Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Getting Started Manual
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Manual by Anders Nordmark Quality Control: C. Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep- resent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The soft- ware described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Win- dows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2004. All rights reserved.
CUBASE SX/SL 4 Table of Contents 7Introduction 8Welcome 10About the manuals and the Help 14How you can reach us 15Installation and Requirements for Windows 16About this chapter 16Requirements 20Hardware installation 22Installing Cubase SX/SL 27Installation and Requirements for Mac OS X 28About this chapter 28Requirements 31Hardware installation 32Installing Cubase SX/SL 35Setting up your system 36Setting up audio 47Setting up MIDI 51Connecting a synchronizer 52Setting up video 53Optimizing audio perfor- mance 57Basic Cubase SX/SL concepts 58About this chapter 58The project 60Audio terminology 62MIDI terminology 62Video terminology 63Basic Methods 64About this chapter 64Using menus 66Using tools 68Changing values 72Selecting objects 73Zoom and view techniques 76Window handling 79Undo 83Guided Tour 84The main windows in Cubase SX/SL 95Quick start for former Cubase users 96Introduction 97Songs and Arrangements 97Project window vs. Arrange window 98Audio related differences 100MIDI related differences 101General differences 103Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio 104About this tutorial 105Creating a new project 107Preparing to record 117Recording 117Playing back what you just recorded 118Recording more events 119Playing back in a cycle
CUBASE SX/SL Table of Contents 5 121Tutorial 2: Recording and playing back MIDI 122About this tutorial 123Setting up for recording MIDI 126Recording MIDI 126Playing back what you just recorded 127Playing back in a cycle 128Transposing the MIDI track 131Tutorial 3: Mixing 132About this tutorial 132Preparations 134Setting levels 135Setting pan 136Using Mute and Solo 137Adding EQ to an audio channel 141Audio effects 147Automation 149Tutorial 4: Creating a surround mix (Cubase SX only) 150About this tutorial 150Preparations 150Creating a Project 154Creating a surround bus 156Setting up a surround mix 163Exporting to a surround au- dio file 167Tutorial 5: Editing in the Project window 168About this tutorial 168Preparations 169Overview 170Moving and copying events 172Muting and erasing events 173Splitting and resizing events 175Adding a fade 177Tutorial 6: Using VST Instruments 178About this tutorial 178Preparations 179Activating a VST Instrument 181Routing 182Playing back 183Adding another instrument 185Playing a VST Instrument in real time 187Recording 188Making parameter settings 190Automating the changes 191Tutorial 7: Tempo matching audio loops 192About this tutorial 193Setting up 197Activating Musical Mode 201Tutorial 8: Arranging with the play order function 202About this tutorial 203Setting up 204Creating play order parts 207Creating a play order list
CUBASE SX/SL 6 Table of Contents 211Tutorial 9: Editing audio 212About this tutorial 212The Sample Editor 215Processing audio 216Applying an effect plug-in (Cubase SX only) 217Using the Offline Process History dialog 219Tutorial 10: Editing MIDI 220About this tutorial 220Opening the Key Editor 221Drawing events in the Key Editor 222Selecting and moving events 223About quantize 225Editing velocity in the controller display 227Tutorial 11: Customizing 228About this tutorial 229Setting preferences 231Setting up Key Commands 234Changing the look of the toolbar 236Changing the appearance of the program 237Applying track colors 240Creating a template 243Setting up Zoom presets 244Setting up workspaces 247Shortcuts & key commands 248About this chapter 248The default key commands 257Index
CUBASE SX/SL 1 – 8 Introduction Welcome Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Steinberg Cubase SX/SL. The year 2004 marks the twentieth anniversary of Steinberg. Steinberg’s involvement in developing and stimulating growth in the music industry by creating powerful tools for music composition and production has first and foremost been defined by Cubase. Can you think of a better way to celebrate such a remarkable anniversary than to introduce a brand new version of Cubase? Well, here it is: Cubase SX/SL 3 – the most powerful version of Cubase ever! Steinberg’s product management and software development teams have spent an entire year turning an already fantastic product into something even bigger. We have integrated powerful real-time audio time stretching and pitch shifting technologies to facilitate the use of loops and phrases in your arrangements. No more need to calculate tempo or process samples offline. Use your favorite loop libraries and place loop elements in your arrangements without interrupting your creative flow. We have also created the new Play Order Track. It al- lows you to change the arrangement of your song quickly and try dif- ferent versions of a song without having to change the song’s original arrangement itself. Pretty smart – and very intuitive. Furthermore, we have spent quite some time thinking about how we could better inte- grate hardware instruments and processors into the virtual studio world of VST. Yes, we invented the virtual instrument and virtual studio technology, but we never wanted you to abandon your beloved hard- ware instruments and effects entirely. With Cubase SX 3, the seam- less integration of outboard equipment is now possible, using MIDI Device Panels, Studio Connections support and an extremely handy External FX Plug-in. Now you can let your ears decide which instru- ment or effects to use. Most likely, you will soon stop thinking about whether you are using a plug-in or hardware. But these are only a few of the new Cubase SX/SL 3 features. If you are new to Cubase you will find many more unique and powerful tools and features that speed up your workflow and at the same time inspire your creative mind. Making music should be fun. After all, it is fun for us making these tools for you.
CUBASE SX/SL Introduction 1 – 9 Take some time to make yourself familiar with Cubase SX/SL 3. If you are already familiar with Cubase you should check out the tutorials 7 and 8 for a brief introduction to tempo matching using Audio Warp and arranging using the Play Order Track. If this is your first experi- ence with Cubase, we suggest reading this entire manual and going through all the tutorial chapters. They are a very good introduction to Cubase and how to make use of the fundamental tools and functions. If you haven’t registered the product with us online, we strongly rec- ommend doing so. You will have access to our user forums and sup- port pages and you will be able to receive exclusive Steinberg offers for Cubase users only. Of course, we would like to hear how you find working with Cubase. It is your input that allows us to make this pro- duct better with every version. Be part of our worldwide Cubase com- munity, together with thousands of other Cubase users. See you around! The Steinberg Cubase Team
CUBASE SX/SL 1 – 10 Introduction About the manuals and the Help The Cubase SX/SL documentation is divided into several sections, as listed below. Most of the documents are in Adobe Acrobat format (ex- tension “.pdf”) - these can be accessed in the following ways: • You can open the pdf documents from the Help menu in the program. • Under Windows you can also open these documents from the Cubase SX/SL Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu. • Under Mac OS X the pdf documents are located in the folder “/Library/Docu- mentation/Cubase SX/SL 3” or in the Cubase SX/SL program folder under “/Contents/Documentation/”. • To read the pdf documents you need to have the Acrobat Reader appli- cation installed on your computer. An Acrobat installer is provided on the program DVD. The Getting Started book This is the book you are reading now. The Getting Started book covers the following areas: • Computer requirements. • Installation issues. • Setting up your system for audio, MIDI and/or video work. • A guided tour of the main Cubase SX/SL windows. • Tutorials describing the most common procedures for recording, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase SX/SL. • Basic concepts and terminology. • A description of the general methods used when working in Cubase SX/SL. In other words, this book does not go into detail on any Cubase SX/SL windows, functions or procedures. The Getting Started book comes as a printed book but is also available as a pdf document. The Operation Manual The Operation Manual is the main Cubase SX/SL reference docu- mentation, with detailed descriptions of Cubase SX/SL operations, parameters, functions and techniques. You should be familiar with the concepts and methods described in the Getting Started book before moving on to the Operation Manual.