Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Getting Started Manual

CUBASE SESetting up your system 4 – 41
If you are using audio hardware with a DirectX driver (Windows only)
If your Windows audio hardware doesn’t have a specific ASIO driver, a 
DirectX driver is the next best option.
Cubase SE comes with a driver called ASIO DirectX Full Duplex, 
available for selection on the Master ASIO Driver pop-up menu (VST 
Audiobay page).
• To be able to take full advantage of DirectX Full Duplex, the audio hard-
ware must support WDM (Windows Driver Model) in combination with...

CUBASE SE4 – 42 Setting up your system
If you are using audio hardware with a Windows Multimedia (MME) driver
When you select the ASIO Multimedia Driver for the first time, the sys-
tem will ask you whether you want to test the configuration. We strongly 
recommend that you perform this test. If it fails, or if you for other rea-
sons need to make adjustments to your ASIO Multimedia configuration, 
click the Control Panel button to open the ASIO Multimedia Setup con-
trol panel included with Cubase SE....

CUBASE SESetting up your system 4 – 43
2.To hide an output port, click in the “Visible” column for the port (so 
that it says “No”).
Ports that aren’t visible cannot be selected in the VST Connections window where you 
set up your input and output busses – see page 93. 
If you attempt to hide a port that is already used by a bus you will be 
asked whether this is really what you want – note that this will disable 
the output port!
3.To rename a port, click on its name in the list and type in a new name....

CUBASE SE4 – 44 Setting up your system
About monitoring
In Cubase SE, monitoring means listening to the input signal while pre-
paring to record or while recording. There are basically three ways to 
monitor:
External monitoring
External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it goes into 
Cubase SE) requires an external mixer for mixing the audio playback 
with the input signal. This mixer could be a stand-alone physical mixer 
or a mixer application for your audio hardware, if this has a mode...

CUBASE SESetting up your system 4 – 45
Setting up MIDI
Always make all connections with all equipment turned off!
This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI equipment. If 
you have no MIDI equipment you can skip this section.
Connecting the MIDI equipment
Below follows a description of a typical but small setup example. You 
might need or want to hook things up differently!
In this example we assume that you have a MIDI keyboard and an ex-
ternal MIDI sound module. The keyboard is used both...

CUBASE SE4 – 46 Setting up your system
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...

CUBASE SESetting up your system 4 – 47
• If you use a separate MIDI keyboard – one that does not produce any sounds 
itself – MIDI Thru in Cubase SE 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 SE 
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 
and/or...

CUBASE SE4 – 48 Setting up your system
Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase SE
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...

CUBASE SESetting up your system 4 – 49
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 you 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.
Connecting a synchronizer
Always make all connections with all equipment...

CUBASE SE4 – 50 Setting up your system
Setting up video
Always make all connections with all equipment turned off!
Cubase SE plays back video films in AVI, Quicktime or MPEG formats. 
Under Windows, video playback can be done using one of the follow-
ing playback engines: Video for Windows, DirectShow or Quicktime. 
This ensures compatibility with as wide a range of video files as possi-
ble. Under Mac OS X, Quicktime is always used as playback engine.
Generally there are two ways to play back video:
•...