Cubase Confusion Prepared by Mick Seeley - Livewire Recording Mick_Mac_Guy@yahoo.com Do s & Don t s DO: First, if you have a Mac, create an image of the boot drive with Disk utility and save it NOW DO: Always use the Yamaha N12 template for a new project or Cubase will screw you! DO: Always ALWAYS create a new folder for each new project/song and save ALL files to it. DO: Watch your master bus and aux out levels in Cubase they tend to get loud DO: Keep an eye on Input monitor (speaker icon). It must be on (or enabled in Pref s) in track you are recording to check level & hear input (duh). Turn OFF when done recording that track DO: Use info line to transpose MIDI, fine tune audio pitch, and to rename audio files DO: Use key commands: H & G to zoom in/out of tracks horizontally CMD - and CMD - to zoom tracks vertically (make unused tracks small!) SHIFT and # to go to marked locations SHIFT and G to set a loop (cycle) and turn it on OPTION + Click & Drag to copy & move events (works with separate tracks too!) F13 to record / F2 to hide/unhide the transport bar DO: Back up constantly, and to a DVD-RW at end of each project. DO: use Folder tracks, esp. For drum tracks. Create groups for drums. Vocals. Whatever. It s EZ! DO: Use automation - can even do it on the ST out (enable W & R in the mixer to create a track) Use the Mute tool (the X ) to mute a track event you don t want to hear (non-destructive) Use the Draw tool to create event in empty MIDI track, or to draw an automation track PRECOUNT (countdown) is toggled off/on in the Transport bar: the * above the time signature DO: Copy channel setting (EQ, FX, etc) for similar tracks (such as doubled BG vox or guitars). See Pg. 85 in Operations manual. DON T have Enable Record on Selected Track on in Preferences (Editing Project & Mixer page), DON T get in the habit of wasting disk space. When a project is done, back it up, and erase ASAP. DON T record without autoscroll on! DON T use too much of the reverb plug-in in Cubase, it is a CPU hog. Create an FX channel for it.
Punch In/Out Strange: To do it, first set your left & right locator positions by holding option and clicking on L and R in the transport bar. To activate auto-record, click on \ and / (under L and R) so they are lit up. If a track is in record mode, Cubase will go into record from play mode once you reach the punch in (left locator) point and punch out at the right locator point. No need to press record (!). Pasting Digital Audio (really equals insert) As per the manual: If there is a (copied) selection in the editor, this will be replaced by the pasted data. If there is no selection (if the selection length is 0 ), the pasted data will be inserted starting at the selection line. The section to the right of the line will be moved to make room for the pasted material. In Loop Selects all audio between the left and right locator. Converting a stereo track to mono Select the track you want the audio file to convert and press CMD-F to find the selected audio file in the Pool. Right-click on the file and select Convert files. Select Mono from the next hard-to-see window. Make sure you select New File or the old mix will be written over (unless you don t care). Track monitoring That speaker icon is not what you may think: it actually switches between sound coming into the track input (selected via the Inspector ) and the sound already recorded in that track. When the orange speaker light is on, you are monitoring input, so you have to turn it off to hear playback. This can be changed in the Preferences (VST page) to Tape machine Style (currently enabled, or it is supposed to be!). This option emulates standard tape machine behavior: input monitoring in Stop mode and during recording, but not during playback. Missing Sound Output (overall)? If there is no sound at all coming out from Cubase, check (from the Devices pull-down menu) device setup/mlan network. If all of the inputs and outputs are inactive, they have to be re-enabled. Oddly enough, it s not done in the device setup screens (WTF?!). Press F4 to get to VST Connections and change the Audio Device to Mlan network for each channel (can t do it globally - ARGH!). When done, Save the project file. Inputs & Outputs not where they should be? Same nonsense as above reassign them To mix: Create a stereo mix track if one doesn t already exist. Assign all the other tracks outputs to ST Mix out (N12-L/R). Set Mix track input to N12-ST in, turn mix track s output off for now ( No Bus ). Adjust mix to where you want it, set overall volume with N12 s red stereo fader. Check levels on the Cubase mixer (F3). To check a channel s setting, or add EQ, press the E button on that channel s strip. Record mix track. To play iy back, solo the mix track, and set the N12 Control Room source to DAW, or to ST with DAW to ST on. If you can t hear the playback, see below
Can t hear the mix track? A common bug in Cubase 4.5. Try soling and unsoloing the track & muting/unmuting the other tracks until the damn mix track decides it is OK to play now (grr!!) Can t hear the click? Maybe you re just lucky! But if you need to hear it and you know it s on, check the VST connections. Make sure it s enabled for the bus you want to hear it on. Licensing Is a nightmare! Easiest way reimage the boot drive (it only takes 15 min). Run the License Control Center app. Reboot & select Activate data license from the wizard menu the only function that appears to work in this nasty app. It will go online and do god knows what, and then Cubase should work. Converting sample rate & bit size of mixes in Cubase Mixes in Cubase default to 24-bit, & whatever sample rate you used in the project. To convert mixes to standard 16-bit 44.1khz for CDs: first, in Cubase, make sure you rename the audio file (not the track) name to an appropriate mix name. Then, go to the Pool (cmd-p). Right click on the mix file and select convert file. Make sure you select New File or the old mix will be written over. Importing Audio Best to do it from the Pool Window (cmd-p) since you ll have to go there anyway (Cubase doesn t insert audio directly into a track). Select the track you want the audio file to go into & open the Pool window. Right-click on the project s Audio folder, and select Import medium. Obviously, it should be the same sample rate and bit depth as the rest of the project. Once the file is imported, click on it to select it, right-click and select Insert into project. Looping an Audio File Man this was tough to find info on! It apparently can t be done, as even Steinberg s demo files have loops copied & pasted. They call a cycle a loop, but it s really just a repeated playback of a certain section of the song, NOT an audio loop. I tried importing a looped AIFF file, it just plays once. Even MIDI tracks aren t easily looped, just copy & paste. To set a loop (cycle) in Cubase, you can enter the measure (counter) values manually in the locator section of transport bar, or ctrl-click in the ruler (above the tracks) to set the left locate point. Use cmd-click to set the R point locator point. Enable loop in the transport bar to use your loop. Or you can select an audio region and press shift+g, to set locators and turn on cycle button. Handy: You set up a quick loop to audition an event edit. Play the loop while adjusting the event end or whatever. That s all just wonderful, but how do you loop a separate track? Archiving Is a bunch of crap in Cubase. Just save the files from that song s project folder to your backup drive, burn a DVD backup too, then nuke em. Using Cubase s Archive functions seems to screw up the file synchronization (great feature!), but doesn t save hardly any disk space! 1 st - DO NOT Minimize the files From the Pool Window 2 nd Remove unused media from Pool Window 3 rd DO NOT freeze edits (from Audio menu) Don t bother to Prepare Archive from the Media or context menu either
It is not necessary to archive the Images folder, since these Images can be recreated by Cubase AI. You may also find a file with the extension.csh in the project folder. This contains image information for edited clips and other data that can be recreated, so it can safely be deleted. Using MIDI fader automation I haven t even tried it with MIDI, but it works great for audio tracks! Here s how: first Select the track you want to automate (in this example I m using a Yamaha EX7 s middle mod wheel on MIDI ch. 12 to control volume with). Device setup\remote Items\Generic remote should be set up like: Note the highlighted lines, the rest don t matter in this example. Enable Write automation on the track (click on the W button), and press play (not record!). Move your MIDI controller s slider or wheel to set your volume. If it doesn t work, try using the fader on the Cubase mixer for that track. If that works, your MIDI is set up wrong. You may have to adjust your keyboard or other controller to transmit MIDI volume (CC #7). You know you are good to go if you turn your controller and the volume fader on the enabled track moves. Once you are set up, enable the write button (W) for automation on that track, and play with it! When done, click on the W button to turn off automation writing. Enable Read automation(the R button on that track to follow automation levels. To edit volume afterwards, It is actually easier to open up the automation sub-track (by right-clicking on the track and selecting show Used Automation ) to fine-tune volume settings, by clicking on and dragging the blue volume line. Removing automation is apparently an all-or-nothing option. I see no way to select a region of an automation sub-track and cut it. You can only right click on the automation track and choose Remove selected tracks. I don t see a list edit available for it either.
Using MIDI editor Select a track and then go to Open Key Editor from the MIDI pull-down menu. It s pretty much self-explanatory: use the cursor to modify note length or pitch or velocity in the bottom window. Use the draw tool to create new notes, tools work the same as in audio. MIDI List Editor First, set Prefs to Open List Editor in Event Display / MIDI. Then click at the top of the list view window on this icon: To set list for autoscroll. Drag cursor line in ruler to get to section you want. The rest is like the usual, but use the R window for velocity. To insert something, click on the insert type box in the middle of the top row, select your data, then use the pencil to click in the event display (grid area) to insert the data. MIDI Input (MIDI icon) lets you input stuff that way? Using 2 Aux sends in Mixdown Option 1 Channel Saver mode. Put mixer in hardware mix mode. On the tracks you want to send to external FX, turn OFF the aux send in Cubase on those tracks. Assign one track to AUX Left, the other to AUX Right. Turn off Aux sends on all other tracks. Set up the FX wet/dry mix you want on the effects devices, unless you have a channel to burn on the N12 for FX return (i.e. 2T to ST). This way is kind of a pain, but works. Option 2 In hardware mix mode, assign the track to a N12 fader. Assign the Aux send in that track in Cubase. The AUX send defaults to N12-AUX (which is L and R out). Change it to to AUX L or R bus, crank up the level, and run that Aux L or R to an ext device, and then into a N8/N12. Works, but takes 2 channels. Option 3 True Stereo. In ANY mix mode, assign the track output to N12 L/R. Assign the Aux send for the track(s) you want to process in Cubase to Aux L/R. Turn off Aux sends on all other tracks that you don t want to use the external processor on. Patch the N12 s Aux L and R out to the external device, and then into a stereo fader or into the 2-Track input on the N12. Option 4 For using 2 FX sends. In ANY mix mode, in Cubase assign the track(s) s send output to N12 Aux Left and/or R. Turn off Aux sends on all other tracks that you don t want to use the external processor on. Patch the N12 s Aux L and R out to the external device(s), and then into any N12 channel or into the 2-Track input on the N12. Works! Get more channels! (Mac only) By creating an aggregate device, you can use more than one audio interface at the same time on the Mac. Many new Macs have combo audio inputs & outputs that can be used for stereo optical digital I/O with a simple adapter (Parts Express has these parts for cheap). What all this means is you can create another stereo input and output to Cubase for digital audio transfer, for extra input channels, or for FX send/returns! Of course, you could use the analog I/O on the Mac as well with the proper adapters, but the quality will be MUCH better if you digital. To do so, create the aggregate device (click here for info). Now you can use any external device that has TOSlink optical digital connectors (or SPDIF, with an adapter box) with Cubase. I ve done the latter with an old DAT deck, which came in handy for digital transfers. Next I ll try my TC M-One digital FX Enjoy! Any questions, comments or corrections are appreciated. Mick_Mac_Guy@Yahoo.com