Steinberg Cubase Studio 5.5 New Features Manual
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21 The MediaBay The Define Locations section When you open the MediaBay for the first time, a scan for media files is performed on your system. You specify which folders or directories you want to be included in the scan by activating/deactivating the checkboxes for the folders in the Define Locations section. Depending on the amount of me- dia files on your computer, the scan may take a while. All files that are found in the specified folders are shown in the Results list. •To include a folder in the scan, activate its checkbox. •To exclude a folder from the scan, deactivate its check- box. •To restrict the search to individual subfolders, activate/ deactivate their checkboxes. The color of the checkmark helps you to identify which folders and subfolders are scanned: • A white checkmark indicates that all subfolders are scanned. • An orange checkmark indicates that at least one subfolder is excluded from the scan. •To revert to scanning a complete folder (including all subfolders), click on an orange checkmark. The checkmark becomes white, to indicate that all folders are scanned. The scanning status for the individual folders themselves is indicated by the color of the folder icons: • A red icon means that the folder is currently being scanned. • A light blue icon means the folder has been scanned. • A dark blue icon is displayed for folders which are excluded from the scan. • An orange icon is displayed when the scanning process for the folder was interrupted. • A yellow icon is displayed for folders that have not yet been scanned. The scan result is saved in a database file. When you de- activate the checkbox for a folder that has already been scanned, a message appears, allowing you to keep the gathered scan data in this database file or to completely remove the data for this folder from the database file. Se- lect Keep if you want to keep the database entries, but want to exclude the folder from being scanned (when you trigger a re-scan for example). Select Remove if you do not want to use the contents of this folder in your projects. •When you activate the “Please, don’t ask again” option, no further warning messages will be shown when you de- activate other checkboxes, for as long as the program is running. When you quit and re-launch Cubase Studio, these warning messages will be displayed again. The VST Sound node The Define Locations section provides a shortcut to user content and factory content files, including the preset folders: the VST Sound node. •The folders below the VST Sound node represent the directories in which content files and track presets, VST presets, etc. are stored by default. To find out the “true” location of a file, right-click on it in the Results list and select “Open in Explorer” (Win)/“Reveal in Finder” (Mac). This will open an Explorer/Finder window in which the corresponding file is high- lighted. Please note that this function is not available for files which are part of a VST Sound archive.Some subfolders of this folder are excluded from the scan. All subfolders of this folder are included in the scan.
22 The MediaBay Updating the display You can update the display in two ways: by rescanning or by refreshing. Rescanning When you click the Rescan button, the selected folder is rescanned. If a folder contains a large number of media files, the scanning process may take some time. Use this function if you have made changes to the content of spe- cific media folders and want to scan these folders again. ÖYou can also rescan the selected folder by right-click- ing on it and selecting Rescan Disk from the context menu. Refreshing In addition to the Rescan Disk option, the context menu for the selected node or folder in the Define Locations section also contains a Refresh Views option. This refreshes the display for this location without rescanning the correspond- ing media files. This is useful in the following situations: •When you have mapped a new network drive, for exam- ple, and want this to appear as a node in the Define Loca- tions section. Simply select the Refresh Views option for the parent node and the new drive will appear in the De- fine Locations section (ready to be scanned for media files). Defining Locations When you have set up the Define Locations section ac- cording to your preferences, and the content is scanned, it is time to make it available in a meaningful way. For this, you can define locations, i. e. shortcuts to the folders you want to work with, that will be available from the Locations section for convenient access. To define a location, proceed as follows: 1.In the list to the left, select the desired folder. 2.Click the Add button. A naming dialog for the new location is displayed. 3.Accept the default name or enter a new name. 4.Click OK. The new location is added to the Locations pop-up menu in the Loca- tions section (see below). 5.Repeat these steps to add as many locations as you need. Once you have set up your locations, you can hide the Define Locations section from view (see “Setting up the MediaBay window” on page 20), to save screen space. ÖSome Location presets are available by default. These are: “All Media” (the topmost node in the Define Locations section), “Local Harddisks” (the local harddisks in your computer system) and “VST Sound” (the folder in which Steinberg sound files, loops and presets are stored by default). The Locations section When you open the Locations pop-up menu and select a location, the media files found in that location are shown in the Results list. By switching between the locations you defined, you can quickly browse to the files you are look- ing for. •To change the browse location, simply select another location from the pop-up menu. If the available Locations don’t yield the desired results or if the folder you want to scan for files is not part of any of the locations, define a new Location in the Define Locations section. •To select the previous or next folder in a sequence of selected folders, use the “Previous/Next Browse Location” buttons. These paths will be deleted when you close the MediaBay. •To select the parent folder of the selected folder, click the “Browse Containing Folder” button. •To remove a location from the pop-up menu, select it and click the “Remove Browse Location Definition” button. Previous/Next Browse LocationBrowse Containing FolderClick here to open the pop-up menu and select the desired Location. Remove Browse Location Definition Deep Results
23 The MediaBay •To show the files contained in the selected folder and any subfolders (without showing these subfolders), acti- vate the Deep Results button. When this button is deactivated, only the folders and files contained in the selected folder are shown. The Results list The Results list is at the heart of the MediaBay. Here, you will find all the files found in the selected location. As the number of files displayed can be huge (the info field in the top right corner of the Results section shows the number of files found with the current filter settings), you might want to use any of the filter and search options in the MediaBay to narrow down the list. The available op- tions are described below. ÖThe maximum number of files that are displayed in the Results list can be set by specifying a new value for “Max- imum Items in Results list” in the Preferences (see “Prefer- ences” on page 30). Filtering according to media type The Results list can be set to display only a particular me- dia type or a combination of media types. •Click in the field where the currently displayed media types are shown (by default “All Media Types”) to open the Show Media Types dialog. Here, you can activate the media types you want to be displayed in the Results list. When you have filtered the list to show a particular media type, this is indicated by the corresponding icon to the left of media type field. When you have selected several media types, the Mixed Media Type icon is used. The media types In the “Show Media Types” dialog, you can activate the media types you want to be displayed in the Results list. The following types are available: Option Description Audio Files When this is activated, the list shows all audio files. The supported formats are .wav, .aiff, .aifc, .rex, .rx2, .mp3, .mp2, .ogg, .sd2, .wma (Windows only). MIDI Files When this is activated, the list shows all MIDI files (file name extension .mid). MIDI Loops When this is activated, the list shows all MIDI loops (file name extension .midiloop). Pattern Banks When this is activated, the list shows all pattern banks (file name extension .patternbank). Pattern banks are generated by the MIDI plug-in Beat De- signer. For more information, see “Previewing pat- tern banks” on page 27 and the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. Track Presets When this is activated, the list shows all track pre- sets for audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks (file name extension .trackpreset). Track presets are a combination of track settings, effects and mixer set- tings that can be applied to new tracks of various types. For more information, see the chapter “Work- ing with track presets” in the Operation Manual. Select this option to display all types. Here, the last four media type selections you made are listed. The media types you activate here are shown in the Results list.
24 The MediaBay Setting up the Results list columns For each media type, or for combinations of media types, you can specify the attribute columns that are displayed in the Results list. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the media type (or combination of media types) that you want to make settings for. 2.Click the “Set up Result Columns” button and activate or deactivate the options on the submenus. Activate the attributes that you want to be displayed in the Results list. ÖIf you want to see none of the attributes of a certain category, choose the “Select None” option on the corre- sponding submenu. Performing a text search You can limit the number of results in the Results list using the text search function. When you enter text in the Text Search field, only media files whose attributes match the entered text will be displayed. For example, if you are looking for all audio loops relating to drum sounds, simply enter “drum” in the search field. The search results will contain loops with names such as “Drums 01”, “Drumloop”, “Snare Drum”, etc. Also, all me- dia files with the Category attribute Drum&Percussion, or any other attribute that contains “drum” will be found. When you enter text in the field, its background becomes red, to indicate that a text filter is active for the list. To re- set the text filter, delete the text. Boolean text search You can also perform advanced searches, using boolean operators or wildcards. The following elements can be used: Plug-in Presets When this is activated, the list shows all VST pre- sets for instrument and effect plug-ins. These pre- sets contain all parameter settings for a particular plug-in. They can be used to apply sounds to in- strument tracks and effects to audio tracks. For more information, see the chapter “Working with track presets” in the Operation Manual. Video Files When this is activated, the list shows all video files. Projects When this is activated, the list shows all project files (from Cubase, Nuendo, Sequel): .cpr, .npr, .steinberg-project. Option Description Click here to open the pop-up menu. Option Description And [+] [a and b] – When entering strings separated by “and” (or a plus sign), all files are found that contain both a and b. [And] is the default setting when no boolean operator is used, i. e. you can also enter [a b]. Or [,] [a or b] – When entering strings separated by “or” (or a comma), files are found that contain either a or b, or both. Not [-] [not b] – When entering text preceded by “not” (or a mi- nus sign), all files not containing b will be found. Parentheses [( )][(a or b) + c] – Using parentheses, you can group text strings. In this example, files are found that contain c and either a or b. Quotation marks [“ ”][“example text”] – With quotation marks, you can define sequences of several words. Files are found if they con- tain this sequence of words. !When you are searching for files whose name con- tains a hyphen, put the search text in quotation marks, because otherwise the program will treat the hyphen as the boolean operator “not”.
25 The MediaBay The rating slider Using the rating slider above the Results list, you can specify rating settings for your files, ranging from 1 to 5. This makes it possible to exclude certain files from the search according to their quality. When you move the rating slider, the active rating filter is indicated in red. All files of this rating are displayed in the list. The search in progress indicator At the top right in the Results list you will find an indicator which shows whether the MediaBay is currently searching for files. Resetting the list When you have set up filters for the Results list, you can set everything back to default by clicking the Reset Re- sults Filter button to the right of the Rating slider. This will delete any text in the text search field, set the rat- ing slider to display all files and deactivate all the media type filters. Inserting the files into the project You can insert files into the project by right-clicking on them and selecting one of the “Insert into project” options from the context menu, or you can double-click them. What happens next depends on the track type: Audio files, MIDI loops, and MIDI files can be inserted into the project by double-clicking them in the Results list. They will be inserted on the active track, if this matches the file type or onto a new track if no corresponding track is active. The files will be inserted at the current project cursor posi- tion.Similarly, if you double-click on a track preset, it will be ap- plied to the active track, if the track type matches the track preset. Otherwise, a new track will be inserted, containing the settings of the track preset. If you double-click a VST preset, an instrument track is added to the project, containing an instance of the corre- sponding instrument. For some VST presets, this will load the entire instrument settings, programs, etc. For others, only one program will be loaded, see “Applying instrument presets” on page 32. When you double-click on a pattern bank, a new MIDI track is created in the Project window, with an instance of the Beat Designer plug-in as insert effect which is using this pattern. Managing files in the Results list •You can move/copy a file from the Results list to an- other location by clicking on it and dragging it to another folder in the Define Locations section. You will be asked whether you want to copy or move the file to the new location. •You can change the display order in the Results list by clicking on a column heading, and dragging that heading to another position in the display. •To delete a file, right-click it in the list and select Delete from the context menu. A warning message is displayed, asking you to confirm that you really want to move this file to the operating system’s trash folder. The data you delete here will be permanently deleted from your computer, therefore be sure to delete only the files you do not want to use any more. With this setting, only files with a rating of at least 2 are displayed. When this indicator is shown, a media search is in progress. !When a file was deleted in the Explorer/Finder, it will still be displayed in the Results list, although it is no longer available to the program. To remedy this, you have to re-scan the corresponding folder.
26 The MediaBay Previewing files When you have sufficiently narrowed down the list of files, you will want to preview individual files to find out which one to use in your project. This is done in the Previewer section. Note that some MediaBay-specific Preferences affect the playback of media files, see “Preferences” on page 30. The elements visible in this section and their functions depend on the type of media file. Previewing audio files To preview an audio file, click the Play button. What hap- pens next depends on the following settings: •When “Auto Play New Results Selection” is activated, any file you select in the Results list is automatically played back. •When “Align Beats to Project” is activated, the file you selected for preview in the Results list is played back in sync with the project, starting at the project cursor posi- tion. Note that this may apply realtime time stretching to your audio file. When you import an audio file into your project for which “Align Beats to Project” is activated in the Previewer, Musical mode is automatically ac- tivated for the corresponding track. •When “Wait for Project Play” is activated, the Play and Stop functions from the Transport panel are synchronized with the Play and Stop buttons in the Previewer section. This option is very useful for previewing audio loops. To use it to its full extent, set the left locator at the beginning of a bar, then start playing back the project using the Transport panel. The loops that you now se- lect in the Results list will start together with the project in perfect sync. Play and Stop of the Previewer transport can still be used if needed. Previewing MIDI files To preview a MIDI file (.mid), you first have to select an output device from the Output pop-up menu. •“Auto Play New Results Selection” and “Align Beats to Project” work as for audio files, see above. When working with long MIDI files, you can click in the timeline to jump to a specific position in the file. Previewing MIDI loops To preview a MIDI loop file, click the Play button. •“Auto Play New Results Selection” works as for audio files, see above. MIDI loops are always played back in sync to the project. Previewing VST presets and track presets for MIDI and instrument tracks ÖTrack presets for audio tracks can only be previewed in the Presets browser (see the chapter “Working with Track Presets” in the Operation Manual). Track presets for MIDI or instrument tracks and VST pre- sets require MIDI notes for previewing. These notes can be sent to the track preset in the following way: • Via MIDI Input • Using a MIDI file • Using the Memo Recorder • Via the computer keyboard !The Previewer section is not available for video files, project files, and audio track presets. Preview level Transport controlsAuto Play New Results SelectionAlign Beats to Project Wait for Project Play OutputTransport controls Computer keyboard inputSequence Mode pop-up menuTransport controlsPreview Level fader
27 The MediaBay These methods will be described in the following sections. Previewing presets via MIDI Input MIDI input is always active, i. e. when a MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer (and set up properly), you can directly start playing the notes to preview the selected preset. Previewing presets using a MIDI file Proceed as follows: 1.On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select “Load MIDI File”. 2.In the file dialog that opens, navigate to the desired MIDI file, and click Open. The name of the MIDI file is displayed on the pop-up menu. 3.Click the Play button to the left of the pop-up menu. The notes received from the MIDI file are now played back with the settings of the track preset applied. ÖThe recently used MIDI files are kept on the menu, for quick access. To remove an entry from this list, select it on the menu and then select “Remove MIDI File”. Previewing presets using the Memo Recorder The Memo Recorder function continually repeats a given sequence of notes as a loop. To use the Memo Recorder, proceed as follows: 1.On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select Memo Recorder. 2.Enter the notes via the MIDI or computer keyboard. The Play button is automatically activated and you will instantly hear the notes you play with the preset settings applied. •When you stop playing notes and wait for 2 seconds, the note sequence you played until this moment will be played back in a continuous loop. To use another sequence, simply start entering notes again. ÖYou cannot use the Memo Recorder when previewing presets using a MIDI file. Previewing presets via the computer keyboard Proceed as follows: 1.Activate the “Computer Keyboard Input” button. The keyboard display in the Previewer section works in the same way as the Virtual Keyboard, see the chapter “Play- back and the Transport panel” in the Operation Manual. 2.Enter the notes via the corresponding keys on the computer keyboard. Previewing pattern banks Pattern banks containing drum patterns can be created with the MIDI plug-in Beat Designer. Detailed information on the Beat Designer and its functions can be found in the chapter “MIDI effects” in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. One pattern bank contains 4 sub- banks which in turn contain 12 patterns each. In the Pre- viewer section for a pattern bank file, a keyboard-style display allows you to select a subbank (click on a number at the top) and a pattern (click on a key). •To preview a pattern, select the pattern bank in the Re- sults list. In the Previewer section, choose a subbank and pattern. Then click the Play button. Note that subbanks can contain empty patterns. Selecting an empty pat- tern in the Previewer section will have no effect. Patterns containing data are indicated by a circle in the upper part of the key in the display. !When you activate the “Computer Keyboard Input” button, the computer keyboard is used exclusively for the Previewer sections, i. e. the usual key commands are blocked. The only exceptions are: [Ctrl]/[Command]-[S] (Save), Num [*] (Start/Stop Record), [Space] (Start/Stop Playback), Num [1] (Jump to left locator), [Delete] or [Backspace] (Delete), Num [/] (Cycle on/off), and [F2] (Show/ Hide Transport panel). Transport controlsPreview levelAuto Play New Results Selection
28 The MediaBay •“Auto Play New Results Selection” works as for audio files, see above. The Filters section With the MediaBay, you can perform very refined file searches. Applying an attribute filter The MediaBay allows you not only to view and edit some of the standard file attributes found in all computer files, but it also provides preconfigured attributes, or “tags”, that you can use to organize your media files. The Filters section displays all values found for a specific attribute. Selecting one of these values will result in a list of files all showing this particular attribute value. For example, you could look for sample rates and pick 44.1 kHz to give you a list of all files with that particular sample rate. The advantages of the use of attributes become obvious when having to find a specific file in a large database, without knowing the name of that file. The Filters section always shows attribute columns, each with its own list of attribute values. If the columns are wide enough, the number of files that match this criteria is dis- played to the right of the filter name. You define an Attribute filter by clicking on the values in an attribute column: only the files that match the selected at- tribute values are then shown in the Results list. Select more attribute values from other columns to further refine your filter.•Selected attribute values in the same column form an OR condition. This means that files must be tagged according to either one or the other attribute value to be displayed in the Results list. ÖNote that this is not true for the Character attribute, which always forms an AND condition, see below. •Attribute values in different columns form an AND con- dition. This means that files must be tagged according to all these attribute val- ues to be shown in the Results list. Assigning attribute values to your files makes it easy to organize the media files Further options for Attribute searches •You can change which attribute type is displayed in each column by clicking on the column title and selecting another attribute from the context menu. •You can select an attribute value, by clicking on it. To deselect it, click the value again. Note that you can select more than one value in each attribute column. •You can clear all settings in the attribute columns by clicking the Reset Filter button at the top right of the Fil- ters section. Clicking this button also resets the Results list. !Some attributes are directly linked to each other (e. g. for each Category value, there are certain Sub Cate- gory values available). Changing the value in one of these attribute column will give you different values in the other column! !Each attribute column displays only the attribute val- ues found in the currently selected location! This means that selecting another location may lead to the display of different attributes.
29 The MediaBay Editing Attributes Editing attributes in the Results list Attributes can be edited directly in the Results list. This al- lows you, for example, to assign tags to a library of loop files. Proceed as follows: 1.In the Results list, select the file(s) for which you want to change an attribute value. 2.Click in the column for the tag value you want to assign. Depending on the attribute type, a pop-up menu with tag values organized in submenus will show or, in the case of numeric values, you will be able to enter the value directly into the corresponding field. 3.Choose values from the pop-up menus and/or enter the desired numeric values. Editing the attributes of multiple files simultaneously There is no limit as to how many files can be tagged at the same time, but you need to be aware that the tagging of a large amount of files in one go may take quite a while. This operation is executed in the background, so that you can continue with your work as usual. By looking at the At- tribute Counter above the Results list, you can see how many files still have to be updated. •If you close Cubase Studio before the Attribute Counter has gone down to zero, a dialog with a progress bar is dis- played, indicating how long the updating process will take. You can choose to abort this process. In this case only the files that were updated before you clicked “Abort” will have the new attribute values. Editing the attributes of write-protected files Media files may be write-protected due to a number of rea- sons: They may belong to content that was provided by someone else who write-protected the files, you may have write-protected them yourself in order not to overwrite them accidentally, or the file format could restrict write operations by the MediaBay.In the MediaBay, the write protection status of files is shown in the Write Protection column in the Results list. However, there may be cases when you want to define at- tributes for write-protected files. For example, you might want to apply attributes to the content files that came with Cubase Studio or you are working on the same files with several people and cannot modify these files. In these scenarios, you still want to be able to find files quickly and improve your workflow. Therefore, it is possible to change the attribute values of write-protected files in the MediaBay. These changes are not written to disk though and occur in the MediaBay only. •When you specify attribute values for a file that is write- protected, this is reflected in the Pending Tags column next to the Write Protection column in the Results list. Note that if you rescan the MediaBay content and a media file on your hard disk has changed since the last scan, all pending tags for this file will be lost. •If a file has pending tags, and you want to write the cor- responding attributes to the file, you need to remove the write protection first, and then select the “Write Tags to File” command from the context menu. •You can change the write-protection status of your me- dia files, provided that the file type allows write operations and you have the necessary operation system permis- sions: To set or remove the write protection attribute for a file, simply select the file in the Results list and select “Set/Remove Write Protection” from the context menu. ÖIf you use other programs than Cubase Studio to change the write-protection status of a file, this will not be reflected in the MediaBay until you rescan the files!
30 The MediaBay The Loop Browser and Sound Browser windows The Loop Browser and Sound Browser items on the Me- dia menu open two different “views” of the MediaBay. The Loop Browser is preconfigured for quickly browsing your “loops”, i. e. audio files, MIDI loops, and pattern banks. The default browse location is the VST Sound node. Similarly, the Sound Browser is set up for you to be able to quickly search the desired sound, without having to configure the window. By default, it is set to display track presets and plug-in presets. The default browse location is the VST Sound node. The Loop Browser and Sound Browser offer the same functions as the MediaBay, i. e. you can specify different browse locations, define searches, set up the available panes as desired, etc., as described previously in this chapter. Preferences In the Preferences dialog in Cubase Studio, you can find options and settings that control the global behavior of the program. The Preferences dialog contains a special Media- Bay page. These settings are also available from within the MediaBay. To open the Preferences pane for the MediaBay, proceed as follows: 1.Click the MediaBay Preferences button in the lower left corner of the window. •A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a gray area where the available prefer- ences for the Locations section and the Results list are displayed.2.Configure the MediaBay to your liking by activating/ deactivating the options. The following options are available in the Locations sec- tion: The following options are available in the Results section: Option Description Show Managed Locations OnlyActivate this to hide all folders that are not scanned for files. This will keep the tree view in the Define Lo- cations section less cluttered. Use Current Selection as Base LocationActivate this to show only the selected folder and its subfolders. To switch back to the display of all folders, deactivate this option. Scan Folders Only when MediaBay is OpenWhen this is activated, Cubase Studio only scans for media files when the MediaBay window is open. When this is deactivated, the folders are scanned in the background even when the MediaBay window is closed. However, Cubase Studio will never scan fold- ers while playing back or recording. Option Description Maximum Items in Results ListUse this parameter to specify the maximum number of files that are displayed in the Results list. This avoids un- manageably long lists of files. Note that the MediaBay does not warn you if the maxi- mum number of files has been reached and there might be situations where a certain file you were looking for could not be found, because the maximum number of files was reached. Show File Extensions in Results ListWhen this is activated, file name extensions (e. g. .wav or .cpr) are displayed in the Results list.