Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual
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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.
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 18Using the busses 20Setting up Group and FX channels 20About monitoring 20External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 25The Project window 26Background 28Window Overview 34Operations 56Options 59Playback and the Transport panel 60Background 61Operations 63Options and Settings 65The Virtual Keyboard 66Recording 67Background 67Basic recording methods 69Audio recording specifics 79MIDI recording specifics 84Options and Settings 87Recovery of audio recordings after system failure 88Fades, crossfades and envelopes 89Creating fades 91The Fade dialogs 92Creating crossfades 93The Crossfade dialog 94Auto Fades and Crossfades 95Event Envelopes 96The Arranger track 97Introduction 97Setting up the Arranger track 98Working with arranger events 100Flattening the Arranger chain 101Live Mode 102Arranging your music to video 103The Transpose functions 104Introduction 104Transposing your music 107Other functions 109The mixer 110About this chapter 110Overview 112Configuring the mixer 116The audio-related channel strips 117The MIDI channel strips 117The input and output channels 117Basic mixing procedures 121Audio-specific procedures 128MIDI-specific procedures 129Utilities 132VST Mixer Diagrams 135Control Room (Cubase only) 136Background 137Control Room operations 137Configuring the Control Room 140The Control Room Overview 141The Control Room Mixer 146Studios and Studio Sends 149Direct Monitoring and latency 150Audio effects 151About this chapter 151Overview 152Insert effects 157Send effects 161Using the Side-Chain input 163Using external effects (Cubase only) 163Editing effects 164Effect presets 166Installing and managing effect plug-ins
5 Table of Contents 169VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 170Introduction 170VST Instrument channels vs. instrument tracks 170VST Instrument channels 172Instrument tracks 174What do I need? Instrument channel or Instrument track? 174Instrument Freeze 175VST instruments and processor load 175Using presets for VSTi configuration 178About latency 179External instruments (Cubase only) 180Surround sound (Cubase only) 181Background 182Operations 188Automation 189Introduction 189Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data 190What can be automated? 191The Automation panel 191Automation modes 193Automation performance utilities 195The Settings section 196Hints and further options 196Automation track operations 199Working with automation curves 202MIDI Controller automation 204Audio processing and functions 205Background 205Audio processing 213Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 214The Offline Process History dialog 215Freeze Edits 216Detect Silence 217The Spectrum Analyzer (Cubase only) 218Statistics (Cubase only) 219The Sample Editor 220Background 221Window overview 224General Operations 230Options and settings 231AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio 234Working with hitpoints and slices 238Free Warp 241Flattening the realtime processing 243VariAudio (Cubase only) 254The Audio Part Editor 255Background 255Opening the Audio Part Editor 255Window overview 257Operations 258Common methods 259Options and Settings 260The Pool 261Background 261Window overview 263Operations 273The MediaBay 274Introduction 276Window overview 276Browsing for media files 279Finding files in the Viewer section 283Previewing files in the Scope section 284The Tag Editor (Cubase only) 288Working with Track Presets 289Introduction 289Types of track presets 290Applying track presets 292Creating a track preset 293Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets 293Previewing MIDI, instrument and VST presets independently of tracks 295Track Quick Controls 296Introduction 296Setting up the Quick Controls tab 297Setting up quick controls on an external remote controller 298Quick controls and automatable parameters
6 Table of Contents 299Remote controlling Cubase 300Introduction 300Setting Up 301Operations 302The Generic Remote device 304Track Quick Controls 304Apple Remote (Macintosh only) 305MIDI realtime parameters and effects 306Introduction 306The Inspector – General handling 306The Inspector sections 310MIDI effects 313Managing plug-ins 314Using MIDI devices 315Background 315MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 320About Device panels (Cubase only) 323About Studio Connections (Cubase only) 325MIDI processing and quantizing 326Introduction 326The Quantizing functions 331Making your settings permanent 332Dissolve Part 333Bounce Selection 333Repeat Loop 333Other MIDI functions 337The MIDI editors 338Introduction 338Opening a MIDI editor 340The Key Editor – Overview 342Key Editor operations 356The In-Place Editor 358The Drum Editor – Overview 359Drum Editor operations 361Working with drum maps 364Using drum name lists 365The List Editor – Overview 365List Editor operations 368Working with System Exclusive messages 370Recording System Exclusive parameter changes 370Editing System Exclusive messages 372VST Expression 373Introduction 374VST Expression in Cubase 377Creating and editing Expression Maps 380The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer 381Introduction 381Opening the Logical Editor 382Window overview 382Setting up filter conditions 386Selecting a function 387Specifying actions 389Applying the defined actions 389Working with presets 389The Input Transformer 391The Project Logical Editor 392Introduction 392Opening the Project Logical Editor 392Window overview 393Setting up filter conditions 397Specifying actions 399Selecting a function 399Applying Macros 399Applying the defined actions 399Working with presets 401Editing tempo and signature 402Background 402Tempo and signature display 404Editing tempo and signature 406Process Tempo (Cubase only) 406The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) 407The Beat Calculator 408Merge Tempo From Tapping 408The Time Warp tool 413The Project Browser 414Window Overview 415Editing tracks 419Export Audio Mixdown 420Introduction 420Mixing down to audio files 422The available file formats
7 Table of Contents 427Synchronization 428Background 428Synchronization signals 429Synchronizing the transport vs. synchronizing audio 430Making basic settings and connections 431Synchronization settings 436Machine Control 437Sync Options 438Working with VST System Link 438Preparations 440Activating VST System Link 443Application examples 445Video 446Background 446Before you start 448Operations 451ReWire 452Introduction 452Launching and quitting 453Activating ReWire channels 453Using the transport and tempo controls 454How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase 454Routing MIDI via ReWire2 454Considerations and limitations 455File handling 456Working with Projects 459Importing audio 462Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 464Exporting and importing standard MIDI files 465Exporting and importing MIDI loops 466Exporting and importing tracks (Cubase only) 467Other Import/Export functions 467Cleanup 468Customizing 469Background 469Workspaces 471Using the Setup options 472Customizing track controls 473About preference presets (Cubase only) 474Appearance 475Applying track and event colors 478Where are the settings stored? 479Key commands 480Introduction 480Setting up key commands 483Setting up tool modifier keys 484The default key commands 487Part II: Score layout and printing 488How the Score Editor works 489About this chapter 489Welcome! 489How the Score Editor operates 489MIDI notes vs. score notes 490Display Quantize 492Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes 493The basics 494About this chapter 494Preparations 494Opening the Score Editor 494The project cursor 494Playing back and recording 495Page Mode 495Changing the Zoom factor 496The active staff 496Making page setup settings 496Designing your work space 498About the Score Editor context menus 498About dialogs in the Score Editor 499Setting key, clef and time signature 503Transposing instruments 503Printing from the Score Editor 503Exporting pages as image files 504Working order 504Force update 505Transcribing MIDI recordings 506About this chapter 506About transcription 506Getting the parts ready 506Strategies: Preparing parts for score printout 507Staff settings 507Situations which require additional techniques 508Inserting Display Quantize changes 509Strategies: Adding Display Quantize changes 509The Explode function 510Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
8 Table of Contents 511Entering and editing notes 512About this chapter 512Score settings 513Note values and positions 514Adding and editing notes 516Selecting notes 517Moving notes 518Duplicating notes 518Cut, copy and paste 519Editing pitches of individual notes 520Changing the length of notes 521Splitting a note in two 521Working with the Display Quantize tool 521Split (piano) staves 522Strategies: Multiple staves 522Inserting and editing clefs, keys or time signatures 523Deleting notes 524Staff settings 525About this chapter 525Staff settings 525Making settings 525Working with staff presets 526Staff names 526Key and clef 526Display Quantize and interpretation Options 529Display Transpose 529The Options tab 530The Polyphonic tab 530The Tablature tab 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 539Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 540Additional note and rest formatting 541About this chapter 541Background: Note stems 541Setting stem direction 542Stem length 542Accidentals and enharmonic shift 543Changing the note head shape 544Other note details 545Coloring notes 545Copying settings between notes 545Handling beaming 549About tied notes 550Graphic moving of notes 551Cue notes 552Grace notes 552Tuplets 555Working with symbols 556About this chapter 556Background: The different layers 557The Symbols Inspector 558Important! – Symbols, staves and voices 559Adding symbols to the score 565Selecting symbols 566Moving and duplicating symbols 569Changing length, size and shape 570Deleting symbols 570Copy and paste 570Alignment 570Symbol details 576Working with chords 577About this chapter 577Inserting Chord symbols 579Global chord settings 580Working with text 581About this chapter 581Adding and editing text symbols 583Different types of text 587Text functions
9 Table of Contents 590Working with layouts 591About this chapter 591Background: Layouts 591Creating a layout 591Opening a layout 591Layout operations 592Using layouts – an example 592Marker Track to Form 593Working with MusicXML 594Introduction 595Importing and exporting MusicXML files 597Designing your score: additional techniques 598About this chapter 598Layout settings 599Staff size 599Hiding/showing objects 600Coloring notes 600Multiple rests 601Editing bar lines 602Creating upbeats 602Setting the number of bars across the page 603Moving bar lines 604Dragging staves 605Adding brackets and braces 606Auto Layout 607Reset Layout 608Breaking bar lines 609Scoring for drums 610About this chapter 610Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor 610Setting up the drum map 612Setting up a staff for drum scoring 612Entering and editing notes 612Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 613Creating tablature 614About this chapter 614Creating tablature automatically 615Creating tablature manually 615Tablature number appearance 615Editing 616Note head shape 617The score and MIDI playback 618About this chapter 618Scores and the Arranger mode 618The MIDI Meaning function 619Dynamic crescendo symbols 620Tips and Tricks 621Overview 621Useful editing techniques 622Frequently asked questions 624If you wish you had a faster computer 625Index