Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Operation Manual

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Synchronization
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 in-
put busses on computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you 
need actual 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
OK, but 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 e.g. 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 la-
tency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always 
compensates for record latencies, but if you are monitor-
ing through computer 1 you will hear a processing delay 
while you listen to signals coming from your other comput-
ers (not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 
1 supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely 
turn this on – youll find the setting in the VST Audio Sys-tem Device Setup panel (see “ASIO Direct Monitoring” on 
page 53). Most modern ASIO cards support this function. 
If yours doesnt you may want to change the Offset value 
in the VST System Link Setup panel to compensate for 
any latency 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.
Once you’ve 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 dont need 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 don’t 
have enough hardware I/Os for direct audio transmission. 
For example, in a four computer scenario you could send 
audio from computer 2 into a channel in the mixer in com-
puter 3, and from there to a channel in the mixer in com-
puter 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.  
						

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Synchronization
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 Essential, you would click the monitor button in the Track list 
or Inspector.
8.Press play 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. Dont 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 Essential 
can either be routed to an FX channel track or to any acti-
vated Group or output bus. This allows you to use a sepa-
rate 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.
8.Pull down 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 won’t have to handle any re-
cording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of 
effects). 
						

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Synchronization
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 isn’t 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. 
						

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Video 
						

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Video
Background
Cubase Essential 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, Direct-
Show 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.
While this will be fine in many situations it does put a limit on the size of 
the video window as well as the quality of the image.
Using video hardware that, for example, connects to an 
external monitor.
Mac OS X: Using a FireWire port, you can play back video on an external 
monitor using a DV-to-analog converter or a DV camera.
You can play back DV video. QuickTime is used for playback.
Windows: Multi-head graphics cards that support overlay functionality 
can be used to display the video picture on an external monitor. The fol-
lowing manufacturers have working (and tested) solutions available: 
nVIDIA and Matrox.
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 player? (Windows 
only)
The player 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 player for a particular type of video file, 
check the file information displayed in the Import 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 
player. You will either have to change the video player, or 
install the required codec.
Editing a video file
Video clips are played back by events just as audio clips 
are. You can use all the basic editing operations on video 
events, just as with audio events. The following operations 
are not possible on the video track:
Drawing, Gluing, and Scrubbing.
Note that when you activate the Mute button for a video track, the video 
playback will be stopped, but playback of any other Project events will 
continue. See below.
The video track has no editor and does not make use of 
parts.
Cubase Essential allows you to cut, copy, paste and trim 
video events, i. e. your video track may contain more than 
one video event. However, when using the DirectShow 
video player (Windows only), you may find that only the first 
event on the video track is played back correctly. In such a 
case make sure that the video track contains no more than 
one video event.
Under Windows, you may find that you are unable to 
edit a video file copied from a CD. This is because files 
copied from CD are write protected by default. Right-click 
the file, and deactivate the “Read-Only” option in the File 
Properties dialog.
When you have a video file in a format not supported by 
Cubase Essential, use an external application to convert 
the file to a format that Cubase Essential can import.
!Trying to import or play back a file not supported by 
the selected video player leads to unpredictable re-
sults – if no information on the number of frames, the 
length and the pixel resolution is available in the Im-
port Video dialog, the Pool or the MediaBay, you 
cannot import/play this file properly with this particu-
lar video player.
!You can change the video player 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. 
						

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Video
Operations
About the QuickTime video playback engine
In Cubase Essential for Windows, you select a playback 
engine in the Device Setup–Video Player page:
Make sure to read the section “Before you start” on 
page 295.
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 don’t have to install any ad-
ditional 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 Essential DVD if required, or you can download it from www.quick-
time.com) and a “pro” version, which offers additional video cutting 
options. The player engine is the same in both versions, so for mere play-
back in Cubase Essential there is no need to purchase the “pro” version.
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.
Importing a video file
Video files are imported in the same manner as audio files.
By using the File menu (Import–Video File).
By using drag and drop from the Windows Explorer/
Mac OS Finder, the Pool or the MediaBay.
This requires that a video track has been added to the Project and that 
you drop the video file onto this track.
By importing the file to the Pool first and then dragging 
it into the Project window (see the chapter “The Pool” on 
page 171 for details).
Note:
 You can only have one video track in each project. The Video 
track is added like other tracks in the Project window by using 
the Add Track submenu on the Project menu. If a project does 
not contain a video track when you import a video file via File–
Import–Video file, this is added automatically.
 All video files on the track must be of the same size and com-
pression format.
Video import preferences
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Video page), you will 
find one option that affects the import of video files:
Generate Thumbnail Cache on Import Video File
When this is activated, a thumbnail cache file will be created automati-
cally when you import a video file. This is handy, as a cache file will also 
be created when you import a video file using drag and drop.
Advantage of thumbnail cache files
ÖTo display video thumbnails in the Project window, the 
option “Show Video Thumbnails” has to be activated in 
the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Video page).
When working with video in Cubase Essential, video files 
are displayed as events/clips on the video track with 
thumbnails representing the frames in the film. These are 
calculated in real time, i. e. they have to be redrawn during 
scrolling or moving. As this consumes quite a lot of pro-
cessor power, reaction sometimes may be sluggish. To 
remedy this, you can generate a thumbnail cache file.
The cache file is used in situations where the processor 
load is very high and the correct redrawing or real-time 
calculation might use system resources necessary for ed-
iting or processing. When the cache file is used and you 
zoom in on the thumbnails, you will see that they are in a 
!QuickTime as a video playback engine is available 
only if you have QuickTime 7.1 (or higher) installed 
on your computer. If you don’t have QuickTime, or if a 
version lower than 7.1 is installed, this option will not 
be available in Cubase Essential. 
						

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Video
lower resolution, i. e. the pictures are not as clean as when 
they are calculated. When the processes that rely heavily 
on the computer CPU are finished, the frames will be au-
tomatically recalculated, i.e. the program automatically 
switches between real-time calculation of the pictures and 
using the cache file.
The generated thumbnail cache file will be stored in the 
same folder as the video file and will get the name of the 
file with the suffix “.videocache”.
Generating thumbnail cache files during video import
A thumbnail cache file will be created automatically before 
the file is inserted in the Project window, if you activated 
“Generate Thumbnail Cache on Import Video File” in the 
Preferences (Editing–Video page).
A window will be displayed, showing you the progress 
and the estimated time for the process.
The thumbnail cache file is created.
After the cache file is created, the window will be closed 
and the video clip is inserted as usual. When you now 
start video playback and perform processor consuming 
operations, the thumbnail file is used to display the video 
frames in the Project window. When enough processor 
power is available, the “real” calculated thumbnail frames 
are displayed again.
Generating thumbnail cache files from within the Pool
When you have video files without thumbnail cache files 
(e.g. if you did not create a thumbnail cache file during im-
port or if you are working with an older project), you al-
ways have the possibility to generate the thumbnail cache 
file at a later stage. This is done from within the Pool.Proceed as follows:
1.Open the Pool window and locate the video file you 
want to create a thumbnail cache file for.
2.Right-click on the file to open the context menu and 
select “Generate Thumbnail Cache”, or select “Generate 
Thumbnail Cache” from the Media menu.
Just as when creating the file during import, the status window opens 
(see above).
After the file is created, the window will be closed and the 
thumbnail cache file is used when necessary, i.e. under 
high load.
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, Event Display–Video page).
A video event on a video track
In the track list and Inspector, you will find the following 
controls for video tracks:
!Please note that the cache file will not be automati-
cally updated if a video file is edited. Whenever you 
change a video file (e.g. in a video editing applica-
tion), you need to create a new thumbnail cache file 
manually, as described above. (To refresh the “real” 
thumbnails of an edited video file, resize the video 
track so that they are calculated again.)
Button Description
Lock When this is activated, the video event will be locked, see 
“Locking events” on page 34.
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. 
						

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Video
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.
Video quality in QuickTime
When you are using QuickTime as your video player, you 
can select “High Quality” from the Video window 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.
Setting the Window size
If you are playing back video in a window on your com-
puter screen, you may want to adjust the size. 
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 window 
context menu and select one of the Size options.
For the DirectShow video player, open the Device 
Setup dialog from the Devices menu, click Video Player in 
the Devices list and use the buttons in the Video Proper-
ties section to select a size.
Playing back video in full screen mode
When viewing video on the computer screen, you can 
choose to let the video occupy the whole screen during 
playback or in Stop mode:
For DirectShow video, right-click in the video window to 
switch to full screen. Right-click again to exit full screen.For DirectX and QuickTime (Windows and Mac), right-
click in the video window to open the Video window con-
text-menu and select Full Screen Mode. Right-click again 
or press the [Esc] key on your computer keyboard to exit 
full screen mode.
Playing back video file using graphics cards
(Windows only) 
Multi-head graphics cards that support overlay functional-
ity can be used to display the video picture on an external 
TV or computer monitor in full screen mode. The manufac-
turers nVIDIA and Matrox have working (and tested) solu-
tions available. Check the card’s documentation for 
information on how it handles video output and how to set 
it up for multi-monitor display.
Playing back a video via FireWire (Mac OS X only)
For Apple computers equipped with a FireWire port, you 
can easily connect external video hardware via this, as 
OS X has built-in video support for the most common for-
mats (NTSC/PAL/DVCPRO). FireWire is capable of high 
data-transfer speed and is the most common standard for 
communicating with video-related peripheral equipment.
To play back a video file via hardware connected to the 
FireWire port, select “FireWire” in the Outputs pop-up of 
the Device Setup–Video Player dialog.
When FireWire is selected as output, a number of format options appear 
on the Format pop-up, allowing you to select between various video for-
mats and resolutions.
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. 
						

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ReWire 
						

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ReWire
Introduction
ReWire and ReWire2 are special protocols for streaming 
audio between two computer applications. Developed by 
Propellerhead Software and Steinberg, ReWire provides 
the following possibilities and features:
Real-time streaming of up to 64 separate audio chan-
nels (256 with ReWire2), at full bandwidth, from the “syn-
thesizer application” into the “mixer application”.
In this case, the “mixer application” is of course Cubase Essential. An ex-
ample of a “synthesizer application” is Propellerhead Software’s Reason.
Automatic, sample accurate synchronization between 
the audio in the two programs.
The possibility to have the two programs share one audio 
card and take advantage of multiple outputs on that card.
Linked transport controls that allow you to play, rewind, 
etc., either from Cubase Essential or from the synthesizer 
application (provided it has some kind of transport func-
tionality).
Automatic audio mixing functions of separate channels 
as required.
In the case of Reason, for example, this allows you to have separate 
mixer channels for the different devices.
Additionally, ReWire2 offers the possibility to route MIDI 
tracks in Cubase Essential to the other application, for full 
MIDI control.
For each ReWire2 compatible device, a number of extra MIDI outputs 
will be made available in Cubase Essential. In the case of Reason, this al-
lows you to route different MIDI tracks in Cubase Essential to different 
devices in Reason, having Cubase Essential serve as main MIDI se-
quencer.
The overall load on your system is much reduced, com-
pared to when using the programs together in the conven-
tional way.
Launching and quitting
When using ReWire, the order in which you launch and 
quit the two programs is very important:
Launching for normal use with ReWire
1.First launch Cubase Essential.
2.Enable one or several ReWire channels in the ReWire 
Device dialog for the other application.
This is described in detail in the section “Activating ReWire channels” on 
page 301.
3.Launch the other application.
It may take slightly longer for the application to start when you are using 
ReWire.
Quitting a ReWire session
When you are finished, you also need to quit the applica-
tions in a special order:
1.First quit the synthesizer application.
2.Then quit Cubase Essential.
Launching both programs without using 
ReWire
We cannot think of any scenario, in which you would need 
to run Cubase Essential and the synthesizer application 
simultaneously on the same computer, without using Re-
Wire, but you can:
1.First launch the synthesizer application.
2.Then launch Cubase Essential.
ÖPlease note that the two programs now compete for 
system resources such as audio cards, just as when run-
ning either with other, non-ReWire audio applications.