Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

151
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...

152
Audio effects
This is achieved by activating the option “Suspend VST3 
plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” in 
the Preferences dialog (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.
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...

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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 do not want the level to 
be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see 
“Dithering” on page 155) 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...

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Audio effects
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...

155
Audio effects
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...

156
Audio effects
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,...

157
Audio effects
After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track 
play back as before but the insert effects do not have to 
be calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer 
processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it is 
finished and you do not 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...

158
Audio effects
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...

159
Audio effects
Making settings for the sends
The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and 
route it to the FX channel. This can be done in the mixer (in 
the extended panel), in the Channel 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.
By default, the send section is located to the left...

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Audio effects
Normally you want the effect send to be proportional to 
the channel volume (post-fader send). The picture below 
shows where the sends are “tapped” from the signal in 
pre and post-fader mode.
ÖYou can choose whether a send in pre-fader mode 
should be affected by the channel’s Mute button or not.
This is done with the option “Mute Pre-Send when Mute” in the Prefe-
rences dialog (VST page).
When one or several sends are activated for a channel, 
the Send Effects buttons light up in...