Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Plug-In Reference Manual

							Plug-in Reference 
						

							Original manual by Anders Nordmark
Revision: 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 
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Release Date: January 30, 2008
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2008.
All rights reserved. 
						

							Table of Contents 
						

							4
Table of Contents
5The included effect plug-ins
6Introduction
6Delay plug-ins
7Distortion plug-ins
8Dynamics plug-ins
12Filter plug-ins
15Mastering – UV 22 HR
15Modulation plug-ins
20Other plug-ins
22Restoration plug-ins
22Reverb plug-ins
23Spatial plug-ins
24HALionOne
25Introduction
25HALionOne parameters
27MIDI effects
28Introduction
28Arpache 5
29Autopan
30Chorder
31Compress
32Density
32Micro Tuner
32MIDIControl
33MIDIEcho
34Note to CC
34Quantizer
35Step Designer
37Track Control
38Track FX
39Transformer
45Index 
						

							1
The included effect plug-ins 
						

							6
The included effect plug-ins
Introduction
This chapter contains descriptions of the included plug-in 
effects and their parameters.
In Cubase Essential, the plug-in effects are arranged in a 
number of different categories. This chapter is arranged in 
the same fashion, with the plug-ins listed in separate sec-
tions for each effect category.
ÖMost of the included effects are compatible with 
VST3, this is indicated by an icon in front of the name of 
the plug-in as displayed in plug-in selection menus (for 
further information, see the chapter “Audio Effects” in the 
Operation Manual). 
Delay plug-ins
This section contains descriptions of the plug-ins in the 
“Delay” category.
MonoDelay
This is a mono delay effect that can either be tempo-based 
or use freely specified delay time settings.
The parameters are as follows:
Parameter Description
Delay This is where you specify the base note value for the delay 
if tempo sync is on (1/1–1/32, straight, triplet or dotted). If 
tempo sync is off, it sets the delay time in milliseconds.
Tempo sync
on/offThe button below the Delay Time knob is used to turn 
tempo sync on or off. If set to off, the delay time can be set 
freely with the Delay Time knob, without sync to tempo.
Feedback This sets the number of repeats for the delay.
Filter Lo This filter affects the feedback loop of the effect signal 
and allows you to roll off low frequencies from 10 Hz up 
to 800 Hz. The button below the knob activates/deacti-
vates the filter.
Filter Hi This filter affects the feedback loop of the effect signal 
and allows you to roll off high frequencies from 20 kHz 
down to 1.2 kHz. The button below the knob activates/
deactivates the filter.
Mix Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the ef-
fect. If MonoDelay is used as a send effect, this should be 
set to maximum as you can control the dry/effect balance 
with the send.  
						

							7
The included effect plug-ins
PingPongDelay
This is a stereo delay effect that alternates each delay re-
peat between the left and right channels. The effect can 
either be tempo-based or use freely specified delay time 
settings.
The parameters are as follows:
Distortion plug-ins
This section contains descriptions of the plug-ins in the 
“Distortion” category.
AmpSimulator
AmpSimulator is a distortion effect, emulating the sound 
of various types of guitar amp and speaker cabinet combi-
nations. A wide selection of amp and cabinet models is 
available. 
The parameters are as follows:
Parameter Description
Delay This is where you specify the base note value for the delay 
if tempo sync is on (1/1–1/32, straight, triplet or dotted). If 
tempo sync is off, it sets the delay time in milliseconds.
Tempo sync 
on/offThe button below the Delay Time knob is used to turn 
tempo sync on or off. If set to off, the delay time can be set 
freely with the Delay Time knob, without sync to tempo.
Feedback This sets the number of repeats for the delay.
Filter Lo This filter affects the feedback loop and allows you to roll 
off low frequencies up to 800 Hz. The button below the 
knob activates/deactivates the filter. 
Filter Hi This filter affects the feedback loop and allows you to roll 
off high frequencies from 20 kHz down to 1.2 kHz. The 
button below the knob activates/deactivates the filter.
Spatial This parameter sets the stereo width for the left/right re-
peats. Turn clockwise for a more pronounced stereo 
“ping-pong” effect.
Mix Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the 
effect. If PingPongDelay is used as a send effect, this 
should be set to maximum as you can control the dry/
effect balance with the send. 
Parameter Description
Drive Governs the amount of amp overdrive. 
Bass Tone control for the low frequencies. 
Middle Tone control for the mid frequencies.
Treble Tone control for the high frequencies.
Presence Use this to boost or damp the higher frequencies.
Volume This controls the overall output level.
Amplifier This allows you to select between various amplifier mod-
els. Click on the currently selected amplifier name to 
open a pop-up with all the available amplifier models. 
This section can be bypassed by selecting “No Amp”.
Cabinet Various speaker cabinet models. Click on the currently 
selected cabinet name to open a pop-up with all the 
available amplifier models. This section can be bypassed 
by selecting “No Speaker”.
Damping Lo/Hi Further tone controls for shaping the sound of the se-
lected speaker cabinet. Click on the values, enter a new 
value and press the [Enter] key. 
						

							8
The included effect plug-ins
DaTube
This effect emulates the characteristic warm, lush sound 
of a tube amplifier.
The parameters are as follows:
Distortion
Distortion will add crunch to your tracks.
The parameters are as follows:
Dynamics plug-ins
This section contains descriptions of the plug-ins in the 
“Dynamics” category.
Gate
Gating, or noise gating, silences audio signals below a 
certain set threshold level. As soon as the signal level ex-
ceeds the set threshold, the gate opens to let the signal 
through. 
The available parameters are as follows:
Parameter Description
Drive Regulates the pre-gain of the “amplifier”. Use high values 
if you want an overdriven sound just on the verge of 
distortion.
Balance This controls the balance between the signal processed 
by the Drive parameter and the dry input signal. For max-
imum drive effect, set this to its highest value.
Output Adjusts the post-gain, or output level, of the “amplifier”.
Parameter Description
Boost Increases the distortion amount.
Feedback This parameter feeds part of the output signal back to the 
effect input, increasing the distortion effect.
Tone Lets you select a frequency range to which to apply the 
distortion effect.
Spatial Changes the distortion characteristics of the left and 
right channel, thus creating a stereo effect.
Output Raises or lowers the signal going out of the effect.
Parameter Description
Threshold 
(-60–0 dB)This setting determines the level where Gate is activated. 
Signal levels above the set threshold trigger the gate to 
open, and signal levels below the set threshold will close 
the gate.
state LED This indicates whether the gate is open (LED lights up in 
green), closed (LED lights up in red) or something in be-
tween (LED lights up in yellow).
Filter buttons When the Side-chain button (see below) is activated, you 
can use these buttons to set the filter type to either Low 
Pass, Band Pass or High Pass.
Side-chain 
(Off/On)This button (below the Center knob) activates the filter. The 
input signal can then be shaped according to set Center 
and Q-Factor parameters which may be useful in tailoring 
how the Gate operates.
Center 
(50 Hz–
20000 Hz)Sets the center frequency of the filter.
Q-Factor 
(0.01–10000)Sets the Resonance of the filter.
Monitor 
(Off/On)Allows you to monitor the filtered signal. 
						

							9
The included effect plug-ins
Limiter
Limiter is designed to ensure that the output level never 
exceeds a certain set output level, to avoid clipping in fol-
lowing devices. Limiter can adjust and optimize the Re-
lease parameter automatically according to the audio 
material, or it can be set manually. Limiter also features 
separate meters for the input, output and the amount of 
limiting (middle meters).
The available parameters are the following:
Attack 
(0.1–1000 
ms)This parameter sets the time it takes for the gate to open af-
ter being triggered. If the Live button (see below) is deacti-
vated, it will ensure that the gate will already be open when a 
signal above the threshold level is played back. Gate man-
ages this by “looking ahead” in the audio material, checking 
for signals loud enough to pass the gate.
Hold 
(0–2000 ms)This determines how long the gate stays open after the sig-
nal drops below the threshold level.
Release
(10–1000 ms 
or “Auto”)This parameter sets the amount of time it takes for the gate 
to close (after the set hold time). If the “Auto” button is ac-
tivated, Gate will find an optimal release setting, depending 
on the audio program material.
Analysis 
(0–100) 
(Pure Peak to 
Pure RMS)This parameter determines whether the input signal is anal-
ysed according to Peak or RMS values (or a mixture of 
both). A value of 0 is pure Peak and 100 pure RMS. RMS 
mode operates using the average power of the audio signal 
as a basis, whereas Peak mode operates more on peak lev-
els. As a general guideline, RMS mode works better on ma-
terial with few transients such as vocals, and Peak mode 
better for percussive material, with a lot of transient peaks.
Live mode 
(On/Off)When activated, Live mode disengages the “look ahead” 
feature of the Gate. Look ahead does produce more accu-
rate processing but will add a certain amount of latency as 
a trade-off. When Live mode is activated, there is no la-
tency, which might be better for “live” processing. Parameter Description
Parameter Description
Input 
(-24–+24 dB)Allows you to adjust the input gain.
Output 
(-24–+6 dB)This setting determines the maximum output level. 
Release 
(0.1–1000 ms 
or 
Auto mode)This parameter sets the amount of time it takes for the gain 
to return to its original level. If the “Auto” button is activated, 
Limiter will automatically find an optimal release setting that 
varies depending on the audio material. 
						

							10
The included effect plug-ins
MIDI Gate
Gating, in its fundamental form, silences audio signals be-
low a certain set threshold level. That means, when a sig-
nal rises above the set level, the Gate opens to let the 
signal through while signals below the set level are cut off. 
MIDI Gate, however, is a Gate effect that is not triggered 
by threshold levels, but instead by MIDI notes. Hence it 
needs both audio and MIDI data to function.
Setting up
MIDI Gate requires both an audio signal and a MIDI input 
to function.
To set it up, proceed as follows:
1.Select the audio to be affected by the MIDI Gate.
This can be audio material from any audio track, or even a live audio input 
(provided you have a low latency audio card).
2.Select the MIDI Gate as an insert effect for the audio 
track.
The MIDI Gate control panel opens.
3.Select a MIDI track to control the MIDI Gate.
This can be an empty MIDI track, or a MIDI track containing data, it 
doesn’t matter. However, if you wish to play the MIDI Gate in real-time – 
as opposed to having a recorded part playing it – the track has to be 
selected for the effect to receive the MIDI output.
4.Open the Output Routing pop-up menu for the MIDI 
track and select the MIDI Gate option.
The MIDI Output from the track is now routed to the MIDI Gate.
What to do next depends on whether you are using live or 
recorded audio and whether you are using real-time or re-
corded MIDI. We will assume for the purposes of this 
manual that you are using recorded audio, and play the 
MIDI in real-time.Make sure the MIDI track is selected and start playback.
5.Now play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard.
As you can hear, the audio track material is affected by what you play on 
your MIDI keyboard.
The following MIDI Gate parameters are available:
Parameter Description
Attack This is used for determining how long it should take for 
the Gate to open after receiving a signal that triggers it.
Hold Regulates how long the Gate remains open after a Note 
On or Note Off message (see Hold Mode below).
Release This determines how long it takes for the Gate to close 
(in addition to the value set with the Hold parameter).
Note To 
AttackThe value you specify here determines to which extent 
the velocity values of the MIDI notes should affect the At-
tack. The higher the value, the more the Attack time will 
increase with high note velocities. Negative values will 
give shorter Attack times with high velocities. If you do 
not wish to use this parameter, set it to the 0 position.
Note To
ReleaseThe value you specify here determines to which extent 
the velocity values of the MIDI notes should affect the Re-
lease. The higher the value, the more the Release time 
will increase. If you do not wish to use this parameter, set 
it to the 0 position.
Velocity To 
VCAThis controls to which extent the velocity values of the 
MIDI notes determine the output volume. A value of 127 
means that the volume is controlled entirely by the veloc-
ity values, while a value of 0 means that velocities will 
have no effect on the volume.
Hold Mode Use this switch to set the Hold Mode. In Note-On mode, 
the Gate will only remain open for the time set with the 
Hold and Release parameters, regardless of the length of 
the MIDI note that triggered the Gate. In Note-Off mode 
on the other hand, the Gate will remain open for as long 
as the MIDI note plays, and then apply the Hold and Re-
lease parameters.