Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual
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161 Control Room (Cubase only) 5.Click OK and the level change will be performed. It is possible to view these changes as they occur if you have the Project Mixer open and the extended view set to show the Studio Sends. Using Studio Sends from outputs Each output also has Studio Sends. Studio Sends from the Main Mix output can be used to route the main mix in- stantly to the Studio output. Any level changes made to the main mix will be reflected in the signal sent by the Studio Send. Setting the level lower than 0dB can leave headroom for “more me” signals in the Studio channel output. Post-Fader Studio Sends It is also possible to use the Studio Sends as post-fader aux sends. This is another way for the cue mix to follow changes made to the Main Mix. The Reset function is very helpful in this regard. To reset the Studio Sends to the post-fader default level of -6dB, proceed as follows: 1.Select all the channels you wish to reset. Studio Send commands only work on selected channels. 2.In the Studio Channel mixer strip right-click to open the context menu. In the Studio submenu, select the “Re- set Studio Sends” command. If you open the context menu in other areas of the Control Room Mixer besides the Studio mixer strips, the context menu commands will affect all Studios at the same time. 3.Selecting the “Reset Studio Sends” option changes the Send level of all selected channels to -6dB and sets the signal source to post-fader. The -6dB level is designed to allow for headroom for “more me” signals in the Studio outputs. Once all Studio Sends have been set to -6dB, post-fader, any changes to the main mix will also change the Studio mix. For “more me” channels, simply turn up the level on that channel or even set the signal to pre-fader for abso- lute control. Studio Send cue mix summary Using various combinations of the above techniques should allow you to create complex discrete cue mixes for performers in very little time. Modifications to these mixes can occur in the Project Mixer or the Inspector, giving you the most accessibility for quick changes. To familiarize yourself with how the Studio Sends work, open the extended Project Mixer and set the view to the Studio Sends. Follow the above examples and watch how the Studio Sends react to various commands. This should help you get a feel for how they function and increase the workflow productivity of recording sessions. Direct Monitoring and latency The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the in- ternal processing power of the host computer system for all routing and processing, which means they are subject to the computer’s latency. When recording with several performers at once, a system capable of running at very low ASIO buffer settings will be necessary to take full advantage of all the Studio Send features. Studio Sends are not capable of controlling the Direct Monitoring features of various audio hardware interfaces. This means that unless the internal latency of the system is very low (128 samples or less), monitoring of record-en- abled tracks through the Studio Sends will have some de- lay that could affect performers during recording. In the situation where internal latency is too much for record monitoring, it is advisable to use the Studio Sends for monitoring of tracks that have already been recorded and use normal Direct Monitoring for tracks currently be- ing recorded. !If you deactivate the “Relative Mode” option, all Stu- dio Sends will be set to the same absolute level. While the dialog window is still open, you may check the “Relative Mode” box again and reload the previ- ous relative levels. Only when you click OK, will the level settings be made permanent. Choosing Cancel returns all Send levels to their previous settings.
163 Audio effects About this chapter Cubase comes with a number of effect plug-ins included. This chapter contains general details about how to assign, use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their pa- rameters are described in the separate manual “Plug-in Reference”. Overview There are three ways to use audio effects in Cubase: As insert effects. An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes inserts suitable for effects for which you don’t need to mix dry and wet sound, e.g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy- namic characteristics of the sound. You can have up to eight different in- sert effects per channel (and the same is true for input and output busses – for recording with effects and “master effects”, respectively). As send effects. Each audio channel has eight effect sends, each of which can be freely routed to an effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for two reasons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and wet (processed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, and several different audio channels can use the same send effect. In Cubase, send effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks. By using offline processing (Cubase only). You can apply effects directly to individual audio events – this is de- scribed in the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 216. About VST 3 The new VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improve- ments over the previous VST 2 standard, yet retains full backwards compatibility, i.e. you will still be able to use your previous VST effects and presets. Cubase is able to run plug-ins originally developed for dif- ferent platforms: you can use a 32-bit plug-in under Win- dows Vista 64 bit, and you can use plug-ins developed for Mac PPC on MacIntel systems. As the use of 32-bit plug-ins on 64-bit computers affects the computer performance, these will be marked by an icon in the plug-in menus.ÖPlease note that this functionality is provided to allow you to load older projects including their original plug-ins on current computers. However, the plug-ins will require higher CPU performance when compared to their native platform. Therefore, it is recommended to use 64 bit ver- sions or Intel Mac (Universal Binary) versions of such plug-ins or instruments once available. In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver- sions will be easily recognized: VST Preset management From a user perspective, the main difference between VST 2 and VST 3 is in the effect preset management. The “.fxp/.fxb” files used in VST 2 have been replaced by VST 3 Presets (extension “.vstpreset”). Using the preset management features, you can assign various attributes to your effect presets to help you quickly find the right patch. You can also preview effect presets before you load them. A large number of presets for effects are included with the program. If you have any previous VST plug-ins installed on your computer, you can still use them, and you can also convert their programs to VST 3 presets. See “Effect pre- sets” on page 176 for details. Smart plug-in processing Another feature of the VST3 standard is “smart” plug-in processing. Previously, any loaded plug-in was processing continuously, regardless of whether a signal was present or not. In VST3, processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. This is achieved by activating the option “Deactivate VST3 Plug-in when silence is detected” in the Preferences dia- log (VST – Plug-ins page). When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume CPU power on silent passages, i.e. when no audio data runs through them. !This chapter describes audio effects, i.e. effects that are used to process audio, group, VST Instrument and ReWire channels. An effect compatible with a previous VST version.A VST 3 effect.
164 Audio effects Be aware, however, that this can lead to a situation where you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the sys- tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always find the passage with the largest number of events playing simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the re- quired performance. ÖActivating this option can increase your system perfor- mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on any timecode position of the project. About side-chain inputs Several VST3 effects feature side-chain inputs. This means that the operation of the effect can be controlled via external signals routed to the side-chain input. The ef- fect processing is still applied to the main audio signal. See “Setting up side-chain” on page 174. About plug-in delay compensation A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency. This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro- cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam- ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality. However, Cubase provides full plug-in delay compensa- tion throughout the entire audio path. All plug-in delays are compensated for, maintaining the sync and timing of all audio channels. Normally, you don’t have to make any settings for this. How- ever, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead functionality have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage the look- ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used during real- time recording (see the separate manual “Plug-in Refer- ence”). 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 “VST Instruments and In- strument tracks” on page 182. About tempo sync Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from the host application (in this case, Cubase). Typically, this is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo. This information is automatically provided to any VST (2.0 or later) plug-in that “requests it”. You don’t need to make any special settings for this. You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 - 1/32). Please refer to the separate manual “Plug-in Reference” for details about the included effects. Insert effects Background As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the audio signal path – this means that the audio channel data will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight different insert effects independently for each audio chan- nel (audio track, group channel track, FX channel track, VST Instrument channel or ReWire channel) or bus. 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 6 EQ Volume (fader) Insert effect 7 Insert effect 8 Insert effect 4 Insert effect 5
165 Audio effects As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best suited for insert effects where you don’t want the level to be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dith- ering” on page 167) and maximizers – both typically used as insert effects for output busses. ÖApplying several effects on several channels may be too much for your CPU to handle! If you want to use the same effect with the same settings on several channels, it may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to apply your effect only once, as a single insert for this group. You can use the VST Performance window to keep an eye on the CPU load. Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects Insert effect settings are available in the mixer (in extended mode), the Channel Settings window and the Inspector. The examples below show the Channel Settings window, but the procedures are the same for all three inserts sec- tions: 1.Bring up the Channel Settings window, the Inserts pane in the extended mixer, or open the Inspector’s Inserts section. In the Channel Settings window, the inserts are located to the far left by default. 2.Pull down the effect type pop-up for one of the insert slots, and select an effect. The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its con- trol panel opens. You can open or close the control panel for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert slot.If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter you can use this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the effect signal. See “Making settings for the effects” on page 176 for details about edit- ing effects. To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up menu and select “No Effect”. You should do this for all effects that you don’t intend to use, to reduce the CPU load. You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way. 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. Deactivating vs. bypassing If you want to listen to the track without having it pro- cessed by a particular effect, but don’t want to remove this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either deactivate or bypass it: Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas 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. To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left above the insert slot. 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.
166 Audio effects To bypass all inserts for a track, click the global bypass button. This button can be found at the top of the Inserts 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 the channel strip in the mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in yellow. Insert effects in the channel overview If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector or the “Channel Overview” view mode is selected in the extended mixer, you will get an overview of which insert effects, EQ modules and effect sends are activated for the channel. You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of the overview). The channel overview in the Inspector. Using mono or stereo effects with a surround channel (Cubase only) Whether your effect supports mono, stereo or multi-chan- nel processing, depends entirely on the effect plug-in. Normally, when you apply a mono or stereo insert effect to a surround (multi-channel) track, the first speaker chan- nels of the track (often L and/or R) are routed through the effect’s available channels, and the other channels of the track are left unprocessed.However, you may want to apply the effect to other speaker channels. This is done in the Channel Settings window: 1.Right-click somewhere in the Channel Settings win- dow (except the EQ display) to open the Channel Settings context menu. 2.Select “Customize View” from the menu, and select “Insert Routing” from the submenu. The Insert Routing section appears to the left of the EQ display. It con- tains a row of small signal diagrams. 3.Double-click on the small signal diagram for the effect to open the Routing Editor window. The Routing Editor window. The columns in the diagram represent the channels in the current configuration, with signals passing from top to bottom. The gray field in the middle represents the actual effect plug-in. The squares above the effect represent inputs to the effect plug-in. The squares below the effect represent outputs from the ef- fect plug-in. The blue color of inserts 1 and 2 and the blue Inserts State button in the channel strip indicate that this track has active inserts.
167 Audio effects A line that passes through the effect (with no square input/ output indicators) represent a bypass connection – the audio on that speaker channel passes the effect without being pro- cessed. A “broken” line indicates a broken connection – the audio on that speaker channel will not pass on to the output at all. Here, the effect will process the L and R channels. The Ls, Rs and C channels are not processed, while the Lfe connection is broken. Operations You can move connections to the effect inputs and out- puts sideways to route the audio to/from inputs/outputs other than the standard configuration. To do this, click the arrow buttons to the right. The upper two arrows move the input connections, and the lower two arrows move the output connections. If the “Link” checkbox is activated, the input and output connections will be moved at the same time. This is the mode to use when you simply want to process other channels than the default, without any cross-connections. If you move inputs or outputs independently of each other, this means you create a “cross-connection”. The audio on the Ls-Rs channels is processed in the plug-in and output on the L-R channels. Since the L-R channels are bypassed, this means the final L-R output will contain both the original L-R signals and the processed Ls-Rs signals. If a channel is bypassed (a straight line is shown through the plug-in) you can click the line to break the connection. Click again to replace the broken connection with a bypass. Clicking Reset takes you back to the original standard connection. ÖChanges you make in this window are audible immedi- ately. Adding insert effects to busses All input and output busses have eight insert slots, just like regular audio channels. The procedures for adding insert effects are the same. Adding insert effects to an input bus (Cubase only) al- lows you to record with effects. The effects will become a permanent part of the recorded audio file (see the chapter “Recording” on page 65). Insert effects added to an output bus will affect all audio routed to that bus, like a “master insert effect”. Typically you would add compressors, limiters, EQ or other plug-ins to tailor the dynamics and sound of the final mix. Dithering is a special case, as described below. ÖPlease note that the input/output busses only appear as tracks in the Track list, when their automation W(rite) buttons have been activated once. I.e. you can only use the Inspector section to make Inserts settings for the bus- ses if you have activated Write automation for the respec- tive bus beforehand. However, you can always make Inserts settings in the Channel Settings window and the extended mixer. Dithering Dithering is a method for controlling the noise produced by quantization errors in digital recordings. The theory be- hind this is that during low level passages, only a few bits are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantiza- tion errors and hence distortion. For example, when “truncating bits”, as a result of moving from 24 to 16 bit resolution, quantization errors are added to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a spe- cial kind of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of these errors is minimized. The added noise could be per- ceived as a very low-level hiss under exacting listening conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable and much preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.
168 Audio effects When should I use dithering? Consider dithering when you mix down to a lower reso- lution, either in real-time (playback) or with the Export Au- dio Mixdown function. A typical example is when you mix down a project to a 16-bit stereo au- dio file for audio CD burning. What is a “lower resolution” then? Well, Cubase uses 32- bit float resolution internally, which means that all integer resolutions (16 bit, 24 bit, etc.) are lower. The negative ef- fects of truncation (no dithering) are most noticeable when mixing down to 8 bit, 16 bit and 20 bit format; whether to dither when mixing down to 24 bits is a matter of taste. Applying dithering 1.Open the VST Output Channel Settings window by clicking the “e” button for the Output channel in the mixer. You can also display the Inserts section in the extended mixer pane. 2.Open the Inserts pop-up menu for slot 7 or 8. The two last Insert effect slots (for all channels) are post-fader, which is 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 float domain, rendering the dithering settings useless. 3.Select the included UV22HR dithering plug-in from the pop-up menu. The included dithering plug-ins and their parameters are described in the separate manual “Plug-in Reference”. If you have installed another dithering plug-in that you pre- fer, you can of course select this instead. 4.Make sure the dithering plug-in is set to dither to the correct resolution. This would be the resolution of your audio hardware (on playback) or the desired resolution for the mixdown file you want to create (as set in the Export Audio Mixdown dialog, see the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown” on page 413). 5.Use the other parameters in the control panel to set up the dithering to your liking. Using group channels for insert effects Like all other channels, group channels can have up to eight insert effects. This is useful if you have several audio tracks that you want to process through the same effect (e.g. different vocal tracks that all should be processed by the same compressor). Another special use for group channels and effects is the following: If you have a mono audio track and want to process this through a stereo insert effect (e.g. a stereo chorus or an auto panner device), you cannot just insert the effect as usual. This is because the audio track is in mono – the output of the insert effect will be in mono as well, and the stereo information from the effect will be lost. One solution would be to route a send from the mono track to a stereo FX channel track, set the send to pre- fader mode and lower the fader completely for the mono audio track. However, this makes mixing the track cumber- some, since you cannot use the fader. Here’s another solution: 1.Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to the desired output bus. 2.Add the desired effect to the group channel as an in- sert effect. 3.Route the mono audio track to the group channel. Now the signal from the mono audio track is sent directly to the group, where it passes through the insert effect, in stereo. Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor power. If you are using a large number of insert effects for a track, you may eventually reach a point where the com- puter cannot play back the track properly (the CPU over- load indicator in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.). To remedy this, you can freeze the track, by clicking the Freeze button in the Inspector.
169 Audio effects The Freeze Channel Options dialog is opened, allowing you to set a “Tail” time in seconds. This adds time at the end of the rendered file to allow reverb and delay tails to fully fade out. The program now renders the output of the track, in- cluding all pre-fader insert effects, to an audio file. This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder (Win- dows). On the Mac, the Freeze folder is stored under “User/Documents”. The frozen audio track is locked for editing in the Project window. The frozen insert effects cannot be edited or removed and you cannot add new insert effects for the track (except post-fader effects). On playback, the rendered audio file is played back. You can still adjust the level and panning in the Mixer, make EQ settings and adjust the effect sends. In the Mixer, the channel strip for a frozen track is indicated by a “snow flake” symbol on the volume fader handle. After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track play back as before but the insert effects don’t have to be calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it’s finished and you don’t need to edit it anymore. You can only freeze audio tracks this way, not group channel tracks or FX channel tracks. The last two insert effects will not be frozen. This is because these are post-fader insert slots. You can also freeze VST instruments and their insert effects – see “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on page 182. Unfreezing If you need to edit the events on a frozen track or make settings for the insert effects, you can unfreeze the track: 1.Click the Freeze button in the Inspector for the track. You will be asked whether you really want to unfreeze the channel and if 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. Send effects Background As their name implies, send effects are outside of an audio channel’s signal path, i. e. the audio data to be processed must be sent to the effect (as opposed to insert effects, which are inserted into the channel’s signal path). To this end, Cubase provides FX channel tracks. When you have created such a track, it is added to the track list and can be selected as a routing target in the Send slots of audio channels. When selecting an FX channel track in one of the send slots of an audio channel, the audio is sent to the FX chan- nel and through any insert effects set up for it. Each audio channel has eight sends, which can be routed to different FX channels, and thus different FX channel insert effect configurations. You control the amount of signal sent to the FX channel by adjusting the ef- fect send level. If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the signal passes through the effects in series, from the top (the first slot) downward. This allows for “custom” send effect configurations – e.g. a chorus fol- lowed by a reverb followed by an EQ and so on. 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. See the chapter “Automation” on page 203 for more information.
170 Audio effects Setting up send effects Adding an FX channel track 1.Pull down the Project menu and select “FX Channel” from the “Add Track” submenu. A dialog appears. 2.Select a channel configuration for the FX channel 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 leave the plug-in pop-up menu set to “No Effect” and add effects to the FX channel later if you like. 4.Click OK. 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). All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedi- cated “folder” track in the Track list. This makes it easy to manage and keep track of all your FX channel tracks, and also allows you to save screen space by folding in the FX Channel folder. FX channel tracks are automatically named “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc., but you 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. Adding and setting up effects As mentioned above, you can add a single insert effect when you create the FX channel track. To add and set up effects after the FX channel track is created, you can ei- 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 FX Channel Settings window appears, similar to a regular Channel Settings window. To the left in the window is the Inserts section with eight effect slots. 2.Make sure the FX channel is routed to the correct out- put bus. This is done with the output routing pop-up menu at the top of the fader section (also available in the mixer and 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. 4.When you add an effect, its control panel will automat- ically appear. When you set up send effects, you would normally set the wet/dry Mix control to all “wet”. This is because you control the balance between the wet and the dry sig- nal with the effect sends. For more information, see “Making settings for the effects” on page 176. You can add up to eight effects for an FX channel. The signal will pass through all the effects in series. It is not possible to adjust the effect send and return levels separately for the effects – this is done for the FX channel as a whole. If what you want is several separate send effects (where you can control the send and return levels indepen- dently), you should instead add more FX channel tracks – 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. To remove an insert effect from a slot, click in the slot and select “No Effect” from the pop-up menu. You should do this for all effects that you don’t intend to use, to reduce the CPU load.