Steinberg Cubase Ai 5 Manual

41
The Project window
The same principle works when changing the order of 
more than two events:
Magnetic Cursor
When this mode is selected, the project cursor becomes 
“magnetic”. Dragging an event near the cursor causes the 
event to be aligned with the cursor position.
Grid + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Grid” and “Magnetic Cursor” 
modes.
Events + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Events” and “Magnetic Cur-
sor” modes.
Events + Grid + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Events”, “Grid”...

4
Playback and the Transport panel 

43
Playback and the Transport panel
Background
This chapter describes the various methods available for 
controlling Playback and Transport functions in Cubase AI.
The Transport panel
Below you can find a brief description of each item on the 
Transport panel.
The pictures below show the Transport panel with all con-
trols visible. The Transport panel is divided into the follow-
ing sections, from left to right.
ÖNote that the Output Activity and Clipping indicator as 
well as the Output Level Control...

44
Playback and the Transport panel
The numeric keypad
In the default Key Command settings, various Transport 
panel operations are assigned to the numeric keypad on 
the computer keyboard. The keypads are slightly different 
on PC and Macintosh computers:
Operations
Setting the project cursor position
There are several ways to move the project cursor position:
By using Fast Forward and Rewind.
By dragging the project cursor in the lower part of the 
ruler. 
By clicking in the ruler.
Double-clicking in...

45
Playback and the Transport panel
The left and right locators
The left and right locators are a pair of position markers 
used for specifying punch-in and punch-out positions dur-
ing recording, and as boundaries for cycle playback and 
recording. 
ÖWhen cycle mode is activated on the Transport panel, 
the area between the left and right locator will be repeated 
(cycled) on playback. 
However, if the right locator is positioned before the left, this will work as 
a “jump” or “skip mode” – when the...

46
Playback and the Transport panel
Playback functions
Apart from the standard transport controls on the Trans-
port panel, you can also find a number of functions on the 
Transport menu that can be used to control playback. The 
items have the following functionality:
ÖIn the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page) you 
will find the option “Treat Muted Audio Events like De-
leted”. When you activate this option, any events over-
lapped by a muted event will become audible.
About Chase
Chase is a...

47
Playback and the Transport panel
The Virtual Keyboard 
The Virtual Keyboard can be displayed in the Transport 
panel. It allows you to play and record MIDI notes by using 
your computer keyboard or mouse. This is useful if you have 
no external MIDI instrument at hand and you do not want to 
draw in notes with the Pencil tool. The Virtual Keyboard can 
perform all functions that can be controlled by external MIDI 
keyboards, e.g. playing and recording MIDI notes.
You can choose between two different...

5
Recording 

49
Recording
Background
This chapter describes the various recording methods 
that you can use in Cubase AI. As it is possible to record 
both audio and MIDI tracks, both recording methods are 
covered in this chapter.
Before you start
This chapter assumes that you are reasonably familiar with 
certain basic recording concepts, and that the following 
initial preparations have been made:
You have properly set up, connected and calibrated 
your audio hardware. 
You have opened a project and set the...

50
Recording
Activating recording in Sync mode
If you are synchronizing the Cubase AI transport to external 
equipment (Sync is activated on the Transport panel) and 
you activate recording, the program will go into “record 
ready” mode (the record button on the Transport panel will 
light up). In this case, recording will start when a valid time-
code signal is received (or when you click the Play button). 
See the chapter “Synchronization” on page 232 for more 
information.
Automatically activating...