Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Getting Started Manual

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 9 – 111
Cubase SX
1.Locate your stereo input bus to the left in the mixer window.
2.Right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) somewhere in the Mixer window 
to bring up the Mixer context menu.
3.Select the VU-Meter Settings submenu and make sure “Input VU” is 
activated.
Now the input bus meter displays the signal level coming in to your hardware – note 
that this level cannot be adjusted from within the program!
The input bus.  

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4.Play the audio source that you want to record and check the level 
meter for the input bus.
The signal should be as loud as possible without exceeding 0 dB (the Clipping indica-
tor for the input bus shouldn’t light up).
5.Adjust the output level of your audio source so that the meters go as 
high as possible without going up to 0.0 dB.
Check the numerical peak level indicator below the meter in the bus channel strip. To 
reset the...

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 9 – 113
Cubase SL
In Cubase SL, the input busses are not shown in the mixer. Instead, 
you need to check the level at the channel strip for the track on which 
you are recording:
1.Right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) somewhere in the Mixer window 
to bring up the Mixer context menu.
2.Select the VU-Meter Settings submenu and make sure “Input VU” is 
activated.
In this mode, the level meters show the levels “pre-fader” – that is, unaffected by...

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Making the track ready for recording
1.If the “Record Enable” button next to the fader on the mixer channel 
strip isn’t already red, click on it so that it lights up.
2.Make sure the Transport panel is visible.
If not, pull down the Transport menu and select the “Transport Panel” item at the top.   

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3.The Transport panel contains a lot of options that affect how record-
ing is done – in this example we want most of them to be turned off. 
Check that the following buttons are off (grey or unlit):
4.Click in the ruler (the time scale area above the track in the Project 
window), at the position where you want to start recording.
When you click, the project cursor (the black vertical line) is automatically moved to 
the click position. In...

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1.Pull down the File menu (Win) or Cubase SX/SL menu (Mac) and se-
lect “Preferences…”.
2.In the Preferences dialog, click the VST item to the left.
3.Pull down the Auto Monitoring pop-up menu and make sure “Tape-
machine Style” is selected.
4.Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
5.Bring up the Mixer and locate the channel strip for the audio track.
Since the track is record enabled (the red button is lit) and Cubase SX/SL is in Stop...

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Recording
1.Start recording by clicking the Record button on the Transport panel.
The project cursor will start moving.
2.Play your instrument, etc.
During recording, a rectangle with an audio waveform will appear, covering the recorded 
area. This is the recorded audio event.
3.When you are done, click the Stop button on the Transport panel.
Recording stops and you can see the resulting audio event on the track.
4.If you are done...

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Recording more events
At this point, you may want to continue recording audio, on the same 
track or on a new track.
Recording more on the same track
To record more audio on the same track, move the project cursor to a 
new start position and proceed as when you recorded the first time.
It is possible to record audio events that overlap each other, but only the 
visible events (the events at the top) will be heard when you play back....

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Playing back in a cycle
You could continue starting and stopping playback this way, moving 
the project cursor manually each time. However, if you want to try out 
some mixing features (see the chapter “Tutorial 3: Mixing”), it is more 
convenient to have Cubase SX/SL play back your recorded audio re-
peatedly, over and over again:
1.Click on the recorded audio event to make sure it is selected.
A selected audio event has a red border and...

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