Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

24
The MediaBay 

312
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. Cubase features an efficient database for 
media file management that allows you to handle all your media files from within your sequencer program. 
 
The MediaBay is divided into several sections:
• Define Locations – Here, you can create “presets” for locations 
on your system that you...

313
The MediaBay
Proceed as follows:
1.Click the “Set up Window Layout” button in the lower 
left corner of the MediaBay window.
A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a 
gray area containing checkboxes for the different sections.
2.Deactivate the checkboxes for the sections you want 
to hide from view. 
Any changes you make here are directly reflected in the MediaBay window. 
Note that the Results list cannot be hidden.
ÖYou can also use key commands for this: use the...

314
The MediaBay
The Define Locations section
When you open the MediaBay for the first time, a scan for 
media files is performed on your system. You specify which 
folders or directories you want to be included in the scan by 
activating/deactivating the checkboxes for the folders in the 
Define Locations section. Depending on the amount of me
-
dia files on your computer, the scan may take a while. All 
files that are found in the specified folders are shown in the 
Results list.
•To include a folder...

315
The MediaBay
Updating the display
You can update the display in two ways: by rescanning or 
by refreshing.
Rescanning
When you click the Rescan button, the selected folder is 
rescanned. If a folder contains a large number of media 
files, the scanning process may take some time. Use this 
function if you have made changes to the content of spe
-
cific media folders and want to scan these folders again.
ÖYou can also rescan the selected folder by right-click-
ing on it and selecting Rescan Disk from...

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The MediaBay
•To select the parent folder of the selected folder, click 
the “Browse Containing Folder” button.
•To remove a location from the pop-up menu, select it 
and click the “Remove Browse Location Definition” button.
•To show the files contained in the selected folder and 
any subfolders (without showing these subfolders), acti
-
vate the Deep Results button.
When this button is deactivated, only the folders and files contained in 
the selected folder are shown.
The Results list
The Results...

317
The MediaBay
Setting up the Results list columns
For each media type, or for combinations of media types, 
you can specify the attribute columns that are displayed in 
the Results list. In most cases, you will probably only want 
to display a few main attributes in the Results list and use 
the Attribute Inspector to view the complete list of attribute 
values for the files.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the media type (or combination of media types) 
that you want to make settings for.
2.Click the...

318
The MediaBay
The rating slider
Using the rating slider above the Results list, you can 
specify rating settings for your files, ranging from 1 to 5. 
This makes it possible to exclude certain files from the 
search according to their quality.
When you move the rating slider, the active rating filter is 
indicated in red. All files of this rating are displayed in the 
list.
The search in progress indicator
At the top right in the Results list you will find an indicator 
which shows whether the...

319
The MediaBay
The elements visible in this section and their functions 
depend on the type of media file.
Previewing audio files
To preview an audio file, click the Play button. What hap-
pens next depends on the following settings:
•When “Auto Play New Results Selection” is activated, 
any file you select in the Results list is automatically played 
back.
•When “Align Beats to Project” is activated, the file you 
selected for preview in the Results list is played back in 
sync with the project,...

320
The MediaBay
Previewing presets using a MIDI file
Proceed as follows:
1.On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select “Load 
MIDI File”.
2.In the file dialog that opens, navigate to the desired 
MIDI file, and click Open.
The name of the MIDI file is displayed on the pop-up menu.
3.Click the Play button to the left of the pop-up menu.
The notes received from the MIDI file are now played back with the settings 
of the track preset applied.
ÖThe recently used MIDI files are kept on the menu, for 
quick...