Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Getting Started Manual
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Original Manual: Synkron Revision and 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 soft- ware 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 XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2005. All rights reserved.
CUBASE SE 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 21Installing Cubase SE 25Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 26About this chapter 26Requirements 29Hardware installation 31Installing Cubase SE 35Setting up your system 36Setting up audio 45Setting up MIDI 49Connecting a synchronizer 50Setting up video 51Optimizing audio performance 55Basic Cubase SE concepts 56About this chapter 56The project 58Audio terminology 60MIDI terminology 60Video terminology 61Basic Methods 62About this chapter 62Using menus 64Using tools 66Changing values 70Selecting objects 71Zoom and view techniques 73Window handling 76Undo 79Guided Tour 80The main windows in Cubase SE 89Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 90About this tutorial 91Creating a new project 93Preparing to record 99Recording 99Playing back what you just recorded 100Recording more events 101Playing back in a cycle 103Tutorial 2: Recording and playing back MIDI 104About this tutorial 105Setting up for recording MIDI 108Recording MIDI 108Playing back what you just recorded 109Playing back in a cycle 110Transposing the MIDI track
CUBASE SE Table of Contents 5 113Tutorial 3: Mixing 114About this tutorial 114Preparations 116Setting levels 117Setting pan 118Using Mute and Solo 119Adding EQ to an audio channel 123Audio effects 129Automation 131Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 132About this tutorial 132Preparations 133Overview 134Moving and copying events 136Muting and erasing events 137Splitting and resizing events 139Adding a fade 141Tutorial 5: Using VST Instruments 142About this tutorial 142Preparations 143Activating a VST Instrument 145Routing 146Playing back 147Adding another instrument 149Playing a VST Instrument in real time 151Recording 153Tutorial 6: Editing audio 154About this tutorial 154The Sample Editor 157Processing audio 159Tutorial 7: Editing MIDI 160About this tutorial 160Opening the Key Editor 161Drawing events in the Key Editor 162Selecting and moving events 163About quantize 165Editing velocity in the controller display 167Tutorial 8: Customizing 168About this tutorial 169Setting preferences 171Setting up key commands 174Changing the look of the toolbar 176Changing the appearance of the program 177Applying track colors 180Creating a template 183Setting up Zoom presets 185Shortcuts & key commands 186About this chapter 186The default key commands 193Index
CUBASE SE 1 – 8 Introduction Welcome Congratulations and thank you for purchasing Cubase SE, Steinberg’s Cubase Start Edition. This version of Cubase sets a new standard for entry-level music production software. It combines the experience of more than 20 years in designing music software applications with the latest advances in digital audio technology. Perfection runs in the family. Cubase SX and Cubase SL have proven to be some of the most pow- erful tools for audio and MIDI production available today. Cubase SE provides you with these same tools. Whether you are a beginner and new to the world of computer-based music production, or a more experienced musician/producer switching to Cubase from some other software: Cubase SE will help you realize your musical ideas and turn out productions which sound like they were created on a system costing ten times more. But best of all: once you have made yourself familiar with Cubase SE’s interface and tools, you will be able to handle any other version of Cubase just as easily. Cubase SE has a lot to offer, given that it is a special version of our more advanced software solutions. Chances are, you will dive deep into the creative process without ever reaching the limits of this pro- gram. It offers professional audio quality of 24 bit, full VST effects and VST instrument support, pitch-shifting and time-stretching, and even our advanced VST System Link protocol to link multiple computers and share processing power between them. Multiple audio import and output formats allow you to share your work with others, while our CD audio grabbing feature gives you easy ac- cess to loops and effects from external sources. Cubase SE supports the latest audio hardware, and even remote control devices like our own Houston controller. For editing your audio or MIDI tracks, you will find power tools and functions, like the popular Key, List, Drum and Score editors. And to master your work, the powerful mixer gives you professional mixing, effects and automation. Our goal is to provide you with the best quality music software possi- ble. In order to achieve this, we need your input! Please visit the Stein- berg website if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to make Cubase even more powerful. We look forward to hearing from you! The Steinberg Cubase Team
CUBASE SE Introduction 1 – 9 About the manuals and the Help The Cubase SE documentation is divided into several sections, as listed below. Most of the documents are in Adobe Acrobat format (ex- tension “.pdf”) - these can be accessed in the following ways: • You can open the pdf documents from the Help menu in the program. • Under Windows you can also open these documents from the Cubase SE Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu. • Under Mac OS X the pdf documents are located in the folder “/Library/Docu- mentation/Steinberg/Cubase SE 3” or in the Cubase SE program folder under “/Contents/Documentation/”. • To read the pdf documents you need to have the Acrobat Reader appli- cation installed on your computer. An Acrobat installer is provided on the program DVD. The Getting Started book This is the book you are reading now. The Getting Started book 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 SE windows. • Tutorials describing the most common procedures for recording, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase SE. • Basic concepts and terminology. • A description of the general methods used when working in Cubase SE. In other words, this book does not go into detail on any Cubase SE windows, functions or procedures. The Getting Started book comes as a printed book but is also available as a pdf document. The Operation Manual The Operation Manual is the main Cubase SE reference documenta- tion, with detailed descriptions of Cubase SE operations, parameters, functions and techniques. You should be familiar with the concepts and methods described in the Getting Started book before moving on to the Operation Manual.
CUBASE SE 1 – 10 Introduction MIDI Devices and Features Contains descriptions of the included MIDI effect plug-ins; how to man- age MIDI Devices; how to work with MIDI System Exclusive messages; how to use the Input Transformer and how to apply Logical Presets. Audio Effects and VST Instruments Describes the features and parameters of the included VST plug-ins (real-time audio effects and VST instruments). The Help System Cubase SE 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 SE 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.