Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual
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Synchronization Activating VST System Link 971 Settings for the audio hardware When you exchange VST System Link data between computers, it is important that the digital information is not changed in any way between the programs. Therefore, you should open the control panel (or additional application) for your audio hardware and make sure that the following conditions are met: • If there are additional “format settings” for the digital ports that you use for VST System Link data, make sure that these are turned off. For example, if you are using an S/PDIF connection for VST System Link, make sure that “Professional format”, Emphasis, and Dithering are turned off. • If your audio hardware has a mixer application allowing you to adjust the levels of digital inputs and outputs, make sure that this mixer is disabled or that the levels for the VST System Link channels are set to ±0 dB. • Similarly, make sure no other forms of DSP (pan, effects, etc.) are applied to the VST System Link signal. Notes for Hammerfall DSP users If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hardware, the Totalmix function allows for extremely complex signal routing and mixing in the audio hardware. This can in some situations lead to “signal loops” in which case the VST System Link will not work. If you want to make absolutely sure this will not cause any problems, select the default or “plain” preset for the Totalmix function. Activating VST System Link Before you proceed, you need to make sure that VST System Link is set as the timecode source in the Project Synchronization Setup dialog and that the desired Sync options are activated. After setting up the inputs and outputs, you now need to define which input/output will carry the actual VST System Link information. The VST System Link networking signal is carried on only one bit of one channel. This means that if you have an ADAT-based system which normally carries eight channels of 24-bit audio, once you activate VST System Link you will have seven channels of 24-bit audio and one channel of 23-bit audio (the least significant bit of this last channel will be used for networking). In practice this makes no discernible difference to the audio quality, since you will still have around 138 dB headroom on this channel.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 972 To set things up, open the VST System Link panel: PROCEDURE 1. From the Devices menu, open the Device Setup dialog. 2. In the Devices list to the left, select the “VST System Link” entry. The VST System Link settings are shown to the right of the Devices list. 3. Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus to define which channel is the networking channel. 4. Activate the Active checkbox at the top left of the panel. 5. Repeat the steps above for every computer in the network. RESULT As the computers are made active, you should see the Sending and Receiving indicators flashing on each active computer, and the name of each computer should appear in the list at the bottom of the pane. Each computer is assigned a random number – do not worry about this, it is just so the network knows internally which one is which. • You can double-click on the name in bold (which is the name of the computer you are currently working on) and set it to whatever other name you wish. This name will appear in the VST System Link window of every computer on the network. NOTE If you do not see the name of each computer appearing once you have made it active, you need to check your settings. Go through the procedure above again and make sure that all ASIO cards are listening to the digital clock signals correctly, and that each computer has the correct inputs and outputs assigned to the VST System Link network. RELATED LINKS Timecode Preferences on page 960
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 973 Putting the network online After each computer’s name you will see whether it is online or not. When a computer is online, it will receive transport and timecode signals, and its sequencer application can be started and stopped by remote control. If it is off-line, it can only be started from its own keyboard – it is effectively an independent machine, although it is still on the network. NOTE Note that any computer can control any and all of the others – VST System Link is a peer-to-peer network and there is no absolute “master” computer. To put all computers online, proceed as follows: PROCEDURE 1. For all computers, activate the Online checkbox on the VST System Link page. 2. Start playback on one computer to check that the system is working – all computers should start almost instantly and play perfectly in time, with sample-accurate precision. • The Offset Samples setting allows you to adjust whether one machine will play slightly ahead or behind the rest. This is normally not needed, but occasionally with some hardware you may find that the lock is a few samples out. For now, leave it set to 0 – it will most likely be what you want. • The Transfer Bits setting allows you to specify whether you want to transfer 24 or 16 bits. This allows you to use older audio cards which do not support transfer of 24 bits. RESULT VST System Link sends and understands all transport commands (such as play, stop, fast forward, rewind, etc.). This allows you to control the entire network from one computer without a problem – try it! If you jump to a locator point on one machine, all other machines will also instantly jump to that locator point. IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT Make sure that all computers have their tempos set to the same value, otherwise your synchronization will be seriously skewed.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 974 Scrubbing via VST System Link You can scrub on one computer and have the video and audio on another computer scrub along. However, the playback on the linked systems may not be perfectly in sync while scrubbing and there are some further restrictions you should bear in mind when scrubbing via VST System Link: • Use the jog/shuttle control on the Transport panel or a remote controller for scrubbing. Scrubbing with the Scrub tool does not work over a VST System Link connection. • Always use the system where you started scrubbing to control the scrubbing, e. g. change the scrub speed or stop scrubbing. Changing the scrub speed on a remote system will only change the speed on the local system. • You can start playback on all systems. This stops scrubbing and enters playback on all systems in sync. Using MIDI As well as supplying transport and sync control, VST System Link also supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, with 16 channels each. PROCEDURE 1. Use the MIDI Inputs and MIDI Outputs value fields to specify the number of MIDI ports you need. The default value is 0 MIDI In and 0 MIDI Out ports. 2. In the Project window, create a MIDI track and open the Inspector (top section). 3. If you now open the Input or Output Routing pop-up menu, you will find the specified System Link ports added to the list of MIDI inputs or outputs.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 975 This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments running on another computer, as described in the application examples. RELATED LINKS Using one computer for VST instruments on page 978 The “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” setting If you are sending huge amounts of MIDI data at once, there is a small possibility that you might run out of bandwidth on your VST System Link network. This will manifest itself by notes “choking” or timing becoming erratic. If this happens, you can devote more bandwidth to MIDI by activating the “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” option on the VST System Link page of the Device Setup dialog. When this is activated, the VST System Link information will be sent on the entire channel instead of just one bit, more than enough for all the MIDI you could ever hope to use. The downside is that you can no longer use this ASIO channel for audio transfer (do not connect it to a speaker!), thus leaving you with only 7 audio channels in our ADAT cable example. Depending on how you work, this might be a reasonable compromise. Hearing the network audio If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio really is not an issue – just plug the outputs of each computer into the desired channels on the external mixing desk, start playback on one of the computers, and you are good to go. However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the computer and just use a desk for monitoring (or maybe not use any external mixer at all). In this case you will need to select one computer to be your “main mix computer” and send the audio from your other computers into this.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 976 In the following example, we assume you are using two computers, with computer 1 as your main mix computer and computer 2 running two additional stereo audio tracks, an FX channel track with a reverb plug-in and a VST instrument plug-in with stereo outputs. PROCEDURE 1. Set things up so that you can listen to the audio playback from computer 1. In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e. g. an analog stereo output, connected to your monitoring equipment. 2. On computer 2, route each of the two audio tracks to a separate output bus. These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call them Bus 1 and 2. 3. Route the FX channel track to another VST System Link bus (Bus 3). 4. Route the VST instrument channel to yet another bus (Bus 4). 5. Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding four VST System Link input busses. If you start playback on computer 2, the audio should “appear” on the input busses on computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you need actual mixer channels. 6. Add four new stereo audio tracks on computer 1 and route these to the output bus you use for listening, e. g. to the analog stereo outputs. 7. For each of the audio tracks, select one of the four input busses. Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on computer 1. 8. Activate monitoring for the four tracks. RESULT If you now start playback, the audio from computer 2 will be sent “live” to the new tracks on computer 1, allowing you to hear them together with any tracks you play back on computer 1. Adding more tracks What if you have more audio tracks than you have VST System Link busses (physical outputs)? Then you just use the computer 2 mixer as a submixer: Route several audio channels to the same output bus and adjust the output bus level if needed. NOTE If your audio cards have multiple sets of input and output connections, you can link up multiple ADAT cables and send audio via any of the busses on any of the cables.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 977 Internal mixing and latency One problem with mixing inside the computer is the latency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always compensates for record latencies, but if you are monitoring through computer 1 you will hear a processing delay while you listen to signals coming from your other computers (not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 1 supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely turn this on. You can find the setting on the VST Audio System device panel for your hardware. Most modern ASIO cards support this function. If yours does not, you may want to change the Offset Samples value on the VST System Link page to compensate for any latency issues. RELATED LINKS ASIO Direct Monitoring on page 217 Setting up a larger network Setting up a larger network is not much more difficult than a two-computer network. The main thing to remember is that VST System Link is a daisy chain system. In other words, the output of computer 1 goes to the input of computer 2, the output of computer 2 goes to the input of computer 3, and so on around the chain. The output of the last computer in the chain must always go back into the input of computer 1, to complete the ring. Once you have done this, the transmission of all the transport, sync, and MIDI information to the whole network is handled pretty much automatically. However, where you may run into confusion in a large network is in the transmission of audio signals back to a central mix computer. If you have lots of hardware inputs and outputs on your ASIO cards, you do not have to send audio via the chain at all, but can transmit it directly to the master mix computer via one or more of its other hardware inputs. For example, if you have a Nuendo Digiset interface or 9652 card on computer 1, you could use ADAT cable 1 for networking, ADAT cable 2 as a direct audio input from computer 2, and ADAT cable 3 as a direct audio input from computer 3. You can also transmit audio via the ring system if you do not have enough hardware I/Os for direct audio transmission. For example, in a four-computer scenario you could send audio from computer 2 into a channel in the mixer in computer 3, from there to a channel in the mixer in computer 4, and from there back to the master mixer in computer 1. This can certainly be tricky to set up, so for complex networks it is generally recommended to use ASIO cards with at least three separate digital I/Os.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 978 Application examples Using one computer for VST instruments In this example, one computer will be used as main record and playback machine, and another computer as a virtual synth rack. PROCEDURE 1. Record a MIDI track into computer 1. 2. Once you have finished recording, route the MIDI output of that track to VST System Link MIDI port 1. 3. On computer 2, open up the VST Instruments window and assign an instrument to the first slot in the rack. 4. Route the VST instrument channel to the desired output bus. If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1. 5. Create a new MIDI track in the Project window of computer 2 and assign the MIDI output of the track to the VST instrument you created. 6. Assign the MIDI input of the track to be VST System Link port 1. Now, the MIDI track on computer 1 is routed to the MIDI track on computer 2, which in turn is routed to the VST instrument. 7. Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on computer 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI commands coming in. In Cubase, click the Monitor button in the track list or Inspector. 8. Start playback on computer 1. It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST instrument loaded on computer 2. RESULT Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a whole bunch of extra VST instruments this way, expanding your sound palette considerably. Do not forget that VST System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever invented! Creating a virtual effect rack The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can either be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate computer as a “virtual effect rack”. PROCEDURE 1. On computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect rack), add a new stereo audio track. You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must have an audio input.
Synchronization Activating VST System Link 979 2. Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track. Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in. 3. In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link busses as input for the audio track. You want to use a separate VST System Link bus, which will only be used for this purpose. 4. Route the channel to the desired output bus. If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1. 5. Activate monitoring for the track. 6. Go back to computer 1 and select a track to which you want to add some reverb. 7. Bring up the effect sends for the track in the Inspector or the MixConsole. 8. Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the sends and select the VST System Link bus assigned to the reverb in step 3. 9. Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as usual. RESULT The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and processed through its insert effect, without using any processor power on computer 1. You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the “virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this way is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST System Link connection (and of course by the performance of computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any recording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of effects). Getting extra audio tracks All computers on a VST System Link network are locked with sample-accuracy. Therefore, if you find that the hard drive on one computer is not fast enough to run as many audio tracks as you need, you can record new tracks on one of the other computers instead. This would create a “virtual RAID system”, with several disks all operating together. All tracks will remain locked together just as tightly as if they were all running on the same machine. This means that you effectively have an unlimited track count! Need another 100 tracks? Just add another computer. Dedicated Video Playback Playback of high-resolution video can be taxing on a system’s CPU. By dedicating one computer for video playback via System Link, you can free up resources on your main CPU for audio and MIDI processing. Since all transport commands will respond on the VST System Link computers, scrubbing video is possible even when it is coming from another computer.
980 Video Cubase supports the integration of video files in your project. You can play back video files in various formats and via different output devices from within Cubase, edit your music to the video, extract the audio material from a video file, and replace the audio later with different audio material. Before You Start When working on a project involving a video file, you first need to set up your system according to your equipment and your demands. The following sections provide some general information about video file formats, frame rates, and video output devices. Video File Compatibility Because there are many types of video files, it can be difficult to determine if one will work on your system. There are two ways to figure out if Cubase can play back a certain video file: • Open the video file with QuickTime 7.1 or higher, because Cubase uses QuickTime for playing back video files. • Check the file information of a video file in the Pool. If the information reads “Invalid or not supported file!”, the video file is either corrupt or the format is not supported by the available codecs. NOTE If you are not able to load a certain video file, you must use an external application to convert the file into a compatible format or install the required codec. RELATED LINKS Codecs on page 981