Cubasis VST 4.0 Manual - Computing at Northumbriacomputing.unn.ac.uk/staff/cgpv1/cg087/files/resources/Cubasis.pdf · CUBASIS VST Introduction 1 – 9 About Cubasis VST... Now that

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Operation Manual

Operation Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger WiklanderQuality Control: C.Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep-resent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. The softwaredescribed by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copiedto other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of thispublication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for anypurpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies AG.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners.Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP aretrademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

© Steinberg Media Technologies AG, 2002. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

7 Introduction8 Welcome!9 About Cubasis VST...10 About this manual and the

HTML Help10 How you can reach us

11 Guided Tour12 What is Cubasis VST?13 What is Digital Audio?13 What is MIDI?14 The Main Windows and

Panels in Cubasis VST

23 Requirements24 Minimum Requirements25 Computer Requirements

27 Installation28 Getting the Computer ready29 Installing the Audio Card

and its Driver30 Installing the MIDI Interface/

Synthesizer card31 Installing Cubasis VST32 Register your software!32 Installation done! Where do

I go next?

33 Setting up your System

34 Making Settings for Audio work

46 Enabling/Disabling Audio47 Setting up for MIDI53 MIDI Settings in

Cubasis VST

55 Recording Audio56 Preparations60 Selecting and setting up a

track67 Performing the first

recording69 Recording more on the

same track70 Recording the next track –

Overdubbing70 Recording from Play mode –

Punch In71 Advanced: Recording

Multiple Audio Channels73 If you get Audio Performance

Problems

75 Recording MIDI76 About this Chapter76 Preparations81 Advanced: Program

Change and Bank Select83 Advanced: Working with

SoundFonts86 Advanced: Recording

SysEx Messages

87 Playback, Tempo and the Transport Bar

88 The Transport Bar89 About Position Values90 Setting the Song Position92 Tempo and Time Signature

Handling95 Locators96 About the Cycle97 Setting up the Metronome

Click

CUBASIS VST4 Table of Contents

99 Arrangement Editing100 About songs and arrange-

ments101 About tracks, parts and

arranging102 Creating and managing

tracks104 Mute and Solo105 Working with parts115 Using the Magnifying Glass

Tool116 Editing the arrangement

structure120 Using the Inspector122 Quantizing MIDI notes123 Other MIDI Functions

125 Using the Pool126 What is the Pool?127 Opening the Pool127 Viewing Files and Segments129 Customizing the View131 Finding out how a segment

is used in the song132 File Operations135 Handling “Missing Files”137 Creating Wave Images and

keeping them up to date138 Segment Operations141 Importing Files into the Pool143 Exporting Files and

Segments143 Dragging from the Pool to

the Arrange window146 Saving and Loading the

Audio Pool

147 Editing Audio148 About the different Audio

Editing methods148 Editing in WaveLab Lite150 Using another Wave Editor

application

151 Editing MIDI152 What can I do with the MIDI

Editors?153 Opening an Editor153 About Editor tools154 Key Edit165 List Edit172 The Score Editor183 Common settings/functions193 Closing the Editor

195 Mixing196 Introduction196 Mixing Audio212 Mixing MIDI223 What is GM/GS/XG?

225 The included VST Effects

226 Introduction227 Table Of Contents

269 Importing andExporting Audio

270 Importing audio files into the arrangement

271 Importing Audio using “Drag and Drop”

271 Importing ReCycle Files276 Import Mixman File (*.trk)279 Mixing down to an audio file

CUBASIS VSTTable of Contents 5

283 Using VST Instruments

284 Introduction284 Activating a VST Instrument286 Playing the VST Instrument287 Selecting Patches and

making Settings289 Making Mixer Settings290 Automating a VST Instrument291 The included VST

Instruments292 The Neon294 CS40296 JX16 Synthesizer304 VB-1306 LM-9308 Universal Sound Module

(USM)311 Brother Gregory314 Easy Guitar

321 InWire and Rocket-Power

322 Introduction322 What do I need?323 Basic Terminology324 Setting Rocket Preferences

in Cubasis VST326 Activating RocketPower

and joining a Session327 Receiving a project328 The InWire Settings in the

Pool329 Posting329 Disconnecting

331 Movies332 Introduction332 Playing a movie in sync with

Cubasis VST

335 Saving and Opening336 Saving339 Opening341 Saving and Importing Parts:

the Audio and MIDI Library functions

344 Exporting MIDI Files345 Importing MIDI Files

347 The Master Unit Program

348 About Master Unit349 Using Master Unit350 The Master Unit window351 The Track List360 The Effects section363 The Waveform Display365 Available disk space366 Processing the Tracks368 Normalizing369 Recording the CD-R371 The Menus

373 Index

CUBASIS VST6 Table of Contents

1Introduction

Welcome!

In a few short years the world has changed. Once music making was strictly divided between those with access to professional studios, expensive equipment and other musicians, and those whose music making was confined to the realms of second rate equipment, limited funds and a good deal of dreaming.

We at Steinberg are pleased to be part of the continuing revolution that has broken down these barriers, allowing anyone with musical ambitions to realize their true musical potential.

Cubasis VST 4.0 – the program you now have in front of you – embodies the experience of over fifteen years of Steinberg history. Together with Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, 2000 or XP, it provides an excellent framework for making music on computers.

Karl Steinberg Manfred Rürup

CUBASIS VST1 – 8 Introduction

About Cubasis VST...

Now that you have Cubasis VST, which is a version of Cubase, you belong to one of the largest music software user groups in the world. Cubase is a family of music software, ranging from the easy-to-under-stand package for the beginner to professional tools for the most de-manding applications. That's the Cubase advantage, Cubase grows as you develop musically.

Cubasis VST 4.0 was created as a result of years of experience in both software engineering and listening to our users. The users of our software were always an important information resource for how the program could be further developed. With the rise of the Internet this whole aspect has taken off. Instead of just communicating directly with Steinberg, our users have now become a vibrant and dynamic group, driving the direction of future Cubasis and Cubase VST versions. And with the introduction of the InWire technology, the interaction between our users has reached a new high point as they actively produce music live together in the www.cubase.net Internet studios. If anyone tells you that computer musicians are a lonely breed, don't believe them.

See you out there…

Your Steinberg Team.

www.steinberg.net

www.cubase.net

CUBASIS VSTIntroduction 1 – 9

About this manual and the HTML Help

This document describes all features in Cubasis VST 4.0. However, if you want information about a specific window, dialog or menu item it may be more convenient to use the HTML Help:

• To get information about the active window or dialog, press [F1] on the computer keyboard or click the Help button in the actual dialog.You can also open the help from the Help menu in the program and browse to the de-scription of a particular window.

• To get information about a menu item, open the HTML Help from the Help menu in the program and browse to the desired menu item in the Help window that appears.

How you can reach us

The Help menu contains direct links to Steinberg’s web pages. These allow you to get technical support, answers to frequently asked ques-tions, information about new products, upgrade offers and other im-portant info.

❐ For the web links to work, you need to have a working Internet connec-tion and properly set up browser software.

CUBASIS VST1 – 10 Introduction

2Guided Tour

What is Cubasis VST?

Cubasis VST is an application that allows you to record, edit and mix music. Included with the Cubasis VST package are two stand-alone programs; WaveLab Lite, that you can use for editing/processing au-dio files, and Master Unit, which is used for preparing/processing your recordings before burning your own CDs, using the program together with a CD-R recorder (not included).

Cubasis VST records two types of musical information, digital audio and MIDI. It allows you to do the following (among other things):

• Record any sound source such as a microphone, guitar, etc.• Record MIDI data from synthesizers or other MIDI instruments.• Play back up to 64 tracks in any combination of MIDI and audio tracks (up to

48 separate channels of audio).• Play VST Instruments – software synthesizers contained within the program.

A number of different VST Instruments are included with the program, and others can be purchased or downloaded from the Internet.

• Apply cut and paste techniques to your music, to rearrange recorded parts.• Perform detailed editing of your MIDI recordings.• Mix your music, applying effects and EQ to your audio recordings. A wide va-

riety of effect plug-ins are included with the program.• Create stereo-compatible surround audio mixes.• Create a mixdown audio file on your hard disk, in AIFF, Wave, Real Audio or

MP3 format (MP3 export is a trial feature, limited to 20 times, but can be up-graded to unlimited functionality).

• Collaborate with other Cubasis VST users on the Internet, using the InWire/RocketPower technology.

• View movies and play your music along with the movie playback.• Make printed scores.

Real time

One specific point to note about Cubasis VST is that it operates in complete real time. You don’t need to stop the music to perform any type of editing, switch between windows or anything else. You can even Save to disk while playing!

CUBASIS VST2 – 12 Guided Tour

Undo/Redo

Practically any operation in Cubasis VST can be undone, using the Undo item on the Edit menu. After something has been undone, this item changes to Redo, allowing you to “undo the undo”.

What is Digital Audio?

“Audio” is any sound source that you can connect to the sound input of your PC audio card, a microphone, an electric guitar or similar. “Digital” we say because the computer converts the audio signal to numbers, which Cubasis VST captures and stores on your hard disk. The fact that the sound is converted to numbers opens up enormous possibilities in terms of manipulation of recordings.

What is MIDI?

MIDI is a type of control information used with synthesizers. Let’s explain this with an analogy: Your computer can send messages to a printer about how you want a page to look. The printer then takes care of converting this information to the actual “ink” on paper.

With MIDI the synthesizer works much like a “musical printer”: the computer sends information to it, specifying which notes you want it to play, and it takes care of actually creating the audio.

One of the advantages of this technique is that a recording made with for example a piano sound can be played back with a harpsichord, brass or guitar sound, just by changing settings on the synthesizer.

General MIDI (abbreviated GM) is an additional specification for MIDI instruments. If an instrument is General MIDI compatible, it will have a common, wide ranging set of sounds built in (piano, bass, drums, brass, strings etc.). If you create music with a General MIDI compati-ble instrument it can be played back on any other GM instrument and the music will sound more or less the same. This allows you to share your Cubasis VST songs with other people, and even publish your works in a common data format, for example on the Internet!

Cubasis VST also supports two expansions of the GM standard, called GS (Roland) and XG (Yamaha).

CUBASIS VSTGuided Tour 2 – 13

The Main Windows and Panels in Cubasis VST

The Transport Bar

This is much like the transport control on any tape recorder. This is where you play, stop, “wind the tape” etc. But the Transport Bar is also used for setting tempo, time signature etc.

The Toolbar

Below the main menu bar, you will find a horizontal strip with icons, called the Toolbar. This gives you quick access to some of the most common functions in Cubasis VST. For example, you can cut, copy or paste, or open various important windows by clicking the correspond-ing icons on the Toolbar, instead of selecting items from the main menus.

These meters indicate MIDI In (recording) and Out (playback) activity.

These buttons are the equivalents of the transport controls on a regu-lar cassette tape recorder.

Activates the metronome.

These are used for defining where to start and end recording and what section to Cycle.

The tempo and time signature.

This shows you the current song position in bars, beats and ticks.

When you activate this, the program will cycle the section between the locators.

Activates the Master Track.

New Song Save

Open

VST Instruments

Audio Pool

VST Channel Mixer

Copy

Cut Paste Audio Lib

Key Edit

MIDI Track Mixer

VST Send Effects

List Edit

MIDI Lib

Score Edit

Show/Hide Transport Bar External Wave Editor

Undo Redo


The Arrange window

This is where you record and assemble your music. Each Cubasis VST song can contain several arrangements, each with its own Arrange window.

Vertically, the Arrange window is divided into tracks, letting you orga-nize your recordings. You might use one track for drums, another for bass, a third for main vocals, a fourth for vocal harmonies, etc.

The left part of the Arrange window is called the Track List:

This symbol indicates an audio track

This column shows you whether anything is being played back from the track.

Click in this column to mute (silence) a track. The track’s channel

The name of the track. Double click to change.

This symbol indicates a MIDI track

This button opens the Inspector, in which you can make detailed settings for the selected track.

The active (selected) track. Recording always happens on the active track.


The right part of the Arrange window is called the Part Display.

At the top of the Arrange window is a bar with various pop-ups and settings.

Time runs from left to right, as the ruler indicates.

Each recording you make appears in the Part Display as a box, called a part.

The song position

The Left Locator The Right Locator

The vertical position of the part shows you which track it is on.

The horizontal position shows you where in the song the part starts.

The width of the box shows you the length of the recording.

In the part you will see a visual rep-resentation of the recording.

Click here to listen to the selected track only

The “precision” for editing operations, like moves and splits

This note value is used for the Quantize function.

The mouse pointer’s position in bars, beats and ticks.

This pop-up menu lets you color the different parts.


The VST Channel Mixer

This is where you mix your audio tracks, that is, adjust the levels (vol-ume) and stereo panning. The section to the right is the Master sec-tion, where you activate Surround and adjust the final output level of the mix.

Mute and Solo buttons

Pan controls

Level fader

Level meter

Mixer automation controls

Clip indicator

Input level switch

Master faders


In addition, each audio channel has a two band parametric EQ, two effect sends and one insert effect slot.

The VST Instruments Window

This is where you activate and manage VST Instruments, software synthesizers (or other sound sources) contained within Cubasis VST. You can have up to four different VST Instruments activated at the same time. Each VST Instrument has its own control panel in a sepa-rate window.

The VST Instruments window (top) and the Neon control panel.

EQ section

Insert effect slot

Effect sends


The MIDI Track Mixer

This is one of the places where you can adjust the levels, panning and other parameters for the sounds created by your MIDI synthesizer.

The Audio Pool

This window lists all your audio recordings, allowing you to manage them in various ways.

Mute and Solo buttons

Pan controls

Level fader

Level (velocity) meter

Mixer automation controls

Mutes all audio tracks.

This is a file containing an audio recording.

These are segments that play parts of the file. By dragging segments into the arrangement, you can use the audio file in your song.


The MIDI Editors

There are three different editors for editing your MIDI recordings:

Key Edit

This editor consists of a “grid” with the notes shown as boxes. The pitch of a note is indicated by the vertical position, and the note length is indicated by the width of the box. This is the editor to use when you want quick graphical editing of notes and continuous controllers, such as modulation and volume.

Continuous events

Notes


List Edit

In this editor, all MIDI notes, controllers and other events are shown and edited in a list. List Edit is useful when you want absolute control over values and positions, or if you are used to numerical editing.

Score Edit

Here, the MIDI notes are presented as a musical score. Use Score Edit to print scores, or simply if you are used to working with musical notation.

The Event List The Event Display


The List Mastertrack

This window allows you to add tempo and time signature changes in the song.


3Requirements

Minimum Requirements

To use Cubasis VST, WaveLab Lite and Master Unit you need the fol-lowing:

• A PC computer with Windows installed and ready.For more details about the computer requirements and supported Windows versions, see below.

• A compatible audio card.By audio card we mean a card capable of recording and playing back digital audio using your hard disk as a storage medium. It must also be Windows Multimedia or DirectX (6.1 or higher) compatible or come with a separate ASIO driver.

For MIDI

• At least one MIDI interface (or a MIDI instrument with a built-in com-puter connector), including the necessary cables.

• At least one MIDI instrument.Sometimes, the MIDI interface and instrument are built into the same card. Many audio cards also include MIDI synthesizers.

• Any audio equipment necessary to listen to the sound from your MIDI devices.

For Printing

• To print out scores, you also need a Windows compatible printer.

For burning CDs with Master Unit

• A CD-R recorder.This can be connected via IDE or SCSI, but must be DAO (Disc At Once) compatible.

CUBASIS VST3 – 24 Requirements

Computer RequirementsBelow, the minimum and recommended systems are listed. The fol-lowing sections describe each system component (processor, RAM, etc.) in more detail.

Minimum Requirements

• Intel Pentium II or AMD Duron.• 128 MB RAM (192 MB if you are using Windows 2000 or XP).• Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.• Fast IDE hard drive.• SVGA graphics card (16 bit color at 800x600 pixels).• MME-, DirectX- or ASIO-compatible sound card.• CD-ROM drive.

Recommended System

• Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon.• 256 MB RAM.• Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.• Fast IDE or SCSI hard drive.• SVGA graphics card (16 bit color at 1024x768 pixels).• Audio card with low latency ASIO driver (10 ms or less).• Steinberg USB MIDI interface.• CD-ROM drive.• CD Recorder (for use with the included Master Unit application).

Processing Power

The difference between running Cubasis VST on a faster computer and a slower one is noticeable in two areas:

Number of audio channels and real time processing

When you use Cubasis VST for recording audio, there is a direct rela-tion between the speed of your system and the number of audio chan-nels and, especially, the available real-time processing power (effects, equalizers, VST Instruments etc.).

Screen updates

Even when only working with MIDI or when preparing scores, you benefit from using a fast computer. Scrolling, editing and manipulating objects is simply “snappier” on a faster machine.

CUBASIS VSTRequirements 3 – 25

RAM

Each program you run on your computer requires a certain amount of RAM. In Cubasis VST, the exact amount of RAM required depends largely on the number of audio channels you plan to use.

In addition, the RAM requirements depend on whether you plan to run other programs at the same time as Cubasis VST. The more RAM you have, the more programs you will be able to run simultaneously.

Hard Disk

MIDI

Cubasis VST document files are relatively small, which means that MIDI recording in Cubasis VST puts little demand on your hard disk in terms of disk space.

Audio

For audio recording, a large and fast hard disk is very important.

• The size of the hard disk determines how many minutes of audio you will be able to record. Recording one minute of stereo CD quality audio, requires approximately 10 MBytes of hard disk space. That is, eight stereo tracks in Cubasis “eat up” 80 MBytes of disk space per recording minute.

• The performance of the hard disk has a significant impact on the number of audio channels you will be able to record.

CUBASIS VST3 – 26 Requirements

4Installation

Getting the Computer ready

Before you proceed you should have the computer set up:

• Make sure Windows is properly installed and check that all basic functionality seems to work as intended.

• Study the manuals that come with the computer and familiarize your-self with concepts such as file handling, clicking, double clicking, dragging etc.

• If you plan to record audio on a hard disk where you have already stored other files, you should also defragment it. Defragmentation reorganizes the physical allocation of space on the hard disk in order to optimize its performance. Defragmentation utilities are included with Windows and are also available commercially.

❐ It is crucial to the audio recording performance that your hard disk is de-fragmented.

Installing a CD Recorder

For general instructions on installing SCSI cards and CD-R recorders, please refer to the instructions that came with the computer, Windows, the SCSI controller and the CD-R recorder itself.

About Printers

If you intend to print, install the printer. Use the software included with the printer or some other software you already have installed (such as a word processing application) to verify that the printer works as ex-pected.

CUBASIS VST4 – 28 Installation

Installing the Audio Card and its Driver

1. Install the audio card and related equipment in the computer, as de-scribed in the card’s documentation.For some audio cards, you may need to check hardware settings such as jumper switches, etc.

2. Install the driver(s) for the card.There are three types of drivers that could apply: Windows Multimedia drivers, DirectX drivers and card-specific ASIO drivers:

Windows Multimedia Driver

These drivers are normally included with all types of regular PC audio cards. Some are even included with Windows itself. Depending on whether the audio card is “Plug’n’Play compatible” or not, the installa-tion of the card is done differently:

• If the card is “Plug’n’Play compatible”, Windows will detect the card once it is plugged in, and ask for the necessary driver disks.

• If not, you need to use the “Add New Hardware” feature in the Control Panel to install the card and its drivers.Refer to the documentation that comes with the card.

DirectX Driver

If your audio card is DirectX compatible, its DirectX drivers will most likely be installed when you install the card (as with the Windows Mul-timedia driver). If you have downloaded special DirectX drivers for the audio card, you should follow the manufacturer’s installation instruc-tions.

Special ASIO Driver

If your audio card has a specific ASIO driver it may be included with the audio card, but you should always make sure to check the audio card manufacturer’s web site for the most recent drivers. For details on how to install the driver, refer to the manufacturers instructions.

❐ Should you have an audio card, but no driver, please ask your music or computer dealer for help.

CUBASIS VSTInstallation 4 – 29

Testing the Card

To make sure the audio card will work as expected, perform the fol-lowing two tests:

• Use any software included with the audio card to make sure you can record and play back audio without problems.

• If the card is accessed via a standard Windows driver, use the Media-Player application (included with Windows) to play back audio.Both tests of course assume you have the outputs of the card connected to a sound system or headphones.

Installing the MIDI Interface/Synthesizer card

Installation instructions for the MIDI Interface should come with the in-terface. However, here’s an outline of the necessary steps:

1. Install the interface (or MIDI synthesizer card) inside your computer or connect it to a “port” (connector) on the computer.Which is right for you depends on which type of interface you have. Note that some MIDI instruments can be connected directly to a computer, without the need for a MIDI interface (usually, these instruments have a connection labeled “To Host”, “Computer” or similar). Again, see the instrument’s documentation for details on which type of ca-ble to use, etc.

2. If the interface has a power supply and/or a power switch, turn it on.

3. Install the driver for the interface, as described in its documentation.This is most likely done using the “Add New Hardware” feature in the Control Panel in Windows. It is likely that you will need a floppy disk supplied by the manufacturer of the MIDI interface.

❐ There might be settings you have to make for Base Address and IRQ for the interface/synth card. Make absolutely sure the settings in Windows are in accordance with the settings actually made on the card. Also make sure no two cards in your computer use the same Base Address or IRQ settings! This is extremely important; Base Address and IRQ conflict is the single most common installation problem!

Should you have an interface, but no corresponding driver, please ask your music or computer dealer for help.


Installing Cubasis VST

Installing the files on the CD-ROM

❐ Before proceeding, read the Software Licensing Contract included in this package. By opening the disk pack or sending back the registration card, you are declaring yourself to be in agreement with the conditions in the contract.

A special installation procedure unpacks all the files and puts them in the right places, automatically.

1. Start the computer and let Windows start.

2. Insert the Cubasis VST CD-ROM.A pop-up dialog should automatically appear. If it does not appear, open the CD-ROM on the desktop, and double click the “Autorun.EXE” icon.

3. To start the installation, click on the picture in the dialog.A number of dialogs will appear, guiding you through the installation process.

• During the procedure you will be asked to decide which of the included programs you want to install.The options are Cubasis VST, WaveLab Lite, Master Unit and Muon Tau/M-Drive. When the installation is finished, you can find the program(s) among your other programs on the Start menu and/or the Desktop.

4. Finally, you will be told that you need to restart the computer. Do so.

The program has now created a Cubasis VST folder on your hard disk, and also installed some files in your Windows System.

5. Open the new Cubasis VST folder on your hard disk and check for “Late Changes” text files.These list any changes to the program made after this manual was written.

6. Remove the CD-ROM and store it in a safe place.You may want to browse the CD-ROM and copy additional files to your hard disk.

CUBASIS VSTInstallation 4 – 31

Register your software!

Please fill out and send in the registration card that comes in this package. Doing so will make sure you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Cubasis VST.

Installation done! Where do I go next?

We suggest that you do the following:

• Follow the instructions in the next chapter (to set up your MIDI and au-dio system properly).

• Try the Tutorial Song, for a quick hands-on introduction to the most important Cubasis VST features.To open the Tutorial Song, launch Cubasis VST and select “Tutorial Song” from the Help menu.

• Read through the rest of this book and try out the different possibili-ties as you go along.

• Browse the Cubasis VST folder and the CD for files that might be of use for you.


5Setting up your System

Making Settings for Audio work

Connecting a musical instrument, a microphone or a mixer

About microphones

If you plan to record vocals or a musical instrument, we recommend that you contact a retailer of musical equipment to find a suitable micro-phone and a cable with the appropriate type of connector. Also, you should be aware that microphones generally produce rather low signal levels. Therefore, you should only connect the microphone to a dedi-cated mic input on the audio hardware (or even better, via a separate microphone preamp or a mixer – see below).

About electric instruments

You might have an electric instrument such as an electric guitar, elec-tric bass, organ or similar, that normally requires an amplifier. If you do, you need to be a bit careful about how to connect it to the audio hard-ware, in order to make your recordings sound as good as possible. Generally, electric guitars and basses should be connected to a micro-phone input, since they deliver a weak signal. Synthesizers, keyboards and other devices deliver a stronger signal called a “line level signal”. These should always be connected to the “line input” of the audio card.

❐ It is very important to make sure you use the correct type of input on your audio card, or your recordings will either be distorted or unnecessarily noisy.

CUBASIS VST5 – 34 Setting up your System

Using an audio mixer

This is usually the best option. If you have access to an audio mixer, connect your microphones or instruments to this, and connect the output of the mixer to the line input on the audio hardware. The picture below shows a possible configuration:

In this example, the mixer is used not only for sending audio into the computer, but also for listening to all sound sources (including a MIDI synthesizer). However, this requires that the mixer has separate, inde-pendently controllable outputs for recording into the computer and lis-tening to the mix. This is necessary, because otherwise you will not be able to record a separate sound source – since everything (the syn-thesizers, microphones and even the computer’s own sound) will be recorded at the same time!

A common method is to use a special output on the mixer called a “monitor send” or a separate “bus”, connected to the input of the au-dio card. This ensures you can separately control what gets recorded on an audio track.

The main outputs of the mixer are connected to the speakers, and it is via this connection you are able to hear the output of the audio card and the synthesizers, blended to a final mix.

Naturally, there are endless variations on this concept depending on the type of mixer, the sources to be recorded and the specification of the audio card. Contact your music dealer for help on configuring a system ideal for your specific needs.

Audio Card

Send/Bus Out

Main Out

CUBASIS VSTSetting up your System 5 – 35

Use the Audio Hardware Setup application

Often, an audio card or external audio interface has several inputs: a microphone input, a stereo line input, possibly digital inputs and maybe a connection from the CD-ROM drive in your computer. Typically, au-dio hardware comes with one or more small applications that let you configure the inputs of the card to your liking. This includes:

• Selecting which ins/outs are active.• Turning monitoring via the card on/off (see page 64).• Setting levels for each input. This is very important!• Setting levels for the outputs, so that they match the equipment you use for

monitoring.

❐ It is a good idea to make sure audio recording and playback works prop-erly before you launch Cubasis VST. This is best done using Windows’ Sound Recorder and Media Player applications.


Selecting an ASIO Driver

ASIO (Audio Stream Input Output) is a technology developed by Steinberg, that acts as a “connector” between an audio application (in this case, Cubasis VST) and the audio hardware. For audio playback and recording to work in Cubasis VST, you must select the proper ASIO driver:

1. If you haven’t launched Cubasis VST, do so.

2. Pull down the Options menu and select “Audio System Setup...” from the Audio Setup submenu.The Audio System Setup dialog appears.

3. Pull down the ASIO Device pop-up menu.The pop-up menu lists the available ASIO drivers. To know which one to select, use the following general guidelines:

• If there is a dedicated ASIO driver for your audio hardware (that is, an ASIO driver specifically written for that audio hardware), you should select that!Dedicated ASIO drivers generally give much lower latency (see below), and can pro-vide audio hardware-specific features. Make sure you get the latest ASIO driver from the manufacturer of the audio hardware.

• If there is no dedicated ASIO driver, you can try selecting the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver.This makes use of Microsoft DirectX, which can provide reasonably low latency (see below). When you have successfully selected the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, you should check the ASIO settings as described on page 39.


❐ To be able to use the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, you need Microsoft DirectX installed on your computer (version 6.1 or higher is recom-mended). A DirectX Installer is included on the Cubasis VST CD-ROM, but you should also check Microsoft’s web page for updates. Furthermore, your audio hardware and its drivers must support DirectX. If in doubt, con-sult the audio hardware manufacturer.

• If your audio hardware doesn’t support DirectX (in which case you will get an error message when you try to select the ASIO DirectX Full Du-plex driver) you should select the ASIO Multimedia driver.This makes use of the Windows Multimedia System, which often gives quite large la-tency times (see below). When you have selected the ASIO Multimedia driver, you should make ASIO settings as described on page 41.Even if your audio hardware supports ASIO DirectX, there may still be reasons to use the ASIO Multimedia driver, as explained on page 40.

A word about Latency

In this chapter we mention latency, which means the delay between when audio is “sent” from the program and when you actually hear it. The latency in an audio system depends on the audio hardware and its drivers. Latency may become a problem in the following situations:

• When you are playing VST Instruments “live” from a MIDI keyboard, the sound of the VST Instrument will be delayed according to the latency.

• When you monitor through Cubasis VST, the monitored sound will come out delayed. This is probably the area that requires the lowest latency, but then again, if you monitor externally or directly through the audio hardware this won’t be a problem at all.

• When you mix your audio, a high latency will give a clearly noticeable delay be-tween when you e.g. mute an audio channel and when the sound is muted.

❐ Audio playback and recording timing will not be affected by latency, since VST takes the latency into account, and adjusts the timing accordingly. Similarly, if you play back MIDI parts routed to VST Instruments, the play-back precision is sample accurate, regardless of the latency.


Making settings for ASIO DirectX Full Duplex

This assumes that you have selected the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, as described on page 37.

1. In the Audio System Setup dialog, click the ASIO Control Panel button.The ASIO Direct Sound Full Duplex Setup dialog appears.

This dialog lists the available output and input ports, and also allows you to adjust buffer sizes and make other settings. For now, we will concentrate on three things:

2. Check the Direct Sound Output Ports list (the upper list) and make sure the desired outputs are activated.In many cases, there will only be one output port available. Ports are activated by click-ing the checkbox to the left in the list.

An activated output port.


3. Check the Direct Sound Input Ports list (the lower list) and make sure the desired inputs are activated.See the note below about emulated inputs.

4. In the Card Options section to the right in the dialog, make sure the “Full Duplex” checkbox is activated.Full Duplex means that the audio system can record and play back audio at the same time. If your audio card doesn’t support this, you are limited to either recording or play-ing back (activating the VST Inputs selects recording mode, deactivating them selects playback mode).

5. Click OK to close the dialog.If you experience problems with audio playback or recording, you may want to go back to this dialog and try changing some settings. See the online help for descriptions of the settings.

About emulated inputs

There is one important thing to note about the inputs: To be able to take full advantage of DirectX Full Duplex, the audio hardware must support WDM (Windows Driver Model) in combination with DirectX version 6.1 or higher.

In all other cases, the audio inputs will be emulated by DirectX. Emu-lated inputs are indicated by the symbol “<E>” at the beginning of the device name in the Direct Sound Input Ports list.

An emulated audio input.

Using emulated inputs will result in higher latency. If your audio in-put(s) are reported as emulated and you get a high latency, you may want to use the ASIO Multimedia driver instead, as this gives you some more possibilities to fine-tune the settings (see page 42).

❐ Make sure to check with the audio hardware manufacturers for new driver versions.


Making settings for the ASIO Multimedia driver

This assumes that you have selected the ASIO Multimedia driver, as described on page 37.

1. In the Audio System Setup dialog, click the ASIO Control Panel button.The ASIO Multimedia Setup panel appears. This is used for setting up your audio card.

2. Pull down the Presets pop-up menu.This contains pre-programmed setups for some common audio cards, but you can also add your own Presets here.

3. Select the Preset for your audio card.There may be several Presets for a single audio card type. For example, you may be able to select a “half duplex” or a “full duplex” setup. “Full duplex” means that the card has the ability to record and play back at the same time, which is a great benefit. If your audio card supports this feature (see the audio card documentation), make sure to se-lect the “full duplex” Preset.

4. Close the dialog by clicking OK and then close the Audio System Setup dialog.Once the settings are done, they are automatically saved together with the program.


If there is no Preset for your audio card

If you cannot find a Preset for your audio card model, you need to set up the card manually:

1. In the ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog, click on the “Advanced Options...” button.A dialog with more settings appears.

2. Locate your audio card in the Output and Input Port lists and make sure the checkboxes to the left in both lists are activated for your card.If you have more than one audio card in the computer, only one should be active at this point. See the online help for more info on advanced options.

3. If your card has the ability to record and play back at the same time (“full duplex”), make sure that this option is activated on the Card Options pop-up menu in the lower right corner of the dialog.If you are unsure about your specific card’s ability, check its documentation.

4. Click OK to close the Advanced Options dialog and close the basic ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog.The settings are automatically saved together with the program, but you can go back later and save your Advanced ASIO Multimedia settings as a Preset (see the online help).


Additional Audio Settings

While you’re in the Audio System Setup dialog, you need to make a few additional settings:

1. If you like, adjust the Number of Channels value.The number of audio channels determines how many audio recordings you can play back at the same time (with stereo recordings using two audio channels). You can al-ways adjust this value later if needed.

❐ How many channels you will actually be able to use depends on your com-puter’s processing power, the speed of the hard disk and other factors.

2. Make sure Audio Clock Source is set to Internal for now.Depending on your audio hardware, there may be other options on this pop-up menu, allowing you to synchronize the sample rate to an external source. For example, if you record audio from digital inputs on your audio hardware, you should select the corre-sponding option on this pop-up menu, so that Cubasis VST’s sample rate is properly synchronized to the device producing the digital signal (see the hardware and ASIO driver documentation for details).

3. Leave the Disk Cache Scheme setting as it is for now.This determines how Cubasis VST transfers audio data to and from disk. If you get per-formance problems, you should try selecting another Disk Cache Scheme.

4. Click OK to close the Audio System Setup dialog.


About Monitoring

In Cubasis VST, Monitoring means listening to the signal being re-corded while preparing to record or while recording. There are basi-cally three ways to monitor:

• Via a mixerIf you have the equipment connected to a mixer and then to the audio card, you can of course choose to listen to the connected equipment directly from the mixer. If you should choose this option or not depends on how advanced your mixer is.

• Via Cubasis VSTIn this case, the audio passes from the input into Cubasis VST and back to the output. You then control monitoring via settings in Cubasis VST.

• Directly via the audio hardwareIn this case, the computer’s audio input is connected directly to its output. If supported by the audio hardware, you activate this feature (usually called “through”, “monitor” or similar) in the hardware’s ASIO Control Panel (accessed from Cubasis VST’s Audio System Setup dialog) or in a mixer application that comes with the hardware.

Which should I choose – “Direct” or “Cubasis” monitoring?

• Monitoring via Cubasis VST has the advantage that any effect and other settings you make in the program will also be apparent on the monitored signal, not only on recordings you have already made and play back.This will not be the case if you monitor directly via the audio hardware.

• Monitoring via Cubasis VST has one disadvantage: There is an un-avoidable delay in the Monitor signal (the monitored sound will appear to be a little late). This delay, called latency, is due to the way audio is handled on computers and audio cards.The latency time depends on the audio card, its drivers and settings. Audio hardware with separate ASIO drivers may have a low enough latency to allow proper monitoring through Cubasis VST, while audio cards that use the ASIO Multimedia driver or the ASIO Direct X Full Duplex driver (see page 37) may have too large a latency for this to be possible.

Direct monitoring does not have this problem.


Setting up

• If you want to use Cubasis VST’s monitoring, pull down the Options menu and select “Enable Monitor” from the Audio Setup submenu (if the menu item says “Disable Monitor”, monitoring is already enabled and you don’t need to change the setting).You also need to make sure there is no monitoring (or “through”) function activated in the card’s mixer application or ASIO Control Panel.

• If you want to monitor directly through the audio hardware, make sure this function is activated in the card’s mixer application or ASIO Con-trol Panel. You also need to pull down the Options menu and select “Disable Monitor” from the Audio Setup submenu (if the menu item says “Enable Monitor”, monitoring is already disabled and you don’t need to change the setting).

• If you want to monitor “externally” using a mixer, pull down the Options menu and select “Disable Monitor” from the Audio Setup submenu (if the menu item says “Enable Monitor”, monitoring is already disabled and you don’t need to change the setting).


Enabling/Disabling Audio

On the Audio Setup submenu on the Options menu you will find a set-ting called Disable Audio, which allows you to disable all audio input and output. This feature is mainly for two situations:

• When you only want to record and play back MIDI and don’t want to waste processing power on the audio engine.This lets the computer use all power for screen updates and MIDI playback.

• When the computer you use is not powerful enough to run Cubasis VST with the VST engine enabled.


Setting up for MIDI

This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI equipment. If you have no MIDI equipment you can skip this section and move di-rectly to page 56.

Connecting the MIDI Equipment

Below you find five setup examples for small MIDI systems. You might need or want to hook things up differently!

Example 1A – Using the Keyboard for recording and playback, via a separate MIDI Interface

1. Connect the MIDI Out of the instrument to a MIDI In on the interface.If you have several MIDI inputs, it doesn’t matter which on you use. Cubasis VST can record from all inputs on a multi-port interface.

2. Connect a MIDI Out on the interface to a MIDI In on the instrument.

Your MIDI interface may have more than one MIDI Out. Each MIDI port can address up to 16 different devices (or the 16 different voices in a multitimbral module). On smaller MIDI interfaces, the outputs all carry the same information, so it doesn’t matter which one you use.

MIDI InMIDI Out


On larger, multi-port interfaces, the MIDI outputs are all separate, that is, they carry different sets of the 16 MIDI channels. This allows Cubasis VST to send MIDI data selectively to different MIDI channels on any of the available outputs. If you have a multi-port interface, you should con-nect the first output to your instrument, and use the following outputs if you need to connect more instruments.

Example 1B – Using a Keyboard with a built-in MIDI Interface

If your instrument has a built-in MIDI interface, no MIDI cables are needed, only a serial or USB cable (see the instrument’s documenta-tion for cable specifications).

1. Make the connections with computer and instrument turned off.

2. Connect the cable between the serial/USB port on the computer and the computer connection on the instrument.Many instruments have a special switch that needs to be set for the computer connec-tion to be active (see the instrument’s documentation).

The connection above allows you to feed the computer with the sig-nals from the keyboard, during recording. It also allows you to send MIDI signals from the computer to the instrument during playback.

Computer Connection


Example 2A – Using a separate Keyboard and MIDI Card

If you have a card in your computer with a built-in MIDI synthesizer (for example your audio card), you don’t need to make any MIDI connec-tion to get Cubasis to play back from the card. However, to be able to record MIDI data you need at least a separate MIDI keyboard, that produces no sound but only transmits MIDI signals. This should then be connected to the MIDI In on the computer.

MIDI In

MIDI Synthesizerinside computer

MIDI Out


Example 2B – Using a separate Keyboard and Sound Module

If you have a separate MIDI keyboard, that produces no sound, and a sound module without keyboard, you should hook things up as in the picture below. Using Cubasis VST’s MIDI Thru feature (described later) you will still be able to hear the sound from the sound module while playing the keyboard and when recording.

MIDI InMIDI Out


Example 3 – Adding more devices using the MIDI Thru connectors on the instruments

You might want to use more instruments for playback. Connect MIDI Thru on the first instrument to MIDI In on the next, and so on. In this hook-up, you will always play the first keyboard when recording. But, thanks to the Thru connection, you can still use all your devices for providing sounds on playback.

❐ If you plan to use more than three sound sources we recommend that you either use an interface with more than one output, or a separate MIDI Thru box instead of the Thru jacks on each unit.

Setting up the Instruments

If you have a General MIDI, Roland GS or Yamaha XG compatible in-strument, you may want to set it to its GM/GS/XG mode. If you have other types of instruments, set each Sound (Timbre, Part, Program, Patch) to receive on a different MIDI channel.

MIDI InMIDI OutMIDI Thru


Activating and Ordering MIDI Ports

Before you launch Cubasis VST, you should check your MIDI inter-face(s). This is done by using a small utility program called Setup MME:

1. Open the Windows Start menu and select “Setup MME” from the Cu-basis VST program group.The Setup MME dialog appears. This lists the available MIDI inputs and outputs.

2. Make sure the necessary inputs and outputs are activated.To change the status of a port, select it in the list and click the “Set inactive/Set active” button.

3. If you like, you can rename ports, to make them easier identifiable in Cubasis VST.This is done by selecting the port, clicking Rename and typing in a new name.

4. If you want to reorder the outputs, select one of them in the list and use the Move Up and Move down buttons.Since new MIDI tracks in Cubasis VST will default to the first output on the list, you may want to move the output you are most likely to use to the top. For MIDI Inputs, this is not relevant, since Cubasis VST receives data on all activated inputs, regardless of their order.

5. Click OK.You can now launch Cubasis VST for the changes to take effect.


MIDI Settings in Cubasis VST

Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off

On the Options menu you will find a setting called “MIDI Thru” which can be enabled or not. This is related to a setting in your instrument called “Local On/Off” or “Local Control On/Off”.

• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described in Example 1 earlier in this chapter, MIDI Thru should be activated and that instrument should be set to Local Off (sometimes called Local Control Off – see the instrument’s oper-ation manual for details). This will let the MIDI signal from the keyboard get recorded into Cubasis VST and at the same time re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard “triggering” its own sounds.

• If you use a separate MIDI keyboard, that does not produce any sounds itself, as in Example 2, MIDI Thru in Cubasis VST should also be activated, but you don’t need to look for any Local On/Off setting in your instruments.

• The only situation where MIDI Thru should be deactivated is if you use Cuba-sis VST with only one keyboard instrument and that instrument cannot be set to Local Off mode.

MIDI InMIDI Out

“Synth”

When “MIDI Thru” is active in Cubasis VST, MIDI data received is immediately “echoed” back out.

When you press a key, it is sent out via MIDI to Cubasis VST.

MIDI data coming in to the instrument is played by the “Synth” inside it.

When Local Control is On in the instrument, the keys you press will be played by the “Synth” inside the Instrument. When Local Control is turned Off, this connection is cut off.


Checking your MIDI Setup

1. Select a MIDI track by clicking on its name in the Track List (to the left in the Arrange window).

2. Play your MIDI keyboard.

3. If the “In” indicator on the Transport Bar lights up, Cubasis VST re-ceives MIDI data.

4. If you have Thru activated, the “Out” indicator should indicate output of data.

5. Make sure you hear the instrument that you are playing.If not, check your MIDI connections and Cubasis VST’s MIDI Thru setting. Also check the audio equipment and audio connections.

6. If you are playing a MIDI instrument with a built-in sound source, listen to make sure the instrument doesn’t sound “thin” or “flanged”.If it does, you have probably not set the instrument to Local Off. This means that every key you press is played twice, once directly on the instrument and once via MIDI.

MIDI tracks are indicated by the note symbol in the “C” column.

When this lights up, Cubasis VST is receiving MIDI data.

When this lights up, Cubasis VST is transmitting MIDI


6Recording Audio

Preparations

Selecting a Sound Source

Before you begin recording, you have to select which sound source to record. You may for example have a microphone connected, as well as some kind of line level instrument or mixer, and the audio output of an internal CD drive. Depending on which audio hardware you use, you may be able to make this selection from inside Cubasis VST, by clicking the ASIO Control Panel button in the Audio System dialog. For many audio cards, however, the input source selection and other settings are made in a small, separate application program included with the audio card. See the documentation for the audio card.

• A standard stereo audio card often lets you mix several input sources. However, if you plan to record a single sound source, we recommend that you turn down or deactivate the other sources, to avoid unnecessary noise.

Activating VST Inputs

Cubasis VST allows you to use audio hardware with several inputs and route different inputs to different audio channels. For now, how-ever, let’s stick to a “basic” 2 in/2 out setup (such as a simple stereo audio card). Still, you need to make sure that these inputs are acti-vated before you attempt to record anything:

1. Pull down the Panels menu and select “VST Inputs”.The VST Inputs window appears:

To the left are the available “physical” input ports (in this case there are two inputs). The right column shows the names that will be used for each input throughout the program. The indicator(s) in the middle column show which inputs are active.

2. Make sure that the indicator in the middle column is lit.If not, click on it so that it lights up. This shows that the inputs are active.

3. Close the Inputs window by clicking its close box.

❐ For details on using audio hardware with several inputs, see page 71.

CUBASIS VST6 – 56 Recording Audio

Selecting a Sample Rate

Before recording you have to set the sample rate for the song:

1. On the Options menu select “Audio System Setup...” from the Audio Setup submenu.The Audio System Setup dialog opens.

2. Use the Sample Rate popup to select a sample rate.The higher the sample rate, the better the audio quality of your recordings (but the higher the demands on disk space and processing power). The most common options are:

Please note that not all audio cards support all these sample rates (see the card’s documentation for details).

❐ This setting is done once and for all for the whole song. You cannot make some recordings at one sample rate and others at some other sample rate.

3. Close the Audio System Setup dialog by clicking OK.The settings are saved.

Sample Rate Description

44.100 kHz The standard sample rate used on commercial audio CDs.

48 kHz Another common sample rate, used e.g. with DAT recorders.

96 kHz A very high-quality setting, used for professional audio recordings.

CUBASIS VSTRecording Audio 6 – 57

Selecting Recording Resolution

You select the resolution for recording on the Record Mode pop-up menu above the Part Display in the Arrange window.

The options are 16 or 24 Bit resolution. While 16 Bit resolution is considered high audio quality (this is for example the format used on commercial audio CDs), 24 Bit files have an even greater dynamic range, and thus a higher audio quality. Note however:

• 24 Bit recording is only useful if your audio hardware supports a higher resolution than 16 Bit.Preferably, 24 Bit resolution should be supported, but it would also make sense to use 24 Bit recording if your audio hardware supported e.g. 20 Bit resolution. However, re-cording in 24 Bit mode with a 16 Bit audio card would not add to the audio quality in any way.

• 24 bit files will be 1.5 times the size of 16 bit files.

• If you are using the ASIO Multimedia driver, you need to deactivate the “Use 16-Bit only” option in the ASIO Control Panel (ASIO Multimedia Setup Advanced Options - see the online help).

You can freely mix audio files of different resolution in the same song. Regardless of the resolution of the actual audio files, Cubasis VST processes audio internally in 32 bit float resolution to ensure pristine audio quality.

It is also important to understand that the recording resolution has nothing to do with the resolution of the final mix. If you use the Export Audio Tracks function to mix down to a file, you can freely specify the desired resolution as described on page 281. If you are mixing down to an external recorder, the resolution depends on the audio hard-ware, the connection and the recorder.

Finally, audio hardware that supports high resolution may also support high sample rates, allowing for very high audio quality (e.g. 24 bit/96kHz). As described above, you select a sample rate in the Audio System Setup dialog. Note that the sample rate setting is global for the song - all files must be recorded with the same sample rate, other-wise some will play back with the wrong speed and pitch.


Setting a tempo and time signature for the song

Before you start you should specify tempo and time signature. These are both adjusted on the Transport Bar:

Tempo tip

A good way of setting the tempo is to activate playback and adjust the tempo on the Transport Bar while listening to the metronome (Click) that is generated on each beat (quarter note). For the metronome to be heard, you need to make sure that the Click button on the Trans-port Bar is activated:

Click activated on the Transport Bar.

❐ If you start playback with Click activated and still cannot hear the metro-nome, you need to adjust the settings in the Metronome dialog on the Options menu (see page 97 to find out about the parameters and op-tions in the dialog).

For now, make sure Master is not activated on the Transport Bar.

The time signature determines the number of beats to each bar.

The tempo determines the “speed” of the music. The number is in beats (quarter notes) per minute.

For now, we recommend that you leave the Cycle function deactivated.


Selecting and setting up a track

About Stereo and Mono

Before you select a track to record on, it is necessary to understand the basic concept about audio channels and how Cubasis VST han-dles mono and stereo recordings:

• All audio is played back via audio channels. The number of available audio channels is determined by the “Number of Channels” setting in the Audio Sys-tem Setup dialog (up to 48; actual maximum depending on computer/hard disk performance).

• Each audio channel can play back one mono audio recording at a time. • Stereo recordings play back on two audio channels, one for each “stereo

side”. A stereo channel pair always consists of an odd channel and the next even channel (e.g. channel 1+2, 3+4, etc.).

• Channels that are used in stereo pairs cannot be used for mono recordings, and vice versa.

Setting Up

Set up a track for recording as follows:

1. Select an audio track by clicking on its name field in the list.

• If you don’t have any empty audio tracks in your arrangement, you need to create one, for example by using the Create Track item on the Structure menu. To make sure the track is an audio track, position the mouse in the “C” column for the track, pull down the pop-up menu and select “Audio Track”.

2. Set the track’s channel (Chn) to the audio channel you plan to record on.If this is the first audio track you record on, select 1. Generally, you should avoid using a channel already used by another track, since each channel only can play one record-ing at a time.

The “Any” channel setting is explained on page 71. For now, select a “normal” channel number.

❐ If you plan to make a stereo recording, you must select an odd channel number.


3. Make sure the Inspector (the area to the left of the Track List) is open.You open or close the Inspector by clicking on the icon below the Track List.

4. Decide if you want the recording to be in mono or stereo by using the Mono/Stereo button in the Inspector.The label on the switch (Mono/Stereo) indicates which mode is currently selected for the track. But the switch also indicates whether it is possible to switch mode or not:

Click on this icon...

...to open the Inspector.

The track is set to Mono. The lit button means that you can switch to Stereo by clicking on the button.

The track is set to Stereo. The lit button means that you can switch to Mono by clicking on the button.

The track is set to Mono, and the dark button indicates that it cannot be switched to Ste-reo. This is either because the track is set to an even channel, or because the next chan-nel is already used for a mono recording.

The track is set to Stereo and cannot be switched to Mono. This is be-cause there is already a stereo re-cording on the track.


If you select Stereo for a track, it will use the audio channel you set in step 2 above for the left side of the stereo recording, and the next channel for the right side. These two channels are then reserved for stereo use, so that no mono track can be set to any of these channels.

5. Double click on the track name, type in a new name for the track and press [Return].Since the recorded audio file will get the name of the track, it is a good idea to use de-scriptive track names.

Now you need to make sure the correct inputs are selected for the se-lected audio channel(s). By default, the left input on your audio card is assigned to odd-numbered channels, and the right input is assigned to even-numbered channels, but you may want to change this:

6. Pull down the Panels menu and select VST Channel Mixer.The VST Channel Mixer window opens.

7. Locate the “mixer strip” for the audio channel(s) you have selected for recording.There is one mixer strip for each audio channel (the value you set in the Chn column for the track). At the top of the strip, you find a button with the name of the input selected for the channel.


8. Click on the right half of the Input button to pull down a pop-up menu with the two inputs.

9. Select the input to which your sound source is connected.

• If you have selected Stereo above, there will be a stereo channel pair in the mixer, with a common Input pop-up menu.In that case, the Input pop-up menu will list stereo input pairs. If you are using audio hardware with a single stereo input, the left and right inputs will automatically be as-signed to the odd and even channel, respectively.

10.Go back to the Arrange window and click on the Enable button in the Inspector, to make the track and its selected audio channel ready for recording.If this is the first time you enable audio recording in the song, you will be asked to se-lect a folder for storing your recorded audio files.

Selecting a folder for your Audio Files

When you enable recording for the first time in a new song, a file dia-log box will appear, asking you to select a folder for your audio files. This folder will be used to store all audio files recorded for the song. If you have the opportunity, we recommend that you store your audio files on a separate hard disk.

• If you want to change the folder for your audio files during the session, you can do this at any time by pulling down the Options menu and se-lecting “Audio Files Folder…” on the Audio Setup submenu.This opens the same file dialog, letting you select a new folder, which will be used from that point on.


Monitoring

As described on page 44, you can monitor via Cubasis VST, directly via the audio hardware or externally via a mixer.

If you monitor via Cubasis VST, you set this up in the following way:

1. Pull down the Options menu and open the Audio Setup submenu.

2. Select the item called “Enable Monitor”.This is the global “master switch” for monitoring in Cubasis VST. If the menu item says “Disable Monitor”, monitoring is already enabled, and you don’t need to change any-thing.

3. Activate monitoring for the audio track by clicking on the left half of the Input button in the Inspector.The incoming audio will now be “echoed” back out again.

❐ For this method of monitoring to be useful, audio hardware with low la-tency is required! See page 38 for details.


Checking the Input Levels

Digital recording (as in Cubasis VST) is different from analog record-ing when it comes to recording levels. Whereas with analog recording it is often perfectly acceptable to let the “needle hit the red” (record at levels actually higher than the system can reproduce accurately), this is not true when it comes to digital recording.

The term used here is headroom. The headroom is the difference in level between the signal you record and the maximum level the system can handle. When the signal increases, the headroom diminishes to-wards 0 dB (decibels).

When the signal is stronger than the system can handle – when you exceed the available “headroom” – in a digital recording system, hard clipping occurs, which results in clearly audible and very unpleasant distortion. To avoid this, you should use the Input meter function in the VST Channel Mixer window to accurately check the recording levels:

1. Pull down the Panels menu and select VST Channel Mixer.The VST Channel Mixer window opens.

2. Click the “In” button above the level meter for the recording channel to activate the Input meter function.

When this button is activated, the meter shows the signal level at the input selected for the audio channel. When the button is deactivated, the meters show the output level of each audio chan-nel, which is what you want when you play back your recordings.

❐ Note that all actual settings (volume, pan, etc.) relate to the output sig-nals, regardless of this switch. It is not possible to set the Input Gain with the volume fader!

• If you are making a stereo recording, activate the “In” buttons for both channels in the stereo pair.


3. Sing or play the connected instrument and check the meter and the numeric level display above the fader.The level should be as high as possible, without ever clipping (exceeding 0 dB).

Clipping is indicated by the red clip light above the “In” button. To reset the clip indicator, click on it.

4. If needed, adjust the recording level in the audio card’s mixer applica-tion (or adjust the output level of the sound source or external mixer).

5. While you are in the VST Channel Mixer window, you may want to ad-just the output level of the monitored channel.Use the volume fader for the channel to set a comfortable listening level (this only works if you are monitoring through Cubasis VST).


Performing the first recording

Setting start- and end-points for the recording

When you start recording from Stop mode, the recording will always start at the position of the Left Locator and end at the Right Locator.

To position the locators, simply click on the ruler - the left mouse but-ton sets the Left Locator to where you clicked, the right button sets the Right Locator.

Recording

1. If you want to record to a metronome click, activate the Click button on the Transport Bar.

2. Click the Record button.By default, you will hear a two bar count-in (you can adjust the length of this or turn it off completely in the Metronome dialog, as described on page 97).

3. After the precount, start performing.Recording will automatically be deactivated when you reach the Right Locator, if you don’t hit Stop before that.

4. When you are done, press Stop.The program will now calculate an image file so that a waveform can be displayed in the program. Depending on the length of your recording, this may take a few seconds, during which a dialog box shows the progress of the calculation.

The program has now created an audio file in the folder you selected on page 63. The file will appear in the Pool (a window containing a list of all audio used in the song), along with an audio segment. A seg-ment is a “building block” that tells the program which section of the audio file to play back. In this case, the segment will play back the whole audio file.

• Read more about audio files and segments on page 127.


In the Arrange window, a part is created between the start and end points of the recording. Parts are containers for your recordings (in this case, the part contains the audio segment that plays back the re-corded audio file). As described in the chapter “Arrangement Editing”, you can move, copy, paste and manipulate parts in many other ways to edit and assemble songs.

A part.

Listening to the Recording

1. To hear what you just did, use the transport controls to move back to the beginning of the recording and click Play.

2. Stop when you are done.

If you don’t like what you just recorded

If you are not satisfied with the recording, you can select Undo from the Edit menu to remove the recorded part, or select the part (by click-ing on it) and press [Backspace].

However, neither of these methods will remove the actual audio file on your hard disk! If you want to permanently delete the recorded audio file, proceed as follows:

1. Click on the part to select it.

2. Hold down [Ctrl] and press [Backspace].You will be asked whether you want to delete the audio file permanently. Click Yes.


Recording more on the same track

To record more on the same track, proceed as follows:

1. Move the Left Locator to the position where you want to start recording.This can be at a “free” area on the track, or at some place where something is already recorded, as described below.

2. Make sure the Right Locator is to the right of the Left Locator. If it isn’t, please move it.You cannot activate recording if the Right Locator is to the left of the Left Locator.

3. Activate recording just as you did the first time on the track.A new file is automatically created.

About overlap

When you record again, where something has already been recorded on the track, you will get a new part which overlaps the previous one(s). However, when you play back, only the parts that you can actually see are played back. This is because each audio channel can only play back one audio file at a time.

The Smooth Segments option

When audio segments on the same channel are lined up after each other (with no gap at all) or overlapping, this can give rise to clicks and pops during playback. The reason is that the signals in the two seg-ments may have a different amplitude (level) at the intersection point, which in turn creates a transient (a sudden and dramatic change in signal level). This can be especially noticeable when working with ReCycle files (see page 271).

To remedy this, you should activate the option Smooth Segments on the Audio Setup submenu on the Options menu. When this is on, Cu-basis VST will add small crossfades at the intersection points between segments during playback. This ensures that the transition from one segment to the next is smooth, and removes the transients (and thus the clicks and pops).

❐ This function uses some processing power and RAM. Therefore, if you don’t need it, turn it off.


Recording the next track – Overdubbing

Recording the next track is done just as with the first. Here follows a summary of the steps:

1. Select another audio track and make sure it’s set to another audio channel.

2. Make sure the track is set to the correct audio input.

3. Set up the locators and activate recording.

Now, the previously recorded tracks will play back and you are able to record the new track as an overdub.

Recording from Play mode – Punch In

Sometimes it is useful to go directly from playback to recording. This is called “punching in”, and can be very useful. For example, if you have made a mistake in the middle of a chorus, you can play back from the beginning of the chorus, punch in just before the flawed section and replace that section with a new performance.

Similarly “punch out” is when you deactivate recording without stop-ping playback. If – in the example above – the chorus is followed by a verse which is perfectly OK, you would punch out at the end of the chorus so that you don’t record anything over the verse.

In Cubasis VST you punch in by clicking the Record button (or press-ing [*] on the numeric keypad) during playback. To punch out, click Record again. Also, since recording always stops at the Right Loca-tor, you can use this as an “automatic” punch out – just set the Right Locator at where you want the recording to end (in our example above, that would be at the end of the flawed section to be replaced).


Advanced: Recording Multiple Audio Channels

If you have audio hardware with several inputs, you can record from any combination of these at the same time. For example, you may want to make a recording with several microphones or record several play-ers at the same time. The key to this is recording on an audio track set to channel “Any”:

❐ A single “Any” track can contain recordings on multiple channels. In fact one track can contain mono recordings on as many channels as the sys-tem supports.

Proceed as follows:

1. Activate the inputs you need in the VST Inputs window on the Panels menu.

2. Open the VST Channel Mixer and select the correct audio inputs for the audio channels you wish to record.You select inputs on the pop-up menus at the top of the channel strips, as described on page 63.

3. Select or create an audio track to record on.

4. Open the Inspector for the track and set it to channel “Any”.A number of Record Info buttons appear. Exactly how many depends on the number of audio channels in your audio recording system (set in the Audio System Setup dialog).

A track set to “Any” in a 16 channel system. For stereo channel pairs, only the first Record Info button is shown.


• There is also a group of Monitor buttons in the Inspector, as many as there are audio channels.These work just like the Monitor button for a single channel track, allowing you to man-ually turn monitoring on and off for each audio channel.

5. For the channels you plan to record on, click the corresponding Record Info button in the Inspector.Activated Record Info buttons will be red.

6. Activate recording as usual.All activated audio channels will now be recorded at once.

When you finish recording, a part is created as usual. However, the part will only contain the data recorded on the first audio channel (or the first stereo channel pair). The audio recorded on the other chan-nels has been stored in audio files on the hard disk, and the files have been added to the Pool, but you have to move the files into the ar-rangement manually.

7. Make sure there are separate audio tracks available for the remaining recorded channels.

8. Pull down the Panels menu and select Audio Pool, or click the Audio Pool icon on the Toolbar.The Pool window opens.

9. Drag the audio files for these channels from the Pool into the Arrange window, and line them up with the original recording.For an example of dragging from the Pool into the Arrange window, see page 143.

10.Finally, set the “Any” channel track to the correct audio channel.This should be the first audio channel recorded. That is, if you recorded on channels 3, 4, 7 and 9, you should set the track to channel 3.

Now you can play back the tracks and hear all the recorded channels.


If you get Audio Performance Problems

If you experience audio dropouts, crackles or “untight” playback, there are some audio settings you can adjust (and some general precau-tions to take):

• Try selecting another Disk Cache Scheme in the Audio System Setup dialog.

• Adjust the MIDI to Audio Time Offset in the Audio System Setup dialog.This is useful if there is a fixed time offset between the MIDI and audio playback.

• Adjust the settings in the ASIO Control Panel.These are opened by clicking the ASIO Control Panel button in the Audio System Setup dialog. See the online help for the ASIO Control Panel for more info.

• Don’t run other applications when you use Cubasis VST, if you don’t explicitly need them.

• Check the integrity of your hard disk(s) regularly.Even though nothing may appear to be wrong, there can be various small hard disk er-rors that affect performance. When working with hard disk recording, it’s also impor-tant to defragment your hard disk regularly, for maximum hard disk efficiency. There are several hard disk analysis and repair tools available – just make sure you use a version compatible with your Operating System and file structure!



7Recording MIDI

About this Chapter

In this chapter, you will learn how to make a MIDI recording.

This chapter assumes the following:

• That you have connected a MIDI keyboard (or other controller) and some kind of MIDI sound source. As described earlier in this book, this could be a MIDI keyboard with a built-in sound source, or any combination of a MIDI controller and a sound module, external or built into the audio card in the computer.

• You are already familiar with audio recording as described in the previous chapter.

Preparations

Tempo, Time Signature and Click

If this is your first recording in a new arrangement, set up the time sig-nature, tempo and Click as described on page 59 in this book.

Selecting and naming a track

The tracks with the note symbol in the “C” column are for MIDI record-ing. An arrangement can contain up to 64 tracks.

1. Select a track by clicking on its name in the list.

• If you don’t have any empty MIDI tracks in your arrangement, you need to create one, for example by using the Create Track item on the Structure menu. To make sure the track is a MIDI track, position the mouse in the “C” column for the track, pull down the pop-up menu and select “MIDI Track”.

2. Double click on the track name, type in the name you desire and press [Return].

CUBASIS VST7 – 76 Recording MIDI

Setting MIDI Channel and Output

Setting the MIDI Channel in the Instrument

Most MIDI synthesizers can play several sounds at the same time, each on a different MIDI channel. This is the key to playing back sev-eral sounds (bass, piano etc.) from the same instrument.

Some devices (such as General MIDI compatible sound modules) al-ways receive on all 16 MIDI channels. If you have such an instrument, there’s no specific setting you need to make in the instrument.

On other instruments you will have to use the front panel controls to set up a number of “Parts”, “Timbres” or similar so that they receive on one MIDI channel each. See the manual that came with your instru-ment for more information.

Setting the MIDI Channel and Output in the Track List

1. If you cannot see the Chn and Output columns in the Track List, point at the Divider (the border between the Track List and the Part Display), click and drag it to the right.

2. Set the Chn column for the track to the same MIDI channel as you just set up to use on the synthesizer.

❐ In General MIDI, channel 10 is always used for drums!

3. Make sure the track is set to the MIDI output that the synthesizer is ac-tually connected to. If it isn’t, pull down the Output menu for that track and select the desired MIDI output.The available MIDI outputs on the menu depend on your MIDI interface(s) and on the settings you have made in the Setup MME application (see page 52). For example, if you have a standard SoundBlaster card, the MIDI Outputs menu will contain a “MIDI Out” item and one or more “Synth” items for the card’s built-in synthesizer(s) - pro-vided that you haven’t turned any of these outputs off in the Setup MME application.

CUBASIS VSTRecording MIDI 7 – 77

Selecting a sound

When you play your keyboard, you should now hear the sound that the instrument plays on this MIDI channel (the track’s “Chn” setting). To select a sound, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Inspector.

2. Set a numeric Program Change value in the “Prg” field.See also page 81 for more information about Program Change and Bank Select.

You may also be able to select sounds by name, using the Patchname pop-up menu. This is possible if:

• The MIDI instrument is SoundFont compatible (e.g. a synthesizer on a sound card - see also page 83).

• The MIDI instrument is a VST Instrument that supports patch selection.

3. Play the keyboard to try out the new sound.

Setting levels

While you can set volume, pan, etc. from the Inspector, it is much eas-ier to do this from the MIDI Track Mixer:

1. Pull down the Panels menu and select MIDI Track Mixer, or click the MIDI Track Mixer icon on the Toolbar.The MIDI Track Mixer window opens. This window contains “mixer strips” for all MIDI tracks, which you can use to mix your MIDI sound sources, manually or automatically.

Pan Control

Volume Fader


2. Locate the mixer strip for the track you plan to record on.

3. Use the volume fader and pan control to set volume and pan for the sound.

❐ Note that your instrument must be able to respond to MIDI Volume and Pan messages for this to work. Refer to the instrument’s documentation.

If your MIDI instrument is compatible with the GS (Roland) or XG (Yamaha) standards, you can use the MIDI Track Mixer to control a lot of other parameters in your instrument. This is described on page 223.

4. Press [Return] to close the MIDI Track Mixer window.

Verifying the Settings

Now when you play your keyboard you should hear the right sound in the synthesizer (and only that sound). If not, check the following:

• Is the track set to the correct MIDI channel?• Is the track set to the MIDI output the instrument is connected to?• Do you have MIDI Thru enabled on the Options menu in Cubasis VST?• Do you have Local Off activated in your instrument (if needed and/or available)?• Is the synthesizer set up to receive MIDI Program Change?


Recording

1. Set start and end-points using the locators, and decide if you want a Click or not, just as when recording audio.

2. Click the Record button.By default, you will hear a two bar count-in (you can adjust the length of this or turn it off completely in the Metronome dialog, as described on page 97).

3. After the precount, start performing.Recording will automatically be deactivated when you reach the Right Locator, if you don’t hit Stop before.

4. When you are done, press Stop.A part appears.

Now, you can listen, undo or record more on the same track, just as with audio tracks.

About overlap

MIDI tracks are different from audio tracks when it comes to overlap-ping Parts. When you record again where something has already been recorded on the track, the new recording is simply added to whatever was on that track before. When you play back, you will hear both re-cordings.


Advanced: Program Change and Bank Select

Program Change Display Setting

When you select sounds in your MIDI instrument from within Cubasis VST, you are sending MIDI Program Change messages to the instru-ment. As described on page 78, this can be done numerically (using the Prg setting in the Inspector) or by name (using the Patchname pop-up menu).

If you select programs numerically, you may find that different MIDI in-struments number their programs differently. Therefore, you can ad-just how the program numbers are shown in Cubasis VST: Click on the arrow symbol next to the Prg value in the Inspector and select one of the options on the pop-up menu that appears.

Bank Select

❐ When using SoundFonts compatible instruments, the Bank setting in the Inspector has a different functionality - see page 83.

With Program Change messages, you are able to select between 128 different programs in your MIDI device. However, many MIDI instru-ments contain a larger number of program locations. To make these available from within Cubasis VST, you need to use Bank Select mes-sages, a system in which the programs in a MIDI instrument are divided into Banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instruments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank field in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the Prg field to select a program in this bank.


In the MIDI standard, Bank Select messages consist of two separate numbers: the “Most Significant Byte” (MSB) and the “Least Significant Byte” (LSB). However, different instruments use different methods of combining these two numbers when transmitting and receiving Bank Select messages. To compensate for these variations, Cubasis VST allows you to specify which method you want to use for each part or track:

1. Select a track you want to make Bank Select settings for.

2. Open the Inspector.

3. Click on the arrow button next to the Bank Select value, to pull down a small pop-up menu.

There are five options:

4. Activate the suitable options for the instrument that the track is set to transmit to.Consult the operation manual for the instrument if you are unsure.

Option Use when

Swap Value Bytes (Roland)

When this is activated, the MSB and LSB values are swapped when the Bank Select messages are transmitted from Cubasis VST. This mode is suitable for some Roland instruments.

Send MSB first When this is activated, the MSB number is sent out before the LSB, instead of the other way around.

Send Only One Byte Sends only LSB values, use for devices that don’t differentiate between the two Bank select types.

Send as PRG Change For devices that use Prg change messages 101-128 to change banks.

Edit as MSB-LSB When this is activated, the Bank Select value will be displayed in the Inspector as two separate numbers (MSB–LSB).


Advanced: Working with SoundFonts

SoundFont is a PC file format for storing wavetable synthesized sounds. The format is developed by E-mu Systems and Creative Technologies. It allows users to create and edit multi-sampled sounds, and play them back in wavetable synthesizers, typically on audio cards (e.g. Creative Technologies Soundblaster Live!, Terratec EWS-64 and E-mu APS). Effectively, this turns an ordinary sound card into a sampler.

If the MIDI output for a track or part is set to a SoundFont compatible device (typically a synthesizer on a card in the computer), the program automatically detects this and some SoundFont specific settings be-come available in the Inspector.

❐ If you have a SoundFont compatible audio card but it’s not possible to select SoundFont Banks and patches in the Inspector (see below), some SoundFont related software may not be properly installed. This is usually done automatically when installing the card - if in doubt, consult the doc-umentation for the audio card.

Managing SoundFont Banks in Cubasis VST

To load, clear or edit SoundFont Banks from within Cubasis VST, you use the SoundFont Bank Manager dialog:

1. Select a MIDI track with its output set to the SoundFont device, and open the Inspector.

2. Click in the Bank field (not the pop-up arrow).A pop-up menu appears, showing any currently loaded SoundFont Banks, plus an ad-ditional item called “Manage...”.


3. Select “Manage...”The Bank Manager dialog appears.

In the dialog, you will find the currently loaded banks listed in the “Banks” column to the left. The right column shows the patches in-cluded in the bank selected in the “Banks” column.

The buttons to the right have the following functionality:

Button Description

Load Bank Click this to load a SoundFont Bank file (extension “.SF2”) into the RAM on, or allocated to, your audio card, and make it possible to play the sounds in the bank from Cubasis VST. Note that the maximum num-ber of SoundFont Banks that can be loaded at one time depends on the amount of RAM on, or allocated to, your audio card.

Clear Bank Removes the bank selected in the “Banks” column. Use this to unload unwanted banks from the RAM on, or allocated to, your audio card.

Edit Bank Click this button to open the selected bank in a SoundFont editor (the application associated with .SF2 files on your computer).

Reload Bank Click this to reload the selected bank, after you have edited it in another application.

Clear Patch Removes the patch selected in the “Patches” column from the Sound-Font Bank.

Save Set Allows you to save the current list of loaded banks as a SoundFont Set file (extension “.SFS”).

Load Set Allows you to locate and open a saved SoundFont Set file. When you load a Set, the memory on the audio card is cleared, and all currently loaded banks are replaced by the banks listed in the Set file.


Selecting a Bank and Patch for playback in Cubasis VST

After you have loaded a bank and closed the Bank Manager dialog, you need to select a patch in the bank, just as you would use Program Change messages to select a sound on an external MIDI instrument:

1. Select a MIDI track with its output set to the SoundFont device.

2. In the Inspector, pull down the Bank pop-up menu and select the bank you have loaded.

3. Pull down the Patchname pop-up menu.A list is displayed, containing all the SoundFont names for the sounds in the selected bank.

4. Select a patch from the pop-up menu.The MIDI track will now play back the sound of the selected SoundFont Patch.


Advanced: Recording SysEx Messages

System Exclusive (SysEx) is a special type of MIDI message used to send data that only make sense to a unit of a certain make and type. Every major MIDI manufacturer has its own SysEx identity code. Sys Ex can be used to transmit a list of the numbers that make up the settings of one or more sounds in a synth.

You can record System Exclusive messages in Cubasis VST, for exam-ple if you want to store program settings for your instrument in your Cubasis VST song, or record automation for a VST Instrument. Re-corded System Exclusive data can also be edited in Cubasis VST. This is described on page 168.

• To record System Exclusive messages, activate the option “Record SysEx” on the Options menu, and record as usual.


8Playback, Tempo and the

Transport Bar

The Transport Bar

Below, you will find a brief description of what each control on the Transport Bar is used for:

• You can hide and show the Transport Bar by selecting “Hide/Show Transport” on the Windows menu, by clicking the Transport Bar icon on the Toolbar or by pressing [F12].

Regardless of whether the Transport Bar is visible or not, you can use the numeric key pad to control many of the transport functions:

Song positionPosition slider

Punch out point and end of cycle

Record start point, punch in point and beginning of cycle

Indicates MIDI In/Out activity

Turns the metronome on/off

Master Track on/offCycle on/offFast Forward

Stop

Play

RecordRewind

TempoTime signature

Go to start of arrange-ment

Go to end of arrange-ment

NumLock ÷ x –

7 8 9

4 5 6 +

1 2 3

0 , Enter

Cycle on/off

Go to Right Locator

Go to Left Locator

Stop

Record

Lower tempo

Raise tempo

Play

CUBASIS VST8 – 88 Playback, Tempo and the Transport Bar

In addition to this, the Page Up and Page Down keys function as Fast Forward and Rewind and the space bar serves as an additional Stop key.

• You can move the Transport Bar by clicking the dark handles at the edges and dragging.

• The left/right double-arrows located at both sides of the position slider can be used to either jump to the beginning or go to the end of the arrangement, respectively.

• Double clicking the Click button opens the Metronome dialog.

• Double clicking the Master button opens the Mastertrack List editor dialog.

About Position Values

In Cubasis VST, all positions are shown in meter format. This means they are related to the tempo and time signature, rather than to exact time.

Positions are displayed as Bars.beats.ticks.

• Beats are the denominator in the time signature - often quarter notes. If the time signature is 3/4, each beat is a quarter note and there are three beats to each bar.

• Ticks are subdivisions of the beats. There are 384 ticks to each quarter note. When note lengths are shown numerically, they are displayed as ticks.

Here, the position is 3.2.0, which means at the start of the second beat in the third bar.

CUBASIS VSTPlayback, Tempo and the Transport Bar 8 – 89

Setting the Song Position

The Song Position Pointer is displayed in the Arrange window as a vertical line with a triangular head in the ruler.

There are several ways to move the song position:

• By double clicking in the ruler.If you double click somewhere in the ruler, the Song Position Pointer is moved there. Note that the Snap value determines to which positions you can move the Song Posi-tion Pointer with this method (e.g. if Snap is set to 1/4, the song position will be moved to the closest quarter note position).

• By [Alt]+[Shift]-clicking in the Arrange window.Snap applies in the same way as explained above.

• By using Fast Forward and Rewind on the Transport Bar.If you hold down [Shift] while clicking the button, Rewind/FF is much faster.

• By using the position slider on the Transport Bar.The position slider is located on the Transport Bar. Drag the handle or click directly somewhere on the line to move the handle there.

The range of the slider relates to the length of your arrangement. This means that if you drag the slider all the way to the right, the song position will appear at the end of the last part.

• By double-clicking in the Position field on the Transport Bar and typ-ing in a new position.Finish by pressing [Return].


Returning to the beginning of the song

If the song is stopped and you click the Stop button again (or press [0] on the numeric key pad), the following happens:

• The song position is moved to the Left Locator.If the song position is already at the Left Locator or to the left of it, the song position is moved to the beginning of the song.

This means that you can always click twice on the Stop button to re-turn to the beginning of the song. You can also use the double-arrow to the left of the position slider to do this.


Tempo and Time Signature Handling

Transport Bar and Master Track Tempo

There is actually a choice of two sources for Cubasis VST’s tempo:

• When the song uses a steady tempo throughout, you can turn off the Master button and simply set the right tempo directly on the Transport Bar. The tempo can be adjusted at any time, even while playing back.

• When the song contains tempo changes, you need to use the Master Track, (which is Cubasis VST’s tempo track). For those tempo changes to actually “happen” on playback, the Master button on the Transport Bar must be acti-vated.

Setting the Transport Bar Tempo

To adjust the tempo value on the Transport Bar, use one of the follow-ing methods:

• Right-click or left-click on the tempo value to raise or lower the tempo, respectively.If you hold down [Shift] while clicking, the value will change in steps of ten.

• Press [Ctrl] and click on the value and drag the mouse up or down with the mouse button pressed.

• Double click and type in a value.

The Tempo setting on the Trans-port Bar is used.

The Tempi set on the Master Track are used and shown on the Transport


Using the Master Track

If you want tempo changes in your song, you need to use the Master Track. You open the List Mastertrack Editor by selecting Mastertrack on the Edit menu, or by double-clicking the Master button on the Transport Bar.

The Mastertrack window displays a list of all Tempo and Time Signa-ture events in your song. To insert a new tempo within the song, pro-ceed as follows:

1. Move the Song Position Pointer to where you want the new tempo to be inserted.

2. In the Mastertrack window, pull down the pop-up menu to the left of the Insert button and make sure “Tempo” is selected.This determines the type of event to be inserted.

3. Click the “In” button.A new tempo event is inserted at the song position.

4. Adjust the new tempo in the “Value” column, in the same way as you adjust the tempo on the Transport Bar.

If you now rewind and activate playback (with the Master button acti-vated on the Transport Bar) you will note how the tempo changes when the Song Position Pointer reaches the correct position.

• To delete a tempo event from the Mastertrack, select it and press [Backspace].You cannot delete the first tempo event.

❐ You should avoid changing the tempo after you have recorded audio! Even though each separate audio part will start at the correct position in the new tempo, the actual audio recordings within the parts will still be playing in the tempo you had set when recording!


Time Signatures

The time signature is the number of beats to the bar, e.g. 4/4 (four beats) or 3/4 (three beats). You can adjust the basic time signature directly on the Transport Bar, but you can also add time signature changes in the Master Track window, in the same manner as with tempo changes (you only have to select “Timesign” from the pop-up menu in step 2 above).


Locators

The locators are the two “L” and “R” flags in the ruler. They have sev-eral uses:

• Recording starts at the Left Locator and ends at the Right Locator.• If you activate the Cycle button on the Transport Bar, playback will loop be-

tween the Left and Right Locator.• Some editing functions affect the area between the locators (see page 116).

As with the song position, there are several ways to set the position of the locators:

• By clicking in the ruler.Click with the left mouse button to set the Left Locator, and with the right mouse but-ton to set the Right Locator. The Snap value affects where the locator is positioned (see page 105).

• By adjusting the locator values numerically on the Transport Bar.• By enclosing a part.

If you select a part in the Arrange window (see page 106) and press [Alt]-[P] on the computer keyboard, the locators are moved to the start and end position of the se-lected part, respectively.

This method also works with several parts selected, as shown in this figure.

Moving the Song Position to the Locators

You can move the song position to one of the locators by clicking on the “L” and “R” flags on the Transport Bar (or by pressing [1] or [2] on the numeric key pad, respectively).


About the Cycle

Cubasis VST can play back and record in a cycle – a loop. You de-cide where the cycle starts and ends by setting the left and right loca-tors. If the Cycle mode is active you can repeatedly listen to a section of the arrangement, and record, adding more on each lap etc. Cycled playback is also convenient when editing and when making adjust-ments in the Inspector.

You set up and activate the cycle in the following way:

1. Set the Left Locator to the position where you want the cycle to begin.

2. Set the Right Locator to the position where you want the cycle to end.For this to make sense, the Right Locator should be to the right of the Left Locator.

3. Click on the Cycle button on the Transport Bar so that it gets acti-vated, or press [÷] on the numeric key pad.

Cycle activated on the Transport Bar.

Now, when the Song Position Pointer reaches the Right Locator dur-ing playback, it will jump back to the Left Locator.

About Recording in Cycle Mode

When recording in Cycle mode, the results are different for MIDI and audio recording:

• When you record MIDI in Cycle mode, the notes you add for each cy-cle lap are simply added to the existing notes in the part.For example, this is useful when you are recording drum patterns: record the bass drum on the first lap, the hi-hat on the next, and so on.

• When you record audio in cycle mode, the result is one long audio file, containing all the cycle laps you recorded.However, there will be a separate audio segment for each cycle lap. This allows you to select the “best take”, by auditioning the segments in the Pool (see page 138) and dragging the best one into the arrangement.


Setting up the Metronome Click

As mentioned earlier, you turn the metronome click on and off on the Transport Bar. You can also specify the click type and volume, whether you want a count-in etc. These settings are made in the Metronome di-alog, opened from the Options menu, or by double-clicking the Click button:

The Precount section

Activate this if you want a count-in when you start recording from stop mode. The Bars value sets the length of the Precount (by default, 2 bars).

Click activated on the Transport Bar.


Audio Click

Activating this will give you an audio click, played back via the audio hardware. You can set the volume of the click in the value field below.

MIDI Click

Activating this checkbox will give you a MIDI click, played back on whatever MIDI instrument you have connected. The value fields in the section allow you to select which MIDI channel and output the click should be sent out to, as well as note number and velocity for the high note (the first beat in each bar) and the low notes (the other beats).

❐ The Click button on the Transport Bar still governs whether the metro-nome should be activated or not! However, if you deactivate all three checkboxes, no click will be heard, even if you turn on the Click button.


9Arrangement Editing

About songs and arrangements

A song is the main Cubasis VST document format. This contains all your recorded music and all settings.

• You can only have one song open at a time.In fact, there is always one song open – you cannot run Cubasis without a song opened. This is very important to realize.

• If you open a song, this will replace the current song.If you have unsaved changes, you will be asked whether you want to save the current song first.

• If you want to create a new song, you should use the New Song com-mand on the File menu (or click the New Song icon on the Toolbar).

Within the song, an arrangement contains your music. You can have several arrangements in the same song (up to 16), each with its own Arrange window. This allows you to create several versions of the same piece, use one arrangement as a “storage facility” for record-ings, phrases and alternate takes, etc. You can also use this feature to create a collection of favorite pieces and save them all as one docu-ment (a song).

• To create a new arrangement, select New Arrangement from the File menu.

• To select between open arrangements, click on the windows, or use the Windows menu, which lists all arrangements in the song.

• If you close an arrangement, a dialog appears that allows you to save your changes. In this dialog, you will find an option called “Set Aside”. By using this option, you will close the Arrange window but the actual data are kept in memory. To reopen the window, select the arrangement from the Windows menu.

About Closing – Important!

The Close item on the File menu closes the current arrangement! It is not possible to close the song by using this menu item. Therefore, if you are finished working with a song, don’t use the Close command.Instead, either quit Cubasis VST, open another song or start with a new song, by selecting New Song from the File menu. This opens the default song, allowing you to start with a clean slate.

CUBASIS VST9 – 100 Arrangement Editing

About tracks, parts and arranging

As you have already seen, the Cubasis VST arrangement is roughly structured in two “levels”: Several tracks, each containing a number of parts. This chapter is about arrangement editing – in other words, re-arranging tracks (done in the Track List, to the left in the Arrange win-dow) and parts (done in the Part Display, to the right in the Arrange window).

CUBASIS VSTArrangement Editing 9 – 101

Creating and managing tracks

The track is one of the most basic concepts in Cubasis VST. Every time you record something in Cubasis VST, the recorded material is placed on a track. You can have up to 64 tracks in each Arrange win-dow, and you can easily move or copy material between tracks, as long as they are of the same type (MIDI or Audio).

When you are working with audio, different tracks can be set to play back on different audio channels, which is essential if you want sev-eral audio files to be played back simultaneously. In MIDI recording, the most obvious reason for putting the recorded material on different tracks is perhaps that you want to have your music played back by dif-ferent “instruments” – or maybe rather by different sounds on a MIDI sound module or keyboard.

Creating tracks

You create tracks by using any of the following methods:

• Double click in the empty area below the last track in the Track List.

• Pull down the Structure menu and select Create Track.

• Press [Ctrl]-[T] on the computer keyboard.

After creating a track, you may want to change its track class (MIDI or Audio). This is done by clicking in the “C” column for the track and se-lecting MIDI Track or Audio Track from the pop-up menu that appears.


Making track settings

You make settings for a track by adjusting the values in the track columns:

• Some of the track column settings can also be changed in the Inspector.

Selecting tracks

You select a track by clicking on its name field in the Track List, so that it is highlighted. Selecting a track allows you to make settings in the Inspector for all parts on that track. Recording is also automati-cally routed to the selected track.

Moving and duplicating tracks

To move a track up or down in the list, click on its name and drag it to the desired position (the parts on the track will follow). To duplicate a track, including its parts, press [Alt] and drag it to a new position in the list.

Column Description

A (Activity) Indicates playback or recording on a track. You cannot change any-thing in this column.

M (Mute) Used for muting the track (see page 104).

C (Class) Used for selecting MIDI or audio tracks.

Track The name of the track. Double click to change.

Chn (Channel) For MIDI tracks, this is the MIDI channel (1-16) for the track. Use this to direct the track to a specific channel in your MIDI instrument.For audio tracks, this is the audio channel (see page 60).

Output If you have more than one MIDI output, you use this pop-up menu to select an output for each MIDI track. By selecting different outputs for different tracks, you can direct the tracks to different instruments, hav-ing one track send MIDI to an output on your MIDI interface while an-other track sends MIDI to a VST Instrument, etc.You cannot change the Output setting for audio tracks.


Deleting tracks

To delete a track, proceed as follows:

1. Click in an empty area in the Part Display, to make sure no parts are selected.

2. Select the track.

3. Click [Backspace] or select Delete Track from the Edit menu.If the track contains any data, you will be asked to confirm that you really want to delete it.

Mute and Solo

• If you click the Solo button at the top of the Arrange window, you will only hear the active track.

• By clicking in the Mute (M) column in the Track List, you can silence any track temporarily.

• You can also mute individual parts with the Mute tool.See page 110.

The dot indicates that this track is muted.

The Solo button.


Working with parts

Parts can be viewed as “containers” for your MIDI and audio data. By manipulating parts in the Part Display, you can quickly rearrange and structure your arrangement.

About the Snap value

When you are moving, duplicating or changing the length of parts, the result of your actions depends on the Snap value.

The Snap pop-up menu

This value puts a restriction on the positions where you can perform editing actions. If you for example set snap to “Bar” and move a part by dragging it, it will always start at an exact bar line when you release it. Likewise, if you cut the part in two, with the scissors, the split will then always occur at an exact bar line.

The Snap values are as follows:

Snap Value Description

Off Any position is allowed.

Bar Actions are restricted to exact bar lines.

1/2 to 1/16 Actions are restricted to the selected note value.

If Snap is set to Bar... ...parts can only be dragged to exact bar lines.

If Snap is for example set to 1/4... ...parts can be put on any quarter note position.


Naming parts

When you record a part, it gets the name of the track. You can rename a part at any time, using one of the following methods:

• Select the part, open the Inspector and double click on the name field.Type in a new name and press [Return].

• Hold down [Alt] and double click the part.A text box opens, where you can type in a new name.

Saving parts

You can save audio or MIDI parts separately for later import into a dif-ferent song or arrangement. This is best done by using the audio and MIDI Libraries, see page 341.

Selecting parts

You have to select a part in order to move, delete or manipulate it in any way. Selecting a part can be done in several different ways:

• Clicking on a part selects it.

• Holding down [Shift] and clicking on parts selects these too, without deselecting other parts.

• By pressing the mouse button with the pointer in a “free” area of the Part Display, you can drag to create a selection rectangle.This works just like when selecting files and folders on the desktop.

• The Select All item on the Edit menu allows you to select all parts in the arrangement.


Using the arrange window tools

For many part operations in the Arrange window, different tools are needed. The tools are gathered in a “Toolbox”. To select a Tool, pro-ceed as follows:

1. Right-click anywhere in the Part Display, and keep the mouse button pressed.The Toolbox appears.

2. Select one of the tools and release the mouse button.The pointer takes on the shape of the selected tool.

Moving and duplicating parts

To move one or more parts to a new position, proceed as follows:

1. If you want to move several parts, select these.

2. Select the Arrow tool.

3. Click and drag the part(s) to a new position.The Snap value applies as described on page 105.

❐ Note that you cannot move an audio part to a MIDI track or vice versa.

• To duplicate (copy) parts, press [Alt] and drag.You can also duplicate parts with the Repeat Parts function (see page 111).

Changing the length of parts

To change the length of a part, proceed as follows:

1. Select the Pencil tool

2. Click in the part and keep the mouse button pressed.

3. Drag to the new desired length.The Snap value applies as usual.


• You can resize several parts at the same time, by selecting them and resizing one of them with the Pencil tool.This will move the endpoint of all selected parts to the same position.

❐ If you make a MIDI part shorter using this method, the notes in the “removed” section will be erased!

Splitting parts

You can use the Scissors tool to split parts:

1. If you want to split several parts simultaneously, select these.

2. Select the Scissors tool.

3. Click on one of the selected parts.All selected parts are split in two, at the position where you clicked (taking the Snap value into account). The “new” parts will have the same name as the original parts.

• If you hold down [Control] when you click with the Scissors tool, the selected parts will be split at a position relative to each part’s start points.For example, if you have a 4 bar part and a 7 bar part selected, and click with the Scis-sors two bars into one of the parts, the other will also be split at a position two bars from its start point.

• If you hold down [Alt] when you click, the part(s) will be split into sev-eral sections, with the length determined by the click position.For example, if you have a six bar part and [Alt]-split it after the first two bars, it will be cut into three two bar parts.


Joining parts together

Joining parts means turning two shorter parts (on the same track) into one long part. This is done by clicking on the first part with the Glue Tube tool:

• If the parts overlap, they are merged in the overlapping area. No events are lost.

• If you hold down [Alt] and click on a part with the Glue Tube tool, all the following parts on that track will be glued together.

Monitoring the contents of a part

With the Speaker tool, you can listen to the contents of each part sep-arately in Stop mode:

1. Select the Speaker tool.From there on, the procedure differs for audio parts and MIDI parts:

2. To monitor the contents of an audio part, click at the desired position in the part.You will hear the contents of the part played back, from the point where you clicked, for as long as you keep the mouse button pressed (or until the end of the part).

3. To monitor the contents of a MIDI part, drag the pointer forwards or backwards over the part.Notes and other MIDI events will be played back according to how fast you drag the pointer.

Gluing two parts together, regardless of if they are spread apart...

...gives you one long part with the name of the first.


Muting a part

To mute (silence) a part, click on it with the Mute tool (the cross). To “unmute” a part, just click on it again. Muted parts are “greyed out”.

Deleting parts

There are several ways to get rid of unwanted parts.

• Select them and press [Backspace] on the computer keyboard.

• Select them and use Delete Parts on the Edit menu.

• Click on the parts with the Eraser tool.If you hold down [Alt] when you click, the part and all the consecutive parts on the track will be deleted.

❐ Deleting an audio part will not erase the actual audio file or the segment in the Pool! To delete an audio part and erase the corresponding audio file from the hard disk, select the part, hold down [Ctrl] and press [Backspace].


Repeating parts

You can repeat one or several parts, on the same or different tracks, using the Repeat Parts function on the Structure menu:

1. Select the part(s) you want to repeat.

2. Select the “Repeat Parts” item on the Structure menu (or press [Ctrl]-[K] on the computer keyboard).The Repeat Parts dialog appears.

3. Enter the desired number of copies in the dialog.

4. If you activate the Ghost Copies checkbox, the copies will become ghost parts.See below.

5. Click “OK”.The selected part(s) are repeated, and the copies are lined up “end-to-start” after the original(s). The selected parts are treated as one block, so the relative spacing be-tween the created parts is determined by the beginning of the first selected part and the end of the last.

Original parts Repeated parts


About ghost parts

Ghost part are “linked copies”, which means that if you edit the origi-nal or a copy in any of the Edit windows, the changes show up in all the ghost copies (including the original part).

This can be useful e.g. if you have copied a few bars of drums throughout the song, and need to adjust the drum pattern at a later stage – just change the pattern in one of the parts and the other ghost parts are automatically adjusted the same way.

• If you alter the contents of a ghost part by recording over it, merging it with another part or by splitting or joining, it is automatically converted to a regular copy.

Repeating parts with the Pencil tool

An alternative way of repeating parts is to use the Pencil tool, in the following way:

1. Select the parts you want to repeat.

2. Select the Pencil tool.

3. Press [Alt], click in one of the parts and drag to the right.When you drag, a rectangular outline is shown.

4. Release the mouse button at the position where you want the last re-peated part to end.The parts are repeated to fill out the rectangular outline.


Trim Events to Part

This command makes sure that all events in a part end where the part ends and no later. It only applies to events which have a length. With MIDI, this means notes only.

About Trim Events to Part

Cubasis VST works differently from MIDI when it comes to handling notes. Where MIDI regards Note Ons and Note Offs as separate enti-ties, Cubasis VST stores notes, their position and length. This means that even if you change the length of a part by using the Pencil or Scissors tool you may get notes that play past the end of the part. This is a valuable feature, but you may not always want this to be the case. If you don't, you should use Trim Events to Part.

Performing Trim Events to Part

1. Select the part(s) that are to have their notes Trimmed.

2. Select Trim Events to Part from the Structure menu.

Using Copy and Paste

You can apply standard copy and paste techniques to your parts. This, among other things, allows you to move parts between arrange-ments. The Cut, Copy and Paste commands are available on the Edit menu, and also have their own icons on the Toolbar.

Cut and Copy work just like in any Windows program with the follow-ing additional rules.

• Pasted parts always appear on the same track(s) as they originally came from.

• If you paste in just one part, it appears at the song position. If you paste several, the first part in the “block” appears at the song position. The other parts keep their relative positions to the first.

The Cut, Copy and Paste icons


Part Color

To distinguish parts, you may give them different colors. Proceed as follows:

Adding Color to all parts on a track

1. Make sure no parts are selected.

2. Select the track in the Track List.

3. Select the desired color from the Part Color pop-up.

Adding Color to some part

1. Select the parts.

2. Select the desired color from the Part Color pop-up.

Selecting different colors for different parts can be very useful if you want to edit several parts in a MIDI Editor. As described on page 187, you can then choose to display the events in the color of their respec-tive part, making it easier to distinguish the different parts.

The Part Color pop-up is found above the Part Display.

Choosing one of the colors from the menu adds color to the parts.

Click here to edit the colors and names.


Using the Magnifying Glass Tool

All main Cubasis VST windows have magnification controls in the lower right corner allowing you to change magnification. In the Arrange window, you also have the option to use the Magnifying Glass tool.

The Magnifying Glass can be used in the following ways:

• Click in the Part Display to increase magnification one step.

• Hold down [Ctrl] and click in the Part Display to decrease magnifica-tion one step.When you press [Ctrl] the Magnifying Glass will be shown with a minus sign.

• Drag with the Magnifying Glass to set a custom magnification.A dotted rectangle is shown when you drag. When you release the mouse button, the contents of the rectangle will be magnified to fit the Part Display.


Editing the arrangement structure

On the Structure menu you will find three functions for making large-scale adjustments to your arrangement structure:

Cut at Locators

This command removes the area between the Left and Right Locator, on all tracks.

• The parts to the right of the Right Locator will be moved left, filling out the gap.• Any parts that have a section inside the Locators, are shortened, and the

events within these sections are removed.• Muted tracks are not affected, but the Master Track (for tempo and time sig-

natures) is cut like any other track.

Insert at Locators

Insert at Locators is the opposite of Cut at Locators; an empty area is inserted between the locator positions (on all unmuted tracks):

• The length of the piece will be the number of bars between the Left and Right Locator. For example, to insert four bars starting at bar three, set the Left Loca-tor to 3.1.0 and the Right Locator to 7.1.0.

• All music after the Left Locator is “pushed” to a later position.• Parts that start before the Left Locator and end after it, will be lengthened by

the selected amount of bars (the lengthened sections will be empty).• Muted tracks are not affected, but the Master Track is affected like any other

track.

Split at Locators

This command splits parts on all tracks at the Left and Right Locator positions, just as if you had done it with the Scissors Tool.

• If you only want to make one split, set the Left and Right Locators to the same position.

• Muted tracks are not affected.

An alternative splitting method (that will include muted tracks), is sim-ply to select all parts and then split using the Scissors tool.


Optimize Arrangement

In certain cases, you may end up with long parts having sections con-taining no events. For example, you may have recorded a MIDI part in real time, playing in certain places and not playing in other places, but recording it as one continuous take. The resulting part will have “empty” sections, containing no events. The Optimize Arrangement operation will automatically cut and resize parts so that all empty sec-tions are removed, thereby “tidying up” the arrangement.

❐ For audio tracks, remember that silence in a recording is part of the au-dio event, and that Optimize Arrangement will only cut portions of parts not containing any events.

1. Select the track or part(s) you want to Optimize.If you want to Optimize the complete arrangement, select all parts.

2. Select “Optimize Arrangement” from the Structure menu.A warning that the operation can’t be undone appears.

3. Click “Continue”.Now all sections of parts containing a bar (or more) without events will have been cut out and removed.

❐ When you use Optimize Arrangement, the Snap setting does not affect where the parts are split. The resulting parts will always start and end on whole bar positions.


Explode by Channel

This function works differently for MIDI and audio tracks:

With MIDI tracks

If you have one or several MIDI parts containing events on several MIDI channels, these parts can be split up into new parts, one for each MIDI channel.

You may get a MIDI part with events on several different MIDI channels if you for example record music from another sequencer into Cubasis VST, or record using a split keyboard that sends on two MIDI channels. This is just fine, if all you want to do is listen to the recorded music – just set the Channel setting for the track to “Any”, and each event will be played back on its own, associated MIDI channel (and therefore the right sound). But if you want to edit or rearrange the music you proba-bly wish to work with the different “instruments” separately.

Explode by Channel therefore allows you to split up a track into new parts on new tracks so that events get separated according to the MIDI channel stored with each event:

1. Select a MIDI track to be Exploded.

2. Set the Left and Right Locators as boundaries for the Explode opera-tion.All MIDI data between the Locators on the selected track will be exploded.

3. Select Explode by Channel from the Structure menu.Now the program will create a number of new parts, one for each MIDI channel used. If possible, the parts are created on existing tracks set to the same MIDI channel and Output; otherwise, as many new tracks as necessary are created. Each event in the original part(s) is then copied to one of the new parts, depending on its MIDI channel setting (the original parts are not affected). The result is a number of new parts on sep-arate tracks, each playing back on its own MIDI channel.


With audio tracks

An audio track set to channel “Any” may contain audio events on sev-eral different audio channels. Again, you can use the Explode by chan-nel function to separate these events into individual parts:

1. Select an audio track to be Exploded.

2. Set up the Left and Right Locators as boundaries for the operation.All audio between the Locators will be exploded.

3. Select Explode by Channel from the Structure menu. New tracks are created, as many as needed. New parts with events on one channel each are created on those tracks, and each track is set to the corresponding audio channel.


Using the Inspector

Cubasis VST features an area in the Arrange window called the In-spector. From here, you can make settings for the currently selected MIDI parts, or (if no parts are selected) for the selected MIDI track.

❐ When you adjust Volume, Transpose, Velocity or Pan values in the Inspec-tor, you don’t actually change the recorded data. Rather, your adjustments affect the MIDI during playback. This also means that your changes won’t be visible in a MIDI editor.If you want to make your changes permanent, use the function “Freeze Play Parameters” on the Functions menu.

Opening and closing the Inspector

The Inspector is opened/closed by clicking the Inspector icon in the lower left corner of the Arrange window.


The Inspector Parameters

For MIDI parts and tracks, the Inspector contains the following set-tings:

For audio tracks, the Inspector is mainly used for setting up for record-ing, as described on page 61.

The Bank Select value (necessary to select sounds in your MIDI instrument, if there are more than 128 sounds – see page 81).

The Program Change value. Use this for selecting sounds in your MIDI instrument. See also page 81

Sends out a MIDI Volume message on the selected parts’ MIDI channel(s).

Use this to adjust the Velocity values of the notes in the se-lected part(s). On playback, the value is added to/subtracted from the actual velocity values.

Use this to transpose the selected part(s) in semitone steps.

For SoundFont compatible devices and VST Instruments, you can also select sounds by name, using this pop-up menu.

Sends out a MIDI Pan message on the se-lected parts’ MIDI channel(s).

The name of the part. Double click to rename it.

The Start and End positions of the part. Changing these will move or resize the part, respectively.

The label “Part Info” shows that one or several parts are selected (if no part is selected, the label says “Track Info”).


Quantizing MIDI notes

What is Quantizing?

Quantizing is a function that automatically moves recorded MIDI notes, positioning them on exact note values. If you for example record a se-ries of eighth notes, some of them may end up slightly beside the exact eighth note positions. Quantizing the notes with the Quantize value set to eighth notes will move the “misplaced” notes to exact positions.

The Quantize value on the pop-up menu on the status bar determines the exact positions the notes should be moved to when you quantize. These are the options:

❐ Quantizing in the arrangement is the method to use if you want the Quantization to affect all notes in the selected part(s). If you only want to quantize some of the notes in a part, you should use the Quantize func-tion in one of the MIDI Editors instead.

The middle column is for selecting the basic Quantize note value. As you see, the available values range from 1 (whole note) to 128 (1/128 note).

If you select OFF, no quantizing will be done.

The left and right columns are for selecting Triplet (T) or Dotted (.) Quantize values respectively.


Performing the Quantize

1. If you want to Quantize a certain set of parts, select these.If instead, you want to Quantize all parts on a track, select this track in the Track List and make sure no parts are selected in the Part Display.

2. Select the appropriate Quantize value, as described above.

3. Select Quantize from the Functions menu.

4. Play back to listen to the change.

Undoing Quantize

If you don’t like what you got when Quantizing, you can Undo it like any other action. However, Undo of Quantizing goes one step further. By using “Undo Quantize” on the Functions menu, you can revert parts to their unquantized original at any time, even after saving!

Other MIDI Functions

On the Functions menu, you will also find two additional MIDI editing functions:

Delete Doubles

This command erases all double notes in the selected part(s). Such doubles most often occur when you record in Cycle mode and record over more than one lap. Double notes can be hard to hear, but some-times sound like short delays, flanger effects, or even just as one loud note.

Delete Cont. Data

This command erases all Continuous data in the selected part(s), or more specifically, the following:

• Controllers• Pitch Bend• Channel Pressure• Poly Pressure



10Using the Pool

What is the Pool?

In the Pool, all audio files in the song are listed, similar to the display of the files and folders in the Windows Explorer. Every time you add an audio file to the song, by recording or by importing it from your hard disk, it appears in the Pool.

But Cubasis VST is not restricted to playing complete files. It can also play any section of a file from the beginning, at the end, or some snip-pet in the middle, short or long, it doesn’t matter.

A section of a file is called segment. A single audio file can have sev-eral segments. For example, different sections of an audio file might be used several times in the song.

❐ The Pool is not used for MIDI tracks.

Below the audio file name, the segments are listed, each playing a different section of the file.

The number to the left of the name shows how many times each segment is used in the song.

CUBASIS VST10 – 126 Using the Pool

Opening the Pool

The Pool is opened by selecting “Audio Pool” from the Panels menu, by pressing [Ctrl]-[F], or by clicking the Audio Pool icon on the Tool-bar.

Viewing Files and Segments

Files

Each file is represented by a line, preceded by a triangle.

The file columns have the following functionality:

File Heading Explanation

File Name The name of the file, on disk.

Disk The Disk the file resides on. If the file can’t be found, three question marks are shown instead (see page 135). Clicking on the letter in this column lets you replace an audio file, as described on page 134.

S/M Stereo/Mono – one circle indicates mono, while two intersecting cir-cles indicate a stereo file.

Resolution The bit depth of the file.

Img This shows you the status of the waveform image for the file, see page 137.

Length This shows the size of the file in kilobytes.

Date and Time This shows the date and time the file was created.

Quality and Post as

These are described on page 328.

CUBASIS VSTUsing the Pool 10 – 127

Segments

Each file that is in use has one or more segments, listed below the file in the Pool.

The segment columns have the following functionality:

To display or hide the segments for one audio file, click on the triangle preceding the file.

• To show/hide all segments for all files, select Expand/Collapse from the View pop-up menu.

Segment Heading Explanation

Hear To play the segment, click in this column (on the speaker symbol) and hold down the mouse button (see also page 138).

Segment (name) The name of the segment.

Start The segment’s Start Inset in the file. Displayed in samples, as a meter position, or as time code, depending on the selected for-mat (as described on page 130). This value can be changed, see below.

End The segment’s End Inset in the file. Can be changed.

Length The length of the segment. Cannot be changed.

SRate The Sample Rate of the file.

Range An overview of the segment in the file.


Customizing the View

Hiding Headings

If you don’t need the Headings at the top of the window you can hide them using the “Show/Hide Headings” item on the View pop-up menu.

Turning Information on and off

If you don’t need all the information fields for the files and segments, you can deactivate these by clicking the “i” icon at the top of the win-dow (or by using the “Show/Hide Info” item on the View pop-up menu). Among other things this allows you to get a more detailed overview of the waveforms.

Use Part Colors

If this item on the View pop-up menu is checked, the files and seg-ments will be displayed with the colors of their respective parts in the Arrange window.

Turning Waveforms on and off

If you don’t need to see the waveforms for the segments, you can hide them by clicking on the waveform icon at the top of the window.

Zooming and setting Sizes of the Waveforms

If you change the width of the window, the waveforms are scaled ac-cordingly. That is, the bigger you make the window the more detailed the view of the waveform will be.

By using the vertical zoom control (below the scrollbar to the right) you can set the vertical size of each line, to get a better overview of the waveforms.


Selecting Time Formats

You can set whether the Start, End and Length values should be dis-played in samples, as meter positions, or as time code values, by us-ing the View pop-up menu.

• If you select samples, the values are shown as numbers of samples. How many samples there are to a second depends on the sample rate (48000 sam-ples per second at 48kHz for example).

• If you select time code format, the values are shown in the format “minutes:seconds:frames:subframes”. There are 25 frames to a second.

• If you select meter position format, the start and end inset values indi-cate the start and end position of the first instance of the segment in the song, as bars, beats and ticks.If the segment is not used, the start inset will show 1.1.0 and the end inset will show the end position as it would be if the segment had really started on 1.1.0. The length value shows the length of the segment in bars, beats and ticks, starting with 0.0.0 – in other words the difference between the end inset value and the start inset value.

❐ Please remember that if you have meter position format selected, the End Inset and Length values depend on the tempo. That is, if you change the tempo, these values will change as well.


Setting File and Segment Order

File Order

On the View menu, you can determine in which order the files should be displayed:

Segment Order

By selecting “Order Segments” from the View pop-up menu, you re-arrange the segments so that they are shown in the order they appear in the file.

Finding out how a segment is used in the song

One segment can be used in more than one place in a song. There are a number of situations where you will want to find out where a seg-ment is used, for example:

• So that you can tell that a segment isn’t used anywhere and possibly delete it.• If you want to know if a segment is used in more than one place, so that you

can decide how editing the segment affects the song.

Number of Times the Segment is used

Next to the speaker icon for each segment, you will see a number tell-ing you how many times in the song this segment is used. A segment without numbers is not used anywhere.

Option Description

By Name Files are shown alphabetically.

By Date Files are shown chronologically according to the time they were created, with the newest file at the top.

By Size Files are shown in size order, with the largest one at the top.


File Operations

Renaming a File

To rename a file, proceed as follows:

1. Double click on the existing name, or select the file and press [Alt]-[N].

2. Enter a new name or edit the existing one.

3. Click outside the box or press [Return].

❐ This method is much better than renaming files in the Explorer. This way, Cubasis VST “knows” about the change and will not lose track of the file the next time you open the song. See page 135 for details about lost files.

Locating a File on the Hard Disk

To find out where on the hard disk a certain file is located, hold down [Ctrl] and click on the file. A pop-up showing you the file location ap-pears.


Deleting Files

Removing from Audio Pool

If you want to remove one or more files from the Audio Pool without actually deleting them from the hard disk, proceed as follows:

1. Select the file(s).Selecting more than one is done just as with any other object in Cubasis VST, by click-ing in combination with the [Shift] key.

2. Select “Delete” from the Edit menu or press [Backspace].

• This way you can only delete audio files from the Pool which are not used in any part in the Arrange window (greyed out in the Pool).

Removing from the Audio Pool and deleting from Hard Disk

If you want to remove the file from the Audio Pool and also delete the file permanently from the hard disk, proceed as follows:

1. Select the file(s).

2. Hold down [Ctrl] and press [Backspace].A dialog box asks you if you are sure you want to perform this operation. Remember that this operation can not be undone!

Creating a Segment

You can create a “default” segment for the file, that is one that plays the entire file.

1. Select the file.

2. Select Duplicate Segment from the Do pop-up menu.The new segment can be edited to play any part of the file (see page 139). You can also select the new segment and use the Export Segment function (see page 143) to create a copy of the original audio file.


Replacing a File in the Pool

There are situations when you may want to replace an audio file in the Pool with another, but keep all segments that are in use. As an exam-ple, consider the following situation:

You have used an external Wave Editor to perform some dynamic or spectral editing on an audio file. To be on the safe side, you save the edited audio file under an new name. When you return to Cubasis VST, you will want to be able to replace the original file, so that all seg-ments refer to the new, edited audio file instead, and preferably be able to switch back if you change your mind. Proceed as follows:

1. Click on the symbol in the Disk column for the file.A dialog appears, asking if you want to “re-find” the file. Click “Yes”.

2. In the file dialog that appears, select the audio file that should replace the existing file in the Pool.In our example above, this would be the edited version of the audio file.

3. Click “Open”.The audio file in the Pool is now replaced with the one you selected in the file dialog. The segments keep their names and, if possible, their start and end inset positions. If you later want to switch back to the original file, just repeat the operation.

❐ Please note that the replacing audio file must be of the same length as the original file, for the segment start and end insets to be relevant! If you perform any editing that involves changing the length of the file (such as time stretch, truncating, etc.), this method does not work, since you will have to create new segments.


Handling “Missing Files”

When you open a song, you may get a warning that one or more files are “missing”. A file is considered missing under one of the following conditions:

• The file has been moved to another folder or renamed in the Explorer or on the Desktop since the last time you changed the song, and you ignored the Miss-ing files dialog when you opened the song.

• With the program running and a song open, you have used the Explorer to move or rename a file or change some of its properties (such as date).

In the dialog that appears you can select one of the following options:

• AutomaticIf you choose Automatic, the program scans all your hard disks for a file with the proper name and creation date.

❐ Please note that Cubasis VST is quite strict about identifying the files you use. The program retains information on the Name and Creation Date of every file saved in a song. If these values are changed by you, or a program you may be using, you will not be able to rely on Cubasis VST’ “auto-find” function. In this case you will have to use the “Manual” option and “over-ride” the subsequent warnings.

• ManualIf you choose Manual, the program will display a file dialog allowing you to locate the file manually. When you have found the file, click OK to replace the missing file in the Audio Pool. If the name or date is not identical to the missing one, the program will warn you but let you proceed. The next time during this session that the program at-tempts to search for a missing file, it will first look at the position of the last found file.


• CancelThe program will ignore the missing file. A second dialog will appear, asking whether you want to stop searching for any remaining missing audio files. Click No to continue searching or click Yes to ignore all missing files and continue to open the song.

If you chose the “Cancel” option, the song will open without the miss-ing files. In the Audio Pool you can check which files are considered missing. This is indicated by three question marks in the Disk column.

• If you click on the question marks, the “Can’t find file” dialog will ap-pear again, allowing you to locate the file, automatically or manually, as described above.

This file is found

This file is missing


Creating Wave Images and keeping them up to date

With each audio file goes an image, a picture of the waveform for dis-play in various places in Cubasis VST. The wave images are very use-ful, when editing files in the Arrange window or in the Audio Pool. A wave image is stored in a separate file with the same name as the au-dio file, but with the extension “OVW”.

Wave images are created after you have completed recording, in a process that may take a few seconds. In the Pool, the states of the wave image are indicated like this:

Updating the Wave Image

To update the wave image for one file, click on its icon.

Icon Description

The image is OK.

The file has no image.


Segment Operations

The Audio Pool allows you to create new segments, slightly or drasti-cally different from those you already have in your song, and drag and drop these into the Arrange window.

Auditioning a Segment

From the Beginning

To audition a segment from its beginning, click on the speaker icon to the left of the segment name and keep the mouse button pressed.

From any Position

To start playback from any position in the segment, click with the mouse pointer in the waveform to the right. Playback will start from the position you click on.

Renaming a Segment

To rename a segment, proceed as follows:

1. Double click on the existing name or select the segment and press [Alt]-[N].

2. Enter a new name or edit the existing one.

3. Click outside the box or press [Return].

Duplicating Segments

To create a copy of a segment, proceed as follows:

1. Select the segment by clicking on it.

2. Select Duplicate Segment from the Do pop-up menu.The new segment appears in the Audio Pool.


Changing Start and End Insets

You can change the start and end points of the segment. This allows you to change what part of the audio file the segment plays.

❐ Please note that this change will affect all places in the song where this segment is used.

By Numerical Editing

You can adjust the start and end inset values by regular value editing. See page 130 for a description of the different time formats.

By Dragging

You can also drag the start and end inset directly in the waveform.

1. Position the pointer over the beginning or end of the segment.If the segment currently plays the entire file, these two points are at the beginning and end of the waveform image.

2. Press the mouse button and drag left or right.

Moving the Segment

To move the segment within the file, without changing its length, pro-ceed as follows:

1. Hold down [Ctrl].

2. Position the pointer over the segment, keep the mouse button pressed and drag left or right.An outline of the segment is shown while you are dragging.


Deleting segments

Deleting one or several segments from the Audio Pool

1. Select the segment(s).Selecting more than one segment is done just as with any other object inCubasis VST, by clicking in combination with the [Shift] key.

2. Select Delete from the Edit menu or press [Backspace].

• This way you can only delete audio files from the Pool which are not used in any part in the Arrange window (and which are greyed out in the Pool).

Deleting all Segments not used in the song (Purge)

To automatically delete all segments that are currently not used in the song, select Purge Segments from the Do pop-up menu.


Importing Files into the Pool

If you have any other audio file on your hard disk, and would like to use it in the song, you can import it into the Pool and then drag it into the arrangement, as described on page 143.

File Specifications

The audio file must meet the following specifications:

• The file format must be Wave (WAV), Audio IFF (AIFF) or MP3.• It must be an uncompressed 16 or 24 bit file (this does not apply to MP3

files).• The sample rate (also called sampling frequency) of the file should be the

same as the one used in the song (see page 57). Sample rates up to 96 kHz are supported.

• The file can be mono or stereo.

Importing the file

By using Drag and Drop

The simplest way to import files into Cubasis VST is to drag them into the program from the desktop or a folder on your hard disk:

1. Open the Pool.

2. Arrange the windows so that you can see both the Pool and the desk-top (if that’s where the audio file is).

3. Click on the file and drag it from the desktop into the Pool.

❐ It’s also possible to drag files directly from the desktop into the Arrange window!


By using the File pop-up menu.

1. Open the Pool.

2. Select Import Audio from the File pop-up menu.

A regular file dialog appears.

3. Select a file format from the File Type pop-up.Files of the selected type(s) are listed in the file dialog box.

4. Use the file dialog box to locate the file and select it.

• You can audition the audio file with the Play button.When you click the Play button, its label changes to “Stop” and the selected audio file is played back. Playback continues until you click on Stop, or select another file.

• You can select several files by using the [Shift] or [Ctrl] keys, as in many other Windows applications.

5. Click “Open”.Now, the file(s) will appear at the bottom of the Pool window, each complete with a segment which can be dragged into the arrangement (see above).

• Again, you can also import audio files directly into the arrangement, using the “Import Audio File…” item on the File menu.This will put the imported audio on the selected track, at the Left Locator.

❐ When you import an MP3 file, the program will create a copy of the file and convert this to Wave format before importing it (the original MP3 file will not be used in the Cubasis VST song). The Wave file will be placed in the currently selected Audio Files folder (if you haven’t yet specified one, you will be asked to do so). Please be aware that the converted Wave file will be several times larger than the original MP3 file!


Exporting Files and Segments

You can export segments from the Audio Pool as individual files, for use in other applications:

1. Select the segment you wish to export.

2. Select “Export Segment” from the Do pop-up menu.A dialog appears asking you to confirm the export of the segment as a file. Click “Yes”.

3. Use the file dialog to find a location and name for the file.

4. Click Save.

Dragging from the Pool to the Arrange window

One of the most important features in the Pool is the possibility to drag segments into the Arrange window. The example below de-scribes how to drag segments into an empty Arrange window, but of course, you can also add segments to an existing arrangement in the same way. Proceed as follows:

1. Open a song in which there are some audio segments.You could also start from a new song and add audio files to the Pool with the Import Audio function or by using drag and drop.

2. Select New Arrangement from the File menu so that you get a new empty arrangement.

3. Make sure you have a number of audio tracks at the top of the ar-rangement.

4. On the Transport Bar, set the correct tempo (the tempo in which the audio files were recorded).

5. Pull down the Panels menu and select Audio Pool.

6. In the Pool window, select Expand from the View pop-up menu.In the list, one or several segments will appear below each file that is in use.


7. Click on one of the segment names, and drag the segment onto an audio track in the arrangement.The following picture sequence shows this step in more detail.

1. Point at the segment name.

2. Drag it onto an audio track in the arrangement.

3. The segment appears as a part in the Part Display.


8. If the segment doesn’t appear at the place you intended, simply drag it to the right track and bar position.As always in the arrangement, the Snap value affects where the segment is positioned.

9. Play back to hear the new arrangement.

10.Drag another segment to another track, and position it in such a way that they start at the same time. Play back to hear the results.

11.Add more parts in this way to build an arrangement.

Two tips:

• Remember that you can repeat parts that are already in the arrange-ment. This might be faster than dragging the same segment from the Pool many times.

• Use the Cycle function to try out different files and see if they work to-gether well.The Cycle function makes the section between the Left and Right Locator repeat over and over again. Just place the Left and Right Locators where you want them, click on the Cycle button on the Transport Bar so that it is lit, and activate playback. Then drag files to positions inside the Cycle while the program is playing back!

The Cycle button.


Saving and Loading the Audio Pool

The Audio Pool is automatically saved with the song. However, by us-ing the Load and Save Audio Pool commands on the pop-up File menu, you can freely save Audio Pools and load them into songs.

The three items at the bottom of this pop-up menu are described on page 328.

Saving

1. Select Save Pool from the File Pop-up menu.

2. In the dialog box that appears, specify if you want to save all files and segments, or just the selected ones.

3. In the standard dialog box that appears, specify a name and a location for the file.

❐ The audio files themselves are not saved in the Pool file, only a reference to them. You should probably not move any audio file(s) until next time you want to use the Pool. You should definitely not delete them!

Loading

An Audio Pool file is opened (loaded) with the Load Pool command on the File pop-up menu. When you load an Audio Pool file, the files in it are “added” to the current Audio Pool.


11Editing Audio

About the different Audio Editing methods

In Cubasis VST, there are three principal ways in which you can edit the audio files you have recorded or imported:

• By editing the audio parts in the Arrange window.This allows you to cut up, duplicate and resize audio recordings, or rather, affect how they play back. This method does not change the actual audio files on your hard disk. See the chapter “Arrangement Editing”.

• By editing audio segments in the Pool.In the Audio Pool, you can adjust the start and end insets of the audio segments, and thereby adjust which sections of the audio files are actually played back. This is de-scribed on page 139. Again, this does not affect the actual audio files on disk.

• By editing in the external WaveLab Lite audio editor application.Cubasis VST comes with an external audio editor application: Steinberg’s WaveLab Lite. This allows you to perform what is known as “destructive” editing, i.e. editing that affects the actual audio files on disk. This method is described below.

Editing in WaveLab Lite

WaveLab Lite is a special version of Steinberg’s state-of-the-art audio processing software WaveLab. Although some of WaveLab’s ad-vanced functions are not included, WaveLab Lite retains the powerful basic aspects of its big brother:

WaveLab Lite allows you to perform detailed editing of audio files, such as cutting, applying fades, EQ-ing, normalizing, reversing and much more. For details of the editing procedures and functions, please refer to the documentation included with WaveLab Lite.

To launch WaveLab Lite from Cubasis VST and edit an audio file, pro-ceed as follows:

1. If necessary, create a copy of the file you want to edit.This may be a good thing to do, since editing in WaveLab Lite will change the audio file permanently – by making a copy first, you can still use the original, unchanged file in other songs, etc. You can make copies of files from the Audio Pool, as described on page 133.

CUBASIS VST11 – 148 Editing Audio

2. If WaveLab Lite uses the same audio hardware (sound card) as Cuba-sis VST to play back audio, you may need to deactivate “Play in Back-ground” on the Options menu before launching WaveLab Lite.Otherwise, WaveLab Lite may not be able to play back the edited audio. Whether this step is necessary or not depends on your audio card driver.

3. Select the Audio Part containing the file, and select “Wave Editor” from the Edit menu.You can also click the Wave Editor icon on the Toolbar or double click the audio part to open the external wave editor.

Now, WaveLab Lite launches and opens the Part’s audio file. If the Part plays more than one audio file, only the first file will be opened for editing.

4. Perform whatever editing you want.For details, see the WaveLab Lite documentation.

5. Save the audio file (you may want to save it under another name, see below) and close it.You can keep WaveLab Lite open if you like, just remember to close the audio file.

6. Return to Cubasis VST.

• If you have shortened the audio file in WaveLab Lite, the length of its segments in Cubasis VST will automatically be adjusted if needed (since a segment cannot be longer than its audio file).

• If you have lengthened the audio file, the length and start point of its segments will not be affected.

Switching between the original and edited file

If you use the “Save As” function in WaveLab Lite to save the file un-der another name, you can use the “Re-find” function in the Pool to switch between the original and the edited file (see page 134). This can be very convenient for trying out different edit versions of files.

❐ Note that this only works if you performed editing to the audio file that didn’t change its length (e.g. dynamic or spectral editing).

CUBASIS VSTEditing Audio 11 – 149

Using another Wave Editor application

When Cubasis VST is installed together with WaveLab Lite, the pro-grams are automatically placed in their respective folders. This allows Cubasis VST to launch WaveLab Lite from within the program be-cause the “path” to WaveLab Lite is already “known” to Cubasis VST. If you wish to use another audio editor, or if you have changed the lo-cation of WaveLab Lite’s program folder on your hard disk, you have to specify in a new path. Proceed as follows:

1. In Cubasis VST, pull down the Options menu and select “External Wave Editor” from the Audio Setup submenu.A dialog opens.

2. Click on the Browse button.A regular file dialog opens. Find and select the Wave editor file you want to use, and click OK.

The path and name of the selected Wave editor file is displayed in the dialog, together with its program icon.

3. If you are using WaveLab Lite or WaveLab, you can activate the “Seg-ment Range Selection” option.When this is activated, the segment range in the audio file will automatically be se-lected when you open the file in the editor.

4. Click OK to close the dialog.

CUBASIS VST11 – 150 Editing Audio

12Editing MIDI

What can I do with the MIDI Editors?

When you record MIDI data, you fill parts with notes and other MIDI “Events”. But you don’t really get to manipulate those events individu-ally from the Arrange window. In the MIDI editors you do!

Cubasis VST has three different MIDI editors: Key Edit, List Edit and Score Edit. These are described separately on the following pages.

❐ The features and settings that are common for all three MIDI editors are described on page 183.

If you haven’t yet recorded any Part

You might want to open the editor to input notes from scratch, without recording anything first. In this case you have to create a part, using any of the following methods:

• Draw a part with the Pencil tool.• Select the Create Part command on the Structure menu.• Double click between the locators (creates a part on the track you double

click on).

CUBASIS VST12 – 152 Editing MIDI

Opening an Editor

There are several ways to open a MIDI editor:

• By double clicking on one part.Which editor opens depends on the “Double Click Opens” setting on the Options menu.

• By selecting the desired editor on the Edit menu.

• By clicking the corresponding editor icon on the Toolbar.

• By using keyboard shortcuts.The key commands for opening Key Edit, List Edit and Score Edit are [Ctrl]-[E], [Ctrl]-[G] and [Ctrl]-[R], respectively.

• The editor will open with the currently selected part(s). • If no parts are selected, the editor will open with all parts on the selected

track. • In Key and Score Edit, it is possible to edit parts from several tracks at the

same time.• If you hold down [Shift] while opening an editor, any other open editors remain

open.

About Editor toolsAll three MIDI editors have different tools for different editing purposes. Just like in the Arrange window, you select tools from the Toolbox, in the following way:

1. Right-click anywhere in the Editor window (although not on a numeric value or in the Ruler).The Toolbox appears.

2. Select a tool icon from the Toolbox and release the mouse button.The pointer takes on the shape of the selected tool.

The different editor tools available are described with the respective Editor, on the following pages.

Key Edit List Edit Score Edit

CUBASIS VSTEditing MIDI 12 – 153

Key Edit

The three editors share certain basic functionalities but are designed for performing specific tasks. The following guidelines may help you determine when to use Key Edit:

Use Key Edit when...

• You want to get a quick overview of the events.• You want to edit several parts at the same time.• You’re editing Continuous Data and velocity values.

Overview

Notes are displayed in all MIDI editors. Let’s look at a simple melody line and how it is shown in Key Edit:

• If you are editing several parts on different tracks, one of these will be the “active part”.This is where recorded and entered notes end up, etc. The events in the inactive parts are shown with “dimmed” colors. To switch to an active part, select an event in an in-active part, or use the Goto pop-up menu (see page 189).

The notes are shown as boxes, with higher notes higher up in the grid. The note length is indicated by the length of the box.

The piano keyboard to the left makes it easy to find the right pitch when entering or editing notes.


Entering Notes

The Pencil Tool.

You can use the Pencil tool to draw new notes one at a time. Here are a few rules-of-thumb:

• Click once with the Pencil to create a single note.The new notes will get the length of the Quantize value.

• Click and drag with the Pencil to create a note with a length of your choice.

❐ If drawing notes doesn’t seem to work – make sure that Caps Lock is de-activated on the computer keyboard (see page 157)!

If for example you only want to enter notes at quarter note positions, set Snap to “4”.

1. Set the Snap value to the smallest division at which you want to enter a note.

2. Set the default length of the note to enter with the Quantize value. For example, the value “8” will give you eighth notes.

3. Select the Pencil tool from the Toolbox. Move the pointer onto the note display.

4. Aim at the correct position. Two fields on the sta-tus bar will help you by showing the position and Pitch at which you point.

5. Click once with the mouse. The note appears.


Entering Notes using the Brush Tool

The Brush Tool.

The Brush Tool is used for continuous “painting” of notes. The following rules apply:

• The notes are created at a spacing defined by the Snap value.

• The new notes will get the length of the Quantize value.

• If you hold down [Shift] on the computer keyboard, movement is re-stricted to horizontally only when you are painting with the Brush tool. That is, all notes will have the same pitch.

Editing Notes

Selecting Notes

The Arrow Tool.

Notes are selected for editing using the Arrow tool. This works just like selecting parts in the Arrange window; you can use [Shift] to se-lect several Notes, or drag an enclosing rectangle that will select all the Notes it encompasses, etc.

Moving Notes

Just as in the Arrange window, notes can be dragged around as de-sired by using the Arrow tool. The set snap value is taken into account when moving notes. If you select several notes, you can move them all at once, maintaining the relative distance between the notes.


Restricting movement to one direction

Sometimes you may want to transpose notes without moving them sideways, or vice versa. Proceed as follows:

1. Click on the note (or on one of the selected notes) with the Arrow tool and keep the mouse button pressed.

2. Start moving the note(s) in the desired direction.

3. Press [Shift] and continue moving the note(s).The note(s) will now move in one direction only.

Duplicating Notes

Again like in the Arrange window, if you hold down [Alt], the notes you drag will be duplicated.

Moving and Duplicating Notes using the computer keyboard

For precise, incremental position adjustments, you can use the com-puter keyboard to move or duplicate the selected notes:

• Press [Ctrl] and use the arrow keys to move the selected notes up or down (in semitone steps) or left or right (in steps according to the set Snap value).If you press [Ctrl] and [Shift] and use the up/down arrow keys, notes will be trans-posed in octave steps.

• Press [Ctrl] and [Alt] and use the arrow keys to duplicate the selected notes, and move the duplicates to the new position in the same way as above.

Resizing Notes with the Pencil tool

You may change the size of notes that you have drawn or recorded, using the Pencil tool:

1. Set the Snap value.What you do when you resize a note, is moving the position where the note ends. You can only resize notes in multiples of the set Snap value. That means, if Snap is set to 8, you can move the end-position of a note to 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, etc.

2. If you want to resize several notes at the same time, select these.


3. Click with the Pencil tool inside the note (or one of the selected notes), and drag to the left or right with the mouse button pressed.When you release the mouse button, the note(s) are resized, taking the Snap value into account.

• If several notes were selected, they will all get the same end position.If you hold down [Ctrl] while resizing, the selected notes will be resized relatively in-stead (so that they all are lengthened or shortened by the same amount).

❐ It might be hard to determine whether you have the pointer inside a note or not. To avoid painting in new events, activate [Caps Lock] on the com-puter keyboard. This disables creation of new events. Remember to de-activate [Caps Lock] when you are done resizing the notes.

Deleting Notes

Notes can be deleted in several ways:

• Click on them with the Eraser tool.

The Eraser Tool.

or

• Select them and press [Backspace] on the computer keyboard.

or

• Select them and select Delete Events from the Edit menu.


Editing Velocity

One type of data you’ll be likely to view and edit often is velocity (or, more specifically, note-on velocity). This is slightly different from other types, since velocity is not an event itself, rather a property of a note. This means that if there are no notes in the edited part, you will not see any velocity values. Also, you cannot create velocity values (you have to enter new notes).

Although velocity values can be adjusted in List Edit, they are best viewed and edited in Key Edit:

Showing and Hiding the Controller Display

Key Edit has a dedicated Controller Display at the bottom of the win-dow, for showing velocity values and events other than notes.

• To show or hide the Controller Display, click on the Controller Display button in the lower left corner of the window.

You can also show/hide the Controller Display by pressing [Alt]-[C].

Once you have opened the Controller Display, you can change its size by dragging the Divider up or down:


Displaying Velocity in the Controller Display

The Controller Display can show various types of data, but only one type at a time. To specify that the velocity values should be shown, proceed as follows:

1. Position the pointer on the Event type icon (in the Controller Display) and press the mouse button.The Event Type pop-up menu appears.

2. Select “Velocity” from the pop-up menu.The velocity values are shown as bars, positioned according to their respective notes and with higher bars representing higher velocity values.


Editing the Velocity values

To change the velocity of a note, proceed as follows:

1. Select the Pencil tool.

2. To change the velocity of a note, click on its velocity bar.

The display to the left shows the numerical value at the mouse position (in this case, the velocity is set to 64).

• To change a series of values, drag over them.

Creating a velocity ramp

To create a linear ramp, for example a fade-in, proceed as follows:

1. Select the Line tool.

2. Position the pointer where you want the ramp to start and press the mouse button.

3. “Draw” the outline of the ramp with the mouse button pressed.

When you release the mouse button, the velocity values are changed:


Editing Non-Note Events

By “non-note events” we mean all Controllers, After Touch, Pitch Bend, Sustain-pedal, etc. – in other words, all events that are not as-sociated with a note.

As with velocity values, you can edit non-note messages in List Edit, but the best overview is offered by the Controller Display in Key Edit:

• To show or hide the Controller Display, click on the Controller Display button in the lower left corner of the window.See page 159.

Selecting which Event Type to view

To select an event type to be displayed, click the Event type icon (to the left in the display) and select an event type from the pop-up menu that appears.

• This pop-up menu contains the most common event types. To see the full list of MIDI Controllers, move the pointer to the “Controller” option at the bottom of the list.


Entering new Events

To create new non-note events (e.g. add some modulation wheel data), proceed as follows:

1. Select the type of data you want to enter.

2. Use the Snap value to decide what “density” you want for the events.For very smooth Continuous Controller curves, you should use a small Snap value. However, please note that this creates a very large number of MIDI events, which can cause MIDI playback to “stutter” in some situations. A medium-low density like 1/16 is often sufficient.

3. Hold down the [Alt] key.From here on there are basically three ways to go:

4. Release the [Alt] key.

Editing the Values

This is done just like creating new events, except you do not press the [Alt] key:

• To change one value with the Pencil, simply click on it.• To change a series of values, drag over them with the Pencil.• To create a ramp, use the Line tool.

If you want to enter just one event, click once with the Pencil:

If you want to “paint a curve”, drag the Pencil (with the mouse button pressed):

If you want to create a ramp, use the Line tool:


Deleting non-note Events

To delete non-note events, use one of the following methods:

• Click on them with the Eraser tool.

or

1. Select the events, by dragging a frame around them with the Arrow tool.

2. Click [Backspace] or select Delete Events from the Edit menu.

or

• Use the Delete function on the Do pop-up menu.This allows you to delete all events within a certain range, set by the loop or cycle. See page 185.

or

• Use the Delete Cont. Data function on the Functions menu on the main menu bar.See page 123.


List Edit

Use List Edit when...

• You need to perform detailed editing of single events.

Overview

The song position is shown both in the Event List and in the Event display.

The events are shown in the list and in the display to the right.

This display shows “Value 2” for the events. In the case of notes, these are the velocity values.


Entering Events

❐ Key and Score Edit can be used to edit any combination of parts from dif-ferent tracks. List Edit can only be used for parts on one track at a time.

1. Use the Insert pop-up menu to decide what type of event to Insert.

2. Set the Snap value to the smallest posi-tion you want to enter a note at.

3. If you are entering notes, set the length with the Quantize value. For example, if you set this to “8”, you will input eighth notes.

4. Click with the Pencil tool in the Event Dis-play. Use the ruler to find the right position.

5. The event appears both in the Event Display and in the List.


Editing in the List

The Columns

In List Edit, all properties of notes and other events are shown numer-ically in the list columns to the left.

• To view all columns in the list, click the divider between the list and the Event display and drag it to the right.

Two of the columns have the same functionality for all event types:

The other columns have different functionality for different event types. In the tables below, only the used columns are listed:

• Notes:

• Poly Pressure:Polyphonic Pressure means that you can apply different amounts of aftertouch to dif-ferent keys on a MIDI keyboard. Not all instruments support this feature.

Column Description

Start-Pos Edit this value to move the event.

Chn The MIDI channel of the event. Note that all events will play back on the MIDI channel set for their part! If you want the MIDI events to play back on their “own” MIDI channels, set the part or track to channel “Any”!

Column Description

Length Edit this value to make the note shorter or longer.

Val 1 The pitch of the note.

Val 2 The note-on velocity (see page 159).

Val 3 The note-off velocity, i.e. how fast the key was released. Note that not all MIDI instruments support this feature.

Column Description

Val 1 The pitch of the note to which Poly Pressure is applied.

Val 2 The amount of pressure.


• Control Change:

• Program Change:When you play back a Program Change message, you tell the MIDI instrument to se-lect another sound (just as when you select a program in the Inspector). For Program Change events, you can only edit the Val 1 column, which is the Program number.

• Aftertouch:This is the most common form of key pressure, which affects all currently playing notes on the same channel (often called Channel Pressure). For Aftertouch events, you can only edit the Val 1 column, which is the amount of pressure.

• Pitch Bend:Pitch Bend is different from other events, since it really consists of two separate values – one for the coarse amount and one for the fine amount of bend. Therefore it may be more convenient to edit Pitch Bend data in the Controller Display in Key Edit (where the two coarse and fine amounts are shown as one value).

• System Exclusive:System Exclusive messages are a special kind of MIDI events, intended for detailed control of the parameters of a MIDI device (for example storing a complete program parameter dump). Since all devices have different parameters, each major manufac-turer of MIDI devices has a special ID code that is included in the SysEx message. SysEx messages can be edited in List Edit, by clicking in the Comment column (to the right in the list) and editing the hexadecimal SysEx string that appears in a value box.

❐ Generally, you should not edit System Exclusive messages if you are not sure of what you’re doing.

Column Description

Val 1 This is the type of Control Change message (Modulation, Volume, etc.). By changing this value, you convert a Control Change event to another type.

Val 2 The actual Control Change value.

Event Type This is a text representation of Val 1, showing the Control Change type in words. You can convert the Control Change message in this column too.

Column Description

Val 1 This is the fine Pitch Bend value.

Val 2 This is the coarse Pitch Bend value.


• Track Mute:Track Mute events tell Cubasis VST when to mute or unmute a track, making it possi-ble to have tracks mute and unmute “automatically” during playback. Generally, it is recommended to keep track Mute events on a separate track with no music, to avoid having the track mute itself!

❐ The remaining event types cannot be edited in List Edit.

Editing Procedures

The positions and values of events can be edited in the List, using one of the following methods:

• Click on the value and drag the mouse up or down with the mouse button pressed.

• Double click and type in a value.

There are some things to note:

• If you hold down the [Alt] key on the computer keyboard while you’re changing a value, all events of the same event type will be edited.The setting on the To pop-up menu is also taken into account, allowing you for example to edit all Control Change events within the cycle. See page 183.

• If you change an event’s Start Position, the List will be re-sorted.The events are always shown in the order they are played back, with the earliest event at the top and the latest at the bottom.

Column Description

Val 1 Track Number

Val 2 1: Mute; 0: Unmute


Editing in the “Value 2” Display

The graphical display to the right shows Value 2 for the events in the List (where applicable) as horizontal bars. You may use this to change values, create ramps etc.

The event types that use Value 2 are Notes, Poly Pressure, Control Change and Pitch Bend. Perhaps the most common use for the dis-play is to edit Value 2 for Note events, that is, the Note On velocity value. To make it easier to distinguish the velocity values, the Value 2 bars are black for Note events and grey for other event types.

• You do not have to select the Pencil tool to change the bars in the “Value 2” display; the pointer automatically changes to the Pencil when you move it into the display.

The Value 2 Display


Continuous Events in List Edit

The “mountains” of continuous data (as shown in the Key Edit Con-troller Display) are in reality a large number of single events. This be-comes clear when looking at the same data in the List Edit Window:

The modulation events are listed in their playback order.

Value 2 for each event is shown in the list and in the bar display. The grey color indicates non-note events.


The Score Editor

Use Score Edit when...

• When you are used to reading and writing scores.• When you are preparing your music for printing.

Score Edit displays your music as regular notation. Below you will find a description of some of Score Edit’s main features:

Overview

• If you are editing one track, as much of it as possible is shown on sev-eral staves – one above the other – just as with a score on paper.

• If you edit parts on several tracks, they are put on a grand staff (multi-ple staves, tied together by bar lines).

• The number of measures across the screen depends on how many notes there are in each measure.

• The last measure in the part is indicated by a double bar line.

The “inverted” notes are selected.

The Song Position Pointer.

The mouse position is shown in the mouse box and the pitch is shown as a note name in the box below. When you move a note, the lower box instead shows the amount of transposition in semitones.

If you are editing several tracks at the same time, the black rectangle at the beginning of the score indicates the active track.


Getting the Score displayed correctly

When you open Score Edit for a part played in real-time, the score may not look as legible as you would first expect. The Score editor can ignore the minor time variances in performance and make a neater score almost instantly. To achieve this, there are a number of settings in a Staff Settings dialog box that determine how the program dis-plays the music.

There are two ways to open the Staff Settings dialog:

• Double click in the white area to the left of the staff.

• Activate a staff by clicking on any of the staves in the window. Then select “Staff Settings…” from the Do pop-up menu.The Staff Settings dialog appears:

The settings you make in this dialog box are independent for each Staff (track), but common for a piano staff which you have created by choos-ing the “Split” option in the Staff Mode pop-up menu (see below).


Staff Mode

This pop-up determines how the staff is displayed:

• When set to “Single”, all notes in the part are shown in the same staff.

• When set to “Split”, the part is split on the screen into a bass and tre-ble clef, as in a piano score. You use the Splitpoint field to set the note where you want the split to occur. Notes above and including the split note will appear on the upper staff, and notes below the split note will appear on the lower staff.

Before and after setting a split at C3.

• To set the clef and key for the lower staff, activate the “Lower Staff” checkbox in the Key/Clef section (see below).


Display Quantize

Notes are not an absolute language, and you must give the program a few hints on how the score should be displayed. This is done using the Display Quantize section of the Staff Settings dialog.

❐ These are only display values used for the Score Editor. They do not af-fect the actual recording in any way.

Here is a description of the functions:

Parameter Description

Notes Determines the smallest note value to be displayed and the “smallest position” to be recognized and properly displayed. Set this to the smallest significant note position used in your music. For example, if you have notes on odd sixteenth note positions, you should set this value to 16.The “T” values are for triplet note values.This setting is partly overridden by Auto Quantize (see below).

Rests This value is used as a “recommendation” – the program will not dis-play rests smaller than this value, except where necessary. In effect, this setting also determines how the length of notes should be dis-played. Set this value according to the smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat.

Auto Quantize Generally, if your music contains mixed triplets and straight notes, try activating this checkbox. Otherwise, make sure it is deactivated.Auto Quantize uses involved methods to make your score look as leg-ible as possible. Auto Quantize allows you to mix straight notes with tuplets (triplets) in a part. But, Auto Quantize also uses the Display Quantize value. If it can't find an appropriate note value for a certain note or group of notes, it will use the set Quantize value to display it.


Key and Clef

The correct Key and Clef are set using the two scroll bars in the Key / Clef section.

Display Transpose

Some instruments, for example a lot of brass and woodwind instru-ments, are written transposed. For example, if you want a tenor saxo-phone to play a C3 note, you would score it as a D4 note.

For this reason, you can specify a Display Transpose value for each staff. This will not affect the playback, only how the notes are dis-played and printed.

Display Transpose set for a tenor sax part (notes are displayed 14 semitones higher than their actual pitch).

If you check the “Auto Clef” checkbox, the program attempts to guess the correct clef, judging from the pitch of the music.


Switches

These provide additional options for the display of the score:


Clean Lengths When this is activated, notes that are considered to be chords will be shown with identical lengths. This is done by showing the longer notes as shorter than they are. When Clean Lengths is turned on, notes with very short overlaps are also cut off; a bit as with No Over-lap (see below), but with a more subtle effect.

No Overlap When this is activated one note will never be shown as overlapping another, lengthwise. This allows long and short notes starting at the same point to be displayed without ties; the long notes are cut off in the display. This will make the music more legible.

An example measure with No Overlap deactivated...

...and with No Overlap activated.

Syncopation When this function is activated, syncopated notes are shown in a more legible way.

This is a dotted quarter at the end of a bar when Syncopation is off...

...and when it is on.

Shuffle Activate this function when you have played a shuffle beat and want it displayed as straight notes (not triplets). This is very common in jazz notation.

Flat Beams When this is ticked, the beams over the notes will be flat (as op-posed to slanted).

No Beams When this is ticked, there will be no beams whatsoever in the part. This is good for example for vocal scoring.


Entering Notes

In Score Edit, you use the Note tool to input notes:

1. Set the Snap value to the smallest position at which you want to enter a note.

2. Select a note value by clicking on a note button on the Score Toolbar.The Note tool is automatically selected, and takes on the shape of the selected note value.

3. Press the mouse button somewhere in the score display.

4. With the mouse button down, drag the note up/down. Accidentals appear, to show you the exact pitch of the note. The pitch is also shown in the value field under the mouse box.

5. When you have the note at the right note line with the correct acci-dental, release the mouse button.

Entering Rests

You can use the Rest tool to insert rests between notes. Like the Note tool, the Rest tool changes appearance depending on the chosen note value.


Editing Notes

Moving and Transposing Notes

To move notes, you drag them with the Arrow tool as usual.

• Use the two mouse boxes to determine where to place notes.

When you move several notes, the upper mouse box shows the position of the note you clicked on when starting to drag.

• If you hold down [Ctrl] and transpose a note, it will only be transposed within the set key.If, for example, the key is C major (set in the Staff Settings dialog), you will only trans-pose to notes belonging to the C major scale.

• You can also use the computer keyboard to move or duplicate notes, as in Key Edit (see page 157).

Enharmonic Shift

The buttons to the right on the toolbar are used to shift the display of selected notes so that for example an F# (F sharp) is instead shown as a Gb (G flat) and vice versa:

1. Use the arrow tool to select the note(s) you want to affect.

2. Click on one of the buttons to display the selected note(s) a certain way.

The middle button resets the notes to original display. The other four options are double flats, flats, sharps and double sharps.

The upper box shows the position of the moved note (as bars, beats and ticks).

The lower box shows the pitch when entering notes, and the transposition value when moving notes.


Flip Stems

By pressing [Alt]-[X] on the computer keyboard, you can change the stem direction of the selected note(s).

Joining Notes

The Glue Tube allows you to join two or more notes of the same pitch.

Splitting Notes

The Scissors tool allows you to split a tied note into two separate notes.

Deleting Notes

As with all other objects in Cubasis there are two ways to erase notes in Score Edit. Either select them and press [Backspace] on the key-board, or select the Eraser from the Toolbox and click on the notes.

Adding Text

1. Select the Text Tool.

The Text Tool

2. Click anywhere in the score.A text input line dialog box appears.

3. Enter the text.You can press [Return] to create several lines of text if you like.

4. When you are done, click outside the text box.


Changing the Font and Size

If you wish to change the font and size for some text you already put in, proceed as follows:

1. Select the text.

2. Select “Text Settings…” from the Do pop-up menu.

3. Use the Font pop-up, the size setting and the style options in the dia-log box that appears.The fonts you find on the menu depend on what fonts you have installed on your com-puter.

4. Click “Apply” to apply your settings to the selected text object(s).

5. Close the dialog by clicking its close box.You can have the dialog open while you are working in the Score Editor if you like.

❐ On your font menu you will also find one or more Cubase fonts. These are not intended for text, but for the non-text symbols used in the program.

Title, Comment and Author

These are three standard text elements on the first page of your score. To make settings for these, select “Score Title” from the Do pop-up menu. This opens a dialog box, in which you can input texts and make settings for font, size and attributes for each of the three elements. Cubasis VST will automatically position the elements as follows:

• The title is always centered, at the top of the page. • The comment is always positioned just below the title. • The author text is always positioned at the right side of the page, just above

the first system.

None of these elements are visible on screen but will be printed correctly.


Printing the Score

To print your score, proceed as follows:

1. Make settings for the Text, Title, Comment and Copyright elements, as described on the previous pages.

2. Pull down the File menu and select “Print & Page Setup…”.A dialog with printer settings opens.

3. Select the preferred printer, paper size, orientation, etc.

4. If you need to, change the margins by setting the Left, Right, Top and Bottom settings.

5. Click OK to close the dialog.The “Print…” item should now be available on the File menu. If it is greyed out, you have not made the correct printer settings in the Print & Page Setup dialog – repeat step 2 to 4 above.

6. Select “Print…” from the File menu.A dialog box appears. The options in the dialog depend on the type of printer you use (explained in your Windows documentation). Normally you should be able to specify a number of copies to be printed, print all pages or just a specified range, etc.

7. Click OK.A dialog will inform you of the progress of the printout. You can cancel printing at any time by clicking the Cancel button.

❐ Note that printing is only available from Score Edit!


Common settings and functions

Selecting and the To pop-up menu

The concept of selecting events is much the same as selecting parts:

• Click on an event to select it (and deselect all others).

• Hold [Shift] and click on an event to select it, keeping any previously selected events.

• Select several events by enclosing them in a rectangle using the Arrow tool.

• Use the Select All item on the Edit menu to select all events in the editor.The key command for this is [Ctrl]-[A].

• Use the [←] and [→] keys to select the previous/next event in the active part.If you hold down [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the next/previous event will be se-lected, without deselecting already selected events.

Selecting Events from different parts

In Key Edit and Score Edit you can select events from both an active and an inactive part:

1. Select the events you want in the active part, using any method de-scribed above.

2. Hold down [Shift].

3. Select one event from an inactive part by clicking on it. This part now becomes active.

4. While keeping [Shift] pressed, use any method to select more events from the now active part. As long as you keep [Shift] pressed, you can switch active parts and select from as many as you like, using this method.

❐ Usually, any type of editing you do (like moving, copying and so on) will affect all selected events, whether they are in active or inactive parts. See also below.


The To Pop-up

All the editors have a pop-up menu called “To”. This is used together with the loop and cycle functions to collectively choose a group of events to be affected by your editing.

Auditioning Events

The Speaker tool (all MIDI Editors)

If you click on an event with the Speaker tool, it is played back. You can also drag over events to play them back one after the other.

The Speaker icon

When you click on the speaker symbol on the status bar, events will be output automatically when you click on them, when you create them using the pencil or paint brush, and when you make changes on the Info line (see below).

All events, active or inactive, will be affected.

All events inside the loop (see page 192) will be affected, whether the loop is on or off, and regardless of whether the events come from active or in-active parts.

All events inside the cycle will be affected, whether the cycle is on or off, and regardless of whether the events come from active or inactive parts.

All selected events, inactive or active, will be affected.

Those events that are inside the loop and selected will be affected.

Those events that are inside the cycle and selected will be affected.


Editing on the Info Line

At the top of the Key and Score editors, you have the Info Line. The Info Line shows the values for one selected note. The values can be edited, just as in the List in List Edit:

1. To show/hide the Info Line, click on the i-button on the status bar or press [Alt]-[I] on the computer keyboard.

2. Select a single event.Its values are shown on the Info Line. If no event is selected, the Info Line shows “– – –” for all values. If several events are selected, the values for the last selected event are shown.

3. Change the desired values using regular value editing.You can either click on the value with the left/right mouse button to lower/raise the value or double click on it and type in a new value from the computer keyboard.

The Do pop-up menu

In all three editors, the Do pop-up menu contains two editing func-tions (in Score Edit, the Do pop-up menu contains other options as well, as described previously in this chapter). The functions are:

Fill

This function only works when the To pop-up menu is set to “All Events”, “Looped Events” or “Cycled Events”. It then fills the whole part/loop/cycle with notes that have the same pitch. The notes are spaced according to the Snap value and are all given a length corre-sponding to the Quantize value.

• In Key Edit you can specify the pitch of the “Fill notes” by clicking on a key on the keyboard display before you perform the operation.

Delete

This deletes all events in the range defined by the To menu (notes, Controllers, the lot).

When the i-button is lit, the Info Line is shown.


Cutting, Copying and Pasting

You can use the Cut, Copy and Paste commands (on the Edit menu or the Toolbar) to move events between editors or to duplicate a se-ries of events.

• Cut or copied events are pasted in, starting at the song position. The events will keep their relative positions, pitch and other properties.

Edit Solo

When this button is activated, you will only hear the track/parts that are currently being edited. All other tracks are muted. Use this func-tion when you want to concentrate on editing the parts in the editor, rather than hearing the recording in context.

Follow Song

If Follow Song on the Options menu is turned on, the Edit window will scroll automatically during playback, so that the current song position is always visible.

• You may also press [F] on the computer keyboard to turn Follow Song on and off.


Coloring notes in the Editors (Key and List Edit only)

In Key and List Edit, you can use the Color pop-up menu on the status bar to add color to the notes.

1. Pull down the color pop-up menu.

2. Select one of the five options on the pop-up menu. The options are described below.

Option Description

Default No color is used for the notes.

Channel colors The notes get different colors depending on their individual MIDI Channel values. Which color is associated with which MIDI Chan-nel can be set with the Edit option (see below).

Pitch colors The notes get different colors depending on their pitch. Which color is associated with which pitch can be set with the Edit option (see below).

Velocity colors The notes get different colors depending on their velocity values. Which color is associated with which velocity can be set with the Edit option (see below).

Color by Parts The notes get the same color as their respective part in the Arrange window. Use this option when you are working with two or more tracks in an editor, to see which notes belong to which track.


Editing Color

If you have selected Channel, Pitch or Velocity colors, an extra item appears at the bottom of the pop-up menu. This is used for setting which colors should be used:

1. Select the option at the bottom of the color pop-up menu (named “Channel colors...”, “Pitch colors...” or “Velocity colors...” depending on what is selected).A Color dialog is opened. Channel, Pitch and Velocity have separate color dialogs, allowing you to set different color schemes for each color option.

The Pitch color dialog. There are twelve different pitch color steps (one for each semitone).

2. Choose colors for the velocity levels/pitches/channels, using standard Windows color selection.See the Windows documentation for detailed information.

3. When you have edited the colors, click on the “OK” button.


The Goto pop-up menu

You can move directly to certain useful positions in an editor by se-lecting from the Goto menu on the Function Bar. These options will scroll your view to show the events at the chosen position.

Option Description

Song Position Takes you to the Song Position.

First Event Takes you to the first event in the active part.

Last Event Takes you to the last event in the active part.

First Selected Takes you to the earliest of all the selected events.

Next Selected Takes you to the next selected events.

Last Selected Takes you to the last of the selected events.

Prev Selected Takes you to the selected event before the one currently in view.

Next Part This is mainly useful when you are editing several parts at the same time in Key Edit. It takes you to the beginning of the next part. This might just lead to a vertical scroll if there are several parts begin-ning at the same Position.

Prev Part This is mainly useful when you are editing several parts at the same time in Key Edit. Takes you to the beginning of the previous part. This might just lead to a vertical scroll (see above).


Editing Notes via MIDI

You can change the properties of notes via MIDI. This can be a handy and fast way to get for example the right velocity value, since you will hear the result even as you edit:

1. Select the note you want to edit.

2. Click on the MIDI Connector symbol on the status bar.

The symbol should be “lit”. This enables editing via MIDI.

3. Use the Note buttons on the status bar to decide what properties will be changed by the MIDI input.You can enable editing of Pitch, Note On- and/or Note Off-velocity.

With this setting, the edited notes will get the Pitch and Velo Off values of the notes input via MIDI, but the Velo On values will be kept as they are.

4. Play a note on your MIDI instrument.The note selected in the editor will take on the properties of the played note, according to the setting made in step 3.

The next note in the active part automatically gets selected. A series of notes can therefore quickly be edited.

• If you want another try, select the note again (easiest by pressing the [←] key on the computer keyboard) and again play a note on your MIDI Instrument.


Step Recording

If you prefer not to record your music in real time, you may use the Step Recording function to input music one note at a time from your MIDI instrument:

1. Set the desired spacing of notes with the Snap value.

2. Set the desired length of notes with the Quantize value.

3. Click the “Foot” button on the status bar to activate Step Recording.The MIDI button is automatically activated, indicating that Cubasis VST is ready for MIDI input.

4. Move the song position to where you want to start.

5. Play a note or a chord.It is registered, and the Step Position jumps to the next position (according to the Snap value). Proceed with the next note or chord, and so on.

• To input a pause, press [Tab].

• To remove the last note or chord and go back one step, press [Back-space].

6. When you are finished, turn off Step Recording by clicking the MIDI symbol button (the “Foot” button is automatically deactivated).


The Loop Function

In all MIDI editors you can set up a local loop, which is a sort of “mini-cycle” for the parts being edited. The loop facility operates in addition to the cycle, meaning you can loop the parts you are editing while Cy-cling parts that are not being edited!

There are two principal ways to set the loop:

• Drag the mouse in the Ruler to draw the loop area.This will also automatically turn on the loop (see below).

This method does not work in Score Edit, since it has no Position Ruler.

• Use the mouse and/or computer keyboard to set the values in the loop boundary boxes on the status bar.

These boxes can also be opened for editing by pressing [Alt]-[L] and [Alt]-[R], respec-tively.

Either way, the current loop area is shown in blue on the Ruler when it is activated, and in light grey when it is deactivated.

Turning the Loop on or off

• Turn the loop on/off by clicking on its button or by pressing [Alt]-[O].For this to work, you have to define the loop first, as explained above.

When the loop is active, the parts within the loop in the Edit window loop almost independently of the rest of the music. We say “almost”, because the loop is still dependent on the cycle. Every time the cycle starts over again, so does the loop.

The loop is also used for directing editing to the events inside the loop. See page 184.


Closing the Editor

There are two ways of closing the editor, “Cancelling” and “Keeping”.

Cancelling

If you press [Esc] on the computer keyboard, a dialog box allows you to change your mind:

• Clicking “Yes” closes the editor and cancels all changes you’ve made since opening the editor.

• Clicking “No” closes the editor, but your changes are kept.

Cancelling can be thought of as a super-undo. It allows you to try out a series of changes to a recorded piece of music and then easily re-vert back to its original state.

Keeping

If you close the editor by clicking the window’s Close box or by press-ing [Return], the window closes and all editing you have done is kept.

The “Keep Appended Events?” Dialog

If you close the editor and a dialog appears asking you if you want to “Keep appended Events”, this is because you have added events out-side the part(s) being edited.

• If you click “Yes”, the part will be extended to encompass the added events.• If you click “No”, the events outside the part will be discarded.



13Mixing

Introduction

This chapter describes the general procedures of handling levels, pan, EQ and effects to create a final stereo mix. Mixing is done in different windows in Cubasis VST, mainly the VST Channel Mixer (for audio) and the MIDI Track Mixer (for MIDI).

❐ The MIDI Track Mixer is designed to interact with MIDI instruments com-patible with any of the standards GM (General MIDI), GS or XG. However, even if your instrument is not GM/GS/XG compatible, you may still be able to use some of the functions in the mixer.

Mixing Audio

Setting Levels

1. Set up your audio tracks and possibly the locators so that they play back the section you want.

2. Open the VST Channel Mixer by selecting “VST Channel Mixer” from the Panels menu, by clicking the VST Channel Mixer icon on the Tool-bar or by pressing [Ctrl] and [*] on the numeric keypad.The VST Channel mixer window opens. This contains “channel strips” for the audio channels, and a Master section for adjusting the level of the final mix.

CUBASIS VST13 – 196 Mixing

3. Make sure the “In” buttons next to the faders are not activated for the audio channels.When these are activated, the level meters show the input level instead of the playback level.

4. Make sure the Read and Write buttons are deactivated.These are used for automating mixer movements, as described on page 210. For now, we’ll stick to manual mixing.

5. Activate playback, and use the faders to set the relative volume for the audio channels.The fader settings are displayed numerically below the faders. You can boost weak signals by +6 dB in the VST Channel Mixer, if you like. Just be sure to avoid signal lev-els above 0 dB (clipping).

❐ Actually, due to Cubasis VST’s high internal resolution, clipping can usually only occur in the Master section (when the signals are sent to the audio hardware). Therefore, it can be OK to have the Clip indicators light up for individual channels, as long as the Clip indicators in the Master section never light up!

Clip indicator

CUBASIS VSTMixing 13 – 197

• For stereo channel pairs, the faders are automatically “linked”, i.e. moving the fader for the left channel will automatically move the fader for the right channel, and vice versa.To set the level independently for one channel in a stereo pair, hold down [Alt] and drag the fader.

A stereo channel pair.

• If you hold down [Ctrl] and click on a channel fader, it will automati-cally be set to position 0.0 dB.

6. Adjust the total volume with the faders in the Master section to the right.The faders are linked, i.e. if you move one fader the other will move as well. If you want to adjust the level of one stereo channel independently, press [Alt] and move the fader.


Setting Pan

The pan controls are the boxes with the green vertical line, located above each channel fader. This is where you set the stereo position of each audio channel. Like volume, pan settings can be automated us-ing the Write/Read functions.

• When you are changing pan for a channel, the setting is shown nu-merically (L64–R64) in the level display below the fader.To make the display show the fader setting again, click the fader handle.

• To select the center pan position, hold down [Ctrl] and click on the pan control.

• For audio channels in a stereo pair, you should probably pan the left (odd-numbered) channel fully left and the right (even-numbered) fully right.

❐ If the Mono switch in the Master section is activated, all audio playback will be in mono, and the pan settings will have no effect.


Using Mute and Solo

For each audio channel, there is a Mute and a Solo button. They are useful when you want to listen closely to one or several audio chan-nels. These work as follows:

• Clicking the Mute button silences the output of the audio channel.To deactivate Mute, click on the button again.

• Clicking the Solo button silences the output of all other audio channels.To deactivate Solo, click on the button again.

• You may mute or solo several audio channels at the same time if you like. However, if you hold down [Ctrl] when you click Mute or Solo for a channel, the func-tion will be exclusive. This means that only this channel will be muted or soloed – all other channels are automatically un-muted/un-soloed.


Making Equalizer settings

Each audio channel in Cubasis VST is equipped with a two band parametric equalizer. To activate and set EQ for a channel, proceed as follows:

1. Click on the EQ button at the top of the channel strip.The VST Channel Settings window for that channel opens. This contains a duplicate of the channel strip, an effect section (see page 203) and 2 EQ modules.

❐ If you make Equalizer settings for one channel in a stereo channel pair, the settings will automatically be reflected in the other channel.

2. Activate one or both EQ modules by clicking on their On buttons.

❐ The maximum total number of EQ modules (for all channels together) is governed by your computer’s performance. If you activate more EQ mod-ules than your system can handle, you will note that the Over indicator in the VST Performance window lights red, and the audio playback stutters and distorts. Keep an eye on the VST Performance bar graphs and deacti-vate a number of EQ modules, until the computer load seems to be normal.


3. Set the parameters for the activated EQ module.It is probably easiest to set up a playback cycle and experiment with the settings until you get the desired sound. The three basic EQ parameters are:

❐ Please note that high Gain values may give rise to distortion. Check the channel level meters and compensate with the channel volume faders.

4. Close the EQ window by clicking on its close box.In the VST Channel Mixer window, the EQ button indicator for the audio channel will now be lit, which means EQ is applied to that channel.

Applying Effects

There are two basic types of effects in Cubasis VST; insert effects (applied separately to each channel, by using the channel inserts in the VST Channel Mixer) and send effects (applied separately to each channel by using the effect sends in the VST Channel Mixer).

Typical uses for insert effects would be distortion, filters, auto panners or any effect that you want to send a whole channel through. Typical send effects would be reverb, delay, chorus or anything that you want to apply in different amounts to the different audio channels (see also the note about stereo effects on page 205).

• The following pages describe the general procedures for applying and making settings for effects. The included effects are described on page 227.


Gain Governs the amount of boost or attenuation around the set frequency. The value range is ± 24 dB.

Frequency The center frequency for the equalization. Around this frequency, the sound will be boosted or attenuated according to the Gain setting.

Q Determines the width of the frequency band around the center frequency to be affected. The narrower the frequency band, the more drastic the effect of the boost or attenuation.


Routing an Audio Channel through the Send Effects

You can have two different send effects in Cubasis VST, and each channel has two effect sends. The first step is to select, activate and make settings for the two effects:

1. Select VST Send Effects from the Panels menu or click the VST Send Effects button on the Toolbar.The VST Send Effects window opens. This contains up to two “slots”, each holding a separate effect plug-in. If you have less than two effects activated, there will be a slot at the bottom of the window, labeled “No Effect”.

2. Click the “No Effect” label (or, if you have two effects already, on one of the effect names) and select an effect from the pop-up menu that appears.

The available effects are listed on page 227.

• The “No Effect” option is used for deactivating the effect processor totally. Use this if you need to conserve computer power, and don’t need the effect.

3. Make sure the red “power button” is activated for the effect.

4. Make sure the slider to the left is set to a suitably high value.This is the master send level, governing the total amount of input level to the effect pro-cessor. If you later activate a lot of effect sends, you may need to turn down the master send level somewhat, to avoid clipping (distortion) in the processor.

5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the other processor if you like.

Now it’s time to set up the effect sends:


6. In the VST Channel Mixer window, click on the FX button for the audio channel to which you want to add the effect.The VST Channel Settings window opens, as described on the previous pages. The section between the channel fader and the EQ modules contains the effect sends.

7. Click on the On button for one or both effect sends and turn the Send level knobs to moderate values.When you activate the On button, the channel’s FX button will light up in the VST Channel Mixer.

8. If you want the signal to the effect to be independent of the channel fader setting, click on the PRE button for the send.With Pre-fader effect sends, the amount of effect for the channel is not affected by the volume fader. With Post-fader effect sends (PRE button not activated), the amount of effect is proportional to the channel volume, and will change with the volume fader movements. This is the most common setting.

If you activate playback, you should hear the selected effect(s) being added to the sound. At this point, you will probably want to try out the different effect programs and make settings for the selected effects. This is described below.

Send level

Pre-fader Send switch

Bypass button (affects both sends)

Send On/Off


Adding Insert Effects

Each audio channel has one insert effect slot. To add an insert effect to an audio channel, proceed as follows:

1. In the VST Channel Mixer, click the Insert button for the channel.The VST Channel Settings window opens. The Insert Effect settings are located above the Effect Sends.

2. Pull down the Inserts pop-up menu and select an effect.

3. Activate the On button.Now, the audio channel signal will pass through the insert effect.

❐ To deactivate an insert effect, pull down the Effect type pop-up menu and select “No Effect”. If you just turn off the On button, the effect slot will still be counted as “in use”, and thus consume some processor power.

A note about Stereo Effects

Several of the VST Plug-in effects affect the stereo image, in the form of panning, stereo enhancement or stereo ambience. However, for this to be heard, the output of the effect must be routed to a stereo channel or bus (since otherwise, the output will be mixed to mono). In short: Stereo image effects will not be heard if the effect is used as an insert effect for a mono audio channel.

If you want to apply e.g. auto-panning to a mono audio channel you should therefore use the plug-in as a send effect (the output of which will be in stereo). Also, you would probably want to activate the Pre-fader Send switch and turn down the volume fader for the audio chan-nel - this way you will only hear the “wet” (processed) sound and no “dry” (unprocessed) sound.

Please note that some effects cannot be used as Send Effects.


Editing Effects

• For details on the parameters of the included effects, see page 227.

Each effect in Cubasis VST has a separate “control panel” window for making settings. The window can have a standard panel (with sliders for all parameters) or a custom panel with knobs, buttons and sliders.

• To open the effect control panel for a send effect, click the Edit button in the VST Send Effects window.

• To open the effect control panel for an insert effect, click the Edit button in the Inserts section in the VST Channel Settings window.

Either way, the control panel appears in a separate window.

A custom control panel (left), and a standard control panel.

To edit effects, use the following methods:

• Select another effect program from the pop-up menu at the top of the control panel.You can also step between programs by clicking the arrow buttons next to the pop-up menu. Note however that only some effects come with ready-made programs.

• Use the settings in the control panel to adjust the sound of the effect.You can save your settings as an effect program, by pulling down the File pop-up menu and selecting “Save Effect”. The program is saved as a separate file on disk, and can be loaded into other songs by using the “Load Effect” item on the same pop-up menu.

❐ Effect settings can be automated. See page 210.


About DirectX Plug-ins

If you have installed any DirectX compatible effect plug-ins on your computer, these will appear on a separate submenu on the Effect Type pop-up menus in Cubasis VST. However, not all DirectX plug-ins may be intended for musical audio processing. Therefore, you can disable any unwanted plug-ins by opening the DirectX Plugins dialog on the Panels menu, and deactivating their checkboxes in the leftmost column.

In this example, the two plug-ins at the top are activated and will appear on Cubasis VST’s effect pop-up menus. The two plug-ins at the bottom of the list are deactivated, and will not appear in Cubasis VST.

Copying Mixer Channel Settings

You can copy all settings from one channel to another in the VST Channel Mixer. This is valuable if you want several channels to have the same EQ settings, etc. Proceed as follows:

1. In the VST Channel Mixer window, select the channel you want to copy settings from, by clicking on the channel number label below the faders.

Channel 2 selected for copying.

2. Select Copy from the Edit menu (or press [Ctrl]-[C]).

3. Select the channel you want to apply the settings to, by clicking on its channel number label.

4. Select Paste from the Edit menu (or press [Ctrl]-[V]).All channel settings are copied.


Creating Surround Mixes

With Cubasis VST you can turn a normal stereo mix into a surround mix with spatial sound characteristics. The surround format is intended for playback on a system with a surround decoder and five speakers: left and right front, center and left and right surround speakers. Note:

• Both surround speakers get the same signal, i.e. only a mono signal is created for the surround (rear) speakers.

• If a subwoofer speaker is present, it is not fed individually. The signal for this has to be generated by the sound system.

• The audio information for the different surround channels is encoded in stereo format.

• The surround mix is stereo compatible. That is, if you play it back on a conven-tional stereo system without surround decoder, the surround information is automatically cancelled out and the mix plays back in normal stereo.

Activating Surround

To activate Surround, click the Surround “On” button in the Master Section of the VST Channel Mixer.

Surround activated.


Making Surround settings

Clicking the Surround “Edit” button in the Master Section opens the Surround control panel:

This is where you set up your surround mix, according to the surround system on which it is supposed to be played back. Proceed as follows:

1. Use the Meter/Feet switch to select the desired unit for measuring the speaker distances.This is just a display switch for your convenience - it doesn’t change the Surround functionality.

2. Adjust the maximum distance between the listener and the speakers with the Radius slider.This determines the “scale” of the graphical display, with a distance range from 1 to 10 meters (or 4 to 40 feet).

3. Click and drag the individual speaker symbols in the graphical display, so that they coincide with the desired or available speaker positions.When you drag, the distance and angle between the speakers and the listener are dis-played for all speakers.

4. Use the Front/Rear slider to the right to adjust the amount of Surround effect.The more to the Rear the slider, the more pronounced the Surround effect.

5. If you like, close the Surround control panel by clicking its close box or pressing [Return].Note that the Surround mode is active for as long as the Surround “On” button is acti-vated in the VST Channel Mixer, regardless of whether the control panel is open or not.


Automating the VST Mixer

It is possible to automate all VST Mixer actions, so that volume, pan, EQ and effects can change automatically during playback. This is done by “writing” your mixer actions into a special audiomix part. When played back, this part will repeat your fader movements and button settings just like you performed them. You will even see the faders and buttons move on the screen, like on a physical mixer with motorized controls.

Recording your actions

1. Open the VST Channel Mixer window.

2. Click on the Write button above the Master Section to the right.While this button is “lit” (activated), every mixer action you make will be recorded.

3. Start playback.

4. Move the faders and other controls as you would during a manual mixdown.Since you can repeat this recording several times, it is probably easiest to mix one or a couple of channels at a time, and stop and deactivate the Write function in between. That way, you can also Undo your last run if you’re not satisfied, using the Undo com-mand on the Edit menu.

5. Stop playback.If you check the Arrange window, you will note that a special track called “Audio Mix” has been created. This track contains one long part named “Audio Mix”, in which all your mixer actions are stored. Don’t worry about the length of this part; it will automat-ically be lengthened if you record past its end.


• Please note that there is only one audiomix part/track, created the first time you use the Write function in your arrangement. No new parts are created the next time you use the Write function; information is added to the existing part instead.

6. Deactivate the Write function by clicking on the button.Exiting the mixer window will automatically deactivate the Write function.

❐ The Write function works in Stop mode as well as during playback. If you activate Write when Cubasis VST is stopped, all changes you make to your mixer parameters are recorded at the current song position. This feature can be used creatively if you need initial mixer settings, abrupt changes, etc.

Playing back your recorded Mixer actions

1. Activate the automated playback by clicking on the Read button above the VST Channel Mixer’s Master Section.

You may have Write and Read activated simultaneously if you want to watch and listen to your recorded mixer actions while you’re recording fader movements for another mixer channel, etc.

2. Start playback as usual.The monitor faders and controls will move automatically, following your recorded actions.


Mixing MIDI

❐ To be able to “mix” your MIDI tracks, your MIDI Instruments must be able to respond to MIDI Volume and Pan messages. Furthermore, if your in-struments support any of the standards GS (Roland’s extension of GM) or XG (Yamaha’s extension of GM), you will be able to control various other parameters in the instruments, such as effects, filters, envelopes, etc.For details about the XG, GS and General MIDI standards, see page 223.

What is MIDI “Mixing”?

The easiest way to mix your MIDI tracks (or really, to change levels, pans and other settings in your MIDI Instruments) is to use the MIDI Track Mixer. This is opened by selecting MIDI Track Mixer on the Pan-els menu or by clicking the MIDI Track Mixer icon on the Toolbar.

Even though the MIDI Track Mixer resembles the VST Channel Mixer, there is a big difference between how they work: While the VST Channel Mixer actually affects the audio played back, the MIDI Track Mixer emulates this by sending out MIDI Controller messages to your MIDI Instruments. For example, changing the volume for a track in the MIDI Track Mixer causes Cubasis VST to send out MIDI Volume mes-sages to the instrument. This is important to realize, since it affects the behavior of the Mixer in many ways.


MIDI Track Mixer vs. Inspector settings

Many of the settings in the MIDI Track Mixer are also available in the Inspector. Settings you make in the MIDI Track Mixer are reflected in the Inspector, and vice versa, according to the following rules:

• Inspector settings made for the track are reflected in the MIDI Track Mixer.• Inspector settings made for single parts are not reflected in the MIDI Track

Mixer.• Settings you make in the MIDI Track Mixer affect the Inspector settings for the

track (but not for individual parts).• Mixer automation (created with the Write/Read function in the MIDI Track

Mixer) will not be reflected in the Inspector.

When you play back a MIDI track this may cause some confusion: Consider a track set to volume 90 (in the MIDI Track Mixer or Track In-spector). Somewhere a bit into the track, there is a part set to volume 127. On playback, when the song position reaches this part, the vol-ume will be raised in your instrument, but this will not be reflected in the MIDI Track Mixer! The same thing will happen if the parts contain recorded controller messages. Therefore:

❐ If you want to have “absolute control” over the volume, pan, etc. from the MIDI Track Mixer (manually or using automation), make sure that all In-spector Part Parameters are set to OFF and that the parts don’t contain any controller messages of those types.

The relationship between tracks and “mixer channels”

For each MIDI track there is one channel fader. If you create new tracks or delete any existing track, the Mixer will adjust accordingly.

❐ Please note that you can have several MIDI tracks set to the same MIDI channel. Since all actions in the MIDI Track Mixer send out MIDI mes-sages (volume, pan, etc.), this means that “mixing” one of these tracks also affects all other tracks set to the same MIDI channel. For example, if you move the fader for one of the tracks, the faders for the other tracks on the same channel will move accordingly.

Tracks set to channel “Any” are displayed in the MIDI Track Mixer, but you cannot make any settings for them.


Setting Levels

You adjust the levels of your MIDI tracks by moving the faders.

About the Meters

As in the VST Channel Mixer, playback is reflected by the level meters next to each fader. However, in the MIDI Track Mixer, the level meters actually show the velocity values of the MIDI data being played back. This means that the faders (which adjust the volume in the instrument) don’t affect the meters (which indicate the velocity of each event that is played back). Also, playing back one single long note will only cause the level meters to flash briefly at the beginning of the note – since they only respond to the note-on messages, not to the actual sound level.

Setting Pan

You adjust the stereo position of the MIDI tracks with the pan controls.

When you move a fader, the display below it shows the setting numerically (0-127). This is the value of the MIDI Volume mes-sage sent out on the corresponding MIDI channel.

When you change this setting, the display below the fader shows the setting numerically (L64 - <C> - R63).


Using Mute and Solo

On each Mixer channel strip, there is a Mute and a Solo button, which can be of great use when you want to listen closely to one or several MIDI tracks.

• Clicking the Mute button silences the output of the track.To deactivate Mute, click on the button again.

• Clicking the Solo button silences the output of all other MIDI tracks.Audio tracks are not affected by this. You may Solo several tracks at the same time if you like. To deactivate Solo, click on the button again.

The Audio Mute button

Activating the Audio Mute button will turn off all audio output, by mut-ing all audio tracks in the arrangement. Use this when you want to concentrate on the MIDI material.


The “Extended” Channel Strip

If you click on the arrow button at the top of a channel strip (MIDI tracks only), the strip is extended to the right. Pressing [Alt] and click-ing on any arrow button will extend all tracks.

Which controls are available in the extended area differs depending on the mode selected on the pop-up menu at the top:

The following modes are available:

The controls in each mode are described below.

Mode names Description

XG 1 – Effect & Sends Effect Sends and various sound control parameters for use with instruments compatible with the Yamaha XG standard.

XG 2 – Global Settings Global settings for instruments compatible with the Yamaha XG standard.

GS – Effect & Sends Effect Sends and various sound control parameters for use with instruments compatible with the Roland GS standard.

GS – Global Settings Global settings for instruments compatible with the Roland GS standard.

Off In this mode, no control parameters are available.

An “extended” channel strip.


About the Reset and Off buttons

Regardless of the selected mode, you will find two buttons labelled “Reset” and “Off” at the top of the extended channel strip. These have the following functions:

• Clicking the Reset button will set all parameters to their default values, and send out the corresponding MIDI messages.For most parameters, the default values will be zero or “no adjustment”, but there are exceptions to this. For example, the default Reverb Send settings is 64.

• Clicking the Off button will set all controls to their lowest value, with-out sending out any MIDI messages.

XG 1 – Effects & Sends

The following controls are available when the XG 1 mode is selected:

Control Description

Send 1 Send level for the reverb effect.

Send 2 Send level for the chorus effect.

Send 3 Send level for the “variation” effect.

Attack Adjusts the attack time of the sound. Turning the knob to the left short-ens the attack, while turning it to the right gives a slower attack. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Release Adjusts the release time of the sound. Turning the knob to the left short-ens the release, while turning it to the right makes the release time longer. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Harm.C Adjusts the harmonic content of the sound. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Bright Adjusts the brightness of the sound. Middle position means no adjust-ment is made.


XG 2 – Global Settings

In this mode, the parameters affect global settings in the instrument(s). Changing one of these settings for a track will in fact affect all MIDI in-struments connected to the same MIDI output, regardless of the MIDI Channel setting of the track. Therefore, to avoid confusion it might be a good idea to create an empty track and use this only for these global settings. The following controls are available:

Control Description

Eff. 1 This allows you to select which type of reverb effect should be used: No effect (the reverb turned off), Hall 1-2, Room 1-3, Stage 1-2 or Plate.

Eff. 2 This allows you to select which type of chorus effect should be used: No effect (the chorus turned off), Chorus, Celeste or Flanger.

Eff. 3 This allows you to select one of a large number of “variation” effect types. Selecting “No Effect” is the same as turning off the variation effect.

Reset Sends an XG reset message.

MastVol This is used to control the Master Volume of an instrument. Normally you should leave this in its highest position and set the volumes individually for each channel with the volume faders.


GS – Effects & Sends

The following controls are available when the GS 1 mode is selected:

Control Description

Send 1 Send level for the reverb effect.

Send 2 Send level for the chorus effect.

Send 3 Send level for the “variation” effect.

Attack Adjusts the attack time of the sound. Turning the knob to the left shortens the attack, while turning it to the right gives a slower attack. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Decay Adjusts the decay time of the sound. Turning the knob to the left shortens the decay, while turning it to the right makes the decay longer. Middle posi-tion means no adjustment is made.

Release Adjusts the release time of the sound. Turning the knob to the left shortens the release, while turning it to the right makes the release time longer. Mid-dle position means no adjustment is made.

CutOff Adjusts the filter cutoff frequency. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Reson. Adjusts the filter resonance. Middle position means no adjustment is made.

Press. Allows you to send out aftertouch (channel pressure) messages on the track’s MIDI channel. This is useful if your keyboard cannot send aftertouch, but you have sound modules that respond to aftertouch. The default value for this parameter is zero, i.e. fully left.

Modul. Allows you to send out modulation messages on the track’s MIDI channel. The default value for this parameter is zero, i.e. fully left.


GS – Global Settings

In this mode, the parameters affect global settings in the instrument(s). Changing one of these settings for a track will in fact affect all MIDI in-struments connected to the same MIDI output, regardless of the MIDI channel setting of the track. Therefore, to avoid confusion it might be a good idea to create an empty track and use this only for these global settings. The following controls are available:

Control Description

Eff. 1 This allows you to select which type of reverb effect should be used: Room 1-3, Hall 1-2, Plate, Delay or Panning Delay.

Para 1-4 Allows you to edit the four first parameters of the selected reverb effect.

Eff. 2 This allows you to select which type of chorus effect should be used: Chorus, Flanger, Short Delay, Feedback Chorus or Feedback Delay.

Para 1-4 Allows you to edit the four first parameters of the selected chorus effect.


Automating the MIDI Track Mixer

All actions in the MIDI Track Mixer window can be automated in a very straightforward way: by “writing” them into a special “Track Mix” part. When played back, this part will repeat your fader and knob move-ments just like you performed them. You will even see the faders and buttons move on the screen, like on a physical mixer with motorized controls.

Recording your actions

1. Open the MIDI Track Mixer window.

2. Click on the Write button in the upper left corner to activate record-ing.While this button is “lit” (activated), every volume, pan, mute or effect setting you make will be recorded.

3. Start playback.

4. Move the faders and pan controls as you would during a manual mix-down.Since you can repeat this recording several times, it is probably easiest to mix one or a couple of channels at a time, and stop and deactivate the Write function in between. That way, you can also Undo your last run if you’re not satisfied, using the Undo com-mand on the Edit menu.

❐ Note that you can record Mutes but not the Solo buttons!


5. Stop playback.If you check the Arrange window, you will note that a special Mixer track called “Track Mix” has been created. This track contains one long part named “Track Mix”, in which all your MIDI Track Mixer actions are stored. Don’t worry about the length of this part; it will automatically be lengthened if you record past its end.Please note that there is only one Track Mix part/track, created the first time you use the Write function in your arrangement. No new parts are created the next time you use the Write function; information is added to the existing part instead.

6. Deactivate the Write function by clicking on the button.

Recording Mixer settings in Stop mode

The Write function works in Stop mode as well as during playback. If you activate Write when Cubasis VST is stopped, all changes you make to your mixer parameters are recorded at the current song posi-tion. This feature can be used creatively if you need initial mixer set-tings, abrupt changes, etc.

Playing back your recorded Mixer actions

1. Check that the Track Mix track is not muted.

2. Activate the automated playback by clicking on the Read button in the upper left corner of the MIDI Track Mixer.

You may have Write and Read activated simultaneously, if you want to watch and listen to your recorded mixer actions while you’re recording fader movements for another mixer channel, etc.

3. Start playback as usual.The faders and controls will move automatically, following your recorded actions.


What is GM/GS/XG?

General MIDI

General MIDI (GM) is a standard set up by the MIDI Manufacturers’ Association (MMA) and the Japanese MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC).

It defines a standardized group of sounds and the minimum require-ments for General MIDI compatible synthesizers or sound modules, so that a specially prepared sequence or MIDI file that is sent to the instrument via MIDI will play back the correct sound types, regardless of make and model of the instrument.

MIDI identifies sounds by their program change number. Before the GM standard was introduced, the same MIDI program change num-ber often addressed totally different types of sound in any two synthe-sizers or sound modules from different manufacturers, e.g. a flute type sound in one instrument and a piano type sound in the other.

With the introduction of GM standard compatible instruments this changed. These instruments use the same program change numbers for the same types of instruments. So, if you prepared a sequence or MIDI file and want the melody to be played by a “piano”, you can use a certain program change command embedded into the sequence to automatically select a piano sound in any GM compatible sound mod-ule. The GM standard does not specify in great detail how that piano should sound. It is simply assumed that the manufacturer reproduces an acoustic piano within the capabilities used by the instrument.

General MIDI supports all 16 MIDI channels. Each channel can play a variable number of voices (thus be polyphonic). Each channel can play a different instrument (or sound or program). A minimum of 24 fully dynamically allocated voices are simultaneously available for both melodic and percussion sounds.

Furthermore, in GM compatible instruments, percussion and drum in-struments which are key-based always use MIDI channel 10 and spe-cific note numbers are reserved for specific drum sounds.

There is a number of other MIDI messages that GM compatible instru-ments should respond to. Among these are the MIDI controller events for Volume (Controller 7) and Pan (controller 10). By using these con-trollers, it is possible to create a MIDI Mix for a piece of music.


Roland GS

This is a variation of General MIDI introduced by Roland. It defines ad-ditional standard procedures for selecting alternate drum kits and sound variations, and for setting a number of other parameters in Ro-land GS compatible instruments.

Yamaha XG

This is a variation of General MIDI introduced by Yamaha. It defines additional standard procedures for selecting alternate drum kits and for setting a number of other parameters in Yamaha XG compatible in-struments.


14The included VST Effects

Introduction

Cubasis VSTcomes with a number of VST Plug-in effects included. This chapter describes the included effects parameters. For general details about how to assign and set up effects, see page 202.

About VST 2.0

Version 2.0 of the VST plug-in standard allows plug-ins to receive MIDI from the host application (in this case, Cubasis VST). Possible uses for this feature include tempo-based delays, MIDI control of pitch-shifters and harmonizers, etc.

• MIDI Timing information is automatically provided to VST 2.0 plug-ins that “requests it”.

Tempo Sync basics

Several of the new VST Plug-in effects can be synchronized to the song tempo in Cubasis VST. In the control panels for the effect, you normally set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value and a multiplier. The resulting timing interval is the base note value multi-plied with the multiplier value. For example, if you set the base note value to 1/16 (a sixteenth note) and the multiplier to 3, the resulting timing is 3/16. In the case of a delay effect, this means the interval be-tween each delay repeat will be three sixteenth notes.

CUBASIS VST14 – 226 The included VST Effects

Table Of Contents

• Autopan - see page 261.• bEATER PAN - see page 228.• BitCrusher - see page 230.• Chopper2 - see page 231.• Chorus - see page 232.• DoubleDelay - see page 233.• eROUNDELIZER - see page 234.• Flanger - see page 235.• Fuzzbox - see page 262.• Grungelizer - see page 263.• Karlette - see page 236.• Metalizer2 - see page 237.• MIDI Gate - see page 239.• Mysterizer - see page 241.• pDELAY - see page 244.• Phaser - see page 245.• PhatSync - see page 246.• Reverb - see page 249.• Rotary - see page 250.• Scopion - see page 264.• Stereo Echo - see page 265.• Stereo Wizard - see page 266.• Tranceformer2 - see page 252.• Vocoder - see page 253.• Voice Attenuator - see page 257.• Voice Detective - see page 258.• Wunderverb 3 - see page 267.

CUBASIS VSTThe included VST Effects 14 – 227

bEATER PAN

The bEATER PAN rhythm reconstruction tool makes it possible to mu-tate rhythmic material in real time, creating completely new patterns and grooves. Simply put, it works like a gate that opens repeatedly (in sync with the song tempo) to let portions of the signal through. You can adjust how long and how often the gate will open. The resulting “chopped-up” signal can automatically be panned, and you can add reverse, shuffle and half speed effects.

The bEATER PAN is best used as an insert effect (preferably on a ste-reo audio channel, to make use of the auto-panning feature - see the note on page 205). To get a sense of what you can do with this plug-in, set up a stereo drum loop, add bEATER PAN as an insert effect for the channel and check out the included presets!

The parameters are as follows:


Depth Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. To hear the processed sound only, set Depth to 100.

Rate This determines the timing of the gate, in relation to the song tempo: whole notes (1), half notes (2), quarter notes (3), eighth notes (4) or sixteenth notes (5).

Length This determines how long the gate will be open. The value is a per-centage of the note value selected with the Rate control.

Panning Rate Sets how fast the signal is panned between the left and right side of the stereo image. The result depends on the Stereo Image setting.


Stereo Image Determines how far to the left and right the signal is panned by the auto-panning feature. When set to 0, no auto-panning is applied (the original stereo image is preserved).

Reverse When this is activated, the signal will be played back in reverse.

Shuffle When this is activated, the processed audio is chopped up and ran-domly reordered.

Half Speed When this is activated, the audio is played back at half speed (and thus at lower pitch).



BitCrusher

If you’re into lo-fi sound, BitCrusher is the effect for you. It offers the possibility of decimating and truncating the input audio signal by bit reduction, to get a noisy, distorted sound. You can for example make a 24 bit audio signal sound like an 8 or 4 bit signal, or even render it completely garbled and unrecognizable. BitCrusher is usable as an in-sert effect or a send effect.

Parameter Values Description

Mode I,II,III,IV Select one of four operating modes for the BitCrusher. Each mode will produce a different sounding result. Modes I and III are nastier and noisier, while modes II and IV are more subtle.

Depth 0-24 Use this to set the desired bit resolution. A setting of 24 gives the highest audio quality, while a setting of 1 will cre-ate mostly noise.

Sample Divider 1-65 This sets the amount by which the audio samples are deci-mated. At the highest setting (65), nearly all of the informa-tion describing the original audio signal will be eliminated, thereby turning the signal into nothing more than unrecog-nizable noise.

Mix N/A This slider regulates the balance between the output from the BitCrusher and the original audio signal. Drag the slider upwards for a more dominant effect, and drag it down-wards if you want the original signal to be more prominent.

Gain N/A Governs the output level from the BitCrusher. Drag the slider upwards to increase the level.


Chopper2

Chopper2 is a combined tremolo and autopan effect. It can use differ-ent waveforms to modulate the level (tremolo) or stereo position (pan), either using Tempo Sync or manual modulation speed settings. Parameters are as follows:


Input 0-100% Sets the Input level.

Output 0-100% Sets the Output level.

Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If Chopper2 is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.

Tempo Sync pop-up

1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted.

When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit) clicking the field above the Speed knob opens a pop-up menu, on which you select a note value for tempo-syncing the effect. Note that there is no note value modifier for this effect (see page 226).

Speed 0-50Hz When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit), this knob selects note values (the same as select-ing from the pop-up menu). When tempo sync is off, this sets the tremolo/auto-pan speed freely.

Sync button On/Off Turns Tempo Sync on or off.

Stereo/Mono button

Stereo/Mono Determines whether the Chopper will work as an auto-panner (button set to “Stereo”) or a tremolo ef-fect (button set to “Mono”).

Waveform buttons

Sine, Square, Saw, Rev. Saw, Triangle

Sets the modulation waveform.

Depth 0-100% Sets the depth of the Chopper effect.


Chorus

The Chorus plug-in adds a short delay to the signal, and pitch modu-lates the delayed signal to produce a “doubling” effect. The parame-ters are as follows:


Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If Chorus is used as a send effect, this should be set to max-imum as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.

Frequency 0-5Hz This sets the modulation rate.

Delay 0-5ms This controls the depth of the Chorus effect.

Stages 1-3 This adds one or two more delay taps, producing a thicker, multi-layered chorus effect.


DoubleDelay

This effect provides two separate delays. Cubasis VST automatically provides the plug-in with the current song tempo. The parameters are as follows:


Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If DoubleDelay is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum (100%) as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.

Tempo Sync pop-up 1

No sync, 1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted

This pop-up menu (in the upper left corner of the graphic display) is where you specify the base note value for the first delay unit. If “No Sync” is selected, the delay can be set in ms with the TMP Sync knobs.

Tempo Sync pop-up 2

As above. This pop-up menu (in the lower left corner of the graphic display) is where you specify the base note value for the second delay unit.

Feedback 0-100% This sets the number of repeats for both delays.

TMP Sync1 x1 to x10. The note value multiplier for the first delay unit. See page 226

TMP Sync2 x1 to x10. As above, but for the second delay unit.

Pan1 -100 to 100% This sets the stereo position for the first delay.

Pan2 -100 to 100% This sets the stereo position for the second delay.


eROUNDELIZER

The eROUNDELIZER is an advanced phaser plug-in, allowing for any-thing from smooth, subtle phasing to extreme effects. The plug-in has the following parameters:


Depth Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If eROUN-DELIZER is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum (100) as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the sends.

Feedback This sets the amount of feedback. A higher value produces a more pro-nounced “tone” in the phasing sweep.

Rate This sets the speed of the phaser sweep, when Sync is off (see below).

N. of stages This controls the number of phaser stages, which dramatically changes the character of the effect.

Sync When this is on (button is lit) the phaser sweep will be synchronized to the song tempo. When you click the button to turn Sync on, a pop-up menu appears, allowing you to select a note value for the tempo sync (1/1 to 1/32).


Flanger

This is a classic flanger effect with stereo enhancement. Parameters are as follows:


Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If Flanger is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum as you can instead con-trol the dry/effect balance with the send.

Tempo Sync pop-up

1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted

This pop-up menu (in the upper right corner of the graphic display) is where you specify the base note value for tempo syncing the flanger sweep. If you select “No Sync”, the sweep rate can be set freely with the Time knob, without sync to tempo.

Tempo Sync knob

x1 to x10 This is the note value multiplier for the flanger sweep when tempo sync is used. See page 226

Shape Sync knob

1-16 This changes the shape of the modulating wave-form, altering the character of the flanger sweep.

Feedback 0-100% This determines the character of the flange effect. Higher settings produce a more “metallic” sound.

Rate 0-5Hz This sets the rate of the modulation sweep when “No Sync” is selected, i.e. when tempo sync is off.

Depth 0-100% This sets the depth of the modulation sweep.

Delay 0-100ms This parameter affects the frequency range of the modulation sweep, by adjusting the initial delay time.

Stereo Basis 0-100% This sets the stereo width of the effect. 0% is mono, 50% original stereo, and 100% maximum stereo en-hancement.


Karlette

The Karlette is a four-channel delay, that emulates a “tape-loop” echo. The four “tape-heads” can be set to a certain note value, or a certain time, depending on whether Tempo Sync is activated or not. For each of the four “tape-heads” you can set the following parameters:

• In addition to the individual parameters for the four “tape-heads” there is a global Tempo Sync on/off button and a Dry/Wet control.If Karlette is used as a send effect, this should be set to all “Wet” as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.


Delay 1/32 to 1/1, including triplet (T) and dotted (*) values.Sync Off: 0 - 2 sec.

With the sync button activated, the delay can be set to a note value synced to the Cubasis VST tempo. If the sync button is deactivated, the delay can be freely set to a time value.

Volume Off to 0dB The amplitude of the delay. With the knob turned all the way to the left, the delay is muted.

Damp 0.000 to 1.000 The higher the value, the more the delay is dampened (the high frequencies are attenu-ated) to produce a more subtle effect.

Pan L64 - < C > - R64 Sets the stereo position for the delay.

Feedback 0.000 to 1.000 Sets the number of delay repeats.


Metalizer2

The Metalizer feeds the audio signal through a variable frequency fil-ter, with Tempo sync or time modulation and feedback control.



Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If Metalizer is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum as you can instead con-trol the dry/effect balance with the send.

Tempo Sync pop-up

No sync, 1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted.

When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit) clicking the field above the Speed knob opens a pop-up menu, on which you select a note value for tempo-syncing the effect. There is no note value modifier for this effect (see page 226).

Speed 0-10Hz When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit), this knob selects note values (the same as se-lecting from the pop-up menu). When tempo sync is deactivated (the “Sync” button is dark), this sets the modulation speed freely.

On button On/Off Turns on and off the filter modulation. When turned off, the Metalizer will work as a static filter.

Sync button On/Off Turns tempo sync of the modulation on or off.

Stereo/Mono button

Stereo/Mono Determines whether the output of the Metalizer will be in stereo or mono (see also the note on stereo ef-fects on page 205).


Sharpness 0-100% Governs the character of the filter effect. The higher the value, the narrower the affected frequency area, producing sharper sound and a more pronounced effect.

Tone 0-100% Governs the feedback frequency. The effect of this will be more noticeable with high Feedback set-tings.

Feedback 0-100% Sets the amount of feedback. Higher values pro-duce a more “metallic” sound.



MIDI Gate

Gating, in its fundamental form, silences audio signals below a certain set threshold level. I.e. when a signal rises above the set level, the Gate opens to let the signal through while signals below the set level are cut off. MIDI Gate however, is a Gate effect that is not triggered by threshold levels, but instead by MIDI notes. Hence it needs both audio and MIDI data to function.

Setting Up

The MIDI Gate requires both an audio signal and a MIDI input to func-tion.

To set it up, proceed as follows:

1. Select the audio to be affected by the MIDI Gate.This can be audio material from any audio track, or even a live audio input routed to a audio track (provided you have a low latency audio card). If a live audio input is used, monitoring must be activated (the “In” buttons in the Inspector must be lit).

2. Select the MIDI Gate as an Insert effect for the Audio channel.Click the Edit button to open the MIDI Gate panel.

3. Select a MIDI track to control the MIDI Gate.This can be an empty MIDI track, or a MIDI track containing data, it doesn’t matter. However, if you wish to play the MIDI Gate in real-time - as opposed to having a re-corded Part playing it - the track has to be selected for the effect to receive the MIDI output.

4. Click in the Output column for the MIDI track.The Output pop-up menu appears, with the MIDI Gate as one of the items.

5. Select the MIDI Gate from the Output pop-up menu.The MIDI Output from the track is now routed to the MIDI Gate.


What to do next depends on whether you are using live or recorded audio and whether you are using real-time or recorded MIDI. We will assume for the purposes of this manual that you are using recorded audio, and play the MIDI in real-time.

Make sure the MIDI track is selected and start playback.

6. Now play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard.As you can hear, the audio track material is affected by what you play on your MIDI key-board.

You can now make settings using the following parameters:


Attack 0 - 500 This is used for determining how long it should take for the Gate to open after receiving a signal that triggers it.

Hold 0 - 3.000 Regulates how long the Gate remains open after a Note On or Note Off message (see Hold Mode below).

Release 0 - 3.000 This determines how long it takes for the Gate to close (in addition to the value set with the Hold-parameter).

Note To Attack

-100 - <Off> - +100

The value you specify here determines how and to which extent the velocity values of the MIDI notes should affect the Attack. If this is set to a positive value, the Attack time will increase with higher note velocities. At negative val-ues, higher velocities give shorter Attack times. If you don’t wish to use this parameter, set it to <Off>.

Note To Release

-100 - <Off> - +100

The value you specify here determines how and to which extent the Velocity values of the MIDI notes should affect the Release. Positive values will increase the Release time and negative values will decrease the Release time. If you do not wish to use this parameter, set it to <Off>.

Velocity To VCA

0 - 127 This controls to which extent the velocity values of the MIDI notes determine the output volume. A value of 127 means that the volume is controlled entirely by the velocity values, while a value of 0 means that velocities will have no effect on the volume.

Hold Mode Note-On/Note-Off

Use this switch to set the Hold Mode. In Note-On mode, the Gate will only remain open for the time set with the Hold and Release parameters, regardless of the length of the MIDI note that triggered the Gate. In Note-Off mode on the other hand, the Gate will remain open for as long as the MIDI note plays, and then apply the Hold and Re-lease parameters.


Mysterizer

The Mysterizer is a multi-effect plug-in with a unique hands-on user in-terface. It can be used as an insert effect or a send effect, and allows you to choose between eight different effects. For each effect, you can control two parameters by clicking and dragging in the display, al-lowing for continuous real-time effect manipulation, subtle sweeping changes or weird, wild mutations.

Here’s how to use the Mysterizer:

1. Play back some audio and route the audio channel through the Mys-terizer (either as an insert or a send effect).

2. Open the Mysterizer effect control panel and click the Prog Select field to the right to select the desired effect.Each time you click, the next effect is selected. For a list of the effects, see below.

3. When you have selected an effect you want to use, the two text fields to the left show you which parameters are controlled on the X-axis and Y-axis respectively.In the figure above, the Ring Mod effect is selected, with Amount controlled on the X-axis and Frequency on the Y-axis.


4. Click in the display and drag the hair cursor to change the parameter settings.The X-axis goes from left to right and the Y-axis goes from top to bottom, which means that the “zero setting” for both axes is in the upper left corner of the display.

5. Experiment!

The Rate and Overshoot knobs

When you move the hair cursor, you will see how the small white dot moves to follow your adjustments. This represents the actual parame-ter settings. The Rate and Overshoot controls at the bottom of the window control how quickly and accurately the white dot follows your movements - in other words how your mouse movements are “inter-preted” by the effect.

• The Rate knobs determine how fast the Mysterizer will respond when you move the hair cursor to a new position.You can make independent settings for the X- and Y-axis.

• The Overshoot knobs determine how far from “the target position” the white dot will be allowed to stray along the corresponding axis when moving the hair cursor.Moderate settings can give a more natural feel when a parameter is changed. Maxi-mum Overshoot settings (turning the knob all the way to the right) will cause constant movement back and forth along the corresponding axis relative to the target position, because the white dot will never “reach the target” and come to rest. This can create an undulating, LFO-like special effect, the speed and range of which can be controlled with the corresponding Rate knob.


The Mysterizer Effects

The following effects are available:

• Ring ModulatorAn effect with which the incoming audio is ring modulated by an internal, variable fre-quency oscillator, thereby producing new harmonics. The X-axis governs the amount of effect; the Y-axis controls the frequency of the built-in oscillator.

• Comb DelayA delay with high feedback, causing resonating peaks at certain frequencies. The X-axis controls the feedback amount; the Y-axis is the manual delay time control (effec-tively serving as a pitch control).

• Mono DelayA monaural delay. The X-axis controls the delay feedback while the Y-axis controls the delay time.

• Stereo DelayA stereo delay with which the repeats are heard in both the left and right channels. The X-axis controls the delay feedback while the Y-axis controls the delay time.

• Low-Pass Filter (LP)A filter that cuts off high frequencies according to a set frequency threshold. Only sig-nals below the cut-off frequency will be heard. The X-axis governs the filter resonance; the Y-axis controls the cut-off frequency.

• High-Pass Filter (HP)A filter that cuts off low frequencies according to a set frequency threshold. Only sig-nals above the cut-off frequency will be heard. The X-axis governs the filter resonance; the Y-axis controls the cut-off frequency.

• Band-Pass Filter (BP)A filter that cuts off all frequencies except those around the set cut-off frequency. The X-axis governs the filter resonance; the Y-axis controls the cut-off frequency.

• DistortionA standard distortion effect. The X-axis is the drive control (amount of distortion); the Y-axis serves as a tone control.


pDELAY

The pDELAY is a stereo delay plug-in with tempo sync and pitch mod-ulation controls, allowing for very weird and interesting effects. It can be used (as a send or insert effect) with any type of audio recordings but is especially excellent for transforming rhythmic material.


Depth Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. To hear the processed sound only, set Depth to 100.

Rate Determines the delay time, in relation to the song tempo. The settings range from whole notes (0) to 1/32 notes (5).

Pitch This control changes the pitch (playback speed) of each separate “echo”. The range is ± 1 octave (half to double speed), with the value 50 indicating no change in pitch. With a high Rate setting, the timing of the processed signal won’t be affected - only the pitch. If the Rate setting is low, you will hear the change in playback speed when you adjust the Pitch - this can be used for “shuffle feel” delays, etc.

Feedback This determines the number of delay “echoes”. Note that each new echo will be affected by the Pitch settings above, making it possible to create “rising” or “falling” delay effects.

Position Sets the stereo position of the first echo, with negative values being left, positive values right and “0” middle position. Subsequent echoes (as set by the Feedback control) will alternate between the left and right side, at the same “distance” from the middle position.

Mod Rate The Rate parameter (delay time) can be continuously modulated, making the delay effect less static and more “spacey”. This control determines the speed of the modulation.

Mod Depth Determines how much the Rate parameter should be modulated.


Phaser

The Phaser plug-in produces the classic “swooshing” sound that characterizes phasing. It works by shifting the phase of the signal and adding it back to the original signal, causing partial cancellation of the frequency spectrum.


Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If the Phaser is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.

Tempo Sync pop-up

No sync, 1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted.

This pop-up menu (in the upper right corner of the graphic display) is where you specify the base note value for tempo syncing the Phaser sweep. If you select “No Sync”, the sweep rate can be set freely with the Time knob, without sync to tempo.

Feedback 0-100% This sets the amount of Feedback. A higher value produces a more pronounced effect.

TMP Sync knob

x1 to x10. This is the note value multiplier for the Phaser sweep when tempo sync is used. See page 226.

Rate 0-6Hz This sets the rate of the Phaser sweep, when “No Sync” is selected, i.e. when tempo sync is off.

Stereo Basis 0-100% This sets the stereo width of the effect. 0% is mono, 50% original stereo, and 100% maximum stereo enhancement.


PhatSync

PhatSync is a pattern-controlled multimode filter that can create rhyth-mic, pulsating filter effects.

General Operation

PhatSync can produce two simultaneous 16-step patterns for the fil-ter cutoff and resonance parameters, synced to the sequencer tempo.

Setting Step Values

• Setting step values is done by clicking in the pattern grid windows.Individual step entries can be freely dragged up or down the vertical axis, or directly set by clicking in an empty grid box. By click-dragging left or right consecutive step entries will be set to the pointer position.

Setting filter cutoff values in the grid window.


• The horizontal axis show the pattern steps 1-16 from left to right, and the vertical axis determines the (relative) filter cutoff frequency and resonance setting.The higher up on the vertical axis a step value is entered, the higher the relative filter cutoff frequency or filter resonance setting.

• By starting playback and editing the patterns for the cutoff and reso-nance parameters, you can hear how your filter patterns affect the sound source connected to PhatSync directly.

Selecting New Patterns

• Created patterns are saved with the song, and up to 8 different Cutoff and Resonance patterns can be saved internally. Both the Cutoff and Resonance patterns are saved together in the 8 Pattern memories.

• To select new patterns you use the Pattern Selector.New patterns are all set to the same step value by default.

Pattern Selector.

Using Pattern Copy and Paste to create variations

You can use the Copy and Paste buttons below the Pattern selector to copy a pattern to another Pattern memory location, which is useful for creating variations on a pattern.

• Click the Copy button with the pattern you wish to copy selected, then select another Pattern memory location, and click Paste.The pattern is copied to the new location, and can now be edited to create variations using the original pattern as a starting point.


PhatSync Parameters:

❐ All parameters can be automated as described on page 210.

Parameter/Value Description

Base Cutoff This sets the base filter cutoff frequency. Cutoff values set in the Cutoff Grid windows are values relative to the Base Cutoff value.

Base Resonance This sets the base filter resonance. Resonance values set in the Resonance Grid windows are values relative to the Base Reso-nance value. Note that very high Base Resonance settings can produce loud ringing effects at certain frequencies.

Glide This will apply glide between the pattern step values, causing values to change more smoothly.

Filter Mode (LP, BP, HP)

This selects between lowpass (LP), bandpass (BP) or high-pass (HP) filter modes.

Sync (1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4)

This sets the pattern beat resolution, i.e. what note values the pattern will play in relation to the tempo.

Mix Adjusts the mix between dry and processed signal.

Gain Sets the overall volume.


Reverb

Reverb is used to add ambience and “space” to recordings. The reverb effect features the following parameters:


Mix Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect. If Reverb is used as a send effect, this should be set to maximum as you can instead control the dry/effect balance with the send.

Room Size Governs the “size” of the simulated room environment.

Predelay This parameter sets a delay between the direct sound and the reverb ef-fect output. A short predelay before the reverb reduces reverb “clutter” which blurs the sound, and makes the reverb effect more natural-sound-ing.

Reverb Time This parameter sets the length of the reverb effect.

Damp This parameter “dampens” the higher frequencies, producing a rounder and smoother sounding reverb.


Rotary

The Rotary plug-in simulates the classic effect of a rotary speaker. A rotary speaker cabinet features variable speed rotating speakers to produce a swirling chorus effect, commonly used with organs. Rotary features all the parameters associated with the real thing. The in-cluded presets provide good starting points for further tweaking of the numerous parameters.

The parameters are as follows:


Speed STOP/SLOW/FAST This controls the speed of the Rotary.

MIDI CC Mod Wheel/Pitch Bend/Sustain Pedal/Volume/Expression/Velocity/CC# 2 to 14

Selects the MIDI Continuous Controller for the Speed parameter. See page 251.

Setting Mode Switched/Variable Selects whether the SLOW/FAST speed set-ting is a switch, or a variable control. When switch mode is selected, and Pitch Bend is the controller, the speed will switch with an up or down flick of the bender. Other controllers switch at 64.

Overdrive 0-100 Applies a soft overdrive or distortion.

Crossover frequency

200-3000Hz Sets the crossover frequency between the low and high frequency loudspeakers.

Mic Angle 0-180 degrees Sets the simulated microphone angle. 0=mono, 180=one mic on each side.


Directing MIDI to the Rotary

Whenever the Rotary has been selected as a Send or Insert effect, it will be available in the Out column pop-up menu for MIDI tracks. This allows you to control the Speed parameter via MIDI, by selecting a MIDI track and routing it to the Rotary effect (just like playing a VST instrument in real time - see page 286).

• All parameters can be automated as described on page 210.

Mic Distance 1-36 Inches Sets the simulated microphone distance from the speaker.

Low Rotor Amp Mod

0-100 Adjusts amplitude modulation depth.

Low Rotor Mix Level

0-100 Adjusts overall bass level.

Hi Rotor Amp Mod

0-100 High rotor amplitude modulation.

Hi Rotor Freq Mod

0-100 High rotor frequency modulation.

Phasing -100 to 100 Adjusts the amount of phasing in the sound of the high rotor.

Hi Slow 0.0-720 rpm Fine adjustment of the high rotor SLOW speed.

Hi Rate 0.0-720 rpm/sec. Fine adjustment of the high rotor acceleration time.

Hi Fast 0.0-720 rpm Fine adjustment of the high rotor FAST speed

Lo Slow 0.0-720 rpm Fine adjustment of the low rotor SLOW speed.

Lo Rate 0.0-720 rpm/sec. Fine adjustment of the low rotor acceleration time.

Lo Fast 0.0-720 rpm Fine adjustment of the low rotor FAST speed

Gain Adjusts the overall output level.

Mix Adjusts the mix between dry or processed signal.



Tranceformer2

Tranceformer2 is a ring modulator effect, in which the incoming audio is ring modulated by an internal, variable frequency oscillator, produc-ing new harmonics. A second oscillator can modulate the frequency of the first oscillator, in sync with the song tempo if you wish.


Input 0-100% Sets the Input level.


Mix 0-100% Sets the level balance between the dry signal and the effect.

Pitch 1 - 5000Hz Governs the frequency (pitch) of the modulating oscillator.

Tempo Sync pop-up

1/1 - 1/32, 1/1 - 1/32 Triplet, 1/1 - 1/32 Dotted.

When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit) clicking the field above the Speed knob opens a pop-up menu, on which you select a note value for tempo-syncing the effect. There is no note value modifier for this effect (see page 226).

Speed 0-10Hz When tempo sync is activated (the “Sync” button is lit), this knob selects note values (the same as se-lecting from the pop-up menu). When tempo sync is off, this sets the modulation speed freely.

On button On/Off Turns modulation of the Pitch parameter on or off.

Stereo/Mono Stereo/Mono Governs whether the output will be stereo or mono.

Sync button On/Off Turns tempo sync of the modulation on or off.

Depth 0-100% Governs the depth of the pitch modulation.

Waveform buttons

Sine, Square, Saw, Rev. Saw, Triangle

Sets the pitch modulation waveform.


Vocoder

The Vocoder can apply sound/voice characteristics taken from one signal source called the “Modulator” and apply this to another source, called the “Carrier”. A typical application of a vocoder is to use a voice as a modulator and an instrument as a carrier, making the instrument “talk”. A vocoder works by dividing the source signal (modulator) into a number of frequency bands. The audio attributes of these frequency bands can then be used to modulate the carrier.

The Vocoder has a built-in carrier, which is basically a simple poly-phonic synthesizer, with a sound optimized to respond well to the modulator input.

Setting Up

The Vocoder is set up slightly differently than other VST plug-in effects. This is because the Vocoder requires both an audio signal (as the mod-ulator source) and a MIDI input (to play the carrier) to function.

To set up for use, proceed as follows:

1. Select a source for the modulator.The modulator source can be audio material from any VST audio track, or even a live audio input routed to a VST audio track (provided you have a low latency audio card). If a live audio input is used, monitoring must be set to input (the “In” buttons in the Inspector must be lit).


• Good modulator source material are talking or singing voices or per-cussive sounds like drum loops for example. Static pads or soft ambient material are generally less appropriate for use as modula-tors, but there are no hard and fast rules as to what could be used as a modulator source.

2. Select the Vocoder as an Insert effect for the Audio channel with the Modulator signal.Click the Edit button to open the Vocoder panel.

3. Select a MIDI track.This can be an empty MIDI track, or a MIDI track containing data, it doesn’t matter. However, if you wish to play the vocoder in real-time - as opposed to having a recorded Part playing it - the track has to be selected for the vocoder to receive the MIDI output.

4. Click in the Output column for the MIDI track.The Output pop-up menu appears, with the Vocoder as one of the items.

5. Select the Vocoder from the Output pop-up menu.The MIDI Output from the track is now routed to the vocoder.

That concludes the setting up and you are now ready to start vocod-ing!

What you do next depends on whether you are using live or recorded audio as the modulator source and whether you are using real-time or recorded MIDI as the carrier input. We will assume for the purposes of this manual that you are using recorded audio as the modulator, and play the carrier in real-time.

Make sure the MIDI track is selected and start playback.

6. Now play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard.As you can hear, the audio track material, or rather its formant characteristics, is now applied to the Vocoder’s built-in sound source!


Vocoder Synth Parameters

The built-in synthesizer is always the carrier, i.e. it is the sound of this instrument that the modulator source is applied to. The synth is up to 8 voice polyphonic, and features 2 oscillators per voice. The synth has the following parameters:


Max Poly 1-8 This sets the number of voices for the synth.

Fine Tune -100 to +100 Cent

Tunes the oscillators in cent (100th of a semitone) steps.

Pitch Bend 1-12 Semitones Sets the up/down range of the Pitch Bend in semi-tone steps.

Noise 0-100 Adds white noise to the sound.

NoiseMod 0-100 This makes the oscillators modulate the noise level. This gives the noise a rasping sound, turning “sss” into “zzz”.

P.Drift 0-100 Adds random pitch variation to the oscillators.

P.Glide 0-100 This makes the pitch glide between notes played. The parameter controls the time it takes for the pitch to glide from one note to the next.

P.Bright 0-100 This is a lowpass filter that can be used to soften the tone of the oscillators. It does not affect the white noise generator.

P.Detune -12.00 to 0.00. Allows you to detune one of the oscillators in cent steps.

LFO Rate 1-23Hz Controls the LFO rate (for vibrato).

Vibrato 0-100 Adds vibrato to the oscillators. This can also be controlled by using the Mod Wheel.


Vocoder Parameters

The Vocoder parameters govern the general sound quality of the vo-coded sound.


NumBands 2-24 This governs how many frequency bands the modulator signal is divided into. Fewer bands will provide a thinner more resonant sound, whereas using more bands will make the sound fuller and more intelligible.

Bandwidth 0-100 This sets the bandwidth for the frequency bands, which affects the overall timbre. Very narrow bandwidth set-tings will produce a thin, whistle-like sound.

Min/Max Freq 40-8000Hz These parameters set the minimum and maximum fre-quency limits for the vocoder, respectively.

Log/Lin 0-100 Log/Lin controls how the frequency bands are spaced between the min and max frequencies. Log = equal spacing in octaves, Lin = equal spacing in Hz. This af-fects the basic timbre of the vocoder.

Env.Speed 10-19699ms/HOLD

This determines the attack and release times of the vo-coder envelope. Fast settings will cause the modulator signal to trigger the vocoder instantly, longer settings will gradually increase the attack/release times, provid-ing a more subtle vocoder effect. If set to “HOLD” the modulator is “frozen”, and doesn’t affect the carrier synth at all.

High Thru 0-100 This lets through high frequencies around the “S” fre-quency from the original input signal while notes are played.

Talk Thru 0-100 Adjusts the level of the original input signal passed to the vocoder output while notes are played.

Gap Thru 0-100 Gap Thru sets the level of the original input signal that is passed to the vocoder output when no MIDI notes are being played. This lets you apply the vocoder to a vocal track adding vocoded parts just where you want them.

Output -20 to 20 This controls the output level of the vocoder.

Emphasis 0-100 This is a highpass filter, gradually cutting lower frequen-cies while letting high frequencies pass.


Voice Attenuator

This plug-in can be used to remove lead vocals from a recording, to pro-duce a “karaoke” effect. The principle concept is based on the fact that vocals are usually mixed to center position in the stereo field, and that the human voice occupies a limited area of the frequency spectrum.

Note, however, that it is nearly impossible to remove a vocal com-pletely, without using very complex processing beyond the scope of this plug-in.

• If the Remove Mono button is activated, the plug-in will sum the right and the left channels (with one of the channels out of phase), in the frequency range set by the Low and High Frequency parameters. This method will only work with stereo material.

• If the Notch Filter button is activated, the plug-in will filter out the signals within the frequency range set with the Low and High Frequency parameters, by applying a notch (band reject) filter. This method can be used with both stereo and mono material.

• The Gain parameter allows you to adjust the output level of the plug-in.


Voice Detective

The Voice Detective is a real-time tool that analyzes an audio signal (recorded or played in real time) and “translates it” to MIDI. This allows you to sing a melody line and have it converted to MIDI - as a result, you can control a MIDI synthesizer with your voice!

• Although the Voice Detective is optimized for vocal input, you can of course use other instruments as sound sources as well. However, for the plug-in to be able to analyze the incoming audio, it must be monophonic - you must play one note at a time.

You can either use the Voice Detective with an existing audio record-ing or with a “live” input signal. Here’s how you set things up:

Using Voice Detective with an existing audio recording

1. Set up the audio track with the recording, so that it plays back as desired.Remember that the recorded audio must be monophonic - the Voice Detective cannot analyze chords.


2. Set up the left and right locator to encompass the section you want “translated” to MIDI.

3. Add the Voice Detective as an insert effect on the track’s audio channel.

4. Pull down the Options menu and make sure “Record SysEx” is acti-vated.

5. Select an empty MIDI track.This is where the MIDI events created by the Voice Detective will be recorded.

6. Start recording.The audio track will play back through the Voice Detective. This will analyze the audio and translate it to MIDI events, which will be recorded on the MIDI track.

7. When you are done, play back the MIDI track to hear the result.

Using Voice Detective on live input

This makes use of Cubasis VST’s audio input monitoring function (for more about this, see page 64):

1. Pull down the Options menu and select the item called “Enable Moni-tor” on the Audio Setup submenu.If the menu item says “Disable Monitor”, monitoring is already enabled, and you don’t need to change anything.

2. Select an empty audio track and make sure the correct audio input is selected.This should be the audio input to which your sound source (e.g. a microphone) is con-nected. You select input in the Inspector or the VST Channel Mixer (see page 63).

3. Activate monitoring for the audio track by clicking on the left half of the Input button in the Inspector.The Input button should light up, indicating that monitoring is on. At this point, you may also want to check input levels as described on page 65.

4. Add Voice Detective as an insert effect on the track’s audio channel.

5. Set up the left and right locator as usual when recording.Recording always starts at the left locator and ends at the right.

6. Pull down the Options menu and make sure “Record SysEx” is acti-vated.


7. Select an empty MIDI track.This is where the MIDI events created by the Voice Detective will be recorded.

8. Start recording and sing (or play your instrument - one note at a time).The audio is sent into Cubasis VST and into the Voice Detective, where it is analyzed and translated to MIDI events. The MIDI is recorded on the MIDI track.

9. When you are done, play back the MIDI track to hear the result.

About the plug-in latency

Although the analysis performed by the Voice Detective is very fast, it isn’t instantaneous. As a result, the created MIDI events will be slightly delayed compared to the original audio signal (around 200 ms). Depending on the material, you may therefore want to adjust the posi-tioning of the MIDI events after recording. This is easiest done by turning off Snap and moving the MIDI events slightly to the left, either in a MIDI editor or in the Arrange window.

Voice Detective parameters

The Voice Detective control panel contains very few parameters, mak-ing it extremely easy to set up:


Input Gain Allows you to adjust the gain of the audio signal on a scale between 0 and 18 dB. However, this setting is only used for analysis and does not affect the audio in any way.

Range Hi/Range Low

Use these faders to set the upper and the lower limit for the fre-quency range to be used. Notes that are less than an octave outside this range are raised/lowered by an octave, to “make them fit” into the set range.

On If this is activated (lit), the PB-Range and PB-Sensitivity settings are used.

PB-Range By clicking the up and down arrow keys, you can specify the pitch-bend range (1 to 12 semitones).The specified pitchbend range must correspond with the range of the VST instrument/synth used. Otherwise the pitch of the note will not be correct.

PB-Sensitivity This setting allows you to define (on a scale between 1 and 100) what is still considered Pitch Bend (how much a note may deviate from its original pitch) and what is considered to be a new note.


Autopan

Makes the sound move automatically between the left and right chan-nel. The Autopan is best used as an insert effect for stereo channels or as a send effect (see the note about stereo effects on page 205).


LFO Freq This sets the speed of the panning effect.

Width This sets the depth of the effect, that is, how far out to the left/right speaker the sound should move.

Waveform This sets the shape of the LFO producing the effect. Sine and Triangle both produce a smooth sweep, but with different characteristics. Saw-tooth creates a ramp (sweep from one speaker to the other and then a quick jump back). Pulse makes the signal jump back and forth be-tween the speakers.

Output Level The stereo output level of the effect.


Fuzzbox

This is a simulation of the good old transistor distortion stomp box. It can be used as an insert or send effect.

The Electro Fuzz has the following parameters:


Boost This governs the amount of distortion. If you want to increase the dis-tortion without raising the signal level, you may have to adjust the Vol-ume knob as well.

Clipback Raising this parameter will “invert” the part of the signal that is above the clipping level, instead of employing hard clipping. The result is that more 2nd order harmonics are added, changing the character of the distortion.

Volume This is a volume control for the output signal from the Electro Fuzz.


Grungelizer

The Grungelizer adds noise and static to your recordings - like listen-ing to a radio with bad reception, or a worn, scratched vinyl record.


Crackle This adds crackle to create that old vinyl record sound. The farther to the right you turn the dial, the more crackle is added.

RPM switch When emulating the sound of a vinyl record, this switch lets you set the RPM (revolutions per minute) speed of the record.

Noise This dial regulates the amount of static noise added.

Distort Use this dial to add distortion.

EQ Turn this dial to the right to cut off the low frequencies, and create a more hollow, lo-fi sound.

AC This emulates a constant, low hum of AC current.

Frequency switch This sets the frequency of the AC current (50 or 60 Hz), and thus the pitch of the AC hum.

Timeline This dial regulates the amount of overall effect. The farther to the right (1900) you turn this dial, the more noticeable the effect.


Scopion

The Scopion is an on-board oscilloscope, that analyzes the left or right side of a stereo input signal and displays the waveform contents in real time. The Scopion requires a stereo input and must therefore be used as an insert effect for a stereo channel pair. There are three parameters:

• If you click the Scopion label plate below the display, a help screen appears, explaining the functionality of the parameters in the window.


L/R Switch Clicking this switch allows you to choose between displaying the left and right side of the stereo input signal.

Time Scale This knob (directly below the L/R switch) allows you to scale the waveform horizontally.

Gain Scale This knob (at the bottom of the Scopion window) allows you to scale the waveform vertically.


Stereo Echo

The Stereo Echo is a delay with separate settings for the left and right channel. It can also be used as a single mono delay, in which case the maximum delay time will be doubled.

❐ The Stereo Echo accepts a mono input only. It is normally used as a send effect.

The Stereo Echo has the following parameters:


Delay1 The delay time for the left channel. The maximum delay time is 500 ms, unless you link both channels for mono operation, in which case the maximum delay time is 1000 ms - see below (1000ms = 1 second).

Feedbck1 The delay feedback for the left channel. Higher values result in a higher number of echo repeats.

Link 1-2 Activating this switch turns the effect into a mono delay. When Link is on, only the left channel parameters will be available (Delay1, Feedback1, etc.).

Delay 2 The delay time for the right channel.

Feedbck2 The delay feedback for the right channel.

Del2 Bal This parameter determines how much of the left channel output is sent to the right channel input. When set to 0.0 (fully left), then none of the left channel output is added to the right channel input; when it is set to 1.0 (fully right), the right input receives both its normal source and the complete output of the left channel.

Volume L The output level of the left channel delay.

Volume R The output level of the right channel delay.


Stereo Wizard

The Stereo Wizard is a stereo width enhancer that takes a stereo in-put signal and makes it sound “wider”. It must be used as an insert ef-fect for a stereo channel pair. Stereo Wizard will give best result if you use “real” stereo material (as opposed to mono channels panned to different positions in the stereo image). The effect has the following parameters:


Amount Higher values result in a greater stereo width. Normally, you should set this to values between 0.00 - 0.20; higher values can be used for spe-cial effects.

Reverse Reverses the left and right channel.


Wunderverb 3

Wunderverb 3 is a reverb plug-in which provides natural sounding re-verb effects, and still uses very little processor power. It accepts a mono input and is used as a send effect. Use the Program pop-up to select one of ten reverb types:

After selecting a reverb type, you can use the following three parame-ters in the effect control panel to fine-tune the reverb:

Reverb type Description

Hall The reverberation of a medium-sized hall.

Large Hall The reverberation of a larger hall.

Large Room The reverberation of a large room.

Medium Room The reverberation of a medium-sized room.

Small Room The reverberation of a very small room.

Plate The slightly metallic effect of a plate reverb.

Gated A special effect, where the reverb is abruptly cut off.

Effect 1 A special “bouncing” effect.

Echoes An echo (delay) effect.

Effect 2 A special, resonant effect, suitable for “ringing” metal sounds.


Size This is the size of the simulated room. Changing this will affect the density and character of the reverb. If you have selected a Reverb Type where you can hear the individual “bounces” (Effect 1, Echoes, etc.), raising the Size will increase the time between each “bounce”, like the time control on a delay effect.

Decay This is the decay time for the reverb. The higher the value, the longer the reverb.

Damp Raising this value will cause the high frequency contents of the reverb sound to die out quicker. This results in a softer, darker reverb.



15Importing and Exporting Audio

Importing audio files into the arrangement

You can quickly import audio into your arrangement without having to open the Pool. This can be done in two ways:

• By using the Import Audio function on the File menu.• By “dragging and dropping” an audio file directly onto the Arrange window.

Using the Import Audio function

1. Select the audio track to which you want to import an audio file.Note that you can’t import stereo files to mono tracks and vice versa.

2. Move the Left Locator to where you want the audio file to start.

3. Pull down the File menu and select “Import”, then select “Audio File...” from the submenu.A file dialog opens.

4. Select a file format from the File Type pop-up menu.Cubasis VST can import files of the formats AIFF, Wave, and MP3. For AIFF and Wave files, 16 or 24 bit resolutions are supported, as are sample rates up to 96 kHz. Note however, that all files in a song must have the same sample rate (the sample rate se-lected in the Audio System Setup dialog - see page 57.

5. Use the file dialog box to locate the file and select it.

• You can audition the audio file with the Play button.When you click the Play button, its label changes to “Stop…” and the selected audio file is played back. Playback continues until you click on Stop, or select another file.

6. Click “Open”.The file is imported into the Pool, just as when using the Import Audio File command on the File menu in the Pool. A segment that plays the whole file is created and placed in an audio part, which in turn is placed on the selected audio track, at the position of the Left Locator.

• If you import an MP3 file, the program will create a copy of the file and convert this to Wave format before importing it (the original MP3 file will not be used in the Cubasis VST song). The Wave file will be placed in the currently selected Audio Files folder (if you haven’t yet specified one, you will be asked to do so). Please be aware that the converted Wave file will be several times larger than the orig-inal MP3 file!

CUBASIS VST15 – 270 Importing and Exporting Audio

Importing Audio using “Drag and Drop”

1. Select an audio file to import.This may be located anywhere on your drive – it doesn’t matter as long as you select it from the Explorer.

2. Drag the file into the Arrange window and drop it on an audio track (or in the empty area below all tracks).In the latter case, an audio track will be created. Again, the regular mono/stereo con-ventions apply.

3. Release the mouse button.The audio file appears in the arrangement at the position where you released the mouse button (taking the Snap value into account).

Importing ReCycle Files

The “Import ReCycle File…” item on the File menu lets you import audio files created in Propellerhead Software’s application ReCycle. ReCycle is a program specifically designed for working with sampled loops. Us-ing ReCycle you can “slice” a loop and make separate samples of each beat. Among other things, this makes it possible to change the tempo of loops without affecting the pitch, and edit the loop as if it were built from individual sounds.

If you have ReCycle you can create and export files that you can use in Cubasis VST. Also numerous CD-ROMs with ready-made ReCycle (REX) files can be purchased, such as the Steinberg/Sounds Good “Sounds & Cycles” series. To import a Recycle file into Cubasis VST, proceed as follows:

1. In Cubasis VST, select an audio track to which you want to import the file and set the Left Locator at the position where you want the file to appear.

2. Pull down the File menu and select “Import”, then select “ReCycle File...” from the submenu.

3. In the file dialog that appears, locate a ReCycle file for import.There are currently three ReCycle file formats supported by Cubasis VST, Rex1 (*.rex), Rex2 (*.rx2) and Recycle (*.rcy).

CUBASIS VSTImporting and Exporting Audio 15 – 271

• You can use the Play button to audition the selected file before open-ing it.

4. Click Open.The following happens:

• A copy is made of the ReCycle file. This copy is converted to a Wav file, which is added to the Pool.

❐ The original ReCycle file should not be deleted or moved, because it will be called upon if you later want to re-import the corresponding Wav file into the arrangement from the Pool. Cubasis VST “remembers” the loca-tion of the original file and will automatically try to open it when needed.

• A number of segments are created for the file, each one corresponding to a slice in ReCycle.

• A part which will play these segments is automatically created on the active track, starting at the Left Locator position.Now you can play back the ReCycled file in any tempo. You can also quantize the au-dio part in the Arrange window, to change the groove.

• If you need to re-import the file into the arrangement, drag the file item from the Pool to the arrangement, just as any other file. A new part is then created.

❐ Please note that the new file will sound very strange if played back in its entirety. It should only be triggered from the part which has been created in the arrangement.


About tempo changes and the last Segment(s)

It may happen that you import a ReCycle file into an arrangement that has a higher tempo than the loop originally had. In this situation, the slices (segments) will overlap, and the last segment will “stick out” past the end of the part.

An audio event in Cubasis VST should never play past the end of a part (since you would then hear audio in the arrangement, that you couldn’t “see”). Therefore, Cubasis VST automatically shortens segments that would otherwise play past the end of the part, so that they end exactly where the part ends. This is done automatically when you import the ReCycle file.

If you have used a very high stretch factor in ReCycle, or if the Cuba-sis VST tempo is drastically different from the original loop tempo, not only the last, but a few of the last segments could be affected by the aforementioned problem and will be shortened.

If you later raise the tempo, the shortened segments will become too short, since they no longer play to the end of the part.

• To fix this, delete the existing part and re-import the ReCycle file, by dragging the file symbol from the Pool to the Arrange window.In the new part that appears the length of the last segment(s) will be adjusted to fit the current tempo.


If you get clicks during playback

While a sampler or sampling synthesizer is polyphonic, each track in Cubasis VST is monophonic, that is, it can only play back one sound at a time. This is not ideal for playing many short overlapping sounds, like you do when playing ReCycled files.

This fact will normally not cause any problems with drum loops. How-ever, with other types of material, bass loops etc., the monophonic character of a Cubasis VST channel might lead to clicks in the transi-tion between segments. There are two ways to remedy this:

Using Smooth Segments

• Pull down the Options menu and activate the “Smooth Segments” op-tion on the Audio Setup submenu.Now, Cubasis VST will automatically create small crossfades between consecutive or overlapping audio segments on the same audio channel. In many cases this should re-move any clicks when playing back ReCycle files.

Importing into “Any” tracks – Polyphonic playback

Another way of avoiding the problems with monophonic playback of ReCycle files is for Cubasis VST to “simulate” the polyphonic behav-ior of a sampler by splitting up a ReCycle file, so that the “slices” play back on more than one channel.

Proceed as follows:

1. Examine your arrangement and locate two or more consecutive audio channels that you can reserve for a ReCycle file.How many channels you need for Polyphonic operation depends on the nature of the loop. The trick is to completely avoid overlap between segments, since it is in the over-lap that clicks might occur. If you have no idea what to choose, don’t worry, the pro-gram will suggest a number for you, see below.

2. Create or select an audio track and set it to channel “Any”.In tracks set to channel “Any”, each audio segment will play back on its “own” channel, much as with MIDI “Any” tracks.

3. Set the Left Locator to the position where you want the part to appear.

4. Import the ReCycle file from disk.


5. In the dialog that appears, the program suggests a number of chan-nels that ensures no overlap at all. If needed, you can change this.For example, if you want the file to use channels 1, 2 and 3, specify “1” as the start channel and “3” as the number of channels to use.

6. Click “OK”.The slices will now alternate between the specified channels, thereby minimizing the overlap (and thus the clicks).

The drawback of this procedure is that more than one audio channel is “used up” by a single file. However, if you run out of audio channels you can use the “Export: Audio Tracks…” feature to turn your “multi-channel” ReCycle track into one file, that only requires one audio channel, see below.


Import Mixman File (*.trk)

Mixman TRK (for “Track”) files are the building blocks in the Mixman Studio and Mixman Studio Pro, applications aimed at creating music by matching and mixing beats and loops. To facilitate tempo-matching, the Mixman TRK files contain “slices” internally (somewhat like ReCycle REX files). There are a lot of Mixman TRK files available, and owners of Mixman Studio or Studio Pro can also create their own Mixman TRK files.

About Mixman TRK Files in Cubasis VST

Cubasis VST allows you to import Mixman TRK files onto audio tracks, automatically matching their tempo to the current tempo in Cubasis VST. Actually, the program doesn’t import the actual Mixman TRK files; instead a copy of the file is created and converted to a regular audio file, the tempo being matched automatically in the process. This audio file is then imported onto the audio track, as when using the regular “Import Audio File” function. This means that once you have imported the file, it will not follow any tempo changes you make in Cubasis VST - should you want to change the tempo, you need to re-import the file.

Importing a Mixman TRK File

1. Select an audio track to which you wish to import the track file.

2. Pull down the File menu and select “Import”, then select “Mixman File (*.trk)...” from the submenu.A dialog opens where you can locate the Mixman Track files on your computer. Track files have the extension “.trk”.

3. Locate and select the Mixman TRK file you want to open.Don’t double click on the file - you need to make some settings first:


4. Specify the tempo to which you want to match the Mixman file, in the “Song” field to the left in the Tempo section.

By default, this is set to the current song tempo in Cubasis VST, but you can change this if you wish. The “Track” value to the right is the original tempo of the Mixman file.

❐ Note that changing the tempo setting here only affects the imported au-dio file - it will not change the actual song tempo in Cubasis VST! Should you change the tempo for the imported loop here, you need to adjust the song tempo in Cubasis VST later (unless you specifically don’t want the tempi to match).

5. Use the settings in the Pitch Shift section to determine whether you want the pitch of the imported audio to be changed.

• If you activate the “Auto” option, the pitch of the imported audio will be adjusted according to the change in tempo.The effect will be the same as if you matched the tempo of the imported loop simply by playing it faster or slower.

• If the “Auto” option isn’t activated, you can specify the desired pitch shift (in semitones and cents) in the “Half-Steps” field.If you don’t want to change the pitch of the imported audio, you should deactivate “Auto” and make sure “Half-Steps” is set to 0:00.


6. Use the settings in the Time Stretch section to determine the length of the “slices” in the imported audio.

Internally, the Mixman TRK files are “sliced” at each rhythmically important position. When Cubasis VST converts the Mixman file to an audio file and adjusts its tempo, most often you would want to adjust the length of the slices too, to avoid empty gaps in the audio (if you lower the tempo) or overlapping notes (if you raise the tempo).

• If you activate the “Auto” option, the length of each slice is adjusted to fit the new tempo.This is the setting to use if you don’t want neither gaps nor overlaps.

• If the “Auto” option isn’t activated, you can specify the desired Time Stretch value for the slices.A setting of 2.00 will double the length of each slice, while a setting of 0.50 will make the slices half as long as the originals.

7. Audition the results of the settings by clicking the “Play Converted” button.This plays back the file as it will sound after you have imported it, giving you a chance to fine-tune your settings before you proceed. Clicking the “Play Original” button plays back the Mixman file in its original state, for reference.

8. When you are satisfied with the settings, click “Create File”.The Mixman file is copied into the Audio files folder, converted to a Wave file (taking the tempo, time stretch and pitch shift settings into account) and imported to the se-lected audio track. The new file will have the name of the original Mixman file but with the extension “.wav “.

❐ Again, the converted file does not contain any “slices” or tempo informa-tion, so it will not adjust to tempo changes made in Cubasis after it is im-ported. If you change the tempo of the song after having imported a Mixman file, you need to re-import the file to make it fit the new tempo.


Mixing down to an audio file

The “Export: Audio Tracks…” feature in Cubasis VST allows you to mix down any number of audio tracks, complete with effects and mixer automation, to a new audio file, in mono or stereo.

• The rule is: All audio and VST Instruments you hear on playback will be included in the Mixdown file!However, please note that MIDI tracks that are not routed to a VST Instrument are not included in this type of mixdown. To make a complete mixdown containing both MIDI and audio, you first need to record your MIDI music onto audio tracks in Cubasis VST, and then proceed with the mixdown.

1. Set up the Left and Right Locator to encompass the area that you want to mix down.

2. Set up your tracks, so that they play back the way you want.You can use the automation in the VST Channel Mixer window, as well as EQ, Sur-round and effects. If you don’t want to include any of these features in the exported au-dio file, you should turn them off while preparing the tracks, to hear what you get.

3. If you want to include the automation, make sure that the Read button is activated in the VST Channel Mixer.

4. If you want the mixdown file to be automatically imported back onto a specific track in Cubasis VST, select this track.It should be empty and set to stereo or mono, depending on whether you want to make a stereo or mono mixdown.

5. Pull down the File menu and select “Audio Tracks…” from the Export submenu (or click the “Export Audio” button in the VST Channel Mixer’s Master Section).The Export Audio dialog opens.


6. If you want to automatically import the resulting audio file back into Cubasis VST, activate the checkbox “Add created file to current Song”.This will automatically import the file into the Pool, and place a segment for the file in a new part on the selected track, starting at the Left Locator. If no suitable track was se-lected, the program will create a new track.

7. Select a file format.You can choose between Wave, AIFF, Real Audio or MP3. Which type to choose de-pends on which other programs you plan to use the file in.

• Please note that MP3 export is limited to 20 times, after which the func-tion is disabled. In other words, MP3 export is included as a fully func-tional “trial” feature. When you export to mp3 a dialog will appear, telling you how many remaining encod-ings you have left. To upgrade your Cubasis VST copy to include unlimited MP3 en-coding, please visit Steinberg’s online store on the web: pull down the Help menu and select the Steinberg Online Shop item from the Steinberg on the Web submenu (a working internet connection is required).

8. Select mono or stereo with the radio buttons (Wave, AIFF or MP3 file types only).


9. Select a sample rate and resolution (Wave and AIFF file types only).Which values to choose depends largely on where you plan to use the files.

10. If you selected the Wave file type, you can use the Coding pop-up menu to select a coding (compression) format for the file.The “standard” format (required if you want to be able to re-import the files into Cuba-sis VST) is “PCM/uncompressed Waves”. The other coding formats may be useful if you are creating audio for use in multimedia applications, etc. Which coding formats are available depends on which compression codecs are installed on your computer.

11. If you selected the Real Audio file type, the Coding pop-up menu al-lows you to choose the desired audio quality for the file.The text field below the Coding pop-up menu shows a description of the currently se-lected Coding and its proper use. Note that the choice of mono or stereo is included in the Coding options.

12. If you selected MP3, you need to make two additional settings: en-coding quality (Fast, Medium or Best) and bit rate (which determines the audio quality and compression rate of the MP3 file).You can experiment with different settings to find a suitable balance between process-ing time, audio quality and file size. Generally, 44100Hz (128 Kbit/s) files generated with the “Medium” quality, are considered as “standard quality” MP3s.

13.Select a folder and a name for the audio file to be created.

14.Press the Create File button.The audio is mixed down to an audio file of the format you have specified.

If you have activated “Add created file to current Song”, the file will be imported into the Pool and onto an audio track. You can play it back to check the results immediately. Just remember to mute the original tracks, and turn off any EQ and/or effects for the audio channel(s) used by the imported track, so that you really hear the true result.


About creating a CDIn combination with the included WaveLab Lite and Master Unit pro-grams, Cubasis VST provides a complete package for audio CD cre-ation (provided that you have a CD recorder connected to your PC). To prepare your music for CD creation, proceed as follows:

1. Use the Export Audio Tracks function (see above) to export each Cubasis VST song as a separate stereo audio file, in uncompressed Wave format with the sample rate 44.100 kHz.This is the sample rate used for audio CDs.

2. If you like, open the exported files in WaveLab Lite and perform addi-tional editing.This may include trimming the files, adjusting overall level and EQ, etc.

3. Create a new Project in the Master Unit program, and import the audio files.Each file will become a separate CD track. You can then perform additional processing before writing the CD. See page 347 for more information about Master Unit.


16Using VST Instruments

Introduction

VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound sources) that are contained within Cubasis VST. They are played internally via MIDI, and their audio outputs appear on separate channels in the VST Channel Mixer, allowing you to add effects or EQ, just as with audio tracks.

You can activate and play up to four different VST Instruments at the same time. Included with the program are several VST Instruments of various kinds - analog-type synthesizers, a GM compatible sound module, a drum machine and much more.

How to set up and use VST Instruments is described below. The in-cluded VST Instruments are described on page 292.

Activating a VST Instrument

In the descriptions on the following pages, we use the Neon synthe-sizer as an example, but the procedures are the same for other instru-ments as well. For descriptions of the included VST Instruments, see page 291.

1. Pull down the Panels menu and select VST Instruments (or click the VST Instruments icon on the Toolbar).The VST Instruments window opens. This contains up to four “slots”, each with a sep-arate VST Instrument. If you have less than four VST Instruments selected, there will be a slot at the bottom of the window, labeled “No VST Instrument”.

The VST Instruments window with no VST Instruments selected.

2. Click at the “No VST Instrument” field.A pop-up menu appears, listing the available VST Instruments.

3. Select “Neon”.The Neon synthesizer appears in the slot, and a new, empty slot appears below it.

CUBASIS VST16 – 284 Using VST Instruments

4. Make sure the red button to the left is activated (lit).

The VST Instrument is now activated and ready for use.

5. Select an unused MIDI track in the Arrange window.

6. Click in the Output column for the track.The Output pop-up menu appears. It will now contain an additional item, with the name of the activated VST Instrument.

CUBASIS VSTUsing VST Instruments 16 – 285

Playing the VST Instrument

1. In the Arrange window, select a MIDI track.This will be used for playing back (and recording) MIDI notes for the Neon synthesizer.

2. Pull down the Out pop-up menu for the track and select “Neon (V1)”.Activated VST Instruments are automatically added to the MIDI Output lists. “V1” stands for “Virtual Instrument slot 1”, to help you identify the VST Instruments (espe-cially handy if you have activated several VST Instruments of the same kind).

• The included Neon is single-timbral, and always in “Omni mode” (it re-ceives on all MIDI channels). Therefore, you don’t have to care about the MIDI channel setting when working with the Neon. With other VST Instruments, you may need to select a MIDI channel in the Chn column (as when playing any regular MIDI sound source).

3. Try playing your MIDI keyboard.The incoming MIDI is now sent to the Neon synthesizer.

About Latency

Depending on your audio hardware and its ASIO driver, the latency (the time it takes for the instrument to produce a sound when you press a key on your MIDI controller) may simply be too high to allow real-time VST Instrument playback from a keyboard. If this is the case, a workaround is to play and record your parts with another MIDI sound source selected, and then switch to the VST In-strument for playback. However, we recommend that you use an au-dio card with a low-latency ASIO driver for best results.


Selecting Patches and making Settings

1. In the VST Instruments window, try clicking the small arrow icon next to the patch name.A pop-up menu appears, listing the ready-made synth patches included with the Neon.

2. Select another patch from the pop-up menu.This selects another sound. To freely adjust the synth parameters, you need to use the Neon’s control panel:

3. Click the Edit button.The control panel for the VST Instrument appears. In the case of the Neon, this resem-bles the panel of a simple “analog” synthesizer.

The power button, patch and file controls from the VST Instruments window are duplicated at the top of the control panel.

4. Adjust the synthesizer parameters as desired.You can also automate the VST Instrument parameters (see page 290).

• You can save and load programs for a VST Instrument in the same way as with VST Effect Plug-ins (see page 206).


Using the Inspector

The inspector provides you with an additional way of selecting patches and changing settings for a VST instrument to which a MIDI track is routed. This means that you don’t necessarily need to have the VST Instruments window open to be able to perform these operations:

• To select a patch for a VST Instrument, click the Patchname pop-up menu in the Inspector, and select a patch from the menu that appears.

• To make settings for a VST Instrument, click the Edit button in the Inspector, and the control panel for the Instrument appears.


Making Mixer Settings

When you activate a VST Instrument, one or several extra channel strips automatically appear in the VST Channel Mixer. This allows you to adjust volume and pan, add effects or EQ to the VST Instrument sound, just as with audio tracks. For general information about how this is done, see page 196.

The Neon channel strips in the VST Channel Mixer.


Automating a VST Instrument

Automation of VST Instrument parameters is not done using the stan-dard VST Read/Write automation. Instead, you record parameter changes on a regular MIDI track:

❐ VST Instrument automation uses System Exclusive messages to record parameter changes. Before you follow the steps below, pull down the Options menu and make sure “Record SysEx” is activated.

1. Set up a MIDI track for playback to a VST Instrument as described above.

2. Select another MIDI track, and set its output (and possibly MIDI chan-nel) to the same values as the first track.This is the track on which you will record the automation data. You could also record the automation on the MIDI track used for instrument playback, but we recommend that you use a separate track, to make editing easier.

3. Set up the locators to encompass the section you want to record.

4. Start recording, and make the parameter changes you want to auto-mate.The parameter settings are recorded as special System Exclusive messages.

5. Stop recording and play back the recorded track.The parameters will change as you recorded them.


The included VST Instruments

The following VST Instruments are included with Cubasis VST:

• Neon, a basic analog-style synthesizer with up to 16 voices. See page 292.

• CS40, a two-oscillator synthesizer, ideal for fat lead sounds.See page 294.

• JX16, a polysynth with built-in chorus and a wide variety of available patches. See page 296.

• VB-1, a virtual bass instrument built on real-time physical modelling principles. See page 304.

• LM-9, a sample-based drum machine. See page 306.

• Universal Sound Module - a sound module with over 70 MB of sam-pled waveforms. See page 308.

• Brother Gregory, the virtual singing monk! See page 311.

• Easy Guitar, a virtual guitar plug-in. See page 314.


The Neon

The Neon is a simple software synthesizer. It has the following proper-ties:

• The Neon is polyphonic with up to 16 voices. However, since each added voice consumes CPU power, the maximum polyphony may be limited by the speed of your computer.

• The Neon receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the Neon.

• The Neon responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume).Volume.Pan (remember to pan the two instrument channels hard Left/Right if you want to use MIDI Pan messages).Pitch Bend (± 2 semitones).Modulation (vibrato).

Furthermore, all parameters can be automated as described above.


Neon Parameters


Range Selects an octave range for the oscillators, 16, 8 or 4 feet.

Waveform The basic waveform for the oscillators, Triangle, Sawtooth or Square.

LFO Speed Governs the speed of the vibrato. The vibrato depth is con-trolled via MIDI Modulation messages (for example, using the Mod Wheel on your MIDI controller).

Osc 2 Detune Allows you to detune the “second oscillator” ± 7 semitones. By setting this to a value close to “twelve o’clock”, you will get fine detuning, for a warmer, fatter sound.

VCF Cutoff The Cutoff Frequency for the filter, governing the amount of high frequencies in the sound. On the Neon, the Cutoff con-trol also serves as a Depth control for the Filter Envelope (VCF Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), so that the lower the setting of the Cutoff parameter, the more will the filter be af-fected by the Filter Envelope.

VCF Resonance The Resonance control for the filter. Raise this for a more hol-low, pronounced filter effect.

VCF Attack, Decay,Sustain, Release

The Filter Envelope. Use these parameters to determine how the filter should open and close with time, when a note is played.

VCA Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release

The Amplitude Envelope. Use these parameters to determine how the amplitude (volume) should change with time, when a note is played.


CS40

The CS40 is a straightforward software synthesizer with the following main features:

• The CS40 is polyphonic with up to 6 voices.

• The CS40 receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the CS40.

• The CS40 responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume).Volume.Pan.Pitch Bend (± 2 semitones).Modulation (vibrato).



CS40 Parameters:


Osc 1 Waveform The waveform for oscillator 1; Triangle, Saw, Square or Pulse.

Osc 1 Range Selects an octave range for oscillator 1; 32, 16, 8 or 4 feet.

Osc 1 Tune Detunes Oscillator 1 ± 7 semitones.

Osc 2 Waveform Same as Oscillator 1.

Osc 2 Range Same as Oscillator 1.

Osc 2 Tune Same as Oscillator 1.

Osc Blend Adjusts the relative volume mix between oscillator 1 and 2.

LFO Speed Governs the speed of the LFO. If LFO Sync is activated, this pa-rameter sets the LFO speed in various beat increments to the se-quencer tempo.

LFO Sync If activated, the LFO speed will be synced to the song tempo.

LFO Amount This governs the amount of LFO modulation applied to the desti-nation parameters.

LFO Destination This sets the destination parameter(s) for the LFO. Options are as follows:Off - No modulationVCF - modulation of the VCF cutoff frequency.VCA - amplitude modulation (tremolo).Both - modulation of both the VCF and VCA.

Vibrato Speed Governs the speed of the Vibrato LFO. The Vibrato amount is controlled by the Mod Wheel.

VCF Cutoff The Cutoff Frequency for the filter, governing the amount of high frequencies in the sound.

VCF Resonance The Resonance control for the filter. Raise this for a more hollow, pronounced filter effect.

Filter Mod ADSR This controls how much the VCF cutoff is affected by the VCF Envelope. Negative values invert the Envelope settings.

VCF Attack, Decay,Sustain, Release

The Filter Envelope. Use these parameters to determine how the filter should open and close with time, when a note is played.

VCA Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release

The Amplitude Envelope. Determines how the amplitude (vol-ume) should change with time, when a note is played.

MonoMode When activated the CS40 will be monophonic.

Volume Governs the overall volume.


JX16 Synthesizer

The JX16 is a dual oscillator software synthesizer with the following main features:

• The JX16 is polyphonic with up to 16 voices. The polyphony setting for each patch is user programmable.

• Low CPU load and high quality sound (low aliasing distortion).

• Multimode Filter.Lowpass, Bandpass and Hipass filter modes are available.

• Oscillator Lock function enables the creation of pulse and square waveforms with classic PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).See page 302.

• Built-in stereo chorus effect.

• The JX16 receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the JX16.

• The JX16 responds to MIDI Controller messages. These are listed on page 303.



JX16 Parameters

Osc 1+2 Section

This section contains parameters affecting both oscillators.

The Oscillator 2 Section

This section contains parameters that affect oscillator 2 only.


Octave Tunes the oscillators in octave steps.

Fine Tune Tunes the oscillators in cent (100th of a semitone) steps.

Vibrato Governs how much the LFO should modulate the pitch of the oscilla-tors (vibrato). The Vibrato parameter is also controllable via MIDI by using the Mod Wheel.

Noise Mix This parameter produces white noise mixed with the oscillators. By us-ing the “Osc Lock” parameter you can “cancel out” the oscillators, and use pure noise as the sound source. This is described on page 302.

Osc Lock This is described separately on page 302.


Osc Mix Controls the level of oscillator 2. 100 produces equal level to oscilla-tor 1, which has a fixed output level.

Coarse Tuning of Oscillator 2, in semitone steps (± 2 octaves).

Fine Tune Fine tuning of Oscillator 2, in cents (=100th of a semitone) steps.

Vibrato This lets you apply vibrato on the second oscillator only. This can be useful for creating PWM effects - see page 302 for a further descrip-tion. Both positive and negative values can be set.


The Glide/Chorus Section

This section contains Glide parameters, and also the Polyphony and Chorus parameters.


Mode If set to “On” the pitch will glide up or down between notes played. If set to “Held”, Glide will only be applied when you press a key while an-other key is held down.

Rate Controls the time it takes for the pitch to glide from one note to the next when using Glide. If Bend (see below) is used, this parameter controls the time it takes for the pitch bend to “land” at the correct pitch.

Bend Applies a initial pitch bend to the notes played. Negative values causes the pitch to slide up to the pitch of the note played, and vice versa.

Polyphony This sets the polyphony, i.e. the number of voices a patch can use.

Chorus This adds a stereo chorus effect. The values set different modulation rates and depths for the effect.


The LFO Section

This section contains the LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) parame-ters. LFOs are used to modulate parameters like pitch (vibrato) or the filter cutoff.


LFO Wave This sets the LFO waveform for modulating parameters:- Sine waves have a smooth waveform, suitable for normal vibrato.- Square waves will abruptly change between two values.- Saw+ produces a ramp up cycle.- Saw- produces a ramp down cycle.- Random produces random stepped modulation.

LFO Sync If this is activated, the LFO rate will be synced to the sequencer tempo in various beat divisions that can be set with the LFO Rate pa-rameter.

LFO Rate Governs the modulation rate of the LFO.

LFO Rate (tempo sync on)

If the “LFO Sync” parameter is activated, the LFO rate will be synced to the song tempo, according to the different beat divisions that can be specified here.

LFO Velocity This allows you to control the LFO Rate parameter with velocity, i.e. by how hard or soft you strike a note on the keyboard. The harder you play the faster the LFO rate.


The VCF Section

This section contains the filter parameters:


VCF Mode Sets the filter mode to either lowpass (LP), highpass (HP), bandpass (BP) or off. The filter modes are described on page 303.

VCF Freq (Cutoff)

Controls the filter frequency or “cutoff”. If a lowpass filter is used, it could be said to control the opening and closing of the filter, produc-ing the classic “sweeping” synthesizer sound. How this parameter operates is governed by the filter mode (see page 303).

Resonance The Resonance control for the filter. Raise this for a more pronounced filter sweep effect. If set to 100, the filter will self-oscillate and pro-duce a pitch. See the “VCF Key” parameter below for a description of how this can be used.

VCF Env Controls how much the filter cutoff should be affected by the VCF En-velope parameters. Negative values will invert the filter envelope set-tings.

VCF Vel Determines how the filter cutoff will be affected by velocity, i.e. how hard or soft you strike a key. Positive values will increase the cutoff frequency the harder you strike a key. Negative values will invert this relationship.

VCF Att/Dec/Sus/Rel

The Filter Envelope Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release parameters. Use these parameters to determine how the filter cutoff should open and close with time, when a note is played.

VCF LFO This controls how much the filter cutoff is modulated by the LFO (low frequency oscillator).


The VCA Section

This section contains the VCA Envelope parameters:

VCF Key If this parameter is set to values over 0, the filter cutoff frequency will increase the further up on the keyboard you play. If set to 100, it will track the notes on the keyboard, enabling you to “play” the filter as an extra sound source, as the filter self-oscillates and produces a pitch when the resonance is set to 100.

VCF Touch This sets the amount the VCF cutoff parameter should be affected by Aftertouch. If positive values are set, the filter cutoff is raised the harder you press. Negative values invert this relationship.

LFO Touch This sets the amount the VCF LFO parameter should be affected by Aftertouch. If positive values are set, the modulation increases the harder you press. Negative values invert this relationship.


VCA Att/Dec/Sus/Rel

The VCA Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release parameters. Use these parameters to determine how the volume should change with time, when a note is played.

VCA Velocity This determines whether the VCA Envelope should be affected by velocity, i.e. by how hard or soft you strike a note on the keyboard.


About the “Oscillator Lock” parameter

JX16 features two oscillators per voice, with fixed sawtooth wave-forms. You can, however, generate square waves and PWM (pulse width modulation) with the JX16, by combining the two oscillators us-ing the “Osc Lock” and Oscillator 2 “Vibrato” parameters. The follow-ing applies:

• "Osc Lock" allows the phase of Oscillator 2 to be fixed relative to Osc1, producing pulse waves when Oscillator 2 has the same pitch and level as Osc1.

• If the oscillators are tuned to the same pitch and level, an “Osc Lock” setting of 50% produces a square wave with higher and lower set-tings producing progressively narrower pulse waveforms. With an “Osc Lock” setting of 0% the two oscillators cancel out completely, which is useful if you only want to use the noise generator as a sound source.

• By applying the Oscillator 2 “Vibrato” parameter when Osc Lock is set to around 50%, classic PWM is produced.You can also detune Oscillator 2 for even richer modulation effects.

• In “Free” mode the oscillator phase is allowed to drift, producing a random timbre change.

By experimenting with these parameters, many different timbres and modulation effects can be produced.


About the Filter Modes

The JX16 features a multimode filter. The various filter modes are se-lected with the VCF Mode parameter, and are as follows:

• Lowpass (LP)Lowpass filters lets low frequencies pass and cuts out the high frequencies. This is the most commonly used filter type in analog synthesizers.

• Bandpass (BP)A bandpass filter cuts frequencies above and below the cutoff frequency, allowing a specific range of frequencies to pass while attenuating all others.

• Highpass (HP)A highpass filter is the opposite of a lowpass filter, cutting out the lower frequencies and letting the high frequencies pass.

MIDI Controller Messages

The JX16 responds to the following MIDI Controller Messages:

Controller Parameter/Value

Pitch Bend +/- 2 Semitones

CC1 (Mod Wheel) Vibrato

Aftertouch Can control filter cutoff and filter cutoff modulation (by the VCF LFO).

CC2 Increase filter cutoff

CC3 Decrease filter cutoff

CC7 Volume

CC16 Increase filter resonance

Program Change # 1-64


VB-1

The VB-1 is a virtual bass instrument built on real-time physical model-ling principles. This has the following properties:

• VB-1 is polyphonic with up to 4 voices.

• VB-1 receives MIDI In Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to the VB-1.

• VB-1 responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume).Volume.Pan (remember to pan the two instrument channels hard Left/Right if you want to use MIDI Pan messages).

Damper switch.

Wave Morph knob.

Volume knob.

Pick-up position (slide left or right to change position).

Pick (slide left or right to change position).


VB-1 Parameters


Volume This regulates the VB-1 volume.

Damper This switch controls the length of time the string vibrates after being plucked.

Pick-up position

By dragging the Pick-up left or right you can change the tone. Position-ing it towards the bridge position produces a hollow sound that empha-sizes the upper harmonics of the plucked string. When placed towards the neck position, the tone is fuller and warmer.

Pick position This determines where along the length of the string the initial pluck is made. This controls the “roundness” of the tone, just like on a real bass.

Wave Morph This knob selects the basic waveform that is used to drive the plucked string model. This parameter can drastically change the sound charac-ter. The control smoothly morphs through the waves. It is possible to create sounds that have no relation to a bass guitar with this control.


LM-9

The LM-9 is a basic drum machine. It has the following properties:

• LM-9 is polyphonic with up to 9 voices.

• LM-9 receives MIDI in Omni mode (on all MIDI channels).You don’t need to select a MIDI channel to direct MIDI to LM-9.

• LM-9 responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume).

Furthermore, all parameters can be automated as described above.

Volume fader (one for each drum sound)

This adjusts the Pan (the position in the stereo image) for the individual drums. The setting is applied to the currently selected drum, indicated by a lit yellow LED over the Pad button.

This sets the global veloc-ity sensitivity for LM-9.

Pad (one for each drum sound). Press to audition the drum sound assigned to the Pad, or to select a sound for adjusting pan.

Program switch


LM-9 Parameters

Drum Sounds

LM-9 comes with a number of different collections of drum sounds, all with their own characteristic features. The table below shows how the drum sounds typically are assigned to note values on your MIDI key-board. The mapping is GM compatible:

Switching the sets

Use the Program button to switch between the supplied drum sets, just like you switch between effect programs.


Velocity This sets the global velocity sensitivity for LM-9. The higher the value, the more sensitive LM-9 will be to incoming velocity data. If set to “0”, the sounds will play back with a fixed velocity value.

Volume sliders The volume sliders are used to adjust the volume for each individual drum sound.

Pad The Pads are used for two things: To audition the individual drum sounds, and to select a sound for adjusting pan.

Panorama This is used to position an individual sound in the stereo image. The setting applies to the currently selected sound, indicated by a lit yel-low LED over the Pad button.

Drum sound Note value

Bass C1

Snare D1

Hi-Hat F#1

O-Hi-Hat A#1

Tom 1 D2

Tom 2 B1

Tom 3 A1

Crash C#2

Ride D#2


Universal Sound Module (USM)

The USM is a General MIDI compatible sound module. As described on page 223, General MIDI (GM) is a standard defining a set of sounds in MIDI instruments. GM instruments use the same program change numbers for the same types of instruments.

So, if you prepared a sequence or MIDI file and want the melody to be played by a “piano”, you can use a certain program change command embedded into the sequence to automatically select a piano sound in any GM compatible sound module. The GM standard, however, does not specify in great detail how that piano should sound. It is simply as-sumes that the manufacturer reproduces an acoustic piano within the capabilities of the instrument. A consequence of this is that, depend-ing on the GM module used, a song may sound very different, even though the instrument sounds were mapped correctly.

This problem is solved by the Universal Sound Module! Cubasis VST users can make sure that their music created using the USM will sound exactly the same when played back on another computer, be-cause the sound reproduction is no longer hardware based – perfect for InWire users!

❐ InWire and RocketPower are described on page 322.


• The USM features over 70 MB of sampled waveforms and four stereo outputs.

• The USM is polyphonic with up to 96 voices.

• The USM receives MIDI in 16 channel Multi mode (simultaneous multi-timbral playback on 16 MIDI channels).In other words, one USM unit can play up to 16 MIDI tracks, each with a different sound.

• The USM responds to the following MIDI messages: MIDI Note On/Off (velocity governs volume).Volume.Pan.Pitch Bend (up to ± 12 semitones).Modulation (vibrato).

Selecting Sounds

❐ According to the General MIDI Standard, MIDI channel 10 is reserved for drums. This cannot be changed.

The USM features 128 different sound patches. Selecting programs is done by sending program change messages from the Inspector.

Selecting Outputs

The USM features four stereo outputs, allowing for flexible routing of sounds to different effect processors etc. By default, all MIDI chan-nels are routed to USM stereo output “1”.

• To select another output, click the “Output” field below the Channel Activity indicator for the MIDI channel you wish to direct to another output.

This opens a pop-up allowing you to select one of the four stereo outputs.


USM Parameters


Master Volume Sets the master output volume for the USM.

Pitchbend Range Sets the range for incoming Pitchbend messages (selectable between 1 to 12 semitones).

LFO Speed Governs the speed of the vibrato. The vibrato depth is con-trolled via MIDI Modulation messages (for example, using the Mod Wheel on your MIDI controller).

MIDI channel activity indicators 1-16.

These light up to indicate activity on the corresponding MIDI channel.

Output 1-16 Clicking in this field opens a pop-up allowing you to direct the corresponding USM MIDI channel to one of the four available stereo outputs.


Brother Gregory

Brother Gregory is an advanced monophonic vocal synthesizer, with real-time control over pitch and vowel sound. With its built-in stereo delay and amazing sound, Brother Gregory is excellent for deep vocal drones, unusual lead lines and weird effects. Furthermore, the plug-in control panel shows a 3D animation of a singing monk that reacts di-rectly to your input!

You can either control the Brother Gregory via MIDI (just like any VST Instrument), or directly in the plug-in control panel (using the XY field - see below). When playing the Brother Gregory via MIDI, the MIDI note numbers govern the pitch while pitch bend messages control the vowel sound (see below for a complete MIDI implementation list).


Parameters

The lower half of the control panel window contains the parameters:


Question mark Click the question mark to display version information and labels for the different plug-in controls.

XY field This area allows you to play the Brother Gregory with the mouse, di-rectly in the control panel: Click to make the monk sing and drag the mouse to change pitch and vowel sound. The X-axis (horizontal) controls the pitch and the Y-axis (vertical) controls the vowels.

Glide speed Adjusts the glide (portamento) time, i.e. the time it takes for the pitch to glide from one note to another. This is only relevant when playing the Brother Gregory via MIDI.

Delay Governs the mix between the “dry” signal and the delayed signal. The further to the right you move the fader, the more echo effect.

Head Size Changes the voice characteristics. When the knob is in middle posi-tion, the default voice is used; turning the knob left or right will make the voice more “baritone” or “soprano”, respectively.


MIDI Implementation

Playing the Brother Gregory via MIDI allows you to control all on-screen parameters via MIDI controllers, and gives you access to a couple of parameters not available in the control panel:

MIDI event Parameter

Note number or CC 11 (Expression).

Pitch. Note that the Brother Gregory is not velocity sensitive.

Pitch Bend Vowel sound.

CC 1 (Mod wheel) Amount of vibrato.

CC 5 Portamento (glide) time.

CC 7 Volume.

CC 12 Delay mix.

CC 13 Voice character.


Easy Guitar

• This plug-in (developed by Wizoo) is included with Cubasis VST, but is not automatically installed when you install the program.Instead, you will find a separate Easy Guitar CD in the Cubasis VST package, contain-ing an installer for Easy Guitar.

Easy Guitar is a “virtual” rhythm guitarist. It is based on Virtual Guitar-ist, a professional VST Instrument available as a separate plug-in. The Easy Guitar plug-in provides two different instruments: Electric Guitar and Acoustic Guitar.

These are the main characteristics:

• Three different styles (players) for each guitar• Four variations (parts) for each style• Five different chords (Major, 7, maj7, m, sus4)

(Depending on the selected player, some players do not support all chords listed above.)


What Easy Guitar has to offer

Easy Guitar will provide you with a guitar track to accompany your songs. All you have to do is to tell Easy Guitar through your MIDI key-board in which key to play which chord. The timing, tuning and sound of Easy Guitar will always be accurate. And in contrast to a “real” gui-tar recording, you can always edit chords and sound – right up to the final mix.

How does Easy Guitar work?

There are several different ways of playing Easy Guitar:

• You can play chords and vary the expression using keyboard velocity, MIDI controllers, the sustain pedal, and program change messages.

• If you’re not familiar with a keyboard, you can enter chords and other MIDI events using one of the editors provided by Cubasis VST.

• You can use Easy Guitar to dub tracks of existing songs and MIDI files to im-prove the way they sound. Many commercial MIDI files include special tracks for use with chords, although duplicating a typical ‘pad sound’ track (such as strings) with Easy Guitar will also produce good results.

Selecting a player

A player is a guitarist playing in a particular style. This style includes both the way the guitar is played and how it sounds. You select the player from the pop-up menu at the top of the Easy Guitar window.

The “acoustic players”

When you use Easy Guitar in “Acoustic Guitar” mode, the following “acoustic players” are available:

• Ringaracka: standard accompanying guitar, based on 8th notes.• Mellow: modern phrasing, based on 16th notes• Mean Reso: a western riff for blues styles


The “electric players”

When you use Easy Guitar in “Electric Guitar” mode, the following “electric players” are available:

• Muted Fifths: standard accompanying guitar, based on muted 8th notes.• Heavy 1-5-8: distorted riffs for rock styles• Ultra: ultra heavy ‘New Metal’ guitar

Selecting a part

You can vary a player by switching to one of 4 different parts – and unlike switching players, switching parts happens in real time. There are three different ways to select a part:

• To switch between the different players, click the arrows on the left and right of the word “Part” in the Easy Guitar window.

• Use a MIDI keyboard to send a program change message between 1 and 4, with the message number referring to the number of the selected part.

• Make sure that the Remote On/Off option (keyboard remote control) is se-lected and press a key between C1 and F#1. For more information on this op-tion see page 319.

Tempo

Easy Guitar automatically adapts to the song tempo, even when there are tempo changes during playback (e.g. an accelerando). The lowest possible tempo is 85 bpm, the upper limit is defined by the maximum song tempo – 350 bpm.

Accents and syncopation

When you hit a note or chord pretty hard (with a velocity value above 100), Easy Guitar will play the chord in a syncopated style. This means that the chord will only be played on the weak beats, with the chord on the strong beats being omitted.


Chord recognition

Easy Guitar uses intelligent chord recognition. It recognizes what you “want” to play and finds the correct chord. So normally you can simply start playing.

When you play a chord (e.g. notes C, F and G for a Csus chord), it is automatically recognized by Easy Guitar. Should the required chord not be available, Easy Guitar will play a chord that is as suitable as possible.

One finger chords

For the chord types major, 7 and minor you do not actually need to play all the notes in the chord, but can simply work with the one-finger method (which strictly speaking should be called the one-to-two-fin-gers method).

Proceed as follows:

• Simply press a key, and Easy Guitar will play the corresponding major chord. By pressing a second key you trigger different variations of this chord:

Chord display

As soon as Easy Guitar recognizes a chord, its name is displayed in the Chord field.

Latch On/Off

The status of this option determines whether Easy Guitar continues to play after you have released a key.

For more information about the latch option see page 318.

Second key Chord

None major

White key to the left 7

Black key to the left m


Long chords

Easy Guitar can also be used to play long chords. You can insert these in intros or outros or any other suitable part.

• To play a long chord, press the sustain pedal and play the notes.There are two different types of long chords, triggered by different velocities:

• Low velocity: slowly strummed chord• High velocity: heavy chord

In case you do not have a sustain pedal, you can also simulate its function using the F#1 key in the MIDI keyboard section used for re-mote control of Easy Guitar. For more information see page 319.

Sustain pedal

The sustain pedal is controlled by the status of the Latch On/Off op-tion. Try out the following functions to understand how to use the sus-tain pedal (or the F#1 remote control key):

Shuffle

Use this dial to adapt the swing feel of Easy Guitar to that of your song. This option moves the off beats back a little. When you set the dial to 100 %, phrasing will be in exact triplets.

Latch on Stop function When you press the sustain pedal during play-back, Easy Guitar will stop.

Long chords mode When you press the sustain pedal and press note keys, Easy Guitar will play long chords (see page 318).

Latch off Sustain pedal When releasing note keys while the sustain pedal is pressed, Easy Guitar will not stop but continue playing.

Long chords mode See Latch on.


Decay

The Decay dial is used to change the decay time of individual beats. With shorter decay, the guitar will sound more “staccato”, while longer decay will make the guitar sound more fluid and “legato”. Please note that a decay is a sound effect generated by applying a fil-ter envelope curve to the original signal. The more of the effect is ap-plied, the less natural the guitar will sound.

Remote On/Off

You can use the seven keys between C1 and F#1 (the first seven keys on a five octave MIDI keyboard) of your MIDI keyboard to remote control Easy Guitar. To activate remote control, switch on the Remote On/Off option.

Remote control means that certain keys on your MIDI keyboard can be used to trigger certain functions of Easy Guitar. The following table lists the available key assignments:

Key Function

C1 Pressing this key triggers the part numbered 1.

D1 Pressing this key triggers the part numbered 2.

E1 Pressing this key triggers the part numbered 3.

F1 Pressing this key triggers the part numbered 4.

C#1 When pressing this key, you will hear the noise of a finger gliding over a string.

D#1 When pressing this key, you will hear the noise of hitting empty strings while stopping these strings with your other hand.

F#1 The F#1 key is used like a sustain pedal, so if you do not own a sus-tain pedal, you can use the F#1 key instead



17InWire and RocketPower

Introduction

What is RocketPower and InWire?

RocketPower is a system for transferring musical data and managing recording sessions over the Internet. Developed by Rocket Networks Inc, RocketPower allows you to collaborate with other users of Rock-etPower applications, anywhere in the world.

InWire is Steinberg’s RocketPower support.

What do I need?

To use InWire, you need the following:

• An internet connection (and a standard web browser application) on the computer you use for music work.While a fast connection is desirable, it isn’t absolutely required.

• A RocketPower application.In this case, the RocketPower application is of course Cubasis VST!

• The latest version of the RocketControl system installed on your com-puter.To download the Rocket software, go to http://www.inwire-studios.com and fol-low the download links and instructions on the page.

• A Rocket Network account.This will automatically be created when you fill out the forms to download the Rocket-Control software.

❐ After installing RocketControl, you will find an online manual in pdf (Acro-bat) format in the RocketControl folder on your hard disk. We recommend that you read that document to get detailed information about how the Rocket system works, about account options, etc.This chapter only describes the basic InWire/RocketPower use in Cubasis VST.

CUBASIS VST17 – 322 InWire and RocketPower

Basic Terminology

In Rocket Networks, the following terminology is used:

• AccountIn order to use InWire, you need to have a Rocket Networks account. This is your “user profile”, and also determines your privileges (there are different types of accounts, as described in the Rocket documentation).

• SessionA session is a Rocket Networks project. You can join and contribute to existing public sessions, or create a new session (depending on your account type).

• Source MediaThis is the audio data, as originally recorded. When you add your own audio record-ings to a session, the source media (your recordings) will initially be stored locally on your computer.

• RenderingRenderings are files of different compression rates, created from source media. Usu-ally, you and the other session contributors will upload and download compressed ren-derings of the audio data during work (to save upload and download time). The source media is also considered a rendering, and can be uploaded or downloaded as well (e.g. when it’s time for the final mix).

CUBASIS VSTInWire and RocketPower 17 – 323

Setting Rocket Preferences in Cubasis VST

If you pull down the InWire menu in Cubasis VST and select Prefer-ences, the Rocket Preferences dialog will open. This allows you to make the following settings:

Setting Description

Download Quality This is where you select the quality of the renderings to receive. Usually “Standard” is a good setting (although you may want to select “Preview” if you have a slow internet connection).As of this writing, the “Lossless” compression setting isn’t im-plemented, and should not be selected.

If unavailable take: If the audio files are not available in the preferred Download Quality, this setting determines which rendering to download in-stead.

Upload Quality Similarly, this setting determines the quality of the renderings sent from your computer when Posting. Again, do not select “Lossless”.For more about compression rates, see the Rocket documenta-tion.

Default MIDI Devices Allows you to specify your default General MIDI-compatible de-vices (such as the Universal Sound Module).

Auto Allocate MIDI channel

If this is activated, MIDI channels will be automatically allocated when you receive a Session (useful to avoid channel conflicts when collaborating live with other users). If it is deactivated, the original MIDI channel assignment (as set by the sender of the data) is kept.


Auto Allocate Audio channel

If this is activated, audio channels will be automatically allocated when you receive a Session (useful to avoid channel conflicts when collaborating live with other users). If it is deactivated, the original audio channel assignment (as set by the sender of the data) is kept.

Erase Unused before Posting

If this is activated, the unused sections of all audio files in the Pool are permanently deleted from your hard disk when you Post.Don’t activate this unless you are absolutely sure you want the unused sections of all files in the Pool to be de-leted!

Use Coloring andSort by Owner

If this is activated, received tracks will be organized and colored according to their respective owner.

Get all Part Info Data on Receive

When this is activated, the Inspector settings for all parts are in-cluded when you receive a session.

Auto Receive when joining a Session:

This determines what happens when you enter a Rocket Net-works session. The options are:No: To receive the session (download the files) you will have to click the Receive button in the Arrange window.Yes – Ask: When you enter a new session, you will be asked whether you want to receive the session files or not. This is probably the most convenient option to choose.Yes – Don’t Ask: When you enter a new session, it will automat-ically be downloaded.

Setting Description


Activating RocketPower and joining a Session

To activate RocketPower and join an existing session, proceed as follows:

❐ In this example, we assume that you selected the “Yes – Ask” option for the “Auto Receive when joining a Session” setting in the Rocket Prefer-ences dialog.

1. Start with an empty song.This is not required, but it will make things less confusing when you receive the session.

2. Click the RocketPower button above the Arrange window ruler, or se-lect RocketPower from the InWire menu.The RocketControl application launches.

3. In the RocketControl window that appears, make sure your username and password are correctly entered, and click Connect.Now, your default web browser launches and takes you to the Steinberg InWire Public Sessions on the Rocket Networks web site.

4. When you’re connected, you will automatically go to the “Welcome Lobby” session, which is the default session for InWire users.You can adjust this in the Account settings on the web page if you like.

• In Cubasis VST, you will now be asked whether you want to receive the session or not.Click No for now.

5. To go to another session, locate it in the session list in the browser, and click its Go button.The session list shows you information about the different sessions. You can also get details about the current section by clicking the “Session Details” tab in the browser.


Receiving a project

Once you have found an interesting session to join, click Yes when you’re asked whether you want to receive. If you clicked No (or if you have turned off the automatic receive function altogether in the Rocket Preferences), you can click the Receive button in Cubasis VST (next to the RocketPower button) to receive the session at any time.

Now the following will happen:

1. Cubasis VST will ask you to specify a folder for the audio files to be received.This will become the folder for your local version of the session.

2. The files will be downloaded.After the downloaded renderings have been decompressed, they will appear in the Audio Pool in Cubasis VST.

❐ Depending on the amount of data to be downloaded, this process may take some time to complete.

3. An alert appears, telling you to save the song under a new name.

4. Finally, a Save dialog appears. Go to the folder you specified in step 1 and save the song under a new name.

Now, you can try playing back the song to hear how it sounds – then, it’s your turn to add some music! Proceed with recording audio and MIDI, just as usual.

❐ Depending on your account type, it may also be possible to create a new, empty session. You could then either start from scratch with an empty Cubasis VST song, or upload an existing song as a starting point.


The InWire Settings in the Pool

Some items in the Audio Pool are directly related to InWire:

File list

File pop-up menu

Menu item Description

Quality Clicking in this column for a file brings up a pop-up menu show-ing all available renderings. Selecting a rendering will insert it into the Arrange window (after downloading it, if it isn’t available lo-cally on your own disk).

Post as Clicking in this column for a file brings up a pop-up menu, allow-ing you to specify which renderings should be posted. Render-ings shown with a check mark will be uploaded when you Post (see below). To turn Posting on or off for a rendering, select it on the pop-up menu.


Delete Low Quality Renderings

Selecting this item will delete low quality renderings stored lo-cally on your computer. These renderings may be received again by selecting them from the Quality popup menu in the File list.

Get Best Quality Select this to receive the best quality renderings available from the server, of all files in the Pool.

Post Best Quality Select this to post the source renderings of all files you own (have created yourself) in the Pool.


Posting

Once you have added something that you’re satisfied with, you can post your changes to the session, to make them available to the other Session contributors:

1. Set up the Posting options in the Audio Pool (see above).

2. Pull down the InWire menu and select Post, or click the Post button next to the RocketPower button.

All edited sections of the arrangement (audio files and parts) are sent. You can stop the posting by selecting Cancel Post from the menu, if needed.

Disconnecting

When you’re finished working, you disconnect from Rocket Networks in the following way:

1. Select the RocketControl application.

2. Pull down the File menu and select Disconnect.You are disconnected, and the login window appears again.

3. Click the Exit button.RocketControl quits.

4. Quit the web browser as usual.



18Movies

Introduction

Cubasis VST allows you to open a movie file and play it on your screen, synchronized with the audio and MIDI playback. This is done by using Direct Show, a part of Microsoft DirectX Media which in turn is an ex-tension to Windows. Movie files in the formats QuickTime (extension “.qt” or “.mov”) or Video for Windows (extension “.avi”) are supported.

❐ Note that only movie files created for Quick Time version 3 or earlier are supported, i.e. it is not possible to open movie files for QuickTime versions higher than 3. This is because of the fact that this function uses compo-nents of the Windows Media Player, which in its fundamental form does not contain the necessary codecs.

Playing a movie in sync with Cubasis VST

Adding the movie to the song

1. Pull down the File menu and select “Open Movie”.A standard file dialog appears.

2. Locate the movie file and click Open.The movie appears in a separate window.

CUBASIS VST18 – 332 Movies

Playing back

1. Pull down the Options menu and select “Options...” from the Movie submenu.The Movie Options dialog appears.

2. Make sure that the “On Line” option is activated.This makes the movie follow the playback in Cubasis VST.

3. If you like, adjust the size of the Movie window by selecting an option on the pop-up menu.

4. Close the dialog by clicking OK.

5. Activate playback in Cubasis VST.The movie will play back in sync, starting at the beginning of the Cubasis VST song.

❐ The audio in the movie is not played back when you play the Movie from within Cubasis VST.

Setting an Offset

If you don’t want the movie to start at the beginning of the Cubasis VST song, you can define an offset value. Proceed as follows:

1. Open the Movie Options dialog by selecting “Options” from the Movie submenu on the Options menu.

2. Specify a new start position for the movie file in the Offset value field.The value is in time code format (hours: minutes: seconds: frames). If you for example set this to 00: 01: 00: 00, the movie will start exactly one minute after the beginning of the song.

3. Click OK to close the dialog.

CUBASIS VSTMovies 18 – 333

Other options

On the Movie submenu on the Options menu you will find two more items:

• Hide/Show Title BarAllows you to hide the title bar of the Movie window.

• Hide/Show MovieAllows you to temporarily hide the Movie window from view.

CUBASIS VST18 – 334 Movies

19Saving and Opening

Saving

Once you have created some music of your own, you’ll probably want to save it to your hard disk. When you save your music in Cubasis VST, there are three document formats you can use for saving your music: song, arrangement or MIDI file. You should only choose MIDI files if you want your music (MIDI only – no audio) to be playable in other sequenc-ers. If you want to save your music for further use in Cubasis VST, you should use either the song or the arrangement format:

Song

When you save a song, the following is saved:

• All the arrangements.• All settings in the dialogs, on the Transport Bar, etc.• The Pool, all audio settings and audio file references (but not the actual audio

files themselves).• The settings in the VST and MIDI Track Mixer windows.

Arrangement

When you save an arrangement, the following is saved:

• All the things you see in one Arrange window; the tracks, the parts, Inspector settings, tempo, etc.

• The audio file references for the audio parts used in the arrangement.

The arrangement format is often perfectly adequate for saving a piece of music. The pros and cons of both formats are shown in the table on the next page:

CUBASIS VST19 – 336 Saving and Opening

❐ Even though the song files contain all audio references, they do not con-tain the actual audio files! If you want to transfer a song containing audio to another computer, you need to move the audio files as well.

Performing the Save

1. Pull down the File menu and select “Save As...”.The file dialog appears.

2. Use the standard controls to navigate to the desired folder.

3. Use the File Type pop-up to select a format, song or arrangement.

4. Type in a name for the file.

5. Click Save.

File Format Advantages Disadvantages

Arrangement • Takes up little disk space.• Can be saved, and opened in another song, which is an easy way to transfer music between different songs.• Does not contain “unnecessary” settings if all you want to save is the music.• Opening an arrangement does not affect settings in dialog boxes and on menus, which, in some situations, is an advantage.

• Does not contain any audio set-tings, other than the audio file ref-erences used in the arrangement.• Does not contain a complete “snapshot” of the program’s “state”.

Song • Contains the complete Pool and all other audio settings.• Contains more than one arrange-ment.• Saves all the settings on all menus, in all dialog boxes etc.

• Takes up more disk space than the arrangement file format, even if you only have one arrangement in the song.

CUBASIS VSTSaving and Opening 19 – 337

Using “Save”

On the File menu you will find a menu item called “Save”.

• If you have already saved your song once (using “Save As...”) this menu com-mand will save your song without asking for a file name and location. The file you save now will simply overwrite the earlier version.

• If you have not yet saved your song, selecting “Save Song” is the same as se-lecting “Save As...”.

The “Save Song” command can also be executed by pressing [Ctrl]-[S] on the computer keyboard, or by clicking the Save icon on the Toolbar.

Exporting in old Cubasis format

The first versions of Cubasis (1.0 - 2.x) used a different file format structure. Even though Cubasis VST 4.0 can read files created with Cubasis 1.0 - 2.x, the opposite is not true. Therefore, you have the op-tion to export your songs in a format compatible with older Cubasis versions. This is done by selecting “Export - Cubasis 1.0 - 2.x Song...” from the File menu.

• If you plan to continue working with the song in Cubasis VST 4.0, you should perform a regular save as well – otherwise settings specific to version 4.0 will be lost!


Opening

Just as with saving, Cubasis VST can open three different file types: songs, arrangements and MIDI files. Opening MIDI files which is use-ful if you import music created in other sequencers, is done with the “Import MIDI File…” command, described later in this chapter. This section describes how to open songs or arrangements.

1. Select “Open...” from the File menu (or click the Open icon on the Toolbar).The Open dialog appears.

2. Use the File Type pop-up to select which type of file you want to open, song or arrangement.Song files have the extension “.all” and arrangement files have the extension “.arr”.

3. Navigate to the desired folder.

4. Select the file and click Open.

About opening songs

There can only be one song open at a time. If the currently open song contains unsaved changes, you will be asked whether you want to save the current song first before a new song is opened.

About opening arrangements

If the file is an arrangement, it will appear as a new window on screen, in addition to any Arrange windows already open. You can have up to 16 arrangements open at the same time.

About the default song

Each time you launch Cubasis VST, a default song called “Def.All” is opened. This makes it possible to customize the default functionality and layout of the program:

1. Launch the program.

2. Set up the program as you want it.This may include the number and organization of tracks, MIDI setup, metronome set-tings, audio settings, part color etc.

3. Select “Save as…” from the File menu.


4. Navigate to the Cubasis VST program folder.

5. Type in the name “Def.All” (without the quote signs) and click Save.You will be asked if you want to replace the current Def.All file. Click Yes.

Next time you launch Cubasis VST, you will automatically get your de-sired setup and layout.

About the New Song command

When you select New Song from the File menu in Cubasis VST, the following happens:

1. If you have unsaved changes in the current song, you are asked whether you want to save it or not.

2. Then, a file creation dialog opens, allowing you to select a folder and specify a name for your New Song file.

3. An empty song with the specified name is created, together with a subfolder called “XXX.Audio” (where “XXX” is the name of the new song, minus the “.all” extension).

The new song is set up according to the default song, with the new audio folder selected as Audio Files Folder.


Saving and Importing Parts: the Audio and MIDI Library functions

Often it can be useful to save smaller “building-blocks” of your music. For example, you may have created rhythm patterns, combined audio files etc. that you want to use in different arrangements or songs. By saving these as audio or MIDI parts, you can easily import them into other songs. Audio parts also include the necessary audio file refer-ences, making it possible to import audio parts into other songs with-out having to import their audio files separately in the Pool. This feature is also helpful if you are working with ReCycle (REX) files (see page 271), as you can edit REX files in Cubasis VST and then save them as parts for use in other songs.

It’s possible to save parts to any folder on your hard disk, but there are two special folders intended just for this: the Audio Library and MIDI Library folders. These are automatically created when you install Cu-basis VST, and can quickly be accessed from the program. Proceed as follows:

Opening the Audio and MIDI Libraries

To open the Audio or MIDI Library, select “Audio Library” or “MIDI Li-brary” from the Panels menu, or click the corresponding icon on the Toolbar.

The Audio and MIDI Library icons.


When you click the icon, the corresponding Library window opens on the computer desktop.

• You may want to move the Library window(s) and resize the Arrange window so that they all can be visible at the same time.

Saving Parts

To save a MIDI or audio part, simply drag it from the Arrange window and drop it in the corresponding Library window. A part file (extension “.prt”) is automatically created.

• You can also save several audio parts or several MIDI parts by select-ing them and dragging the selection to the Library window.A single part file will be created, containing all the selected parts and their data.

• It is recommended that you save MIDI parts in the MIDI Library, and audio parts in the Audio Library, to avoid confusion.For the same reason, you should not save audio and MIDI parts combined as one file.

Click the Audio Library icon...

...to open the Audio Library window.


Importing Parts

To import a MIDI or audio part, simply drag the part file from its Library window and drop it on a track in Cubasis VST.

• The part will appear at the position where you dropped it (taking the Snap value into account).If the part file contains more than one part, the first part will appear on the drop posi-tion, and the following parts will maintain their original positions in relation to the first.

• Note that you must drop the part on a track of the same track class (MIDI or audio).You can also drop the part in the empty area at the bottom of the Track List – a new track will automatically be created.

• When you import an audio part this way, its audio file references are automatically added to the Audio Pool.

• When you import a MIDI part this way, please note that the channel and output of the part you import is saved with it.E.g. if a MIDI part was routed to channel 1 of your first MIDI output when it was saved in the MIDI Library, and you drop this part on a MIDI track that is routed to channel 2 of the fourth MIDI output, the routing of the track will change to MIDI channel 1 and MIDI output 1.


Exporting MIDI Files

You might want to export an arrangement as a standard MIDI file, so that it can be loaded into other computer programs or hardware se-quencers, for example.

❐ A standard MIDI file contains MIDI data only – no audio. Any audio tracks in your arrangement will automatically be excluded from the created MIDI file.

1. Mute all the tracks you don’t want to be included in the MIDI file.

2. Make sure the song runs at the correct tempo.The Master button should be activated on the Transport Bar, since the exported MIDI file will get the tempo stored in the Master Track.

• The part parameters set up in the inspector (volume, transpose, pro-gram change, etc.) are automatically converted to “real” events and values in the exported MIDI file.This way, the MIDI file will play back like the original Cubasis VST song, as much as possible.

3. Pull down the File menu and select “MIDI File...” from the Export submenu.

4. In the file dialog that appears, select a name and location for the file.The file will get the extension “.MID”, which is the standard extension for MIDI files.

5. Click Save.

6. In the alert box that appears, you can specify the following:

• Whether you want the exported MIDI file to be of format 0 or 1 (default).MIDI files of format 0 contain only one track that plays back on several MIDI channels. In MIDI files of format 1, the track structure is preserved. Which format to select de-pends on in which applications and devices you want to use the MIDI file later – format 1 is the preferred choice, but some sequencers can only read format 0 files.

• Song Name for Track 0This allows you to enter a name for the track, in addition to the name of the file, and the name you enter here will be displayed when looking at the file properties/information. Note however, that this only applies when exporting as format 0, as described above.

• Copyright NoticeIf the file is original work, you can enter the name of its originator(s) here. This will be displayed when looking at the file properties/information.


Importing MIDI Files

1. On the File menu, select “MIDI File...” from the Import submenu.A file dialog appears.

2. Locate the file and select it in the file list.MIDI files have the extension “.mid”.

3. Click Open.

4. In the dialog box that appears, decide if you want the file to appear in a new Arrange window or if you want to merge the MIDI file into the current arrangement.If you choose the latter option, the file will appear in the current arrangement, starting at the Left Locator position.

When importing MIDI files, the data is automatically split up into shorter segments (parts) to make it easier to edit the music in the Arrange window.



20The Master Unit Program

About Master Unit

By using Master Unit, your PC and your CD recorder, you can create your personal audio CD from your own recordings made in Cubasis VST/WaveLab Lite or from some other source. Master Unit gives you easy-to-use high-quality tools that let you compile and process the au-dio before burning the CD. Master Unit is a compact program that you can use to record, import and the process audio data, as well as cre-ate your own audio CD according to the “Red Book” standard.

In Master Unit you can compile audio files in a play list, create fade ins and outs and shorten the length. You can furthermore use the three additional Effects “Bass Boost”, “Stereo Spread” and “Brilliance” to considerably refresh the audio quality of the files, if needed.

The effects can be used and set in real-time. That means, you can hear how your settings change the respective recording. The effects can be set individually for each CD track.

You can directly record audio in Master Unit or import audio files from hard disk etc. A complete CD project can be recorded onto CD-R(W) and saved onto hard disk.

As you can see from this short description, Master Unit is the ideal tool to optimize and save your audio material on a user-friendly medium. In this context, we would like to remind you to observe and respect the copyrights of other artists.

CUBASIS VST20 – 348 The Master Unit Program

Using Master Unit

This section gives you a general overview on how to use Master Unit in practice. It also contains cross-references to sections with informa-tion about the respective issues.

The basic concept behind Master Unit is that you work on a CD project. In order to use Master Unit you must therefore first create a new project or load one that you have saved previously. A project is a file that con-tains the complete data set of the CD you are about to create.

• Open the File menu and select “New Project…” or “Open Project…”.Find more information on page 371.

• Import the desired tracks from disk as WAV or MP3 files (will be con-verted into WAV format) or from an audio CD - or record them.Find more information about these issues on page 352 (“Importing Tracks from hard disk”), page 353 (“Importing Tracks from audio CDs”), and on page 359 (“Recording audio in Master Unit”).

• You can now play back, name and sort the tracks and determine the gap time (the length of the pause between any two tracks).Read about this on page 356 (playback), page 354 (naming and gap time) and on page 355 (sorting).

• You can shorten track lengths and define a fade in and/or fade out for each track.See page 363 and page 364.

• You can use a number of very powerful pro-quality effects to process the sound of each track.Processing can be done in real-time, so that you can monitor the effect, or by calculat-ing and creating a file. For more information, see page 360.

• Finally, you can use Master Unit to record the CD-R.This is described on page 369.

CUBASIS VSTThe Master Unit Program 20 – 349

The Master Unit window

The Master Unit window is divided into a number of different areas. They represent the major functional groups within the program.

The most important of these are called Track List, Effects section and Waveform display. They are described in the following sections of this chapter.

The Master Unit main window

The Master Unit has a number of additional controls and displays. Among these are the Volume controls, the Processing buttons as well as various other displays.

Waveform display

Track List Volume section Effects section


The Track List

The Track List

The Track List is located in the upper left corner of Master Unit win-dow. You can use it to import, name, record and play back audio tracks as well as change the order in which the tracks are recorded onto CD-R. This is also where tracks are removed from a project or even completely deleted from your hard disk. At the bottom of the Track List you can find a number of recording and playback functions.

All entries in the Track List – except for Time - can be changed directly in the list.

Fader for scroll-ing the List

Sort buttons

Cycle Play

Record

Next track

Fast Forward

Previous track

Rewind

StopPlay

List entries

CD track number Author Name

Track title Gap length Track time


Importing Tracks from hard disk

Master Unit lets you import audio files in WAV and MP3 format. Im-porting MP3 files is described on page 372. Proceed as follows to im-port a piece of audio, that is available as a WAV file, into the Track List:

1. Click on the “Import” button.A file selector opens.

2. Select the desired WAV and click “Open”.The file is imported and displayed in the Track List. If the file is monophonic and in 16 Bit/44.1 kHz format, Master Unit transforms it into a stereo file of the same format and checks whether enough space is available to save the file.

You can also import several WAV files in one go:

• Hold down the [Ctrl] key on your computer keyboard while selecting the files with the mouse. To import several files that are adjacent to each other in the file selector, hold down [Shift] on your computer keyboard and click on the first and the last file of the desired block.

❐ Importing tracks into Master Unit is not limited to the total playing time of an audio CD (up to 80 minutes). You can exceed this time limit, e.g. to save your audio data onto a DAT cassette (longer playing time) instead of on CD.

Drag and Drop

You can also use Drag and Drop to drag WAV files from the Desktop, “My Computer” window or Windows Explorer, into the Track List:

• Find the desired file, click on it and drag it into the Track List while you continue to hold down the mouse button.

❐ Project files can also be opened by using Drag and Drop, see page 371.


Importing Tracks from audio CDs

You can use Master Unit to directly import audio from any audio CD. The data is saved as a WAV-file, i.e. a digital copy of the imported track is saved onto your hard disk. There is no D/A conversion, thus no loss in quality. This method of directly reading the audio data from CD is often called grabbing. Proceed as follows:

1. Open the Import menu and select “Import Tracks from CD…”.A dialog opens.

The Import audio tracks from CD dialog.

2. Select the CD-ROM drive from which you wish to import the audio tracks by using the pop-up menu in the top left of the dialog. If you only have one CD-ROM drive installed in your computer system, it will be the only option in this menu.

3. Insert an audio CD in the selected drive.The tracks on the CD appear in a list in the dialog.


4. Select one or several tracks for import onto your hard disk by clicking on them. Selecting works as in the Windows Explorer - press [Ctrl] or [Shift] to select several tracks.

❐ You can directly add more tracks to an open project. Use the “Add to Project” function in the “Import Tracks from CD…” dialog for this pur-pose. The files that you import with this method are stored in the same directory as the previously imported files for this project.

5. Enter a file name and a path for the imported WAV file(s). (If you add files to an already open project, this will not be necessary.)To do this, click on the small grey button with the three dots, next to the “Cancel” but-ton in the dialog. When you first open the dialog, its standard path setting is C:\track.wav.

6. Start importing by clicking on the “Import” button.Imported files are directly added to the Track List.

7. Close the dialog by clicking “Cancel”.

Changing the entries in the Track List

To edit an entry in the Track List (Author, Title or Gap), double click it, type in the desired changes and confirm by pressing [Return].

• Preset gap time – the length of the pause between two tracks on the CD – is 2 seconds. You can change this to a value between 0 and 4 seconds.Higher values will automatically be corrected to 4 seconds.


Changing the Track order in the List

This is how you change the track order:

1. Click on the desired track to select it.

2. Use the Sort buttons in the lower right corner of the Track List area to move the track up or down.

The Sort buttons

• Track time can be changed by using the Markers in the Waveform dis-play. This is described on page 363.

Scrolling the Track List

If the Track List contains more than 16 tracks, you can use the slider to the right of the list to scroll the list up or down.

Removing a Track from the Track List

When Playback is stopped, you can remove a track from the Track List, without deleting its WAV file from your hard disk: Select the file in the list and click the “Remove” button below the Track List or press the [Delete] key on your computer keyboard.

Deleting a Track

You can also remove a track from the Track List and delete its WAV file permanently from your hard disk: Select the file in the list and click the “Delete” button below the Track List.

❐ Deleting is an irreversible action! If you delete a file it is lost and cannot be recovered!


Recording and Playback functions

Setting up

Master Unit records and plays back using Windows Multimedia sys-tem, which means your audio hardware must have been properly in-stalled under Windows. Before playing back or recording, you should make sure the proper audio device is selected (and possibly adjust its settings):

1. Pull down the Options menu and select Soundcard Settings.A dialog appears.

2. Use the Playback pop-up menu to select the desired audio device for playing back.

3. Use the Recording pop-up menu to select the desired audio device for recording.

• You can also adjust the number and size of the buffers used when playing back and recording. Normally, you shouldn’t need to change these settings.Only if you experience crackles, pops and glitches when playing back and/or recording should you try raising these values. Make a note of the current values before changing anything.

4. Close the dialog by clicking OK.

Note: A typical sound card may have more than one stereo input pair - line inputs, mic inputs, direct inputs from the CD player, etc. To se-lect which input should be used when recording into Master Unit, use the mixer application provided with the sound card (check the sound card documentation for details).


Record and Playback controls

❐ To use the Recording and Playback functions, you must first create a project or load one from disk.

These buttons essentially work in the same way as those on your cas-sette recorder or CD player. Here’s what each button does:

❐ Except for the Record and Cycle buttons, all buttons always affect the track that is selected in the Track List!

This button is called Click it to…

Stop …stop playback.

Play …start playback.

Rewind …move the current playback position backwards in time.

PreviousTrack

…select the previous track in the Track List.

Fast Forward

…move the current playback position forward in time.

Next Track …select the next track in the Track List.

Record …start recording audio in Master Unit. Find more infor-mation on page 359.

Cycleplayback

…repeat playback of the current track indefinitely. Atten-tion: this button actually is an on/off switch!


Setting Record and Playback volume

Two pairs of faders and level indicators, called “Input” and “Output”, are located between the Track List and the Effects section. You can use them to control Mas-ter Unit’s Record and Playback volume.

The “Input” faders control the level of the signal that you record to hard disk via your sound card. The “Input” level indicators show this level.

Using the Output faders, you only control the volume of your sound card output (i.e., the volume that you actually hear during playing). This is not the same as the actually recorded level of the file on hard disk. Its level is visible in the “Output” level indicators during playback.

❐ When recording audio on your hard disk, please make sure that the sig-nal has a sufficient level, but avoid distortion. The “Input” level indicators should do most of their “jumping” within the yellow part of the indicator, if possible, but not reach into the red part. The level of recorded audio files can also be optimized after recording. Find more information on page 368 and page 372.

When controlling Record or Playback volume, use the mouse to drag one of the two handles of the respective fader pair (“Input” faders or “Output” faders). The other fader handle of the pair will follow auto-matically.

• You can also make individual settings for each fader in a pair by press-ing [Shift] and dragging the desired fader handle with the mouse.

• To reset a fader pair, press [Ctrl] and click on one of the faders.


Recording audio in Master Unit

You can not only process audio files in Master Unit, you can also record audio. Proceed as follows:

1. Activate recording by clicking on the Record button and start playback of the signal source that you want to record.Master Unit immediately starts recording. A new entry appears in the Track List: “recorded, Title x” (where the x stands for the new track number).

2. Stop recording by clicking the Stop button.You will probably want to make a test recording to optimize the level setting. You can control the level of what’s recorded on your hard disk by dragging Master Unit’s “Input” fader up or down. Make sure that the level indicator does not touch the red part.

3. Delete the test recording by selecting it and clicking on the “Delete” button. Then start recording for real.


The Effects section

The Effects section

The Effects section is located in the upper right part of the Master Unit window. Its effects combine extremely simple handling with excellent quality.

• The effects can be used to provide your recordings with more punch, bril-liance and width.

• All effects are controlled in the same way, in spite of their totally different ef-fect on the audio material. Each effect can be activated/deactivated by click-ing on its On/Off switch. You can use the effect’s fader to control intensity. Values between 0 (no effect) and 100 (full effect) are available.

• By clicking on the general “Effects” On/Off switch in the top left corner of the Effects section, you can switch all active effects on or off in one go.

• The “mono/stereo” switch can be used to toggle between mono and stereo playback. Master Unit calculates active effects in real-time during playback. Mono playback demands a lot less processing power from your computer than stereo playback. If you run Master Unit on a less powerful system and playback starts to stutter, try setting the “mono/stereo” switch to mono.

❐ When you write a CD-R with Master Unit, the data is always recorded in stereo. The setting of the “mono/stereo” switch is irrelevant to the writ-ing process.

Stereo/Mono switch

Value fields

Effect on/off switches

All Effects on/offEffect intensity sliders


Each track in the Track List can be processed individually with the ef-fects. Therefore, it is possible to only apply a slight Brilliance effect on track 1, but use the Bass Boost and the Stereo Spread on the next track. Master Unit automatically memorizes the effect settings that you make. If you change from one track to another, Master Unit resets the effect parameters to the last state memorized for this track.

❐ As always, when using effects and aiming for a professional result, you should apply the effect intensity individually and purposely. In other words, when in doubt: less is more!

By using a key command you can copy the effect settings from one track to another track. Proceed as follows:

1. In the Track List, select the track whose settings you wish to copy and press [Ctrl]-[C].

2. Now select the track to which you want to apply the effect settings and press [Ctrl]-[V].

Bass Boost

Sometimes you may encounter recordings that lack punch or depth in the lower frequencies. Bass Boost can remedy this to a certain de-gree. Its centre frequency is 60 Hz and its filter quality (Q) value is 4.

Stereo Spread

The stereo image in audio material retrieved from older media does not always meet the expectations: Maybe someone recorded his or her first own demo tapes without a sound engineer, or maybe a vinyl record suffered from the many times it was played. The Stereo Spread effect will help to overcome the resulting “narrow” sound. Stereo Spread widens the stereo basis of the signal, thereby making the ma-terial significantly more transparent and giving it a more open sound.

• Please note that the mono compatibility of the signal might suffer, if you make extensive use of Stereo Spread. In a worst case scenario, this could mean that instruments completely vanish from the Mix when the audio file is played back in mono. If mono compatibility is important for you, you should use the “mono/stereo” button in the top right corner of the Effects sec-tion to test whether the signal is still mono compatible.


Brilliance

Older sound material, especially if it was recorded using an analog tape, may have suffered high frequency loss. Applying the Brilliance effect, you can make up for this. It can also be used to considerably freshen up any material that lacks “sparkle” in the higher frequencies. The effect treats frequencies from 5 kHz upwards. The higher the fre-quency that is processed, the greater the degree of amplification.


The Waveform Display

The Waveform display shows a graphic waveform of the track that is currently selected in the Track List. It is in this display that you can de-termine where the track starts and ends, as well as whether it should have a fade in or fade out.

Setting the Track length – The Start and End Markers

• Drag the green Start Marker (the lower box on the left side) with the mouse to determine a new start position. This may be useful if the starting point of the audio file is not identical to the acoustic starting point.

• You can determine the end of the audio file in a similar fashion: Use the mouse to drag the red End Marker (the lower box on the right side) to the desired position. The “Selected time” display informs you about the current length of the track, as de-fined by the Start and End Marker settings.

• To reset all Markers to the edges of the waveform, hold down the [Ctrl] key and click on the Waveform display with the left mouse button.

Fader for scrolling the Waveform display

Fade-in Marker (top) and Start Marker (bottom)

The Waveform display Fade-out Marker (top) and Stop Marker (bottom)

Fade-out timeFade-in time

Zoom in/outSelected time (time of track)


• The Start and End Markers disappear once an imported track or one that you have recorded with Master Unit has been processed or manually been set to “ready” status – see page 366. If you manually set a track to “ready” status by clicking its track number with the right mouse button, its Marker and Fade in/out settings are not being used since nothing has been processed. You can of course re-define the Start/End Markers and the Fade in/out Markers for each track at any time. To do so, click on its track number with the right mouse button. If it has been processed or manually set to “ready” status before – indi-cated by the green color of its track number – it will be set back into “not processed” status – indicated by a red track number. Effects can be applied on the same track more than once.

The Fade in and Fade out Markers

You can use the Fade in and Fade out Markers to gradually increase (fade in) and/or decrease (fade out) the volume within a definable time frame at the beginning and at the end of the audio file.

• To fade in a track, use the mouse to drag the Fade in Marker (the up-per box on the left side) to the right.The length of the fade in hours/minutes/seconds is shown in the “Fade in” field.

• If you want to fade out a track, use the mouse to drag the Fade out Marker (the upper green box on the right side} to the left until the fade out has the required length. The “Fade out” field below the Waveform display informs you about the exact length of the fade, in hours/minutes/seconds.

• To reset all Markers to the edges of the waveform, press [Ctrl] and click on the Waveform display with the left mouse button.

Zoom – Changing the size of the displayed Waveform

If needed, you can use these two buttons to zoom in or out on the waveform in the Waveform display. As an alternative, you can also use the [+] and [-] keys on your computer keyboard.

• If you have set a high degree of magnification, the waveform might not be completely visible in the Waveform display. You can then use the slider under the display to move the visible part of the waveform.


Available disk space

This display informs you about how much space you have left on your hard disk. The red bar represents the occupied part space of the stor-age medium, selected under “Select CD-R file directory” in the File menu (see page 371). In the field next to it you can see how much space is left in terms of hours/minutes/seconds.

❐ Importing tracks into Master Unit is not limited to the total playing time of an audio CD (up to 80 minutes). You can exceed this time limit, e.g. to save your audio data on a DAT cassette (longer playing time) instead of on CD.


Processing the Tracks

Before you can actually burn your selection of tracks onto a CD, Master Unit must calculate the effect settings you have made and cre-ate a new audio file that includes them. There’s one exception: if you wish to burn unchanged tracks to CD, you can manually set them to “ready” status. All tracks that are ready to be recorded on a CD have a green track number. Even after the tracks have been processed, it is possible to re-define the Start/End and Fade in/out Markers. See page 364.

• To process the currently selected track, click on the “process single track” switch, located below the fader section in the Master Unit win-dow. If you wish to process the complete project, click on the “pro-cess” switch. If you wish to interrupt processing for any reason, just click the “Cancel” switch. If you cancel, the data that has already been written to the disk during the processing will automatically be deleted.

❐ Calculating the effect data needs additional hard disk space. Make sure that enough free space is left on your hard disk: For each track to be cal-culated, you will need as free space as the track already occupies on the disk.

• If you click on a track number with the right mouse button, the number will change to green (“ready” status) and the corresponding original track can be recorded onto a CD without having been processed by Master Unit. To set all tracks into “ready” status without processing them, hold down [Ctrl] on your computer keyboard and click on any track number.

❐ The “ready” status of a track can at any time be re-defined by clicking on it with the right mouse button. A red track number indicates that the track has not been processed, a green number that it has or that it man-ually has been set to “ready” status.


The Process time display

During the processing, this display informs you about how long it will presumably take until Master Unit finishes processing the current track. Simultaneously, a red bar to the left of the display gives you a graphic impression about the progress of the processing.

Total Time and Remaining Time CD-R

These two displays at the bottom of Master Unit window are meant to facilitate your overview of the current project.

• The “TOTAL TIME” display shows the total time of all tracks that are currently in the Track List. If the total time exceeds the recording time available on the CD-R, the value is displayed in red.

• The “remaining time CD-R” display informs you how much free space is left on the CD-R. If the total time of all tracks in the Track List exceeds the total avail-able time on the CD-R, the surplus time is displayed as a negative value.

• If the total time of the tracks that you wish to place on one CD-R exceeds 74 minutes, either remove tracks or try using the Start and End as well as the Fade in and out Markers to shorten longer tracks.

CPU load

Processing the effects in real-time puts a heavy workload on the pro-cessor. How many effects Master Unit can actually calculate during playback is to a large degree dependent on the power of your proces-sor (CPU). The “CPU load” display shows you how much of the avail-able processor power is currently being consumed by the calculations the processor has to make. The more to the right the “CPU load” bar moves, the greater is the workload for the CPU. If the bar enters the red area, the processor has reached its peak performance. As a re-sult, audio file playback will suffer from interruptions and clicks. You should then deactivate individual effects until the “CPU load” bar re-turns into its green area again and there are no interruptions during playback.

❐ How you can use all effects without having a powerful processor is de-scribed on page 360.


Normalizing

While analog systems generally show a relatively tolerant behavior when fed with signal peaks higher than 0 dB, a digital system for tech-nical reasons responds to levels above 0 dB by creating very unpleas-ant distortions, called digital clipping. Digital recordings with a very low level on the other hand suffer from a low resolution and therefore from background noise.

The solution to the problem consists of two components:

• When recording, you should make sure that the recorded signal has a suffi-cient level. This, however, should never exceed 0 dB, as that would result in a distorted signal.

• Master Unit has a Normalize function that you can use to optimize the level of a recorded signal.

The Normalize function searches an audio file for its highest peak level. It then calculates the difference between the highest dB value it found and 0 dB (the highest level technically possible in a digital sys-tem). Finally, Normalize raises the level of the complete audio file by the level difference it found. Normalize can of course not differentiate between background noise and useful signal, but it adds no noise it-self. The Normalize function is also useful to balance (match) the lev-els of several tracks that you want to put on one CD.

❐ We recommend that you only use the Normalize function after you have completed processing Master Unit’s effect settings. If you normalize first, the highest level in your audio file will already have a value of 0 dB. As some effects (e.g. Bass Boost and Brilliance) are likely to further increase the level, this will inevitably lead to ugly sounding digital distortion.Therefore please keep in mind: process first – then normalize!


Normalizing one or all Tracks

This is how you normalize one track in your Track List:

1. Select the desired track in the Track List by clicking on it.The corresponding line in the Track List will be highlighted.

2. Select “Normalize selected Track” on the Normalize menu.A dialog box appears, where you can confirm the action by clicking “Yes” or cancel it by clicking “No”. If you click “Yes”, the calculation starts immediately.

This is how you normalize all tracks in your Track List:

• Select “Normalize all Tracks” on the Normalize menu.A dialog box appears, where you can confirm the action by clicking “Yes” or cancel it by clicking “No”. If you click “Yes”, the calculation starts immediately.

Recording the CD-R

When you have prepared all files in your current project by using the Processing and possibly the Normalizing functions or if you have not processed and instead manually set them to “ready” status, you can record them onto CD-R.

1. To do this, open the CD-R menu and select “Create CD-R…” to bring up the following dialog:

The table below lists all items in this dialog. Which items are available depends on your system.

Item Description

CD writer If your system detects a CD recorder, this field will display its type designation. If the CD recorder is not found, a message will appear. Make sure that the CD recorder is correctly connected and that its power switch is On. Then let Master Unit scan your system again by clicking on the “rescan” button.

burning track During the writing process, Master Unit shows you which track is cur-rently written. The red bar next to this field informs you about how much of the complete CD has already been written.


status This field displays the current CD recorder activity.

simulation If you activate this switch, the writing process onto CD-R is only simu-lated. This is similar to the real writing process, except that in this mode the laser in your CD recorder doesn’t actually write data onto the CD-R. If you want to make sure that your CD recorder is correctly installed, that your system can manage the data transfer rate and that the Track List doesn’t contain errors, you should first use this mode to test things. Master Unit will inform you of possible errors that have oc-curred during the test and you can solve possible installation prob-lems before actually risking to ruin an empty CD-R.

eject Use this to eject the CD-R from the CD recorder.

rescan Click this button to let Master Unit scan your system once more for the presence of a CD recorder.

1x / 2x / 4x Use any of these switches to determine the CD-R recording speed. The number of options available here depends on the features of your CD recorder.

burn This switch is only visible if Master Unit has detected a CD recorder connected to your system and if an empty CD-R is in the recorder. Click on the “Burn” switch to actually start writing the CD-R. If the “simulation” switch is active at the same time, no data will be written to the CD-R. The transfer and writing process will then only be simulated.

cancel Click on this button to close the dialog.

Item Description


The Menus

This section contains a short description of all items on Master Unit menus.

The File menu

The Options Menu


New Project… Selecting this item creates an empty new project. In the dialog that opens, select the directory in which you want to save the project and give the new project a name.

Open Project… Selecting this opens a previously saved project from the hard disk. A project can also be opened using Drag & Drop; a previously open project will then automatically be saved.

Save Project This item lets you save the current project under the name and path that you have specified when creating it.

Save Project As… This lets you save the currently open project under a new file name and path.

Export Au-diotracks As…

If you select this item, the currently selected track in the Track List will be saved to disk as a WAV file. You can specify a new name and path for it.

Export Track List as…

This item lets you save the Track List entries as an ASCII file (text only) under a name and path of your choice.

Select temp file directory…

You can use this item to determine the directory in which Master Unit saves the processed files (those that are written onto the CD-R).

Quit Selecting this will terminate the program.

About Master Unit Some information about Master Unit and the people who contrib-uted to it.


Mono playback Here you can set which channel should be used for monophonic playback.

Soundcard settings

Opens a dialog where you can select a sound card for playback and recording as well as the number and size of its buffers.


The Normalize menu

The CD-R menu

The Import menu

❐ Please read and respect all copyright information on the CDs from which you load tracks!


Normalize selected Track

This function finds the highest peak level in the track that is currently selected in the Track List and optimizes it to a level of 0 dB. The rest of the track is optimized in equal proportion.

Normalize all Tracks

This function finds the highest peak level within each track in the Track List and optimizes it to a level of 0 dB. The rest of each track is optimized in equal proportion.


CD info… Checks the size of the CD.

Create CD-R… Selecting this item opens a dialog where you can make a number of settings concerning your CD recorder and start the writing process. Find more detailed information on page 369.


Import Tracks from CD…

Selecting this item lets you load (“grab”) audio data directly from an audio CD in a drive connected to your system. The data is saved as WAV-files. It is a digital copy that is written to your hard disk as an audio file. A D/A conversion, which could downgrade audio quality, does not take place.

MPEG1-Layer3-file…

Opens a file selector where you can load and convert one or several MP3 files into WAV format. These files can then be processed in Master Unit as any other WAV files and be recorded onto CD-R. When you select an MP3 file, another dialog opens, and you can de-fine where you want to store the resulting WAV file.


Index

AAftertouch

Creating 163Editing 163

AnyAudio Channel (Recording) 71Audio Channel

(ReCycle files) 274MIDI Channel 167

Arrange window 15Arrangement

About 101Arrange window 15Closing 100Opening 339Saving 336

Arrow ToolArrangement 107Editors 183

ASIO Control PanelASIO DirectX 39ASIO Multimedia 41

ASIO DirectX Full DuplexAbout 37Settings 39

ASIO Driver 37ASIO Multimedia

About 38Settings 41

AudioAbout 13Disabling 46Input Source 56Mixing 196Recording 67Setting up for 34

Audio CardDefined 24Selecting in Master Unit 356

Audio ChannelAbout 60Any 71Copying Settings 207Number of Channels 43Setting 60Stereo/Mono 60

Audio Clock Source 43Audio Editor 148Audio Files

Deleting in Pool 133Deleting with Parts 68Editing 148Exporting 143Importing in Pool 141Importing into Arrangement 270Locating Missing 135Locating on Hard Disk 132Mixing Down 279Naming 132Pool 127Replacing 134Selecting a folder for 63

Audio Files Folder 63Audio Inputs

Activating 56Emulated (DirectX) 40Selecting for Recording 63

Audio Library 341Audio Mixer (External) 35Audio Mute Button 215Audio Parts

About 68Overlapping 69Saving and Importing 341

CUBASIS VST374 Index

Audio PoolAbout 126Dragging Parts from 143Importing files 141Loading 146Saving 146Time Formats in 130

AuditioningArrange Window 109Audio Pool 138MIDI Editors 184

Auto Quantize (Score) 175Automation

MIDI Track Mixer 221VST Channel Mixer 210

BBank Select 81Bass Boost (Master Unit) 361Bouncing Audio Files 279Brilliance (Master Unit) 362Brush Tool 156Burning a CD 282

CCancel 193CD creation 282CD-R

Creating in Master Unit 369Channel

Audio 60MIDI (Events) 167MIDI (Tracks) 77

Clean Lengths 177Clef 176Click

Activating 59Settings 97

ClippingAbout 65Indicators 197

Collapse 128Color

For Parts 114In MIDI Editors 187

Comment (Score Edit) 181Controller Display

Key Edit 159List Edit 170

ControllersCreating 163Deleting 123Editing 163

CopyArrange window 113Editors 186

Copyright (Score Edit) 181CPU load (Master Unit) 367Create

Continuous Events 163Notes 155Parts 152Tracks 102

Create CD-R (Master Unit) 369Create File 279Cut

Arrange window 113Editors 186

Cut At Locators 116Cycle

About 96Recording in 96Restricting Editing to 184

CUBASIS VSTIndex 375

CUBASIS VST

DDef.All (Default Song) 339Delay

In Monitoring 44MIDI to Audio 73Playing VST Instruments 286

DeleteAll Events 185Audio Files (Permanently) 68Parts 110Segments 140

Delete Cont. Data 123Delete Doubles 123Deleting Tracks (Master Unit) 355Digital Recording 43DirectShow 332DirectX Plug-ins 207Disable Audio 46Disable Monitor 45Disk Cache Scheme 73Display Quantize 175Display Transpose 176Double Click Opens 153Drag and Drop 141Duplicate

Events 157Parts 107Segments 138Tracks 103

EEdit Solo 186Editing via MIDI 190Editors

About 152Closing,

Cancelling Changes 193Keeping Changes 193

Opening 153

EffectsAbout 202Editing 206Included VST Plug-ins 227Inserts 205Parameters 226Sends 203

Enable Monitor 45Enharmonic Shift 179EQ Button 201Equalizer 201Eraser Tool

Arrange Window 110Editors 158

EventsCreating in List Edit 166Duplicating 157Moving 156Scrubbing 184Selecting 183

Expand 128Explode By Channel

With Audio Tracks 119With MIDI Tracks 118

Export Audio File 279Export Cubasis 1.0-2.x Song 338Export MIDI File 344Exporting Files and Segments 143External Wave Editor 148

FFade in and Fade out Markers

(Master Unit) 364Fill 185Flat Beams 177Flip Stems 180Follow Song 186Freeze Play Parameters 120Full Duplex

ASIO DirectX 40ASIO Multimedia 41

376 Index

GGeneral MIDI See GMGhost Parts 112Glue Tube tool

Arrangement 109Score Edit 180

GMAbout 223Names in Inspector 78

GSAbout 224In MIDI Track Mixer 219

IImport Audio File

Arrangement 270Master Unit 352Pool 142

Import Mixman File 276Importing Tracks from audio CD

(Master Unit) 353In/Out Indicators 54Info Line 185Input Level Meters 65Inputs

Activating 56Selecting for Recording 63

Insert At Locators 116Insert Effects 205Inspector 120Installation 31

JJoining Notes 180Joining Parts 109

KKeep 193Keep Appended Events 193Key (Score) 176Key Edit

About 154Creating Notes 155Non-note Events 163Velocity 159

LLatency

About 38Monitoring 44VST Instruments 286

LevelsAudio 196MIDI Track Mixer 214

Line Tool 161List Edit

About 165Columns 167Insert pop-up menu 166Value 2 Display 170

Load Pool 146Local On/Off 53Locators

About 95Moving Song Position to 95Setting up the Cycle 96

LoopAbout 192Restricting Editing to 184


MM Column 104Magnifying Glass Tool 115Master Button 92Master Track 92Master Unit 348Memory Requirements 26Meter Position 89Metronome Dialog 97Microphone 34MIDI

About 13Connecting 47In/Out Indicators 54Recording 80Selecting Sounds 78

MIDI ChannelSetting for Recording 77

MIDI Colors 188MIDI Connector Button 190MIDI File Import and Export 344MIDI Input 190MIDI Interface

Connecting 47Installing 30

MIDI Library 341MIDI Output 77MIDI Thru 53MIDI to Audio Time Offset 73MIDI Track Mixer

About 212Automating 221Levels 214Pan 214

MixerAudio (VST Channel Mixer) 196External 35MIDI Track Mixer 212

Mixing Down to File 279

Mixman TRK files 276Monitoring

About 44Activating 64

MonoAudio Channels 60Audio Track 61Master Section 199

MoveNotes 156Parts 107Tracks 103

MoviesOffset 333Opening 332Playing Back 333Setting Up 332

MP3Exporting 280Importing in Arrangement 270Importing into Pool 142

MuteMIDI Track Mixer 215Track 104VST Channel Mixer 200

Mute Tool 110

NNew Song 340No Beams 177No Overlap 177Normalizing (Master Unit) 368Note Info Line 185Note Tool 178Number of Channels 43


OOpen

Arrangement 339Song 339

Optimize Arrangement 117Output (MIDI) 77Overdubbing

Audio 70MIDI 80

PPan

Inspector 121MIDI Track Mixer 214VST Channel Mixer 199

Part Display 16Parts

About 68Audio-Overlapping 69Copying 113Creating 152Deleting 110Duplicating 107Joining 109MIDI-Overlapping 80Moving 107Naming 106Repeating 111Resizing 107Saving and Importing 341Selecting 106

PasteArrange window 113Editors 186

Patchname pop-up menu 78Pencil Tool

Arrangement 107Editors 166List Edit 170

Pitch BendCreating 163Editing 163

Play in Background 149Plug-ins

DirectX 207Parameters 226

Pool See Audio PoolPosition Format 89Position Slider 90Precount 97Prg Setting 81Printers 28Program Change

Display Setting 81Editing Events 168Inspector 121Sending 78

Purge Segments 140

QQuantizing 122

RRAM 26Read Button


Real Audio 280Record Mode 58Record SysEx 86Recording Audio (Master Unit) 359Recording Levels 65Recording Resolution 58ReCycle Files 271Remaining Time (Master Unit) 367Repeating Parts 111Resizing Notes 157Resolution 58Roland GS 224


SSample Rate 57Save

Arrangement 336Pool 146Song 336

Scissors toolArrangement 108Score Edit 180

Score EditDeleting Notes 180Entering Notes 178Moving Notes 179Transposing Notes 179

Scrubbing 184Segment Range Selection 150Segments

About 128Auditioning 138Creating in Audio Pool 133Deleting 140Deleting Unused 140Dragging into Arrangement 144Duplicating 138Exporting 143In the Pool 131Renaming 138Start and End Insets 139

Select Audio Files Folder 63Selecting

Audio File in Pool 133Events 183Parts 106Segment in Pool 138Tracks 103

Send Effects 203Set Aside (Arrangement) 100Setup MME 52Shuffle (Score) 177

Smooth SegmentsAbout 69With ReCycle files 274

Snap Value 105Solo

Edit Solo 186MIDI Track Mixer 215Track 104VST Channel Mixer 200

SongOpening 339Saving 336

Song Position Pointer 90SoundFonts

About 83Bank Manager 83

Speaker Icon 184Speaker Tool

Arrangement 109Editors 184

Split (Piano) Staff 174Split At Locators 116Splitting Notes 180Staff Mode 174Start and End Insets

Changing in Audio Pool 139Start and End Markers

(Master Unit) 363Stereo

Audio Channels 60Audio Track 61Master Section 199

Stereo Spread (Master Unit) 361Surround 208Syncopation 177System Exclusive

Editing 168Recording 86


TTempo 92Text (Score Edit) 180Thru

Audio 64MIDI Setting 53

Ticks 89Time Signature 92Title (Score Edit) 181To Pop-up Menu 184Toolbar (Main) 14Toolbar (Score Edit) 178Tools

Arrangement 107Editors 153

Track Mute Events 169Tracklist (Master Unit) 351Tracks

About 101Creating 102Muting and Soloing 104

Transport BarAbout 88Hiding and Showing 88

Transpose 121Transposing Notes (Score) 179Trim Events to Part 113TRK files 276Tutorial Song 32

UUndo Quantize 123Undo/Redo 13Universal Sound Module 308Use 16-Bit only 58

VVelocity

Creating Ramp 161Editing in Key Edit 159Editing in List Edit 170Editing via MIDI 190Inspector Setting 121

VolumeInspector 121MIDI Track Mixer 214VST Channel Mixer 197

VST Channel Mixer 196VST Instruments

Activating 284Automating 290Descriptions of included 291Editing 287Mixing 289Playing 286Selecting Patches 287

VST Performance 201

WWave Editor 148Wave Images 137Waveform Display

(Master Unit) 363WaveLab Lite 148Write Button


XXG

About 224In MIDI Track Mixer 217

YYamaha XG 224



Documents

Cubasis VST 4.0 Manual - Computing at Northumbriacomputing.unn.ac.uk/staff/cgpv1/cg087/files/resources/Cubasis.pdf · CUBASIS VST Introduction 1 – 9 About Cubasis VST... Now that