Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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Audio effects
3.From the submenu, select “Send Routing” and “Con-
trol Strip”.
In the Send Routing section of the Channel Settings window, each send is 
shown as a small routing diagram showing a pre/post selector to the right 
and a pan fader (where applicable). In the Control Strip section, you can 
activate the option “Link Send Routing Panners to Channel Panner as De-
fault”. When this is activated, the send panners follow the pan for the chan-
nel. This item is also available in the Preferences dialog (VST page).
The Sends, Send Routing and Control Strip sections in the Channel Set-
tings window.
4.Click and drag the pan control for the desired send(s) 
in the display.
You can reset the pan control to the center position by [Ctrl]/[Command]-
clicking on the pan control.
If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the 
pan control will be a miniature surround panner, similar to 
the one found in the mixer.
You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to posi-
tion the send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring 
up the surround panner. See the chapter “Surround sound 
(Cubase only)” on page 180.
ÖIf both the send (the audio channel) and the FX chan-
nel are in mono, the pan control is not available.
FX channels and the Solo Defeat function
When mixing, you might sometimes want to solo specific 
audio channels, and listen only to these while other chan-
nels are muted. However, this will mute all FX channels as 
well. If the soloed audio channels have sends routed to FX 
channels, this means you will not hear the send effects for 
the channels.
To remedy this, you can use the Solo Defeat function for 
the FX channel:
1.[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel.
This activates the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel. In this mode, 
the FX channel will not be muted if you solo another channel in the mixer.
2.You can now solo any of the audio channels without 
having the effect return (the FX channel) muted.
To turn off the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel, 
[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel 
again.
Using the Side-Chain input
Many VST 3.0 effects feature a side-chain input. Side-
chaining allows you, for example, to lower the music vol-
ume when someone is speaking (“ducking”) or to use 
compression (e. g. on a bass sound) when the drums are 
hit, thereby “harmonizing” the intensity of the two instru-
ments. Another possibility is to use the side-chain signal 
as a source for modulation.
The effect types which feature side-chain functionality are 
Delay, Dynamics, Modulation and FIlter.
ÖCertain combinations of tracks and side-chain inputs 
may lead to feedback loops and added latency. If this is 
the case, the side-chain options will not be available.
Link Send Routing 
Panners to Channel 
Panner
The Control Strip 
section
!For detailed descriptions of the plug-ins that feature 
side-chaining, see the separate manual “Plug-in Ref-
erence”. 
						

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Audio effects
Creating a Ducking delay
The delay repeats can be silenced by side-chain signals 
exceeding a certain threshold.
You can use this feature to create a so-called “ducking 
delay” for your vocals. Let’s say you want to add a delay 
effect that is audible only when no signal is present on the 
vocal track. For this, you need to set up a delay effect 
which is deactivated every time the vocals start again.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the vocal track. 
2.On the Project menu, select “Duplicate Tracks”.
Now you can use the vocal events on the second track to silence the de-
lay effect.
3.Open the Insert tab for the first Vocal track in the In-
spector and select “PingPongDelay” from the Effects 
pop-up menu.
The control panel for the effect opens.
4.On the control panel for the effect, make the desired 
effect settings and activate the Side-Chain button.
Try out the effect settings to find out which settings will work best with your 
project. For detailed descriptions of the parameters, see the separate man-
ual “Plug-in Reference”.
5.In the Track list, select the second vocal track.
6.Pull down the Output Routing pop-up menu and on 
the Side-Chain submenu, select the PingPongDelay ef-
fect you set up for the vocal track.
This way, the signals from the second (duplicate) track are routed to the 
effect (and do not end up in the mix).
Now every time the signals on the vocal track exceed the 
threshold, the delay will be deactivated. Since the thres-
hold for the delay effect is fixed, you may have to adjust 
the volume of track 2, in this example, to ensure that vocal 
parts of low or middle volume will also silence the delay 
effect.
Triggering a compressor using side-chain 
signals
Compression, expansion or gating can be triggered by 
side-chain signals exceeding a specified threshold.
You may run into a situation where you want to lower the 
volume of one instrument every time another instrument is 
played. You could e. g. want to lower the volume of the bass 
guitar during the bass drum hits. This can be achieved by 
applying compression to the bass guitar signal every time 
the drum signals are present on the respective track.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the bass guitar track.
2.Open the Inserts tab in the Inspector, click in an insert 
slot to open the effect selection pop-up menu and, on the 
Dynamics submenu, select “Compressor”.
The effect is loaded into the effect slot and the effect control panel opens. 
3.Make the desired effect settings (you will most likely 
have to adjust them later to get the right compression 
level) and activate the Side-Chain button.
4.Select the bass drum track. 
5.Open the Sends Inspector section, click in a send slot 
and from the Side-Chain submenu, select the Compres-
sor effect you created for the bass guitar track. Adjust the 
Send level.
This way, the bass drum signal triggers the compressor on the bass gui-
tar track.
When you now play back the project, the bass guitar will 
be compressed whenever the signals on the bass drum 
track exceed the threshold. 
						

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Audio effects
Side-chain and Modulation
Side-chain signals bypass the built-in LFO modulation 
and instead apply modulation according to the envelope 
of the side-chain signal. Since each channel will be ana-
lyzed and modulated separately, this allows for creating 
astonishing spatial stereo or surround modulation effects. 
Feel free to experiment with the functions to see what they 
have to offer!
About drag&drop
When you drag effects from one insert slot to another (on 
the same channel or between different channels), the fol-
lowing applies:
 When you move an effect within a channel (e. g. from slot 4 to 
slot 6), the side-chain connections will be kept.
 When you drag and drop an effect between two channels, the 
side-chain connections will not be kept.
 When copying an effect into another effect slot (for the same 
or a different channel), the side-chain connections will not be 
copied, i. e. they will be lost.
Using external effects (Cubase only)
Although this program comes with a top selection of VST 
effect plug-ins, and although there is a huge range of ad-
ditional plug-ins available on the market, you may still have 
some hardware effect units that you want to use – valve 
compressors, reverb units, vintage tape echo machines, 
etc. By setting up external FX busses you can make your 
outboard equipment part of the Cubase virtual studio!
An external FX bus is a combination of outputs (sends) 
and inputs (returns) on your audio hardware, along with a 
few additional settings. All external FX busses you have 
created will appear on the effect pop-up menus and can 
be selected like the internal effect plug-ins. The difference 
is that if you select an external effect as an insert effect for 
an audio track, the audio will be sent to the corresponding 
audio output, processed in your hardware effect (provided 
that you have connected it properly) and returned via the 
specified audio input.
ÖCreating and handling of external effects is described 
in detail in the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up in-
put and output busses” on page 13.
Editing effects
All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button. Clicking 
this opens the control panel for the effect, in which you 
can make parameter settings.
The contents, design and layout of the control panel de-
pends on the selected effect. However, all effect control 
panels have an On/Off button, a Bypass button, Read/
Write automation buttons (for automating effect parame-
ter changes, see the chapter “Automation” on page 188), 
a preset pop-up menu and a Preset Management pop-up 
menu for saving and loading effect presets. Some plug-ins 
also feature a side-chain button, see “Using the Side-
Chain input” on page 161.
The Rotary effect control panel
Please note that all effects can be edited using a simpli-
fied control panel (horizontal sliders only, no graphics). This 
panel is opened by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Alt]/[Op-
tion]+[Shift] and clicking on the Edit button for the effect 
send or slot.
Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs, 
sliders, buttons and graphic curves. 
ÖThe included effects and their parameters are de-
scribed in detail in the separate manual “Plug-in Refer-
ence”.
If you edit the parameters for an effect, these settings 
are saved automatically with the project.
You can also save the current settings as a preset, see 
below.
Effects parameters can be automated – see the chapter 
“Automation” on page 188. 
						

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Audio effects
Effect presets
Effect preset management in Cubase is very versatile. In 
the MediaBay – or with certain limits in the Save Preset di-
alog – you can assign attributes to presets which allow 
you to organize and browse them according to various cri-
teria. Cubase comes with a huge array of categorized 
track and VST presets that you can use straight out of the 
box. You can also preview effect presets before loading 
them which considerably speeds up the process of find-
ing the right effect preset.
Effect presets can be divided into the following main 
categories:
VST presets for a plug-in.
These are stored parameter settings for a specific effect.
Inserts presets that contain insert effect combinations.
These can contain the whole insert effects rack, complete with settings 
for each effect, see “Saving insert effect combinations” on page 166.
Selecting effect presets
Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful 
presets for instant selection.
To select an effect preset in the Presets browser, proceed 
as follows:
1.Load an effect, either as a channel insert or into an FX 
channel.
The control panel for the effect is displayed.
2.Click in the preset field at the top of the control panel.
This opens the Presets browser.
You can also open the Presets browser from the In-
spector (Inserts tab) or the Channel Settings window.
3.Select the desired preset in the list.4.Activate playback to audition the selected preset.
Simply step through the presets until you found the right sound. It may be 
helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be-
tween different preset settings easier.
5.Double-click on the desired preset (or click outside 
the Presets browser) to apply the preset.
To return to the preset that was selected when you 
opened the Presets browser, click the Reset button.
You can also open the Presets browser by clicking the 
button to the right of the preset field an selecting “Load 
Preset” from the Preset Management pop-up menu.
The preset handling for VST 2 plug-ins is slightly differ-
ent, see “About earlier VST effect presets” on page 165.
The Browser sections
The Presets browser contains the following sections:
The “Search & Viewer” section (displayed by default) 
lists the available presets for the selected effect.
The Filter section (displayed when you click the Catego-
ries button) shows the available preset attributes for the 
selected effect.
If no attributes have been specified for the effect presets, the columns 
will be empty. If attributes have been assigned to a preset for this effect, 
you can click on the attribute in the respective column (Category, Style 
etc.), to filter out all presets that do not match the selected attribute(s).
If you also activate the “Show Location” button, the 
Browser & Filter section is displayed, allowing you to 
specify the Presets folder that should be searched for 
preset files.
Saving effect presets
You can save your edited effect settings as presets for 
further use (e.g. in other projects):
1.Open the Preset Management pop-up menu. 
						

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Audio effects
2.Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu.
This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset.
3.In the File name field in the lower part of the Save Pre-
set dialog, enter a name for the new preset.
If you wish to assign attributes to the preset, click the 
Tag Editor button.
Click in the Value column to select an appropriate “tag” for one or sev-
eral of the available categories in the Attributes column. For further infor-
mation on preset handling and the Tag Editor, see the chapter “The 
MediaBay” on page 273.
4.Click OK to store the preset and exit the dialog.
User-defined presets are saved in the following location:
 Win: \Documents and Settings\\Application 
data\VST3 presets\\
 Mac: /Users//Library/Audio/Presets//
You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
ther subfolders inside the individual effect preset folders.
About earlier VST effect presets
As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in 
Cubase. For a description of how to add VST plug-ins, see 
“Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on page 166.
When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored pre-
sets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/
.fxb). You can import such files, but the preset handling will 
be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new fea-
tures like the Tag Editor until you have converted the old 
“.fxp/.fxb” presets to VST 3 presets. If you save new pre-
sets for the included VST 2 plug-ins, these will automati-
cally be saved in the new “.vstpreset” format.
Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
To import .fxp/.fxb files, proceed as follows:
1.Load any VST 2 effect you may have installed, and 
open the Preset Management pop-up menu.
2.Select “Import FXB/FXP…” from the pop-up.
This menu item is only available for VST 2 plug-ins.
3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the .fxp file and 
click Open.
If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect pro-
grams. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected 
effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your 
own .fxp/.fxb presets with a previous version of Cubase (or any other 
VST 2 application).
4.After importing, you can convert the current program 
list to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to 
VST Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up.
After converting, the presets will be available in the Presets browser, and 
you can use the Tag Editor to add attributes and audition the presets. 
The new converted presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
!All VST 2 presets can be converted to VST 3 presets. 
						

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Audio effects
Saving insert effect combinations
You can save the complete insert effect rack for a channel 
together with all parameter settings as an inserts preset. 
Inserts presets can be applied to audio, instruments, FX 
channel or group tracks.
This works as follows:
1.Select the desired track in the Track list and open the 
Inserts Inspector section.
2.Load a combination of insert effects and adjust the pa-
rameters (or select effect presets) for each effect.
3.At the top of the Inserts tab, click the VST Sound but-
ton to open the Preset Management pop-up menu for the 
inserts and select “Store Preset”.
This can also be done from the Channel Settings window using the VST 
Sound button at the top of the Inserts section.
4.Type in a name for the preset in the dialog that appears.
5.Select the track (audio/group/instrument/fx channel) 
you wish to apply the new preset to, and open the Preset 
Management pop-up menu.
As you can see, the new preset is available at the top of the pop-up menu.
6.Select the preset you created from the pop-up menu.
The effects are loaded into the Insert slots of the new track, and the con-
trol panels for all effects are opened.
Note that when loading insert combination presets, any 
plug-ins that were previously loaded for the track will be 
removed, regardless of whether these slots are used in 
the preset.
In other words, saving an inserts preset means saving the states of all in-
sert slots.
You can use the Preset Management pop-up to save 
your settings as preset, or to rename or remove the cur-
rent preset.
Extracting insert effect settings from track presets
You can extract the effects used in a track preset and load 
them into your inserts “rack”: 
Select “From Track Preset…” on the Preset Manage-
ment pop-up menu to open a dialog where all track pre-
sets are shown.
Select an item in the list to load the effects used in the 
track preset.
Track presets are described in the chapter “Working with 
Track Presets” on page 288.
Installing and managing effect 
plug-ins
Cubase supports two plug-in formats; the VST 2 format 
(with the file name extensions “.dll” on the PC and “.VST” 
on the Mac) and the VST 3 format (extension “.vst3” on 
both platforms). The formats are handled differently when 
it comes to installation and organizing.
Installing additional VST plug-ins
Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Mac OS X
To install a VST 3.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase 
and drag the plug-in file into one of the following folders:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
support them.
/Users//Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
“” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easi-
est way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the 
path /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this 
folder are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase again, the new effects will ap-
pear on the effect pop-up menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the 
effect category, sub-folder structure etc. are built-in and 
cannot be changed. The effect(s) will simply show up in the 
assigned category folder(s) on the Effect pop-up menu. 
						

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Audio effects
Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X
To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase 
and drag the plug-in file to one of the following folders:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
support them.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
“” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easi-
est way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the 
path /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this 
folder are only available to you.
When you launch Cubase again, the new effects will ap-
pear on the effect pop-up menus.
ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
plication, you should use this.
As a general rule, always read the documentation or readme files before 
installing new plug-ins.
Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Windows
Under Windows, VST 3 plug-ins are installed by dragging 
the files (with the extension “.vst3”) into the vst3 folder in 
the Cubase application folder. When you launch Cubase 
again, the new effects will appear on the Effect pop-up 
menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the effect category, sub-
folder structure etc. are built-in and cannot be changed. 
The installed new effect(s) will simply show up in the as-
signed category folder(s) on the effect pop-up menu.
Installing VST 2 plug-ins under Windows
Under Windows, VST 2.x plug-ins are installed by drag-
ging the files (with the extension “.dll”) into the Vstplugins 
folder in the Cubase application folder, or into the Shared 
VST Plug-in folder – see below. When you launch Cubase 
again, the new effects will appear on the effect pop-up 
menus.
ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
plication, you should use this.
As a general rule, always read the documentation before installing new 
plug-ins.
Organizing VST 2 plug-ins
If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them 
all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become 
unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins in-
stalled with Cubase are placed in appropriate subfolders 
according to the effect type.
Under Windows, you can organize VST plug-ins by mov-
ing, adding or renaming subfolders within the Vstplugins 
folder. 
When you launch the program and pull down an effects pop-up menu, 
the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing 
the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
Under Mac OS X, you cannot change the hierarchic ar-
rangement of the “built-in” VST plug-ins.
However, you can arrange any additional plug-ins you have installed (in the 
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ folders, see above) by placing them in sub-
folders. In the program, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical 
submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
About the effects from previous Cubase versions
The Legacy folder on the program DVD contains effects 
from previous versions of Cubase.
The main reason for installing these earlier plug-ins is back-
wards compatibility, allowing you to import old Cubase 
projects and get the correct effect settings.
The Plug-in Information window
On the Devices menu, you will find an item called “Plug-in 
Information”. Selecting this opens a dialog listing all the 
available VST compatible plug-ins in your system (includ-
ing VST Instruments), along with all MIDI plug-ins. 
						

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Audio effects
Managing and selecting VST plug-ins
To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST 
PlugIns” tab.
To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put 
a check mark in the left column.
Only the enabled plug-ins will appear on the effect menus.
The Instances column indicates how many instances of 
the plug-in are currently used in Cubase.
Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a 
pop-up showing exactly where each use occurs.
ÖA plug-in may be in use even if it is not enabled in the 
left column. 
You might for example have opened a project containing effects that are 
currently disabled on the menu. The left column only determines whether 
or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus.
All columns can be resized by dragging the divider in 
the column header.
The other columns show the following information about 
each plug-in:
Update button
Clicking this button will make Cubase re-scan the desig-
nated VST folders for updated plug-in information.
VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button
This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths 
to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can add/re-
move folder locations by using the corresponding buttons. 
If you click “Add”, a file dialog is opened, where you can 
select a folder location.
About the “shared” plug-ins folder (Windows and VST 
2.x only)
You can designate a “shared” VST 2.x plug-ins folder. 
This will allow VST 2.x plug-ins to be used by other pro-
grams that support this standard.
You designate a shared folder by selecting a folder in the 
list and clicking the “Set As Shared Folder” button in the 
VST 2.x Plug-in Paths dialog.
Exporting plug-in information files
You can also save plug-in information as an .xml file, e. g. 
for archiving purposes or troubleshooting. The Export func-
tion is available for VST, MIDI and Audio Codec plug-ins. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Right-click on the desired tab in the Plug-in Information 
window to open the context menu and select “Export”.
A file dialog opens.
2.In the dialog, specify a name and location for the Plug-
in Information export file and click OK to export the file.
The Plug-in Information file contains information on the 
currently installed/available plug-ins, their version, vendor, 
etc.
The .xml file can then be opened in any editor applica-
tion supporting the xml format.
Column Description
Name The name of the plug-in.
Vendor The manufacturer of the plug-in.
File This shows the complete name of the plug-in (with extension).
Category This indicates the category of each plug-in (such as VST In-
struments, Surround Effects, etc.).
Version Shows the version of the plug-in.
SDK Shows with which version of the VST protocol a plug-in is 
compatible.
Latency This shows the delay (in samples) that will be introduced if the 
effect is used as an Insert. This is automatically compensated 
for by Cubase.
Side-
Chain 
InputsShows the number of side-chain inputs for a plug-in.
I/O This column shows the number of inputs and outputs for each 
plug-in.
Path The path and name of the folder in which the plug-in file is 
located. 
						

							12
VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 
						

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VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Introduction
VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound 
sources) that are contained within Cubase. They are played 
internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST Instru-
ments, just as with audio tracks.
Some VST Instruments are included with Cubase, others 
can be purchased separately from Steinberg and other 
manufacturers.
ÖThis chapter describes the general procedures for 
setting up and using VST Instruments.
ÖDepending on the VST version the instrument is com-
patible with, an icon may be displayed in front of the in-
strument name, see “About VST 3” on page 151.
The included VST Instruments and their parameters are described in the 
separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
VST Instrument channels vs. 
instrument tracks
Cubase allows you to make use of VST Instruments in two 
different ways:
By activating instruments in the VST Instruments window.
This creates a VST Instrument channel, which can be played by one (or 
several) MIDI track(s) routed to it.
By creating instrument tracks.
Instrument tracks are a combination of a VST Instrument, an instrument 
channel and a MIDI track. You play and record MIDI note data directly for 
this track.
Both methods have their advantages, and should be se-
lected according to what best suits your needs. The fol-
lowing sections describe the two approaches.
VST Instrument channels
You can access a VST Instrument from within Cubase by 
creating a VST Instrument channel and associating this 
channel with a MIDI track. Proceed as follows:
1.On the Devices menu, select “VST Instruments”.
The VST Instruments window opens.
2.Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument 
pop-up menu and select the desired instrument.
3.You will be asked if you want to create an associated 
MIDI track connected to the VST Instrument. Do so.
The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel is opened. 
A MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the Track list. 
The output of this track is routed to the instrument.
In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can 
specify what should happen when loading a VST instru-
ment in an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Cre-
ate MIDI track when loading VSTi” and select one of the 
available options:
 When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will al-
ways be created.
 When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only 
the instrument will be loaded.
 Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI 
track should be created whenever you load an instrument.
You can also use modifiers to specify what should happen 
when you load a VST instrument (overriding the Prefer-
ence setting):
 When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST 
Instrument for an instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track 
with the name of the instrument is automatically created.
 When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST In-
strument for an instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created 
for the instrument.