Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Control Room Mixer
361
1)Source Selectors
Allow you to select the source for the Control Room channel. The available 
sources depend on the channels that you added to the Control Room. The 
signal presence indicators in the upper left corner light up when the source 
channel is sending data to the Control Room channel.
2)Dim Signal
Activate this to lower the Control Room level by a fixed amount. This allows a 
quick reduction in monitor volume without disturbing the current monitor level. 
Clicking the DIM button again returns the monitor level to the previous setting.
3)Use Reference Level
Enable this button to set the Control Room level to the reference level 
specified in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). The 
reference level is the level that is used in calibrated mixing environments, such 
as film dubbing stages.
4)Activate Metronome Click
Activates the metronome click.
1)Monitor Selectors
Allow you to select another monitor source.
2)Downmix Preset Selectors
Allow you to select another downmix preset.
3)Activate Talkback
Allows you to activate talkback for communication between the Control Room 
and the performers in the studio. Click to activate, click and hold for 
momentary mode.
1)Click Level and Click Pan
Use the Click Level and Click Pan controls to set the volume and the pan 
position of the metronome click for the Control Room channel. 
						

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Control Room Setup
362
2)AFL/PFL
Allows you to determine whether the signal of a listen-enabled channel is 
routed to the Control Room channel after applying the fader and pan settings 
(AFL) or before applying the fader and pan settings (PFL).
3)Enable Listen for Output
Enables the listen bus function for the Control Room output.
4)Listen Level
Allows you to adjust the volume of listen bus signals that are routed to the 
Control Room output.
5)Listen Dim
Allows you to adjust the volume of the Main Mix when channels are in listen 
mode. This keeps listen-enabled channels in context with the Main Mix. If the 
Listen DIM level is set to the minimum value, you only hear the listen-enabled 
channels.
6)Talk Dim
When Talkback is active, this slider controls how much the output of all the 
channels in the Control Room Mixer is reduced, to prevent unwanted 
feedback.
Control Room Setup
The Control Room setup contains additional settings for the channels.
• To open the Control Room setup, click the Setup tab at the bottom right of 
the Control Room.
The Control Room setup is divided into a number of sections that you open by 
clicking their headers. 
						

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Control Room Setup
363
Input Gain
Setting up the input gain can be useful in the following situations: 
						

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Control Room Setup
364
• To balance the level of external inputs, for example, CD players and other 
sources to the Main Mix level, for A/B comparisons.
• To balance the level of your monitor systems, so that switching between sets 
of speakers does not change the playback volume.
Input Phase
Reversing the input phase can be useful for external inputs and monitor speaker 
outputs.
Insert Effects
Each Control Room channel has a set of insert effect slots.
• Use the inserts on the Control Room channel for metering and spectral 
analysis plug-ins.
All solos including the Listen bus will come through the Control Room channel 
and allow analysis of individual sounds. A brickwall limiter in the last insert slot 
of the Control Room channel can prevent accidental overloads and damage 
to speaker systems.
• Use the inserts for the talkback channel to control the dynamics of the 
talkback microphone.
This helps protect performers’ hearing and ensures that everyone can be 
heard over the talkback microphone.
• Use the monitor inserts for surround decoding or brickwall limiting to protect 
sensitive monitor speakers.
Each monitor channel has a set of eight inserts, all of which are post Control 
Room fader. 
						

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Setting Up a Cue Mix
365
Setting Up a Cue Mix
You can create a cue mix from the fader and pan levels that are used in the 
MixConsole and change them to meet the needs of the individual performers.
PROCEDURE
1. In the MixConsole, select the channels from which you want to copy the 
settings.
2. In the Control Room, do one of the following:
• To apply the function only to this cue channel, right-click on a cue channel to 
open the context menu.
• To apply the function to all cue channels, click anywhere but on a cue channel 
to open the context menu.
3. Select From selected mixer channels and select one of the functions.
Cue Mix Context Menu
Change Cue Sends Levels
Allows you to adjust multiple send levels at the same time.
Use Current Mix Levels
Allows you to copy the fader levels of the selected tracks to the cue sends. 
This sets all cue send levels for the selected tracks to the level of the main 
channel fader. It also changes the cue send status to pre-fader, so that 
changes in the main mix do not affect the cue sends.
Use Current Pan Settings
Allows you to copy pan information from the main mix to the cue sends of the 
selected tracks. If the cue send is mono, the pan setting is copied, but the 
output of the cue send is the sum of the left and right channels.
Enable Cue Sends
Allows you to activate the cue sends of the selected channels. To be able to 
hear the cue mix for a cue channel, the cue sends must be enabled.
Disable Cue Sends
Allows you to disable the cue sends of the selected channels. 
						

							Control Room (Cubase Pro only)
Adjusting the Overall Cue Send Level
366
Reset Cue Sends
Allows you to deactivate the cue sends, to change the send level of all 
selected channels to 0
 dB, and to set the signal source to post-fader. This 
way, any changes to the main mix also change the cue mix. To raise the level 
of individual cue channels, raise the level on that channel.
Adjusting the Overall Cue Send Level
You can adjust multiple send levels at the same time for the cue send mix, keeping 
the blend intact while lowering the overall volume. This is sometimes necessary, 
because the levels in the main mix are often optimized for the loudest possible signal 
level without clipping.
This means that when you create a “more me” mix, you may find that there is not 
enough headroom available in the cue send to raise levels without introducing 
clipping.
PROCEDURE
1. In the MixConsole, select the channels that you want to modify.
2. In the Control Room, right-click a cue channel to open the context menu.
3. Select From selected mixer channels > Change Cue Sends Levels.
4. Activate Relative Mode.
This way, you adjust the existing levels. By deactivating Relative Mode, all cue sends 
are set to the same absolute level.
5. Adjust the level as necessary.
The level of all selected cue sends is adjusted by the set amount.
6. Click OK. 
						

							367
Metering
Loudness
Cubase allows you to measure the loudness in compliance with the loudness 
recommendation R
 128 of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Measurements 
that correspond to this recommendation consider loudness, loudness range, and 
maximum true peak level values.
Loudness Measurement
The following measurements are performed:
•Integrated Loudness
Average loudness that is measured over the whole track in LUFS (Loudness 
Unit, referenced to Full Scale).
According to the loudness recommendation R 128, audio should be 
normalized at -23
 LUFS (±1 LU).
•Short-Term Loudness
Loudness that is measured every second on an audio block of 3 seconds. This 
gives information about the loudest audio passages.
•Momentary Loudness
Maximum value of all momentary loudness values that are measured every 
100
 ms in an audio range of 400 ms.
Loudness Range
The loudness range measures the dynamic range over the whole title in LU 
(Loudness Units). It reports the ratio between the loudest and the quietest 
non-silent sections. The audio is divided into small blocks. Every second there is 
one audio block, and each block lasts 3 seconds so that the analyzed blocks 
overlap.
The top 10 % of the quiet blocks and the top 5 % of the loud blocks are excluded 
from the final analysis. The calculated loudness range is the ratio between the 
loudest and quietest remaining audio blocks. This measurement helps you to decide 
if and how much compression or expansion you can or should apply to the audio. 
						

							Metering
Loudness
368
True Peaks
When a digital signal is converted to an analog signal, EBU R 128 recommends that 
you rather measure an estimation of the real peaks instead of relying on digital 
peaks. This avoids clipping and distortion.
Naming and Units
The EBU R 128 proposes the following naming and units conventions:
• A relative measurement, such as a value that is relative to a reference level, LU 
as Loudness Unit (1
 LU is 1  dB).
• An absolute measurement, LUFS as loudness unit referenced to full scale. 
1
 LUFS can be understood as 1  dB in the AES-17 scaling.
Loudness Meter
The Loudness meter allows you to analyze, measure, and monitor the loudness of 
your project in real-time during playback or mixing.
• To open the Loudness Meter, select Devices > Control Room Mixer > 
Meter > Loudness.
• The green triangle on the left side shows the integrated loudness value.
• The gray triangle on the right side shows the short-term loudness. 
						

							Metering
Loudness
369
The following parameters are available:
1)Measure Loudness
Allows you to activate the loudness measurement.
2)Switch between LU and LUFS
Allows you to switch the meter scale between LU (relative values) and LUFS 
(absolute values).
3)Configure Loudness Settings
Opens a dialog with further loudness settings.
4)Reset Loudness
Allows you to reset the loudness measurement.
5)Momentary Max.
Shows the maximum of all measured momentary loudness values.
6)Short-Term
Shows the loudness that is measured over a duration of 3 s.
7)Integrated
Shows the average loudness that is measured from start to stop. The period 
of measurement is shown in the Time display. The recommended value for the 
integrated loudness is -23
 LUFS. This absolute value is the reference point for 
the relative LU scale where -23
 LUFS equals 0 LU.
8)Range
Shows the dynamic range of the audio that is measured from start to stop. 
This value helps you to decide how much dynamic compression you can 
apply. The range that is recommended for highly dynamic audio like film 
music, for example, is 20
 LU. 
						

							Metering
Loudness
370
9)True Peak
Shows the true peak level of the audio. The maximum permitted true peak level 
in production is -1
 dB.
10)Time
Shows the duration of the integrated loudness measurement.
Loudness Settings
• To open the Loudness Settings dialog, select Devices > Control Room 
Mixer > Meter > Loudness > Configure Loudness Settings.
The following parameters are available:
1)Select Preset
Allows you to create, load, and remove loudness presets.
2)Momentary Max.
Allows you to specify a reference value and a tolerance value for the maximum 
momentary loudness. If higher values are detected, the clipping indicator in 
the loudness meter turns red.
3)Short-Term
Allows you to specify a reference value and a tolerance value for the 
short-term loudness. If higher values are detected, the clipping indicator in the 
loudness meter turns red.
4)Integrated
Allows you to specify a reference value and a tolerance value for the 
integrated loudness. If higher values are detected, the clipping indicator in the 
loudness meter turns red.