User manual
Table Of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Getting into the details
- Setting up your system
- VST Connections
- The Project window
- Working with projects
- Creating new projects
- Opening projects
- Closing projects
- Saving projects
- The Archive and Backup functions
- The Project Setup dialog
- Zoom and view options
- Audio handling
- Auditioning audio parts and events
- Scrubbing audio
- Editing parts and events
- Range editing
- Region operations
- The Edit History dialog
- The Preferences dialog
- Working with tracks and lanes
- Playback and the Transport panel
- Recording
- Quantizing MIDI and Audio
- Introduction
- Quantizing Audio Event Starts
- AudioWarp Quantize (Cubase Only)
- Quantizing MIDI Event Starts
- Quantizing MIDI Event Lengths
- Quantizing MIDI Event Ends
- Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Only)
- AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Only)
- The Quantize Panel
- Additional Quantizing Functions
- Fades, crossfades, and envelopes
- The arranger track
- The transpose functions
- Using markers
- The MixConsole
- Overview
- Configuring the MixConsole
- Keyboard Navigation in the MixConsole
- Working with the Fader Section
- Working with the Channel Racks
- Linking Channels (Cubase only)
- Metering (Cubase only)
- Using Channel Settings
- Saving and Loading Selected Channel Settings
- Resetting MixConsole Channels
- Adding Pictures
- Adding Notes
- The Control Room (Cubase only)
- Audio effects
- VST instruments and instrument tracks
- Surround sound (Cubase only)
- Automation
- Audio processing and functions
- The Sample Editor
- The Audio Part Editor
- The Pool
- The MediaBay
- Introduction
- Working with the MediaBay
- The Define Locations section
- The Locations section
- The Results list
- Previewing files
- The Filters section
- The Attribute Inspector
- The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini Browser windows
- Preferences
- Key commands
- Working with MediaBay-related windows
- Working with Volume databases
- Working with track presets
- Track Quick Controls
- Remote controlling Cubase
- MIDI realtime parameters and effects
- Using MIDI devices
- MIDI processing
- The MIDI editors
- Introduction
- Opening a MIDI editor
- The Key Editor – Overview
- Key Editor operations
- The In-Place Editor
- The Drum Editor – Overview
- Drum Editor operations
- Working with drum maps
- Using drum name lists
- The List Editor – Overview
- List Editor operations
- Working with SysEx messages
- Recording SysEx parameter changes
- Editing SysEx messages
- The basic Score Editor – Overview
- Score Editor operations
- Working with the Chord Functions
- Introduction
- The Chord Track
- The Chord Track Inspector Section
- The Chord Editor
- The Chord Assistant (Cubase only)
- Creating a Chord Progression from Scratch (Chords to MIDI)
- Extracting Chords from MIDI (Make Chords)
- Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with the Chord Track (Follow Chords)
- Assigning Chord Events to MIDI Effects or VST Instruments
- Expression maps (Cubase only)
- Note Expression
- The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer
- The Project Logical Editor (Cubase only)
- Editing tempo and signature
- The Project Browser (Cubase only)
- Export Audio Mixdown
- Synchronization
- Video
- ReWire
- File handling
- Customizing
- Key commands
- Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only)
- How the Score Editor works
- The basics
- About this chapter
- Preparations
- Opening the Score Editor
- The project cursor
- Playing back and recording
- Page Mode
- Changing the zoom factor
- The active staff
- Making page setup settings
- Designing your work space
- About the Score Editor context menus
- About dialogs in the Score Editor
- Setting clef, key, and time signature
- Transposing instruments
- Printing from the Score Editor
- Exporting pages as image files
- Working order
- Force update
- Transcribing MIDI recordings
- Entering and editing notes
- About this chapter
- Score settings
- Note values and positions
- Adding and editing notes
- Selecting notes
- Moving notes
- Duplicating notes
- Cut, copy, and paste
- Editing pitches of individual notes
- Changing the length of notes
- Splitting a note in two
- Working with the Display Quantize tool
- Split (piano) staves
- Strategies: Multiple staves
- Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures
- Deleting notes
- Staff settings
- Polyphonic voicing
- About this chapter
- Background: Polyphonic voicing
- Setting up the voices
- Strategies: How many voices do I need?
- Entering notes into voices
- Checking which voice a note belongs to
- Moving notes between voices
- Handling rests
- Voices and Display Quantize
- Creating crossed voicings
- Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves
- Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices
- Additional note and rest formatting
- Working with symbols
- Working with chords
- Working with text
- Working with layouts
- Working with MusicXML
- Designing your score: additional techniques
- About this chapter
- Layout settings
- Staff size
- Hiding/showing objects
- Coloring notes
- Multiple rests
- Editing existing bar lines
- Creating upbeats
- Setting the number of bars across the page
- Moving bar lines
- Dragging staves
- Adding brackets and braces
- Displaying the Chord Symbols from the Chord Track
- Auto Layout
- Reset Layout
- Breaking bar lines
- Scoring for drums
- Creating tablature
- The score and MIDI playback
- Tips and Tricks
- Index
258
VST instruments and instrument tracks
What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track?
What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track?
• If you need a particular sound without knowing which VST instrument to use,
create an instrument track and use the preview features of the Presets browser to
find the sound you want.
• Do likewise if the instrument track restrictions described above do not matter.
• If you are planning to create an instrument track preset, complete with inserts and
EQ settings, you have to use an instrument track.
• If you need to use multitimbral parts and/or multiple outputs, set up a VST
instrument channel.
Instrument Freeze
Like all plug-ins, VST instruments may require a lot of processor power. If you are
using a moderately powerful computer or if you are using a large number of VST
instruments, you may come to a point where your computer cannot handle all VST
instruments playing back in realtime (the CPU overload indicator in the VST
Performance window lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.).
Enter the Instrument Freeze function! This is how it works:
• When you freeze a VST instrument, the program renders an audio file of the
instrument output (taking into account all unmuted MIDI parts routed to that VST
instrument). This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder.
• All MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or the instrument track associated
with the VST instrument, are muted and locked (the controls for these tracks will
appear “grayed-out” in the track list and Inspector).
• When you start playback, the rendered audio file is played back from an “invisible”
audio track, routed to the VST instrument’s MixConsole channel. Thus, any effects,
EQ, or mixing automation will still be applied.
• You can also freeze the MixConsole channel of the VST instrument. This freezes
any pre-fader insert effects for the channels, just as when freezing audio tracks
(see
“Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track” on page 234).
The result of the Freeze is that you get exactly the same sound as before, but the
computer processor does not have to calculate the sound of the VST instrument in
realtime.
Performing the freeze
The instrument freeze function is available in the VST Instruments window, the track
list, and the Inspector for instrument tracks.
1. Set up the project so that the VST instrument plays back the way you want it to.
This includes editing the MIDI tracks routed to the VST instrument, or editing the
instrument track, and making parameter settings for the VST instrument itself. If
you have automated parameter changes for the VST instrument, make sure that
the Read (R) button is activated.
2. Open the VST Instruments window from the Devices menu, or, if you are using an
instrument track, select the track and open the top Inspector tab.