Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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Synchronization
23-bit audio (the least significant bit of this last channel 
will be used for networking). In practice this makes no dis-
cernible difference to the audio quality, since you will still 
have around 138 dB headroom on this channel.
To set things up, open the VST System Link panel:
1.Open the Device Setup dialog on the Devices menu.
2.Select VST System Link in the Devices list to the left.
3.Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus 
to define which channel should be the networking channel 
(and thus become a 23-bit audio channel, in our example).
Quite often you will be able to leave these pop-ups the way they are. 
4.Click the Active checkbox at the top of the panel.
5.Repeat the steps above for every computer on the 
network. 
As the computers are made active, you should see the 
small Sending and Receiving indicators flashing on each 
active computer, and the name of each computer should 
appear in the list at the bottom of the pane. Each com-
puter is assigned a random number – do not worry about 
this, it is just so the network knows internally which one is 
which.
You can double-click on the name in bold (which is the 
name of the computer you are currently working on) and 
set it to whatever other name you wish.
This name will appear in the System Link window of every computer on 
the network.
ÖIf you do not see the name of each computer appear-
ing once you have made it active, you may have to check 
your settings. 
Go through the procedure above again and make sure that all ASIO 
cards are listening to the digital clock signals correctly, and that each 
computer has the correct inputs and outputs assigned to the System 
Link network.
Putting the network online
After each computer’s name you will see whether it is online 
or not. When a computer is online, it will receive transport 
and timecode signals, and its sequencer application can be 
started and stopped by remote control. If it is off-line, it can 
only be started from its own keyboard – it is effectively an 
independent machine, although it is still on the network.
ÖNote that any computer can control any and all of the 
others – VST System Link is a peer-to-peer network and 
there is no absolute “master” computer.
However, most users do like to think of one machine as the master (in a 
one person/two computer network, this would be the machine you actu-
ally sit behind most of the time). 
For now, let’s put all computers online:
1.Activate the Online checkbox in the VST System Link 
panel for all computers. 
2.Check that the system is working by pressing Play on 
one computer – all computers should start almost instantly 
and play perfectly in time, with sample-accurate precision.
The Offset setting allows you to adjust whether one ma-
chine will play back slightly ahead or behind the rest.
This is normally not needed, but occasionally with some hardware you 
may find that the lock is a few samples out. In that case you can adjust 
the lock with the Offset value. For now, leave it set to 0 – it will most likely 
be what you want.
The Transfer Bits setting allows you to specify whether 
you want to transfer 24 or 16 bits. This allows you to use 
older audio cards which do not support transfer of 24 bits. 
						

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Synchronization
VST System Link sends and understands all transport 
commands, so you can play, stop, fast forward, rewind, 
etc. the entire network from one computer without a prob-
lem – try it! If you jump to a locator point on one machine, 
all other machines will also instantly jump to that locator 
point. You can even scrub on one computer and have the 
video and audio on another computer actually scrub right 
along with you.
Using MIDI
As well as supplying transport and sync control, VST Sys-
tem Link also supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, each with 16 
channels. You set this up as follows:
1.Use the MIDI Inputs and Outputs value boxes to spec-
ify the number of MIDI ports you need.
The default value is 0 MIDI In and 0 MIDI Out ports.
2.Create a MIDI track in the Project window and open 
the Inspector (top section).
3.If you now pull down the Input or Output Routing pop-
up menu, you will find the specified System Link ports 
added to the list of MIDI Inputs and Outputs.
This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments 
running on another computer, as described in the applica-
tion examples (see “Using one computer for VST instru-
ments” on page 443).
The “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” setting
If you are sending huge amounts of MIDI data at once, 
there is a small possibility that you might run out of band-
width on your VST System Link network. This will manifest 
itself by notes “choking” or timing becoming erratic.
If this happens, you can devote more bandwidth to MIDI 
by activating “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” in 
the VST System Link Setup panel. When this is activated, 
the VST System Link information will be sent on the entire 
channel instead of just one bit, more than enough for all 
the MIDI you could ever hope to use. The downside is that 
you can no longer use this ASIO channel for audio transfer 
(do not connect it to a speaker!), thus leaving you only 7 
channels of audio in our ADAT cable example. Depending 
on how you work this might be a reasonable compromise.
Hearing the network audio
If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio 
really is not an issue – just plug the outputs of each com-
puter into the desired channels on the external mixing 
desk, press Play on one of the computers, and youre 
good to go.
However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the 
computer and just use a desk for monitoring (or maybe not 
use any external mixer at all). In this case you will need to 
select one computer to be your “main mix computer” and 
send the audio from your other computers into this.
In the following example, we assume you are using two 
computers, with computer 1 as your main mix computer 
and computer 2 running two additional stereo audio 
tracks, an FX channel track with a reverb plug-in and a 
VST instrument plug-in with stereo outputs.
1.First you want to set things up so that you can listen to 
the audio playback from computer 1.
In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e.g. an analog stereo 
output, connected to your monitoring equipment.
2.Go to computer 2 and route each of the two audio 
tracks to a separate output bus.
These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call 
them Bus 1 and 2.
3.Route the FX channel track to another VST System 
Link bus (Bus 3).
4.Route the VST instrument channel to yet another bus 
(Bus 4).
!Make sure that all computers have their tempos set 
to the same value, otherwise your synchronization 
will be seriously skewed. 
						

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Synchronization
5.Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding 
four VST System Link input busses.
If you start playback on computer 2, the audio should “appear” on the in-
put busses on computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you 
need actual mixer channels.
6.Add four new stereo audio tracks on computer 1 and 
route these to the output bus you use for listening, e.g. to 
the analog stereo outputs.
7.For each of the audio tracks, select one of the four in-
put busses.
Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on 
computer 1.
8.Activate monitoring for the four tracks.
If you now start playback, the audio from computer 2 will 
be sent “live” to the new tracks on computer 1, allowing 
you to hear them together with any tracks you play back 
on computer 1.
For more information about Monitoring, see “About moni-
toring” on page 20.
Adding more tracks
What if you have more audio tracks than you have VST 
System Link busses (physical outputs)? Then you just use 
the computer 2 mixer as a submixer: Route several audio 
channels to the same output bus and adjust the output 
bus level if needed.
Note also that if your audio cards have multiple sets of in-
put and output connections you can link up multiple ADAT 
cables and send audio via any of the busses on any of the 
cables.
Internal mixing and latency
One problem with mixing inside the computer is the la-
tency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always 
compensates for record latencies, but if you are monitor-
ing through computer 1 you will hear a processing delay 
while you listen to signals coming from your other comput-
ers (not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 
1 supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely 
turn this on – you can find the setting in the VST Audio 
System Device Setup panel (see “ASIO Direct Monito-
ring” on page 74). Most modern ASIO cards support this 
function. If yours does not you may want to change the 
Offset value in the VST System Link Setup panel to com-
pensate for any latency issues.
Setting up a larger network
This is not much more difficult than a two computer net-
work. The main thing to remember is that VST System Link 
is a daisy chain system. In other words, the output of com-
puter 1 goes to the input of computer 2, the output of 
computer 2 goes to the input of computer 3, and so on 
around the chain. The output of the last computer in the 
chain must always go back into the input of computer 1, to 
complete the ring.
Once you have done this, the transmission of all the trans-
port, sync, and MIDI information to the whole network is 
handled pretty much automatically. However, where you 
may run into confusion in a large network is in the trans-
mission of audio signals back to a central mix computer.
If you have lots of hardware inputs and outputs on your 
ASIO cards you do not have to send audio via the chain at 
all, but can transmit it directly to the master mix computer 
via one or more of its other hardware Inputs. For example, if 
you have a Nuendo Digiset interface or 9652 card on com-
puter 1 you could use ADAT cable 1 for networking, ADAT 
cable 2 as a direct audio input from computer 2, and ADAT 
cable 3 as a direct audio input from computer 3.
You can also transmit audio via the ring system if you do 
not have enough hardware I/Os for direct audio transmis-
sion. For example, in a four computer scenario you could 
send audio from computer 2 into a channel in the mixer in 
computer 3, and from there to a channel in the mixer in 
computer 4, and from there back to the master mixer in 
computer 1. This can certainly be tricky to set up, so gen-
erally it is recommended that if you want to set up a com-
plex network, you should make sure to use ASIO cards 
with at least three separate digital I/Os. 
Application examples
Using one computer for VST instruments
In this example, one computer will be used as main record 
and playback machine, and another computer as a virtual 
synth rack.
1.Record a MIDI track into computer 1.
2.Once you have finished recording, route the MIDI out-
put of that track to System Link MIDI port 1.
3.Now go to computer 2, open up the VST Instrument 
rack and assign an instrument to the first slot in the rack. 
						

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Synchronization
4.Route the VST Instrument channel to the desired out-
put bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be 
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5.Create a new MIDI track in the Project window of 
computer 2, and assign the MIDI output of the track to the 
VST Instrument you created. 
6.Assign the MIDI input of the track to be VST System 
Link port 1.
Now, the MIDI track on computer 1 is routed to the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, which in turn is routed to the VST Instrument.
7.Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI com-
mands coming in.
In Cubase, you would click the Monitor button in the Track list or Inspec-
tor.
8.Start Playback on computer 1.
It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST Instrument 
loaded on computer 2.
Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a 
whole bunch of extra VST Instruments this way, expanding 
your sound palette considerably. Do not forget that VST 
System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has 
much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever 
invented!
Creating a virtual effect rack
The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can ei-
ther be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated 
Group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate 
computer as a “virtual effect rack”, by setting things up in 
the following way:
1.Go to computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect 
rack) and add a new stereo audio track.
You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must 
have an audio input.
2.Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track.
Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in.
3.In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link 
busses as input for the audio track.
You want to use a separate System Link bus, which will only be used for 
this purpose.
4.Route the channel to the desired output bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be 
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5.Activate monitoring for the track.
6.Now, go back to computer 1 and select a track to 
which you want to add some reverb.
7.Bring up the effect sends for the track, in the Inspector 
or the mixer.
8.Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the 
sends, and select the VST System Link bus assigned to 
the reverb in step 3.
9.Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as 
usual.
The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and pro-
cessed through its insert effect, without using any proces-
sor power on computer 1.
You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the 
“virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this way 
is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST Sys-
tem Link connection (and of course by the performance of 
computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any re-
cording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of 
effects).
Getting extra audio tracks
All computers on a VST System Link network are locked 
with sample-accuracy. Therefore, if you find that the hard 
drive on one computer is not fast enough to run as many 
audio tracks as you need, you can record new tracks on 
one of the other computers instead. This would create a 
“virtual RAID system”, with several disks all operating to-
gether. All tracks will remain locked together just as tightly 
as if they were all running on the same machine. This 
means that you effectively have an unlimited track count! 
Need another 100 tracks? Just add another computer. 
						

							34
Video 
						

							446
Video
Background
Cubase plays back video films in a number of formats. 
Under Windows, video playback can be done using one 
of three playback engines: Video for Windows, DirectS-
how or QuickTime 7.1. This ensures compatibility with as 
wide a range of video files as possible. The following file 
formats are supported: AVI, Windows Media Video (Cu-
base only: you can also import files in Windows Media 
Video Pro format), QuickTime and MPEG.
Under Mac OS X, QuickTime is always used as playback 
engine. QuickTime supports the following video file for-
mats: AVI, MPEG, QuickTime and DV.
There are two ways to play back video:
Without any special hardware.
See “Playing back video without any hardware” on page 447.
Using video hardware that, for example, connects to an 
external monitor.
See “Playing back video file using video hardware” on page 448.
Before you start
When working on a project involving a video file, there are 
several points to bear in mind:
Have you selected the right playback engine? 
(Windows only)
The playback engine is used not only for playback of the 
video file, but also to provide file information in the Pool 
and in the Import Video dialog. Therefore, to make sure 
that you have chosen the right playback engine for a par-
ticular type of video file, check the file information dis-
played in the Import Video dialog or the Pool prior to trying 
to import or playing back the file.
When this information reads “0x0 pixel”, “0.000 s” and “0 
Frames”, the video file is either corrupt, or the format is not 
supported by the codecs available to the selected video 
playback engine. You will either have to change the video 
playback engine, or install the required codec.
About the QuickTime video playback engine
In Cubase for Windows, you select a playback engine in 
the Device Setup–Video Player page:
Generally, you can expect most Windows hardware to 
work with DirectShow.
On a Windows system, the DirectShow and Video for Windows players 
are provided by the operating system, so you do not have to install any 
additional software.
Under Windows, QuickTime 7.1 must be installed on 
your computer for QuickTime playback to be available.
There is a freeware version (a QuickTime installer is included on the Cu-
base DVD if required, or you can download it from www.quicktime.com) 
and a “pro” version, which offers additional video cutting options. The 
engine is the same in both versions, so for mere playback in Cubase 
there is no need to purchase the “pro” version.
!Trying to import or play back a file not supported by 
the selected video playback engine leads to unpre-
dictable results – if no information on the number of 
frames, the length and the pixel resolution is available 
in the Import Video dialog, the Pool or the MediaBay, 
you cannot import/play this file properly with this par-
ticular video playback engine.
!You can change the video playback engine in the 
Device Setup dialog. After having done so, make 
sure to remove any previously imported video file 
from the Pool first, and re-import it. 
						

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Video
Under Mac OS X, only the QuickTime playback engine 
is available, supporting the formats AVI, MPEG, Quick-
Time and DV. If your system has a FireWire port, there is 
also a FireWire option – see below.
Video quality in QuickTime
When you are using QuickTime as your video playback 
engine, you can select “High Quality” from the Video win-
dow context-menu, or “Use high-quality video settings 
when available” in the Device Setup dialog, Video Player 
page, in the Video Properties section for QuickTime).
When your QuickTime video was recorded with the cor-
responding quality settings, selecting the “Use high-qual-
ity video settings when available” or the “High Quality” 
option will make the video display sharper and smoother. 
Note that this will also lead to increased processor load.
Video playback preferences
In the Preferences (Event Display–Video page), there are 
two options for video playback:
Show Video Thumbnails.
When this is activated, thumbnail frames of the video contents are shown 
in the track.
Video Cache Size.
This determines how much memory is available for video thumbnails. If 
you have long video clips and/or work with a large zoom factor (so that a 
lot of frames are shown in the thumbnails), you may have to raise this 
value.
Playing back a video file
Video files are displayed as events/clips on the video 
track, with thumbnails representing the frames in the film 
(if the option Show Video Thumbnails is activated in the 
Preferences, Event Display–Video page).
A video event on a video track
In the Track list and Inspector, you will find the following 
controls for video tracks:
To view the video on the computer screen (as opposed to 
on an external monitor, see below), proceed as follows:
If you’re running Mac OS X, open the Device Setup dia-
log from the Devices menu, click “Video Player” in the list 
and make sure “Onscreen Window” is selected in the 
Video Output section of the dialog. 
Under Windows, either pull down the Devices menu 
and select Video, or use a key command – by default [F8], 
or double-click the video clip.
A video window appears. In Stop mode, this displays the video frame at 
the project cursor position.
The video will be played back together with any other 
events in the Project window as usual.
Playing back video without any hardware
For the DirectShow video player, open the Device Setup 
dialog from the Devices menu, click Video Player in the De-
vices list and use the buttons in the Video Properties sec-
tion to select a size or right-click in the video window to 
switch to full screen. Right-click again to exit full screen.
For the QuickTime player (Windows and Mac), you can 
drag the borders, just like resizing other windows. You can 
also right-click in the video window to open the Video win-
dow context menu and select one of the Size options. 
There is also a Full Screen Mode available in the menu. 
Right-click again or press the [Esc] key on your computer 
keyboard to exit full screen mode.
ÖPlaying back video on your computer screen puts a limit 
on the size of the video window as well as the image quality.
!QuickTime as a video playback engine is available 
only if you have QuickTime 7.1 (or higher) installed 
on your computer. If you do not have QuickTime, or if 
a version lower than 7.1 is installed, this option will 
not be available in Cubase.
Button Description
Lock When this is activated, the video event will be locked, see 
“Locking events” on page 48.
Show Frame 
NumbersWhen this is activated, each thumbnail is shown with the 
corresponding video frame number.
Snap 
ThumbnailsWhen this is activated, the individual thumbnail images 
will be positioned exactly at their respective start time po-
sition. Also, no more than one thumbnail per frame will be 
shown, even if you zoom in a lot.
Mute Video When this is activated, video playback will be stopped, 
but playback of any other events in the project will con-
tinue (to decrease the processor load). You may have to 
use the Track Controls Settings dialog to make this but-
ton visible in the Track list. 
						

							448
Video
Playing back video file using video hardware
Under Windows, multi-head graphics cards that support 
overlay functionality can be used to display the video pic-
ture on an external TV or computer monitor in full screen 
mode. The manufacturers nVIDIA and Matrox have work-
ing (and tested) solutions available. Check the card’s do-
cumentation for information on how it handles video 
output and how to set it up for multi-monitor display.
For Apple computers equipped with a FireWire port, you 
can easily connect external video hardware via this, as 
OS X has built-in video support for the most common for-
mats (NTSC/PAL/DVCPRO). FireWire is capable of high 
data-transfer speed and is the most common standard for 
communicating with video-related peripheral equipment. 
To play back a video file via hardware connected to the 
FireWire port, select “FireWire” in the Outputs pop-up of 
the Device Setup–Video Player dialog. When FireWire is 
selected as output, a number of format options appear on 
the Format pop-up, allowing you to select between vari-
ous video formats and resolutions.
Operations
Importing a video file
Video files are imported in the same manner as audio files.
By using the File menu (Import–Video File).
By using drag and drop from the Windows Explorer/
Mac OS Finder, the Pool or the MediaBay.
This requires that a video track has been added to the Project and that 
you drop the video file onto this track.
By importing the file to the Pool first and then dragging 
it into the Project window (see the chapter “The Pool” on 
page 260 for details).
Please note the following:
 You can only have one video track in each project. The Video 
track is added like other tracks in the Project window by using 
the Add Track submenu on the Project menu. If a project does 
not contain a video track when you import a video file via File–
Import–Video file, this is added automatically.
 All video files on the track must be of the same size and com-
pression format. The Import dialog has an option for extracting the audio from a 
video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page 
450) and for generating a thumbnail cache file for the video 
file, see below.
Video import preferences
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Video page), there are 
two options that affect the import of video files:
Extract Audio on Import Video File
When this is activated, the audio will automatically be extracted and im-
ported into the project when you import a video file. This way, the audio 
will also be included when you insert a video e.g. by using drag and drop. 
When you import video files by using the File menu, you can activate this 
option separately for each imported video file on the Import dialog.
Generate Thumbnail Cache on Import Video File
When this is activated, a thumbnail cache file will be created automati-
cally when you import a video file. This is handy, as a cache file will also 
be created when you import a video file using drag and drop. When you 
import video files by using the File menu, you can activate this option 
separately for each imported video file on the Import dialog, see below.
Advantage of thumbnail cache files
ÖTo display video thumbnails in the Project window, the 
option “Show Video Thumbnails” has to be activated in 
the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Video page).
When working with video in Cubase, video files are dis-
played as events/clips on the video track with thumbnails 
representing the frames in the film. These are calculated in 
realtime, i. e. they have to be redrawn during scrolling or 
moving. As this consumes quite a lot of processor power, 
reaction sometimes may be sluggish. To remedy this, you 
can generate a thumbnail cache file.
The cache file is used in situations where the processor 
load is very high and the correct redrawing or realtime cal-
culation might use system resources necessary for editing 
or processing. When the cache file is used and you zoom 
in on the thumbnails, you will see that they are in a lower 
resolution, i. e. the pictures are not as clean as when they 
are calculated. When the processes that rely heavily on the 
computer CPU are finished, the frames will be automati-
cally recalculated, i.e. the program automatically switches 
between realtime calculation of the pictures and using the 
cache file. 
						

							449
Video
The generated thumbnail cache file will be stored in the 
same folder as the video file and will get the name of the 
file with the suffix “.videocache”.
Generating thumbnail cache files during video import
A thumbnail cache file will be created automatically before 
the file is inserted in the Project window, if:
the option “Generate Thumbnail Cache” in the Import 
Video dialog is activated, when you click “Open”.
you activated “Generate Thumbnail Cache on Import 
Video File” in the Preferences (Editing–Video page). 
A window will be displayed, showing you the progress 
and the estimated time for the process.
The thumbnail cache file is being created.
After the cache file is created, the window will be closed 
and the video clip is inserted as usual. When you now 
start video playback and perform processor consuming 
operations, the thumbnail file is used to display the video 
frames in the Project window. When enough processor 
power is available, the “real” calculated thumbnail frames 
are displayed again.
Generating thumbnail cache files from within the Pool
When you have video files without thumbnail cache files 
(e.g. if you did not create a thumbnail cache file during im-
port or if you are working with an older project), you al-
ways have the possibility to generate the thumbnail cache 
file at a later stage. This is done from within the Pool.Proceed as follows:
1.Open the Pool window and locate the video file you 
want to create a thumbnail cache file for.
2.Right-click the file to open the context menu and se-
lect “Generate Thumbnail Cache”, or select “Generate 
Thumbnail Cache” from the Media menu.
Just as when creating the file during import, the status window opens 
(see above).
After the file is created, the window will be closed and the 
thumbnail cache file is used when necessary, i.e. under 
high load.
Editing a video file
Video clips are played back by events just as audio clips 
are. You can use all the basic editing operations on video 
events, just as with audio events. The following operations 
are not possible on the video track:
Drawing, Gluing, and Scrubbing.
Note that when you activate the Mute button for a video track, the video 
playback will be stopped, but playback of any other Project events will 
continue. See below.
The video track has no editor and does not make use of 
parts.
Cubase allows you to cut, copy, paste and trim video 
events, i. e. your video track may contain more than one 
video event. However, when using the DirectShow video 
player (Windows only), you may find that only the first event 
on the video track is played back correctly. In such a case 
make sure that the video track contains no more than one 
video event.
Under Windows, you may find that you are unable to 
edit a video file copied from a CD. This is because files 
copied from CD are write protected by default. Right-click 
the file, and deactivate the “Read-Only” option in the File 
Properties dialog.
!Please note that the cache file will not be automati-
cally updated if a video file is edited. Whenever you 
change a video file (e.g. in a video editing applica-
tion), you need to create a new thumbnail cache file 
manually, as described above. (To refresh the “real” 
thumbnails of an edited video file, resize the video 
track so that they are calculated again.) 
						

							450
Video
When you have a video file in a format not supported by 
Cubase, use an external application to convert the file to a 
format that Cubase can import.
Extracting audio from a video file
If a video file contains audio, it can be extracted. Regard-
less of the audio format in the actual file, the resulting au-
dio file will always be in the format (Sample Rate and 
Record Format) that is specified for the Project in the Pro-
ject Setup dialog.
There are several ways to extract audio from a video file:
By activating “Extract Audio” in the Import Video dialog.
This will add the audio on the active or on a new audio track. The new 
track and the clip will get the name of the video file. The new audio event 
will start at the same time as the video event, so that they are in sync with 
each other.
By activating “Extract Audio on Import Video File” in the 
Preferences (Editing–Video page).
This will automatically extract the corresponding audio from a video file 
during import. This is also true if you import files using drag and drop.
By using “Import Audio from Video File” from the File–
Import submenu.
This will add the audio to the currently active or a new audio track. How-
ever, in this case no video clip is created, only an audio event (starting at 
the project cursor position).
By using “Extract Audio from Video File” from the Media 
menu.
When a video file is selected in the pool, the audio is extracted and 
added to the Pool as a clip. When no video file is selected, the “Import 
audio tracks from video” dialog is opened, in which you can select a 
video file from which the audio data is to be extracted and imported into 
the project.
ÖPlease note audio extraction is not possible for Quick-
Time video files containing compressed audio.
Replacing the audio in a video file
Cubase has a special function for replacing the audio in a 
video file:
1.Pull down the File menu and select “Replace Audio in 
Video File…”.
2.In the file dialog that appears, locate and select the 
video file on your hard disk and click Open.
A new file dialog appears.
3.Locate and select the audio file that you want to insert 
into the video file and click Open.
The audio is added to the video file, replacing its current audio track
(if any).
By combining the functions Extract Audio, Export Audio 
Mixdown and Replace Audio in Video File, you can create 
a completely new audio track for a video file.