Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
About this manual 1 – 11 
Other documents
 
Apart from the Operation Manual and the help, the following docu-
ments are included with Cubase SX/SL: 
Getting Started
 
In this book (also available in Adobe Acrobat pdf format) you will find: 
• Requirements, installation and setting up your system.
• Basic concepts and terminology.
• Basic methods – e.g. how to set values, use tools and menus.
• A list of all default key commands.
• A number of tutorials, helping you get started with working in Cubase SX/SL.
 
Audio Effects and VST Instruments
 
In this pdf document you will find: 
• Descriptions of the included VST audio effect plug-ins.
• Descriptions of the included VST Instruments.
 
These descriptions can also be found in the help. 
MIDI Devices and Features
 
In this pdf document you will find: 
• Information on how to set up and manage MIDI devices and device panels in 
Cubase SX/SL.
• Descriptions of the included MIDI effect plug-ins.
• Information on how to edit MIDI System Exclusive messages.
• Information on how to use the Logical Editor and Input Transformer.
 
Remote Control Devices
 
This pdf document lists the supported MIDI remote control devices 
and describes how to set up and use them with Cubase SX/SL. 
Score Layout and Printing (Cubase SX only)
 
This pdf document describes the advanced score editing features in 
Cubase SX. For information about the basic score editor included in 
Cubase SL, see page 594. 
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
1 – 12 About this manual 
Using Cubase SX/SL with DSP Factory (Windows only)
 
In this pdf document you will find detailed information about Cubase 
SX/SL’s implementation for the Yamaha DSP Factory audio card. 
All pdf documents can be opened from the Help menu in the program, 
from the folder /Contents/Documentation/ within the program folder or 
 
the folder /Library/Documentation/Cubase SX/SL 3 under Mac OS X. 
						

							 
2
 
VST Connections: Setting up
input and output busses 
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
2 – 14 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 
About this chapter
 
As described in the Getting Started book, Cubase SX/SL uses a sys-
tem of input and output busses to transfer audio between the program 
and the audio hardware. 
• Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio hardware into 
the program. This means that when you record audio, you will always do this 
through one or several input busses.
• Output busses let you route audio from the program to the outputs on your 
audio hardware. When you play back audio, you will always do this through 
one or several output busses.
 
As you can see, the input and output busses are vital when you work 
with Cubase SX/SL. That’s the reason why you find this chapter in the 
beginning of the Operation Manual – once you understand the bus 
system and set up the busses properly, it will be easy to go on with re-
cording, playing back, mixing and doing surround work (Cubase SX 
only). 
Setting up busses
 
Strategies
 
You can create any number of busses in Cubase SX/SL. In Cubase 
SL, busses are in mono or stereo while Cubase SX also supports a 
number of surround formats.  
• The bus configuration is saved with the projects – therefore it’s a good 
idea to add and set up the busses you need and save these in a tem-
plate project (see page 737).
 
When you start working on new projects, you start from this template. That way you 
get your standard bus configuration without having to make new bus settings for each 
new project. If you need to work with different bus configurations in different projects, 
you could either create several different templates or store your configurations as pre-
sets (see page 20). The templates can of course also contain other settings that you 
regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc. 
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 15 
So, which type of busses do you need? This depends on your audio 
hardware, your general audio setup (e.g. surround speaker setup) and 
what kind of projects you work with. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog inputs and 
outputs and digital stereo connections (10 inputs and outputs all in 
all). Furthermore, you work with a surround setup in 5.1 format (rele-
vant for Cubase SX only). Here’s a list of busses you may wish to add: 
Input busses
 
• Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input 
pair. This would let you record stereo material. If you want to be able to record 
in stereo from other analog input pairs as well, you could add stereo input 
busses for these too.
• Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a stereo input, it may 
be a good idea to add a dedicated mono input bus. This could be assigned to 
an analog input to which you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-
amp for example. Again, you could have several different mono busses.
• You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to the digital stereo 
input, for digital transfers.
• If you want to transfer surround material directly to a surround track, e.g. from 
surround-configured location recording equipment, you need an input bus in 
that surround format (here, this would be a 5.1 input bus) – Cubase SX only.
 
Output busses
 
• You probably want one or several stereo output busses for monitoring and lis-
tening to stereo mixes.
• For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the digital stereo out-
put as well.
• You need a surround bus in the format of your speaker configuration (here, 
5.1) assigned to the correct outputs (which in turn are connected to the cor-
rect speakers). Again, this is available in Cubase SX only.
• You may want additional surround busses if you tend to work in different sur-
round formats.
 
Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on the audio hard-
ware! You may for example want a stereo output bus assigned to the 
same outputs as the front stereo channels in your surround bus – this 
 
makes it easy to listen to stereo mixes without having to reconnect. 
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
2 – 16 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 
Preparations
 
Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs and outputs on 
your audio hardware. For example, if you are using a 5.1 surround 
speaker setup, you should name the outputs according to which 
speaker they are connected to (Left, Right, Center and so on). 
The reason for this is compatibility – it makes it easier to transfer 
projects between different computers and setups. For example, if you 
move your project to another studio, the audio hardware may be of a 
different model. But if both you and the other studio owner have given 
your inputs and outputs names according to the surround setup (rather 
than names based on the audio hardware model), Cubase SX/SL will 
automatically find the correct inputs and outputs for your busses and 
you will be able to play and record without changing the settings.
You name your inputs and outputs in the Device Setup dialog: 
1. 
Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu. 
2. 
Select the VST Outputs device in the list to the left. 
The available output ports on your audio hardware are listed.
 
3. 
To rename a port, click its name in the list and type a new name. 
• 
If needed, you can also disable ports by clicking in the “Visible” col-
umn (so that it says “No”). 
Disabled ports won’t show up in the VST Connections window when you are making 
bus settings. If you attempt to disable a port that is already used by a bus, you will be 
asked whether that is really what you want – note that this will remove the port from the 
bus!
 
4. 
Select the VST Inputs and name them in the same way. 
5. 
Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog. 
• If you open a project created on another computer and the port names 
don’t match (or the port configuration isn’t the same – e.g. the project is 
created on a system with multi-channel i/o and you open it on a stereo 
in/out system), a Pending Connections dialog will appear.
 
This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports available in your 
system. 
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 17 
The VST Connections window
 
You add and set up busses in the VST Connections window, opened 
from the Devices menu.
There are five tabs in the window: 
• The Input and Output tabs are for viewing input busses or output busses, re-
spectively. 
• The Group/FX tab allows you to create Group and FX channels/tracks and to 
make output assignments for these. See page 25. 
• The External FX tab (Cubase SX only) allows you to create effect send/return 
busses for connecting external effects which can then be selected via the ef-
fect pop-up menus from inside the program. See page 274 for a description 
of how to use external effects.
• The Studio tab (Cubase SX only) is for the Audition bus, which is a dedicated 
output bus for auditioning in the Sample editor, when importing, etc. See 
page 26.
 
For the time being we shall focus on how to set up input and output 
busses.  
						

							 
CUBASE SX/SL
 
2 – 18 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 
Depending on which tab you have selected, Input or Output, the win-
dow lists the current input or output busses, with the following three 
columns: 
Adding a bus
 
1. 
Click the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on which you want to add. 
2. 
Click the Add Bus button.
A dialog appears.
3.Select the desired (channel) configuration.
The pop-up menu contains Mono and Stereo options as well as the most common sur-
round formats (Cubase SX only). To select another surround format, use the “More…” 
submenu.
•Alternatively you can right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) in the VST 
Connections window and add a bus in the desired format directly 
from the context menu that appears.
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4.Click in the Device Port column to select an input/output port for a 
channel in the bus.
The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have given them in 
the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.
Column Description
Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select busses and rename them by clicking 
on them in this column.
Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, surround formats) 
of each bus.
Audio Device This shows the currently selected Master ASIO driver.
Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button in the Bus 
Name column) this column shows which physical input/output on your 
audio hardware is used by the bus.  
						

							CUBASE SX/SLVST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 19
Adding a child bus (Cubase SX only)
A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels – 6 channels in 
the case of 5.1 format. If you have a mono track in the project, you can 
route it to a separate speaker channel in the bus (or route it to the 
whole surround bus and use the surround panner to position it in the 
surround image). But what if you have a stereo track that you simply 
want to route to a stereo channel pair within the bus (Left and Right or 
Left Surround and Right Surround for example)? For this you need to 
create a child bus:
1.Select the surround bus in the list and right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click 
(Mac) it.
A pop-up menu appears.
2.Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child Bus” submenu.
As you can see, you can create stereo child busses (routed to various speaker channel 
pairs in the surround bus) or other surround bus formats (with fewer channels than the 
“parent bus”).
The child bus you created will be available for direct routing in the 
mixer. It’s a part of the parent surround bus, which means there will be 
no separate channel strip for it.
Although child busses are probably most useful in output busses, you 
could also create child busses within a surround input bus – for exam-
ple if you want to record a stereo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in 
the surround bus to a separate stereo track. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL2 – 20 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Other bus operations
•To change the port assignment for a bus you proceed as when you 
added it – make sure the channels are visible (by clicking the + button 
next to the bus, or by clicking the “+ All” button at the top of the win-
dow) and click in the Device Port column to select ports.
•To remove a bus you don’t need, select it in the list, right-click (Win) 
or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up menu.
•You can store and recall bus presets with the pop-up menu at the top 
of the window.
To store the current configuration as a preset, click the store (+) button and enter a name 
for the preset. You can then select the stored configuration directly from the Presets 
pop-up menu at any time. To remove a stored preset, select it and click the (-) button.