Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Audio Effects And VSTi Manual

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The included effect plug-ins 1 – 71
Envelope Attack The envelope settings in RoomWorks control how the reverb will 
follow the dynamics of the input signal in a fashion similar to a 
noise gate or downward expander. Attack determines how long 
in milliseconds it takes for the reverb to reach full volume after a 
signal peak. This is similar to a predelay but the reverb is ramping 
up instead of starting all at once.
Envelope Release The release determines how long after a signal peak the reverb 
can be heard before being cut off, similar to a gate’s release time.
Mix Determines the blend of dry (unprocessed) signal to wet (pro-
cessed) signal. When using RoomWorks inserted in an FX chan-
nel, you will most likely want to set this to 100% or use the Send 
button.
Send This button defeats the mix parameter, setting the effect to 100% 
wet or affected signal. This button should normally be pressed 
when RoomWorks is being used as a send effect inserted on an 
FX or group channel.
Rotate When active, the perspective of the room is shifted 90°.
Pos The position control is only available for surround configurations. 
With this parameter you can control where the virtual listening po-
sition is within the room. Positive values position the listener closer 
to the front of the room and negative values place the listener to-
wards the rear of the room.
Bal (Balance, only 
available for surround 
channels)Balance controls the relative levels between the forward and rear 
speakers. Positive values favor the front speakers and negative 
values favor the rear speakers. Note that when the Rotate option 
is activated, these relationships will shift 90°. Parameter Description 
						

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Surround plug-ins (Cubase SX only)
This section describes the plug-ins in the “Surround” category.
Mix6To2 (Cubase SX only)
The Mix6To2 effect allows you to control the levels of up to six surround 
channels, and to mix these down to a stereo output. The pop-up menu 
contains a number of speaker arrangement presets that correspond to 
some default surround formats. The Mix6To2 lets you quickly mix down 
your surround mix format to stereo, and to include parts of the surround 
channels in the resulting mix.
•Note that Mix6To2 does not simulate a surround mix or add any psy-
cho-acoustical artifacts to the resulting output – it is simply a mixer. 
Also note that the Mix6To 2 should be placed in one of the post fader 
insert effect slots for the output bus.
Each of the surround channels has the following parameters:
• Two volume faders that govern the levels of the surround bus to the left and 
right side of the (master) bus.
• A Link button that links the two volume faders.
• Two Invert buttons allow you to invert the phase of the left and right side of the 
surround bus.  
						

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The Master bus has the following parameters:
• A Link button that links the two Master faders.
• A Normalize button. If activated, the mixed output will be normalized, i.e. the 
output level will automatically be adjusted so that the loudest signal is as loud 
as possible without clipping.
SurroundDither (Cubase SX only)
SurroundDither is not an “effect” as such. Dithering is a method for 
controlling the noise produced by quantization errors in digital record-
ings. The theory behind this is that during low level passages, only a 
few bits are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantization 
errors and hence distortion. For example, when “truncating bits”, as a 
result of moving from 24- to 16-bit resolution, quantization errors are 
added to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a special kind 
of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of these errors is mini-
mized. The added noise could be perceived as a very low-level hiss 
under exacting listening conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable 
and much preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.  
						

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When should I use SurroundDither?
•Basically anytime you mix down to a lower resolution, either in real-time 
(playback) or with the Export Audio Mixdown function, you should con-
sider dithering.
•Since SurroundDither is capable of dithering up to six channels at the 
same time, it is recommended if you’re using surround channels.
If not, you may want to use the UV22 HR instead, see page 60.
The following options can be set in the SurroundDither control panel:
Dithering Type
There are no hard and fast rules for the following options, it all depends 
on the type of material you are processing. We recommend that you 
experiment and let your ears be the final judge:
Noise Shaping Options (Off, Type 1 - 3)
This parameter alters the character of the noise added when dithering. 
Again, there are no fixed general rules, but you may notice that the 
higher the number selected here, the more the noise is moved out of 
the ear’s most sensitive range, the mid-range.
Ditherbits
This is used to specify the intended bit resolution for the final result. 
•The section has six buttons, one for each channel.
•Above each button there are six corresponding value fields that display 
the bit resolution the files will be converted to. 
Clicking a button several times cycles through the available bit resolution values. 
Option Description
Off No dithering is applied.
Type 1 Try this first, it is the most “all-round” type.
Type 2 This method emphasizes higher frequencies more than Type 1. 
						

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An Example 
Say you have set up a project to record 24-bit files. After completion, 
you want to create a digital 16-bit master for CD burning. Proceed as 
follows:
1.Add SurroundDither to a post fader insert effect slot for the output bus.
I.e. in one of the last two slots.
2.Open the control panel for SurroundDither, and select the Dithering 
and Noise Shaping Type.
3.Set the Ditherbit destination to “16” for all the master mix outputs cur-
rently used, as defined in the VST Connections dialog.
If you are not using Surround channels, this will be Channel 1 and 2.
4.When you now play back the Project, the digital outputs of your audio 
hardware will output the mix with 16-bit resolution, with dithering ap-
plied. 
						

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SurroundPan (Cubase SX only)
The SurroundPan plug-in provides a graphical overview representing 
the speaker arrangement and the sound source, allowing you to dy-
namically position the audio in the surround field.
This plug-in is described in detail in the Operation Manual chapter 
“Surround Sound”.  
						

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Tools
This section describes the plug-ins in the “Tools” category.
SMPTE Generator (Cubase SX only)
This plug-in is not an effect device. It sends out SMPTE time code to 
an audio output, allowing you to synchronize other equipment to Cu-
base SX (provided that the equipment can sync directly to SMPTE 
time code). This can be very useful if you don’t have access to a MIDI-
to-time code converter.
The following items and parameters are available:
•Generate Button
Activate this to make the device generate SMPTE time code. 
•Link Button
This synchronizes the time code output to the Transport time positions. 
When Link is activated, the time code output will exactly match the play position in 
Cubase SX. 
Activating the Generate button makes the device send the SMPTE time code in “free 
run” mode, meaning that it will output continuous time code, independently from the 
transport status in Cubase SX. If you wish to “stripe” a tape with SMPTE, you should 
use this mode.
•Start Time
This sets the time at which the SMPTE Generator starts, when activated in “free run” 
mode (Link button off). To change the Start time, click on a digit and move the mouse 
up or down.  
						

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•Current Time
When Link is on this shows the current position in Cubase SX. If Link is off it shows the 
current time of the SMPTE Generator in “free run” mode. This cannot be set manually.
•Framerate
This defaults to the frame rate set in the Project Setup dialog. If you wish to generate 
time code in another frame rate than the Project is currently set to (for example to 
stripe a tape), you can select another format on the Framerate pop-up (provided that 
“Link” is off). 
Note, however, that for the other device to synchronize correctly with Cubase SX, the 
framerate has to be the same in the Project Setup dialog, the SMPTE Generator and in 
the receiving device.
Example - Synchronizing a device to Cubase SX
Proceed as follows:
1.Connect the SMPTE Generator as an insert effect on an audio channel, 
and route the output of that channel to a separate output.
Make sure that no other insert or send effects are used on the time code channel. You 
should also disable EQ, if this is active.
2.Connect the corresponding output on the audio hardware to the time 
code input on the device you wish to synchronize to Cubase SX.
Make all necessary settings in the other device, so that it is set to synchronize to in-
coming timecode.
3.Adjust the level of the time code if needed, either in Cubase SX or in 
the receiving device.
Activate Generate button (make the device send the SMPTE time code in “free run” 
mode) to test the level.
4.Make sure that the frame rate in the receiving device matches the 
frame rate set in the SMPTE Generator.
5.Activate the Link button.
The SMPTE Generator will now output time code that matches the position of the 
Cubase SX Transport panel.
•Press Play on the Cubase SX Transport panel.
The other device is now synchronized and will follow any position changes set with the 
Cubase SX transport controls. 
						

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The included VST Instruments 
						

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A1 Synthesizer
The A1 is a dual oscillator software synthesizer with the following 
main features:
•The A1 is polyphonic with up to 16 voices. 
•Multimode filter.
Lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch filter types are available.
•PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).
•FM (Frequency Modulation).
•Ring Modulator.
•Built-in stereo chorus/flanger effect.
•The A1 receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).
You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the A1.
•The A1 responds to MIDI Controller messages. 
See page 89.