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Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

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    							Surround Sound (Cubase Pro only)
Preparations
561
Routing
You can use the Routing rack in the MixConsole to route audio-related tracks to 
output busses or group channels with a surround configuration.
RELATED LINKS
Setting Up Direct Routing on page 344
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-channel recordings that do not require panning.
• To do this, simply select an individual speaker channel in the Routing rack.
• 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 routing selector. 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).
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Using the SurroundPanner V5
562
Input bus configuration
To work with surround sound in Cubase, it is often not necessary 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 circumstances:
• 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.
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 specific 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 surround 
configuration, as well as setups where the input and output channels have the same 
configuration. In all other cases (e.
 g. 5.1 to stereo), the MixConvert V6 plug-in is 
used to map the channel configuration.
While you need to open the plug-in panel to access all of the panner features, you 
can perform basic panning operations also in the following places:
• In the MixConsole, a miniature view of the surround plug-in appears at the top 
of the fader section.
You can click and drag directly in the miniature image to move the signal 
source in the surround field.
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Using the SurroundPanner V5
563
• In the Inspector, a miniature surround pan control can be displayed in the 
Surround Pan section.
This panner view offers click and drag panning as well as speaker channel 
icons reflecting the solo/mute and deactivation states.
NOTE
In 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.
RELATED LINKS
Using the MixConvert V6 plug-in on page 574
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Using the SurroundPanner V5
564
The plug-in panel
Double-click on any of the miniature panner controls to open the plug-in panel in a 
separate window.
The SurroundPanner V5 plug-in offers numerous possibilities to position a mono or 
stereo sound source. If you work visually oriented, you can simply drag the sound 
source around in the pan area. To help you execute very exact movements you can 
use modifier keys to limit the movement direction (e.
 g. for straight front/rear 
panning).
To perform rotating movements that you cannot achieve by dragging the mouse, you 
can use the powerful rotation and orbit controls below the pan area. Here you will 
also find parameters for controlling the signal distribution to the different speaker 
channels and the advanced scaling controls with which you can influence the size 
of the sound source itself.
To the left and right of the surround field there are volume meters, showing the input 
and output levels of all speaker channels. For a detailed description of all the 
panning options available in the SurroundPanner V5, see below.
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Using the SurroundPanner V5
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Positioning signals in the pan area
In the pan area, you see a graphical representation of the sound source, with the left 
and right channels shown in yellow and red.
Here, you can position the sound source using the mouse:
• By clicking at the desired position in the pan area.
When you release the mouse button, the sound source jumps to that position 
(with the positioning handle, i.
 e. the circle located in the center of the sound 
source, ending up where you clicked).
• By clicking and dragging the positioning handle.
Note that you do not have to click exactly on the handle in order to move it. 
You can click anywhere in the pan area and start moving the mouse, the 
handle then moves in the same direction as the mouse.
The pan area showing a stereo sound source
1) Left and right channels
2) Positioning handle
The positioning handle can be positioned freely in the pan area and even be moved 
out of the pan area. The panning balls, though, will never move further out than the 
edge of the surround field (which is indicated by a gray line). Moving the positioning 
handle out of the pan area can be useful for extreme panning positions, such as 
panning all channels hard right.
NOTE
For mono channels there is no positioning handle. Click and drag the input channel 
to position it.
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Speaker channels – Solo and Mute vs. Disabling
The speakers that are distributed around the surround field represent the output 
configuration. You can disable speakers or solo/mute them.
This speaker is muted.
This speaker is soloed.
This speaker is disabled.
• [Alt]/[Option]-click on a speaker symbol  to 
 disable that speaker (the speaker 
symbol is grayed out) so that no audio  will be routed to this surround channel. 
The signal that would otherwise be sent to this speaker is distributed to the 
other speakers instead. 
Note that the signal is distributed in  
 such a way that the power level stays 
constant all the time.
• Click on a speaker symbol to solo that  spe
 aker (the speaker symbol turns red). 
That way you will only hear the signal se nt to this speaker. All other speakers 
are muted (yellow speaker symbol). This can be used for testing purposes, 
e.  g. to make sure that a signal is se n
 t to a specific speaker as intended.
Note that you can solo several speakers at the same time by clicking on them 
one
  after the other. By [Ctrl]/[Command ]-clicking on a speaker symbol, this 
speaker is soloed exclusively, and all other speakers are muted.
NOTE
Solo and Mute cannot be automated!
RELATED LINKS
Constant power on  page  574
Restricting movement
By default, you can click anywhere in the pan area and drag the mouse to move the 
sound source. If you want the positioning handle to jump to a specific position, you 
can click once at that position.
However, you can also limit movement to a specific direction, using the 
c

orresponding modifier keys (or the arrow  icons above the pan area). That way you 
can scale down your movements, or have the sound source move along a certain 
axis (e.  g. from bottom left to top right).
• When you press a modifier key (e.  g. [Ctrl]/[Command]),  th
 e corresponding 
icon above the pan area is highlighted with a lighter border, indicating that this 
mode is active.
As soon as you release the modifier key, you return to standard mode.
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• By clicking on one of the icons above the pan area, the corresponding 
positioning mode is activated persistently. That way you do not have to keep 
the corresponding modifier key pressed all the time.
To deactivate the selected positioning mode, switch back to standard mode.
The following modes are available:
Panning the left and right channels independently with the mouse
At the top right of the plug-in window you will find the button for the independent 
positioning mode. If this is activated, you can adjust the left and right input channels 
(yellow and red balls) independently by clicking and dragging. This is similar to 
using the two surround pan joysticks found on some hardware consoles.
1) The right channel is panned independently with the mouse.
2) The independent positioning mode is activated.
NOTE
To move one of the panning balls in this mode, you do not have to click directly on 
them. You will always move the panning ball that is nearer to the position of the 
mouse pointer.
Icon Modifier key(s) Description
- Standard mode, no restrictions apply.
[Shift] Mouse movements are scaled to allow very fine 
movements. This is useful when panning in the miniature 
display in the channel, for example.
[Ctrl]/[Command] Horizontal movements only.
[Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift] Vertical movements only.
[Alt]/[Option] Diagonal movements only (bottom left to top right).
[Alt]/[Option]-[Shift] Diagonal movements only (bottom right to top left).
[Shift]-[Ctrl]/[Command]-
[Alt]/[Option]In this mode the mouse pointer immediately jumps to the 
positioning handle even if it is located outside the pan 
area (only visible in Overview Mode).
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IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
• When panning in independent positioning mode, automation data is written 
for several parameters. Due to this, special automation rules apply.
• Automation data for the independent positioning mode is always written for 
the complete sound source, not for individual channels. This means it is not 
possible to record automation for one stereo channel and then add 
automation for the other stereo channel in a second go, for example.
R
ELATED LINKS
Automation on page 573
Overview Mode
When moving the sound source in the pan area, you will notice that the positioning 
handle can leave the visible pan area (although the channel panning balls cannot). 
It can be moved so far outside that all channels end up on the perimeter where the 
positioning handle left the area. If you now use one of the rotation controls, for 
example, it can be quite hard to understand what is happening, i.
 e. why the panning 
balls are moving the way they are.
To get a better understanding of this behavior, you can switch to Overview Mode. 
Here you can see where the positioning handle is actually located and where the 
panning balls would be (if they could leave the pan area). These virtual or “ghost” 
positions are connected to the actual panning balls inside the surround field by a 
thin line to help you understand complex movements.
1) The left and right channels cannot leave the pan area.
2) “Ghost” images of the panning balls. These are the theoretical positions 
outside the visible pan area.
3) The positioning handle is located outside the pan area.
• To switch to Overview Mode, click on the eye icon above and to the left of the 
pan area.
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NOTE
The Overview Mode is only used for visualizing the complex scenarios that you can 
create with the SurroundPanner V5. The actual panning is done in the standard 
view. Therefore, the speakers are visible in this mode, but cannot be soloed/muted 
or disabled.
Left-right and front-rear panning
These two controls are used to pan the sound source from left to right and front to 
rear, and vice versa.
NOTE
This is the same as restricting the movement direction using the [Ctrl]/[Command] 
and [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift] modifiers.
Rotating signals
The Rotate Signal control is used to rotate the source channels around the 
positioning handle. All input channels circle around the handle (but they cannot 
move beyond the borders of the surround field).
Orbit controls
The Orbit controls are used to rotate the sound source (including all input channels 
and the positioning handle) around the center of the surround field.
1) Orbit Center
2) Radius
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Orbit Center
This is the main control that allows you to perform the rotation.
Radius
When using the Orbit Center control, the Radius encoder allows you to 
control the distance of the sound source from the center of the surround field 
(without changing the angle).
An example:
a) Radius = 141.4
b) Radius = 116.5
The gray circle shows the theoretical path of the sound source when orbiting 
the center. Since the sound source cannot leave the pan area, it moves along 
the perimeter instead. At the maximum radius setting (a) the theoretical path 
lies outside the pan area so that the sound source stays on the perimeter all 
the time; at a smaller setting (b) the circle is smaller and the sound source 
moves inside the pan area in the corners.
NOTE
The Rotate Signal, Orbit Center, and Radius controls are endless rotary 
encoders so that there is no limit as to how far left or right you can rotate the 
sound source.
IMPORTANT
In terms of automation, the Orbit Center, and Radius controls are not 
independent parameters as such. Instead, a combination of different 
automation parameters is used.
RELATED LINKS
Automation on page 573
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