Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
The plug-in panel
Double-click on any of the miniature panner controls to 
open the plug-in panel in a separate window.
The SurroundPanner V5 plug-in offers numerous possibili-
ties to position a mono or stereo sound source. If you work 
visually oriented, you can simply drag the sound source 
around in the pan area. To help you execute very exact 
movements you can use modifier keys to limit the move
-
ment direction (e. g. for straight front/rear panning). 
To perform rotating movements that you cannot achieve 
by dragging the mouse, you can use the powerful rotation 
and orbit controls below the pan area. Here you will also 
find parameters for controlling the signal distribution to the 
different speaker channels and the advanced scaling con
-
trols with which you can influence the size of the sound 
source itself.
To the left and right of the surround field there are volume 
meters, showing the input and output levels of all speaker 
channels. For a detailed description of all the panning op
-
tions available in the SurroundPanner V5, see below.
Positioning signals in the pan area
In the pan area, you see a graphical representation of the 
sound source, with the left and right channels shown in 
yellow and red. Here, you can position the sound source 
using the mouse:
•By clicking at the desired position in the pan area.
When you release the mouse button, the sound source jumps to that po-
sition (with the positioning handle, i. e. the circle located in the center of 
the sound source, ending up where you clicked).
•By clicking and dragging the positioning handle.
Note that you do not have to click exactly on the handle in order to move 
it. You can click anywhere in the pan area and start moving the mouse, 
the handle then moves in the same direction as the mouse.
The pan area showing a stereo sound source
The positioning handle can be positioned freely in the pan 
area and even be moved out of the pan area. The panning 
balls, though, will never move further out than the edge of 
the surround field (which is indicated by a gray line). Mo
-
ving the positioning handle out of the pan area can be 
useful for extreme panning positions, such as panning all 
channels hard right.
ÖFor mono channels there is no positioning handle. 
Click and drag the input channel to position it.
Left and right channels
Positioning 
handle 
						

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
Speaker channels – Solo and Mute vs. Disabling
The speakers that are distributed around the surround 
field represent the output configuration. You can disable 
speakers or solo/mute them.
•[Alt]/[Option]-click on a speaker symbol to disable that 
speaker (the speaker symbol is grayed out) so that no au
-
dio will be routed to this surround channel. The signal that 
would otherwise be sent to this speaker is distributed to 
the other speakers instead.
Note that the signal is distributed in such a way that the power level stays 
constant all the time (see 
“Constant power” on page 226).
•Click on a speaker symbol to solo that speaker (the 
speaker symbol turns red). That way you will only hear the 
signal sent to this speaker. All other speakers are muted 
(yellow speaker symbol). This can be used for testing pur
-
poses, e. g. to make sure that a signal is sent to a specific 
speaker as intended.
Note that you can solo several speakers at the same time by clicking on 
them one after the other. By [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking on a speaker sym-
bol, this speaker is soloed exclusively, and all other speakers are muted.
ÖSolo and Mute cannot be automated!
Restricting movement
By default, you can click anywhere in the pan area and 
drag the mouse to move the sound source. If you want the 
positioning handle to jump to a specific position, you can 
click once at that position.
However, you can also limit movement to a specific direc-
tion, using the corresponding modifier keys (or the arrow 
icons above the pan area). That way you can scale down 
your movements, or have the sound source move along a 
certain axis (e.
 g. from bottom left to top right).
•When you press a modifier key (e. g. [Ctrl]/[Command]), 
the corresponding icon above the pan area is highlighted 
with a lighter border, indicating that this mode is active.
As soon as you release the modifier key, you return to standard mode.
•By clicking on one of the icons above the pan area, the 
corresponding positioning mode is activated persistently. 
That way you do not have to keep the corresponding mod
-
ifier key pressed all the time.
To deactivate the selected positioning mode, switch back to standard 
mode.
The following modes are available:
Panning the left and right channels independently with 
the mouse
At the top right of the plug-in window you will find the but-
ton for the independent positioning mode. If this is acti-
vated, you can adjust the left and right input channels 
(yellow and red balls) independently by clicking and drag
-
ging. This is similar to using the two surround pan joysticks 
found on some hardware consoles.
This speaker 
is muted.This speaker 
is soloed.This speaker 
is disabled.
IconModifier key(s)Description
-Standard mode, no restrictions apply.
[Shift]Mouse movements are scaled to allow 
very fine movements. This is useful when 
panning in the miniature display in the 
channel strip, for example.
[Ctrl]/[Command]Horizontal movements only.
[Ctrl]/[Command]-
[Shift]Vertical movements only.
[Alt]/[Option]Diagonal movements only (bottom left to 
top right).
[Alt]/[Option]- [Shift]Diagonal movements only (bottom right to 
top left).
[Shift]- [Ctrl]/[Command]- [Alt]/[Option]
In this mode the mouse pointer immedi-ately jumps to the positioning handle even 
if it is located outside the pan area (only 
visible in Overview Mode).
The independent 
positioning mode 
is activated.
The right channel is panned independently with the mouse. 
						

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
ÖTo move one of the panning balls in this mode, you do 
not have to click directly on them. You will always move the 
panning ball that is nearer to the position of the mouse 
pointer.
Overview Mode
When moving the sound source in the pan area, you will 
notice that the positioning handle can leave the visible pan 
area (although the channel panning balls cannot). It can 
be moved so far outside that all channels end up on the 
perimeter where the positioning handle left the area. If you 
now use one of the rotation controls, for example, it can be 
quite hard to understand what is happening, i.
 e. why the 
panning balls are moving the way they are.
To get a better understanding of this behavior, you can 
switch to Overview Mode. Here you can see where the po
-
sitioning handle is actually located and where the panning 
balls would be (if they could leave the pan area). These vir
-
tual or “ghost” positions are connected to the actual pan-
ning balls inside the surround field by a thin line to help you 
understand complex movements.
•To switch to Overview Mode, click on the eye icon 
above and to the left of the pan area.
ÖThe Overview Mode is only used for visualizing the 
complex scenarios that you can create with the Surround
-
Panner V5. The actual panning is done in the standard 
view. Therefore, the speakers are visible in this mode, but 
cannot be soloed/muted or disabled.
Left-right and front-rear panning
These two controls are used to pan the sound source 
from left to right and front to rear, and vice versa. 
ÖThis is the same as restricting the movement direction 
using the [Ctrl]/[Command] and [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift] 
modifiers.
Rotating signals
The Rotate Signal control is used to rotate the source 
channels around the positioning handle. All input channels 
circle around the handle (but they cannot move beyond 
the borders of the surround field).
Orbit controls
The Orbit controls are used to rotate the sound source 
(including all input channels and the positioning handle) 
around the center of the surround field.
Orbit Center
This is the main control that allows you to perform the ro-
tation.
!When panning in independent positioning mode, au-
tomation data is written for several parameters. Due 
to this, special automation rules apply, see 
“A u t o m a-
tion” on page 225.
!Automation data for the independent positioning 
mode is always written for the complete sound 
source, not for individual channels. This means it is not 
possible to record automation for one stereo channel 
and then add automation for the other stereo channel 
in a second go, for example. 
The left and right channels cannot leave the pan area.
The positioning handle is 
located outside the pan 
area. “Ghost” images of the pan-
ning balls. These are the 
theoretical positions outside 
the visible pan area.Orbit Center
Radius 
						

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
Radius
When using the Orbit Center control, the Radius encoder 
allows you to control the distance of the sound source 
from the center of the surround field (without changing the 
angle).
An example:
The gray circle shows the theoretical path of the sound 
source when orbiting the center. Since the sound source 
cannot leave the pan area, it moves along the perimeter in
-
stead. At the maximum radius setting (a) the theoretical 
path lies outside the pan area so that the sound source 
stays on the perimeter all the time; at a smaller setting (b) 
the circle is smaller and the sound source moves inside 
the pan area in the corners.
ÖThe Rotate Signal, Orbit Center, and Radius controls 
are endless rotary encoders so that there is no limit as to 
how far left or right you can rotate the sound source.
The LFE encoder
Use the LFE encoder in the plug-in panel to set the signal 
amount sent to the LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel. 
You can also set this using the LFE level slider to the right 
of the panner in the Mixer channel strip, or by typing in a 
number in the LFE value field in the panner shown in the 
extended Mixer view.
ÖThe LFE channel is used as a full range channel, no 
low-pass filtering is applied.
Center Distribution
The Center Distribution control is used to distribute part or 
all of the center signal to the left and right front speakers.
For example, this can be useful in the following situation: 
The center signal is panned directly to the center speaker 
and the Center Distribution is set to 0
 %. However, the 
signal is too discrete for your liking, and you want to add 
part of the signal to the left and right front speakers to 
widen it. You can do this by raising the Center Distribution 
value. At 100
 %, the center source is provided entirely by 
the phantom image created by the left and right speakers 
and using a value in between you can distribute the signal 
to the three speakers.
A blue line at the top of the surround field indicates the 
distance up to which a phantom signal is added. If you po
-
sition the source signal inside this range, the signal is sent 
to all three channels.
Divergence controls
The three divergence controls (Front, F/R, and Rear) deter-
mine the attenuation curves used when positioning sound 
sources for X-axis front, Y-axis (front/rear), and X-axis back. 
If all three controls are set to 0
 %, positioning a sound 
source on a speaker sets all other speakers to zero level. 
With higher values, the other speakers receive a percent
-
age of the sound source.
Blue horizontal and vertical lines visualize the effects when 
changing the divergence settings.
!In terms of automation, the Orbit Center, and Radius 
controls are not independent parameters as such. In
-
stead, a combination of different automation parame-
ters is used. For more information, see “A u t o m a t i o n ” 
on page 225.
a) Radius = 141.4 b) Radius = 116.5
!Note that for this to work, the front speaker configu-
ration needs to be symmetrical and there can never 
be more than 3 speakers involved. 
						

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
For example, by using the front divergence, you can 
acoustically intensify the distance from the action on 
screen as perceived by the audience.
•At 0 % the perception is very focused (concentrated in one 
spot). 
•At 100 % the perception is very diffuse (hard to locate). 
ÖThe Center Distribution value and the front divergence 
are combined. If the front divergence is set to 100
 %, the 
Center Distribution has no effect.
Scaling
The Scale controls allow you to control the horizontal 
(Width) and vertical (Depth) expansion of the sound 
source. 100
 % corresponds to the complete width or 
depth of the surround field. If you reduce both values to 
0
 %, the distance is reduced to zero and all source chan-
nels are centered in one spot.
These controls influence the perception of spatiality and 
ambience, as well as the traceability of signals.
•At 100 % you get a very transparent, clear sound that conveys 
much spatiality.
•At 0 % the signal is less transparent and movements cannot 
be traced easily.
ÖThe Depth parameter is only available for configura-
tions with front and rear channels.
Input and output level meters
The meters to the left and right of the pan area show the 
volume of all input and output speaker channels, respec
-
tively. The numeric values below the meters indicate the 
peak level that has been measured for any of the channels.
General plug-in controls
The Bypass Effect button
At the top left of the plug-in panel you will find a button to 
bypass the SurroundPanner V5. If this is activated, the 
panner attempts to route the input signals to the appropri
-
ate output channels (e. g. the left and right front speakers if 
panning a stereo signal to a 5.1 configuration).
Mute/Solo buttons
At the top of the plug-in panel you will find a Mute and a 
Solo button that are identical with the channel’s Mute/
Solo controls (see 
“Using Solo and Mute” on page 153). 
Read/Write buttons
Like any other effect plug-in, the SurroundPanner V5 has 
Read and Write buttons at the top of the window to apply 
and record automation data (see below).
Automation
Most of the parameters in the SurroundPanner V5 plug-in 
can be automated just like any other channel or insert pa
-
rameter (see “Enabling and disabling the writing of auto-
mation data” on page 228).
Recording automation for the Orbit controls and the inde-
pendent positioning mode is handled differently, however. 
Automation data for these parameters is written as a com
-
bination of the front-rear panning, left-right panning and 
the Rotate Signal parameters. For the independent posi
-
tioning mode, Scaling is added. Due to this you cannot 
easily modify existing automation data since this would in
-
volve too many different parameters. If an automation pass 
did not yield the desired result, simply try again. 
						

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Surround sound (Cubase only)
Resetting all parameters
[Alt]/[Option]-click the Reset button in the lower right cor-
ner of the plug-in panel to reset all controls to their default 
values.
Constant power
“What goes in, must come out again.” This principle can 
be taken literally with regard to the SurroundPanner V5. It 
means that the power of a source channel is identical to 
the power of the corresponding output signal.
The advantage of this is that the overall volume as per-
ceived by the listener (= the power) is always the same, 
regardless of the signal panning, e.
 g. when you move the 
sound source in the pan area, disable specific speaker 
channels, or use the divergence controls.
Exporting a surround mix
When you have set up a surround mix, you can choose to 
export it using the Export Audio Mixdown function. 
You have the following export options when working with 
a surround configuration:
•Export to “split” format, resulting in one mono audio file 
for each surround channel.
•Export to interleaved format, resulting in a single multi-
channel audio file (e.g. a 5.1 file, containing all six surround 
channels).
•Under Windows you can also export a 5.1 surround mix 
to a file in Windows Media Audio Pro format.
This is an encoding format tailored for 5.1 surround – see “Windows Me-
dia Audio Pro files (Windows only)” on page 491.
For details about exporting to files, see the chapter “Export 
Audio Mixdown” on page 484. 
						

							19
Automation 
						

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Automation
Introduction
In essence, automation means recording the values for a 
particular Mixer or effect parameter. When you create your 
final mix, you will not have to worry about having to adjust 
this particular parameter control yourself – Cubase will do 
it for you. 
Working with automation curves
Within a Cubase project, the changes in a parameter 
value over time are reflected as curves on automation 
tracks. 
About automation curves 
There are two kinds of automation curves: “ramp” and 
“jump”:
•Jump curves are created for on/off parameters such as 
Mute.
•Ramp curves are created for any parameter that gener-
ates continuous multiple values, such as fader or encoder 
movements, etc. 
Examples of jump and ramp automation curves 
About the static value line
When you open an automation track for the first time, it 
does not contain any automation events (unless you have 
previously adjusted the corresponding parameter with 
Write automation activated). This is reflected in the event 
display as a straight horizontal black line, the “static value” 
line. This line represents the current parameter setting.
•If you have manually added any automation events or 
used write automation for the corresponding parameter 
and then disable the reading of automation data, the auto
-
mation curve will be grayed-out in the event display and 
the static value line will be used instead.
As soon as Read is enabled, the automation curve will become available.
Enabling and disabling the writing 
of automation data
You can automation enable tracks and Mixer channels in 
Cubase by activating their automation Write buttons. 
Write (W) and Read (R) buttons for all plug-in effects and 
VST instruments can be found on the corresponding con
-
trol panels.
•If you activate Write for a channel, virtually all Mixer pa-
rameters you adjust during playback for that specific 
channel are recorded as automation events.
•If Read is activated for a channel, all your recorded Mixer 
actions for that channel are performed during playback.
The Read and Write buttons for a track in the track list are 
the same as the Read and Write buttons in the corre
-
sponding channel strip in the Mixer.
ÖNote that the Read button is automatically enabled 
when you enable the Write button. This allows Cubase to 
read existing automation data at any time. You can sepa
-
rately deactivate Write if you want to only read existing 
data. It is not possible to activate Write and deactivate 
Read at the same time.
There are also global Read and Write indicator buttons 
(“Toggle Read/Write for all tracks”) in the common panel 
of the Mixer and at the top of the track list:
These buttons light up as soon as there is an enabled Read 
or Write button on any channel/track within your project. 
Furthermore, they can be clicked to activate or deactivate 
the Read/Write buttons of all tracks simultaneously.
The Write and Read buttons for a channel in the Mixer 
and for an automation track in the track list
The global Read/Write buttons in the Mixer, and in the 
track list 
						

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Automation
ÖYou will also find global Read/Write buttons on the 
Automation panel, see 
“The Read/Write buttons” on page 
235.
Writing automation data 
There are two approaches you can use to create automa-
tion curves: manually (see “Manual writing of automation 
data” on page 229) and automatically (see “Automatic 
writing of automation data” on page 229). While manual 
writing makes it easy to quickly change parameter values 
at specific points without having to activate playback, au
-
tomatic writing lets you work much like you would using a 
“real” mixer. 
With both methods, any applied automation data will be 
reflected in both the Mixer (a fader will move for example) 
and in the corresponding automation track curve. 
Automatic writing of automation data
Every action you perform is automatically recorded on au-
tomation tracks which you can later open for viewing and 
editing. 
To enable the recording of automation events, proceed as 
follows:
1.Open an automation track by clicking on the “Show/
Hide Automation” button of a track in the track list.
2.Enable the Write button for the track and adjust the 
desired parameters in the Mixer, in the Channel Settings 
window, or in the effect control panel while rolling through 
the project.
The value settings are recorded and displayed as a curve on the automa-tion tracks. When automation data is being written, the color of the auto-
mation track changes to red and the delta indicator in the automation 
track shows the relative amount by which the new parameter setting de
-viates from any previously automated value.
3.When you are finished, stop playback and return to the 
position where you started playback.
4.Disable Write.
The Read button remains enabled.
5.Start playback.
All actions you recorded will be reproduced exactly.
ÖWhen dragging a plug-in to a different insert slot on 
the same channel, any existing automation data will move 
with the plug-in. When you drag it to an insert slot on a 
different channel, any existing automation data will not be 
transferred to the new channel.
Manual writing of automation data
You can add automation events manually by drawing auto-
mation curves on an automation track. Proceed as follows:
1.Open an automation track by clicking on the “Show/
Hide Automation” button of a track in the track list.
2.In the track list, click on the automation parameter 
name and select the desired parameter from the pop-up 
menu.
3.Select the Pencil tool.
You can also use various modes of the Line tool for drawing curves, see 
below.
4.Click on the static value line. 
An automation event is added, read automation mode is automatically 
activated, and the static value line changes to a colored automation 
curve.
5.If you click and hold, you can draw a curve by adding 
many automation events.
Note that the track color in the track list changes to red to indicate that 
automation data is being written. 
						

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Automation
6.When you release the mouse button, the number of 
automation events is reduced, but the basic shape of the 
curve remains the same.
This “thinning out” of events is governed by the Reduction Level setting 
in the Automation Settings section of the Automation Preferences, see 
“Automation Settings” on page 241.
7.If you now activate playback, the automated parameter 
will change with the automation curve.
In the Mixer, the corresponding fader moves accordingly.
8.Repeat the procedure if you are not happy with the 
result.
If you draw over existing events, a new curve is created.
Apart from the Pencil tool, you can use the following tools 
to draw automation events:
•Arrow tool 
If Read is activated and you click on an automation track with the Arrow 
tool, you can add automation events. Note that events introduced be
-
tween two existing events that do not deviate from the existing curve are 
removed as soon as you release the mouse button.
•Line tool – Line mode
To activate the Line tool in Line mode, click on the Line tool and click again 
to open a pop-up menu where you can select the Line option. If you click 
on the automation track and drag with the Line tool in Line mode, you can 
create automation events in a line. This is a quick way to create linear 
fades, etc.
•Line tool – Parabola mode
To activate the Line tool in Parabola mode, click on the Line tool and click 
again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the Parabola option. If 
you click and drag on the automation track with the Line tool in Parabola 
mode, you can create more “natural” curves and fades. Note that the result 
depends on the direction from which you draw the parabolic curve.
•Line tool – Sine, Triangle, or Square mode
To activate the Line tool in these modes, click on the Line tool and click 
again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the desired option. If 
you click and drag on the automation track with the Line tool in Sine, Tri
-
angle, or Square mode and snap to grid is activated, the period of the 
curve (the length of one curve “cycle”) is determined by the grid setting. 
If you press [Shift] and drag, you can set the period length manually, in 
multiples of the grid value.
ÖThe Line tool can only be used for ramp type automa-
tion curves.
Editing automation events
Automation events can be edited much like other events. 
You can cut, copy, paste, and nudge events, etc.
Selecting automation events
•To select a single automation event, click on it with the 
Arrow tool.
The event turns red, and you can drag it in any direction between two 
events.
•To select multiple events, you can either [Shift]-click on 
the events or drag a selection rectangle with the Arrow 
tool.
All events inside the selection rectangle will be selected and the automa-tion track editor becomes available, see below.
Drawing a selection rectangle around events to select them.
•To select all automation events on an automation track, 
right-click the automation track in the track list and choose 
“Select All Events” from the context menu.