Steinberg Cubase SL/SX 3.1 Manual

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The Stereo Pan Law modes
In the Project Setup dialog there is a pop-up menu named “Stereo Pan 
Law”, on which you can select a pan mode. These different pan modes 
provide gain compensation. This is necessary because without com-
pensation, the gain of the sum of the left and right side will be higher 
(louder) if a channel is panned center than if it’s panned left or right. 
This is described in the chapter “The mixer” in the Operation Manual.
• You can now also select “Equal Power” on this pop-up menu, which 
means that the power of the signal will remain the same regardless of 
the pan setting.
Resizing tracks in the Track list
With the introduction of version 3.1 of the program, you have now the 
possibility to resize a track in the Track list without automatically se-
lecting it. This is a handy feature when “Enlarge Selected Track” is ac-
tivated (see page 16). 
Normally, a track automatically gets selected when it is being resized 
in the Track list. With Enlarge Selected Track activated, it is therefore 
impossible to change the track size for a track permanently. As soon 
as you try to resize it, it gets selected and is automatically enlarged.
However, there might be situations where you want to change the size 
of one of the tracks permanently. If this is the case, proceed as follows:
1.Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the (unselected) 
track you want to resize.
The mouse pointer turns into a divider symbol.
2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the lower border of the track until it 
reaches the desired height.
•The track height is adjusted, but the track is not automatically selected. 
This way you can change the “original” size of the track. When this 
track is selected (and Enlarge Selected Track is activated), it will be 
enlarged and when another track gets selected, the track will revert to 
the size you specified. 
						

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 32 Working with the new features
Inspector sub panels
Normally, when a MIDI track is routed to a VST instrument, a new sub 
panel (with the name of the instrument) is added to the inspector for 
the selected track.
This is now also the case in the following situations:
• When a MIDI track is routed to an external instrument or effect that has an as-
sociated MIDI Device. In this case, the new sub panel gets the name of the 
device.
• When a MIDI track is routed to an effect plug-in that also receives audio data, 
i.e. that is used as an insert effect for an audio track (e.g. MIDI Gate), a sub 
panel for this audio track appears in the MIDI track inspector.
• If a MIDI track is routed to an effect-plug-in assigned to a FX Channel track, a 
respective FX sub panel is added to the Inspector.
A MIDI track routed to an effect plug-in used as an insert effect on an audio track.  
						

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Editing – MIDI
Freezing track parameters
This function affects the following settings for MIDI tracks:
• Several settings on the main tab of the Inspector (program and bank selection 
and the Delay parameter).
• The settings on the Track Parameters tab (i.e. Transpose, Velocity Shift, Ve-
locity Compression and Length Compression).
• The settings on the Inserts tab. (If you are using an arpeggiator for example 
and want to convert the added notes into real events.)
The following settings for MIDI parts are taken into account as well:
• The Transpose and Velocity settings for parts displayed on the info line – 
please note that the Volume setting is not taken into account. 
Those settings usually do not change the MIDI events themselves, but 
rather work like a “filter”, affecting the music on playback. However 
sometimes you may want to make these settings permanent, i.e. con-
vert them to “real” MIDI events. For this, you can use the Freeze Track 
Parameter command on the MIDI menu. This works as follows:
1.Select the tracks whose settings should become permanent.
2.Pull down the MIDI menu and select “Freeze Track Parameter”.
The Inspector settings will be converted to MIDI events and inserted at the beginning 
of the part(s). All notes of the part(s) will be modified accordingly and the Inspector 
settings will be reset. 
						

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 34 Working with the new features
Dissolving parts
The option “Optimized Display” has been added to the Dissolve Part 
dialog. The Dissolve Part function still splits parts into separate chan-
nels or pitches (depending on your settings), but you can now auto-
matically remove the silent (empty) areas of the resulting parts by 
activating the “Optimized Display” checkbox.
The Legato dialog
One new feature has been added to the Legato dialog. Previously, 
when the Legato function was applied, it lengthened the selected note 
so that it reached the following note (for a detailed description of this 
function, see the Operation Manual chapter “MIDI processing and 
quantizing”). In version 3.1 of the program, the Legato Options dialog 
contains the checkbox “Selected Only”. When you activate this op-
tion, the length of the note will be adjusted so that it reaches the next 
selected note, allowing you e.g. to only apply Legato to your bass line 
(when playing on a keyboard).   
						

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Working with the new features  35
Selecting notes of equal pitch (Edit menu)
On the Edit menu–Select submenu, you will find the options “Equal 
Pitch – all Octaves” and “Equal Pitch – same Octave”. These are not 
new in this program version, but the functionality has been modified. Up 
until now, selecting one of these menu items selected all following 
notes of the same pitch, on all octaves or on the same octave, respec-
tively. In version 3.1 of the program, this has changed. Now all notes in 
the part that have the same pitch as the selected note will be selected. 
This makes editing in the Key Editor (or in-place editing) much easier, 
as you do not have to scroll to the first note of the part with the desired 
pitch. Now, all notes of the same pitch on all positions within the part 
get selected, which is generally what you want when using this function.
To select all notes (of the same pitch) following the selected note, you can 
define an action in the Locical Editor. (For a description of the Logical Editor, 
please refer to the chapter “The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Trans-
former” in the pdf document “MIDI Devices and Features”). 
						

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 36 Working with the new features
Extracting MIDI automation
On the MIDI menu–Functions submenu, the command “Extract MIDI 
Automation” has been added. This allows you to automatically convert 
continuous controller data of a MIDI part into MIDI track automation 
data.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired MIDI part containing the continuous controller data.
2.From the Functions submenu on the MIDI menu, select “Extract MIDI 
Automation”. (This command is also available on the Key editor con-
text menu.)
The controller data will automatically be removed from the controller lane in the editor.
3.In the Project window, open the automation track(s) for the respective 
MIDI track (by clicking on the plus signs or by selecting “Show used 
Automation” from the context menu). You will find that an automation 
track has been created for each of the continuous controllers in the part.
• Please note that this function can only be used for continuous controllers. 
Data such as e.g. Aftertouch, Pitchbend or Sysex cannot be converted to 
MIDI track automation data.
This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to quickly and easily 
convert the continuous controllers of your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI 
track automation data, making them available for editing in the Project 
window.
• Note that to be able to hear the automation data, you have to activate 
the Read button for the respective automation track(s). 
						

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External instruments/effects (Cubase SX only)
Since the release of version 3 of Cubase SX, the program supports the 
integration of external effect devices into the sequencer signal flow.
With Cubase SX 3.1, you can also integrate external instruments, e. g. 
hardware synthesizers. You can use the External Instrument tab in the 
VST Connections window to define the necessary return ports and 
access the instruments through the VST Instruments window.
You may have projects created in Cubase SX 3.0 that use an external ef-
fect as defined in the VST Connections dialog. When you open such a 
project in version Cubase SX 3.1 for the first time, a message warning 
about a missing plug-in will be displayed. This is because the handling of 
external devices has been changed. See page 44.
Requirements
•To use external effects, you need audio hardware with multiple inputs 
and outputs. To use external instruments, a MIDI interface must be 
connected to your computer.
An external effect will require at least one input and one output (or input/output pairs 
for stereo effects) – in addition to the input/output ports you use for recording and 
monitoring.
•As always, audio hardware with low-latency drivers is a good thing to 
have.
Cubase SX will compensate for the input/output latency and ensure that the audio 
processed through external effects isn’t shifted in time. However, this automatic delay 
compensation results in added latency – if your audio hardware has a high latency to 
start with, this could be a problem. 
						

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Connecting the external effect/instrument
To set up an external effect or instrument, proceed as follows:
1.Connect an unused output pair on your audio hardware to the input 
pair on your external hardware device.
In this example, we assume that the hardware device has stereo inputs and outputs.
2.Connect an unused input pair on your audio hardware to the output 
pair on your hardware device.
Once the external device is connected to the audio hardware of your 
computer, you must set up the input/output busses in Cubase SX:
Setting up external effects
1.Open the VST Connections window from the Devices menu.
2.Open the External FX tab and click “Add External FX”.
3.In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the external effect and 
specify the Send and Return configurations. If you want to set up a 
MIDI device corresponding to the external effect, click the Associate 
MIDI Device button.
Depending on the type of effect, you can specify mono, stereo or surround configura-
tions. When clicking Associate MIDI Device, you can use the MIDI Device Manager 
functions to create a new MIDI device for the effect. Note that delay compensation will 
only be applied for the effect when you use MIDI devices. For information about the 
MIDI Device Manager and user device panels see the chapter “MIDI devices” in the 
pdf document “MIDI Devices and Features”.  
						

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4.Click OK. This adds a new External FX bus.
5.Click in the Device Port column for the Send Bus “Left” and “Right” 
ports and select the outputs on your audio hardware that you connec-
ted in step 1 in the section “Connecting the external effect/instrument”.
6.Click in the Device Port column for the Return Bus “Left” and “Right” 
ports and select the inputs on your audio hardware that you connec-
ted in step 2 in the section “Connecting the external effect/instrument”.
7.If you like, make additional settings for the bus.
These are found in the columns to the right. Note however that you can adjust these 
while actually using the external effect – which may be easier as you can hear the result.
8.When you are done, close the VST Connections window.
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware effect device has an inherent delay (latency), you 
should enter this value here, as it allows Cubase SX to compensate 
for that delay during playback. You can also let the delay value be de-
termined by the program by right-clicking (Win)/[Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) 
in the Delay column for the effect and selecting “Check User Delay”. 
Note that you don’t have to take the latency of the audio hardware into 
account – this is handled automatically by the program.
Send Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal being sent to the external 
effect.
Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal coming in from the exter-
nal effect. 
Note however that excessive output levels from an external effect de-
vice may cause clipping in the audio hardware. The Return gain set-
ting cannot be used to compensate for this – you have to lower the 
output level on the effect device instead.
MIDI Device When you click in this column, a pop-up menu opens where you can 
either disconnect the effect from the associated MIDI device, select 
a MIDI device, create a new device or open the MIDI Device Man-
ager in Cubase SX to edit the MIDI device. When Studio Manager 2 
is installed, you may also select an OPT editor to access your exter-
nal effect.
Used Whenever you insert an external effect into an audio track, this column 
shows a check mark (“x”) to indicate that the effect is being used. 
						

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How to use the external effect
If you now click an insert effect slot for any channel and look at the ef-
fect pop-up menu, you will find the new external FX bus listed on the 
“External Plugins” submenu.
When you select it, the following happens:
• The external FX bus is loaded into the effect slot just like a regular effect plug-in.
• The audio signal from the channel will be sent to the outputs on the audio 
hardware, through your external effect device and back to the program via the 
inputs on the audio hardware.
• A parameter window appears, showing the Delay, Send Gain and Return Gain 
settings for the external FX bus. You can adjust these as necessary while play-
ing back. The parameter window also provides the “Measure Effect’s Loop De-
lay for Delay Compensation” button. This is the same function as the “Check 
User Delay” option in the VST Connections window. It provides Cubase SX 
with a Delay value to be used for delay compensation. When you have defined 
a MIDI device for the effect, the corresponding Device window will be opened. 
When Studio Manager 2 is installed, and you have set up a corresponding 
OPT editor, this OPT editor will be displayed.
The default parameter window for an external effect
Like any effect, you can use the external FX bus as an insert effect or 
as a send effect (an insert effect on an FX channel track). You can de-
activate or bypass the external effect with the usual controls.