of all audio channels routed to that output bus.
• MIDI channels handle fader volume changes in the
Mixer by sending out MIDI volume messages to the con-
nected instrument(s).
Connected instruments must be set to respond to MIDI messages (such
as MIDI volume in this case) for this to function properly.
• The fader settings are displayed numerically below the
faders, in dB for audio-related channels and as MIDI vol-
ume (0 to 127) for MIDI channels.
You can click in the fader value fields and type in a new volume value.
• To make fine volume adjustments, hold down [Shift]
when you move the faders.

118
The Mixer
• If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on a fader, • In the output busses, the floating point audio is con-
it is reset to its default value, i. e. to 0.0 dB for audio-re- verted to the resolution of the audio hardware. In the inte-
lated channels, or to 100 for MIDI channels. ger audio domain, the maximum level is 0 dB – higher
Most Mixer parameters can be reset to their default values like this. levels cause the clipping indicator for each bus to light up.
If the clipping indicators light up for a bus, this indicates actual clipping –
You can use the faders to set up a volume balance be-
digital distortion which is to be avoided.
tween the audio and MIDI channels, and perform a manual
mix by moving the faders and other controls while playing ! If the clipping indicator lights up for an output chan-
back. Using the Write function (see “Enabling and dis- nel, lower the level until the indicator is no longer lit.
abling the writing of automation data” on page 158), you
can automate the levels and most Mixer actions. Level meters for MIDI channels

! It is also possible to make static volume settings for The level meters for MIDI channels do not show actual vol-
an event on the info line or with the volume handle ume levels. Instead, they indicate the velocity values of the
(see “About the volume handle” on page 97). notes played back on MIDI tracks.

About the level meters for audio channels MIDI tracks set to the same MIDI channel and output

When playing back audio in Cubase, the level meters in If you have several MIDI tracks set to the same MIDI chan-
the Mixer show the level of each audio channel. nel (and routed to the same MIDI output), making volume
and pan settings for one of these MIDI tracks/Mixer chan-
• Directly below the level meter is a small level readout – nels also affects all other Mixer channels set to the same
this shows the highest registered level in the signal. MIDI channel/output combination.
Click this to reset the peak levels.
Ö Cubase uses 32 bit floating point processing inter- Using Solo and Mute
nally, so there is virtually limitless headroom – signals can You can use the Mute and Solo buttons to silence one or
go way beyond 0 dB without clipping. Having higher levels several channels.
than 0 dB for individual audio channels is therefore not a
problem in itself. The audio quality will not be degraded by
this.
However, when many high level signals are mixed in an
The following applies:
output bus, this may require that you lower the output
channel level a lot (see below). Therefore it is good prac- • The Mute button silences the selected channel.
tice to keep the maximum levels for individual audio chan- Clicking the Mute button again unmutes the channel. Several channels
nels roughly around 0 dB. can be muted simultaneously. Muting group channels can have two dif-
ferent results depending on how the Preferences are set (see “Settings
About the level meters for output channels for group channels” on page 128).

Output channels have clipping indicators. A muted channel A lit Global Mute icon on the com-
in the Mixer. mon panel shows that one or more
• When you are recording, clipping can occur when the channels are muted.
analog signal is converted to digital in the audio hardware.
It is also possible to get clipping in the signal being recorded to disk. For • Clicking the Solo button for a channel mutes all other
more information, see “Setting input levels” on page 78. channels.
A soloed channel is indicated by a lit Solo button, and also by the lit
Global Solo icon on the common panel. Click the Solo button again to
turn off Solo.

119
The Mixer
• Several channels can be soloed at the same time.
However, if you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click the Solo button for a
channel, any other soloed channels are automatically un-soloed (i. e. this
Solo mode is exclusive).
• [Alt]/[Option]-clicking a Solo button activates “Solo De-
feat” for that channel.
In this mode the channel will not be muted if you solo another channel. To
turn off Solo Defeat, [Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button again.

Solo Defeat is activated for this channel.

• You can un-mute or un-solo all channels simultaneously

by clicking the Global Mute or Global Solo icon on the
common panel.

120
The Mixer
Audio-specific procedures
This section describes the options and basic procedures regarding audio channels in the Mixer. The following graphic
shows different types of audio-related channels (from left to right): an audio track, a group channel, an instrument track,
an FX channel, and a VST instrument channel (not in Cubase LE):

Pan control
Channel
automation
controls
Level fader

Level meter

Edit button (opens

the Channel Settings
window)
Monitor and
Record Enable
buttons
Channel name

Insert/EQ/Send indicators and bypass Opens the control panel for the
buttons (see below) VST instrument

All audio-related channel types have the same channel Setting pan in the Mixer
strip layout, with the following exceptions:
For each audio-related channel with at least a stereo out-
• Only audio and instrument track channels have Monitor and put configuration you will find a miniature pan control at
Record Enable buttons. the top of the channel strip.
• Instrument track and VST instrument channels have an addi-
tional button for opening the instrument’s control panel. Panning channels with a stereo output configuration
The pan control at the top of stereo audio channel strips is
About the Insert/EQ/Send indicators and used to position a channel in the stereo spectrum.
bypass buttons
The three buttons in each audio channel strip have the fol-
lowing functionality:
The stereo pan control
• If an insert or send effect, or an EQ module is activated
for a channel, the corresponding button is lit. The following applies when using the pan control:
The effect indicator buttons are blue, and the EQ indicator buttons are
• To make fine pan adjustments, hold down [Shift] when
green.
you move the pan control.
• If you click any of these buttons when lit, the corre-
• To select the (default) center pan position, hold down
sponding EQ or effects section is bypassed.
[Ctrl]/[Command] and click on the pan control.
Bypass is indicated by the color yellow. Clicking the button again deac-
tivates bypass. • To view the pan settings in a separate window, where
you can change the settings using sliders, double-click on
the pan control.

121
The Mixer
About the “Stereo Pan Law” setting Every channel has its own Channel Settings window (al-
though you can view each in the same window if you like –
In the Project Setup dialog you will find a pop-up menu
see below).
named “Stereo Pan Law”, which allows you to select one
of several pan modes. These modes are required for
power compensation. Without power compensation, the Click the Edit button to open the Channel Settings
power of the sum of the left and right side is higher window.
(louder) if a channel is panned center than if it is panned
left or right.
To remedy this, the Stereo Pan Law setting allows you to
attenuate signals panned center, by -6, -4.5 or -3 dB (de-
fault). Selecting the 0 dB option effectively turns off con-
stant-power panning. Experiment with the modes to see
which fits best in a given situation. You can also select
“Equal Power” on this pop-up menu, which means that the
power of the signal will remain the same regardless of the
pan setting.

Using Channel Settings

For each audio channel strip in the Mixer and in the In-
The Channel Settings window in its default configuration
spector and track list for each audio track, there is an Edit
is used for the following operations:
button (“e”).
• Apply equalization, see “Making EQ settings” on page 123.
Clicking this opens the VST Audio Channel Settings win-
• Apply send effects, see “Audio effects” on page 131.
dow. By default, this window contains:
• Apply insert effects, see “Audio effects” on page 131.
• A section with eight insert effect slots for Cubase Elements • Copy channel settings and apply them to another channel, see
and 4 slots for Cubase AI and Cubase LE (see “Audio effects” “Copying settings between audio channels” on page 125.
on page 131).
• Four EQ modules and an associated EQ curve display (see ! All channel settings are applied to both sides of a
“Making EQ settings” on page 123). stereo channel.
• A section with eight sends slots for Cubase Elements and four
slots for Cubase AI and Cubase LE (see “Audio effects” on Changing channels in the Channel Settings window
page 131). You can view any channel’s settings from a single window.
• A duplicate of the Mixer channel strip.
If the “Sync Project and Mixer Selection” option is acti-
You can customize the Channel Settings window, by vated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer
showing/hiding the different panels and/or by changing page), this can be done “automatically”:
their order:
• Open the Channel Settings window for a track and po-
• To specify which panels are shown or hidden, right-click in the sition it so that you can see both the Project window and
Channel Settings window, and activate/deactivate the corre- the Channel Settings window.
sponding options on the Customize View submenu of the
Selecting a track in the Project window automatically
context menu.
selects the corresponding channel in the Mixer (and vice
• To change the order of the panels, select “Setup…” on the
versa). If a Channel Settings window is open, this will im-
Customize View pop-up menu and use the “Move up” and
mediately switch to show the settings for the selected
“Move Down” buttons.
channel. This allows you to have a single Channel Settings
Ö For further information, see the chapter “Customizing” window open in a convenient position on the screen, and
on page 335. use it for all your EQ and channel effect settings.

122
The Mixer
You can also select a channel manually (thereby changing Ö By default, only the Equalizers tab is shown. To display
what is shown in the open Channel Settings window). the Equalizer Curve tab, right-click on an Inspector tab
Proceed as follows: (not in the empty area below the Inspector) and activate
the Equalizer Curve option.
1. Open the Channel Settings window for any channel.
• By using the Channel Settings window.
2. Open the “Choose Edit Channel” pop-up menu by
This offers both parameter sliders and a clickable curve display (the
clicking the arrow button to the left of the channel number Equalizer + Curve pane) and also lets you store and recall EQ presets.
at the top of the Fader view.
Below we describe how to set up EQ in the Channel Set-
tings window, but the parameters are the same in the
Mixer and Inspector (apart from the presets and reset func-
tion, which are not available in the Mixer).
The Equalizers + Curve pane in the Channel Settings win-
dow consists of four EQ modules with parameter sliders,
an EQ curve display and some additional functions at the
top.

3. Select a channel from the pop-up menu to show the

settings for that channel in the open Channel Settings
window.
• Alternatively, you can select a channel in the Mixer by
clicking its channel strip (make sure not to click on a con-
trol as this will change the respective parameter setting
instead).
This selects the channel, and the Channel Settings window is updated.
• To open several Channel Settings windows at the same
time, press [Alt]/[Option] and click the Edit buttons for the Using the parameter controls
respective channels.
1. Activate an EQ module by clicking its On/Off button.
Although the modules have different default frequency values and differ-
Making EQ settings ent Q names, they all have the same frequency range (20 Hz to 20 kHz).
Each audio channel in Cubase has a built-in parametric 2. Set the amount of cut or boost with the gain control –
equalizer with up to four bands. There are several ways to the upper slider.
view and adjust the EQs: The range is ± 24 dB.
• By selecting the Equalizers or Equalizer Curve tab in the 3. Set the desired frequency with the frequency slider.
Inspector. This is the center frequency of the frequency range (20 Hz to 20 kHz) to
The Equalizers section is similar to the Equalizers section in the Channel be cut or boosted.
Settings window, while the Equalizer Curve section shows a display in
which you can “draw” an EQ curve. Setting EQ in the Inspector is only 4. Click on the filter name above the bottom slider and
possible for track-based audio channels. select a filter type from the pop-up menu.

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The Mixer
5. Set the Q value with the bottom slider. 6. To invert the EQ curve (i. e. reflect it along the x axis),
This determines the width of the affected frequency range. Higher values click the Inverse Equalizers button to the right of the curve
give narrower frequency ranges. display.
6. To invert an EQ band (i. e. reflect the curve along the x
axis), click the Inverse button to the right of its On/Off but-
ton. This button is hidden when the EQ module is deacti-
vated. EQ bypass
This is very useful if you want to filter out unwanted noise. While looking
Whenever one or several EQ modules are activated for a
for the frequency to omit, it sometimes helps to boost it in the first place
channel, the EQ button lights up in green in the Mixer
(set the filter to positive gain). After you have found it, you can use the In-
verse button to cancel it out. channel strip, Inspector (Equalizer and Channel sections),
track list, and Channel Settings window (top right corner
7. If needed, you can activate and make settings for up to of the EQ section).
four modules.
You can also bypass all EQ modules. This is useful, as it
• Note that you can edit the values numerically as well, by allows you to compare the sound with and without EQ.
clicking in a value field and entering the desired gain, fre- Proceed as follows:
quency, or Q value.
• In the Mixer, the track list and in the Channel section in
Using the curve display the Inspector, click the EQs state button so that it turns
yellow.
When you activate EQ modules and make settings, you
To deactivate EQ bypass, click the button again, so that it turns green
will see that your settings are automatically reflected in the again.
curve display above. You can also make settings directly
in the curve (or combine the two methods any way you • In the Inspector (Equalizers tab) and in the Channel
like): Settings window, click the Bypass button (next to the EQ
button) so that it turns yellow.
1. To activate an EQ module, click in the curve display. Click again to deactivate EQ bypass mode.
This adds a curve point and one of the modules below is activated.
2. Make EQ settings by dragging the curve point in the
display.
This allows you to adjust gain (drag up or down) and frequency (drag left
or right).
3. To set the Q parameter, press [Shift] and drag the
mouse up or down. Left: EQ bypass in the Mixer; Right: EQ bypass in the Channel Settings
You will see the EQ curve become wider or narrower as you drag. window or the Inspector

• You can also restrict the editing by pressing [Ctrl]/ EQ reset

[Command] (sets gain only) or [Alt]/[Option] (sets fre-
quency only) while you drag the curve point. On the Presets pop-up menu in the Channel Settings win-
dow and in the Inspector, you will find the Reset command.
4. To activate another EQ module, click somewhere else Select this to turn off all EQ modules and reset all EQ pa-
in the display and proceed as above. rameters to their default values.
5. To turn off an EQ module, double-click its curve point
or drag it outside the display.

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The Mixer
Using EQ presets Copying settings between audio channels
Some useful basic presets are included with the program. It is possible to copy all channel settings for an audio
You can use them as they are, or as a starting point for fur- channel and paste them to one or several other channels.
ther “tweaking”. This applies to all audio-based channel types. For exam-
ple, you can copy EQ settings from an audio track and ap-
• To call up a preset, pull down the presets pop-up menu
ply these to a group or VST instrument channel, if you
in the Channel Settings window or in the Inspector and
want them to have the same sound.
select one of the available presets.
Proceed as follows:
• To store the current EQ settings as a preset, select
“Save Preset…” from the Presets pop-up menu and enter 1. In the Mixer, select the channel you want to copy set-
the desired name for the preset in the dialog that opens. tings from.
• To rename the selected preset, select “Rename Preset” 2. On the common panel, click the “Copy First Selected
on the pop-up menu and enter a new name. Channel’s Settings” button.
• To delete the selected preset, select “Remove Preset”
on the pop-up menu.
Ö You can also apply EQ (and Inserts) settings from
track presets, see “Applying inserts and EQ settings from
track presets (Cubase Elements only)” on page 224. 3. Select the channel(s) you want to copy the settings to
and click the “Paste Settings to Selected Channels” but-
EQ in the channel overview ton (below the “Copy First Selected Channel Settings”
If the Channel section is selected in the Inspector, you will button).
get an overview of which EQ modules, insert effects and The settings are applied to the selected channel(s).
sends are activated for the channel. You can copy channel settings between different types of
By clicking on any of the module numbers (1 to 4), you channels, but only those channels will be used for which
can turn the corresponding EQ module on or off. corresponding settings are available in the target channel.
• For example, since output channels do not have send effects,
copying from them will leave the sends settings in the target
channel unaffected.

Initialize Channel and Reset Mixer

The Initialize Channel button can be found in the lower
part of the Control Strip section in the Channel Settings
window. (If this section is not shown in the Channel Set-
tings window, open the context menu and select “Control
Strip” on the Customize View submenu.) Initialize Channel
resets the selected channel to the default settings.
Similarly, the Mixer common panel holds a Reset Mixer/
Reset Channels button. When you click this, you will be
asked whether you want to reset all channels or just the
selected channels.

125
The Mixer
The default settings are: • There is also a “Meter Post-Panner” mode.
This is similar to “Meter Post-Fader”, but the meters will reflect pan set-
• All EQ, insert and send effect settings are deactivated and tings as well.
reset.
• Solo/Mute is deactivated. • If Fast Release is activated, the meters respond very
• The fader is set to 0 dB. quickly to level peaks. If Fast Release is deactivated, the
• Pan is set to center position. meters respond more like standard meters.
You can set the time it takes for the meters to “fall back” in the Prefer-
ences dialog (VST–Metering page).
Changing the meter characteristics
On the Mixer context menu, there is a submenu named Saving and loading Mixer settings
“Global Meter Settings”. Here you can make settings for
the preferred meter characteristics, with the following It is possible to save complete Mixer settings for all or all
options: selected audio-related channels in the Mixer. These can
later be loaded into any project. Channel settings are
• If Hold Peaks is activated, the highest registered levels saved as Mixer settings files. These have the file extension
are “held” and are shown as static horizontal lines in the “.vmx”.
meter.
Note that you can turn this on or off by clicking in any audio level meter in
the Mixer.

Hold Peaks is activated. The

highest registered level is
displayed in the meter.

Saving selected channels or all Mixer settings

Right-clicking somewhere in the Mixer panel or in the
• If Hold Forever is activated, the peak levels are shown Channel Settings window brings up the context menu
until meters are reset (by clicking the numerical peak dis- where the following Save options can be found:
play below the meter).
If Hold Forever is off, you can use the parameter “Meters’ Peak Hold • “Save Selected Channels” will save all channel settings
Time” in the Preferences dialog (VST–Metering page) to specify for how for the selected channels.
long the peak levels will be held. The peak hold time can be between • “Save All Mixer Settings” saves all channel settings for
500 and 30000 ms.
all channels.
• If Meter Input is activated, meters show input levels for
When you select any of the above options, a standard file
all audio channels and input/output channels.
dialog opens where you can select a name and storage lo-
Note that the input meters are post input gain.
cation on your disk for the file.
• If “Meter Post-Fader” is activated, meters show post-
fader levels.
This is the default setting for channels in the Mixer.

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The Mixer
Loading selected channels Routing
To load Mixer settings saved for selected channels, pro-
When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-re-
ceed as follows:
lated channel), you route it to an output bus. In the same
1. Select the same number of channels as when you way, when you record on an audio track you select from
saved your Mixer settings. which input bus the audio is received.
• The Mixer settings are applied in the same order as they The input and output routing for a channel can be set up
were saved. via the Inspector or the Mixer. For large projects, it is con-
For example, if you save the settings for channels 4, 6 and 8, and apply venient to use the Mixer for this, since it allows you to set
these settings to channels 1, 2 and 3, the settings saved for channel 4 inputs and outputs for multiple channels at the same time.
are applied to channel 1, the settings saved for channel 6 to channel 2,
and so on. • In the Inspector, you can select input and output busses
using the Input and Output Routing pop-up menus.
2. Open the Mixer context menu and select “Load Se-
lected Channels”.
A standard file dialog opens, allowing you to locate the saved file.
3. Select the file and click Open.
The channel settings are applied to the selected channels.

! When applying Mixer settings to fewer channels than

Mixer settings available in the saved file, some of the
saved settings are not needed and will be “left over”.
Since the saved settings are applied from “left to
Ö For audio-related channel types other than audio track
right” (as shown in the Mixer), the settings for the
channels (e. g. VST instrument channels, group channels,
channels furthest to the right are the ones that are
and FX channels), only the Output Routing pop-up menu
not applied to any channels.
is available.
Loading all Mixer settings When selecting an input bus for a track you can only se-
Selecting “Load All Mixer Settings” from the context menu lect busses that correspond to the track’s channel config-
allows you to open a saved Mixer settings file, and have the uration. Here are the details for input busses:
stored settings applied to all channels for which information • Mono tracks can be routed to mono input busses or individual
is included in the file. All channels, output settings, VST in- channels within a stereo input bus.
struments, sends and “master” effects will be affected. • Stereo tracks can be routed to mono or stereo input busses.
! This function does not automatically add channels! For output busses any assignment is possible.
For example, if the saved Mixer settings are for 24
channels, and the Mixer you apply it to contains 16
! Assignments that will lead to feedback are not avail-
channels, only the settings for channels 1 to 16 are able in the pop-up menu. This is also indicated by a
applied. one-way symbol.
To disconnect input or output bus assignments, select
“No Bus” from the corresponding pop-up menu.

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The Mixer
Using group channels By default, when you mute a group channel, no audio will
pass through the group. However, other channels that are
You can route the outputs from multiple audio channels to
routed directly to that group channel will remain unmuted.
a group. This enables you to control the channel levels us-
If any of those channels have aux sends routed to other
ing one fader, apply the same effects and equalization to
group channels, FX channels or output busses, those will
all the channels, etc.
still be heard.
For example, group channels can be used as “effect
If the “Group Channels: Mute Sources as well” option is
racks” (see the chapter “Audio effects” on page 131).
activated in the Preferences dialog (VST page), muting a
To set up a group channel, proceed as follows: group channel will cause all other channels directly routed
1. Pull down the Project menu, open the Add Track sub- to it to be muted as well. Clicking the Mute button again
menu and select the “Group Channel…” option. will unmute the group channel and all other channels di-
rectly routed to it. Channels that were muted prior to the
2. Select the desired channel configuration and click the group channel being muted will not remember their mute
Add Track button. state and become unmuted with the group channel.
A group channel track is added to the track list and a corresponding
group channel strip is added to the Mixer. By default, the first group ! The “Group Channels: Mute Sources as well” option
channel strip is labeled “Group 1”, but you can rename it just like any does not affect how mute automation is written. Writ-
channel in the Mixer. ing mute automation for a group channel only affects
3. Pull down the Output Routing pop-up menu for a the group channel and not the channels routed to it.
channel you want to route to the group channel, and se- When writing automation, you will see the other
lect the group channel. channels being muted as well upon muting a group
The output of the audio channel is now redirected to the selected group. channel. However, during playback, only the group
channel will respond to the automation.
4. Do the same for the other channels you wish to route
to the group.

Settings for group channels

The group channel strips are almost identical to audio
channel strips in the Mixer. The descriptions of the Mixer
features earlier in this chapter apply to group channels as
well. Some things to note:
• You can route the output of a group to an output bus or
to another group.
You cannot route a group to itself.
• There are no Input Routing pop-up menus, Monitor but-
tons or Record Enable buttons for group channels.
• Solo functionality is automatically linked for channels
routed to a group and the group channel itself.
This means that if you solo a group channel, all channels routed to the
group are automatically soloed as well. Similarly, soloing a channel
routed to a group will automatically solo the group channel.
• Mute functionality depends on the “Group Channels:
Mute Sources as well” setting in the Preferences dialog
(VST page).

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The Mixer
MIDI-specific procedures Using Channel Settings
For each MIDI channel strip in the Mixer (and MIDI track in
This section describes basic procedures for MIDI channels
the track list or the Inspector), there is an Edit (“e”) button.
in the Mixer.
Clicking this opens the MIDI Channel Settings window.
MIDI channel strips By default, this window contains a duplicate of the Mixer
channel strip.
You can customize the Channel Settings window by
Pan control showing/hiding the different panels and/or by changing
Mute and Solo their order:
• To specify which panels are shown or hidden, right-
Automation controls click in the Channel Settings window and activate/deacti-
Level (velocity) meter vate the corresponding options on the Customize View
submenu of the context menu.
Level fader
(MIDI volume) • To change the order of the panels, select Setup on the
Customize View pop-up menu and use the “Move up” and
Edit button “Move Down” buttons in the dialog that opens.
Monitor and Record
Enable buttons Every MIDI channel has its own Channel Settings window.

The MIDI channel strips allow you to control volume and

pan in your MIDI instrument (provided that the instrument
is set up to receive the corresponding MIDI messages).
The settings here are also available in the Inspector for
MIDI tracks.

Panning MIDI channels

For MIDI channels, the pan control sends out MIDI pan
messages. The result depends on how your MIDI instru-
ment is set to respond to pan – check your documentation
for details.

129
The Mixer
Utilities What will be linked?
The following rules apply to linked channels:
Link/Unlink channels
• Only level, mute, solo, select, monitor and record enable
This function is used to “link” selected channels in the will be linked between channels.
Mixer so that any change applied to one channel will be Effect/EQ/pan/input and output routing settings are not linked.
mirrored by all channels in that group. Only channels of
• Any individual channel settings you have made before
the same type (audio-related or MIDI) can be linked with
linking will remain until you alter the same setting for any of
each other. You can link as many channels as you like, and
the linked channels.
you can also create as many groups of linked channels as
For example, if you link three channels and one of them was muted at the
you like. To link channels in the Mixer, proceed as follows: time you applied the Link Channel function, this channel will remain
1. Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on all the channels muted after linking. However, if you mute another channel, all linked
you want to link. channels will be muted.
[Shift]-clicking allows you to select a continuous range of channels. • Fader levels will be “ganged”.
2. On the Mixer context menu, select the Link Channels The relative level offset between channels will be kept if you move a
option. linked channel fader.

The three channels shown are linked. Moving one fader changes the
levels for all three channels, but keeps the relative level mix.

• By pressing [Alt]/[Option], you can make individual set-

• To unlink channels, select one of the linked channels tings and changes for channels that are linked.
and select “Unlink Channels” from the Mixer context
menu. Ö Linked channels have individual automation tracks.
The channels are unlinked. Note that you do not have to select all the These are completely independent, and are not affected
channels that are linked, only one of them. by the Link function.
Ö It is not possible to remove individual channels from
the link.

130
The Mixer
 14
Audio effects
About this chapter Smart plug-in processing
The VST3 standard features “smart” plug-in processing,
Cubase comes with a number of effect plug-ins included.
i. e., processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if there is
This chapter contains general details about how to assign,
no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU load,
use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their pa-
thus allowing for more effects to be used.
rameters are described in the separate PDF document
“Plug-in Reference”. This is achieved by activating the “Suspend VST3 plug-in
processing when no audio signals are received” option in
! This chapter describes audio effects, i. e. effects that the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page).
are used to process audio, group, VST instrument,
When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume
and ReWire (not in Cubase LE) channels.
CPU power on silent passages, i. e. when no audio data
runs through them.
Overview However, be aware that this can lead to a situation where
Audio effects can be used in Cubase as follows: you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the sys-
tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always
• As insert effects. find the passage with the largest number of events playing
An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the
means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes
required performance.
inserts suitable for effects for which you do not need to mix dry and wet
sound, e. g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy- Ö Activating this option can increase your system perfor-
namic characteristics of the sound. In Cubase Elements, you can have up mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more
to eight different insert effects per channel (and the same is true for output unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on
busses – for recording with “master effects”). In Cubase AI and Cubase any timecode position of the project.
LE, four insert effects per channel are available.
• As send effects. About plug-in delay compensation
Each audio channel has eight sends in Cubase Elements and four sends
in Cubase AI and Cubase LE, each of which can be freely routed to an
A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency.
effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for two rea- This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro-
sons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and wet (pro- cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio
cessed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, and several will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam-
different audio channels can use the same send effect. In Cubase, send ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality.
effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks.
Cubase provides full plug-in delay compensation through-
out the entire audio path. All plug-in delays are compen-
About VST 3 sated for, maintaining the sync and timing of all audio
The VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improvements channels.
over the previous VST 2 standard and yet retains full
Normally, you do not have to make any settings for this.
backwards compatibility.
However, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead func-
In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver- tionality have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage
sions will be easily recognized: the look-ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used
during realtime recording (see the separate PDF docu-
An effect compatible
A VST 3 effect ment “Plug-in Reference”).
with a previous VST
version
You can also constrain the delay compensation, which is
useful to avoid latency when recording audio or playing a
VST instrument in real time, see “Constrain Delay Com-
pensation” on page 154.

132
Audio effects
About tempo sync In Cubase Elements, slots 7 and 8 are post-EQ and post-
fader. Post-fader slots are best suited for insert effects
Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from
where you do not want the level to be changed after the
the host application (in this case, Cubase). Typically, this
effect, such as dithering (see “Dithering (Cubase Ele-
is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as
ments only)” on page 135) and maximizers – both typically
modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo.
used as insert effects for output busses.
• This information is automatically provided to any VST
Ö Applying several effects on several channels may be
plug-in (2.0 or later) that “requests it”.
You do not have to make any special settings for this.
too much for your CPU to handle! If you want to use the
same effect with the same settings on several channels, it
• You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to ap-
You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 to 1/32). ply your effect only once, as a single insert for this group.
Please refer to the separate PDF document “Plug-in Ref- You can use the VST Performance window to keep an eye
erence” for details about the included effects. on the CPU load.

Routing an audio channel or bus through

Insert effects insert effects
Background Insert effect settings are available in the Channel Settings
window and the Inspector. The examples below show the
As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the au- Channel Settings window, but the procedures are the same
dio signal path – this means that the audio channel data will for all the inserts sections:
be routed through the effect. In Cubase Elements, you can
add up to eight different insert effects independently for 1. Bring up the Channel Settings window.
each audio-related channel (audio track, group channel By default, the inserts are located to the far left.
track, FX channel track, VST instrument channel, or Re- 2. Pull down the effect type pop-up menu for one of the
Wire channel) or output bus. In Cubase AI and Cubase insert slots, and select an effect.
LE, four insert slots are available for audio-related tracks.
Also, ReWire channels are not available in Cubase LE.
The signal passes through the effects in series from the top
downwards, with the signal path shown below:

Input gain

Insert effect 1

Insert effect 2

Insert effect 3
Insert effect 4
Insert effect 5
Insert effect 6
The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its
control panel opens. You can open or close the control
panel for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert
EQ
slot.
Volume (fader) • If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter, you can use
this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the
Insert effect 7 effect signal.
See “Editing effects” on page 140 for details about editing effects.
Insert effect 8

133
Audio effects
• To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up • To bypass all inserts for a track, click the “Bypass In-
menu and select “No Effect”. serts” button.
To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to This button can be found on the right of the title bar of the Inserts section
use. in the Inspector or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to
indicate that the inserts of this track are bypassed. In the track list and
• In Cubase Elements, you can add up to 8 insert effects the channel strip in the Mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in
per channel this way. In Cubase AI and Cubase LE, 4 in- yellow.
sert effects can be added.
• You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above
the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
• You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the
same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/
[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot.
Insert effects in the channel overview
Deactivating vs. bypassing
If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector, you will
If you want to listen to the track without having it pro- get an overview of which insert effects, EQ modules and ef-
cessed by a particular effect, but do not want to remove fect sends are activated for the channel.
this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either
deactivate or bypass it. You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots
by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of
Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas the overview).
bypassing means to play back only the unprocessed origi-
nal signal – a bypassed effect is still processing in the
background. Bypassing allows for crackle-free comparison
of the original (“dry”) and the processed (“wet”) signal.
The blue color of inserts 1 and 2 and the
• To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left blue Inserts State button in the channel strip
above the insert slot. indicate that this track has active inserts.

• To bypass an effect, click its Bypass button (the middle

button above the insert slot).
When an effect is bypassed, this button is yellow.

This effect is activated, and its control

panel is open.

This insert effect is bypassed.

The channel overview in the Inspector

134
Audio effects
Adding insert effects to output busses Applying dithering
All output busses have insert slots, just like regular audio 1. Open the VST Output Channel Settings window by
channels. The procedures for adding insert effects are the clicking the “e” button for the Output channel in the Mixer.
same.
2. Open the Inserts pop-up menu for slot 7 or 8.
• Insert effects added to an output bus will affect all audio The two last Insert effect slots (for all channels) are post-fader, which is
routed to that bus, like a “master insert effect”. crucial for a dithering plug-in. The reason is that any master gain change
applied after dithering would bring the signal back to the internal 32 bit
Typically you would add compressors, limiters, EQ or other plug-ins to
float domain, rendering the dithering settings useless.
tailor the dynamics and sound of the final mix. Dithering is a special case,
as described below. 3. Select the included UV22HR plug-in from the pop-up
Output busses only appear as tracks in the track list after menu.
their automation Write buttons have been activated at least The included dithering plug-ins and their parameters are described in the
separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. If you have installed an-
once. Only then will you be able to make Inserts settings for
other dithering plug-in that you prefer, you can of course select this in-
the corresponding busses in the Inspector section. How- stead.
ever, you can always make Inserts settings in the Channel
Settings window. 4. Make sure that the plug-in is set to dither to the cor-
rect resolution.
This would be the resolution of your audio hardware (on playback) or the
Dithering (Cubase Elements only)
desired resolution for the mixdown file you want to create (as set in the
Dithering is a method for controlling the noise produced Export Audio Mixdown dialog, see the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown”
by quantization errors in digital recordings. The theory be- on page 296).
hind this is that during low level passages, only a few bits
5. Use the other parameters in the control panel to set up
are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantiza-
the dithering to your liking.
tion errors and hence distortion.
For example, when “truncating bits”, as a result of moving Using group channels for insert effects
from 24 to 16 bit resolution, quantization errors are added
Like all other channels, group channels can have up to
to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a spe-
eight insert effects (four in Cubase AI and Cubase LE).
cial kind of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of
This is useful if you have several audio tracks that you
these errors is minimized. The added noise could be per-
want to process through the same effect (e. g. different vo-
ceived as a very low-level hiss under exacting listening
cal tracks that you want to be processed by the same
conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable and much
compressor).
preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.
Another special use for group channels and effects is the
When should I use dithering? following:
• Consider dithering when you mix down to a lower reso- If you have a mono audio track and want to process this
lution, either in realtime (during playback) or with the Ex- through a stereo insert effect (e. g. a stereo chorus or an
port Audio Mixdown function. auto panner device), you cannot just insert the effect as
A typical example is when you mix down a project to a 16-bit stereo au- usual. This is because the audio track is in mono – the
dio file for audio CD burning. output of the insert effect will be in mono as well, and the
What is a “lower resolution” then? Well, Cubase uses 32- stereo information from the effect will be lost.
bit float resolution internally, which means that all integer One solution is to route a send from the mono track to a
resolutions (16 bit, 24 bit, etc.) are lower. The negative ef- stereo FX channel track, set the send to pre-fader mode
fects of truncation (no dithering) are most noticeable when and lower the fader completely for the mono audio track.
mixing down to 8 bit, 16 bit and 20 bit format; whether to However, this makes mixing the track cumbersome, since
dither when mixing down to 24 bits is a matter of taste. you cannot use the fader.

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Audio effects
Here is another solution: After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track
play back as before but the insert effects do not have to
1. Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to
be calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer
the desired output bus.
processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it is
2. Add the desired effect to the group channel as an in- finished and you do not need to edit it anymore.
sert effect.
• You can only freeze audio tracks this way, not group
3. Route the mono audio track to the group channel. channel tracks or FX channel tracks.
Now the signal from the mono audio track is sent directly • Cubase Elements only: the last two insert effects (in
to the group, where it passes through the insert effect, in slots 7 and 8) will not be frozen. This is because these are
stereo. post-fader insert slots.
• You can also freeze VST instruments and their insert
Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track effects – see the chapter “VST instruments and instru-
Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor ment tracks” on page 145.
power. If you are using a large number of insert effects for
a track, you may reach a point where the computer cannot Unfreezing
play back the track properly (the CPU overload indicator If you need to edit the events on a frozen track or make
in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crack- settings for the insert effects, you can unfreeze the track:
ling sounds, etc.).
1. Click the Freeze button in the Inspector for the track.
To remedy this, you can freeze the track, by clicking the You will be asked whether you really want to unfreeze the channel and if
Freeze button in the Inspector. you wish to keep or delete the freeze files.
2. Click “Unfreeze” or “Keep Freeze files”.
This reactivates the frozen insert effects. Clicking “Keep Freeze Files”
will unfreeze the channel but not delete the freeze files. After editing, you
can freeze the track again.

• The Freeze Channel Options dialog opens, allowing you

to set a “Tail Size” time in seconds. Send effects
This adds time at the end of the rendered file to allow reverb and delay
tails to fully fade out. Background
• The program now renders the output of the track, in- As their name implies, send effects are outside of an audio
cluding all pre-fader insert effects, to an audio file. channel’s signal path, i. e. the audio data to be processed
This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder (Win- must be sent to the effect (as opposed to insert effects,
dows). On the Mac, the Freeze folder is stored under “User/Documents”. which are inserted into the channel’s signal path).
• The frozen audio track is locked for editing in the Project To this end, Cubase provides FX channel tracks. When
window. you have created such a track, it is added to the track list
The frozen insert effects cannot be edited or removed and you cannot and can be selected as a routing target in the Send slots
add new insert effects for the track (except post-fader effects). of audio channels.
• On playback, the rendered audio file is played back. • When selecting an FX channel track in one of the send
You can still adjust the level and panning in the Mixer, slots of an audio channel, the audio is sent to the FX chan-
make EQ settings and adjust the effect sends. nel and through any insert effects set up for it.
In the Mixer, the channel strip for a frozen track is indicated by a “snow The sends can be routed to different FX channels, and thus different FX
flake” symbol on the volume fader handle. channel insert effect configurations. You control the amount of signal
sent to the FX channel by adjusting the effect send level.

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Audio effects
• If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the • All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedi-
signal passes through the effects in series, from the top cated “folder” track in the track list.
(the first slot) downward. This makes it easy to manage and keep track of all your FX channel
This allows for “custom” send effect configurations – e. g. a chorus fol- tracks, and also allows you to save screen space by folding in the FX
lowed by a reverb followed by an EQ and so on. Channel folder.

• The FX channel track has its own channel strip in the

Mixer, the effect return channel.
Here you can adjust the effect return level and balance, add EQ and
route the effect return to any output bus.
• Each FX channel track can have any number of automa-
tion tracks, for automating various effect parameters. FX channel tracks are automatically named “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc., but you
See the chapter “Automation” on page 156 for more information. can rename them if you wish. Just double-click the name of an FX chan-
nel track in either the track list or the Inspector and type in a new name.

Setting up send effects Adding and setting up effects

Adding an FX channel track As mentioned above, you can add a single insert effect
when you create the FX channel track. To add and set up
1. Pull down the Project menu, open the “Add Track”
effects after the FX channel track is created, you can ei-
submenu and select “FX Channel”.
A dialog opens.
ther use the Inspector for the track (click the Inserts tab)
or the VST FX Channel Settings window:
1. Click the Edit (“e”) button for the FX channel track (in
the track list, Mixer or Inspector).
The VST FX Channel Settings window appears, similar to a regular
2. Select a channel configuration for the FX channel Channel Settings window.
track.
Normally, stereo is a good choice since most effect plug-ins have stereo
outputs.
3. Select an effect for the FX channel track.
This is not strictly necessary at this point – you can also leave the plug-in
pop-up menu set to “No Effect” and add effects to the FX channel later.
4. Click the Add Track button.
An FX channel track is added to the track list, and the selected effect, if
any, is loaded into the first insert effect slot for the FX channel (in that
case, the lit Inserts tab for the FX channel track in the Inspector indicates
that an effect has been assigned and automatically activated).
On the left in the window you can find the Inserts section.

2. Make sure that the FX channel is routed to the correct

output bus.
This is done with the Output Routing pop-up menu at the top of the fader
section (also available in the Inspector).
3. To add an insert effect in an empty slot (or to replace
the current effect in a slot), click in the slot and select an
effect from the pop-up menu.
This works just like when selecting insert effects for a regular audio
channel.

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Audio effects
4. When you add an effect, its control panel will automat- • A pre/post-fader switch
ically appear. When you set up send effects, you normally • An “e” (edit) button
set the wet/dry Mix control to all “wet”.
Note that the last three items are not shown until the send
This is because you control the balance between the wet and the dry sig-
nal with the effect sends. For more information, see “Editing effects” on
is activated and an effect has been loaded.
page 140. 2. Pull down the Routing pop-up menu for a send by
• You can add up to eight effects for an FX channel. clicking in the empty slot, and select the desired routing
The signal will pass through all the effects in series. It is not possible to destination.
adjust the send and return levels separately for the effects – this is done
for the FX channel as a whole. If you want several separate send effects
(where you can control the send and return levels independently), add
more FX channel tracks instead – one for each effect.
• You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above
the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
• You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the
same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/
[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot. • If the first item on this menu (“No Bus”) is selected, the send is
not routed anywhere.
• To remove an insert effect from a slot, click in the slot • Items called “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc. correspond to existing FX
and select “No Effect” from the pop-up menu. tracks. If you renamed an FX track (see “Adding an FX channel
To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to
track” on page 137), that name will appear on this menu in-
use.
stead of the default.
• You can bypass individual effects (or all effects) by • The menu also allows for routing a send directly to output bus-
clicking the corresponding Bypass button(s) for the FX ses, separate output bus channels or Group channels.
channel track.
3. Select an FX channel track from the pop-up menu.
See “Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects” on page
Now the send is routed to the FX channel.
133.
• You can also adjust level, pan and EQ for the effect re- 4. Activate the On/Off button for the effect send.
turn in the FX Channel Settings window.
This can also be done in the Mixer or in the Inspector.
Ö Remember that the more effect units you use, the
higher the CPU load.

Making settings for the sends 5. Click and drag the send level slider to a moderate
value.
The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and The send level determines how much of the signal from the audio chan-
route it to the FX channel. This can be done in the Chan- nel is routed to the FX channel via the send.
nel Settings window or in the Inspector for the audio track.
The example below shows the Channel Settings window,
but the procedure is similar for all the sections:
1. Click the “e” button for an audio channel to bring up
its Channel Settings window.
Setting the Send level
The send section is located to the left of the channel strip.
Each of the sends has the following controls:
• An On/Off button for activating/deactivating the effect
• A send level slider

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Audio effects
• In the Fader section of the Channel Settings window, Ö Use the channel’s Mute button to determine whether a
select the FX channel from the pop-up menu and adjust send in pre-fader mode is affected. This is done with the
its effect return level. “Mute Pre-Send when Mute” option in the Preferences di-
By adjusting the return level, you control the amount of the signal sent alog (VST page).
from the FX channel to the output bus.
• When one or several sends are activated for a channel,
the Send Effects buttons light up in blue.

Bypassing the sends

• In the Mixer, you can click on the lit (blue) Sends State
button for a channel to bypass (disable) all its sends.
When the sends are bypassed, the button is yellow. Click the button
again to enable the sends.

Setting the effect return level

6. If you want the signal to be sent to the FX channel be-

fore the audio channel’s volume fader in the Mixer, click on
the Pre-Fader button for the send so that it lights up.
• To bypass all sends for a track, click the “Bypass
Sends” button.
This button can be found on the right of the title bar of the Sends section
in the Inspector or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to
indicate that the inserts of this track are bypassed. In the track list and
A send set to pre-fader mode the channel strip in the Mixer, the Sends State button will also light up in
Normally you want the effect send to be proportional to yellow.
the channel volume (post-fader send). The picture below • You can also bypass individual sends in the channel
shows where the sends are “tapped” from the signal in overview.
pre and post-fader mode: See “Insert effects in the channel overview” on page 134.

Input gain
• You can also bypass the send effects by clicking the
“Bypass Inserts” button for the FX channel.
This bypasses the actual effects which may be used by several different
Insert effects 1–6
channels. Bypassing a send affects that send and that channel only. If
you bypass the insert effects, the original sound will be passed through.
EQ This may lead to unwanted side effects (higher volume). To deactivate all
Pre-fader sends effects, use the mute button in the FX channel.

Volume (fader)

Insert effects 7–8

Post-fader sends

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Audio effects
Editing effects Effect presets
All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button. Clicking Effect preset management in Cubase is very versatile. In
this opens the control panel for the effect, in which you the MediaBay – or with certain limits in the Save Preset di-
can make parameter settings. alog – you can assign attributes to presets which allow
you to organize and browse them according to various cri-
The contents, design and layout of the control panel de-
teria. Cubase comes with categorized track and VST pre-
pends on the selected effect. However, all effect control
sets that you can use straight out of the box. You can also
panels have an On/Off button, a Bypass button, Read/
preview effect presets before loading them which consid-
Write automation buttons (for automating effect parame-
erably speeds up the process of finding the right effect
ter changes, see the chapter “Automation” on page 156),
preset.
a preset pop-up menu and a Preset Management pop-up
menu for saving and loading effect presets.
Selecting effect presets
Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful
presets for instant selection.
To select an effect preset in the Presets browser, proceed
as follows:
1. Load an effect, either as a channel insert or into an FX
channel.
The Rotary effect control panel The control panel for the effect is displayed.
• All effects can be edited using a simplified control panel 2. Click in the preset field at the top of the control panel.
(horizontal sliders only, no graphics). This generic editor is This opens the Presets browser.
opened using the pop-up menu in the top right corner of
the plug-in panel.
Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs,
sliders, buttons and graphic curves.
Ö The included effects and their parameters are de-
scribed in detail in the separate PDF document “Plug-in
Reference”.
• If you edit the parameters for an effect, these settings
are saved automatically with the project.
• You can also save the current settings as a preset, see
below.
• Effects parameters can be automated – see the chapter
“Automation” on page 156.
• You can also open the Presets browser from the In-
spector (Inserts tab) or the Channel Settings window.
3. In the Results section, select a preset from the list.
4. Activate playback to audition the selected preset.
Simply step through the presets until you find the right sound. It may be
helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be-
tween different preset settings easier.

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5. When you have found the preset that you want, dou- 2. Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu.
ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser). The Save Preset dialog opens.
The preset is applied.
• To return to the preset that was selected when you
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Set-
ting” button.
• You can also open the Presets browser by clicking the
button to the right of the preset field an selecting “Load
Preset” from the pop-up menu.
Ö The preset handling for VST 2 plug-ins is slightly differ-
ent, see “About earlier VST effect presets” on page 142.

The Browser sections

The Presets browser contains the following sections:
• The “Results” section lists the available presets for the
selected effect.
• The Filters section shows the available preset attributes
for the selected effect.
This section is similar to the Filters section in the MediaBay, see “The Fil-
ters section” on page 215. To show the Filters section, click the “Set Up 3. In the New Preset section, enter a name for the new
Window Layout” button and activate the Filters option. preset.
• The Location Tree section allows you to specify the • If you want to save attributes for the preset, click the
folder that is searched for preset files. button below the “New Preset” section at the bottom left.
To show the Location Tree section, click the “Set Up Window Layout” The Attribute Inspector section opens, allowing you to define attributes
button and activate the Location Tree option. Note that this is only avail- for the preset.
able if the Filters section is also active.
4. Click OK to store the preset and exit the dialog.
Saving effect presets User-defined presets are saved in the following location:
You can save your edited effect settings as presets for • Windows: \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\VST3
further use (e. g. in other projects): presets\<company>\<plug-in name>
1. Open the Preset Management pop-up menu. • Mac: /Users/<user name>/Library/Audio/Presets/<com-
pany>/<plug-in name>
Ö You cannot change the default folders, but you can
add further subfolders inside the individual effect preset
folders (by clicking the New Folder button).

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Audio effects
About earlier VST effect presets Installing and managing effect
As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in plug-ins
Cubase. For a description of how to add VST plug-ins, see
“Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on page 142. Cubase supports two plug-in formats; the VST 2 format
(with the file name extensions “.dll” on the PC and “.vst”
When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored pre- on the Mac) and the VST 3 format (extension “.vst3” on
sets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/ both platforms). The formats are handled differently when
.fxb). You can import such files, but the preset handling will it comes to installation and organizing.
be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new fea-
tures until you have converted the old “.fxp/.fxb” presets to
Installing additional VST plug-ins
VST 3 presets. If you save new presets for the included
VST 2 plug-ins, these will automatically be saved in the new Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Mac OS X
“.vstpreset” format.
To install a VST 3.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase
! All VST 2 presets can be converted to VST 3 presets. and drag the plug-in file into one of the following folders:
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that
To import FXB/FXP files, proceed as follows: support them.
1. Load any VST 2 effect you may have installed, and • /Users/<user name>/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
open the Preset Management pop-up menu. “<user name>” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easi-
est way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the
path /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this
folder are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase again, the new effects will ap-
pear on the effect pop-up menus. In the VST 3 protocol,
the effect category, subfolder structure, etc. are built-in
and cannot be changed. Therefore you will find the ef-
fect(s) in the assigned category folder(s) on the Effect
pop-up menu.
2. Select “Import FXB/FXP…” from the pop-up menu.
This menu item is only available for VST 2 plug-ins. Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X
3. In the file dialog that opens, locate the FXP file and To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase
click Open. and drag the plug-in file to one of the following folders:
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect pro-
grams. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
own .fxp/.fxb presets with a previous version of Cubase (or any other stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that
VST 2 application). support them.

4. After importing, you can convert the current program • <user name>/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
list to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to “<user name>” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easi-
VST Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up menu. est way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the
After converting, the presets will be available in the Presets browser. The path /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this
converted presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder. folder are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase again, the new effects will ap-
pear on the effect pop-up menus.

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Audio effects
Ö If an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap- The Plug-in Information window
plication, you should use this. As a general rule, always
On the Devices menu, you will find an item called “Plug-in
read the documentation or readme files before installing
Information”. Selecting this opens a dialog listing all the
new plug-ins.
available VST compatible plug-ins in your system (includ-
Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Windows ing VST instruments).

Under Windows, VST 3 plug-ins are installed by dragging

the files (with the extension “.vst3”) into the VST3 folder in
the Cubase application folder. When you launch Cubase
again, the new effects will appear on the Effect pop-up
menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the effect category, sub-
folder structure, etc. are built-in and cannot be changed.
Therefore you will find the new effect(s) in the assigned
category folder(s) on the effect pop-up menu.

Installing VST 2 plug-ins under Windows Managing and selecting VST plug-ins
Under Windows, VST 2.x plug-ins are installed by drag- To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST
ging the files (with the extension “.dll”) into the Vstplugins PlugIns” tab.
folder in the Cubase application folder, or into the Shared
• To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put
VST Plug-in folder – see below. When you launch
a checkmark in the left column.
Cubase again, the new effects will appear on the effect
Only the enabled plug-ins will appear on the effect menus.
pop-up menus.
• The Instances column indicates how many instances of
Ö If an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap- the plug-in are currently used in Cubase.
plication, you should use this. As a general rule, always Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a
read the documentation before installing new plug-ins. pop-up showing exactly where each use occurs.

Organizing VST 2 plug-ins Ö A plug-in may be in use even if it is not enabled in the
left column.
If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them
all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become You might for example have opened a project containing effects that are
unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins in- currently disabled on the menu. The left column only determines whether
stalled with Cubase are placed in appropriate subfolders or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus.
according to the effect type. • All columns can be resized by dragging the divider in
• Under Windows, you can organize VST plug-ins by the column header.
moving, adding or renaming subfolders within the Vstpl- The other columns show the following information about
ugins folder. each plug-in:
When you launch the program and pull down an effects pop-up menu,
Column Description
the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing
the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder. Name The name of the plug-in.
Vendor The manufacturer of the plug-in.
• Under Mac OS X, you cannot change the hierarchic ar-
rangement of the “built-in” VST plug-ins. File This shows the complete name of the plug-in (with extension).
However, you can arrange any additional plug-ins you have installed (in the Category This indicates the category of each plug-in (such as VST in-
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ folders, see above) by placing them in sub- struments, etc.).
folders. In the program, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical Version Shows the version of the plug-in.
submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
SDK Shows with which version of the VST protocol a plug-in is
compatible.

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Audio effects
Column Description
Latency This shows the delay (in samples) that will be introduced if the
effect is used as an Insert. This is automatically compensated
for by Cubase.
I/O This column shows the number of inputs and outputs for each
plug-in.
Path The path and name of the folder in which the plug-in file is
located.

Update button
Clicking this button will make Cubase re-scan the desig-
nated VST folders for updated plug-in information.

VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button

This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths
to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can add/re-
move folder locations by using the corresponding buttons.
If you click “Add”, a file dialog opens, where you can se-
lect a folder location.

About the “shared” plug-ins folder

(Windows and VST 2.x only)
You can designate a “shared” VST 2.x plug-ins folder.
This will allow VST 2.x plug-ins to be used by other pro-
grams that support this standard.
You designate a shared folder by selecting a folder in the
list and clicking the “Set As Shared Folder” button in the
VST 2.x Plug-in Paths dialog.

Exporting plug-in information files

You can also save plug-in information as an XML file, e. g.
for archiving purposes or troubleshooting. The Export
function is available for VST, MIDI and Audio Codec plug-
ins. Proceed as follows:
1. Right-click on the desired tab in the Plug-in Information
window to open the context menu and select “Export”.
A file dialog opens.
2. In the dialog, specify a name and location for the Plug-
in Information export file and click OK to export the file.
• The Plug-in Information file contains information on the
installed/available plug-ins, their version, vendor, etc.
• The XML file can then be opened in any editor applica-
tion supporting the XML format.

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Audio effects
 15
VST instruments and instrument tracks
Introduction VST instrument channels
VST instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound
(not in Cubase LE)
sources) that are contained within Cubase. They are played You can access a VST instrument from within Cubase by
internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST instru- creating a VST instrument channel and associating this
ments, just as with audio tracks. channel with a MIDI track. Proceed as follows:
Some VST instruments are included with Cubase, others 1. On the Devices menu, select “VST Instruments”.
can be purchased separately from Steinberg and other The VST Instruments window opens.
manufacturers. In Cubase AI and Cubase LE, the VST in-
strument HALion Sonic SE is included.
This chapter describes the general procedures for setting
up and using VST instruments. The included VST instru-
ments and their parameters are described in the separate
PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
Ö Depending on the VST version the instrument is com-
patible with, an icon may be displayed in front of the in-
strument name, see “About VST 3” on page 132.
2. Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument
pop-up menu and select the desired instrument.
VST instrument channels vs. 3. You will be asked if you want to create an associated
instrument tracks MIDI track connected to the VST instrument. Click Create.
The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel opens. A
Cubase allows you to make use of VST instruments in two MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the track list. The
different ways: output of this track is routed to the instrument.
• By activating instruments in the VST Instruments window. In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can
This creates a VST instrument channel, which can be played by one (or se- specify what happens when loading a VST instrument in
veral) MIDI track(s) routed to it.
an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Create MIDI
• By creating instrument tracks. track when loading VSTi” and select one of the available
Instrument tracks are a combination of a VST instrument, an instrument options:
channel, and a MIDI track. You play and record MIDI note data directly for
this track. • When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will al-
ways be created.
Both methods have their advantages and should be se- • When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only
lected according to what best suits your needs. The fol- the instrument will be loaded.
lowing sections describe the two approaches. • Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI
track is created whenever you load an instrument.
! In Cubase LE, the VST Instruments window is not
available. Only instrument tracks and the related You can also use modifiers to specify what happens when
functions can be used in this program version. you load a VST instrument (overriding the Preference set-
ting):
• When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST
instrument for an instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track
with the name of the instrument is automatically created.
• When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST in-
strument for an instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created
for the instrument.

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• If you do not want the plug-in control panels to open ev- 8. Open the Mixer.
ery time you load a plug-in, open the Preferences dialog You will find one or more channel strips for the audio outputs of the VST
(VST–Plug-ins page) and deactivate “Open Effect Editor instrument. VST instrument channel strips have the same features and
After Loading it”. functionality as group channel strips, with the addition of an Edit button
You can open a plug-in panel at any time by clicking the “e” button of the at the bottom of the strip for opening the VST instrument control panel. In
corresponding plug-in slot. the Inspector you will also find an Output Routing pop-up menu for rout-
ing the VST instrument, e. g. to an output channel or group.
4. If you now look in the Project window track list, you will
find that a dedicated folder for the chosen instrument has 9. Play the VST instrument from your MIDI keyboard.
You can use the Mixer settings to adjust the sound, add EQ or effects, etc.,
been added, within a “VST Instruments” folder (where all
just as with regular audio channels. Of course, you can also record or man-
your VST instrument channels will be listed). ually create MIDI parts that play back sounds from the VST instrument.
The separate folder for the added VST instrument contains two types of
automation tracks: one for automating the plug-in parameters and one • VST instrument channels give you full access to multi-
for each Mixer channel used by the VST instrument. For example, if you timbral instruments.
add a VST instrument with four separate outputs (four separate Mixer You can have several MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, each
channels), the folder will contain five automation tracks. To keep the playing a different part.
screen less cluttered, you may want to close the folder for the VST in-
strument until you need to view or edit any of the automation tracks. For • Similarly, you can route channels to any available output
details about automation, see the chapter “Automation” on page 156. provided by the VST instrument.

• When you select the MIDI track routed to the VST in-
The VST Instruments window
strument, you will see that the Inspector contains a sepa-
rate section for the instrument. When a VST instrument is loaded, six controls are dis-
This section contains the audio channel settings for the VST instrument played for this slot in the VST Instruments window.
(inserts, EQs, Sends, and fader settings). The tab has two buttons for
Instrument Bypass
opening the Channel Settings window (for the VST instrument channel)
on/off instrument Activate outputs
and the Edit Instrument button which opens the control panel for the VST
instrument.
Instrument
Opens the control panel for Freeze
the VST instrument.

Event received Open instrument panel

Opens the Channel Settings
window.
• The button on the far left is used for the Freeze function,
see “Instrument Freeze” on page 150.
• The On/Off button is used to activate or deactivate the
5. Depending on the selected VST instrument, you may VST instrument.
also need to select a MIDI channel for the track. When an instrument is selected from the instrument pop-up menu, it is
For example, a multitimbral VST instrument can play back different activated automatically, i. e. the On/Off button is lit.
sounds on different MIDI channels – check the documentation for the For some instruments you may also bypass the instrument by clicking the
VST instrument for MIDI implementation details. Bypass button to the right of the On/Off button.
6. Make sure that the “MIDI Thru Active” option is acti- • Click the Edit (“e”) button to open the control panel for
vated in the Preferences dialog (MIDI page). the VST instrument.
7. Activate the Monitor button for the MIDI track (in the • Below the Edit button is a small LED that will light up
track list, Inspector, or Mixer). when MIDI data is received by the instrument.
When this is activated (or when the track is record enabled), incoming
MIDI is passed on to the selected MIDI output (in this case the VST in-
strument), see the chapter “Recording” on page 74.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
• The rightmost button allows you to activate the desired • You can also exchange the “sound” of an instrument
output for the instrument. track (i. e. the VST instrument and its settings) by extract-
This is useful when you are using VST instruments that have a large num- ing these data from another instrument track or a VST pre-
ber of audio busses, which may be confusing. Click one of the entries in set, see “Extracting sound from an instrument track or VST
the pop-up list to activate/deactivate output busses for this instrument. preset” on page 225.
• On the Input Routing pop-up menu, you can select a
Instrument tracks MIDI input.
Instrument tracks have only one MIDI input.
An instrument track is a combination of a VST instrument, a
MIDI track, and a VST instrument channel, in other words: it • To open the control panel for the VST instrument, click
is a track coupled with a sound – it allows you to think in the “Edit Instrument” button in the Inspector.
terms of sounds rather than in terms of track and instrument
settings.

Adding instrument tracks

To open and use an instrument track, proceed as follows:
1. Pull down the Project menu, open the Add Track sub- • As with MIDI tracks, you can perform the usual MIDI edit-
menu and select “Instrument”. ing procedures on the instrument track, like duplicate, split,
You can also right-click the track list and select “Add Instrument Track” or repeat the track, drag and drop the MIDI parts of an in-
on the context menu. strument track, etc. For more information, see the chapter
2. The Add Instrument Track dialog opens. “MIDI realtime parameters” on page 233.
You can select an instrument for the track from the pop-up menu (but you • As with the MIDI track inspector and track controls, you
can also leave this until later if you wish). Specify the number of instrument can adjust track delay, choose MIDI input, work with VST
tracks you wish to create in the “Count” field. If you click the Browse but- instrument panels, etc. For more information, see the chap-
ton, the dialog expands to show the Presets browser, where you can
ter “MIDI realtime parameters” on page 233.
browse for sounds, see “Using the Presets browser” on page 152.
• Instrument tracks have all options that VST instrument
3. Click the Add Track button.
If you have selected an instrument in the Add Track dialog, the new track
channels have, i. e. inserts, sends, EQ, etc.
gets the name of the instrument. Otherwise, the track is named “Instru- Ö VST instruments used in instrument tracks do not ap-
ment track”. pear in the VST Instruments window. For an overview of all
used VST instruments, open the Plug-in Information win-
dow via the Devices menu. For further information, see the
section “The Plug-in Information window” on page 143.

Properties Restrictions
• MIDI volume and pan cannot be controlled (there is no
Each instrument track has a corresponding channel strip
“MIDI fader” tab in the Inspector); instead, the VST instru-
in the Mixer.
ment volume and pan are used (via the “Channel” tab in
• In the Inspector, you can select a VST instrument from the Inspector). This applies also to the respective automa-
the Instrument pop-up menu. tion parameters.
When you select an instrument from this pop-up menu, its control panel
will open automatically.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
Ö Due to there being only one volume and pan control for Exporting MIDI loops
the instrument track, the Mute button will mute the com-
Exporting MIDI loops is a great way of saving a MIDI part
plete track including the VST instrument. (As opposed to a
together with its instrument and effect settings. This al-
MIDI track with an assigned VST instrument, for which mut-
lows you to easily reproduce patterns you created without
ing the MIDI track still allows you to monitor and record the
having to search for the correct sound, style, or effect.
VST instrument.)
Proceed as follows:
• Instrument tracks always have one stereo output chan-
nel only. This means that VST instruments that do not pro- 1. Select the desired instrument part.
vide a stereo output as their first output channel cannot be 2. Pull down the File menu, open the Export submenu,
used with instrument tracks, and must be loaded via the and select “MIDI Loop…”.
VST Instruments window. A file dialog opens.
• Due to the limitation to one output channel, instrument 3. In the “New MIDI Loop” section, enter a name for the
tracks play only the first voice of a multi-timbral VST in- MIDI loop.
strument. If you want to use all voices, you have to load the
instrument via the VST Instruments window and set up a • If you want to save attributes for the MIDI loop, click the
MIDI channel to play it. button below the “New MIDI Loop” section at the bottom
left.
The Attribute Inspector section opens, allowing you to define attributes
Import and export options for your MIDI loop.
Importing MIDI loops 4. Click OK to close the dialog and save the MIDI loop.
You can import “MIDI loops” (file extension “*.midiloop”) in MIDI Loop files are saved in the following folder:
Cubase. These files contain MIDI part information (MIDI
notes, controllers, etc.) as well as all the settings that are • Windows: \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\
saved in instrument track presets (see “About track pre- MIDI Loops
sets and VST presets” on page 151). This way, you can • Mac: /Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/
easily reuse instrument patterns you really like in other Steinberg/MIDI Loops/
projects or applications, for example. This default folder cannot be changed, but you can create
Proceed as follows: subfolders within this folder to organize your MIDI loops.
Simply click the “New Folder” button in the Save MIDI
1. Open the MediaBay window via the Media menu. Loop dialog.
2. In the Results section, open the “Show Media Types”
Exporting instrument tracks as MIDI file
dialog and select “MIDI Loops & Plug-in Presets” (see
“Filtering according to media type” on page 211). You can also export instrument tracks as standard MIDI
This is not necessary, but will help you locate your MIDI loops more quickly. files, see “Exporting MIDI files” on page 332.
3. In the Results list, select a MIDI loop and drag it to an Please note the following:
empty section in the Project window.
An instrument track is created and the instrument part is inserted at the
• As there is no MIDI patch information in an instrument
position where you dragged the file. The Inspector will reflect all settings track, this information is missing in the resulting MIDI file.
saved in the MIDI loop, e. g. the VST instrument that was used, applied • If you activate “Export Inspector Volume/Pan”, volume
insert effects, track parameters, etc. and pan information of the VST instrument will be con-
Ö You can also drag MIDI loops onto existing instrument verted and written into the MIDI file as controller data.
or MIDI tracks. However, this will only import the part infor-
mation. This means this part will only contain the MIDI data
(notes, controllers) saved in the MIDI loop, but no inspec-
tor settings or instrument parameters.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
What do I need? Instrument channel The result of the Freeze is that you get exactly the same
sound as before, but the computer processor does not
or instrument track? have to calculate the sound of the VST instrument in real-
• If you need a particular sound without knowing which time.
VST instrument to use, create an instrument track and use
the preview features of the Presets browser to find the Performing the freeze
sound you want. The instrument freeze function is available in the VST In-
• Do likewise if the instrument track restrictions described struments window, the track list, and the Inspector for in-
above do not matter. strument tracks.

• If you are planning to create an instrument track preset, 1. Set up the project so that the VST instrument plays
complete with inserts and EQ settings, you have to use an back the way you want it to.
instrument track. This includes editing the MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or ed-
iting the instrument track, and making parameter settings for the VST in-
• If you need to use multitimbral parts and/or multiple out- strument itself. If you have automated parameter changes for the VST
puts, set up a VST instrument channel. instrument, make sure that the Read (R) button is activated.
2. Open the VST Instruments window from the Devices
Instrument Freeze menu, or, if you are using an instrument track, select the
track and open the top Inspector tab.
Like all plug-ins, VST instruments may require a lot of pro-
3. Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument (the
cessor power. If you are using a moderately powerful com-
button to the left of the VST instrument slot), or the Freeze
puter or if you are using a large number of VST instruments,
button in the Inspector for the instrument track.
you may come to a point where your computer cannot han-
dle all VST instruments playing back in realtime (the CPU
overload indicator in the VST Performance window lights
up, you get crackling sounds, etc.).
Enter the Instrument Freeze function! This is how it works:
The Freeze button in the …and in the Inspector.
• When you freeze a VST instrument, the program renders VST Instruments window…
an audio file of the instrument output (taking into account all
unmuted MIDI parts routed to that VST instrument). This file The Freeze Instrument Options dialog opens with the fol-
is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder. lowing options for the Freeze operation:

• All MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or the in-

strument track associated with the VST instrument, are
muted and locked (the controls for these tracks will ap-
pear “grayed-out” in the track list and Inspector).
• When you start playback, the rendered audio file is
played back from an “invisible” audio track, routed to the
VST instrument’s Mixer channel. Thus, any effects, EQ, or
mixing automation will still be applied.
• You can also freeze the Mixer channel of the VST instru- • Select “Freeze Instrument Only” if you do not want to
ment. This freezes any pre-fader insert effects for the freeze any insert effects for the VST instrument channels.
channels, just as when freezing audio tracks (see “Freez- Use this if you are using insert effects on the VST instrument channel(s)
ing (rendering) insert effects for a track” on page 136). and want to be able to edit, replace, or remove these after freezing the
VST instrument.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
• Select “Freeze Instrument and Channels” if you want to VST instruments and processor load
freeze all pre-fader insert effects for the VST instrument
channels. If you are working with VST 3 instruments, another way to
If your VST instrument channels are set up with the desired insert effects relieve processor load is the “Suspend VST3 plug-in pro-
and you do not need to edit these, select this option. cessing when no audio signals are received” option in the
• You can set a Tail Size time to let sounds complete their Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page). This is described
normal release cycle. in the section “Smart plug-in processing” on page 132.
Otherwise, the sound might be cut off at the very end of the freeze file.
• When you activate “Unload Instrument when Frozen”, Using presets for VSTi configuration
the frozen VST instrument will be removed.
This is useful if you are freezing an instrument that uses a lot of RAM, e. g. About track presets and VST presets
for pre-loading samples. By unloading the instrument, the RAM becomes
available for other plug-ins, etc. Track presets and VST presets allow you to quickly set up
tracks or instruments with all the settings required for the
4. Click OK.
sound you want. Cubase provides various types of pre-
A progress dialog is shown while the program renders the VST instru-
ment audio to a file on your hard disk.
sets for various purposes. Two of these are of relevance
for VST instruments:
The Freeze button lights up. If you check the Project win-
dow at this point, you will find that the relevant MIDI/in- • Track presets for instrument tracks store the parameter
strument tracks have grayed out controls in the track list settings of a VST instrument together with all track/chan-
and Inspector. Furthermore, the MIDI parts are locked and nel settings (applied audio insert effects, etc.).
Instrument track presets can only be applied to instrument tracks, not to
cannot be moved.
instrument channels activated in the VST Instruments window.
5. Play back the project.
• VST presets store all panel settings for a plug-in (VST
You will hear exactly the same sound as before freezing the VST instru-
ment – but the CPU load will be considerably less!
instruments and VST effects), but no track/channel set-
tings.
• If you selected “Freeze Instrument and Channels”, any Note that you can create instrument tracks from VST 3 presets, i. e. se-
insert effects used by the VST instrument are also frozen lecting a VST 3 preset will create an instrument track with all settings
(except for the post-fader inserts – Cubase Elements stored in the VST preset plus an “empty” track.
only). However, you can always adjust level, pan, sends, As described in the chapter “Audio effects” on page 131,
and EQ for frozen VST instruments. there are two types of VST presets that can be used: the
VST 2 standard FXB/FXP files and the VST 3 preset stan-
Unfreezing dard with the extension “.vstpreset”. Some of the included
If you need to make adjustments (either to the MIDI tracks, VST instruments use the VST 2 preset standard, and oth-
to the VST instrument parameters or to the VST instru- ers use the VST 3 standard.
ment channels if these were frozen) you need to unfreeze All VST 2 instruments can import FXB/FXP files and also
the VST instrument: convert them to the VST 3 standard. Once converted, you
1. Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument again can use all VST 3 features, see “About earlier VST instru-
(either in the VST Instruments window or in the Inspector). ment presets” on page 154.
You will be asked to confirm this operation.
Ö For further information on track presets and VST
2. Click “Unfreeze”. presets, see the chapter “Working with track presets” on
The tracks and VST instrument are restored and the rendered “freeze page 221.
file” is deleted.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
Browsing for sounds To find an appropriate preset, proceed as follows:
One important and often time-consuming aspect of music 1. Select a preset from the Results list.
creation is the search for the right sounds. You might spend If needed, filter the list by activating the attributes you are looking for in
a huge amount of time trying out the presets for a particular the Filters section. This section is similar to the Filters section in the
instrument only to find out later that the preset for another MediaBay, see “The Filters section” on page 215.
instrument contains the sound you were looking for. 2. Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the
This is why Cubase features extensive browsing possibili- preset sound. You can switch between presets and hear
ties, allowing you to preview all available presets without the sound while you play. Alternatively, you can play back/
having to load them first! loop a MIDI part on a track.
Each time you select a preset, all associated track and/or instrument set-
In addition, you can filter your search by specifying cate- tings are automatically loaded.
gory, style, etc. For example, if you are looking for a bass
3. When you have found the preset that you want, dou-
sound, simply select the Bass category to browse and
ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser).
preview all bass sounds for all instruments. If you know
The preset is applied.
you want a synth bass sound, select Synth Bass as sub-
category to filter out all other sounds, etc. • To return to the preset that was selected when you
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last
You can also browse and preview track presets for instru-
Setting” button.
ment tracks, i. e. instrument sounds plus all track settings
and all channel insert effect settings for this track. Using the “Choose Track Preset” dialog
These features combined speed up the process of finding 1. Right-click the track list to open the context menu and
the right sound immensely. on the Add Track submenu select “Add Track Using Track
• When creating your own presets, it is always a good Preset…”.
idea to set up attributes for them, as it allows you to fully The Choose Track Preset dialog opens. It contains the same sections as
the Presets browser.
use the browsing features for your files, too.
This is described in the section “Editing attributes (tagging)” on page 216.

Using the Presets browser

You can open the Presets browser for an existing track or
when creating a new track. Proceed as follows:
• In the Add Instrument Track dialog, click the Browse
button.
The dialog expands to show the Presets browser.
• Click in the “Load Track Preset” field at the top of the
Inspector (above the track name) or right-click the track in
the track list and select “Load Track Preset…”. 2. Select a preset from the Results list.
The Presets browser opens (see also “Loading track or VST presets in
The Results section of the Choose Track Preset dialog displays all pre-
the Inspector or the context menu of the track” on page 224).
set sounds for all track types and VST instruments.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
3. To preview the presets, you have to play MIDI notes on 4. In the Inspector, click in the Programs field.
a MIDI keyboard or load a MIDI file because there is no The Presets browser opens.
track connected.
The previewing options are described in detail in the section “Previewing
VST presets and track presets for MIDI and instrument tracks” on page
214.

! The Preview functions work in the same way in the

MediaBay and its related dialogs. Note however that
not all Preview functions available in the MediaBay
are also available in the dialogs.
4. When you have found the right sound, click the Add
Track button to close the dialog.
An instrument track is created with all track and/or instrument settings
that were saved in the preset.

Selecting VST instrument presets 5. In the Results section, select a preset from the list.
The previous sections focused on selecting presets for 6. Activate playback to audition the selected preset.
the creation of new instrument tracks, or for changing the Simply step through the presets until you find the right sound. It may be
setup of an existing track. However, you can also use pre- helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be-
sets to change the settings of the VST instrument itself. tween different preset settings easier.
7. When you have found the preset that you want, dou-
! Note that the following refers to the selection of VST 3 ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser).
presets (.vstpreset). If you want to apply FXP/FXB The preset is applied.
presets to your VST 2 instruments in this way, see
“About earlier VST instrument presets” on page 154. • To return to the preset that was selected when you
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Set-
To select a VST instrument preset, proceed as follows: ting” button.
1. Load a VST instrument (either in the VST Instruments Ö You can also open the Presets browser via the Presets
window or via an instrument track). pop-up menu in the control panel of the VST instrument.
2. If you use the VST Instruments window, select a MIDI
track routed to the instrument. If you use an instrument Saving VST instrument presets
track, select this track. You can save your settings as presets for further use (e. g.
in other projects):
3. Make sure that the Inspector section with the basic
track settings is visible. 1. In the VST instrument panel, click the button to the
If this is not the case, click on the track name at the top of the Inspector. right of the preset name and select “Save Preset…”.
This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset.
2. In the New Preset section, enter a name for the preset.
• If you want to save attributes for the preset, click the
button below the “New Preset” section at the bottom left.
The Attribute Inspector section opens, allowing you to define attributes
for the preset.
3. Click OK to save the preset and exit the dialog.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
Presets are saved into a default folder named VST3 Pre- • After importing, you can convert the current program list
sets. Within this folder, there is a folder called “Steinberg to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to VST
Media Technologies” where the included presets are ar- Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up menu.
ranged in subfolders named after each instrument. When the presets are converted, they are available in the Presets browser.
The presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
ther subfolders inside the instrument’s preset folder.
• Under Windows, the default preset folder is in the following
About latency
location: \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\ Depending on your audio hardware and its ASIO driver,
VST3 Presets. the latency (the time it takes for the instrument to produce
• Under Mac OS, the default preset folder is in the following a sound when you press a key on your MIDI controller)
location: /Users/<user name>/Library/Audio/Presets/ may simply be too high to allow comfortable realtime VST
<company>/<plug-in name>. instrument playback from a keyboard.
If this is the case, a workaround is to play and record your
About earlier VST instrument presets
parts with another MIDI sound source selected, and then
You can use any VST 2.x instrument plug-ins in Cubase. switch to the VST instrument for playback.
Installing VST instrument plug-ins works the same way as
for audio effects – see “Installing additional VST plug-ins” • You can check the latency for your audio hardware in
on page 142. the Device Setup dialog (VST Audio System page).
The input and output latency values are shown below the ASIO Driver
When you install a VST 2 instrument, any previously stored pop-up menu. For live VST instrument playing, these values should ide-
presets for it will be of the old FX program/bank (.fxp/.fxb) ally be a few milliseconds (although the limit for “comfortable” live playing
standard. You can import such files, but the preset handling is a matter of personal taste).
will be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new
features like the Preview function until you have converted Constrain Delay Compensation
the old FXP/FXB presets to VST 3 presets. If you save Cubase features full delay compensation throughout the
new presets for a VST 2 plug-in these will automatically be entire audio path. This means that any delay inherent in the
saved in the new .vstpreset format in the default location. VST plug-ins you use will automatically be compensated
for during playback, so that all channels are kept in perfect
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on page
To import FXP/FXB files, proceed as follows: 132).
1. Load any VST 2 instrument you may have installed, However, when you play a VST instrument in realtime or
and click the VST Sound button to open the Preset Ma- record live audio (with monitoring through Cubase acti-
nagement pop-up menu. vated), this delay compensation may sometimes result in
2. Select the “Import FXB/FXP” option. added latency. To avoid this, you can activate the Con-
This menu item is only available for VST 2 instrument plug-ins. strain Delay Compensation button on the Project window
toolbar. This function tries to minimize the latency effects
3. In the file dialog that opens, locate the FXP file and of the delay compensation, while maintaining the sound of
click “Open”. the mix as far as possible.
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect programs.
If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected effect pro-
gram only. Note that such files exist only if you created your own .fxp/fxb
presets with a previous program version (or any other VST 2 application).

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
• In the Preferences dialog (VST page) you will find a set-
ting called Delay Compensation Threshold. Only plug-ins
with a delay higher than this setting will be affected by the
Constrain Delay Compensation function.
• VST plug-ins (with higher delay than the threshold
value) which are activated for VST instrument channels,
audio track channels that are record enabled, group chan-
nels and output channels will be turned off when you acti-
vate Constrain Delay Compensation.
• VST plug-ins activated for FX channels are not turned
off but their delay is disregarded by the program (delay
compensation is turned off).
After recording or using a VST instrument with Constrain
Delay Compensation, turn off the function in order to re-
store full delay compensation.

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VST instruments and instrument tracks
 16
Automation
Introduction Where did the automation data I recorded end
up?
In essence, automation means recording the values for a
particular Mixer or effect parameter. When you create your When using global Write automation, you can write auto-
final mix, you will not have to worry about having to adjust mation data on the automation tracks of all channels. In
this particular parameter control yourself – Cubase will do the previous write operations, you probably added auto-
it for you. mation events for many different channels and parameters.
• To view all the automation events you recorded during
Recording your actions – an example the operations, select “Show All Used Automation” from
If the settings in your current project are crucial, you may the Project menu or from the track list context menu.
not want to “experiment” with automation until you know For each of the channels one subtrack with automation data is now
shown in the Project window. The automation events recorded are
more about how it all fits together. If so, you can create a
shown as points in the automation curves.
new project for the following example. It does not even
have to contain any audio events, just a few audio tracks.
Proceed as follows: Working with automation curves
1. Open the Mixer window. Within a Cubase project, the changes in a parameter
2. Click the global Write button (“Toggle Write for all value over time are reflected as curves on automation
tracks”) in the Mixer common panel. tracks.
Cubase is now in global Write mode.
3. Start playback and adjust some volume faders and/or
About automation curves
other parameter settings in the Mixer or perhaps in a There are two kinds of automation curves: “ramp” and
Channel Settings window. “jump”:
Stop playback when you are done, and return to the position where you
• Jump curves are created for on/off parameters such as
started playback.
Mute.
4. Deactivate Write mode and click the global Read but-
• Ramp curves are created for any parameter that gener-
ton (“Toggle Read for all tracks”) in the Mixer common
ates continuous multiple values, such as fader or encoder
panel.
Cubase is now in global Read mode.
movements, etc.

5. Start playback, and watch the Mixer window.

All your actions performed during the previous playback will be repro-
duced exactly.
6. If you wish to redo anything that was recorded, acti-
vate Write mode again and start playback from the same
position.
Examples of jump and ramp automation curves
• You can have Write and Read activated simultaneously,
if you want to watch and listen to your recorded Mixer ac- About the static value line
tions while you are recording fader movements for another
Mixer channel, etc. This is reflected in the event display as a straight horizon-
tal black line, the “static value” line. This line represents
the current parameter setting.

157
Automation
• If you have manually added any automation events or These buttons light up as soon as there is an enabled Read
used write automation for the corresponding parameter or Write button on any channel/track within your project.
and then disable the reading of automation data, the auto- Furthermore, they can be clicked to activate or deactivate
mation curve will be grayed-out in the event display and the Read/Write buttons of all tracks simultaneously.
the static value line will be used instead.
As soon as Read is enabled, the automation curve will become available.
Writing automation data
Enabling and disabling the writing There are two approaches you can use to create automa-
tion curves: manually (see “Manual writing of automation
of automation data data” on page 159) and automatically (see “Automatic
You can automation enable tracks and Mixer channels in writing of automation data” on page 158). While manual
Cubase by activating their automation Write buttons. writing makes it easy to quickly change parameter values
Write (W) and Read (R) buttons for all plug-in effects and at specific points without having to activate playback, au-
VST instruments can be found on the corresponding con- tomatic writing lets you work much like you would using a
trol panels. “real” mixer.

The Write and Read buttons for a channel in the Mixer

With both methods, any applied automation data will be
and for an automation track in the track list reflected in both the Mixer (a fader will move for example)
and in the corresponding automation track curve.

Automatic writing of automation data

Every action you perform is automatically recorded on au-
• If you activate Write for a channel, virtually all Mixer pa- tomation tracks which you can later open for viewing and
rameters you adjust during playback for that specific editing.
channel are recorded as automation events.
To enable the recording of automation events, proceed as
• If Read is activated for a channel, all your recorded Mixer follows:
actions for that channel are performed during playback.
1. Open an automation track by clicking on the “Show/
The Read and Write buttons for a track in the track list are Hide Automation” button of a track in the track list.
the same as the Read and Write buttons in the corre-
sponding channel strip in the Mixer.
Ö Note that the Read button is automatically enabled
when you enable the Write button. This allows Cubase to
read existing automation data at any time. You can sepa-
rately deactivate Write if you want to only read existing
data. It is not possible to activate Write and deactivate
Read at the same time. 2. Enable the Write button for the track and adjust the
There are also global Read and Write indicator buttons desired parameters in the Mixer, in the Channel Settings
(“Toggle Read/Write for all tracks”) in the common panel window, or in the effect control panel while rolling through
of the Mixer and at the top of the track list: the project.
The value settings are recorded and displayed as a curve on the automa-
The global Read/Write buttons in the Mixer, and in the tion tracks. When automation data is being written, the color of the auto-
track list mation track changes to red and the delta indicator in the automation
track shows the relative amount by which the new parameter setting de-
viates from any previously automated value.
3. When you are finished, stop playback and return to the
position where you started playback.

158
Automation
4. Disable Write. 6. When you release the mouse button, the number of
The Read button remains enabled. automation events is reduced, but the basic shape of the
5. Start playback. curve remains the same.
All actions you recorded will be reproduced exactly. This “thinning out” of events is governed by the Reduction Level setting
in the Preferences dialog.
Ö When dragging a plug-in to a different insert slot on
the same channel, any existing automation data will move
with the plug-in. When you drag it to an insert slot on a
different channel, any existing automation data will not be
transferred to the new channel.
7. If you now activate playback, the automated parameter
will change with the automation curve.
Manual writing of automation data In the Mixer, the corresponding fader moves accordingly.
You can add automation events manually by drawing auto-
8. Repeat the procedure if you are not happy with the
mation curves on an automation track. Proceed as follows:
result.
1. Open an automation track by clicking on the “Show/ If you draw over existing events, a new curve is created.
Hide Automation” button of a track in the track list. Apart from the Pencil tool, you can use the following tools
2. In the track list, click on the automation parameter to draw automation events:
name and select the desired parameter from the pop-up • Arrow tool
menu. If Read is activated and you click on an automation track with the Arrow
3. Select the Pencil tool. tool, you can add automation events. Note that events introduced be-
You can also use various modes of the Line tool for drawing curves, see tween two existing events that do not deviate from the existing curve are
below. removed as soon as you release the mouse button.

4. Click on the static value line. • Line tool – Line mode

An automation event is added, read automation mode is automatically acti- To activate the Line tool in Line mode, click on the Line tool and click again
vated, and the static value line changes to a colored automation curve. to open a pop-up menu where you can select the Line option. If you click
on the automation track and drag with the Line tool in Line mode, you can
create automation events in a line. This is a quick way to create linear
fades, etc.

5. If you click and hold, you can draw a curve by adding • Line tool – Parabola mode
many automation events. To activate the Line tool in Parabola mode, click on the Line tool and click
Note that the track color in the track list changes to red to indicate that again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the Parabola option. If
automation data is being written. you click and drag on the automation track with the Line tool in Parabola
mode, you can create more “natural” curves and fades. Note that the result
depends on the direction from which you draw the parabolic curve.

159
Automation
• Line tool – Sine, Triangle, or Square mode Editing in the automation track editor
To activate the Line tool in these modes, click on the Line tool and click
again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the desired option. If
The automation track editor allows you to perform addi-
you click and drag on the automation track with the Line tool in Sine, Tri- tional scaling operations for selection ranges on existing
angle, or Square mode and snap to grid is activated, the period of the controller curves. The editor is automatically displayed
curve (the length of one curve “cycle”) is determined by the grid setting. when you drag a selection rectangle (with the Arrow tool)
If you press [Shift] and drag, you can set the period length manually, in on a ramp type automation track.
multiples of the grid value.

Ö The Line tool can only be used for ramp type automa-
tion curves. In the automation track editor, controls (so called “smart
spots”) appear on the borders of the editor. These smart
spots allow you to activate a specific editing mode:
Editing automation events Editing To activate this Description
mode mode…
Automation events can be edited much like other events.
Move Click in an empty This mode allows you to move the
You can cut, copy, paste, and nudge events, etc. Vertically area on the upper entire curve up or down, which is
border of the editor. useful to boost or attenuate an oth-
Selecting automation events erwise perfect curve.

• To select a single automation event, click on it with the Scale Click the smart spot Use this mode to relatively scale the
Arrow tool. Vertically in the middle of the curve, i. e. to raise or lower the val-
upper border of the ues in percent (not by absolute
The event turns red, and you can drag it in any direction between two editor. amounts).
events.
Tilt the left/ Click the smart spot These modes allow you to tilt the left
• To select multiple events, you can either [Shift]-click on right part of in the upper left/ or the right part of the curve, re-
the events or drag a selection rectangle with the Arrow the curve right corner of the spectively. This is useful if the curve
editor. form is exactly the way you want it,
tool. but the start or end needs to be
All events inside the selection rectangle will be selected and the automa- boosted or attenuated a bit.
tion track editor becomes available, see below.
Compress [Alt]/[Option]-click These modes allow you to compress
the left/right the smart spot in the left or the right part of the curve.
part of the the upper left/right
curve corner of the editor.

Drawing a selection rectangle around events to select them. Scale Around Click the smart spot This mode allows you to scale the
Absolute in the middle of the curve around the absolute center,
• To select all automation events on an automation track, Center right border of the i. e. horizontally around the center of
right-click the automation track in the track list and choose editor. the editor.
“Select All Events” from the context menu.
Scale Around [Alt]/[Option]-click This mode allows you to scale the
Relative the smart spot in curve relative to its center.
Center the middle of the
right border of the
editor.

160
Automation
Editing
mode
To activate this
mode…
Description Automation track operations
Stretch Click and drag in This allows you to stretch the se- Most of the tracks in your project have automation tracks,
the lower part of the lected curve. one for each automated parameter. Automation tracks are
editor.
hidden by default.

Ö If you hold down [Shift] while clicking on any of the Opening automation tracks
smart spots, you get the vertical scaling mode.
To open an automation track for a channel, proceed as
• To scale the automation curves on several tracks at the follows:
same time, drag a selection rectangle across the corre-
• Position the mouse pointer over the lower left corner of
sponding automation tracks, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command]
the track and click the arrow icon (“Show/Hide Automa-
and use the scaling smart spots.
tion”) that appears.
• To move the whole selection up/down or left/right, click
Click here to open an
on an automation event inside the editor and drag the automation track.
curve.
By pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] when clicking and dragging, you can re-
strict the direction to horizontal or vertical movement, depending on the
direction in which you start dragging. • Right-click the track in the track list and select “Show
Automation” from the context menu.
Ö Snap is taken into account when moving automation
curves horizontally. By default, the Volume parameter is assigned to the first au-
tomation track.
Removing automation events • To open another automation track, position the mouse
There are several ways to remove events: pointer over the lower left corner of an automation track,
and click the “+” sign (“Append Automation Track”) that
• By selecting events and pressing [Backspace] or [De-
appears.
lete] or selecting Delete from the Edit menu, or by clicking
By default, the new automation track shows the next parameter in the
on an event with the Erase tool.
Add Parameter list (see below).
This will remove the events. The curve is redrawn to connect the remain-
ing events.
• By selecting a range (with the Range Selection tool),
and pressing [Backspace] or [Delete] or selecting Delete
from the Edit menu.
• By clicking on the automation parameter name in the
track list and selecting “Remove Parameter” from the pop-
up menu.
This will remove all automation events from the automation track, and the You can click the “Append Automation Track” button (the
automation track will be closed.
“+” sign) for the automation track several times to open
additional automation tracks.
Ö If you activate the option “Show Automation Track in
Project on Writing Parameter” in the Preferences dialog
(Editing page), the corresponding automation track is re-
vealed on writing automation parameters.

161
Automation
Assigning a parameter to an automation track 2. Select “More…”.
The Add Parameter dialog opens. This dialog shows a list with all parame-
Default parameters are already assigned to automation ters that can be automated for the selected channel (sorted into different
tracks when you open them, according to their order in the categories), including the parameters for any assigned insert effects. To
Add Parameter list. view the parameters in a category, click the “+” sign for the corresponding
To select which parameter an open automation track dis- category folder.
plays, proceed as follows:
1. Open an automation track and click on the automation
parameter name.
A parameter list is shown. The contents depend on the track type.

The Add Parameter dialog for an audio track

3. Select a parameter from the list and click OK.

The parameter will replace the current parameter in the automation track.
Note that the “replacing” of the parameter displayed in the
• If the parameter you wish to automate is available on the automation track is completely non-destructive. If the au-
pop-up menu, you can select it directly. tomation track contains any automation data for the pa-
rameter you just replaced, this data is there, although it is
• If you wish to add a parameter not available on the pop- not visible. By clicking on the automation parameter name
up menu or if you want to view all parameters that can be in the track list, you can switch back to the replaced pa-
automated, proceed with the next step. rameter. On the pop-up menu, all automated parameters
are indicated by an asterisk (*) after the parameter name.

Automated parameters

Repeat the above procedure to assign all the parameters

you want to automate to separate automation tracks.

162
Automation
Removing automation tracks • To close all automation tracks for the selected track that
do not contain any automation events, right-click a spe-
• To remove an automation track together with all auto-
cific track and select the “Show Used Automation (Se-
mation events, click the parameter name and select “Re-
lected Tracks)” option from the context menu.
move Parameter” from the pop-up menu.
Used automation tracks will be left open.
• To remove all automation tracks from a track that do not
contain automation events, select “Remove Unused Para- Muting automation tracks
meters” from any of its automation parameter name pop-up
menus.

Showing/hiding automation tracks

• To hide a single automation track, position the pointer
You can mute individual automation tracks by clicking their
over the top left border of the automation track in the track
Mute buttons in the track list. This allows you to turn off
list and click the “Hide Automation Track” button (the “-”
automation for a single parameter.
sign).
• To hide all automation tracks for a track, right-click the The “Automation follows Events” setting
corresponding track, and select “Hide Automation” from
If you activate the “Automation follows Events” option on
the context menu.
the Edit menu (or in the Preferences dialog, on the Editing
• To hide all automation tracks for all tracks in the track page), automation events will automatically follow when
list, right-click any track and select “Hide All Automation” you move an event or part on the track.
from the context menu.
This makes it easy to set up automation related to a spe-
Showing only used automation tracks cific event or part, rather than to a specific position in the
project. For example, you can automate the panning of a
If a lot of automation tracks are used, it may be impractical sound effect event (having the sound pan from left to right,
to have them all open in the track list. If you want to view etc.) – if you need to move the event, the automation will
only the automation tracks that are used (i. e. those that ac- automatically follow!
tually contain automation events), do one of the following:
The rules are:
• To close all automation tracks not containing automa-
tion events, right-click any track in the track list and select • All automation events for the track between the start
the “Show All Used Automation” option from the pop-up and end of the event or part are moved.
menu. If there are automation events at the new position (to which you move the
part or event), these are overwritten.
• If you copy an event or part, the automation events are
duplicated as well.

163
Automation
MIDI part data vs. track automation
In Cubase, you can enter (or record) MIDI controller data
in two ways: as automation data on an automation track or
as part data in the MIDI part. The following applies:
• When the Automation Read button for a track is en-
abled, controller data will be written as automation data on
an automation track in the Project window.
• When the Read button is disabled, the controller data
will be written in the MIDI part and can be viewed and ed-
ited for example in the Key Editor.
Nevertheless, you can end up with both kinds of controller
data for a MIDI part if you recorded controller part data in
one pass and automation data during another. In this case,
these “conflicting” data types will be combined during
playback as follows:
• Part automation only begins when the first controller
event within the part is reached. At the end of the part, the
last controller value will be kept until an automation break-
point is reached on the automation track.

Hints and further options

Automation key commands
In the Key Commands dialog (opened from the File menu
in Cubase), in the Commands section on the left, you will
find an Automation category which lists all automation
commands to which you can assign key commands.
How to assign key commands is described in detail in the
chapter “Key commands” on page 343.

About linking and automation

• Cubase allows you to link, in the Mixer window, various
parameters between different channels (see “Link/Unlink
channels” on page 130).
When automating the settings of a channel that is linked to another
channel in the Mixer, the parameters of the linked channel will NOT be
automated.

164
Automation
 17
Audio processing and functions
Background If you attempt to process an event that is a shared copy
(i. e. the event refers to a clip that is used by other events
Audio processing in Cubase can be called “non-destruc- in the project), you are asked whether you want to create a
tive”, in the sense that you can always undo changes or new version of the clip.
revert to the original versions. This is possible because
processing affects audio clips rather than the actual audio
files, and because audio clips can refer to more than one
audio file. This is how it works:
1. If you process an event or a selection range, a new
audio file is created in the Edits folder, within your project
folder.
This new file contains the processed audio, while the original file is unaf-
Select “New Version” if you want the processing to affect the selected
fected. event only. Select “Continue” if you want the processing to affect all
shared copies.
2. The processed section of the audio clip (the section
corresponding to the event or selection range) then refers Ö If you activate “Please, don’t ask again”, any further pro-
to the new, processed audio file. cessing you do will conform to the selected method (“Con-
The other sections of the clip will still refer to the original file. tinue” or “New Version”). You can change this setting at
any time by using the “On Processing Shared Clips” pop-
• The original, unprocessed audio file can still be used by
up menu in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page).
other clips in the project, by other projects or by other ap-
Also, “Create New Version” will now be displayed as an
plications.
option in the dialog for the processing function.

Audio processing Common settings and features

You apply processing by making a selection and selecting If there are any settings for the selected Audio processing
a function from the Process submenu of the Audio menu. function, these will appear when you select the function
Processing is applied according to the following rules: from the Process submenu. While most settings are spe-
cific for the function, some features and settings work in
• When events are selected in the Project window or the the same way for several functions.
Audio Part Editor, the processing will be applied to these
events only. The “More…” button
Processing will only affect the clip sections that are referenced by the
events.
If the dialog has a lot of settings, some options may be
hidden when the dialog opens. To reveal these, click the
• When an audio clip is selected in the Pool, the process- “More…” button.
ing will be applied to the whole clip.
• When you have made a selection range, the processing
will be applied to this range only.
Other sections of the clip are not affected. To hide the settings, click the button again (now labeled
“Less…”).

166
Audio processing and functions
The Preview, Process, and Cancel buttons Envelope display
These buttons have the following functionality: Shows the shape of the envelope curve. The resulting
Button Description
waveform shape is shown in dark gray, with the current
waveform shape in light gray. You can click on the curve
Preview Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the
current settings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you to add points, and click and drag existing points to change
click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during the shape. To remove a point from the curve, drag it out-
Preview playback). You can make adjustments during Pre- side the display.
view playback, but the changes are not applied until the start
of the next “lap”. Some changes may automatically restart
the Preview playback from the beginning. Presets
Process Performs the processing and closes the dialog. If you have set up an envelope curve that you may want to
Cancel Closes the dialog without processing. apply to other events or clips, you can store it as a preset
by clicking the Store button.
Pre/Post-Crossfade • To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu.
Some processing functions allow you to gradually mix the • To rename the selected preset, double-click on the
effect in or out. This is done with the Pre/Post-Crossfade name and enter a new one in the dialog that opens.
parameters. For example, if you activate Pre-Crossfade and
specify a value of 1000 ms, the processing is applied grad- • To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up
ually from the start of selection, reaching full effect 1000 ms menu and click Remove.
after the start. Similarly, if you activate Post-Crossfade, the
processing is gradually removed, starting at the specified Fade In and Fade Out
interval before the end of the selection. For a description of these functions, see the chapter
“Fades and crossfades” on page 95.
! The sum of the Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade
times cannot be larger than the length of the selection.
Gain
Envelope

Allows you to change the gain (level) of the selected au-

dio. The dialog contains the following settings:

Gain
This is where you set the desired gain, between -50 and
+20 dB. The setting is also indicated below the Gain dis-
The Envelope function allows you to apply a volume enve-
play as a percentage.
lope to the selected audio. The dialog contains the follow-
ing settings:

Curve Kind buttons

These determine whether the envelope curve consists of
spline curve segments (left button), damped spline seg-
ments (middle button) or linear segments (right button).

167
Audio processing and functions
Clipping detection text Noise Gate
If you use the Preview function before applying the pro-
cessing, the text below the slider indicates whether the
current settings result in clipping (audio levels above
0 dB). If that is the case, lower the Gain value and use the
Preview function again.
• If you want to increase the level of the audio as much as
possible without causing clipping, use the Normalize func-
tion instead (see “Normalize” on page 169).

Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade Scans the audio for sections weaker than a specified
threshold level and replaces them with silence. The dialog
See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 167.
contains the following settings:
Merge Clipboard Threshold
The level below which you want audio to be silenced.
Levels below this value will close the gate.

Attack Time
The time it takes for the gate to open fully after the audio
level has exceeded the threshold level.

Min. Opening Time

This function mixes the audio from the clipboard into the
audio selected for processing, starting at the beginning of This is the shortest time the gate will remain open. If you
the selection. find that the gate opens and closes too often when pro-
cessing material that varies rapidly in level, try raising this
! For this function to be available, you need to have cut value.
or copied a range of audio in the Sample Editor first.
Release Time
The dialog contains the following settings:
The time it takes for the gate to close fully after the audio
Sources mix level has dropped below the threshold level.
Allows you to specify a mix ratio between the original (the Linked Channels
audio selected for processing) and the copy (the audio on
the clipboard). This is available for stereo audio only. When it is activated,
the Noise Gate is opened for both channels as soon as
Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade one or both channels exceed the Threshold level. When
Linked Channels is deactivated, the Noise Gate works in-
See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 167.
dependently for the left and right channel.

Dry/Wet mix
Allows you to specify a mix ratio between “dry” and pro-
cessed sound.

Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade

See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 167.

168
Audio processing and functions
Normalize Remove DC Offset
This function will remove any DC offset in the audio selec-
tion. A DC offset is when there is too large a DC (direct
current) component in the signal, sometimes visible as the
signal not being visually centered around the “zero level
axis”. DC offsets do not affect what you actually hear, but
they affect zero crossing detection and certain process-
ing, and it is recommended that you remove them.

The Normalize function allows you to specify the desired ! It is recommended that this function is applied to
maximum level of the audio. It then analyzes the selected complete audio clips, since the DC offset (if any) is
audio and finds the current maximum level. Finally it sub- normally present throughout the entire recording.
tracts the current maximum level from the specified level
and raises the gain of the audio by the resulting amount (if Resample
the specified maximum level is lower than the current max-
imum, the gain will be lowered instead). A common use for
Normalizing is to raise the level of audio that was recorded
at too low an input level. The dialog contains the following
settings:

Maximum
The desired maximum level for the audio, between -50 and
0 dB. The setting is also indicated below the Gain display The Resample function can be used for changing the
as a percentage. length, tempo and pitch of an event.
Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade The original sample rate of the event is listed in the dialog.
Resample the event to a higher or lower sample rate by ei-
See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 167.
ther specifying a sample rate or by specifying the differ-
ence (as a percentage value) between the original sample
Phase Reverse rate and the desired new one.
Reverses the phase of the selected audio, turning the
• Resampling to a higher sample rate will make the event
waveform “upside down”.
longer and cause the audio to play back at a slower speed
The dialog contains the following settings: with a lower pitch.
Phase Reverse on • Resampling to a lower sample rate will make the event
shorter and cause the audio to play back at a faster speed
When processing stereo audio, this pop-up menu allows with a higher pitch.
you to specify which channel(s) are phase-reversed.
• You can audition the result of the resampling by enter-
Pre-Crossfade and Post-Crossfade ing the desired value and clicking “Preview”.
The event will then be played back as it will sound after the resampling.
See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 167.
• When you are satisfied with the preview result, click
“Process” to close the dialog and apply the processing.

Reverse
Reverses the audio selection, as when playing a tape
backwards. There are no parameters for this function.

169
Audio processing and functions
Silence Time Stretch
Replaces the selection with silence. There are no parame-
ters for this function.

Stereo Flip

This function allows you to change the length and “tempo”

of the selected audio without affecting the pitch. The dia-
This function works with stereo audio selections only. It al- log contains the following parameters:
lows you to manipulate the left and right channel in various
ways. Define Bars section

The dialog contains the following parameters: In this section, you set the length of the selected audio
and the time signature:
Mode Option Description
Bars If you use the tempo setting (see below), specify the
length of the selected audio here, in bars.
Beats If you use the tempo setting, specify the length of the se-
lected audio here, in beats.
Sign. If you use the tempo setting, specify the time signature
here.

Original Length section

This section contains information and settings regarding
the audio selected for processing:
This pop-up menu determines what the function does:
Option Description
Option Description
Length in The length of the selected audio, in samples.
Flip Left-Right Swaps the left and right channel. Samples
Left to Stereo Copies the left channel sound to the right channel. Length in The length of the selected audio, in seconds.
Right to Stereo Copies the right channel sound to the left channel. Seconds

Merge Merges both channels on each side for mono sound. Tempo in BPM If you are processing music, and know the actual tempo
of the audio, you can enter it here as beats per minute.
Subtract Subtracts the left channel information from the right. This This makes it possible to time-stretch the audio to an-
is typically used as a “Karaoke effect”, for removing cen- other tempo, without having to compute the actual time
tered mono material from a stereo signal. stretch amount.

170
Audio processing and functions
Resulting Length section Freeze Edits
These settings are used if you want to stretch the audio to
The Freeze Edits function on the Audio menu allows you
fit within a specific time span or tempo. The values will
to make all processing and applied effects permanent for
change automatically if you adjust the Time Stretch Ratio
a clip:
(see below).
Option Description
1. Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the
Project window.
Samples The desired length in samples.
Seconds The desired length in seconds. 2. Select “Freeze Edits…” from the Audio menu.
BPM The desired tempo (beats per minute). For this to work, • If there is only one edit version of the clip (no other clips
you have to know the actual tempo of the audio, and refer to the same audio file), the following dialog will appear:
specify this (along with time signature and length in bars)
in the Original Length section to the left.

Seconds Range section

These settings allow you to set the desired range for the
time stretch.
Option Description
Range Allows you to specify the desired length as a range be- If you select “Replace”, all edits will be applied to the orig-
tween two time positions. inal audio file (the one listed in the clip’s Path column in
Use Locators Clicking the diamond-shaped button below the Range the Pool). If you select “New File”, the Freeze Edits opera-
fields sets the Range values to the left and right Locator tion will create a new file in the Audio folder within the
positions, respectively.
project folder (leaving the original audio file unaffected).
Time Stretch Ratio section • If the selected clip (or the clip played by the selected
event) has several edit versions (i. e. there are other clips
The Time Stretch Ratio determines the amount of time
referring to the same audio file), the following alert will
stretch as a percentage of the original length. If you use the
appear:
settings in the Resulting Length section to specify the
amount of time stretch, this value will change automatically.

Algorithm section
Here you can choose a preset for the realtime time stretch
algorithm. For a description of the available presets, see
“About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms” on page
175. As you can see, you do not have the option to Replace the
original audio file in this case. This is because that audio
file is used by other clips. Select “New File” to have a new
file created in the Audio folder within the project folder.

! After a Freeze Edits, the clip refers to a new, single

audio file.

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Audio processing and functions
Detect Silence

The Detect Silence function searches for silent sections in • If the Linked option in the Detection section is deacti-
an event and either splits the event, removing the silent vated, you can use the green square at the beginning and
parts from the project, or creates regions corresponding the red square at the end of the audio file to graphically ad-
to the non-silent sections. just the Open and Close Threshold values (respectively).
When “Linked” is activated, you can use either square to
• To open the Detect Silence dialog, select one or several
adjust both values.
audio events in the Project window or the Audio Part Edi-
The Open and Close Threshold values in the Detection section reflect
tor. On the Audio menu, open the Advanced submenu and these changes.
select “Detect Silence”.
If you select more than one event, the Detect Silence dialog allows you to
process the selected events successively with individual settings or to Making settings and processing
apply the same settings to all selected events at once. The lower part of the Detect Silence dialog provides set-
tings for the detection and processing of “silent” sections.
Adjustments in the waveform display Proceed as follows:
The upper part of the dialog displays a waveform image of 1. Adjust the settings in the Detection section to the left.
the selected audio event. In case you have selected sev- The settings have the following functionality:
eral audio events, the waveform of the event that you have Setting Description
selected first is shown. You can make the following ad-
Open When the audio level exceeds this value, the function
justments: Threshold “opens”, i. e. lets the sound pass. Audio material below
the set level is detected as “silence”. Set this value low
• With the zoom slider below the waveform to the right, enough to open when a sound starts, but high enough to
zoom in and out on the waveform. remove unwanted noise during “silent” sections.
You can also click in the waveform, keep the mouse button pressed, and Close When the audio level drops below this value, the function
move the mouse for zooming. Move the mouse down to zoom in and Threshold “closes”, i. e. sounds below this level are detected as “si-
move it up to zoom out. lence”. This value cannot be higher than the Open
Threshold value. Set this value high enough to remove
• If you have zoomed in on the waveform, it may not be unwanted noise during “silent” sections.
completely visible anymore. In this case, the scroll bar to Linked If this checkbox is activated, the Open and Close Thresh-
the left of the zoom slider allows you to scroll through the old values are always set to the same value.
waveform.
You can also use the mouse wheel for scrolling through the waveform.

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Audio processing and functions
Setting Description 6. Click the Process button.
Min. time Determines the minimum time that the function will remain The event is split and/or regions are added.
open “open” after the audio level has exceeded the Open
Threshold value.
If the audio contains repeated short sounds, and you find
that this results in too many short “open” sections, try
raising this value.
Min. time Determines the minimum time that the function will remain
closed “closed” after the audio level has dropped below the
Close Threshold value.
Set this to a low value to avoid removing sounds.
Pre-roll Allows you to cause the function to “open” slightly before
the audio level exceeds the Open Threshold value. In
other words, the start of each “open” section is moved to
the left according to the time you set here.
This is useful to avoid removing the attack of sounds.
Post-roll Allows you to cause the function to “close” slightly after
the audio level drops below the Close Threshold value.
This is useful to avoid removing the natural decay of
sounds.
Ö If you have selected more than one event and did not
2. Click the Compute button. activate the “Process all selected Events” option in the
The audio event is analyzed, and the waveform display is redrawn to indi- Output section, the dialog opens again after processing,
cate which sections are considered “silent” according to your settings. allowing you to make separate settings for the next event.
Above the Compute button, the number of detected regions is displayed.
Ö If you activate the Auto checkbox next to the Compute The Spectrum Analyzer
button, the audio event is analyzed (and the display is up-
dated) automatically every time you change the settings in This function analyzes the selected audio, computes the
the Detection section of the dialog. Deactivate this option average “spectrum” (level distribution over the frequency
when you are working with very long files, as this process range) and displays this as a two-dimensional graph, with
might take some time. frequency on the x-axis and level on the y-axis.
3. Click “Preview” to listen to the result. 1. Make an audio selection (a clip, an event or a range
The event is played back repeatedly in its entire length, but with the selection).
“closed” sections silenced.
2. Select “Spectrum Analyzer” from the Audio menu.
4. Adjust the settings in the Detection section until you A dialog with settings for the analysis appears.
are satisfied with the result.
5. In the Output section, activate the “Add as Regions”
or the “Strip Silence” option, or both.
“Add as Regions” will create regions according to the non-silent sec-
tions. “Strip Silence” will split the event at the beginning and end of each
non-silent section, and remove the silent sections in between.
Ö If you activate the “Add as Regions” option, you can
specify a name for the regions in the Region Name field. In
addition to the name, the regions will be numbered, start-
ing with the number specified in the “Auto Number Start”
field.
Ö If you have selected more than one event, you can ac-
tivate the “Process all selected Events” checkbox to apply
the same settings to all selected events.

173
Audio processing and functions
The default values give good results in most situations, but Setting Description
you can adjust the settings if you like: Min. Sets the lowest frequency shown in the graph.
Option Description Max. Sets the highest frequency shown in the graph. By adjusting
the Min and Max values, you can take a closer look at a
Size in Samples The function divides the audio into “analysis blocks”, the
smaller frequency range.
size of which is set here. The larger this value, the higher
the frequency resolution of the resulting spectrum. Active When this is activated, the next Spectrum Analysis will appear
in the same window. When deactivated, new Spectrum Anal-
Size of Overlap The overlap between each analysis block.
ysis results will appear in separate windows.
Window used Allows you to select which window type is used for the
FFT (Fast Fourier Transform, the mathematical method
used for computing the spectrum).
5. If you move the mouse pointer over the graph, a cross-
hair cursor follows the graph curve and the display in the
Normalized When this is activated, the resulting level values are
Values scaled, so that the highest level is displayed as “1” (0 dB). upper right corner shows the frequency/note and level at
the current position.
From Stereo When analyzing stereo material, there is a pop-up menu
with the following options: To compare the level between two frequencies, move the pointer to one
Mono mix – the stereo signal is mixed to mono before of the frequencies, right-click once and move the pointer to the second
analyzing. frequency. The delta value (the difference in level between the current
Mono left/right – the left or right channel signal is used
position and the right-click position) is displayed in the upper right corner
for analysis.
Stereo – both channels are analyzed (two separate (labeled “D”).
spectrums will be displayed).
• If you analyze stereo audio and selected the “Stereo” op-
tion in the first dialog, the graphs for the left and right chan-
3. Click the Process button. nel are superimposed in the display, with the left channel
The spectrum is computed and displayed as a graph.
graph in white and the right channel graph in yellow.
The display in the upper right corner shows the values for the left channel
– to see the right channel values, hold down [Shift]. An “L” or “R” is dis-
played to indicate which channel values are shown.
6. You can leave the window open or close it by clicking
the “Close” button.
If you leave it open and the “Active” checkbox is ticked, the result of the
next Spectrum Analysis will be displayed in the same window.

4. You can adjust the display with the settings in the dis-
play window:
Setting Description
dB When this is activated, the vertical axis shows dB values.
When it is deactivated, values between 0 and 1 are shown.
Freq. log When this is activated, frequencies (on the horizontal axis)
are displayed on a logarithmic scale. When it is deactivated,
the frequency axis is linear.
Precision Indicates the frequency resolution of the graph. This value
cannot be changed here, but is governed by the Size in
Samples setting in the previous dialog.
Frequency/ Allows you to select whether you want the frequencies to be
Note displayed in Hertz or with note names.

174
Audio processing and functions
Statistics About time stretch and pitch shift
algorithms
The Standard algorithm is optimized for CPU efficient re-
altime processing. The following presets are available:
Option Description
Standard – This mode is best for percussive sounds, because it does
Drums not change the timing of your audio. Using this option with
certain tuned percussion instruments may lead to audible
artifacts. In this case, try the Mix mode as an alternative.
Standard – Use this mode for audio with transients and a relatively sta-
Plucked ble spectral sound character (e. g. plucked instruments).
Standard – Use this mode for pitched audio with slower rhythm and a
Pads stable spectral sound character. This minimizes sound ar-
tifacts, but the rhythmic accuracy is not preserved.
Standard – This mode is suitable for slower signals with transients
Vocals and a prominent tonal character (e. g. vocals).
Standard – This mode preserves the rhythm and minimizes the arti-
Mix facts for pitched material that does not meet the above
criteria (i. e. with a less homogenous sound character).
The Statistics function on the Audio menu analyzes the This preset is selected by default for audio that is not cat-
egorized.
selected audio (events, clips or range selections) and dis-
plays a window with the following information: Standard – This preset allows you to manually tweak the time stretch-
Custom ing parameters (see below). By default, the settings that
Item Description are shown when you open the dialog are those of the last
preset used (except if the Solo preset has been selected,
Min. Sample The lowest sample value in the selection, as a value be- see below).
Value tween -1 and 1 and in dB.
Standard – This mode preserves the timbre of the audio. Only use it
Max. Sample The highest sample value in the selection, as a value be- Solo (Cubase for monophonic material (solo woodwind/brass instru-
Value tween -1 and 1 and in dB. Elements only) ments or solo vocals, monophonic synths or string instru-
ments that do not play harmonies).
Peak The largest sample value (in absolute numbers) in the se-
Amplitude lection, in dB.
DC Offset The amount of DC Offset (see “Remove DC Offset” on If you select the “Standard – Custom” option, a dialog
page 169) in the selection, as a percentage and in dB. opens where you can manually adjust the three parame-
Estimated Even though an audio file is in 16 or 24 bits, it may have ters that govern the sound quality of the time stretching:
Resolution been converted from a lower resolution. The Estimated
Resolution value makes an educated guess about the ac- Parameter Description
tual audio resolution, by computing the smallest level dif- Grain size The standard time-stretching algorithm splits the audio
ference between two samples. into small pieces called “grains”. This parameter deter-
Estimated The estimated pitch of the audio selection. mines the size of the grains. For material with many tran-
Pitch sients, use low grain size values for best results.

Sample Rate The sample rate of the audio selection. Overlap Overlap is the percentage of the whole grain that will
overlap with other grains. Use higher values for material
Min. RMS The lowest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection. with a stable sound character.
Power
Variance Variance is also a percentage of the whole length of the
Max. RMS The highest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection. grains, and sets a variation in positioning so that the over-
Power lapping area sounds smooth. A Variance setting of 0 will
produce a sound akin to time stretching used in early
Average The average loudness over the whole selection.
samplers, whereas higher settings produce more (rhyth-
mic) “smearing” effects but less audio artifacts.

175
Audio processing and functions
 18
The Sample Editor
Window overview

The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio Opening the Sample Editor
by cutting and pasting, removing, or drawing audio data,
To open the Sample Editor, double-click an audio event in
and by processing audio (see the chapter “Audio process-
the Project window or the Audio Part Editor, or double-
ing and functions” on page 165). This editing is “non-de-
click an audio clip in the Pool. You can have more than
structive”: The actual file will remain untouched so that you
one Sample Editor window open at the same time.
can undo modifications or revert to the original settings at
any time. Ö Double-clicking an audio part in the Project window
opens the Audio Part Editor, even if the part contains a sin-
The Sample Editor also contains most of the realtime time
gle audio event only. The Audio Part Editor is described in a
stretching functions in Cubase. These can be used to
separate chapter, see “The Audio Part Editor” on page 190.
match the tempo of audio to the project tempo (see “Warp-
ing audio” on page 185).
The toolbar
Another special feature of the Sample Editor is hitpoint
detection. Hitpoints allow you to create audio slices,
which can be useful in many situations, for example, if you
want to change the tempo without introducing artifacts The toolbar contains various tools for selecting, manipulat-
(see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 186). ing and playing back audio, as well as options that affect
the appearance and behavior of the Sample Editor.
Ö The term “loop” is used throughout this chapter and in
this context usually means an audio file with a musical time
base. That means that the length of the loop represents a
certain number of bars and beats at a certain tempo. Play-
ing the loop back at the right tempo in a cycle set to the
correct length will produce a continuous loop without gaps.

177
The Sample Editor
In the Musical Information section at the right of the tool- Snap
bar, the estimated length of your audio file is displayed in
bars and beats (PPQ) together with the estimated tempo
and the time signature. These values are important for us-
ing Musical Mode, see “Musical Mode” on page 185. The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when
editing in the Sample Editor by restricting horizontal
movement and positioning to certain grid positions. You
turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap button in the
The Algorithm pop-up menu allows you to select an algo- Sample Editor toolbar.
rithm for the realtime time stretching. For more information Ö The Sample Editor Snap function is independent of
about the time stretch algorithm, see “Selecting an algo- the Snap setting in the Project window toolbar or other
rithm for realtime playback” on page 185. editors. It has no effect outside the Sample Editor.
• You can customize the toolbar by right-clicking it and
using the context menu to hide or show items. For further Snap to Zero Crossing
information about configuring the toolbar, see “Using the
Setup options” on page 336.

Show Audio Event When this option is activated, editing is done at zero
crossings (positions in the audio where the amplitude is
zero). This helps you to avoid pops and clicks, which
might otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude changes.
When the “Show Audio Event” button is activated on the Ö The Sample Editor function “Snap to Zero Crossing”
toolbar, the section corresponding to the edited event is is independent of the same setting in the Project window
highlighted in the waveform display and the Overview. The toolbar or other editors. It has no effect outside the Sam-
sections of the audio clip not belonging to the event are ple Editor.
shown with a gray background.
Auto-Scroll
• You can adjust the start and end of the event in the clip
by dragging the event handles in the waveform display.

! This button is only available if you have opened the

Sample Editor by double-clicking an audio event in When the Auto-Scroll option is activated on the Sample
the Project window or the Audio Part Editor. It is not Editor toolbar, the waveform display will scroll during play-
available if you have opened the audio event from the back, keeping the project cursor visible in the editor.
Pool. Ö This setting is independent of the Auto-Scroll setting
in the Project window toolbar or other editors.

178
The Sample Editor
The info line The overview line
Event Start Selection Event End

The info line is displayed below the toolbar. It shows infor-

mation about the audio clip, such as the audio format and Snap Point Viewing area
the selection range.
The overview line displays the whole clip. The section cur-
Initially, length and position values are displayed in the for-
rently shown in the main waveform display of the Sample
mat specified in the Project Setup dialog. For information
Editor (the viewing area) is indicated by a rectangle in the
about configuring the info line, see “Using the Setup op-
overview line, and the current selection range is also
tions” on page 336.
shown. If the “Show Audio Event” button is activated on the
• To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window toolbar, event start/end and snap point are shown in the
Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate overview line.
the Info Line option.
• To view other sections of the clip, move the viewing
area in the overview line.
The Sample Editor Inspector Click in the lower half of the viewing area and drag to the left or right to
On the left in the Sample Editor, you will find the Sample move it.
Editor Inspector. It contains tools and functions for work- • To zoom in or out, horizontally, resize the viewing area
ing in the Sample Editor. by dragging its left or right edge.
The Hitpoints tab • To define a new viewing area, click in the upper half of
the Overview and drag a rectangle.

The ruler
The Sample Editor ruler is located between the overview
line and the waveform display. The ruler is explained in de-
tail in the section “The ruler” on page 34.

On this tab, hitpoints can be marked and edited (see

“Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 186). Hit-
points allow you to slice your audio and to create groove
quantize maps from your audio. You can also create mark-
ers, regions, and events based on hitpoints.

179
The Sample Editor
The waveform display and the level scale General functions
Zooming
Zooming in the Sample Editor is done according to the
standard zoom procedures, with the following special
notes to keep in mind:
• The vertical zoom slider changes the vertical scale rela-
tive to the height of the editor window, in a way similar to
the waveform zooming in the Project window (see “Zoom
and view options” on page 45).
The vertical zoom will also be affected if the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode:
Horizontal Zooming Only” preference (Editing–Tools page) is deactivated
and you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool.
The following options relevant to the Sample Editor are
The waveform display shows the waveform image of the available on the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu or the
edited audio clip according to the wave image style set in context menu:
the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page), see Option Description
“Adjusting how parts and events are shown” on page 47.
Zoom In Zooms in one step, centering on the position cursor.
To the left of the waveform display a level scale is shown,
indicating the amplitude of the audio. Zoom Out Zooms out one step, centering on the position cursor.
Zoom Full Zooms out so that the whole clip is visible in the editor.
• You can select whether the level is shown as a percent-
Zoom to Zooms in so that the current selection fills the editor
age or in dB. Selection display.
This is done by opening the level scale pop-up menu at the top of the
Zoom to Zooms in horizontally so that the current selection fills
level scale and selecting an option.
Selection (Horiz.) the editor display.
Zoom to Event Zooms in so that the editor shows the section of the
clip corresponding to the edited audio event. This is
not available if you have opened the Sample Editor
from the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened
for editing, not an event).

• Cubase Elements only: Select the “Show Half Level Zoom In/Out This is the same as using the vertical zoom slider (see
Vertically above).
Axis” option on the context menu of the waveform display,
Undo/Redo These options allow you to undo/redo the last zoom
if you want the half level axes to be shown. Zoom operation.

• The current zoom setting is shown in the info line, as a

“samples per screen pixel” value.
Ö You can zoom in horizontally to a scale of less than one
sample per pixel! This is required for drawing with the Pen-
Half-level axis cil tool (see “Drawing in the Sample Editor” on page 182).
• If you have zoomed in to one sample per pixel or less, the
appearance of the samples depends on the “Interpolate
Audio Images” option in the Preferences dialog (Event Dis-
play–Audio page).
If the option is deactivated, single sample values are drawn as “steps”. If
the option is activated, they are interpolated to a “curve” form.

180
The Sample Editor
Auditioning Scrubbing
While you can use the regular play commands to play
back audio when the Sample Editor is open, it is often
useful to listen to the edited material only.
The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio
by playing back, forwards, or backwards, at any speed:
1. Select the Scrub tool.
Clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar plays back the 2. Click in the waveform display and keep the mouse
edited audio, according to the following rules: button pressed.
• If you have made a selection, this selection will be played back. The project cursor is moved to the position where you clicked.
• If there is no selection and “Show Event” is deactivated, play- 3. Drag to the left or right.
back will start at the cursor position. The audio is played back. The speed and pitch of the playback depend
• If the Audition Loop icon is activated, playback will continue on how fast you drag.
repeatedly until you deactivate the Audition Loop icon. Other-
wise, the section will be played back once. Adjusting the snap point
Ö There is a separate Play button for auditioning regions, The snap point is a marker within an audio event. It is used
see “Auditioning regions” on page 184. as a reference position when you move events with snap
activated, so that the snap point is “magnetic” to whatever
Using the Speaker tool snap positions you have selected.
If you click somewhere in the waveform display with the By default, the snap point is set at the beginning of the au-
Speaker (“Play”) tool and keep the mouse button pressed, dio event, but often it is useful to move the snap point to a
the clip is played back from the position where you click. “relevant” position in the event, such as a downbeat.
Playback will continue until you release the mouse button.
To adjust the snap point, proceed as follows:
Using key commands
1. Activate the “Show Audio Event” option on the tool-
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Pre- bar, so that the event is displayed in the editor.
view” option in the Preferences dialog (Transport page),
2. If needed, scroll until the event is visible, and locate
you can start/stop auditioning by pressing [Space]. This is
the “S” flag in the event.
the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar. If you have not adjusted this previously, it is located at the beginning of
The Sample Editor also supports the “Preview start” and the event.
“Preview stop” key commands in the Media category of 3. Click on the “S” flag and drag it to the desired position.
the Key Commands dialog. These key commands stop the
current playback, whether you are in normal playback or in
audition mode.

181
The Sample Editor
• Cubase Elements only: You can also adjust the snap • If “Snap to Zero Crossing” is activated on the toolbar,
point by setting the project cursor at the desired position the selection’s start and end are always at zero crossings.
and selecting “Snap Point To Cursor” on the Audio menu.
• You can resize the selection by dragging its left and
The snap point will be set to the position of the cursor. This method can
also be used in the Project window and the Audio Part Editor.
right edge or by [Shift]-clicking.

It is also possible to define a snap point for a clip (for Using the Select menu
which there is no event yet). On the Select submenu of the Edit menu you find the fol-
To open a clip in the Sample Editor, double-click it in the lowing options:
Pool. After having set the snap point, you can insert the Option Description
clip into the project from the Pool or the Sample Editor
All Selects the whole clip.
with the set snap point position.
None Selects no audio (the selection length is set to “0”).
! Events and clips can have different snap points. If In Loop Selects all audio between the left and right locator.
you open a clip from the Pool, you can edit the clip Select Event Selects only the audio that is included in the edited event.
snap point. If you open a clip from within the project This is grayed out if you have opened the Sample Editor
from the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened for
window, you can edit the event snap point. The clip editing, not an event).
snap point serves as a template for the event snap
point. However, it is the event snap point that is From Start Selects all audio between the clip start and the project
taken into account when snapping. to Cursor cursor.
From Cursor Selects all audio between the project cursor and the
Drawing in the Sample Editor to End end of the clip. For this to work, the project cursor must
be within the clip boundaries.
It is possible to edit the audio clip at sample level by draw- Left Selection Moves the left side of the current selection range to the
ing with the Pencil tool. This can be useful if you need to Side to Cursor project cursor position. For this to work, the cursor must
manually edit out a spike or click, etc. be within the clip boundaries.
Right Selection Moves the right side of the current selection range to
Proceed as follows: Side to Cursor the project cursor position (or the end of the clip, if the
cursor is to the right of the clip).
1. Zoom in to a zoom value lower than 1.
This means that there is more than one screen pixel per sample.
Ö Several of these options are also available on the
2. Select the Pencil tool. Sample Editor context menu.
3. Click at the beginning of the section that you want to
correct and draw in the new curve. Editing selection ranges
A range selection covering the edited section is automatically applied. Selections in the Sample Editor can be processed in sev-
eral ways.
Making selections
If you attempt to edit an event that is a shared copy (i. e.
To select an audio section in the Sample Editor, click and the event refers to a clip that is used by other events in the
drag with the Range Selection tool. project), you are asked whether you want to create a new
A selected range version of the clip.
• Select “New Version” if you want the editing to affect
the selected event only. Select “Continue” if you want the
editing to affect all shared copies.

182
The Sample Editor
Ö If you activate the “Please, don’t ask again” option in Creating a new event from the selection using
the dialog, any further editing will conform to the selected drag & drop
method (“Continue” or “New Version”). You can change
To create a new event that plays only the selected range,
this setting at any time with the “On Processing Shared
proceed as follows:
Clips” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Editing–
Audio page). 1. Make a selection range.

Cut, Copy, and Paste 2. Drag the selection range to an audio track in the Proj-
ect window.
The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands (on the Edit menu in
the Sample Editor context menu or on the main Edit menu) Creating a new clip or audio file from the selection
work according to the following rules: To extract a selection from an event and either create a
• Selecting Copy copies the selection to the clipboard. new clip or a new audio file, proceed as follows:
• Selecting Cut removes the selection from the clip and 1. Make a selection range.
moves it to the clipboard. 2. Open the context menu and select “Bounce Selec-
The section to the right of the selection is moved to the left to fill the gap.
tion” from the Audio submenu.
• Selecting Paste copies the data from the clipboard into
A new clip is created and added to the Pool, and another
the clip.
Sample Editor window opens with the new clip. This clip
If there is a selection in the editor, this is replaced by the pasted data. If
there is no selection, the pasted data is inserted starting at the project
refers to the same audio file as the original clip, but con-
cursor. The section to the right of the line is moved to make room for the tains the audio corresponding to the selection range only.
pasted material.
Working with regions
Delete
Regions are sections within a clip. One of the main uses
Selecting Delete (on the Edit menu in the Sample Editor for regions is Cycle recording, in which the different
context menu or on the main Edit menu) removes the se- “takes” are stored as regions (see “Recording audio” on
lection from the clip. The section to the right of the selec- page 80). You can also use this feature for marking impor-
tion is moved to the left to fill the gap. tant sections in the audio clip. Regions can be dragged
into the Project window from the Sample Editor or the
Insert Silence Pool to create new audio events.
Selecting “Insert Silence” (on the Range submenu of the Regions are best created, edited, and managed in the
main Edit menu) inserts a silent section with the same Sample Editor.
length as the current selection, at the selection start.
• The selection is not replaced, but moved to the right to Creating and removing regions
make room. 1. Select the range that you want to convert into a region.
If you want to replace the selection, use the “Silence” function instead
(see “Silence” on page 170). 2. Click the “Set up Window Layout” button and activate
the Regions option.
Processing The regions list is displayed on the right.

The Processing features (on the Process submenu of the

Audio menu) can be applied to selections in the Sample
Editor. For more information, see the chapter “Audio pro-
cessing and functions” on page 165.

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The Sample Editor
3. Click the Add Region button above the regions list (or Auditioning regions
select “Event or Range as Region” from the Advanced
You can listen to a region by selecting it in the list and
submenu of the Audio menu).
clicking the Play Region button above the list. The region
A region is created, corresponding to the selected range.
will play back once or repeatedly, depending on whether
4. To name the region, double-click on it in the list and the Loop icon on the toolbar is activated or not.
enter a new name.
Using this procedure, regions can be renamed at any time.
You can also listen to a region by selecting it in the list and
clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar. This way you can
• When you click on a region in the regions list, it is in- preview separate regions by clicking on them in the list or
stantly displayed in the Sample Editor. by selecting them with the up/down arrow keys on your
• To remove a region from a clip, select it in the list and computer keyboard.
click the Remove Region button above the list.
Making selections from regions
Creating regions from hitpoints If you select a region in the list and click the Select Region
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can button above, the corresponding section of the audio clip
choose to automatically create regions from hitpoints. This is selected (as if you had selected it with the Range Se-
can be useful to isolate recorded sounds. For further infor- lection tool) and zoomed. This is useful if you want to ap-
mation on hitpoints, see “Working with hitpoints and ply processing to the region only.
slices” on page 186. Ö You can also double-click a region in the Pool to have
its audio clip opened in the Sample Editor with the area of
Editing regions
the region automatically selected.
The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the
waveform display and the overview line. Creating audio events from regions
To create new audio events from regions using drag &
drop, proceed as follows:
1. In the list, click on the region and keep the mouse but-
ton pressed.
2. Drag the region to the desired position in the project
and release the mouse button.
A new event is created.
• You can also use the “Events from Regions” function
from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu (see “Re-
There are two ways to edit the start and end positions of a gion operations” on page 57).
region:
Exporting regions as audio files
• Click and drag the region start and end handles in the
waveform display (with any tool). If you create a region in the Sample Editor, the region can
When you move the pointer over the handles, it automatically changes to be exported to disk as a new audio file. This is done from
indicate that you can drag the handles. the Pool, see “Exporting regions as audio files” on page
203.
• Edit the Start and End positions in the corresponding
fields in the regions list.
The positions are shown in the display format selected for the ruler and
info line, but are relative to the start of the audio clip rather than the proj-
ect timeline.

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The Sample Editor
Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback Ö It is also possible to activate/deactivate Musical Mode
from within the Pool by clicking the corresponding check-
On the Algorithm pop-up menu on the toolbar you can se-
box in the Musical Mode column.
lect the algorithm preset to be applied during realtime
playback. This setting affects warp changes in Musical ! Cubase supports ACID® loops. These loops are
Mode. standard audio files but with embedded tempo/length
information. When ACID® files are imported into Cu-
base, Musical Mode is automatically activated and the
loops will adapt to the project tempo.

Warping audio
Warping is a term used to describe the realtime time
stretching of a selected section of audio. Warping is gen-
erally used to correct the tempo or timing of audio.

The pop-up menu contains various options that govern Adjusting loops to the project tempo using
the audio quality of the realtime time stretching. There are Musical Mode
presets for common uses and a Custom option that allows Audio loops are normally short audio files containing a de-
you to manually set warp parameters. For a detailed de- fined number of bars with straight beats. These loops can
scription of the available presets, see “About time stretch
be adjusted to the project tempo by using the Musical
and pitch shift algorithms” on page 175.
Mode function. Proceed as follows:

Musical Mode 1. Import an audio loop into a project and double-click it

to open the Sample Editor.
You can use the Musical Mode to tempo-match audio
loops to the project tempo. Musical Mode allows you to
lock audio clips to the project tempo by using realtime
time stretching. This is very useful if you want to use audio
in your project without worrying too much about timing.
If you want to use Musical Mode, verify that the length in
bars corresponds to the audio file you imported. If neces-
sary, listen to your audio and enter the correct length in
bars and beats.
When Musical Mode is activated, audio events will adapt
to any tempo changes in Cubase, just like MIDI events.

2. From the Algorithm pop-up menu on the toolbar, se-

You can activate Musical Mode on the toolbar. lect the algorithm preset to be applied during realtime
playback.
For details about the available options, see “About time stretch and pitch
shift algorithms” on page 175.
3. Listen to the loop and, if necessary, correct the Bars
and Beats values on the toolbar.

185
The Sample Editor
4. Activate the Musical Mode button. • Create new files from individual slices using the “Bounce
Your loop is warped and stretched automatically to adapt it to the project Selection” function on the Audio menu.
tempo. • Edit slice envelopes.
Hitpoints can also be used to quantize audio material
without creating slices. For details about the quantizing
functions, see the chapter “Quantizing MIDI and audio” on
page 89.

Which audio files can be used?

Here are some guidelines as to what type of audio files are
suited for slicing using hitpoints:
• Each individual sound should have a noticeable attack.
Slow attacks, legato playing, etc. may not produce the desired result.
• Poorly recorded audio might be difficult to slice correctly.
In these cases, try to normalize the files or to remove DC Offset.
In the Project window, the audio event is now shown with
a note symbol and a warp symbol in the upper right corner • The recorded audio should contain as little crosstalk
to indicate that time stretching has been applied. signals as possible.
Crosstalk refers to the “bleeding” of a sound into a microphone placed
before another instrument during recording.
Working with hitpoints and slices • There may be problems with sounds drowned in smear-
Cubase can detect hitpoints, i. e. musically relevant posi- ing effects, like short delays.
tions, by analyzing onsets and melodic changes. At these
positions a type of marker is added. Hitpoints allow you to Detecting and filtering hitpoints
create slices, where each slice ideally represents each in- Hitpoints are calculated when you activate the “Edit Hit-
dividual sound or “beat” (drum or other rhythmic record- points” option on the Hitpoints tab. The audio event is an-
ings or loops work best with this feature). alyzed and the hitpoints are shown as vertical lines.

Purpose and preparation Depending on the quality and type of the analyzed audio
material, you may have to fine-tune the hitpoint detection
The main functions of using hitpoints are to slice up audio using the Threshold slider and the Beats pop-up menu.
to make it fit the project tempo or to create a situation that Furthermore you can manually add, edit, or remove hit-
allows the song tempo to be changed while retaining the points.
timing of a rhythmic audio loop.
• To filter out hitpoints based on their peaks in dB, use
When you have successfully detected the hitpoints for an the Threshold slider. The threshold is indicated by a hori-
audio file, you can do a number of useful things: zontal line.
• Change the tempo of the audio material without affecting the This can be used to eliminate found hitpoints in crosstalk signals, e. g. by
pitch and audio quality. keeping the louder bass drum hits and ignoring the quieter crosstalk sig-
nals of the snare drum.
• Use slices to replace individual sounds in a drum loop.
• Extract sounds from loops.
You can further edit these slices in the Audio Part Editor.
You can, for example:
• Remove or mute slices.
• Change the loop by reordering or replacing slices.
• Apply processing to individual slices.

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The Sample Editor
• To filter out hitpoints by their musical position, use the ations. “Locking” hitpoints is an easy way to make sure
Beats pop-up menu. Only hitpoints within a certain range that hitpoints are not accidentally filtered out. Locked hit-
of a defined beat value are allowed. The following options points are not affected by the Threshold slider and Beats
are available: pop-up menu.
Option Description
All All hitpoints are shown (taking the Threshold slider into ac-
count).
1/4, 1/8, Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value posi-
1/16, 1/32 tions within the loop are shown (e. g. close to exact sixteenth
note positions).
A second ruler displaying the local definition of the audio file An enabled, a disabled, and a locked hitpoint
is shown below the ordinary ruler.
Disabling and locking hitpoints
Ö When hitpoints have been calculated, they are also After applying the different hitpoint filters, you may find
visible in the Project window for selected events (provided that you want to keep individual hitpoints that were filtered
that the zoom factor is high enough). In the Sample Editor, out or disable hitpoints that you do not need. Furthermore,
hitpoints are only displayed in the waveform when the Hit- you may want to lock certain hitpoints.
points tab is open.
• To lock a hitpoint, move the mouse pointer over the gray
triangle on the timeline so that the tooltip “Lock Hitpoint”
Auditioning and hitpoints
is shown. Click on the triangle.
• You can audition the hitpoint slices (i. e. the area between This way, enabled and disabled hitpoints can be locked.
two hitpoints) by pointing and clicking in any slice area.
The pointer changes to a speaker icon and the corresponding slice is
• To lock a disabled hitpoint, you can also press [Alt]/
played back from the beginning to the end. [Option] and move the mouse over the waveform. At posi-
tions where a disabled hitpoint can be locked, a gray hit-
Navigating between hitpoints point line and the tooltip “Lock Hitpoint” are shown. Click
to lock the hitpoint.
• You can navigate between the slices using the arrow
keys or by pressing the [Tab] key. • To lock multiple hitpoints, press [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] so
that the tooltip “Lock multiple hitpoints” is shown and drag
• You can select the next or previous hitpoint marker us- a rectangle over the hitpoints.
ing the Locate Next/Previous Hitpoint commands. All enabled and disabled hitpoints within the area defined by the rectan-
The default key commands for this are [Alt]/[Option]-[N] and [Alt]/[Op- gle become locked.
tion]-[B].
• To disable hitpoints, press [Shift] so that the tooltip
Editing hitpoints “Disable Hitpoints” is shown and click on the line of a sin-
gle hitpoint or drag a rectangle over all the hitpoints that
You can change the state of a hitpoint, insert new hit- you want to disable.
points manually, and move existing hitpoints. This way, enabled and locked hitpoints can be disabled.
Hitpoints can have three different states: enabled, locked, • To disable a locked hitpoint, you can also point the
and disabled. “Enabled” is the normal state a hitpoint has mouse at the blue hitpoint triangle on the timeline so that
immediately after the detection. Hitpoints can be “dis- the tooltip “Disable Hitpoint” is shown. Click on the triangle.
abled” so that they are still visible as gray triangles on the
timeline, but will not be taken into account for further oper- Resetting hitpoints
Sometimes it can be useful to reset hitpoints to their orig-
inal state, e. g. because you still want them to be affected
by the Threshold slider.

187
The Sample Editor
• To reset hitpoints to their original state, press [Ctrl]/ • The audio is automatically adapted to the project tempo,
[Command]-[Alt]/[Option] so that the tooltip “Enable/Un- taking the specified tempo or bars and beats values into
lock Hitpoints” is shown and drag a rectangle over the account: if the event was one bar long, the part is resized
hitpoints. to fit exactly one bar in the Cubase tempo, and the slices
All disabled and locked hitpoints within the area defined by the rectangle are moved accordingly, keeping their relative positions
are reset. Note that some of the hitpoints may still appear as disabled within the part.
due to the Threshold slider and Beats pop-up menu settings.
• In the Pool, the sliced clip is shown with a different icon.
Inserting hitpoints Dragging the sliced clip from the Pool to an audio track
creates an audio part with the slices adapted to the proj-
If you get too few hitpoints using the filter options, you can
ect tempo, just as above.
insert hitpoints manually.
The audio should now play back seamlessly at the tempo
• To insert a new hitpoint, press [Alt]/[Option] and click at
set in the project!
the position where you want to enter the new hitpoint (i. e.
at the start of the sound). Slices and the project tempo
Manually added hitpoints are locked by default.
If the project tempo is slower than the tempo of the origi-
Moving hitpoints nal audio event, there may be audible gaps between the
If a hitpoint was either placed too far away from the start of slice events in the part. To remedy this, you can apply the
the sound or too far into the sound, you can move it. “Close Gaps (Timestretch)” function from the Advanced
submenu of the Audio menu on the parts containing the
• To move a hitpoint, press [Alt]/[Option] and point the slice events. Time stretch is applied to each slice to close
mouse at the vertical line of the hitpoint. The mouse pointer the gaps. Depending on the length of the part and the al-
changes to a double arrow and the tooltip “Move Hitpoint” gorithm set in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio
is shown. You can now drag the hitpoint to its new position. page), this can take a while.
Moved hitpoints are locked by default.
Ö If you open the Pool, you will see that new clips were
Slicing audio created, one for each slice.

Once you have set up the hitpoints as needed, you can If you decide to change the tempo again after using the
slice the audio by clicking the Create Slices button on the “Close Gaps (Timestretch)” function, undo the Close
Hitpoints tab. Alternatively, you can select the “Create Au- Gaps operation or start over again, using the original,
dio Slices from Hitpoints” command from the Hitpoints unstretched file.
submenu of the Audio menu. Also consider activating auto fades for the corresponding
The following happens: audio track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help elimi-
nate any clicks between the slices when you play back the
• The Sample Editor closes. part. See “Making Auto Fade settings for individual tracks”
• The audio event is “sliced” so that the sections between on page 100 for details.
the hitpoints become separate events, all referring to the
same original file.
• The audio event is replaced by an audio part, containing
the slices (double-click the part to view the slices in the
Audio Part Editor).

! When you create slices, all events referring to the

edited clip are also replaced.

188
The Sample Editor
If the project tempo is higher than the tempo of the original Create Events
audio event, the slice events are overlapping. Activate
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can
auto crossfades for the track to smooth out the sound
click the Create Events button on the Hitpoints tab to au-
(see “Making global Auto Fade settings” on page 100).
tomatically create separate events based on the hitpoints.
Furthermore, you can select the overlapping events inside
the part and apply the “Delete Overlaps” function from the Create MIDI Notes
Advanced submenu of the Audio menu.
You can export your hitpoints to a MIDI part containing a
MIDI note for each hitpoint. For example, you can use this
function to double, replace, or enrich drum hits by trigger-
ing sounds of a VST instrument at the positions of the hit-
points.
• To convert the hitpoints into MIDI notes, click the “Cre-
ate MIDI Notes” button. Make the desired settings in the
Convert Hitpoints to MIDI Notes dialog and click OK.

The slices in the Audio Part Editor. Here, the project tempo was higher
than the clip’s original tempo – the slice events overlap.

Other hitpoint functions

On the Hitpoints tab of the Sample Editor Inspector, you The following options are available:
will also find the following functions. Many of these func- Option Description
tions are also available on the Hitpoints submenu of the
Velocity Mode/ Dynamic Velocity Value – The velocity values of
Audio menu. If selected on the Audio menu, they can be Velocity the created MIDI notes vary, according to the peak
applied on several events and even range selections at the levels of the corresponding hitpoints.
Fixed Velocity Value – The created MIDI notes get
same time. the same velocity value. You can set this value us-
ing the Velocity field.
Create Groove
Pitch / Length Hitpoints do not contain any information about
This function is described in detail in the section “Create pitch or duration. Therefore, all created MIDI notes
get the same pitch and note length. Use these
Groove Quantize Preset” on page 92. fields to specify the desired values.

Create Markers Destination First Selected Track – The MIDI part is placed on
the first selected MIDI or instrument track. Note
If an audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can that any MIDI parts from previous conversions that
are on this track will be deleted.
click the Create Markers button on the Hitpoints tab to New MIDI Track – A new MIDI track is created for
add a marker for each hitpoint. If your project has no the MIDI part.
Project Clipboard – The MIDI part is copied into
marker track, it will be added and activated automatically
the clipboard so that you can insert it at the de-
(see “Using markers” on page 108). Markers can be use- sired position on a MIDI or instrument track.
ful to snap to hitpoints, e. g. for locating hitpoints.

Create Regions
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can
click the Create Regions button on the Hitpoints tab to
automatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be
useful to isolate recorded sounds.

189
The Sample Editor
 19
The Audio Part Editor
Background Window overview
The Audio Part Editor allows you to view and edit the events
inside audio parts. Essentially, this is the same type of edit-
ing that you do in the Project window, which means that
this chapter contains a lot of references to the chapter
“Working with projects” on page 38.
Audio parts are created in the Project window in one of
the following ways:
• By selecting one or several audio events on the same
track, and selecting “Events to Part” from the Audio menu.
• By gluing together two or more audio events on the
The toolbar
same track with the Glue Tube tool. The tools, settings, and icons on the toolbar have the
same functionality as in the Project window, with the fol-
• By drawing an empty part with the Pencil tool. lowing differences:
• By double-clicking between the left and right locators • A Solo button (see “Auditioning” on page 192).
on an audio track. • Separate tools for auditioning (Speaker) and scrubbing (see
With the last two methods, an empty part is created. You can then add
“Scrubbing” on page 193).
events to the part by pasting, or by using drag and drop from the Pool.
• No Line, Glue Tube or Color tools.
• Play and Loop icons and an Audition Volume control (see “Au-
Opening the Audio Part Editor ditioning” on page 192).
• Independent Track Loop settings (see “The independent track
You open the Audio Part Editor by selecting one or more loop function” on page 193).
audio part(s) in the Project window and double-clicking • Part List controls for handling several parts: activating parts
on any one of them (or using the Edit-Open key command, for editing, restricting editing to active parts only and showing
by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[E]). The Audio Part Editor part borders (see “Handling several parts” on page 193).
can display several parts at once, and you can also have
more than one Audio Part Editor open at the same time. Ö You can customize the toolbar by hiding or reordering
its items, see “Using the Setup options” on page 336.
Ö Double-clicking on an audio event in the Project
window will open the Sample Editor (see “Opening the
The ruler and info line
Sample Editor” on page 177).
These have the same functionality and appearance as
their counterparts in the Project window.
• You can select a separate display format for the Audio
Part Editor ruler by clicking on the arrow button on the
right and selecting an option from the pop-up menu.
For a list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on page 34.

191
The Audio Part Editor
About lanes By using the Audition icon
If you make the editor window larger, this will reveal addi-
tional space below the edited events. This is because an
audio part is divided vertically in lanes.
The Audition and Audition Loop icons

Clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar plays back the

edited audio, according to the following rules:
• If you have selected events in the part, only the section bet-
ween the first and last selected event will be played back.
• If you have made a range selection, only this section will be
played back.
• If there is no selection, the whole part will be played back. If
the project cursor is within the part, playback starts from the
current cursor position. If the cursor is outside the part, play-
back starts from the beginning of the part.
• If the Audition Loop icon is activated, playback will continue
until you deactivate the Audition icon. Otherwise, the section
will be played back once.
Lanes can make it easier to work with several audio events
in a part. Moving some of the events to another lane can • When auditioning with the Speaker tool or Audition
make selection and editing much easier. icon, audio will be routed directly to the Main Mix (the
default output bus).
• To move an event to another lane without accidentally
moving it horizontally, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag it By using regular playback
up or down.
You can of course use the regular playback controls while
in the Audio Part Editor. Furthermore, if you activate the
Operations Solo Editor button on the toolbar, only the events in the
edited part will be played back.
Zooming, selecting and editing in the Audio Part Editor
are done just as in the Project window (see the chapter Using key commands
“Working with projects” on page 38).
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Pre-
Ö If a part is a shared copy (i. e. you have previously cop- view” option in the Preferences dialog (Transport page),
ied the part by [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift] and dragging), any ed- you can start/stop auditioning by pressing [Space]. This is
iting you perform will affect all shared copies of this part. the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.
Ö The Audio Part Editor also supports the key com-
Auditioning mands “Preview start” and “Preview stop” in the Media
There are several ways to listen to the events in the Audio category of the Key Commands dialog. These key com-
Part Editor: mands stop the current playback, no matter if you are in
normal playback or in audition mode.
By using the Speaker tool
If you click somewhere in the editor’s event display with the
Speaker tool and keep the mouse button pressed, the part
will be played back from the position where you clicked.
Playback will continue until you release the mouse button.

192
The Audio Part Editor
The independent track loop function Therefore, the toolbar features a few functions to make
working with multiple parts easier and more comprehen-
The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affect-
sive:
ing only the edited part. When the loop is activated, the
events in the parts that are within the loop will be repeated • The “Currently Edited Part” pop-up menu lists all parts
continuously and completely independent – other events that were selected when you opened the editor, and lets
(on other tracks) are played back as usual. The only “inter- you select which part is active for editing.
action” between the loop and the “regular playback” is that When you select a part from the list, it is automatically made active and
the loop starts every time the cycle starts over again. centered in the display.

To set up the independent track loop, proceed as follows:

1. Turn on the loop by clicking the Independent Track
Loop button on the toolbar.
If it is not visible, right-click the toolbar and add the Independent Track
Loop Settings section – see “Using the Setup options” on page 336.
Ö Note that it is also possible to activate a part by click-
ing on it with the Arrow tool.
• The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit-
ing operations to the active part only.
When the loop is activated, the cycle is not shown in the If you for example select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu
editor’s ruler. Now you need to specify the length of the with this option activated, all events in the active part will be selected but
not the events in other parts.
loop:
2. [Ctrl]/[Command]-click in the ruler to set the start and
[Alt]/[Option]-click to set the end of the loop.
You can also edit the loop start and end positions numerically in the
fields next to the Loop button. “Edit Active Part Only” activated on the toolbar
The loop is indicated in purple in the ruler. • You can zoom in on an active part so that it fills the
Ö The events will be looped as long as the Loop button screen by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom sub-
menu of the Edit menu.
is activated and the Audio Part Editor window is open.
• The button “Show Part Borders” can be used if you
Scrubbing want to see clearly defined borders for the active part.
When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out,
In the Audio Part Editor, the Scrub tool has a separate
making the borders easily discernible. There are also two “markers” in
icon on the toolbar. Apart from that, scrubbing works ex- the ruler with the name of the active part, marking its beginning and end.
actly as in the Project window (see “Scrubbing audio” on These can be moved freely to change the part borders.
page 48).

Handling several parts

When you open the Audio Part Editor with several parts se-
lected – all on the same track or on different tracks – they “Show Part Borders” activated on the toolbar

might not all “fit” in the editor window, which can make it • It is possible to cycle between parts, making them ac-
hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing. tive using key commands.
In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, there are two functions:
“Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key com-
mands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts. See “Setting
up key commands” on page 344 for instructions on how to set up key
commands.

193
The Audio Part Editor
Options and Settings
The following options and settings are available in the
Audio Part Editor:
• Snap
The Snap functionality in the Audio Part Editor is exactly the same as in
the Project window, see “The Snap function” on page 35.
• Auto-Scroll
When Auto-Scroll is activated on the toolbar, the window will scroll dur-
ing playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the editor. This setting
can be activated or deactivated individually for each window.
• Snap to Zero Crossing
When this option is activated, all audio edits are done at zero crossings
(positions in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you avoid
pops and clicks which might otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude
changes.

194
The Audio Part Editor
 20
The Pool
Background The content of the Pool is divided into the following main
folders:
Every time you record on an audio track, a file is created
• The Audio folder
on your hard disk. A reference to this file – a clip – is also This contains all audio clips and regions currently in the project.
added to the Pool. Two general rules apply to the Pool:
• The Video folder
• All audio and video clips that belong to a project are This contains all video clips currently in the project.
listed in the Pool.
• The Trash folder
• There is a separate Pool for every project. Unused clips can be moved into the Trash folder for later permanent re-
The way the Pool displays folders and their contents is moval from the hard disk.
similar to the way the Mac OS X Finder and the Windows These folders cannot be renamed or deleted from the
Explorer display folders and lists of files. Pool, but any number of subfolders can be added (see
In the Pool you can, among other things, perform the fol- “Organizing clips and folders” on page 204).
lowing operations:

Operations that affect files on disk

Window overview
• Importing clips (audio files can automatically be copied and/or Audio folder: contains clips and regions Toolbar

converted)
• Converting file formats
• Renaming clips (this will also rename the referenced files on
disk) and regions
• Deleting clips
• Preparing file archives for backup
• Minimizing files

Operations that only affect clips Trash folder Video folder Waveform image

• Copying clips
• Auditioning clips Toolbar overview
• Organizing clips Show Info View/Attributes Import and Project Folder
• Applying audio processing to clips button pop-up menu Search buttons path

Opening the Pool

Audition, Audition Loop, Open/Close all Pool Record
You can open the Pool in any of the following ways: and Volume folders Folder path
• By clicking the “Open Pool Window” button on the
Project window toolbar. The info line
If this icon is not visible, you need to activate the “Media & Mixer Windows”
option on the toolbar context menu first. Click the “Show Info” button on the toolbar to show or
hide the info line at the bottom of the Pool window. It
shows the following information:
• Audio Files – the number of audio files in the Pool
• Used – the number of audio files in use
• By selecting “Pool” on the Project menu or “Open Pool • Total size – the total size of all audio files in the Pool
Window” on the Media menu. • External Files – the number of files in the Pool that do not re-
• By using a key command – by default [Ctrl]/[Com- side in the project folder (e. g. video files)
mand]-[P].

196
The Pool
The Pool window columns About the Status column symbols
Various information about the clips and regions can be The Status column can display various symbols that relate
viewed in the Pool window columns. The columns contain to the clips status. The following symbols can be shown:
the following information: Symbol Description
Column Description This indicates the current Pool Record folder (see
Media This column contains the Audio, Video and Trash folders. “Changing the Pool Record folder” on page 203).
If the folders are opened, the clip or region names are This symbol is shown if a clip has been processed.
shown and can be edited. This column is always shown.
Used This column displays the number of times a clip is used in The question mark indicates that a clip is referenced in
the project. If there is no entry in this column, the corre- the project but missing from the Pool (see “About missing
sponding clip is not used. files” on page 201).

Status This column displays various icons that relate to the cur- This indicates that the clip file is external, i. e. located out-
rent Pool and clip status. See “About the Status column side the current Audio folder for the project.
symbols” on page 197 for a description of the icons. This indicates that the clip has been recorded in the cur-
Musical The checkbox in this column allows you to activate or de- rently open version of the project. This is useful for finding
Mode activate Musical Mode. If the Tempo column (see below) recently recorded clips quickly.
displays “???”, you have to enter the correct tempo be-
fore you can activate Musical Mode.
Sorting the Pool contents
Tempo This shows the tempo of audio files, if available. If no
tempo has been specified, the column displays “???”. You can sort the clips in the Pool by name, date, etc. This
Sign. This is the time signature, e. g. “4/4”. is done by clicking on the corresponding column heading.
Key This is the root key, if one was specified for the file.
Clicking again on the same heading switches between as-
cending and descending sort order.
Info This column shows the following information for audio
clips: The sample rate, bit resolution, number of channels
The arrow indicates the sort
and the length in seconds. For regions, it displays start
column and sort order.
and end times in frames, and for video clips the frame
rate, number of frames, and length in seconds.
Type This column shows the file format of the clip.
Date This column shows the date when the audio file was last
changed.
Origin Time This column shows the original start position where a clip Customizing the view
was recorded in the project. As this value can be used as
a basis for the “Insert into Project” option in the Media or • You can specify which of the columns are shown or hid-
context menu (and other functions), you can change it if
the Origin Time value is independent (i. e. not for regions). den by opening the View/Attributes pop-up menu on the
Cubase Elements only: This can either be done by editing toolbar and selecting/deselecting items.
the value in the column, or by selecting the correspond-
ing clip in the Pool, moving the project cursor to the new
desired position and selecting “Update Origin” from the
Audio menu.
Image This column displays waveform images of audio clips or
regions.
Path This column shows the path to the location of a clip on
the hard disk.
Reel Name Audio files may include this attribute, which is then shown
in this column. The Reel Name describes the “physical”
reel or tape from which the media was originally captured.

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• You can rearrange the order of the columns by clicking Inserting clips into a project
on a column heading and dragging the column to the left
To insert a clip into a project, you can either use the Insert
or right.
commands on the Media menu or use drag and drop.
The mouse pointer changes to a hand when you place it on the column
heading. Using menu commands
• The width of a column can also be adjusted by placing Proceed as follows:
the pointer between two column headers and dragging
left or right. 1. Select the clip(s) you want to insert into the project.
The pointer changes to a divider when you place it between two column 2. Pull down the Media menu and select an “Insert into
headers.
Project” option.
“At Cursor” will insert the clip(s) at the current project cursor position.
“At Origin” will insert the clip(s) at their Origin Time position(s).
• Note that the clip will be positioned so that its snap
Operations point is aligned with the selected insert position.
You can also open the Sample Editor for a clip by double-clicking it, and
Ö Most of the Pool-related main menu functions are also perform the insert operation from there. This way you can set the snap
available on the Pool context menu (opened by right-click- point before inserting a clip.
ing in the Pool window). 3. The clip is inserted on the selected track or on a new
audio track.
Renaming clips or regions in the Pool If several tracks are selected, the clip will be inserted on the first selected
track.
To rename a clip or a region in the Pool, select it and click
on the existing name, type in a new name and press Using drag and drop
[Return].
When using drag and drop to insert clips into the Project
Ö This will also rename the referenced files on disk! window, please note the following:
! Renaming a clip in the Pool is much preferred to re- • Snap is taken into account if activated.
naming it outside Cubase (for example on the com- • While you drag the clip in the Project window, its posi-
puter desktop). This way, Cubase already “knows” tion is indicated by a marker line and a numerical position
about the change, and will not lose track of the clip box.
the next time you open the project. See “About miss- Note that these indicate the position of the snap point in the clip. For ex-
ing files” on page 201 for details about lost files. ample, if you drop the clip at the position 10.00, this will be where the
snap point ends up. See “Adjusting the snap point” on page 181 for in-
Duplicating clips in the Pool formation on how to set the snap point.
To duplicate a clip, proceed as follows: Snap point

1. Select the clip you wish to copy.

2. Select “New Version” on the Media menu.
A new version of the clip appears in the same Pool folder, with the same
name but with a “version number” after it, to indicate that the new clip is • If you position the clip in an empty area in the event dis-
a duplicate. The first copy made of a clip will get the version number “2” play (i. e. below existing tracks), a new track is created for
and so on. Regions within a clip are copied too, but keep their name. the inserted event.
! Duplicating a clip does not create a new file on disk,
but a new edit version of the clip (referring to the
same audio file).

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Deleting clips Removing unused clips

Removing clips from the Pool This function finds all clips in the Pool that are not used in
the project. You can then decide whether to move them to
To remove a clip from the Pool without deleting it from the the Trash folder (from where they can be permanently de-
hard disk, proceed as follows: leted) or to remove them from the Pool:
1. Select the clip(s) and select “Delete” from the Edit 1. Select “Remove Unused Media” on the Media or con-
menu (or press [Backspace] or [Delete]). text menu.
A prompt asks whether you want to move the clip to the Trash or remove A message appears asking you whether you want to move the file to the
it from the Pool. Trash or to remove it from the Pool.
• If you try to delete a clip that is used by one or more 2. Make your selection.
events, the program will ask you whether to remove these
events from the project. Removing regions
If you cancel, neither the clip nor the associated events are deleted.
To remove a region from the Pool, select it and select “De-
lete” from the Edit menu (or press [Backspace] or [Delete]).
Ö For regions there is no alert if the region is used in the
project!

Locating events and clips

Locating events via clips in the Pool
2. In the window that opens, select “Remove from Pool”.
The clip is no longer associated with the project, but still exists on the hard If you want to find out which events in the project refer to a
disk and can be used in other projects, etc. This operation can be undone. particular clip in the Pool, proceed as follows:
Deleting from the hard disk 1. Select one or more clips in the Pool.
To delete a file permanently from the hard disk, it must first 2. Select “Select in Project” on the Media menu.
be moved to the Trash folder: All events that refer to the selected clip(s) are now selected in the Proj-
ect window.
1. Follow the instructions for deleting clips above, but
click the Trash button instead of the Remove from Pool Locating clips via events in the Project window
button.
If you want to find out which clip belongs to a particular
Alternatively, you can drag and drop clips into the Trash folder.
event in the Project window, proceed as follows:
2. On the Media menu, select “Empty Trash”.
1. Select one or more events in the Project window.
A warning message is displayed.
2. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Find Selected
3. Click “Erase” to delete the file on the hard disk
permanently. in Pool”.
The corresponding clip(s) are located and highlighted in the Pool.
This operation cannot be undone!

! Before you permanently delete audio files from the

hard disk, make sure that they are not used by an-
other project!

Ö To retrieve a clip or region from the Trash folder, drag

it back into an Audio or Video folder.

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Searching for audio files Extended Search functionality
The search functions can help you locate audio files in the Apart from the search criterion Name, additional search fil-
Pool, on your hard disk or on other media. This works ters are available. The Extended Search options allows for
much like the regular file search, but with a couple of extra a very detailed search, helping you to master even the
features: largest sound database.
1. Click the Search button on the toolbar. To use them, proceed as follows:
A search pane appears at the bottom of the window, displaying the
search functions.
1. Click the Search button on the toolbar.
The Search pane is displayed in the lower part of the Pool window.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the “Name” text to the
right of the name field and click on the arrow that appears.
Move the mouse pointer over
the “Name” text to the right of
the name field and click…

By default, the search parameters available in the search

pane are “Name” and “Location”. For using other filter cri-
teria, see “Extended Search functionality” on page 200.
2. Specify the name of the file(s) to search for in the
Name field.
You can use partial names or wildcards (*). Note that only audio files of
the supported formats will be found.
3. Use the Location pop-up menu to specify where to
search.
The pop-up menu will list all your local drives and removable media.
• If you want to limit the search to certain folders, choose …to show the extended search pop-up menu.
“Select Search Path” and select the desired folder in the
dialog that opens. 3. The extended search pop-up menu opens.
The search will include the selected folder and all subfolders. Note also It contains six options determining which search criterion is displayed
that folders you have recently selected using the “Select Search Path” above the Location field (Name, Size, Bitsize, Channels, Sample Rate, or
function will appear on the pop-up menu, allowing you to quickly select Date), as well as the Add Filter and Presets submenus.
them again.
The search criteria have the following parameters:
4. Click the Search button.
The search is started and the Search button is labeled Stop – click this • Name: partial names or wildcards (*)
to cancel the search if needed. • Size: Less than, More than, Equal, Between (two values), in
seconds, minutes, hours and bytes
When the search is finished, the files found are listed to
• Bitsize (resolution): 8, 16, 24, 32
the right.
• Channels: Mono, Stereo and from 3 to 16
• To audition a file, select it in the list and use the play- • Sample Rate: various values, choose “Other” for free setting
back controls to the left (Play, Stop, Pause, and Loop). • Date: various search ranges
If Auto Play is activated, selected files are automatically played back.
4. Select one of the search criteria in the pop-up menu to
• To import a file into the Pool, double-click on it in the list change the search option above the Location pop-up
or select it and click the Import button. menu.
5. To close the search pane, click the Search button on
the toolbar again.

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5. If you want to display more search options, select the Locate missing files
desired element from the “Add filter” submenu.
1. Select “Find Missing Files…” from the Media or con-
This allows you, for example, to add the Size or the Sample Rate parame-
ters to the already displayed Name and Location parameters.
text menu.
The Resolve Missing Files dialog opens.
• You can save presets of your search filter settings. To
do this, click Save Preset on the Presets submenu and
enter a name for the preset.

Existing presets can be found at the bottom of the list. To remove a

preset, click on the preset to activate it, then select Remove Preset.

The Find Media window

Alternatively to the search pane in the Pool, you can open a
stand-alone Find Media window by selecting the “Search
Media…” option from the Media or context menu (also 2. Decide if you want the program to try to find the file for
available from the Project window). This offers the same you (Search), if you want to do it yourself (Locate) or if you
functionality as the search pane. want to specify in which directory the program will search
• To insert a clip or region directly into the project from for the file (Folder).
the Find Media window, select it in the list and choose one • If you select Locate, a file dialog opens, allowing you to
of the “Insert into Project” options from the Media menu. locate the file manually.
The options are described in the section “Inserting clips into a project” Select the file and click “Open”.
on page 198.
• If you select Folder, a dialog opens to let you specify the
About missing files directory in which the missing file can be found.
This might be the preferred method if you have renamed or moved the
When you open a project, the Resolve Missing Files dia- folder containing the missing file, but the file still has the same name. Once
log (see below) may open, warning you that one or more you select the correct folder, the program finds the file and you can close
files are “missing”. If you click Close, the project will open the dialog.
anyway, without the missing files. In the Pool, you can
• If you select Search, a dialog opens to let you specify
check which files are considered missing. This is indi-
which folder or disk will be scanned by the program.
cated by a question mark in the Status column.
Click the Search Folder button, select a directory or a disk and click the
A file is considered missing under one of the following Start button. If found, select the file from the list and click “Accept”.
conditions: Afterwards Cubase tries to map all other missing files automatically.

• The file has been moved or renamed outside the pro- Reconstructing missing edit files
gram since the last time you worked with the project, and
If a missing file cannot be found (e. g. if you have acciden-
you ignored the Resolve Missing Files dialog when you
tally deleted it from the hard disk), it will normally be indi-
opened the project for the current session.
cated with a question mark in the Status column in the
• You have moved or renamed the file outside the pro- Pool. However, if the missing file is an edit file (a file cre-
gram during the current session. ated when you process audio, stored in the Edits folder
within the project folder), it may be possible for the pro-
• You have moved or renamed the folder in which the
gram to reconstruct it by recreating the editing to the orig-
missing files are located.
inal audio file.

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Proceed as follows: Opening clips in the Sample Editor
1. Open the Pool and locate the clip(s) for which files are The Sample Editor allows you to perform detailed editing
missing. on the clip (see “The Sample Editor” on page 176). You
can open clips in the Sample Editor directly from the Pool
2. Check the Status column – if it says “Reconstructible”,
in the following ways:
the file can be reconstructed by Cubase.
• If you double-click a clip waveform icon or a clip name
3. Select the reconstructible clips and select “Recon-
in the Media column, the clip opens in the Sample Editor.
struct” from the Media menu.
The editing is performed and the edit files are recreated. • If you double-click a region in the Pool, its clip opens in
the Sample Editor with the region selected.
Removing missing files from the Pool
One practical use for this is to set a snap point for a clip
If the Pool contains audio files that cannot be found or re- (see “Adjusting the snap point” on page 181). When you
constructed, you may want to remove these. For this, select later insert the clip from the Pool into the project, you can
“Remove Missing Files” from the Media or context menu. have it be properly aligned according to the set snap point.
This will remove all missing files from the Pool as well as the
corresponding events from the Project window.
About the Import Medium dialog
Auditioning clips in the Pool The Import Medium dialog lets you import files directly into
the Pool. It is opened from the Media or context menu or
There are three ways to audition clips in the Pool: using the Import button in the Pool window.
• By using key commands. This is a standard file dialog, where you can navigate to
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the
other folders, audition files, etc. The following audio file
Preferences dialog (Transport page), you can use [Space] to audition.
This is the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.
formats can be imported:

• By selecting a clip and activating the Audition button. • Wave (Normal or Broadcast, see “Broadcast Wave files” on
The whole clip will play back, unless you stop playback by clicking the page 300)
Audition button again. • AIFF and AIFC (Compressed AIFF)
• REX or REX 2 (see “Importing ReCycle files” on page 331)
• By clicking somewhere in the waveform image for a clip. • SD2 (Sound Designer II)
The clip will play from the position in the waveform you click until the end
• MPEG Layer 3 (MP3 files – see “Importing compressed audio
of the clip, unless you stop playback by clicking the Audition button, or
by clicking anywhere else in the Pool window.
files” on page 332)
• Ogg Vorbis (OGG files – see “Importing compressed audio
The audio is routed directly to the Main Mix (the default files” on page 332)
output) bus, bypassing the audio channel’s settings, ef- • Windows Media Audio (Windows – see “Importing com-
fects and EQs. pressed audio files” on page 332)
Ö You can adjust the auditioning level with the miniature • Wave 64 (W64 files)
level fader on the toolbar. This does not affect the regular They may have the following characteristics:
playback level.
• Stereo or mono
If you have activated the Audition Loop button before you • Any sample rate (although files with another sample rate than
audition, the following will happen: the one used in the project will play back at the wrong speed
• When you click the Audition button to audition a clip, and pitch – see below).
the clip is repeated indefinitely until you stop playback by • 8, 16, 24 bit or 32 bit float resolution.
clicking the Audition or Audition Loop button again. Various video formats can be imported. For information
• When you click in the waveform image to audition, the about the supported video formats, see “Video file com-
section from the point you clicked to the end of the clip is patibility” on page 317.
repeated indefinitely until you stop playback.

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The Pool
Ö It is also possible to use the commands on the Import About the Import Audio CD dialog
submenu of the File menu to import audio or video files
You can import tracks (or sections of tracks) from an au-
into the Pool.
dio CD directly into the Pool by using the “Import Audio
When you select a file in the Import Medium dialog and CD…” function on the Media menu. This opens a dialog in
click Open, the Import Options dialog opens. which you can specify which tracks are copied from the
CD, converted to audio files and added to the Pool.
For details about the Import from Audio CD dialog, see
“Importing audio CD tracks” on page 329.

Exporting regions as audio files

If you have created regions within an audio clip (see “Work-
ing with regions” on page 183), these can be exported as
separate audio files. To create a new audio file from a re-
gion, proceed as follows:
1. In the Pool, select the region you wish to export.
2. On the Audio menu, select “Bounce Selection”.
It contains the following options: A browser dialog opens.
• Copy File to Working Directory 3. Select the folder in which you want the new file to be
Activate this if you want a copy of the file to be made in the Audio folder created.
of the project, and have the clip refer to this copy. If the option is off, the A new audio file is created in the specified folder. The file will have the
clip will refer to the original file in the original location (and will thus be name of the region and will automatically be added to the Pool.
marked as “external” in the Pool – see “About the Status column sym-
bols” on page 197). Ö If you have two clips that refer to the same audio file
(different “versions” of clips, e. g. created with the “Convert
• Convert to Project section to Real Copy” function), you can use the Bounce Selection
Here you can choose to convert the sample rate (if the sample rate is dif-
function to create a new, separate file for the copied clip.
ferent than the one set for the project) or the sample size, i. e. resolution
(if the sample size is lower than the record format used in the project).
Select the clip, select Bounce Selection, and enter a loca-
The options are only available if necessary. Note that if you are importing tion and name for the new file.
several audio files at once, the Import Options dialog will instead contain
a “Convert and Copy to Project if needed” checkbox. When this is acti- Changing the Pool Record folder
vated, the imported files will be converted only if the sample rate is differ-
All audio clips that you record in the project will end up in
ent or the sample size is lower than the project’s.
the Pool Record folder. The Pool Record folder is indicated
• Please, don’t ask again by the text “Record” in the Status column and by a red dot
If this is activated, files will always be imported according to the settings on the folder itself.
you have made, without this dialog appearing. This can be reset in the
Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page).
Ö You can always convert files later by using the Convert
Files (see “Convert Files” on page 205) or Conform Files By default, this is the main Audio folder. However, you can
(see “Conform Files” on page 205) options. create a new Audio subfolder at any time and designate
this as your Pool Record folder:
1. Select the Audio folder or any audio clip.
You cannot designate the Video folder (or any of its subfolders) as the
Pool Record folder.

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The Pool
2. Select “Create Folder” on the Media or context menu. Minimize File
A new empty subfolder named “New Folder” appears in the Pool.
The “Minimize File” option on the Media or context menu
3. Select the new folder and rename it as desired. allows you shrink the audio files according to the size of
4. Select “Set Pool Record Folder” on the Media or con- the audio clips referenced in a project. The files produced
text menu, or click in the Status column of the new folder. using this option only contain the audio file portions actu-
The new folder now becomes the Pool Record folder, and any audio re- ally used in the project. This can significantly reduce the
corded in the project will be saved in this folder. size of the project, if large portions of the audio files are
unused. Therefore, the option is useful for archiving pur-
Organizing clips and folders poses after you have completed a project.

If you accumulate a large number of clips in the Pool, it Ö This operation will permanently alter the selected au-
may sometimes be difficult to quickly find specific items. In dio files in the Pool. This cannot be undone! If this is not
such cases, organizing clips in new subfolders with suit- what you want, you can use the “Back up Project” option
able names that reflect the content can be a solution. For on the File menu instead, see “Back up Project” on page
example, you could put all sound effects in one folder, all 42. This function also has the option of minimizing files,
lead vocals in another, etc. Proceed as follows: but copies all files into a new folder, leaving the original
project untouched.
1. Select the type of folder, audio or video, for which you
want to create a subfolder. Proceed as follows:
You cannot put audio clips in a video folder and vice versa. 1. Select the file(s) you wish to minimize.
2. Select “Create Folder” on the Media or context menu. 2. Select “Minimize File” on the Media menu.
A new empty subfolder named “New Folder” appears in the Pool.
An alert appears, informing you that the entire Edit History will be
3. Rename the folder as desired. cleared. Click Minimize to proceed or Cancel to stop the process.

4. Drag and drop the clips you wish to move to the new 3. After the minimizing is finished, another alert appears,
folder. because the file references in the stored project have be-
come invalid.
5. Repeat steps 1–4 as necessary. Click Save Now to save the updated project or click Later to proceed
with the unsaved project.
Applying processing to clips in the Pool
Only the audio portions actually used in the project remain
You can apply audio processing to clips from within the in the corresponding audio file(s) in the Pool Record folder.
Pool in the same way as to events in the Project window.
Simply select the clip(s) and choose a processing method Prepare Archive
from the Audio menu. To find out more about audio pro-
cessing, see the chapter “Audio processing and func- The “Prepare Archive” option on the Media menu is useful
tions” on page 165. if you want to archive a project. For detailed information
about the Prepare Archive feature, see “Prepare Archive”
on page 42.
Undoing processing
If you have applied processing to a clip, in the Project win-
dow, the Sample Editor, or in the Pool, this is indicated by
the red and gray waveform symbol in the Status column.

Freeze Edits
You can use the Freeze Edits function to create a new file
with processing applied or to replace the original with a
processed version, see “Freeze Edits” on page 171.

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The Pool
Convert Files Conform Files
By using this command, you will change all selected files
that have different file attributes than what is specified for
the project, to conform to this standard.
Proceed as follows:
1. Select the clips in the Pool.
2. Select “Conform Files…” on the Media menu.
A dialog opens allowing you to choose between keeping or replacing the
original unconverted files in the Pool.
The following applies:
Selecting the “Convert Files” option on the Media or con- • Clip/event references in the Pool are always redirected to the
text menu opens the Convert Options dialog which oper- conformed files.
ates on selected files. Use the pop-up menus to specify • If any “keep” option is selected, original files remain in the
which audio file attributes you want to keep and which you Project’s Audio folder and new files are created.
want to convert. The available settings are: • If you select the “Replace” option, files in the Pool and in the
• Sample Rate Project’s Audio folder are replaced.
Keep as is, or convert to a sample rate between 8.000 and 96.000 kHz.
• Sample Width
Extract Audio from Video File
Keep the sample width (resolution) as is, or convert to 16 Bit, 24 Bit or This Media menu item allows you to extract the audio from
32 Bit Float. a video file on disk. It automatically generates a new audio
• Channels clip that will appear in the Pool Record folder. The result-
Keep as is, or convert the file to Mono or Stereo Interleaved. ing clip will have the following properties:

• File Format • It will get the same file format and sample rate/width as
Keep as is, or convert to Wave, AIFF, Wave 64, or Broadcast Wave in the current project.
format. • It will get the same name as the video file.
Options Ö This function is not available for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
When you convert a file, you can use the Options pop-up video files.
menu to set one of the following options regarding what to
do with the new file:
Option Description
New Files Creates a copy of the file in the audio folder and converts this
new file according to the chosen attributes. The new file is
added to the Pool, but all clip references will still point to the
original, unconverted file.
Replace Converts the original file without changing clip references. The
Files references are however saved with the next save action.
New + Creates a new copy with the chosen attributes, replaces the
Replace in original file with the new one in the Pool and redirects the cur-
Pool rent clip references from the original file to the new file. This is
the option to select if you want your audio clips to refer to the
converted file, but still want to keep the original file on disk
(e. g. if the file is used in other projects).

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 21
The MediaBay
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges in typical computer-based music production environments is how to manage the ever-
growing number of plug-ins, instruments, presets, etc. from multiple sources. Cubase features an efficient database for
media file management that allows you to handle all your media files from within your sequencer program.
The Locations section

The Define
Locations
section
The Filters section

The Results list

The Previewer section

The MediaBay is divided into several sections: Accessing the MediaBay

• Define Locations – Here, you can create “presets” for locations To open the MediaBay, select the MediaBay command on
on your system that you want to scan for media files, see “Defin- the Media menu. You can also use the corresponding key
ing Locations” on page 210. command (by default F5).
• Locations – Here, you can switch between the previously de-
Ö By default, the Define Locations section, the Locations
fined Locations.
section, the Filters section, the Results list and the Pre-
• Filters – Here, you can filter the Results list using an attribute
viewer section are shown.
filter, see “The Filters section” on page 215.
• Results – Here, all found media files are displayed. You can
also filter the list and perform text searches, see “The Results
list” on page 211.
• Previewer – This section allows you to preview the files shown
in the Results list, see “Previewing files” on page 213.

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The MediaBay
Setting up the MediaBay window Working with the MediaBay
You can show and hide the different sections of the
When working with many music files, the most important
MediaBay (except for the Results list). This is handy, as it
thing is to find the content you need quickly and easily.
allows you to save screen space and enables you to dis-
The MediaBay helps you find and organize your content in
play only the information you need for your work.
an effective and efficient way. After the first scan of the
Proceed as follows: folders you have activated for scanning (which will take a
1. Click the “Set up Window Layout” button in the lower certain time), all the files that were found are there for you
left corner of the MediaBay window. to browse, tag or modify.
At the beginning, all media files of the supported formats
are listed in the Results section: far too many to get a
good overview. However, by using the search and filter
techniques, you get the desired results very quickly.
A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a
gray area containing checkboxes for the different sections. The first thing to do is to set up “Locations”, that is folders
or directories on your system that contain media files.
Usually, files are organized in a specific way on your com-
puter. For example, you might have folders reserved for
audio content, folders for special effects, folders for com-
binations of sounds making up the ambience noise you
need for a certain film take, etc. These can all be set as
different Locations in the MediaBay, allowing you to limit
2. Deactivate the checkboxes for the sections you want the files available in the Results list according to context.
to hide from view. Whenever you expand your computer system (for exam-
Any changes you make here are directly reflected in the MediaBay window. ple, by adding new hard disks or an external volume con-
Note that the Results list cannot be hidden. taining media files you want to work with), you should
Ö You can also use key commands for this: use the up/ make it a habit to save the new volumes as Locations or
down and left/right arrow keys to step through the check- add them to your existing Locations. Afterwards, you can
boxes and press [Space] to activate/deactivate the de- hide the Define Locations section from view. That way, the
sired checkbox. MediaBay occupies less screen space and you can con-
centrate on the important thing: the Results list.
3. When you are done, click outside the gray area to exit
the Setup mode. For this list, you can specify which file types are displayed,
Alternatively, you can wait a few seconds for the pane to disappear auto- see “Filtering according to media type” on page 211. If
matically. there are still too many files to choose from, you can nar-
row down the results using a text search function, see
• You can change the size of the individual MediaBay sec-
“Performing a text search” on page 212. This is often all it
tions by dragging the divider line between two sections.
needs to display what you want, allowing you to proceed
by previewing the files before inserting them into your
project (see “Previewing files” on page 213). However, if
you need more complex and detailed filtering, this is also
possible using attribute filtering, see “Applying an attribute
filter” on page 215. Finally, the files can be easily inserted
into the project, by using drag & drop, by double-clicking
or using the context menu options, see “Inserting the files
into the project” on page 213.

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The Define Locations section The scanning status for the individual folders themselves
is indicated by the color of the folder icons:
• A red icon means that the folder is currently being scanned.
• A light blue icon means the folder has been scanned.
• A dark blue icon is displayed for folders which are excluded
from the scan.
• An orange icon is displayed when the scanning process for
the folder was interrupted.
• A yellow icon is displayed for folders that have not yet been
scanned.
The scan result is saved in a database file. When you de-
activate the checkbox for a folder that has already been
scanned, a message appears, allowing you to keep the
gathered scan data in this database file or to completely
When you open the MediaBay for the first time, a scan for remove the data for this folder from the database file. Se-
media files is performed on your system. You specify which lect Keep if you want to keep the database entries, but
folders or directories you want to be included in the scan by want to exclude the folder from being scanned (when you
activating/deactivating the checkboxes for the folders in the trigger a re-scan for example). Select Remove if you do
Define Locations section. Depending on the amount of me- not want to use the contents of this folder in your projects.
dia files on your computer, the scan may take a while. All • When you activate the “Please, don’t ask again” option,
files that are found in the specified folders are shown in the no further warning messages will be shown when you de-
Results list. activate other checkboxes, for as long as the program is
• To include a folder in the scan, activate its checkbox. running.
When you quit and re-launch Cubase, these warning messages will be
• To exclude a folder from the scan, deactivate its check- displayed again.
box.
• To restrict the search to individual subfolders, activate/ The VST Sound node
deactivate their checkboxes. The Define Locations section provides a shortcut to user
The color of the checkmark helps you to identify which content and factory content files, including the preset
folders and subfolders are scanned: folders: the VST Sound node.
• A white checkmark indicates that all subfolders are scanned. • The folders below the VST Sound node represent the
• An orange checkmark indicates that at least one subfolder is directories in which content files and track presets, VST
excluded from the scan. presets, etc. are stored by default.
To find out the “true” location of a file, right-click on it in the Results list
Some subfolders of this folder and select “Open in Explorer” (Win)/“Reveal in Finder” (Mac). This will
are excluded from the scan. open an Explorer/Finder window in which the corresponding file is high-
lighted. Please note that this function is not available for files which are
All subfolders of this folder are part of a VST Sound archive.
included in the scan.

• To revert to scanning a complete folder (including all

subfolders), click on an orange checkmark.
The checkmark becomes white, to indicate that all folders are scanned.

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Updating the display To define a location, proceed as follows:
You can update the display in two ways: by rescanning or 1. In the list to the left, select the desired folder.
by refreshing. 2. Click the Add button.
A naming dialog for the new location is displayed.
Rescanning
3. Accept the default name or enter a new name.
When you click the Rescan button, the selected folder is
rescanned. If a folder contains a large number of media 4. Click OK.
files, the scanning process may take some time. Use this The new location is added to the Locations pop-up menu in the Loca-
function if you have made changes to the content of spe- tions section (see below).
cific media folders and want to scan these folders again. 5. Repeat these steps to add as many locations as you
need.
Once you have set up your locations, you can hide the
Define Locations section from view (see “Setting up the
MediaBay window” on page 208), to save screen space.
Ö You can also rescan the selected folder by right-click- Ö Some Location presets are available by default. These
ing on it and selecting Rescan Disk from the context menu. are: “All Media” (the topmost node in the Define Locations
section), “Local Harddisks” (the local harddisks in your
Refreshing
computer system) and “VST Sound” (the folder in which
In addition to the Rescan Disk option, the context menu Steinberg sound files, loops and presets are stored by
for the selected node or folder in the Define Locations default).
section also contains a Refresh Views option. This re-
freshes the display for this location without rescanning the
corresponding media files.
The Locations section
This is useful in the following situations: When you open the Locations pop-up menu and select a
location, the media files found in that location are shown in
• When you have modified attribute values (see “Editing the Results list. By switching between the locations you
attributes (tagging)” on page 216) and want to update the defined, you can quickly browse to the files you are look-
Results list so that these values are displayed for the cor- ing for.
responding files.
Browse Containing Folder Remove Browse Location Definition
• When you have mapped a new network drive, for exam-
ple, and want this to appear as a node in the Define Loca-
tions section. Simply select the Refresh Views option for Deep
Results
the parent node and the new drive will appear in the Define
Locations section (ready to be scanned for media files). Previous/Next Click here to select a location.
Browse Location
Defining Locations • To change the browse location, simply select another
When you have set up the Define Locations section ac- location from the pop-up menu.
cording to your preferences, and the content is scanned, it If the available Locations don’t yield the desired results or if the folder
is time to make it available in a meaningful way. For this, you want to scan for files is not part of any of the locations, define a new
you can define locations, i. e. shortcuts to the folders you Location in the Define Locations section.
want to work with, that will be available from the Locations • To select the previous or next folder in a sequence of
section for convenient access. selected folders, use the “Previous/Next Browse Location”
buttons.
These paths will be deleted when you close the MediaBay.

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The MediaBay
• To select the parent folder of the selected folder, click
the “Browse Containing Folder” button.
Select this option to display all
• To remove a location from the pop-up menu, select it types.
and click the “Remove Browse Location Definition” button. Here, the last four media type
selections are listed.
• To show the files contained in the selected folder and
any subfolders (without showing these subfolders), acti-
vate the Deep Results button.
When this button is deactivated, only the folders and files contained in
The media types you activate
the selected folder are shown.
here are shown in the Results
list.

The Results list

The Results list is at the heart of the MediaBay. Here, you
will find all the files found in the selected location.

When you have filtered the list to show a particular media

type, this is indicated by the corresponding icon to the left
of media type field. When you have selected several me-
dia types, the Mixed Media Type icon is used.

The media types

In the “Show Media Types” dialog, you can activate the
media types you want to be displayed in the Results list.
As the number of files displayed can be huge (the info The following types are available:
field in the top right corner of the Results section shows Option Description
the number of files found with the current filter settings), Audio Files When this is activated, the list shows all audio files. The
you might want to use any of the filter and search options supported formats are .wav, .w64, .aiff, .aifc, .rex, .rx2,
in the MediaBay to narrow down the list. The available op- .mp3, .mp2, .ogg, .sd2, .wma (Windows only).
tions are described below. MIDI Files When this is activated, the list shows all MIDI files (file
name extension .mid).
Ö The maximum number of files that are displayed in the
MIDI Loops When this is activated, the list shows all MIDI loops (file
Results list can be set by specifying a new value for “Max- name extension .midiloop).
imum Items in Results list” in the Preferences dialog (see Track Presets When this is activated, the list shows all track presets for
“Preferences” on page 217). audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks (file name extension
.trackpreset). Track presets are a combination of track
settings, effects and mixer settings that can be applied to
Filtering according to media type new tracks of various types. For more information, see
the chapter “Working with track presets” on page 221.
The Results list can be set to display only a particular me-
dia type or a combination of media types. Plug-in Presets When this is activated, the list shows all VST presets for
instrument and effect plug-ins. These presets contain all
• Click in the field where the currently displayed media parameter settings for a particular plug-in. They can be
used to apply sounds to instrument tracks and effects to
types are shown (by default “All Media Types”) to open audio tracks. For more information, see the chapter
the Show Media Types dialog. “Working with track presets” on page 221.
Here, you can activate the media types you want to be displayed in the Video Files When this is activated, the list shows all video files. For
Results list. information about the supported video formats, see
“Video file compatibility” on page 317.
Projects When this is activated, the list shows all project files
(.cpr).

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The MediaBay
Setting up the Results list columns For example, if you are looking for all audio loops relating
to drum sounds, simply enter “drum” in the search field.
For each media type, or for combinations of media types,
The search results will contain loops with names such as
you can specify the attribute columns that are displayed in
“Drums 01”, “Drumloop”, “Snare Drum”, etc. Also, all me-
the Results list. In most cases, you will probably only want
dia files with the Category attribute Drum&Percussion, or
to display a few main attributes in the Results list and use
any other attribute that contains “drum” will be found.
the Attribute Inspector to view the complete list of attribute
values for the files. When you enter text in the field, its background becomes
red, to indicate that a text filter is active for the list. To re-
Proceed as follows:
set the text filter, delete the text.
1. Select the media type (or combination of media types)
that you want to make settings for. The rating slider
2. Click the “Set up Result Columns” button and activate With this setting, only files with a rating of at least
or deactivate the options on the submenus. 2 are displayed.

Click here to open the pop-up menu. Using the rating slider above the Results list, you can
specify rating settings for your files, ranging from 1 to 5.
This makes it possible to exclude certain files from the
search according to their quality.
When you move the rating slider, the active rating filter is
indicated in red. All files of this rating are displayed in the
list.

The search in progress indicator

At the top right in the Results list you will find an indicator
Activate the attributes that you want to be displayed in the Results list.
which shows whether the MediaBay is currently searching
Ö If you want to see none of the attributes of a certain for files.
category, choose the “Select None” option on the corre-
sponding submenu. When this indicator is shown, a media search is in
progress.

Performing a text search

Resetting the list
You can limit the number of results in the Results list using
the text search function. When you enter text in the Text When you have set up filters for the Results list, you can
Search field, only media files whose attributes match the set everything back to default by clicking the Reset Re-
entered text will be displayed. sults Filter button to the right of the Rating slider.

This will delete any text in the text search field, set the rat-
ing slider to display all files and deactivate all the media
type filters.

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The MediaBay
Inserting the files into the project ! When a file was deleted in the Explorer/Finder, it will
You can insert files into the project by right-clicking on still be displayed in the Results list, although it is no
them and selecting one of the “Insert into project” options longer available to the program. To remedy this, you
from the context menu, or you can double-click them. have to re-scan the corresponding folder.
What happens next depends on the track type:
Audio files, MIDI loops, and MIDI files can be inserted into Previewing files
the project by double-clicking them in the Results list.
When you have sufficiently narrowed down the list of files,
They will be inserted on the active track, if this matches
you will want to preview individual files to find out which
the file type or onto a new track if no corresponding track
one to use in your project. This is done in the Previewer
is active. The files will be inserted at the current project
section.
cursor position.
Note that some MediaBay-specific Preferences affect the
Similarly, if you double-click on a track preset, it will be ap-
playback of media files, see “Preferences” on page 217.
plied to the active track, if the track type matches the track
preset. Otherwise, a new track will be inserted, containing The elements visible in this section and their functions
the settings of the track preset. depend on the type of media file.
If you double-click a VST preset, an instrument track is ! The Previewer section is not available for video files,
added to the project, containing an instance of the corre- project files, and audio track presets.
sponding instrument. For some VST presets, this will load
the entire instrument settings, programs, etc. For others,
Previewing audio files
only one program will be loaded, see “Applying instrument
presets” on page 219. Transport Preview Auto Play New Align Beats
controls level Results Selection to Project
When you double-click on a pattern bank, a new MIDI
track is created in the Project window, with an instance of
the Beat Designer plug-in as insert effect which is using
this pattern.

Managing files in the Results list

• You can move/copy a file from the Results list to another Wait for Project Play
location by clicking on it and dragging it to another folder in
the Define Locations section. To preview an audio file, click the Play button. What hap-
You will be asked whether you want to copy or move the file to the new pens next depends on the following settings:
location. • When “Auto Play New Results Selection” is activated,
• You can change the display order in the Results list by any file you select in the Results list is automatically played
clicking on a column heading, and dragging that heading back.
to another position in the display. • When “Align Beats to Project” is activated, the file you
• To delete a file, right-click it in the list and select Delete selected for preview in the Results list is played back in
from the context menu. sync with the project, starting at the project cursor posi-
A warning message is displayed, asking you to confirm that you really tion. Note that this may apply realtime time stretching to
want to move this file to the operating system’s trash folder. The data you your audio file.
delete here will be permanently deleted from your computer, therefore be When you import an audio file into your project for which “Align Beats to
sure to delete only the files you do not want to use any more. Project” is activated in the Previewer, Musical Mode is automatically ac-
tivated for the corresponding track.

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The MediaBay
• When “Wait for Project Play” is activated, the Play and Previewing VST presets and track presets for
Stop functions from the Transport panel are synchronized MIDI and instrument tracks
with the Play and Stop buttons in the Previewer section.
Transport Sequence Mode Preview Level Computer key-
This option is very useful for previewing audio loops. To use it to its full
controls pop-up menu fader board input
extent, set the left locator at the beginning of a bar, then start playing
back the project using the Transport panel. The loops that you now se-
lect in the Results list will start together with the project in perfect sync.
Play and Stop of the Previewer transport can still be used if needed.

Previewing audio track presets

Track presets for audio tracks can only be previewed in the
Presets browser (see “Loading track or VST presets in the Track presets for MIDI or instrument tracks and VST pre-
Inspector or the context menu of the track” on page 224). sets require MIDI notes for previewing. These notes can
be sent to the track preset in the following way:
Previewing MIDI files • Via MIDI Input
Transport controls Output
• Using a MIDI file
• Using the Memo Recorder
• Via the computer keyboard
These methods will be described in the following sections.

Previewing presets via MIDI input

MIDI input is always active, i. e. when a MIDI keyboard is
• To preview a MIDI file (.mid), you first have to select an connected to your computer (and set up properly), you
output device from the Output pop-up menu. can directly start playing the notes to preview the selected
preset.
“Auto Play New Results Selection” and “Align Beats to
Project” work as for audio files, see above. Previewing presets using a MIDI file
Proceed as follows:
Previewing MIDI loops
1. On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select “Load
• To preview a MIDI loop file, click the Play button.
MIDI File”.
“Auto Play New Results Selection” works as for audio
2. In the file dialog that opens, navigate to the desired
files, see above. MIDI loops are always played back in
MIDI file, and click Open.
sync to the project.
The name of the MIDI file is displayed on the pop-up menu.
3. Click the Play button to the left of the pop-up menu.
The notes received from the MIDI file are now played back with the settings
of the track preset applied.
Ö The recently used MIDI files are kept on the menu, for
quick access. To remove an entry from this list, select it on
the menu and then select “Remove MIDI File”.

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The MediaBay
Previewing presets using the Memo Recorder The Filters section
The Memo Recorder function continually repeats a given
With the MediaBay, you can perform very refined file
sequence of notes as a loop.
searches.
To use the Memo Recorder, proceed as follows:
1. On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select Memo Performing a context menu search
Recorder. If you have selected a file in the Results list which contains
2. Enter the notes via the MIDI or computer keyboard. an attribute you are interested, there is a very fast way to
The Play button is automatically activated and you will instantly hear the look for other files with the same attribute.
notes you play with the preset settings applied. • Right-click the selected file to open the context menu
• When you stop playing notes and wait for 2 seconds, and select the attribute value from the “Search for…” sub-
the note sequence you played until this moment will be menu.
played back in a continuous loop. This way you can easily find all the files that have this value in common, for
To use another sequence, simply start entering notes again. example if you want to view all files that were created on the same day.

Ö You cannot use the Memo Recorder when previewing Applying an attribute filter
presets using a MIDI file.
The MediaBay allows you not only to view and edit some
Previewing presets via the computer keyboard of the standard file attributes found in all computer files,
but it also provides preconfigured attributes, or “tags”,
Proceed as follows:
that you can use to organize your media files.
1. Activate the “Computer Keyboard Input” button.
The Filters section displays all values found for a specific
The keyboard display in the Previewer section works in the attribute. Selecting one of these values will result in a list of
same way as the Virtual Keyboard, see “The Virtual Key- files all showing this particular attribute value. For example,
board” on page 73. you could look for sample rates and pick 44.1 kHz to give
you a list of all files with that particular sample rate.
! When you activate the “Computer Keyboard Input”
button, the computer keyboard is used exclusively for The advantages of the use of attributes become obvious
the Previewer sections, i. e. the usual key commands when having to find a specific file in a large database,
are blocked. The only exceptions are: without knowing the name of that file.
[Ctrl]/[Command]-[S] (Save), Num [*] (Start/Stop The Filters section always shows attribute columns, each
Record), [Space] (Start/Stop Playback), Num [1] with its own list of attribute values. If the columns are wide
(Jump to left locator), [Delete] or [Backspace] enough, the number of files that match this criteria is dis-
(Delete), Num [/] (Cycle on/off), and [F2] (Show/ played to the right of the filter name.
Hide Transport panel).
• To define an Attribute filter, click on the values in an at-
2. Enter the notes via the corresponding keys on the tribute column.
computer keyboard. Only the files that match the selected attribute values are now shown in
the Results list. Select more attribute values from other columns to fur-
ther refine your filter.

! Some attributes are directly linked to each other (e. g.

for each Category value, there are certain Sub Cate-
gory values available). Changing the value in one of
these attribute column will give you different values in
the other column!

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The MediaBay
 ! Each attribute column displays only the attribute val- Editing attributes (tagging)
ues found in the currently selected location! This The search functions become a truly powerful media man-
means that selecting another location may lead to agement tool when making extensive use of tagging, i. e.
the display of different attributes. when adding and editing attributes.
• Selected attribute values in the same column form an To find a particular sound or loop in such a folder structure
OR condition. can be very time consuming – tagging is the answer!
This means that files must be tagged according to either one or the other
attribute value to be displayed in the Results list. Editing attributes in the Results list
You can also edit attributes directly in the Results list. This
allows you for example to assign tags to a number of loop
files.
Proceed as follows:
1. In the Results list, select the file(s) for which you want
Ö Note that this is not true for the Character attribute, to change an attribute value.
which always forms an AND condition, see below.
2. Click in the column for the tag value you want to as-
• Attribute values in different columns form an AND sign. You can choose any of the selected loops for this.
condition. Depending on the attribute type, a pop-up menu with tag values orga-
This means that files must be tagged according to all these attribute nized in submenus will show or, in the case of numeric values, you will be
values to be shown in the Results list. able to enter the value directly into the corresponding field.
3. Choose values from the pop-up menus and/or enter
the desired numeric values.
For example, you could choose the Sub Category “Snare Drum” from the
“DrumPerc” menu, choose “Hard Rock” as a Sub Style from the “Rock/
Metal Style” category and enter 125.00 in the Tempo field.

Editing the attributes of multiple files simultaneously

Assigning attribute values to your files makes it easy to or-
ganize the media files. There is no limit as to how many files can be tagged at the
same time, but you need to be aware that the tagging of a
Further search options large amount of files in one go may take quite a while. This
• You can select an attribute value, by clicking on it. To operation is executed in the background, so that you can
deselect it, click the value again. continue with your work as usual. By looking at the Attri-
Note that you can select more than one value in each attribute column. bute Counter above the Results list, you can see how
many files still have to be updated.
• You can clear all settings in the attribute columns by
clicking the Reset Filter button at the top right of the Fil- • If you close Cubase before the Attribute Counter has
ters section. gone down to zero, a dialog with a progress bar is dis-
Clicking this button also resets the Results list. played, indicating how long the updating process will take.
You can choose to abort this process.
In this case only the files that were updated before you clicked “Abort”
will have the new attribute values.

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The MediaBay
Editing the attributes of write-protected files The Loop Browser and Sound
Media files may be write-protected due to a number of rea- Browser windows
sons: They may belong to content that was provided by
someone else who write-protected the files, you may have The Loop Browser and Sound Browser items on the Media
write-protected them yourself in order not to overwrite them menu open different “views” of the MediaBay. The Loop
accidentally, or the file format could restrict write operations Browser is preconfigured for quickly browsing your “loops”,
by the MediaBay. i. e. audio files, MIDI loops, and pattern banks. Similarly, the
Sound Browser is set up for you to be able to quickly
In the MediaBay, the write protection status of files is search the desired sound, without having to configure the
shown in the Write Protection column in the Results list. window. By default, it is set to display track presets and
plug-in presets.
These Browser windows offer the same functions as the
MediaBay, i. e. you can specify different browse locations,
However, there may be cases when you want to define at- define searches, set up the available panes, etc., as de-
tributes for write-protected files. For example, you might scribed previously in this chapter.
want to apply attributes to the content files that came with
Cubase or you are working on the same files with several Preferences
people and cannot modify these files. In these scenarios,
you still want to be able to find files quickly and improve In the Preferences dialog in Cubase, you can find options
your workflow. and settings that control the global behavior of the pro-
gram. The Preferences dialog contains a special Media-
Therefore, it is possible to change the attribute values of
Bay page. These settings are also available from within the
write-protected files in the MediaBay. These changes are
MediaBay.
not written to disk though and occur in the MediaBay only.
To open the Preferences pane for the MediaBay, proceed
• When you specify attribute values for a file that is write-
as follows:
protected, this is reflected in the Pending Tags column
next to the Write Protection column in the Results list. 1. Click the MediaBay Preferences button in the lower
Note that if you rescan the MediaBay content and a media file on your left corner of the window.
hard disk has changed since the last scan, all pending tags for this file
will be lost.
• If a file has pending tags, and you want to write the cor-
responding attributes to the file, you need to remove the
• A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In
write protection first, and then select the “Write Tags to
the center of it is a gray area where the available prefer-
File” command from the context menu.
ences for the Locations section and the Results list are
• You can change the write-protection status of your me- displayed.
dia files, provided that the file type allows write operations
and you have the necessary operation system permis-
sions: To set or remove the write protection attribute for a
file, simply select the file in the Results list and select
“Set/Remove Write Protection” from the context menu.
Ö If you use other programs than Cubase to change the
write-protection status of a file, this will not be reflected in
the MediaBay until you rescan the files!

217
The MediaBay
2. Configure the MediaBay to your liking by activating/ A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the
deactivating the options. center of it is a gray area where the available key com-
mands are displayed.
The following options are available in the Locations section:
Option Description
Show Managed Activate this to hide all folders that are not scanned
Locations Only for files. This will keep the tree view in the Define Lo-
cations section less cluttered.
Use Current Activate this to show only the selected folder and its
Selection as Base subfolders. To switch back to the display of all folders,
Location deactivate this option.
Scan Folders Only When this is activated, Cubase only scans for media
when MediaBay is files when the MediaBay window is open.
Open When this is deactivated, the folders are scanned in
the background even when the MediaBay window is
closed. However, Cubase will never scan folders
while playing back or recording.
• If you only want to get an overview over the key com-
The following options are available in the Results section: mands, you can exit the pane by clicking on its back-
ground (not in the gray area).
Option Description
• If you want to assign or modify key commands, click in
Maximum Use this parameter to specify the maximum number of
Items in files that are displayed in the Results list. This avoids un- the gray area.
Results List manageably long lists of files. The Key Commands dialog opens, in which you can set up and edit key
Note that the MediaBay does not warn you if the maxi- commands, see the chapter “Key commands” on page 343.
mum number of files has been reached and there might
be situations where a certain file you were looking for
could not be found, because the maximum number of files
was reached. Working with MediaBay-related
Show File When this is activated, file name extensions (e. g. .wav or windows
Extensions in .cpr) are displayed in the Results list.
Results List The MediaBay concept can be found throughout the pro-
Scan un- When scanning for media files, the MediaBay ignores gram, for example when adding new tracks or when choos-
known File files with an unknown file extension. However, when this ing presets for VST instruments or effects. The workflow in
Types option is activated, the MediaBay tries to open and scan
any file in the search location and ignores those files that all MediaBay-related windows is the same as in the Media-
cannot be recognized. Bay. Below follow a few examples.

Adding tracks
Key commands
When you select one of the Add Track options on the
You can display the available MediaBay key commands Project menu, the following dialog opens:
from within the MediaBay window. This is useful if you
want to get a quick overview over the assigned and the
available MediaBay key commands.
To open the Key Commands pane, proceed as follows:
The Add Track dialog for audio tracks
• Click the Key Commands button in the lower left corner
of the window.

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The MediaBay
Click the Browse button to expand the dialog to show the Applying instrument presets
Results list (as you can find it in the MediaBay). However,
When working with VST instruments, you can choose
only file types that can be used in this context are shown.
from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu.
The Presets browser opens:

You can also apply track presets to existing tracks. The di-
alog that opens in this case is the same as above.

Applying effect presets

When you have added an insert effect, you can choose VST presets for instruments can be divided into two
from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu for groups: “presets” containing the settings of the whole plug-
the effect slot. in (for multi-timbral instruments, this means the settings for
all sound slots as well as the global settings) and “pro-
The Presets browser opens: grams” containing only the settings for one program (for
multi-timbral instruments, this means only the settings for
one sound slot). In the MediaBay, they can be recognized
by their icons. This way, you can see directly whether a VST
preset contains a single sound or more.
Presets and programs have the following icons:
Icon Description
This preset contains settings for all loaded programs.

This program only contains settings for the first or the se-
lected instrument slot.

219
The MediaBay
Working with Volume databases When the new database file is available, this is reflected
by the symbol to the left of the drive name.
Cubase stores all media file information used in the Media-
Bay, such as paths and attributes, in a local database file on
your computer. However, in some cases, it might be neces- For this volume a volume database has been created.
sary to browse and manage this kind of metadata on an ex-
ternal volume. For example, a sound editor might have to Volume databases are automatically mounted when Cu-
work both at home and in a studio, on two different comput- base is launched. They are shown in the Define Locations
ers. Therefore, he has stored his sound effects on an exter- section and their data can be viewed and edited in the Re-
nal storage medium. When he is working on a different sults list, as for the other media files in the MediaBay.
computer, he wants to connect the external device and di- Rescanning and refreshing
rectly browse its contents in the MediaBay, without having
to scan the device again. This can be achieved by creating Use the Rescan and Refresh MediaBay functions for a vol-
a volume database for the external device. ume database if you have modified the scan settings on a
different system, for example, by activating additional fold-
Volume databases are files that can be created for drives ers for scanning.
of your computer or for external storage media. They con-
tain the same kind of information about the media files on
these drives as the regular MediaBay database.
Removing volume databases
When you have worked on another computer using an ex-
Creating a volume database ternal hard disk and return to your own computer and con-
nect the external device again as part of your system setup,
To create a separate volume database file for a drive, pro- you do not need a separate volume database for it any
ceed as follows:
more. Any data on this drive can then be included in the lo-
1. In the Define Locations section of the MediaBay, se- cal database file again, by removing the extra database file.
lect the external storage medium, drive or partition of your • To remove a database, right-click on it and select “Re-
computer system that you want to create a database for. move Volume Database” from the context menu.
This integrates the metadata in the local MediaBay database file and
! You must select the topmost level (root) for this. You
subsequently deletes the volume database file.
cannot create a database file for a lower-level folder.
2. Right-click on it and select “Create Volume Database”
on the context menu.
The file information for this drive is now written into a new database file.

Ö Depending on the size of the volume database, this

might take a while.

Mounting and unmounting volume databases

! If the drive contains a large amount of data, this pro- When you launch Cubase, all available volume databases
cess may take a while. are automatically mounted. Databases that are made avail-
able while the program is running have to be mounted man-
ually via the command “Mount Volume Database” on the
context menu. To unmount a volume database, select “Un-
mount Volume Database” from the context menu.

220
The MediaBay
 22
Working with track presets
Introduction Instrument track presets
Instrument track presets offer both MIDI and audio fea-
Track presets are templates from audio, MIDI or instru-
tures and are the best choice when handling sounds of
ment tracks that can be applied to newly created or exist-
simple, mono-timbral VST instruments. Use instrument
ing tracks of the same type. They contain sound and
track presets for auditioning your tracks, or saving your
channel settings, and allow you to quickly browse, pre-
preferred sound settings, for example. You can also ex-
view, select and change sounds, or reuse channel set-
tract sounds from instrument track presets for use in in-
tings across projects.
strument tracks, “Extracting sound from an instrument
Track presets are organized in the MediaBay (see the track or VST preset” on page 225.
chapter “The MediaBay” on page 206).
The following data is saved in instrument track presets:
• Audio insert effects
Types of track presets • Audio EQ
There are four kinds of track presets (audio, instrument, • Audio volume + pan
MIDI and Multi) and two kinds of VST presets (VST instru- • MIDI track parameters
ment presets and VST effect plug-in presets). These are • The VST instrument used for the track
described in the following sections. • Staff settings
• Color settings
Ö Track preset settings for volume and pan will be ap- • Drum map settings
plied only when creating a new track from a track preset.
MIDI track presets
Audio track presets
MIDI tracks should be used for multi-timbral VST instru-
Track presets for audio tracks include all settings that de- ments (not in Cubase LE). When creating MIDI track pre-
fine the sound. You can use the factory presets as a start- sets you can either include the currently set channel, or
ing point for your own editing and save the audio settings the currently set patch. See “Creating a track preset” on
that you optimized for an artist you often work with as a page 225 for details.
preset for future recordings.
The following data is saved in MIDI track presets:
The following data is saved in audio track presets:
• MIDI modifiers (Transpose, etc.)
• Insert effects settings (including VST effect presets) • Output + Channel or Program Change
• EQ settings • Volume + pan
• Volume + pan • Staff settings
• Color settings
• Drum map settings

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Working with track presets
Multi-track presets Applying track presets
You can use multi-track presets, for example, when record-
When you apply a track preset, all the settings saved in
ing setups that require several microphones (a drum set or
the preset are applied. Track presets can be applied to
a choir, where you always record under the same condi-
tracks of their own type only, i. e. audio track presets to au-
tions) and you have to edit the resulting tracks in a similar
dio tracks, etc. The only exception are instrument tracks:
way. Furthermore, they can be used when working with lay-
for these, VST presets are also available. Note that apply-
ered tracks, where you use several tracks to generate a cer-
ing VST presets to instrument tracks leads to removal of
tain sound instead of manipulating only one track.
modifiers, inserts, or EQs, since these settings are not
If you select more than one track when creating a track stored in VST presets.
preset, the settings of all selected tracks will be saved as
one multi-track preset. Multi-track presets can only be ap- ! Once a track preset is applied, you cannot undo the
plied if the target tracks are of the same type, number and changes! It is not possible to remove an applied pre-
sequence as the tracks in the track preset, therefore, they set from a track and return to the previous state. If you
should be used in recurring situations with very similar are not satisfied with the track settings, you have to ei-
tracks and settings. ther edit the settings manually or apply another preset.

VST (instrument) presets Applying track or VST presets via drag and drop
VST instrument presets (extension “.vstpreset”) behave 1. Open the MediaBay from the Media menu.
like instrument track presets and contain a VST instrument
and its settings but no modifiers, inserts, or EQ settings.
You can extract sounds from VST presets for use in instru-
ment tracks, see “Extracting sound from an instrument
track or VST preset” on page 225.
The following data is saved in VST instrument presets:
• VST instrument
• VST instrument settings
VST effect plug-ins are available in VST3 and VST2 for-
mat. Presets for these effects are also saved as VST pre-
sets. These that can be part of audio track presets (see
“Audio track presets” on page 222).
Ö In this manual, “VST presets” stands for VST3 instru-
ment presets, unless stated otherwise.

2. Select a MIDI or instrument track preset, or a VST

preset.
3. Preview the preset using the functions in the Pre-
viewer section (for further information, see “Previewing
files” on page 213).
4. Drag and drop it onto a track of the same type.

223
Working with track presets
Ö You can also drag and drop track presets from the Applying a multi-track preset
Windows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder, but in this case,
1. Select several tracks in your project.
no preview for track presets is possible. Multi-track presets can only be applied if track type, number, and se-
quence are identical for the selected tracks and the track preset.
Loading track or VST presets in the Inspector
or the context menu of the track 2. Right-click the track to open the context menu and se-
lect “Load Track Preset”.
1. In the Project window, select a track. The Presets browser opens. Only multi-track presets corresponding to
2. Click in the Load Track Preset field at the top of the In- the selection of tracks in the project are shown.
spector (above the track name) or right-click the track in 3. Select a multi-track preset from the Results list.
the track list and select “Load Track Preset”.
The Presets browser opens.
4. When you have found the preset that you want, dou-
ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser).
Click here… The preset is applied.
• To return to the preset that was selected when you
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Set-
…to open the Presets browser. ting” button.

Reloading track or VST presets

When you have modified the settings of a track or VST
preset and are not satisfied with the results, you can revert
to the default settings of the preset by clicking the “Re-
load Track Preset” button.

Applying inserts and EQ settings from track

3. Select a track or VST preset from the Results list. presets (Cubase Elements only)
If needed, filter the list by activating the attributes you are looking for in
the Filters section. This section is similar to the Filters section in the Instead of handling complete track presets, it is also pos-
MediaBay, see “The Filters section” on page 215. sible to apply insert or equalizer settings from track pre-
sets. Proceed as follows:
4. Start playback to preview the selected audio, MIDI,
instrument track, or VSTpreset. 1. Select the desired track, open the Inspector or the
All settings from the track preset are applied in realtime to the selected Channel Settings window and click the VST Sound button
track. If you set up your target track to a cycle and play back in loop, pre- on the Inserts or Equalizers tab/section.
viewing will be very comfortable. Note that you cannot preview multi- The Preset Management pop-up menu opens.
track presets.
2. On the pop-up menu, select “From Track Preset…”.
5. When you have found the preset that you want, dou- The Presets browser opens, showing all available track presets that con-
ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser). tain inserts or EQ settings.
The preset is applied.
3. Select a track preset and click outside the browser.
• To return to the preset that was selected when you
For information on the general handling of inserts presets,
opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last
see “Effect presets” on page 140. The general handling of
Setting” button.
EQ presets is described in the section “Using EQ pre-
sets” on page 125.

224
Working with track presets
Extracting sound from an instrument track or
VST preset
For instrument tracks, you can extract the “sound” of an
instrument track preset or VST preset, that means the VST
instrument and its settings. Proceed as follows:
1. Select the instrument track to which you want to apply
a sound.
2. Click the VST Sound button below the Output Rout-
ing field in the Inspector.

The Presets browser opens, showing a list of all available

presets.
3. Select an instrument track preset or VST preset by
double-clicking on it.
The VST instrument and its settings (but no inserts, EQs, or modifiers) on
the existing track are overwritten with the data of the track preset. The 3. In the New Preset section, enter a name for the new
previous VST instrument for this instrument track is removed and the new preset.
VST instrument with its settings is set up for the instrument track. The track preset file name extension .trackpreset is assigned automatically.
• If you want to save attributes for the preset, click the
Creating a track preset button below the “New Preset” section at the bottom left.
The Attribute Inspector section opens, allowing you to define attributes
A track preset can be created from an existing audio, for the preset.
MIDI, or instrument track – or a combination of these. • If you create a track preset for a MIDI track, you can de-
Proceed as follows: cide whether you want to include the MIDI channel or the
1. In the Project window, select one or more tracks. MIDI patch.
If several tracks are selected, all of them are stored in one combined 4. Click OK to save the preset and exit the dialog.
multi-track preset, see “Multi-track presets” on page 223.
Track presets are saved within the application folder in the
2. Right-click one of the selected tracks in the track list
“Track Presets” folder (in default subfolders named accord-
and select “Save Track Preset” from the context menu.
ing to their track type: audio, MIDI, instrument, and multi).
The Save Track Preset dialog opens.
Ö You cannot change the default folders, but you can add
further subfolders (by clicking the New Folder button).
In the MediaBay, all presets are available under the (vir-
tual) VST Sound node, see “The VST Sound node” on
page 209.
Ö If you want to use a MIDI track preset for a pre-config-
ured VST instrument setup, load the VST instrument(s) in
the VST Instruments window (not in Cubase LE), select a
VST instrument patch, save the track preset, and do not

225
Working with track presets
change the patch afterwards. To ensure this, use a tem- 3. To preview MIDI and instrument track presets or VST
plate project with the VSTi setup included and save the presets, you have to play MIDI notes on a MIDI keyboard
sounds (track presets) of this template project in specific or load a MIDI file because there is no track connected.
subfolders, as they only work within this setup. The previewing options are described in detail in the section “Previewing
VST presets and track presets for MIDI and instrument tracks” on page
214.
Creating tracks from track presets
or VST presets ! The Preview functions work in the same way in the
MediaBay and its related dialogs. Note however that
Using drag and drop not all Preview functions available in the MediaBay
are also available in the dialogs.
1. Open the MediaBay from the Media menu.
4. When you have found the right preset, click the Add
2. Select a track or VST preset from the list of all presets.
Track button to close the dialog.
3. Start playback to preview the selected VSTpreset. One or more tracks (in case of multi-track presets) are created.
All settings are applied in realtime to the selected track. If you set up your
target track to a cycle and play back in loop, previewing will be very com- Using the Add Track function
fortable. Note that you cannot preview multi-track presets.
1. Right-click the track list and select one of the Add
4. Drag and drop the preset onto the track list in the Proj- Track options on the context menu.
ect window.
One or more (in case of multi-track presets) tracks are created. If you 2. Click the Browse button to expand the Add Track
drag and drop a VST instrument preset, an instrument track is created. dialog.
The Presets Browser opens. The options are the same as when applying
Ö You can also drag and drop from the Windows Ex- a preset to an existing track, see “Loading track or VST presets in the In-
plorer or the Mac OS Finder, but in this case, no preview spector or the context menu of the track” on page 224. The view is fil-
for MIDI and instrument track presets is possible. tered to show only the corresponding track presets.
3. Select a track or VST preset.
Using the Choose Track Preset dialog
4. Click the Add Track button to create the track.
1. Right-click the track list to open the context menu and
on the Add Track submenu select “Add Track Using Track Ö This method is not available for multi-track presets.
Preset…”.
The Choose Track Preset dialog opens, showing a list of the available
presets.
2. Select a preset from the Results list.
The Results section of the Choose Track Preset dialog displays all pre-
set sounds for all track types and VST instruments.
• Using the Filters section, you can narrow down the list
by selecting the attributes that you are looking for.
This section is similar to the Filters section in the MediaBay, see “The Fil-
ters section” on page 215.
• Open the Location Tree section to select the folder in
which you want to look for presets.
To show the Location Tree section, click the “Set Up Window Layout”
button and activate the Location Tree option.

226
Working with track presets
 23
Remote controlling Cubase
Introduction Selecting a remote device
1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
It is possible to control Cubase via MIDI. A large number
of MIDI control devices is supported. This chapter de- 2. If you cannot find the remote device you are looking
scribes how to set up Cubase for remote control. The for, click on the plus sign in the top left corner and select
supported devices are described in the separate PDF the device from the pop-up menu.
document “Remote Control Devices”. The selected device is added to the Devices list.

• There is also a Generic Remote Device option, allowing • Note that it is possible to select more than one remote
you to use any MIDI controller to remote control Cubase. device of the same type.
How to set this up is described in the section “The Generic Remote de- If you have more than one remote device of the same type, these will be
vice” on page 230. numbered in the Devices list. For example, to be able to use a Mackie
Control Extender, you must install a second Mackie control device.

Setting Up 3. Select your MIDI control device model from the De-
vices list.
Depending on the selected device, either a list of programmable function
Connecting the remote device commands or a blank panel is shown in the right half of the dialog window.
Connect the MIDI output on the remote unit to a MIDI in-
put on your MIDI interface. Depending on the remote unit
model, you may also need to connect a MIDI Out on the
interface to a MIDI In on the remote unit (this is necessary
if the remote unit features “feedback devices” such as in-
dicators, motorized faders, etc.).
If you are recording MIDI tracks, you do not want any MIDI
data from the remote unit to be accidentally recorded as
well. To avoid this, you should make the following setting:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
2. Select “MIDI Port Setup” in the list on the left.
3. Check the table on the right and locate the MIDI input
to which you have connected the MIDI remote unit.
4. Deactivate the checkbox in the “In ‘All MIDI Inputs’” 4. Select the correct MIDI input from the pop-up menu.
column for that input, so that the State column reads If necessary, select the correct MIDI output from the pop-up menu.
“Inactive”. 5. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog. You can now use the MIDI control device to move faders and knobs, ac-
tivate Mute and Solo, etc. The exact parameter configuration depends on
Now you have removed the remote unit input from the “All which external MIDI control device you are using.
MIDI Inputs” group. This means that you can record MIDI
tracks with the “All MIDI Inputs” port selected without risk-
ing to record the data from the remote unit at the same time.

228
Remote controlling Cubase
• In the Project window (track list) and the Mixer (bottom Writing automation using remote controls
of channel strips) you will now see white stripes indicating
Automating the Mixer using a remote control device is done
which channels are currently linked to the remote control
in the same way as when you operate on-screen controls in
device.
Write mode. In order to replace existing automation data for
a control, the computer needs to know how long the user
actually “grabbed” or used the control. When doing this “on
screen”, the program simply detects when the mouse but-
ton is pressed and released. When you are using an exter-
nal remote control device without touch-sensitive controls,
Audio 06 can be remote controlled, while Audio 07 is not linked to the
remote control device. Cubase cannot tell whether you “grab and hold” a fader or
simply move it and release it.
! Sometimes communication between Cubase and a
Therefore, when you are using a device without touch-
remote device is interrupted or the handshaking pro-
sensitive controls and want to replace existing automation
tocol fails to create a connection. To re-establish
data, pay attention to the following:
communication with any device in the Devices list,
select it and click the Reset button in the lower part • If you activate Write mode and move a control on the re-
of the Device Setup dialog. The “Send Reset Mes- mote control device, all data for the corresponding para-
sage to all Devices” button at the top left of the dia- meter is replaced from the position where you moved the
log next to the “+” and “-” buttons will reset every control, up to the position where playback is stopped.
device in the Devices list. In other words, as soon as you move a control in Write mode, it remains
“active” until you stop playback.

Operations • Make sure that you move only the controller you want to
replace.
Global options for remote controllers
Assigning remote key commands
In the Device Setup dialog, on the page for your remote
device, some (or all) of the following global functions may For some remote devices, you can assign any Cubase
be available (depending on your remote device): function (to which a key command can be assigned) to
generic buttons, wheels, or other controls.
Option Description
Bank pop-up If your remote device contains several banks, you can se- Proceed as follows:
menu lect the bank you want to use.
The bank you select here is used by default when Cubase 1. Open the Device Setup dialog and select your remote
is launched. device.
Smart Switch Some of the Cubase functions (e. g. Solo and Mute) sup- On the right side of the window you will find a three column table. This is
Delay port the so called “smart switch” behavior: In addition to where you assign commands.
regular activation/deactivation of a function by clicking a
button, you can also activate the function for as long as 2. Use the Button column to locate a remote device con-
the button is pressed. Upon releasing the mouse button, trol or button to which you wish to assign a Cubase func-
the function is deactivated.
This pop-up menu allows you to specify how long a but- tion.
ton must be pressed before it goes into “smart switch”
mode. When “Off” is selected, the “smart switch” func- 3. Click in the Category column for the control and select
tion is deactivated in Cubase. one of the Cubase function categories from the pop-up
Enable Auto If this option is activated, touching a fader on a touch- menu.
Select sensitive remote control device automatically selects the
corresponding channel. On devices without touch-sensi- 4. Click in the Command column and select the desired
tive faders, the channel gets selected as soon as you Cubase function from the pop-up menu.
move the fader.
The available items on the pop-up menu depend on the selected category.
5. Click “Apply” when you are done.

229
Remote controlling Cubase
• Click “Reset” to revert to the default settings.
The selected function is now assigned to the button or
control on the remote device.

A note about remote controlling MIDI tracks

While most remote control devices will be able to control
both MIDI and audio channels in Cubase, the parameter
setup may be different. For example, audio-specific con-
trols (such as EQ) will be disregarded when controlling
MIDI channels.

The Generic Remote device

If you have a generic MIDI controller, you can use this for
remote control of Cubase by setting up the Generic Re-
mote device:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog on the Devices menu. 4. Use the MIDI Input and Output pop-up menus to select
If the Generic Remote device is not on the Devices list, you need to add it. the MIDI port(s) to which your remote device is connected.
2. Click the “+” sign in the top left corner and select the 5. Use the pop-up menu to the right to select a bank.
“Generic Remote” device from the pop-up menu. Banks are combinations of a certain number of channels, and are used be-
cause most MIDI devices can control only a limited number of channels at
• When the Generic Remote device is added in the Device
a time (often 8 or 16). For example, if your MIDI control device has 16 vol-
Setup dialog, you can open the corresponding window by
ume faders, and you are using 32 Mixer channels in Cubase, you would
selecting “Generic Remote” from the Devices menu. need two banks of 16 channels each. When the first bank is selected you
can control channel 1 to 16; when the second Bank is selected you can
control channel 17 to 32.
6. Set up the table at the top according to the controls
on your MIDI control device.
3. Select the Generic Remote device in the Devices list The columns have the following functionality:
to the left.
Column Description
The settings for the Generic Remote device are displayed, allowing you
to specify which control on your device should control which parameter Control Name Double-clicking this field allows you to enter a descriptive
in Cubase. name for the control (typically a name written on the con-
sole). This name is automatically reflected in the Control
Name column in the lower table.
MIDI Status Clicking in this column opens a pop-up menu, allowing you
to specify the type of MIDI message sent by the control
(e. g. Controller, Prog. Change Trigger).
The NRPN and RPN controllers are part of the MIDI spec-
ification and present a way to extend the available control
messages. The “Ctrl JLCooper” option is a special version
of a Continuous Controller where the 3rd byte of a MIDI
message is used as address instead of the 2nd byte (a
method supported by various JL-Cooper remote devices).
For a description of the Ctrl-Houston status value, see the
Steinberg Houston hardware manual.
MIDI Channel Clicking in this column opens a pop-up menu, allowing
you to select the MIDI channel on which the controller is
transmitted.

230
Remote controlling Cubase
Column Description Column Description
Address The Continuous Controller number, the pitch of a note, or Value/Action Clicking in this column pulls down a pop-up menu, allow-
the address of a NRPN/RPN Continuous Controller. ing you to select the parameter of the channel to be
controlled (typically, if the “VST Mixer” Device option is
Max. Value The maximum value the control will transmit. This value is selected, you can choose between volume, pan, send
used by the program to “scale” the value range of the MIDI levels, EQ, etc.).
controller to the value range of the program parameter. If the “Command” Device option is selected, this is where
Flags Clicking in this column pulls down a pop-up menu, allow- you specify the “Action” of the category.
ing you to activate or deactivate three flags: Flags Clicking in this column pulls down a pop-up menu, allow-
Receive – activate this if the MIDI message should be ing you to activate or deactivate three flags:
processed on reception. Push Button – When activated, the parameter is only
Transmit – activate this if a MIDI message should be trans- changed if the received MIDI message shows a value
mitted when the corresponding value in the program unequal to 0.
changes. Toggle – When activated, the parameter value is switched
Relative – activate this if the control is an “endless” rotary between minimum and maximum value each time a MIDI
encoder, which reports the number of turns instead of an message is received. The combination of Push Button and
absolute value. Toggle is useful for remote controls which do not latch the
state of a button. One example is controlling mute status
• If you find that the table at the top holds too many or too with a device on which pressing the Mute button turns it
on, and releasing the Mute button turns it off. If Push But-
few controls, you can add or remove controls with the Add ton and Toggle are activated, the Mute status will change
and Delete buttons to the right of the table. between on and off whenever the button is pressed on the
console.
• If you are uncertain of which MIDI message a certain Not Automated – When activated, the parameter will not
controller sends, you can use the Learn function. be automated.
Select the control in the upper table (by clicking in the Control Name co-
lumn), move the corresponding control on your MIDI device and click the 8. If necessary, make settings for another bank.
Learn button to the right of the table. The MIDI Status, MIDI Channel, and Note that you only need to make settings in the bottom table for this bank.
Address values are automatically set to those of the moved control. The table at the top is already set up according to the MIDI remote device.

• If you use the Learn function for a control that sends a • If necessary, you can add banks by clicking the Add
Program Change value, the “Prog. Change Trigger” op- button below the Bank pop-up menu.
tion is automatically selected on the “MIDI Status” pop-up Clicking the Rename button allows you to assign a new name to the cur-
menu. This allows you to use the different values of a Pro- rently selected bank, and you can remove an unneeded bank by select-
ing it and clicking the Delete button.
gram Change parameter to control different parameters in
Cubase. 9. When you are finished, close the Device Setup window.
If this does not give you the result you want, try using the “Prog. Change” Now, you can control the specified Cubase parameters from the MIDI re-
value instead. mote device. To select another bank, use the pop-up menu in the Generic
Remote window (or use a control on the MIDI remote device, if you have
7. Use the table at the bottom to specify which Cubase assigned one for this).
parameters you want to control.
Each row in the table is associated to the controller in the corresponding Importing and exporting remote setups
row in the first table (as indicated by the Control Name column). The
other columns have the following functionality: The Export button in the top right corner of the Generic
Remote Setup window allows you to export the current
Column Description
setup, including the Control configuration (the table at the
Device Clicking in this column opens a pop-up menu, used for top) and all banks. The setup is saved as a file (with the file
determining which device in Cubase is controlled. The
special “Command” option allows you to perform certain extension “.xml”). Clicking the Import button allows you to
command actions by remote control. One example of this import saved remote setup files.
is the selection of remote banks.
Channel/ This is where you select the channel to be controlled or, if
Ö The last imported or exported remote setup will auto-
Category the “Command” Device option is selected, the Command matically be loaded when the program starts or the Ge-
category. neric Remote control is added in the Device Setup dialog.

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Remote controlling Cubase
Apple Remote (Macintosh only)
Many Apple computers come with an Apple Remote Con-
trol, a small hand-held device akin to TV remote controls. It
allows you to remotely control certain features in Cubase.
Proceed as follows:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog and select Apple Re-
mote Control from the Add Device pop-up menu.
2. In the list on the right, the Apple Remote’s buttons are
listed. For each button you can open a pop-up menu from
which you can select a Cubase parameter.
The parameter you select is assigned to the corresponding button on the
Apple Remote.

By default, the Apple Remote always controls the applica-

tion that currently has the focus on your Macintosh com-
puter (provided that this application supports the Apple
Remote).
• When the “Disable when application is not in front” op-
tion is not selected, the Apple Remote will control Cubase
even if it does not have the focus.

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Remote controlling Cubase
 24
MIDI realtime parameters
Introduction • You can fold or unfold the sections individually by click-
ing on the section name.
For each MIDI track, you can set up a number of track pa- Clicking the name for a hidden section brings it to view and hides the
rameters, or modifiers. These affect how the MIDI data is other sections. [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the tab allows you to hide or
played back, “transforming” MIDI events in realtime before show a section without affecting other sections. [Alt]/[Option]-clicking a
they are sent to the MIDI outputs. tab shows or hides all sections in the Inspector.

On the following pages, the available parameters and ef- Ö Folding or hiding (via the Setup dialog) a section does
fects are described. Keep in mind: not affect the functionality but merely hides the section
from view. This means your settings will still be active even
• The actual MIDI events will not be affected – the changes if you fold or hide the Inspector settings.
happen “on the fly”.
• Since the modifier settings do not change the actual MIDI
data on the track, they will not be reflected in the MIDI editors. The Inspector sections
To convert the track settings into “real” MIDI events, use the
Freeze MIDI Modifiers function or the Merge MIDI in Loop Basic track settings
function (see “Making your settings permanent” on page 246). The topmost Inspector section contains the basic track
settings. These settings either affect the basic functional-
The Inspector – general handling ity for the track (mute, solo, enable record, etc.) or send
out additional MIDI data to the connected devices (pro-
The MIDI modifiers and effects are set up in the Inspector. gram change, volume, etc.). The section contains all set-
tings that are available in the track list (see “The track list”
• To show the Inspector, click the “Set up Window Layout”
on page 29), with a few additional parameters:
button on the toolbar and activate the Inspector option.
The Inspector is displayed to the left of the track list. Parameter Description
Track name Click once to show/hide the topmost Inspector section.
field Double-click to rename the track.
Edit button This opens the Channel Settings window for the track (a
window showing a channel strip with volume fader and
other controls, along with effect settings – see “Using
Channel Settings” on page 122).
Mute/Solo Mutes or solos the MIDI track.
buttons
Read/Write Used for automating the track settings – see “Enabling
buttons and disabling the writing of automation data” on page
158.
Record enable Activate this to make the track ready for recording.
button
Monitor When this is activated (and the “MIDI Thru Active” option
button is activated in the Preferences dialog, MIDI page), in-
coming MIDI will be routed to the selected MIDI output.
Volume Use this to adjust the level for the track. Changing this set-
• For MIDI tracks, several sections are available in the In- ting will move the track’s fader in the Mixer window, and
spector. Which of these are displayed is determined in the vice versa. See “Setting volume in the Mixer” on page 118
for details about setting levels.
setup context menu or the Setup dialog of the Inspector.
For information about setting up the Inspector, see “Using the Setup op- Pan Use this to adjust the panning of the track.
tions” on page 336. Delay This adjusts the playback timing of the MIDI track. Posi-
tive values delay the playback while negative values
cause the track to play earlier. The values are set in
milliseconds.

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MIDI realtime parameters
Parameter Description Ö If you want to compare the result of your modifier set-
In/Out/Chn This is where you select MIDI input, MIDI output, and tings with the “unprocessed” MIDI, you can use the Bypass
pop-up menus MIDI channel for the track. button in the MIDI Modifiers section. When this is activated,
Edit Instrument If the MIDI track is routed to a VST instrument, clicking this the MIDI Modifiers settings will be temporarily disabled. A
button button opens the control panel for the VST instrument. bypassed section is indicated by a yellow Bypass button.
Bank and Patch Allows you to select a sound, see below. (If no bank is
Selector available, only the Patch selector is shown.)
pop-up menu
Map pop-up Allows you to select a drum map for the track – see
menu “Managing drum maps” on page 277.
Apply Track Allows you to apply a track preset, see “Applying track
Transpose
Preset button presets” on page 223.
This allows you to transpose all notes on the track in semi-
tones. The available range is -127 to +127 semitones, but
Ö Note that the functionality of the Bank and Patch selec-
remember that the total range of MIDI note numbers is 0
tor settings (used for selecting sounds in the connected
to 127. Furthermore, not all instruments can play back
MIDI instrument) depends on the instrument to which the
notes over the whole range. Therefore, extreme transposi-
MIDI output is routed, and how you have set it up in the
tions can give rather strange and unwanted results.
MIDI Device Manager. The MIDI Device Manager allows
you to specify which MIDI instruments and other devices • You can also transpose individual MIDI parts using the
are connected to the various MIDI outputs, thus making it Transpose field in the info line.
possible to select patches by name. See the chapter “Us- The transposition in the info line (for the individual part) is added to the
ing MIDI devices” on page 238 for details about the MIDI transpose value you have set up for the whole track in the Inspector.
Device Manager.
Velocity Shift
Ö Many of the basic track settings are duplicated in
This setting lets you change the dynamics of all notes on
“mixer channel strip form” in the MIDI Fader section of the
the track. The value in this field is added to the velocity of
Inspector (see below).
each note message that is sent out (use negative values to
lower the velocities). The range is -127 to +127 with 0
MIDI Modifiers representing no change in velocity.
Note that the effect of changing the velocity depends on
the sound and instrument.
Ö You can also adjust the velocity of events in individual
MIDI parts using the Velocity field in the info line. The ve-
locity shift in the info line (for the individual part) is added
to the velocity shift you have set up for the whole track in
the Inspector.

Velocity Compression
This function multiplies the velocity values with the factor
The settings on this tab affect the MIDI events on the track you specify. This factor is set using a numerator (left value)
in realtime during playback. They will also be in effect if and a denominator (right value), resulting in a fractional
you play “live” with the track selected and record enabled number (1/2, 3/4, 3/2 etc.). For example, if you set the
(provided that “MIDI Thru Active” is activated in the Prefer- factor to 3/4, the velocities will be three quarters of their
ences dialog, MIDI page). This makes it possible, for exam- original values. This will also affect the difference in veloc-
ple, to transpose or adjust the velocity of your live playing. ity between the notes, thus compressing or expanding the
velocity scale. Typically, you would combine this setting
with the Velocity Shift parameter.

235
MIDI realtime parameters
An example: 2. Set the desired range of random deviation by entering
values in the two number fields.
Let’s say you have three notes with the velocity values 60,
The two values govern the limits of the randomization, so that the values
90 and 120, and wish to “even out” the velocity differ- will vary between the left value and the right value (you cannot set the left
ences somewhat. If you set the Velocity Compression value higher than the right value). The maximum random range for each
value to 1/2, the notes will play back with the velocities property is listed in the table below:
30, 45 and 60. By adding 60 in the Velocity Shift field, the
Property Range
notes will play back with the velocities 90, 105 and 120,
meaning you have compressed the velocity range. Position -500 to +500 ticks
Pitch -120 to +120 semitones
In a similar way, you can use Velocity Compression values
Velocity -120 to +120
greater than 1/1 together with negative values in the Ve-
locity Shift field, to expand the velocity range. Length -500 to +500 ticks

! Remember that the maximum velocity is always 127 Ö You can make independent settings for the two random
no matter how much you try to expand. generators.

Length Compression • To deactivate the Random function, pull down the Ran-
dom pop-up menu(s) and select “OFF”.
This value adjusts the lengths of all notes on the track. As
with Velocity Compression, the value is set with a numer- Range
ator and denominator. For example, the value 2/1 means
The Range function lets you specify a note (pitch) or ve-
that all note lengths will be doubled, while 1/4 means all
locity range and either force all notes to fit within this
note lengths will be a quarter of the actual lengths.
range, or exclude all notes outside this range from play-
Random back. As with the Random function, there are two sepa-
rate Range settings. Set them up as follows:
The Random settings let you introduce random variations
to various properties of MIDI notes. Anything from very 1. Pull down the Range pop-up menu and select one of
subtle variations to dramatic changes can be applied. the following four modes:
There are two separate “random generators”, set up in the Mode Description
following way: Vel. Limit This function affects all velocity values outside the speci-
fied range. Velocity values below the Min setting (the lower
1. Pull down the Random pop-up menu and select which limit of the range) are set to the Min value, and velocity val-
note property is randomized. ues above the Max setting are set to the Max value. Notes
The options are position, pitch, velocity and length. with velocity values within the set range are not affected.
Use this if you want to force all velocity values to fit within a
Ö Keep in mind that depending on the content of the certain range.
track, certain parameter changes might not be immediately Vel. Filter Velocity Filter works by excluding all notes with velocity
noticeable or have any effect at all (as would be the case if values outside the specified range. Notes with velocity
values below the Min setting or above the Max setting will
applying random length to a percussion track playing “one- not be played back. Use this to “isolate” notes with cer-
shot” samples for example). To best audition the random tain velocity values.
changes, choose a track with clearly defined rhythm and
note content (as opposed to a string pad).

236
MIDI realtime parameters
Mode Description New subpanels will also be added in the following cases:
Note Limit This function allows you to specify a pitch range, and • When a MIDI track is routed to an effect plug-in that also re-
forces all notes to fit within this range. Notes outside the
specified range are transposed up or down in octave ceives audio data, i. e. that is used as an insert effect for an
steps until they fit within the range. audio track (e. g. MIDI Gate), a subpanel for this audio track
Note: If the range is too “narrow”, so that some notes appears in the MIDI track inspector.
cannot be fit within the range by octave-transposing,
these notes will get a pitch in the middle of the range. For • If a MIDI track is routed to a plug-in assigned to a FX Channel
example, if you have a note with a pitch of F3, and the track, a corresponding FX subpanel is added to the Inspector.
range is C4-E4, that note will be transposed to D4.
Note Filter Note Filter works by excluding all notes with pitches out-
Ö For an easy way to combine MIDI and VST instru-
side the specified range. Notes lower than the Min setting ments, check out instrument tracks (see “VST instruments
or higher than the Max setting will not be played back. and instrument tracks” on page 145).
Use this to “isolate” notes with certain pitches.

2. Use the two fields to the right to set the minimum and
maximum values.
These values will be shown as numbers (0–127) for the velocity modes
and as note numbers (C-2 to G8) for the pitch modes.
Ö Note that you can make independent settings for the
two Range functions.
• To deactivate the Range function, pull down the Range
pop-up menu(s) and select “OFF”.

MIDI Fader section

This contains a single channel strip, allowing you to set
volume, pan, mute/solo and other parameters for the track,
and a panel view of the active sends/inserts. This is a “mir-
ror” of the track’s channel strip in the Cubase Mixer – see
“MIDI channel strips” on page 129.

Notepad section
This is a standard notepad, allowing you to enter notes
and comments about the track. Each track has its own
notepad in the Inspector.

VST Instrument section (not in Cubase LE)

If the MIDI track is routed to a VST instrument, a new sub-
panel will appear at the bottom of the Inspector, labeled
with the name of the VST instrument. Clicking this section
shows a duplicate of the Inspector settings for the VST in-
strument channel. This makes it easy to adjust the channel
settings for the VST instrument while you are editing the
MIDI track.
• If the VST instrument has multiple outputs (and thus
several Mixer channels), there will be a setting called
“Output” at the top of the VST Instrument section.

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MIDI realtime parameters
 25
Using MIDI devices
Background To help with this, you can use the MIDI Device Manager to
specify which MIDI instruments you have connected by
The MIDI Device Manager allows you to specify and set selecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specify-
up your MIDI devices, making global control and patch ing the details yourself. Once you have specified which
selection easy. MIDI devices you are using, you can select to which par-
ticular device each MIDI track is routed. It is then possible
to select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.
MIDI devices – general settings and
patch handling Opening the MIDI Device Manager
On the following pages, we will describe how to install Select MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu to
and set up preset MIDI devices, and how to select bring up the following window:
patches by name from within Cubase.
List of connected MIDI devices. The first Use these buttons to
time you open the MIDI Device Manager, install/remove devices.
About Program Change and Bank Select this list will be empty.

To instruct a MIDI instrument to select a certain patch

(sound), you send a MIDI Program Change message to
Here you specify to which
the instrument. Program Change messages can be re- MIDI output the selected
corded or entered in a MIDI part like other events, but you device is connected.
can also enter a value in the Program Selector field in the
Inspector for a MIDI track. This way, you can quickly set
each MIDI track to play a different sound.
With Program Change messages, you are able to select
between 128 different patches in your MIDI device. How- This area shows exactly which
ever, many MIDI instruments contain a larger number of MIDI messages are sent out to
patch locations. To make these available from within Cu- select the patch highlighted in
the list to the left.
base, you need to use Bank Select messages, a system in
which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into
banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instru-
ments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank Se-
lector field in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the This pop-up menu lets you edit Here, the patch structure
Program Selector field to select a program in this bank. the selected device (provided that for the selected device is
“Enable Edit” is ticked). shown.

When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first
time, it will be empty (because you have not installed any
devices yet). On the following pages we describe how to
add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit
the settings and how to define a device from scratch.
Unfortunately, different instrument manufacturers use dif- Ö Note that there is an important difference between in-
ferent schemes for how Bank Select messages are con- stalling a preset MIDI device (“Install Device”) and import-
structed, which can lead to some confusion and make it ing a MIDI device setup (“Import Setup”):
hard to select the correct sound. Also, selecting patches by
• The presets do not include any device mapping of pa-
numbers this way seems unnecessarily cumbersome, when
rameters and controls and no graphic panels.
most instruments use names for their patches nowadays. They are simply patch name scripts. When you install a preset MIDI de-
vice, it is added to the Installed Devices list. For more information about
patch name scripts, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”.

239
Using MIDI devices
• A device setup can include device mapping and/or The Patch Banks list in the left half of the window shows
patch information. the patch structure of the device. This could simply be a
Device setups are also added to the list of installed devices when im- list of patches, but it is usually one or several layers of
ported. banks or groups containing the patches (much like a
folder structure on a hard disk for example).
Defining a new MIDI device
If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-config-
ured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you
need to define it manually to make it possible to select
patches by name.
1. In the MIDI Device Manager, click the Install Device
button.
The Add MIDI Device dialog appears.
2. Select “Define New…” and click OK. • You can rename a device in the Installed Devices list by
A dialog appears. double-clicking and typing – this is useful if you have sev-
eral devices of the same model, and want to separate
3. Enter the name of the device and the MIDI channels
them by name instead of by number.
you would like the device to use and click OK.
The device appears in the Installed Devices list. • To remove a device from the Installed Devices list, se-
lect it and click Remove Device.
4. Select the device in the list.
As you can see, it currently contains only an Empty Bank item.
About Patch Banks
5. Make sure that the Enable Edit checkbox is activated.
Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu on the Depending on the selected device, you may find that the
left to organize the patch structure of the new device. Patch Banks list is divided in two or more main banks.
Typically, these are called Patches, Performances, Drums,
Installing a preset MIDI device etc. The reason for having several patch banks is that dif-
ferent “types” of patches are handled differently in the in-
To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows: struments. For example, while “patches” typically are
1. Click the Install Device button. “regular” programs that you play one at the time, “perfor-
A dialog opens listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we as- mances” may be combinations of programs, which could
sume that your MIDI device is included in this list. be split across the keyboard, layered, or used for multi-
2. Locate and select the device in the list and click OK. timbral playback, and so on.

• If your MIDI device is not included in the list but is com- For devices with several banks, you will find an additional
patible with the GM (General MIDI) or XG standards, you item labeled “Bank Assignment” in the pop-up menu at
can select the generic GM or XG Device options at the the top of the window. Selecting this opens a window in
top of the list. which you can specify for each MIDI channel which bank it
When you select one of these options, a name dialog will appear. Enter a should use.
name for the instrument and click OK.
The device now appears in the Installed Devices list to the
left.
3. Make sure that the new device is selected in the list
and open the Output pop-up menu.
4. Select the MIDI output that the device is connected to.

240
Using MIDI devices
The selection here will affect which bank is displayed Renaming patches in a device
when you select programs by name for the device in the
The pre-configured devices list is based on the factory-pre-
track list or Inspector. For example, many instruments use
set patches, i.e. the patches included in the device when
MIDI channel 10 as an exclusive drum channel, in which
you first bought it. If you have replaced some of the factory
case you would want to select the “Drums” (or “Rhythm
presets with your own patches, you need to modify the de-
Set”, “Percussion”, etc.) bank for channel 10 in this list.
vice so that the patch name list matches the actual device:
This would then let you choose between different drum
kits in the track list or Inspector. 1. In the MIDI Device Manager, select the device in the
Installed Devices list.
Selecting a patch for an installed device Make sure that Patch Banks is selected on the pop-up menu at the top of
the window.
If you return to the Project window at this point, you will
find that the installed device has been added to the MIDI 2. Activate the Enable Edit checkbox.
Output menus (in the track list and the Inspector). Now When this is turned off (default), you cannot edit the pre-configured
you can select patches by name, in the following way: devices.

1. Pull down the Output menu (in the track list or Inspec- 3. Use the Patch Banks display to locate and select the
tor) for the track you want to associate the installed device patch you want to rename.
In many instruments, the user-editable patches are located in a separate
with, and select the device.
group or bank.
This directs the track to the MIDI output specified for the device in the
MIDI Device Manager. The Bank and Program Selector fields in the track 4. Click on the selected patch in the Patch Banks list to
list and Inspector are replaced by a single Program Selector field that edit its name.
currently reads “Off”.
5. Type in the new name and click OK.
2. Click the Program Selector field to display a pop-up
menu, hierarchically listing all the patches in the device. 6. Rename the desired patches in this way, and finish by
The list is similar to the one displayed in the MIDI Device Manager. You deactivating Enable Edit again (to avoid modifying the de-
can scroll the list up and down (if required), click the plus/minus signs to vice by accident).
show or hide subgroups, etc.
Ö You can also make more radical changes to the patch
structure in a device (adding or deleting patches, groups
or banks), see below. For example, this is useful if you ex-
pand your MIDI device by adding extra storage media
such as RAM cards.

Patch Structure
Patches are structured as follows:
• Banks are the main categories of sounds – typically patches,
You can also use a filter function here. For this, enter the performances and drums, as described above.
search term in the Filter field, e.g. “drum”, and press [Re- • Each bank can contain any number of groups, represented by
turn] to display all sounds with “drum” in the name. folders in the list.
• The individual patches, performances or drum kits are repre-
3. Click a patch in the list to select it. sented by presets in the list.
This sends the appropriate MIDI message to the device. You can also
scroll the program selection up or down, as with any value. The Commands pop-up menu contains the following items:

Create Bank
Creates a new bank at the highest hierarchical level of the
Patch Banks list. You can rename this by clicking on it and
typing a new name.

241
Using MIDI devices
New Folder Add Multiple Presets
Creates a new subfolder in the selected bank or folder. This opens a dialog, allowing you to set up a range of pre-
This could correspond to a group of patches in the MIDI sets to be added to the selected bank or folder.
device, or just be a way for you to categorize sounds, etc.
When you select this item, a name dialog opens, allowing
you to name the folder. You can also rename the folder af-
terwards by clicking it and typing in the list.

New Preset
This adds a new preset in the selected bank or folder.
You can rename the preset by clicking it and typing a new
name.
When the preset is selected, the corresponding MIDI
events (Program Change, Bank Select, etc.) are shown in
the event display to the right. The default setting for a new
preset is Program Change 0 – to change this, proceed as Proceed as follows:
follows:
1. Add the event types required for selecting a patch in
! For details on which MIDI events are used for the MIDI device.
selecting patches in the MIDI device, consult its This is done just as when editing the settings for a single event: clicking
documentation. in the event display brings up a pop-up menu from which you can select
an event type.
• To change which Program Change value is sent out to
2. Use the Range column to set up either a fixed value or
select the patch, adjust the number in the Value column
a range of values for each event type in the list.
for the Program Change event.
This requires some explanation:
• To add another MIDI event (e. g. Bank Select) click di- If you specify a single value in the Range column (e. g. 3, 15 or 127), all
rectly below the last event in the list and select a new added presets will have an event of this type set to the same value.
event from the pop-up menu. If you instead specify a value range (a start value and an end value, sep-
After adding a new event, you need to set its value in the Value column, arated by a dash, e. g. 0–63), the first added preset will have an event set
as with Program Change. to the start value, the next value will be incrementally raised by one and
so on, up to and including the end value.
• To replace an event, click on it and select another event
from the pop-up menu.
For example, a MIDI device may require that a Bank Select message is
sent first, followed by a Program Change message, in which case you
would need to replace the default Program Change message with a
Bank Select message and add a new Program Change after that. Ö The number of added presets depends on the Range
setting.
• To remove an event, select it and press [Delete] or
[Backspace]. 3. Specify a Default Name below the event display.
The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can re-
! Different devices use different schemes for Bank name presets manually in the Patch Banks list later.
Select. When you insert a Bank Select event, you 4. Click OK.
should check the device’s documentation to find out A number of new presets have now been added to the selected bank or
whether to choose “CC: BankSelect MSB”, “Bank folder, according to your settings.
Select 14 Bit”, “Bank Select 14 Bit MSB-LSB
Swapped” or some other option.

242
Using MIDI devices
Other editing functions Total Recall
• You can move presets between banks and folders by drag- Total Recall means that you can save and recall all set-
ging them to the Patch Banks list. tings of your hardware and software products by opening
• You can remove a bank, folder or preset by selecting it in the one integrated file in a DAW such as Cubase or Nuendo.
Patch Banks list and pressing [Backspace]. Also you will have instant and organized access to hard-
• If you specify more than one bank, a Bank Assignment item is ware editors.
added to the pop-up menu at the top of the window. Use this
When you load a project or switch to another active project
to assign banks to the different MIDI channels (see “About
that contains SM2 data, the Total Recall Synchronization
Patch Banks” on page 240).
dialog opens:

About Studio Connections

Studio Connections is the name of an initiative led by
Steinberg and Yamaha. The initiative intends to create in-
dustry standards for totally integrated system environ-
ments using software and hardware products.
First implementation stage of the Studio Connections
open standard is the integration and support of Yamaha’s
Studio Manager 2 (SM2) and Total Recall for compatible
hardware devices.
For further information about Studio Connections, please
visit the web site http://www.studioconnections.org.
If you have an SM2 component installed, there is an addi-
tional menu item on the Devices menu.

This dialog can also be opened any time from the Studio
Manager’s Synchronize menu. Click OK for the Dump to
start.

243
Using MIDI devices
 26
MIDI processing
Introduction • In the Project window, the MIDI functions apply to all
selected parts, affecting all events (of the relevant types)
This chapter describes the various MIDI processing func- in them.
tions available on the MIDI menu. They offer various ways
• In the MIDI editors, the MIDI functions apply to all se-
to edit MIDI notes and other events, either in the Project
lected events. If no events are selected, all events in the
window or from within a MIDI editor.
edited part(s) will be affected.

MIDI functions vs. MIDI modifiers Transpose

In some cases, the result of a MIDI function can also be
The Transpose item on the MIDI menu opens a dialog with
obtained by using MIDI modifiers, see “MIDI realtime pa-
settings for transposing the selected notes.
rameters” on page 233). For example, the operations
“Transpose” and “Quantize” are available both as MIDI
modifiers and as MIDI functions.
The main difference is that MIDI modifiers do not affect the
actual MIDI events on the track in any way, while MIDI
functions change the events “permanently” (although re-
cent changes can be undone).
Use the following guidelines to decide which path to
choose for operations that are available both as modifiers
and as functions:
• If you want to adjust a few parts or events only, use MIDI
functions. The MIDI modifiers affect the output of the
whole track (although they can be made permanent in a
Semitones
specific area with the Merge MIDI in Loop function).
This is where you set the amount of transposition.
• If you want to experiment with different settings, use
MIDI modifiers. Scale Correction
• MIDI modifiers settings are not reflected in the MIDI edi- Scale Correction transposes the selected notes by for-
tors, since the actual MIDI events are not affected. This can cing them to the closest note of the selected scale type.
be potentially confusing; if you have transposed notes using This can be used for creating interesting key and tonal
modifiers for example, the MIDI editors will still show the changes, either by itself or in conjunction with the other
notes with their original pitch (but they will play back at their settings in the Transpose dialog.
transposed pitch). Therefore, MIDI functions are a better
solution if you want to see the effects of your editing in the • To activate Scale Correction, click the checkbox.
MIDI editors. • Select a root note and scale type for the current scale
from the upper pop-up menus.
What is affected by the MIDI functions?
• Select a root note and scale type for the new scale from
Which events are affected when you use a MIDI function the lower pop-up menus.
depends on the function, the active window and the cur- Make sure to select the correct root note if you want to keep the result in
rent selection: the same key as the original notes, or select an entirely different key if you
want to experiment.
• Some MIDI functions only apply to MIDI events of a cer-
tain type.
For example, quantization only affects notes, while the Delete Controllers
function only applies to MIDI controller events.

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MIDI processing
Use Range Merge MIDI in Loop
When this is activated, transposed notes will remain within The “Merge MIDI in Loop” function combines all unmuted
the limit that you specify with the Low and High values. MIDI events on all unmuted tracks, applies MIDI modifiers
and effects, and generates a new MIDI part, containing all
If a note would end up outside this limit after transposition,
the events as you would hear them during playback. Pro-
it is shifted to another octave, keeping the correct trans-
ceed as follows:
posed pitch if possible. If the range between the upper
and lower limit is very narrow, the note will be transposed 1. Mute all the tracks that you do not want to include in
“as far as possible”, i. e. to notes specified with the Low the merge.
and High values. If you set Low and High to the same Instead of muting whole tracks, you can also mute individual parts.
value, all notes will be transposed to this pitch! 2. Set up the left and right locators to encompass the
OK and Cancel area that you want to merge.
Only events starting within this area will be included.
Clicking OK performs the transposition. Clicking Cancel
3. Select the track on which you want the new part to be
closes the dialog without transposing.
created.
If you do not select a track, a new MIDI track is created. If several MIDI
Making your settings permanent tracks are selected, the new part is inserted on the first selected track. Ex-
isting data on the selected track can be kept or overwritten (see below).
The settings described in the chapter “MIDI realtime pa-
4. On the MIDI menu, select “Merge MIDI in Loop…”.
rameters” on page 233 do not change the MIDI events The MIDI Merge Options dialog opens.
themselves, but work like a “filter”, affecting the music on
playback. Therefore, you may want to make them perma- The following options are available:
nent, i. e. convert them to “real” MIDI events, for example Option Description
to transpose a track and then edit the transposed notes in Include Inserts If this is activated, any MIDI modifiers currently activated
a MIDI editor. For this, you can use two commands from for the tracks will be applied.
the MIDI menu: “Freeze MIDI Modifiers” and “Merge MIDI Erase If this is activated, any existing MIDI data between the left
in Loop”. Destination and right locators on the destination track will be deleted.
Include Chase If this is activated, events placed outside the selected part
Freeze MIDI Modifiers but relating to it will be included in the processing, e. g. a
Program Change right before the left locator. For details
“Freeze MIDI Modifiers” applies all filter settings perma- about chase events, see “About Chase” on page 72.
nently to the selected track. The settings are “added” to
the events on the track, and all modifiers are set to zero. 5. Activate the desired options and click OK.
The “Freeze MIDI Modifiers” function affects the following A new part is created between the locators on the destination track, con-
settings for MIDI tracks: taining the processed MIDI events.

• Several settings on the main tab of the Inspector (program Ö If you only want to include events from a single track in
and bank selection and the Delay parameter). the merge operation, you may want to solo the track.
• The settings on the MIDI Modifiers tab (i. e. Transpose, Veloc-
ity Shift, Velocity Compression, and Length Compression).
The following settings for MIDI parts are taken into account
as well:
• The Transpose and Velocity settings for parts displayed on the
info line – the Volume setting is not taken into account.

246
MIDI processing
Applying effects to a single part Dissolving parts into separate channels
Normally, the MIDI modifiers affect a whole MIDI track. Setting a track to MIDI channel “Any” will cause each MIDI
This may not always be what you want. For example, you event to play back on its original MIDI channel, rather than
may want to apply some MIDI modifiers to a single part a channel set for the whole track. There are two main situ-
(without having to create a separate track for that part ations when “Any” channel tracks are useful:
only). The “Merge MIDI in Loop” function can help:
• When you record several MIDI channels at the same
1. Set up your MIDI modifiers the way you want them for time.
the part. You may for example have a MIDI keyboard with several keyboard zones,
This will of course affect the whole track, but focus on the part for now. where each zone sends MIDI on a separate channel. Recording on an
“Any” channel track allows you to play back the recording with different
2. Set the locators to encompass the part. sounds for each zone (since the different MIDI notes play back on sepa-
An easy way to do this is to select the part and choose Locators to Se- rate MIDI channels).
lection from the Transport menu (or use the corresponding key com-
mand, by default [P]). • When you have imported a MIDI file of Type 0.
MIDI files of Type 0 contain only one track, with notes on up to 16 different
3. Make sure that the track holding the part is selected in MIDI channels. If you were to set this track to a specific MIDI channel, all
the track list. notes in the MIDI file would be played back with the same sound; setting
4. On the MIDI menu, select “Merge MIDI in Loop…”. the track to “Any” will cause the imported file to play back as intended.
The MIDI Merge Options dialog opens. The Dissolve Part function scans MIDI parts for events on
5. Activate the desired options, making sure that “Erase different MIDI channels and distributes the events into new
Destination” is activated, and click OK. parts on new tracks, one for each MIDI channel found. This
A new part is created on the same track, containing the processed allows you to work with each musical part individually.
events. The original part is deleted. Proceed as follows:
6. Turn off or reset all MIDI modifiers, so that the track 1. Select the parts containing MIDI data on different
plays back as before. channels.
2. Select “Dissolve Part” from the MIDI menu.
Dissolve Part
3. In the dialog that opens, select the “Separate Chan-
The Dissolve Part function on the MIDI menu allows you to nels” option.
separate MIDI events according to channels or pitches:
Now, for each MIDI channel used in the selected parts, a
• When you work with MIDI parts (on MIDI channel “Any”) new MIDI track is created and set to the corresponding
containing events on different MIDI channels, activate the MIDI channel. Each event is then copied into the part on
“Separate Channels” option. the track with the corresponding MIDI channel. Finally, the
original parts are muted.
• To separate MIDI events according to pitch, activate the
“Separate Pitches” option.
Typical examples are drum and percussion tracks, where different
pitches usually correspond to separate drum sounds.
Ö When dissolving a part into either separate channels
or separate pitches, you can automatically remove the si-
lent (empty) areas of the resulting parts by activating the
“Optimized Display” checkbox in the Dissolve Part dialog.

247
MIDI processing
An example: Repeat Loop
With this function, the events inside the independent track
loops will be repeated until the end of the part, i. e. the
This part contains events on MIDI channels 1, 2, and 3.
notes that were previously only played repeatedly are now
actual notes on the MIDI track. Events to the right of the
independent track loop (within the same part) will be re-
placed by this function. For more information about inde-
pendent track loops, see “The independent track loop” on
page 258.

Other MIDI functions

The following items can be found on the Functions sub-
Selecting “Dissolve Part” creates new parts on new tracks, set to chan- menu of the MIDI menu:
nels 1, 2, and 3. Each new part contains only the events on the respec-
tive MIDI channel. The original MIDI part is muted.
Legato
Dissolving parts into separate pitches Extends each selected note so that it reaches the next note.
The Dissolve Part function can also scan MIDI parts for
events of different pitches, and distribute the events into
new parts on new tracks, one for each pitch. This is useful
when the different pitches are not used in a melodic con-
text, but rather for separating different sounds (e. g. MIDI
drum tracks or sampler sound FX tracks). By dissolving
such parts, you can work with each sound individually, on
a separate track.
You can specify a gap or overlap for this function with the
Proceed as follows: “Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences dialog (Edit-
1. Select the parts containing MIDI data. ing–MIDI page).
2. Select “Dissolve Part” from the MIDI menu.
3. In the dialog that opens, select the “Separate Pitches”
option.
A new MIDI track is created for each used pitch in the selected parts.
The events are then copied into the parts on the track for the corres-
ponding pitch. Finally, the original parts are muted.
When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end
5 ticks before the next note.

When you activate “Legato Mode: Between Selected

Notes Only”, the length of the note will be adjusted so that
it reaches the next selected note, allowing you to apply
Legato only to your bass line, for example.
Ö You can also apply a legato using the “Scale Length/
Legato” slider in the MIDI editors, see “The Length sec-
tion” on page 256.

248
MIDI processing
Fixed Lengths The parameters have the following functionality:

! This function is only available from within the MIDI Minimum Length
editors. When the Minimum Length checkbox is activated, the note
This function resizes all selected notes to the length set length is taken into account, allowing you to remove short
with the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the MIDI editor notes. You can either specify the minimum length (for notes
toolbar. to be kept) in the value field or by dragging the blue line in
the graphical length display below.
Delete Doubles • The graphical length display can correspond to 1/4 bar,
This function removes double notes, i. e. notes of the same one bar, two bars or four bars.
pitch on the exact same position from the selected MIDI You change this setting by clicking in the field to the right of the display.
parts. Double notes can occur when recording in Cycle
mode, after Quantizing, etc.

Delete Controllers In this case, the whole length display corresponds to two bars, and the
Minimum Length is set to 32nd notes (60 ticks).
This function removes all MIDI controllers from the se-
lected MIDI parts. Minimum Velocity
When the Minimum Velocity checkbox is activated, the ve-
Delete Continuous Controllers locity of notes is taken into account, allowing you to re-
This function removes all “continuous” MIDI controller move weak notes. You specify the minimum velocity (for
events from the selected MIDI parts. Therefore, “on/off” notes to be kept) in the value display.
events such as sustain pedal events are not removed.
Remove when under
Delete Notes This setting is only available when both Minimum Length
Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is use- and Minimum Velocity is activated. By clicking in this field,
ful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” af- you select whether both the length and the velocity criteria
ter recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog must be met for notes to be deleted, or whether one of the
in which you set up the criteria for the function. criteria will suffice.

OK and Cancel
Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to
the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without
deleting notes.

249
MIDI processing
Restrict Polyphony The following types of velocity processing are available:
Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec- Add/Subtract
ify how many “voices” are used (for the selected notes or
parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is useful when This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity
you have an instrument with limited polyphony and want to values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the
make sure all notes will be played. The effect is achieved Amount parameter.
by shortening notes as required, so that they end before
Compress/Expand
the next note starts.
Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI notes
Pedals to Note Length by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio setting
(0–300 %). The principle behind this is that multiplying dif-
This function scans for Sustain pedal on/off events, length-
ferent velocity values with a factor higher than 1 (over
ens the affected notes to match the Sustain pedal off posi-
100 %) will also make the differences between velocity val-
tion, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/off events.
ues greater, while using a factor lower than 1 (under 100 %)
will make the differences smaller. In short:
Delete Overlaps (mono)
• To compress (“even out” velocity differences), use ratio
This function allows you to make sure that no notes of the
values below 100 %.
same pitch overlap (i. e. that one starts before the other After compression, you would probably want to add a velocity amount
ends). Overlapping notes of the same pitch can confuse (with the Add/Subtract function) to maintain the average velocity level.
some MIDI instruments (a new Note On is transmitted be-
fore the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then • To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ra-
be used to automatically solve the problem. tio values above 100 %.
Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/
Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the mid-
Delete Overlaps (poly) dle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0),
This function shortens notes when required, so that no expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only
note begins before another ends. This happens regard- be between 0 and 127!
less of which pitch the notes have.
Limit
Velocity This function allows you to make sure that no velocity val-
ues fall outside a given range (the Lower and Upper val-
This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate
ues). Any velocity values outside this range are raised/
the velocity of notes in various ways.
lowered to exactly the Lower/Upper values.

Fixed Velocity
This function sets the velocity of all selected notes to the
Insert Velocity value on the toolbar in the MIDI editors.

Thin Out Data

Thins out MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on your ex-
ternal MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense con-
troller curves, etc.
You can also manually thin out the controller data by using
the quantize function in the Key Editor.

250
MIDI processing
Extract MIDI Automation
This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to
quickly and easily convert the continuous controllers of
your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI track automation data,
making them available for editing in the Project window.
Proceed as follows:
1. Select the desired MIDI part containing the continu-
ous controller data.
2. On the MIDI menu, open the Functions submenu and
select “Extract MIDI Automation”.
3. In the Project window, open the automation tracks for
the respective MIDI track. You will find that an automation
track has been created for each of the continuous control-
lers in the part.
Ö In the MIDI editors, the controller data will automati-
cally be removed from the controller lane.
This function can only be used for continuous controllers.
Data such as Aftertouch, Pitchbend, or SysEx cannot be
converted to MIDI track automation data.

Reverse
This function inverts the order of the selected events (or of
all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to
play backwards. Note that the effect is different from re-
versing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individual notes
will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it is only the
order of playback that is changed.

251
MIDI processing
 27
The MIDI editors
Introduction Opening a MIDI editor
There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase. You can use There are two ways to open a MIDI editor:
the tools and functions in the Project window for large-
• Select one or several parts (or a MIDI track, with no parts
scale editing, or the functions on the MIDI menu to process
selected), open the MIDI menu and select Open Key Editor,
MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is affected by the
Open Drum Editor, or Open Score Editor from the Scores
MIDI functions?” on page 245). For hands-on graphical ed-
submenu (or use the corresponding key command).
iting of the contents of MIDI parts, you use the MIDI editors:
The selected parts (or all parts on the track, if no part was selected) will
• The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting open in the selected editor.
notes graphically in an intuitive piano roll-style grid. • Double-click a part.
The Key Editor also allows for detailed editing of non-note events such The default editor opens. Which editor this is, depends on the Default
as MIDI controllers. For more information, see “The Key Editor – Over-
Edit Action setting in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–MIDI page).
view” on page 255.
• The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes
advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corre-
sponds to a separate drum sound.
This is the editor to use when you are editing drum or percussion parts.
For more information, see “The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 273.
• The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score.
This offers basic score editing and printing, see “The Score Editor –
Overview” on page 282 for details).
If the “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned” option is
Ö You can define each of the editors mentioned above activated and a drum map is selected for the edited track
as your default MIDI editor, see below. (see “Selecting a drum map for a track” on page 277), the
This chapter describes how to use the MIDI editors. Fea- Drum Editor will open.
tures that are identical in these editors are described in If the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any edit-
the Key Editor section. The sections about the Drum Edi- ing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part.
tor, and the Score Editor describe the specific features of Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-
these editors only. [Shift] and dragging, or by using the Repeat function with
the “Shared copies” option activated. In the Project win-
dow, shared copies are indicated by an equal sign (=) in
the top right corner of the part.

253
The MIDI editors
Handling several parts • Key commands allow you to cycle between parts (mak-
ing them active).
When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI
In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, you will find two functions for
track containing several parts) selected, the editor con- this: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key
tains a few functions that make working with multiple parts commands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts in the edi-
easier and more comprehensive: tors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 344.
• The “Currently Edited Part” pop-up menu on the toolbar
lists all parts that are opened in the editor (or all parts on the
track if no parts were selected). Here you can select which
part is active for editing.
When you select a part from the list, it is automatically active and cen-
tered in the note display.

Ö Note that it is also possible to activate a part by select-

ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool.
• The “Edit Active Part Only” button on the toolbar lets
you restrict editing operations to the active part.
For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu
with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected.
Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a
selection rectangle), only the notes in the active part will be selected.

“Edit Active Part Only” is activated on the toolbar.

• The “Zoom to Event” function on the Zoom submenu of

the Edit menu lets you zoom in on the active part so that it
fills the screen.
• The “Show Part Borders” button on the toolbar lets you
see clearly defined borders for the active part.
When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out,
making the borders easily discernible. In the Key Editor, there are also two
“markers” in the ruler with the name of the active part, marking its begin-
ning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part.

“Show Part Borders” is activated on the toolbar.

254
The MIDI editors
The Key Editor – Overview

Toolbar
Status line
Info line
Ruler

Note display

Controller
display

The toolbar Option Description

The toolbar contains tools and various settings for the Key Snap/Quantize The Snap controls are described in the section “The
Snap function” on page 35 and the quantize functions in
Editor. The following toolbar elements are available: the chapter “MIDI processing” on page 244.
Option Description Step/MIDI Input These controls are described in the sections “Editing
notes via MIDI” on page 264 and “Step input” on page
Set up Window Clicking this button allows you to show/hide the status
265.
Layout line and info line for the editor.
Event Colors The Color options are described in the section “Color-
Solo Editor This function is described in the section “The Solo Edi-
ing notes and events” on page 259.
tor button” on page 258.
Edit VST This button opens the VST Instrument panel (if the track
Acoustic This function is described in the section “Acoustic Feed-
Instrument is routed to a VST instrument).
Feedback back” on page 259.
Auto-Scroll This button activates/deactivates Auto-Scroll for the
Key Editor, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 258.
Ö You can show/hide most of the toolbar elements by
activating/deactivating the corresponding options on the
Tool buttons These are the tools used for editing in the Key Editor.
context menu. Furthermore, you can store/recall different
Independent This button activates/deactivates the independent track toolbar configurations, see “Using the Setup options” on
Track Loop loop, see “The independent track loop” on page 258.
page 336.
Auto Select Use this button to also select all available controller
Controllers data for a note when selecting the note in the editor.
Multiple Part These controls allow you to show/hide the part borders
Controls and switch between several selected parts, see “Han-
dling several parts” on page 254.
Insert Velocity Use this field to specify a velocity value for any notes
that are entered in the editor.
Nudge Palette The Nudge buttons allow you to move or trim elements
in the editor, see “Moving and transposing notes” on
page 262.

255
The MIDI editors
The status line At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two addi-
tional items:
The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Key
Editor.
It displays the following information:
Option Description
Mouse Time This displays the exact time position of the mouse pointer,
Position in the format selected for the ruler, allowing you to perform
editing or to insert notes at exact positions.
Mouse Note This displays the exact pitch of the mouse pointer posi-
Position tion, making it easier to find the right pitch when entering
or transposing notes. • If “Time Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display, and
Current Chord When the project cursor is positioned over notes making controller display will be linear in relation to time.
Display up a chord, this chord is displayed here. This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between
the bar lines will vary depending on the tempo.
• To show or hide the status line, click the “Set up Win- • If “Bars+Beats Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display,
dow Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deacti- and controller display will be linear in relation to tempo.
vate the “Status Line” option. This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between
beats will be constant.
The info line In most cases, you would set the display format to
The info line shows information about the selected MIDI “Bars+Beats” and “Bars+Beats Linear” mode when
note. If several notes are selected, the values for the first editing MIDI.
note are displayed (in color). You can edit all values on the
info line using regular value editing (see “Editing on the The Key Editor Inspector
info line” on page 264 for details). Length and position On the left in the Key Editor, you will find the Inspector. It
values are displayed in the format currently selected for contains tools and functions for working with MIDI data.
the ruler.
• To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window The Quantize section
Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate The Quantize section allows you to access the main quan-
the “Info Line” option. tize parameters. These are identical with the functions on
the Quantize panel (see “The Quantize Panel” on page 92)
The ruler and the Advanced Quantize submenu of the Edit menu (see
The ruler shows the timeline, by default in the display format “Advanced Quantize functions” on page 91).
selected on the Transport panel. You can select a separate The Transpose section
format for a MIDI editor ruler on the Ruler pop-up menu,
opened by clicking the arrow button to the right of it. For a The Transpose section allows you to access the main pa-
list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on page 34. rameters for transposing MIDI events. These can also be
found in the Transpose dialog, see “Transpose” on page
245.

The Length section

The Length section contains the length-related options
from the Functions submenu of the MIDI menu (see “Other
MIDI functions” on page 248) as well as a Length/Legato
slider.

256
The MIDI editors
• Use the “Scale Length/Legato” slider to change the • Poly Pressure events
length of the selected MIDI events (or all events of the ac- • Program Change events
tive part if no events are selected). • SysEx events
At the maximum value the notes reach the beginning of the next note. • Any type of continuous controller event (see “Editing continu-
• Use the “Freeze MIDI Lengths” button to the right of the ous controllers on the controller lane” on page 269)
“Scale Length/Legato” slider to make the new length set- To change the size of the controller display, drag the di-
tings permanent. vider between the controller display and the note display.
• Use the Overlap slider to finetune the distance between Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller
consecutive notes. display, with higher bars corresponding to higher velocity
At “0 Ticks”, the “Scale Legato” slider extends each note so that it values.
reaches the next note exactly. Positive values cause the notes to overlap
and negative values allow you to define a small gap between the notes.
• Activate the “Between Selected” option if you want to
use the Legato function or slider to extend a note until the
next selected note (instead of the following note in the part).
This is identical with activating the “Legato Mode: Between Selected
Notes Only” option in the Preferences dialog.

The note display

Each velocity bar corresponds to a note in the note display.

Events other than velocity values are shown as blocks, the

heights of which correspond to the values of the events.
The beginning of an event is marked by a curve point. To
select an event, click on the curve point, so that it turns red.
Ö Unlike notes, events in the controller display have no
The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It con- length. The value of an event in the display is “valid” until
tains a grid in which MIDI notes are shown as boxes. The the start of the next event.
width of a box corresponds to the note length, and the For a description of editing in the controller display, see
vertical position of a box corresponds to the note number “Using the controller display” on page 265.
(pitch), with higher notes higher up in the grid. The piano
keyboard helps you to find the right note number.
Key Editor operations
For a description of how to display colors in the note dis-
play, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 259. Zooming
Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the stan-
The controller display
dard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Zoom
The area at the bottom of the Key Editor window is the tool or the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu.
controller display. It consists of one or several controller
lanes, each showing one of the following properties or • When you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool, the result
event types: depends on the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal
Zooming Only” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–
• Velocity values of the notes Tools page).
• Pitchbend events If this is activated, the window will only be zoomed horizontally; if not, the
• Aftertouch events window will be zoomed both horizontally and vertically.

257
The MIDI editors
Using the Trim tool Playing back
The Trim tool allows you to change the length of note You can play back your music as usual when working in a
events by cutting off the end or the beginning of notes. MIDI editor. There are several features designed to make
editing easier during playback.
Using the Trim tool means moving the note-on or the note-
off event for one or several notes to a position defined with The Solo Editor button
the mouse. Proceed as follows:
1. Select the Trim tool on the toolbar.
The mouse pointer changes to a knife symbol.

If you activate the Solo Editor button, only the edited MIDI
parts will be heard during regular playback.

Auto-Scroll
2. To edit a single note, click on it with the Trim tool. The
range between the mouse pointer and the end of the note
will be removed.
You can use the mouse note info on the status line to find the exact po-
sition for the trim operation. As described in the section “Auto-Scroll” on page 37, the
3. To edit several notes, click and drag with the mouse Auto-Scroll function makes the window “follow” the project
across the notes. cursor during playback, so that the current play position is
A line is displayed. The notes will be trimmed along this line. visible at all times. However, when you are working in a
MIDI editor, you may want to deactivate Auto-Scroll – this
way, the events you are working with will stay visible.
The Auto-Scroll buttons in each MIDI editor are indepen-
dent of the Project window Auto-Scroll setting, which
means that Auto-Scroll can be activated in the Project win-
Trimming the end of three note events.
dow and deactivated in the MIDI editor you are working in.
• By default, the Trim tool will cut off the end of notes. To
trim the beginning of the note(s), press [Alt]/[Option] while The independent track loop
dragging. The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affect-
• If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will ing only the MIDI part being edited. When the loop is acti-
get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or vated, the MIDI events within the loop will be repeated
end time for all edited notes. continuously and completely independent – other events
(on other tracks) will be played back as usual. The only “in-
You can change the Trim tool key commands in the Pref-
teraction” between the loop and the “regular playback” is
erences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
that every time the cycle starts over again, so does the loop.
Ö Note that the trimmed note ends or starts do not snap
To set up the independent track loop, proceed as follows:
to the grid.
1. Activate the “Independent Track Loop” button on the
toolbar.
If it is not visible, right-click the toolbar and add the Independent Track
Loop Settings section – see “Using the Setup options” on page 336.

258
The MIDI editors
Ö If you have previously set up a loop range in the Proj- • When the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected in
ect window, this is now hidden from the ruler in the MIDI the ruler, the snap grid is set by the quantize value on the
editor. toolbar.
This makes it possible to snap not only to straight note values but also to
2. Specify the length of the independent track loop by swing grids set up in the Quantize Panel (see “The Quantize Panel” on
[Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking and [Alt]/[Option]-clicking in page 92).
the ruler to set the start and end of the loop, respectively.
Alternatively, you can click and drag in the upper part of the ruler to move When any of the other display formats is selected in the
the locators to the desired positions. ruler, positioning is restricted to the displayed grid, i. e. you
can snap in finer increments by zooming in, and in coarser
The independent track loop is indicated in purple in the
increments by zooming out.
ruler. When the corresponding options are activated on
the context menu, the track loop start and end are also
displayed on the status line.
Coloring notes and events
By using the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar,
The MIDI events will be looped as long as the “Indepen-
you can select a color scheme for the events in the editor.
dent Track Loop” button is activated and the MIDI editor is
The following options are available:
open.
Option Description
• To turn the loop into actual MIDI notes, use the Repeat
Velocity The notes get different colors depending on their velocity
Loop function on the MIDI menu, see “Repeat Loop” on values.
page 248.
Pitch The notes get different colors depending on their pitch.

Acoustic Feedback Channel The notes get different colors depending on their MIDI
channel value.
Part The notes get the same color as their respective part in
the Project window. Use this option when you are work-
ing with two or more tracks in an editor, to make it easier
to see which notes belong to which track.
If the Acoustic Feedback icon (speaker symbol) on the tool-
Grid Match The notes get different colors depending on their time
bar is activated, individual notes will automatically be played position. For example, this mode makes it easy to see if
back (auditioned) when you move or transpose them, or the notes in a chord start at the exact same beat.
when you create new notes by drawing. This makes it eas-
ier to hear what you are doing. For all of the options except “Part” the pop-up menu also
contains a “Setup…” option. This option opens a dialog in
Snap which you can specify the colors that are associated with
which velocities, pitches, or channels, respectively.

The Snap function helps you find exact positions when ed-
iting in a MIDI editor. It does this by restricting horizontal
movement and positioning to certain positions. Operations
affected by snap include moving, duplicating, drawing, siz-
ing, etc. The Snap function is described in detail in the sec-
tion “The Snap function” on page 35.

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The MIDI editors
Creating and editing notes Ö To determine another mode for the Line tool you can
click on the Line tool and click again to open a pop-up
To draw in new notes in the Key Editor, use the Pencil tool
menu where you can select the desired option.
or the Line tool.

Drawing notes with the Pencil tool

With the Pencil tool, you can insert single notes by clicking
at the desired time (horizontal) and pitch position (vertical).
• When you move the pointer in the note display, its bar
position is indicated on the status line, and its pitch is indi-
cated both on the status line and on the piano keyboard to
the left.
This makes it easy to find the right note and insert position. For a descrip- The button will change appearance according to the se-
tion of how to show the status line, see “The status line” on page 256. lected mode.
Mode Description
Line This is the default mode for the Line tool. When this mode
is selected, you click and drag to create a straight line, in
any angle. When you release the mouse button a series
of notes will be created, aligned with the line. If Snap is
activated, the notes will be spaced and sized according
to the Quantize value.
Parabola, Sine, These modes insert events along different curve shapes.
Triangle, While they can be used for creating notes, they are prob-
Square ably best suited for controller editing (see “Adding and
editing events in the controller display” on page 267).
Paint Allows you to insert multiple notes by dragging with the
• If Snap is activated, this determines the start position of mouse button pressed. If Snap is activated, the notes will
the created note. be positioned and sized according to the Quantize and
Length Quantize values. If you press [Ctrl]/[Command]
• If you click once, the created note will have the length while painting, movement will be restricted to horizontal
set on the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the toolbar. (i. e. the painted notes will have the same pitch).
You can create a longer note by clicking and dragging. The length of the
created note will be a multiple of the Length Quantize value. If “Length Setting velocity values
Quantize” is set to “Quantize Link” the note value is determined by the
quantize grid.
When you draw notes in the Key Editor, the notes will get
the velocity value set in the Insert Velocity field on the tool-
Drawing notes with the Line tool bar.
The Line tool can be used for creating series of contiguous You can use different methods to set the velocity:
notes. To do so, click and drag to draw a line and then re- • When a tool modifier is assigned for the Select tool–
lease the mouse button. Edit Velocity action (in the Preferences dialog, Editing–
Tool Modifiers page), you can select one or more notes,
press the modifier and click on one of the selected notes
to change the velocity.
The cursor changes into a speaker and, next to the note, a field with the ve-
locity value appears – the Note Velocity slider. Move the mouse pointer up
or down to change the value. Value changes will be applied to all selected
notes, as you can see in the controller lane.

260
The MIDI editors
• Selecting a predefined velocity value from the Insert Ve- Option Description
locity pop-up menu. Equal Pitch – As above, but selects notes of the exact same pitch only
The menu contains five different predefined velocity values. The “Setup…” same Octave (same octave).
item opens a dialog that allows you to specify which five velocity values are Select Con- Selects the MIDI controller data within range of the se-
available on the pop-up menu. (This dialog can also be opened by select- trollers in Note lected notes, see below.
ing “Insert Velocities…” from the MIDI menu.) Range

• To step from one note to another, use the left and right
arrow keys on the computer keyboard.
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection will be
kept, allowing you to select several notes.
• To select all notes of a certain pitch, press [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand] and click on the desired key in the keyboard display
to the left.

• Manually entering the desired velocity value by double-

clicking in the Insert Velocity field and typing in the desired All notes of the
value. corresponding pitch
are selected.
• Using a key command.
You can assign a key command to each of the five available velocity val-
ues in the Key Commands dialog (MIDI category – the items Insert Ve-
locity 1–5). This allows for quick switching between different velocity • To select all the following notes of the same pitch, you
values when entering notes. See “Setting up key commands” on page can press [Shift] and double-click on a note.
344 for instructions on how to set up key commands.
Ö If the “Auto Select Events under Cursor” option is acti-
Selecting notes vated in the Preferences dialog (Editing page), all notes
Selecting notes is done using any of the following methods: “touched” by the project cursor are automatically selected.

• Using the Arrow tool. Toggle selections

The standard selection techniques apply.
If you want to toggle the selected elements within a selec-
• Using the Select submenu of the Edit menu or context tion rectangle, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and enclose the
menu. same elements within a new selection rectangle. Once
The Select menu options are: you release the mouse button, the previous selection is
Option Description deselected and vice versa.
All Selects all notes in the edited part.
None Deselects all events.
Invert Inverts the selection – all selected events are deselected
and all notes that were not selected are selected instead.
In Loop Selects all notes that are partially or completely inside the
boundaries of the left and right locators (only visible if lo- Selecting controllers within the note range
cators are set).
You can select the controllers within the range of the se-
From Start Selects all notes that begin to the left of the project cursor.
to Cursor lected notes. The following applies:
From Cursor Selects all notes that end to the right of the project cursor. • When the Auto Select Controllers button is activated
to End on the toolbar, the controllers will always be selected
Equal Pitch – This function requires that a single note is selected. It se- when the respective notes are selected.
all Octaves lects all notes of this part that have the same pitch (in any
octave) as the currently selected note.

261
The MIDI editors
• When you select “Select Controllers in Note Range” on Duplicating and repeating notes
the Select submenu of the Edit menu, the controllers within
Notes are duplicated much in the same way as events in
the note range (i. e. between the first/leftmost and last/right-
the Project window:
most note) will be selected.
Please note that for this to work, only two notes have to be selected. • Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the note(s) to a new
position.
• A note range lasts until the start of the next note or the
If Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can copy
end of the part. notes (see “Snap” on page 259).
• Selected controllers for notes are moved when the cor- • Selecting Duplicate from the Functions submenu on the
responding notes are moved. Edit menu creates a copy of the selected note and places
Moving and transposing notes it directly after the original.
If several notes are selected, all of these are copied “as one unit”, main-
To move notes in the editor, use any of the following taining the relative distance between the notes.
methods:
• Selecting “Repeat…” from the Functions submenu on
• Click and drag to a new position. the Edit menu opens a dialog, allowing you to create a
All selected notes will be moved, maintaining their relative positions. If number of copies of the selected note(s).
Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can move the This works like the Duplicate function, but you can specify the number of
notes, see “Snap” on page 259. copies.

! You can restrict movement to horizontal or vertical by • You can also perform the Repeat function by dragging:
holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging. Select the notes to repeat, press [Alt]/[Option], click the
right edge of the last selected note and drag to the right.
• Use the up and down arrow keys on the computer key- The longer to the right you drag, the more copies are created (as indicated
board. by the tooltip).
This method allows you to transpose the selected notes, without risking to
move them horizontally. Note that pressing [Shift] and using the up and
down arrow keys will transpose notes in steps of one octave.
Ö You can also use the Transpose function on the MIDI
menu (see “Transpose” on page 245).
• Use the Move to Cursor function on the Edit menu.
This moves the selected notes to the project cursor position.
Using cut and paste
• Select a note and adjust its position or pitch on the info
You can use the Cut, Copy and Paste options on the Edit
line, see “Editing on the info line” on page 264.
menu to move or copy material within a part or between
• Use the Move buttons in the Nudge palette on the tool- different parts. When you paste copied notes, you can ei-
bar. ther use the regular Paste function or the function “Paste
This moves the selected note(s) by the amount set on the Quantize pop- Time” from the Range submenu of the Edit menu.
up menu. By default, the Nudge palette is not shown on the toolbar. How
to show/hide toolbar items is described in the section “Using the Setup • “Paste” inserts the copied notes at the project cursor
options” on page 336. position without affecting existing notes.

Ö When you move selected notes to a different position,

any selected controllers for these notes will move accord-
ingly. For further information, see also “Moving events” on
page 269.
Ö You can also adjust the position of notes by quantizing
(see “Quantizing MIDI and audio” on page 89).

262
The MIDI editors
• “Paste Time” inserts at the project cursor position, but • If you select “Split at Cursor” from the Functions sub-
moves (and if necessary, splits) existing notes to make menu on the Edit menu, all notes that are intersected by
room for the pasted notes. the project cursor are split at the cursor position.
Selecting “Paste Time” with this data on the clipboard • If you select “Split Loop” from the Functions submenu
and the project cursor here… on the Edit menu, all notes that are intersected by the left
or right locator are split at the locator positions.

Gluing notes
…will give you this.
Clicking on a note with the Glue Tube tool will “glue it to-
gether” with the next note of the same pitch. The result will
be one long note spanning from the start of the first note
to the end of the second note and with the properties (ve-
locity, etc.) of the first note.

Muting notes
Resizing notes Individual notes can be muted in the Key Editor, as op-
To resize a note, use one of the following methods: posed to muting an entire MIDI part in the Project window.
This allows you to exclude notes from playback, but keep
• Position the Arrow tool at the start or end of the note, so
the option to bring them back again at any time. To mute a
that the pointer takes on the shape of a small double ar-
note, use one of the following methods:
row. Click and drag to the left or right to resize the note.
This method allows you to resize the note from either direction. • Click on it with the Mute tool.
• )Click with the Pencil tool within the note box and drag • Drag a rectangle with the Mute tool, enclosing all notes
to the left or the right (to make the note shorter or longer, you want to mute.
respectively).
• Select the note(s) and choose Mute from the Edit menu.
With these methods, the resulting length will be a multiple The default key command for this is [Shift]-[M].
of the Length Quantize value on the toolbar.
• Use the Trim Start/End buttons on the Nudge palette on
the toolbar.
This resizes the selected note(s) by moving their start or end positions, in
steps according to the Length Quantize value on the toolbar. By default,
the Nudge palette is not shown on the toolbar – see “Using the Setup
options” on page 336 for more information.
• Select the note and adjust its length on the info line.
See “Editing on the info line” on page 264 for details on info line editing. Muted notes are “dimmed” in the note display.

• Use the Trim tool, see “Using the Trim tool” on page 258. • To unmute a note, either click it or enclose it with the
Mute tool, or select it and choose Unmute from the Edit
Splitting notes menu.
The default key command for this is [Shift]-[U].
There are three ways to split notes:
• Clicking on a note with the Scissors tool splits the note Deleting notes
at the position you pointed (taking the Snap setting into To delete notes, either click on them with the Erase tool or
account if activated). select them and press [Backspace].
If several notes are selected, they are all split at the same position.

263
The MIDI editors
Editing on the info line How the Key Editor handles drum maps
The info line shows the values and properties of the se- When a drum map is assigned to a MIDI or instrument
lected events. If a single event is selected, its values are track (see “Working with drum maps” on page 276), the
displayed on the info line. If several events are selected, Key Editor will display the drum sound names as defined
the info line shows the values of the first of these events by the drum map.
(in color).
In Cubase, the name of the drum sound is displayed in the
following locations:

On the status line, in the On the info line, in the

Mouse Note Position field Pitch field

You can edit the values on the info line using regular value
editing. This allows you to move, resize, transpose or
change velocity of events in a very precise manner. It is
also possible to click in the Pitch or Velocity field in the
info line and play a note on your MIDI keyboard – the pitch
or velocity will be adjusted accordingly.
• If you have several events selected and change a value,
all selected events will be changed by the set amount.
In the event itself (provided that When dragging a note
• If you have several events selected and change a value the zoom factor is high enough)
holding down [Ctrl]/[Command], the change will be abso-
lute. In other words, the value setting will be the same for This allows you to use the Key Editor for drum editing, e. g.
all selected events. when editing drum note lengths (which may be necessary
for some external instruments) or when editing several
parts, to identify drum events.

Editing notes via MIDI

You can change the properties of notes via MIDI. For ex-
ample, this can be a fast way to get the right velocity value,
since you will hear the result even as you edit:
1. Select the note you want to edit.
2. Click the MIDI Input button on the toolbar to enable
editing via MIDI.

264
The MIDI editors
3. Use the note buttons on the toolbar to decide which 4. Specify the desired note spacing and length with the
properties are changed by the MIDI input. Quantize and Length Quantize pop-up menus.
You can enable editing of pitch, note-on and/or note-off velocity. The notes you input will be positioned according to the Quantize value
and have the length set with the Length Quantize value. For instance, if
you set Quantize to 1/8 notes and Length Quantize to 1/16 notes, the
notes will be sixteenth notes, appearing on each eighth note position.
With this setting, the edited notes will get the pitch and velocity values
of the notes input via MIDI, but the note-off velocities will be kept as Ö If “Length Quantize” is set to “Quantize Link” the note
they are. length is also determined by the Quantize value.
4. Play a note on your MIDI instrument. 5. Play the first note or chord on your MIDI instrument.
The note selected in the editor will get the pitch, velocity and/or note-off The note or chord appears in the editor and the step input position ad-
velocity of the played note. vances one quantize value step.
The next note in the edited part is automatically selected, Ö If Move Insert Mode is activated, all notes to the right
making it easy to quickly edit a series of notes. of the step input position will be moved to “make room” for
• If you want another try, select the note again (e. g. by the inserted note or chord.
pressing the left arrow key on the computer keyboard) and
again play a note on your MIDI instrument.

Step input
Move Insert Mode is activated.
Step input, or step recording, is when you enter notes one
6. Continue in the same way with the rest of the notes or
at a time (or one chord at a time) without worrying about
chords.
the exact timing. This is useful, for example, when you
You can adjust the Quantize or Length Quantize value as you go along,
know the part you want to record but are not able to play it
to change the timing or note lengths. You can also move the step input
exactly as you want it. position manually by clicking anywhere in the note display.
Proceed as follows: • To insert a “rest”, press the right arrow key on the com-
1. Click the Step Input button on the toolbar to activate puter keyboard.
Step Input mode. This advances the step input position one step.
7. When you are done, click the Step Input button again
to deactivate step input.

2. Use the note buttons to the right to decide which Using the controller display
properties are included when you input the notes.
By default, the controller display has a single lane, show-
For example, you may not want to include the velocity and/or note-off ve-
locity of the played notes. It is also possible to turn off the pitch property,
ing one event type at a time. However, you can add as
in which case all notes will get the pitch C3, no matter what you play. many lanes as you need. The use of several controller
lanes allows you to view and edit different controllers at
3. Click anywhere in the note display to set the start po- the same time.
sition (the desired position of the first note or chord).
The step input position is shown as a blue line in the note display.

265
The MIDI editors
Each MIDI track has its own controller lane setup (number Selecting the event type
of lanes and selected event types). When you create new
Each controller lane shows one event type at a time. To
tracks, they get the controller lane setup used last.
select which type is displayed, use the “Controller Selec-
tion and Functions” pop-up menu to the left of the lane.

The controller display with three lanes

• To add a lane, click the “+” button or open the “Control-

ler Selection and Functions” pop-up menu and select
“Create Controller Lane”.

• To remove a lane, open the “Controller Selection and Setting up the available continuous controllers
Functions” pop-up menu and select “Remove this Lane”.
This hides the lane from view – it does not affect the events in any way. In the MIDI Controller Setup dialog you can specify which
continuous controllers are available for selection. Proceed
Ö If you remove all lanes, the controller display will be as follows:
completely hidden. You can bring it back by clicking the
“Create Controller Lane” button. 1. Open the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-
up menu and select “Setup…”.
Instead of adding and removing single lanes, you can also The MIDI Controller Setup dialog opens.
show/hide multiple lanes using the “Controller Lane
Setup” pop-up menu:
• “Show/Hide Controller Lanes” allows you to hide all
controller lanes from view, giving you more space for view-
ing and editing the MIDI notes. When you select this op-
tion again, your previous lanes setup is restored.
• “Velocity Only” resets the controller display to show
only the Velocity lane.
• “Show Used Controllers” allows you to automatically
show all controller lanes with controller data.

2. Move all the controllers that you need to the list on the
left and move the controllers that you do not need to the
list on the right.

266
The MIDI editors
3. Click OK. Entering and editing controller events
! The MIDI Controller Setup dialog can be opened Editing the events in the controller display is much like ed-
from different areas in the program. The settings are iting automation data on an automation track in the Project
global, i. e. the setup you choose here affects all ar- window (except for velocity values and articulations, see
eas of the program where MIDI controllers can be “Editing velocity values” on page 270).
selected. All controller values can be edited with the Pencil or the
Line tool. If you have selected more than one controller
Controller lane presets event on a controller lane, the controller lane editor is dis-
Once you have added the required number of controller played, see “Working with selection ranges” on page 271.
lanes and selected the event types you need, you can • To select all events on a controller lane, open the “Con-
store this combination as a controller lane preset. For ex- troller Lane Setup” pop-up menu and choose the “Select
ample, you can have a preset with one velocity lane only, all Controller Events” option.
another with a combination of velocity, pitchbend and
modulation, and so on. This can make working with con- Adding and editing events in the controller display
trollers much quicker.
When any option other than “Velocity” is selected for a
Controller lane presets are organized via the “Controller controller lane, you can create new events or edit the val-
Lane Setup” pop-up menu. ues of existing events using the Pencil tool or the Line tool
in its various modes:
• To create a new event, click with the Pencil tool or the
Line tool.
• To modify the values of existing events, press [Alt]/[Op-
tion] and use the Pencil tool or the Line tool.
No new controller events are added in this mode.
The following options are available: You can click and drag to change or add multiple events,
• To add the current controller lane setup as a preset, se- draw controller curves, etc:
lect “Add Preset…” on the pop-up menu.
A dialog opens, where you can enter a name for the preset.
• To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu.
This immediately brings up the controller lanes and event types in the
preset.
• To remove or rename presets, select “Organize…” from
the pop-up menu.
When you move the pointer in the controller lane, the corresponding
value is displayed in this field.

Ö With the Pencil tool and the Line tool in Paint mode, the
quantize value determines the “density” of created control-
ler curves (if Snap is activated, see “Snap” on page 259).
For very smooth curves, use a small quantize value or turn
off Snap. However, this will create a very large number of
MIDI events, which can cause MIDI playback to “stutter” in
some situations. A medium-low density is often sufficient.

267
The MIDI editors
• Clicking and dragging with the Line tool in Line mode Ö In Line and Parabola modes, the Length Quantize
allows you to create events in a straight line. value determines the “density” of created controller curves
This is the best way to draw linear controller ramps. (if Snap is activated). For very smooth curves, use a small
Length Quantize value or turn off Snap. To avoid over-
Converting a controller curve to a ramp using the
Line tool. dense controller curves (which may cause MIDI playback
to “stutter”), use a medium-low density.
Ö If Length Quantize is set to “Quantize Link” and you
enter data in Sine, Triangle or Square mode, the density of
the events depends on the Zoom factor.
• The Sine, Triangle and Square modes create events
with values aligned to continuous curves.
In these modes, the quantize value determines the period of the curve
(the length of one curve “cycle”) and the Length Quantize value deter-
mines the density of the events (the lower the Length Quantize note
value, the smoother the curve).
• In Sine, Triangle and Square mode you can also use
• The Parabola mode works in the same way, but ar- modifier keys to determine the shape of the curve.
ranges the values on a parabola curve instead, giving If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] you can change the phase of the beginning
more “natural” curves and fades. of the curve, if you press [Alt]/[Option]-[Ctrl]/[Command] while snap is ac-
Note that the result depends on the direction from which you draw the tivated you can change the position of the whole curve (in both cases the
parabola. snap value for the positioning will be a quarter of the quantize value).

Ö You can also set the curve period freely by holding

down [Shift] when you insert events in Sine, Triangle or
Square mode. Activate Snap, [Shift]-click and drag to set
• In Parabola mode, you can use modifier keys to deter- the length of one period. The period length will be a multi-
mine the shape of the parabola curve. ple of the quantize value.
If you press [Ctrl]/[Command], the parabola curve will be reversed. If you
press [Alt]/[Option]-[Ctrl]/[Command] while Snap is activated, you can
• In Triangle and Square mode, you can press [Shift]-
change the position of the whole curve (in both cases the snap value for [Ctrl]/[Command] to change the maximum position of the
the positioning will be a quarter of the quantize value). If you press [Shift], triangle curve (to create sawtooth curves) or the pulse of
the exponent will be increased or decreased. the square curve.

268
The MIDI editors
Moving events Deleting events in the controller display
You can move events in a controller lane, much like you You delete events by clicking on them with the Erase tool
can with notes: or by selecting them and pressing [Backspace]. Deleting a
controller event makes the last event before this valid up
1. Click with the Arrow tool to select the events that you
until the next event. It does not “zero” any controller
want to move or copy.
You can also click and drag to create a selection rectangle encompassing
changes.
the desired events. • You can delete notes by deleting their velocity bars in
2. Click on a curve point inside the selection and drag the controller display.
the events. Please be aware that if there is more than one note at the same position,
there may still only be one velocity bar visible – make sure that you delete
The events inside the selection are moved to the new position. If Snap is
activated, this determines to which positions you can move the events only the desired notes!
(see “Snap” on page 259).
Editing continuous controllers on the controller lane
! Remember that a non-note event does not have a When a continuous controller is selected for a controller
length – it is “valid” until the next event (see “The lane, additional data is displayed on the controller lane.
controller display” on page 257). This is due to the fact that MIDI controller data can be re-
corded (or entered) either for an automation track or for a
! When the Auto Select Controllers button is activated MIDI part.
in the Key Editor toolbar, selecting notes will also se-
lect the corresponding controller events. Moving The following applies:
events (either using cut/copy/paste or drag & drop) • On the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up
in the note display will also move the corresponding menu, an asterisk is displayed next to the controller name
controller events (see also “Selecting controllers if automation data already exists for this controller.
within the note range” on page 261). This can be either controller data you entered in a MIDI editor (the data
will then be displayed on the controller lane), or controller data recorded
Using cut, copy and paste on an automation track in the Project window (in which case no events
You can use the standard Cut, Copy and Paste options on are displayed on the controller lane).
the Edit menu to copy and paste events in the controller
display:
1. Select the events you want to cut or copy.
2. Select Cut or Copy from the Edit menu.
3. If you want to paste the events into another MIDI part,
open that part in another Key Editor window.
4. Position the project cursor where you want to paste
the events. • On the controller lane, you can also see the controller
5. Select Paste from the Edit menu. curve that is applied before the part starts. That way, you
The events on the clipboard are added, starting at the project cursor po- know which controller value (if any) is currently being used
sition, maintaining their relative distances. If a pasted event ends up at at the starting point of the part so that you can choose the
the same position as an existing event of the same type, the old event is start value accordingly.
replaced.

269
The MIDI editors
Editing velocity values • Use the Line tool in Line mode for creating linear veloc-
ity ramps.
When “Velocity” is selected, the lane shows the velocity of
Click where you want the ramp to start and drag the cursor to where you
each note as a vertical bar. want the ramp to end. When you release the mouse button, the velocity
values are aligned with the line between the two points.

Velocity values are edited with the Pencil or the Line tool.
The Arrow tool automatically switches to the Pencil tool
when you move the pointer into the controller display. If
you want to use the Arrow tool to select events in the con-
troller display, press [Alt]/[Option]. The different tools and
Line tool modes offer several possibilities:
• You can use the Pencil tool to change the velocity of a • Parabola mode works in the same way, but aligns the
single note: click on its velocity bar and drag the bar up or velocity values to a Parabola curve instead.
down. Use this for smooth, “natural” velocity fades, etc.
While you drag, the current velocity value is shown in the display to the left.
• You can use the Pencil tool or the Line tool in Paint
mode to change the velocity values of several notes by
painting a “freehand curve”.
When editing velocity, these two methods have the same functionality.

• The remaining three Line tool modes (Sine, Triangle and

Square) align the velocity values to continuous curve
shapes.
If there is more than one note at the same position (e. g. a
chord), their velocity bars will overlap on the controller lane.
If none of the notes are selected, all notes at the same po-
sition will be set to the same velocity value when you draw.
To edit the velocity of only one of the notes at the same po-
sition, first select the note in the note display. Now, editing
will only affect the velocity of the selected note.
Ö If the Speaker icon (Acoustic Feedback) is activated
on the toolbar, the notes will be played back when you ad-
just the velocity, allowing you to audition your changes.

270
The MIDI editors
Ö You can also adjust the velocity of a single note by se- Working with selection ranges
lecting it and changing its velocity value on the info line.
The controller lane editor allows you to perform additional
Adding and editing Poly Pressure events scaling operations for selection ranges on existing con-
troller curves.
Poly Pressure events are special, in that they “belong to” a
specific note number (key). That is, each Poly Pressure
event has two editable values: the note number and the
amount of pressure. Therefore, when Poly Pressure is se-
lected on the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up
menu, there are two value fields to the left of the controller
display, one for the note number and one for the amount.

• To open the controller lane editor, use the Arrow tool to

create a selection rectangle on the controller lane, encom-
passing the desired controller events.
For Velocity lanes, press [Alt]/[Option] to get the Arrow tool.

! The controller lane editor is not available for Articula-

To add a new Poly Pressure event, proceed as follows:
tion or Dynamics lanes.
1. Select Poly Pressure on the “Controller Selection and
Functions” pop-up menu. Ö For Velocity lanes, the editor also opens if you select
multiple MIDI notes in the note display.
2. Set the note number by clicking on the keyboard
display. In the controller lane editor, controls (so called “smart
The selected note number is displayed in the upper value field to the left spots”) appear on the borders of the editor. These smart
of the controller display. Note that this only works for the topmost lane. If spots allow you to activate a specific editing mode:
you have selected “Poly Pressure” for several controller lanes, you have Editing To activate this Description
to type in the desired note number directly in the lower value field to the mode mode…
left of each lane.
Move Click in an empty This mode allows you to move the
Vertically area on the upper entire curve up or down, which is
3. Use the Pencil tool to add a new event, just as when border of the editor. useful to boost or attenuate an oth-
adding regular controller events. erwise perfect curve.

To view and edit existing Poly Pressure events, proceed Scale Click the smart spot Use this mode to relatively scale the
as follows: Vertically in the middle of the curve, i. e. to raise or lower the values
upper border of the in percent (not by absolute
1. Select Poly Pressure on the “Controller Selection and editor. amounts).
Functions” pop-up menu.
Tilt the left/ Click the smart spot These modes allow you to tilt the left
2. Click on the arrow button next to the note number field right part of in the upper left/ or the right part of the curve, respec-
the curve right corner of the tively. This is useful if the curve form
to the left of the controller lane. editor. is exactly the way you want it, but the
A pop-up menu appears, listing all note numbers for which there already start or end needs to be boosted or
are Poly Pressure events. attenuated a bit.
Compress [Alt]/[Option]-click These modes allow you to compress
3. Select a note number from the pop-up menu. the left/right the smart spot in the left or the right part of the curve.
The Poly Pressure events for the selected note number are shown in the part of the the upper left/right
controller lane. curve corner of the editor.

4. Use the Pencil tool to edit the events as usual.

Press [Alt]/[Option] to edit existing events without adding any new ones.

271
The MIDI editors
Editing To activate this Description
mode mode…
Scale Around Click the smart spot This mode allows you to scale the
Absolute in the middle of the curve around the absolute center,
Center right border of the i. e. horizontally around the center of
editor. the editor.

Scale Around [Alt]/[Option]-click This mode allows you to scale the

Relative the smart spot in curve relative to its center.
Center the middle of the
right border of the
editor.

Stretch Click and drag in This allows you to stretch the se-
the lower part of the lected controller events.
editor (not available
for Velocity lanes).

Ö If you hold down [Shift] while clicking on any of the

smart spots, you get the vertical scaling mode.
• To move the whole selection up/down or left/right, click
on a controller event inside the editor and drag the curve.
By pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] when clicking and dragging, you can re-
strict the direction to horizontal or vertical movement, depending on the
direction in which you start dragging.
Ö Snap is taken into account when moving controller
curves horizontally.

272
The MIDI editors
The Drum Editor – Overview

Toolbar
Status line
Info line
Ruler

Note
Drum display
sound list

Drum maps Controller

display

The toolbar, status line, info line, and • The status line does not contain a chord display.
Inspector
These are much the same as the toolbar, status line, info The drum sound list
line, and Inspector in the Key Editor (see “The Key Editor The drum sound list lists all drum sounds by name (ac-
– Overview” on page 255), with the following differences: cording to the selected drum map or name list – see be-
low), and lets you adjust and manipulate the drum sound
• The toolbar has a Solo Instrument button that allows
setup in various ways.
you to mute all sounds except the selected one, see “Mut-
ing notes and drum sounds” on page 275.
• The Drum Editor has a Drumstick tool (for entering and
removing notes) and a Line tool with various line and curve
modes (for drawing several notes in one go or editing
controller events).
These tools replace the Pencil tool.
• The pitch in the Mouse Note Position display on the sta-
tus line is shown as a drum sound name rather than a note
number.
• The Use Global Quantize button allows you to select
which value is used when Snap is activated – the global The drum sound list for the GM Map
quantize value on the toolbar or the individual quantize val-
The following settings are available in the drum sound list:
ues for the drum sounds.
Column Description
• There is an Insert Length pop-up menu instead of the
Pitch The actual note number of the drum sound. This is what
Length Quantize pop-up menu. links notes on a MIDI track to drum sounds. For example,
It is used in much the same way, as described on the following pages. with the GM Map, all MIDI notes with the pitch C1 are
mapped to the Bass Drum sound.
• There are no Scissors and Glue Tube tools in the Drum
Instrument The name of the drum sound.
Editor.

273
The MIDI editors
Column Description Drum map and names pop-up menus
Quantize This value is used when entering and editing notes as de-
scribed in the sections “Creating and editing notes” on
page 274 and “Moving, duplicating, or repeating notes”
on page 275.
Mute Allows you to mute a drum sound, excluding it from play-
back, see “Muting notes and drum sounds” on page 275.
I-Note This is the “input note” for the drum sound. When this Below the drum sound list there are two pop-up menus,
MIDI note is sent into Cubase, (i. e. played by you), the used for selecting a drum map for the edited track or (if no
note is mapped to the corresponding drum sound (and
automatically transposed according to the Pitch setting
drum map is selected) a list of drum sound names. For an
for the sound). explanation of drum maps, see “Working with drum maps”
O-Note This is the “output note”, i. e. the MIDI note number that is on page 276.
sent out every time the drum sound is played back.
Channel The drum sound is played back on this MIDI channel. Controller display
Output The drum sound is played back on this MIDI output. If you The controller display in the Drum Editor is the same as in
set this to “Default”, the MIDI output selected for the
track is used.
the Key Editor, see “Using the controller display” on page
265.
Please note the following: When you select a line in the drum sound list (to the left of
• The number of columns in the list depends on whether a the event display), only the velocity controller events be-
drum map is selected for the track or not. longing to the note events on this line are displayed in the
See “Working with drum maps” on page 276. controller display.

• You can reorder the columns by dragging the column • If you select more than one line in the drum sound list,
headings, and resize them by dragging the dividers be- the controller lane shows all velocity controller events for
tween the column headings. all notes on the selected lines.
This helps you when having to adjust the controller values between dif-
ferent drum sounds.
The note display

Drum Editor operations

The basic handling (zooming, playback, auditioning, etc.)
is the same as in the Key Editor (see “Key Editor opera-
tions” on page 257). The following sections describe the
procedures and features specific to the Drum Editor.

Creating and editing notes

The note display of the Drum Editor displays notes as dia- The standard way of entering notes in the Drum Editor is
mond symbols. The vertical position of the notes corres- to click with the Drumstick tool.
ponds to the drum sound list to the left, while the horizontal
position corresponds to the note’s position in time, just as
in the Key Editor. Note, however, that the diamond symbols
do not indicate the length of the notes. This makes sense,
since drum sounds most often are “one-shot” samples that
play to their end regardless of the note lengths.

274
The MIDI editors
The position of the created note depends on the following Moving, duplicating, or repeating notes
factors:
To move or copy notes in the editor (to other positions or
• If Snap is deactivated on the toolbar, the note appears other drum sounds), you use the same methods as in the
exactly where you clicked. Key Editor: click and drag, use the arrow keys or Edit
In this mode, notes can be positioned freely. menu functions, etc. (see “Moving and transposing notes”
• If Snap is activated and Use Global Quantize is deacti- on page 262). To help you identify the right notes, the
vated on the toolbar, the note snaps to positions accord- drum sound names as defined in the drum map are dis-
ing to the quantize value set for the sound in the drum played in the Pitch field in the Drum Editor info line and,
sound list. when dragging notes in the event display, in the text fields
You can set up different quantize values for different drum sounds. You displayed next to the mouse pointer.
may for example want hi-hat notes snap to sixteenth notes, but snare and There is one other thing to note:
bass drum snap to eighth notes.
If the moved/copied notes have different quantize values
and Snap is activated but Use Global Quantize is deacti-
vated, the largest value determines snapping. For exam-
ple, if you are moving two notes, with the quantize values
1/16 and 1/4 respectively, the notes snap to quarter
• If Snap and Use Global Quantize are activated, the note
notes (1/4).
snaps to positions according to the Quantize setting on
the toolbar. Ö You can also adjust the position of notes by quantizing
(see “Quantizing MIDI and audio” on page 89).
The length of the inserted note is determined by the Insert
Length setting on the toolbar. However, if this is set to Muting notes and drum sounds
“Drum-Map Link”, the note gets the length of the quantize
value for the drum sound. You can mute individual notes by clicking or enclosing
them with the Mute tool or by using the Mute function on
• You can quickly audition the drum sounds by clicking in the Edit menu (see “Muting notes” on page 263).
the leftmost column in the drum sound list.
This plays the corresponding note. Furthermore, if a drum map is selected (see “Selecting a
drum map for a track” on page 277), the drum sound list
• Clicking with the Drumstick tool on an existing note re- has a Mute column. Click in the Mute column for a drum
moves it. sound to mute that sound. Clicking the Solo Instrument
This makes drum pattern editing very quick and intuitive. button mutes all drum sounds other than the selected one.
Selecting notes
Selecting notes is done by any of the following methods:
• Use the Arrow tool.
The standard selection techniques apply.
• Use the Select submenu on the context menu (see “Se-
lecting notes” on page 261).
• Use the left and right arrow keys on the computer key-
board to step from one note to the next or previous note. ! Please note that the mute state for drum sounds is
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection is kept, part of the drum map. Therefore, any other tracks us-
allowing you to select several notes. ing the same map are also affected.
• You can also press [Shift] and double-click on a note to Deleting notes
select all the following notes for the same drum sound.
To delete notes, click on them with the Drumstick or Erase
tool, or select them and press [Backspace].

275
The MIDI editors
Working with drum maps Drum map settings
A drum map consists of settings for 128 drum sounds
Background (one for each MIDI note number). To get an overview of
A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of dif- these settings, open the Drum Editor and use the Map
ferent drum sounds with each sound placed on a separate pop-up menu below the drum sound list to select the “GM
key (i. e. the different sounds are assigned to different Map” drum map.
MIDI note numbers). One key plays a bass drum sound,
another a snare, and so on.
Unfortunately, different MIDI instruments often use differ-
ent key assignments. This can be troublesome if you have
made a drum pattern using one MIDI device, and then
want to try it on another. When you switch devices, it is
very likely that your snare drum becomes a ride cymbal or This drum map is set up according to the General MIDI
your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc. – just because the drum standard. For information on how to load, create and se-
sounds are distributed differently in the two instruments. lect other drum maps, see “Managing drum maps” on
To solve this problem and simplify several aspects of MIDI page 277.
drum kits (like using drum sounds from different instru- Ö All settings in a drum map (except the pitch) can be
ments in the same “drum kit”), Cubase features so-called changed directly in the drum sound list (see “The drum
drum maps. A drum map is a list of drum sounds, with a sound list” on page 273) or in the Drum Map Setup dialog
number of settings for each sound. When you play back a (see “The Drum Map Setup dialog” on page 278). These
MIDI track for which you have selected a drum map, the changes affect all tracks that use the drum map.
MIDI notes are “filtered” through the drum map before be-
ing sent to the MIDI instrument. Among other things, the About pitch, I-note, and O-note
map determines which MIDI note number is sent out for
each drum sound, and so which sound is played in the re- This can be a somewhat confusing area, but once you
ceiving MIDI device. have grasped how it all works it is not very complicated.
Going through the following “theory” helps you make the
A solution to the problem above therefore is to set up most out of the drum map concept – especially if you want
drum maps for all your instruments. When you want to try to create your own drum maps.
your drum pattern on another instrument, you simply
switch to the corresponding drum map and your snare As mentioned earlier, a drum map is a kind of “filter”,
drum sound remains a snare drum sound. transforming notes according to the settings in the map. It
does this transformation twice; once when it receives an
incoming note (i. e. when you play a note on your MIDI
controller) and once when a note is sent from the program
to the MIDI sound device.
In the following example, we have modified the drum map
so that the Bass Drum sound has different pitch, I-note,
and O-note values.

276
The MIDI editors
I-notes (input notes) The Channel and Output settings
When you play a note on your MIDI instrument, the pro- You can set separate MIDI channels and/or MIDI outputs
gram looks for this note number among the I-notes in the for each sound in a drum map. The following rules apply:
drum map. If you play the note A1, the program finds that
• When a drum map is selected for a track, the MIDI
this is the I-note of the Bass Drum sound.
channel settings in the drum map override the MIDI chan-
This is where the first transformation happens: the note nel setting for the track.
gets a new note number according to the Pitch setting for In other words, the MIDI channel setting you make in the track list or In-
the drum sound. In our case, the note is transformed to a spector for the track is normally disregarded. If you want a drum sound to
C1 note, because that is the pitch of the Bass Drum use the channel of the track, set it to channel “Any” in the drum map.
sound. If you record the note, it is recorded as a C1 note. • If the MIDI output is set to “default” for a sound in a
For example, you may want to place some drum sounds drum map, the sound uses the MIDI output selected for
near each other on the keyboard so that they can be easily the track.
played together, move sounds so that the most important Selecting any other option allows you to direct the sound to a specific
MIDI output.
sounds can be played from a short keyboard, play a sound
from a black key instead of a white, and so on. If you never By making specific MIDI channel and output settings for
play your drum parts from a MIDI controller (but draw them all sounds in a drum map, you can direct your drum tracks
in the editor) you need not care about the I-note setting. directly to another MIDI instrument simply by selecting an-
other drum map – you do not need to make any channel or
O-notes (output notes) output changes for the actual track.
The next step is the output. This is what happens when you Ö To select the same MIDI channel for all sounds in a
play back the recorded note, or when the note you play is drum map, click in the Channel column, press [Ctrl]/
sent back out to a MIDI instrument in realtime (MIDI Thru): [Command] and select the desired channel. All drum
The program checks the drum map and finds the drum sounds are set to this MIDI channel. The same procedure
sound with the pitch of the note. In our case, this is a C1 can be used for selecting the same MIDI output for all
note and the drum sound is the Bass Drum. Before the sounds as well.
note is sent to the MIDI output, the second transformation It can also be useful to select different channels and/or out-
takes place: the note number is changed to that of the puts for different sounds. This allows you to construct drum
O-note for the sound. In our example, the note sent to the kits with sounds from several different MIDI devices, etc.
MIDI instrument is a B0 note.
The O-note settings let you set things up so that the Managing drum maps
“Bass Drum” sound really plays a bass drum. If you are us-
Selecting a drum map for a track
ing a MIDI instrument in which the bass drum sound is on
the C2 key, you set the O-note for the Bass Drum sound To select a drum map for a MIDI track, use the Map pop-
to C2. When you switch to another instrument (in which up menu in the Inspector or in the Drum Editor.
the bass drum is on C1) you want the Bass Drum O-note
Selecting “No Drum Map” turns off the drum map func-
set to C1. Once you have set up drum maps for all your
tionality in the Drum Editor. Even if you do not use a drum
MIDI instruments, you do not need to care about this any-
map, you can still separate sounds by name using a name
more – you just select another drum map when you want
list (see “Using drum name lists” on page 279).
to use another MIDI instrument for drum sounds.
! Initially, the Map pop-up menu only contains one
map: “GM Map”. However, a number of drum maps
are included on the program DVD – how to load
these is described below.

277
The MIDI editors
The Drum Map Setup dialog Button Description

To set up and manage your drum maps, select Drum Map Remove Removes the selected drum map from the project.
Setup from the Map pop-up menu or the MIDI menu. This Load… Opens a file dialog, allowing you to load drum maps from
opens the following dialog: disk. The Cubase DVD contains a number of drum maps
for different MIDI instruments – use this function to load
the desired maps into your project.
Save… Opens a file dialog for saving the drum map selected in
the list. If you have created or modified a drum map, you
can use this function to save it as a file on disk – this al-
lows you to load it into other projects. Drum map files
have the extension “.drm”.
Init Display Allows you to reset the Display Notes entry to the original
Notes setting, i. e. the Pitch entry.
Close Closes the dialog.

Ö Drum maps are saved with the project files. If you have
created or modified a drum map, use the Save function to
store it as a separate XML file, available for loading into
other projects.
Ö If you always want to have the same drum map(s) in-
cluded in your projects, you may want to load these into
This is where you load, create, modify, and save drum
the template – see “Save as Template” on page 41.
maps. The list on the left shows the currently loaded drum
maps; selecting a drum map in the list displays its sounds O-Note Conversion
and settings on the right.
This function on the MIDI menu goes through the selected
Ö The settings for the drum sounds are exactly the same MIDI part(s) and sets the actual pitch of each note accord-
as in the Drum Editor (see “Drum map settings” on page ing to its O-note setting. This is useful if you want to convert
276). As in the Drum Editor, you can click the leftmost col- a track to a “regular” MIDI track (with no drum map) and still
umn to audition a drum sound. have the notes play back the correct drum sound. A typical
Ö If you audition a sound in the Drum Map Setup dialog application is if you want to export your MIDI recording as a
and the sound is set to MIDI output “Default”, the output standard MIDI file (see “Exporting and importing standard
selected on the Output pop-up menu in the lower left cor- MIDI files” on page 332) – by first performing an O-Note
ner is used. When auditioning a default output sound in Conversion you make sure that your drum tracks play back
the Drum Editor, the MIDI output selected for the track is as intended when they are exported.
used, as described in section “The Channel and Output
settings” on page 277.
Open the Functions pop-up menu in the top left corner to
open a list of available functionalities:
Button Description
New Map Click this to add a new drum map to the project. The
drum sounds are named “Sound 1, Sound 2”, and so on,
and have all parameters set to default values. The map is
named “Empty Map”, but you can rename it by clicking
and typing in the list.
New Copy Adds a copy of the currently selected drum map. This is
probably the quickest way to create a new drum map: se-
lect the map that is similar to what you want, create a
copy, change the desired drum sound settings, and re-
name the map in the list.

278
The MIDI editors
Using drum name lists Bulk dumps
Even if no drum map is selected for the edited MIDI track, Recording a bulk dump in Cubase
you can still use the Drum Editor. As previously mentioned, In any programmable device, the settings are stored as
the drum sound list then only has four columns: Audition, numbers in computer memory. Change those numbers,
Pitch, Instrument (drum sound name), and Quantize. There and you will change the settings.
is no I-note and O-note functionality.
Normally, MIDI devices allow you to dump (transmit) all or
In this mode, the names shown in the Instrument column some settings in the device’s memory in the form of MIDI
depend on the selection on the Names pop-up menu, just SysEx messages. A dump is therefore (among other
below the Map pop-up menu in the Drum Editor. things) a way of making backup copies of the settings of
your instrument: sending such a dump back to the MIDI
device will restore the settings.
If your instrument allows the dumping of a few or all of its
settings via MIDI by activating some function on the front
panel, this dump will probably be recordable in Cubase.
1. Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu (on
The options on this pop-up menu are the currently loaded the Mac, this is located on the Cubase menu) and select
drum maps plus a “GM Default” item, which is always avail- the MIDI–MIDI Filter page.
able. This means you can use the drum sound names in any This allows you to govern which MIDI event types are recorded and/or
loaded drum map without using I-notes and O-notes if you thru-put.
want to.
2. Make sure that recording of SysEx data is not filtered,
by deactivating the SysEx checkbox in the Record section.
Working with SysEx messages The SysEx checkbox in the Thru section can be left as it is
(by default activated).
SysEx (System Exclusive) messages are model-specific
messages for setting various parameters of a MIDI device.
This makes it possible to address device parameters that
would not be available via normal MIDI syntax.
Every major MIDI manufacturer has its own SysEx identity
code. SysEx messages are typically used for transmitting
patch data, i. e. the numbers that make up the settings of
one or more sounds in a MIDI instrument.
Cubase allows you to record and manipulate SysEx data
in various ways. The following sections point to various
This way, SysEx messages will be recorded but not echoed back out to
features that help you manage and create SysEx data. the instrument (which might lead to unpredictable results).
To learn about the possibilities of the MIDI Device Man- 3. Activate recording on a MIDI track and initiate the
ager for controlling your device, see the chapter “Using dump from the front panel of the instrument.
MIDI devices” on page 238.
4. When done recording, open the part in the Key Editor
and open the controller lane for it.
This allows you to check that the SysEx dump was recorded – there
should be one or several SysEx events in the controller lane.

279
The MIDI editors
Transmitting a bulk dump back to a device Recording SysEx parameter changes
1. Make sure that the MIDI track with the System Exclusive
Often you can use SysEx to remotely change individual set-
data is routed to the device.
You may want to check your device’s documentation to find details about
tings in a device, e. g. open a filter, select a waveform,
which MIDI channel should be used, etc. change the decay of the reverb, etc. Many devices are also
capable of transmitting changes made on the front panel as
2. Solo the track. SysEx messages. These can be recorded in Cubase, and
This might not be necessary, but it is a good safety measure. thus incorporated into a regular MIDI recording.
3. Make sure that the device is set up to receive SysEx Here’s how it works: let’s say you open up a filter while
messages (often, receiving SysEx is turned off by default). playing some notes. In that case, you will record both the
4. If necessary, put the device in “Standby to Receive notes and the SysEx messages generated when you
System Exclusive” mode. opened of the filter. When you play it back, the sound
changes exactly like it did when you recorded it.
5. Play back the data.
1. Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu, se-
Some advice lect the MIDI–MIDI Filter page and make sure that SysEx
is recorded, i. e. the SysEx checkbox in the Record section
• Do not transmit more data than you need. If all you want
is deactivated.
is a single program, do not send them all, it will only make
it harder to find the one you want. Usually, you can specify 2. Make sure that the instrument is actually set to trans-
exactly what you want to send. mit changes of front panel controls as SysEx messages.
• If you want the sequencer to dump the pertinent sounds 3. Record normally.
to your instrument each time you load a project, put the When you are done, you can check on the controller lane that the events
SysEx data in a silent “count-in” before the project itself were recorded properly.
starts.
• If the dump is very short (for instance, a single sound) Editing SysEx messages
you can put it in the middle of the project to re-program a
SysEx events are shown in the controller lane, their entire
device on the fly. However, you can achieve the same ef-
content is displayed in the MIDI SysEx Editor.
fect by using Program Change. This is definitely prefera-
ble, since less MIDI data is sent and recorded. Some • To open the MIDI SysEx Editor for an event, double-
devices may be set up to dump the settings for a sound as click the SysEx event on the controller lane.
soon as you select it on the front panel.
• If you create parts with useful SysEx dumps, you can
put these on a special muted track. When you want to use
one of them, drag it to an empty unmuted track and play it
back from there.
• Do not transmit several SysEx dumps to several instru-
ments at the same time.
• Make a note of the current device ID setting of the in-
strument. If you change this, the instrument may refuse to
load the dump later.

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The MIDI editors
The display shows the entire message on one or several
lines. SysEx messages always begin with F0 and end with
F7 with a number of arbitrary bytes in between. If the mes-
sage contains more bytes than fit on one line, it continues
on the next. The Address indication to the left helps you
find out on which position in the message a certain value
resides.
You can edit all values except for the first (F0) and last one
(F7).

Selecting and viewing values

To select a value, either click on it or use the cursor keys.
The selected byte is displayed in various formats:
• In the main display, values are shown in hexadecimal format.
• To the right of this, values are shown in ASCII format.
• At the bottom of the dialog, the selected value is shown in
ASCII, binary, and decimal formats.

Editing a value
The selected value can be edited directly in the main dis-
play or in the ASCII, decimal, and binary displays. Just
click on it and type in the desired value as usual.

Adding and deleting bytes

Using the Insert and Delete buttons or their corresponding
computer keyboard keys, you can add and delete bytes
from the message. Inserted data will appear before the se-
lection.
• To delete the complete SysEx message, select it in the
controller lane and press [Delete] or [Backspace].

Importing and exporting data

The Import and Export buttons allow you to get SysEx data
from disk and to export the edited data to a file. The file
has to be in “MIDI SysEx” (.syx) binary format. Only the
first dump in a SYX file will be loaded.
Ö Do not confuse this format with MIDI files, which have
the extension .mid.

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The MIDI editors
The Score Editor – Overview

Toolbar
Status line

Info line
Extended
toolbar

The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score. The info line
The info line shows information about selected MIDI
The toolbar notes, just like in the Key and Drum Editors. You can edit
The Score Editor toolbar is similar to the toolbar in the Key all values on the info line using regular value editing (see
Editor, but tailored to working with scores: “Editing on the info line” on page 264 for details).
• There are an Insert Note tool and an Insert Text tool in- • To configure which items are available on the info line,
stead of the Pencil, Trim, Mute, Zoom, and Line tools. right-click the info line and select “Setup…” from the con-
text menu.
• Parts on different tracks are shown on different staves.
In the dialog that appears you can configure where the separate items
Therefore there are no part controls.
will be placed and save/recall different setup configurations.
• There are only two Snap types: Grid and Grid Relative.
• To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window
• The Independent Track Loop, Auto-Select Controllers, Layout” button and activate or deactivate the “Info Line”
and Indicate Transpositions buttons, as well as the Nudge option.
palette and Event Colors pop-up menu are not available.
The extended toolbar
The status line
The status line features the Mouse Time Position, the
Mouse Note Position, and the Current Chord displays.
• To show or hide the extended toolbar, click the “Set up
Unlike in the Key Editor, you need to select the notes mak-
Window Layout” button and activate or deactivate the
ing up the chord to make it appear in the Current Chord
Tools option.
Display.
• To show or hide the status line, click the “Set up Win- Note value buttons
dow Layout” button and activate or deactivate the “Status Click one of these to select a note value for input. The “T”
Line” option. and “.” options are for triplet and dotted note values. You
can also press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click one of the note
value buttons – this will resize all selected notes to the
note value you choose.

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The MIDI editors
Enharmonic Shift About editing parts on different tracks
Allows you to manually select whether a note is shown If you have selected parts on two or more tracks and open
with flat or sharp accidentals, see “Enharmonic Shift” on the Score Editor, you will get one staff for each track (al-
page 288. though you can split a staff in two, e. g. when scoring for
piano). The staves are tied together by bar lines and
The score display placed in the order of the tracks in the Project window.
• If you need to rearrange the staves: close the editor, go
back into the Project window, drag the tracks to the order
you want them, and open the Score Editor again.

The active staff

Just as in the other editors, all MIDI input (as when record-
ing from your instrument) is directed to one of the tracks,
here called the active staff. The active staff is indicated by
The main area of the Score Editor window shows the
a blue rectangle to the left of the clef symbol.
notes in the edited parts on one or several staves.
• If you are editing one or several parts on the same track,
as much of them as possible is shown on several staves –
The active staff
one above the other – just as with a score on paper.
• If you are editing parts on several tracks, they are put on
a grand staff (multiple staves, tied together by bar lines).
• The number of bars across the screen depends on the
size of the window and the number of notes in each bar.
The maximum number of bars across the page is four.
• To change the active staff, click on the staff you want to
activate.
• The end of the last part is indicated by a double bar line.
• Unlike the other MIDI editors, the Score Editor does not Getting the score displayed correctly
have a ruler. When you open the Score Editor for a part recorded in
A conventional ruler would not make sense, since there is no exact rela- real time, the score may not look as legible as you expect.
tionship between a note’s horizontal position in the score and its musical The Score Editor can ignore the minor time variances in
position in the project.
performance and make a neater score almost instantly. To
achieve this, there are a number of Staff Settings that de-
Score Editor operations termine how the program displays the music.
Ö Note that the time signature follows the time signa-
Opening the Score Editor ture(s) set in the Tempo Track Editor, and that these set-
To open one or several parts in the Score Editor, select tings are common to all tracks/staves in the score.
one or several tracks or any number of parts (on the same There are two ways to open the Staff Settings dialog:
or different tracks), and select “Open Score Editor” from
the Scores submenu of the MIDI menu. The default key • Double-click in the area to the left of the staff.
command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
• You can also select the Score Editor as your default ed-
itor, allowing you to open it by double-clicking parts.
This is done with the Default Edit Action pop-up menu in the Preferences
dialog (Event Display–MIDI page).

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The MIDI editors
• Activate a staff by clicking in it, and select “Staff Set- Display Quantize
tings…” from the Scores submenu of the MIDI menu.
The Staff Settings dialog appears.

Notes are not an absolute language, and you must give

the program a few hints on how you want the score to be
displayed. This is done using the Display Quantize section
of the Staff Settings dialog.

! These are only display values used for the graphics

in the Score Editor. They do not affect the actual
playback in any way.
The following options are available:
Option Description
! The settings you make in this dialog are independent Notes Determines the smallest note value to be displayed and
for each staff (track), but common for a piano staff the “smallest position” to be recognized and properly dis-
played. Set this to the smallest significant note position
which you have created by choosing the “Split” Staff used in your music.
Mode option (see below). For example, if you have notes on odd sixteenth note po-
sitions, set this value to 16.
Staff Mode The “T” values are for triplet note values.
This setting is partly overridden by Auto Quantize (see
below).
Rests This value is used as a “recommendation” – the program
will not display rests smaller than this value, except where
necessary. In effect, this setting also determines how the
length of notes is displayed. Set this value according to
the smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed
This pop-up menu determines how the staff is shown: for a single note, positioned on a beat.
Auto Quantize Generally, if your music contains mixed triplets and
• When set to “Single”, all notes in the part are shown in straight notes, try activating this checkbox. Otherwise,
the same staff. make sure it is deactivated.
Auto Quantize is used to make your score look as legible
• When set to “Split”, the part is split on the screen into a as possible. Auto Quantize allows you to mix straight
notes with tuplets (triplets) in a part. But Auto Quantize
bass and treble clef, as in a piano score. also uses the (display) Quantize value. If it cannot find an
You use the Split-Point value field to set the note where you want the appropriate note value for a certain note or group of
split to occur. Notes above and including the split note will appear on the notes, it will use the set Quantize value to display it.
upper staff, and notes below the split note will appear on the lower staff. If the part is imprecisely played and/or complex, Auto
Quantize may have a problem “figuring out” exactly what
you “mean”.
Dev. This option is only available if Auto Quantize is on. When
Dev. (Deviation) is activated, triplets/straight notes will be
detected even if they are not exactly “on the beat”. How-
ever, if you know your triplets/straight notes are perfectly
recorded (quantized or entered by hand), turn this off.
Adapt This option is only available if Auto Quantize is on. When
Adapt is activated, the program “guesses” that when one
triplet is found, there are probably more triplets surround-
ing it. Turn this on if not all of your triplets are detected.

Before and after setting a split at C3.

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The MIDI editors
Clef and Key Interpretation Options
The correct Clef and Key are set using the two scroll bars
in the Clef/Key section.

These provide additional options for how the score is dis-

played:
Parameter Description
If you activate the “Auto Clef” checkbox, the program attempts to guess Clean Lengths When this is activated, notes that are considered to be
the correct clef, judging from the pitch of the music. chords will be shown with identical lengths. This is done
by showing the longer notes as shorter than they are.
• To set the clef and key for the lower staff, activate the When Clean Lengths is turned on, notes with very short
“Lower Staff” checkbox in the Clef/Key section. overlaps are also cut off; a bit as with No Overlap (see
below), but with a more subtle effect.
Display Transpose No Overlap When this is activated one note will never be shown as
overlapping another, lengthwise. This allows long and
short notes starting at the same point to be displayed
without ties; the long notes are cut off in the display. This
will make the music more legible.

Some instruments, for example a lot of brass instruments, An example measure with No Overlap deactivated…
are scored transposed. For this purpose, the Staff Set-
tings dialog allows you to specify a separate Display …and with No Overlap activated.
Transpose setting for each staff (track). This transposes
Syncopation When this function is activated, syncopated notes are
the notes in the score (i. e. how they are displayed) without shown in a more legible way.
affecting how the notes play back. This allows you to re-
cord and play back a multi staff arrangement, and still
score each instrument according to its own transposition. This is a dotted quarter at the end of a bar when Synco-
pation is Off…
• Use the pop-up menu to select the instrument for which
you are scoring.
You can also manually set a display transpose value with the Semitones
…and when it is On.
box above.
Shuffle Activate this function when you have played a shuffle beat
and want it displayed as straight notes (not triplets). This
is very common in jazz notation.

Applying your settings

After you have made your settings, click Apply to apply
them to the active staff. You can select another staff in the
score and make settings for that, without having to close
the Staff Settings dialog first – just remember to click Ap-
ply before you change staff, otherwise your changes will
be lost.

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The MIDI editors
Entering notes with the mouse Entering a note
To enter notes into a part in the Score Editor, you use the To add a note to the score, proceed as follows:
Note tool. However, first you need to set the note value
1. Make the staff active.
(length) and spacing: Notes are always put in on the active staff.
Selecting a note value for input 2. Select the type of note by selecting a note value.
This is described in detail above.
This can be done in two ways:
3. On the toolbar, select the Note tool.
• By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
If you selected the note value by clicking on a symbol on the extended
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64th and turn on and off the
toolbar, the Note tool gets automatically selected.
dotted and triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right. The se-
lected note value is displayed in the Length value field on the toolbar and 4. Select a Quantize value.
in the Note tool cursor shape.
5. Move the mouse over the staff to find the correct posi-
• By selecting an option from the Length Quantize pop- tion.
up menu on the toolbar. Check the Mouse Time Position display on the status line – the position
is “magnetically” attracted to the grid defined by the current Quantize
Selecting a Quantize value value. This allows you to easily find the correct position.
When you move the mouse pointer over the score, you will 6. Move the mouse vertically to find the correct pitch.
see that the Mouse Time Position field on the status line The Mouse Note Position display on the status line shows the pitch at
tracks your movement and shows the current position in the pointer position, making it easy to find the right pitch.
bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks.
7. Click in the staff.
Positioning on screen is controlled by the current Quan- The note appears in the score.
tize value. If you set this to 1/8, you can only insert and The notes you enter will get the insert velocity value set in
move notes to eighth note positions, at quarter notes, at the Insert Velocity field on the toolbar, see “Setting veloc-
half bars or at bar positions. It is a good strategy to set the ity values” on page 260.
Quantize value to the smallest note value in the piece. This
does not stop you from inputting notes at “coarser” posi- Ö If the notes you enter appear to have the wrong note
tions. However, if you set the Quantize value to too small a value (e. g. you enter a 1/32 note that is displayed as a 1/
note value, it is easier to make mistakes. 16 note), you may have to adjust the Display Quantize set-
tings, see “Display Quantize” on page 284.

Selecting notes
There are several ways to select notes in the Score Editor:
With the Quantize value set to 1/8, you can only input
notes at eighth note positions. By clicking
The Quantize value is set with the Quantize pop-up menu To select a note, click on its note head with the Arrow tool.
on the toolbar. The note head gets red to indicate that it is selected.
• You can also assign key commands to the different • To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on
Quantize values. them.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog, in the “MIDI Quantize” category.
• To deselect notes, hold [Shift] down and click on them
• Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the again.
Quantize Panel to create other quantize values, irregular
grids, etc. • If you hold down [Shift] and double-click on a note, this
However, this is not often used when entering score notes. note and all the following notes in the same staff are se-
lected.

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The MIDI editors
Using a selection rectangle Moving notes
1. Press the mouse button with the Arrow tool in some To move or transpose notes, proceed as follows:
free (white) space in the score.
1. Set the Quantize value.
2. Drag the mouse pointer to create a selection rectangle.
2. If you want to hear the pitch of the note while moving,
You can drag to select notes on several voices or staves if you wish.
activate the Acoustic Feedback button (speaker icon) on
3. Release the mouse button. the toolbar.
All notes with their note heads inside the rectangle get selected. When it is on, you will hear the current pitch of the “dragged” note.
• If you want to deselect one or more of the notes, hold 3. Select the notes that you want to move.
down [Shift] and click as described above.
4. Click one of the selected notes and drag it to a new
Using the keyboard position and/or pitch.
The horizontal movement of the note is “magnetically attracted” to the
By default, you can step through the notes in the staff us- current Quantize value. The position boxes on the toolbar show what the
ing the left and right arrow keys. If you press [Shift], you new position and pitch for the dragged note will be.
will select the notes as you step through them.
5. Release the mouse.
• If you want to use other keys for selecting notes, you The notes appear at their new position.
can customize the settings in the Key Commands dialog
• If you hold [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag, movement is re-
(in the Navigate category).
stricted to vertical or horizontal (depending on the direc-
Deselecting everything tion in which you drag).

• To deselect everything, simply click with the Arrow tool • You can also move selected notes by using key com-
in some “free” (white) space in the score. mands, as assigned in the Nudge category in the Key
Commands dialog.
When moving notes to the left or right using key commands, the notes
Deleting notes will be moved in steps according to the current Quantize value. The keys
Notes can be deleted in two ways: assigned for up/down nudging will transpose notes in semitone steps.

Using the Erase tool Duplicating notes

1. Select the Erase tool from the toolbar or context menu. 1. Set the Quantize value and select the notes, as for
2. One at a time, click on the note(s) you want to erase, moving.
or drag over them with the mouse button pressed. 2. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the notes to their
new position.
Using the keyboard or delete menu item
• If you want to restrict movements to one direction, press
1. Select the note(s) you want to delete.
[Ctrl]/[Command].
2. Select Delete from the Edit menu, or press [Delete] or This works just as for moving, as described above.
[Backspace] on the computer keyboard.
• [Alt]/[Option] is the default modifier key for copying/du-
plicating. If you like, you can change this in the Prefer-
ences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
The entry for this is found in the Drag & Drop category (“Copy”).

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The MIDI editors
Changing the length of notes Enharmonic Shift
As described earlier (see “Getting the score displayed The buttons to the right on the extended toolbar allow you
correctly” on page 283), the displayed length of a note is to shift the display of selected notes so that for example
not necessarily the actual note length, but also depends an F# (F sharp) is instead shown as a Gb (G flat) and vice
on the Notes and Rests values for Display Quantize in the versa:
Staff Settings dialog. This is important to remember when
1. Select the note(s) you want to affect.
you change the length of a note, since it can lead to con-
fusing results. 2. Click on one of the buttons to display the selected
note(s) a certain way.
There are several ways to change the length of a note in
the Score Editor:

By using the note value icons on the extended toolbar The “off” button resets the notes to original display. The other five op-
tions are double flats, flats, No (no accidentals shown, regardless of
Using the extended toolbar is another quick way to set a pitch), sharps and double sharps.
number of notes to the same length:
1. Select the notes you want to change. Flip Stems
Normally the direction of the note stems is automatically
2. Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on one of the
selected according to the note pitches, but you can
note icons on the extended toolbar.
All the selected notes are now given the length of the clicked note. change this manually if you like:
1. Select the notes for which you want to change (flip)
By using the info line the stem direction.
You can also edit length values numerically on the info 2. Pull down the MIDI menu and select Flip Stems from
line, just like in the Key and Drum Editors (see “Editing on the Scores submenu.
the info line” on page 264).
Working with text
Splitting and gluing notes
You can use the Text tool to add comments, articulation or
• If you have two notes strung together by a tie and click
instrumentation advice and other text strings anywhere in
on the “tied” note head with the Scissors tool, the note will the score:
be divided into two, with the respective length of the
“main” and the tied note. Adding a text string
• Conversely, if you click on a note with the Glue Tube 1. On the toolbar, select the Text tool.
tool it will be joined to the next note with the same pitch.

2. Click anywhere in the score.

A blinking cursor appears, indicating that you can enter text.
3. Enter the text and press [Return].

Editing text
To edit an already added text string, double-click it with
the Arrow tool. This opens the text for editing, and you can
use the arrow keys to move the cursor, delete characters
with the [Delete] or [Backspace] keys and type new text as
usual. Finish by pressing [Return].

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The MIDI editors
• To delete a text block, select it with the Arrow tool and Printing
press [Backspace] or [Delete].
To print your score, proceed as follows:
• You can move or duplicate text blocks by dragging (or
1. Open the parts you want to print in the Score Editor.
[Alt]/[Option]-dragging) them, just as with notes. Printing is only available from within the Score Editor.
Changing the text font, size and style 2. Select “Page Setup…” from the File menu and make
To change the font settings for the text you have added, sure all your printer settings are correct. Close the dialog.
proceed as follows: ! If you change your setting for paper size, scale and
1. Select the text by clicking it with the Arrow tool. margins now, the score may change its look.
2. Pull down the MIDI menu and select “Set Font…” from 3. Select “Print…” from the File menu.
the Scores submenu.
The Font Settings dialog appears, containing the following settings: 4. A standard print dialog appears. Fill out the options as
desired.
Item Description
Font This is where you specify the font for the text. Which fonts
5. Click Print.
are available on the pop-up menu depends on the fonts
you have installed on you computer. You probably do not
want to use the “Steinberg” fonts – these are special
fonts used by the program (e. g. for score symbols) and
not suited for common text.
Size Sets the size of the text.
Frame Allows you to encase the text in a rectangular (box) or
oval frame.
Font options These checkboxes determine whether the text is format-
ted bold, italic, and/or underlined.

3. When you have made your settings, click Apply.

If you like, you can leave the Font Settings dialog open, select another
text block and adjust the settings for that – just remember to click Apply
before you select a new text block.
• If you make settings in the Font Settings dialog with no
text selected, the settings will be used as default for all
new text.
In other words, all text you enter from then on will get the settings you
have specified (although you can of course change this manually for
each text as usual).

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The MIDI editors
 28
Editing tempo and signature
Background Tempo and signature display
Whenever you create a new project, Cubase will automat- You can view the current tempo and signature settings of
ically set the tempo and time signature for this project. The your project in a number of ways:
tempo and signature settings can be displayed in the
• On the Transport panel.
Tempo Track Editor. See above, and the section “The Transport panel” on page 68.

Tempo modes • In the Tempo Track Editor.

Open the Project menu and select Tempo Track Editor, or [Ctrl]/[Com-
Before we go into detail about tempo and signature set- mand]-click the Tempo button on the Transport panel.
tings, you should understand the different tempo modes.
The tempo can either be fixed throughout the entire proj- About the Tempo Track Editor
ect (this is called “fixed tempo mode”) or follow the tempo Toolbar Info line Ruler
track (this is called “tempo track mode”), which may con-
tain tempo changes.
• To switch between fixed tempo mode and tempo track
mode, use the Tempo button on the Transport panel:

When the Tempo button is lit (and the text “Track” is

shown), the tempo follows the tempo track; when it is de-
activated (and the text “Fixed” is shown), a fixed tempo is
used (see “Setting the fixed tempo” on page 293). You
can also switch the tempo mode with the Activate Tempo
Track button on the Tempo Track Editor toolbar. Time Signature area Tempo curve display

In tempo track mode, the tempo cannot be changed on

The Tempo Track Editor has a toolbar, info line, and ruler
the Transport panel, i. e. the tempo information here is for
just like other editors in Cubase, plus an area for the dis-
display purposes only.
play of time signature events and a tempo curve display.
Signature events are always active, regardless of whether
fixed tempo mode or tempo track mode is selected. The toolbar
The toolbar contains various tools and settings:
A note about tempo-based audio tracks
Activate Tempo Tools Suspend Auto-Scroll when Editing
The start position of audio events on the timeline depends Track
on the current tempo setting. However, it is important to re-
alize that the actual audio (“within” the events) will play back
as recorded, regardless of any tempo changes you make. Show Info Auto-Scroll Snap on/off

Therefore, it is good practice to make the proper tempo and

Snap pop-up Curve type for new
time signature settings before you start recording tempo- tempo events
based audio.
The selected tempo
• To make an already recorded audio track follow the
tempo changes, you can use the Sample Editor, see the
chapter “The Sample Editor” on page 176.

291
Editing tempo and signature
• The tools for Object Selection, Erase, Zoom and Draw 3. Click and drag in the tempo curve display to draw a
are used in the same way as in other editors. The Snap tempo curve.
and Auto-Scroll functions also work exactly like in the When you click, the tempo display on the toolbar shows the tempo value.
Project window. If Snap is activated on the toolbar, this determines at which time posi-
Note that in the Tempo Track Editor, the Snap function affects tempo tions you can insert tempo curve points, see “The Snap function” on
events only. Time signature events always snap to the beginning of bars. page 35.

• The info line in the Tempo Track Editor allows you to

change settings for selected time signature events, and
the type and tempo of selected tempo curve points.
• The ruler in the Tempo Track Editor shows the timeline,
and is similar to the ruler in the Project window. See “The
ruler” on page 34 for details. Insert curve set to “Ramp” Insert curve set to “Jump”

• The area below the ruler shows time signature events.

• You can also click on the tempo curve with the Arrow
• The main display shows the tempo curve (or, if fixed tool.
tempo mode is selected, the fixed tempo – see “Setting This adds a single point with each click.
the fixed tempo” on page 293). To the left of the display Ö Tempo values can also be automatically inserted by the
you will find a tempo scale to help you quickly locate the Beat Calculator, see “The Beat Calculator” on page 294.
desired tempo.
Note that the vertical “grid lines” in the tempo curve display correspond Selecting tempo curve points
to the display format selected for the ruler.
Curve points can be selected as follows:

Editing tempo and signature • Using the Arrow tool.

The standard selection techniques apply.

Editing the tempo curve • Using the Select submenu of the Edit menu.
The options are:
! This section assumes that you are working in tempo Option Description
track mode, i. e. the Tempo button must be activated
All Selects all curve points on the tempo track.
on the Transport panel.
None Deselects all curve points.
Adding tempo curve points In Loop Selects all curve points between the left and right locator.
1. Use the “Insert curve” pop-up menu on the toolbar of From Start Selects all points to the left of the project cursor.
the Tempo Track Editor to select whether you want the to Cursor

tempo to change gradually from the previous curve point From Cursor Selects all points to the right of the project cursor.
to End
to the new one (“Ramp”) or change instantly to the new
value (“Jump”).
You can also set this to Automatic. In this case, the types of existing tempo • You can also use the left and right arrow keys on the
curve points will be used when inserting new points at the same position. computer keyboard to go from one curve point to the next.
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, you can select several points
2. Select the Pencil tool. at the same time.

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Editing tempo and signature
Editing tempo curve points Setting the fixed tempo
Curve points can be edited in the following ways: When the tempo track is deactivated, the tempo track
curve is grayed out (but still visible). Since the tempo is
• By clicking and dragging horizontally and/or vertically
fixed throughout the whole project, there are no tempo
with the Arrow tool.
If several points are selected, all of them are moved. If Snap is activated
curve points. Instead, the fixed tempo is displayed as a
on the toolbar, this determines to which time positions you can move horizontal black line in the tempo curve display.
curve points, see “The Snap function” on page 35.
• By adjusting the tempo value in the tempo display on the
Tempo Track Editor toolbar.

Adjusting the curve type

To set the tempo in fixed mode:
! We recommend using the Bars+Beats display for-
mat when editing tempo curves. Otherwise, you may • Adjust the value numerically in the tempo display on the
get confusing results. This is because moving a point Tempo Track Editor toolbar.
will change the relationship between tempo and • On the Transport panel, click on the tempo value to se-
time. If you move a tempo point to the right and drop lect it, enter a new value and press [Enter].
it at a certain time position, the mapping between
tempo and time will be adjusted. Since you have
changed the tempo curve, the moved point will ap-
Adding and editing time signature events
pear at another position. • To add a time signature event, click with the Pencil tool
in the time signature area.
You can change the curve type of a tempo curve segment This adds a default 4/4 time signature event at the closest bar position.
at any time, using the following method:
• To edit the value of a time signature event, select it and
1. With the Arrow tool, select all curve points within the adjust the value on the info line, or double-click the event
segment you want to edit. and enter a new value.
Note that there are two controls for the signature display; the left one ad-
justs the numerator and the right one adjusts the denominator.
• To move a time signature event, click and drag it with
the Arrow tool.
Note that you can [Shift]-click to select multiple events. Also note that
time signature events can only be positioned at the start of bars. This is
2. In the info line, click below the word “Type” to switch also true if Snap is deactivated.
the curve type between “Jump” and “Ramp”.
• To remove a time signature, either click on it with the
The curve sections between the selected points are adjusted.
Erase tool or select it and press [Backspace] or [Delete].
The first time signature event cannot be removed.

Removing tempo curve points

To remove a curve point, either click on it with the Erase
tool or select it and press [Backspace]. The first tempo
curve point cannot be removed.

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Editing tempo and signature
The Beat Calculator 3. Click the Tap Tempo button.
The Tap Tempo window appears.

4. Tap the tempo on the Spacebar of the computer key-

The Beat Calculator is a tool for calculating the tempo of
board or with the mouse button.
freely recorded audio or MIDI material. It also allows you to
The tempo display will update the calculated tempo between each tap.
set the tempo by tapping.
5. Click OK to close the Tap Tempo dialog.
Calculating the tempo of a recording The tapped tempo is now shown in the Beat Calculator’s BPM display.
You can insert it into the tempo track as described above.
1. In the Project window, make a selection that covers an
exact number of beats of the recording.
2. Select “Beat Calculator…” from the Project menu.
Adjusting the audio to the project
The Beat Calculator window appears. tempo
3. In the Beats field, enter the number of beats that the If you want freely recorded audio to follow a fixed tempo or
selection encompasses. a different project tempo, you can use the Set Definition
The corresponding tempo is calculated and displayed in the BPM field. From Tempo dialog to save the tempo information from
• If you need to adjust the selection, you can go back to the tempo track in the corresponding audio clips.
the Project window, leaving the Beat Calculator open. Proceed as follows:
To re-calculate the tempo after adjusting the selection, click Refresh.
1. Select the audio events that you want to have follow
4. You can also insert the calculated tempo into the the project tempo.
tempo track by clicking one of the buttons in the lower left For example, this could be the individual tracks in a multi-track drum
corner of the Beat Calculator window. session.
Clicking “At Tempo Track Start” will adjust the first tempo curve point,
while “At Selection Start” will add a new tempo curve point at the selec-
2. On the Audio menu, open the Advanced submenu and
tion’s start position, using the “Jump” curve type (see “Adding tempo select the “Set Definition From Tempo…” option.
curve points” on page 292). The Set Definition From Tempo dialog opens.

! If fixed tempo mode is selected when you insert the

calculated tempo, the fixed tempo will be adjusted,
regardless of which button you click.

Using Tap Tempo

The Tap Tempo function allows you to specify a tempo by
tapping:
1. Open the Beat Calculator.
2. If you want to tap the tempo to some recorded mate-
rial, activate playback.

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3. Select whether you want to save the tempo informa-
tion in the project file only or in the selected audio clips.
Writing the definition into the audio files allows you to use these in other
projects, complete with tempo information.
4. Select if you want to set all tracks to musical timebase.
If you do not activate this option, only the tracks containing the selected
events are set to musical timebase.
5. Click OK.
The tempo information is now copied into the selected audio clips and
the tracks are set to musical timebase. Furthermore, Musical Mode is ac-
tivated for the audio events.

! If you have placed audio events referring to the same

audio clip at different positions on the timeline and
you apply the “Set Definition From Tempo” function
simultaneously to these events, new audio files are
written for all the events except the first.
The audio tracks will now follow any tempo changes in the
project. Therefore, you can disable the tempo track and
set a fixed tempo for your project or edit the tempo track
for a new tempo map.

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Editing tempo and signature
 29
Export Audio Mixdown
Introduction 3. Pull down the File menu and select “Audio Mixdown…”
from the Export submenu.
The Export Audio Mixdown function in Cubase allows you The Export Audio Mixdown dialog opens.
to mix down audio from the program to a file on your hard
disk.
You always mix down an output channel. For example, if
you have set up a stereo mix with tracks routed to a stereo
output bus, mixing down that output bus would give you a
mixdown file containing the whole mix.
Please note the following:
• The Export Audio Mixdown function mixes down the
area between the left and right locators.
• When you mix down, you get what you hear – mutes,
Mixer settings, record enable, and insert effects are taken
into account.
Note though that you will only include the sound of the channel you se-
lect for mixdown.
• MIDI tracks are not included in the mixdown! 4. In the Channel Selection section to the left, select the
To make a complete mixdown containing both MIDI and audio, you first channel you want to mix down. The list contains all output
need to record all your MIDI music onto audio tracks (by connecting the channels available in the project (see “About the Channel
outputs of your MIDI instruments to your audio inputs and recording, as Selection section” on page 298).
with any other sound source).
5. In the File Location section at the top you can specify
a name and path for the mixdown file.
Mixing down to audio files For details about the naming options, see “About the File Location sec-
tion” on page 298.
1. Set up the left and right locators to encompass the
6. Select an entry from the File Format pop-up menu and
section you want to mix down.
make additional settings for the file to be created.
2. Set up your tracks so that they play back the way you This includes codec settings, meta data, sample rate, bit depth, etc. The
want. available options depend on the selected file format, see “The available
This includes muting unwanted tracks or parts, making manual Mixer set- file formats” on page 299.
tings and/or activating the R (Read) automation buttons for some or all 7. In the Audio Engine Output section, activate the Split
Mixer channels.
Channels option if you want to export the two channels of
a stereo bus as separate mono files.
For details about the settings relating to the audio engine, see “About the
Audio Engine Output section” on page 298.
8. Activate Realtime Export if you want the export to hap-
pen in realtime (see “About the Audio Engine Output sec-
tion” on page 298).
9. If you want to automatically import the resulting audio
file back into Cubase, activate any of the checkboxes in
the “Import into Project” section.
For details about the available options, see “About the Import into Project
section” on page 299.

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10. If you activate Update Display, the meters will be up- Path Options
dated during the export process.
• Select “Choose…” to open a dialog in which you can
This allows you to check for clipping, for example.
browse for a path and enter a file name.
11. Click Export. The file name will automatically be shown in the Name field.
A dialog with a progress bar is displayed while the audio file is created.
To cancel the operation, you can click the Abort button.
• Select an entry from the Recent Paths section to reuse
a path specified for a previous export.
• If the “Close Window after Export” option is activated, This section is only shown after an export has been completed. With the
the dialog will be closed automatically. “Clear Recent Paths” option you can delete all entries from the Recent
Paths section.
• If you have activated any of the options in the “Import
into Project” section, the file will be imported back into the • Activate the “Use Project Audio Folder” option to save
same project. the mixdown file in the project’s Audio folder.
When playing back the reimported file, mute the original tracks so that
you only hear the mixdown. About the File Format section
! If you set the export range in such a way that the ef- In the File Format section, you can select the file format for
fects applied to a preceding event (e. g. reverb) reach your mixdown files and make additional settings that are
into the next, these will be heard in the mixdown (even different for each file type. For details, see “The available
though the event itself is not included). If you do not file formats” on page 299.
want this, you need to mute the first event before
exporting. About the Audio Engine Output section
The Audio Engine Output section contains all the settings
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog related to the output of the Cubase audio engine. The fol-
lowing options are available:
Below you will find detailed descriptions of the different Option Description
sections of the dialog and the corresponding functions.
Sample Rate This setting determines the frequency range of the ex-
(uncompressed ported audio – the lower the sample rate, the lower the
About the Channel Selection section file formats only) highest audible frequency in the audio. In most cases,
you should select the sample rate set for the project,
The Channel Selection section shows all output channels since a lower sample rate will degrade the audio quality
(mainly reducing the high frequency content) and a
available in the project. higher sample rate will only increase the file size, with-
out adding to audio quality. Also consider the future us-
• You can activate/deactivate channels by clicking on the age of the file: If you plan to import the file into another
checkboxes in front of the channel names. application, for example, you should select a sample
rate supported by that application.
If you are making a mixdown for CD burning, you should
About the File Location section select 44.100 kHz, since this is the sample rate used on
audio CDs.
In the File Location section you can specify a name and a
path for the exported files.
At the right of the Name and the Path fields there are two
pop-up menus with a number of options:

Naming Options
• Select “Set to Project Name” to set the Name field to
the project name.
• Activate the “Auto Update Name” option to add a num-
ber to the specified file name every time you click the Ex-
port button.

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Option Description • If you activate the Audio Track option as well, an audio
Bit Depth Allows you to select 8, 16, 24 bit or 32 bit (float) files. If event that plays the clip will be created and placed on a
(uncompressed the file is an “intermediate mixdown” that you plan to re- new audio track, starting at the left locator.
file formats only) import and continue working on in Cubase, we recom- If you activate the Audio Track option, the Pool option will automatically
mend that you select the 32 bit (float) option.
32 bit (float) is a very high resolution (the same resolu- be activated as well, and deactivating the Pool option also deactivates
tion as used internally for audio processing in Cubase), the Audio Track option.
and the audio files will be twice the size of 16 bit files.
If you are making a mixdown for CD burning, use the 16 About the Import Options dialog
bit option, as CD audio is always 16 bit.
In this case, we recommend dithering, see “Dithering If you activate any of the options in the “Import into Proj-
(Cubase Elements only)” on page 135.
Cubase Elements only: Activate the UV-22HR dither-
ect” section, the Import Options dialog will open when the
ing plug-in (see the separate PDF document “Plug-in export is complete. For a detailed description of the op-
Reference” for details). This reduces the effects of tions in this dialog see “About the Import Medium dialog”
quantization noise and artifacts from being introduced
when converting the audio down to 16 bit. 8 bit resolu- on page 202.
tion should only be used if required, since it results in
limited audio quality. 8 bit audio may be suitable in
some multimedia applications, etc. The available file formats
Mono Downmix Activate this if you want to downmix the two channels
of a stereo bus to a single mono file. The following pages describe the different export file for-
Split Channels Activate this if you want to export the two channels of a mats, as well as their options and settings.
stereo bus as separate mono files.
• AIFF files (see “AIFF files” on page 300).
Realtime Export Activate this if you want the export to happen in real- • AIFC files (see “AIFC files” on page 300).
time, in which case the process will take at least the
same time as regular playback. • Wave files (see “Wave files” on page 300).
Some VST plug-ins, external instruments and effects • Wave 64 files (see “Wave 64 files” on page 300).
require this in order to have enough time to update cor-
rectly during the mixdown – consult the plug-in manu-
• Broadcast Wave files (see “Broadcast Wave files” on page
facturers if uncertain. 300).
Depending on the CPU and disk speed of your com- • MP3 files (see “MPEG 1 Layer 3 files” on page 301).
puter, it may not be possible to export all channels si-
multaneously if Realtime Export is activated. If an error • Ogg Vorbis files (see “Ogg Vorbis files” on page 301).
occurs during the realtime export, the program will au- • Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only, see “Win-
tomatically stop the process, reduce the number of dows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only)” on page 301).
channels and start again. Afterwards the next batch of
files is exported. This is repeated as often as needed to
export all selected channels. ! Note that the Wave 64 file format is the only format
Due to this splitting of the export process in “runs”, the that allows you to export files with a resulting size of
realtime export might take longer than the actual play-
back would. more than 2 GB.
Ö Most of the settings described below for AIFF files are
About the Import into Project section available for all file types. Where this is not the case, you will
In this section you will find several options for importing find additional information in the corresponding section.
the resulting mixdown files back into the existing or into a
new project: MP3 Export
• If you activate the Pool checkbox, the resulting audio file This version of Cubase provides a function for exporting
will automatically be imported back into the Pool as a clip. your audio mixdown as mp3 files. This function is limited to
Use the Pool Folder option to specify in which Pool folder the clip will 20 trial encodings or a trial period of 30 days from the in-
reside. stallation date (whichever ends first). After this period, the
function will be disabled until you purchase the mp3 en-
coder for Cubase.

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Export Audio Mixdown
• When the mp3 format is selected and you click the Ex- AIFC files
port button, a window opens showing you how many trial
AIFC stands for Audio Interchange File Format Com-
encodings you have left. You can upgrade to an unlimited
pressed, a standard defined by Apple Inc. These files sup-
mp3 export function by clicking the “Go to Online Shop”
port compression ratios as high as 6:1 and contain tags in
button in the dialog.
the header. AIFC files have the extension “.aifc” and are
This will take you to Steinberg’s online shop where you can purchase the
upgrade. Note that a working internet connection is required.
used on most computer platforms.
AIFC files support the same options as AIFF files.
AIFF files
AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format, a standard Wave files
defined by Apple Inc. AIFF files have the extension “.aif” Wave files have the extension “.wav” and are the most
and are used on most computer platforms. common file format on the PC platform.
For AIFF files the following options are available: Wave files support the same options as AIFF files and
Option Description have one additional option:
Insert Broad- This allows you to include information about the date • Don’t Use Wave Extensible Format
cast Wave and time of creation, a timecode position (allowing you The Wave Extensible format contains additional metadata, such as the
Chunk to insert exported audio at the correct position in other
projects, etc.) along with author, description and refer- speaker configuration. It is an extension to the normal Wave format that
ence text strings in the exported file. some applications may not be able to handle.
Some applications may not be able to handle files with If you get problems using the Wave file in another application, activate
embedded info – if you get problems using the file in an- this option and re-export.
other application, deactivate the option and re-export.
Edit button By clicking this button, the “Broadcast Wave Chunk” di-
alog opens, where you can enter additional information Wave 64 files
that will be embedded in the exported files. Note that in Wave 64 is a proprietary format developed by Sonic
the Preferences dialog (Record–Audio–Broadcast
Wave page) you can enter default text strings for author, Foundry Inc. In terms of audio quality, Wave 64 files are
description and reference that will automatically be dis- identical to standard Wave files, but in the file headers
played in the “Broadcast Wave Chunk” dialog.
Wave 64 files use 64-bit values for addressing where
Insert iXML This allows you to include additional project-related Wave files use 32-bit values. The consequence of this is
Chunk metadata (e. g. project name, author and project frame
rate) in the exported file. that Wave 64 files can be considerably larger than standard
Some applications may not be able to handle files with Wave files. Wave 64 is therefore a good file format choice
embedded info – if you get problems using the file in an- for really long recordings (file sizes over 2 GB). Wave 64
other application, deactivate the option and re-export.
Note: In the Project Setup dialog you will find the fields files have the extension “.w64”.
Author and Company that you can use to include the
corresponding data in the iXML chunk. These fields are Wave 64 files support the same options as AIFF files.
also available in the Preferences dialog (General–Per-
sonalization page).
Broadcast Wave files
Insert Tempo This option is only available if “Insert iXML Chunk” is ac-
Definition tivated. When “Insert Tempo Definition” is activated, Concerning audio, Broadcast Wave files are the same as
tempo information from the tempo track or the Definition regular Wave or Wave 64 files, but with additional meta
tab of the Sample Editor is included in the iXML chunk
of exported files. This is useful if you want to use the data. To create a Broadcast Wave file, select either Wave
files in other projects where they need to adapt to the or Wave 64 as the file format and activate the Insert Broad-
project tempo. cast Wave Chunk option. Click Edit if you wish to edit the
chunk information, otherwise the defaults as specified in the
Preferences dialog (Record–Audio–Broadcast Wave
page) will be used. Broadcast Wave files have the exten-
sion “.wav”.
Broadcast Wave files support the same options as regular
Wave files.

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Export Audio Mixdown
MPEG 1 Layer 3 files Windows Media Audio Pro files
MPEG 1 Layer 3 files have the extension “.mp3”. By use of (Windows only)
advanced audio compression algorithms, MP3 files can This is a continuation of the Windows Media Audio format
be made very small, yet maintaining good audio quality. developed by Microsoft Inc. Due to the advanced audio co-
decs and lossless compression used, WMA Pro files can
In the File Format section, the following options are avail-
be decreased in size with no loss of audio quality. Further-
able for MPEG 1 Layer 3 files:
more, WMA Pro features the possibility of mixing down to
Option Description 5.1 surround sound. The files have the extension “.wma”.
Bit Rate fader By moving this fader, you can select a bit rate for the
MP3 file. As a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the When you select “Windows Media Audio File” as the file
audio quality and the larger the file. For stereo audio, format, you can click the “Codec Settings…” button to
128 kBit/s is often considered to result in “good” audio open the “Windows Media Audio File Settings” window.
quality.
Sample Rate On this pop-up menu you can select a Sample Rate for
pop-up menu the MP3 file.
High Quality When this is activated, the encoder will use a different
Mode option resampling mode, which can give better results de-
pending on your settings. In this mode, you cannot
specify the Sample Rate, but only the Bit Rate for the
MP3 file.
Insert ID3 Tag This allows you to include ID3 Tag information in the
option exported file.
Edit ID3 Tag When you click this, the ID3 Tag dialog opens, in which
button you can enter information about the file. This additional
information will be embedded as text strings in the file,
and can be displayed by most mp3 playback applica-
tions.

Note that the configuration options may vary, depending

Ogg Vorbis files on the chosen output channels.
Ogg Vorbis is an open source, patent-free audio encoding General tab
and streaming technology, offering compressed audio
files (extension “.ogg”) of small size, but with compara- In the Input Stream section, you set the sample rate (44.1,
tively high audio quality. 48 or 96 kHz) and the bit resolution (16 bit or 24 bit) of the
encoded file. Set these to match the sample rate and bit
In the File Format section you will find only one setting: the resolution of the source material. If no value matches that
Quality fader. The Ogg Vorbis encoder uses variable bit of your source material, use the closest available value
rate encoding, and the Quality setting determines be- that is higher than the actual value. For example, if you are
tween which limits the bit rate will vary. Generally speak- using 20 bit source material, set the bit resolution to 24 bit
ing, the higher the Quality setting, the higher the sound rather than 16 bit.
quality but also the larger the files.
Ö The setting in the Channels field depends on the cho-
sen output and cannot be changed manually.
The settings in the Encoding Scheme section are used for
defining the desired output from the encoder. Make set-
tings appropriate for the intended use of the file. If the file
will be downloaded or streamed on the Internet, you might
not want too high bit rates, for example. See below for de-
scriptions of the options.

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Export Audio Mixdown
• Mode pop-up menu ever, that it is usually not recommended to change the Av-
erage value, since this affects the overall volume level of
The WMA encoder can use either a constant bit rate or a
the audio and therefore can have a negative effect on the
variable bit rate, or it can use lossless encoding for encod-
audio quality.
ing to stereo. The options on this menu are as follows:
Mode Description
The Quiet Mode in a Windows Media player can be set to
one of three settings. Below, these settings are listed to-
Constant Bitrate This will encode to a file with a constant bit rate (set in
the Bit Rate/Channels menu, see below). Constant bit gether with an explanation of how the Dynamic Range set-
rate is preferably used if you want to limit the size of the tings affect them:
final file. The size of a file encoded with a constant bit
rate is always the bit rate times the duration of the file. • Off: If Quiet Mode is off, the dynamic range settings that were
Variable Bitrate Encodes to a file with a variable bit rate, according to a automatically calculated during the encoding will be used.
quality scale (the desired quality is set in the Bit Rate/ • Little Difference: If this is selected and you have not manually
Quality menu, see below). When you encode with vari-
able bit rates, the bit rate fluctuates depending on the
changed the dynamic range settings, the peak level will be
character and intricacy of the material being encoded. limited to 6 dB above the average level during playback. If you
The more complex passages in the source material, the have manually specified the dynamic range, the peak level will
higher the bit rate – and the larger the final file.
be limited to the mean value between the peak and average
Lossless Encodes to a file with lossless compression. values you specified.
• Medium Difference: If this is selected and you have not manu-
• Bit Rate/Quality pop-up menu ally changed the dynamic range settings, the peak level will be
This menu allows you to set the desired bit rate. The avail- limited to 12 dB above the average level. If you have changed
able bit rate settings vary depending on the selected the dynamic range, the peak level will be limited to the peak
mode and/or output channels (see above). If the Variable value you specified.
Bitrate mode is used, the menu allows you to select from
Media tab
various levels of quality, with 10 being the lowest and 100
the highest. Generally, the higher the bitrate or quality you In these fields you can enter a number of text strings with
select, the larger the final file will be. information about the file – title, author, copyright informa-
tion and a description of its contents. This information will
Advanced tab then be embedded in the file header and can be displayed
• Dynamic Range Control by some Windows Media Audio playback applications.

These controls allow you to define the dynamic range of

the encoded file. The dynamic range is the difference in
dB between the average loudness and the peak audio
level (the loudest sounds) of the audio. These settings af-
fect how the audio is reproduced if the file is played on a
Windows computer with a player from the Windows Me-
dia series, and the “Quiet Mode” feature of the player is
activated to control the dynamic range.
The dynamic range is automatically calculated during the
encoding process, but you can specify it manually as well.
To manually specify the dynamic range, first put a check-
mark in the box to the left by clicking in it, and then enter
the desired dB values in the Peak and Average fields. You
can enter any value between 0 and -90 dB. Note, how-

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Export Audio Mixdown
 30
Synchronization
Background Timecode (positional references)
What is synchronization? The position of any device is most often described using
timecode. Timecode represents time using hours, min-
Synchronization is the process of getting two or more de- utes, seconds, and frames to provide a location for each
vices to play back together at the same exact speed and device. Each frame represents a visual film or video frame.
position. These devices can range from audio and video
tape machines to digital audio workstations, MIDI sequenc- Timecode can be communicated in several ways:
ers, synchronization controllers, and digital video devices. • LTC (Longitudinal Timecode) is an analog signal that can be
recorded on tape. It should be used for positional information
Synchronization basics primarily. It can also be used for speed and phase information
There are three basic components of audio/visual synchro- as a last resort if no other clock source is available.
nization: position, speed, and phase. If these parameters • VITC (Vertical Interval Timecode) is contained within a compos-
are known for a particular device (the master), then a sec- ite video signal. It is recorded onto video tape and is physically
ond device (the slave) can have its speed and position “re- tied to each video frame.
solved” to the first in order to have the two devices play in • MTC (MIDI Timecode) is identical to LTC except that it is a
perfect sync with one another. digital signal transmitted via MIDI.

Position Timecode standards

The position of a device is represented by either samples Timecode has several standards. The subject of the various
(audio word clock), video frames (timecode), or musical timecode formats can be very confusing due to the use and
bars and beats (MIDI clock). misuse of the shorthand names for specific timecode stan-
dards and frame rates. The reasons for this confusion are
Speed described in detail below. The timecode format can be di-
The speed of a device is measured either by the frame rate vided into two variables: frame count and frame rate.
of the timecode, the sample rate (audio word clock) or by
Frame count (frames per second)
the tempo of the MIDI clock (bars and beats).
The frame count of timecode defines the standard with
Phase which it is labeled. There are four timecode standards:
Phase is the alignment of the position and speed compo- • 24 fps Film (F)
nents to each other. In other words, each pulse of the This frame count is the traditional count for film. It is also used for HD video
speed component should be aligned with each measure- formats and commonly referred to as “24 p”. However, with HD video, the
ment of the position for the most accuracy. Each frame of actual frame rate or speed of the video sync reference is slower, 23.976
timecode should be perfectly lined up with the correct frames per second, so timecode does not reflect the actual realtime on the
sample of audio. Put simply, phase is the very precise po- clock for 24p HD video.
sition of a synchronized device relative to the master • 25 fps PAL (P)
(sample accuracy). This is the broadcast video standard frame count for European (and other
PAL countries) television broadcast.
Master and slave • 30 fps non-drop SMPTE (N)
In this document, the following terms are used: This is the frame count of NTSC broadcast video. However, the actual
frame rate or speed of the video format runs at 29.97 fps. This timecode
• The “timecode master” is the device generating position infor- clock does not run in realtime. It is slightly slower by 0.1 %.
mation or timecode.
• The “timecode slave” is any device receiving the timecode and
synchronizing or “locking” to it.

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Synchronization
• 30 fps drop-frame SMPTE (D) Clock sources (speed references)
The 30 fps drop-frame count is an adaptation that allows a timecode dis-
play running at 29.97 fps to actually show the clock-on-the-wall-time of Once the position is established, the next essential factor
the timeline by “dropping” or skipping specific frame numbers in order to for synchronization is the playback speed. Once two de-
“catch the clock up” to realtime. vices start playing from the same position, they must run at
Confused? Just remember to keep the timecode standard exactly the same speed in order to remain in sync. There-
(or frame count) and frame rate (or speed) separate. fore, a single speed reference must be used and all de-
vices in the system must follow that reference. With digital
Frame rate (speed) audio, the speed is determined by the audio clock rate.
Regardless of the frame counting system, the actual With video, the speed is determined by the video sync
speed at which frames of video go by in realtime is the signal.
true frame rate.
Audio clock
In Cubase the following frame rates are available:
Audio clock signals run at the speed of the sample rate
• 24 fps used by a digital audio device and are transmitted in sev-
This is the true speed of standard film cameras. eral ways:
• 25 fps
This is the frame rate of PAL video. Word clock

• 29.97 fps Word clock is a dedicated signal running at the current

This is the frame rate of NTSC video. The count can be either non-drop sample rate that is fed over BNC coaxial cables between
or drop-frame. devices. It is the most reliable form of audio clock and is
relatively easy to connect and use.
• 30 fps
This frame rate is not a video standard anymore but has been commonly AES/SPDIF Digital Audio
used in music recording. Many years ago it was the black and white
NTSC broadcast standard. It is equal to NTSC video being pulled up to An audio clock source is embedded within AES and SPDIF
film speed after a 2-3 telecine transfer. digital audio signals. This clock source can be used as a
speed reference. Preferably, the signal itself does not con-
Frame count vs. frame rate tain any actual audio (digital black), but any digital audio
Part of the confusion in timecode stems from the use of source can be used if necessary.
“frames per second” in both the timecode standard and
ADAT Lightpipe
the actual frame rate. When used to describe a timecode
standard, frames per second defines how many frames of ADAT Lightpipe, the 8-channel digital audio protocol de-
timecode are counted before one second on the counter veloped by Alesis, also contains audio clock and can be
increments. When describing frame rates, frames per sec- used as a speed reference. It is transmitted via optical ca-
ond define how many frames are played back during the bles between devices.
span of one second of realtime. In other words: Regard-
less of how many frames of video there are per second of
timecode (frame count), those frames can be moving at
different rates depending on the speed (frame rate) of the
video format. For example, NTSC timecode (SMPTE) has
a frame count of 30 fps. However, NTSC video runs at a
rate of 29.97 fps. So the NTSC timecode standard known
as SMPTE is a 30 fps standard that runs at 29.97 realtime.

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MIDI clock Timecode Source
MIDI clock is a signal that uses position and timing data The Timecode Source setting determines whether Cubase
based on musical bars and beats to determine location is acting as timecode master or slave.
and speed (tempo). It can perform the same function as a
positional reference and a speed reference for other MIDI
devices. Cubase supports sending MIDI clock to external
devices but cannot slave to incoming MIDI clock.

! MIDI clock cannot be used to synchronize digital au-

dio. It is only used for MIDI devices to play in musical
sync with one another. Cubase does not support be-
When set to “Internal Timecode”, Cubase is the timecode
ing a MIDI clock slave.
master, generating all position references for any other
device in the system. The other options are for external
The Project Synchronization Setup timecode sources. Selecting any of these, makes Cubase
dialog a timecode slave when the Sync button is activated.

Cubase’s Project Synchronization Setup dialog provides a Internal Timecode

central place to configure a complex synchronized system. Cubase generates timecode based on the project timeline
In addition to settings for timecode sources, project setup and project setup settings. The timecode will follow the
parameters are available along with basic transport controls format specified in the Project Setup section.
for testing the system.
MIDI Timecode
To open the Project Synchronization Setup dialog, pro-
ceed as follows: Cubase acts as a timecode slave to any incoming MIDI
timecode (MTC) on the port(s) selected in the MIDI Time-
• On the Transport menu, select the “Project Synchroni-
code section, to the right of the Timecode Source section.
zation Setup…” option.
• On the Transport panel, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click the
Sync button.
The dialog is organized into sections separating related
groups of settings. The arrows shown between the vari-
ous sections of the dialog indicate how settings in one Selecting “All MIDI Inputs” allows Cubase to sync to MTC
section influence settings in another section. In the follow- from any MIDI connection. You can also select a single
ing, the available sections are described in detail. MIDI port for receiving MTC.

The Cubase section ASIO Audio Device

At the center of the Project Synchronization Setup dialog This option is only available with audio cards that support
is the Cubase section. It is provided to help you visualize ASIO Positioning Protocol. These audio cards have an in-
the role that Cubase takes in your setup. It shows which tegrated LTC reader or ADAT sync port and can perform a
external signals enter or leave the application. phase alignment of timecode and audio clock.

VST System Link

VST System Link can provide all aspects of sample-accu-
rate synchronization between other System Link worksta-
tions. For information on configuring VST System Link,
see “Working with VST System Link” on page 308.

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Synchronization
Timecode Preferences ! If there is a discrepancy between the project frame
When MIDI Timecode is selected, additional options be- rate in Cubase and incoming timecode, Cubase
come available in the Cubase section, providing several might still be able to lock to the incoming timecode. If
options for working with external timecode. the user is unaware of these differences, problems
can arise later in postproduction.

MIDI Timecode Destinations

Cubase can send MTC to any MIDI port. Use this section
to specify the MIDI ports to which MTC is routed. Devices
that can lock to MTC will chase Cubase’s timecode
position.

Lock Frames Ö Some MIDI interfaces send MTC over all ports by de-
fault. If this is the case, only select one port of the interface
This setting determines how many full frames of timecode for MTC.
it takes for Cubase to try and establish sync or “lock”. If
you have an external tape transport with a very short start-
up time, try lowering this number to make lock-up even
faster. This option can only be set to multiples of two.

Drop Out Frames

This setting determines the amount of missed timecode
frames it takes for Cubase to stop. Using LTC recorded MIDI Timecode Follows Project Time
on an analog tape machine can result in some amount of Activate this option to ensure that the MTC output follows
drop outs. Increasing this number allows Cubase to “free- Cubase’s time position at all times including looping, lo-
wheel” over missed frames without stopping. Lowering cating, or jumping while playing. If not, MTC will continue
this number causes Cubase to stop sooner once the tape on without changing locations at a loop or jump point until
machine has stopped. playback stops.
Inhibit Restart ms
MIDI Clock Destinations
Some synchronizers still transmit MTC for a short period
after an external tape machine has been stopped. These Some MIDI devices like drum machines can match their
extra frames of timecode sometimes cause Cubase to re- tempo and location to incoming MIDI clock. Select any
start suddenly. The “Inhibit Restart ms” setting allows you MIDI ports that you wish to output MIDI clock.
to control the amount of time in milliseconds that Cubase
will wait to restart (ignoring incoming MTC) once it has
stopped.

Auto-Detect Frame-Rate Changes

Cubase can notify the user when the frame rate of time-
code changes at any point. This is helpful in diagnosing
problems with timecode and external devices. This notifica- MIDI Clock Follows Project Position
tion will interrupt playback or recording. Deactivating this
Activate this option to ensure that the MIDI clock device
option will avoid any interruption in playback or recording.
follows Cubase when looping, locating, or jumping while
playing.

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Synchronization
Ö Some older MIDI devices might not respond well to Working with VST System Link
these positioning messages and could take some time
synchronizing to the new location. VST System Link is a network system for digital audio that
allows you to have several computers working together in
Always Send Start Message one large system. Unlike conventional networks it does
MIDI clock transport commands include Start, Stop, and not require Ethernet cards, hubs, or CAT-5 cables; in-
Continue. However, some MIDI devices do not recognize stead it uses the kind of digital audio hardware and cables
the Continue command. By activating the “Always Send you probably already possess in your studio.
Start Message” option, you can avoid this problem with VST System Link has been designed to be simple to set
specific MIDI devices. up and operate, yet give enormous flexibility and perfor-
mance gains in use. It is capable of linking computers in a
Send MIDI Clock in Stop Mode
“ring” network (the System Link signal is passed from one
Activate this option if you are working with a device that machine to the next, and eventually returns to the first ma-
needs MIDI clock to run continuously in order to operate chine). VST System Link can send its networking signal
arpeggiators and loop generators. over any type of digital audio cable, including S/PDIF,
ADAT, TDIF, or AES, as long as each computer in the sys-
tem is equipped with a suitable ASIO compatible audio
Synchronized operation interface.
Once you have connected all the devices that will be syn- Linking up two or more computers gives you vast possibil-
chronized, it is important to understand how Cubase op- ities:
erates in Sync mode. Sync mode is enabled by activating
the Sync button on the Transport panel. • Dedicate one computer to running VST instruments while re-
cording audio tracks on another (not in Cubase LE).
• If you need lots of audio tracks, you may simply add tracks on
another computer.
• You could have one computer serve as a “virtual effect rack”,
running CPU-intensive send effect plug-ins only.
• Since you can use VST System Link to connect different VST
Sync mode System Link applications on different platforms, you can take
When you activate the Sync button, the following happens: advantage of effect plug-ins and VST instruments that are
specific to certain programs or platforms.
• Cubase awaits incoming timecode from the chosen
timecode source defined in the Project Synchronization
Setup dialog in order to play.
Requirements
Cubase will detect incoming timecode, locate to its current position, and The following equipment is required for VST System Link
start playback in sync with the incoming timecode. operation:
• Two or more computers.
These can be of the same type or use different operating systems – it
does not matter. For example, you can link an Intel-based PC to an Apple
Macintosh without problems.
• Each computer must have audio hardware with specific
ASIO drivers.
• The audio hardware must have digital inputs and outputs.
To be able to connect the computers, the digital connections must be
compatible (i. e. the same digital formats and connection types must be
available).

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Synchronization
• At least one digital audio cable must be available for ! All digital audio cables by definition always carry a
each computer in the network. clock signal as well as audio signals, so you do not
• A VST System Link host application must be installed have to use a special word clock input and output for
on each computer. this (although you may find that you get a slightly
Any VST System Link application can connect to another. more stable audio system if you do, especially when
using multiple computers).
Additionally, use of a KVM switchbox is recommended.
The clock mode or sync mode is set up in the ASIO con-
Using a KVM switchbox trol panel of the audio hardware. Proceed as follows:
Whether you want to set up a multi-computer network or a 1. From the Devices menu, open the Device Setup dialog.
small network in a limited space, it is a good idea to invest in
a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switchbox. With one of 2. On the VST Audio System page, select your audio in-
these you can use the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse terface from the ASIO Driver pop-up menu.
to control each computer in the system, and you can switch In the Devices list, the name of the audio interface now appears as a sub-
entry to the “VST Audio System” entry.
between computers very rapidly. KVM switchboxes are not
too expensive, and they are very easy to set up and operate. 3. In the Devices list, select your audio interface.
If you decide not to go this route, the network will function
4. Click the Control Panel button.
just the same, but you may end up doing a lot of jumping The ASIO control panel appears.
from one machine to the other while setting up!
5. Open the ASIO control panel on the other computer
Making connections as well.
If you are using another VST System Link host application on that com-
Below, we assume that you are connecting two comput- puter, check its documentation for details on how to open the ASIO con-
ers. Should you have more than two computers, it is still trol panel.
best to start with two and add the others one by one once
6. Now you need to make sure that one audio card is set
the system is working – this makes troubleshooting easier
to be the clock master and all other cards are set to be
if you run into problems. For two computers, you will need
clock slaves (i. e. they listen for the clock signal coming
two digital audio cables, one in each direction:
from the clock master).
1. Use the first digital audio cable to connect the digital The naming and procedure for this differs depending on the audio hard-
output of computer 1 to the digital input of computer 2. ware – consult its documentation if required. If you are using Steinberg
Nuendo ASIO hardware, all cards default to the AutoSync setting. In this
2. Use the other cable to connect the digital output of case you must set one of the cards (and only one) to “Master” in the
computer 2 to the digital input of computer 1. Clock Mode section of the control panel.
• If a card has more than one set of inputs and outputs, • Typically, the ASIO control panel for an audio card con-
choose whichever one that suits you – for simplicity usu- tains some indication of whether or not the card receives a
ally the first set is best. proper sync signal, including the sample rate of that signal.
This is a good indication that you have connected the cards and set up
Synchronization clock sync properly. Check your audio hardware’s documentation for
details.
Before you proceed, you need to make sure that the clock
signals on your ASIO cards are synchronized correctly. ! It is very important that only one card is the clock
This is essential when cabling any kind of digital audio master, otherwise the network cannot function cor-
system, not just VST System Link. rectly. Once you have set this up, all the other cards
in the network will take their clock signal from this
card automatically.

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Synchronization
The only exception to this procedure is if you are using an Streaming digital audio between applications
external clock – from a digital mixing desk or a special
1. Create input and output busses in both applications
word clock synchronizer, for example. In that case you
and route these to the digital inputs and outputs.
must leave all your ASIO cards in clock slave or AutoSync The number and configuration of the busses depend on your audio hard-
mode and make sure that each of them is listening for the ware and on your needs. If you have a system with eight digital i/o chan-
signal coming from the synchronizer. This signal is usually nels (such as an ADAT connection), you could create several stereo or
passed through your ADAT cables or word clock connec- mono busses, a surround bus together with a stereo bus, or any combi-
tors in a daisy chain fashion. nation you need. The important thing is that you should have the same
configuration in both applications – if you have four stereo output busses
VST System Link and latency on computer 1, you want four stereo input busses on computer 2, etc.

The general definition of latency is the amount of time it 2. Set things up so that computer 1 plays back some
takes any system to respond to whatever messages are audio.
sent to it. For example, if your system’s latency is high and For example, you could import an audio file and play it back in Cycle
you play VST instruments in realtime, you will get a notice- mode.
able delay between when you press a key and when you 3. In the Inspector or Mixer, make sure that the channel
hear the sound of the VST instrument. Nowadays, most containing the audio material is routed to one of the digital
ASIO-compatible audio cards are capable of operating output busses.
with very low latencies. Also, all VST applications are de-
4. On computer 2, open the Mixer and locate the corre-
signed to compensate for latency during playback, making
sponding digital input bus.
the playback timing tight.
The audio being played back should now “appear” in the program run-
However, the latency time of a VST System Link network ning on computer 2. You should see the input bus level meters moving.
is the total latency of all the ASIO cards in the system 5. Reverse this procedure so that computer 2 plays back
added together. Therefore it is extra important to minimize and computer 1 “listens”.
the latency times for each computer in the network.
Now you have verified that the digital connection works as
Ö The latency does not affect the synchronization – it is it should.
always perfectly in time. But it can affect the time it takes
to send and receive MIDI and audio signals, or make the Ö From this point on in this chapter, we refer to the bus-
system seem sluggish. ses connected to the digital inputs and outputs as “VST
System Link busses”.
To adjust the latency of a system, you adjust the size of the
buffers in the ASIO control panel – the lower the buffer Settings for the audio hardware
size, the lower the latency. It is best to keep to fairly low la-
When you exchange VST System Link data between com-
tencies (buffer sizes) if your system can handle it – about
puters, it is important that the digital information is not
12 ms or less is usually a good idea.
changed in any way between the programs. Therefore,
you should open the control panel (or additional applica-
Setting up your software tion) for your audio hardware and make sure that the fol-
Now it is time to set up your programs. The procedures lowing conditions are met:
below describe how to set things up in Cubase. If you are
• If there are additional “format settings” for the digital
using another program on the other computer, please re-
ports that you use for VST System Link data, make sure
fer to its documentation.
that these are turned off.
Setting the sample rate For example, if you are using an S/PDIF connection for VST System Link,
make sure that “Professional format”, Emphasis, and Dithering are turned
The projects in both programs must be set to use the off.
same sample rate. Select “Project Setup…” from the Proj-
ect menu and make sure that the sample rate is the same
in both systems.

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Synchronization
• If your audio hardware has a mixer application allowing
you to adjust the levels of digital inputs and outputs, make
sure that this mixer is disabled or that the levels for the
VST System Link channels are set to ±0 dB.
• Similarly, make sure no other forms of DSP (pan, effects,
etc.) are applied to the VST System Link signal.

Notes for Hammerfall DSP users

If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hard-
ware, the Totalmix function allows for extremely complex
signal routing and mixing in the audio hardware. This can
Receiving and Sending
in some situations lead to “signal loops” in which case the indicators
VST System Link will not work. If you want to make abso-
lutely sure this will not cause any problems, select the de-
fault or “plain” preset for the Totalmix function.

Activating VST System Link 3. Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus
to define which channel is the networking channel.
Before you proceed, you need to make sure that VST Sys-
tem Link is set as the timecode source in the Project Syn- 4. Activate the Active checkbox at the top left of the panel.
chronization Setup dialog and that the desired Sync 5. Repeat the steps above for every computer in the net-
options are activated, see “Timecode Preferences” on work.
page 307.
As the computers are made active, you should see the
After setting up the inputs and outputs, you now need to Sending and Receiving indicators flashing on each active
define which input/output will carry the actual VST System computer, and the name of each computer should appear
Link information. in the list at the bottom of the pane. Each computer is as-
The VST System Link networking signal is carried on only signed a random number – do not worry about this, it is
one bit of one channel. This means that if you have an just so the network knows internally which one is which.
ADAT-based system which normally carries eight channels • You can double-click on the name in bold (which is the
of 24-bit audio, once you activate VST System Link you will name of the computer you are currently working on) and
have seven channels of 24-bit audio and one channel of set it to whatever other name you wish.
23-bit audio (the least significant bit of this last channel will This name will appear in the VST System Link window of every computer
be used for networking). In practice this makes no discern- on the network.
ible difference to the audio quality, since you will still have Ö If you do not see the name of each computer appear-
around 138 dB headroom on this channel. ing once you have made it active, you need to check your
To set things up, open the VST System Link panel: settings. Go through the procedure above again and
make sure that all ASIO cards are listening to the digital
1. From the Devices menu, open the Device Setup dialog.
clock signals correctly, and that each computer has the
2. In the Devices list to the left, select the “VST System correct inputs and outputs assigned to the VST System
Link” entry. Link network.
The VST System Link settings are shown to the right of the Devices list.

311
Synchronization
Putting the network online Scrubbing via VST System Link
After each computer’s name you will see whether it is on- You can scrub on one computer and have the video and
line or not. When a computer is online, it will receive trans- audio on another computer scrub along. However, the
port and timecode signals, and its sequencer application playback on the linked systems may not be perfectly in
can be started and stopped by remote control. If it is off- sync while scrubbing and there are some further restric-
line, it can only be started from its own keyboard – it is ef- tions you should bear in mind when scrubbing via VST
fectively an independent machine, although it is still on the System Link:
network.
• Use the jog/shuttle control on the Transport panel or a
Ö Note that any computer can control any and all of the remote controller for scrubbing.
others – VST System Link is a peer-to-peer network and Scrubbing with the Scrub tool does not work over a VST System Link
there is no absolute “master” computer. connection.

To put all computers online, proceed as follows: • Always use the system where you started scrubbing to
control the scrubbing, e. g. change the scrub speed or
1. For all computers, activate the Online checkbox on the stop scrubbing.
VST System Link page. Changing the scrub speed on a remote system will only change the
2. Start playback on one computer to check that the sys- speed on the local system.
tem is working – all computers should start almost instantly • You can start playback on all systems.
and play perfectly in time, with sample-accurate precision. This stops scrubbing and enters playback on all systems in sync.
• The Offset Samples setting allows you to adjust whether
one machine will play slightly ahead or behind the rest. Using MIDI
This is normally not needed, but occasionally with some hardware you As well as supplying transport and sync control, VST Sys-
may find that the lock is a few samples out. For now, leave it set to 0 – it tem Link also supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, with 16 chan-
will most likely be what you want. nels each. To set this up, proceed as follows:
• The Transfer Bits setting allows you to specify whether 1. Use the MIDI Inputs and MIDI Outputs value fields to
you want to transfer 24 or 16 bits. This allows you to use specify the number of MIDI ports you need.
older audio cards which do not support transfer of 24 bits. The default value is 0 MIDI In and 0 MIDI Out ports.
VST System Link sends and understands all transport 2. In the Project window, create a MIDI track and open
commands (such as play, stop, fast forward, rewind, etc.). the Inspector (top section).
This allows you to control the entire network from one
computer without a problem – try it! If you jump to a loca- 3. If you now pull down the Input or Output Routing pop-
tor point on one machine, all other machines will also in- up menu, you will find the specified System Link ports
stantly jump to that locator point. added to the list of MIDI inputs or outputs.

! Make sure that all computers have their tempos set

to the same value, otherwise your synchronization
will be seriously skewed.

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Synchronization
This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments Proceed as follows:
running on another computer, as described in the applica-
1. Set things up so that you can listen to the audio play-
tion examples (see “Using one computer for VST instru-
back from computer 1.
ments (not in Cubase LE)” on page 314). In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e. g. an analog stereo
output, connected to your monitoring equipment.
The “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” setting
2. On computer 2, route each of the two audio tracks to
If you are sending huge amounts of MIDI data at once,
a separate output bus.
there is a small possibility that you might run out of band-
These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call
width on your VST System Link network. This will manifest them Bus 1 and 2.
itself by notes “choking” or timing becoming erratic.
3. Route the FX channel track to another VST System
If this happens, you can devote more bandwidth to MIDI Link bus (Bus 3).
by activating the “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only”
option on the VST System Link page of the Device Setup 4. Route the VST instrument channel to yet another bus
dialog. When this is activated, the VST System Link infor- (Bus 4).
mation will be sent on the entire channel instead of just 5. Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding
one bit, more than enough for all the MIDI you could ever four VST System Link input busses.
hope to use. The downside is that you can no longer use If you start playback on computer 2, the audio should “appear” on the in-
this ASIO channel for audio transfer (do not connect it to a put busses on computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you
speaker!), thus leaving you with only 7 audio channels in need actual Mixer channels.
our ADAT cable example. Depending on how you work,
6. Add four new stereo audio tracks on computer 1 and
this might be a reasonable compromise.
route these to the output bus you use for listening, e. g. to
the analog stereo outputs.
Hearing the network audio
7. For each of the audio tracks, select one of the four in-
If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio
put busses.
really is not an issue – just plug the outputs of each com- Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on
puter into the desired channels on the external mixing computer 1.
desk, start playback on one of the computers, and you are
good to go. 8. Activate monitoring for the four tracks.

However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the If you now start playback, the audio from computer 2 will
computer and just use a desk for monitoring (or maybe not be sent “live” to the new tracks on computer 1, allowing
use any external mixer at all). In this case you will need to you to hear them together with any tracks you play back
select one computer to be your “main mix computer” and on computer 1.
send the audio from your other computers into this. For more information about Monitoring, see “About moni-
In the following example, we assume you are using two toring” on page 24.
computers, with computer 1 as your main mix computer
Adding more tracks
and computer 2 running two additional stereo audio
tracks, an FX channel track with a reverb plug-in and a What if you have more audio tracks than you have VST
VST instrument plug-in with stereo outputs. System Link busses (physical outputs)? Then you just use
the computer 2 mixer as a submixer: Route several audio
channels to the same output bus and adjust the output
bus level if needed.
Ö If your audio cards have multiple sets of input and out-
put connections, you can link up multiple ADAT cables
and send audio via any of the busses on any of the cables.

313
Synchronization
Internal mixing and latency puter 4, and from there back to the master Mixer in com-
puter 1. This can certainly be tricky to set up, so for
One problem with mixing inside the computer is the latency
complex networks it is generally recommended to use
issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always com-
ASIO cards with at least three separate digital I/Os.
pensates for record latencies, but if you are monitoring
through computer 1 you will hear a processing delay while
you listen to signals coming from your other computers Application examples
(not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 1 Using one computer for VST instruments
supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely turn (not in Cubase LE)
this on. You can find the setting on the VST Audio System
device panel for your hardware (see “ASIO Direct Monitor- In this example, one computer will be used as main record
ing” on page 80). Most modern ASIO cards support this and playback machine, and another computer as a virtual
function. If yours does not, you may want to change the synth rack. Proceed as follows:
Offset Samples value on the VST System Link page to 1. Record a MIDI track into computer 1.
compensate for any latency issues.
2. Once you have finished recording, route the MIDI out-
put of that track to VST System Link MIDI port 1.
Setting up a larger network
Setting up a larger network is not much more difficult than 3. On computer 2, open up the VST Instrument rack and
a two-computer network. The main thing to remember is assign an instrument to the first slot in the rack.
that VST System Link is a daisy chain system. In other 4. Route the VST instrument channel to the desired out-
words, the output of computer 1 goes to the input of com- put bus.
puter 2, the output of computer 2 goes to the input of If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be
computer 3, and so on around the chain. The output of the one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
last computer in the chain must always go back into the 5. Create a new MIDI track in the Project window of
input of computer 1, to complete the ring. computer 2 and assign the MIDI output of the track to the
Once you have done this, the transmission of all the trans- VST instrument you created.
port, sync, and MIDI information to the whole network is 6. Assign the MIDI input of the track to be VST System
handled pretty much automatically. However, where you Link port 1.
may run into confusion in a large network is in the trans- Now, the MIDI track on computer 1 is routed to the MIDI track on com-
mission of audio signals back to a central mix computer. puter 2, which in turn is routed to the VST instrument.
If you have lots of hardware inputs and outputs on your 7. Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on com-
ASIO cards, you do not have to send audio via the chain at puter 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI com-
all, but can transmit it directly to the master mix computer mands coming in.
via one or more of its other hardware inputs. For example, if In Cubase, click the Monitor button in the track list or Inspector.
you have a Nuendo Digiset interface or 9652 card on com-
8. Start playback on computer 1.
puter 1, you could use ADAT cable 1 for networking, ADAT
It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST instrument
cable 2 as a direct audio input from computer 2, and ADAT loaded on computer 2.
cable 3 as a direct audio input from computer 3.
Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a
You can also transmit audio via the ring system if you do whole bunch of extra VST instruments this way, expanding
not have enough hardware I/Os for direct audio transmis- your sound palette considerably. Do not forget that VST
sion. For example, in a four-computer scenario you could System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has
send audio from computer 2 into a channel in the Mixer in much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever
computer 3, from there to a channel in the Mixer in com- invented!

314
Synchronization
Creating a virtual effect rack Getting extra audio tracks
The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can ei- All computers on a VST System Link network are locked
ther be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated with sample-accuracy. Therefore, if you find that the hard
group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate drive on one computer is not fast enough to run as many
computer as a “virtual effect rack”, by setting the system audio tracks as you need, you can record new tracks on
up as follows: one of the other computers instead. This would create a
“virtual RAID system”, with several disks all operating to-
1. On computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect
gether. All tracks will remain locked together just as tightly
rack), add a new stereo audio track.
You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must
as if they were all running on the same machine. This
have an audio input. means that you effectively have an unlimited track count!
Need another 100 tracks? Just add another computer.
2. Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track.
Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in. Dedicated Video Playback
3. In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link Playback of high-resolution video can be taxing on a sys-
busses as input for the audio track. tem’s CPU. By dedicating one computer for video play-
You want to use a separate VST System Link bus, which will only be back via System Link, you can free up resources on your
used for this purpose. main CPU for audio and MIDI processing. Since all trans-
4. Route the channel to the desired output bus. port commands will respond on the VST System Link
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be computers, scrubbing video is possible even when it is
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1. coming from another computer.
5. Activate monitoring for the track.
6. Go back to computer 1 and select a track to which
you want to add some reverb.
7. Bring up the effect sends for the track in the Inspector
or the Mixer.
8. Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the
sends and select the VST System Link bus assigned to
the reverb in step 3.
9. Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as
usual.
The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and pro-
cessed through its insert effect, without using any proces-
sor power on computer 1.
You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the
“virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this way
is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST Sys-
tem Link connection (and of course by the performance of
computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any re-
cording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of
effects).

315
Synchronization
 31
Video
Before you start Format Description
AVI This format is a multimedia container format introduced by
When working on a project involving a video file, you first Microsoft.
need to set up your system according to your equipment DV This is a video format used by camcorders.
and your demands. The following sections provide some
general information about video file formats, frame rates, Cubase supports all these container formats, but prob-
and video output devices. lems may arise when the computer does not have the
correct software to decode compressed video and audio
Video file compatibility streams within the container file. You must also know the
Because there are many types of video files, it can be dif- type of codec that was used to create the video file.
ficult to determine if one will work on your system. There Codecs
are two ways to figure out if Cubase can play back a cer-
tain video file: Codecs are methods of data compression used to make
video (and audio) files smaller and more manageable for
• Open the video file with QuickTime 7.1 or higher, be- computers. In order to play back a video file, your com-
cause Cubase uses QuickTime for playing back video puter must have the correct codec installed in the operat-
files. ing system to decode the video stream.
• Check the file information of a video file in the Pool. If
the information reads “Invalid or not supported file!”, the ! The names of codecs and container formats can be
video file is either corrupt or the format is not supported by confusing. Because many container formats have the
the available codecs. same names as the codecs they use within the file,
make sure to differentiate the container format or file
! If you are not able to load a certain video file, you type (e. g. .mov or .dv) from the codec used within it.
must use an external application to convert the file
If you are not able to load a certain video file, the required
into a compatible format or install the required co-
codec is probably not installed on your computer. In this
dec. For more information on codecs, see the sec-
case, you can search the Internet (e. g. the Microsoft or
tion “Codecs” on page 317.
Apple web sites) for video codecs.
Video container formats
Frame rates
Video and other multi-media files come in a container for-
mat. This container holds various streams of information Cubase is capable of working with different types of video
including video and audio, but also metadata such as syn- and film frame rates. For an overview about the supported
chronization information required to play back audio and frame rates, refer to the section “Frame rate (speed)” on
video together. Data regarding creation dates, authors, page 305.
chapter markings, and more can also be held within the
container format. Video output devices
The following container formats are supported by Cubase: Cubase supports several ways to play back video files.
Viewing video files onscreen in the Video Player window
Format Description
may work just fine for many applications, but often it is nec-
MOV This is a QuickTime movie. essary to display video in a large format for viewing small
QT This is also a QuickTime movie, but it is only used in Windows. details and so others involved in the session can also see
MPEG-1 This is the first standard of the Moving Picture Experts Group the video. Cubase provides the ability to use several types
for video and audio compression, used for making video CDs. of video output devices to accomplish this.
Files of this container format can have the extensions “.mpg”
or “.mpeg”.
MPEG-4 This format is based on the QuickTime movie standard, can
contain various metadata for streaming, editing, local play-
back, and interchange of content. Its file extension is “.mp4”.

317
Video
Multi-head video cards Preparing a video project in Cubase
One of the most common methods is the use of a multi-
The following sections describe the basic operations nec-
head video card installed in the computer. Multi-head
essary for preparing a Cubase project involving video. It is
video cards allow you to connect more than one computer
advisable to store your video files on a separate hard drive
monitor to the card, in some cases up to four. If you direct
from your audio files. This can help prevent data streaming
the video output of Cubase to one of these outputs, the
problems when using high-resolution video with many au-
video file is displayed in fullscreen mode on a computer
dio tracks.
monitor or HD television screen.
Ö You can also use more than one video card to achieve Importing video files
the same result.
Importing a video file into your project is very straight for-
Different video cards support different types of outputs in- ward once you know that you have a compatible video file.
cluding standard VGA, DVI, S-Video, HDMI, and compo-
Video files are imported in the same manner as audio files:
nent video. These options allow you to choose the type of
monitor you use for video. HD televisions and digital pro- • By using the File menu (Import–Video File).
jectors provide the largest viewing screens, but a normal In the Import Video dialog, you can activate the “Extract Audio From
computer monitor can function as a very high-quality video Video” option. This imports any embedded audio streams to a newly cre-
monitor as well. ated audio track positioned below the video track. The new track and the
clip will get the name of the video file. The new audio event will start at
Dedicated video cards the same time as the video event, so that they are in sync with each other.

The use of a dedicated video card is also supported in Ö If you try to import a non-supported video file with the
Cubase. These cards are normally used in video editing Import Video option, the Import Video dialog displays the
systems to capture video to disk and display it while edit- text “Invalid or not supported file!”.
ing. They usually have a high resolution and take some • By importing to the Pool first and then dragging to the
strain off the host CPU by providing video compression Project window (see “The Pool” on page 195 for details).
and decompression processing on the card.
• By using drag and drop from the MediaBay, the Pool,
Ö The Decklink cards by Blackmagic Design are auto- the Windows Explorer, or the Mac OS Finder.
matically recognized by Cubase. Video will be sent di-
rectly to its output. Ö When importing video files via the Pool or by using
drag and drop, Cubase can automatically extract the au-
FireWire DV Output dio from a video file. Whether this happens, depends on
the “Extract Audio on Import Video File” setting in the
You have the option to use FireWire ports on the computer
Preferences dialog (Video page). For further information
to output DV video streams to external converters such as
about extracting audio from a video file, see “Extracting
various camcorders and standalone FireWire to DV con-
audio from a video file” on page 322.
version units. These units can be connected to a television
or projector for large format viewing. The FireWire protocol Ö When importing video, Cubase automatically creates
is capable of transporting data at high speed and is the a thumbnail cache file. The generated file is stored in the
most common standard for communicating with video- same folder as the video file and gets the name of the file
related peripheral equipment. with the suffix “.vcache”.

! Under Windows, it is important that you connect

your device to the FireWire port before launching
Cubase. Otherwise it may not be detected properly
by Cubase.

318
Video
 ! In Cubase, you may work with multiple video files of Ö Cubase can only detect the supported frame rates
differing frame rates and formats on the same video (these are the frame rates listed in the Frame Rate pop-up
track. Assuming you have the proper codecs installed, menu in the Project Setup dialog). Video files with non-sup-
all video files can be played back in one project, but ported frame rates can be played back, but the time dis-
note that proper synchronization of audio and video plays are not correct in this case and proper positioning is
events is ensured only if the frame rate of the video file not guaranteed. Furthermore, audio and video may not be in
matches the project frame rate. sync. Therefore, we recommend that you use an external
application to convert the video file to a frame rate sup-
Adopting the video frame rate ported by Cubase.
When using video files within Cubase, it is important to If you have more than one video file in a project, it is advis-
adjust the project’s frame rate to that of the imported able that all video files have the same frame rate consistent
video. This ensures that the time displays of Cubase cor- with the project frame rate. Nevertheless, you can work with
respond to the actual frames in the video. If the frame rate multiple video files of differing frame rates, but in this case
of an imported video file differs from the frame rate set for you should always change the project frame rate to the
the project, the video event shows a warning. frame rate of the video file that you are editing at the mo-
ment. This is done in the Project Setup dialog by selecting
the correct frame rate from the Frame Rate pop-up menu.

Video files in the Project window

In order to match the two frame rates, you have to adjust
Video files are displayed as events/clips on a video track,
the frame rate in the Project Setup dialog.
with thumbnails representing the frames in the film.
To adopt the video frame rate, proceed as follows:
1. Pull down the Project menu and select “Project About thumbnails
Setup…”. The individual thumbnail images are positioned exactly at
the beginning of the corresponding frame. When you
2. In the Project Setup dialog, click the “Get From Video”
zoom in and there is enough space between the frames,
button.
Provided that the video file has a frame rate supported by Cubase, it is the thumbnail is repeated as many times as there is free
automatically detected and applied to the project. If the project contains space available. Thus, you can always see a thumbnail re-
several video files with different frame rates, the project frame rate is ad- gardless of how much you zoom in.
justed to the frame rate of the first video event on the upper video track.
Thumbnail Memory Cache Size
The project frame rate setting will change to that of the
video file and the project start time will be altered to reflect In the Preferences dialog on the Video page, you can en-
the change in frame rate if needed. For example, when the ter a value for the “Thumbnail Memory Cache Size”. This
project frame rate is switched from 30 fps to 29.97 fps, the determines how much memory is available for displaying
start time is changed so that all the events currently in the “real” thumbnails. The currently shown image is buffered
project remain at the same positions in relation to realtime. in the thumbnail memory cache. Whenever you move to
If you want the project start time to remain the same, you another image and there is no memory capacity left, the
must manually change it back after clicking the “Get From “oldest” picture in the cache is replaced by the current
Video” button. In this case, it is important that the video one. If you have long video clips and/or work with a large
event is snapped to the timeline to ensure proper position- zoom factor, you may have to raise the “Thumbnail Mem-
ing and synchronization within the project. ory Cache Size” value.

319
Video
About thumbnail cache files Playing back video
When importing video, Cubase automatically creates a
thumbnail cache file. The cache file is used in situations ! For playing back video files, you must have QuickTime
where the processor load is very high and the correct re- 7.1 or higher installed on your computer. There is a
drawing or realtime calculation of thumbnails might use freeware version and a “pro” version, which offers ad-
system resources necessary for editing or processing. ditional video conversion options. The player engine is
When you zoom in on the thumbnails, you see that they the same in both versions, so for mere playback in Cu-
are in a lower resolution, i. e. the pictures are not as clear base there is no need to purchase the “pro” version.
as when they are calculated. When the processes that
rely heavily on the computer CPU are finished, the frames ! You need a video card that supports OpenGL (ver-
are automatically recalculated, i. e. the program automati- sion 2.0 recommended) for proper video playback. A
cally switches between realtime calculation of the pictures card with OpenGL 1.2 can also be used, but might
and using the cache file. put restrictions on the video functionality.

Ö There are situations where no thumbnail cache file can To check if your video equipment is capable of playing
be generated, e. g. if you import a video file from a folder back a video from within Cubase, open the Video Player
that is write-protected. If you have access to the host page in the Device Setup dialog. If your system does not
folder at a later stage, you can generate a thumbnail cache meet the minimum video requirements, a corresponding
file manually. message will be displayed.
Video is played back together with all other audio and
Manually generating thumbnail cache files
MIDI material, using the Transport controls.
If no thumbnail cache file could be generated during im-
port or if you have to “refresh” a thumbnail cache file of a Video settings in the Device Setup dialog
certain video file, because the file has been edited with an
In the Device Setup dialog you determine which device is
external video editing application, you have the possibility
used for playing back video files. You can switch between
to generate the thumbnail cache file manually.
different output devices during playback.
To create a thumbnail cache file manually, you have the
following possibilities:
• In the Pool, right-click on the video file that you want to
create a thumbnail cache file for and select the “Generate
Thumbnail Cache” option from the context menu.
A thumbnail cache file is created, or, in case there already existed a
thumbnail cache file for the video file, it is “refreshed”. The Video Player page in the Device Setup dialog

• In the Project window, open the context menu for the To set up a video output device, proceed as follows:
video event, and select “Generate Thumbnail Cache” from 1. Pull down the Devices Menu and select “Device
the Media submenu. Setup…” to open the Device Setup dialog, and select the
• Pull down the Media Menu and select “Generate Thumb- Video Player page.
nail Cache”. 2. In the Active column, activate the checkbox for the de-
Ö “Refreshing” an already existing thumbnail cache file vice that you want to use for playing back video.
can be done only from within the Pool. All devices in your system that are capable of playing back video are
listed. The Onscreen Window device serves for playing back the video
Ö The thumbnail cache file is generated in the back- file on your computer monitor. For further information on output devices,
ground so that you can continue working with Cubase. see the section “Video output devices” on page 317.

320
Video
3. From the pop-up menu in the Format column, select
an output format.
For the Onscreen Window output, only a “fixed” format is available. For
the other output devices, you can select different output formats for play-
back depending on the device.
4. Adjust the Offset setting to compensate for process-
ing delays.
Due to delays while processing video, the video image may not match
with the audio in Cubase. By using the Offset parameter, you can com-
pensate for this effect. The Offset value indicates how many milliseconds
the video will be delivered earlier in order to compensate for the process-
ing time of the video material. Each hardware setup can have different
processing delays, so you must try out different values to determine
which value is appropriate.
The following options are available:
Ö The Offset value can be set individually for each out- Option Description
put device. It is saved globally for each output device and
Fullscreen The window is enlarged to occupy the whole (computer)
is independent of the project. Mode screen. If you are working with more than one monitor, you
can move the Video Player window to an extra monitor.
Ö The offset is only used during playback. It is defeated Thus, you can work with Cubase on one monitor and let
in stop and scrub mode so that you always see the correct the video play back on another monitor. You can exit
video frame. fullscreen mode via the window’s context menu or by
pressing [Esc] on your computer keyboard.
• If the quality of the video image is not a critical factor or Quarter Size The window size is reduced to a quarter of the actual size.
if you are experiencing performance problems, try lower- Half Size The window size is reduced to half the actual size.
ing the value on the Video Quality pop-up menu.
Actual Size The window size corresponds to the size of the video.
Although higher quality settings make the video display sharper and
smoother, they also lead to an increased processor load. Double Size The window is enlarged to twice the actual size.
Video Quality This submenu allows you to change the quality of the video
Playing back video on the computer screen image. Higher settings make the video display sharper and
smoother, but lead to an increased processor load.
The Video Player window is used for playing back video
on your computer screen. • To resize the Video Player window, you can also drag
• To open the Video Player window, pull down the De- the borders.
vices menu and select the “Video Player” option. Ö The higher the resolution, the more processing power
is needed for playback. If you need to reduce the proces-
Setting the window size and video quality
sor load, you can reduce the size of the Video Player win-
To resize the Video Player window and/or change the dow, or lower the value on the Video Quality submenu.
playback quality of the video, select the appropriate option
on the context menu of the Video Player window.

321
Video
Setting the aspect ratio Editing video
Resizing the Video Player window by dragging its borders
Video clips are played back by events just as audio clips
may lead to a distorted image. To prevent this, you can set
are. You can use all the basic editing operations on video
an aspect ratio for video playback.
events, just as with audio events. You can take a single
• From the Aspect Ratio submenu of the Video Player event and copy it many times for the creation of mix varia-
context menu, select one of the following options: tions. A video event may also be trimmed using the event
Option Description handles to remove a countdown for instance. Furthermore,
you can edit video clips in the Pool (see the chapter “The
None The aspect ratio of the video is not kept when resizing the
window. The image is enlarged/reduced to occupy the Pool” on page 195).
whole Video Player window.
It is not possible to fade or crossfade video events. Fur-
Internal The Video Player window can be resized at will, but the as-
pect ratio of the video is kept and black borders are dis-
thermore, you cannot use the Draw, Glue, and Mute tools
played around the video image to fill the window. with a video event.
External The resizing of the Video Player window is limited accord- Ö Windows only: If you find that you are unable to edit a
ing to the aspect ratio of the video image, i. e. the video im-
age always fills the full window and its aspect ratio is kept. video file copied from a CD, this might be due to the fact
that files copied from CD are write-protected by default.
Ö When the video is played back in fullscreen mode, the To remove the write-protection, in the Windows Explorer,
aspect ratio of the video is always kept. open the Properties dialog and deactivate the “Read-
Only” option.
Scrubbing video
You can scrub video events, i. e. play them back forwards Extracting audio from a video file
or backwards at any speed. This is done by clicking in the
Video Player window and moving the mouse to the left or If a video file contains audio, the audio stream can be ex-
to the right. tracted. As always when importing audio material, a dialog
is displayed allowing you to select different import options
You can also use the Scrub controls on the Transport (see “Audio file import options” on page 329).
panel or a jog wheel on a remote controller for scrubbing
video events, see the sections “Playing back with the There are several ways to extract audio from a video file:
shuttle speed control” on page 70 and “Project scrubbing • By activating the “Extract Audio From Video” option in
– the jog wheel” on page 71. the Import Video dialog (see the section “Importing video
files” on page 318).
• By using the “Audio from Video File” option on the Im-
port submenu of the File menu.
This will insert an audio event starting at the project cursor position on
the selected audio track. If no audio track is selected, a new one will be
created.
• By activating the “Extract Audio on Import Video File”
option in the Preferences dialog (Video page).
This will automatically extract the audio stream from any video file during
import.

322
Video
• By using the “Extract Audio from Video File” option on
the Media menu.
This creates an audio clip in the Pool, but does not add any events to the
Project window.

! These functions are not available for MPEG-1 and

MPEG-2 video files.

Replacing the audio in a video file

Once you have edited all audio and MIDI data to the video
and created a final mix, you will need to put the new audio
back with the video. You can do this by embedding the
audio in another stream within the video container file.
To replace the audio stream in a video file, proceed as
follows:
1. Place the left locator at the start of the video file in Cu-
base. This will ensure that your audio and video streams
are synchronized.
2. Pull down the File menu and select the Audio Mixdown
option from the Export submenu to export the audio file
you wish to insert into the video container file (for detailed
information on this function, see the chapter “Export Audio
Mixdown” on page 296).
3. From the File menu, select “Replace Audio in Video
File…”.
A file dialog opens prompting you to locate the video file.
4. Select the video file and click Open.
Next, you are prompted to locate the corresponding audio file.
5. Select the audio file and click Open.
The audio is added to the video file, replacing its current audio stream.
Once the process is completed, open the video file in a
native media player and check for proper synchronization.

323
Video
 32
ReWire
(not in Cubase LE)
Introduction Launching and quitting
ReWire and ReWire2 are special protocols for streaming When using ReWire, the order in which you launch and
audio between two computer applications. Developed by quit the two programs is very important:
Propellerhead Software and Steinberg, ReWire provides
the following possibilities and features: Launching for normal use with ReWire
• Realtime streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels 1. First launch Cubase.
(256 with ReWire2), at full bandwidth, from the “synthe-
2. Enable one or several ReWire channels in the ReWire
sizer application” into the “mixer application”.
Device dialog for the other application.
In this case, the “mixer application” is of course Cubase. An example of a
This is described in detail in the section “Activating ReWire channels” on
“synthesizer application” is Propellerhead Software’s Reason.
page 326.
• Automatic, sample accurate synchronization between
3. Launch the other application.
the audio in the two programs. It may take slightly longer for the application to start when you are using
• The possibility to have the two programs share one au- ReWire.
dio card and take advantage of multiple outputs on that
card. Quitting a ReWire session
• Linked transport controls that allow you to play, rewind, When you are finished, you also need to quit the applica-
etc., either from Cubase or from the synthesizer applica- tions in a special order:
tion (provided it has some kind of transport functionality). 1. First quit the synthesizer application.
• Automatic audio mixing functions of separate channels 2. Then quit Cubase.
as required.
In the case of Reason, for example, this allows you to have separate
mixer channels for the different devices.
Launching both programs without using
ReWire
• Additionally, ReWire2 offers the possibility to route MIDI
We cannot think of any scenario, in which you would need
tracks in Cubase to the other application, for full MIDI
to run Cubase and the synthesizer application simultane-
control.
ously on the same computer, without using ReWire, but
For each ReWire2 compatible device, a number of extra MIDI outputs
will be made available in Cubase. In the case of Reason, this allows you
you can:
to route different MIDI tracks in Cubase to different devices in Reason, 1. First launch the synthesizer application.
with Cubase serving as the main MIDI sequencer.
2. Then launch Cubase.
• The overall load on your system is much reduced, com-
pared to when using the programs together in the conven- Ö Please note that the two programs now compete for
tional way. system resources such as audio cards, just as when run-
ning either with other, non-ReWire audio applications.

325
ReWire (not in Cubase LE)
Activating ReWire channels Using the transport and tempo
ReWire supports streaming of up to 64 separate audio
controls
channels, while ReWire2 supports 256 channels. The ex-
act number of available ReWire channels depends on the
! This is only relevant if the synthesizer application has
synthesizer application. Using the ReWire Device panels some sort of built-in sequencer or similar.
in Cubase, you can specify which of the available chan-
nels you want to use:
Basic transport controls
When you run ReWire, the transports in the two programs
1. Pull down the Devices menu and select the menu item
are completely linked. It does not matter in which program
with the name of the ReWire application. All recognized
you play, stop, fast forward or rewind. However, recording
ReWire compatible applications will be available on the
(if applicable) is still completely separate in the two applica-
menu.
tions.
The ReWire panel appears. This consists of a number of rows, one for
each available ReWire channel.
Loop settings
2. Click on the power buttons to the left to activate/de-
activate the desired channels. If there is a loop or cycle facility in the synthesizer applica-
The buttons light up to indicate activated channels. Please note that the tion, that loop will be completely linked to the cycle in Cu-
more ReWire channels you activate, the more processing power is base. This means that you can move the start and end point
required. for the loop or turn the loop on or off in either program, and
this will be reflected in the other.
• For information about exactly what signal is carried on
each channel, see the documentation of the synthesizer
application.
Tempo settings
As far as tempo goes, Cubase is always the master. This
3. If desired, double-click on the labels in the right col-
means that both programs will run in the tempo set in
umn, and type in another name.
Cubase.
These labels will be used in the Cubase Mixer to identify the ReWire
channels. However, if you are not using the tempo track in Cubase,
you can adjust the tempo in either program, and this will
immediately be reflected in the other.

! If you are using the tempo track in Cubase (i. e. the

Tempo button is activated on the Transport panel),
you should not adjust the tempo in the synthesizer
application, since a tempo request from ReWire will
automatically deactivate the tempo track in Cubase!

326
ReWire (not in Cubase LE)
How the ReWire channels are Routing MIDI via ReWire2
handled in Cubase
! This feature is only available with ReWire2-compati-
When you activate ReWire channels in the ReWire De- ble applications.
vice panels, they will become available as channel strips in
the Mixer. The ReWire channel strips have the following When using Cubase with a ReWire2-compatible appli-
properties: cation, additional MIDI outputs will automatically appear
on the MIDI Output pop-up menus for MIDI tracks. This
• ReWire channels appear to the right of the other audio allows you to play the synthesizer application via MIDI
and MIDI channel strips in the Mixer. from Cubase, using it as one or several separate MIDI
• ReWire channels may be any combination of mono and sound sources.
stereo, depending on the synthesizer application.
• ReWire channels have the same functionality as regular
audio channels.
This means you can set volume and pan, add EQ, insert effects and sends,
and route the channel outputs to groups or busses. However, ReWire
channels have no monitor buttons.
• All ReWire channel settings can be automated using
the Read/Write buttons.
When you write automation, channel automation tracks will automatically
appear in the Project window. This allows you to view and edit the auto-
mation graphically, just as with VST instrument channels, etc.
• You can mix down the audio from ReWire channels to a
file on your hard disk with the Export Audio Mixdown func- The MIDI outputs for a Reason song. Here, each output goes directly to
tion (see “Mixing down to audio files” on page 297). a device in the Reason rack.
You can export the output bus to which you have routed the ReWire • The number and configuration of MIDI outputs depends
channels. You can also export individual ReWire channels directly –
on the synthesizer application.
“rendering” each ReWire channel to a separate audio file.

Considerations and limitations

Sample rates
Synthesizer applications may be limited to audio playback
in certain sample rates. If Cubase is set to a sample rate
other than those, the synthesizer application will play back
at the wrong pitch. Consult the documentation of the syn-
thesizer application for details.

ASIO drivers
ReWire works well with ASIO drivers. By using the Cu-
base bus system you can route sounds from the synthe-
sizer application to various outputs on an ASIO compati-
ble audio card.

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ReWire (not in Cubase LE)
 33
File handling
Importing audio • When importing multiple files at the same time, you can
select to convert the imported files automatically if neces-
In Cubase audio can be imported in a variety of different sary, i.e. if the sample rate is different than the project’s or
formats. For example, you can import tracks from audio the resolution is lower than the project setting.
CDs, or import audio files saved in different formats (com-
pressed and uncompressed). Use Settings

For information on how to import audio files into the Pool No Options dialog will appear when you import. Instead,
and import options, see “About the Import Medium dialog” you can select standard actions from the list below the
on page 202. pop-up menu that are performed automatically each time
you import audio files:
Audio file import options Option Description

When you are importing audio files, there are a number of Copy Files to If files are not already in the project’s audio folder,
Working Directory they are copied there before being imported.
options concerning how the files should be treated by
Cubase: Convert and Copy to If files are not already in the project’s audio folder,
Project If Needed they are copied there before being imported. Fur-
• You can choose to copy the file into the audio folder of thermore, if the files have a different sample rate or
a lower resolution than the project settings, they
the project and have the project make reference to the are automatically converted.
copied file rather than the original file.
This helps you keep your project “self-contained”.
Importing audio CD tracks
• You can choose to split stereo and multi-channel files
You can import audio from audio CDs into Cubase proj-
into a number of mono files.
ects in two ways:
• You can set all files in the project to the same sample
• To import the CD tracks directly into project tracks,
rate and sample size (resolution).
choose the “Audio CD…” option from the Import sub-
Using the “On Import Audio Files” pop-up menu in the menu of the File menu.
Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page), you can define The imported audio CD track(s) are inserted on the selected audio
what Cubase does when importing an audio file. The avail- track(s) at the project cursor position.
able options are described in the following. • To import the CD tracks into the Pool, select “Import
Audio CD…” from the Media menu.
This might be the preferred method if you want to import several CD
tracks in one go.

Open Options Dialog

An Options dialog appears when you import, allowing you
to select whether you want to copy the files to the audio
folder and/or convert them to the project settings. Please
note the following:
• When importing a single file of a format other than the
project settings, you can specify which properties (sample
rate and/or resolution) are changed.

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File handling
Selecting one of the Import Audio CD menu items brings 5. Click on the Copy button to create a local copy of the
up the following dialog: audio file(s) or section(s).
The copied files are listed at the bottom of the dialog. By default, imported
audio CD tracks will be stored as Wave files (Windows) or AIFF files
(Mac) in the Audio folder of the current project. To change the folder, click
Destination Folder and select a different folder from the dialog. During
copying, the Copy button is labeled “Stop”; click it to stop the process.
6. Click OK to import the copied audio files into the proj-
ect, or click Cancel to stop the import and discard the
copied files.
• If you import more than one audio file into project tracks,
a dialog opens in which you have to choose whether to in-
sert the tracks on one track or on different ones.
The new track(s) are displayed in the Project window. New audio clips
are created and added to the Pool.
The columns in the “Import from Audio CD” dialog have
the following functionality:
Column Description
Copy Activate the checkbox in this column for the track you
want to copy/import. To activate more than one check-
box, click and drag over the checkboxes (or press [Ctrl]/
[Command] or [Shift] and click).
To import one or more tracks, proceed as follows:
# This is the track number.
1. If you have more than one CD drive, select the correct CD Track as When you import an audio CD track, the file is named ac-
one from the Drives pop-up menu at the top left. shown cording to this column. The names are pulled automati-
cally from CDDB, if possible. You can rename a track by
On opening the CD, the program tries to retrieve the track names from
clicking in the CD Track column and typing a new name.
CDDB (a CD database). If no connection to CDDB can be established You can also apply a generic name to all audio CD tracks,
or the CD track names are not found, you can manually change the ge- if no name was available in CDDB.
neric track name in the Default Name field. Length The length of the audio CD track in minutes and seconds.
2. Windows only: Activate the “Secure Mode” option if Size The file size of the audio CD track in MB.
you want to use a Secure Read mode. Copy Start You can copy a section of a track if you like. This indi-
Use this if you encounter problems when trying to import an audio CD. cates the start of the section to be copied in the track. By
Error checking and correction will be done during the process. Note that default, this is set to the start of the track (0.000) but you
can adjust this on the copy selection ruler (see below).
this mode will take more time.
Copy End Indicates the end of the section to be copied in the track.
3. In the Windows version, select the data transfer speed By default, this is set to the end of the track but you can
from the Speed pop-up menu. adjust this on the copy selection ruler (see below).
While you normally want to use the fastest possible speed, you may have
to select a slower speed for flawless audio extraction. By default, complete tracks are selected.
4. Activate the Copy checkbox for every audio file you
want to import.
You can also select a copy section for every file, see below.

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File handling
• If you want to copy and import a section of an audio CD Ö For information about importing video files, see “Im-
track only, select the track in the list and specify the start porting video files” on page 318.
and end of the selection to be copied by dragging the
handles in the copy selection ruler. Importing ReCycle files
Play Play from Left Marker ReCycle by Propellerhead Software is a program designed
Stop Play to Right Marker especially for working with sampled loops. By “slicing” a
loop and making separate samples of each beat, ReCycle
makes it possible to match the tempo of a loop and edit the
loop as if it was built of individual sounds. Cubase can im-
Start of selection handle End of selection handle
port two file types created by ReCycle:
Ö Note that you can import sections of several audio CD • REX files (export file format of the first versions of ReCycle,
tracks by selecting them in turn and adjusting the selec- extension “.rex”).
tion. The start and end settings for each track are dis- • REX 2 files (file format of ReCycle 2.0 and later, extension
played in the list. “.rx2”).
• You can audition the selected audio CD track by click- ! For this to work, the REX Shared Library needs to be
ing the Play button.
installed on your system. If this is not the case, you will
The track will be played back from selection start to selection end (or un-
til you click the Stop button).
find the corresponding installer on the installation
DVD (in the “Additional Content\Installer Data” folder).
• The Play from left Marker (down arrow) and Play to
Right Marker (up arrow) buttons allow you to audition the Proceed as follows:
start and end of the selection only. 1. Select an audio track and move the project cursor to
The down arrow button will play a short snippet beginning at the start of where you want the imported file to start.
the selection, while the up arrow button will play a snippet starting just
You probably want to import REX files to tempo based audio tracks, since
before the end of the selection.
this will allow you to change the tempo later on (having the imported REX
• To open the CD drive, click on the Eject button at the file automatically adjust).
top of the dialog. 2. Select “Audio File…” from the Import submenu of the
File menu.
Importing Audio from video files
3. On the file type pop-up menu in the file dialog, select
While you can automatically extract the audio when im- REX File or REX 2 File.
porting a video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file”
on page 322), it is also possible to import the audio from a 4. Locate and select the file you want to import, and click
video file without importing the video itself: Open.
The file is imported and automatically adjusted to the current Cubase
1. Pull down the File menu, open the Import submenu tempo.
and select “Audio from Video File…”.
Unlike a regular audio file, the imported REX file will con-
2. In the file dialog that opens, locate and select the sist of several events, one for each “slice” in the loop. The
video file and click Open. events will automatically be placed in an audio part on the
The audio in the selected video file is extracted and converted to a Wave selected track and positioned so that the original internal
file in the project’s Audio folder. timing of the loop is preserved.
• A new audio clip is created and added to the Pool. In 5. If you now open the part in the Audio Part Editor, you
the Project window, an event referencing the audio file is can edit each slice separately by muting, moving and re-
inserted on the selected track at the project cursor posi- sizing events, adding effects and processing, etc.
tion. If no track was selected, a new track is created. You can also adjust the tempo and have the REX file automatically follow
This works just like importing regular audio files. (provided that its track is tempo based).

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File handling
Ö You can achieve similar results by using Cubase’s Exporting and importing standard
own loop slicing features, see “Working with hitpoints and
slices” on page 186.
MIDI files
Cubase can import and export standard MIDI files, which
Importing compressed audio files makes it possible to transfer MIDI material to and from virtu-
Cubase can import (and export, see “Mixing down to audio ally any MIDI application on any platform. When you import
files” on page 297) several common audio compression and export MIDI files, you can also specify whether certain
formats. The procedure is the same as when importing any settings associated with the tracks are included in the files
non-compressed audio file, with one important thing to (automation tracks, volume and pan settings, etc.).
note:
Exporting MIDI files
• When you import a compressed audio file, Cubase cre-
ates a copy of the file and converts this to Wave format To export your MIDI tracks as a standard MIDI file, pull
(Windows) or AIFF format (Mac OS X) before importing it. down the File menu and select “MIDI File…” from the Ex-
The original compressed file will not be used in the project. port submenu. A regular file dialog opens, allowing you to
The imported file is placed in the designated project Audio folder. specify a location and name for the file.
When you have specified a location and a name for the file,
! The resulting Wave/AIFF file will be several times
click “Save”. The Export Options dialog opens, allowing you
larger than the original compressed file.
to specify a number of options for the file, e. g. what is in-
The following file types are supported: cluded in the file, its type and its resolution (see below for a
description of the options).
MPEG audio files
MPEG, which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is
the name of a family of standards used for encoding au-
dio-visual information (e. g. movies, video, music) in a digi-
tal compressed format.
Cubase can read MPEG Layer 3 (*.mp3) files.

Ogg Vorbis files

Ogg Vorbis is an open and patent-free format that offers
very small audio files maintaining comparatively high audio
quality. Ogg Vorbis files have the extension “.ogg”.

Windows Media Audio files (Windows only)

Windows Media Audio is an audio format developed by The Export Options dialog
Microsoft, Inc. Due to advanced audio compression algo-
rithms, Windows Media Audio files can be made very You will also find most of these settings in the Preferences
small, maintaining good audio quality. The files have the dialog (MIDI–MIDI File page). If you set these up in the
extension “.wma”. Preferences dialog, you only need to click OK in the Ex-
port Options dialog to proceed.
Ö For exporting Audio, see the chapter “Export Audio
Mixdown” on page 296.

332
File handling
The dialog contains the following options: Ö The MIDI file will include the tempo information of the
Option Description
project (i. e. it will include the tempo and time signature
events of the Tempo Track Editor or, if the tempo track is
Export If this is activated, the MIDI patch settings in the Inspec-
Inspector tor – Bank Select and Program Select (used for selecting deactivated on the Transport panel, the current tempo and
Patch sounds in the connected MIDI instrument) are included time signature).
as MIDI Bank Select and Program Change events in the
MIDI file. Ö Inspector settings other than those specified in the
Export If this is activated, Volume and Pan settings made in the Export options are not included in the MIDI file! To include
Inspector Inspector are included as MIDI Volume and Pan events in these, you need to convert the settings to “real” MIDI events
Volume/Pan the MIDI file.
and properties by using the Merge MIDI in Loop function for
Export If this is activated, the automation data (as heard during each track, see “Merge MIDI in Loop” on page 246.
Automation playback) are converted to MIDI controller events and in-
cluded in the MIDI file, see the chapter “Automation” on
page 156. Cubase Elements only: This also includes au- Importing MIDI files
tomation recorded with the MIDI Control plug-in (see the
separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”). To import a MIDI file from disk, proceed as follows:
Note that if a continuous controller (e. g. CC7) has been
recorded but the Read button is deactivated for the auto- 1. Select “MIDI File…” from the Import submenu of the
mation track (i. e. the automation is effectively switched File menu.
off for this parameter), only the part data for this controller
will be exported. 2. If there is already an open project, a dialog opens in
If this option is deactivated and the Automation Read but-
ton is activated, no Continuous Controllers are exported. which you can select whether a new project is created for
If the Read button is deactivated, the Controller data of the file.
the MIDI part are exported (these will now be handled like
If you select “No”, the MIDI file will be imported into the current project.
“regular” part data).
In most cases it is recommended to activate this option. 3. Locate and select the MIDI file in the file dialog that
Export Inserts If this is activated, any MIDI modifiers that you have opens and click Open.
added will be included in the MIDI file.
Export Markers If this is activated, any markers you have added (see “Us-
• If you choose to create a new project, select the project
ing markers” on page 108) will be included in the MIDI folder.
file as standard MIDI file marker events. Select an existing project folder or create a new one.
Export as If this is activated, the MIDI file will be of type 0 (all data on
Type 0 a single track, but on different MIDI channels). If you do not
The MIDI file is imported. The result depends on the con-
activate this option, the MIDI file will be of Type 1 (data on tents of the MIDI file and the Import Options settings in the
separate tracks). Which type to choose depends on what Preferences dialog (MIDI–MIDI File page). The Import Op-
you want to do with the MIDI file (in which application or
sequencer it should be used, etc.). tions are as follows:
Export You can specify a MIDI resolution between 24 and 960 Option Description
Resolution for the MIDI file. The resolution is the number of pulses, or
Extract First If this is activated, the first Program Change and Bank
ticks, per quarter note (PPQ) and determines the preci-
Patch Select events for each track are converted to Inspector
sion with which you will be able to view and edit the MIDI
settings for the track.
data. The higher the resolution, the higher the precision.
Choose the resolution depending on the application or Extract First If this is activated, the first MIDI Volume and Pan events
sequencer with which the MIDI file will be used, though, Volume/Pan for each track are converted to Inspector settings for the
since certain applications and sequencers may not be track.
able to handle certain resolutions.
Import Con- If this is activated, MIDI controller events in the MIDI file
Export Locator If this is activated, only the range between the locators troller as Auto- will be converted to automation data for the MIDI tracks. If
Range will be exported. mation Tracks this is deactivated, controller data for the MIDI Parts will
be imported.
Export If this is activated, the delay of the MIDI track will be in-
includes Delay cluded in the MIDI file. For more information about the Import to Left If this is activated, the imported MIDI file will be placed so
Delay option, see “Basic track settings” on page 234. Locator that it starts at the position of the left locator – otherwise
it will start at the beginning of the project. Note that if you
Song name for You can use this text field to change the name of the MIDI
choose to have a new project created automatically, the
Type 0 file as displayed when loading this file in a keyboard.
MIDI file will always start at the beginning of the project.

333
File handling
Option Description Exporting and importing MIDI loops
Import If this is activated and you drag and drop a MIDI file into
dropped File the project, the whole file will be placed on a single track. Cubase allows you to import MIDI loops (file extension
as single Part “.midiloop”) and to save instrument parts as MIDI loops.
Ignore Master If this is activated and you import a MIDI file into the cur- MIDI loops are handy, as they contain not only MIDI notes
Track Events rent project, tempo track data in the MIDI file are ignored.
on Merge The imported MIDI file will play according to the current
and controllers, but also the associated VST instrument
tempo track in the project. and instrument track preset settings.
If this option is deactivated, the Tempo Track Editor will
be adjusted according to the tempo information in the How to import and export MIDI loops is described in detail
MIDI file. in the chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on
Auto Dissolve If this is activated and you import a MIDI file of type 0 into page 145.
Format 0 the project, the file will automatically be “dissolved”: For
each embedded MIDI channel in the file, a separate track
will be inserted in the Project window.
If this is deactivated, only one MIDI track will be created.
This track will be set to MIDI Channel “Any”, allowing all
MIDI events to play back on their original channels. You
can also use the “Dissolve Part” function on the MIDI
menu to distribute the events onto different tracks with
different MIDI Channels at a later stage.
Destination Here, you can specify what happens when you drag a
MIDI file into the project:
- If you select the “MIDI Tracks” option, MIDI tracks are
created for the imported file.
- If you select the “Instrument Tracks” option, instrument
tracks are created for each MIDI channel in the MIDI file.
Furthermore, the program automatically loads appropriate
presets.
- If you select the “HALion Sonic SE multi-timbral” option,
several MIDI tracks are created, each routed to a sepa-
rate instance of HALion Sonic SE in the VST Instruments
window and the appropriate presets are loaded.
Note that in Cubase LE, this is automatically set to “MIDI
Tracks” and the other options are not available.

Support for the Yamaha XF data format

Cubase supports the Yamaha XF format. XF is an exten-
sion of the standard MIDI file format that allows you to
save song-specific data with a MIDI file of type 0.
When importing a MIDI file containing XF data, this data is
placed in parts on separate tracks called “XF Data”, “Chord
Data”, or “SysEx Data”. You can edit such a part in the List
Editor (e. g. to add or change lyrics).

! Do not change the order of events within the XF data

or the event data itself, unless you have a lot of expe-
rience with XF data.

Cubase can also export XF data as part of a MIDI file of

type 0. If you do not want to export the XF data together
with the MIDI data, mute or delete the tracks containing
the XF data.

334
File handling
 34
Customizing
Background The following general options are available on the setup
context menus:
The user can customize the appearance and functionality
• “Show All” makes all items visible.
of Cubase in various ways.
• “Default” resets the interface to the default setting.
User configurable items described in this chapter are:
• “Setup…” opens the Setup dialog (see below).
• Setup dialogs
Several parts of the user interface (toolbars, Transport panel, Inspector, If presets are available, they can be selected on the lower
info lines and Channel Settings windows) provide a Setup dialog, where half of the menu.
you can configure which items of the respective window area or panel
are to be shown or hidden and where they are located – see “Using the
Setup options” on page 336.
• Track list
The controls shown in the track list can be set for each track type – see
“Customizing track controls” on page 337.
• Appearance
The general look of the program can be adjusted – see “Appearance” on
page 339.
• Track and event colors
You can adjust which colors are used – see “Applying colors in the Project
window” on page 339.
This chapter also contains a section describing where
your preferences and settings are stored (see “Where are
The info line setup context menu
the settings stored?” on page 342), to help you transfer
your customized settings to another computer.
The Setup dialogs
If you select “Setup…” from the setup context menus, the
Using the Setup options Setup dialog opens. This allows you to specify which ele-
ments are visible/hidden and to set the order of the ele-
You can customize the appearance of the following
ments. You can also save and recall setup presets in this
elements:
dialog.
• Transport panel
• Info line
• Channel Settings window
• Toolbars
• Inspector

The setup context menus

If you right-click the Transport panel, the toolbars, the info
lines, or the Inspector, the respective setup context menu
opens. For Channel Settings windows, these options are
found in the dialog’s context menu, on the Customize View
submenu. Here, you can activate/deactivate elements as
desired.

336
Customizing
The dialog is divided into two sections. The left section • Click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the track
displays the currently visible items and the right section list and select “Track Controls Settings…”.
displays the currently hidden items.
• You can change the current show/hide status by select-
ing items in one section and then use the arrow buttons in
the middle of the dialog to move them to the other section.
Changes are applied directly.
• By selecting items in the “Visible Items” list and using
the Move Up and Move Down buttons, you can reorder
the items list.
Changes are applied directly. To undo all changes and revert to the stan-
dard layout, select “Default” on the setup context menu.
• If you click the Save button (disk icon) in the Presets
section, a dialog opens, allowing you to name the current
configuration and save it as a preset.
• To remove a preset, select it on the presets pop-up
menu and click the trash icon.
• Saved configurations are available for selection from the
Presets pop-up menu in the Setup dialog or directly from
the setup context menu.
Setting the track type
Customizing track controls The settings made in the Track Controls Settings dialog
apply to the selected track type, which is shown in the
For each track type you can configure which track con-
menu display in the top left corner of the dialog.
trols are shown in the track list. You can also specify the
order of controls and group controls so that they are al- • To change the track type, click the arrow to the right in
ways shown adjacent to each other. This is done using the the menu display and select a track type from the pop-up
Track Controls Settings dialog. menu.
All settings made in the dialog will apply to all tracks (current and subse-
Opening the Track Controls Settings dialog quent) of the selected type.

There are two ways to open the dialog:

• Right-click a track in the track list and select “Track
Controls Settings…” from the context menu.

The Track Type pop-up menu in the Track Controls Settings dialog

Ö Always make sure that you have selected the desired

track type when editing the track controls!

337
Customizing
Removing, adding, and moving track controls About Wrap Controls
The dialog is divided into two sections. The left section This is activated by default. Wrap Controls allows the
displays controls currently visible in the track list, and the controls to be dynamically repositioned when resizing the
right section displays the controls currently hidden. track list. That is, as many controls as possible will be dis-
played depending on the current size of the track list.
• You can hide controls from the track list by selecting
them in the list to the left and clicking the Remove button. If you deactivate Wrap Controls, the positions of the con-
To show hidden elements, select them in the list to the trols are fixed, regardless of the size of the track list. In this
right and click the Add button. mode, you may have to resize the tracks vertically (by drag-
Click OK to apply the changes. ging the dividers between them) to display all the controls.
Ö All controls can be removed except the Mute and Solo
buttons. About the Length column
• By selecting controls in the “Visible Controls” list and The Length column in the Visible Controls list allows you
using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, you can to set the maximum length for certain text fields, e. g.
change the order of the list. Name. To change the setting, click on the number in the
Click OK to apply the changes. Length column and type in a new value.

Grouping track controls Resetting track list settings

If you resize the track list, the position of the controls will You have two possibilities to reset the settings:
change dynamically to accommodate as many controls as • Click Reset to restore all default track controls settings
possible in the available space (given that Wrap Controls for the selected track type.
is activated – see below). By grouping several track con-
trols you ensure that they are always positioned side by • Click Reset All to restore all default track controls set-
side in the track list. tings for all track types.

To group controls, proceed as follows: Saving presets

1. Make sure that you have selected the correct track type. You can save track controls settings as presets for later
2. In the “Visible Controls” section, select at least two recall:
controls. 1. Click on the Save button (the “+” sign) to the right of
You can only group controls that are adjacent to each other in the list. To the Presets pop-up menu.
group controls that are currently not adjacent in the list, use the Move A dialog opens, asking you to type in a name for the preset.
Up/Down buttons first.
2. Click OK to save the settings as a preset.
3. Click Group. Saved presets are available for selection from the Presets pop-up menu
A number is displayed in the Group column for the grouped controls. The and from the pop-up menu in the top left corner of the track list.
first group created has the number 1, the second 2, and so on.
• To remove a preset, select it in the Track Controls Set-
4. Click OK. tings dialog and click the Delete button (the “-” sign).
The controls are now grouped.
Ö Cubase comes with a number of Track Controls Set-
• You can ungroup controls by using the Ungroup button.
tings presets available.
Please note that this will remove the selected element and
the elements below it in the list from this group. To remove
an entire group, select the first (topmost) element belong-
ing to this group and click the Ungroup button.

338
Customizing
Appearance • You can click on any color handle and move its position
on the meter scale. If you hold down [Shift] while moving
In the Preferences dialog, you find a page called Appear- the handle with the mouse, it will move ten times slower
ance. The following settings are available: for more precise positioning. You may also nudge the
color handle’s position with the Arrow Up/Down keys.
General Holding [Shift] while nudging will move the color handle
The controls on the General page affect the appearance of ten times faster.
the windows that surround the controls and workspaces in • You can add color handles by [Alt]/[Option]-clicking
Cubase. anywhere along the side of the meter scale. To remove a
• Color Intensity determines how rich the background color handle, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click the handle.
colors are, from gray to blue. 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
• Color Lightness lightens or darkens the background. one another. You can make the meter color change more rapidly at a
specific signal level this way.
• The Color Tone slider changes the background color.
• To change the color of a handle, select the handle by ei-
• Button Brightness can be used to separately lighten or
ther clicking on it or by jumping to it with the [Tab] key
darken the buttons.
(hold down [Shift] and press the [Tab] key to jump back-
Meters wards). Then use the hue and brightness controls on the
right side to alter the handle’s color.
The coloring of meters in Cubase can be controlled in so- The currently selected color handle is indicated by a black triangle on its
phisticated ways. Multiple colors can help to visually indi- left side.
cate what levels are being reached, e. g. in a channel of
the VST Mixer. To do this, the meter on the Appearances– Work Area
Meters page has color handles that allow you to define The work areas in Cubase are those places where the ac-
what color the meter will have at a given signal level. tual data are displayed such as the Project window event
display. In these areas, there are items such as vertical
and horizontal grid lines that can be altered in intensity by
the controls found on this page.

Applying colors in the Project

window
You can use color scheming for an easier overview of
tracks and events in the Project window. Colors can be
applied individually to tracks and events/parts. If you color
a track, the corresponding events and parts are displayed
in the same color. However, you can also color events and
parts differently, “overriding” the applied track color.
In the following sections you will learn how to set up pref-
erences to color tracks automatically, how to color parts
or events manually, how to determine whether you want to
color the events themselves or their background, and how
The Appearances–Meters page in the Preferences dialog to customize the color palette for selecting colors.

339
Customizing
Applying track colors automatically
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page),
you can find the “Auto Track Color Mode” option.

Ö When you change the color of a track, the new color

This offers you several options for automatically assigning will be used for all events on the track and for the corre-
colors to tracks that are added to the project. The follow- sponding channel strip in the Mixer. However, if you have
ing options are available: assigned a different color to individual parts or events,
these will not follow color changes of the track any longer.
Option Effect
Use Default The default color (gray) is assigned.
• To reset the color of a track, part, or event, select the
Event Color corresponding item and choose the “Default Color” option
Use Previous Analyzes the color of the selected track and uses the from the “Select Colors” pop-up menu.
Track Color same color for the new track.
About the Color tool
Use Previous Analyzes the color of the selected track and uses the color
Track Color that comes next in the color palette for the new track. 1. Open the Select Colors pop-up menu and select a
+1
color.
Use Last Uses the color that is selected in the Select Colors pop-
Applied Color up menu. 2. On the toolbar, select the Color tool.
Use Random Uses the color palette as a basis to assign track colors
Track Color randomly.

Coloring tracks, parts, or events manually 3. Click on the desired parts and events to assign the
You can color each track, part, or event in the Project win- color.
dow individually by using the Select Colors pop-up menu The color is applied to the parts and events and overrides the track color.
on the toolbar. Parts and events can also be colored using • If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on a part/event
the Color tool. with the Color tool, a color palette is displayed allowing
you to select a color for the event.
About the Select Colors pop-up menu
• If you press [Alt]/[Option], the Color tool cursor becomes
1. In the Project window, select the item that you want to
a pipette, which can be used to select the current color of a
color.
You can select tracks, parts, or events.
part/event in order to apply it to another part/event.

2. On the toolbar, open the “Select Colors” pop-up

menu and select a color.
If parts or events are selected, the color is applied to these parts and
events. To change the color of a track, no events or parts must be se-
lected on that track.

340
Customizing
About the Similar Tracks options Adding and editing individual colors
You can use the selected color of one track to colorize In the Project Colors dialog, you can fully customize the
other tracks of the same type (e. g. all audio tracks). color palette. To add new colors to the color palette, pro-
ceed as follows:
Set up the desired color for a track of a certain track type
and right-click this track in the track list to open a context 1. Add a new color by clicking the Insert New Color
menu. Depending on your settings and selections you can button.
choose one of the following options:
Insert New Remove Selected
• Use Color for Similar Tracks Color Color
When you select this, all tracks of the same type get the same color.
• Use Color for Similar Selected Tracks 2. In the Project Colors section, click the newly created
Use this to apply the same color to tracks within a selection. The color of color field to activate the new color for editing.
the topmost track in the selection is then applied to other tracks of the
3. Use the Standard Colors or Modify Color sections to
same type within the selection.
specify a new color.
To do this, pick a different color from the color palette, drag the cursor in
The Project Colors dialog the color circle, move the handle in the color meter, or enter new RGB
In the Project Colors dialog you can select a different set of values as well as values for hue, saturation, and luminosity manually.
colors for items in the Project window. 4. Click the Apply button.
To open the Project Colors dialog, open the Select Colors The color setting is applied to the selected color field in the Project Colors
pop-up menu on the toolbar and choose “Select Colors…”. section.
Ö Every color in the Project Colors section can be edited
this way.

Setting intensity and brightness

To increase or decrease the intensity and the brightness
of all colors, use the corresponding buttons in the Project
Colors section.
Increase/decrease intensity for all colors

Increase/decrease brightness for all colors

341
Customizing
Saving and resetting color settings Ö The RAMpresets.xml file, which contains various
presets settings (see below), is saved when exiting the
• To return to your project colors, click the “Reset To Cur-
program.
rent Project Defaults” button.
Ö Program functions (e. g. crossfade) or configurations
• To save the current set as default, click the “Save Cur-
(e. g. panels) not used in the project will not be stored.
rent Set as Program Defaults” button.
Some of the preferences are not stored in the default pref-
• To apply the default set, click the “Load Program De-
erences folder. A list can be found in the article “Files for
faults to Current Set” button.
the program settings and preferences” in the Steinberg
• To return to Cubase’s standard color palette, click the Knowledge Base.
“Reset Current Set to Factory Settings” button.
To open the Knowledge Base, browse to the Steinberg
Load Program Defaults to Current Set web site, click “Support” and choose “Knowledge Base”
Reset Current Set to in the list on the left.
Save Current Set as Program Factory Settings
Defaults

Where are the settings stored?

As you have seen, there are a large number of ways in
which you can customize Cubase. While some of the set-
tings you make are stored with each project, others are
stored in separate preference files.
If you need to transfer your projects to another computer
(e. g. in another studio), you can bring all your settings
along by copying the desired preference files and install-
ing them on the other computer.
Ö It is a good idea to make a backup copy of your prefer-
ence files once you have set things up the way you want!
This way, if another Cubase user wants to use his or her
personal settings when working on your computer, you
can restore your own preferences afterwards.
• Under Windows, preference files are stored in the fol-
lowing location: “\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roam-
ing\Steinberg\<program name>\”.
On the Start menu, you will find a shortcut to this folder for easy access.
• Under Mac OS X, preference files are stored in the fol-
lowing location: “/Library/Preferences/<program name>/
” under your home directory.
The full path is: “/Users/<user name>/Library/Preferences/<program
name>/”.

342
Customizing
 35
Key commands
Introduction Setting up key commands
Most of the main menus in Cubase have key command Adding or modifying a key command
shortcuts for certain items on the menus. In addition, there
are numerous other Cubase functions that can be per- In the Key Commands dialog you will find all main menu
formed via key commands. These are all default settings. items and a large number of other functions, arranged in a
hierarchical way similar to the Windows Explorer and Mac
You can customize existing key commands to your liking, OS Finder. The function categories are represented by a
and also add commands for many menu items and func- number of folders, each containing various menu items and
tions that currently have no key command assigned. functions. When you open a category folder by clicking the
You can find out for which functions key commands can “+” sign beside it, the items and functions it contains are
be assigned by looking in the Key commands dialog (see displayed with the currently assigned key commands.
below), or by checking the tooltip for a particular interface
element. If a tooltip shows [!] at the end, you can assign a
key command to this function. Assigned key commands
are shown in the tooltips in square brackets.

! You can also assign tool modifier keys, i. e. keys that

change the behavior of various tools when pressed.
This is done in the Preferences dialog – see “Setting
up tool modifier keys” on page 347.

How are key commands settings saved?

Every time you edit or add any key command assignment,
this is stored as a global Cubase preference – not as part
of a project. If you edit or add a key command assignment,
any subsequent projects that you create or open will use To add a key command, proceed as follows:
these modified settings. However, the default settings can
be restored at any time by clicking the Reset All button in 1. Pull down the File menu and select “Key Com-
the Key Commands dialog. mands…”.
The Key Commands dialog opens.
In addition, you can save key commands settings as a “key
commands file”, which is stored separately and can be im- 2. In the Commands list on the left, choose a category.
ported into any project. This way you can quickly and easily 3. Click the “+” sign to open the category folder and dis-
recall customized settings, when moving projects between play the items it contains.
different computers, for example. The settings are saved in Note that you can also click the “global” “+” and “-” signs in the top left
an XML file on the hard disk. corner to open and close all category folders at once.

How to save key commands settings is described in the

section “About key commands presets” on page 345.

344
Key commands
4. In the list, select the item to which you want to assign Searching for key commands
a key command.
If you want to know which key command is assigned to a
Already assigned key commands are shown in the Keys column as well
as in the Keys section in the top right corner.
certain function in the program, you can use the Search
function in the Key Commands dialog:
1. Click in the search text field at the top left of the dialog
and type in the function for which you want to know the
key command.
This is a standard word search function, so you should type the command
as it is spelled in the program. Partial words can be used; to search for all
quantize related commands, type “Quantize”, “Quant”, etc.
2. Click the Search button (the magnifying glass icon).
Key commands are displayed here. The search is conducted and the first matching command is selected
and displayed in the Commands list below. The Keys column and the
5. Alternatively, you can use the search function in the Keys list show the assigned key commands, if any.
dialog to find the desired item. 3. To search for more commands containing the word(s)
For a description of how to use the search function, see below. you entered, click the Search button again.
6. When you have found and selected the desired item, 4. When you are done, click OK to close the dialog.
click in the “Type in Key” field and enter a new key com-
mand. Removing a key command
You can choose any single key or a combination of one or several modi-
fier keys ([Alt]/[Option], [Ctrl]/[Command], [Shift]) plus any key. Just To remove a key command, proceed as follows:
press the keys you want to use.
1. Use the list of categories and commands to select the
7. If the key command you enter is already assigned to item or function for which you wish to remove a key com-
another item or function, this is displayed below the “Type mand.
in Key” field. The key command is shown in the Keys column and the Keys list.
You can either ignore this and proceed to assign the key command to
2. Select the key command in the Keys list and click the
the new function instead, or you can select another key command.
Delete button (the trash icon).
8. Click the Assign button above the field. You are asked whether you really want to remove the key command.
The new key command appears in the Keys List.
3. Click Remove to remove the selected key command.
! If the key command you enter is already assigned to 4. Click OK to close the dialog.
another function, you will get a warning message
asking if you really want to reassign the command to About key commands presets
the new function.
As mentioned above, any changes made to the key com-
9. Click OK to exit the dialog. mands (and macros) are automatically stored as a Cubase
preference. However, it is also possible to store key com-
Ö You can set up several different key commands for the
mands settings separately. This way, you can store any
same function. Adding a key command to a function that
number of different key command settings as presets for
already has another key command will not replace the key
instant recall.
command previously defined for the function. If you wish
to remove a key command, see below. ! Note that macros are only available in Cubase Ele-
ments. For simplicity reasons, this is only stated at
the beginning of this section, not for every occur-
rence of the word “macro”.

345
Key commands
Saving key commands presets 3. In the file dialog, use the “Files of type” pop-up menu
to specify if you want to import a key commands file
Proceed as follows:
(“.key”) or a macro commands file (extension “.mac”).
1. Set up the key commands and macros to your liking. When you have imported an older file, you might want to save it as a pre-
When setting up key commands, remember to click “Assign” to make the set (see above) to be able to access it from the Presets pop-up menu in
changes. the future.
2. Click the Save button next to the Presets pop-up menu. 4. Navigate to the file you want to import and click “Open”.
A dialog opens, allowing you to type in a name for the preset. The file is imported.
3. Click OK to save the preset. 5. Click OK to exit the Key Commands dialog and apply
Your saved key commands settings are now available on the Presets the imported settings.
pop-up menu. The settings in the loaded key commands file or macros file now replace
the current settings.
Loading key command presets
To load a key command preset, simply select it from the About the “Reset” and “Reset All” functions
Presets pop-up menu.
Ö The key command settings you load will replace the
current key command settings for the same functions (if
any). If you have macros of the same name as those stored
in the preset you load, these will be replaced too.
If you want to be able to revert to your current settings These two buttons in the Key Commands dialog will both
again, make sure to save them first, as described above! restore the default settings. The following rules apply:
! Note that macros are only available in Cubase Ele- • “Reset” will restore the default key command setting for
ments. For simplicity reasons, this is only stated at the function selected in the Commands list.
the beginning of this section, not for every occur-
• “Reset All” will restore the default key commands for all
rence of the word “macro”.
commands.
Loading earlier key commands settings
! Note that the “Reset All” operation will cause any
If you have saved key commands settings with an earlier changes made to the default key commands to be
program version, it is possible to use them in this Cubase lost! If you want to be able to revert to these settings
version, by using the “Import Key Command File” function, again, make sure to save them first!
which lets you load and apply saved key commands or
macros:
1. Open the Key Commands dialog.
2. Click the “Import Key Command File” button to the
right of the Presets pop-up menu.
A standard file dialog opens.

346
Key commands
Setting up tool modifier keys The default key commands
A tool modifier key is a key you can press to get an alter- Below, the default key commands are listed according to
nate function when using a tool. For example, clicking and category.
dragging an event with the Arrow tool normally moves it –
holding down a modifier key (by default [Alt]/[Option]) ! When the Virtual Keyboard is displayed, the usual key
while dragging will copy it instead. commands are blocked because they are reserved for
the Virtual Keyboard. The only exceptions are: [Ctrl]/
The default assignments for tool modifier keys can be [Command]-[S] (Save), Num [*] (Start/Stop Record),
found in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers [Space] (Start/Stop Playback), Num [1] (Jump to left
page). Here, you can also edit them: locator), [Delete] or [Backspace] (Delete), Num [/]
1. Open the Preferences dialog and select the Editing– (Cycle on/off), [F2] (Show/Hide Transport panel), and
Tool Modifiers page. [Alt]/[Option]-[K] (Show/Hide Virtual Keyboard).

Audio category
Option Key command
Adjust Fades to Range [A]
Crossfade [X]
Find Selected in Pool [Ctrl]/[Command]-[F]

Automation category
Option Key command
Toggle Read Enable All Tracks [Alt]/[Option]-[R]
Toggle Write Enable All Tracks [Alt]/[Option]-[W]

Devices category
Option Key command
2. Select an option in the Categories list, and locate the
Mixer [F3]
action for which you want to edit the modifier key.
For example, the “Copy” action mentioned above resides in the category Video [F8]
“Drag & Drop”. Virtual Keyboard [Alt]/[Option]-[K]

3. Select the action in the Action list. VST Connections [F4]

VST Instruments [F11]
4. Hold down the desired modifier key(s) and click the (not in Cubase LE)
Assign button.
VST Performance [F12]
The current modifier keys for the action are replaced. If the modifier keys
you pressed are already assigned to another tool, you will be asked
whether you want to overwrite them. If you do, this will leave the other
tool without any modifier keys assigned.
5. When you are done, click OK to apply the changes
and close the dialog.

347
Key commands
Edit category File category
Option Key command Option Key command
Autoscroll [F] Close [Ctrl]/[Command]-[W]
Copy [Ctrl]/[Command]-[C] New [Ctrl]/[Command]-[N]
Cut [Ctrl]/[Command]-[X] Open [Ctrl]/[Command]-[O]
Cut Time [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[X] Quit [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Q]
Delete [Delete] or [Backspace] Save [Ctrl]/[Command]-[S]
Delete Time [Shift]-[Backspace] Save As [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[S]
Duplicate [Ctrl]/[Command]-[D] Save New Version [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-[S]
Insert Silence [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[E]
Left Selection Side to Cursor [E] Media category
Move to Cursor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[L] Option Key command
Move to Front (Uncover) [U] Open MediaBay [F5]
Mute [M] Open Mini Browser [F7]
Mute Events [Shift]-[M] Preview Cycle On/Off [Shift]-Num [/]
Mute/Unmute Objects [Alt]/[Option]-[M] Preview Start [Shift]-[Enter]
Open Default Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[E] Preview Stop [Shift]-Num [0]
Open Score Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R] Search MediaBay [Shift]-[F5]
Open/Close Editor [Return] Toggle Filters [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num
[5]
Paste [Ctrl]/[Command]-[V]
Toggle Location Tree [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num
Paste at Origin [Alt]/[Option]-[V]
[4]
Paste Time [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[V]
Toggle Locations [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num
Record Enable [R] [8]

Redo [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[Z] Toggle Previewer [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num

[2]
Repeat [Ctrl]/[Command]-[K]
Right Selection Side to Cursor [D]
MIDI category
Select All [Ctrl]/[Command]-[A]
Option Key command
Select None [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[A]
Show/Hide Controller Lanes [Alt]/[Option]-[L]
Snap On/Off [J]
Solo [S]
Split At Cursor [Alt]/[Option]-[X]
Split Range [Shift]-[X]
Undo [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z]
Unmute Events [Shift]-[U]

Editors category
Option Key command
Show/Hide Infoview [Ctrl]/[Command]-[I]
Show/Hide Inspector [Alt]/[Option]-[I]
Show/Hide Overview [Alt]/[Option]-[O]

348
Key commands
Navigate category Project category
Option Key command Option Key command
Add Down: [Shift]-[Down Arrow] Open Markers [Ctrl]/[Command]-[M]
Expand/Undo selection in the Proj-
ect window to the bottom/ Move Open Pool [Ctrl]/[Command]-[P]
selected event in the Key Editor Open Tempo Track Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[T]
down 1 octave
Remove Track [Shift]-[Del]
Add Left: [Shift]-[Left Arrow]
Expand/Undo selection in the Proj- Setup [Shift]-[S]
ect window/Key Editor to the left
Add Right:
Expand/Undo selection in the Proj-
[Shift]-[Right Arrow] Quantize category
ect window/Key Editor to the right Option Key command
Add Up: [Shift]-[Up Arrow] Quantize [Q]
Expand/Undo selection in the Proj-
ect window to the top/Move se-
lected event in the Key Editor up
one octave
Tool category
Down: [Down Arrow] Option Key command
Select next in the Project window/ Delete tool [5]
Move selected event in the Key
Editor one semitone down Draw tool [8]

Left: [Left Arrow] Drumstick tool [0]

Select next in the Project window/
Glue tool [4]
Key Editor
Mute tool [7]
Right: [Right Arrow]
Select next in the Project window/ Next Tool [F10]
Key Editor
Play tool [9]
Up: [Up Arrow]
Select next in the Project window/ Previous Tool [F9]
Move selected event in the Key Range tool [2]
Editor one semitone up
Select tool [1]
Bottom [End]
Select bottom track in the track list Split tool [3]
Top: [Home] Zoom tool [6]
Select top track in the track list
Toggle Selection [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Space]
Transport category
Option Key command
Nudge category
Auto Punch In [I]
Option Key command
Auto Punch Out [O]
End Left [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]-[Left Arrow]
Cycle Num [/]
End Right [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]-[Right Arrow]
Exchange time formats [.]
Left [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Left Arrow]
Fast Forward [Shift]-Num [+]
Right [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Right Arrow]
Fast Rewind [Shift]-Num [-]
Start Left [Alt]/[Option]-[Left Arrow]
Forward Num [+]
Start Right [Alt]/[Option]-[Right Arrow]
Input Left Locator [Shift]-[L]
Input Position [Shift]-[P]
Input Right Locator [Shift]-[R]

349
Key commands
Option Key command Windows category
Input Tempo [Shift]-[T] Option Key command
Insert Marker [Insert] (Win) Inline: Key Commands [Shift]-[F4]
Locate Next Event [N] Inline: Settings [Shift]-[F3]
Locate Next Hitpoint [Alt]/[Option]-[N] Inline: View Layout [Shift]-[F2]
Locate Next Marker [Shift]-[N]
Locate Previous Event [B] Zoom category
Locate Previous Hitpoint [Alt]/[Option]-[B]
Option Key command
Locate Previous Marker [Shift]-[B]
Zoom Full [Shift]-[F]
Locate Selection [L]
Zoom In [H]
Locators to Selection [P]
Zoom In Tracks [Alt]/[Option]-[Down Arrow]
Loop Selection [Shift]-[G]
Zoom Out [G]
Metronome On [C]
Zoom Out Tracks [Alt]/[Option]-[Up Arrow] or
Nudge Cursor Left [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [-] [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Up Arrow]

Nudge Cursor Right [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [+] Zoom to Event [Shift]-[E]

Panel (Transport panel) [F2] Zoom to Selection [Alt]/[Option]-[S]

Play Selection Range [Alt]/[Option]-[Space] Zoom Tracks Exclusive [Z] or [Ctrl]/[Command]-

[Down Arrow]
Recall Cycle Marker 1 to 9 [Shift]-Num [1] to Num [9]
Record Num [*]
Retrospective Record [Shift]-Num [*]
Return to Zero Num [.] or Num [,] or Num [;]
Rewind Num [-]
Set Left Locator [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [1]
Set Marker 1 [Ctrl]/[Command]-[1]
Set Marker 2 [Ctrl]/[Command]-[2]
Set Marker 3 to 9 [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [3] to [9] or
[Ctrl]/[Command]- [3] to [9]
Set Right Locator [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [2]
Start [Enter]
Start/Stop [Space]
Stop Num [0]
To Left Locator Num [1]
To Marker 1 [Shift]-[1]
To Marker 2 [Shift]-[2]
To Marker 3 to 9 Num [3] to [9] or [Shift]-[3] to [9]
To Right Locator Num [2]
Use External Sync [T]

350
Key commands
Index
A Audio clips Importing into Project window 63
ACID® loops 185 About 166 Locating 201
Acoustic Feedback 259 Creating new versions 198 Minimize size 204
Activate Project button 40 Definition 47 Reconstructing missing 201
ADAT Lightpipe 305 Deleting 199 Removing missing 202
Advanced Quantize 91 Locating events 199 Audio hardware
AES/SPDIF Digital Audio 305 Managing in Pool 198 Connections 11
Aftertouch Opening in the Sample Editor 202 Externally clocked 14
Deleting 269 Audio clock Setup application 12
Editing 267 About 305 Audio loops
Recording 84 Audio effects Musical Mode 185
AIFF files 300 About 132 Tempo matching 185
Algorithms Editing 140 Audio parts
Sample Editor 185 For output busses (Master About 29
Time stretching 175 inserts) 135 Creating by gluing events 52
All MIDI Inputs 17 Freezing 136 Creating from events 63
Appearance 339 Inserts 133 Drawing 63
Meters 339 Organizing in subfolders 143 Editing in Audio Part Editor 191
Apple Remote 232 Post-fader inserts 133 Sliding contents 53
Arranger tracks Pre/Post-fader sends 139 Auditioning
Adding 102 Saving 141 Audio Part Editor 192
Creating a chain 103 Selecting presets 140, 153 MIDI editors 259
Flattening 105 Sends 138 Pool 202
Renaming events 102 Tempo sync 133 Project window 48
ASIO Using VST System Link 315 Sample Editor 181
Direct Monitoring 15, 80 Audio events Speaker tool 181
ASIO 2.0 15, 80 Create from regions 184 Using key commands 181, 192
ASIO driver Create parts 63 Auto fades
DirectX Setup 14 Definition 47 Global settings 100
ASIO meter 19 Editing in Sample Editor 177 Track settings 100
ASIO ports Editing selections 182 Auto Quantize 84
Use for data only 313 Fade handles 96 Score Editor 284
Aspect ratio Making selections 182 Auto Save 42
Video Player window 322 Show in Sample Editor 178 Automation
Attributes Slicing 188 Delta indicator 158
Editing in the MediaBay 216 Volume handles 97 Follow events 163
Marker 110 Audio files Opening automation tracks 161
Audio Converting 205 Showing and hiding 161
Record modes 81 Deleting permanently 199 Automation curves
Slicing 188 Exporting 297 Editing 160
Audio buffer size 19 Format for recording 77 Automation events
Audio channels Formats 202 About 157
Copying settings 125 Importing into Pool 202 Editing 160
Mixing down to file 297 Removing 161
Saving settings 126 Selecting 160

352
Index
Automation tracks Close project 40 Cycle markers
Assigning parameters to 162 Color tool About 109
Hiding and showing 163 Project window 340 Drawing 112
Muting 163 Colors Editing with tools 109
Auto-Scroll 37 MIDI editors 259 Resizing 112
Marker window 110 Project window 340 Using 109
MIDI editors 258 Tracks 61 Zooming 109
Project window 37 Conforming Cycle recording
Sample Editor 178 Files 205 Audio 76
Connecting MIDI 84
B Audio 11
Back up Project 42 MIDI 16 D
Backup (.bak) files 42 Constrain Delay Compensation 154 DC Offset
Bank assignments 240 Context menus Removing 169
Beat Calculator 294 Opening 9 Delay compensation
Bit resolution Controller display About 132
Recording 77 About 257 Constraining 154
Bounce (Export Audio) 297 About lanes 265 Delete
Bounce Selection Controller lane presets 267 Audio files from disk 199
Pool 203 Editing events 267 Continuous Controllers 249
Project window 54 Editing velocity 270 Controllers 249
Sample Editor 183 Selecting event type 266 Doubles 249
Brightness 339 Controller lanes Events in Project window 54
Broadcast Wave files Adding 266 MIDI controllers 249, 269
Exporting 300 Removing 266 MIDI drum notes 275
Recording 77 Controllers MIDI notes 263
Busses Deleting 269 Notes 249
About 22 Editing 267 Delete Overlaps
Adding 23 Recording 84 Mono (MIDI) 250
Mixing down to file 297 Count-in 87 Poly (MIDI) 250
Bypass CPR files 40 Device ports
Effect sends 139 Crop 56 Selecting for busses 23
Inserts 134 Crossfades Setting up 22
Creating 98 Disk meter 19
C Editing in dialog 99 Display Quantize 284
Channel Overview Equal Gain 99 Display Transpose
Insert effects 134 Equal Power 99 About 285
Channel Settings windows Presets 99 Dithering 135
Customizing 336 Removing 99 Drawing
Channels CSH files 42 In Sample Editor 182
MIDI 82 Cut Time 56 MIDI controllers 267
Chase events 72 Cycle MIDI notes 260
Cleanup 43, 329 About 70 MIDI parts 63
Clefs Drum Editor
Setting up 285 Creating and editing notes 274
Click button 87 Muting drum sounds 275
Clips, see “Audio clips” Selecting drum maps 277
Clock sources 305

353
Index
Drum maps Sliding contents 53 Frame rates
About 276 Splitting 51 Mismatch 319
Making settings 276 Export Audio Mixdown 297 Synchronization 305
MIDI channel and output 277 Export audio mixdown 297 Video 319
Selecting 277 Audio engine settings 298 Freeze
Setup dialog 278 Channel Selection 298 Edits 171
Drum name lists 279 File Naming 298 MIDI Quantize 92
Drumstick tool 274 In realtime 299 Tracks 136
Duplicate Exporting VST instruments 150
Events and parts 50 Markers 113 FX channel tracks
MIDI notes 262 MIDI files 332 About 136
Extracting Adding effects for 137
E Audio from Video 322 Mixing down to file 297
Edit button Audio from video 331 Routing sends to 138
Audio channel strips 122 MIDI Automation 251 Setting up 137
Audio track Inspector 30
MIDI channel strips 129 F G
MIDI track Inspector 234 Fade handles 96 Gain 167
Edits folder 166 Fade In/Out functions 97 Generic Remote Device 230
Enharmonic Shift 288 Fades Glue tool
Envelope Auto fades 100 MIDI editors 263
Process 167 Creating 96 Project window 52
EQ Editing in dialog 97 Score Editor 288
Bypassing 124 Presets 98 Groove quantizing 92
Making settings 123 Processing 97 Group channels 128
Presets 125 Removing 97 About 28
Equal Gain With Range Selection tool 96 Using effects 135
Crossfades 99 Fill Loop 51
Equal Power Filtering H
Crossfades 99 MIDI messages 86 Hard disk
Erase tool FireWire DV Output 318 Considerations 18
Project window 54 Fixed Lengths 249 Hardware setup
Events Fixed Tempo 291 Control panel (Mac) 13
Audio 47 Fixed Velocity 250 Control panel (Win) 13
Creating from hitpoints 189 Flip Hitpoints
Duplicating 50 Stems 288 About 186
Moving 50 Folder parts 65 And tempo settings 188
Muting 54 Folder tracks Beats pop-up menu 187
Overlapping in Project window 50 Creating 64 Create events 189
Removing 54 Hiding/showing data 65 Create markers 189
Renaming 51 Moving tracks into 65 Create regions 184, 189
Resizing 52 Muting and soloing 65 Detecting 186
Resizing with time stretch 53 Working with 64 Filtering 186
Selecting 49 Frame count 304 Slicing audio 188
Selecting automatically with
project cusor 49

354
Index
I MIDI tracks 234 Loop
Importing Subpanels 237 Audio Part Editor 193
Audio CDs 203 Instrument Freeze 150 MIDI editors 258
Audio from video file 331 Intensity (Appearance) 339
M
Markers 113 J Mac OS X
Media files in Pool 202
Jog wheel 71 Port activation 23
MIDI files 332
Port selection 23
MPEG files 332 K Magnetic Cursor (Snap mode) 37
Ogg Vorbis files 332
Key (Score Editor) Magnifying Glass tool 45
REX files 331
Setting up 285 Main Mix
Video files 318
Key commands Setting up 24
WMA files 332
About 344 Marker list
Independent track loop
Conventions 9 Navigating 110
Audio Part Editor 193
Default 347 Marker tracks
MIDI editors 258
Importing 346 About 111
Info line
Loading 346 Adding 112
Customizing 336
Markers 113 Editing markers 112
Drum Editor 273
Modifying 344 Marker window
Key Editor 256
Quantize 91 About 109
Pool 196
Removing 345 Editing attributes 110
Project window 33
Resetting 346 Filtering markers 110
Sample Editor 179
Searching for 345 Reordering columns 111
Score Editor (basic) 282
Markers
I-Notes 276 L About 32, 109
Input busses Lanes Adding in Marker window 110
About 22 Audio Part Editor 192 Attributes 110, 111
Adding 23 Latency 18 Creating from hitpoints 189
Input levels 12, 78 Monitoring 79 Editing on marker track 112
Input ports 14 VST System Link 310 Exporting 113
Input selection Legato 248 Importing 113
Multiple MIDI channels 82 Length Key commands 113
Inputs Compression 236 Making range selections 112
Audio 22 Quantize 260 Marker IDs 111
MIDI 82 Level faders 118 Snapping to 36
Insert Silence Level meters MediaBay
Project window 56 Settings 126 About 207
Sample Editor 183 Level scale Attribute filtering 215
Inserts Half-level axis 180 Defining locations 209, 210
Audio 133 Sample Editor 180 Editing attributes 216
Bypassing vs. deactivating 134 Line mode Filtering 215
Inspector Automation 159 Key commands 218
Audio tracks 31 MIDI controllers 268 Preferences 217
Customizing 336 MIDI velocity 270 Previewing 213
Folder tracks 31 Locators Scanning operations 209
General controls 30 Setting 70 Selecting locations 210
Handling 29 Lock Record 88

355
Index
 Showing/Hiding sections 208 MIDI notes Link/Unlink channels 130
Viewing results 211 Deleting 263 MIDI channels 129
Volume databases 220 Drawing 260 Opening 115
VST Sound node 209 Editing velocity 270 Output channels 116
Memory 18 Insert velocity 260 Panning 121
Merge Clipboard (function) 168 Moving 262 Saving settings 126
Merge MIDI in Loop 246 Muting 263 Solo and Mute 119
Meters 126 Muting in Drum Editor 275 Volume 118
Coloring of 339 Resizing 263 Mixing down to audio file 297
Settings 126 Selecting 261 Modifier keys 9, 347
Metronome Splitting and gluing 263 Monitor button
Activating 87 Transpose (function) 245 Audio tracks 79
Precount 87 Transposing (in editor) 262 MIDI tracks 82
Settings 87 MIDI outputs Monitoring
MIDI In drum maps 277 About 15
Channel settings 83, 129 Renaming 82 Modes 79
Cycle recording 84 Selecting for tracks 83 MP3 files
Dissolve parts 247 MIDI parts Exporting 301
Local On/Off 16 About 29 Importing 332
Record modes 83 Drawing 63 MPEG files 332
MIDI channel Editing 253 Multi processing 19
In drum maps 277 Showing borders 254 Musical Mode
Selecting for tracks 83 Sliding contents 53 About 185
MIDI clock MIDI ports Adjusting audio loops 185
Destinations 307 Setting up 17 Pool 185
Synchronization 306 MIDI reset 85 Mute
MIDI devices MIDI Thru Events in Project window 54
Defining new for patch Activating 82 MIDI notes 263
selection 240 Preference 16 Mixer 119
Device Manager 239 MIDI timecode Pre-Send 139
Editing patches 241 Destinations 307 Tool 54
Installing 240 MIDI tracks Tracks 54
Selecting patches 241 Channel Settings window 129
MIDI editors MIDI Modifiers 235 N
Default editor 253 Settings 234 Noise Gate 168
MIDI Input function 264 Missing files Normalize
MIDI files 332 Removing 202 Audio effect 169
MIDI filter 86 Missing Ports dialog 40 Notes
MIDI Input function Mixer Editing via MIDI 264
MIDI editors 264 Audio channels 121 Nudge buttons 71
MIDI inputs Channel strip width 118 MIDI editors 262
Renaming 82 Channel types 115, 117 Project window 50
Selecting for tracks 82 Channel view sets 117 Numeric keypad 68
MIDI interface Common panel 116
Connecting 16 Initialize channels 125
MIDI Modifiers 235

356
Index
O Pitchbend Project Assistant dialog 39
Ogg Vorbis files Deleting 269 Project cursor
Exporting 301 Editing 267 Moving 69
Importing 332 Recording 84 Selecting events with 49
O-Notes 276 Play tool Snapping to 37
Opening projects 40 Project window 48 Project overview line 34
Output busses Plug and Play Project scrubbing 71
About 22 ASIO devices 12 Project Setup (dialog) 44
Adding 23 Plug-in delay compensation 132 Projects
Default 24 Plug-in Information window Activating 40
Mixer 116 VST plug-ins 143 Archiving 42
Mixing down to file 297 Plug-ins Auto Save (command) 42
Output ports 14 Getting info 143 Backup 42
Output selection Installing VST 2.x 142 Creating 39
Multiple MIDI channels 83 Organizing 143 Opening 40
Outputs RAM limitation 18, 132 Reverting to last version 41
Audio 22 Poly Pressure events 271 Save as Template (command) 41
MIDI 82 Polyphony Saving 40
Overlapping events Restricting 250 Template 41
Project window 50 Pool Punch In 75, 76
About 196 Punch Out 76
P Auditioning 202
Converting files 205 Q
Panning
Stereo Pan Law 122 Duplicating clips 198 Quantize
Parabola mode Handling audio clips 198 Automatic during recording 84
Automation 159 Import media files 202 Quantize Panel
MIDI controllers 268 Locating missing files 201 About 92
MIDI velocity 270 Record folder 203 Common settings 92
Parts Search functions 200 Quantizing to a grid 93
Dissolving (MIDI) 247 Position markers Quantizing to a groove 94
Editing the active part only 254 About 109 Quantizing
Parts/events in selection range 56 Post-roll 86 About 90
Paste Pre/Post-Crossfade 167 Audio event starts 91
Events at origin 51 Precount 87 Auto Apply 93
Paste Time Pre-fader sends 139 Catch Range 94
MIDI editing 263 Preferences Freeze 92
Selection ranges 56 About 58 Key commands 91
Patch Banks 240 Presets 58 MIDI event ends 91
Peak Hold Time (option) 126 Transferring 342 MIDI event lengths 91
Pedals Pre-roll 86 MIDI event starts 91
To note length 250 Previewing Non-Quantize 92
Pencil tool 63 Track presets 223, 224 Original position 94
MIDI parts 63 Printing Pre-Quantize 94
Phase Reverse 169 Scores 289 Quantize presets 92
Pitch shifting Processing Randomize 93
Algorithms 175 About 166 Reset Quantize 91, 93
Settings and functions 166 Setting on toolbar 90

357
Index
 Swing 93 Reset Scissors tool
Tuplets 94 MIDI 85 MIDI editors 263
Using groove presets 92 Mixer 125 Project window 51
Quick Zoom 46 Quantize 91, 93 Score Editor 288
Retrospective Record 85 Score
R Reverse (audio processing) 169 Displaying 283
RAM 18 Reverse (MIDI function) 251 Split staves 284
Range Selection tool 55 ReWire Staff modes 284
Creating fades 96 About 325 Scrubbing
Realtime export 297 Activating 326 Events in Project window 48
Reconstruct 201 Channels 327 Events in Sample Editor 181
Record file type 77 Routing MIDI 327 Project 71
Record folder REX files 331 Select tool
Selecting 78 Routing Show Extra Info 29
Record format 77 Effect sends 138 Selecting
Record modes Group channels 128 Events in Project window 49
Audio 81 Ruler MIDI notes 261
MIDI 83 About 34 Send effects (Audio) 136
Record Time Max display 88 Additional time scales 35 Sends
Record-enabling 75 Ruler tracks 35 Disabling 139
Recording Sample Editor 179 Shared copies 51
Levels 12 Show All Used Automation 157
RAM limitation 18 S Signal levels 78
Start at left locator 76 Sample Editor Silence 170
Recovering recordings 81 Audio clip information 179 Sine mode
ReCycle files 331 Audition 181 Automation 160
Regions Auditioning 181 MIDI editing 268
About 183 Auto-Scroll 178 Slices
Auditioning 184 Info line 179 About 186
Create from hitpoints 184, 189 Inspector 179 Creating 188
Creating 183 Musical Mode 185 Snap
Creating from events 57 Opening 177 MIDI editors 259
Creating with Detect Silence 173 Overview line 179 Project window 35
Editing 184 Regions 183 Sample Editor 178
Exporting as audio files 184 Ruler 179 Zero crossings 37
Removing 183 Show Audio Event (button) 178 Zero crossings (Sample
Remote control Snap function 178 Editor) 178
Key commands 229 Tempo matching audio 185 Snap point
Setting up 228 Toolbar 177 Setting for clips in Pool 202
Writing automation 229 Zooming 180 Setting in Project window 35
Repeat Sample rate 45 Setting in Sample Editor 181
Events and parts 51 Externally clocked 14 Snap to Zero Crossing
Loop 248 Saving Audio Part Editor 194
MIDI notes 262 Project as new version 41 Snap types 36
Projects 40

358
Index
Solo Synchronization Toolbar
Audio Part Editor 192 About 304 Audio Part Editor 191
Folder tracks 65 Operation (Sync mode) 308 Customizing 336
MIDI editors 258 Recording in Sync mode 76 Drum Editor 273
Mixer 119 Setting up 306 Key Editor 255
Tracks 54 Speed references 305 Pool 196
Solo Defeat 120 Timecode 304 Project window 32
Speaker icon Timecode preferences 307 Sample Editor 177
MIDI editors 259 Timecode source 306 Score Editor 282
Speaker tool System Exclusive Track controls
Audio Part Editor 192 About 279 Customizing 337
Project window 48 Bulk Dumps 279 Track list
Sample Editor 181 Editing 280 About 29
Spectrum Analyzer 173 Recording parameter Customizing 337
Splitting changes 280 Dividing 66
Events 51 Track presets
Range 56 T Previewing 223, 224
Square mode Tap Tempo 294 Removing 223
Automation 160 Templates 41 Track types 28
MIDI editing 268 Default 41 Tracks
Staff settings Tempo Adding 61
Score display 283 About 291 Adding events 63
Startup options 43 Calculating 294 Audio channel configuration 77
Static value line (automation) 157 Editing 292 Coloring 61
Statistics 175 Matching audio to tempo 185 Disabling 64
Status line Setting in Fixed mode 293 Disabling/Enabling 71
Drum Editor 273 Tapping 294 Duplicating 64
Key Editor 256 Write definition to files 294 Freezing 136
Project window 33 Thumbnails Moving 64
Score Editor (basic) 282 About 319 Naming 61
Staves Thumbnail cache files 320 Record-enabling 75
Active staff 283 Time display 69 Removing 61
Split staves 284 Time formats 34 Selecting 64
Step Input 265 Time signatures Soloing 54
Stereo Flip 170 About 291 Transferring
Stereo Pan Law 122 Editing 293 Projects and settings 342
Strip Silence 173 Time stretch (function) 170 Transport menu
Studio Connections 243 Time stretching Functions 68
Studio Manager 243 Algorithms 175 Playback options 72
Suspend Auto-Scroll 37 Timecode Transport panel
Swing Standards 304 Customizing 336
Quantizing 93 Synchronization 304 Display format 69
Tool modifier keys 347 Hiding and showing 68
Key commands 68
Overview 68

359
Index
Transpose Virtual Keyboard W
Info line 34 About 73 Wave 64 files 300
MIDI function 245 Computer keyboard display 73 Wave files 300
MIDI Modifier 235 Description 73 Waveform display
Triangle mode Modulation 73 Sample Editor 180
Automation 160 Note velocity level 73 Waveform zooming 46
MIDI editing 268 Octave Offset 73 Windows Media Audio files
Trim buttons 53 Piano keyboard display 73 Exporting 301
Trim tool 258 Pitchbend 73 Importing 301, 332
Tuplets Volume handle 97 Surround format (Pro) 301
Quantizing 94 VST Word clock
Input ports 14 About 305
U Output ports 14 Wrap Controls (track list) 62
Undo VST 3
Recording 80 Suspend plug-in Z
Unlock Record 88 processing 132, 151 Zero crossings
Update Origin 197 VST Audio System 13 Snap function 178
VST Channel Settings 122 Zooming
V VST Connections 22 About 45
Velocity About 22 History 46
Editing 270 Editing 25 Horizontal only 45
Editing via MIDI 265 Presets 24 Presets 46
Info line 34 VST instruments Sample Editor 180
MIDI function 250 Activating 147 To cycle markers 109
Velocity compression 235 Browsing for sounds 152 Undo/Redo 46
Velocity shift 235 Channels 147 Waveforms 46
Video Freezing 150
Codecs 317 Presets 151
Device Setup 320 Saving presets 153
Editing 322 Setting up 146
Extracting audio from 322 Using VST System Link 314
Formats 317 VST Performance window 19
Frame numbers 319 VST plug-ins
Importing 318 Getting info 143
Muting 319 Installing 142
Output devices 317 VST presets
Playback 320 Removing 223
Replacing audio 323 VST System Link
Scrubbing 322 About 308
Thumbnails 319 Activating 311
Video Player window 321 Connections 309
Aspect ratio 322 Latency 310
Setting the video quality 321 MIDI 312
Setting the window size 321 Putting computers online 312
Requirements 308
Setting up sync 309
Settings 310

360
Index