Steinberg Cubase 4 Getting Started Manual
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Tutorials by Steve Kostrey Revision and Quality Control: 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 either 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: October 19, 2007 © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2007. All rights reserved.
4 Table of Contents 5Introduction 6Welcome 6About the manuals and the help 7About the program versions 7Key command conventions 7How you can reach us 8System requirements and installation 9About this chapter 9Minimum requirements 10Hardware installation 12Installing Cubasew 12Defragmenting the hard disk (Windows only) 12Register your software 13Setting up your system 14Setting up audio 18Setting up MIDI 20Connecting a synchronizer 20Setting up video 21Optimizing audio performance 23Tutorial 1: Recording audio 24Creating a new project 25Setting up the VST Connections 26Level settings and recording 29Playback 30Recording modes with cycle off 30Cycle recording 31Stacked recording 33Tutorial 2: Editing audio 34Event operations 39Event envelopes 40Processing audio 42Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI 43Introduction 43Creating an Instrument Track 44Browsing sounds 45MIDI recording 46MIDI playback 46Recording modes with cycle off 47Cycle recording 48The Key Editor 50The Controller lane 51Tutorial 4: Working with loops 52Loop Browser 52Adding loops 53Making copies 53Insert into Project 54Tutorial 5: External MIDI instruments 55Introduction 55Setting up MIDI devices 55Setting up VST connections for external instru- ments (Cubase only) 56Monitoring external MIDI instruments (Cubase only) 57Recording MIDI and external instruments (Cubase only) 58Tutorial 6: Mixing and effects 59Introduction 59Setting levels 60Setting pan 60Mute and solo 61Adding EQ 63Audio effects 64About automation 65Exporting 68Tutorial 7: Surround production (Cubase only) 69Surround busses 71Setting up a surround mix 72Recording in surround 73Exporting a surround file 75Tutorial 8: Editing audio II - tempo and groove 76Background 76Example 1: Drum loop, tempo known 77Example 2: Drum loop, Auto Adjust 78Example 3: Drum loop, Manual Adjust 80Example 4: Working with selections 81Tutorial 9: Media management 82Background 82MediaBay, Loop Browser and Sound Browser 84Scanning with the browser 86Searching for media 87Auditioning media with the Scope 88Tagging 89Index
6 Introduction Welcome Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Stein- berg Cubase. You have now become a member of the worlds largest community of music production software us- ers. Looking back at more than 20 years of innovation in computer-based music production, Steinberg has always been the driving force behind software technology and Cu- base is the benchmark for this development. With Version 4, Cubase is taking the next evolutionary step towards a to- tally integrated software and hardware system. As a composer, musician or producer, you want to be work- ing with sounds instead of isolated instruments or effects. In Cubase and Cubase Studio, this is accommodated with the introduction of SoundFrame, a unique combination of a database, track presets and an integrated synth engine. From now on, you will be able to manage all your sounds from all your instruments (software or hardware) within a single environment. You can create, manage and access your sounds faster and more intuitively than ever. If your mu- sic is heavily based on loops or prefabricated audio clips, you can use the new MediaBay database in a similar fash- ion to browse and preview your loops. A brand-new effects plug-in set and a powerful synth engine provide you with thousands of new instruments, sounds and effects. Cubase and Cubase Studio also introduce Steinbergs latest-gen- eration plug-in technology, VST3. It makes plug-ins more flexible, more efficient and easier to use. As a professional producer, you will enjoy the flexibility of Cubases new control room section. If your are a composer or songwriter, you will be impressed with Cubase Studios powerful yet easy-to-use new score layout and printing fea- tures. Combine this with unique Cubase features such as the Arranger Track for pattern-based arranging or the pow- erful and now enhanced AudioWarp technology, which frees your static audio files from being locked to time or pitch. All this has been designed to make your life easier, no matter if you make music for a living or as a hobby. Take some time to find your way around in this new ver- sion of Cubase. If you are a first-time user, you will find a lot of help in the tutorial section, which is included in this manual. It comes with matching Cubase project files and even short training videos, which you will find on your pro-gram DVD. Even if you are already familiar with Cubase, it makes sense to study these tutorials in order to learn about some of the new features in Cubase and Cubase Studio, and how they are integrated. Last but not least, we strongly recommend to register your software! It gives you access to special offers from Stein- berg and ensures that you are always up-to-date on the lat- est news about tips and tricks, updates or special events. Finally, you are also invited to join our Cubase user forum at www.steinberg.net, which is the best way to communicate directly with us and other Cubase users around the world. See you around! The Steinberg Cubase Team About the manuals and the help The Cubase documentation is divided into several sec- tions, as listed below. Some of the documents are in Adobe Acrobat format (extension “.pdf”) – these can be accessed in the following ways: You can open the pdf documents from the Documentation submenu on the Help menu in the program. Under Windows you can also open these documents from the Cubase Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu. Under Mac OS X the pdf documents are located in the folder “/Library/Documentation/Steinberg/Cubase 4”. ÖTo read the pdf documents, you need to have a suit- able pdf reader application installed on your computer. An installer for Adobe Reader is provided on the program DVD. The Getting Started book This is the book you are reading now. The Getting Started book covers the following areas: Computer requirements. Installation issues. Setting up your system for audio, MIDI and/or video work. Tutorials describing the most common procedures for record- ing, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase. In other words, this book does not go into detail on any Cubase windows, functions or procedures.
7 Introduction The Operation Manual The Operation Manual is the main Cubase reference docu- mentation, with detailed descriptions of Cubase operations, parameters, functions and techniques. It also includes de- tailed information about the Score Editor. You should be fa- miliar with the concepts and methods described in the Getting Started book before moving on to the Operation Manual. MIDI Devices This pdf document contains descriptions of how to man- age MIDI Devices and device panels. Plug-in Reference This manual describes the features and parameters of the included VST plug-ins, real-time audio effects and VST In- struments and the MIDI effects. Remote Control Devices This pdf document lists the supported MIDI remote control devices and describes how to set them up and use them with Cubase. Mackie Control This pdf document describes the supported features for the Mackie Control remote device. Menu Reference This pdf document provides a list of all menus and their options with a brief description, for quick reference. The dialog help To get information about the active dialog, click its Help button. 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: ÖIf nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for both Cubase and Cu- base 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] under 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] un- der Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then press [Z]”. Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]+[X] means “press [Alt] under Windows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”. ÖPlease note that this manual often refers to “right- clicking”, e. g. to open context menus, etc. If you are using a Macintosh computer with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click. How you can reach us On the Help menu in Cubase you will find items for getting additional information and help: •On the “Steinberg on the Web” submenu, you can find links to various Steinberg web sites. Selecting one will au- tomatically launch your browser application and open the page. You can find support and compatibility information, answers to frequently asked questions, links for downloading new drivers, etc. This requires that you have a web browser application installed on your computer, and a working Internet connection.
9 System requirements and installation About this chapter This chapter describes the requirements and installation procedures for the Windows version and the Mac version of Cubase. Minimum requirements To use Cubase, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements: Windows Windows XP (Home or Professional), or Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit – see below) Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz processor Windows DirectX compatible audio hardware; ASIO compatible audio hardware recommended for low latency performance. Display resolution of 1024x768 pixels Steinberg Key and USB component connector DVD ROM drive required for installation Internet connection required for license activation Macintosh Mac OS X 10.4 Power Mac G4 1 GHz or Core Solo 1.5 GHz Display resolution of 1024x768 pixels CoreAudio compatible audio hardware Steinberg Key and USB component connector DVD ROM drive required for installation Internet connection required for license activation ÖIf you want to install the 64-bit version of Cubase, make sure you read the ReadMe document on this topic before proceeding. You will find this document, called “Windows_Vista_64bit_[lan- guage].rtf”, on the installation DVD, in the ReadMe Files folder. General notes on how to set up your system RAM – There is a direct relation between the amount of available RAM and the number of audio channels that you can have running. The amount of RAM specified above is the minimum requirement, but as a general rule “the more the better” applies. Hard disk size – The size of the hard disk determines how many minutes of audio you will be able to record. Recording one minute of stereo CD quality audio requires 10 MB of hard disk space. That is, eight stereo tracks in Cubase use up at least 80 MB of disk space per recording minute. Hard disk speed – The speed of the hard drive also de- termines the number of audio tracks you can run. That is the quantity of information that the disk can read, usually expressed as “sustained transfer rate”. Again, “the more the better” applies. Wheel mouse – Although a regular mouse will work fine with Cubase, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse. This will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably. MIDI requirements If you intend to use the MIDI features of Cubase, you need the following: A MIDI interface to connect external MIDI equipment to your computer. Any audio equipment required to listen to the sound from your MIDI devices. Audio hardware Cubase will run with audio hardware that meets the fol- lowing specifications: Support of at least the 44.1kHz sampling rate. Windows – The audio hardware must be supplied with a spe- cial ASIO driver, or a DirectX compatible driver, see below. Mac – The audio hardware must be supplied with Mac OS X- compatible drivers (CoreAudio or ASIO). !On the Steinberg web site, under “Support–DAW Components”, you can find detailed information on what to consider when setting up a computer system dedicated to audio work.
10 System requirements and installation Using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh (Mac only) Although Cubase is designed with multi-channel input and output in mind, it’s of course possible to use the pro- gram with “basic” stereo inputs and outputs. As of this writing, all current Macintosh models provide at least built- in 16 bit stereo audio hardware. For detailed information, refer to the documentation describing your computer. Depending on your preferences and requirements, using the built-in audio hardware may be sufficient for use with Cubase. It is always available for selection in Cubase – you don’t need to install any additional drivers. About drivers A driver is a piece of software that allows a program to communicate with a certain piece of hardware. In this case, the driver allows Cubase to use the audio hardware. For audio hardware, there are two different cases, requir- ing different driver configurations: If the audio hardware has a specific ASIO driver Professional audio cards often come with an ASIO driver written especially for the card. This allows for communica- tion directly between Cubase and the audio card. As a re- sult, audio cards with specific ASIO drivers can provide lower latency (input-output delay), which is crucial when monitoring audio via Cubase or using VST Instruments. The ASIO driver may also provide special support for mul- tiple inputs and outputs, routing, synchronization, etc. Audio card-specific ASIO drivers are provided by the card manufacturers. Make sure to check the manufacturer’s web site for the latest driver versions. If the audio card communicates via DirectX (Windows only) DirectX is a Microsoft “package” for handling various types of multimedia data under Windows. Cubase sup- ports DirectX, or to be more precise, DirectSound, which is a part of DirectX used for playing back and recording audio. This requires two types of drivers: A DirectX driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with DirectX. If the audio card supports DirectX, this driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer. If it isn’t installed with the audio card, please check the manufacturer’s web site for more information. The ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, allowing Cubase to com- municate with DirectX. This driver is included with Cubase, and does not require any special installation. Hardware installation The Steinberg Key Included with the Cubase package, you will find the Stein- berg Key (also referred to as a “dongle” or “eLicenser”), a hardware copy protection device that is part of the Cu- base copy protection scheme. Cubase will not run if there is no Steinberg Key. The Steinberg Key The Steinberg Key is, in fact, a little computer on which your Steinberg software licenses are stored. All hardware- protected Steinberg products use the same type of key, and you can store more than one license on one key. Also, licenses can (within certain limits) be transferred between keys – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a piece of software. !Some Macintosh models have audio outputs but no inputs. This means that you can only play back audio – recording is not possible without additional audio hardware. !If your audio hardware comes with a specific ASIO driver we strongly recommend that you use this. !Please read the following section before installing the Cubase software.