Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual
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Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Matthias Obrecht, Sabine Pfeifer, Kevin Quarshie, Benjamin Schütte This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions of images. 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 publication 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 holders. For more information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2015. All rights reserved.
3 Table of Contents 11Introduction 11About the Program Versions 11Typographical Conventions 12Part I - Getting into the Details 13Setting Up Your System 13Setting Up Audio 19Setting Up MIDI 20Connecting a Synchronizer 21Setting Up Video 22VST Connections 22VST Connections Window 29Renaming the Hardware Inputs and Outputs 30Adding Input and Output Busses 31Adding Child Busses (Cubase Pro only) 32Presets for Input and Output Busses 33Adding Group and FX Channels 33About Monitoring 33External Instruments and Effects (Cubase Pro only) 40Editing the Bus Configurations 43Project Window 44Toolbar 46Status Line 47Info Line 48Overview Line 48Ruler 50Inspector 52Global Track Controls 54Visibility 56Track List 57Event Display 57Racks 58Zooming in the Project Window 62Snap Function 64Cross-Hair Cursor 65Edit History Dialog 67Project Handling 67Creating New Projects 68Steinberg Hub 69Project Assistant 70About Project Files 70About Template Files 72Project Setup Dialog 75Opening Project Files 77Saving Project Files 78Reverting to the Last Saved Version 78Choosing a Project Location 79Removing Unused Audio Files 79Creating Self-Contained Projects 82Tracks 82Audio Tracks 89Instrument Tracks 96MIDI Tracks 103Arranger Track 105Chord Track 108FX Channel Tracks 114Folder Tracks 115Group Channel Tracks 121Marker Track 122Ruler Track 123Signature Track 124Tempo Track 126Transpose Track 127VCA Fader Track (Cubase Pro only) 130Video Track 131Customizing Track Controls
4 134Track Handling 134Adding Tracks 135Removing Tracks 135Moving Tracks in the Track List 136Renaming Tracks 136Coloring Tracks 137Showing Track Pictures 139Setting the Track Height 140Selecting Tracks 141Duplicating Tracks 141Disabling Audio Tracks 142Organizing Tracks in Folder Tracks 143Handling Overlapping Audio 143Track Folding 144How Events are Displayed on Folder Tracks 145Modifying Event Display on Folder Tracks 145Working with Lanes 149Defining the Track Time Base 150TrackVersions 160Track Presets 166Parts and Events 167Audio Handling 168Parts 169Auditioning Audio Parts and Events 169Adding Events to a Track 170Scrubbing 171Folder Parts 172Render in Place 177Editing Parts and Events 191Range Editing 191Creating a Selection Range 193Editing Selection Ranges 196Playback and Transport 196Transport Panel 200Transport Menu 202Setting the Project Cursor Position 203Left and Right Locators 204Auto-Scroll 204Time Formats 206Locating to Specific Time Positions 207Metronome 209Chase 210Virtual Keyboard 210Recording MIDI With the Virtual Keyboard 211Virtual Keyboard Options 212Recording 212Basic Recording Methods 216Monitoring 219Audio Recording Specifics 225MIDI Recording Specifics 232Remaining Record Time 233Lock Record 234Quantizing MIDI and Audio 234Quantizing Audio Event Starts 235AudioWarp Quantize (Cubase Pro only) 236Quantizing MIDI Event Starts 236Quantizing MIDI Event Lengths 236Quantizing MIDI Event Ends 236Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Pro only) 237AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Pro only) 238Quantize Panel 245Additional Quantizing Functions 247Fades, crossfades, and envelopes 247Creating fades 250The Fade dialogs 252Creating crossfades 254The Crossfade dialog 255Auto fades and crossfades 257Event envelopes 259Arranger Track 259Introduction 259Setting up the arranger track 260Working with arranger events 264Flattening the arranger chain 267Live mode 269Arranging your music to video 271Transpose Functions 272Transposing your music 277Other functions 281Markers 281Position Markers 281Cycle Markers 283Markers Window 287Marker Track 289Importing and Exporting Markers
5 291MixConsole 293Setting Up the MixConsole 293MixConsole Toolbar 295Functions Menu 297Configuring the MixConsole 304Synchronizing Channel and Track Visibility 305Finding Channels 305Linking Channels 308VCA Faders (Cubase Pro only) 314Metering (Cubase Pro only) 318Input Levels 319Copying and Moving Rack and Channel Settings 320Fader Section 325Working with Channel Racks 348Using Channel Settings 350Adding Notes to a MixConsole Channel 350Keyboard Navigation 352Control Room (Cubase Pro only) 352Adding Channels to the Control Room 353Output Routing 353Exclusive Assignment of Monitor Channels 353Control Room Channels 356Control Room Mixer 362Control Room Setup 365Setting Up a Cue Mix 366Adjusting the Overall Cue Send Level 367Metering 367Loudness 372Audio Effects 372Overview 374Insert Effects 382Send Effects 388Side-Chain Input 391External Effects (Cubase Pro only) 391Effect Control Panel 392Comparing Effect Settings 392Effect Presets 398Plug-In Information Window 401Audio processing and functions 401Background 401Audio processing 416Applying plug-ins (Cubase Pro only) 418The Offline Process History dialog 420Freeze Edits 421Detect Silence 424The Spectrum Analyzer 426Statistics 428About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms 432Sample Editor 432Window overview 440General Functions 452Warping audio 459Working with hitpoints and slices 468VariAudio (Cubase Pro only) 488Generating Harmony Voices for Monophonic Audio (Cubase Pro only) 489Flattening realtime processing 492Audio Part Editor 492Window Overview 494Opening the Audio Part Editor 495Operations 498Options and Settings 499Pool 500Pool Window 504Working with the Pool 522MediaBay 523Working With the MediaBay 523Setting Up the MediaBay 524Define Locations Section 525Scanning Your Content 525Updating the MediaBay 526Locations Section 528Results Section 533Previewer Section 539Filters Section 544Attribute Inspector 550Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini Browser 550MediaBay Preferences 552MediaBay Key Commands 552Working with MediaBay-Related Windows 555Working With Volume Databases 558Surround Sound (Cubase Pro only) 559Deliverables 559Available surround configurations 560Preparations 562Using the SurroundPanner V5 574Using the MixConvert V6 plug-in 574Exporting a surround mix
6 576Automation 576Automation Curves 576Static Value Line 577Write/Read Automation 577Writing Automation Data 580Editing Automation Data 582Automation Tracks 584Virgin Territory vs. Initial Value (Cubase Pro only) 585Automation Panel 595MIDI Controller Automation 599VST Instruments 599VST Instruments Window 602Adding VST Instruments 603Presets for Instruments 605VST Quick Controls 607Playing Back VST Instruments 609About Latency 610Import and Export Options 612External Instruments (Cubase Pro only) 613Installing and Managing Plug-ins 613Installing VST plug-ins 614Plug-in Manager 617Compiling a New Effects Collection 618Track Quick Controls 619Assigning Parameters to Quick Controls 623Connecting Quick Controls with Remote Controllers 624Activating Pick-up Mode for Hardware Controls 625Quick Controls and Automatable Parameters 626Remote controlling Cubase 626Setting Up 628Operations 630The Generic Remote device 634Track Quick Controls 634The Remote Control Editor 641Apple Remote (Macintosh only) 643MIDI realtime parameters and effects 643The Inspector – general handling 644The Inspector sections 652MIDI effects 658Using MIDI devices 658MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 668About Device panels (Cubase Pro only) 672MIDI Processing 672MIDI functions vs. MIDI modifiers 673What is affected by the MIDI functions? 673Transpose 674Making your settings permanent 677Dissolve Part 679Bounce MIDI 679Repeat Loop 680Other MIDI functions 686MIDI Editors 686Opening MIDI editors 687Changing the Default MIDI Editor 688Common MIDI Editor Functions 696Key Editor 706Key Editor Operations 728Basic Score Editor (Cubase Artist only) 734Score Editor Operations (Cubase Artist only) 743Drum Editor 753Drum Editor Operations 761List Editor 768List Editor Operations 771In-Place Editor 773SysEx Messages 778Expression maps (Cubase Pro only) 778Introduction 780Using expression maps 785Creating and editing expression maps 792Note Expression 792Introduction 794Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab 797Mapping controllers 799Recording 802Editing Note Expression data 808Note Expression and MIDI 813HALion Sonic SE 814Chord Functions 814Chord Track 815Chord Events 824Scale Events 825Voicings 828Converting Chord Events to MIDI 829Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback using the Chord Track 833Assigning Voices to Notes 833Extracting Chord Events from MIDI 835Recording Chord Events with a MIDI Keyboard
7 836Chord Pads 836Chord Pads Zone 840Functions Menu 841Preparations 841Chord Assistant 844Assigning Chords to Chord Pads 848Moving and Copying Chord Pads 848Playing Back and Recording Chords 850Chord Pad Settings – Remote Control 853Chord Pad Settings – Players 856Chord Pad Settings – Pad Layout 857Chord Pads Presets 858Creating Events from Chord Pads 859The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer 859Introduction 860Opening the Logical Editor 861Window overview 861Setting up filter conditions 872Selecting a function 873Specifying actions 877Applying the defined actions 877Working with presets 878The Input Transformer 881Project Logical Editor (Cubase Pro only) 882Opening the Project Logical Editor 882Window overview 883Setting up filter conditions 893Specifying actions 896Selecting a function 897Applying Macros 897Applying the defined actions 898Working with presets 900Editing tempo and signature 900Background 901Tempo and signature display 904Editing tempo and signature 908Process Tempo (Cubase Pro only) 909The Process Bars dialog (Cubase Pro only) 911The Beat Calculator 912Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase Pro only) 913The Time Warp tool (Cubase Pro only) 920Tempo Detection (Cubase Pro only) 925Adjusting the audio to the project tempo 926Project Browser (Cubase Pro only) 926Window Overview 928Editing tracks 938Export Audio Mixdown 938Introduction 939Mixing down to audio files 941The Export Audio Mixdown dialog 946The available file formats 954Synchronization 954Background 955Timecode (positional references) 957Clock sources (speed references) 958The Project Synchronization Setup dialog 964Synchronized operation 965Example Scenarios (Cubase Pro only) 966Working with VST System Link 971Activating VST System Link 980Video 980Before You Start 983Preparing a Video Project 986Playing Back Video 990Editing Video 990Extracting Audio From a Video File 991Replacing the Audio in a Video File 992ReWire 992Introduction 993Launching and quitting 994Activating ReWire channels 994Using the transport and tempo controls 995How the ReWire channels are handled 996Routing MIDI via ReWire 996Considerations and limitations 997Key Commands 997Introduction 998Setting up key commands 1003Setting up tool modifier keys 1003The default key commands 1012File handling 1012Importing audio 1018Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase Pro only) 1021Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 1025Exporting and importing MIDI loops 1026Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase Pro only) 1028Customizing 1028Workspaces 1032Using the Setup options 1034Appearance 1038Applying colors in the Project window 1042Where are the settings stored? 1045Optimizing 1045Optimizing Audio Performance
8 1051Preferences 1051Preferences Dialog 1053Appearance 1054Editing 1063Event Display 1067General 1068MIDI 1073MediaBay 1074Metering 1075Record 1077Scores (Cubase Pro only) 1080Transport 1082VST 1086VariAudio (Cubase Pro only) 1087Video 1088Part II - Score Layout and Printing (Cubase Pro only) 1089How the Score Editor works 1089About this chapter 1089Welcome! 1089How the Score Editor operates 1090MIDI notes vs. score notes 1090Display Quantize 1094Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes 1095The basics 1095About this chapter 1095Preparations 1096Opening the Score Editor 1097The project cursor 1097Playing back and recording 1097Page Mode 1099Changing the zoom factor 1100The active staff 1100Making page setup settings 1101Designing your work space 1105About the Score Editor context menus 1105About dialogs in the Score Editor 1106Setting clef, key, and time signature 1114Transposing instruments 1115Printing from the Score Editor 1116Exporting pages as image files 1117Working order 1118Force update 1119Transcribing MIDI recordings 1119About this chapter 1119About transcription 1119Getting the parts ready 1120Preparing parts for score printout 1121Staff settings 1121Situations which require additional techniques 1122Inserting Display Quantize changes 1124The Explode function 1125Using "Scores Notes To MIDI" 1127Entering and editing notes 1127About this chapter 1127Score settings 1129Note values and positions 1132Adding and editing notes 1135Selecting notes 1137Moving notes 1140Duplicating notes 1140Cut, copy, and paste 1141Editing pitches of individual notes 1143Changing the length of notes 1145Splitting a note in two 1145Working with the Display Quantize tool 1146Split (piano) staves 1147Strategies: Multiple staves 1148Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures 1150Deleting notes 1152Staff settings 1152About this chapter 1152Staff settings 1153Making settings 1153Working with staff presets 1154Staff names 1155Key and clef 1155Display Quantize and Interpretation Options 1159Display Transpose 1160The Options tab 1162The Polyphonic tab 1162The Tablature tab
9 1163Polyphonic voicing 1163About this chapter 1163Background: Polyphonic voicing 1165Setting up the voices 1168Strategies: How many voices do I need? 1168Entering notes into voices 1169Checking which voice a note belongs to 1169Moving notes between voices 1172Handling rests 1172Voices and Display Quantize 1173Creating crossed voicings 1175Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 1176Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 1177Additional note and rest formatting 1177About this chapter 1177Background: Note stems 1178Setting stem direction 1180Stem length 1181Accidentals and enharmonic shift 1183Changing the note head shape 1183Other note details 1186Coloring notes 1188Copying settings between notes 1188Handling beaming 1196About tied notes 1198Graphic moving of notes 1199Cue notes 1200Grace notes 1202Tuplets 1206Working with symbols 1206About this chapter 1206Background: The different layers 1208The Symbols Inspector 1212Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices 1212Adding symbols to the score 1224Selecting symbols 1226Moving and duplicating symbols 1231Changing length, size, and shape 1233Deleting symbols 1233Copy and paste 1233Alignment 1234Symbol details 1246Working with chords 1246About this chapter 1246Inserting chord symbols 1249Global chord settings 1251Working with text 1251About this chapter 1251Adding and editing text symbols 1256Different types of text 1264Text functions 1269Working with layouts 1269About this chapter 1269Background: Layouts 1270Creating a layout 1270Opening a layout 1271Layout operations 1272Using layouts – an example 1273Marker Track to Form 1274Working with MusicXML 1274Introduction 1276Importing and exporting MusicXML files 1279Designing your score: additional techniques 1279About this chapter 1279Layout settings 1282Staff size 1283Hiding/showing objects 1285Coloring notes 1285Multiple rests 1287Editing existing bar lines 1287Creating upbeats 1289Setting the number of bars across the page 1291Moving bar lines 1293Dragging staves 1296Adding brackets and braces 1296Displaying the Chord Symbols from the Chord Track 1297Auto Layout 1300Reset Layout 1301Breaking bar lines 1303Scoring for drums 1303About this chapter 1303Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 1304Setting up the drum map 1307Setting up a staff for drum scoring 1307Entering and editing notes 1308Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 1309Creating tablature 1309About this chapter 1309Creating tablature automatically 1311Creating tablature manually 1312Tablature number appearance 1312Editing 1313Note head shape
10 1314The score and MIDI playback 1314About this chapter 1314Scores and the Arranger mode 1315Working with mapped dynamics 1319Tips and Tricks 1319Overview 1319Useful editing techniques 1322Frequently asked questions 1327If you wish you had a faster computer 1328Index