Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

							CUBASE SX/SLExport Audio Mixdown 27 – 671
Windows Media Audio files (Windows only)
Windows Media Audio is an audio format developed by Microsoft Inc. 
Due to advanced audio compression algorithms, Windows Media Au-
dio files can be made very small, maintaining good audio quality. The 
files have the extension “.wma”.
The following options are available for Windows Media Audio files:
Attributes
This pop-up menu allows you to select a bit rate for the WMA file. As 
a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality and the larger 
the file. For stereo audio, 96 kBit/s is often considered to give “good” 
audio quality.
Options
When you click the Save button, an Options dialog opens in which you 
can enter information about the title and author of the file, as well as 
copyright information and a description. These text strings will be em-
bedded in the file and can be displayed by some Windows Media Audio 
playback applications. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL27 – 672 Export Audio Mixdown
Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows and Cubase SX only)
This is a continuation of the Windows Media Audio format (described 
above) developed by Microsoft Inc. Due to the advanced audio codecs 
and lossless compression used, WMA Pro files can be decreased in 
size with no loss of audio quality. Furthermore, WMA Pro features the 
possibility of mixing down to 5.1 surround sound. The files have the ex-
tension “.wma”.
•Click the Options button to open a dialog in which you can make set-
tings for the Windows Media Audio files. When you have made the 
desired settings, click OK to encode the file.
The following options are available:
Input Stream
Here you set the sample rate (44.1, 48 or 96 khz) and the bit resolu-
tion (16 bit or 24 bit) of the encoded file. These should be set to 
match the sample rate and bit resolution of the source material. If no 
value matches that of your source material, use the closest highest 
available value. E.g. if you’re using 20 bit source material, set the bit 
resolution to 24 bit rather than 16 bit. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLExport Audio Mixdown 27 – 673
Encoding Scheme
These settings are used for defining the desired output from the en-
coder, e.g. whether it should be a stereo file or a 5.1 surround file. 
Make settings appropriate for the intended use of the file. If the file will 
be downloaded or streamed on the Internet, you might not want too 
high bit rates for example. See below for descriptions of the options.
•Mode
The WMA Pro encoder can use either a constant bit rate or a variable bit rate for en-
coding to 5.1 surround, or it can use lossless encoding for encoding to stereo. The op-
tions on this menu are as follows:
Note that if you encode to a surround file, it can only be played as in-
tended on computers using Windows XP, since no other Windows version 
supports WMA surround. With other operating systems than XP, the sur-
round file will instead be reproduced as a stereo file.
Mode Description
Constant Bitrate 
(CBR)This will encode to a 5.1 surround file with a constant bit rate 
(set in the Bit Rate/Channels menu, see below). Constant bit 
rate is preferably used if you want to limit the size of the final file. 
The size of a file encoded with constant bit rate is always the bit 
rate times the duration of the file.
Variable Bitrate with 
QualityEncodes to a 5.1 surround file with a variable bit rate, according 
to a quality scale (the desired quality is set in the Bit Rate/Chan-
nels menu, see below). When you encode with variable bit rates, 
the bit rate fluctuates depending on the character and intricacy 
of the material being encoded, The more complex passages in 
the source material, the higher the bit rate – and the larger the fi-
nal file – will be.
Unconstrained VBR 
(Average)Encodes to a 5.1 surround file with an unconstrained variable bit 
rate. Unconstrained means that there will be no limitation to the 
bit rate used for encoding certain complex passages in the 
source material. You can however set a recommended average 
bit rate to somewhat help constrain the size of the final file in the 
Bit Rate/Channels menu.
Constrained VBR 
(Maximum)Encodes to a 5.1 surround file with a constrained variable bit 
rate. This means that even though the bit rate fluctuates, it will 
never be allowed to exceed the maximum value you set in the Bit 
Rate/Channels menu.
Lossless Encodes to a stereo file with lossless compression. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL27 – 674 Export Audio Mixdown
•Bit Rate/Channels
This menu allows you to set the desired bit rate – from 128 kbps to 768 kbps, depend-
ing on the selected Mode (see above). If the Mode “Variable Bitrate with Quality” is 
used (see above), the menu allows you to select from six levels of desired quality, with 
10 being the lowest and 100 the highest. Generally, the higher the bitrate or quality 
you select, the larger the final file will be. The menu also shows the channel format (5.1 
or stereo).
•Method
Lets you choose between “One Pass” and “Two Pass”. 
• One pass means that the source material is passed through the encoder just 
once, and analyzed as well as encoded during the process. 
• Two pass, on the other hand, means that the source material is passed 
through the encoder twice. During the first pass, the material is analyzed, and 
the actual encoding is applied during the second pass.
Two pass encoding can result in a file of better quality, but the process 
takes longer.
Dynamic Range Control
These controls allow you to define the dynamic range of the encoded 
file. The dynamic range is the difference in dB between the average 
loudness and the peak audio level (the loudest sounds) of the audio. 
These settings affect how the audio is reproduced if the file is played 
on a Windows XP computer with a player in the Windows Media 9 
series, and the user activates the special “Quiet Mode” feature of the 
player to control the dynamic range.
The dynamic range is automatically calculated during the encoding 
process, but you can specify it manually as well.
If you want to manually specify the dynamic range, first put a check-
mark in the box to the left by clicking in it and then enter the desired 
dB values in the Peak and Average fields. You can enter any value be-
tween 0 and -90 dB. Note however that it is usually not recommended 
to change the Average value, since it affects the overall volume level 
of the audio and therefore can affect the audio quality adversely. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLExport Audio Mixdown 27 – 675
The Quiet Mode in a Windows Media 9 player can be set to one of 
three settings. Below, these settings are listed together with an expla-
nation of how the Dynamic Range settings affect them:
• Off: If Quiet Mode is off, the dynamic range settings that were automatically 
calculated during the encoding will be used.
• Little Difference: If this is selected and you have not manually changed the dy-
namic range settings, the peak level will be limited to 6 dB above the average 
level during playback. If you have manually specified the dynamic range, the 
peak level will be limited to the mean value between the peak- and average 
values you specified.
• Medium Difference: If this is selected and you have not manually changed the 
dynamic range settings, the peak level will be limited to 12 dB above the av-
erage level. If you have changed the dynamic range, the peak level will be lim-
ited to the peak value you specified.
Surround Reduction Coefficients
Here you can specify which amount of volume reduction, if any, should 
be applied to the different channels in a surround encoding. These set-
tings affect how the audio is reproduced on a system incapable of play-
ing back the file in surround, in which case the surround channels of the 
file will be combined into two channels and played back in stereo in-
stead.
The default values will normally produce satisfactory results, but you 
can change the values manually if you wish. You can enter any value 
between 0 and -144 dB for the surround channels, the center chan-
nel, the left and right channels and the LFE channel respectively.
Output Media Description
In these fields you can enter a number of text strings with information 
about the file – title, author, copyright information and a description of 
its contents. This information will then be embedded in the file header 
and can be displayed by some Windows Media Audio playback appli-
cations.
• For more information about surround sound and encoding, please refer 
to
 the chapter “Surround sound  (Cubase SX only)”. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL27 – 676 Export Audio Mixdown 
						

							28
Synchronization 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL28 – 678 Synchronization
Background
What is synchronization?
Synchronization is said to exist when you make two pieces of equip-
ment agree on time or tempo. You can establish synchronization be-
tween Cubase SX/SL and a number of other types of devices, including 
tape recorders and video decks, but also MIDI devices that “play back”, 
such as other sequencers, drum machines, “workstation sequencers” 
etc.
When you set up a synchronization system you must decide which 
unit is the master. All other devices are then slaved to this unit, which 
means they will adjust their playback speed to the master’s.
Cubase SX/SL as a slave
When a synchronization signal is coming in to Cubase SX/SL, from 
another device (such as a tape recorder, video recorder etc.), this de-
vice is the master and Cubase SX/SL is the slave. Cubase SX/SL will 
adjust its playback to the other device.
Cubase SX/SL as a master
When you set up Cubase SX/SL to transmit synchronization informa-
tion to other devices, Cubase SX/SL is the master and the other de-
vices are the slaves; they will adjust their playback to Cubase SX/SL.
Cubase SX/SL – both master and slave
Cubase SX/SL is a very capable synchronization device. It can operate 
as both a master and a slave at the same time. For example, Cubase 
SX/SL might be slaved to a tape recorder transmitting timecode, while 
at the same time transmitting MIDI Clock to a drum machine, acting as 
a master for that.
The VST System Link feature (with which you can synchronize separate 
computers running Cubase SX/SL or Nuendo for example) is described 
in a separate chapter. See page 697. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLSynchronization 28 – 679
Timecode, MIDI clock and word clock
Basically there are three types of synchronization signals for audio, 
timecode, MIDI clock and word clock:
Timecode (SMPTE, EBU, MTC, VITC etc.)
Timecode appears in a number of guises. No matter which “format” it 
has, it always supplies a “clock on the wall” type of synchronization, 
that is, a synchronization related to hours, minutes, seconds and two 
smaller units called “frames” and “subframes”.
• LTC (SMPTE, EBU) is the audio version of timecode. This means that it can 
be recorded on the audio track of an audio or video recorder.
• VITC is the video format timecode, that is it is stored in the actual video image.
• MTC is the MIDI version of timecode, transmitted in MIDI cables.
• ADAT sync (Alesis) is only used with ASIO Positioning Protocol, see page 683.
For the ASIO Positioning Protocol, other high precision timecode for-
mats may also be supported.
Format recommendations for timecode – without ASIO Positioning 
Protocol
• When synchronizing your system to external timecode, via a synchronizer, the 
most common timecode format is MTC. Contrary to some reports you might 
have heard, MTC delivers good precision for external sync. This is due to the 
fact that the operating system can “time stamp” incoming MIDI messages, 
which increases precision.
Format recommendations for timecode – with ASIO Positioning 
Protocol
• LTC and VITC are the formats with the highest precision and are recom-
mended when available.
• MTC is the next best option and probably the most common choice, since few 
audio hardware solutions have built in LTC or VITC readers. However, LTC 
and VITC offer even higher precision when available. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL28 – 680 Synchronization
MIDI Clock
MIDI Clock is a tempo based type of synchronization signal, that is it is 
related to the number of “beats per minute”. MIDI Clock signals are 
suitable for synchronizing two devices that agree on tempo, such as 
for example Cubase SX/SL and a drum machine.
MIDI Clock is not suitable as a master sync source for an application 
like Cubase SX/SL. Therefore Cubase SX/SL will transmit MIDI Clock 
signals to other devices, but it will not receive MIDI Clock.
Word Clock
Word clock is basically a replacement for the sample rate clock in for 
example an audio card. Word clock hence runs at the same rate as 
the sample rate in the audio, 44.1kHz, 48kHz etc.
Word clock does not contain any position information, it is only a 
“simple” signal for clocking the audio at its sample rate.
Word clock comes in many formats, analog on coaxial cable, digital as 
part of an S/PDIF, AES/EBU or ADAT audio signal, etc.