Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 Operation Manual Studio Manual

							431
Synchronization
Cubase as MMC slave (Cubase only)
This is set up in the MIDI Machine Control Slave section. 
Simply specify the MIDI ports and the MMC Device ID.
Some mixers support the MMC-Master protocol for con-
trolling external devices, including Tascam DM-24, Yamaha 
DM2000 and SSL. This means that Cubase can be used 
as a “recorder”, where track arming and transport com-
mands can be sent from the master device. In addition, 
some digital audio workstations (DAWs) can only operate 
in MMC-Master mode. 
Sync Options
The following Sync options are available in the Project 
Synchronization Setup dialog:
Lock Frames
Using this field you can set how many frames of “correct” 
timecode Cubase should receive before attempting to 
“lock” (synchronize) to incoming timecode. If you have an 
external tape transport with a very short start-up time, you 
could try lowering this number to make lock-up even faster 
than it already is.
Drop Out Frames
On an analog tape with timecode, dropouts may occur. If 
a drop-out is very long, Cubase may (temporarily) stop. In 
the Dropout Frames field you can set how long a drop-out 
(in frames) should be tolerated until Cubase decides that 
the tape isnt good enough to synchronize to. If you have a 
very stable timecode source, you may lower this number 
to make Cubase stop more swiftly after the tape recorder 
has been stopped.
Inhibit Restart
Some synchronizers will still transmit MIDI Time Code for 
a short period after an external tape machine has been 
stopped. These extra frames of timecode can sometimes 
cause Cubase to restart suddenly. Inhibit Restart allows 
you to control the amount of time in milliseconds that Cu-
base will wait to restart (ignoring incoming MTC) once it 
has stopped.
Working with VST System Link
VST System Link is a network system for digital audio that 
allows you to have several computers working together in 
one large system. Unlike conventional networks it does not 
require Ethernet cards, hubs, or CAT-5 cables; instead it 
uses the kind of digital audio hardware and cables you 
probably already possess in your studio.
VST System Link has been designed to be simple to set 
up and operate, yet give enormous flexibility and perfor-
mance gains in use. It is capable of linking computers in a 
“ring” network (the System Link signal is passed from one 
machine to the next, and eventually returns to the first ma-
chine). VST System Link can send its networking signal 
over any type of digital audio cable, including S/PDIF, 
ADAT, TDIF, or AES, as long as each computer in the sys-
tem is equipped with a suitable ASIO compatible audio in-
terface.
Linking up two or more computers gives you vast possibil-
ities:
 Dedicate one computer to running VST instruments while re-
cording audio tracks on another.
 If you need lots of audio tracks, you may simply add tracks on 
another computer.
 You could have one computer serve as a “virtual effect rack”, 
running CPU-intensive send effect plug-ins only.
Since you can use VST System Link to connect different 
VST System Link applications on different platforms, you 
can take advantage of effect plug-ins and VST instru-
ments that are specific to certain programs or platforms.
Preparations
Requirements
The following equipment is required for VST System Link 
operation:
Two or more computers.
These can be of the same type or use different operating systems – it 
doesn’t matter. For example, you can link an Intel-based PC to an Apple 
Macintosh without problems.
Each computer must have audio hardware with specific 
ASIO drivers, installed and working. 
						

							432
Synchronization
The audio hardware must have digital inputs and out-
puts.
Of course, to be able to connect the computers, the digital connections 
must be compatible (i.e. the same digital formats and connection types 
must be available).
At least one digital audio cable for each computer in the 
network.
A VST System Link host application installed on each 
computer.
Any VST System Link applications can connect to each other.
Additionally, we recommend that you use a KVM switch-
box:
Using a KVM switchbox
If you want to set up a multi-computer network, or even a 
small network in a limited space, its a good idea to invest 
in a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switchbox. With one 
of these you can use the same keyboard, monitor, and 
mouse to control each computer in the system, and switch 
between computers very rapidly. KVM switchboxes are 
not too expensive, and very easy to set up and operate. If 
you decide not to go this route, the network will function 
just the same, but you may end up doing a lot of jumping 
from one machine to the other while setting up!
Making connections
Below, we assume that you are connecting two comput-
ers. Should you have more than two computers, it’s still 
best to start with two and add the others one by one once 
the system is working – this makes troubleshooting easier 
if you run into problems. For two computers, you will need 
two digital audio cables, one in each direction:
1.Connect a digital audio cable from the digital output of 
computer 1 to the digital input of computer 2.
2.Connect the other cable from the digital output of 
computer 2 into the digital input of computer 1.
If a card has more than one set of inputs and outputs, 
choose whichever one that suits you – for simplicity usu-
ally the first set is best.
Synchronization 
Before you proceed, you need to make sure that the clock 
signals on your ASIO cards are synchronized correctly. 
This is essential when cabling any kind of digital audio 
system, not just VST System Link.
The Clock Mode or Sync Mode is set up in the ASIO con-
trol panel of the audio hardware. In Cubase, you proceed 
as follows:
1.Pull down the Devices menu and open the Device Set-
up dialog.
2.On the VST Audio System page, select your audio in-
terface from the “ASIO Driver” pop-up menu.
In the Devices List, the name of the audio interface is displayed below 
the VST Audio System entry.
3.Select your audio interface in the Devices list to the 
left.
4.Click the Control Panel button.
The ASIO control panel appears.
5.Open the ASIO control panel on the other computer 
as well.
If you are using another VST System Link host application on that com-
puter, check its documentation for details on how to open the ASIO con-
trol panel.
6.Now, you need to make sure that one audio card (and 
only one!) is set to be the Clock Master, and all the other 
cards are set to listen for the clock signal coming from the 
Clock Master i.e. they must be Clock Slaves.
The naming and procedure for this differs depending on the audio hard-
ware – consult its documentation if required. If you are using Steinberg 
Nuendo ASIO hardware, all cards default to the “AutoSync” setting – in 
this case you must set one of the cards (and only one) to “Master” in the 
Clock Mode section of the control panel.
!All digital audio cables by definition always carry a 
clock signal as well as audio signals, so you dont 
have to use a special Word Clock input and output 
for this (although you may find that you get a slightly 
more stable audio system if you do, especially when 
using multiple computers). 
						

							433
Synchronization
Typically, the ASIO control panel for an audio card con-
tains some indication of whether the card receives a proper 
sync signal or not, and the sample rate of that signal.
This is a good indication that you have connected the cards and set up 
clock sync properly. Check your audio hardware’s documentation for de-
tails.
The only exception to this procedure is if you are using an 
external clock – which could be from a digital mixing desk 
or special Word Clock synchronizer for example. If so, you 
must leave all your ASIO cards in Clock Slave or AutoSync 
mode, and make sure that each of them is listening for the 
signal coming from the synchronizer, usually passed 
through your ADAT cables or Word Clock connectors in a 
daisy chain fashion.
VST System Link and latency
The general definition of latency is the amount of time it 
takes any system to respond to whatever messages are 
sent to it. For example, if your system’s latency is high and 
you play VST instruments in real time, you will get a notice-
able delay between when you press a key and when you 
hear the sound of the VST instrument. Nowadays, most 
ASIO-compatible audio cards are capable of operating 
with very low latencies. Also, all VST applications are de-
signed to compensate for latency during playback, making 
the playback timing tight.
However, the latency time of a VST System Link network 
is the total latency of all the ASIO cards in the system 
added together. Therefore it’s extra important to minimize 
the latency times for each computer in the network.
ÖThe latency does not affect the synchronization – its 
always perfectly in time. But it can affect the time it takes 
to send and receive MIDI and audio signals, or make the 
system seem sluggish.
To adjust the latency of a system, you adjust the size of the 
buffers in the ASIO control panel – the lower the buffer 
size, the lower the latency. Its best to keep to fairly low la-
tencies (buffer sizes) if your system can handle it – about 
12 ms or less is usually a good idea.
Setting up your software
Now it’s time to set up your programs. The procedures 
below describe how to set things up in Cubase; if you are 
using another program on the other computer, please re-
fer to its documentation.
Setting the sample rate
The projects in both programs must be set to use the 
same sample rate. Select “Project Setup…” from the 
Project menu and make sure the sample rate is the same 
in both systems.
Streaming digital audio between applications
1.Create input and output busses in both applications 
and route these to the digital inputs and outputs.
The number and configuration of the busses depends on your audio hard-
ware and on your needs. If you have a system with eight digital i/o channels 
(such as an ADAT connection), you could create several stereo or mono 
busses or a surround bus together with a stereo bus, or any combination 
you need. The important thing is that you should have the same configura-
tion in both applications – if you have four stereo output busses on com-
puter 1, you want four stereo input busses on computer 2, etc.
2.Set things up so that computer 1 plays back some au-
dio.
You could for example import an audio file and play this back in Cycle 
mode.
3.In the Inspector or mixer, make sure the playing audio 
channel is routed to one of the digital output busses you 
set up.
4.In computer 2, open the mixer and locate the corre-
sponding digital input bus.
The audio being played back should now “appear” in the program run-
ning on computer 2. You should see the input bus level meters moving.
5.Reverse this procedure so that computer 2 plays back 
and computer 1 “listens”.
Now you have verified that the digital connection works as 
it should.
ÖFrom this point on in this chapter, we refer to the bus-
ses connected to the digital inputs and outputs as “VST 
System Link busses”.
!It’s very important that one and only one card is the 
clock master, otherwise the network cannot function 
correctly. Once you have set this up, all the other 
cards in the network will take their clock signal from 
this card automatically. 
						

							434
Synchronization
Settings for the audio hardware
When you send VST System Link data between comput-
ers, it is important that the digital information isn’t changed 
in any way between the programs. Therefore, you should 
open the control panel (or additional application) for your 
audio hardware and make sure that the following condi-
tions are met:
If there are additional “format settings” for the digital 
ports that you use for VST System Link data, make sure 
these are turned off.
For example, if you are using an S/PDIF connection for VST System Link, 
make sure that “Professional format”, Emphasis and Dithering are turned 
off.
If your audio hardware has a mixer application allowing 
you to adjust the levels of digital inputs and outputs, make 
sure that this mixer is disabled or that the levels for the 
VST System Link channels are set to ± 0 dB.
Similarly, make sure no other forms of DSP (pan, ef-
fects, etc.) are applied to the VST System Link signal.
Notes for Hammerfall DSP users
If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hard-
ware, the Totalmix function allows for extremely complex 
signal routing and mixing in the audio hardware. This can 
in some situations lead to “signal loops” in which case the 
VST System Link won’t work. If you want to make abso-
lutely sure this won’t cause any problems, select the de-
fault or “plain” preset for the Totalmix function.
Activating VST System Link
Before you proceed you need to make sure that VST Sys-
tem Link is set as Timecode Source in the Synchronization 
dialog and that the desired Sync options are activated, 
see “Sync Options” on page 431.
After setting up the inputs and outputs, you now need to 
define which input/output should carry the actual VST 
System Link information.
The System Link networking signal is carried on only one 
bit of one channel. This means that if you have an ADAT 
based system which normally carries eight channels of 
24-bit audio, once you activate VST System Link you will 
have seven channels of 24-bit audio and one channel of 23-bit audio (the least significant bit of this last channel 
will be used for networking). In practice this makes no dis-
cernible difference to the audio quality, since you will still 
have around 138dB headroom on this channel.
To set things up, open the VST System Link panel:
1.Open the Device Setup dialog on the Devices menu.
2.Select VST System Link in the Devices list to the left.
3.Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus 
to define which channel should be the networking channel 
(and thus become a 23-bit audio channel, in our example).
Quite often you will be able to leave these pop-ups the way they are. 
4.Click the Active checkbox at the top of the panel.
5.Repeat the steps above for every computer on the net-
work. 
As the computers are made active, you should see the 
small Transmitting and Receiving indicators flashing on 
each active computer, and the name of each computer 
should appear in the list at the bottom of the pane. Each 
computer is assigned a random number – dont worry 
about this, its just so the network knows internally which 
one is which. 
						

							435
Synchronization
You can double-click on the name in bold (which is the 
name of the computer you’re currently working on) and set 
it to whatever other name you wish.
This name will appear in the System Link window of every computer on 
the network.
ÖIf you dont see the name of each computer appearing 
once you have made it active, you may have to check your 
settings. 
Go through the procedure above again and make sure that all ASIO 
cards are listening to the digital clock signals correctly, and that each 
computer has the correct inputs and outputs assigned to the System 
Link network.
Putting the network online
After each computers name you will see whether it is on-
line or not. When a computer is online, it will receive trans-
port and timecode signals, and its sequencer application 
can be started and stopped by remote control. If it is off-
line, it can only be started from its own keyboard – it is ef-
fectively an independent machine, although it is still on the 
network.
ÖNote that any computer can control any and all of the 
others – VST System Link is a peer-to-peer network and 
there is no absolute “master” computer.
However, most users do like to think of one machine as the master (in a 
one person/two computer network, this would be the machine you actu-
ally sit behind most of the time). 
For now, lets put all computers online:
1.Activate the Online checkbox in the VST System Link 
panel for all computers. 
2.Check that the system is working by pressing Play on 
one computer – all computers should start almost instantly 
and play perfectly in time, with sample-accurate precision.
The Offset setting allows you to adjust whether one ma-
chine will play back slightly ahead or behind the rest.
This is normally not needed, but occasionally with some hardware you 
may find that the lock is a few samples out. In that case you can adjust 
the lock with the Offset value. For now, leave it set to 0 – it will most likely 
be what you want.
The Transfer Bits setting allows you to specify whether 
you want to transfer 24 or 16 bits. This allows you to use 
older audio cards which do not support transfer of 24 bits.VST System Link sends and understands all transport 
commands, so you can play, stop, fast forward, rewind 
etc. the entire network from one computer without a prob-
lem – try it! If you jump to a locator point on one machine, 
all other machines will also instantly jump to that locator 
point. You can even scrub on one computer and have the 
video and audio on another computer actually scrub right 
along with you.
Using MIDI
As well as supplying transport and sync control, VST Sys-
tem Link also supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, each with 16 
channels. You set this up as follows:
1.Use the MIDI Inputs and Outputs value boxes to spec-
ify the number of MIDI ports you need.
The default value is 0 MIDI In and 0 MIDI Out ports.
2.Create a MIDI track in the Project window and open 
the Inspector (top section).
3.If you now pull down the Input or Output Routing pop-
up menus, you will find the specified System Link ports 
added to the list of MIDI Inputs and Outputs.
!Make sure that all computers have their tempos set 
to the same value, otherwise your synchronization 
will be seriously skewed. 
						

							436
Synchronization
This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments 
running on another computer, as described in the applica-
tion examples (see “Using one computer for VST instru-
ments” on page 437).
The “Active ASIO Ports for Data only” setting
If you are sending huge amounts of MIDI data at once, 
there is a small possibility that you might run out of band-
width on your VST System Link network. This will manifest 
itself by notes “choking” or timing becoming erratic.
If this happens, you can devote more bandwidth to MIDI 
by activating “Active ASIO Ports for Data only” in the VST 
System Link Setup panel. When this is activated, the VST 
System Link information will be sent on the entire channel 
instead of just one bit, more than enough for all the MIDI 
you could ever hope to use. The downside is that you can 
no longer use this ASIO channel for audio transfer (do not 
connect it to a speaker!), thus leaving you only 7 channels 
of audio in our ADAT cable example. Depending on how 
you work this might be a reasonable compromise.
Hearing the network audio
If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio 
really isnt an issue – just plug the outputs of each com-
puter into the desired channels on the external mixing 
desk, press Play on one of the computers, and youre 
good to go.
However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the 
computer and just use a desk for monitoring (or maybe not 
use any external mixer at all). In this case youll need to se-
lect one computer to be your “main mix computer” and 
send the audio from your other computers into this.
In the following example, we assume you are using two 
computers, with computer 1 as your main mix computer 
and computer 2 running two additional stereo audio 
tracks, an FX channel track with a reverb plug-in and a 
VST instrument plug-in with stereo outputs.
1.First you want to set things up so that you can listen to 
the audio playback from computer 1.
In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e.g. an analog stereo 
output, connected to your monitoring equipment.
2.Go to computer 2 and route each of the two audio 
tracks to a separate output bus.
These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call 
them Bus 1 and 2.
3.Route the FX channel track to another VST System 
Link bus (Bus 3).
4.Route the VST instrument channel to yet another bus 
(Bus 4).
5.Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding 
four VST System Link input busses.
If you start playback on computer 2, the audio should “appear” on the in-
put busses on computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you 
need actual mixer channels:
6.Add four new stereo audio tracks on computer 1 and 
route these to the output bus you use for listening, e.g. to 
the analog stereo outputs.
7.For each of the audio tracks, select one of the four in-
put busses.
Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on 
computer 1.
8.Activate monitoring for the four tracks.
If you now start playback, the audio from computer 2 will 
be sent “live” to the new tracks on computer 1, allowing 
you to hear them together with any tracks you play back 
on computer 1.
For more information about Monitoring, see “About moni-
toring” on page 20.
Adding more tracks
OK, but if you have more audio tracks than you have VST 
System Link busses (physical outputs)? Then you just use 
the computer 2 mixer as a submixer: Route several audio 
channels to the same output bus and adjust the output 
bus level if needed.
Note also that if your audio cards have multiple sets of in-
put and output connections you can link up e.g. multiple 
ADAT cables and send audio via any of the busses on any 
of the cables.
Internal mixing and latency
One problem with mixing inside the computer is the la-
tency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST engine always 
compensates for record latencies, but if you are monitor-
ing through computer 1 you will hear a processing delay 
while you listen to signals coming from your other comput-
ers (not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 
1 supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you should definitely 
turn this on – youll find the setting in the VST Audio Sys- 
						

							437
Synchronization
tem Device Setup panel (see “ASIO Direct Monitoring” on 
page 73). Most modern ASIO cards support this function. 
If yours doesnt you may want to change the Offset value 
in the VST System Link Setup panel to compensate for 
any latency issues.
Setting up a larger network
This is not much more difficult than a two computer net-
work. The main thing to remember is that VST System Link 
is a daisy chain system. In other words, the output of com-
puter 1 goes to the input of computer 2, the output of 
computer 2 goes to the input of computer 3, and so on 
around the chain. The output of the last computer in the 
chain must always go back into the input of computer 1, to 
complete the ring.
Once youve done this, the transmission of all the trans-
port, sync, and MIDI information to the whole network is 
handled pretty much automatically. However, where you 
may run into confusion in a large network is in the trans-
mission of audio signals back to a central mix computer.
If you have lots of hardware inputs and outputs on your 
ASIO cards you dont need to send audio via the chain at 
all, but can transmit it directly to the master mix computer 
via one or more of its other hardware Inputs. For example, if 
you have a Nuendo Digiset interface or 9652 card on com-
puter 1 you could use ADAT cable 1 for networking, ADAT 
cable 2 as a direct audio input from computer 2, and ADAT 
cable 3 as a direct audio input from computer 3.
You can also transmit audio via the ring system if you dont 
have enough hardware I/Os for direct audio transmission. 
For example, in a four computer scenario you could send 
audio from computer 2 into a channel in the mixer in com-
puter 3, and from there to a channel in the mixer in com-
puter 4, and from there back to the master mixer in 
computer 1. This can certainly be tricky to set up, so gen-
erally it is recommended that if you want to set up a com-
plex network, you should make sure to use ASIO cards 
with at least three separate digital I/Os. 
Application examples
Using one computer for VST instruments
In this example, one computer will be used as main record 
and playback machine, and another computer as a virtual 
synth rack.
1.Record a MIDI track into computer 1.
2.Once you have finished recording, route the MIDI out-
put of that track to System Link MIDI port 1.
3.Now go to computer 2, open up the VST Instrument 
rack and assign an instrument to the first slot in the rack.
4.Route the VST Instrument channel to the desired out-
put bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be 
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5.Create a new MIDI track in the Project window of 
computer 2, and assign the MIDI output of the track to the 
VST Instrument you created. 
6.Assign the MIDI input of the track to be VST System 
Link port 1.
Now, the MIDI track on computer 1 is routed to the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, which in turn is routed to the VST Instrument.
7.Now activate monitoring for the MIDI track on com-
puter 2, so that it will listen and respond to any MIDI com-
mands coming in.
In Cubase, you would click the monitor button in the Track list or Inspec-
tor.
8.Press play on computer 1.
It will now send the MIDI information on the track to the VST Instrument 
loaded on computer 2.
Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a 
whole bunch of extra VST Instruments this way, expanding 
your sound palette considerably. Dont forget that VST 
System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has 
much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever 
invented! 
						

							438
Synchronization
Creating a virtual effect rack
The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can ei-
ther be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated 
Group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate 
computer as a “virtual effect rack”, by setting things up in 
the following way:
1.Go to computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect 
rack) and add a new stereo audio track.
You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must 
have an audio input.
2.Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track.
Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in.
3.In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link 
busses as input for the audio track.
You want to use a separate System Link bus, which will only be used for 
this purpose.
4.Route the channel to the desired output bus.
If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be 
one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.
5.Activate monitoring for the track.
6.Now, go back to computer 1 and select a track to 
which you want to add some reverb.
7.Bring up the effect sends for the track, in the Inspector 
or the mixer.
8.Pull down the send routing pop-up menu for one of 
the sends, and select the VST System Link bus assigned 
to the reverb in step 3.
9.Use the send slider to adjust the amount of effect as 
usual.
The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and pro-
cessed through its insert effect, without using any proces-
sor power on computer 1.
You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the 
“virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this 
way is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST 
System Link connection (and of course by the perfor-
mance of computer 2, but given that it won’t have to han-
dle any recording or playback, you should be able to use 
quite a lot of effects).
Getting extra audio tracks
All computers on a VST System Link network are locked 
with sample-accuracy. Therefore, if you find that the hard 
drive on one computer isn’t fast enough to run as many 
audio tracks as you need, you can record new tracks on 
one of the other computers instead. This would create a 
“virtual RAID system”, with several disks all operating to-
gether. All tracks will remain locked together just as tightly 
as if they were all running on the same machine. This 
means that you effectively have an unlimited track count! 
Need another 100 tracks? Just add another computer. 
						

							35
Video 
						

							440
Video
Background
Cubase plays back video films in a number of formats. 
Under Windows, video playback can be done using one 
of three playback engines: Video for Windows, Direct-
Show or QuickTime 7.1. This ensures compatibility with 
as wide a range of video files as possible. The following 
file formats are supported: AVI, Windows Media Video 
(Cubase only: you can also import files in Windows Media 
Video Pro format), QuickTime and MPEG.
Under Mac OS X, QuickTime is always used as playback 
engine. QuickTime supports the following video file for-
mats: AVI, MPEG, QuickTime and DV.
There are two ways to play back video:
Without any special hardware.
While this will be fine in many situations it does put a limit on the size of 
the video window 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.
You can play back DV video. QuickTime is used for playback.
Windows: Multi-head graphics cards that support overlay functionality 
can be used to display the video picture on an external monitor. The fol-
lowing manufacturers have working (and tested) solutions available: 
nVIDIA and Matrox.
Before you start
When working on a project involving a video file, there are 
several points to bear in mind:
Have you selected the right player? (Windows 
only)
The player is used not only for playback of the video file, 
but also to provide file information in the Pool and in the 
Import Video dialog. Therefore, to make sure that you have 
chosen the right player for a particular type of video file, 
check the file information displayed in the Import Video 
dialog or the Pool prior to trying to import or playing back 
the file.When this information reads “0x0 pixel”, “0.000 s” and “0 
Frames”, the video file is either corrupt, or the format is not 
supported by the codecs available to the selected video 
player. You will either have to change the video player, or 
install the required codec.
Editing a video file
Video clips are played back by events just as audio clips 
are. You can use all the basic editing operations on video 
events, just as with audio events. The following operations 
are not possible on the video track:
Drawing, Gluing, and Scrubbing.
Note that when you activate the Mute button for a video track, the video 
playback will be stopped, but playback of any other Project events will 
continue. See below.
The video track has no editor and does not make use of 
parts.
Cubase allows you to cut, copy, paste and trim video 
events, i. e. your video track may contain more than one 
video event. However, when using the DirectShow video 
player (Windows only), you may find that only the first event 
on the video track is played back correctly. In such a case 
make sure that the video track contains no more than one 
video event.
Under Windows, you may find that you are unable to 
edit a video file copied from a CD. This is because files 
copied from CD are write protected by default. Right-click 
the file, and deactivate the “Read-Only” option in the File 
Properties dialog.
When you have a video file in a format not supported by 
Cubase, use an external application to convert the file to a 
format that Cubase can import.
!Trying to import or play back a file not supported by 
the selected video player leads to unpredictable re-
sults – if no information on the number of frames, the 
length and the pixel resolution is available in the Im-
port Video dialog, the Pool or the MediaBay, you 
cannot import/play this file properly with this particu-
lar video player.
!You can change the video player in the Device Setup 
dialog. After having done so, make sure to remove 
any previously imported video file from the Pool first, 
and re-import it.