Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual
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Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling Thanks to: Ashley Shepherd The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica - tion may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows 7 is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under li - cense. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. MP3SURROUND and the MP3SURROUND logo are registered trademarks of Thomson SA, registered in the US and other countries, and are used under license from Thomson Licensing SAS. Release Date: December 16, 2010 © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2010. All rights reserved.
4 Table of Contents 11Part I: Getting into the details 12About this manual 13Welcome! 14Setting up your system 15Setting up audio 20Setting up MIDI 22Connecting a synchronizer 22Setting up video 22Optimizing audio performance 25VST Connections 26About this chapter 26The VST Connections window 26Setting up busses 29Setting up group and FX channels 30About monitoring 30External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 34Editing operations 36The Project window 37Window Overview 39The track list 39The Inspector 42The toolbar 43The status line 43The info line 44The overview line 44The ruler 45The Snap function 47Auto-Scroll 48Working with projects 49Creating new projects 50Opening projects 50Closing projects 50Saving projects 52The Archive and Backup functions 54Startup Options 54The Project Setup dialog 56Zoom and view options 58Audio handling 58Auditioning audio parts and events 59Scrubbing audio 59Editing parts and events 66Range editing 68Region operations 68The Edit History dialog 69The Preferences dialog 71Working with tracks and lanes 72Setting up tracks 74Editing tracks 76Working with lanes 79Organizing tracks in folder tracks 81Dividing the track list 82Playback and the Transport panel 83Background 84Operations 86Options and Settings 88The Virtual Keyboard 89Recording 90Background 90Basic recording methods 92Audio recording specifics 100MIDI recording specifics 105Options and Settings 108Quantizing MIDI and audio 109Introduction 110Quantize functions 110Advanced Quantize functions 111The Quantize Panel 114Quantizing multiple audio tracks (Cubase only)
5 Table of Contents 117Fades, crossfades and envelopes 118Creating fades 120The Fade dialogs 121Creating crossfades 121The Crossfade dialog 122Auto fades and crossfades 123Event envelopes 124The arranger track 125Introduction 125Setting up the arranger track 126Working with arranger events 128Flattening the arranger chain 129Live mode 130Arranging your music to video 131The transpose functions 132Introduction 132Transposing your music 135Other functions 138Using markers 139Introduction 139The Marker window 141The marker track 143Marker key commands 143Exporting and importing markers 145The Mixer 146Overview 148Configuring the Mixer 152Basic mixing procedures 155Audio-specific procedures 164Routing 166MIDI-specific procedures 167Utilities 169VST Mixer Diagrams 172Control Room (Cubase only) 173Virtual Control Room – The concept 173Configuring the Control Room 177The Control Room Mixer 182Studios and Studio Sends 185The Control Room Overview 186Direct Monitoring and latency 187Audio effects 188About this chapter 188Overview 189Insert effects 194Send effects 198Using the side-chain input 200Using external effects (Cubase only) 200Editing effects 200Effect presets 203Installing and managing effect plug-ins 206VST instruments and instrument tracks 207Introduction 207VST instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 207VST instrument channels 209Instrument tracks 211What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track? 211Instrument Freeze 212VST instruments and processor load 212Using presets for VSTi configuration 215About latency 216External instruments (Cubase only) 217Surround sound (Cubase only) 218Introduction 219Preparations 220Using the SurroundPanner V5 226Exporting a surround mix 227Automation 228Introduction 228Working with automation curves 228Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data 229Writing automation data 230Editing automation events 232Automation track operations 235The Automation panel (Cubase only) 241Automation Preferences 241Hints and further options 241MIDI controller automation
6 Table of Contents 244Audio processing and functions 245Background 245Audio processing 253Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 254The Offline Process History dialog 255Freeze Edits 256Detect Silence 257The Spectrum Analyzer 259Statistics 259About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms 261The Sample Editor 262Window overview 266General functions 272Warping audio 276Working with hitpoints and slices 281VariAudio (Cubase only) 292Flattening realtime processing 294The Audio Part Editor 295Background 295Opening the Audio Part Editor 295Window overview 296Operations 298Options and Settings 299The Pool 300Background 300Window overview 302Operations 311The MediaBay 312Introduction 313Working with the MediaBay 314The Define Locations section 315The Locations section 316The Results list 318Previewing files 321The Filters section 323The Attribute Inspector 327The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini Browser windows 327Preferences 328Key commands 328Working with MediaBay-related windows 329Working with Volume databases 331Working with track presets 332Introduction 332Types of track presets 333Applying track presets 335Creating a track preset 336Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets 337Track Quick Controls 338Introduction 338Assigning parameters to quick controls 339Connecting quick controls with remote controllers 340Quick controls and automatable parameters 342Remote controlling Cubase 343Introduction 343Setting Up 344Operations 345The Generic Remote device 347Track Quick Controls 347Apple Remote (Macintosh only) 348MIDI realtime parameters and effects 349Introduction 349The Inspector – general handling 349The Inspector sections 353MIDI effects 355Managing plug-ins 356Using MIDI devices 357Background 357MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 362About Device panels (Cubase only) 364About Studio Connections 366MIDI processing 367Introduction 368Making your settings permanent 369Dissolve Part 370Bounce MIDI 370Repeat Loop 371Other MIDI functions
7 Table of Contents 374The MIDI editors 375Introduction 375Opening a MIDI editor 377The Key Editor – Overview 380Key Editor operations 396The In-Place Editor 397The Drum Editor – Overview 398Drum Editor operations 400Working with drum maps 403Using drum name lists 404The List Editor – Overview 405List Editor operations 407Working with SysEx messages 409Recording SysEx parameter changes 409Editing SysEx messages 411The basic Score Editor – Overview 412Score Editor operations 419Expression maps (Cubase only) 420Introduction 421Using expression maps in Cubase 424Creating and editing expression maps 428Note Expression (Cubase only) 429Introduction 430Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab 431Mapping controllers 432Recording 434Editing Note Expression data 437Note Expression and MIDI 439HALion Sonic SE 440The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer 441Introduction 441Opening the Logical Editor 442Window overview 442Setting up filter conditions 447Selecting a function 447Specifying actions 450Applying the defined actions 450Working with presets 450The Input Transformer 452The Project Logical Editor (Cubase only) 453Introduction 453Opening the Project Logical Editor 453Window overview 454Setting up filter conditions 458Specifying actions 460Selecting a function 460Applying Macros 460Applying the defined actions 460Working with presets 462Editing tempo and signature 463Background 463Tempo and signature display 465Editing tempo and signature 467Process Tempo (Cubase only) 467The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 468The Beat Calculator 469Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase only) 469The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 473Tempo Detection (Cubase only) 476Adjusting the audio to the project tempo 477The Project Browser (Cubase only) 478Window Overview 479Editing tracks 484Export Audio Mixdown 485Introduction 485Mixing down to audio files 486The Export Audio Mixdown dialog 489The available file formats 493Synchronization 494Background 494Timecode (positional references) 496Clock sources (speed references) 496The Project Synchronization Setup dialog 500Synchronized operation 500Example scenarios (Cubase only) 501Working with VST System Link 503Activating VST System Link
8 Table of Contents 509Video 510Introduction 510Before you start 511Preparing a video project in Cubase 513Video files in the Project window 514Playing back video 516Editing video 516Extracting audio from a video file 516Replacing the audio in a video file 517ReWire 518Introduction 518Launching and quitting 519Activating ReWire channels 519Using the transport and tempo controls 520How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase 520Routing MIDI via ReWire2 520Considerations and limitations 521File handling 522Importing audio 525Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 527Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 529Exporting and importing MIDI loops 529Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase only) 531Customizing 532Background 532Workspaces 534Using the Setup options 535Customizing track controls 536Appearance 537Applying colors in the Project window 539Where are the settings stored? 541Key commands 542Introduction 542Setting up key commands 545Setting up tool modifier keys 546The default key commands 550Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only) 551How the Score Editor works 552About this chapter 552Welcome! 552How the Score Editor operates 552MIDI notes vs. score notes 553Display Quantize 555Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes 556The basics 557About this chapter 557Preparations 557Opening the Score Editor 557The project cursor 557Playing back and recording 558Page Mode 558Changing the zoom factor 559The active staff 559Making page setup settings 559Designing your work space 561About the Score Editor context menus 561About dialogs in the Score Editor 562Setting clef, key, and time signature 565Transposing instruments 566Printing from the Score Editor 566Exporting pages as image files 567Working order 567Force update 568Transcribing MIDI recordings 569About this chapter 569About transcription 569Getting the parts ready 569Preparing parts for score printout 570Staff settings 570Situations which require additional techniques 571Inserting Display Quantize changes 572The Explode function 572Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
9 Table of Contents 573Entering and editing notes 574About this chapter 574Score settings 575Note values and positions 576Adding and editing notes 578Selecting notes 579Moving notes 580Duplicating notes 580Cut, copy, and paste 581Editing pitches of individual notes 582Changing the length of notes 582Splitting a note in two 583Working with the Display Quantize tool 583Split (piano) staves 583Strategies: Multiple staves 584Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures 585Deleting notes 586Staff settings 587About this chapter 587Staff settings 587Making settings 587Working with staff presets 588Staff names 588Key and clef 588Display Quantize and Interpretation Options 591Display Transpose 591The Options tab 592The Polyphonic tab 592The Tablature tab 593Polyphonic voicing 594About this chapter 594Background: Polyphonic voicing 595Setting up the voices 597Strategies: How many voices do I need? 597Entering notes into voices 597Checking which voice a note belongs to 598Moving notes between voices 599Handling rests 599Voices and Display Quantize 600Creating crossed voicings 601Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 602Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 603Additional note and rest formatting 604About this chapter 604Background: Note stems 604Setting stem direction 605Stem length 606Accidentals and enharmonic shift 606Changing the note head shape 607Other note details 608Coloring notes 608Copying settings between notes 608Handling beaming 612About tied notes 614Graphic moving of notes 614Cue notes 615Grace notes 616Tuplets 618Working with symbols 619About this chapter 619Background: The different layers 620The Symbols Inspector 621Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices 622Adding symbols to the score 628Selecting symbols 629Moving and duplicating symbols 632Changing length, size, and shape 633Deleting symbols 633Copy and paste 633Alignment 634Symbol details 640Working with chords 641About this chapter 641Inserting Chord symbols 643Global chord settings 645Working with text 646About this chapter 646Adding and editing text symbols 648Different types of text 652Text functions
10 Table of Contents 655Working with layouts 656About this chapter 656Background: Layouts 656Creating a layout 656Opening a layout 656Layout operations 657Using layouts – an example 658Marker Track to Form 659Working with MusicXML 660Introduction 661Importing and exporting MusicXML files 663Designing your score: additional techniques 664About this chapter 664Layout settings 665Staff size 665Hiding/showing objects 666Coloring notes 667Multiple rests 667Editing bar lines 668Creating upbeats 669Setting the number of bars across the page 670Moving bar lines 670Dragging staves 672Adding brackets and braces 672Auto Layout 674Reset Layout 674Breaking bar lines 676Scoring for drums 677About this chapter 677Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 677Setting up the drum map 679Setting up a staff for drum scoring 679Entering and editing notes 679Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 680Creating tablature 681About this chapter 681Creating tablature automatically 682Creating tablature manually 682Tablature number appearance 683Editing 683Note head shape 684The score and MIDI playback 685About this chapter 685Scores and the Arranger mode 685Working with mapped dynamics 688Tips and Tricks 689Overview 689Useful editing techniques 690Frequently asked questions 692If you wish you had a faster computer 693Index