Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual
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CUBASE LEThe Pool 15 – 301 • Do not Ask again. If this is ticked, you will always import files according to the settings you have made, without this dialog appearing. This can be reset again in the Preferences – Audio dialog. ❐You can always convert later should you so wish, by using the Convert Files (see page 304) or Conform Files (see page 305) options. Importing audio CD tracks You can import tracks (or sections of tracks) from an audio CD directly into the Pool by using the “Import Audio CD” function on the Pool menu. This opens a dialog in which you can specify which tracks should be grabbed from the CD, converted to audio files and added to the Pool. For details about the Import Audio CD dialog, see page 511. Changing the Pool Record folder The Pool Record folder. The Pool Record folder is where all audio clips that you record in the project will end up. The Pool Record folder is indicated by the “Record” symbol shown in the Status column, and by a red dot on the folder it- self, as shown in the picture above. By default, this is the main Audio folder. You can, however, at any time create a new Audio subfolder and designate this as your Pool Record folder. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the Audio folder or any audio clip. You cannot designate the Video folder (or a subfolder in it) as the Pool Record folder. 2.Select “Create Folder” on the Pool menu. A new empty audio subfolder appears in the Pool. 3.Select the new folder.
CUBASE LE15 – 302 The Pool 4.Select “Set Pool Record Folder” on the Pool menu, or click in the new folders Status column. The new folder now becomes the Pool Record folder, and any audio recorded in the project will from this point on end up in this folder. Organizing clips and folders If you accumulate a large number of clips in the Pool, it may sometimes be difficult to quickly find specific items. In such cases, organizing clips in new subfolders with suitable names that reflect the content can be a solution. For example, you could put all sound effects in one folder, all lead vocals in another etc. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the type of folder, audio or video, in which you want to create a subfolder. You cannot put audio clips in a video folder and vice versa. 2.Select “Create Folder” on the Pool menu. A new empty subfolder named “New Folder” appears in the Pool. 3.Click on the name and type in a new appropriate name for the folder. 4.Select and drag the clips you wish to move to the new folder. 5.Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary. Applying processing to clips in the Pool You can apply audio processing to clips from within the Pool, just like you can to events in the Project window. Simply select the clip(s) and select a processing method from the Audio menu. To find out more about audio processing, see page 219. Freeze Edits If you have applied processing to a clip, either in the Project window or in the Pool, this is indicated by the red and grey waveform symbol in the Status column. You can also use the Freeze Edits function to cre- ate a new file with processing applied or replace the original with a processed version – see page 235.
CUBASE LEThe Pool 15 – 303 Prepare Archive This Pool menu command should be used when you want to archive a project. It checks that every clip referenced in the project is located in the same folder. To be more precise, it does the following: •Any files that are located outside the current project folder will be cop- ied to it. •If any processing has been applied, you will be asked whether you want to Freeze Edits. If you do this, you don’t have to archive the Edit folder. Everything belonging to the project will be contained in the project file and the Audio folder. •Once you have performed a Prepare Archive, you can copy the project file and the Audio folder to backup disks, etc. It is not necessary to archive the Images or Fades folders, since these can be recreated by Cubase LE. You may also find a file with the extension “.csh” in the project folder. This contains image information for edited clips and other data that can be recreated, and can safely be deleted. ❐Video clips are always referenced, and are not stored in the project folder. Minimize File This item on the Pool menu allows you to change the size of audio files according to the audio clips referenced in a project. The files pro- duced using this option will only contain the audio file portions actu- ally used in the project, which can significantly reduce the size of the project (given that large portions of the audio files are unused). •This operation will permanently alter the selected audio files in the Pool (the process is undoable), so be careful with this command! If this is not what you want, you can use the “Save Project to New Folder” File menu item instead. This function also has the option of minimizing files, but copies all files into a new folder, leaving the original project untouched. See page 504. It is useful for archiving purposes. If you have completed a project and wish to minimize the project size as much as possible, use this function.
CUBASE LE15 – 304 The Pool Proceed as follows: 1.Select the file(s) you wish to minimize in the Pool. 2.Select “Minimize File” from the Pool menu. An alert appears informing you that the entire Edit History will be cleared. You will at this point have the option of cancelling or continuing the operation. 3.After the operation is finished, another alert asks you to save the project, to update the new file references. Do so. The audio file(s) in the Pool Record folder will now be cropped so that only the audio actually used in the project remains in the correspond- ing audio file. Convert Files Selecting Convert Files on the Pool menu opens the Convert Options dialog which operates on selected files. Use the pop-up menus to specify which audio file attributes you want to keep and which you want to convert. The options are: •Sample Rate. Keep the sample rate as is, or convert to a sample rate between 8.000 and 96.000 kHz. •Sample Width. Keep the sample width (resolution) as is, or convert to 16 bit or 24 bit. •Channels. Keep as is, or convert the file to Mono or Stereo Interleaved. •File Format. Keep the current format, or convert to AIFF, Sound Designer II or Wave format.
CUBASE LEThe Pool 15 – 305 Options When you convert a file, you can use the Options pop-up to set one of the following options regarding what to do with the new file: Conform Files By using this Pool menu command, you will change all selected files that have different file attributes to what is specified for the project, to conform to this standard. Proceed as follows: 1.Select all clips in the Pool. 2.Select “Conform Files” on the Pool menu. A dialog opens allowing you to choose between keeping or replacing the original un- converted files in the Pool. The following applies: • Clip/event references in the pool are always redirected to the conformed files. • If any keep option is selected, original files remain in the Project Audio folder and new files are created. • If you select the Replace option, files in the Pool and in the Project Audio folder are replaced. Option Description New Files This creates a copy of the file in the audio folder and converts this new file according to the chosen attributes. The new file is added to the Pool, but all clip references will still point to the original, un- converted file. Replace Files This converts the original file, without changing clip references. New + Replace in PoolThis creates a new copy with the chosen attributes, replaces the original file with the new one in the Pool and redirects the current clip references from the original file to the new file. This is the op- tion to select if you want your audio clips to refer to the converted file, but still want to keep the original file on disk (e.g. if the file is used in other projects).
CUBASE LE15 – 306 The Pool Options and Settings Customizing the view •You can specify which of the columns should be shown or hidden by selecting the View pop-up on the toolbar and ticking items on or off. •You can rearrange the order of the columns by clicking on a column heading and dragging the column to the left or to the right. The mouse pointer changes to a hand when you place it on the column heading. •The width of a column can also be adjusted by placing the pointer be- tween two column headers and dragging left or right. The pointer changes to a divider when you place it between two column headers.
CUBASE LE16 – 308 MIDI devices and patches About program change and bank select To instruct a MIDI instrument to select a certain patch (sound), you send a MIDI Program Change message to the instrument. Program Change messages can be recorded or entered in a MIDI part like other events, but you can also enter a value in the Program (prg) field in the Inspector for a MIDI track (see page 322). This way, you can quickly set each MIDI track to play a different sound. With Program Change messages, you are able to select between 128 different patches in your MIDI device. However, many MIDI instruments contain a larger number of patch locations. To make these available from within Cubase LE, you need to use Bank Select messages, a sys- tem in which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instruments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank (bnk) field in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the Program field to select a program in this bank. Unfortunately, different instrument manufacturers use different schemes for how Bank Select messages should be constructed, which can lead to some confusion and make it hard to select the correct sound. Also, selecting patches by numbers this way seems unnecessarily cumber- some, when most instruments use names for their patches nowadays. To help with this, Cubase LE features the MIDI Device Manager. This allows you to specify which MIDI instruments you have connected, by selecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specifying the de- tails yourself. Once you have specified which MIDI devices you’re us- ing, you can select to which particular device each MIDI track should be routed. It is then possible to select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.
CUBASE LEMIDI devices and patches 16 – 309 Opening the MIDI Device Manager Select MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu to bring up the following window: When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first time, it will be empty (because you haven’t installed any devices yet). On the follow- ing pages we describe how to add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit the settings and how to define a device from scratch (only necessary if a MIDI device isn’t included among the pre-config- ured devices). This is the list of MIDI devices you have connected. The first time you open the MIDI Device Manager, this list will be empty:These buttons let you manage the list of installed devices. This pop-up menu lets you edit the selected device (provided that “Enable Edit” is ticked). Here, the patch structure is shown for the device selected above. This area shows exactly which MIDI messages should be sent out to select the patch highlighted in the list to the left.Here, you specify to which MIDI output the selected device is connected.
CUBASE LE16 – 310 MIDI devices and patches Installing a MIDI Device In this case “install” means “add to the Installed Devices” list, i.e. spec- ify that a certain device is part of your MIDI system. Proceed as follows: 1.Click the Install Device button. A dialog appears listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we assume that your MIDI device is included in this list. 2.Locate and select the device in the list and click OK. •If your MIDI device isn’t included in the list but is compatible with the GM (General MIDI) or XG standards, you can select the generic GM or XG Device options at the top of list. When you select any of these options, a name dialog will appear. Enter a name for the instrument and click OK. Now the device appears in the Installed Devices list to the left. 3.Make sure that the new device is selected in the list and pull down the Output pop-up menu. 4.Select the MIDI output that is connected to the device.