Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

							Customizing
Applying colors in the Project window
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Color fields
Click a field to open a color selector pane that allows you to specify a new color.
Click Options for the following options.
Append New Color
Adds a new color button at the bottom of the color list.
Insert New Color before Selection
Adds a new color button above the selected color button.
Remove Selected Color
Removes the selected color.
Reset Selected Color
Resets the selected color to the factory settings.
Increase/Reduce Intensity of all Colors
Increases or reduces the intensity of all colors.
Increase/Reduce Brightness of all Colors
Increases or reduces the brightness of all colors.
Save Current Set as Program Defaults
Saves the current set of colors as default.
Load Program Defaults to Current Set
Applies the default set of colors.
Reset Current Set to Factory Settings
Returns to the standard color palette. 
						

							Customizing
Where are the settings stored?
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Adding and editing individual colors
In the Project Colors dialog, you can fully customize the color palette. To add new 
colors to the color palette, proceed as follows:
PROCEDURE
1. Add a new color by clicking the Insert New Color button.
2. In the Project Colors section, click the newly created color field to activate the 
new color for editing.
3. Use the Standard Colors or Modify Color sections to specify a new color.
To do this, pick a different color from the color palette, drag the cursor in the color 
circle, move the handle in the color meter, or enter new RGB values as well as values 
for hue, saturation, and luminosity manually.
4. Click the Apply button.
The color setting is applied to the selected color field in the Project Colors section.
NOTE
Every color in the Project Colors section can be edited this way.
Setting intensity and brightness
To increase or decrease the intensity and the brightness of all colors, use the 
corresponding buttons in the Project Colors section.
Increase/decrease intensity for all colors
Increase/decrease brightness for all colors
Where are the settings stored?
As you have seen, there are a large number of ways in which you can customize 
Cubase. While some of the settings you make are stored with each project, others 
are stored in separate preference files.
If you need to transfer your projects to another computer (e. g. in another studio), 
you can bring all your settings along by copying the desired preference files and 
installing them on the other computer.
NOTE
It is a good idea to make a backup copy of your preference files once you have set 
things up the way you want! This way, if another Cubase user wants to use his or 
her personal settings when working on your computer, you can restore your own 
preferences afterwards. 
						

							Customizing
Where are the settings stored?
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• On Windows systems, preference files are stored in the following location: 
“\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\\”.
On the Start menu, you will find a shortcut to this folder for easy access.
• On Mac OS X systems, preference files are stored in the following location: 
“/Library/Preferences//” under your home directory.
The full path is: “/Users//Library/Preferences//”.
NOTE
The RAMpresets.xml file, which contains various presets settings (see below), is 
saved when exiting the program.
NOTE
Program functions (e. g. crossfade) or configurations (e. g. panels) not used in the 
project will not be stored.
Some of the preferences are not stored in the default preferences folder. A list can 
be found in the Steinberg Knowledge Base.
To open the Knowledge Base, browse to the Steinberg web site, click “Support” 
and choose “Knowledge Base” in the list on the left.
Updating from a Previous Version of Cubase
When you are updating from Cubase 6 or higher, the customized settings of your 
previous installation are used for the new Cubase version.
When your previous Cubase version is older than Cubase 6, its settings are 
discarded, and the default settings of the new version of Cubase are used.
Disabling the Preferences
Sometimes you might experience odd program behaviour that can be due to 
inconsistent preferences settings. In such a case, you should save your project and 
relaunch Cubase. You can disable or delete the current preferences settings, and 
load the factory defaults instead.
PROCEDURE
1. Quit Cubase.
2. Launch Cubase, and when the splash screen appears, hold down 
[Shift]-[Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option].
3. Select one of the following options in the dialog that appears:
•Use current program preferences
Opens the program with the current preference settings. 
						

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•Disable program preferences
Disables the current preferences, and opens the program with the factory 
default settings instead.
•Delete program preferences
Deletes the preferences and opens the program with the factory default 
settings instead. This process cannot be undone. Note that this affects all 
versions of Cubase installed on your computer.
RELATED LINKS
Preferences on page 1051 
						

							1045
Optimizing
Optimizing Audio Performance
This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get the most out of your 
Cubase system, performance-wise. Some of this text refers to hardware properties 
and can be used as a guide when upgrading your system. Look for details and 
current information on the Cubase web site.
Performance Aspects
Tracks and Effects
The faster your computer, the more tracks, effects, and EQ you are able to play. 
Exactly what constitutes a fast computer is almost a science in itself, but some hints 
are given below.
Short Response Times (Latency)
Another aspect of performance is response time. The term “latency” refers to the 
buffering, that is the temporary storing of small chunks of audio data during various 
steps of the recording and playback process on a computer. The more and larger 
those chunks, the higher the latency.
High latency is most irritating when playing VST instruments and when monitoring 
through the computer, that is when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase 
MixConsole and effects. However, very long latency times (several hundred 
milliseconds) can also affect other processes like mixing, for example, when the 
effect of a fader movement is heard only after a noticeable delay.
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the problems associated with 
ve ry lo ng laten cy t ime s, a syst em  th at  respon ds fast  wi ll alw ays be  mor e c onve nien t 
to work with.
• Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible to trim your latency 
times, usually by lowering the size and the number of buffers.
• For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation. 
						

							Optimizing
Optimizing Audio Performance
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System Factors That Affect Performance
RAM
The more RAM is installed in your computer, the better.
IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
On computers running a Windows 32-bit operating system, a running application 
can address a maximum of 2 GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer running 32-bit 
Mac OS X, this limit is 4 GB. The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X are 
able t o assign c onsider ably mo re t han 4 GB of RAM to a running 64-bit application.
The RAM limitation is imposed by the operating system, and it is independent of the 
amount of RAM that you may have installed in your computer.
Some program functions may use all the available memory, for example, recording, 
the use of effect plug-ins, and the pre-loading of samples.
IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
When a function has used up all the memory made available by the operating 
system, the computer will crash.
Always keep in mind the RAM limitation of your operating system when setting up 
your projects.
RELATED LINKS
RAM Requirements for Recording on page 220
Smart Plug-In Processing on page 373
CPU and Processor Cache
The faster the computer processor, the better. But there are a number of factors that 
affect the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed and type (PCI is strongly 
recommended), the processor cache size and of course, the processor type and 
brand. Cubase relies heavily on floating point calculations. When shopping for a 
processor, make sure that you get one that is powerful in calculating floating point 
arithmetics.
Cubase features full support for multi-processor systems. If you own a computer 
system with more than one processor, Cubase can take advantage of the total 
capacity and evenly distribute the processing load to all available processors.
RELATED LINKS
Multi Processing on page 1048 
						

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Optimizing Audio Performance
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Hard Disk and Controller
The number of hard disk tracks that you can record and play back at the same time 
also depends on the speed of your hard disk and hard disk controller. If you use 
E-IDE disks and controllers, make sure that the transfer mode is DMA Busmaster. 
Under Windows, you can check the current mode by launching the Windows 
Device Manager and looking for properties of the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller’s 
primary and secondary channel. DMA transfer mode is enabled by default, but may 
be turned off by the system in case of hardware problems.
Audio Hardware and Driver
The hardware and its driver can have some effect on regular performance. A badly 
written driver can reduce the performance of your computer. But where the 
hardware driver design makes the most difference is with latency.
NOTE
We recommend that you use audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO 
driver.
This is especially true when using Cubase for Windows:
• Under Windows, ASIO drivers written specifically for the hardware are more 
efficient than the Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver or a DirectX driver and 
produce shorter latency times.
• Under Mac OS X, audio hardware with properly written Mac OS X (Core 
Audio) drivers can be very efficient and produce very low latency times.
However, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO drivers, 
such as the ASIO Positioning Protocol.
Settings That Affect Performance
Audio Buffer Settings
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio hardware. The size of 
the audio buffers affects both the latency and the audio performance.
Generally, the smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency. On the other hand, 
working with small buffers can be demanding for the computer. If the audio buffers 
are too small, you may get clicks, pops or other audio playback problems.
• To adjust the buffer size settings under Mac OS X, select Devices > Device 
Setup, and select the Device Setup dialog. You may also find buffer settings 
in the control panel for the audio hardware.
• To adjust the buffer size settings under Windows, select Devices > Device 
Setup, select the driver page, and click Control Panel. 
						

							Optimizing
Optimizing Audio Performance
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Multi Processing
When Multi Processing is activated and there is more than one CPU in your system, 
the processing load is distributed evenly to all available CPUs, allowing Cubase to 
make full use of the combined power of the multiple processors.
• To activate Multi Processing, select Devices > Device Setup, select VST 
Audio System, and activate Multi Processing.
VST Performance Window
This window shows the audio processing load and the hard disk transfer rate. This 
allows you to verify that you do not run into performance problems when adding 
effects or plug-ins, for example.
• To open the VST Performance window, select Devices > VST 
Performance.
Average load
Shows how much of the available CPU power is used for audio processing.
Real-time peak
Shows the processing load in the realtime path of the audio engine. The 
higher this value, the higher the risk that dropouts occur.
Overload indicator
The overload indicator to the right of the real-time peak indicator and the 
average load indicator displays overloads of the average or real-time 
indicator.
If it lights up, decrease the number of EQ modules, active effects, and audio 
channels that play back simultaneously. You can also activate the 
ASIO-Guard.
Disk
Shows the hard disk transfer load.
Disk overload indicator
The overload indicator to the right of the disk indicator lights up if the hard disk 
does not supply data fast enough.
If it lights up, use Disable Track to reduce the number of tracks playing back. 
If this does not help, you need a faster hard disk. 
						

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Optimizing Audio Performance
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NOTE
You can show a simple view of the performance meter on the Transport panel and 
on the Project window toolbar. These meters only feature the average and the disk 
indicator.
ASIO-Guard
The ASIO-Guard allows you to shift as much processing as possible from the ASIO 
realtime path to the ASIO-Guard processing path. This results in a more stable 
system.
The ASIO-Guard allows you to preprocess all channels as well as VST instruments 
that do not need to be calculated in realtime. This leads to less dropouts, the ability 
to process more tracks or plug-ins, and the ability to use smaller buffer sizes.
ASIO-Guard Latency
High ASIO-Guard levels lead to an increased ASIO-Guard latency. When you 
adjust a volume fader, for example, you will hear the parameter changes with a slight 
delay. The ASIO-Guard latency, in contrast to the latency of the audio hardware, is 
independant from live input.
Restrictions
The ASIO-Guard cannot be used for:
• Realtime-dependent signals
• External effects and instruments
• Plug-ins that have a different bit version than the operating system
NOTE
If you select Devices > Plug-in Manager and click Show Plug-in 
Information, you can deactivate the ASIO-Guard option for selected 
plug-ins.
If you activate the monitoring for an input channel, a MIDI or a VST instrument 
channel, the audio channel and all dependent channels are automatically switched 
from ASIO-Guard to realtime processing and vice versa. This results in a gentle 
fade out and fade in of the audio channel.
Activating the ASIO-Guard
PROCEDURE
1. Select Devices > Device Setup.
2. In the Device Setup dialog, open the VST Audio System page. 
						

							Optimizing
Optimizing Audio Performance
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3. Activate the Activate ASIO-Guard option.
NOTE
This option is only available, if you activate Multi Processing.
4. Select an ASIO-Guard Level.
The higher the level, the higher the processing stability and audio processing 
performance. However, higher levels also lead to an increased ASIO-Guard latency 
and memory usage.