Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual
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211 VST instruments and instrument tracks Exporting instrument tracks as MIDI file You can also export instrument tracks as standard MIDI files, see “Exporting MIDI files” on page 527. Please note the following: •As there is no MIDI patch information in an instrument track, this information is missing in the resulting MIDI file. •If you activate “Export Inspector Volume/Pan”, volume and pan information of the VST instrument will be con - verted and written into the MIDI file as controller data. What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track? •If you need a particular sound without knowing which VST instrument to use, create an instrument track and use the preview features of the Presets browser to find the sound you want. •Do likewise if the instrument track restrictions described above do not matter. •If you are planning to create an instrument track preset, complete with inserts and EQ settings, you have to use an instrument track. •If you need to use multitimbral parts and/or multiple out- puts, set up a VST instrument channel. Instrument Freeze Like all plug-ins, VST instruments may require a lot of pro- cessor power. If you are using a moderately powerful com- puter or if you are using a large number of VST instruments, you may come to a point where your computer cannot han - dle all VST instruments playing back in realtime (the CPU overload indicator in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.). Enter the Instrument Freeze function! This is how it works: •When you freeze a VST instrument, the program renders an audio file of the instrument output (taking into account all unmuted MIDI parts routed to that VST instrument). This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder. •All MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or the in- strument track associated with the VST instrument, are muted and locked (the controls for these tracks will ap - pear “grayed-out” in the track list and Inspector). •When you start playback, the rendered audio file is played back from an “invisible” audio track, routed to the VST instrument’s Mixer channel. Thus, any effects, EQ, or mixing automation will still be applied. •You can also freeze the Mixer channel of the VST instru- ment. This freezes any pre-fader insert effects for the channels, just as when freezing audio tracks (see “Freez- ing (rendering) insert effects for a track” on page 194). The result of the Freeze is that you get exactly the same sound as before, but the computer processor does not have to calculate the sound of the VST instrument in real - time. Performing the freeze The instrument freeze function is available in the VST In- struments window, the track list, and the Inspector for in- strument tracks. 1.Set up the project so that the VST instrument plays back the way you want it to. This includes editing the MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or ed- iting the instrument track, and making parameter settings for the VST in- strument itself. If you have automated parameter changes for the VST instrument, make sure that the Read (R) button is activated. 2.Open the VST Instruments window from the Devices menu, or, if you are using an instrument track, select the track and open the top Inspector tab. 3.Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument (the button to the left of the VST instrument slot), or the Freeze button in the Inspector for the instrument track. The Freeze button in the VST Instruments window……and in the Inspector.
212 VST instruments and instrument tracks The Freeze Instrument Options dialog opens with the fol- lowing options for the Freeze operation: •Select “Freeze Instrument Only” if you do not want to freeze any insert effects for the VST instrument channels. Use this if you are using insert effects on the VST instrument channel(s) and want to be able to edit, replace, or remove these after freezing the VST instrument. •Select “Freeze Instrument and Channels” if you want to freeze all pre-fader insert effects for the VST instrument channels. If your VST instrument channels are set up with the desired insert effects and you do not need to edit these, select this option. •You can set a Tail Size time to let sounds complete their normal release cycle. Otherwise, the sound might be cut off at the very end of the freeze file. •When you activate “Unload Instrument when Frozen”, the frozen VST instrument will be removed. This is useful if you are freezing an instrument that uses a lot of RAM, e. g. for pre-loading samples. By unloading the instrument, the RAM becomes available for other plug-ins, etc. 4.Click OK. A progress dialog is shown while the program renders the VST instru- ment audio to a file on your hard disk. The Freeze button lights up. If you check the Project win- dow at this point, you will find that the relevant MIDI/in- strument tracks have grayed out controls in the track list and Inspector. Furthermore, the MIDI parts are locked and cannot be moved. 5.Play back the project. You will hear exactly the same sound as before freezing the VST instru- ment – but the CPU load will be considerably less! •If you selected “Freeze Instrument and Channels”, any insert effects used by the VST instrument are also frozen (except for the post-fader inserts). However, you can al - ways adjust level, pan, sends, and EQ for frozen VST in- struments. Unfreezing If you need to make adjustments (either to the MIDI tracks, to the VST instrument parameters or to the VST instru - ment channels if these were frozen) you need to unfreeze the VST instrument: 1.Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument again (either in the VST Instruments window or in the Inspector). You will be asked to confirm this operation. 2.Click “Unfreeze”. The tracks and VST instrument are restored and the rendered “freeze file” is deleted. VST instruments and processor load If you are working with VST 3 instruments, another way to relieve processor load is the “Suspend VST3 plug-in pro - cessing when no audio signals are received” option in the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page). This is described in the section “Smart plug-in processing” on page 188. Using presets for VSTi configuration About track presets and VST presets Track presets and VST presets allow you to quickly set up tracks or instruments with all the settings required for the sound you want. Cubase provides various types of pre - sets for various purposes. Two of these are of relevance for VST instruments: •Track presets for instrument tracks store the parameter settings of a VST instrument together with all track/chan - nel settings (applied audio insert effects, etc.). Instrument track presets can only be applied to instrument tracks, not to instrument channels activated in the VST Instruments window. •VST presets store all panel settings for a plug-in (VST instruments and VST effects), but no track/channel set - tings. Note that you can create instrument tracks from VST 3 presets, i. e. se-lecting a VST 3 preset will create an instrument track with all settings stored in the VST preset plus an “empty” track.
213 VST instruments and instrument tracks As described in the chapter “Audio effects” on page 187, there are two types of VST presets that can be used: the VST 2 standard FXB/FXP files and the VST 3 preset stan - dard with the extension “.vstpreset”. Some of the included VST instruments use the VST 2 preset standard, and oth - ers use the VST 3 standard. All VST 2 instruments can import FXB/FXP files and also convert them to the VST 3 standard. Once converted, you can use all VST 3 features, see “About earlier VST instru- ment presets” on page 215. ÖFor further information on track presets and VST presets, see the chapter “Working with track presets” on page 331. Browsing for sounds One important and often time-consuming aspect of music creation is the search for the right sounds. You might spend a huge amount of time trying out the presets for a particular instrument only to find out later that the preset for another instrument contains the sound you were looking for. This is why Cubase features extensive browsing possibili- ties, allowing you to preview all available presets without having to load them first! In addition, you can filter your search by specifying cate- gory, style, etc. For example, if you are looking for a bass sound, simply select the Bass category to browse and preview all bass sounds for all instruments. If you know you want a synth bass sound, select Synth Bass as sub - category to filter out all other sounds, etc. You can also browse and preview track presets for instru- ment tracks, i. e. instrument sounds plus all track settings and all channel insert effect settings for this track. These features combined speed up the process of finding the right sound immensely. •When creating your own presets, it is always a good idea to set up attributes for them, as it allows you to fully use the browsing features for your files, too. This is described in the section “Editing attributes (tagging)” on page 324. Using the Presets browser You can open the Presets browser for an existing track or when creating a new track. Proceed as follows: •In the Add Instrument Track dialog, click the Browse button. The dialog expands to show the Presets browser. •Click in the “Load Track Preset” field at the top of the Inspector (above the track name) or right-click the track in the track list and select “Load Track Preset…”. The Presets browser opens (see also “Loading track or VST presets in the Inspector or the context menu of the track” on page 334). To find an appropriate preset, proceed as follows: 1.Select a preset from the Results list. If needed, filter the list by activating the attributes you are looking for in the Filters section. This section is similar to the Filters section in the MediaBay, see “The Filters section” on page 321. 2.Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the preset sound. You can switch between presets and hear the sound while you play. Alternatively, you can play back/ loop a MIDI part on a track. Each time you select a preset, all associated track and/or instrument set-tings are automatically loaded. 3.When you have found the preset that you want, dou- ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser). The preset is applied. •To return to the preset that was selected when you opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Setting” button.
214 VST instruments and instrument tracks Using the “Choose Track Preset” dialog 1.Right-click the track list to open the context menu and on the Add Track submenu select “Add Track Using Track Preset…”. The Choose Track Preset dialog opens. It contains the same sections as the Presets browser. 2.Select a preset from the Results list. The Results section of the Choose Track Preset dialog displays all pre-set sounds for all track types and VST instruments. 3.To preview the presets, you have to play MIDI notes on a MIDI keyboard or load a MIDI file because there is no track connected. The previewing options are described in detail in the section “Previewing VST presets and track presets for MIDI and instrument tracks” on page 319. 4.When you have found the right sound, click the Add Track button to close the dialog. An instrument track is created with all track and/or instrument settings that were saved in the preset. Selecting VST instrument presets The previous sections focused on selecting presets for the creation of new instrument tracks, or for changing the setup of an existing track. However, you can also use pre - sets to change the settings of the VST instrument itself. To select a VST instrument preset, proceed as follows: 1.Load a VST instrument (either in the VST Instruments window or via an instrument track). 2.If you use the VST Instruments window, select a MIDI track routed to the instrument. If you use an instrument track, select this track. 3.Make sure that the Inspector section with the basic track settings is visible. If this is not the case, click on the track name at the top of the Inspector. 4.In the Inspector, click in the Programs field. The Presets browser opens. 5.In the Results section, select a preset from the list. 6.Activate playback to audition the selected preset. Simply step through the presets until you find the right sound. It may be helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be - tween different preset settings easier. 7.When you have found the preset that you want, dou- ble-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser). The preset is applied. •To return to the preset that was selected when you opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Set - ting” button. ÖYou can also open the Presets browser via the Presets pop-up menu in the control panel of the VST instrument. !The Preview functions work in the same way in the MediaBay and its related dialogs. Note however that not all Preview functions available in the MediaBay are also available in the dialogs. !Note that the following refers to the selection of VST 3 presets (.vstpreset). If you want to apply .FXP/.FXB presets to your VST 2 instruments in this way, see “About earlier VST instrument presets” on page 215.
215 VST instruments and instrument tracks Saving VST instrument presets You can save your settings as presets for further use (e. g. in other projects): 1.In the VST instrument panel, click the button to the right of the preset name and select “Save Preset…”. This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset. 2.In the New Preset section, enter a name for the preset. •If you want to save attributes for the preset, click the button below the “New Preset” section at the bottom left. The Attribute Inspector section opens, allowing you to define attributes for the preset. For further information about attributes, see “The Attribute Inspector” on page 323. 3.Click OK to save the preset and exit the dialog. Presets are saved into a default folder named VST3 Pre- sets. Within this folder, there is a folder called “Steinberg Media Technologies” where the included presets are ar - ranged in subfolders named after each instrument. You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur- ther subfolders inside the instrument’s preset folder. • Under Windows, the default preset folder is in the following location: \Users\\AppData\Roaming\ VST3 Presets. • Under Mac OS, the default preset folder is in the following lo- cation: /Users//Library/Audio/Presets/ /. About earlier VST instrument presets You can use any VST 2.x instrument plug-ins in Cubase. Installing VST instrument plug-ins works the same way as for audio effects – see “Installing additional VST plug-ins” on page 203. When you install a VST 2 instrument, any previously stored presets for it will be of the old FX program/bank (.fxp/.fxb) standard. You can import such files, but the preset handling will be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new features like the Preview function or the Attribute Inspector until you have converted the old “.FXP/.FXB” presets to VST 3 presets. If you save new presets for a VST 2 plug-in these will automatically be saved in the new “.vstpreset” for - mat in the default location. Importing and converting FXB/FXP files To import FXP/FXB files, proceed as follows: 1.Load any VST 2 instrument you may have installed, and click the VST Sound button to open the Preset Ma - nagement pop-up menu. 2.Select the “Import FXB/FXP” option. This menu item is only available for VST 2 instrument plug-ins. 3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the FXP file and click “Open”. If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect programs. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected effect pro- gram only. Note that such files exist only if you created your own .fxp/fxb presets with a previous program version (or any other VST 2 application). •After importing, you can convert the current program list to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to VST Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up menu. When the presets are converted, they are available in the Presets browser, and you can use the Attribute Inspector to add attributes and audition the presets. The presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder. About latency Depending on your audio hardware and its ASIO driver, the latency (the time it takes for the instrument to produce a sound when you press a key on your MIDI controller) may simply be too high to allow comfortable realtime VST instrument playback from a keyboard. If this is the case, a workaround is to play and record your parts with another MIDI sound source selected, and then switch to the VST instrument for playback. •You can check the latency for your audio hardware in the Device Setup dialog (VST Audio System page). The input and output latency values are shown below the ASIO Driver pop-up menu. For live VST instrument playing, these values should ide- ally be a few milliseconds (although the limit for “comfortable” live playing is a matter of personal taste).
216 VST instruments and instrument tracks Constrain Delay Compensation Cubase features full delay compensation throughout the entire audio path. This means that any delay inherent in the VST plug-ins you use will automatically be compensated for during playback, so that all channels are kept in perfect sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on page 189). However, when you play a VST instrument in realtime or record live audio (with monitoring through Cubase acti - vated), this delay compensation may sometimes result in added latency. To avoid this, you can activate the Con - strain Delay Compensation button on the Project window toolbar. This function tries to minimize the latency effects of the delay compensation, while maintaining the sound of the mix as far as possible. •In the Preferences dialog (VST page) you will find a set- ting called Delay Compensation Threshold. Only plug-ins with a delay higher than this setting will be affected by the Constrain Delay Compensation function. •VST plug-ins (with higher delay than the threshold value) which are activated for VST instrument channels, audio track channels that are record enabled, group chan - nels and output channels will be turned off when you acti- vate Constrain Delay Compensation. •VST plug-ins activated for FX channels are not turned off but their delay is disregarded by the program (delay compensation is turned off). After recording or using a VST instrument with Constrain Delay Compensation, turn off the function in order to re - store full delay compensation. External instruments (Cubase only) An external instrument bus is an input (return) to your audio hardware, along with a MIDI connection via Cubase and few additional settings. External instrument busses are cre - ated in the VST Connections window. All external instru- ment busses you have created will appear on the VST Instrument pop-up menus and can be selected in the same way as any VST instrument plug-in. If you select an external instrument, you play it via MIDI as usual (you have to create a MIDI device to play it) and the sound (synth audio output) will come in to the VST environment where you can apply processing, etc. For more information on external instru - ments, see “Setting up external instruments” on page 32.
218 Surround sound (Cubase only) Introduction Cubase has integrated surround sound features with sup- port for several formats. This support goes all the way through the audio path: all audio-related channels (i. e. au- dio and instrument tracks as well as group channels) and busses can handle multi-channel speaker configurations. A channel in the Mixer can either carry complete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel which is part of a surround setup. Cubase offers the following surround-related features: • Audio-related tracks can be routed freely to surround channels. • The SurroundPanner V5 plug-in is automatically applied to au- dio-related tracks with a mono or stereo configuration that are routed to output channels with a multi-channel configuration (other than stereo). It is available in the Inspector and Mixer and can be used to graphically position channels in the sur - round field. The plug-in is described in detail in the section “Using the SurroundPanner V5” on page 220. • Cubase supports surround-specific plug-ins, that is plug-ins with multi-channel support specifically designed for surround sound mixing tasks (the included “Mix6to2” plug-in is an ex - ample of this). Furthermore, any VST3 plug-in features multi- channel support and can therefore be used in a surround con - figuration, even if it was not specifically designed for surround. This is described in detail in the section “Using effects in multi-channel configurations (Cubase only)” on page 191. All plug-ins are described in the separate PDF document “Plug- in Reference”. • You configure Cubase for surround sound by defining input and output busses in the desired surround format and specify - ing which audio inputs and outputs are used for the different channels in the busses, see “Preparations” on page 219. Deliverables The result of a surround mix in Cubase is either the multi- channel audio sent from the surround output bus to your dubber, or (if you use the Export Audio Mixdown feature) audio file(s) on your hard disk. Exported surround mixes can either be split (one mono file per speaker channel) or inter - leaved (a single file containing all the surround channels). Available surround configurations The following surround configurations are supported in Cubase: FormatDescription LRCSLRCS refers to Left Right Center Surround, where the sur-round speaker is center-rear positioned. This is the original surround format that first appeared as Dolby Stereo in cin-ema and later as the home cinema format Dolby ProLogic. 5.0This is the same as 5.1 (see below) but without the LFE channel. The LFE channel is optional in 5.1 and if you do not plan to use it, you might find this option more conve -nient. 5.1This format is one of the most popular in cinema and DVD. In its various cinema and DVD encoding implementations (established by different manufacturers) it is referred to as Dolby Digital, AC-3, DTS and MPEG 2 Multichannel. 5.1 has one center speaker (mainly used for speech) and four surround speakers (for music and sound effects). Addition -ally a subchannel (LFE – Low Frequency Effects) with lower bandwidth is used for special low frequency effects. LRCSame as LRCS, but without the surround speaker channel. LRSLeft-Right-Surround, with the surround speaker positioned at center-rear. LRC+LfeSame as LRC but with an Lfe subchannel added. LRS+LfeSame as LRS but with an Lfe subchannel added. QuadroThe original Quadraphonic format for music, with one speaker in each corner. This format was intended for vinyl record players. LRCS+LfeSame as LRCS but with an Lfe subchannel added. Quadro+LfeSame as Quadro but with an Lfe subchannel added. 6.0 CineA Left-Right-Center front speaker arrangement with 3 (Left-Right-Center) surround channels. 6.0 MusicThis uses 2 (Left/Right) front channels with Left and Right surround channels and Left and Right Side channels.
219 Surround sound (Cubase only) Preparations Output bus configuration Before you can start working with surround sound, you have to configure a surround output bus, through which all the speaker channels of the selected surround format are routed. How to add and set up busses in the VST Con - nections window is described in detail in the section “Set- ting up busses” on page 26. Child busses A child bus is a bus within a (wider) bus. The most obvious application of a child bus is to create stereo busses within your surround bus – this allows you to route stereo tracks directly to a stereo speaker pair within the surround bus. You may also want to add child busses in other surround formats (with fewer channels than the “parent bus”). Once you have created a surround bus, you can add one or several child busses to it by right-clicking the bus and se - lecting “Add Child Bus”. This is described in detail in the section “Adding child busses (Cubase only)” on page 29. Routing In the Routing panel of the Mixer, you can use the Output Routing pop-up menu to route audio-related tracks to output busses or group channels with a surround configu - ration. For details on routing, see “Routing” on page 164. Routing channels to individual surround channels If you want to place an audio source in one separate speaker channel, you can route it directly to that speaker channel. This is useful for premixed material or multi-chan - nel recordings that do not require panning. •To do this, simply select an individual speaker channel in the Output Routing pop-up menu. •If a stereo audio channel is routed directly to a speaker channel, the left/right channels are mixed to mono. The pan control for the audio channel governs the balance between the left and right channel in the resulting mono mix. Center pan will produce a mix of equal proportion. Routing channels to child busses If you have added a child bus within a surround bus (see above), it appears as a subentry of the surround bus on the Output Routing pop-up menu. Select this option to route a stereo audio channel directly to that stereo speaker pair of the surround bus (e. g. to route a music track directly to the left and right front speakers in a surround channel). Input bus configuration To work with surround sound in Cubase, it is often not nec- essary to configure a surround format input bus. You can record audio files via standard inputs, and easily route the resulting audio channels to surround outputs at any stage. You can also directly import multi-channel files of a specific surround format onto audio tracks of the same format. You should add a surround input bus in the following cir- cumstances: •You have existing audio material in a specific surround format, and you wish to transfer this material into Cubase as a single, multi-channel file. •You wish to record a surround setup “live”. •You have prepared surround premixes (e. g. stems) that you want to record on a new audio track with a surround configuration.
220 Surround sound (Cubase only) Using the SurroundPanner V5 Cubase has a special feature for graphically positioning a sound source in the surround field or modifying existing premixes: the SurroundPanner V5. This plug-in distributes the audio from the input channels in various proportions to the output surround channels. Whether the SurroundPanner V5 can be used for a spe- cific input/output configuration, depends on whether this configuration can be mapped by the panner. The plug-in supports mapping of mono or stereo inputs to any sur - round configuration. While you need to open the plug-in panel to access all of the panner features, you can perform basic panning oper - ations also in the following places: •In the Mixer, a miniature view of the surround plug-in ap- pears at the top of the fader section in the channel strip. You can click and drag directly in the miniature image to move the signal source in the surround field. The volume slider to the right controls the LFE level (if available for the selected surround format). •To view a slightly larger version of the miniature surround control in the extended Mixer panel, select the Panner op - tion on the View Options pop-up menu. This panner view offers click and drag panning, speaker channel icons reflecting the solo/mute and deactivation states, as well as numerical val- ues for left/right balance, front/rear balance, and LFE amount. You can enter values directly or using the mouse wheel. •In the Inspector, a miniature surround pan control can be displayed on the Surround Pan tab. This panner view offers click and drag panning as well as speaker chan-nel icons reflecting the solo/mute and deactivation states. ÖIn all miniature panner views you can scale down your movements by holding the [Shift] key while moving the sound source. This allows you to make fine adjustments.