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Operation Manual
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer
Thanks to: Georg Bruns
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software 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 publica-
tion 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. Windows XP is a trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are
registered trademarks.
Release Date: January 07, 2009
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2009.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
4
Table of Contents
10 Part I: Getting into the details
11 About this manual
12 Welcome!
13 VST Connections: Setting up input and
output busses
14 About this chapter
14 Setting up busses
18 Using the busses
20 Setting up Group and FX channels
20 About monitoring
20 External instruments/effects (Cubase only)
25 The Project window
26 Background
28 Window Overview
34 Operations
56 Options
59 Playback and the Transport panel
60 Background
61 Operations
63 Options and Settings
65 The Virtual Keyboard
66 Recording
67 Background
67 Basic recording methods
69 Audio recording specifics
79 MIDI recording specifics
84 Options and Settings
87 Recovery of audio recordings after system failure
88 Fades, crossfades and envelopes
89 Creating fades
91 The Fade dialogs
92 Creating crossfades
93 The Crossfade dialog
94 Auto Fades and Crossfades
95 Event Envelopes
96 The Arranger track
97 Introduction
97 Setting up the Arranger track
98 Working with arranger events
100 Flattening the Arranger chain
101 Live Mode
102 Arranging your music to video
103 The Transpose functions
104 Introduction
104 Transposing your music
107 Other functions
109 The mixer
110 About this chapter
110 Overview
112 Configuring the mixer
116 The audio-related channel strips
117 The MIDI channel strips
117 The input and output channels
117 Basic mixing procedures
121 Audio-specific procedures
128 MIDI-specific procedures
129 Utilities
132 VST Mixer Diagrams
135 Control Room (Cubase only)
136 Background
137 Control Room operations
137 Configuring the Control Room
140 The Control Room Overview
141 The Control Room Mixer
146 Studios and Studio Sends
149 Direct Monitoring and latency
150 Audio effects
151 About this chapter
151 Overview
152 Insert effects
157 Send effects
161 Using the Side-Chain input
163 Using external effects (Cubase only)
163 Editing effects
164 Effect presets
166 Installing and managing effect plug-ins
5
Table of Contents
169 VST Instruments and Instrument
tracks
170 Introduction
170 VST Instrument channels vs. instrument tracks
170 VST Instrument channels
172 Instrument tracks
174 What do I need? Instrument channel or Instrument
track?
174 Instrument Freeze
175 VST instruments and processor load
175 Using presets for VSTi configuration
178 About latency
179 External instruments (Cubase only)
180 Surround sound (Cubase only)
181 Background
182 Operations
188 Automation
189 Introduction
189 Enabling and disabling the writing of automation
data
190 What can be automated?
191 The Automation panel
191 Automation modes
193 Automation performance utilities
195 The Settings section
196 Hints and further options
196 Automation track operations
199 Working with automation curves
202 MIDI Controller automation
204 Audio processing and functions
205 Background
205 Audio processing
213 Applying plug-ins (Cubase only)
214 The Offline Process History dialog
215 Freeze Edits
216 Detect Silence
217 The Spectrum Analyzer (Cubase only)
218 Statistics (Cubase only)
219 The Sample Editor
220 Background
221 Window overview
224 General Operations
230 Options and settings
231 AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio
234 Working with hitpoints and slices
238 Free Warp
241 Flattening the realtime processing
243 VariAudio (Cubase only)
254 The Audio Part Editor
255 Background
255 Opening the Audio Part Editor
255 Window overview
257 Operations
258 Common methods
259 Options and Settings
260 The Pool
261 Background
261 Window overview
263 Operations
273 The MediaBay
274 Introduction
276 Window overview
276 Browsing for media files
279 Finding files in the Viewer section
283 Previewing files in the Scope section
284 The Tag Editor (Cubase only)
288 Working with Track Presets
289 Introduction
289 Types of track presets
290 Applying track presets
292 Creating a track preset
293 Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets
293 Previewing MIDI, instrument and VST presets
independently of tracks
295 Track Quick Controls
296 Introduction
296 Setting up the Quick Controls tab
297 Setting up quick controls on an external remote
controller
298 Quick controls and automatable parameters
6
Table of Contents
299 Remote controlling Cubase
300 Introduction
300 Setting Up
301 Operations
302 The Generic Remote device
304 Track Quick Controls
304 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)
305 MIDI realtime parameters and effects
306 Introduction
306 The Inspector – General handling
306 The Inspector sections
310 MIDI effects
313 Managing plug-ins
314 Using MIDI devices
315 Background
315 MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling
320 About Device panels (Cubase only)
323 About Studio Connections (Cubase only)
325 MIDI processing and quantizing
326 Introduction
326 The Quantizing functions
331 Making your settings permanent
332 Dissolve Part
333 Bounce Selection
333 Repeat Loop
333 Other MIDI functions
337 The MIDI editors
338 Introduction
338 Opening a MIDI editor
340 The Key Editor – Overview
342 Key Editor operations
356 The In-Place Editor
358 The Drum Editor – Overview
359 Drum Editor operations
361 Working with drum maps
364 Using drum name lists
365 The List Editor – Overview
365 List Editor operations
368 Working with System Exclusive messages
370 Recording System Exclusive parameter changes
370 Editing System Exclusive messages
372 VST Expression
373 Introduction
374 VST Expression in Cubase
377 Creating and editing Expression Maps
380 The Logical Editor, Transformer and
Input Transformer
381 Introduction
381 Opening the Logical Editor
382 Window overview
382 Setting up filter conditions
386 Selecting a function
387 Specifying actions
389 Applying the defined actions
389 Working with presets
389 The Input Transformer
391 The Project Logical Editor
392 Introduction
392 Opening the Project Logical Editor
392 Window overview
393 Setting up filter conditions
397 Specifying actions
399 Selecting a function
399 Applying Macros
399 Applying the defined actions
399 Working with presets
401 Editing tempo and signature
402 Background
402 Tempo and signature display
404 Editing tempo and signature
406 Process Tempo (Cubase only)
406 The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only)
407 The Beat Calculator
408 Merge Tempo From Tapping
408 The Time Warp tool
413 The Project Browser
414 Window Overview
415 Editing tracks
419 Export Audio Mixdown
420 Introduction
420 Mixing down to audio files
422 The available file formats
7
Table of Contents
427 Synchronization
428 Background
428 Synchronization signals
429 Synchronizing the transport vs. synchronizing audio
430 Making basic settings and connections
431 Synchronization settings
436 Machine Control
437 Sync Options
438 Working with VST System Link
438 Preparations
440 Activating VST System Link
443 Application examples
445 Video
446 Background
446 Before you start
448 Operations
451 ReWire
452 Introduction
452 Launching and quitting
453 Activating ReWire channels
453 Using the transport and tempo controls
454 How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase
454 Routing MIDI via ReWire2
454 Considerations and limitations
455 File handling
456 Working with Projects
459 Importing audio
462 Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only)
464 Exporting and importing standard MIDI files
465 Exporting and importing MIDI loops
466 Exporting and importing tracks (Cubase only)
467 Other Import/Export functions
467 Cleanup
468 Customizing
469 Background
469 Workspaces
471 Using the Setup options
472 Customizing track controls
473 About preference presets (Cubase only)
474 Appearance
475 Applying track and event colors
478 Where are the settings stored?
479 Key commands
480 Introduction
480 Setting up key commands
483 Setting up tool modifier keys
484 The default key commands
487 Part II: Score layout and printing
488 How the Score Editor works
489 About this chapter
489 Welcome!
489 How the Score Editor operates
489 MIDI notes vs. score notes
490 Display Quantize
492 Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes
493 The basics
494 About this chapter
494 Preparations
494 Opening the Score Editor
494 The project cursor
494 Playing back and recording
495 Page Mode
495 Changing the Zoom factor
496 The active staff
496 Making page setup settings
496 Designing your work space
498 About the Score Editor context menus
498 About dialogs in the Score Editor
499 Setting key, clef and time signature
503 Transposing instruments
503 Printing from the Score Editor
503 Exporting pages as image files
504 Working order
504 Force update
505 Transcribing MIDI recordings
506 About this chapter
506 About transcription
506 Getting the parts ready
506 Strategies: Preparing parts for score printout
507 Staff settings
507 Situations which require additional techniques
508 Inserting Display Quantize changes
509 Strategies: Adding Display Quantize changes
509 The Explode function
510 Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
8
Table of Contents
511 Entering and editing notes
512 About this chapter
512 Score settings
513 Note values and positions
514 Adding and editing notes
516 Selecting notes
517 Moving notes
518 Duplicating notes
518 Cut, copy and paste
519 Editing pitches of individual notes
520 Changing the length of notes
521 Splitting a note in two
521 Working with the Display Quantize tool
521 Split (piano) staves
522 Strategies: Multiple staves
522 Inserting and editing clefs, keys or time signatures
523 Deleting notes
524 Staff settings
525 About this chapter
525 Staff settings
525 Making settings
525 Working with staff presets
526 Staff names
526 Key and clef
526 Display Quantize and interpretation Options
529 Display Transpose
529 The Options tab
530 The Polyphonic tab
530 The Tablature tab
531 Polyphonic voicing
532 About this chapter
532 Background: Polyphonic voicing
533 Setting up the voices
535 Strategies: How many voices do I need?
535 Entering notes into voices
535 Checking which voice a note belongs to
536 Moving notes between voices
537 Handling rests
537 Voices and Display Quantize
538 Creating crossed voicings
539 Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves
539 Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices
540 Additional note and rest formatting
541 About this chapter
541 Background: Note stems
541 Setting stem direction
542 Stem length
542 Accidentals and enharmonic shift
543 Changing the note head shape
544 Other note details
545 Coloring notes
545 Copying settings between notes
545 Handling beaming
549 About tied notes
550 Graphic moving of notes
551 Cue notes
552 Grace notes
552 Tuplets
555 Working with symbols
556 About this chapter
556 Background: The different layers
557 The Symbols Inspector
558 Important! – Symbols, staves and voices
559 Adding symbols to the score
565 Selecting symbols
566 Moving and duplicating symbols
569 Changing length, size and shape
570 Deleting symbols
570 Copy and paste
570 Alignment
570 Symbol details
576 Working with chords
577 About this chapter
577 Inserting Chord symbols
579 Global chord settings
580 Working with text
581 About this chapter
581 Adding and editing text symbols
583 Different types of text
587 Text functions
9
Table of Contents
590 Working with layouts
591 About this chapter
591 Background: Layouts
591 Creating a layout
591 Opening a layout
591 Layout operations
592 Using layouts – an example
592 Marker Track to Form
593 Working with MusicXML
594 Introduction
595 Importing and exporting MusicXML files
597 Designing your score: additional
techniques
598 About this chapter
598 Layout settings
599 Staff size
599 Hiding/showing objects
600 Coloring notes
600 Multiple rests
601 Editing bar lines
602 Creating upbeats
602 Setting the number of bars across the page
603 Moving bar lines
604 Dragging staves
605 Adding brackets and braces
606 Auto Layout
607 Reset Layout
608 Breaking bar lines
609 Scoring for drums
610 About this chapter
610 Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor
610 Setting up the drum map
612 Setting up a staff for drum scoring
612 Entering and editing notes
612 Using “Single Line Drum Staff”
613 Creating tablature
614 About this chapter
614 Creating tablature automatically
615 Creating tablature manually
615 Tablature number appearance
615 Editing
616 Note head shape
617 The score and MIDI playback
618 About this chapter
618 Scores and the Arranger mode
618 The MIDI Meaning function
619 Dynamic crescendo symbols
620 Tips and Tricks
621 Overview
621 Useful editing techniques
622 Frequently asked questions
624 If you wish you had a faster computer
625 Index
Part I:
Getting into the details
1
About this manual
12
About this manual
Welcome!
This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase.
Here you will find detailed information about all the fea-
tures and functions in the program.
About the program versions
The documentation covers two program versions; Cubase
and Cubase Studio, for two different operating systems or
“platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X.
Some features described in the documentation are only
applicable to the Cubase version. Whenever this is the
case this will be clearly indicated in the heading of the re-
lated subject.
Similarly, some features and settings are specific to one of
the platforms, Windows or Mac OS X. This is clearly
stated in the applicable cases. In other words:
Ö If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in
the documentation are valid for both Cubase and Cubase
Studio, under Windows and Mac OS X.
The screenshots are taken from the Windows version of Cubase.
Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in Cubase use modifier
keys, some of which are different depending on the oper-
ating system. For example, the default key command for
Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Command]-[Z] un-
der Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in
this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier
key first, in the following way:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl]
under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then
press [Z]”.
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win-
dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
Ö Please note that this manual often refers to right-click-
ing, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with
a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.
2
VST Connections: Setting up input and
output busses
14
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
About this chapter
Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to trans-
fer 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. This is why you find this chapter at
the beginning of the Operation Manual – once you under-
stand the bus system and know how to set up the busses
properly, it will be easy to go on with recording, playing
back, mixing and doing surround work (Cubase only).
Setting up busses
Strategies
In Cubase, you can create any number of busses. A num-
ber of surround formats are supported (Cubase only). In
Cubase Studio, busses are in mono or stereo.
Ö The bus configuration is saved with the project –
therefore it is a good idea to add and set up the busses
you need and save these in a template project (see “Save
as Template” on page 457).
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 can either create several dif-
ferent templates or store your configurations as presets (see “Other bus
operations” on page 17). The templates can of course also contain other
settings that you regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track
layout, etc.
So, which type of busses do you need? This depends on
your audio hardware, your general audio setup (e.g. sur-
round 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 in-
puts and outputs all in all). Furthermore, you work with a
surround setup in 5.1 format (Cubase 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 add stereo input busses for these, too.
• Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a ste-
reo input, it may be a good idea to add a dedicated mono in-
put bus. This could be assigned to an analog input to which
you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp for ex-
ample. Again, you can have several different mono busses.
• You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to
the digital stereo input, for digital transfers.
• Cubase only: If you want to transfer surround material directly
to a surround track, e.g. from surround-configured location re-
cording equipment, you need an input bus in that surround
format – in this example, this would be a 5.1 input bus.
Output busses
• You probably want one or several stereo output busses for
monitoring and listening to stereo mixes.
• For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the
digital stereo output as well.
• Cubase only: You need a surround bus in the format of your
speaker configuration (in this example, 5.1) assigned to the
correct outputs (which in turn are connected to the correct
speakers). You may want additional surround busses if you
tend to work in different surround formats.
!
Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on
the audio hardware! For example, you may 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 your speakers.
15
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 us-
ing 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 in-
puts and outputs names according to the surround setup
(rather than names based on the audio hardware model),
Cubase will automatically find the correct inputs and out-
puts for your busses and you will be able to play and
record without having to change the settings.
Use the Device Setup dialog to assign names to the in-
puts and outputs of your audio hardware:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
2. Make sure that the correct driver for your audio hard-
ware is selected on the VST Audio System page, so that
the audio card is listed in the Devices list.
3. Select your audio card in the list.
The available input and output ports on your audio hardware are listed on
the right.
4. To rename a port, click its name in the “Show as” col-
umn and enter a new name.
• If needed, you can also disable ports by deactivating
them in the “Visible” column.
Disabled ports will not show up in the VST Connections window when
you are making bus settings. If you attempt to disable a port that is used
by a bus, you will be asked whether this is really what you want – note
that this will remove the port from the bus!
5. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.
Ö If you open a project created on another computer and
the port names do not match (or the port configuration is
not 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),
the Pending Connections dialog will appear.
This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports
available in your system.
Mac OS X only: Retrieving channel names
For some audio cards, you can automatically retrieve the
ASIO channel names for the ports of your audio hardware:
1. Open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu.
2. On the VST Audio System page, select your audio
card on the “ASIO driver” pop up menu.
3. In the Devices list to the left, select your audio card.
The available settings are displayed.
4. In the settings section to the right, click the Control
Panel button.
This opens the control panel for your audio hardware.
5. Activate the “Use CoreAudio Channel Names” option.
6. When you now open the VST Connections window to
set up the busses in your system, you will find that the port
names in the Device Port column correspond to the names
that are used by the CoreAudio driver.
Ö If you want to use the project later on with an earlier
version of Cubase, you will have to re-assign the port con-
nections in the VST Connections window (see below).
Mac OS X only: Port selection and activation
On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the
Device Setup dialog, see above), you can specify which
input and which output port should be active. This allows
you, for example, to use the Microphone input instead of
the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or
output completely, if required.
Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, stan-
dard USB audio devices and a certain number of other au-
dio cards (e.g. Pinnacle CineWave).
16
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
The VST Connections window
You add and set up busses in the VST Connections win-
dow, opened from the Devices menu.
This window contains the following tabs:
• The Inputs and Outputs tabs are for viewing input busses or
output busses, respectively.
• The Group/FX tab allows you to create Group and FX chan-
nels/tracks and to make output assignments for these. See
“Setting up Group and FX channels” on page 20.
• The External FX tab (Cubase only) allows you to create effect
send/return busses for connecting external effects which can
then be selected via the effect pop-up menus from inside the
program. See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on
page 20 and “Using external effects (Cubase only)” on page
163 for further information.
• The External Instruments tab (Cubase only) allows you to cre-
ate input/output busses for connecting external instruments.
See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on page 20
and the chapter “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on
page 169 for further information.
• The Studio tab (Cubase only) is where you enable and config-
ure the Control Room. See the chapter “Control Room (Cu-
base only)” on page 135.
For the time being, we shall focus on how to set up input
and output busses.
Depending on which tab you have selected, Inputs or Out-
puts, the window lists the current input or output busses,
with the following 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 several
surround formats (Cubase only). To select another surround format, use
the “More…” submenu.
• Alternatively you can right-click in the VST Connections
window and add a bus in the desired format directly from
the context menu.
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4. Click in the Device Port column to select an input/out-
put port for a channel in the bus.
The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have as-
signed in the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.
Adding a child bus (Cubase only)
A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels –
6 channels in the case of the 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 parent sur-
round bus and use the SurroundPanner 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.
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, sur-
round formats) of each bus.
Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.
Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button
in the Bus Name column) this column shows which phys-
ical inputs/outputs on your audio hardware are used by
the bus.
Click You can route the click to a specific output bus, regard-
less of the actual Control Room output, or indeed when
the Control Room is disabled.
Column Description
17
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
1. Select the surround bus in the list and right-click on 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 rout-
ing in the mixer. It is 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 can also create child busses within a sur-
round input bus – for example if you want to record a ste-
reo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in the surround bus
to a separate stereo track.
Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)
The Main Mix is the output bus that each new channel in
the mixer will be assigned to when it is created.
Any of the output busses in the VST Connections window
can be the default output bus. By right-clicking on the
name of an output bus, you can set this bus as the Main
Mix bus.
Setting the default output bus in the VST Connections window.
When creating new audio, group or FX channels in the
mixer, they will automatically be routed to the default bus.
Presets
On the Inputs and Outputs tabs, you will find a Presets
menu. Here you can find three different types of presets:
• A number of standard bus configurations.
• Automatically created presets tailored to your specific
hardware configuration.
On each startup, Cubase will analyze the physical inputs and outputs
provided by your audio hardware and create a number of hardware-
dependent presets with the following possible configurations:
• one stereo bus
• various combinations of stereo and mono busses
• a number of mono busses
• Cubase only: one 5.1 bus (if you have 6 or more inputs)
• Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and stereo busses
(if you have 6 or more inputs)
• Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and mono busses (if
you have 6 or more inputs)
• You can also save your own setups as presets.
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 configu-
ration directly from the Presets pop-up menu at any time. To remove a
stored preset, select it and click the “-” button.
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 window) and click in the
Device Port column to select ports.
• To remove a bus you do not need, select it in the list,
right-click and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up
menu, or press [Backspace].
!
The default bus is indicated by an orange colored
speaker icon next to its name in the VST Connec-
tions window.
18
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Using the busses
This section describes briefly how to use the input and out-
put busses you have created. For details refer to the chap-
ters “Recording” on page 66 and “The mixer” on page 109.
Routing
When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-re-
lated channel in the mixer – VST Instrument channels,
ReWire channels, etc.), you route it to an output bus. In
the same way, when you record on an audio track you se-
lect from which input bus the audio should be sent.
• You can select input and output busses in the Inspec-
tor, using the Input and Output Routing pop-up menus.
• You can also select busses in the Routing panel at the
top of each channel strip in the mixer.
Ö If the Routing panel is not shown, click the Show Rou-
ting button in the extended common panel or open the
Mixer context menu and select “Show Routing View” from
the Window submenu (see “Normal vs. Extended channel
strips” on page 112).
Ö For audio-related channel types other than audio track
channels (i.e. VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels,
Group channels and FX channels), only the Output Rou-
ting pop-up menu is available.
• If you press [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select an input or
output bus in the Track list or the Mixer Routing View (Cu-
base only), it will be chosen for all selected channels.
This makes it easy to quickly set several channels to use the same input
or output. Similarly, if you press [Shift] and select a bus, the following se-
lected channels will be set to use incrementing busses – the second se-
lected channel will use the second bus, the third will use the third bus
and so on.
When selecting an input bus for a track you can only se-
lect busses that correspond to the track’s channel config-
uration. Here are the details for input busses:
• Mono tracks can be routed to mono input busses or individual
channels within a stereo or surround input bus (Cubase only).
• Mono tracks can be routed to External Inputs configured on
the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These can be
mono or individual channels within a stereo or surround bus
(Cubase only). They can also be routed to the Talkback input.
• Mono tracks can also be routed to mono output busses, mono
group output busses or mono FX channel output busses, pro-
vided that these will not lead to feedback.
• Stereo tracks can be routed to mono input busses, stereo in-
put busses or stereo child busses within a surround bus (Cu-
base only).
• Stereo tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are config-
ured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These
can be mono input busses or stereo input busses. They can
also be routed to the Talkback input.
• Stereo tracks can also be routed to mono or stereo output
busses, mono or stereo group output busses and mono or
stereo FX channel output busses, provided that these will not
lead to feedback.
• Surround tracks can be routed to surround input busses (Cu-
base only).
• Surround tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are con-
figured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, pro-
vided that these have the same input configuration.
• Surround tracks can also be routed to output busses, provided
that these have the same input configuration or will not lead to
feedback.
For output busses any assignment is possible.
To disconnect input or output bus assignments, select
“No Bus” from the corresponding pop-up menu.
!
Assignments that will lead to feedback are not avail-
able in the pop-up menu. This is also indicated by a
one-way symbol.
19
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Viewing the busses in the mixer
In the mixer, busses are represented by input and output
channels (shown in separate panes to the left and right in
the window). You can show or hide these independently
by clicking the Hide Input Channels and Hide Output
Channels buttons in the common panel:
Ö In Cubase Studio, only the output busses are visible in
the mixer!
The input busses you have created in the VST Connections window are
available for selection on the Input Routing pop-up menus, but you will
not be able to make any specific mixer settings for the input busses.
Input channels (Cubase only)
The input channels are shown to the left in the mixer. As
you can see, each input channel resembles a regular mixer
channel strip.
Here you can do the following:
• Check and adjust the recording level using the Input
Gain knobs and/or the level fader.
See “Setting input levels” on page 71.
• Change the phase of the input signal.
This is done by clicking the Input Phase button next to the Input Gain
control.
• Add effects or EQ to the input bus.
See “Recording with effects (Cubase only)” on page 78 for an example
of how to add effects to your recording at the input bus stage.
Output channels
The output channels are shown to the right in the mixer.
Here you can do the following:
• Adjust the output level for the busses with the faders.
• Open the Channel Settings window to add effects or EQ.
These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add
here include compressors, limiters and dithering. See the chapter “Audio
effects” on page 150.
Hide Input Channels
(Cubase only)
Hide Output Channels
!
The settings you make in the input channel strip will
be a permanent part of the recorded audio file!
20
VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Setting up Group and FX channels
The Group/FX tab in the VST Connections window shows
all Group channels and FX channels in your project. You
can create new Group or FX channels by clicking the corre-
sponding Add button. This is the same as creating Group
channel tracks or FX channel tracks in the Project window
(see “Using group channels” on page 127 and the chapter
“Audio effects” on page 150).
However, the VST Connections window also allows you to
create child busses for Group and FX channels (Cubase
only). This is useful e.g. if you have Group or FX channels in
surround format and want to route stereo channels to spe-
cific channel pairs in these.
To create a child bus for a Group channel or FX channel in
surround format, proceed as follows:
1. Open the VST Connection window and select the
Groups/FX tab.
2. Select the Group or FX channel in the list and right-
click it.
3. Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child
Bus” submenu.
The child bus you created will be available for direct rout-
ing in the mixer. It is a part of the parent Group or FX
channel, which means there will be no separate channel
strip for it.
About monitoring
By default, monitoring is done via the Control Room (see
the chapter “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 135).
When the Control Room is disabled on the Studio tab of
the VST Connections window, the Main Mix bus (see “Set-
ting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)” on page 17)
will be used for monitoring.
Ö In Cubase Studio, the Main Mix bus is always used for
monitoring.
Setting the monitoring level
When you are using the Control Room for monitoring, this
is set in the Control Room Mixer, see “The Control Room
Mixer” on page 141. When you are monitoring via the Main
Mix bus, you can adjust the monitoring level in the regular
Project Mixer.
External instruments/effects
(Cubase only)
Cubase supports the integration of external effect devices
and external instruments, e.g. hardware synthesizers, into
the sequencer signal flow.
You can use the External Instruments tab and the External
FX tab in the VST Connections window to define the
necessary send and return ports and access the instru-
ments/effects through the VST Instruments window.
Requirements
• To use external effects, you need audio hardware with
multiple inputs and outputs. To use external instruments, a
MIDI interface must be connected to your computer.
An external effect will require at least one input and one output (or input/
output pairs for stereo effects) in addition to 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 will compensate for the input/output latency and ensure that the
audio processed through external effects is not shifted in time.
Connecting the external effect/instrument
To set up an external effect or instrument, proceed as fol-
lows:
1. Connect an unused output pair on your audio hard-
ware to the input pair on your external hardware device.
In this example, we assume that the hardware device has stereo inputs
and outputs.
!
External instruments and effects are indicated by an
“x” icon in the list next to their names in the respec-
tive pop-up menus.
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