Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Getting Started Manual

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 5: Editing in the Project window 13 – 171
OK, that’s much better, but there are still things to fix. For example, the 
Wah guitar event ends after one bar, while the other events last two 
bars. Let’s add a copy of the guitar event:
7.Press [Alt]/[Option], click the Wah guitar event and drag it one bar to 
the right.
A copy of the event is created.
Now we have a two-bar, slightly cheesy disco pattern. We could just 
activate Cycle playback and listen to these two bars over and over...

CUBASE SX/SL13 – 172 Tutorial 5: Editing in the Project window
Muting and erasing events
A quick way of adding variation is to remove stuff. We could for exam-
ple let the different instruments appear gradually instead of all at the 
same time:
1.Select the Mute tool from the toolbar.
2.Click on the first two Bass Synth events, and then on the first two 
Hi Strings events.
They are “greyed out” indicating that they’re muted.
3.Start playback from the beginning.
Fine, now the bass appears at bar 3 and the...

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 5: Editing in the Project window 13 – 173
Splitting and resizing events
Well, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all – it may have been 
better with some guitar at the beginning, but maybe with some varia-
tion. Here’s an idea:
1.Pull down the Edit menu and select Undo.
The last deleted guitar event reappears.
2.Select Undo again.
The first guitar event reappears. 
Cubase SX/SL has unlimited undo – you could go back all the way to 
the start of this tutorial by undoing your...

CUBASE SX/SL13 – 174 Tutorial 5: Editing in the Project window
6.Click with the Scissors tool at the fourth beat in the Wah guitar event 
(at the beat just before the start of bar 3).
The event is split in two; one three beat long and another one beat long. If you were to 
play back this section now, you wouldn’t hear any difference, though.
7.Select the Arrow tool again.
8.Drag the first guitar event two beats to the left and play back.
Not too bad, but we could use a little more guitar in the second...

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 5: Editing in the Project window 13 – 175
Adding a fade
The strings in bar 5 appear rather abruptly – they would benefit from 
being faded in. In the Mixing tutorial we created a fade by automating 
a fader – let’s try another method instead:
1.Click on the first Hi Strings event with the Arrow tool.
The event is selected. The blue handles at the top are fade and volume handles.
2.Click at the upper left handle and drag it to the right.
A thin blue line indicates the fade-in.
3.Play...

CUBASE SX/SL13 – 176 Tutorial 5: Editing in the Project window
5.Click one of the buttons to the right below the curve display to get a 
more exponential fade curve.
6.Click OK to close the dialog and play back the section again.
Now we would want the same fade to be applied to the second string 
event. While we could repeat the settings manually, it’s probably eas-
iest to copy the faded event:
7.Remove the second string event by clicking it with the Eraser tool.
8.Select the Arrow tool again, press...

14
Tutorial 6: Using VST
Instruments 

CUBASE SX/SL14 – 178 Tutorial 6: Using VST Instruments
About this tutorial
This tutorial shows you how to set up and use VST Instruments – soft-
ware synthesizers (or other sound sources) that are contained within 
Cubase SX/SL. For detailed descriptions of procedures and the pa-
rameters of the included VST Instruments, see the Operation Manual 
and the separate “Audio Effects and VST instruments” document.
Preparations
Just like the previous chapter, this tutorial is based on an existing file,...

CUBASE SX/SLTutorial 6: Using VST Instruments 14 – 179
The “Tutorial 6” project opens. If you followed the previous tutorial, 
this will look oddly familiar… It’s the same eight-bar “song” that you 
created in tutorial 5, but with three extra tracks.
Activating a VST Instrument
The three tracks at the bottom of the Track list are MIDI tracks, as indi-
cated by the yellow border and the MIDI symbol to the left in the Track 
list. As you can see, one of the tracks is called “MIDI Bass” – our first 
goal in...

CUBASE SX/SL14 – 180 Tutorial 6: Using VST Instruments
2.Click in the first VST Instrument slot.
A pop-up menu appears, listing the included VST Instruments.
3.Select “vb-1” from the Synths submenu.
The VB-1 virtual bass unit is loaded, and its control panel appears.
4.In the control panel, make sure the “power button” in the left corner is 
activated (lit).
There is a mirror of this power button in the VST Instrument slot.
5.You can keep the control panel open or close it – it doesn’t matter, as 
long...