Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual

							 
CUBASE LE
 
Playback and the Transport panel 1 – 11 
• 
The main Transport functions (Play/Stop/Cycle/Record) are also 
available on the toolbar. 
In addition, various play options are available on the Transport menu.
 
Hiding and showing
 
The Transport panel is shown by default when you launch a new project. 
To hide or show it, select the “Transport Panel” item from the Transport 
menu (or use the corresponding key command, by default [F2]). 
About Preroll and Postroll
 
These items are described in the Recording chapter – see page 44. 
Resizing
 
You can change the size of the Transport panel by deciding which 
parts of it you wish to be visible. If you right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click 
(Mac) anywhere within the Transport panel area, a pop-up menu will 
appear. On this menu, you can check or uncheck elements of the 
Transport panel as desired. 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
1 – 12 Playback and the Transport panel 
The numeric keypad
 
In the default Key Command settings, the numeric keypad on the 
computer keyboard is assigned various Transport panel operations 
The keypads are slightly different on PC and Macintosh computers: 
PC:
Mac:
Num
Lockx—
789
456+
123
0
,EnterStopReturn to Zero Play Fast Forward On/Off Rewind On/Off Cycle On/Off
Record
Go to right 
locator
Go to left 
locatorGo to Marker 
number 3-9
num
lock=/*
789–
456+
123
0
,
enter
StopReturn to Zero Play Fast Forward On/Off Rewind On/Off Cycle On/Off
Record
Go to right 
locator
Go to left 
locatorGo to Marker 
number 3-9 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
Playback and the Transport panel 1 – 13 
Operations
 
Setting the Project cursor position
 
There are several methods you can use to move the project cursor po-
sition: 
• By using Fast Forward and Rewind.
• By dragging the project cursor. 
• By clicking in the ruler.
 
Double clicking in the ruler will start or stop playback, moving the cursor at the same 
time. 
 
• If the option “Locate When Clicked in Empty Space” is activated in the Pref-
erences (Transport page) you can click anywhere in an empty section of the 
Project window to move the cursor position.
• By changing the value in the position display.
• By using the position slider.
 
The range of the slider relates to the Length setting in the Project Setup dialog. Hence, 
moving the slider all the way to the right will take you to the end of the project. 
 
• By using the nudge position buttons (see page 14).
• By using markers (see page 104).
• By using playback options (see page 16).
• By using functions on the Transport menu.
 
The following functions are available:
 
❐
 
If Snap is activated when dragging the project cursor, the Snap value is 
 
taken into account. This can be helpful for finding exact positions quickly.
 
Function Description 
Locate Selection Moves the project cursor to the beginning of the current se-
lection. For this to be available, you must have selected one 
or more events or parts, or made a selection range.
Locate Next/
Previous MarkerThis moves the project cursor to the closest marker to the right 
or left (see page 104).
Locate Next/
Previous EventThis moves the project cursor forwards or backwards respec-
tively, to the closest beginning or end of any event on the se-
lected track(s). 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
1 – 14 Playback and the Transport panel 
About the Transport panel display format
 
The time unit shown in the ruler can be independent from the time unit 
shown in the Transport panel. This means that you can display time-
code in the transport position display and bars and beats in the ruler, 
for example. The following rules apply: 
• 
If you change the display format from the Transport panel, this will ap-
ply “globally” in the project. 
This is the same as changing the display format in the Project Setup. Thus, to have dif-
ferent display formats in the ruler and the Transport panel, you should change the for-
mat in the ruler.
 
• 
The Transport panel display format is set on the pop-up menu to the 
right in the position display. 
• 
The setting here also determines the time format displayed for the left 
and right locators. 
Using the nudge position buttons
 
The + and – buttons to the left of the Position slider allows you to 
nudge the project cursor position to the right or left, respectively. The 
increments depend on the display format selected on the Transport 
panel: 
• If the Seconds format is selected, the position will be nudged by whole sec-
onds.
• If any frame-based format is selected, the position will be nudged by frames.
• If Bars+Beats is selected, the position will be nudged by ticks. There are 480 
ticks per beat.
• If the Samples format is selected, the position will be nudged by samples. 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
Playback and the Transport panel 1 – 15 
Options and Settings
 
The “Return to Start Position on Stop” preference
 
You have the option to set the behavior of the project cursor when you 
press Stop. This is done in the Preferences dialog on the Transport 
page: 
1. 
Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu (on the Mac, the 
Preferences are located on the Cubase LE menu) and select the 
Transport page. 
2. 
Activate or deactivate the “Return to Start Position on Stop” item. 
• 
If activated (ticked), the project cursor will automatically return to the 
position where recording or playback last was activated from, when 
you press Stop. 
• 
If deactivated, the project cursor will remain at the position where you 
hit Stop. 
Pressing Stop 
 
again
 
 will return the project cursor to the position where recording or 
playback last was activated from.
 
3. 
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog and apply the changes. 
About track disable/enable
 
For audio tracks, the track context menu contains an item named “Dis-
able Track”. This shuts down all disk activity for the track, as opposed 
to using Mute, which merely turns down the output volume for a track. 
If you often record “alternative takes”, you can easily build up a large 
number of takes that are actually still “playing back” from the hard disk 
during playback, although the tracks may be muted. This puts an un-
necessary load on your disk system, so using “Disable Track” is rec-
ommended for such situations. 
• 
Select “Disable Track” when you have recorded many alternative 
takes of a performance on separate tracks, that you want to keep for 
later evaluation and/or editing. 
Select “Enable Track” from the track context menu to re-enable disabled tracks. 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
1 – 16 Playback and the Transport panel 
Playback functions
 
Apart from the standard transport controls on the Transport panel, you 
can also find a number of functions that can be used to control play-
back on the Transport menu. The items have the following functionality: 
❐
 
The functions listed above (except “Play to Next Marker”) are only avail-
 
able if you have selected one or more events or made a selection range.
 
Option Description 
Play from Selection Start This activates playback from the beginning of the currently 
selected range.
Play from Selection End This activates playback from the end of the currently se-
lected range. 
Play until Selection Start This activates playback two seconds before the start of the 
currently selected range and stops at the selection start.
Play until Selection End This activates playback two seconds before the end of the 
selected range and stops at the selection end.
Play until Next Marker This activates playback from the project cursor and stops at 
the next marker.
Play Selection Range This activates playback from the start of the selected range 
and stops at the selection end.
Loop Selection This activates playback from the start of the selected range 
and continuously starts over again upon reaching the selec-
tion end. 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
Playback and the Transport panel 1 – 17 
About Chase
 
Chase is basically a function that makes sure your MIDI instruments 
sound as they should when you locate to a new position and start 
playback. This is accomplished by having the program transmitting a 
number of MIDI messages to your instruments each time you move to 
a new position in the project, making sure all MIDI devices are set up 
correctly with regard to Program Change, controller messages (such 
as MIDI Volume) etc.
For example, let’s say you have a MIDI track with a Program Change 
event inserted at the beginning. This event makes a synth switch to a 
piano sound.
In the beginning of the first chorus you have another Program Change 
event which makes the same synth switch to a string sound.
You now play back the song. It begins with the piano sound and then 
switches to the string sound. In the middle of the chorus you stop and 
rewind to some point between the beginning and the second Program 
Change. The synth will now still play the string sound although in this 
section it really should be a piano!
The Chase function takes care of that. If Program Change events are 
set to be chased, Cubase LE will track the music back to the begin-
ning, find the first Program Change and send this out, so that the synth 
is set to the right sound.
The same thing can apply to other event types as well. The Chase 
Events Filter settings in the Preferences dialog (MIDI-Chase Events 
Filter page) determine which event types will be chased when you lo-
cate to a new position and start playback.  
• Event types for which the checkbox is activated in this dialog will not be 
chased. 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
1 – 18 Playback and the Transport panel 
						

							 
2
 
Recording 
						

							 
CUBASE LE
 
2 – 20 Recording 
Background
 
This chapter describes the various recording methods that you can 
use in Cubase LE. As it is possible to record both audio and MIDI 
tracks in Cubase LE, both of these recording methods are covered in 
this chapter.  
Before you start 
 
This chapter assumes that you are reasonably familiar with certain ba-
sic recording concepts, and that the following initial preparations have 
been made: 
• 
You have properly set up, connected and calibrated your audio hard-
ware.  
This is described in the Getting Started book.
 
• 
You have opened a project and set the project setup parameters to 
your specifications. 
Project Setup parameters determine the record format, sample rate, project length etc. 
that affect the resulting audio recordings you make during the course of the project. 
See page 58.
 
• 
If you plan to record MIDI, your MIDI equipment should be set up and 
connected correctly. 
See the Getting Started book.