Steinberg Cubase 4 Getting Started Manual

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Setting up your system
Optimizing audio performance
This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get 
the most out of your Cubase system, performance-wise. 
Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be 
used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is 
very brief. Look for details and current information on the 
Cubase web site (see “How you can reach us” on page 7)!
Two aspects of performance
There are two distinct aspects of performance in respect 
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.
Short response times (latency)
Another aspect of performance is response time. The term 
“latency” refers to the “buffering”, i. e. the temporary stor-
ing, of small chunks of audio data during various steps of 
the recording and playback process on a computer. The 
more and larger those chunks, the higher the latency.
High latency is most irritating when playing VST Instru-
ments and when monitoring through the computer, i. e. 
when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase mixer 
and effects. However, very long latency times (several 
hundred milliseconds) can also affect other processes like 
mixing, e. g. when the effect of a fader movement is heard 
only after a noticeable delay.
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the 
problems associated with very long latency times, a sys-
tem that responds fast will always be more convenient to 
work with.
Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible 
to “trim” your latency times, usually by lowering the size 
and the number of buffers.
For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are us-
ing a DirectX driver under Windows, the dialog help.
System factors that affect performance
CPU and processor cache
It goes without saying that the faster the computer pro-
cessor, the better. But there are a number of factors that 
affect the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed 
and type (PCI is strongly recommended), the processor 
cache size and of course, the processor type and brand. 
Cubase relies heavily on floating point calculations. When 
shopping for a processor, please make sure you get one 
that is powerful in calculating floating point arithmetics.
Note also that Cubase features full support for multi-pro-
cessor systems. So, if you own a computer system with 
more than one processor, Cubase can take advantage of 
the total capacity and evenly distribute the processing load 
to all available processors. See “The advanced options” on 
page 22.
Hard disk and controller
The number of hard disk tracks you can record and play 
back at the same time also depends on the speed of your 
hard disk and hard disk controller. If you use E-IDE disks 
and controllers, make sure that the transfer mode is DMA 
Busmaster. Under Windows, you can check the current 
mode by launching the Windows Device Manager and 
looking for properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller’s 
primary and secondary channel. DMA transfer mode is en-
abled by default, but may be turned off by the system 
should hardware problems occur.
Audio hardware and driver
The hardware and its driver can have some effect on re-
gular performance. A badly written driver can reduce the 
performance of your computer. But where the hardware 
driver design makes the most difference is with latency.
This is especially true when using Cubase for Windows:
Under Windows, ASIO drivers written specifically for 
the hardware are more efficient than a DirectX driver and 
produce shorter latency times.
!Again, we strongly recommend that you use audio 
hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver! 
						

							22
Setting up your system
Under Mac OS X, audio hardware with properly written 
Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers can be very efficient and 
produce very low latency times.
However, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO 
drivers, such as the ASIO Positioning Protocol.
Making settings that affect performance
Choosing a driver for your audio hardware
As described in the section “Selecting a driver and making 
audio settings in Cubase” on page 16, it is recommended 
to install and use a standard ASIO driver if available for your 
specific hardware. Check the manufacturer’s web site for 
the latest drivers, etc.
Making audio buffer settings
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio 
hardware. The size of the audio buffers affects both the la-
tency and the audio performance. Generally, the smaller the 
buffer size, the lower the latency. On the other hand, work-
ing 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-
ware.
Under Windows, you adjust the buffer size settings in 
the control panel for the audio hardware (opened by click-
ing the Control Panel button on the driver page in the De-
vice Setup dialog).
The advanced options
On the VST Audio System page you will find the “Advanced 
options” section. Here you find advanced settings for the 
VST Engine, including a Multi Processing option. When this 
is activated (default setting if you have a hyper-threading or 
multiple-CPU system) and there is more than one CPU in 
your system, the processing load is distributed evenly to all 
available CPUs, allowing Cubase to make full use of the 
combined power of the multiple processors. See the dialog 
help for details.
Activating the “Lower Latency” option will basically disable 
the CPU overload protection, but allow for lower latencies. 
See the dialog help for details.
Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows 
only)
To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO un-
der Windows XP (on a single-CPU system), the “system 
performance” has to be optimized for background tasks:
1.Open the Windows Control Panel from the Start menu 
and select System.
2.Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button 
in the Performance section.
The Performance Options dialog appears.
3.Select the Advanced tab.
4.In the Processor Scheduling section, select “Adjust 
for best performance of: Background services”.
5.Click OK to close the dialogs. 
						

							4
Tutorial 1: Recording audio 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
Creating a new project
In this section we are going to explain how to create a new 
project, save a project and open a saved project.
When you first open Cubase an empty screen appears 
before you. You need to either create a new project or 
open an existing one.
To create a new project
1.Let’s create a new project by selecting “New Project” 
from the “File” Menu.
2.The Templates dialog box will open up. 
Templates are discussed in the “File Handling” section of the Operation 
Manual. 
3.Choose “Empty”. 
This will create a new project with nothing in it.
4.Click “OK”.
5.Cubase now wants to create a folder on the hard drive 
so that your Cubase project file and all of its related files 
are stored in one safe place.
It is important that every project gets stored in its own folder. Having many 
different projects stored in the same folder only leads to confusion later on.
6.Navigate to where you would like this project to be 
created.
NOTE: You are not saving the project at this point! You are creating a 
folder on the hard drive that your project will get saved into later. This will 
be explained very shortly.
7.Click “Create” on the PC or “New Folder” on the Mac 
to create a new folder for your project. 8.Give your new folder a name.
If your are going to name your project “My First Project” then you could 
call this folder “My First Project” or “First Project”. What’s important here 
is that you are creating a folder on the hard drive to store your project 
into it. This folder should have a unique name that is different than any 
other Cubase project you have created before.
9.Click “OK” on the PC or “Create” on the Mac.
Your project folder is now created on the hard drive!
10.Now click “OK” on the PC or “Choose” on the Mac.
11.You should be looking at your very first project in Cu-
base now, Congratulations!
If you look at the top of the window in Cubase (called the Project window) 
you’ll see the name of this project is “Untitled1”. Proceed further to learn 
how to save your first project.
!You’re not done yet! 
So far we’ve created a blank Cubase project. We 
have a folder sitting on the hard drive but we haven’t 
saved the actual Cubase project yet.
The name of the project 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
To save a project
1.Select “Save As…” from the File menu.
The difference between Save and Save As are discussed in the chapter 
“File Handling” in the Operation Manual.
2.You will notice that Cubase is in the “My First Project” 
folder that you created earlier. This is where you want to 
save your project. Type in a name for your Project – you 
can use “My First Cubase Project” for example.
3.Click “Save” – and that’s it!
To close a project
1.Make sure the Project window is selected.
The Project window is the main window that you work in. See the chap-
ter “The Project window” in the Operation Manual.
2.Select “Close” from the “File” Menu.
If you have made any changes to the project since you last saved it, you 
will be prompted to “Save”, “Don’t Save” or “Cancel”. Click “Save” if you 
want your changes saved.
To open a project
Now that we have saved and closed your project, let’s 
show you how to open it.
Open a project using the “Open” command
1.Select “Open” from the “File” Menu.
Here you can navigate to the folder that has the project you wish to open.
2.Once you have found the project click “Open” and the 
project will load.
Open a project using the “Recent Projects” submenu
Cubase remembers recently open projects and lists them 
in the “Recent Projects” submenu under the “File” menu.
1.Select “Recent Projects” from the “File” Menu.
2.Choose the project you wish to open by clicking once 
on it.
Setting up the VST Connections
The VST Connections window allows you to set up the in-
put and output signals of Cubase to your audio card. Cu-
base calls these “busses”. This section will show you how 
to set the busses up so that you can get playback and re-
cording working.
Make sure you read the chapters “System requirements 
and installation” on page 8 and “Setting up your system” 
on page 13, so that your audio hardware is properly setup 
before proceeding.
ÖNote that the Tutorial projects are not installed by de-
fault during the installation of Cubase. You will find the Tu-
torial Projects on the program DVD, in the folder “Additional 
Content”. 
Adding outputs
1.Open the “Devices” menu and choose “VST Connec-
tions”.
The default key command for this is [F4].
You’ll see several tabs at the top of the window. We’re 
only going to cover Input and Output right now. See the 
chapter “VST Connections” in the Operation Manual for 
more details.
2.Let’s choose “Output” first. We want to start from 
scratch and remove anything that is currently there, just in 
case it’s set up incorrectly. If you see anything in the “Bus 
Name” column, right-click with the mouse and choose 
“Remove Bus”.
!Load the project called “VST Connections” found in 
the “Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
3.Now click the “Add Bus” button. Choose “Stereo” for 
configuration and “1” for count and click OK.
This has now added a new stereo bus (Left and Right) allowing us to 
have audio in Cubase route to our audio hardware.
4.Since we mainly listen to our music as a stereo mix, all 
we need is a stereo output. 
We can listen to our music with more than 2 channels. If we for example 
had a surround sound setup. 
5.Depending on your audio hardware, your outputs 
should be setup now. You can however select the outputs 
of your choice from the “Device Port” pull down menu.
Normally you’ll want to choose “Out 1” and “Out 2” or “Left 1” and “Right 
2” as these are the main stereo outputs of your audio card. More sophisti-
cated setups may require you to choose different outputs and even add 
more busses.
Adding Inputs
Now let’s open the “Input” tab and set up the inputs we 
are going to use for recording into Cubase.
1.Do the same as mentioned above for the outputs. 
Right-click and select “Remove Bus”.
2.Click the “Add Bus” button. Choose “Stereo” for con-
figuration and “1” for count and click “OK”.
This has now added a new stereo bus (Left and Right) allowing us to 
have audio from our audio card’s input route to Cubase for recording.
Having a stereo input is useful for recording audio with 
two channels. An example of this is recording a keyboard 
with a left and right audio channel. If we wanted to record 
in mono or with one channel we can make separate bus-
ses. Let’s do this now.
1.Click the “Add Bus” button. Choose “Mono” for con-
figuration and “2” for count and click “OK”.
This has now added two new mono busses allowing us to have audio 
from our audio card’s input route to Cubase for recording.
2.Next, click in the “Device Port” column to select the 
audio inputs of your audio card for the stereo and mono 
inputs.
In our case we have the MI4 interface so we are selecting “MI4 Channel 
A” and “MI4 Channel B” for our inputs.
That’s it! You should now be ready to record audio in Cu-
base and then play it back.
Level settings and recording
For this section, we are going to record a bass guitar in 
mono from the input “Mono In”. Make sure you have your 
audio card set up and you have read through the section 
“Setting up the VST Connections” on page 25.
Adding a mono track
1.Now let’s add an audio track to record to. Open the 
Project menu and choose “Audio” from the “Add Track” 
submenu.
2.Choose “Mono” for Configuration and “1” for Count. 
Click “OK”.
This adds a mono audio track to our Project window.
!Load the project called “Recording” found in the 
“Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
3.Click on the new track you’ve created and make sure 
the Inspector is shown.
The Inspector allows us to see and manipulate a lot of information for the 
selected track.
4.Make sure that “Mono In” is selected for the audio 
track’s input and that “Stereo Out” is selected for the au-
dio tracks output.
You may have different inputs and outputs based on your audio hardware. 
See the chapter “VST Connections” in the Operation Manual for more de-
tailed information. By setting “Mono In”, we will be able to record the audio 
from the left input of our audio card into a track in Cubase. Setting the out-
put to “Stereo Out” allows us to hear what we are recording.
Turning on the metronome click
We’ll want to have a click or metronome play in the back-
ground as we record the bass guitar so that what we 
record aligns with the bars and beats in Cubase.
1.Activate the “Metronome/Click” button on the Trans-
port panel.
2.If you would like a two bar count in before you record, 
also activate the “Precount/Click” button.
3.We now need to set the speed or the tempo of our 
project. This will directly affect how fast the click plays. 
You can set the tempo just below the click.
In this picture, we have a setting of 125, which means 125 bpm (beats 
per minute).
Setting levels
We have a bass guitar playing through an amplifier with a 
microphone in front of the amplifier’s speaker. This micro-
phone is plugged directly into the Steinberg MI|4 micro-
phone input. We have set the level on the MI|4 so that we 
have enough volume without clipping.
1.Clicking the Monitor button will allow us to hear the 
bass guitar.
You should see and hear the audio coming in to the right of the track.
The Inspector Click to open the Inspector
Audio coming into this track 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
2.Now click the “Record Enable” button on the track.
Setting the track to Record Enable lets Cubase know that you want to 
record on this track and no other one. You can have many tracks Record 
Enabled at a time.
3.In the Inspector, open the “Channel” tab.
This will display the channel fader for the selected track.
Do the best you can to send the maximum amount of 
volume to the audio inputs of your audio card before you 
hear any distortion. Most audio cards show some kind of 
level or volume indication. If yours doesn’t, don’t worry, we 
can change the amount here.
4.Move the fader up or down so that the volume is loud 
enough without going into the red on the channel meter. If 
you go into the red you may cause clipping or distortion. 
You will see a line near the top of the channel meter – 
make sure the level does not go over this line!Once the level is set, you are ready to record!
Recording bass guitar
1.Position the cursor at the beginning of the project. 
This will make sure we start recording on bar 1.
2.Click the Record button to record the bass guitar.
Since the “Precount/Click” button is activated, we’ll hear two bars of 
click before recording begins.
3.Click “Stop” when you are finished.
4.Turn off the Monitor and Record Enable buttons on the 
track so that we don’t hear the input or record on the track 
any more.
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first piece of 
audio in Cubase. Move ahead to the next section to learn 
how to play back audio.
Click here to display 
the channel fader.
Do not allow the audio 
level to go past this line!
This is the safe area 
for recording 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
Playback
We are going to learn how to play back audio in Cubase. 
You might think this is very simple – just hit “Play”. It is ac-
tually this simple but there are a few tricks to learn so that 
you’ll be playing back what you want with precision.
To start playback
There are a few ways you can play back in Cubase.
Click the “Start” button on the Transport panel.
Press the space bar on your computer keyboard.
This toggles between start and stop.
Press the [Enter] key of the numerical computer keypad.
Double-click in the lower half of the ruler.Select the audio event called “Audio 01_01” and 
choose “Loop Selection” from the Transport menu.
To stop playback
Click the “Stop” button on the Transport panel.
Clicking the “Stop” button twice moves the cursor to 
the position in the project where you started playback.
Press the space bar on your computer keyboard. 
This toggles between stop and start.
Press the “0” key of the numerical computer keypad.
Cycle playback
Cubase has the ability to loop or cycle a section of your 
project. To set the cycle location you need to use the left 
and right locator.
1.On the Transport panel, set the left locator to “1” and 
the right locator to “5”.
This tells Cubase that we want to loop or cycle between bars 1 and 5. 
Meaning we will have a 4 bar loop since the end of bar 4 is the beginning 
of bar 5.
2.Make sure that the “Cycle” button is activated.
3.Click the Start button on the Transport panel and Cu-
base will play looping over and over until you click “Stop”.
!Load the project called “Playback” found in the 
“Tutorial 1” folder.
Double-click in 
the lower half of 
the ruler…
… to start 
playback
!The default key command for this is [Shift]+[G]. This 
is the quickest way to loop an audio event and start 
playback!
!Don’t forget – you can set the locators to encom-
pass the selected event, turn on “Cycle” and begin 
playback all by the key command [Shift]+[G].
The left locator set to “1”.
The right locator set to “5”. Cycle activated. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording audio
Recording modes with cycle off
There are three different modes for recording when the 
cycle is turned off. This is called linear recording. The 
three modes are:
Normal
Merge
Replace
When recording audio, “Normal” and “Merge” are the 
same. Selecting either of these will allow you to record 
over the top of another audio event and it will appear as an 
overlap. You can then select between the overlapping 
events and determine which one will play. This is dis-
cussed in the section “Cycle recording” on page 30.
“Replace” mode when used will not overlap the audio if 
there is already some on the track. It will split or cut the 
audio where the recording takes place replacing what was 
there previously. Keep in mind though that the audio being 
replaced is not permanently deleted. It is only cut or 
trimmed away allowing you to recover it later.
Cycle recording
You can record audio while “cycle” is on.
So far we’ve shown you how to add tracks, record and 
playback. Now we are going to add an electric guitar to 
our bass guitar using cycle recording. Recording with cy-
cle on allows us to make multiple passes of our recording 
and then pick the best take.
If you haven’t reviewed the previous sections in this tuto-
rial, please do as we are going to move a little faster now.
Recording electric guitar
1.Let’s add another “Mono” audio track.
2.You can see now that we have a track called “Audio 
01” and “Audio 02”. Up to now we haven’t been con-
cerned about naming the tracks but let’s do this now.
3.Double-click on “Audio 01” and re-name it “Bass”.
4.Double-click on “Audio 02” and re-name it “Elec Gui-
tar”. That looks a lot better now. 
It’s always good to name your tracks before you start to 
record. This way the audio event will take the name of the 
track. Since “Audio 01” was the name of our first track the 
audio event is named “Audio 01_01”. The suffix “_01” be-
ing the first event recorded on the “Audio 01” track. We’ll 
show you how to re-name your audio files in the chapter 
“Tutorial 2: Editing audio” on page 33.
!Load the project called “Cycle Recording” found in 
the “Tutorial 1” folder.