Steinberg Cubase 7 User Manual

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The Control Room (Cubase only)
The concept behind the Control Room features is to divide the studio environment 
into the performing area (studio) and the engineer/producer area (control room) 
common to traditional studios. With its Control Room features, Cubase provides all 
the functionality of the analog console’s monitoring section, along with many more 
features, in a virtual, VST-based audio environment where flexibility and instant recall 
are expected.
Control Room Features
The following features are available for the Control Room Mixer:
- Support for up to four sets of monitors with various speaker configurations.
- Dedicated Headphone output.
- Support for up to four discrete cue mix outputs.
- Dedicated Talkback channel with flexible routing and automatic record defeat.
- Support for up to six external inputs.
- Click track routing and level control to all Control Room outputs.
- Flexible Listen bus options with the Listen Dim setting that allows listen-enabled 
tracks to be heard in context with the whole mix.
- Listen bus enabling on both Control Room and Headphone outputs.
- User-definable downmix settings using the MixConvert plug-in for all speaker 
configurations.
- Individual speaker soloing for all speaker configurations.
- Multiple inserts on each Control Room channel for metering and surround 
decoding among other possibilities.
- Monitor Dim function with adjustable level.
- User-defined Calibrated Monitor level for postproduction mixing in a calibrated 
environment.
- Adjustable Input Gain and Input Phase on all external inputs and Speaker outputs.
- Support for up to four cue sends to create discrete cue mixes for performers. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)Setting Up the Control Room Channels
Setting Up the Control Room Channels
The Studio tab of the VST Connections window is where you add channels to the 
Control Room and configure the input and output routing.
Adding Channels to the Control Room
To add a new channel to the Control Room, proceed as follows:
1.Open the Studio tab of the VST Connections window and click the Add Channel 
button.
A pop-up menu lists all available channel types and shows how many instances of 
each type are available.
2.Select the type of channel to create. 
For most channel types, a dialog opens, allowing you to choose the channel 
configuration (stereo, 5.1, etc.).
The new channel is displayed in the VST Connections window. For each audio path, 
an audio device must be selected. 
Once you have created all the channels for your studio configuration, the Control 
Room functions are available for use. If you disable the Control Room, the 
configuration is saved and will be restored when you enable the Control Room again.
About the Control Room Channels
There are different types of channels that you can create, each defining an input or 
output of the Control Room Mixer. Of all Control Room channels, only the Monitor 
channels can share hardware inputs or outputs with another bus or channel. When 
you create the connections for the Monitor channels, device ports that are already 
used for other busses or channels are shown in red on the Device Port pop-up menu. 
If you select a used port, its previous connection is lost.
You can create presets for the Control Room configuration in the same manner as for 
inputs and outputs, see 
“Presets” on page 31.
!Note that the port assignments for all Control Room channels except Monitor 
channels are exclusive, that is, you cannot assign the same device port to a bus or 
channel and a Control Room channel at the same time.  
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)Setting Up the Control Room Channels
Monitor Channels
Each Monitor channel represents a set of outputs that are connected to monitor 
speakers in the Control Room. Up to four Monitor channels can be created for the 
different sets of speakers in a studio. Monitor channels can be configured for a mono, 
stereo or surround speaker configuration. 
Each Monitor can have its own custom downmix settings, input gain, and input phase 
settings.
Phones
The Phones channel is used by the engineer in the control room to listen to cue mixes. 
It can also be used to listen to the mix or to external inputs on a pair of headphones. 
Furthermore, the Phones channel can be used for previewing. It is not intended for 
cue mixes that performers use while recording.
Cue Channels
Cue channels are intended for sending cue mixes to performers in the studio during 
recording. They have talkback and click functions, and can monitor the main mix, 
external inputs, or a dedicated cue mix. Up to four cue channels can be created 
allowing for four discrete cue mixes for performers.
For example, if you have two available headphone amplifiers for performers to use, 
create one cue channel for each headphone mix and name them according to their 
function, for example Vocalist mix, Bassist mix, etc.
External Inputs
External inputs are used for monitoring external devices, such as CD players, multi-
channel recorders, or any other audio source. Up to six external inputs can be created 
with various configurations, from mono to surround.
ÖIf you select external inputs as input source of an audio channel, you can record them. 
In this case, you will not need to assign the device ports to the input channel, see 
“Setting up the Routing” on page 190.
Talkback
The Talkback channel has a mono input and is used for a communications system 
between the Control Room and performers in the studio. It can be routed to each cue 
channel using different levels.
ÖThe Talkback channel is also available as input source for audio tracks and can be 
recorded like any other input.
ÖA compressor/limiter can be inserted on the Talkback channel to ensure that erratic 
levels do not bother performers and that clear communication with everyone is 
possible.
!The Phones channel is stereo only.
!Cue channels can either be mono or stereo. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)Opening the Control Room
Routing Channels to Outputs
The Main Mix Output
For the Control Room to function correctly, the Main Mix bus must be assigned to the 
set of outputs that contains your final mix signal. If you only have one output bus, it is 
the Main Mix by default.
If you have defined more than one output bus, you can specify the Main Mix by right-
clicking on the output name and selecting “Set ‘Out’ as Main Mix”. The Main Mix bus 
is marked by a small speaker icon to the left of its name.
Outputs other than the Main Mix are not routed through the Control Room Mixer.
ÖBy default, one stereo Monitor channel is created after installing Cubase.
Exclusive Assignment of Monitor Channels
Even though the port assignment to the Control Room channels is generally exclusive, 
it can be useful to create Monitor channels that share device ports with each other as 
well as inputs and outputs. This can be helpful if you use the same speakers as a 
stereo pair and also as the left and right channels of a surround speaker configuration, 
for example. Switching between monitors that share device ports is seamless, multi-
channel audio is mixed down to stereo as needed. Only one monitor set can be active 
at a time.
If your scenario does not require you to assign ports to several Monitor channels, it is 
recommended to activate the “Exclusive Device Ports for Monitor Channels” option in 
the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). This way you can make sure that 
you do not accidentally assign ports to inputs/outputs and Monitor channels at the 
same time.
ÖThe state of the “Exclusive Device Ports for Monitor Channels” preference is saved 
together with the Control Room presets. Therefore, if you recall a preset, your current 
setting in the Preferences dialog might be overwritten.
Opening the Control Room
You can open the Control Room as a separate window or as part of the MixConsole. 
•To open the Control Room in a separate window, open the Devices menu and 
select “Control Room Mixer”.
•To open the Control Room in the MixConsole, click the “Set up Window Layout” 
button in the MixConsole window and activate “Control Room/Meter”.
The Control Room section is displayed on the right in the MixConsole window.
!Some audio interfaces allow very flexible routing within the hardware itself. Certain 
routing configurations may cause overloads and damage the speaker equipment. 
Consult the hardware documentation for further information. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
The Control Room Mixer
The Control Room Mixer displays information and controls for the channels that are 
defined on the Studio tab in the VST Connections window.
Sections
The Control Room Mixer is divided into a number of sections. 
•Click a section header to display the controls and settings for the section. 
•In the upper left corner of the different channel sections, you find the button to 
activate/deactivate the corresponding channel. The upper right corner shows the 
channel configuration. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
Control Room channel
The Control Room channel is the representation of the bus that is set up as the Main 
Mix bus on the Outputs tab in the VST Connections window. It is shown below the 
other channels in the Control Room Mixer.
Input Selectors
You can select the source for the Control Room channel with the buttons directly 
below the header. Which sources are available depends on the channels that you 
added to the Control Room. The signal presence indicators in the upper left corner of 
the input selector buttons light up when the source channel is sending data to the 
Control Room channel.
Signal Level
This is the volume for the Control Room output. The fader does not affect the 
recording input level or the Main Mix level for exporting mixdowns.
Click
Activates the metronome click.
•Use the Click Level and Click Pan controls to set the volume and the pan position 
of the metronome click for the Control Room channel.
Talk
Activates talkback, allowing communication between the control room and the 
performers in the studio.
•There are two modes of operation: momentary mode used by clicking and holding 
the Talk button, and latch mode where clicking once turns the Talkback on until 
you click it again to turn it off.
Talk Dim Level
When Talkback is enabled, this slider controls how much the output of all the 
channels in the Control Room Mixer is reduced, to prevent unwanted feedback. If the 
Talkback DIM level is set to 0
 dB, no changes occur in the Control Room channels.
PFL/AFL
This button determines whether the signal of a listen-enabled channel is routed to the 
Control Room channel after applying the fader and pan settings (AFL) or before (PFL), 
see 
“Listen Mode (Cubase only)” on page 188. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
Deactivate All Listen States
When this button is lit, one or more channels in the MixConsole are listen-enabled. 
Click this button to deactivate Listen for all channels.
Use Reference Level
When you click this button, the Control Room level is set to the reference level 
specified in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). The reference level is 
the level that is used in calibrated mixing environments, such as film dubbing stages. 
Press [Alt]/[Option] and click this button to set the reference level to the current 
Control Room level.
ÖUse the reference level for film or DVD mixing and set the level to the speaker volume 
that corresponds to the mixing standard that you use.
Dim Signal
When you activate this button, the Control Room level is lowered by a fixed amount. 
This allows a quick reduction in monitor volume without disturbing the current monitor 
level. Clicking on the DIM button again returns the monitor level to the previous 
setting.
Listen Enable for Output
This button activates the Listen bus function for the Control Room output. If this 
button is not activated, the Listen bus is not routed to that channel.
Listen DIM Level
This control adjusts the volume of the Main Mix when channels are in Listen mode. 
This allows you to keep listen-enabled channels in context with the Main Mix. If the 
Listen DIM level is set to the minimum value, you only hear the listen-enabled 
channels. Any other setting includes the Main Mix at a lower level.
Listen Level
This control determines how loud Listen bus signals are when they are routed to the 
Control Room output. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
Cue Channels Section
The section for cue channels contains the following parameters:
Signal Level
The Signal level for the cue channel.
Source Buttons
Here, you can select which source to use for the cue channel: Mix (Monitor Mix), 
External Inputs, or the Cue Sends (Cues).
The signal presence indicators in the upper left corner of the input selector buttons 
light up when the source channel is sending data to the cue channel.
Click
Activates the metronome click.
•Use the Click Level and Click Pan controls to set the volume and the pan position 
of the metronome click for this cue channel.
Enable Talkback to Cue Channel
Activates talkback for this cue channel, allowing communication between the control 
room and the performers in the studio.
•To set the level of the Talkback signal, use the Talk Level slider.
Phones Channel
Signal Level
The Signal level for the Phones Channel.
Source Buttons
Here, you can select which source to use for the Phones channel: Mix (Monitor Mix), 
External Input, or the Cue Sends (Cues).
The signal presence indicators in the upper left corner of the input selector buttons 
light up when the source channel is sending data to the Phones channel. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
Click
Activates the metronome click.
•Use the Click Level and Click Pan controls to set the volume and the pan position 
of the metronome click for this channel.
Listen Enable for Output
This button activates the Listen bus function for the Headphone output. If this button 
is not enabled, the Listen bus is not routed to the Headphones channel.
Listen Level
This control determines how loud Listen bus signals are when they are routed to the 
Headphone output.
Channels Section
In the Channels section, the speaker arrangement of the Control Room channel 
according to the Main Mix bus is shown.
Each speaker icon works as solo button for that channel. The “+” icon solos the LFE 
channel. You can use the solo functions to test your multi-channel speaker system 
and make sure that the correct channels are routed to the speakers.
Solo Channels buttons
The three solo buttons allow you to solo the left and right channels, the front channels, 
or the rear channels.
Listen to Solo Channels on Center Channel button
When this button is activated, all soloed speakers are heard in the center channel, if 
available. If a configuration does not contain a center speaker, the channels are 
distributed equally to the left and right.
Listen to Surround Channels on Front Channels button
When this button is activated, the rear channels are soloed and routed to the front 
speakers. 
						

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The Control Room (Cubase only)The Control Room Mixer
Speakers Section
In the Speakers section, you can select and configure the Monitor sets.
The top row of buttons shows what is currently used. Click the first two buttons to 
step through the available Monitor sets. Each Monitor set has its own settings, 
including Monitor channel, downmix preset, and inserts, input gain, and input phase. 
Click the two following buttons to select one of the available downmix presets for the 
current Monitor. Click the rightmost button to open the MixConvert plug-in. This is 
used to downmix multi-channel signals for monitoring. With this plug-in, you can make 
settings for the downmix presets. For more information about the MixConvert plug-in 
see the chapter 
“Surround sound (Cubase only)” on page 266 and the separate PDF 
document “Plug-In Reference”.
The bottom rows correspond to the available Monitor channels and show the available 
settings. Here, you can combine monitors and downmix presets to modify the existing 
monitor sets. When you click on the rightmost button, you can select a channel 
configuration from a pop-up menu.
External Section
If more than one external input is added in the VST Connections window, this section 
becomes available. To switch to another external input, click the input name and 
select a new external input from the pop-up menu.