Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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The Pool
Prepare Archive
The option “Prepare Archive” on the Media menu is useful 
if you want to archive a project. It verifies that every clip 
referenced 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 will not be 
copied to the audio folder. You will therefore have to copy them there 
manually before backing up the audio folder or save them separately dur-
ing 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.
Once you have performed a Prepare Archive, you can copy 
the project file, the Audio folder and any other audio mate-
rial you saved in the project folder to a different location, 
e. g. a backup disk.
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. 
This contains image information for edited clips and other 
data that can be recreated, so it can safely be deleted.
Importing and exporting Pool files 
(Cubase only)
You can import or export a Pool as a separate file (file ex-
tension “.npl”), by using the “Import Pool” and “Export 
Pool” options on the Media or context menu. 
When you import a Pool file, the file references in it are 
“added” to the current Pool.
ÖSince the audio and video files are only referenced but 
not saved in the Pool file, the Pool import is only useful if 
you have access to all referenced files (which preferably 
should have the same file paths as when the Pool was 
saved).
You can also save and open libraries. These are stand-
alone Pool files that are not associated with a project.
Working with libraries (Cubase only)
You can use libraries to store sound effects, loops, video 
clips, etc., and transfer media from a library into a project 
by using drag and drop. The following library functions are 
available on the File menu:
New Library
Creates a new library. Just as when creating new projects, 
you will be asked to specify a project folder for the new li-
brary (in which media files will be stored). The library will 
show up as a separate Pool window in Cubase. 
Open Library
Opens a file dialog for opening a saved library file.
Save Library
Opens a file dialog for saving the library file (file extension 
“.npl”).
!Video clips are always referenced and not stored in 
the project folder. 
						

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The Pool
Convert Files
Selecting the option “Convert Files” on the Media or con-
text menu opens the Convert Options dialog which oper-
ates on selected files. Use the pop-up menus to specify 
which audio file attributes you want to keep and which you 
want to convert. The available settings are:
Sample Rate
Keep as is, or convert to a sample rate between 8.000 and 96.000 kHz.
Sample Width
Keep the sample width (resolution) as is, or convert to 16 Bit, 24 Bit or 
32 Bit Float.
Channels
Keep as is, or convert the file to Mono or Stereo Interleaved.
File Format
Keep as is, or convert to Wave, AIFF, Wave 64 or Broadcast Wave format.
Options
When you convert a file, you can use the Options pop-up 
to set one of the following options regarding what to do 
with the new file:
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:
 Clip/event references in the pool are always redirected to the 
conformed files.
 If any “keep” option is selected, original files remain in the Pro-
ject’s Audio folder and new files are created.
 If you select the “Replace” option, files in the Pool and in the 
Project’s Audio folder are replaced.
Extract Audio from Video File
This Media menu item allows you to extract the audio from 
a video file on disk. It automatically generates a new audio 
clip that will appear in the Pool Record folder. The result-
ing clip will have the following properties:
It will get the same file format and sample rate/width as 
in the current project.
It will get the same name as the video file.
ÖThis function is not available for .mpeg video files.
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 Files Converts the original file without changing clip refer-
ences. The references are however saved with the next 
save action.
New + 
Replace in 
PoolCreates a new copy with the chosen attributes, replaces 
the original file with the new one in the Pool and redirects 
the current 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). 
						

							19
The MediaBay 
						

							274
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. With VST Sound, Cubase offers a com-
prehensive system to organize sounds and sound-related 
files, with the powerful MediaBay at its core.
What is VST Sound?
With version 4.5, Steinberg introduced VST Sound, a new 
version of the Media Management System that is directly in-
tegrated into VST3 and that has now replaced the Sound-
Frame concept. VST Sound allows direct integration into 
the MediaBay to third party manufacturers of plug-ins and 
instruments, and encompasses all formats and file types 
previously supported by SoundFrame such as audio loops, 
VSTi presets, video, MIDI files and track presets.
VST Sound in Cubase links the following features:
The MediaBay
The MediaBay is a universal Media Management System providing differ-
ent views that allow you to find and tag media files, quickly import media 
files into projects and more.
VST Sound Loops
In Cubase, you can add meta data for category, style, character and 
other information to audio and MIDI loops, thus converting them into VST 
Sound loops that can easily be managed with the MediaBay.
VST3 Presets
Cubase makes use of VST presets as an additional way to apply sounds 
to instrument tracks and effects to audio tracks (see “Previewing MIDI, 
instrument and VST presets independently of tracks” on page 293). 
Plug-in parameters can be saved as VST presets, and you can also gen-
erate VST presets (i. e. sounds) from VST2 Instruments.
Track presets
Track presets are a combination of track settings, effects and mixer set-
tings that can be applied to new tracks of various types. So right from the 
start, you can set up your tracks for a specific sound (see the chapter 
“Working with Track Presets” on page 288). 
VST Instruments
The VST Instruments included with Cubase are the best way to experi-
ence VST Sound out of the box. They provide more than 1000 sounds 
that can be searched, sorted and previewed conveniently (see the chap-
ter “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on page 169.
The VST Sound features can easily be recognized by the 
VST Sound symbol.
The VST Sound symbol
What is the MediaBay?
Modern music production involves having to deal with a 
multitude of media files, such as audio, MIDI and video files.
Cubase features a powerful media file management data-
base that allows you to control all your media files from 
within your sequencer program, similar to what you can do 
in the Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder. This may in-
volve several different tasks: 
You can browse the folders of your file system to view 
folders and files.
You can define searches to find specific files and filter 
the search results.
You can organize your files in a folder structure.
You can use the tagging features to assign your files to 
specific categories, and use these categories as the basis 
for your searches.
Which file formats are supported?
The following media file formats are supported by the 
Media Management System:
Audio: .wav, .w64, .aiff, .aifc, .rex, .rx2, .mp3, .mp2, .ogg, 
.sd2, .wma (Windows only)
MIDI: .mid and .midiloop
Video: .avi, .mov, .qt, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv (Windows only)
Track Presets: .trackpreset
These are templates for audio tracks, MIDI tracks and instrument tracks. 
Track Presets are described in detail in the chapter “Working with Track 
Presets” on page 288.
VST Presets: .vstpreset
VST presets are files containing all parameter settings for a particular 
VST plug-in. VST preset files are described in detail in the section “Pre-
viewing MIDI, instrument and VST presets independently of tracks” on 
page 293. 
						

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The MediaBay
Pattern banks: .patternbank
Pattern banks contain drum patterns created with the MIDI plug-in “Beat 
Designer”, see “Previewing pattern banks” on page 284.
Project files (from Cubase, Nuendo, Sequel): .cpr, .npr, 
.steinberg-project
ÖWhen the option “Show file extensions” is activated in 
the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page), file name exten-
sions (e. g. .wav or .cpr) will be displayed in the MediaBay.
Accessing the Media Management System
The Media Management System in Cubase can be ac-
cessed via three different preconfigured views: the Media-
Bay, the Loop Browser and the Sound Browser.
To access these, pull down the Media menu and select 
“Open MediaBay”, “Open Loop Browser” or “Open 
Sound Browser” (or use the respective key commands).
Which of these views to use depends entirely on your 
working environment, and you may find that you want to 
change the default setup to better meet your require-
ments.
By default, the MediaBay is configured to show all win-
dow sections and display all file types.
If you want to work on media files of various types, if you have to move 
files to different locations using the Browser section, or if you want to 
perform other general file management tasks, the MediaBay is probably 
the best view configuration.
The Loop Browser is configured to show audio files and 
MIDI loops.
Use this if your focus is on working with loops.
The Sound Browser is focussed on track preset and 
VST preset files.
Use this if you want to work with the available presets.
Whenever you read about the “MediaBay” in this manual, 
please remember the following:
ÖThe MediaBay is only one of the three preconfigured 
views of the Media Management System. Since all controls 
are visible in the MediaBay window per default, we will refer 
to this view throughout this manual when describing func-
tions. However, the editing methods performed in the 
MediaBay can also be applied in the Loop Browser and the 
Sound Browser.
Key commands
Many of the MediaBay functions can be performed using 
key commands. These can be found in the Key commands 
dialog (Media category). For details on setting up and us-
ing key commands, see the chapter “Key commands” on 
page 479.
Navigation
You can use the [Tab] key on your computer keyboard to 
move the focus between the different sections of the 
MediaBay window. Use the arrow keys to navigate to dif-
ferent folders, files or tags.
Note that the field that has the focus in the Filter section of 
the Viewer is shown in light blue. 
						

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The MediaBay
Window overview
The info line
The info line is located at the bottom of the window.
The info line shows the number of files displayed in the 
Viewer section and the path to the folder selected in the 
Browser section in which these files were found.
MediaBay sections
You can use the buttons below the Browser section to 
show/hide the respective sections in the MediaBay win-
dow. The Viewer section cannot be hidden.
Click this button to hide the Browser section.
You can change the size of the individual sections by 
dragging the divider line between two sections.
When saving a Cubase project, the current status of the 
MediaBay is also saved.
This means that if the MediaBay was open when you saved a project, it 
will be opened again the next time you open this particular project. The 
last MediaBay window configuration will also be restored.
Browsing for media files
To the left in the default MediaBay window you will find 
the Browser section. 
The Browser section of the MediaBay window
ÖNote that the Browser section can only show folders; 
any media files contained in a selected folder are dis-
played in the Viewer section to the right.
This also depends on the “Deep Results” setting, see “Filtering the 
Viewer display” on page 280.
The Scope section, see 
“Previewing files in the 
Scope section” on 
page 283. The Tag Editor (Cu-
base only), see “The 
Tag Editor (Cubase 
only)” on page 284.
The Browser 
section, see 
“Browsing for 
media files” on 
page 276.The Viewer section, see “Finding files in the Viewer section” on page 279.
p 
						

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The MediaBay
The VST Sound node
The VST Sound node in the Browser section
The Browser section provides a shortcut to user content 
and factory content files, including the preset folders. You 
can find this node at the top of the Browser folder hierar-
chy, at the same level as the File System node. 
The folders below the VST Sound node represent the 
folders in which content files and newly created track pre-
sets, VST presets, etc. are stored by default.
To find out the “true” location of such a file, right-click it in the Viewer 
section and select “Open in Explorer” (Win)/“Reveal in Finder” (Mac). 
This will open an Explorer/Finder window in which the corresponding file 
is highlighted.
Scanning operations
When you open the MediaBay, the Loop Browser or the 
Sound Browser for the first time, a scan for media files 
needs to be performed. Specify which folders or direc-
tories should be included in the scan by activating the 
checkboxes to the left of the folder name. Depending on 
the amount of media files on your computer, the scan may 
take a while. The scan result is saved in the MediaBay da-
tabase. 
To include a folder, activate its checkbox.
These folders will be scanned for files.
You can restrict the search to individual subfolders.
This will be reflected in the checkbox icon for the folder the subfolder re-
sides in. The checkmark and the box in front of a folder will turn gray if 
only some of the subfolders are selected.
Only the VST3 Presets subfolder of the Factory Content folder will be 
scanned for files.
The scanning status for the individual folders in the Brow-
ser section is indicated by the color of the icons:
 A red icon means that this folder is currently being scanned.
 A light grey icon means this folder has been scanned. Orange folder icons are displayed when a scanning process 
was interrupted. 
 Yellow icons are displayed for folders that have not been 
scanned.
If “Stop scanning folders when closing MediaBay” is ac-
tivated in the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page), Cubase 
will scan for media files only when the MediaBay window is 
open. When this is deactivated, the folders will be scanned 
in background, even when the MediaBay window is closed.
Even if scanning in background is activated, Cubase will not scan folders 
while playing back or recording.
Scanning indicator
At the top right in the Viewer section you will find an indi-
cator which shows whether the MediaBay is currently 
searching for files.
ÖNote that this indicator is only shown when scanning 
in the foreground (i. e. when you selected a folder to be 
scanned). It is not displayed for any background scanning 
operations.
Deep Results
When you activate the “Deep Results” button, the Viewer 
shows the files contained in the selected folder and in any 
subfolders (without showing these subfolders). When this 
button is deactivated, the Viewer shows all folders and 
files contained in the selected folder.
The Deep Results button
When this indicator is shown, a 
media search is in progress. 
						

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The MediaBay
Rescan on Select
When you activate this button, selecting a folder in the 
Browser section will cause this folder to be rescanned. 
This ensures that the MediaBay will always display the 
current content of a folder.
The “Rescan on Select” button
ÖWhen “Rescan on Select” is deactivated, you can al-
ways right-click in the Browser section and select “Res-
can” from the context menu to force a rescan of the 
currently selected folder.
Refresh
In addition to the Rescan option, the context menu for the 
selected node or folder in the Browser section (e. g. VST 
Sound) also contains a Refresh option. This refreshes the 
display for this location without having to rescan the cor-
responding media files.
Use the Refresh option when you have modified tag val-
ues and want to update the Filter section so that the cor-
responding files are listed with the modified tag values.
This is also useful if you have mapped a new network drive 
and want this to appear as a node in the Browser section. 
Simply select the Refresh option for the parent node (i. e. 
Network Drives) and the new drive will appear in the list 
(ready to be scanned for media files).
Folder operations
The Browser section shows the folder structure of your 
computer’s file system in a way very similar to the Win-
dows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder:
Click on a folder name in the Browser display to select 
the corresponding folder.
Double-click on a folder icon in the Browser display to 
open the corresponding folder.You can switch the Browser display between the Full 
view and the Focus view.
If you select a folder and switch to the Focus tab only this folder and its 
subfolders are shown. When you switch back to the Full view, the entire 
file system node can be accessed again.
The Focus view for the Audio folder
You can hide all folders that not being scanned for files 
by clicking the “Show MediaBay Managed Items Only” 
button.
This will keep the list less cluttered.
Use the folder navigation buttons to navigate to folders.
Click “Previous Browse Location” or “Next Browse Location” to select 
the previous or next folder in a sequence of previously selected folders. 
Clicking the “Browse Containing Folder” button will select the parent 
folder of the previously selected folder.
You can create a new folder inside the folder by clicking 
the “Create New Folder” button (the folder icon).
A dialog is opened in which you can enter a name for the new folder.
To delete a folder, right-click the folder icon and select 
“Delete from Disk” from the context menu.
A warning message is displayed, asking you to confirm that you really 
want to move this folder to the operating system’s trash folder.
To rename a folder, select it in the list, click on its name 
and enter a new name.
You can drag & drop a folder to another location.
You will be asked if you wish to copy or move the folder to the new 
location.
!When a folder contains a large number of media files, 
the scanning process may take some time – you may 
want to deactivate “Rescan on Select”, if you know 
that you have not made any changes to the content of 
your media folders since they were last scanned.
The “Create new 
folder” buttonThe folder navigation 
buttons 
						

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The MediaBay
Browse Selection Presets
If you constantly find yourself returning to specific folders 
during your work, you can save these browse locations as 
presets so that selecting such a preset will take you to the 
folder instantly. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired folder in the folder display.
2.Click the Add Browse Location Preset button (the “+” 
icon).
A naming dialog for the new preset is displayed.
3.Accept the default name (the complete folder path) or 
enter a new name for the preset.
4.Click OK.
The new preset is added to the Select Browse Location Presets pop-up 
menu (which can be opened by clicking on the down arrow).
When you now open the Select Browse Location Presets 
pop-up menu and select the new preset, the respective 
preset folder will be selected in the Browser display.
To remove a preset from the pop-up menu, select it and 
click the “Remove Browse Location Preset” button (the “-” 
icon).
When the Browser section is hidden from view, the Se-
lect Browse Location Presets pop-up menu is shown in 
the Viewer section.
This way you do not always have to open the Browser in order to switch 
the browse location.
The Select Browse Location Presets pop-up menu in the Viewer
Finding files in the Viewer section
The Viewer section consists of two panes: the Filter section 
at the top and below it, the Viewer display. In the Filter sec-
tion, you can set up filters and define searches for specific 
files. The Viewer display lists any files contained in the folder 
selected in the Browser, and tags of these files. How to set 
up the tag display in the Viewer is described in the section 
“Managing the tag lists” on page 284.
ÖCubase only: Note that it is only possible to edit tags 
in the Viewer if “Allow Editing in Viewer” is activated in the 
Preferences dialog (MediaBay page). 
When this is deactivated, editing is only possible in the Tag Editor (see 
“Editing tags in the Tag Editor” on page 285).
The Viewer section
Depending on your settings, the number of files displayed 
in the Viewer can be huge (the info line at the bottom of 
the window shows the number of files found with the cur-
rent filter settings). Therefore, the MediaBay provides a 
number of ways to display only specific files and to per-
form very refined file searches.
ÖThe default number of files displayed in the Viewer 
section can be set by specifying a new value for “Maximum 
Number of Results in Viewer” in the Preferences dialog 
(MediaBay page). 
						

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The MediaBay
Filtering the Viewer display
The MediaBay provides a number of filter buttons that can 
be used to limit the number of files displayed in the Viewer 
section. These buttons are situated at the top of the 
Viewer section and can be used to show all supported file 
types or any combination of file types.
For example, when you activate the audio and the MIDI file 
filter buttons, only audio and MIDI files are displayed. When 
none (or all) of these buttons are activated, files of all sup-
ported types will be displayed.
The filter buttons. The display is filtered to show only audio files.
Defining searches for specific files
The filter buttons let you find files according to the folder(s) 
they might be located in, or according to their file type. 
However, you can also perform very detailed searches for 
files that meet certain criteria.
Cubase only: The Details search mode allows you to 
perform a search for a specific file tag value.
You define which tag to search for, e. g. “Name”, and specify the corre-
sponding value, e. g. “myfilename.wav”.
In Category search mode, the Filter section will display 
all values found for a specific tag. Selecting one of these 
values will result in a list of files all showing this particular 
tag value.
For example, you could look for sample rates and pick 44.1 kHz to give 
you a list of all files with that particular sample rate. But Category search 
mode becomes really interesting when making extensive use of tagging – 
see “Performing a Category search” on page 281 and “Tagging media 
files” on page 286.
Once a search operation is completed, the very first en-
try in the Viewer display is selected. When you now press 
[Tab] once, this selected entry will get the focus and you 
can use the Up and Down arrow keys to browse the list of 
files.
Performing a Details search (Cubase only)
You can also perform a search for a particular file name in 
the file system.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the root folder of your hard disk in the Browser 
section.
2.Select the Details search mode by clicking on the De-
tails tab at the top of the Filter section.
3.By default, the tag selection pop-up menu to the left is 
set to “Any Attribute”, and the condition pop-up menu in 
the middle is set to “contains”.
Leave these as they are.
4.Enter part of the name of the file that you wish to find 
in the text field to the right.
Note how a new search is performed every time you enter another letter. 
Detail searches are not case sensitive.
A Details search for files whose names contain “piano”
The tag selection pop-up menu shows an alphabetical 
list of file tags you can choose from. At the top of the pop-
up menu, the MediaBay maintains a smaller list of the last 
5 tags selected during previous searches.
Note that you can select more than one tag. This will create an OR con-
dition: the files found will match either one or the other tag. Click OK to 
set the tag(s) to search for. How to configure the tag list is described in 
the section “Managing the tag lists” on page 284.
To reset all search fields to their default settings, click 
the Reset Filter button in the top right corner of the Filter 
section.
This will also reset the tag list settings.
The Reset Filter button in the Filter section
Enter the 
file name 
here.
Tag selection pop-up menu