Steinberg Cubase 5.5 New Features Manual
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Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica- tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. MP3SURROUND and the MP3SURROUND logo are registered trademarks of Thomson SA, registered in the US and other countries, and are used under license from Thomson Licensing SAS. Release Date: May 12, 2010 © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2010. All rights reserved.
4 5Introduction 6Welcome! 7Working with the new features 8The Project Assistant dialog 9Handling project templates 9General editing improvements 9User interface improvements 10Enhanced editing in the VST Connections window 12New and improved automation features 14Project Synchronization Setup dialog improvements 14Export Audio Mixdown improvements 15Gain inverse for channel EQ 15Support for HD frame rates 16Redesign of the Marker window 17Control Room improvements 17Support for the Yamaha XF data format 17Track Quick Controls improvements 18The MediaBay 19Introduction 20Working with the MediaBay 21The Define Locations section 22The Locations section 23The Results list 26Previewing files 28The Filters section 30The Attribute Inspector 34The Loop Browser and Sound Browser windows 34Preferences 35Key commands 35Working with MediaBay-related windows 37The Sample Editor 38Window overview 42Operations 47Options and settings 47AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio 51Free Warp 53Working with hitpoints and slices 57VariAudio 67Flattening realtime processing 69Video 70Before you start 72Preparing a video project in Cubase 72Video files in the Project window 73Playing back video 75Editing video 75Extracting audio from a video file 76Replacing the audio in a video file 77Plug-in updates 78AmpSimulator 78Groove Agent ONE 1.1 update 79LoopMash 1.2 update 80REVerence update 80Studio EQ update 81Index
6 Introduction Welcome! Welcome to Cubase 5.5! This free update to Cubase 5 is packed with new features and improvements across sev- eral application areas. Most of these are direct results of the Nuendo 5 development that we do not want to withhold from Cubase 5 – the introduction of a completely rede- signed MediaBay or the new Video Engine with OpenGL support to name a few. This document lists and describes features that have been added or changed since the re- lease of Cubase 5.0. Some chapters known from the previ- ous documentation have been completely rewritten and are therefore included in their entirety, e. g. for the Sample Edi- tor, where many detail changes can be found. Please take some time to read through this documentation for the full scope of all these improvements. It will help you getting the most out of Cubase 5.5. This version is compatible with Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and Microsoft Windows 7. About the program versions The documentation covers two different operating sys- tems or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X. Some features and settings are specific to one of the plat- forms. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. In other words: ÖIf nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for both Windows and Mac OS X. 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]”. ÖPlease note that this manual might refer to right-click- ing, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.
8 Working with the new features The Project Assistant dialog The Project Assistant dialog is opened by selecting the “New Project…” command on the File menu. In this dialog you can access recently opened projects and create new projects, which can either be empty or based on a template. The Project Assistant dialog will also open in the following cases: •If you launch Cubase with the option “Show Project As- sistant” selected on the “On Startup” pop-up menu in the Preferences (General page). •If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while launching Cu- base. Opening recent projects The Recent category in the category bar of the Project As- sistant dialog contains a list of recently opened projects. When you select an item in this category, the Create but- ton changes to “Open”, allowing you to open the corre- sponding project. This list is similar to the list in the Recent Projects submenu on the File menu. Choosing a template In the category bar of the Project Assistant dialog, the available factory templates are sorted into the predefined categories Recording, Production, Scoring, and Master- ing. Furthermore, there is a More category which contains the default project template and all templates that are not assigned to any of the other categories. When you click on one of the category items, the list below the category bar shows the available factory templates for this category that were installed with Cubase. Any new templates that you create 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 currently shown category. •You can rename or delete a template by right-clicking it in the list and selecting the corresponding option on the context menu. Choosing a project location The options in the lower part of the dialog allow you to specify where the project is stored. •Select “Use default location” to create the project in the default project location (as shown in the path field), and click Create. In the “Project folder” field you can specify a name for the project folder. If you do not specify a project folder here, the project will reside in a folder named “Untitled”. ÖTo change the default project location, simply click in the path field. A file dialog opens, allowing you to specify a new default location. •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. Open Other The “Open Other” button allows you to open any project file on your system. This is identical to using the Open command from the File menu. Category bar Template list Location options Open Other button
9 Working with the new features Handling project templates Saving templates The “Save as Template” dialog now has an Attribute In- spector section, where you can assign the template to one of the template categories shown in the Project Assistant dialog and/or enter a description for the template. This de- scription will also be visible in the Project Assistant dialog. •Simply select a category value from the Template Cate- gory pop-up menu and/or enter a description in the Con- tent Summary field. ÖIf you do not choose a Template Category attribute, the new template will be shown in the More category in the Project Assistant dialog. Showing and tagging project templates in the MediaBay The VST Sound node in the Define Locations section pro- vides a shortcut to the included project templates. These can be found inside the Factory Content folder. If you save your own project templates using the “Save as Template” dialog, these can be found in the User Content node. For more information about attributes, see “The Attribute Inspector” on page 30. General editing improvements New event selection option There is a new option on the Select submenu of the Edit menu called “Events under Cursor”. It automatically se- lects all events on the selected tracks that are “touched” by the project cursor. Zooming with the mouse wheel You can now press [Ctrl]/[Command] and turn the mouse wheel to zoom in on or out of the current mouse pointer position. User interface improvements Consolidated toolbars The toolbars in the Project window, the Sample Editor, and the MIDI editors have been slightly redesigned and now present a consolidated look and feel. Some items were regrouped to move elements belonging together closer to each other. The Set up Window Layout button The toolbars now feature a “Set up Window Layout” but- ton that allows you to show or hide various window ele- ments, such as the info line. There are no longer individual buttons to show or hide these elements.
10 Working with the new features When you click the “Set up Window Layout” button, a transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a gray area containing checkboxes for the different elements. In this pane, activate or deactivate the elements that you want to see or hide (respectively). ÖIn the Key Editor and Drum Editor, this button is named “Show Info Line”. Use it to directly hide or show the info line. The Select Color pop-up menu The Color Selector and the small color strip below the Color tool have been merged into a single pop-up menu. New look for Add Track dialogs The Add Track dialog has a new design that fits in with the new look and feel of the MediaBay. It is described in detail in the section “Working with MediaBay-related windows” on page 35). Redesign of the info line The appearance of the info line in the Project window and all editors was enhanced to improve readability. It shows the same information as before. Redesign of the Edit History dialog The Edit History dialog has a new look and feel. It works as before with the only difference that it is now set to stay “always on top”. Enhanced editing in the VST Connections window On the different tabs of the VST Connections window, the corresponding busses or channels are shown in a table containing a tree view with expandable entries. When you have set up all the required busses for a project it might be necessary to edit the names and/or change port as- signments. Cubase provides a number of new features to make such tasks easier. Determining how many busses a device port is connected to To give you an idea how many busses a given port is al- ready connected to, the busses are shown in square brackets on the Device Port pop-up menu, to the right of the port name. Up to three bus assignments can be displayed in this way. If more connections have been made, this is indicated by a number at the far right. Therefore if you see the following: Adat 1 [Stereo1] [Stereo2] [Stereo3] (+2)... this means that the Adat 1 port is already assigned to three stereo busses plus two additional busses. Identifying exclusive port assignments In some cases (i. e. for certain channel types such as Stu- dio channels) the port assignment is exclusive. Once a port has been assigned to such a bus or channel, it should not be assigned to another bus since the assignment to the first bus is broken in that case. To help you identify such exclusive port assignments and avoid accidental reassignment, the corresponding ports are marked in red on the Device Port pop-up menu. Selecting/Deselecting multiple entries •Using the key commands [Ctrl]/[Command]-[A] (Select All) and [Shift]-[Ctrl]/[Command]-[A] (Select None) you can select or deselect all entries in the Bus Name column. Note that for this to work the table on the current tab needs to have the focus. This can be achieved by clicking anywhere on the background of the table.