Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual
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Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer 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 10Part I: Getting into the details 11About this manual 12Welcome! 13VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 14About this chapter 14Setting up busses 17Using the busses 20Setting up Groups and FX channels 20About monitoring 20External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 25The Project window 26Background 28Window Overview 35Operations 56Options 59Playback and the Transport panel 60Background 61Operations 63Options and Settings 65Recording 66Background 66Basic recording methods 68Audio recording specifics 79MIDI recording specifics 84Options and Settings 86Recovery of audio recordings after system failure 87Fades, crossfades and envelopes 88Creating fades 90The Fade dialogs 91Creating crossfades 92The Crossfade dialog 93Auto Fades and Crossfades 94Event Envelopes 95The Arranger track 96Introduction 96Setting up the Arranger track 97Working with arranger events 99Flattening the Arranger chain 100Live Mode 101Arranging your music to video 102Folder tracks 103About folder tracks 103Handling folder tracks 104Working with folder parts 106Using markers 107About markers 107The Marker window 108Using the Marker track 110Marker key commands 110Editing markers in the Project Browser 111The Transpose functions 112Introduction 112Transposing your music 115Other functions 118The mixer 119About this chapter 120Overview 122Configuring the mixer 126The audio-related channel strips 127The MIDI channel strips 127The common panel 128The input and output channels 128Basic mixing procedures 132Audio specific procedures 139MIDI specific procedures 140Utilities 143VST Mixer Diagrams 146Control Room (Cubase only) 147Background 148Configuring the Control Room 151The Control Room Overview 151The Control Room Mixer 153Control Room operations 158Studios and Studio Sends 161Direct Monitoring and latency
5 Table of Contents 162Audio effects 163About this chapter 163Overview 164Insert effects 169Send effects 170Setting up send effects 174Using the Side-Chain input 175Using external effects (Cubase only) 176Making settings for the effects 176Effect presets 179Installing and managing effect plug-ins 182VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 183Introduction 183VST Instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 183VST Instrument channels 185Instrument tracks 187Comparison 187Automation considerations 188What do I need? Instrument channel or Instrument track? 188Instrument Freeze 189VST instruments and processor load 190Using presets for VSTi configuration 193About latency 194External instruments (Cubase only) 195Surround sound (Cubase only) 196Background 198Operations 203Automation 204Background 205What can be automated? 206Automation track operations 209Using Write/Read automation 212Working with automation curves 215Tips and common methods 215Options and Settings 216Audio processing and functions 217Background 217Audio processing 226Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 227The Offline Process History dialog 228Freeze Edits 229Detect Silence 230The Spectrum Analyzer (Cubase only) 231Statistics (Cubase only) 233The Sample Editor 234Background 235Window overview 240General Operations 245Options and settings 246Audio Warp realtime processing/Tempo matching audio to the project tempo 252Working with hitpoints and slices 259Free Warp 262Realtime pitch-shifting of audio events 262Flattening the realtime processing 264The Audio Part Editor 265Background 265Opening the Audio Part Editor 265Window overview 267Operations 268Common methods 269Options and Settings 270The Pool 271Background 271Window overview 274Operations 284SoundFrame 285Introduction 287The MediaBay 288Introduction 289Window overview 289Browsing for media files 292Finding files in the Viewer section 295Previewing files in the Scope section 296The Tag Editor (Cubase only) 298Media management 300Track Presets 301Introduction 301Types of track presets 303VST presets 304Browsing for presets 306Creating a track preset 306Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets 307Applying track presets 309Previewing track and VST presets 310Inserts and EQ settings from track presets
6 Table of Contents 311Track Quick Controls 312Introduction 312Setting up the Quick Controls tab 313Options and settings 314Setting up quick controls on an external remote controller 315MIDI realtime parameters and effects 316Introduction 316The Inspector – General handling 317Basic track settings 319MIDI Modifiers 321MIDI effects 323Managing plug-ins 324MIDI processing and quantizing 325Introduction 325The Quantizing functions 330Making your settings permanent 332Dissolve Part 333O-Note Conversion 333Repeat Loop 333Other MIDI functions 336The MIDI editors 337About editing MIDI 337Opening a MIDI editor 339The Key Editor – Overview 341Key Editor operations 354Edit In-Place 356The Drum Editor – Overview 357Drum Editor operations 359Working with drum maps 362Using drum name lists 363The List Editor – Overview 364List Editor operations 367The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer 368Introduction 368Opening the Logical Editor 369Window overview 369Selecting a preset 369Setting up filter conditions 374Selecting a function 375Specifying actions377Applying the defined actions 377Working with presets 377The Input Transformer 379The Project Logical Editor 380Introduction 380Opening the Project Logical Editor 380Window overview 381Selecting a preset 381Setting up filter conditions 387Selecting a function 387Specifying actions 388Applying the defined actions 389Working with presets 390Working with System Exclusive messages 391Introduction 391Bulk dumps 392Recording System Exclusive parameter changes 393Editing System Exclusive messages 394Working with the Tempo track 395Background 395The Tempo Track Editor – Overview 397Operations 399Process Tempo (Cubase only) 400The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 401Options and settings 401The Beat Calculator 402Merge Tempo From Tapping 402The Time Warp tool 407The Project Browser 408Window Overview 409Editing tracks 413Export Audio Mixdown 414Introduction 414Mixing down to an audio file 415The available file formats
7 Table of Contents 421Synchronization 422Background 422Synchronization signals 423Synchronizing the transport vs. synchronizing audio 424Making basic settings and connections 425Synchronization settings 429Machine Control 431Sync Options 431Working with VST System Link 431Preparations 434Activating VST System Link 437Application examples 439Video 440Background 440Before you start 441Operations 445ReWire 446Introduction 446Launching and quitting 447Activating ReWire channels 447Using the transport and tempo controls 448How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase 448Routing MIDI via ReWire2 448Considerations and limitations 449File handling 450Working with Projects 452Startup Options 453Working with libraries (Cubase only) 453Revert 454Importing audio 457Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 458Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 460Exporting and importing MIDI loops 460Exporting and importing tracks (Cubase only) 461Other Import/Export functions 461Cleanup 463Customizing 464Background 464Workspaces 466The Setup dialogs 467Customizing track controls 468About preference presets (Cubase only) 469Appearance 470Applying track and event colors 473Where are the settings stored? 475Key commands 476Introduction 476Setting up key commands 480Setting up tool modifier keys 480The default key commands 484Part II: Score layout and printing 485How the Score Editor works 486About this chapter 486Welcome! 486How the Score Editor operates 486MIDI notes vs. score notes 487Display quantize 489Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes 490The basics 491About this chapter 491Preparations 491Opening the Score Editor 491The project cursor 492Page Mode 493Changing the Zoom factor 493The active staff 493Making page setup settings 494Designing your work space 496About the Score Editor context menus 496About dialogs in the Score Editor 496Setting key, clef and time signature 500Transposing instruments 501Working order 501Force update 502Transcribing MIDI recordings 503About this chapter 503About transcription 503Getting the parts ready 503Strategies: Preparing parts for score printout 504Staff settings 504The Main tab 507The Options tab 508The Polyphonic tab 508The Tablature tab 508Situations which require additional techniques 509Inserting display quantize changes 510Strategies: Adding display quantize changes 510The Explode function 511Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
8 Table of Contents 512Entering and editing notes 513About this chapter 513Score settings 514Note values and positions 515Adding and editing notes 517Selecting notes 518Moving notes 520Duplicating notes 520Cut, copy and paste 520Editing pitches of individual notes 521Changing the length of notes 522Splitting a note in two 522Working with the Display Quantize tool 523Split (piano) staves 523Strategies: Multiple staves 524Inserting and editing clefs, keys or time signatures 525Deleting notes 526Staff settings 527About this chapter 527Staff settings 527Making settings 527Working with staff presets 528Staff names 528Key and clef 529Display quantize and interpretation options 529Display transpose 530The Options tab 530The Polyphonic and Tablature tabs 531Polyphonic voicing 532About this chapter 532Background: Polyphonic voicing 533Setting up the voices 535Strategies: How many voices do I need? 535Entering notes into voices 535Checking which voice a note belongs to 536Moving notes between voices 537Handling rests 537Voices and display quantize 538Creating crossed voicings 539Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 540Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 541Additional note and rest formatting 542About this chapter 542Background: Note stems 542Setting stem direction 543Stem length 544Accidentals and enharmonic shift 545Changing the note head shape 545Other note details 546Coloring notes 547Copying settings between notes 547Handling beaming 551About tied notes 552Graphic moving of notes 553Cue notes 553Grace notes 554Tuplets 556Working with symbols 557About this chapter 557Background: The different layers 558The symbol Inspector 562Important! – Symbols, staves and voices 562Adding symbols to the score 568Selecting symbols 569Moving and duplicating symbols 572Changing length, size and shape 573Deleting symbols 573Copy and paste 573Alignment 574Symbol details 580Working with chords 581About this chapter 581Inserting Chord symbols 583Global chord settings 584Working with text 585About this chapter 585Adding and editing text symbols 587Different types of text 591Text functions
9 Table of Contents 594Working with layouts 595About this chapter 595Background: Layouts 595Creating a layout 595Opening a layout 595Layout operations 596Using layouts – an example 597Marker Track to Form 598Working with MusicXML 599Introduction 600Importing and exporting MusicXML files 602Designing your score: additional techniques 603About this chapter 603Layout settings 604Staff size 604Hiding/showing objects 605Coloring notes 606Multiple rests 606Editing bar lines 607Creating upbeats 608Setting the number of bars across the page 609Moving bar lines 610Dragging staves 611Adding brackets and braces 612Auto Layout 613Reset Layout 614Breaking bar lines 615Scoring for drums 616About this chapter 616Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 616Setting up the drum map 618Setting up a staff for drum scoring 618Entering and editing notes 618Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 619Creating tablature 620About this chapter 620Creating tablature automatically 621Creating tablature manually 621Tablature number appearance 622Editing 622Note head shape 623The score and MIDI playback 624About this chapter 624Scores and the Arranger mode 624The MIDI Meaning function 625Dynamic crescendo symbols 626Printing and exporting pages 627Printing 627Exporting pages as image files 628Frequently asked questions 629How to use this chapter 629Adding and editing notes 630Symbols and layout 631Tips and Tricks 632Useful editing techniques 633If you wish you had a faster computer 634Index