Steinberg Cubase LE Getting Started Manual
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Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger Wiklander Quality Control: C. Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep- resent 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 publication 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 2000 and Windows XP are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2004. All rights reserved.
CUBASE LE 4 Table of Contents 7Introduction 8Welcome, 9About the manuals and the Help 12How you can reach us 13Installation and Requirements for Windows 14About this chapter 14Requirements 18Hardware installation 20Installing Cubase LE 23Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 24About this chapter 24Requirements 27Hardware installation 28Installing Cubase LE 31Setting up your system 32Setting up audio 40Setting up MIDI 44Connecting a synchronizer 44Setting up video 45Optimizing audio performance 51Guided Tour 52The main windows in Cubase LE 61Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 62About this chapter 63Creating a new project 65Preparing to record 69Recording 69Playing back what you just recorded 70Recording more events 71Playing back in a cycle 73Tutorial 2: Recording and playing back MIDI 74About this chapter 75Setting up for recording MIDI 79Recording MIDI 79Playing back what you just recorded 80Playing back in a cycle 81Transposing the MIDI track 85Tutorial 3: Mixing 86About this chapter 87Opening the Mixer 88Setting the level 88Setting pan 89Using Mute and Solo 90Adding EQ to an audio channel 92Adding audio effects 94Automating a fader
CUBASE LE Table of Contents 5 97Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 98About this tutorial 98Preparations 99Overview 100Moving and copying events 102Muting and erasing events 103Splitting and resizing events 105Adding a fade 107Tutorial 5: Using VST Instruments 108About this tutorial 108Preparations 110Activating a VST Instrument 112Routing 113Playing back 114Adding another instrument 116Playing a VST Instrument in real time 118Recording 119Editing audio 120About this chapter 120The Sample Editor 124Processing audio 125Editing MIDI 126About this chapter 126Opening the Key Editor 127Drawing events in the Key Editor 128Selecting and moving events 129About quantize 131Editing velocity in the controller display 133Basic Cubase LE concepts 134About this chapter 134The project 136Audio terminology 138MIDI terminology 138Video terminology 139Basic Methods 140About this chapter 140Using menus 142Using tools 143Changing values 148Selecting objects 149Zoom and view techniques 152Window handling 155Undo 159Shortcuts & key commands 160About this chapter 167Index
CUBASE LE 1 – 8 Introduction Welcome, and congratulations, because with the purchase of this product you’ve just become a member of the Cubase family. Maybe this is your first step into the world of computer-based music production, or maybe you’ve just added new hardware to your studio. In any case, you now have the chance to explore the world of Cubase, one of the world’s most popular music workstation systems. Experience for yourself how much fun it is to work with Steinberg Cu- base LE. Whether you want to control your MIDI keyboards, play virtual software instruments, record your vocals or acoustic instruments or ar- range, edit and master your finished songs: Cubase LE has everything you need for running your entire studio. It offers a wealth of features your wouldn’t normally expect in this class. Its 24-bit / 96kHz audio res- olution guarantees the same sound quality found in $100.000 studios. Cubase LE comes with dozens of professional-quality effects plug-ins and is compatible with hundreds of 3rd-party VST plug-ins and virtual instruments. But maybe the best thing about Cubase LE is: it will grow with your needs and experience. At any time, you can upgrade to a higher version of Cubase. In addition, we have special offers for our acclaimed VST In- struments which integrate seamlessly with your Cubase LE system. And last but not least: the things you learn when using Cubase LE are the foundation for future work with our professional high-end systems Cubase SX and Nuendo. You can become a power user now and up- grade later. But you will always feel at home with any Steinberg system. Learn more about Steinberg’s line of products and get in touch with Cubase users all around the world: See you at www.steinberg.net! Your Steinberg Cubase Team.
CUBASE LE Introduction 1 – 9 About the manuals and the Help The documentation is provided in the Adobe Acrobat pdf format. An Acrobat installer is provided on the program CD. The Getting Started book The document you are reading now covers the following areas: • Computer requirements. • Installation issues. • Setting up your system for audio, MIDI and/or video work. • A guided tour of the main Cubase LE windows. • An introduction to the most common procedures for recording, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase LE. • Basic concepts and terminology. • A description of the general methods used when working in Cubase LE. In other words, this book does not go into detail on any Cubase LE windows, functions or procedures. The Operation Manual This document contains the main Cubase LE reference documentation, with detailed descriptions of Cubase LE operations, parameters, func- tions and techniques. You should be familiar with the concepts and methods described in the Getting Started book before moving on to the Operation Manual. • You can open the Operation Manual pdf from the Help menu in the program. • Under Windows you can also open this document from the Cubase LE Docu- mentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu. • Under Mac OS X the Operation Manual pdf is located in the folder /Library/ Documentation/Cubase LE. ❐ Please also check the documentation subfolder in the Program folder (Win) or in the folder /Library/Documentation (Mac) for additional docu- mentation files.
CUBASE LE 1 – 10 Introduction The Help System Cubase LE comes with a detailed help system, making it easy to look up procedures and descriptions from within the program. The con- tents of the help basically mirror the complete Operation Manual text. The help systems are slightly different depending on which operating system you use, Windows or Mac OS X: HTML Help (Windows) You use the HTML Help in the following way: • To open the HTML Help for browsing, select “HTML Help” from the Help menu in the program. This brings up the HTML Help browser in which you can browse the help table of con- tents, search the index or perform a free text search. • To get information about the active window or a dialog, press [F1] on the computer keyboard or click the Help button in the actual dialog. Within a topic, related topics are sometimes directly accessible via clickable links. Apple Help (Mac OS X) You use the Apple Help in the following way: • To open the Apple Help for browsing, select “Cubase LE Help” from the Help menu in the program. This brings up the Apple Help Viewer window. There, you can either browse the help table of contents, use the index or type any words into the Search field at the top of the window. • To get information about the active window or a dialog, press [F1] on the computer keyboard or click the Help button in the actual dialog. Within a topic, related topics are sometimes directly accessible via clickable links. Please note that you can open the Cubase LE Help even when the program isn’t running: 1. Select “Mac Help” from the Help menu in the Finder. 2. In the Apple Help Viewer, bring up the “Help Center”. 3. Click the “Cubase LE Help” link in the Help Center.