Steinberg Cubase Essential 4.5 New Features Manual

							New Features in Cubase Essential 4.5 
						

							Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part 
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement 
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica-
tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission 
by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of 
Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the 
United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh 
are registered trademarks.
Release Date: July 15, 2008
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2008.
All rights reserved. 
						

							Table of Contents 
						

							4
Table of Contents
5Introduction
6Welcome!
7Working with the new features
8VST Sound
8Plug and Play support for ASIO devices
8Automatically generated VST Connection presets
8Mac OS X improvements
9Remote Devices
9Key Commands for MediaBay options
10Routing the metronome click to a VST Instrument
10Suspending Autoscroll
10New option in the Project Synchronization Setup 
dialog
11Index 
						

							Introduction 
						

							6
Introduction
Welcome!
Welcome to Cubase Essential 4.5! This version adds sup-
port for the Advanced Integration Controller CC121 and 
the Advanced Integration FireWire Interfaces MR816 X/
MR816 CSX  together with new features for every Cubase 
Essential user.
This document lists and describes the features that have 
been added to or modified in the program since version 4.1.
About the program versions
The documentation covers two different operating sys-
tems or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X. 
Some features and settings are specific to one of the plat-
forms. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. In 
other words:
ÖIf nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures 
in the documentation are valid for both Windows and Mac 
OS X.
Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in Cubase Essential 
use modifier keys, some of which are different depending 
on the operating system. For example, the default key 
command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and 
[Command]-[Z] under Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in 
this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier 
key first, in the following way:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] 
under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then 
press [Z]”. 
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win-
dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
ÖPlease note that this manual might refer to right-click-
ing, e.g. to open context menus, etc. If you are using a Mac 
with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click. 
						

							Working with the new features 
						

							8
Working with the new features
VST Sound
With version 4.5, Steinberg introduced VST Sound, a new 
version of the SoundFrame media management system that 
is directly integrated into VST3. VST Sound allows direct 
integration into the MediaBay to third party manufacturers 
of plug-ins and instruments, and encompasses all formats 
and file types previously supported by SoundFrame such as 
audio, loops, VSTi presets, video, MIDI files and track pre-
sets. VST Sound has now replaced SoundFrame, which 
was part of previous versions of Steinberg applications.
Plug and Play support for ASIO 
devices
The Steinberg MR816 hardware series supports Plug and 
Play in Cubase Essential. These devices can be plugged in 
and switched on while the application is running. Cubase 
Essential will automatically use the driver of the MR816 se-
ries and will re-map the VST connections accordingly.
•Please note that Steinberg cannot guarantee that this 
will work with other hardware. If you are unsure of whether 
your device supports plug and play, please consult its 
documentation.
Automatically generated VST 
Connection presets
In the VST Connections window (opened from the Devices 
menu), on the Inputs and Outputs tabs, you will find a Pre-
sets menu. A number of standard bus configurations are 
provided by default, and you can also save your own cus-
tomized setups as presets.
In this version of Cubase Essential, a new type of preset 
has been added to complement the standard presets as 
known from the previous program version: On each star-
tup, Cubase Essential will analyze the physical inputs and 
outputs provided by your audio hardware, and will auto-
matically create presets tailored to your specific hardware 
configuration. These hardware-dependent presets can have the follow-
ing configurations:
 one stereo bus
 various combinations of stereo and mono busses
 a number of mono busses
The Presets menu on the Outputs tab of the VST Connections window, 
with the standard presets (top) and the automatically generated presets 
(bottom).
The automatically generated presets make it easy to install 
and use an audio hardware device very quickly, as it is no 
longer necessary to manually specify the bus-port assign-
ments for the current device in the VST Connections win-
dow every time before you can start working. This is very 
handy, especially if you have a number of different devices 
you want to use or if you are working in different studios.
Mac OS X improvements
Retrieving channel names
For some audio cards, it is now possible to automatically 
retrieve the “ASIO” channel names for the ports of your 
audio hardware:
1.Open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu.
2.On the VST Audio System page, select your audio 
card on the “ASIO driver” pop up menu.
3.In the Devices list to the left, select your audio card.
The available settings are displayed.
4.In the settings section to the right, click the Control 
Panel button.
This opens the control panel for your audio hardware.
!If a device that does not support Plug and Play is 
connected/disconnected when the computer is run-
ning, it might get damaged. 
						

							9
Working with the new features
5.Activate the “Use CoreAudio Channel Names” option.
6.When you now open the VST Connections window to 
set up the busses in your system, you will find that the port 
names in the Device Port column correspond to the 
names that are used by the CoreAudio driver.
ÖIf you want to use the project later on with an earlier 
version of Cubase Essential, you will have to re-assign the 
port connections in the VST Connections window.
Port selection and activation
On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the 
Devices menu, see above), you can now specify which in-
put and which output port should be active. This allows 
you e. g. to use the Microphone input instead of the Line 
input or even to deactivate the audio card input or output 
completely, if required.
ÖThis function is only available for Built-In Audio, stan-
dard USB audio devices and a certain number of other au-
dio cards (e. g. Pinnacle CineWave).
Making settings for the hardware
When you click the “Open Config App” button on the set-
tings page for your audio device in the Device Setup dia-
log, the Control Panel for your audio device will be opened 
(if applicable). Here, you can make various settings relat-
ing to your audio hardware. The available settings depend 
on the installed hardware, so please refer to the documen-
tation that came with the audio hardware for information.
Remote Devices
On the Device Setup dialog, on the page for your remote 
device, some (or all) of the following new functions may be 
available (depending on your remote device):
Key Commands for MediaBay 
options
Several commands relating to the MediaBay can now be 
performed using keyboard shortcuts. These are set up in 
the Key Commands dialog (opened via the File menu). 
New key commands are available for the following actions: 
you can step through presets, open the Presets browser, 
and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate in the 
MediaBay windows. Furthermore, you can reset the search 
criteria or revert to the MediaBay as it was when you 
launched the program.
ÖNote that this makes it possible to remote control 
several of the MediaBay functions.
Option Description
Reset This allows you to revert to the factory default settings for 
the remote device.
Bank If your remote device contains several banks, you can se-
lect the bank you want to use on this pop-up menu. 
The bank you select here will be the one used by default 
when Cubase Essential is launched.
Smart Switch 
DelaySome of the Cubase Essential functions (e. g. Solo and 
Mute) support the so called “smart switch” behavior: In 
addition to regular activation/deactivation of a function by 
clicking a button, you can also activate the function for as 
long as the button is pressed. Upon releasing the mouse 
button, the function is deactivated. 
This pop-up menu allows you to specify how long a but-
ton must be pressed before it goes into “smart switch” 
mode. When “Off” is selected, the “smart switch” func-
tion is deactivated in Cubase Essential. 
						

							10
Working with the new features
Routing the metronome click to a 
VST Instrument
When setting up a metronome MIDI click, you can use a 
VST Instrument to provide the sound for the click.
1.On the Transport menu, select “Metronome Setup…”.
2.In the MIDI Click section, open the MIDI Port/Channel 
pop-up menu and select a VST Instrument from the list.
Note that the instrument must have been set up in the VST Instruments 
window. Make sure that Activate MIDI Click is activated.
When you now start playback and a sound is selected in 
your VST Instrument, the metronome click will be heard 
using the VSTi selected above.
Suspending Autoscroll
On the main toolbar in the Project window, as well as in 
the various editors, you will find the Autoscroll button. 
When this button is activated, the display will scroll during 
playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the window 
at all times.
When editing parts or events during playback with Auto-
scroll enabled, you may suddenly “loose sight” of the ed-
ited material as the display follows the project cursor.
If you don’t want the Project window display to change 
when editing during playback, you can activate the “Sus-
pend Autoscroll when Editing” button. You will find this 
button right next to the Autoscroll button.
Suspend Autoscroll when Editing
When this option is enabled, autoscrolling is suspended 
as soon as you click anywhere in the event display during 
playback.
Proceed as follows:
1.Open a project that contains audio or MIDI parts/
events.
2.Enable both the “Autoscroll” and the “Suspend Auto-
scroll when Editing” buttons (both buttons turn blue).3.Start playback.
4.Edit an audio or MIDI part/event of your project (e. g. 
click and drag it to a different location on its track).
The Autoscroll button will turn orange.
Autoscrolling is now suspended, i. e. when the project cur-
sor moves to the right edge of the Project window, the 
display will not follow to keep the cursor visible. 
As soon as playback stops, or when you click the Auto-
scroll button again (so it turns blue), Cubase Essential will 
return to the normal Autoscroll behavior.
New option in the Project 
Synchronization Setup dialog
In the Project Synchronization Setup dialog, in the MIDI 
Clock Destinations section in the lower right corner you 
can find the option “Send MIDI Clock in Stop”.
When this option is activated, Cubase Essential will 
send MIDI Clock signals to the selected MIDI Clock desti-
nations even when Cubase Essential is in Stop mode. 
This is, for example, useful if you are working with a keyboard that has a 
built-in arpeggiator, the tempo of which you are controlling via MIDI Clock 
messages. This way, the arpeggiator will keep the right tempo even when 
Cubase Essential is in Stop mode. You may also be able to use this feature 
with some external drum machines, as it allows you to play the drum pat-
terns in the current sequencer tempo even when Cubase Essential is 
stopped.
When this option is deactivated, Cubase Essential will 
send MIDI Clock signals to the selected MIDI Clock desti-
nations only during playback.
In this mode, you will not be able to use the above-mentioned arpeggia-
tor of your keyboard in Stop mode.
ÖKeep in mind that the MIDI Clock information always 
refers to the tempo at the current project position.