Steinberg Cubase LE 4 Getting Started Manual

11
System requirements and installation
Installing a MIDI interface/synthesizer card
Installation instructions for a MIDI interface should be in-
cluded with the product. However, here’s an outline of the 
necessary steps:
1.Install the interface (or MIDI synthesizer card) inside 
your computer or connect it to a “port” (connector) on the 
computer.
Which is right for you depends on which type of interface you have.
2.If the interface has a power supply and/or a power 
switch, turn it on.
3.Install the...

3
Setting up your system 

13
Setting up your system
Setting up audio
Connecting audio
Exactly how to set up your system depends on many dif-
ferent factors, e. g. the kind of project you wish to create, 
the external equipment you want to use, the computer 
hardware available to you, etc. Therefore, the following 
sections can only serve as examples.
How you connect your equipment, i. e. whether you use 
digital or analog connections, also depends on your indi-
vidual setup.
Stereo input and output – the simplest connection
If...

14
Setting up your system
Recording from a CD player
Most computers come with a CD-ROM drive that can also 
be used as a regular CD player. In some cases the CD 
player is internally connected to the audio hardware so 
that you can record the output of the CD player directly 
into Cubase LE (consult the audio hardware documenta-
tion if you are uncertain).
 All routing and level adjustments for recording from a CD (if 
available) are done in the audio hardware setup application 
(see “Making settings for...

15
Setting up your system
2.Select your audio hardware driver from the ASIO 
Driver menu.
There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hard-
ware. When you have selected a driver, it is added to the Devices list.
3.Select the driver in the Devices list to open the Driver 
settings for your audio hardware.
4.Bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and 
adjust the settings as recommended by the audio hard-
ware manufacturer.
Under Windows, you open the control panel by...

16
Setting up your system
Setting up the input and output ports
Once you have selected the driver and made the settings 
as described above, you need to specify which inputs and 
outputs should be used and name these:
1.In the Device Setup dialog, select your driver in the De-
vices list on the left to display the Driver settings for your 
audio hardware.
All input and output ports on the audio hardware are listed.
2.To hide a port, click in the “Visible” column for the port 
(deselecting the checkbox)....

17
Setting up your system
Setting up MIDI
This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI 
equipment. If you have no MIDI equipment you can skip 
this section. Note that this is only an example – you might 
need or want to hook things up differently!
Connecting the MIDI equipment
In this example we assume that you have a MIDI keyboard 
and an external MIDI sound module. The keyboard is used 
both for feeding the computer with MIDI messages for re-
cording and for playing back MIDI tracks. The sound...

18
Setting up your system
The MIDI signal from the keyboard will be recorded in Cubase 
LE and at the same time be re-routed back to the instrument 
so that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard 
“triggering” its own sounds.
 If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not pro-
duce any sounds itself – MIDI Thru in Cubase LE should also 
be activated, but you don’t need to look for any Local On/Off 
setting in your instruments.
 The only case where MIDI Thru should be deactivated is...

19
Setting up your system
Setting up video 
Cubase LE plays back video films in AVI or Quicktime for-
mats. Under Windows, video can be played back using 
one of the following playback engines: Video for Win-
dows, DirectShow or Quicktime. This ensures compatibil-
ity with as wide a range of video files as possible. Under 
Mac OS X, Quicktime is always used as playback engine.
Generally there are two ways to play back video:
Without any special hardware at all, using the computer 
CPU.
In this case, the...

20
Setting up your system
System factors that affect performance
CPU and processor cache
It goes without saying that the faster the computer pro-
cessor, the better. But there are a number of factors that 
affect the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed 
and type (PCI is strongly recommended), the processor 
cache size and of course, the processor type and brand. 
Cubase LE relies heavily on floating point calculations. 
When shopping for a processor, please make sure you 
get one that is powerful...