CubaseFAQ2

1
How to record midi tracks to audio tracks so that you can mix and apply effects in the Audio Mixer
First- the really easy one. If it's a midi track allocated to a VST Instrument, it's essentially an audio track already. Probably you can leave it as it is. You can apply effects and automation to it like any other audio track. Why does it need to become a wav file? Leave it alone until the final mixdown. But if you're short of resources, or have other reasons for wanting to render it as a wav, solo the track and use Export Audio ('Audio Mixdown' in SX).

But maybe it's a midi track controling an external midi module or the midi synth on your soundcard. You record your midi tracks to audio one at a time, if you want them as seperate audio files. If they're using a midi synth built into your soundcard you probably have a Record Source selector in the soundcard control panel allowing you to loop this source directly into Cubase. If it's using an external keyboard or sound module you need to connect the audio output to your soundcard's input.

Whichever way, you route that audio into your soundcard. Mute everything except the midi track you want to record. Select an audio track to record on. Play the song. Open the Cubase Audio Mixer. Click the little In button at the top of the appropriate Channel fader. You should see the signal on the meter. Now all you have to do is set the L locator and press Record. Repeat for each midi track.

Now all your midi tracks are in Cubase as separate audio tracks. You can use the full mixing and effects facilities of the Cubase audio mixer.

There is a more simple method. If you have built up a song and are quite happy with how it sounds you can record the whole lot to audio in one go. Depending on the complexity of your setup this may require some external mixing, or it may be as simple as selecting 'What You Hear' (SoundBlaster cards) or Audio Input 2 (Yamaha SWG1000) as the record source. But if you want to use the Cubase effects on your tracks, you'll need to keep them separate.

2
About Latency - When it matters and when you can work round it
When Cubase, or any other audio recorder, plays audio, it uses buffering. The data is read from disk. It goes into a holding area of memory. When a suitable size chunk of data has arrived, it is fed to the part of the program that manipulates it - adds effects, fades it in and out, mixes it with other audio - all the things that we bought Cubase in order to be able to do. This takes time. Also, the data may not come off the disk absolutely smoothly, or Windows (or any os) may need to break off for an instant to do some other necessary function. We need buffering. A dedicated computer (i.e. an external effects box) may be able to get away with minimal buffering and work in near enough real time. But a program running on a multitasking computer (with all the advantages that brings) will need more. Fast computers, better-designed soundcards and drivers, better interface with the operating system (WDM drivers can be more efficient) - all these can reduce latency. But it isn't going to completely go away. Not yet, anyway.

When Cubase plays back, latency doesn't matter. The program knows how long audio takes to pass through the system and can pre-fetch it from disk just in time to be output correctly, aligned with midi data which is essentially real-time. The problem arises when you want to monitor the audio being actually recorded alongside previously-recorded material. There's no way to pre-fetch live input. So, if you monitor through Cubase's audio engine, it's going to be heard late.

Fortunately, that's a big if. The basic answer to latency while monitoring an input is - Don't monitor through Cubase. Turn Monitoring in Cubase to Global Off (Cubase 5) or in Preferences/VST select Manual monitoring and don't click the monitor icon in the relevent channel(s) (Cubase SX). Route the audio input back to your ears some other way. Your sound card almost certainly has a mixer applet sitting in the System tray. This will have routing options. If you have a card with ASIO2 drivers, you can do this switching conveniently from within Cubase (apart from this, ASIO Direct Monitoring is no big deal - you had the facility already).

Small problem. Effects. You can't record effects. Cubase applies them on playback. An audio input is recorded dry. It would be nice if you could use a plugin compressor to prevent digital overload while recording. But, until we achieve time travel, you can't. The audio's inside Cubase. If it was going to overload, it's already done it. You need an outboard compressor. But singers like to hear a bit of reverb in their cans. Sorry, if you're on a high-latency system, Cubase isn't going to provide it. Dig out that old MidiVerb box and patch it through some external mixing.

Big Problem. VST Instruments. These are in fact Insert Effects in an audio channel. If you want to play a VSTi live, you're going to hear it delayed by the latency.

First, what you CAN'T do. Adjusting (in Windows) MaxFileCache, Virtual Memory or any other system setting won't do anything. A faster processor or more installed memory won't directly change it either. In Cubase, Memory Per Channel (or anything else at the L. side of Cubase's Audio Setup page) won't help. All that will change latency is the size of buffer used by your sound card.

If your card has ASIO drivers, use them. Today's quality cards can achieve single-figure (sub 10ms) latency. It will probably be adjustable in the ASIO Control panel in Cubase Audio Setup (Cubase 5) or Devices/Device Setup/VST Multitrack (Cubase SX), or via the card's own supplied software. This is practically as near to zero as makes very little difference. Use VST instruments in real time. Turn Monitoring back on and hear your vocals through all of Cubase's effects. Rejoice!
Can't get quite that low? Just because the card offers a 2ms setting doesn't guarantee that your system will support it. Or that there's anything wrong if it doesn't. There's always a trade-off involving the power of your computer and the number of effects you want to use. (More memory gives more audio tracks, more processor power gives more effects.) You don't need to stick to one latency setting throughout a project. Tweak it low to record your VSTi. You get audio glitches or you have to turn off some plugins? So what? Once the VSTi is laid down turn latency up to a comfortably high figure and use your available power for something more sensible than minimizing latency.

Stuck with a card without ASIO or WDM drivers? Tough, really. You're not going to get latency low enough. If you want to play VSTi, spend some money on a better card. Sorry.

3
C6 Won't work? (Cubase 5)
You've somehow turned the Remote function on. Go to Preferences/Key Commands. Untick Remote Active.

4
Export Audio doesn't include everything I want
This function (In SX it's called Audio Mixdown and lives in Files/Export) acts on material which is:

List o f topics

5
Windows XP and ACPI

These problems have largely gone away now. But for users with older systems I'll leave the topic up.
Also see Topic 15 Clicks and Pops

I'm going to suggest things here that usually work, and have worked for me. But there are possibilities for messing up your system. Particularly if it's a branded computer, using its own shortcuts in hardware, drivers, etc. Back up any irreplaceable data first, just as you would before an operating system upgrade, a re-partitioning with Partition Magic, doing anything clever in the Registry etc.

XP (and Windows 2000) does a nasty thing to audio users. It piles a lot of PCI devices onto a single IRQ. There is argument as to exactly how this works, and whether it SHOULD make a difference to audio performance. But many people have practical experience that getting the audio card onto a unique IRQ is highly desirable.

How to kill ACPI.
Go to Menu/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information. Look at Hardware Resources/IRQ. Are a lot of things, including your sound card, sharing an IRQ, probably IRQ9? While ACPI is installed you're not going to be able to change this. So it's time to lose it.

If you'd known this while installing XP, you could have caught the (brief) opportunity to "Install third-party SCSI drivers". You're invited to press F6. Press F7 instead, and choose to install a Standard Computer. Too late now. Never mind. There's another way. In Device Manager, you can change the "driver" for Device: Computer from ACPI Computer to Standard Computer. Next boot, all the hardware in your computer will be reinstalled. You'll end up with a non-ACPI box. (Auto power-off will stop working when you shut down. A small price to pay - live with it.)

Once you're free of ACPI, you've got a bit of room to manoeuvre with IRQ allocation. You probably won't be able to change the IRQ of specific devices in Device Manager, as was sometimes possible in Windows 9.x. You'll have to open the box and physically change what goes in each slot. (The PCI slot next to the AGP one is often hard-wired to share an IRQ with it. NOT a good idea..) Maybe you can do some IRQ allocations in BIOS. These settings have an effect, but, in my experience, rarely a predictable one. Big point - you won't get things onto their own IRQ if there isn't one available. Are you actually using COM1 and COM2 (the serial ports on the back of your computer)? If not, disable them in BIOS. There's a couple of free IRQs already. Cubase SX has a USB dongle -Maybe you can disable the parallel (printer) port too. If you're crammed full of devices - network card, scsi card, whatever; you may be in trouble. Have you got a motherboard with an extra pair of IDE ports, maybe for a form of RAID? They won't actually work perceptibly better than the standard IDE ports for audio work. And they tend to share with a PCI slot. Why not lose them in BIOS as well?

There are links to useful resources on this subject on my Links page.
Particularly the pcaudiolabs page.

Cubase works very well on dual-monitor systems using e.g. a Matrox dual-head AGP card. You just drag the main Cubase window over both screens. Note that the window won't drag onto screen 2 if it is maximised.

N.B. Latest releases of SX3 claim to have removed this issue. Steinberg say:

Concerning MIDI - We recommend to move the "ignoreportfilter " file back into the "MIDI Port Enabler" folder (as already recommended since the release of version 3.0.1). The reason is that the MIDI port filtering has been optimized towards a more practical approach for the majority of users since that version making this file obsolete for most cases.

Cubase SX / SL version 1.02 or higher has a function to filter out redundant MIDI ports provided by the MIDI interface driver. For instance if the MIDI interface driver installs both Windows MIDI ports and DirectMusic ports, these ports used to both show up in former Cubase SX / SL versions. Since DirectMusic mirrors the Windows MIDI ports as "emulated" DirectMusic ports by itself, it was possible that the MIDI ports showed up even 3 times in the MIDI device list in Cubase SX / SL. These multiple appearances of the MIDI ports were actually "multiple versions" of the same physical MIDI port.

To avoid this, Cubase SX / SL 1.02 and higher provides an option to remove these redundant entries utilizing the MIDI port filter. However, in some cases the non-filtered, left over MIDI ports that will show up in the MIDI device list of Cubase SX / SL can be the ones that actually do not work as the MIDI interface driver doesn't support the DirectMusic architecture as Cubase SX / SL would expect.

These cases were for example found with the following MIDI Interfaces:
- MIDIMAN MIDIsport 8x8
- MOTU MIDITimepieceAV

In this case, you can re-enable the filtered MIDI ports by proceeding as follows:

- Browse to the Cubase SX / SL application folder (usually C:\programs\steinberg\cubasesx) and locate the folder "MIDI Port Enabler"
- Open this folder
- Pick the file "ignoreportfilter" and move it into the Cubase SX /
SL application folder (one directory up)
- Start Cubase SX / SL

Now all available MIDI ports provided by the MIDI interface driver will appear in the MIDI device list of Cubase SX / SL. Please be aware that the MIDI ports now can show up 2 or 3 times in the list.
If you're used to manage your MIDI IN by setting "All MIDI Inputs" in the MIDI IN selector, you should go to the Device Setup/All MIDI
Inputs and disable the unwanted ports. Otherwise you will record MIDI from multiple ports which results in double MIDI notes.

If the note symbols in Score Edit appear as a load of 'Chinese squiggles' do this. Go to Control Panel/Fonts. Press CTRL-A to select all. Close the window. That's it!

First, turn off Direct Monitoring. This is what you DON'T want. It bypasses Cubase's mixer, allowing zero-latency monitoring of an input. You want to monitor through the mixer, effects, latency and all.

CubaseSX2 offers a new possibility - there's an Effect rack on each Input Channel in the mixer.

On tape systems, we developed techniques of accurate punch in and punch out. We were recording over the top of existing material, destroying it as we went.
In Cubase, and similar programs, recording is non-destructive. New material is recorded alongside the old (even if it is displayed on top, the old audio is still there underneath). Punch in early, punch out late. You can do your trimming afterwards.

Don't care if you hear the old take or not? Just record into the same track.. Would hearing the last version put you off? Or you want to monitor the old take in whole or in part? Snip (or split and mute) the old track so you hear just what you want to hear. (You can always change or reverse this.) Record into a temporary new track. Move the new take onto the main track when you're happy with it.

In Cubase 5, click in the position box, between Marker and Part Colours at the top of the Arrange window.

In SX, there's a pull-down menu just to the left of "CLICK" on the Transport Bar.

Creative make good consumer/gamer soundcards. The top-range Audigy cards have excellent features, a good on-board midi synth, SoundFont support, pretty good audio quality from the Line in and out (Mic in is still not suitable for use with quality mics). But there's one big problem. Though they offer a selection of sample rates, the card works internally at 48KHz and everything entering or leaving at a different rate is resampled on-the-fly. When this happens, audio tracks lose synch with other audio tracks, and with midi. Unless you are happy to run your projects at 48KHz, this counts out Creative Labs cards for multitrack audio use. It should say this on the box, but it doesn't. If you want to work with multitrack audio at 44.1KHz (which is still how most imported samples start, and how the final mix is likely to end up), a SoundBlaster or Audigy isn't for you.

There are two main uses for compression. One is in-line with a live input, before it reaches the computer. Set it as a soft limiter, preventing any unexpected peaks that would otherwise overload the input of your soundcard. (Also make sure you don't overload the input stage of your mixer/preamp, the channel, mix bus or output bus on your mixer, or any other stage in the audio chain.) You hope the compressor will never kick in, but it's there if needed to rescue that special take from otherwise fatal overload. This compression must be done with an outboard unit - once the sound is digitised and inside your computer, it's too late!

Cubase SX2 has an Effects rack on each input channel. So the old advice: "Effects are applied on playback, the recorded wav is always clean" no longer applies. But remember, this is still a digital effect, applied inside the computer to the digital signal. It can't do anything about an overload at the soundcard's input. You still need that outboard compressor, if 24 bits of dynamic range aren't enough for you.

If you're working with a very peaky source, maybe a singer with bad microphone technique, you could drive the compressor harder, using it to level out the volume. But note that this will reduce dynamic range, and cannot be undone. With 24-bit recording, we have a BIG dynamic range without an unacceptable noise level. In fact, it's highly unlikely any of us own equipment capable of presenting even 16 bits of dynamic range to the input of our soundcard. What's the point of 24-bit recording then? Nothing, IF your levels are perfectly set up. But that's a big IF. 24 bits allow a bigger window in which to place our achievable 12-bits-or-so of dynamic range without fear of falling into the noise floor or climbing into digital overload. Very useful for all us less-than-perfect engineers.

Compression is also an artistic tool. You know about normalisation. This adjusts the overall volume of a track until the highest peak is at a given level, usually the highest practical level. Fine - but you could do the same by turning up the volume knob on playback. You get loud, but you don't get the "punch" heard on commercial recordings. (Some styles today, in a quest for ultimate "loudness" compress the sound to an extreme degree, and even seem to tolerate a degree of digital clipping.) A compressor can give this punch to individual tracks and to the overall mix. Some compressors are multi-band, acting individually on two or more frequency bands. You can do clever things. Google "audio compression" and start reading. Articles from the Archives section of http://www.prorec.com/ are a good place to start.

You record an audio track. While listening to it, you record a second track. But this track ends up including what was on track 1 as well as the new stuff. What's happening here?

The first assumption is that track 1 is "leaking" onto track 2, maybe through badly isolated headphones or the monitor speakers. If you're recording by microphone and monitoring by speakers this is of course a possibility. But usually track 1 is coming through loud and clear, not just spilling over. A favourite culprit is the "What you hear" Record Source selection offered by Soundblaster/Audigy cards. (Other cards have a similar function, but the SBs seem to set it as default). This is a setting in the soundcard's Control Panel, not in Cubase. Choose Line In, Mic In, or watever is appropriate instead.

The problem may also occur in an external mixer. Many Cubase users buy a small outboard mixer (typically a Mackie or Behringer) to make easier, more flexible connections to inputs and monitoring. Microphone and instrument go to a couple of input channels. The output from the computer to a couple more. But when recording a second track, YOU need to hear the first one AND the new input, the computer only needs to hear the new input. Mixers designed for home recording generally have routing options to arrange this. Very simple mixers may not.

Now that motherboards with APIC are mainstream, Topic 5 is becoming redundant. But many users still get clicks and pops. Here's a few ideas.

Open any normal window. My Computer will do.
Go to Tools/Folder Options/View.
Turn on "Show Hidden Files and Folders".
(While you're there, turn OFF "Hide extensions for known file types". A stupid default and an open invitation to malicious programs. If you're going to click on an exe file, be sure you KNOW it's an exe file.)

You will probably find the templates in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user-name>\Application Data\Steinberg

If they aren't there, do a little detective work. I n Cubase, save a template called Frogspawn (or any other distinctive name that won't otherwise appear on your computer). Use the Search function in the Start Menu to find this name. You will need to turn on "Search Hidden files & Folders" and "Search System Folders". And to set "Look In" to "All Hard Drives".

A frozen computer is often caused by overheating.

Most applications spend a lot of time idling, waiting for input. This allows your cpu to slip into "software cooling" mode. Even though you are not using audio tracks, Cubase's audio engine is active, constantly streaming data to your soundcard. No let-up, no software cooling. If your computer is on the edge of overheating, Cubase is a program that is gong to make it happen.

If you feel this is a possibility, open the case. Find the CPU - the chip with a large heatsink and fan attached. Is the fan turning? Is the heatsink clogged with fluff? Leave the case off and direct a table fan at the computer's innards. Does the problem go away?

18
Erratic MIDI Track Record activation
After working on a MIDI track in the various editor windows, Cubase can get confused about which track is enabled for recording. After a recording a seemingly random selection of tracks will be selected. There is some evidence that if allowed to escalate this can lead to a crash. There are two solutions. One is to only work in one MIDI editor window at a time. Before editing a different track (or using a different editor on the same track) close the original editor. Another fix is to close all edit windows, activate a track for recording and open a MIDI editor. De-select recording on that track. A random selection of tracks will now flash up as record-enabled. De-select all of them. The problem will go away for a bit, but it will return :-(

This really should have been fixed by now. It's been an issue in several Cubase versions