Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Operation Manual

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File handling 28 – 551
•The Speeds pop-up menu (Windows version only) lists all possible 
data transfer speeds for the selected CD drive.
While you normally want to use the fastest possible speed, you may have to select a 
slower speed for flawless audio extraction.
•The main display in the dialog lists all audio tracks on the CD.
The columns have the following functionality:
•You can audition the selected audio CD track by clicking the Play 
button.
The track will be played back from the grab selection start (see below) to the track end 
(or until you click the button again). During playback, the button is labeled “Stop”.
•The arrow buttons next to the Play button allow you to audition the 
start and end of the grab selection only.
The left button will play a short snippet beginning at the start of the grab selection (see 
below), while the right button will play a snippet starting just before the end of the grab 
selection.
Column Description
Grab Activate the checkbox in this column for the track you want to grab (im-
port). To activate more than one checkbox (import more than one track), 
click and drag over the checkboxes (or press [Ctrl]/[Command] or [Shift] 
and click).
Track When you import an audio CD track, the file will be named according to 
the name in this column. You can rename a track by clicking in the Track 
column and typing a new name. You can also apply a name to all audio 
CD tracks (e.g. the name of the album, see below).
Length The length of the whole audio CD track, in minutes and seconds.
Size The file size of the whole audio CD track, in MegaBytes.
Grab Start You can grab a section of a track if you like. This indicates the start of the 
section to be grabbed in the track. By default, this is set to the start of the 
track (0.000) but you can adjust this on the grab selection ruler (see below).
Grab End Indicates the end of the section to be grabbed in the track. By default, this 
is set to the end of the track but you can adjust this on the grab selection 
ruler (see below). 
						

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•If you want to import a section of an audio CD track only, you select 
the track in the list and specify the start and end of the grab selection 
by dragging the handles in the grab selection ruler.
Use the start and end audition buttons to fine tune the selection boundaries.
Note that you can import sections of several audio CD tracks by selecting them in turn 
and adjusting the grab selection. The grab start and end settings for each track will ap-
pear in the list.
•If you wish, you can change the generic audio file name in the File 
Name field.
By default, the imported audio files will get this name with a track number added (typ-
ically Track 01, Track 02, and so on). However, if you have adjusted the track name for 
a specific audio CD track in the list, the corresponding audio file will use that name in-
stead.
•By default, imported audio CD tracks will be stored as Wave files 
(Win) or AIFF files (Mac) in the Audio folder of the current project.
You can select another folder by clicking the Change Folder button.
•Clicking the Grab button will convert the selected audio CD tracks 
(the tracks for which the Grab checkbox is ticked) to audio files.
The grabbed files will be listed at the bottom of the dialog – click OK to actually import 
the files into the project and close the dialog, or click Cancel to discard the grabbed files. 
						

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Importing ReCycle files
ReCycle, developed by Propellerhead Software, is a program designed 
especially for working with sampled loops. By “slicing” a loop and mak-
ing separate samples of each beat, ReCycle makes it possible to match 
the tempo of a loop and edit the loop as if it was built up of individual 
sounds. Cubase SE can import two file types created by ReCycle: 
• REX files (export file format of the first versions of ReCycle, extension “.rex”).
• REX 2 files (file format of ReCycle 2.0 and later, extension “.rx2”).
Proceed as follows:
1.Select an audio track and move the project cursor to where you want 
the imported file to start.
You probably want to import REX files to tempo based audio tracks, since this will allow 
you to change the tempo later on (having the imported REX file automatically adjust).
2.Select “Audio File…” from the Import submenu on the File menu.
3.Select REX files or REX 2 files with the file type pop-up menu in the 
file dialog.
4.Locate and select the file and click Open.
The file is imported, and automatically adjusted to the current Cubase SE tempo. 
Unlike a regular audio file, the imported REX file will consist of several 
events, one for each “slice” in the loop. The events will automatically 
be placed in an audio part on the selected track, and positioned so 
that the original internal timing of the loop is preserved.
5.If you now open the part in the Audio Part Editor, you can edit each 
slice separately by muting, moving and resizing events, adding effects 
and processing, etc.
You can also adjust the tempo and have the REX file automatically follow.
• You can also achieve similar results by using Cubase SE’s own loop 
slicing features.
See page 306. 
						

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Importing compressed audio files
During the last years, various audio compression formats have be-
come very common. The major advantage of using such file formats is 
that the file size is significantly reduced, with very little degradation of 
sound quality. This allows for quick download, mass storage and easy 
transportation.
Cubase SE can import (and export, see page 487) several common au-
dio compression formats. The procedure is the same as when import-
ing any non-compressed audio file, with one important thing to note:
If you import a compressed audio file, Cubase SE will create a copy of 
the file and convert this to Wave format (Windows) or AIFF format (Mac 
OS X) before importing it (the original compressed file will not be used 
in the project). The Wave/AIFF file will be placed in the designated 
project Audio folder. Please be aware that the converted Wave/AIFF file 
will be several times larger than the original compressed file!
The following file types are supported:
MPEG audio files
MPEG, which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name 
of family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g. 
movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format. 
Cubase SE can read mp3 only.
• Note that the file extension “.mpeg” can also be used by MPEG video files.
Ogg Vorbis files
Ogg Vorbis is a relatively new format that is open and patent-free and 
offers very small audio files maintaining comparatively high audio qual-
ity. Ogg Vorbis files have the extension “.ogg”.
Windows Media Audio files (Windows only)
Windows Media Audio is an audio format developed by Microsoft Inc. 
Due to advanced audio compression algorithms, Windows Media Au-
dio files can be made very small, maintaining good audio quality. The 
files have the extension “.wma”. 
						

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Options and Settings
Auto Save
If you activate the Auto Save checkbox in the Preferences dialog 
(General page), Cubase SE will automatically save backup copies of 
all open projects with unsaved changes.
•You specify how often a backup copy should be created with the Auto 
Save Interval setting.
•Backup copies are named “Name.bak”, where “Name” is the name of 
the project. The files are saved in the project folder.
•Unsaved projects are also backed up in the same way.
Backup copies of unsaved projects will be named “#UntitledX.bak” where “X” is an in-
cremental number, to allow multiple backup copies in the same project folder.
Startup Options
The “On Startup” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (General 
page) allows you to specify what should happen each time you launch 
Cubase SE. The following options are available:
Option Description
Do Nothing Cubase SE launches without opening a project.
Open Last Project The last saved project is opened on launch.
Open Default Project The default project is opened (see page 540).
Show Open Dialog The Open dialog appears on launch, allowing you to manu-
ally locate and open the desired project. 
						

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Cubase SE Open Document Options Dialog
The Cubase SE projects you have used recently are displayed in the 
list. To open one of them, select it and click the “Open Selection” but-
ton. To open another project not listed there, click the “Open Other…” 
button. A file dialog appears that allows you to look for the desired file 
on your disk. Click the “New Project” button to create a new project 
using a template or not.
If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while launching Cubase SE this 
dialog will always be displayed, regardless of the startup option se-
lected in the Preferences dialog (General page).
Show Template Dialog The Template dialog appears on launch, allowing you to cre-
ate a new project from one of the templates.
Show Open Options 
DialogThe Open Document Options dialog appears on launch, see 
below. It allows you to make a different choice each time you 
launch Cubase SE. Option Description  
						

							29
Customizing 
						

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29 – 558 Customizing
Background
The user can customize the appearance and functionality of Cubase 
SE in various ways.
User configurable items described in this chapter are:
•Transport panel
The user can configure which Transport panel items are to be shown or hidden, and 
where they should be located – see page 559.
•Toolbars
In the project window and all editor windows, the user can configure which toolbar 
items are to be shown or hidden, and where they should be located – see page 561.
•Appearance
The general look of the program can be adjusted – see page 563.
This chapter also contains a section describing where your preferences 
and settings are stored (see page 566), to help you transfer your cus-
tomized settings to another computer. 
						

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Customizing the Transport panel
You can customize the appearance of the Transport panel by deci-
ding which parts of it you wish to be visible, and where the parts 
should be located on the panel.
Setting which items are shown/hidden
If you right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) anywhere within the Trans-
port panel area, a pop-up menu will appear. On this menu, you can di-
rectly check or uncheck elements of the Transport panel as desired.
You can also select different preset configurations from the lower half 
of the menu. To make all hidden items visible again, select “Show All”.
The Transport Setup dialog
If you right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) anywhere within the Trans-
port panel area and select “Setup…” from the pop-up menu, a dialog 
appears. In this dialog you can also configure where the separate parts 
should be placed on the panel as well as saving/recalling different con-
figurations of the Transport panel.  
						

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The dialog is divided into two columns. The left column displays the 
currently visible items on the Transport panel, and the right column 
displays the currently hidden items.
•You can change the current show/hide status by selecting items in 
one column and then use the arrow buttons in the middle of the dialog 
to move them to the opposite column.
Changes are applied directly.
•By selecting items in the “Visible Items” column and using the Move 
Up and Move Down buttons you can change the position of the se-
lected item(s) on the Transport panel.
Changes are applied directly. To undo all changes and revert back to the standard 
Transport panel layout, you can select “Default” from the pop-up menu accessed by 
right-clicking/[Ctrl]-clicking the Transport panel.
A “customized” Transport panel
•If you click the Save button (disk icon) in the Presets section, you can 
name the current configuration and to save it as a preset.
The saved setting appears in the Presets field.
•To remove a preset, select it and click the trash icon.
•Saved configurations are available for selection from the Presets pop-
up in the dialog, or directly from the pop-up menu brought up by right-
clicking or [Ctrl]-clicking the Transport panel.