Steinberg Cubase Ai 5 Manual

							81
The mixer
About output busses
Cubase AI uses a system of input and output busses 
which are set up using the VST Connections dialog. This 
is described in the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up 
input and output busses” on page 9.
Output busses let you route audio from the program to the 
outputs on your audio hardware. 
Viewing the output busses in the mixer
Output busses are shown as output channels in a sepa-
rate pane to the right in the mixer. You show or hide this 
pane by clicking the Hide Output Channels button in the 
mixer’s common panel.
Each output channel resembles a regular audio channel 
strip. Here you can do the following:
 Adjust master levels for all configured output busses using the 
level faders.
 Add effects or EQ to the output channels (see the chapter 
“Audio effects” on page 85).
MIDI-specific procedures
This section describes basic procedures for MIDI chan-
nels in the mixer.
Using Channel Settings
For each MIDI channel strip in the mixer (and MIDI track in 
the Track list or the Inspector), there is an Edit (“e”) button. 
Clicking this opens the MIDI Channel Settings window. 
By default, this window contains a duplicate of the mixer 
channel strip.
You can customize the Channel Settings window, by 
showing/hiding the different panels and/or by changing 
their order:
 To specify, which panels should be shown/hidden, right-click 
in the Channel settings window, and activate/deactivate the 
respective options on the Customize View submenu on the 
context menu. To change the order of the panels, select “Setup” on the Cus-
tomize View pop-up menu and use the “Move up” and “Move 
Down” buttons in the dialog that opens.
Every MIDI channel has its own channel settings window.
The MIDI Channel Settings window 
						

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The mixer
Utilities
Link/Unlink channels
This function is used to “link” selected channels in the 
mixer so that any change applied to one channel will be 
mirrored by all channels in that group. You can link as 
many channels as you like, and you can also create as 
many groups of linked channels as you like. To link chan-
nels in the mixer, proceed as follows:
1.Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on all the channels 
you want to link.
[Shift]-clicking allows you to select a continuous range of channels.
2.Right-click somewhere on the gray mixer panel.
The Mixer context menu appears.
3.Select “Link Channels” from the context menu.
To unlink channels, select one of the linked channels and 
select “Unlink Channels” from the Mixer context menu.
The channels are unlinked. Note that you do not have to select all the 
channels that are linked, only one of them.
ÖIt is not possible to remove individual channels from 
Link status. 
To make individual settings to a linked channel, press [Alt]/[Option] when 
changing the setting.
What will be linked?
The following rules apply for linked channels:
Only level, mute, solo, select, monitor and record enable 
will be linked between channels.
Effect/EQ/pan/input and output routing settings are not linked.
Any individual channel settings you have made before 
linking will remain until you alter the same setting for any of 
the linked channels.
For example, if you link three channels, and one of them was muted at the 
time you applied the Link Channel function, this channel will remain muted 
after linking. However, if you mute another channel all linked channels will 
be muted. Thus, the individual setting for one channel is lost as soon as 
you change the same parameter setting for any of the linked channels.
Fader levels will be “ganged”.
The relative level offset between channels will be kept if you move a 
linked channel fader.
The three channels shown are linked. Pulling down one fader changes 
the levels for all three channels, but keeps the relative level mix.
By pressing [Alt]/[Option], you can make individual set-
tings and changes for channels that are linked.
ÖLinked channels have individual automation tracks. 
These are completely independent, and are not affected 
by the Link function. 
						

							83
The mixer
Saving mixer settings
It is possible to save complete mixer settings for all or all 
selected audio-related channels in the mixer. These can 
later be loaded into any project. Channel settings are saved 
as mixer settings files. These have the file extension “.vmx”. 
Right-clicking somewhere in the mixer panel or in the 
Channel Settings window brings up the context menu 
where the following Save options can be found:
“Save Selected Channels” will save all channel settings 
for the selected channels.
“Save All Mixer Settings” saves all channel settings for 
all channels.
When you select any of the above options, a standard file 
dialog opens where you can select a name and storage lo-
cation on your disk for the file.
Loading mixer settings 
Loading Selected Channels
To load mixer settings saved for selected channels, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.Select the same number of channels in the new project 
to match the number of channels you saved settings for in 
the previous project.
For example, if you saved settings for six channels, select six channels in 
the mixer.
Mixer settings will be applied in the same order as they 
were in the mixer.
Thus, if you save settings from channels 4, 6 and 8 and apply these set-
tings to channels 1, 2 and 3, the settings saved for channel 4 would be ap-
plied to channel 1, the settings saved for channel 6 to channel 2 and so on.
2.Right-click the mixer panel to open the context menu, 
and select “Load Selected Channels”.
A standard file dialog appears, where you can locate the saved file.
3.Select the file and click “Open”.
The channel settings are applied to the selected channels.
Loading All Mixer Settings
Selecting “Load All Mixer Settings” from the context menu 
allows you to open a saved mixer settings file, and have 
the stored settings applied to all channels for which there 
is information included in the file. All channels, output set-
tings, VST Instruments, sends and “master” effects will be 
affected.
ÖPlease note that if the saved mixer settings were for 
24 channels, for example, and the mixer you apply it to 
currently contains 16 channels, only the settings for chan-
nels 1 to 16 will be applied – this function will not auto-
matically add channels.
!Saving mixer settings does not apply to MIDI chan-
nels in the mixer – only audio-related channels 
(group, audio, instrument, effect return, and VSTi) 
are saved with this function!
!Loading mixer settings does not apply to MIDI chan-
nels in the mixer – only audio-related channels (group, 
audio, instrument, effect return, VSTi) are saved and 
can be loaded with this function!
!If you choose to apply mixer settings to fewer chan-
nels than you saved, the order of the saved channels 
in the mixer applies – i.e. the saved channels that are 
“left over” and not applied will be the channels with 
the highest channel numbers (or furthest to the right 
in the mixer). 
						

							84
The mixer
About the VST Performance window
The VST Performance window is opened from the Devices 
menu. The window shows two meter displays: The ASIO 
meter, which indicates CPU load, and the Disk meter, 
which shows the hard disk transfer rate. It is recommended 
that you check this from time to time, or keep it always 
open. Even if you have been able to activate a number of 
audio channels in the project without getting any warning, 
you may run into performance problems when adding EQ 
or effects.
The ASIO meter (at the top) shows the ASIO time usage, 
i. e. the time required to complete the current processing 
tasks. The more tracks, effects, EQ etc. you use in your 
project, the longer processing will take, and the longer the 
ASIO meter will show activity.
If the red Overload indicator lights up, you need to decrease the number 
of EQ modules, active effects and/or audio channels playing back simul-
taneously.
The lower bar graph shows the hard disk transfer load.
If the red overload indicator lights up, the hard disk is not supplying data 
fast enough to the computer. You may need to reduce the number of tracks 
playing back by using the Disable Track function (see “About track disable/
enable” on page 45). If this does not help, you need a faster hard disk. 
Note that the overload indicator may occasionally blink, e.g. when you lo-
cate during playback. This does not indicate a problem, but happens be-
cause the program needs a moment for all channels to load data for the 
new playback position.
ÖThe ASIO and Disk load meters can also be shown on 
the Transport panel (as “Performance”) and on the Project 
window toolbar (as “Performance Meter”).
There they are shown as two miniature vertical meters (by default at the 
left side of the panel/toolbar).
  
						

							8
Audio effects 
						

							86
Audio effects
About this chapter
Cubase AI comes with a number of effect plug-ins in-
cluded. This chapter contains general details about how to 
assign, use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and 
their parameters are described in the separate manual 
“Plug-in Reference”.
Overview
There are two ways to use audio effects in Cubase AI:
As insert effects.
An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which 
means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes 
inserts suitable for effects for which you do not need to mix dry and wet 
sound, e.g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy-
namic characteristics of the sound. You can have up to eight different in-
sert effects per channel (and the same is true for output busses – for 
recording with “master effects”).
As send effects.
Each audio channel has eight sends, each of which can be freely routed 
to an effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for two 
reasons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and wet 
(processed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, and 
several different audio channels can use the same send effect. In Cu-
base AI, send effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks. 
About VST 3 
The new VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improve-
ments over the previous VST 2 standard, yet retains full 
backwards compatibility, i.e. you will still be able to use 
your previous VST effects and presets.
In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver-
sions will be easily recognized:
VST Preset management
From a user perspective, the main difference between 
VST 2 and VST 3 is in the effect preset management. The 
“.fxp/.fxb” files used in VST 2 have been replaced by 
VST 3 Presets (extension “.vstpreset”). Using the preset 
management features, you can assign various attributes to 
your effect presets to help you quickly find the right patch. 
You can also preview effect presets before you load them. 
A large number of presets for effects are included with the 
program. If you have any previous VST plug-ins installed 
on your computer, you can still use them, and you can also 
convert their programs to VST 3 presets, see “Effect pre-
sets” on page 94.
Smart plug-in processing
Another feature of the VST3 standard is “smart” plug-in 
processing. Previously, any loaded plug-in was processing 
continuously, regardless of whether a signal was present or 
not. In VST3, processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if 
there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU 
load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. 
This is achieved by activating the option “Suspend VST3 
plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” in 
the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page).
When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume 
CPU power on silent passages, i.e. when no audio data 
runs through them.
Be aware, however, that this can lead to a situation where 
you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the sys-
tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always 
find the passage with the largest number of events playing 
simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the re-
quired performance.
ÖActivating this option can increase your system perfor-
mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more 
unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on 
any timecode position of the project. 
!This chapter describes audio effects, i.e. effects that 
are used to process audio, group, and VST Instrument 
channels. 
An effect compatible 
with a previous VST 
versionA VST 3 effect 
						

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Audio effects
About plug-in delay compensation
A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency. 
This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro-
cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio 
will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam-
ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality. 
Cubase AI provides full plug-in delay compensation 
throughout the entire audio path. All plug-in delays are 
compensated for, maintaining the sync and timing of all 
audio channels.
Normally, you do not have to make any settings for this. 
However, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead func-
tionality have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage 
the look-ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used 
during realtime recording (see the separate manual “Plug-
in Reference”).
You can also constrain the delay compensation, which is 
useful to avoid latency when recording audio or playing a 
VST Instrument in real time, see “Constrain Delay Com-
pensation” on page 106.
About tempo sync
Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from the 
host application (in this case, Cubase AI). Typically, this is 
used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as 
modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo.
This information is automatically provided to any VST 
plug-in (2.0 or later) that “requests it”.
You do not have to make any special settings for this.
You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. 
You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 to 1/32).
Please refer to the separate manual “Plug-in Reference” 
for details about the included effects.
Insert effects
Background
As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the 
audio signal path – this means that the audio channel data 
will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight 
different insert effects independently for each audio-re-
lated channel (audio track, group channel track, FX chan-
nel track or VST Instrument channel) or output bus. The 
signal passes through the effects in series from the top 
downwards, with the signal path shown below:
As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) 
are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best 
suited for insert effects where you do not want the level to 
be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dithe-
ring” on page 89) and maximizers – both typically used as 
insert effects for output busses.
ÖApplying several effects on several channels may be 
too much for your CPU to handle!
If you want to use the same effect with the same settings on several 
channels, it may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to apply 
your effect only once, as a single insert for this group. You can use the 
VST Performance window to keep an eye on the CPU load.
Input gain
Insert effect 1
Insert effect 2
Insert effect 3
Insert effect 6
EQ
Volume (fader)
Insert effect 7
Insert effect 8
Insert effect 4
Insert effect 5 
						

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Audio effects
Routing an audio channel or bus through 
insert effects
Insert effect settings are available in the Channel Settings 
window and the Inspector. The examples below show the 
Channel Settings window, but the procedures are the 
same for all the inserts sections:
1.Bring up the Channel Settings window.
By default, the inserts are located to the far left.
2.Pull down the effect type pop-up for one of the insert 
slots, and select an effect.
The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its con-
trol panel opens. You can open or close the control panel 
for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert slot.
If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter, you can use 
this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the 
effect signal.
See “Editing effects” on page 94 for details about editing effects.
To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up 
menu and select “No Effect”.
You should do this for all effects that you do not intend to use, to reduce 
the CPU load.
You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way.
You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above 
the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the 
same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/
[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot.
Deactivating vs. bypassing
If you want to listen to the track without having it pro-
cessed by a particular effect, but do not want to remove 
this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either 
deactivate or bypass it.
Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas 
bypassing means to play back only the unprocessed origi-
nal signal – a bypassed effect is still processing in the 
background. Bypassing allows for crackle-free comparison 
of the original (“dry”) and the processed (“wet”) signal.
To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left 
above the insert slot.
To bypass an effect, click its Bypass button (the middle 
button above the insert slot).
When an effect is bypassed, this button is yellow.
To bypass all inserts for a track, click the global bypass 
button. 
This button can be found at the top of the Inserts section in the Inspector 
or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to indicate that the 
inserts of this track are bypassed. In the Track list and the channel strip in 
the mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in yellow.
This effect is activated, and its control 
panel is open.
This insert effect is bypassed. 
						

							89
Audio effects
Insert effects in the channel overview
If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector, you will 
get an overview of which insert effects, EQ modules and ef-
fect sends are activated for the channel.
You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots 
by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of 
the overview).
The channel overview in the Inspector
Adding insert effects to output busses
All output busses have eight insert slots, just like regular 
audio channels. The procedures for adding insert effects 
are the same.
Insert effects added to an output bus will affect all audio 
routed to that bus, like a “master insert effect”.
Typically you would add compressors, limiters, EQ or other plug-ins to 
tailor the dynamics and sound of the final mix. Dithering is a special case, 
as described below.
ÖPlease note that the output busses only appear as 
tracks in the Track list, when their automation W(rite) but-
tons have been activated once. Therefore you can only 
use the Inspector section to make Inserts settings for the 
busses if you have activated Write automation for the re-
spective bus beforehand.
However, you can always make Inserts settings in the Channel Settings 
window.
Dithering
Dithering is a method for controlling the noise produced 
by quantization errors in digital recordings. The theory be-
hind this is that during low level passages, only a few bits 
are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantiza-
tion errors and hence distortion. 
For example, when “truncating bits”, as a result of moving 
from 24 to 16 bit resolution, quantization errors are added 
to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a spe-
cial kind of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of 
these errors is minimized. The added noise could be per-
ceived as a very low-level hiss under exacting listening 
conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable and much 
preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.
ÖNote that there is no Dithering plug-in included with 
Cubase AI. To use this function, you have to have a dither-
ing plug-in installed on your computer.
When should I use dithering?
Consider dithering when you mix down to a lower reso-
lution, either in realtime (during playback) or with the Ex-
port Audio Mixdown function. 
A typical example is when you mix down a project to a 16-bit stereo au-
dio file for audio CD burning.
What is a “lower resolution” then? Well, Cubase AI uses 
32-bit float resolution internally, which means that all inte-
ger resolutions (16 bit, 24 bit, etc.) are lower. The negative 
effects of truncation (no dithering) are most noticeable 
when mixing down to 8 bit, 16 bit and 20 bit format; 
whether to dither when mixing down to 24 bits is a matter 
of taste.
Applying dithering
1.Open the VST Output Channel Settings window by 
clicking the “e” button for the Output channel in the mixer.
2.Open the Inserts pop-up menu for slot 7 or 8.
The two last Insert effect slots (for all channels) are post-fader, which is 
crucial for a dithering plug-in. The reason is that any master gain change 
applied after dithering would bring the signal back to the internal 32 bit 
float domain, rendering the dithering settings useless.
3.Select a dithering plug-in from the pop-up menu.
The blue color of inserts 1 and 2 and the 
blue Inserts State button in the channel strip 
indicate that this track has active inserts. 
						

							90
Audio effects
4.Make sure the plug-in is set to dither to the correct 
resolution.
This would be the resolution of your audio hardware (on playback) or the 
desired resolution for the mixdown file you want to create (as set in the 
Export Audio Mixdown dialog, see the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown” 
on page 226).
5.Use the other parameters in the control panel to set up 
the dithering to your liking.
Using group channels for insert effects
Like all other channels, group channels can have up to 
eight insert effects. This is useful if you have several audio 
tracks that you want to process through the same effect 
(e.g. different vocal tracks that all should be processed by 
the same compressor). 
Another special use for group channels and effects is the 
following:
If you have a mono audio track and want to process this 
through a stereo insert effect (e.g. a stereo chorus or an 
auto panner device), you cannot just insert the effect as 
usual. This is because the audio track is in mono – the 
output of the insert effect will be in mono as well, and the 
stereo information from the effect will be lost.
One solution would be to route a send from the mono track 
to a stereo FX channel track, set the send to pre-fader 
mode and lower the fader completely for the mono audio 
track. However, this makes mixing the track cumbersome, 
since you cannot use the fader.
Here’s another solution:
1.Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to 
the desired output bus.
2.Add the desired effect to the group channel as an in-
sert effect.
3.Route the mono audio track to the group channel.
Now the signal from the mono audio track is sent directly 
to the group, where it passes through the insert effect, in 
stereo.
Send effects
Background
As their name implies, send effects are outside of an audio 
channel’s signal path, i. e. the audio data to be processed 
must be sent to the effect (as opposed to insert effects, 
which are inserted into the channel’s signal path).
To this end, Cubase AI provides FX channel tracks. When 
you have created such a track, it is added to the Track list 
and can be selected as a routing target in the Send slots 
of audio channels.
When selecting an FX channel track in one of the send 
slots of an audio channel, the audio is sent to the FX chan-
nel and through any insert effects set up for it.
Each audio channel has eight sends, which can be routed to different FX 
channels, and thus different FX channel insert effect configurations. You 
control the amount of signal sent to the FX channel by adjusting the effect 
send level.
If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the 
signal passes through the effects in series, from the top 
(the first slot) downward.
This allows for “custom” send effect configurations – e.g. a chorus fol-
lowed by a reverb followed by an EQ and so on.
The FX channel track has its own channel strip in the 
mixer, the effect return channel.
Here you can adjust the effect return level and balance, add EQ and 
route the effect return to any output bus.
Each FX channel track can have an automation track, for 
automating various effect parameters. 
See the chapter “Automation” on page 108 for more information.