Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Getting Started Manual

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 3: Mixing11 – 141
Audio effects
Cubase SX/SL comes with a large number of audio effect plug-ins 
(VST plug-ins). These can be used as send effects, insert effects or 
for offline processing (Cubase SX only, described in another tutorial 
in this book).
Adding a send effect
Send effects in Cubase SX/SL make use of FX channel tracks – “effect 
return” tracks, each holding one effect plug-in (or several, in series). 
Each audio track has eight different effect sends, which can each be...

CUBASE SX/SL11 – 142 Tutorial 3: Mixing
3.Pull down the Plugin pop-up menu.
The effects included with Cubase SX/SL are organized in subfolders according to the 
effect type. Typical send effects are reverb, delay and other effects where you want to 
add a little bit of effect to the original dry signal.
4.Select “Reverb A” from the Reverb submenu and click OK.
The control panel for the “Reverb A” effect appears. We’ll look closer at the control 
panel in a moment – first take a look at the Track list:
An...

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6.Click the “e” button for the FX channel strip.
The Channel Settings window appears.
The first insert effect slot holds the Reverb A plug-in.
7.OK, let’s look at the control panel for the effect. If it’s obscured by the 
other windows you can click the “e” button for the Reverb A slot twice 
to bring the panel to front.
8.Use the pop-up menu to select the “Large” preset.
9.Since we want to use this as a send effect we don’t want any dry (un-
processed) signal to...

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Setting up a send
1.Go back to the mixer and locate the channel strip for the Strings track.
2.Click the “e” button in the Strings channel strip to open its Channel 
Settings window.
The effect sends are located to the right of the EQ section – currently they are all 
unused (shown as empty slots).
3.Click in the first empty effect send slot and select your FX channel 
from the pop-up menu that appears.
4.Click the power button for the first slot to activate the...

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Adding an insert effect
An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, 
which means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. 
This also means that only one track or channel will use the insert effect 
– unlike send effects, where signals from several channels can all be 
sent to the same effect.
In our tutorial, we will add some chorus to the electric piano track.
1.Click the “e” button in the “E.Piano” channel strip (or use...

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3.Select “Chorus” from the Modulation submenu.
The effect is loaded and automatically activated, and its control panel appears.
4.Play back the project and try selecting different chorus presets.
• In this case we inserted an effect on a mono track – this means the out-
put from the effect will still be in mono.
To get a stereo chorus, we would need to add the chorus as a send effect instead.  

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Automation
All mixer parameters can be automated in Cubase SX/SL. In the final 
example in this chapter, we will do a simple fade in for the electric pi-
ano track, so that it starts inaudible and reaches its full level at bar 9, 
where the strings start:
1.Arrange your windows so that you can see both the events in the 
Project window and the mixer.
This is not strictly necessary but it makes it easier to see where the electric piano starts.
2.Turn off Cycle on the...

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10.Click the R button for the channel.
This activates automation read mode.
11.Play back the project from the start.
You will see your automated fader movement and hear the electric piano fade in.
That concludes this tutorial! If you are happy with the result, you may 
want to save the project under a different name, by selecting “Save 
As...” from the File menu.  

12
Tutorial 4: Creating a surround
mix (Cubase SX only) 

CUBASE SX/SL12 – 150 Tutorial 4: Creating a surround mix (Cubase SX only)
About this tutorial
If you are using Cubase SL, you can skip this chapter and go directly to 
the next tutorial.
This tutorial describes how to set up Cubase SX for work in 5.1 sur-
round format, add some audio files from a library, create a simple sur-
round mix including some mixer automation and finally export this as 
an interleaved multi-channel audio file.
For full descriptions of all the surround features in Cubase SX,...