Steinberg Cubase Pro 8.5 User manual

Operation Manual

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Matthias Obrecht,

Sabine Pfeifer, Kevin

Quarshie, Benjamin Schütte

This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the

complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text

descriptions of images.

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 publication may be

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written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the

product described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective holders. For more

information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.

3

Table of Contents

11 Introduction

11 About the Program Versions

11 About the Help and the Documentation

12 Conventions

13 Key Commands

15 Part I - Getting into the Details

16 Setting Up Your System

16 Setting Up Audio

22 Setting Up MIDI

23 Connecting a Synchronizer

24 Setting Up Video

25 VST Connections

25 VST Connections Window

32 Renaming the Hardware Inputs and

Outputs

33 Adding Input and Output Busses

34 Adding Child Busses (Cubase Pro only)

34 Presets for Input and Output Busses

36 Adding Group and FX Channels

36 About Monitoring

36 External Instruments and Effects (Cubase

Pro only)

43 Editing the Bus Configurations

46 Project Window

48 Toolbar

50 Status Line

51 Info Line

51 Overview Line

52 Ruler

53 Inspector

56 Global Track Controls

58 Visibility

59 Track List

60 Event Display

61 Racks

61 Zooming in the Project Window

66 Snap Function

68 Cross-Hair Cursor

69 Edit History Dialog

71 Project Handling

71 Creating New Projects

71 Hub

73 Project Assistant

74 About Project Files

74 About Template Files

76 Project Setup Dialog

79 Opening Project Files

81 Saving Project Files

82 Reverting to the Last Saved Version

82 Choosing a Project Location

83 Removing Unused Audio Files

83 Creating Self-Contained Projects

86 Tracks

86 Audio Tracks

93 Instrument Tracks

100 MIDI Tracks

107 Arranger Track

109 Chord Track

111 FX Channel Tracks

116 Folder Tracks

118 Group Channel Tracks

124 Marker Track

125 Ruler Track

126 Signature Track

127 Tempo Track

129 Transpose Track

130 VCA Fader Track (Cubase Pro only)

132 Video Track

134 Customizing Track Controls

4

136 Track Handling

136 Adding Tracks

139 Removing Tracks

139 Moving Tracks in the Track List

140 Renaming Tracks

140 Coloring Tracks

141 Showing Track Pictures

143 Setting the Track Height

144 Selecting Tracks

145 Duplicating Tracks

145 Disabling Audio Tracks

146 Organizing Tracks in Folder Tracks

147 Handling Overlapping Audio

147 Track Folding

148 How Events are Displayed on Folder Tracks

149 Modifying Event Display on Folder Tracks

149 Working with Lanes

153 Defining the Track Time Base

154 TrackVersions

163 Track Presets

169 Parts and Events

169 Audio Handling

171 Parts

172 Auditioning Audio Parts and Events

172 Adding Events to a Track

173 Scrubbing

174 Folder Parts

175 Render in Place

181 Editing Parts and Events

196 Range Editing

196 Creating a Selection Range

198 Editing Selection Ranges

202 Playback and Transport

202 Transport Panel

205 Transport Menu

212 Setting the Project Cursor Position

212 Left and Right Locators

214 Punch In and Punch Out

215 Auto-Scroll

215 Time Formats

216 Locating to Specific Time Positions

217 Metronome

220 Chase

221 Virtual Keyboard

221 Recording MIDI With the Virtual Keyboard

222 Virtual Keyboard Options

223 Recording

223 Basic Recording Methods

228 Monitoring

231 Audio Recording Specifics

236 MIDI Recording Specifics

243 Remaining Record Time

244 Lock Record

245 Quantizing MIDI and Audio

245 Quantize Functions

247 Quantizing MIDI Event Starts

247 Quantizing MIDI Event Lengths

248 Quantizing MIDI Event Ends

248 Quantizing Audio Event Starts

249 Quantizing Audio Event Lengths

(AudioWarp Quantizing) (Cubase Pro only)

250 Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase

Pro only)

251 Quantize Panel

261 Fades, Crossfades, and Envelopes

262 Event-Based Fades

266 Creating Clip-Based Fades

268 Crossfades

272 Auto Fades and Crossfades

275 Event Envelopes

277 Arranger Track

278 Adding Arranger Events on the Arranger

Track

279 Arranger Editor

282 Setting up an Arranger Chain and Adding

Events

285 Jump Mode

287 Arranging Music to Video

288 Transpose Functions

288 Project Root Key

292 Transpose Track

294 Keep Transpose in Octave Range

296 Transpose on the Info Line

297 Excluding Individual Parts or Events from

Global Transpose

298 Markers

298 Position Markers

298 Cycle Markers

300 Markers Window

304 Marker Track

306 Importing and Exporting Markers

5

308 MixConsole

311 Setting Up the MixConsole

311 MixConsole Toolbar

313 Functions Menu

315 Configuring the MixConsole

322 Synchronizing Channel and Track Visibility

323 Finding Channels

323 Linking Channels

326 VCA Faders (Cubase Pro only)

334 Metering (Cubase Pro only)

337 Input Levels

338 Copying and Moving Rack and Channel

Settings

339 Fader Section

344 Working with Channel Racks

368 Using Channel Settings

370 Adding Notes to a MixConsole Channel

370 Keyboard Navigation

372 Control Room (Cubase Pro only)

372 Adding Channels to the Control Room

373 Output Routing

373 Exclusive Assignment of Monitor Channels

374 Control Room Channels

376 Control Room Mixer

383 Control Room Setup

386 Setting Up a Cue Mix

387 Adjusting the Overall Cue Send Level

388 Metering

388 Loudness

393 Audio Effects

393 Insert Effects and Send Effects

396 Insert Effects

405 Send Effects

411 Side-Chain Input

413 Dither Effects

414 External Effects (Cubase Pro only)

414 Effect Control Panel

416 Effect Presets

423 Plug-In Information Window

425 Audio Processing and Functions

425 Common settings and features

426 Envelope

427 Fade In and Fade Out

429 Gain

429 Merge Clipboard

430 Noise Gate

431 Normalize

431 Phase Reverse

432 Pitch Shift

435 Remove DC Offset

436 Resample

436 Reverse

436 Silence

436 Stereo Flip

437 Time Stretch

439 Applying Plug-Ins (Cubase Pro only)

440 Offline Process History

442 Freeze Edits

443 Detect Silence

446 Spectrum Analyzer

448 Statistics

450 Time Stretch and Pitch Shift Algorithms

454 Sample Editor

455 Toolbar

458 Info Line

459 Overview Line

459 Inspector

462 Ruler

463 Waveform Display

465 Range Editing

469 Regions List

472 Snap Point

475 Hitpoints

476 Calculating Hitpoints

478 Locating to Hitpoints in the Project Window

479 Slices

481 Creating a Groove Quantize Map

482 Creating Markers

482 Creating Regions

483 Creating Events

483 Creating Warp Markers

484 Creating MIDI Notes

6

486 Tempo Matching Audio

486 Algorithm Presets

487 Stretching Audio Events to the Project

Tempo

487 Musical Mode

489 Auto Adjust

490 Manual Adjust

492 Free Warp

495 Flattening Realtime Processing

495 Unstretching Audio Files

496 VariAudio (Cubase Pro only)

496 VariAudio and Offline Processes

497 Segmenting Monophonic Audio

498 Segments and Gaps

499 Manual Editing of Segments

505 Pitch Changes

509 Micro-Pitch Changes

513 Timing Modifications

515 Reset Functions

516 Extracting MIDI from Audio

519 Flattening Realtime Processing

519 Generating Harmony Voices for

Monophonic Audio

521 Audio Part Editor

521 Opening the Audio Part Editor

522 Window Overview

523 Operations

527 Options and Settings

528 Pool

528 Pool Window

533 Working with the Pool

551 MediaBay

552 Working With the MediaBay

552 Setting Up the MediaBay

553 Define Locations Section

554 Scanning Your Content

554 Updating the MediaBay

555 Locations Section

557 Results Section

562 Previewer Section

568 Filters Section

573 Attribute Inspector

578 Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini

Browser

579 MediaBay Settings

580 MediaBay Key Commands

581 Working with MediaBay-Related Windows

583 Working With Volume Databases

586 Surround Sound (Cubase Pro only)

587 Deliverables

587 Available surround configurations

588 Preparations

590 Using the SurroundPanner V5

602 Using the MixConvert V6 plug-in

602 Exporting a surround mix

603 Automation

603 Automation Curves

603 Static Value Line

604 Write/Read Automation

604 Writing Automation Data

607 Editing Automation Events

611 Automation Tracks

612 Virgin Territory vs. Initial Value (Cubase Pro

only)

613 Automation Panel (Cubase Pro only)

625 MIDI Controller Automation

629 VST Instruments

629 VST Instruments Window

632 Adding VST Instruments

633 Presets for Instruments

635 VST Quick Controls

637 Playing Back VST Instruments

639 About Latency

640 Import and Export Options

642 External Instruments (Cubase Pro only)

643 Installing and Managing Plug-ins

643 Installing VST plug-ins

644 Plug-in Manager

647 Compiling a New Effects Collection

648 Track Quick Controls

648 Assigning Parameters to Quick Controls

653 Connecting Quick Controls with Remote

Controllers

654 Activating Pick-up Mode for Hardware

Controls

654 Quick Controls and Automatable

Parameters

656 Remote controlling Cubase

656 Setting Up

658 Operations

660 The Generic Remote device

664 Track Quick Controls

664 The Remote Control Editor

671 Apple Remote (Macintosh only)

672 MIDI Realtime

672 MIDI Track Parameters

675 MIDI Modifiers

680 MIDI Effects

684 Transpose and Velocity in the Info Line

7

685 Using MIDI devices

685 MIDI devices – general settings and patch

handling

694 About Device panels (Cubase Pro only)

698 MIDI Processing

698 MIDI functions vs. MIDI modifiers

699 What is affected by the MIDI functions?

699 Transpose

700 Making your settings permanent

703 Dissolve Part

705 Bounce MIDI

705 Repeat Loop

706 Other MIDI functions

712 MIDI Editors

713 Opening MIDI Data in a MIDI Editor

713 Changing the Default MIDI Editor

714 Common MIDI Editor Functions

722 Key Editor

731 Key Editor Operations

753 Basic Score Editor (Cubase Artist only)

759 Score Editor Operations (Cubase Artist

only)

768 Drum Editor

779 Drum Editor Operations

784 Drum Maps

789 Drum Name Lists

789 List Editor

797 List Editor Operations

800 In-Place Editor

802 SysEx Messages

807 Expression maps (Cubase Pro only)

807 Introduction

809 Using expression maps

814 Creating and editing expression maps

821 Note Expression

821 Introduction

823 Setting up the Note Expression Inspector

tab

826 Mapping controllers

828 Recording

831 Editing Note Expression data

837 Note Expression and MIDI

842 HALion Sonic SE

843 Chord Functions

843 Chord Track

844 Chord Events

852 Scale Events

853 Voicings

856 Converting Chord Events to MIDI

857 Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback using

the Chord Track

861 Assigning Voices to Notes

862 Extracting Chord Events from MIDI

863 Recording Chord Events with a MIDI

Keyboard

865 Chord Pads

865 Chord Pads Zone

868 Functions Menu

869 Preparations

870 Chord Assistant

872 Assigning Chords to Chord Pads

876 Moving and Copying Chord Pads

876 Playing Back and Recording Chords

878 Chord Pad Settings – Remote Control

883 Chord Pad Settings – Players

890 Chord Pad Settings – Pad Layout

891 Chord Pads Presets

892 Creating Events from Chord Pads

893 The Logical Editor

893 Introduction

894 Opening the Logical Editor

894 Window overview

895 Setting up filter conditions

905 Selecting a function

906 Specifying actions

910 Applying the defined actions

910 Working with presets

912 Project Logical Editor (Cubase Pro only)

913 Opening the Project Logical Editor

913 Window overview

914 Setting up filter conditions

924 Specifying actions

927 Selecting a function

928 Applying Macros

928 Applying the defined actions

929 Working with presets

8

931 Editing Tempo and Time Signature

931 Project Tempo Modes

931 Track Time Base

932 Tempo Track Editor

934 Tempo Track

935 Setting up Tempo Changes for Projects

942 Setting up a Fixed Project Tempo

944 Beat Calculator

945 Tempo Detection (Cubase Pro only)

947 Exporting a Tempo Track (Cubase Pro only)

947 Importing a Tempo Track (Cubase Pro only)

947 Process Tempo (Cubase Pro only)

949 Process Bars (Cubase Pro only)

950 Time Warp (Cubase Pro only)

951 Set Definition From Tempo

953 Project Browser (Cubase Pro only)

953 Window Overview

955 Editing tracks

965 Export Audio Mixdown

965 Introduction

966 Mixing down to audio files

967 The Export Audio Mixdown dialog

973 The available file formats

980 Synchronization

980 Background

981 Timecode (positional references)

984 Clock sources (speed references)

985 The Project Synchronization Setup dialog

990 Synchronized operation

991 Example Scenarios (Cubase Pro only)

992 Working with VST System Link

997 Activating VST System Link

1005 Video

1005 Before You Start

1008 Preparing a Video Project

1011 Playing Back Video

1015 Editing Video

1015 Extracting Audio From a Video File

1016 Replacing the Audio in a Video File

1017 ReWire

1017 Introduction

1018 Launching and quitting

1019 Activating ReWire channels

1019 Using the transport and tempo controls

1020 How the ReWire channels are handled

1021 Routing MIDI via ReWire

1021 Considerations and limitations

1022 Key Commands

1022 Introduction

1023 Setting up key commands

1028 Setting up tool modifier keys

1028 The default key commands

1037 File handling

1037 Importing audio

1043 Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase

Pro only)

1046 Exporting and importing standard MIDI files

1050 Exporting and importing MIDI loops

1051 Exporting and importing track

archives (Cubase Pro only)

1054 Track Import from Projects

1058 Customizing

1058 Workspaces

1062 Using the Setup options

1064 Appearance

1068 Applying colors in the Project window

1072 Where are the settings stored?

1074 Profiles (Cubase Pro only)

1080 Optimizing

1080 Optimizing Audio Performance

1086 Preferences

1086 Preferences Dialog

1088 Appearance

1089 Editing

1098 Event Display

1103 General

1104 MIDI

1110 MediaBay

1110 Metering

1111 Record

1114 Scores (Cubase Pro only)

1116 Transport

1118 VST

1123 VariAudio (Cubase Pro only)

1123 Video

1124 Part II - Score Layout and

Printing (Cubase Pro only)

1125 How the Score Editor works

1125 About this chapter

1125 Welcome!

1125 How the Score Editor operates

1126 MIDI notes vs. score notes

1126 Display Quantize

1130 Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes

9

1131 The basics

1131 About this chapter

1131 Preparations

1132 Opening the Score Editor

1133 The project cursor

1133 Playing back and recording

1133 Page Mode

1135 Changing the zoom factor

1136 The active staff

1136 Making page setup settings

1137 Designing your work space

1141 About the Score Editor context menus

1141 About dialogs in the Score Editor

1142 Setting clef, key, and time signature

1150 Transposing instruments

1151 Printing from the Score Editor

1151 Exporting pages as image files

1152 Working order

1153 Force update

1154 Transcribing MIDI recordings

1154 About this chapter

1154 About transcription

1154 Getting the parts ready

1155 Preparing parts for score printout

1156 Staff settings

1156 Situations which require additional

techniques

1157 Inserting Display Quantize changes

1159 The Explode function

1160 Using "Scores Notes To MIDI"

1162 Entering and editing notes

1162 About this chapter

1162 Score settings

1164 Note values and positions

1167 Adding and editing notes

1170 Selecting notes

1172 Moving notes

1175 Duplicating notes

1175 Cut, copy, and paste

1176 Editing pitches of individual notes

1178 Changing the length of notes

1180 Splitting a note in two

1180 Working with the Display Quantize tool

1181 Split (piano) staves

1182 Strategies: Multiple staves

1183 Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time

signatures

1185 Deleting notes

1186 Staff settings

1186 About this chapter

1186 Staff settings

1187 Making settings

1187 Working with staff presets

1188 Staff names

1189 Key and clef

1189 Display Quantize and Interpretation

Options

1193 Display Transpose

1194 The Options tab

1196 The Polyphonic tab

1196 The Tablature tab

1197 Polyphonic voicing

1197 About this chapter

1197 Background: Polyphonic voicing

1199 Setting up the voices

1202 Strategies: How many voices do I need?

1202 Entering notes into voices

1203 Checking which voice a note belongs to

1203 Moving notes between voices

1205 Handling rests

1206 Voices and Display Quantize

1207 Creating crossed voicings

1209 Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All

Staves

1210 Converting voices to tracks – Extract

Voices

1211 Additional note and rest formatting

1211 About this chapter

1211 Background: Note stems

1212 Setting stem direction

1214 Stem length

1215 Accidentals and enharmonic shift

1217 Changing the note head shape

1217 Other note details

1220 Coloring notes

1222 Copying settings between notes

1222 Handling beaming

1230 About tied notes

1232 Graphic moving of notes

1233 Cue notes

1234 Grace notes

1236 Tuplets

10

1240 Working with symbols

1240 About this chapter

1240 Background: The different layers

1242 The Symbols Inspector

1246 Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices

1246 Adding symbols to the score

1258 Selecting symbols

1260 Moving and duplicating symbols

1265 Changing length, size, and shape

1267 Deleting symbols

1267 Copy and paste

1267 Alignment

1268 Symbol details

1280 Working with chords

1280 About this chapter

1280 Inserting chord symbols

1283 Global chord settings

1285 Working with text

1285 About this chapter

1285 Adding and editing text symbols

1290 Different types of text

1298 Text functions

1303 Working with layouts

1303 About this chapter

1303 Background: Layouts

1304 Creating a layout

1304 Opening a layout

1305 Layout operations

1306 Using layouts – an example

1307 Marker Track to Form

1308 Working with MusicXML

1308 Introduction

1310 Importing and exporting MusicXML files

1313 Designing your score: additional

techniques

1313 About this chapter

1313 Layout settings

1316 Staff size

1317 Hiding/showing objects

1319 Coloring notes

1319 Multiple rests

1321 Editing existing bar lines

1321 Creating upbeats

1323 Setting the number of bars across the page

1325 Moving bar lines

1326 Dragging staves

1329 Adding brackets and braces

1330 Displaying the Chord Symbols from the

Chord Track

1330 Auto Layout

1333 Reset Layout

1334 Breaking bar lines

1337 Scoring for drums

1337 About this chapter

1337 Background: Drum maps in the Score

Editor

1338 Setting up the drum map

1341 Setting up a staff for drum scoring

1341 Entering and editing notes

1341 Using “Single Line Drum Staff”

1343 Creating tablature

1343 About this chapter

1343 Creating tablature automatically

1345 Creating tablature manually

1346 Tablature number appearance

1346 Editing

1347 Note head shape

1348 The score and MIDI playback

1348 About this chapter

1348 Scores and the Arranger mode

1349 Working with mapped dynamics

1353 Tips and Tricks

1353 Overview

1353 Useful editing techniques

1356 Frequently asked questions

1361 If you wish you had a faster computer

1362 Index

11

Introduction

The documentation covers the following Steinberg products: Cubase Pro and

Cubase Artist.

Functions that are only available in Cubase Pro and not in Cubase Artist, are clearly

indicated. The screenshots are taken from Cubase Pro.

About the Program Versions

The documentation covers the operating systems Windows and Mac OS X.

Features and settings that are specific to one of these platforms are clearly

indicated. In all other cases, the descriptions and procedures in the documentation

are valid for Windows and Mac OS X.

Some points to consider:

• The screenshots are taken from a Windows operating system.

• Some functions that are available on the File menu on Windows operating

systems can be found in the program name menu on Mac OS X operating

systems.

About the Help and the Documentation

The documentation consists of an online help and documents in PDF format.

• To open the online help for a dialog, open the dialog and click Help.

• To open a PDF in the program, select Help > Documentation, and select a

PDF document from the menu.

NOTE

To read the PDF documents, a PDF reader application must be installed on your

computer.

Quick Start Guide

Covers the following areas without going into details:

Introduction

Conventions

12

• System requirements, installation procedure, and license activation.

• Setting up your system for audio and MIDI work.

Operation Manual

The main reference documentation, with detailed descriptions of operations,

par

ameters, functions, and techniques.

Remote Control Devices

Lists the supported MIDI remote control devices.

Plug-in Reference

Describes the features and parameters of the included VST plug-ins, VST

in

struments, and MIDI effects.

HALion Sonic SE

Describes the features and para

meters of the included VST

instrument HALion Sonic SE.

Groove Agent SE

Describes the features and parameters of the included VST instrument

Groove Agent SE.

MIDI Devices

Describes how to mana

ge MIDI Devices and device panels.

VST Connect SE (Cubase Pro only)

Describes how to work with the VST Connect SE features.

Conventions

In our documentation, we use typographical elements and mark-ups to structure

information.

Typographical Elements

The following typographical elements mark the following purposes.

PREREQUISITE

Requires you to complete an action or to

fulfill a condition before starting a

procedure.

PROCEDURE

Lists the steps that you must take to achieve a specific result.

Introduction

Key Commands

13

IMPORTANT

Informs you about issues that might affect the system, the connected

hardware, or that might bring a risk of data loss.

NOTE

Informs you about issues that you should consider.

EXAMPLE

Provides you with an example.

RESULT

Shows the result of the procedure.

AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK

Informs you about actions or tasks that you can undertake after completing

the procedure.

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