Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio effects 11 – 271
3.On the menu, select “Routing”.
Each send is now shown as a small routing diagram, showing (from left to right) pre/
post selector, send on/off switch, send level, pan (where applicable) and send routing. 
You can adjust all of these settings here if needed.
4.Deactivate the “Link Send Routing Panners...” switch above the routing 
display.
When this is activated, the send panners follow the pan for the channel.
5.Click and drag the pan control for the desired send(s) in the display.
As usual, you can reset the pan control to the center position by pressing [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand] and clicking on the pan control slider.
•If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the pan control will 
be a miniature surround panner, similar to the one found in the mixer.
You can click and drag the “ball” in this figure to position the send in the surround field, 
or double click the figure to bring up the surround panner. See page 309.
• If both the send (the audio channel) and the FX channel is in mono, the 
pan control is not available.
About sends for FX channels (Cubase SX only)
The FX channels themselves have sends, too. However, these can 
only be routed to output buses, not to effects.  
						

							CUBASE SX/SL11 – 272 Audio effects
Setting effect levels
After you have set up the sends as described in the previous sections, 
the following is now possible:
•You can use the send level slider in the Channel Settings, Inspector, 
or the extended part of the mixer to set the send level.
By adjusting the send level you control the amount of signal sent from the audio chan-
nel to the FX channel.
Setting the effect send level.
•In the mixer, you can use the level fader for the FX channel to set the 
effect return level.
By adjusting the return level you control the amount of the signal sent from the FX 
channel to the output bus.
Setting the effect return level. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio effects 11 – 273
FX channels and the Solo Defeat function
When mixing, you might sometimes want to solo specific audio chan-
nels, and listen only to these while other channels are muted. How-
ever, this will mute all FX channels as well. If the soloed audio channels 
have sends routed to FX channels, this means you won’t hear the send 
effects for the channels.
To remedy this, you can use the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel:
1.First press [Alt]/[Option] and click on the Solo button for the FX 
channel.
This activates the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel. In this mode, the FX 
channel will not be muted if you solo another channel in the mixer.
2.You can now solo any of the audio channels without having the effect 
return (the FX channel) muted.
3.To turn off the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel, [Alt]/[Option]-
click the Solo button for the FX channel again. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL11 – 274 Audio effects
Using external effects (Cubase SX only)
Although this program comes with a top selection of VST effect plug-
ins and there’s a huge range of additional plug-ins available on the 
market, you may still have some hardware effect units that you want to 
use - valve compressors, reverb units, vintage tape echo machines, 
etc. By setting up external FX busses you can make your outboard 
equipment part of the Cubase SX virtual studio!
An external FX bus is basically a combination of outputs (sends) and 
inputs (returns) on your audio hardware, along with a few additional 
settings. All external FX busses you have created will appear on the 
effect pop-up menus and can be selected in the same way as any ef-
fect plug-in. The difference is that if you select an external effect as an 
insert effect for an audio track, the audio will be sent to the corre-
sponding audio output, processed in your hardware effect (provided 
that you have connected it properly) and returned via the specified au-
dio input.
Requirements
• To use external effects, you need audio hardware with multiple inputs and out-
puts. This is necessary because your external effect will require at least one 
input and one output (or input/output pairs for stereo effects) - apart from the 
input/output ports you use for recording and monitoring.
• As always, audio hardware with low-latency drivers is a good thing to have. 
Cubase SX will compensate for the input/output latency and ensure that the 
audio processed through the external effect isn’t shifted in time. However, this 
automatic delay compensation results in added latency - if your audio hard-
ware has a high latency to start with, this could be a problem.
Setting up
To set up an external effect device, proceed as follows:
1.Connect an unused output pair on your audio hardware to the input 
pair on your hardware effect.
In this example, we assume that the hardware effect has stereo inputs and outputs.
2.Connect an unused input pair on your audio hardware to the output 
pair on your hardware effect. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio effects 11 – 275
3.In Cubase SX, open the VST Connections window from the Devices 
menu.
4.Click the External FX tab and click “Add External FX”.
5.In the dialog that appears, select Stereo on both pop-up menus 
(Send and Return configurations).
Again, this is because the hardware uses stereo connections in our example. If it uses 
mono connections, you should select Mono on the pop-ups, etc.
This adds a new External FX bus.
6.Click in the Device Port column for the Send Bus “Left” and “Right” 
ports and select the outputs on your audio hardware that you con-
nected in step 1 above.
7.Click in the Device Port column for the Return Bus “Left” and “Right” 
ports and select the inputs on your audio hardware that you con-
nected in step 2 above.
8.Select the bus, click in the Bus Name column and enter a name for 
the external effect (e.g. the name of the actual hardware effect).  
						

							CUBASE SX/SL11 – 276 Audio effects
9.If you like, make additional settings for the bus.
These are found in the three columns to the right. Note however that you can adjust 
these while using the external effect - that may be easier as you can hear the result.
10.When you are done, close the VST Connections window.
How to use the external effect
If you now click an insert effect slot for any channel and look at the ef-
fect pop-up menu, you will find the new external FX bus listed under 
the “External Plugins” heading.
When you select it, the following happens:
• The external FX bus is loaded into the effect slot just like a regular effect plug-
in.
• The audio signal from the channel will be sent to the outputs on the audio 
hardware, through your external effect device and back to the program via the 
inputs on the audio hardware.
Setting Description
Delay If your hardware effect device has an inherent delay (latency), 
you should enter this value here. This allows Cubase SX to com-
pensate for that delay during playback. Note that you don’t have 
to take the latency of the audio hardware into account - that is 
handled automatically by the program.
In most cases you should be able to leave this setting at 0 ms. 
Effect devices that may have noticeable latency include digital 
dynamics processors with look-ahead - consult the technical 
specifications of the device if you’re uncertain.
Send Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal being sent to the ex-
ternal effect.
Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal from the external ef-
fect. Note however that excessive output levels from an external 
effect device may cause clipping in the audio hardware. Return 
gain cannot be used to compensate for this - lower the output 
level on the effect device instead. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio effects 11 – 277
• A parameter window appears, showing the Delay, Send Gain and Return 
Gain settings for the external FX bus. You can adjust this as necessary while 
playing back.
Like any effect, you can use the external FX bus as an insert effect or 
as a send effect (an insert effect on an FX channel track). You can de-
activate or bypass the external effect with the usual controls.  
						

							CUBASE SX/SL11 – 278 Audio effects
Making settings for the effects
Selecting effect presets
Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful presets for in-
stant selection. You can select presets in the control panel for the ef-
fect, but they are also available for selection from the Channel Settings 
window:
1.Open the Channel Settings for the channel with the insert effects.
This means that to select presets for send effects, you should open the FX Settings 
window for the FX channel track.
2.Pull down the Display Modes pop-up menu above the insert slots and 
select “Preset”.
Now the insert slots show the currently selected presets.
3.Use the pop-up menu (the arrow to the right of the preset name) to 
select another preset. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio effects 11 – 279
Editing effects
All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button. Clicking this opens the 
selected effect’s control panel in which you can make parameter set-
tings.
The contents, design and layout of the control panel depends on the se-
lected effect. However, all effect control panels have a power button, a 
Bypass button, Read/Write automation buttons (for automating effect 
parameter changes – see page 333), a preset selection pop-up menu 
and a file pop-up menu for saving or loading programs. In Cubase SX/
SL for Mac OS X these are located at the bottom of the control panel, 
whereas they are at the top of the control panel in Cubase SX/SL under 
Windows.
The Rotary effect control panel.
•Please note that all effects can be edited using a simplified control 
panel (horizontal sliders only, no graphics) if you prefer this. To edit 
effects using this “basic” control panel instead, press [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand]+[Shift] and click on the Edit button for the effect send or slot.
Making settings
Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs, sliders, but-
tons and graphic curves. 
• For specifics about the included effects and their parameters, please re-
fer to the separate pdf document “Audio Effects and VST Instruments”.   
						

							CUBASE SX/SL11 – 280 Audio effects
Naming effects
If you edit the parameters for an effect, these settings are saved auto-
matically in the project. If you want to name the current settings, the 
following points apply:
• The basis for the current settings may have been a preset effect program, in 
which case there is a name in the preset field.
• The basis for the current settings may have been a default setting program lo-
cation in which case “Default” is displayed in the preset field.
In both cases, if you have changed any effect parameter settings, these 
are already saved! To name the current settings, click the Name field, 
type in a new name and press [Return]. The new name replaces the 
previous name on the program pop-up menu.
Saving effects
You can save your edited effects for further use (e.g. in other projects) 
by using the file pop-up menu to the right of the name field.
1.Pull down the file pop-up menu.
•If you want to save the current program only, select “Save Effect”.
Effect programs have the Windows file extension “fxp”.
•If you want to save all programs for the effect, select “Save Bank”.
Effect banks have the Windows file extension “fxb”.
2.In the file dialog that appears, select a name and location for the file 
and click Save.
It might be a good idea to prepare a special folder for your effects.
Loading effects
1.Pull down the file pop-up menu.
2.Select “Load Effect” or “Load Bank”.
3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the file and click Open.
If you loaded a Bank, it will replace the current set of all effect programs. If you loaded 
a single effect, it will replace the currently selected effect program only.
Automating effect parameters
Effects parameters can be automated – see the chapter “Automation”.