Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

191
Audio effects
•To bypass all inserts for a track, click the “Bypass In-
serts” button. 
This button can be found on the right of the title bar 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...

192
Audio effects
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.
• A line that passes through the effect (with no square input/
output indicators) represent a bypass connection – the audio 
on that speaker channel...

193
Audio effects
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
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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...

194
Audio effects
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 reach a point where the computer cannot 
play back the track properly (the CPU overload indicator 
in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crack
-
ling sounds, etc.).
To remedy this, you can freeze the track, by clicking the 
Freeze button in the Inspector.
•The Freeze Channel Options dialog...

195
Audio effects
Setting up send effects
Adding an FX channel track
1.Pull down the Project menu, open the “Add Track” 
submenu and select “FX Channel”.
A dialog opens.
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 also leave the plug-in 
pop-up menu set to “No Effect” and add effects to the FX channel later....

196
Audio effects
•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.
To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to 
use.
•You can bypass individual effects (or all effects) by 
clicking the corresponding Bypass button(s) for the FX 
channel track.
See...

197
Audio effects
•In the Fader section of the Channel Settings window, 
select the FX channel from the pop-up menu and adjust 
its effect return level.
By adjusting the return level, you control the amount of the signal sent 
from the FX channel to the output bus.
Setting the effect return level.
6.If you want the signal to be sent to the FX channel be-
fore the audio channel’s volume fader in the Mixer, click on 
the Pre-Fader button for the send so that it lights up.
A send set to pre-fader mode....

198
Audio effects
•To use the pan control as a crossfader, determining the 
balance between the stereo sides when the stereo send 
signal is mixed to mono, route a send from a stereo chan
-
nel to a mono FX channel track.
•To use the surround panner to position the send signal 
in the surround image, route a send from a mono or stereo 
channel to an FX channel track in surround format.
You set up send panning in the following way:
1.Open the Channel Settings window for the audio 
channel.
2.Right-click...

199
Audio effects
3.Open the Inserts tab for the first Vocal track in the In-
spector and select “PingPongDelay” from the Effects 
pop-up menu.
The control panel for the effect opens.
4.On the control panel for the effect, make the desired 
effect settings and activate the Side-Chain button.
Try out the effect settings to find out which settings will work best with 
your project. For detailed descriptions of the parameters, see the sepa
-
rate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
5.In the track list, select...

200
Audio effects
About drag & drop
When you drag effects from one insert slot to another (on 
the same channel or between different channels), the fol
-
lowing applies:
• When you move an effect within a channel (e. g. from slot 4 to 
slot 6), the side-chain connections will be kept.
• When you drag and drop an effect between two channels, the 
side-chain connections will not be kept.
• When copying an effect into another effect slot (for the same 
or a different channel), the side-chain connections...