Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual
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181 Control Room (Cubase only) Inserts for the Talkback channel The Talkback channel has a separate set of eight inserts. In order to view and adjust them, the Talkback must be en - abled via the TALK button located in the bottom right sec- tion of the Control Room Mixer. Click once on the TALK button to activate the Talkback system. The inserts for ex - ternal inputs are now replaced with the Talkback inserts. Once the Talkback is disabled, the view reverts to external input inserts. Monitor inserts Each Monitor channel has a set of eight inserts, all of which are post Control Room fader. The Monitor inserts are most useful for surround decoding or brickwall limiting to protect sensitive monitor speakers. The Main Mix and the Control Room channel The channel configuration of the Main Mix determines the channel configuration of the Control Room channel. Switching between a project that has a stereo Main Mix to a project that has a 5.1 Main Mix will cause the Control Room channel in the Control Room Mixer to change from a stereo to a 5.1 configuration. The Control Room configuration also determines the lay- out of the Speaker Solo panel. If the channel is stereo, the solo panel only contains a left and a right speaker. Any external input that has more channels than the Main Mix will not be heard correctly when routed to the Control Room channel. Only the channels available will be heard. ÖIf a 5.1 external input is routed to a stereo Control Room channel, only the left and right channels are heard even if a 5.1 Monitor is selected. Only two channels can be routed through a stereo Control Room channel. Suggested settings With all the versatility that the Control Room provides there are also opportunities for confusion when first set - ting up the Control Room. The following list contains sug- gestions that can help to quickly set up the Control Room and get started for recording and mixing. • If you do not have a master recording device and only use the Export Mixdown function to create final mix files, set your Main Mix output to “Not Assigned”. This eliminates many confusing errors and unpredictable behavior since outputs and Control Room Monitors can share hardware outputs. The Main Mix is automatically routed to the Control Room channel and will not be affected. • Create one stereo Monitor to familiarize yourself with the Con- trol Room level controls, DIM settings, the Listen bus, and other monitoring features. Once you have become acquainted with some of these functions, create additional Monitors for every set of speakers you intend to use. • Use the inserts on Monitor channels for surround decoding and bass management plug-ins among other things. • Use the inserts on the Control Room channel for metering and spectral analysis plug-ins. All solos including the Listen bus will come through the Control Room channel allowing analysis of individual sounds. • A brickwall limiter in the last insert of the Control Room chan- nel can prevent accidental overloads and damage to speaker systems. • Use the inserts for the Talkback channel to control the dynam- ics of the talkback microphone. This will help protect perform- ers’ hearing and ensure that everyone can be heard over the talkback microphone. • Use the Gain settings on the external inputs to level balance CD players and other sources to the Main Mix level for A/B comparisons. • Use the Gain settings on each Monitor to level balance all your monitor systems. Switching between sets of speakers will re - sult in the same playback volume. • Use the calibrated Control Room level for film or DVD mixing. Set this level to the proper speaker volume as determined by the mixing standard you choose to follow. !You can easily identify the inserts for the Talkback since they have six pre-fader and two post-fader in - serts while the external inputs only have six pre-fader inserts. If the Control Room Mixer is fully expanded, the name displayed at the very top of the Mixer re - flects which channel is currently visible in the ex- tended panel.
182 Control Room (Cubase only) Control Room preferences There are several preferences for the Control Room Mixer. These are found in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). Most of these preferences deal with what options are visi- ble in the Control Room Mixer. This allows you to custom- ize the layout of the Mixer and only have the controls visible that you use the most. The other preferences have the following functionality: •Show Control Room Volume in Transport Panel This option makes the small fader at the right-hand side of the Transport panel control the Control Room level. When this option is not activated (or the Control Room is disabled), that fader controls the level of the Main Mix bus. •Disable Talkback during Recording This option deactivates the Talkback channel when the transport enters record mode. It is advisable to set the Talkback DIM level to 0 dB when using this feature so as not to radically change the mix level when punch -ing in and out of record mode. •Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel When activated, the Headphone output is used for Preview options such as import preview, scrubbing, offline process preview and certain Sam- ple Editor operations. Note that when using the Headphones output for preview, the Control Room channel will no longer output preview audio. •Dim Studio during Talkback When this option is enabled, the cue mix heard in a Studio will be dimmed (by the amount set in the Talkback Dim Level field (below the TALK button) for as long as the Talkback channel is used. When dis - abled, the cue mix level remains the same during Talkback. •Exclusive Device Ports for Monitor Channels When activated, the port assignment for Monitor channels is exclusive (see “Exclusive assignment of Monitor channels” on page 175). •Reference Level This setting determines the Control Room level used when the Refer- ence Level button is activated. •Main Dim Volume This is the amount of gain reduction applied to the Control Room chan- nel when the DIM button is activated. Studios and Studio Sends Studio Sends are displayed in the Cubase Project Mixer and the Inspector. Each Studio Send is intended for the creation of a discrete cue mix for performers to listen to during recording. Studio Sends are essentially stereo aux sends that are routed to Studio outputs in the Control Room Mixer. There are up to four Studios and Studio Sends available. Configuring Studio Sends Studio Sends only become available when a Studio chan- nel has been created in the VST Connections window. Otherwise they remain grayed out. For every Studio de - fined in the VST Connections, each channel in the Project Mixer has an additional aux send with level, pan and pre/ post-fader selection. This aux send is used to create a mix for a performer to listen to while recording. •In the Project Mixer, the Studio Sends are accessed by choosing the Studio Sends option from the View options pop-up menu in each channel or by clicking the star icon (“Show Studio Sends”) on the common panel of the ex - tended Project Mixer. The Studio Sends view in the Project Mixer
183 Control Room (Cubase only) •In the Inspector, a Studio Sends tab can be found. This displays all Studio Sends for the selected track. Please note that not all Inspector sections are available by default. To show/hide a section, right-click on an Inspector section and select/dese - lect the corresponding option on the context menu. The Studio Sends tab in the Inspector Each Studio can have a unique name in order to help identify what it is being used for. For example, the four Studios could be named as follows: • Vocalist Mix • Guitarist Mix •Bassist Mix • Drummer’s Mix The name of each Studio is displayed in the Control Room Mixer. To hear the Studio Sends mix in the Studio output, the input selector for each Studio must be set to “Aux”. Setting up a Studio cue mix The Studio Sends are very flexible. There are several ways to create a cue mix for each Studio in a very fast and effi - cient manner. Simple “more me” mixes and more complex discrete mixes are easily accommodated by the Studio Sends. Using fader and pan settings from the Project Mixer You can create a cue mix from the fader and pan levels al- ready used in the Project Mixer and then alter them to meet the needs of an individual performer. You can do this with any single channel or group of channels at any time. To copy fader and pan information from the main mix, pro- ceed as follows: 1.In the Project Mixer, select all the channels that you wish to copy settings from. The following operations affect only selected channels. 2.In the Control Room Mixer, right-click anywhere on a Studio channel strip to open the context menu that has the Studio’s name as a submenu. This submenu contains all the Studio Send functions for that Studio. If you open the context menu outside of a Studio channel strip, the sub- menu will be for All Studios. A Studio channel in the Control Room Mixer with its input set to Aux.
184 Control Room (Cubase only) The Control Room Mixer’s context menu 3.Choose the “Use Current Mix Levels” option to copy the fader levels on the selected tracks to the Studio Sends. This option sets all Studio Send levels for the selected tracks to the same level as the main channel fader. It also changes the Studio Send status to pre-fader so that changes in the main mix do not affect the Stu - dio Sends. 4.Choose the “Use Current Pan Settings” option to copy pan information from the main mix to the Studio Sends on selected tracks. Studio Sends are either mono or stereo. If the Send is mono, the pan setting will still be copied. However, the output of the Studio Send will be a sum of the left and right channels. 5.Choose the “Enable Studio Sends” option to activate the Sends on selected channels. By default, Studio Sends are not enabled even when level and pan infor-mation is copied to them. You must enable them in order to hear the Stu- dio cue mix. By copying the level and pan information from the main mix to the Studio Sends, a rough balance can be created in a matter of moments. Next, you may alter the level and pan settings on any channel’s Studio Sends to change the mix to meet the performer’s needs. This may require in - creasing the volume of the performer herself. This is often referred to as a “more me” mix. Adjusting the overall Studio Send level Levels in the main mix are often optimized for the loudest signal level possible without clipping. However, when you are creating a “more me” mix, you may find that there is not enough headroom available in the Studio Send to turn up channels without clipping becoming a possibility. Fortunately, the Studio Sends have an option to adjust multiple send levels at the same time, allowing you to keep the blend intact while lowering the overall volume to make room for “more me” signals. Once you have created a Studio Send mix, proceed as follows to adjust their relative levels: 1.Select all the channels you wish to modify. Only selected channels are affected by the context menu commands. 2.Right-click anywhere on the Studio channel strip in the Control Room Mixer to open the context menu for that Studio channel. You may also use the context menu outside of the Studio channel strip to adjust all four Studio Sends on the selected channels at the same time. 3.Choose the “Change Studio Sends Level” option from the Studio submenu. This will bring up a gain window with a checkbox that reads “Relative Mode”. Make sure this is activated if you want to adjust already existing levels. 4.Either use the up and down arrow buttons or click on the numeric readout to display a pop-up fader and adjust the gain as necessary. The level of all selected Studio Sends will be adjusted by the amount shown here. For example, if the amount reads -3 dB, each Studio Send level is reduced by 3 dB. 5.Click OK to change the level. It is possible to view these changes as they occur if you have the Project Mixer open and the extended view set to show the Studio Sends. !If you deactivate the Relative Mode option, all Studio Sends are set to the same absolute level. While the dialog window is still open, you may activate the Rel- ative Mode checkbox again and reload the previous relative levels. Only when you click OK, the level set- tings are made permanent. Clicking Cancel returns all send levels to their previous settings.
185 Control Room (Cubase only) Using Studio Sends from outputs Each output also has Studio Sends. Studio Sends from the Main Mix output can be used to route the main mix in - stantly to the Studio output. Any level changes made to the main mix are reflected in the signal sent by the Studio Send. Setting the level lower than 0 dB can leave headroom for “more me” signals in the Studio channel output. Post-Fader Studio Sends It is also possible to use the Studio Sends as post-fader aux sends. This is another way for the cue mix to follow changes made to the Main Mix. The Reset function is very helpful in this regard. To reset the Studio Sends to the post-fader default level of -6 dB, proceed as follows: 1.Select all the channels you wish to reset. Studio Send commands only work on selected channels. 2.On the Studio channel strip right-click to open the context menu. In the Studio submenu, select the “Reset Studio Sends” command. If you open the context menu in other areas of the Control Room Mixer besides the Studio channel strips, the context menu commands will af - fect all Studios at the same time. 3.Selecting the “Reset Studio Sends” option changes the Send level of all selected channels to -6 dB and sets the signal source to post-fader. The -6 dB level is designed to allow for headroom for “more me” signals in the Studio outputs. Once all Studio Sends have been set to -6 dB, post-fader, any changes to the main mix will also change the Studio mix. For “more me” channels, simply turn up the level on that channel or even set the signal to pre-fader for abso - lute control. Studio Send cue mix summary Using various combinations of the above techniques al- lows you to create complex discrete cue mixes for per- formers in very little time. Modifications to these mixes can occur in the Project Mixer or the Inspector, giving you the most accessibility for quick changes. To familiarize yourself with how the Studio Sends work, open the extended Project Mixer and set the view to the Studio Sends. Follow the above examples and watch how the Studio Sends react to various commands. This should help you get a feel for how they function and increase the workflow productivity of recording sessions. The Control Room Overview You can access the Control Room Overview from the De- vices menu. The Control Room Overview is designed to display the current configuration of the Control Room. The window shows all possible channels, with active channels highlighted once they have been created in the VST Con - nections window. Channels that are grayed out have not been defined in the VST Connections window. The Control Room Overview allows you to see the signal flow through the Control Room Mixer. All the routing func - tions of the Control Room Mixer are duplicated in the Overview. Open the Control Room Mixer and the Control Room Over- view windows side by side. As you operate the controls in the Mixer you will see the various pale squares light up in the Overview, indicating changes in signal flow. You can also click the squares in the Overview and watch the con - trols in the Mixer reflect the changes in signal flow.
186 Control Room (Cubase only) Direct Monitoring and latency The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the in- ternal processing power of the host computer system for all routing and processing, which means they are subject to the computer’s latency. When recording with several performers at once, a system capable of running at very low ASIO buffer settings will be necessary to take full advantage of all the Studio Send features. Studio Sends are not capable of controlling the Direct Monitoring features of various audio hardware interfaces. This means that unless the internal latency of the system is very low (128 samples or less), monitoring of record-en - abled tracks through the Studio Sends will have some de- lay that can affect performers during recording. In the situation where internal latency is too much for re- cord monitoring, it is advisable to use the Studio Sends for monitoring of tracks that have already been recorded and use normal Direct Monitoring for tracks currently be - ing recorded.
188 Audio effects About this chapter Cubase comes with a number of effect plug-ins included. This chapter contains general details about how to assign, use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their pa - rameters are described in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. Overview Audio effects can be used in Cubase as follows: •As insert effects. An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes inserts suitable for effects for which you do not need to mix dry and wet sound, e. g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy- namic characteristics of the sound. You can have up to eight different in- sert effects per channel (and the same is true for input and output busses – for recording with effects and “master effects”, respectively). •As send effects. Each audio channel has eight sends, each of which can be freely routed to an effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for two reasons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and wet (processed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, and several different audio channels can use the same send effect. In Cu - base, send effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks. •By using offline processing (Cubase only). You can apply effects directly to individual audio events – this is de- scribed in the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 244. About VST 3 The VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improvements over the previous VST 2 standard and yet retains full backwards compatibility. In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver- sions will be easily recognized: Cubase is able to run plug-ins originally developed for dif- ferent platforms: you can use a 32-bit plug-in with the 64- bit version of Cubase under Windows 7 64 bit and Mac OS X 10.6. As the use of 32-bit plug-ins on 64-bit computers affects the computer performance, these will be marked by an icon in the plug-in menus. ÖThis functionality is provided to allow you to load older projects including their original plug-ins on current com - puters. However, the plug-ins will require higher CPU per- formance when compared to their native platform. Therefore, it is recommended to use 64-bit versions of such plug-ins or instruments once available. Smart plug-in processing The VST3 standard features “smart” plug-in processing, i. e., processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. This is achieved by activating the “Suspend VST3 plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” option in the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page). When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume CPU power on silent passages, i. e. when no audio data runs through them. !This chapter describes audio effects, i. e. effects that are used to process audio, group, VST instrument, and ReWire channels. An effect compatible with a previous VST versionA VST 3 effect
189 Audio effects However, be aware that this can lead to a situation where you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the sys - tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always find the passage with the largest number of events playing simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the required performance. ÖActivating this option can increase your system perfor- mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on any timecode position of the project. About side-chain inputs Several VST3 effects feature side-chain inputs. This means that the operation of the effect can be controlled via exter - nal signals routed to the side-chain input. The effect pro- cessing is still applied to the main audio signal, see “Using the side-chain input” on page 198. About plug-in delay compensation A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency. This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro - cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam - ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality. Cubase provides full plug-in delay compensation through- out the entire audio path. All plug-in delays are compen- sated for, maintaining the sync and timing of all audio channels. Normally, you do not have to make any settings for this. However, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead func - tionality have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage the look-ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used during realtime recording (see the separate PDF docu - ment “Plug-in Reference”). You can also constrain the delay compensation, which is useful to avoid latency when recording audio or playing a VST instrument in real time, see “Constrain Delay Com- pensation” on page 216. About tempo sync Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from the host application (in this case, Cubase). Typically, this is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo. •This information is automatically provided to any VST plug-in (2.0 or later) that “requests it”. You do not have to make any special settings for this. •You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 to 1/32). Please refer to the separate PDF document “Plug-in Ref- erence” for details about the included effects. Insert effects Background As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the au- dio signal path – this means that the audio channel data will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight dif - ferent insert effects independently for each audio-related channel (audio track, group channel track, FX channel track, VST instrument channel or ReWire channel) or out - put bus. The signal passes through the effects in series from the top downwards, with the signal path shown below: Input gain Insert effect 1 Insert effect 2 Insert effect 3 Insert effect 6 EQ Volume (fader) Insert effect 7 Insert effect 8 Insert effect 4 Insert effect 5
190 Audio effects As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best suited for insert effects where you do not want the level to be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dith- ering” on page 193) and maximizers – both typically used as insert effects for output busses. ÖApplying several effects on several channels may be too much for your CPU to handle! If you want to use the same effect with the same settings on several channels, it may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to ap - ply your effect only once, as a single insert for this group. You can use the VST Performance window to keep an eye on the CPU load. Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects Insert effect settings are available in the Mixer (in extended mode), the Channel Settings window and the Inspector. The examples below show the Channel Settings window, but the procedures are the same for all the inserts sections: 1.Bring up the Channel Settings window. By default, the inserts are located to the far left. 2.Pull down the effect type pop-up menu for one of the insert slots, and select an effect. The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its control panel opens. You can open or close the control panel for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert slot. •If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter, you can use this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the effect signal. See “Editing effects” on page 200 for details about editing effects. •To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up menu and select “No Effect”. To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to use. •You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way. •You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot. •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. •Cubase only: You can apply or remove an effect to or from all the selected channels at once by holding down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and selecting the desired effect from any of the effect slots. Deactivating vs. bypassing If you want to listen to the track without having it pro- cessed by a particular effect, but do not want to remove this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either deactivate or bypass it. Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas bypassing means to play back only the unprocessed origi - nal signal – a bypassed effect is still processing in the background. Bypassing allows for crackle-free comparison of the original (“dry”) and the processed (“wet”) signal. •To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left above the insert slot. Cubase only: If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] when clicking the button, you activate or deactivate this effect slot for all selected chan -nels. •To bypass an effect, click its Bypass button (the middle button above the insert slot). When an effect is bypassed, this button is yellow. This effect is activated, and its control panel is open. This insert effect is bypassed.