Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Operation Manual

CUBASE SE
Working with the Tempo track 22 – 481
Options and settings
Snap
You activate or deactivate Snap by clicking the Snap icon on the tool-
bar. The behavior of the function depends on the display format se-
lected for the ruler:
•If “Bars+Beats” is selected, tempo curve points will snap to the set 
resolution on the Snap pop-up.
If this is set to 1/1 curve points will snap to the start of bars.
•If any other display format is selected, tempo curve points will snap to 
the vertical grid lines in the...

CUBASE SE
22 – 482 Working with the Tempo track
The Beat Calculator
The Beat Calculator is a tool for calculating the tempo of freely re-
corded audio or MIDI material. It also allows you to set the tempo by 
tapping.
Calculating the tempo of a recording
1.In the Project window, make a selection that covers an exact number 
of beats of the recording.
2.Select “Beat Calculator…” from the Project menu.
The Beat Calculator window appears.
3.Enter the number of beats that the selection encompasses in the...

CUBASE SE
Working with the Tempo track 22 – 483
Using Tap Tempo
The Tap Tempo function allows you to specify a tempo by tapping:
1.Open the Beat Calculator.
2.If you want to tap the tempo to some recorded material, activate play-
back.
3.Click the Tap Tempo button.
The Tap Tempo window appears.
4.Tap the tempo on the computer keyboard’s space bar or with the 
mouse button.
The tempo display will update the calculated tempo between each tap.
5.When you stop tapping, the program calculates the average...

CUBASE SE
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Merge Tempo From Tapping
This function allows you to create a complete tempo track based on 
your tapping. Typically, you would use this if you have an audio file 
with no tempo mapping, and want to be able to add sequenced mate-
rial afterwards, etc.
1.Create an empty time-based MIDI track and, while playing back your 
audio material, tap the new tempo on your MIDI keyboard and record 
the created notes onto the new MIDI track.
Note that you must create...

23
Export Audio Mixdown 

CUBASE SE
23 – 486 Export Audio Mixdown
Introduction
The Export Audio Mixdown function in Cubase SE allows you to mix 
down audio from the program to a file on your hard disk, in a number 
of formats. The following rules apply:
•When you mix down, you get what you hear – mutes, mixer settings 
and insert effects are taken into account.
Note though that you will only include the sound of the bus or channel you select for 
mixdown.
•MIDI tracks are not included in the mixdown!
To make a complete mixdown...

CUBASE SE
Export Audio Mixdown 23 – 487
Mixing down to an audio file
1.Set up the left and right locator to encompass the area that you want 
to mix down.
2.Set up your tracks, so that they play back the way you want.
This includes muting unwanted tracks or parts, making manual mixer settings and/or 
activating the R (Read) automation buttons for some or all mixer channels.
3.Pull down the File menu and select “Audio Mixdown…” from the 
Export submenu.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog appears.
The upper...

CUBASE SE
23 – 488 Export Audio Mixdown
5.Select the channel configuration for the mixdown file with the 
Channels pop-up menu.
Typically you would select the same channel configuration as the bus or channel you’re 
mixing down, but it’s also possible to e.g. mix down a stereo bus to a mono file. In this 
case a warning will appear, asking if that’s what you want to do.
6.Select a file format with the File type pop-up menu.
7.Make additional settings for the file to be created.
This includes selecting...

CUBASE SE
Export Audio Mixdown 23 – 489
File format specifics
The following pages describe the different export file formats, and 
their options and settings.
• AIFF files (see page 489).
• Sound Designer II files (Mac OS X only, see page 491).
• Wave files (see page 491).
• MP3 files (upgrade needed, see page 492).
• Ogg Vorbis files (see page 494).
• Real Audio G2 files (Windows only, see page 495).
• Windows Media Audio files (Windows only, see page 496).
AIFF files
AIFF stands for Audio Interchange...

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Resolution
Allows you to select 8, 16 or 24 bit files.
• If you are making a mixdown for CD burning, you should use the 16 bit option, 
as CD audio is always 16 bit.
• 8 bit resolution should only be used if required, since it will result in limited au-
dio quality.
8 bit audio may be suitable in some multimedia applications, etc.
Sample Rate
This is the sample rate of the exported file. In most cases, you should 
select the sample rate set for the project, since a...