Steinberg Cubase 4 Getting Started Manual

							12
Tutorial 9: Media management 
						

							82
Tutorial 9: Media management
Background
The MediaBay is an area in Cubase that helps to find, 
identify, tag and organize your sounds (VST 3 Presets and 
track presets), audio/MIDI loops, video and project files.
You’ll hear and read about two different terms associated 
with the MediaBay: SoundFrame and MediaBay.
SoundFrame is the overall concept of managing the ever-
growing number of plug-ins, instruments, presets, etc. The 
tool that links all of the plug-ins, instruments and presets 
together is the MediaBay.
Why is the MediaBay important to me?
The MediaBay:
 Provides different views allowing you to find and tag media 
files, quickly import media files into projects. Media files in-
clude: audio files, MIDI files, MIDI loops and video.
 Allows you to find sounds easily so that you can begin working 
on your music quickly without endlessly searching for the 
‘right’ instrument.
 Allows you to find and apply audio, MIDI and instrument pre-
sets quickly to your tracks.
 Shows you all of the Cubase project files that are on your 
computer to quickly load them.
 MediaBay frees you from thinking in a folder structure or by in-
strument. Just think about the sound you are looking for and 
find it across your entire library.
MediaBay, Loop Browser and Sound 
Browser
There are three menu options on the Media menu that al-
low you to call up the various MediaBay views.
It really doesn’t matter which one you pick as they all pro-
vide the same functionality. The reason you would pick 
one from the other is that they have various buttons and 
features turned on or off so that you can easily find what 
you are looking for.
For example, if you are looking for loops you would select 
the Loop Browser as this has been pre-configured for 
searching specifically for loops. Or if you were looking for 
Track Presets or VST Plug-in Presets, the Sound Browser 
would suit you best.
To open the MediaBay
We are going to use the MediaBay view as this view has 
been pre-configured to allow all of the controls by default 
to be visible. Everything we learn in the MediaBay can be 
applied to the Loop or Sound Browser.
!Load the project “Media Management” found in the 
“Tutorial 9” folder.
MediaBay, 
Loop Browser, 
Sound Browser 
						

							83
Tutorial 9: Media management
1.On the Media menu, select “Open MediaBay” and 
click on the Category tab or press [F5] on your computer 
keyboard.
The MediaBay by default opens with the Details tab activated. For the 
purpose of this tutorial, the Category tab will be needed.
Making visible the different sections of the 
MediaBay
At the bottom left hand side of the MediaBay window 
there are 3 buttons allowing you to show/hide the different 
MediaBay sections. These are:



1.Hide the Browser, Scope and Tag Editor sections.
We are left with the Viewer display and Filter section. These two sections 
allow us to view and find files.
2.Show the Browser section.
This is where you can specify locations on your computer so that the 
MediaBay can find all of your media files.
Category tab
Browser, Scope and Tag Editor
Viewer display
Filter section
Browser section
Click here to show/hide the Browser section 
						

							84
Tutorial 9: Media management
3.Show the Scope section.
The Scope section allows you to view and play back files selected in the 
Viewer section.
4.Show the Tag Editor section (Cubase only).
When a file is selected in the Viewer section, you can view and/or assign 
tags to the file to make organizing and searching for the file easier.
Scanning with the browser
When you open the MediaBay, the Loop Browser or the 
Sound Browser, a scan for the media files is performed. 
Specify which folders or directories should be included in 
the scan by activating their check boxes to the left of the 
name. The result of the scan is saved in the MediaBay da-
tabase.
Physical and virtual scanning locations
There are 2 different locations that you can scan for media 
files on your computer. The File system location and the 
Sound Frame location.
File System
The File system locations are the physical or actual loca-
tions on your computer. These locations include local and 
removable disks such as hard drives, external drives, CD 
or DVD-ROM drives, etc.
By default File system is checked, however, it contains 
many locations you would not want scanned. Be sure to 
check which areas/folders you want MediaBay to manage. 
The areas/folders that you pick will automatically be 
scanned and the result of that scan can be seen in the 
Viewer section.
Sound Frame
The Sound Frame locations are the virtual locations on 
your computer to any factory content or user presets cre-
ated for plug-ins, instruments or MIDI-loops. Make sure 
that this is not turned off.
Choosing scanning locations
Generally you’ll want to make sure that SoundFrame is al-
ways checked since this is the factory content or content 
that either came with Cubase or other compatible product 
such as Steinberg’s Sequel. This is also the location of 
any user presets that were created.
Click here to show/hide the Scope sectionScope section
Tag Editor section 
						

							85
Tutorial 9: Media management
1.Click the plus symbol on File system to reveal its scan-
ning locations.
These are the physical locations on your computer that you can specify 
so that MediaBay will search for media content. Be sure to check the ar-
eas/folders that you want the MediaBay to scan.
2.Click the plus symbol on SoundFrame to reveal the 
scanning locations found there.
There are many locations that do not need to be checked. 
Spend the time un-checking the locations you feel do not 
need to be searched. By doing this the MediaBay is kept 
clean of any useless information which speeds up 
searches and general handling.
If you are in doubt about any of the locations, don’t worry 
– just leave them checked.
Selecting a location (folder) automatically initiates a scan 
and updates the database.
Deep Results
Before we begin the scan of all our media on the com-
puter, make sure the “Deep Results” button is activated.
Activating “Deep Results” will show any files inside the 
currently selected folder, as well as any sub folder in a 
“flat” view - as if they were inside the same folder. This al-
lows you to look at your media files sorted by attributes, 
even if they reside in a complex folder structure.
1.Right-click on Media and select “Refresh” from the 
context menu to begin scanning.
This starts the scanning process and now the MediaBay is looking for 
media on your computer within the locations you have specified.
Deep Results 
						

							86
Tutorial 9: Media management
Scanning indicator and status
When the MediaBay is scanning for media on your com-
puter, a visual indicator in the upper right hand corner of 
the Viewer section will be displayed.
The scanning status for the individual folders in the 
Browser section is indicated by the color of the icons:
 A red icon means that this folder is currently being scanned.
 A light blue icon means this folder has been scanned.
 Orange folder icons are displayed when a scanning process 
was interrupted.
 Yellow icons are displayed for folders that have not been 
scanned.
Searching for media
Now that we have selected the folders on our computer 
and scanned for media we can now search for an audio 
file and drop it into our project.We are now going to shift our attention to the Viewer sec-
tion. The Viewer section consists of two panes: the filter 
section at the top and below it, the Viewer display.
1.Choose a main category from the filter section (like 
“Drum/Perc”).This will show us any files that have been tagged with the category Drum 
& Perc. See “Tagging” on page 88.
!You should still have the project called “Media Man-
agement” loaded for this tutorial.
Scanning indicator
Viewer display
Filter section 
						

							87
Tutorial 9: Media management
2.Choose a sub category if appropriate (like “Beats”).
This allows us to narrow down our search even more.
There is a list of drum loops that are now available to us in 
the Viewer display with our filter criteria. We can simply 
drag and drop any of these audio files into our project. Al-
ternatively we could use the Text Search field and search 
for a media file by name.
Auditioning media with the Scope
We have narrowed down our search to just drum beats 
and now we want to audition our results before we drop it 
into our project.
1.Show the Scope section and select an audio file from 
the Viewer display.
You will see the Scope display the audio file as a waveform.
You can start, stop, pause and cycle the audio file to hear 
what it sounds like. You can also set the preview level.
It’s a good idea to hear our project playing while we audi-
tion our audio loop.
2.Activate Play in Project context.
The loop will now play along with our project in the project tempo.
3.Activate Auto Play.
With Auto Play activated we can click on many different audio files in the 
Viewer display and audition them quickly.
4.Click Start on the Transport panel.
The project will begin to play and the audio files you have selected in the 
Viewer display will play along in time with the project.
5.Click on different audio files to find the one that works 
best with the project.
You can use the up and down arrow keys on your computer keyboard to 
quickly audition many files.
6.When you have selected the file you wish to use, drag 
and drop it right into the project.
You don’t have to click Stop, the project will continue to play and the Me-
diaBay will stop auditioning the file automatically.
Text Search field
Click here to show/hide the Scope section. The Scope section displaying an audio file.
Preview level (Volume)Start, stop, pause and cycle
Play in Project context
Auto Play 
						

							88
Tutorial 9: Media management
Tagging
You are able to add musical tags to your media files so 
that you are able to quickly organize and find your media 
files for later use. Tagging also helps you to group large 
amounts of media into a more usable and searchable for-
mat.
1.Show the Tag Editor section and select one or multiple 
files in the Viewer section.
2.Select the Managed tab.
You can apply tags by clicking (double-clicking for Char-
acter) in the field next to the attribute name.
The next time you search for media using the search filters 
(category, sub category, style, etc.) you’ll see the media 
you have tagged appear in the viewer section along with 
the other similar tagged media.For even greater search capabilities and organization you 
can open the Manage Tags window and define even more 
tags for your media files.
For further details refer to the MediaBay chapter in the 
Operation manual.
Click here to show/hide the Tag Editor section.
Attribute name
Select the Managed tab
Click here to open the Manage Tags window. 
						

							Index 
						

							90
Index
A
Adding
EQ 61
Loops 52
Mono Track 26
Adding a fade 39
Advanced settings 22
All MIDI Inputs 20
ASIO 2.0 18
ASIO Direct Monitoring 18
ASIO driver
About 10
DirectX 10
DirectX Setup 10, 17
Installing 11
Audio
Editing 33
Processing 40
Recording 23
Audio buffer size 22
Audio hardware
Connections 14
Setup application 15
Automation
About 64
B
Browser
Scanning 84
Bus
Surround 69
C
Click
Activating 27
Close
Project 25
Connecting
Audio 14
MIDI 18
Controller lane 50
Copying 37
Events 53
MIDI notes 49Cycle
Playback 29
Recording 30
Recording (MIDI) 47
D
Defragmenting
Windows 12
E
Editing
Adding a fade 39
Audio 33
Copying 37
Erasing 39
Gluing 36
MIDI 42
Moving 37
Mute 38
Renaming 34
Repeating 38
Resizing 34
Splitting 35
Effects 63
About 58
FX channels 63
Insert 63
EQ 61
Equalization 61
Erasing 39
Event envelopes 39
Event operations
About 34
Adding a fade 39
Copying 37
Erasing 39
Gluing 36
Moving 37
Muting 38
Renaming 34
Repeating 38
Resizing 34
Splitting 35
Volume changes 39
Export 73
Mixdown 65
Surround 73External instruments
About 54
Monitoring 56
Recording 57
Setting up 55
F
FX channels 63
G
Gluing 36
H
Hard disk
Considerations 21
I
Input
Adding 26
Level 15
Ports 17
Setup Surround 69
Insert effects 63
Instrument Track
Creating 43
J
Joining 36
K
Key command conventions 7
Key Editor
About 48
L
Latency 21
Levels 59
Setting 26, 27
Loading Sounds 44
Local On/Off 19
Loop Browser 82
About 52
Insert into Project 53
Loops
Adding 52
Working with 51