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 
DirectX version 8.1 or higher. 
In all other cases, the audio inputs will be emulated by DirectX (see the HTML Help for 
the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Setup dialog for details about how this is reported). 
Since using emulated inputs will result in higher latency, you may want to use the ASIO 
Multimedia driver instead, as this gives you more possibilities to fine-tune the settings.
• During the installation of Cubase SE, the latest DirectX will be installed 
on your computer. 
When the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver is selected in the Device 
Setup dialog, you can open the ASIO Control Panel and adjust the 
following settings (for more details, click the Help button in the control 
panel):
• Direct Sound Output and Input Ports
In the list to the left in the window, all available Direct Sound Output and Input Ports 
are listed. In many cases, there will only be one Port in each list. To activate or deacti-
vate a Port in the list, click the checkbox in the left column. If the checkbox is ticked, 
the port is activated.
• You can edit the Buffer Size and Offset settings in this list if necessary, by 
double clicking on the value and typing in a new value. 
In most cases the default settings will work fine. Audio buffers are used when audio 
data is transferred between Cubase SE and the audio card. While larger buffers ensure 
that playback will occur without glitches, the latency (the time between the moment 
Cubase SE sends out the data and when it actually reaches the output) will be higher.
• Offset
If a constant offset is audible during playback of Audio and MIDI recordings, you can 
adjust the output or input latency time using this value. 
						

							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. This control panel comes with an 
HTML Help describing the features and procedures.
Setting up the input and output ports
Once you have selected the driver and made the settings as described 
above, you need to specify which inputs and outputs should be used 
and name these:
1.In the Device Setup dialog, select VST Outputs in the list to the left.
All output ports on the audio hardware are listed.  
						

							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.
• It is a good idea to give your ports generic names that are related to the 
channel configuration (rather than to the actual hardware model)!
This makes it easier to transfer your projects between different computers.
4.Select VST Inputs in the list to the left and set up the input ports in the 
same way.
5.Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog and apply your changes. 
						

							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 in 
which the input audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, 
“Direct Thru” or similar).
Via Cubase SE
In this case, the audio passes from the input into Cubase SE, possibly 
through Cubase SE effects and EQ and then back to the output. You 
then control monitoring via settings in Cubase SE.
This allows you to control the monitoring level from Cubase SE and 
add effects to the monitored signal only. 
ASIO Direct Monitoring
If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may support ASIO 
Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be available for audio hardware 
with Mac OS X drivers). In this mode, the actual monitoring is done in 
the audio hardware, by sending the input signal back out again. How-
ever, monitoring is controlled from Cubase SE. This means that the au-
dio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off 
automatically by Cubase SE.
Monitoring is described in detail in the Recording chapter in the Oper-
ation Manual. However, when setting up, there’s one thing to note:
•If you want to use the external monitoring via your audio hardware, 
make sure the corresponding functions are activated in the card’s 
mixer application. 
						

							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 for feeding the 
computer with MIDI messages for recording and for playing back MIDI 
tracks. The sound module is used for playback only. Using Cubase 
SE’s MIDI Thru feature (described later) you will be able to hear the 
correct sound from the sound module while playing the keyboard or 
recording.
A typical MIDI Setup.
MIDI KeyboardMIDI Sound Module MIDI
Interface
MIDI MIDI
InMIDI In
OutOut In
Thru 
						

							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 of the Thru jacks on each unit.
Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off
In the “MIDI” section in the Preferences dialog (located on the File menu 
under Windows and on the Cubase SE menu under Mac OS X), you will 
find a setting called “MIDI Thru Active” which can be enabled or not. This 
is related to a setting in your instrument called “Local On/Off” or “Local 
Control On/Off”.
• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described earlier in this chapter, MIDI 
Thru should be activated and that instrument should be set to Local Off (some-
times called Local Control Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for de-
tails). This will let the MIDI signal from the keyboard get recorded into Cubase 
SE and at the same time re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear 
what you are playing, without the keyboard “triggering” its own sounds. 
						

							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 have the monitor button activated. See the Recording chapter in the 
Operation Manual for more information.
MIDI KeyboardMIDI Sound Module MIDI
Interface
MIDI MIDI
InMIDI In
OutOut In
Thru
“Synth” When “MIDI Thru” is active in Cubase SE, 
MIDI data received is immediately “ech-
oed” back out.
When you press a key, it is sent 
out via MIDI to Cubase SE.MIDI data coming in to the instrument 
is played by the “Synth” inside it.
When Local Control is turned on in the instru-
ment, the keys you press will be played by the 
“Synth” inside the Instrument.
When Local Control is turned off, this connection 
is cut off. 
						

							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 or 
output, you can specify whether or not it should be listed on the MIDI 
pop-up menus in the program.
Under Mac OS X, you can hide or show MIDI ports on the MIDI Sys-
tem page in the Device Setup dialog.
• Hiding a MIDI port from view does not turn it off if it’s already selected 
for a track or a MIDI device.
Setting up the “All MIDI Inputs” option
When you record MIDI in Cubase SE, you can specify which MIDI in-
put each recording MIDI track should use. However, you can also se-
lect the “All MIDI Inputs” option, which causes any MIDI data from any 
MIDI input to be recorded.
The All MIDI Inputs page in the Device Setup dialog allows you to spec-
ify which inputs should be included when you select All MIDI Inputs for 
a MIDI track. This can be especially useful if your system provides sev-
eral instances of the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the du-
plicates you make sure only the desired MIDI data is recorded.
• If you have a MIDI remote control unit connected you should also make 
sure to deactivate that MIDI input on the All MIDI Inputs page.
This is to avoid accidentally recording the data from the remote control when the “All 
MIDI Inputs” option is selected as input for a MIDI track. 
						

							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 turned off!
When using Cubase SE with external tape transports you will most 
likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All connections and 
setup procedures for synchronization are described in the Synchroni-
zation chapter in the Operation Manual. 
						

							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:
• Without any special hardware at all.
While this will be fine in many situations it does put a limit on the size of the video win-
dow as well as the quality of the image.
• Using video hardware that for example connects to an external monitor.
Mac OS X: Using a FireWire port, you can play back video on an external monitor using 
a DV-to-analog converter or a DV camera (see also the Video chapter in the Operation 
Manual).
This is valid for DV video and QuickTime is used for playback.
Windows: Multi-head graphics cards which support overlay functionality can be used to 
display the video picture on an external monitor. As of this writing, the following manu-
facturers have working solutions available: nVIDIA and Matrox.
If you plan to use special video hardware, install it and set it up as 
recommended by the manufacturer.
Before you use the video hardware with Cubase SE, we recommend 
that you test the hardware installation with the utility applications that 
came with the hardware and/or the Windows Media Player or Quick-
time Player (Mac OS X) applications.