Steinberg Cubase Ai 5 Manual
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241 Synchronization Using a KVM switchbox If you want to set up a multi-computer network, or even a small network in a limited space, it is a good idea to invest in a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switchbox. With one of these you can use the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse to control each computer in the system, and switch between computers very rapidly. KVM switchboxes are not too expensive, and very easy to set up and operate. If you decide not to go this route, the network will function just the same, but you may end up doing a lot of jumping from one machine to the other while setting up! Making connections Below, we assume that you are connecting two comput- ers. Should you have more than two computers, it is still best to start with two and add the others one by one once the system is working – this makes troubleshooting easier if you run into problems. For two computers, you will need two digital audio cables, one in each direction: 1.Use the first digital audio cable to connect digital out- put of computer 1 with the digital input of computer 2. 2.Use the other cable to connect the digital output of computer 2 with the digital input of computer 1. If a card has more than one set of inputs and outputs, choose whichever one that suits you – for simplicity usu- ally the first set is best. Synchronization Before you proceed, you need to make sure that the clock signals on your ASIO cards are synchronized correctly. This is essential when cabling any kind of digital audio system, not just VST System Link.The Clock Mode or Sync Mode is set up in the ASIO con- trol panel of the audio hardware. In Cubase AI, you pro- ceed as follows: 1.Pull down the Devices menu and open the Device Set- up dialog. 2.On the VST Audio System page, select your audio in- terface from the “ASIO Driver” pop-up menu. The name of the audio interface now appears as a subentry to the VST Audio System entry in the Devices list. 3.Select your audio interface in the Devices list to the left. 4.Click the Control Panel button. The ASIO control panel appears. 5.Open the ASIO control panel on the other computer as well. If you are using another VST System Link host application on that com- puter, check its documentation for details on how to open the ASIO con- trol panel. 6.Now, you need to make sure that one audio card is set to be the Clock Master, and all the other cards are set to listen for the clock signal coming from the Clock Master, i.e. they must be Clock Slaves. The naming and procedure for this differs depending on the audio hard- ware – consult its documentation if required. If you are using Steinberg Nuendo ASIO hardware, all cards default to the “AutoSync” setting – in this case you must set one of the cards (and only one) to “Master” in the Clock Mode section of the control panel. Typically, the ASIO control panel for an audio card con- tains some indication of whether the card receives a proper sync signal or not, and the sample rate of that signal. This is a good indication that you have connected the cards and set up clock sync properly. Check your audio hardware’s documentation for de- tails. The only exception to this procedure is if you are using an external clock – which could be from a digital mixing desk or special Word Clock synchronizer for example. If so, you must leave all your ASIO cards in Clock Slave or AutoSync !All digital audio cables by definition always carry a clock signal as well as audio signals, so you do not have to use a special Word Clock input and output for this (although you may find that you get a slightly more stable audio system if you do, especially when using multiple computers).!It is very important that one and only one card is the clock master, otherwise the network cannot function correctly. Once you have set this up, all the other cards in the network will take their clock signal from this card automatically.
242 Synchronization mode, and make sure that each of them is listening for the signal coming from the synchronizer, usually passed through your ADAT cables or Word Clock connectors in a daisy chain fashion. VST System Link and latency The general definition of latency is the amount of time it takes any system to respond to whatever messages are sent to it. For example, if your system’s latency is high and you play VST instruments in realtime, you will get a notice- able delay between when you press a key and when you hear the sound of the VST instrument. Nowadays, most ASIO-compatible audio cards are capable of operating with very low latencies. Also, all VST applications are de- signed to compensate for latency during playback, making the playback timing tight. However, the latency time of a VST System Link network is the total latency of all the ASIO cards in the system added together. Therefore it is extra important to minimize the latency times for each computer in the network. ÖThe latency does not affect the synchronization – it is always perfectly in time. But it can affect the time it takes to send and receive MIDI and audio signals, or make the system seem sluggish. To adjust the latency of a system, you adjust the size of the buffers in the ASIO control panel – the lower the buffer size, the lower the latency. It is best to keep to fairly low la- tencies (buffer sizes) if your system can handle it – about 12 ms or less is usually a good idea. Setting up your software Now it is time to set up your programs. The procedures below describe how to set things up in Cubase AI. If you are using another program on the other computer, please refer to its documentation. Setting the sample rate The projects in both programs must be set to use the same sample rate. Select “Project Setup…” from the Pro- ject menu and make sure the sample rate is the same in both systems. Streaming digital audio between applications 1.Create input and output busses in both applications and route these to the digital inputs and outputs. The number and configuration of the busses depends on your audio hardware and on your needs. If you have a system with eight digital i/o channels (such as an ADAT connection), you could create several stereo or mono busses, or any combination you need. The important thing is that you should have the same configuration in both applications – if you have four stereo output busses on computer 1, you want four stereo in- put busses on computer 2, etc. 2.Set things up so that computer 1 plays back some audio. You could for example import an audio file and play it back in Cycle mode. 3.In the Inspector or Mixer, make sure the playing audio channel is routed to one of the digital output busses you set up. 4.In computer 2, open the Mixer and locate the corre- sponding digital input bus. The audio being played back should now “appear” in the program run- ning on computer 2. You should see the input bus level meters moving. 5.Reverse this procedure so that computer 2 plays back and computer 1 “listens”. Now you have verified that the digital connection works as it should. ÖFrom this point on in this chapter, we refer to the bus- ses connected to the digital inputs and outputs as “VST System Link busses”. Settings for the audio hardware When you send VST System Link data between comput- ers, 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 applica- tion) for your audio hardware and make sure that the fol- lowing conditions are met: If there are additional “format settings” for the digital ports that you use for VST System Link data, make sure 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.
243 Synchronization 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, ef- fects, etc.) are applied to the VST System Link signal. Notes for Hammerfall DSP users If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hard- ware, 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 abso- lutely sure this will not cause any problems, select the de- fault or “plain” preset for the Totalmix function. Activating VST System Link Before you proceed, you need to make sure that VST Sys- tem Link is set as Timecode Source in the Project Syn- chronization Setup dialog and that the desired Sync options are activated, see “Sync Options” on page 240. After setting up the inputs and outputs, you now need to define which input/output should carry the actual VST System Link information. The 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 dis- cernible difference to the audio quality, since you will still have around 138 dB headroom on this channel. To set things up, open the VST System Link panel: 1.Open the Device Setup dialog on the Devices menu. 2.Select VST System Link in the Devices list to the left.3.Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus to define which channel should be the networking channel (and thus become a 23-bit audio channel, in our example).Quite often you will be able to leave these pop-ups the way they are. 4.Click the Active checkbox at the top of the panel. 5.Repeat the steps above for every computer on the network. As the computers are made active, you should see the small 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 System Link window of every computer on the network. ÖIf you do not see the name of each computer appear- ing once you have made it active, you may have 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 System Link network.
244 Synchronization 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. ÖNote 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. However, most users do like to think of one machine as the master (in a one person/two computer network, this would be the machine you actu- ally sit behind most of the time). For now, let’s put all computers online: 1.Activate the Online checkbox in the VST System Link panel for all computers. 2.Check that the system is working by pressing Play on one computer – all computers should start almost instantly and play perfectly in time, with sample-accurate precision. The Offset setting allows you to adjust whether one ma- chine will play back 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. In that case you can adjust the lock with the Offset value. 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. VST System Link sends and understands all transport commands, so you can play, stop, fast forward, rewind, etc. the entire network from one computer without a prob- lem – try it! If you jump to a locator point on one machine, all other machines will also instantly jump to that locator point. You can even scrub on one computer and have the video and audio on another computer actually scrub right along with you. Using MIDI As well as supplying transport and sync control, VST Sys- tem Link also supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, each with 16 channels. You set this up as follows: 1.Use the MIDI Inputs and Outputs value boxes to spec- ify the number of MIDI ports you need. The default value is 0 MIDI In and 0 MIDI Out ports. 2.Create a MIDI track in the Project window and open the Inspector (top section). 3.If you now pull down the Input or Output Routing pop- up menu, you will find the specified System Link ports added to the list of MIDI Inputs and Outputs. This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments running on another computer, as described in the applica- tion examples (see “Using one computer for VST instru- ments” on page 246). 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 band- width 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 “Use Selected ASIO Ports for Data only” in the VST System Link Setup panel. 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 !Make sure that all computers have their tempos set to the same value, otherwise your synchronization will be seriously skewed.
245 Synchronization you can no longer use this ASIO channel for audio transfer (do not connect it to a speaker!), thus leaving you only 7 channels of audio 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 com- puter into the desired channels on the external mixing desk, press Play on one of the computers, and youre 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. 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. 1.First you want to 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.Go to computer 2 and 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 ac- tual 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 in- put busses. Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on computer 1. 8.Activate monitoring for the four tracks. 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. For more information about Monitoring, see “About moni- toring” on page 13. 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 also that if your audio cards have multiple sets of in- put and output connections you can link up multiple ADAT cables and send audio via any of the busses on any of the cables. Internal mixing and latency One problem with mixing inside the computer is the latency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always com- pensates 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 sup- ports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely turn this on – you can find the setting in the VST Audio System De- vice Setup panel (see “ASIO Direct Monitoring” on page 53). Most modern ASIO cards support this function. If yours does not you may want to change the Offset value in the VST System Link Setup panel to compensate for any la- tency issues. Setting up a larger network This is not much more difficult than a two computer net- work. The main thing to remember is that VST System Link is a daisy chain system. In other words, the output of com- puter 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.
246 Synchronization Once you have done this, the transmission of all the trans- port, 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 trans- mission 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 com- puter 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 transmis- sion. For example, in a four computer scenario you could send audio from computer 2 into a channel in the mixer in computer 3, and 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 gen- erally it is recommended that if you want to set up a com- plex network, you should make sure to use ASIO cards with at least three separate digital I/Os. 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. 1.Record a MIDI track into computer 1. 2.Once you have finished recording, route the MIDI out- put of that track to System Link MIDI port 1. 3.Now go to computer 2, open up the VST Instrument rack and assign an instrument to the first slot in the rack. 4.Route the VST Instrument channel to the desired out- put 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 com- puter 2, which in turn is routed to the VST Instrument. 7.Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on com- puter 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI com- mands coming in. In Cubase AI, you would click the Monitor button in the Track list or In- spector. 8.Start Playback on computer 1. It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST Instrument loaded on computer 2. 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 AI 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”, by setting things up in the following way: 1.Go to computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect rack) and add a new stereo audio track. You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must have an audio input. 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 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.Now, 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.
247 Synchronization 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. The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and pro- cessed through its insert effect, without using any proces- sor 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 Sys- tem Link connection (and of course by the performance of computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any re- cording 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 to- gether. 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.
249 Video Background Cubase AI plays back video films in a number of formats. Under Windows, video playback can be done using one of three playback engines: Video for Windows, DirectS- how or QuickTime 7.1. This ensures compatibility with as wide a range of video files as possible. The following file formats are supported: AVI, QuickTime and MPEG. Under Mac OS X, QuickTime is always used as playback engine. QuickTime supports the following video file for- mats: AVI, MPEG, QuickTime and DV. There are two ways to play back video: Without any special hardware. See “Playing back video without any hardware” on page 250. Using video hardware that, for example, connects to an external monitor. See “Playing back video file using video hardware” on page 251. Before you start When working on a project involving a video file, there are several points to bear in mind: Have you selected the right playback engine? (Windows only) The playback engine is used not only for playback of the video file, but also to provide file information in the Pool and in the Import Video dialog. Therefore, to make sure that you have chosen the right playback engine for a particular type of video file, check the file information displayed in the Im- port Video dialog or the Pool prior to trying to import or playing back the file. When this information reads “0x0 pixel”, “0.000 s” and “0 Frames”, the video file is either corrupt, or the format is not supported by the codecs available to the selected video playback engine. You will either have to change the video playback engine, or install the required codec. About the QuickTime video playback engine In Cubase AI for Windows, you select a playback engine in the Device Setup–Video Player page: Generally, you can expect most Windows hardware to work with DirectShow. On a Windows system, the DirectShow and Video for Windows players are provided by the operating system, so you do not have to install any additional software. Under Windows, QuickTime 7.1 must be installed on your computer for QuickTime playback to be available. There is a freeware version (a QuickTime installer is included on the Cu- base AI DVD if required, or you can download it from www.quicktime.com) and a “pro” version, which offers additional video cutting options. The en- gine is the same in both versions, so for mere playback in Cubase AI there is no need to purchase the “pro” version. !Trying to import or play back a file not supported by the selected video playback engine leads to unpre- dictable results – if no information on the number of frames, the length and the pixel resolution is available in the Import Video dialog or the Pool, you cannot im- port/play this file properly with this particular video playback engine. !You can change the video playback engine in the Device Setup dialog. After having done so, make sure to remove any previously imported video file from the Pool first, and re-import it.
250 Video Under Mac OS X, only the QuickTime playback engine is available, supporting the formats AVI, MPEG, Quick- Time and DV. If your system has a FireWire port, there is also a FireWire option – see below. Video quality in QuickTime When you are using QuickTime as your video playback engine, you can select “High Quality” from the Video win- dow context-menu, or “Use high-quality video settings when available” in the Device Setup dialog, Video Player page, in the Video Properties section for QuickTime. When your QuickTime video was recorded with the cor- responding quality settings, selecting the “Use high-qual- ity video settings when available” or the “High Quality” option will make the video display sharper and smoother. Note that this will also lead to increased processor load. Video playback preferences In the Preferences (Event Display–Video page), there are two options for video playback: Show Video Thumbnails. When this is activated, thumbnail frames of the video contents are shown in the track. Video Cache Size. This determines how much memory is available for video thumbnails. If you have long video clips and/or work with a large zoom factor (so that a lot of frames are shown in the thumbnails), you may have to raise this value. Playing back a video file Video files are displayed as events/clips on the video track, with thumbnails representing the frames in the film (if the option Show Video Thumbnails is activated in the Preferences, see above). A video event on a video track In the Track list and Inspector, you will find the following controls for video tracks: To view the video on the computer screen (as opposed to on an external monitor, see below), proceed as follows: If you’re running Mac OS X, open the Device Setup dia- log from the Devices menu, click “Video Player” in the list and make sure “Onscreen Window” is selected in the Video Output section of the dialog. Under Windows, either pull down the Devices menu and select Video, or use a key command – by default [F8], or double-click the video clip. A video window appears. In Stop mode, this displays the video frame at the project cursor position. The video will be played back together with any other events in the Project window as usual. Playing back video without any hardware For the DirectShow video player, open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu, click Video Player in the De- vices list and use the buttons in the Video Properties sec- tion to select a size or right-click in the video window to switch to full screen. Right-click again to exit full screen. For the QuickTime player (Windows and Mac), you can drag the borders, just like resizing other windows. You can also right-click in the video window to open the Video win- dow context menu and select one of the Size options. There is also a Full Screen Mode available in the menu. Right-click again or press the [Esc] key on your computer keyboard to exit full screen mode. ÖPlaying back video on your computer screen puts a limit on the size of the video window as well as the image quality. !QuickTime as a video playback engine is available only if you have QuickTime 7.1 (or higher) installed on your computer. If you do not have QuickTime, or if a version lower than 7.1 is installed, this option will not be available in Cubase AI. Button Description Mute Video When this is activated, video playback will be stopped, but playback of any other events in the project will con- tinue (to decrease the processor load). You may have to use the Track Controls Settings dialog to make this but- ton visible in the Track list.