Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

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The MediaBay
•“Auto Play New Results Selection” works as for audio 
files, see above.
The Filters section
With the MediaBay, you can perform very refined file 
searches. You have two possibilities: Logical or Attribute 
Filtering.
Applying a logical filter
Logical filtering is similar to working with the Logical Edi-
tor (Cubase only), see the chapter “The Logical Editor, 
Transformer, and Input Transformer” on page 440.
If you click the Logical button in the Filters section, you 
can set up complex conditions that must be met for files to 
be found. Here, you can search for a specific file attribute 
value, for example.
Proceed as follows:
1.In the Locations section, select the Location in which 
you want to search for files.
2.Activate the Logical search mode by clicking on the 
Logical button in the Filters section.
A condition line appears.
3.Click in the leftmost field, to open the Select Filter At-
tributes dialog.
The dialog shows an alphabetical list of file attributes you can choose 
from. At the top of the list, the MediaBay maintains an automatically gen
-erated list of the last 5 attributes selected during previous searches.
4.Select the attribute(s) you want to use, and click OK.
•Note that you can select more than one attribute. This 
creates an OR condition: the files found will match either 
one or the other attribute.
5.Click OK to set the attribute(s) to search for.
6.On the Condition pop-up menu next to the Attribute 
pop-up menu, select the desired option.
The following options are available:
7.Enter the text or number you are looking for in the field 
to the right.
The Results list is automatically updated, showing only the files that cor-
respond to your search conditions.
ÖFor all conditions except “range”, you can enter more 
than one string in the text field (separate the different 
search strings with a space). These strings form an AND 
condition, i.
 e. the files that are found will match all the 
strings entered in the field.
•To add another filter line, click the “+” button to the right 
of the text field.
This way, you can add up to five filter lines in which you can define further 
search conditions. Note that two or more filter lines form an AND condi
-
tion, i. e. the files searched for must match the conditions defined in all fil-ter lines. Click the “-” button for a filter line to remove it.
•To reset all search fields to their default settings, click 
the Reset Filter button in the top right corner of the Filters 
section.
OptionDescription
containsThe search result must contain the text or number specified in 
the text field to the right.
omitsThe search result must not contain the text or number specified 
in the text field to the right.
equalsThe search result must correspond exactly to the text or number 
specified in the text field to the right, including any file extension. 
Text searches are not case-sensitive.
>=The search result must be higher than or equal to the number 
specified in the field to the right.

						

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Advanced text search
You can also perform very advanced text searches using 
boolean operators. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired location.
2.Activate Logical filtering by clicking on the Logical but-
ton at the top of the Filters section.
A condition line appears.
3.Select the desired attribute on the Attributes pop-up 
menu, or leave the setting on “Any Attribute”.
4.Make sure that the condition is set to “matches”.
5.Specify the desired text in the field to the right using 
boolean operators.
The available options are described in the section “Performing a text 
search” on page 317.
Performing a context menu search
If you have selected a file in the Results list or the Attribute 
Inspector which contains an attribute you are interested, 
there is a very fast way to look for other files with the same 
attribute.
Right-click the selected file to open the context menu and 
select the attribute value from the “Search for…” sub
-
menu. This way you can easily find all the files that have 
this value in common, for example if you want to view all 
files that were created on the same day.
ÖThis is the same as specifying a logical search string, 
see above. When you select any of the “Search for…” op
-
tions, the Filters section automatically switches to Logical 
filtering and the corresponding filter condition line is dis
-
played. To return to the previous settings, click the Go 
Back button in the Filters section.
Applying an attribute filter
The MediaBay allows you not only to view and edit some 
of the standard file attributes found in all computer files, 
but it also provides preconfigured attributes, or “tags”, 
that you can use to organize your media files, see 
“The At-
tribute Inspector” on page 323.
If you click the Attribute button, the Filters section displays 
all values found for a specific attribute. Selecting one of 
these values will result in a list of files all showing this par
-
ticular attribute value. For example, you could look for sam-
ple rates and pick 44.1 kHz to give you a list of all files with 
that particular sample rate.
The advantages of the use of attributes become obvious 
when having to find a specific file in a large database, 
without knowing the name of that file. 
When you activate Attribute filtering, the Filters section 
shows attribute columns, each with its own list of attribute 
values. If the columns are wide enough, the number of files 
that match this criteria is displayed to the right of the filter 
name.
You define an Attribute filter by clicking on the values in an 
attribute column: only the files that match the selected at
-
tribute values are then shown in the Results list. Select 
more attribute values from other columns to further refine 
your filter.
!In Cubase Artist, the Attribute search is the only 
search mode available.
!Some attributes are directly linked to each other (e. g. 
for each Category value, there are certain Sub Cate
-
gory values available). Changing the value in one of 
these attribute column will give you different values in 
the other column!
!Each attribute column displays only the attribute val-
ues found in the currently selected location! This 
means that selecting another location may lead to 
the display of different attributes. 
						

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•Selected attribute values in the same column form an 
OR condition.
This means that files must be tagged according to either one or the other 
attribute value to be displayed in the Results list.
ÖNote that this is not true for the Character attribute, 
which always forms an AND condition, see below.
•Attribute values in different columns form an AND con-
dition.
This means that files must be tagged according to all these attribute val-
ues to be shown in the Results list.
Assigning attribute values to your files makes it easy to or-
ganize the media files. This is described in detail in the 
section 
“The Attribute Inspector” on page 323. 
ÖYou can also create user attributes (see “Defining user 
attributes” on page 326) to create your own categories.
Further options for attribute searches 
•You can change which attribute type is displayed in 
each column by clicking on the column title and selecting 
another attribute from the context menu.
•You can select an attribute value, by clicking on it. To 
deselect it, click the value again.
Note that you can select more than one value in each attribute column.
•You can clear all settings in the attribute columns by 
clicking the Reset Filter button at the top right of the Fil
-
ters section.
Clicking this button also resets the Results list.
The Attribute Inspector
Attributes (or “tags”) for media files are sets of metadata 
providing additional information on the file.
When you have selected one or more files in the Results 
list, the Attribute Inspector shows a two-column list of attri
-
butes and their values. This is very handy to get a quick 
overview of a selected file (for example when you are step
-
ping through the files in the Results list).
The different types of media files have different attributes: 
For example, for .wav audio files you will find attributes like 
name, length, size, sample rate, etc., while for .mp3 files, 
additional attributes such as artist or genre are available.
In this section, you can also edit the attribute values of 
files or enter new attribute values, see below.
The available attributes are divided into several groups 
(Media, Audio, Staff, etc.), so as to keep the list manage
-
able and make it easy to find the desired element quickly.
You have access to the standard attributes and the pre-
configured attributes provided by Cubase. Additionally 
you can define your own attributes and add these to your 
files.
Attributes can be shown in the Attribute Inspector in two 
different ways:
•Click the Dynamic button to show all available attribute 
values.
This list is automatically generated by Cubase. Use this view if you want 
to see the attributes the selected files have already been tagged with. 
						

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•Click the Defined button to show a configured set of at-
tributes for the selected media type.
In this mode, you can choose which attributes are displayed (regardless 
of whether corresponding values are available for the selected files). For 
more information on how to set up the list of displayed attributes, see 
“Managing the attribute lists” on page 326.
Editing attributes (tagging)
The search functions, especially the attribute filter, become 
a truly powerful media management tool when making ex
-
tensive use of tagging, i. e. when adding and editing attri-
butes.
Media files are usually organized in complex folder struc-
tures to provide a logical way of guiding the user to the 
desired files, with the folder and/or file names indicating 
the instrument, style, tempo, etc.
To find a particular sound or loop in such a folder structure 
can be very time consuming – tagging is the answer! 
Editing attributes in the Attribute Inspector
In the Attribute Inspector, you can edit attribute values of 
the various media files. Attribute values can be chosen 
from pop-up lists, entered as text or numbers, or set to 
Yes or No.
ÖNote that changing an attribute value in the Attribute 
Inspector will permanently change the corresponding file 
(unless the file is write-protected or part of a VST Sound 
archive).
You can edit attributes in the following way:
1.Select the file that you want to make settings for in the 
Results list.
The corresponding attribute values are displayed in the Attribute Inspector.
2.Click in the Value column for the attribute.
Depending on the selected attribute, the following hap-
pens:
•For most of the attributes, a pop-up menu opens from 
which you can choose a value. This can be a name, a 
number and an on/off state. For example, this is the case 
for the attributes Name, Family Name, or Author.
Some of the pop-up menus also have a “more…” entry to open a window 
with more attribute values. These attribute selection windows also fea
-
ture a Text Search button that you can use to find specific values more 
quickly.
•For the Rating attribute, you can click in the Value col-
umn and drag left or right to modify the setting.
•For the Character attribute (Musical group), the Edit 
Character dialog opens.
Click a radio button on the left or the right side and then click OK to de-
fine values for the Character attribute.
3.Set the attribute to the desired value.
•Many attribute values can also be edited by double-
clicking in the Value column of the Attribute Inspector.
Simply enter/change the text or number setting in the field displayed for a 
value.
•To remove the attribute value from the selected files, 
right-click in the corresponding Value column and select 
“Remove Attribute” from the context menu.
•“Display only” attributes cannot be edited.
If this is the case, the file format probably does not permit changing this 
value, or changing a particular value makes no sense (e.
 g. you cannot 
change the file size in the MediaBay).
ÖYou can also select several files and make settings for 
them simultaneously (except for the name, which must be 
unique for every file). 
						

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About the color scheme used in the Attribute Inspector
The colors used for the displayed values in the Attribute 
Inspector have the following meaning:
Information on the meaning of the colors used in the Attri-
bute Inspector are also displayed in a tooltip when you 
move the mouse pointer over one of the color icons below 
the Attribute Inspector.
Editing attributes in the Results list
You can also edit attributes directly in the Results list. This 
allows you for example to assign tags to a number of loop 
files.
Proceed as follows:
1.In the Results list, select the file(s) for which you want 
to change an attribute value.
2.Click in the column for the value you want to change 
and make the desired settings.
As in the Attribute Inspector, you can choose a value from a pop-up 
menu, enter the new value directly, etc.
Editing the attributes of multiple files simultaneously
There is no limit as to how many files can be tagged at the 
same time, but you need to be aware that the tagging of a 
large amount of files in one go may take quite a while. This 
operation is executed in the background, so that you can 
continue with your work as usual. By looking at the Attri
-
bute Counter above the Results list, you can see how 
many files still have to be updated.
•If you close Cubase before the Attribute Counter has 
gone down to zero, a dialog with a progress bar is dis
-
played, indicating how long the updating process will take. 
You can choose to abort this process.
In this case only the files that were updated before you clicked “Abort” 
will have the new attribute values.
Editing the attributes of write-protected files
Media files may be write-protected due to a number of rea-
sons: They may belong to content that was provided by 
someone else who write-protected the files, you may have 
write-protected them yourself in order not to overwrite them 
accidentally, or the file format could restrict write operations 
by the MediaBay.
In the MediaBay, the write protection status of files is 
shown as an attribute in the Attribute Inspector and in the 
Write Protection column in the Results list.
However, there may be cases when you want to define at-
tributes for write-protected files. For example, you might 
want to apply attributes to the content files that came with 
Cubase or you are working on the same files with several 
people and cannot modify these files. In these scenarios, 
you still want to be able to find files quickly and improve 
your workflow.
Therefore, it is possible to change the attribute values of 
write-protected files in the MediaBay. These changes are 
not written to disk though and occur in the MediaBay only.
•When you specify attribute values for a file that is write-
protected, this is reflected in the Pending Tags column 
next to the Write Protection column in the Results list.
Note that if you rescan the MediaBay content and a media file on your 
hard disk has changed since the last scan, all pending tags for this file 
will be lost.
•If a file has pending tags, and you want to write the cor-
responding attributes to the file, you need to remove the 
write protection first, and then select the “Write Tags to 
File” command from the context menu.
ÖIf the Write Protection and/or the Pending Tags col-
umn are not visible, you may have to enable the corre-
sponding attributes for the file type in question in the 
Attribute Inspector.
ColorDescription
WhiteThis represents a “normal” attribute: One or more files are se-lected in the Results list, and they have the same values.
YellowYellow color stands for an “ambiguous” attribute: Multiple files 
are selected in the Results list, and their values differ.
OrangeThis stands for an “ambiguous static attribute”: Multiple files 
are selected in the Results list, with differing values, and which 
cannot be edited.
RedRed values are displayed for a “static attribute”: One or more 
files are selected in the Results list, whose values cannot be 
edited.
!This is only possible if “Allow Editing in Results List” 
is activated, see 
“Preferences” on page 327. 
						

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The MediaBay
•You can change the write-protection status of your me-
dia files, provided that the file type allows write operations 
and you have the necessary operation system permis
-
sions: To set or remove the write protection attribute for a 
file, simply select the file in the Results list and select 
“Set/Remove Write Protection” from the context menu.
ÖIf you use other programs than Cubase to change the 
write-protection status of a file, this will not be reflected in 
the MediaBay until you rescan the files!
Managing the attribute lists
In the Attribute Inspector, you can define which attributes 
are shown in the Results list and in the Attribute Inspector 
itself. For different media types, individual “attribute sets” 
can be configured.
Proceed as follows:
1.In the Attribute Inspector, click the Defined button.
2.Click the “Configure Defined Attributes” button to the 
right of the Defined button.
A number of controls are displayed.
3.Click the leftmost button below the Defined/Dynamic 
buttons to open the “Select Media Types” dialog, activate 
one or more of the media types, and click OK.
The Attribute Inspector now shows a list of all attributes available for 
these media types.
•If you have activated more than one media type, your 
settings affect all selected types. 
An orange checkmark indicates that the current display settings for an 
attribute differ for the selected media types.
•The display settings made for the Mixed Media Type op-
tion are applied whenever you select files of different me-
dia types (for example audio and MIDI files) in the Results 
list or the Attribute Inspector.
4.To select a certain attribute, activate the correspond-
ing checkbox.
•You can also select several attributes and activate/de-
activate their checkboxes in one go.
•You can reset the display settings you made by clicking 
the “Reset to Default” button in the top right corner.
This will reset the display settings for all media types to their default 
settings.
ÖTo make settings for another media type, make sure to 
only select this type in the list in the dialog.
5.When you have set up the attributes for all the media 
types you are working with, exit the Configuration mode by 
clicking the “Configure Defined Attributes” button again.
Defining user attributes
If you find that the available attributes are not suitable for 
your work, you can define your own attributes and save 
these in the MediaBay database and the corresponding 
media files.
Proceed as follows:
1.In the Attribute Inspector, activate the Defined button 
and click the “Configure Defined Attributes” button to en
-
ter configuration mode.
A number of controls are displayed.
2.Click the “Add User Attribute” button (the “+” sign).
A dialog opens.
3.Specify the type of the attribute.
Attributes can be of the types “Text”, “Number” or “Yes/No” switch. For 
“Number” attributes, you can specify how many decimals are displayed, 
by entering the corresponding value in the Precision field.
4.In the text field below, enter the name for the new attri-
bute.
Note that this is the name as it will be displayed in the program. Below 
the text field, you will see the name as it will be used internally (e.
 g. in the 
MediaBay database). This way, you will see immediately if a certain name 
is invalid and cannot be used.
The Type column shows 
whether the value for an 
attribute is a number, 
text, or a Yes/No switch.
The Precision column 
shows the number of 
decimals displayed for 
number attributes. 
						

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5.Click OK.
The new attribute is added to the list of available attributes and will be 
displayed in the Attribute Inspector and the Results list.
•To remove a user attribute, select it in the attribute list 
and click the “Remove User Attribute” button (the “-” sign).
The attribute is removed from any attribute list.
•Cubase recognizes all user attributes that are included 
in media files. For example, if you load content from an
-
other user, who has assigned his own user tags to the 
files, these tags are also shown in the MediaBay.
The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, 
and Mini Browser windows
The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini Browser 
items on the Media menu open different “views” of the 
MediaBay. The Loop Browser is preconfigured for quickly 
browsing your “loops”, i.
 e. audio files, MIDI loops, and 
pattern banks. Similarly, the Sound Browser is set up for 
you to be able to quickly search the desired sound, with
-
out having to configure the window. By default, it is set to 
display track presets and plug-in presets. The Mini Brow
-
ser is very small, which makes it perfect to be placed 
along instruments like LoopMash or Groove Agent One.
These Browser windows offer the same functions as the 
MediaBay, i.
 e. you can specify different browse locations, 
define searches, set up the available panes, etc., as de
-
scribed previously in this chapter.
Preferences
In the Preferences dialog in Cubase, you can find options 
and settings that control the global behavior of the pro
-
gram. The Preferences dialog contains a special Media-
Bay page. These settings are also available from within the 
MediaBay.
To open the Preferences pane for the MediaBay, proceed 
as follows:
1.Click the MediaBay Preferences button in the lower 
left corner of the window.
•A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In 
the center of it is a gray area where the available prefer
-
ences for the Locations section and the Results list are 
displayed.
2.Configure the MediaBay to your liking by activating/
deactivating the options.
The following options are available in the Locations sec-
tion:
The following options are available in the Results section:
OptionDescription
Show Managed 
Locations OnlyActivate this to hide all folders that are not scanned 
for files. This will keep the tree view in the Define Lo-cations section less cluttered.
Use Current 
Selection as Base 
LocationActivate this to show only the selected folder and its 
subfolders. To switch back to the display of all folders, 
deactivate this option.
Scan Folders Only 
when MediaBay is 
OpenWhen this is activated, Cubase only scans for media 
files when the MediaBay window is open.  When this is deactivated, the folders are scanned in 
the background even when the MediaBay window is 
closed. However, Cubase will never scan folders 
while playing back or recording.
OptionDescription
Maximum 
Items in 
Results ListUse this parameter to specify the maximum number of 
files that are displayed in the Results list. This avoids un-manageably long lists of files.  Note that the MediaBay does not warn you if the maxi-mum number of files has been reached and there might 
be situations where a certain file you were looking for 
could not be found, because the maximum number of files 
was reached.
Allow Editing 
in Results ListWhen this is activated, you can also edit attributes in the 
Results list. When this option is deactivated, editing can 
only be done in the Attribute Inspector. 
						

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Key commands
You can display the available MediaBay key commands 
from within the MediaBay window. This is useful if you 
want to get a quick overview over the assigned and the 
available MediaBay key commands.
To open the Key Commands pane, proceed as follows:
•Click the Key Commands button in the lower left corner 
of the window.
A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a 
gray area where the available key commands are displayed.
•If you only want to get an overview over the key com-
mands, you can exit the pane by clicking on its back-
ground (not in the gray area).
•If you want to assign or modify key commands, click in 
the gray area.
The Key Commands dialog opens, in which you can set up and edit key 
commands, see the chapter 
“Key commands” on page 541.
Working with MediaBay-related 
windows
The MediaBay concept can be found throughout the pro-
gram, for example when adding new tracks or when choos-
ing presets for VST instruments or effects. The workflow in 
all MediaBay-related windows is the same as in the Media
-
Bay. Below follow a few examples.
Adding tracks
When you select one of the Add Track options on the 
Project menu, the following dialog opens:
The Add Track dialog for audio tracks
Click the Browse button to expand the dialog to show the 
Results list (as you can find it in the MediaBay). However, 
only file types that can be used in this context are shown.
You can also apply track presets to existing tracks. The di-
alog that opens in this case is the same as above.
Applying effect presets
When you have added an insert effect, you can choose 
from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu for 
the effect slot. 
Show File 
Extensions in 
Results ListWhen this is activated, file name extensions (e. g. .wav or 
.cpr) are displayed in the Results list.
Scan un-known File 
TypesWhen scanning for media files, the MediaBay ignores 
files with an unknown file extension. However, when this 
option is activated, the MediaBay tries to open and scan 
any file in the search location and ignores those files that 
cannot be recognized.
Option Description 
						

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The MediaBay
The Presets browser opens:
Applying instrument presets
When working with VST instruments, you can choose 
from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu. 
The Presets browser opens:
VST presets for instruments can be divided into two 
groups: “presets” containing the settings of the whole plug-
in (for multi-timbral instruments, this means the settings for 
all sound slots as well as the global settings) and “pro
-
grams” containing only the settings for one program (for 
multi-timbral instruments, this means only the settings for 
one sound slot). In the MediaBay, they can be recognized 
by their icons. This way, you can see directly whether a VST 
preset contains a single sound or more. 
Presets and programs have the following icons:
Working with Volume databases
Cubase stores all media file information used in the Media-
Bay, such as paths and attributes, in a local database file on 
your computer. However, in some cases, it might be neces
-
sary to browse and manage this kind of metadata on an ex-
ternal volume. For example, a sound editor might have to 
work both at home and in a studio, on two different comput
-
ers. Therefore, he has stored his sound effects on an exter-
nal storage medium. When he is working on a different 
computer, he wants to connect the external device and di
-
rectly browse its contents in the MediaBay, without having 
to scan the device again. This can be achieved by creating 
a volume database for the external device.
Volume databases are files that can be created for drives 
of your computer or for external storage media. They con
-
tain the same kind of information about the media files on 
these drives as the regular MediaBay database.
IconDescription
This preset contains settings for all loaded programs.
This program only contains settings for the first or the se-lected instrument slot. 
						

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The MediaBay
Creating a volume database
To create a separate volume database file for a drive, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.In the Define Locations section of the MediaBay, se-
lect the external storage medium, drive or partition of your 
computer system that you want to create a database for.
2.Right-click on it and select “Create Volume Database” 
on the context menu.
The file information for this drive is now written into a new database file.
When the new database file is available, this is reflected 
by the symbol to the left of the drive name.
For this volume a volume database has been created.
Volume databases are automatically mounted when Cu-
base is launched. They are shown in the Define Locations 
section and their data can be viewed and edited in the Re
-
sults list, as for the other media files in the MediaBay.
Rescanning and refreshing
Use the Rescan and Refresh MediaBay functions for a vol-
ume database if you have modified the scan settings on a 
different system, for example, by activating additional fold
-
ers for scanning.
Removing volume databases
When you have worked on another computer using an ex-
ternal hard disk and return to your own computer and con-
nect the external device again as part of your system setup, 
you do not need a separate volume database for it any 
more. Any data on this drive can then be included in the lo
-
cal database file again, by removing the extra database file.
•To remove a database, right-click on it and select “Re-
move Volume Database” from the context menu.
This integrates the metadata in the local MediaBay database file and 
subsequently deletes the volume database file.
ÖDepending on the size of the volume database, this 
might take a while.
Mounting and unmounting volume databases
When you launch Cubase, all available volume databases 
are automatically mounted. Databases that are made avail
-
able while the program is running have to be mounted man-
ually via the command “Mount Volume Database” on the 
context menu. To unmount a volume database, select “Un
-
mount Volume Database” from the context menu.
!You must select the topmost level (root) for this. You 
cannot create a database file for a lower-level folder.
!If the drive contains a large amount of data, this pro-
cess may take a while.