Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 Operation Manual Studio Manual

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
4.The Presets browser is opened. It contains three sec-
tions (Browser, Search & Viewer and Filter). By default, only 
the Search & Viewer section is shown. Note that it may take 
a moment before all available sounds appear in the Viewer.
The Viewer section to the right displays all track presets 
for instrument tracks and all VST 3 presets.
Track presets for audio tracks, MIDI tracks or “multi” track setups are not 
displayed. The preset icon to the left of the file name indicates the type of 
preset.
5.Select a preset in the list.
6.Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the 
preset sound. You can switch between presets and hear 
the sound when you play. You can also play back/loop a 
MIDI part on a track. Each time you select a preset, all as-
sociated track and/or instrument settings are automati-
cally loaded.
7.Use the Filter section to search for specific attributes if 
you wish.
You can click on the attributes in the respective column (Category, Style 
etc.), to filter out all presets that do not match the selected attribute(s).
8.When you have found the right sound, click OK to 
close the dialog.
Using the “Browse Sounds” dialog
1.Open the Project menu–Add Track submenu and se-
lect “Browse Sounds”.
The Browse Sounds dialog is opened. It contains the same sections as the 
Apply Track Presets dialog (Browser, Viewer and Filter) and its Browser 
section also has the root “Presets” item selected – leave it like this.
The Viewer section of the Browse Sounds dialog dis-
plays all preset sounds for all track types and all VST In-
struments.
To preview the presets, you have to select a MIDI file or 
play MIDI notes on your MIDI keyboard because at this 
stage there is no track connected. This is done as follows:2.Select a preset in the Viewer section.
A row of buttons appears in the dialog below the Viewer section.
3.Click the “Choose MIDI File” button.
This opens a file dialog where you can navigate to the location of a MIDI 
file (extension “.mid”).
4.Click “MIDI Input” and then the “Play” button.
The sound is played. For each new preset you select you have to click 
the “Play” button to preview the preset.
5.Use the Filter section to search for specific attributes if 
you wish.
You can click on the attributes in the respective column (Category, Style 
etc.), to filter out all presets that do not match the selected attribute(s).
6.When you have found a preset, click OK to close the 
dialog.
An instrument track is created. It will show all track and/or instrument 
settings that were saved in the preset.
Selecting VST Instrument presets
The previous sections focussed on selecting presets for 
the creation of new instrument tracks, or for changing the 
setup of an existing track. However, you can also use pre-
sets to change the settings of a VST Instrument.
To select a VST Instrument preset, proceed as follows:
1.Load a VST Instrument (either in the VST Instruments 
window or via an instrument track).
2.If you use the VST Instruments window, select a MIDI 
track routed to the instrument. If you use an instrument 
track, select this. 
3.If necessary, click on the track name at the top of the 
Inspector to open the basic track settings.
!Note that the following refers to the selection of VST 3 
presets (.vstpreset). If you want to apply .fxp/.fxb pre-
sets t o your VS T 2 instr uments  in this way, see “About 
earlier VST Instrument presets” on page 193. 
						

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
4.Click in the Programs field in the Inspector.
The Preset browser is opened.
5.Step through the presets during playback to find the 
sound you are looking for.
6.Double-click the desired preset to load it and close 
the preset browser.
You can also open the preset browser by clicking in the 
preset name field in the control panel of a VST Instrument 
or by clicking the SoundFrame button in the control panel 
and selecting “Load Preset…” from the pop-up
Selecting another preset in the preset browser will load 
it directly, replacing the previous preset.
When the preset browser is open, you can still use 
Project window key commands, allowing you to start/stop 
playback or locate to different positions in the project.
Clicking the Reset button below the Viewer will reload 
the last loaded preset.
Saving VST Instrument presets
You can save your settings as presets for further use (e.g. 
in other projects):
1.In the VST Instrument panel, click the SoundFrame 
button to the right of the preset name and select “Save 
Preset” from the pop-up menu.
This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset.
Presets are saved into a default folder named VST3 Pre-
sets. Within this folder, there is a folder called “Steinberg 
Media Technologies” where the included presets are ar-
ranged in sub-folders named after each instrument.You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
ther subfolders inside the instrument’s preset folder.
Under Windows, the default preset folder is in the fol-
lowing location:
Boot drive/Documents and Settings/User name/Application data/VST3 
Presets.
Under Mac OS, the default preset folder is in the follow-
ing location:
Users/Username/Library/Audio/Presets//
2.Enter a name for the new preset in the File name field 
in the lower part of the dialog.
If you wish to assign attributes to the preset, click the 
Tag Editor button.
Click in the Value column to select an appropriate “tag” for one or sev-
eral of the available categories in the Attributes column. Tagging is de-
scribed in detail in the chapter “The MediaBay” on page 287.
3.Click OK to store the preset and exit the dialog.
Extracting sound from Track Presets
You can extract a sound from a Track preset (disregarding 
any track/channel settings) and save it as a VST preset. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Click the SoundFrame button (“Extract sound from 
Track Preset”) below the Output Routing pop-up menu in 
the Inspector. 
This opens a dialog where all Track Presets are shown.
2.Select an instrument track preset or VST preset and 
click OK.
The VST Instrument and the settings (but no inserts, EQs or modifiers) of 
the existing track are overwritten using the data of the track preset. The 
previous VST Instrument for this instrument track is removed and the 
new VST Instrument with its settings is set up for the instrument track.
Track Presets are described in detail in the chapter “Track 
Presets” on page 300. 
						

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
About earlier VST Instrument presets
You can use any VST 2.x Instrument plug-ins in Cubase. 
Installing VST Instrument plug-ins works the same way as 
for audio effects – see “Installing additional VST plug-ins” 
on page 179.
When you install a VST 2 instrument, any previously 
stored presets for it will be of the old FX program/bank 
(.fxp/.fxb) standard. You can import such files, but the pre-
set handling will be slightly different. You will not be able 
to use the new features like the Preview function or the 
Tag editor until you have converted the old “.fxp/.fxb” pre-
sets to VST 3 presets. If you save new presets for a VST 2 
plug-in these will automatically be saved in the new “.vst-
preset” format in the default location.
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
To import .fxp/.fxb files, proceed as follows:
1.Load any VST 2 instrument you may have installed, and 
click on the SoundFrame button to open the Preset Ma-
nagement pop-up menu.
2.Select “Import FXB/FXP” from the pop-up menu.
This menu item is only available for VST 2 instrument plug-ins.
3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the .fxp file and 
click “Open”.
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect pro-
grams. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected 
effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your 
own .fxp/fxb presets with a previous version of Cubase (or any other 
VST 2 application).
After importing, you can convert the current program list 
to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to VST 
Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up.
When the presets are converted, they will be available in the preset 
browser, and you can use the Tag Editor to add attributes and audition 
the presets. The presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
About latency
Depending on your audio hardware and its ASIO driver, 
the latency (the time it takes for the instrument to produce 
a sound when you press a key on your MIDI controller) 
may simply be too high to allow comfortable real-time VST 
Instrument playback from a keyboard. 
If this is the case, a workaround is to play and record your 
parts with another MIDI sound source selected, and then 
switch to the VST Instrument for playback.
ÖYou can check the latency for your audio hardware in 
the Device Setup dialog (VST Audio System page).
The input and output latency values are shown below the ASIO Driver 
pop-up menu. For live VST Instrument playing, these values should ide-
ally be a few milliseconds (although the limit for “comfortable” live playing 
is a matter of personal taste).
Constrain Delay Compensation
Cubase features full delay compensation throughout the 
entire audio path. This means that any delay inherent in the 
VST plug-ins you use will automatically be compensated 
for during playback, so that all channels are kept in perfect 
sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on page 
164).
However, when you play a VST Instrument in real time or 
record live audio (with monitoring through Cubase acti-
vated), this delay compensation may sometimes result in 
added latency. To avoid this, you can click the Constrain 
Delay Compensation button on the Project window tool-
bar. This function tries to minimize the latency effects of 
the delay compensation, while maintaining the sound of 
the mix as far as possible.
In the Preferences dialog (VST page) you will find a set-
ting called Delay Compensation Threshold. Only plug-ins 
with a delay higher than this setting will be affected by the 
Constrain Delay Compensation function. 
						

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
VST plug-ins (with higher delay than the threshold 
value) which are activated for VST Instrument channels, 
audio track channels that are record enabled, group chan-
nels and output channels will be turned off when you acti-
vate Constrain Delay Compensation.
VST plug-ins activated for FX channels are not turned 
off but their delay is disregarded by the program (delay 
compensation is turned off).
After recording or using a VST Instrument with Constrain 
Delay Compensation, you should turn off the function to 
restore full delay compensation.
External instruments (Cubase only)
An external instrument bus is an input (return) to your au-
dio hardware, along with a MIDI connection via Cubase 
and few additional settings. External instrument busses 
are created in the VST Connections window. All external 
instrument busses you have created will appear on the 
VST Instrument pop-up menus and can be selected in the 
same way as any VST Instrument plug-in. If you select an 
external instrument, you play it via MIDI as usual (you have 
to create a MIDI device to play it) and the sound (synth au-
dio output) will come in to the VST environment where you 
can apply processing etc. For more information on exter-
nal instruments, see “Setting up external instruments” on 
page 22.  
						

							15
Surround sound
(Cubase only) 
						

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Surround sound  (Cubase only)
Background
What is Surround sound?
Surround is a common name for various techniques for po-
sitioning audio in reference to the listener. Whereas regular 
stereo is limited to left/right positioning, within a relatively 
narrow field, surround sound opens possibilities of posi-
tioning an audio source anywhere around the listener.
Surround sound comes in many flavors, from the ill-fated 
Quadraphonic format for vinyl discs launched in the 70’s, 
to today’s more successful incarnations.
The differences between the formats are in two areas:
The number and configuration of speakers.
This varies from two speakers up to 6.
The intended final coding format.
This depends on the media the audio will be “stored” on: film, broadcast 
video or DVD, for example.
Surround sound is a large topic, there are entire books 
and regular publications devoted to the subject. This 
chapter will not provide an in-depth introduction to sur-
round sound as such. Instead it will concentrate on the 
specific implementation in Cubase.
Surround sound in Cubase
Cubase has integrated surround sound features with sup-
port for several formats. This support goes all the way 
through the audio path – all audio channels and busses 
can handle multiple speaker channel configurations (up to 
6 channels). A channel in the mixer can either carry com-
plete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel 
which is part of a surround setup.
 Audio channels can be routed freely to surround channels.
 The Surround Panner function in the mixer allows you to 
graphically position channels in the surround field.
 Cubase is ready for surround specific plug-ins, that is plug-ins 
with multi-channel support specifically designed for surround 
sound mixing tasks (the included “Mix6to2” plug-in is an exam-
ple of this). There are also surround aware plug-ins, which are 
not designed specifically for Surround but which due to their 
multi-channel support work well in a Surround configuration. You configure Cubase for surround by defining input and out-
put busses in the desired surround format, and specifying 
which audio inputs and outputs should be used for the differ-
ent channels in the busses. This is done in the VST Connec-
tions window.
Requirements for using Surround
The following additional equipment is required for taking 
advantage of the surround sound implementation in Cu-
base:
An audio card with more than two outputs.
The card must have as many outputs as the surround format you plan to 
select.
A matching amplifier/speaker configuration.
Encoding
The result of a surround mix in Cubase is either the multi-
channel audio sent from the surround output bus to your 
surround speaker setup, or (if you use the Export audio 
feature) audio file(s) on your hard disk. Exported surround 
mixes can either be split (one mono file per speaker chan-
nel) or interleaved (a single file containing all the surround 
channels).
Getting from this step to the final product (surround sound 
on DVD, etc.) requires special software and possibly 
hardware. This equipment will encode the signal into the 
desired format, possibly compress the audio and store it 
on the final media.
Exactly what type of software and/or hardware you need 
depends on what kind of format you are mixing for and is 
not dependent on Cubase in any way.
Steinberg provides Dolby Digital and DTS encoders for 
purchase, tailored for use with Cubase.
For details, please go to www.steinberg.net.
About surround plug-ins
Included with the program are some specific surround-
plug-ins. These are:

 Mix6to2
The Mix6to2 effect allows you to control the levels of up to six surround 
channels, and to mix these down to a stereo output. This is described in 
the separate pdf document “Plug-in Reference”. 
						

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Surround sound  (Cubase only)
SurroundPanner
This is described in the section “Using the Surround Panner” on page 
199.
The VST Connections window
In this window you can add input and output busses. 
There is a complete selection of common surround con-
figurations available, as well as standard mono or stereo 
busses.
The Bus Name column contains the currently configured 
busses as they will appear in the input and output routing 
pop-ups in the mixer.
VST Connections showing the Outputs page. The “5.1 Out” bus is un-
folded, displaying the individual speaker channels, with their physical 
output ports displayed in the Device Port column to the right.
Surround in the mixer
Surround sound is supported throughout every stage of 
the signal path in the Cubase mixer, from input to output 
bus. Each bus or audio channel can carry up to 6 surround 
speaker channels.
In the output channel section of the mixer you can control 
the master levels for configured busses. The level meter 
for a bus (or channel in the mixer) that carries multiple sur-
round channels will show multiple level bars, one for each 
speaker channel in the surround configuration.
The outputs selected for the 
channels in the busses.Click here to add a bus.
The currently configured busses.
Here, the SurroundPanner is used for positioning 
the sound “dynamically” in the surround field.
Using the Output Routing pop-up, 
audio channels can be routed di-
rectly to surround channels. 
						

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Surround sound  (Cubase only)
Operations
Setting up the surround configuration
Output bus configuration
Before you can start working with surround sound, you 
have to configure a surround output bus, through which all 
the speaker channels of the chosen surround format are 
routed. How to add and set up busses is described in de-
tail in the section “Setting up busses” on page 14. Here is 
a brief run through:
1.Open the VST Connections window from the Devices 
menu.
2.Click the “Outputs” tab.
3.Click the “Add Bus” button and select one of the pre-
set formats from the Configuration pop-up (see below).
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4.By clicking in the Device Port column you can now 
route the speaker channels to the desired outputs of your 
audio hardware.
5.If you like, rename the output bus by clicking its name 
and typing in a new one.
This name will appear in the mixer and on routing pop-ups.
The following surround configurations are included:
Child busses
Essentially a child bus is a bus within a (bigger) bus. Typi-
cally you may want stereo child busses within your sur-
round bus – this allows you to route stereo tracks directly 
to a stereo speaker pair within the surround bus. You may 
also want to add child busses in other surround formats 
(with fewer channels than the “parent bus”).
Once you have created a surround bus, you can add one or 
several child busses to it by right-clicking the bus and se-
lecting “Add Child Bus”. This is described in detail in the 
section “Adding a child bus (Cubase only)” on page 16.
Input bus configuration
To work with surround sound in Cubase, it is often not 
necessary to configure a surround format input bus. You 
can record audio files via standard inputs, and easily route 
the resulting audio channels to surround outputs at any 
stage. You can also directly import multi-channel files of 
specific surround format onto audio tracks of the same 
format.
You should add a surround input bus in the following cir-
cumstances:
You have existing audio material in a specific surround 
format, and you wish to transfer this material into Cubase 
as a single, multi-channel file.
You wish to record a surround setup “live”.
In both cases, you can add and configure an input bus of 
the format you wish to use in the VST Connections dialog 
so that each input on your audio hardware is routed to the 
corresponding speaker channel.
To add an input bus, use the same general method as de-
scribed for output busses (see “Output bus configuration” 
on page 198), but select the “Inputs” tab instead.
Format Description
LRCS LRCS refers to Left Right Center Surround, where the sur-
round speaker is center-rear positioned. This is the original 
surround format that first appeared as Dolby Stereo in cin-
ema and later as the home cinema format Dolby ProLogic.
5.0 This is the same as 5.1 (see below) but without the LFE 
channel. The LFE channel is optional in 5.1 and if you don’t 
plan to use it, you might find this option more convenient.
5.1 This format is one of the most popular in cinema and DVD. 
In its various cinema and DVD encoding implementations 
(established by different manufacturers) it is referred to as 
Dolby Digital, AC-3, DTS and MPEG 2 Multichannel. 5.1 
has one center speaker (mainly used for speech) and four 
surround speakers (for music and sound effects). Addition-
ally a sub-channel (LFE – Low Frequency Effects) with 
lower bandwidth is used for special low frequency effects.
LRC Same as LRCS, but without the surround speaker channel.
LRS Left-Right-Surround, with the surround speaker positioned 
at center-rear.
LRC+Lfe Same as LRC but with an Lfe sub-channel added.
LRS+Lfe Same as LRS but with an Lfe sub-channel added.
Quadro The original Quadraphonic format for music, with one 
speaker in each corner. This format was intended for vinyl 
record players.
LRCS+Lfe Same as LRCS but with an Lfe sub-channel added.
Quadro+Lfe Same as Quadro but with an Lfe sub-channel added.
6.0 Cine A Left-Right-Center front speaker arrangement with 3 
(Left-Right-Center) surround channels.
6.0 Music This uses 2 (Left/Right) front channels with Left and Right 
surround channels and Left and Right Side channels. Format Description 
						

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Surround sound  (Cubase only)
Routing channels directly to surround channels
If you want to place an audio source in one separate 
speaker channel only, you can route it directly to that 
speaker channel. This is useful for pre-mixed material or 
multi-channel recordings that don’t require panning.
1.Open the mixer and locate the channel you wish to 
route.
2.From the output routing pop-up menu, select the cor-
responding surround speaker channel.
If a stereo audio channel is routed directly to a speaker 
channel, the left/right channels will be mixed to mono.
The pan control for the audio channel governs the balance between the 
left and right channel in the resulting mono mix. Center pan will produce 
a mix of equal proportion.
Routing channels using child busses
Child busses provide a way to route stereo (or multi-chan-
nel) audio channels to specific speaker channels in a sur-
round configuration. 
The most obvious application of a child bus is when you 
wish to add a stereo channel to two specific left/right sur-
round speaker channels.
If you have added a child bus within a surround bus (see 
above), it appears as a submenu item within the surround 
bus on the output routing pop-up menu. Select this to 
route a stereo audio channel directly to that stereo 
speaker pair in the surround bus.
Using the Surround Panner
Cubase has a special feature for graphically positioning a 
sound source in a surround field. This is actually a special 
plug-in which distributes the audio from the channel in 
various proportions to the surround channels.
1.Open the mixer and locate the channel you wish to 
position.
This could be a mono or stereo channel.
2.From the output routing pop-up menu, select the 
“whole surround bus” option (not a specific speaker 
channel).
A miniature graph of the surround plug-in interface appears above the 
fader in the channel strip.
When the “whole surround bus” is selected, the channel strip shows a 
miniature surround control. 
3.You can click and drag directly in the miniature image 
to move the sound in the surround field.
The horizontal red strip to the right controls the subbass (LFE) level (if 
available in the selected surround format).
You can also view a slightly larger version of this control 
by selecting “Panner” on the View options pop-up menu 
for the extended mixer panel.
This mode offers click and drag-panning as well as numerical values for 
left/right balance, front/rear balance and LFE amount – enter the desired 
number or use the mouse wheel to adjust them.
The SurroundPan can also be displayed in the Inspector 
for all audio channel track types. To display the Surround 
Pan tab in the Inspector, make sure the corresponding op-
tion is enabled in the Inspector context menu.
For total control over surround panning, double-click on 
the miniature image to open the full Surround Panner 
interface in a separate window. 
						

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Surround sound  (Cubase only)
The SurroundPan controls
The SurroundPan plug-in interface in Standard, Position and Angle 
mode, respectively.
The SurroundPan plug-in allows you to position your au-
dio in the surround field. It consists of an image of the 
speaker arrangement, as defined by the output bus se-
lected on the output routing pop-up menu, with the sound 
source indicated as a gray ball. 
Mode – Standard/Position/Angle
The Standard Mode/Position Mode/Angle Mode switch 
allows you to work in three modes:
 In both Standard and Position mode, the speakers in the front 
are aligned, as they would normally be in a cinema-type situa-
tion. This means that the front speakers are at a varying dis-
tance from the center. Standard mode (default) is the best 
mode for moving sources between speakers without level at-
tenuation.
 Angle Mode is the traditional surround sound mixing definition. 
Note that here the speakers are defined as being at equal dis-
tance from the center. This is not really a true representation of 
for example a cinema, but has still proven to work well in many 
situations.
Speakers
The speakers in the panel represent the chosen surround 
configuration. 
The speakers in the front are aligned, as they would nor-
mally be in a cinema-type situation. 
This means that the front speakers are at a varying distance from the 
center, allowing you to move sources between speakers without level 
attenuation.
You can turn speakers on and off by clicking them with 
[Alt]/[Option] pressed. When a speaker is turned off, no 
audio will be routed to that surround channel.
Positioning and levels
A sound source is positioned either by clicking or by drag-
ging the gray “ball” around in the panel (or by using key 
commands, see below). By dragging during playback you 
can record automation, see “Using Write/Read automa-
tion” on page 209.
In Standard Mode, the signal levels from the individual 
speakers are indicated by colored lines from the speakers 
to the center of the display.
In Position Mode, the concentric circles will help you 
determine the level of the signal at a certain position.
The yellow circle represents -3 dB below nominal level, the red circle is at 
-6 dB and the blue is located at -12 dB. These are affected by attenua-
tion, see below.
!The text below assumes that the Mono/Stereo pop-
up is set to “Mono Mix”. For more information on the 
other modes, see below.