Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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About this manual 
						

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About this manual
Welcome!
This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase. 
Here you will find detailed information about all the fea-
tures and functions in the program. 
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 Cubase 
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] un-
der 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] 
under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then 
press [Z]”. 
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win-
dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
ÖPlease note that this manual often refers to right-click-
ing, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with 
a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click. 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and
output busses 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
About this chapter
Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to trans-
fer audio between the program and the audio hardware.
 Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio 
hardware into the program. This means that when you record 
audio, you will always do this through one or several input 
busses.
 Output busses let you route audio from the program to the 
outputs on your audio hardware. When you play back audio, 
you will always do this through one or several output busses.
As you can see, the input and output busses are vital when 
you work with Cubase. This is why you find this chapter at 
the beginning of the Operation Manual – once you under-
stand the bus system and know how to set up the busses 
properly, it will be easy to go on with recording, playing 
back, mixing and doing surround work (Cubase only).
Setting up busses
Strategies
In Cubase, you can create any number of busses. A num-
ber of surround formats are supported (Cubase only). In 
Cubase Studio, busses are in mono or stereo. 
ÖThe bus configuration is saved with the project – 
therefore it is a good idea to add and set up the busses 
you need and save these in a template project (see “Save 
as Template” on page 457).
When you start working on new projects, you start from this template. 
That way you get your standard bus configuration without having to make 
new bus settings for each new project. If you need to work with different 
bus configurations in different projects, you can either create several dif-
ferent templates or store your configurations as presets (see “Other bus 
operations” on page 17). The templates can of course also contain other 
settings that you regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track 
layout, etc.
So, which type of busses do you need? This depends on 
your audio hardware, your general audio setup (e.g. sur-
round speaker setup) and what kind of projects you work 
with. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog 
inputs and outputs and digital stereo connections (10 in-
puts and outputs all in all). Furthermore, you work with a 
surround setup in 5.1 format (Cubase only). Here’s a list 
of busses you may wish to add:
Input busses
 Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to 
an analog input pair. This would let you record stereo material. If 
you want to be able to record in stereo from other analog input 
pairs as well, you add stereo input busses for these, too.
 Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a ste-
reo input, it may be a good idea to add a dedicated mono in-
put bus. This could be assigned to an analog input to which 
you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-amp for ex-
ample. Again, you can have several different mono busses.
 You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to 
the digital stereo input, for digital transfers.
 Cubase only: If you want to transfer surround material directly 
to a surround track, e.g. from surround-configured location re-
cording equipment, you need an input bus in that surround 
format – in this example, this would be a 5.1 input bus.
Output busses
 You probably want one or several stereo output busses for 
monitoring and listening to stereo mixes.
 For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the 
digital stereo output as well.
 Cubase only: You need a surround bus in the format of your 
speaker configuration (in this example, 5.1) assigned to the 
correct outputs (which in turn are connected to the correct 
speakers). You may want additional surround busses if you 
tend to work in different surround formats.
!Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on 
the audio hardware! For example, you may want a 
stereo output bus assigned to the same outputs as 
the front stereo channels in your surround bus – this 
makes it easy to listen to stereo mixes without having 
to reconnect your speakers. 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Preparations
Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs and 
outputs on your audio hardware. For example, if you are us-
ing a 5.1 surround speaker setup, you should name the 
outputs according to which speaker they are connected to 
(Left, Right, Center and so on). 
The reason for this is compatibility – it makes it easier to 
transfer projects between different computers and setups. 
For example, if you move your project to another studio, 
the audio hardware may be of a different model. But if 
both you and the other studio owner have given your in-
puts and outputs names according to the surround setup 
(rather than names based on the audio hardware model), 
Cubase will automatically find the correct inputs and out-
puts for your busses and you will be able to play and 
record without having to change the settings.
Use the Device Setup dialog to assign names to the in-
puts and outputs of your audio hardware:
1.Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.
2.Make sure that the correct driver for your audio hard-
ware is selected on the VST Audio System page, so that 
the audio card is listed in the Devices list.
3.Select your audio card in the list.
The available input and output ports on your audio hardware are listed on 
the right.
4.To rename a port, click its name in the “Show as” col-
umn and enter a new name.
•If needed, you can also disable ports by deactivating 
them in the “Visible” column.
Disabled ports will not show up in the VST Connections window when 
you are making bus settings. If you attempt to disable a port that is used 
by a bus, you will be asked whether this is really what you want – note 
that this will remove the port from the bus!
5.Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.
ÖIf you open a project created on another computer and 
the port names do not match (or the port configuration is 
not the same – e.g. the project is created on a system with 
multi-channel i/o and you open it on a stereo in/out system), 
the Pending Connections dialog will appear.
This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports 
available in your system.
Mac OS X only: Retrieving channel names
For some audio cards, you can automatically retrieve the 
ASIO channel names for the ports of your audio hardware:
1.Open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu.
2.On the VST Audio System page, select your audio 
card on the “ASIO driver” pop up menu.
3.In the Devices list to the left, select your audio card.
The available settings are displayed.
4.In the settings section to the right, click the Control 
Panel button.
This opens the control panel for your audio hardware.
5.Activate the “Use CoreAudio Channel Names” option.
6.When you now open the VST Connections window to 
set up the busses in your system, you will find that the port 
names in the Device Port column correspond to the names 
that are used by the CoreAudio driver.
ÖIf you want to use the project later on with an earlier 
version of Cubase, you will have to re-assign the port con-
nections in the VST Connections window (see below).
Mac OS X only: Port selection and activation
On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the 
Device Setup dialog, see above), you can specify which 
input and which output port should be active. This allows 
you, for example, to use the Microphone input instead of 
the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or 
output completely, if required.
ÖThis function is only available for Built-In Audio, stan-
dard USB audio devices and a certain number of other au-
dio cards (e. g. Pinnacle CineWave). 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
The VST Connections window
You add and set up busses in the VST Connections win-
dow, opened from the Devices menu.
This window contains the following tabs:
 The Inputs and Outputs tabs are for viewing input busses or 
output busses, respectively. 
 The Group/FX tab allows you to create Group and FX chan-
nels/tracks and to make output assignments for these. See 
“Setting up Group and FX channels” on page 20. 
 The External FX tab (Cubase only) allows you to create effect 
send/return busses for connecting external effects which can 
then be selected via the effect pop-up menus from inside the 
program. See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on 
page 20 and “Using external effects (Cubase only)” on page 
163 for further information.
 The External Instruments tab (Cubase only) allows you to cre-
ate input/output busses for connecting external instruments. 
See “External instruments/effects (Cubase only)” on page 20 
and the chapter “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on 
page 169 for further information.
 The Studio tab (Cubase only) is where you enable and config-
ure the Control Room. See the chapter “Control Room (Cu-
base only)” on page 135.
For the time being, we shall focus on how to set up input 
and output busses.
Depending on which tab you have selected, Inputs or Out-
puts, the window lists the current input or output busses, 
with the following columns:
Adding a bus
1.Click the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on which 
you want to add.
2.Click the Add Bus button.
A dialog appears.
3.Select the desired (channel) configuration.
The pop-up menu contains Mono and Stereo options as well as several 
surround formats (Cubase only). To select another surround format, use 
the “More…” submenu. 
Alternatively you can right-click in the VST Connections 
window and add a bus in the desired format directly from 
the context menu.
The new bus appears with the ports visible.
4.Click in the Device Port column to select an input/out-
put port for a channel in the bus.
The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have as-
signed in the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.
Adding a child bus (Cubase only)
A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels – 
6 channels in the case of the 5.1 format. If you have a 
mono track in the project, you can route it to a separate 
speaker channel in the bus (or route it to the parent sur-
round bus and use the SurroundPanner to position it in the 
surround image). But what if you have a stereo track that 
you simply want to route to a stereo channel pair within the 
bus (Left and Right or Left Surround and Right Surround 
for example)? For this you need to create a child bus.
Column Description
Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select busses and rename 
them by clicking on them in this column.
Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, sur-
round formats) of each bus.
Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.
Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button 
in the Bus Name column) this column shows which phys-
ical inputs/outputs on your audio hardware are used by 
the bus.
Click You can route the click to a specific output bus, regard-
less of the actual Control Room output, or indeed when 
the Control Room is disabled. Column Description 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
1.Select the surround bus in the list and right-click on it.
A pop-up menu appears.
2.Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child 
Bus” submenu.
As you can see, you can create stereo child busses (routed to various 
speaker channel pairs in the surround bus) or other surround bus formats 
(with fewer channels than the “parent bus”).
The child bus you created will be available for direct rout-
ing in the mixer. It is a part of the parent surround bus, 
which means there will be no separate channel strip for it.
Although child busses are probably most useful in output 
busses, you can also create child busses within a sur-
round input bus – for example if you want to record a ste-
reo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in the surround bus 
to a separate stereo track.
Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)
The Main Mix is the output bus that each new channel in 
the mixer will be assigned to when it is created.
Any of the output busses in the VST Connections window 
can be the default output bus. By right-clicking on the 
name of an output bus, you can set this bus as the Main 
Mix bus.
Setting the default output bus in the VST Connections window.
When creating new audio, group or FX channels in the 
mixer, they will automatically be routed to the default bus.
Presets
On the Inputs and Outputs tabs, you will find a Presets 
menu. Here you can find three different types of presets:
A number of standard bus configurations.
Automatically created presets tailored to your specific 
hardware configuration.
On each startup, Cubase will analyze the physical inputs and outputs 
provided by your audio hardware and create a number of hardware-
dependent presets with the following possible configurations:
 one stereo bus
 various combinations of stereo and mono busses
 a number of mono busses
 Cubase only: one 5.1 bus (if you have 6 or more inputs)
 Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and stereo busses 
(if you have 6 or more inputs)
 Cubase only: various combinations of 5.1 and mono busses (if 
you have 6 or more inputs)
You can also save your own setups as presets.
To store the current configuration as a preset, click the Store “+” button 
and enter a name for the preset. You can then select the stored configu-
ration directly from the Presets pop-up menu at any time. To remove a 
stored preset, select it and click the “-” button.
Other bus operations
To change the port assignment for a bus, you proceed 
as when you added it: Make sure the channels are visible 
(by clicking the “+” button next to the bus, or by clicking 
the “+ All” button at the top of the window) and click in the 
Device Port column to select ports.
To remove a bus you do not need, select it in the list, 
right-click and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up 
menu, or press [Backspace].
!The default bus is indicated by an orange colored 
speaker icon next to its name in the VST Connec-
tions window. 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Using the busses
This section describes briefly how to use the input and out-
put busses you have created. For details refer to the chap-
ters “Recording” on page 66 and “The mixer” on page 109.
Routing
When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-re-
lated channel in the mixer – VST Instrument channels, 
ReWire channels, etc.), you route it to an output bus. In 
the same way, when you record on an audio track you se-
lect from which input bus the audio should be sent.
You can select input and output busses in the Inspec-
tor, using the Input and Output Routing pop-up menus.
You can also select busses in the Routing panel at the 
top of each channel strip in the mixer.
ÖIf the Routing panel is not shown, click the Show Rou-
ting button in the extended common panel or open the 
Mixer context menu and select “Show Routing View” from 
the Window submenu (see “Normal vs. Extended channel 
strips” on page 112).
ÖFor audio-related channel types other than audio track 
channels (i.e. VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, 
Group channels and FX channels), only the Output Rou-
ting pop-up menu is available.If you press [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select an input or 
output bus in the Track list or the Mixer Routing View (Cu-
base only), it will be chosen for all selected channels.
This makes it easy to quickly set several channels to use the same input 
or output. Similarly, if you press [Shift] and select a bus, the following se-
lected channels will be set to use incrementing busses – the second se-
lected channel will use the second bus, the third will use the third bus 
and so on.
When selecting an input bus for a track you can only se-
lect busses that correspond to the track’s channel config-
uration. Here are the details for input busses:
 Mono tracks can be routed to mono input busses or individual 
channels within a stereo or surround input bus (Cubase only).
 Mono tracks can be routed to External Inputs configured on 
the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These can be 
mono or individual channels within a stereo or surround bus 
(Cubase only). They can also be routed to the Talkback input.
 Mono tracks can also be routed to mono output busses, mono 
group output busses or mono FX channel output busses, pro-
vided that these will not lead to feedback.
 Stereo tracks can be routed to mono input busses, stereo in-
put busses or stereo child busses within a surround bus (Cu-
base only).
 Stereo tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are config-
ured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These 
can be mono input busses or stereo input busses. They can 
also be routed to the Talkback input.
 Stereo tracks can also be routed to mono or stereo output 
busses, mono or stereo group output busses and mono or 
stereo FX channel output busses, provided that these will not 
lead to feedback.
 Surround tracks can be routed to surround input busses (Cu-
base only).
 Surround tracks can be routed to External Inputs that are con-
figured in the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, pro-
vided that these have the same input configuration. 
 Surround tracks can also be routed to output busses, provided 
that these have the same input configuration or will not lead to 
feedback.
For output busses any assignment is possible.
To disconnect input or output bus assignments, select 
“No Bus” from the corresponding pop-up menu.
!Assignments that will lead to feedback are not avail-
able in the pop-up menu. This is also indicated by a 
one-way symbol. 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Viewing the busses in the mixer
In the mixer, busses are represented by input and output 
channels (shown in separate panes to the left and right in 
the window). You can show or hide these independently 
by clicking the Hide Input Channels and Hide Output 
Channels buttons in the common panel:
ÖIn Cubase Studio, only the output busses are visible in 
the mixer!
The input busses you have created in the VST Connections window are 
available for selection on the Input Routing pop-up menus, but you will 
not be able to make any specific mixer settings for the input busses.
Input channels (Cubase only)
The input channels are shown to the left in the mixer. As 
you can see, each input channel resembles a regular mixer 
channel strip. Here you can do the following:
Check and adjust the recording level using the Input 
Gain knobs and/or the level fader.
See “Setting input levels” on page 71.
Change the phase of the input signal.
This is done by clicking the Input Phase button next to the Input Gain 
control.
Add effects or EQ to the input bus.
See “Recording with effects (Cubase only)” on page 78 for an example 
of how to add effects to your recording at the input bus stage.
Output channels
The output channels are shown to the right in the mixer. 
Here you can do the following:
Adjust the output level for the busses with the faders.
Open the Channel Settings window to add effects or EQ.
These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add 
here include compressors, limiters and dithering. See the chapter “Audio 
effects” on page 150.
Hide Input Channels
(Cubase only)
Hide Output Channels!The settings you make in the input channel strip will 
be a permanent part of the recorded audio file! 
						

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
Setting up Group and FX channels
The Group/FX tab in the VST Connections window shows 
all Group channels and FX channels in your project. You 
can create new Group or FX channels by clicking the corre-
sponding Add button. This is the same as creating Group 
channel tracks or FX channel tracks in the Project window 
(see “Using group channels” on page 127 and the chapter 
“Audio effects” on page 150).
However, the VST Connections window also allows you to 
create child busses for Group and FX channels (Cubase 
only). This is useful e.g. if you have Group or FX channels in 
surround format and want to route stereo channels to spe-
cific channel pairs in these.
To create a child bus for a Group channel or FX channel in 
surround format, proceed as follows:
1.Open the VST Connection window and select the 
Groups/FX tab.
2.Select the Group or FX channel in the list and right-
click it.
3.Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child 
Bus” submenu.
The child bus you created will be available for direct rout-
ing in the mixer. It is a part of the parent Group or FX 
channel, which means there will be no separate channel 
strip for it.
About monitoring
By default, monitoring is done via the Control Room (see 
the chapter “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 135). 
When the Control Room is disabled on the Studio tab of 
the VST Connections window, the Main Mix bus (see “Set-
ting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus)” on page 17) 
will be used for monitoring.
ÖIn Cubase Studio, the Main Mix bus is always used for 
monitoring.
Setting the monitoring level
When you are using the Control Room for monitoring, this 
is set in the Control Room Mixer, see “The Control Room 
Mixer” on page 141. When you are monitoring via the Main 
Mix bus, you can adjust the monitoring level in the regular 
Project Mixer.
External instruments/effects 
(Cubase only)
Cubase supports the integration of external effect devices 
and external instruments, e. g. hardware synthesizers, into 
the sequencer signal flow.
You can use the External Instruments tab and the External 
FX tab in the VST Connections window to define the 
necessary send and return ports and access the instru-
ments/effects through the VST Instruments window.
Requirements
To use external effects, you need audio hardware with 
multiple inputs and outputs. To use external instruments, a 
MIDI interface must be connected to your computer.
An external effect will require at least one input and one output (or input/
output pairs for stereo effects) in addition to the input/output ports you 
use for recording and monitoring.
As always, audio hardware with low-latency drivers is a 
good thing to have.
Cubase will compensate for the input/output latency and ensure that the 
audio processed through external effects is not shifted in time.
Connecting the external effect/instrument
To set up an external effect or instrument, proceed as fol-
lows:
1.Connect an unused output pair on your audio hard-
ware to the input pair on your external hardware device.
In this example, we assume that the hardware device has stereo inputs 
and outputs.
!External instruments and effects are indicated by an 
“x” icon in the list next to their names in the respec-
tive pop-up menus.