Steinberg Cubase LE Getting Started Manual

							CUBASE LESetting up your system 4 – 41
You might want to use even more instruments for playback. If you do, 
simply connect MIDI Thru on the sound module to MIDI In on the next 
instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will always play the first 
keyboard when recording. But, you can still use all your devices for 
providing sounds on playback.
❐If you plan to use more than three sound sources we recommend that 
you either use an interface with more than one output, or a separate 
MIDI Thru box instead of the Thru jacks on each unit.
Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off
In the “MIDI” section in the Preferences dialog (located on the File menu 
under Windows and on the Cubase LE menu under Mac OS X), you will 
find a setting called “MIDI Thru Active” which can be enabled or not. This 
is related to a setting in your instrument called “Local On/Off” or “Local 
Control On/Off”.
• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described earlier in this chapter, MIDI 
Thru should be activated and that instrument should be set to Local Off (some-
times called Local Control Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for de-
tails). This will let the MIDI signal from the keyboard get recorded into Cubase 
LE and at the same time re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear what 
you are playing, without the keyboard “triggering” its own sounds. 
						

							CUBASE LE4 – 42 Setting up your system
• If you use a separate MIDI keyboard, that does not produce 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 if you use Cubase LE 
with only one keyboard instrument and that instrument cannot be set to Local 
Off mode.
• Note that MIDI Thru will only be active for MIDI tracks that are record enabled. 
See the Recording chapter in the Operation Manual for more information.
MIDI KeyboardMIDI Sound Module MIDI
Interface
MIDI MIDI
InMIDI In
OutOut In
Thru
When “MIDI Thru” is active in Cubase LE, 
MIDI data received is immediately “echoed” 
back out.
When you press a key, it is sent 
out via MIDI to Cubase LE.MIDI data coming in to the instrument 
is played by the “Synth” inside it.
When Local Control is On in the instrument, the 
keys you press will be played by the “Synth” in-
side the Instrument.
When Local Control is turned Off, this connec-
tion is cut off.
“Synth” 
						

							CUBASE LESetting up your system 4 – 43
Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase LE
The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system in the fol-
lowing ways:
• Note: After changing a setting in the Device Setup dialog, you should 
click Apply and then click OK to close the dialog.
Showing or hiding MIDI Ports
Under Windows, the MIDI ports are listed in the Device Setup dialog 
on the DirectMusic page and/or the Windows MIDI page (depending 
on your system). By clicking in the “Show” column for a MIDI input or 
output, you can specify whether or not it should be listed on the MIDI 
pop-up menus in the program.
Under Mac OS X, you can hide or show MIDI ports on the MIDI Sys-
tem page in the Device Setup dialog.
• Hiding a MIDI port from view does not turn it off if it’s already selected for 
a track or a MIDI device.
Setting up the “All MIDI Inputs” option
When you record MIDI in Cubase LE, you can specify which MIDI in-
put each recording MIDI track should use. However, you can also se-
lect the “All MIDI Inputs” option, which causes any MIDI data from any 
MIDI input to be recorded.
The All MIDI Inputs page in the Device Setup dialog allows you to spec-
ify which inputs should be included when you select All MIDI Inputs for 
a MIDI track. This can be especially useful if your system provides sev-
eral instances of the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the du-
plicates you make sure only the desired MIDI data is recorded.
Setting up a default MIDI input and output
The Default MIDI Ports page in the Device Setup dialog allows you to 
select which MIDI ports should be selected by default when create a 
new MIDI track. In other words, newly created tracks will always use 
the input and output specified on this page. However, you can later 
change this setting for each individual track in the Project window. 
						

							CUBASE LE4 – 44 Setting up your system
Connecting a synchronizer
❐Always make all connections with all equipment turned off!
When using Cubase LE with external tape transports you will most 
likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All connections and 
setup procedures for synchronization are described in the Synchroni-
zation chapter in the Operation Manual.
Setting up video
Cubase LE for Windows can play back video films using one of three 
different playback engines: DirectShow, QuickTime and Video for Win-
dows. This ensures compatibility with as wide a range of video hard-
ware as possible. Cubase LE for Mac OS X plays back video using 
Quicktime.
Generally there are two ways to play back video:
• Without any special hardware at all, using the computer CPU.
In this case, the “codec” is in software. 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 playback video on an external mon-
itor using a DV-to-analog converter or a DV camera.
This is valid for DV video and QuickTime is used for playback.
❐Continuously updated information about video hardware support and 
compatibility is available on www.steinberg.net. 
						

							CUBASE LESetting up your system 4 – 45
Optimizing audio performance
This section of the chapter gives you some hints and tips on how to get 
the most out of your Cubase LE system, performance-wise. Some of 
this text refers to hardware properties and can be used as a guide 
when upgrading your system. This text is very brief. Look for details and 
current information on the Cubase LE web site (see page 12)!
Two aspects of performance
There are two distinct aspects of performance in respect to Cubase LE:
Tracks and effects
Simply put: the faster your computer, the more tracks (up to 48 audio 
and 64 MIDI tracks), effects and EQ you will be able to play. Exactly 
what constitutes a “fast computer” is a science almost in itself, but 
some hints are given below.
Short response times (latency)
Another aspect of performance is response times. Latency is a phenom-
enon based on the fact that in a computer, audio has to be “buffered” 
(stored) in small chunks during various steps of the recording and play-
back process. The more and larger those chunks, the higher the latency.
High latency is most troublesome when playing VST Instruments and 
when monitoring through the computer, that is when listening to a live 
audio source via the Cubase LE Mixer and effects. However, very long 
latency times (several hundred milliseconds) can hamper other pro-
cesses like mixing, since e.g. a fader movement will affect the audio 
noticeably late.
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the problems 
associated with very long latency times, a system that responds fast 
will always be more convenient to work with.
•Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible to “trim” your 
latency times, usually by lowering the size and number of buffers.
For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are using a DirectX or 
MME driver under Windows, the HTML Help. 
						

							CUBASE LE4 – 46 Setting up your system
System factors that affect performance
CPU and processor cache
It goes without saying that the faster the computer processor, the bet-
ter. 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 shop-
ping for a processor, please make sure you get one that is powerful in 
calculating floating point arithmetics.
Hard disk and controller
The number of hard disk tracks you can record and play back at the 
same time also depends on the speed of your hard disk and hard disk 
controller. (You can have up to 48 audio and 64 MIDI tracks in one 
project.) If you use E-IDE disks and controllers, make sure that the 
transfer mode is DMA Busmaster. Under Windows, you can check the 
current mode by launching Windows Device Manager and looking for 
properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller’s primary and secondary 
channel. DMA transfer mode is enabled by default, but may be turned 
off by the system should hardware problems occur.
Audio hardware and driver
The hardware and its driver can have some effect on regular perfor-
mance. A badly written driver can reduce the performance of your com-
puter. But where the hardware driver design makes the most difference 
is with latency.
❐Again, we strongly recommend that you use audio hardware for which 
there is a specific ASIO driver!
This is especially true when using Cubase LE for Windows:
• Under Windows, ASIO drivers written specifically for the hardware are more 
efficient than MME or DirectX and normally produce shorter latency times.
• Under Mac OS X however, audio hardware with properly written Mac OS X 
(Core Audio) drivers can be very efficient and produce very low latency times.
Still, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO drivers, such as 
ASIO Positioning Protocol. 
						

							CUBASE LESetting up your system 4 – 47
Making settings that affect performance
Choosing a driver for your audio hardware
As described on page 35, it is recommended to install and use a stan-
dard ASIO driver if available for your specific hardware. Check the 
manufacturers web site for the latest drivers etc.
Making disk buffer settings
These settings can be found in the VST Multitrack panel in the Device 
Setup dialog (opened from the Devices menu). The two parameters 
“Number of Disk Buffers” and “Disk Buffer Size” govern how data is 
read and written from/to the hard disk.
When data is read from disk it is stored in a buffer. Since the com-
puter has to fill the buffer at the same time as it is playing back data, 
there needs to be more than one buffer. The same is true for record-
ing. You can adjust both the number of buffers used for each audio 
channel and their size.
With more and larger buffers, you will get smoother performance, 
since less computer processing power is “wasted” to accessing the 
hard disk (it can to some extent compensate for a slower processor). 
However, enlarging the values also raises latency and requires you to 
have proportionately greater amount of RAM. 
						

							CUBASE LE4 – 48 Setting up your system
Making audio buffer settings
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio hard-
ware. The size of the audio buffers affect both the latency and the au-
dio performance. Generally, the smaller the buffer size, the lower the 
latency. On the other hand, working with small buffers can be de-
manding for the computer. If the audio buffers are too small, you may 
get clicks, pops or other audio playback problems.
• Under Mac OS X, you can adjust the size of the buffers on the VST Multitrack 
page in the Device Setup dialog.
You may also find buffer settings in the control panel for the audio hardware.
• Under Windows, you adjust the buffer size settings in the control panel for the 
audio hardware (opened by clicking the Control Panel button on the VST Mul-
titrack page in the Device Setup dialog).
The Expert settings
In the VST Multitrack panel you will find a button called “Expert…”. 
Normally you will not need to touch these settings, but if you run into 
problems with audio playback you should investigate whether chang-
ing these settings will help you. Generally, they allow you to adjust 
how much processing power is used for recording and playing back 
audio. See the Help for details. 
						

							CUBASE LESetting up your system 4 – 49
Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)
To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows 
2000 or XP (on a single CPU system), the system performance has to 
be optimized for background tasks: 
Windows 2000
1.Open the Control Panel from the Start menu and select System.
2.Select the Advanced tab and click the Performance Options button.
3.In the dialog that appears, select “Optimize performance for: Back-
ground services”.
4.Click OK to close the dialogs.
Windows XP
1.Open the Control Panel from the Start menu and select System.
2.Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button in the Perfor-
mance section.
The Performance Options dialog appears.
3.Select the Advanced tab.
4.In the Processor Scheduling section, select “Adjust for best perfor-
mance of: Background services”
5.Click OK to close the dialogs.
Related Information (Windows only)
ACPI vs. Standard PC mode
Windows 2000 users should consider the important information relat-
ing to audio performance as presented on the Steinberg Knowledge 
Base (http://service.steinberg.net/knowledge_pro.nsf/show/
acpi_and_audio_performance).  
						

							CUBASE LE4 – 50 Setting up your system