User manual

17
Setting up your system
Setting up audio
If your hardware setup is based on an external clock source
For proper audio playback and recording, it is essential that you set the project’s
sample rate to the sample rate of the incoming clock signals. If you load a project with
a sample rate that is different from your clock source, the program will try to change
the settings of the clock source, which may not be what you want.
By activating the “Externally Clocked” option, you “tell” Cubase that it receives
external clock signals and therefore derives its speed from that source. The program
will not try to change the hardware sample rate any longer. The sample rate mismatch
is accepted and playback will therefore be faster or slower. For more information
about the Sample Rate setting, see
“The Project Setup dialog” on page 62.
Ö When a sample rate mismatch occurs, the Record Format field on the status line is
highlighted in a different color.
If you are using audio hardware with a DirectX driver (Windows only)
Cubase comes with a driver called ASIO DirectX Full Duplex, available for selection
on the ASIO Driver pop-up menu (VST Audio System page).
Ö To take advantage of DirectX Full Duplex, the audio hardware must support WDM
(Windows Driver Model).
When the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver is selected in the Device Setup dialog, you
can open the ASIO Control Panel and adjust the following settings (for more details,
click the Help button in the control panel):
• Direct Sound Output and Input Ports
In the list on the left in the window, all available Direct Sound output and input
ports are listed. In many cases, there will be only one port in each list. To activate
or deactivate a port in the list, click the checkbox in the left column. If the checkbox
is ticked, the port is activated.
• You can edit the Buffer Size and Offset settings in this list if necessary, by double-
clicking on the value and typing in a new value.
In most cases, the default settings will work fine. Audio buffers are used when
audio data is transferred between Cubase and the audio card. While larger buffers
ensure that playback will occur without glitches, the latency (the time between the
moment Cubase sends out the data and when it actually reaches the output) will
be higher.
• Offset
If a constant offset is audible during playback of Audio and MIDI recordings, you
can adjust the output or input latency time using this value.
!
A DirectX driver is the next best option to a specific ASIO driver and the Generic Low
Latency ASIO driver.