Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Operation Manual

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Audio effects
2.Pull down the routing pop-up menu for a send by 
clicking in the empty slot, and select the desired routing 
destination.
 If the first item on this menu (“No Bus”) is selected, the send 
isn’t routed anywhere.
 Items called “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc. correspond to existing FX 
tracks. If you renamed an FX track (see “Adding an FX channel 
track” on page 109) that name will appear on this menu in-
stead of the default.
 The menu also allows for routing a send directly to output bus-
ses, separate output bus channels or Group channels.
3.Select an FX channel track from the pop-up menu.
Now the send is routed to the FX channel.
4.Click the power button for the effect send so that it 
lights up in blue.
This activates the send.
5.Click and drag the send level slider to a moderate 
value.
The send level determines how much of the signal from the audio chan-
nel is routed to the FX channel via the send.
Setting the Send level.
6.If you want the signal to be sent to the FX channel be-
fore the audio channel’s volume fader in the mixer, click on 
the Pre-Fader button for the send so that it lights up.
Normally you want the effect send to be proportional to the channel vol-
ume (post-fader send). The picture below shows where the sends are 
“tapped” from the signal in pre and post-fader mode.
A send set to pre-fader mode.
ÖYou can choose whether a send in pre-fader mode 
should be affected by the channel’s Mute button or not.
This is done with the option “Mute Pre-Send when Mute” in the Prefe-
rences dialog (VST page).
When one or several sends are activated for a channel, 
the Send Effects buttons light up in blue in the mixer and 
the Track list. Click the button for a channel to bypass 
(disable) all its effect sends.
When the sends are bypassed, the button is yellow. Click the button again 
to enable the sends. Note that this button is also available in the Inspector 
and the Channel settings window.
Click this button to bypass the sends.
You can also bypass individual sends in the channel 
overview.
See “Insert effects in the channel overview” on page 107.
Input gain
Insert effects 1-6
EQ
Volume (fader)
Insert effects 7-8
Pre-fader sends
Post-fader sends 
						

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Audio effects
You can also bypass the send effects by clicking the 
“Bypass Inserts” button for the FX channel.
This bypasses the actual send effects which may be used by several dif-
ferent channels. Bypassing a send affects that send and that channel 
only. If you bypass the insert effect the original sound will be passed 
through. This may lead to unwanted side effects (higher volume). To de-
activate all effects, use the mute button in the FX channel.
Setting effect levels
When you have set up the sends as described in the pre-
vious sections, you can do the following:
You can use the send level slider in the Channel Set-
tings window or the Inspector to set the send level.
By adjusting the send level, you control the amount of signal sent from 
the audio channel to the FX channel.
Setting the effect send level.
In the mixer, you can use the level fader for the FX chan-
nel to set the effect return level.
By adjusting the return level, you control the amount of the signal sent 
from the FX channel to the output bus.
Setting the effect return level.
FX channels and the Solo Defeat function
When mixing, you might sometimes want to solo specific 
audio channels, and listen only to these while other chan-
nels are muted. However, this will mute all FX channels as 
well. If the soloed audio channels have sends routed to FX 
channels, this means you won’t hear the send effects for 
the channels.
To remedy this, you can use the Solo Defeat function for 
the FX channel:
1.[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel.
This activates the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel. In this mode, 
the FX channel will not be muted if you solo another channel in the mixer.
2.You can now solo any of the audio channels without 
having the effect return (the FX channel) muted.
To turn off the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel, 
[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel 
again.
Making settings for the effects
Editing effects
All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button. Clicking 
this opens the control panel for the effect, in which you 
can make parameter settings.
The contents, design and layout of the control panel de-
pends on the selected effect. However, all effect control 
panels have an On/Off button, a Bypass button, Read/
Write automation buttons (for automating effect parame-
ter changes, see the chapter “Automation” on page 131), 
a preset pop-up menu and a Preset Management pop-up 
menu for saving and loading effect presets.
The Rotary effect control panel. 
						

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Audio effects
Please note that all effects can be edited using a simpli-
fied control panel (horizontal sliders only, no graphics). This 
panel is opened by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Alt]/[Op-
tion]+[Shift] and clicking on the Edit button for the effect 
send or slot.
Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs, 
sliders, buttons and graphic curves. 
ÖThe included effects and their parameters are de-
scribed in detail in the separate manual “Plug-in Refer-
ence”.
If you edit the parameters for an effect, these settings 
are saved automatically with the project.
You can also save the current settings as a preset, see 
below.
Effects parameters can be automated – see the chapter 
“Automation” on page 131.
Effect presets
Effect preset management in Cubase Essential is very ver-
satile. In the MediaBay – or with certain limits in the Save 
Preset dialog – you can assign attributes to presets which 
allow you to organize and browse them according to vari-
ous criteria. Cubase Essential comes with categorized 
track and VST presets that you can use straight out of the 
box. You can also preview effect presets before loading 
them which considerably speeds up the process of find-
ing the right effect preset.
Effect presets can be divided into the following main 
categories:
VST presets for a plug-in.
These are stored parameter settings for a specific effect.
Inserts presets that contain insert effect combinations.
These can contain the whole insert effects rack, complete with settings 
for each effect, see “Saving insert effect combinations” on page 115.
Selecting effect presets
Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful 
presets for instant selection.
The Presets browser
To select an effect preset in the Presets browser, proceed 
as follows:
1.Load an effect, either as a channel insert or into an FX 
channel.
The control panel for the effect is displayed.
2.Click in the preset field at the top of the control panel.
This opens the Presets browser.
You can also open the Presets browser from the In-
spector (Inserts tab) or the Channel Settings window.
3.Select the desired preset in the list.
4.Activate playback to audition the selected preset.
Simply step through the presets until you found the right sound. It may be 
helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be-
tween different preset settings easier.
5.Double-click on the desired preset (or click outside 
the Presets browser) to apply the preset.
To return to the preset that was selected when you 
opened the Presets browser, click the Reset button.
You can also open the Presets browser by clicking the 
SoundFrame button to the right of the preset field an se-
lecting “Load Preset” from the Preset Management pop-
up menu.
The preset handling for VST 2 plug-ins is slightly differ-
ent, see “About earlier VST effect presets” on page 115. 
						

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Audio effects
The Browser sections
The Presets browser contains the following sections:
The “Search & Viewer” section (displayed by default) 
lists the available presets for the selected effect.
The Filter section (displayed when you click the Cate-
gories button) shows the available preset attributes for the 
selected effect.
If no attributes have been specified for the effect presets, the columns 
will be empty. If attributes have been assigned to a preset for this effect, 
you can click on the attribute in the respective column (Category, Style 
etc.), to filter out all presets that do not match the selected attribute(s).
If you also activate the “Show Location” button, the 
Browser & Filter section is displayed, allowing you to 
specify the Presets folder that should be searched for 
preset files.
Saving effect presets
You can save your edited effect settings as presets for 
further use (e.g. in other projects):
1.Click the SoundFrame button to open the Preset 
Management pop-up menu.2.Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu.
This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset.
3.In the File name field in the lower part of the Save Pre-
set dialog, enter a name for the new preset.
If you wish to assign attributes to the preset, click the 
Tag Editor button.
Click in the Value column to select an appropriate “tag” for one or sev-
eral of the available categories in the Attributes column. For further infor-
mation on preset handling, see the chapter “The MediaBay” on page 
186.
4.Click OK to store the preset and exit the dialog.
User-defined presets are saved in the following location:
 Win: Documents and Settings/User name/Application data/
VST3 presets\ 
 Mac: Users//Library/Audio/Presets//
You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
ther subfolders inside the individual effect preset folders. 
						

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Audio effects
About earlier VST effect presets
As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in 
Cubase Essential. For a description of how to add VST 
plug-ins see “Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on 
page 116.
When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored pre-
sets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/
.fxb). You can import such files, but the preset handling will 
be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new fea-
tures until you have converted the old “.fxp/.fxb” presets to 
VST 3 presets. If you save new presets for the included 
VST 2 plug-ins, these will automatically be saved in the new 
“.vstpreset” format.
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
To import .fxp/.fxb files, proceed as follows:
1.Load any VST 2 effect you may have installed, and click 
on the SoundFrame button to open the Preset Manage-
ment pop-up menu.
2.Select “Import FXB/FXP…” from the pop-up.
This menu item is only available for VST 2 plug-ins.
3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the .fxp file and 
click Open.
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect pro-
grams. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected 
effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your 
own .fxp/.fxb presets with a previous version of Cubase Essential (or any 
other VST 2 application).
4.After importing, you can convert the current program 
list to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to 
VST Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up.
After converting, the presets will be available in the Presets browser. The 
new converted presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
Saving insert effect combinations
You can save the complete insert effect rack for a channel 
together with all parameter settings as an inserts preset. 
Inserts presets can be applied to audio, instruments, FX 
channel or group tracks.
This works as follows:
1.Select the desired track in the Track list and open the 
Inserts Inspector section.
2.Load a combination of insert effects and adjust the pa-
rameters (or select effect presets) for each effect.
3.At the top of the Inserts tab, click the SoundFrame 
button to open the Preset Management pop-up menu for 
the inserts and select “Store Preset”.
This can also be done from the Channel Settings window using the 
SoundFrame button at the top of the Inserts section.
4.Type in a name for the preset in the dialog that appears.
5.Select the track (audio/group/instrument/fx channel) 
you wish to apply the new preset to, and click its Sound-
Frame button.
As you can see, the new preset is available at the top of the pop-up menu.
6.Select the preset you created from the pop-up menu.
The effects are loaded into the Insert slots of the new track, and the con-
trol panels for all effects are opened.
Note that when loading insert combination presets, any 
plug-ins that were previously loaded for the track will be 
removed, regardless of whether these slots are used in 
the preset.
In other words, saving an inserts preset means saving the states of all in-
sert slots.
!All VST 2 presets can be converted to VST 3 presets. 
						

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Audio effects
You can use the Preset Management pop-up to save 
your settings as preset, or to rename or remove the cur-
rent preset.
Extracting insert effect settings from track presets
You can extract the effects used in a track preset and load 
them into your inserts “rack”: 
Select “From Track Preset…” on the Preset Manage-
ment pop-up menu to open a dialog where all track pre-
sets are shown.
Select an item in the list to load the effects used in the 
track preset.
Track presets are described in the chapter “Track Pre-
sets” on page 195.
Installing and managing effect plug-
ins
Cubase Essential supports two plug-in formats; the VST 2 
format (with the file name extensions “.dll” on the PC and 
“.VST” on the Mac) and the VST 3 format (extension 
“.vst3” on both platforms). The formats are handled differ-
ently when it comes to installation and organizing.
Installing additional VST plug-ins
Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Mac OS X
To install a VST 3.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase 
Essential and drag the plug-in file into one of the following 
folders:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
support them.
Users/Username/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
“Username” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easiest 
way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the path 
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this folder 
are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase Essential again, the new effects 
will appear on the effect pop-up menus. In the VST 3 proto-
col, the effect category, sub-folder structure etc. are built-in 
and cannot be changed. The effect(s) will simply show up in 
the assigned category folder(s) on the Effect pop-up menu.
Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X
To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase 
Essential and drag the plug-in file to one of the following 
folders:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
support them.
Username/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
“Username” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easiest 
way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the path /
Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this folder 
are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase Essential again, the new effects 
will appear on the effect pop-up menus.
ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
plication, you should use this.
As a general rule, always read the documentation or readme files before 
installing new plug-ins.
Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Windows
Under Windows, VST 3 plug-ins are installed by dragging 
the files (with the extension “.vst3”) into the vst3 folder in 
the Cubase Essential application folder. When you launch 
Cubase Essential again, the new effects will appear on the 
Effect pop-up menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the effect 
category, sub-folder structure etc. are built-in and cannot 
be changed. The installed new effect(s) will simply show 
up in the assigned category folder(s) on the effect pop-up 
menu.
Installing VST 2 plug-ins under Windows
Under Windows, VST 2.x plug-ins are installed by dragging 
the files (with the extension “.dll”) into the Vstplugins folder 
in the Cubase Essential application folder, or into the 
Shared VST Plug-in folder – see below. When you launch 
Cubase Essential again, the new effects will appear on the 
effect pop-up menus.
ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
plication, you should use this.
As a general rule, always read the documentation before installing new 
plug-ins.
!Plug-ins in Mac OS 9.X format cannot be used. 
						

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Audio effects
Organizing VST 2 plug-ins
If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them 
all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become 
unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins in-
stalled with Cubase Essential are placed in appropriate 
subfolders according to the effect type.
Under Windows, you can organize VST plug-ins by mov-
ing, adding or renaming subfolders within the Vstplugins 
folder. 
When you launch the program and pull down an effects pop-up menu, 
the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing 
the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
Under Mac OS X, you cannot change the hierarchic ar-
rangement of the “built-in” VST plug-ins.
However, you can arrange any additional plug-ins you have installed (in the 
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ folders, see above) by placing them in sub-
folders. In the program, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical 
submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
The Plug-in Information window
On the Devices menu, you will find an item called “Plug-in 
Information”. Selecting this opens a dialog listing all the 
available VST compatible plug-ins in your system (includ-
ing VST Instruments), along with all MIDI plug-ins.
Managing and selecting VST plug-ins
To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST 
PlugIns” tab.
To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put 
a check mark in the left column.
Only the enabled plug-ins will appear on the effect menus.
The Instances column indicates how many instances of 
the plug-in are currently used in Cubase Essential.
Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a 
pop-up showing exactly where each use occurs.
ÖA plug-in may be in use even if it isn’t enabled in the 
left column. 
You might for example have opened a project containing effects that are 
currently disabled on the menu. The left column only determines whether 
or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus.
All columns can be resized by dragging the divider in 
the column header.
The other columns show the following information about 
each plug-in:
Update button
Clicking this button will make Cubase Essential re-scan 
the designated VST folders for updated information about 
the plug-ins.
VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button
This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths 
to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can freely 
Add/Remove folder locations by using the corresponding 
buttons. If you click “Add”, a file dialog is opened, where 
you can select a folder location.
Column Description
Name The name of the plug-in.
Vendor The manufacturer of the plug-in.
File This shows the complete name of the plug-in (with extension).
Category This indicates the category of each plug-in (such as VST In-
struments, etc.).
Version Shows the version of the plug-in.
SDK Shows with which version of the VST protocol a plug-in is 
compatible.
Latency This shows the delay (in samples) that will be introduced if the 
effect is used as an Insert. This is automatically compensated 
for by Cubase Essential.
I/O This column shows the number of inputs and outputs for each 
plug-in.
Path The path and name of the folder in which the plug-in file is 
located. 
						

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About the “shared” plug-ins folder (Windows and VST 
2.x only)
You can designate a “shared” VST 2.x plugins folder. This 
will allow VST 2.x plug-ins to be used by other programs 
that support this standard.
You designate a shared folder by selecting a folder in the 
list and clicking the “Set As Shared Folder” button in the 
VST 2.x Plug-in Paths dialog.
Exporting plug-in information files
You can also save plug-in information as an .xml file, e. g. 
for archiving purposes or troubleshooting. The Export func-
tion is available for VST, MIDI and Audio Codec plug-ins. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Right-click on the desired tab in the Plug-in Information 
window (for VST, MIDI or Audio Codec plug-ins), to open 
the context menu and select “Export”.
A file dialog opens.
2.In the dialog, specify a name and location for the Plug-
in Information export file and click OK to export the file.
The Plug-in Information file contains information on the 
currently installed/available plug-ins, their version, vendor, 
etc.
The .xml file can then be opened in any editor applica-
tion supporting the xml format. 
						

							12
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 
						

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Introduction
VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound 
sources) that are contained within Cubase Essential. They 
are played internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to 
VST Instruments, just as with audio tracks.
The VST Instrument HALionOne is included with Cubase 
Essential, others can be purchased separately from Stein-
berg and other manufacturers.
ÖThis chapter describes the general procedures for 
setting up and using VST Instruments.
For a description of HALionOne and its parameters, see the separate 
PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
ÖDepending on the VST version the instrument is com-
patible with, an icon may be displayed in front of the in-
strument name, see “About VST 3” on page 104.
VST Instrument channels vs. instru-
ment tracks
Cubase Essential allows you to make use of VST Instru-
ments in two different ways:
By activating instruments in the VST Instruments win-
dow.
This creates a VST Instrument channel, which can be played by one (or 
several) MIDI track(s) routed to it.
By creating instrument tracks.
Instrument tracks are a combination of a VST Instrument, an instrument 
channel and a MIDI track. You play and record MIDI note data directly for 
this track.
Both methods have their advantages, and should be se-
lected according to what best suits your needs. The fol-
lowing sections describe the two approaches.
VST Instrument channels
You can access a VST Instrument from within Cubase Es-
sential by creating a VST Instrument channel and associ-
ating this channel with a MIDI track. Proceed as follows:
1.On the Devices menu, select “VST Instruments”.
The VST Instruments window opens.
2.Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument 
pop-up menu and select the desired instrument.
3.You will be asked if you want to create an associated 
MIDI track connected to the VST Instrument. Do so.
The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel is opened. 
A MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the Track list. 
The output of this track is routed to the instrument.
In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can 
specify what should happen when loading a VST instru-
ment in an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Cre-
ate MIDI track when loading VSTi” and select one of the 
available options:
 When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will al-
ways be created.
 When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only 
the instrument will be loaded.
 Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI 
track should be created whenever you load an instrument.
You can also use modifiers to specify what should happen 
when you load a VST instrument (overriding the Prefer-
ence setting):
 When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST 
Instrument for an instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track 
with the name of the instrument is automatically created.
 When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST In-
strument for an instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created 
for the instrument.