Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Getting Started Manual

							CUBASE SETutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 8 – 91
Creating a new project
Before you can start recording, you need a working environment – a 
project:
1.Pull down the File menu and select “New Project”.
A dialog appears, listing a number of project templates for various purposes.
2.Make sure the “Empty” item in the list is selected and click OK.
A file dialog appears, allowing you to specify a location for the project folder. This will 
contain all files related to the project. 
3.Navigate to the desired location of the project folder, and select it by 
clicking OK, or click “Create” to create and name a new folder.
The project folder is created on disk, and an empty Project window appears.
At this point, you can make various settings for the project, such as 
sample rate, resolution, etc. However, to keep things simple we will 
use the default settings for now.   
						

							CUBASE SE8 – 92 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
The next step is to create an audio track to record on:
4.Pull down the Project menu and select “Add Track”.
A submenu appears, listing the various types of tracks available in Cubase SE.
5.Select “Audio”.
In the dialog that appears you can select whether the track should be mono or stereo.
6.In this example, set the track to stereo by selecting Stereo from the 
pop-up menu and clicking “OK”.
An empty audio track appears in the Project window.    
						

							CUBASE SETutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 8 – 93
Preparing to record
Before you can start recording, there are some preparations to make:
Setting up input and output busses
When you record in Cubase SE, the signal passes from the inputs on 
your audio hardware to an input bus in the program. This is where you 
check levels and adjust the sound to be recorded. From the input bus 
the signal is written to an audio file on your hard disk, and sent to the 
track’s channel in the mixer for monitoring etc.
You can have as many input busses as you like, but for this example 
we only need a stereo input bus:
1.Pull down the Devices menu and select “VST Connections”.
The VST Connections window appears. This is where you view, add and set up input 
and output busses.
Audio Hardware Sound to be 
recorded
Input bus in Cubase SEMixer channel for 
the audio track
Audio file on hard disk  
						

							CUBASE SE8 – 94 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
2.Select the “Inputs” tab by clicking on it.
By default, there is a stereo bus present – if there wasn’t you could easily add one by 
clicking the Add Bus button.
3.Click the “+” button to the left so that the individual inputs in the bus 
are shown.
The Device Port column shows the physical inputs on your audio hardware that are 
used by the bus.
4.Click in the Device Port column for the “Left” channel.
A pop-up menu appears, listing all inputs on your audio hardware.
5.Select the input you want to use for the left channel in the stereo bus.
6.Select the input for the right channel in the same way.
7.Click the “Outputs” tab and set up a stereo output bus in the same way.
This is strictly not required for recording – but you need it for monitoring and for play-
ing back the recording afterwards.
8.Close the VST Connections window and open the Mixer from the 
Devices menu.
This is Cubase SE’s Mixer window, used for setting levels, etc. The mixer contains 
channel strips for all tracks in the project and all the output busses (input busses are 
not shown in Cubase SE).   
						

							CUBASE SETutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 8 – 95
•Right now the mixer should contain one stereo audio channel and one 
output bus – just like the picture above. 
If not, check the Hide buttons to the left. If any of these is lit (orange), click on it so that 
it goes grey.
When this button is lit, the output busses are hidden.
Leave the Mixer window open for now.
Checking the input level
When you record digitally, it’s important to set the input level correctly. 
Above all, you don’t want the signal to be too loud, as this will cause 
clipping, digital distortion. 
Clipping typically occurs in the audio hardware, when a too loud ana-
log signal is converted to digital in the hardware’s A/D converters. 
Check the level at the channel strip for the track on which you are 
recording:
1.Locate the channel strip for the track you’re about to record on.
2.Activate monitoring for the channel by clicking the speaker button next 
to the fader.
When monitoring is activated, the meter shows the level of the incoming audio signal.   
						

							CUBASE SE8 – 96 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
3.Play the audio source that you want to record and check the level 
meter for the channel.
4.Adjust the output level of your audio source so that the meters go rea-
sonably high without reaching 0.0 dB.
Check the numerical peak level indicator below the meter in the bus channel strip. To 
reset the peak level indicator, click on it.
• You must adjust the output level of the audio source – you cannot use 
the faders in Cubase SE to adjust the input level!
• An alternative way of checking the input levels would be to use the control 
panel for your audio hardware (if it’s equipped with input level meters).
See the documentation of the audio hardware for details.
Making the track ready for recording
1.If the “Record Enable” button next to the fader on the mixer channel 
strip isn’t already red, click on it so that it lights up.
2.Make sure the Transport panel is visible.
If not, pull down the Transport menu and select the “Transport Panel” item at the top.  
						

							CUBASE SETutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 8 – 97
3.The Transport panel contains a lot of options that affect how record-
ing is done – in this example we want most of them to be turned off. 
Check that the following buttons are off (grey or unlit):
4.Click in the ruler (the time scale area above the track in the Project 
window), at the position where you want to start recording.
When you click, the project cursor (the black vertical line) is automatically moved to 
the click position. In our example, recording will start from the project cursor position.
Setting the project cursor position in the ruler.
5.To set recording to start at the cursor position, pull down the Trans-
port menu and make sure the item “Start Record at Left Locator” is 
deactivated (unticked).
Punch In and Punch Out deactivated.Cycle deactivated.
Click and Precount deactivated.
Sync deactivated.   
						

							CUBASE SE8 – 98 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
Setting up monitoring
When you are monitoring through Cubase SE, you can choose to ac-
tivate monitoring manually or automatically, in several different ways. In 
this example we choose the “Tapemachine Style” monitoring, in which 
the input signal is automatically monitored in Stop mode and during 
recording – but not during playback. This is convenient since it allows 
you to play back and listen to your recording without having to turn off 
monitoring first.
1.Pull down the File menu (Win) or Cubase SE menu (Mac) and select 
“Preferences…”.
2.In the Preferences dialog, click the VST item to the left.
3.Pull down the Auto Monitoring pop-up menu and make sure “Tape-
machine Style” is selected.
4.Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
5.Bring up the Mixer and locate the channel strip for the audio track.
Since the track is record enabled (the red button is lit) and Cubase SE is in Stop 
mode, monitoring should now be activated.
6.Check the monitoring by playing back your audio source and listening 
to your monitoring equipment.
You should see the meters move in the channel strip for the audio track and in the out-
put bus to the right.
7.If you like you can adjust the monitoring level with the fader for the 
audio track.
This will not affect the level in the recorded audio file.
You are ready to record!  
						

							CUBASE SETutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 8 – 99
Recording
1.Start recording by clicking the Record button on the Transport panel.
The project cursor will start moving.
2.Play your instrument, etc.
During recording, a rectangle with an audio waveform will appear, covering the recorded 
area. This is the recorded audio event.
3.When you are done, click the Stop button on the Transport panel.
Recording stops and you can see the resulting audio event on the track.
4.If you are done recording, click the Record Enable button in the area 
to the left of the track, so that it goes dark.
Playing back what you just recorded
1.Move the project cursor to the beginning of the recorded audio event.
This could either be done by clicking in the ruler, or by using the Rewind button on the 
Transport panel.
2.Click the Play button on the Transport panel.
Your recording will be played back.
3.When you are done, stop playback by clicking the Stop button on the 
Transport panel.  
						

							CUBASE SE8 – 100 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
Recording more events
At this point, you may want to continue recording audio, on the same 
track or on a new track.
Recording more on the same track
To record more audio on the same track, move the project cursor to a 
new start position and proceed as when you recorded the first time.
It is possible to record audio events that overlap each other, but only the 
visible events (the events at the top) will be heard when you play back.
Recording a new audio track
This example shows how to record a new audio track, while listening 
to the first recording.
1.Create a new audio track by using the “Add Track” submenu on the 
Project menu.
2.Decide whether you want the new track to be stereo or mono in the 
dialog that appears.
3.Use the Input pop-up menu in the Inspector to make sure that the 
same stereo input bus is selected for the new track.
If the audio source is another than the one you first recorded, you need to check the 
input level again – see page 95.
4.Record enable the new track by clicking the red Record Enable button 
in its mixer channel strip.
Make sure that the Record Enable button for the first track is disabled – otherwise you 
will be recording on both tracks at the same time.
5.Move the project cursor to the desired start position.
6.Activate recording by clicking the Record button on the Transport panel.
While you are recording, the first audio track is played back.
7.When you are done, click the Stop button on the Transport panel.