Cubase - Notes

Notes Cubase

File Create New Project - Empty
Right click Add audio Track -- Vocal or instrument from Mic; F2 - Control Panel - TRansport Bar ...
Midi Track -- instrument recording.
HIghlight track, F11 - VST instrument selection. (only for Midi track)
Start Recording using * or shift * (to recollect last keys played)
Track zoom in/out GH
Q for quantize
Signature 2/4 and song Tempo and metronome (click). ...
100 is medium (for 2/4 signature) For 3/4 signature tempo is usually higher.
My VST Plugins must be in 32 bit. These are dll files and can be examined with Devices => Plugin Information.
The VST plugins could be 2 or 3 (most of them are 3)
Alt+click scisors tool splits the track in equal segments.
Audio => Process => Normalize can be used to raise the volume.
Use transport bar punch-In, punch-Out to make segment on which to record. (Use I and O)
Lanes in track is not just for multiple takes ... It is also for percussions and for smooth crossfading to overlap two clips.
Both signature and tempo of the track can change as it progresses.
Typically compressors and equalizers (of 3rd party) should be applied on the output channel instead of individual tracks.
The built-in equalizer has only 4 control points ... 3rd party ones have more control points and more presets for specific purposes.
Using QuickControl settings in Device Setup, you can assign your MIdI controller fader and volume knobs. You can easily reassign these quick controls to knobs in your master mixer.
Use S profile to fade audio at the end instead of uniform linear fade to prevent abrubt ending.
OST - Original Sound Track

TODO

Track preset vs Plugin Preset ???

Track Presets

It encodes information about the combination of insert effects (Equalizer, Compressor, Step Designer, MIDI echo, etc)
Does it also include MIDI sends settings ???
You right clikc on track and apply track preset. You can not apply multiple track presets ???
You can also load/save mixer presets.
track presets don't retain routing, volume or panning info.
Reusing of track presets for the entire song to another song is bit of pain. The channel order must be maintained.
You can not undo/unapply of track preset. Create a dummy empty preset and apply that preset to really reset track.

Preview and Browse Sound Files

Note: If there is no audio while browsing sound files, remember to disable studio control center (from VST setup).

3 ways to browse:
- Media Bay : Most generic and powerful, can browse all sorts of sound files.
- Loop Browser: Audio Files, MIDI loops
- Sound Browser is focused on track presets and VST plugin Presets.
Loop Browser bottom control buttons: Play, Auto Play(play on file selection), play in Project Context (syncs with project tempo), Sync to main transport.(Transport bar controls scope also). Note: You can not preiew track preset.
Preview of MIDI (.mid) files require to select output device.
Preview of track presets (or VST presets) require MIDI file or live MIDI input.

Notes From Ask Videos

Video 1: Intro

Recording Audio : Open, close projects. VST connections to define 1 stereo output as new "bus". Add 2 Mono input buses for inputs. Add Audio track. Set fixed tempo in bpm.
Use inspector panel. For audio output volume change, use "Channel" panel within inspector.
Cycle recording. Use LR markers using transport bar and use "stacked" lanes (enable monitoring and mute current lane)

Video 2: Recording Editing Audio

Editing Audio: Name the tracks properly. Enable toggling info panel.
For trimming, use bottom left and bottom right anchors.
The top left and top right anchors are used for fading. Double click on fade handle for advanced fading menu.
Use split tool using sciscors.
Use grid snapping. The snapping factor could be bar/beat/quantized. Configure as Bar and try splitting on all bars using Alt+click using sciscors.
Use Ctrl+K to Repeat copy. The option prompts to make 'shared' copies.
If you directly draw on audio track, then it affects volume.
Selected segment's fine edit popup window is called sample editor.
Depending on where you click, you will get sample editor, cross fade editor (or Part Editor?)
Audio Processing is powerful. e.g. Normalize the selected range with +1dB or +0dB.
Audio => Offline Process History can be used to change the operation paraters later without having to Ctrl-Z all operations.

Video 3: Recording MIDI

Add track - Instrument.
Key Editor for MIDI track is like Sample Editor for Audio track
Turn AutoQ ON in transport panel, then Quantization happens while you play itself.

Video 4: Recording with Loops

Use Loop Browser.
Drag and drop of loop creates audio track. Edit=>Repeat to repeat the segments.
Also, you can right click on loop, select insert into project at cursor.
Audio Warp can be used to selectively re-align some drum beats to match with tempo.
- Double click audio to go to Audio Sample Editor. Select Audio Warp=>FreeWarp. Zoom in.
- Click and drag at any point... this introduces warping with new vertical control lines.
- Shift+click to erase accidental control points.
- Now re-arrange the segments (click drag using control points) to fix the tempo for beats.
- Note: To slow down the entire clip, Change Select handle option: Resize applies time stretch and just resize clip.
- Use Hit Points to auto generate the peak control points. Hit Points => Edit Hit Points. Increase sensitivity.
- Click drag upwards to delete hit point. To introduce hit point, Alt+click.
- Audio => Realtime Processing => Create Warp Tabs From Hitpoints. Then AudioWarp => Freewarp, then readjust.

Video 5: External MIDI Instruments

Make sure you to plugin your USB Music keyboard before starting Cubase. Otherwise Cubase will not pick it up.
Add external MIDI Device. Devices=> MIDI Device Manager => Install Yamaha PSR530 (If not already done).
Add MIDI track or instrument track -- Select input channel as "All MIDI Inputs".
VST Connections => Add External Instrument (e.g. Yamaha560) Stereo device with Audio Device USB ASIO Driver.
The associated MIDI device encodes informations including BankName, etc.
In track inspector, Input=All Midi Inputs; Output: Yamaha560 (Our new VST instrument).
Below that there is Programs input -- select it to specify Piano, Flute or whatever instrument available.

Video 6: Mixing and Effects

F3 - Mixer. Turn off all inputs. (we are not using inputs at all in Mixer).
Alt+Click on Solo = D = Solo Defeat mode. Alway On.
Use Pan control at top.
e = Edit Channel Settings. You can edit MIDI channel settings or Audio or Instrument Channel Settings.
Insert effects available for MIDI is different from the ones available for Audio/Instrument.
In Mixer, all tracks and VST instruments appears separately.
For non-MIDI channels, cubase provides 4 band built-in Equalizer control.
Typically, more commn to lower certain frequency in Equalizer than to increase gain.
You can insert effects - Compressor using Dynamics=>Compressor. (MIDI level compressor is primitive. Apply on VST instrument or audio)
Create separate effects channel (track) -- This can be used to separately encode all sorts of effects that can be reused.
You can configure output "Send" of instrument channel to the "effects FX Channel". The "Send Level" percentage can be configured.
You can change EQ of the effects channel (eg. Delay effect of right and left stereo). The EQ will apply only to the effect, not original.
Volume Automation -- You can use draw tool in Automation track to create volume automation. Click on R to enable "Read automation"
You can also "automate" on effects track. (e.g. send level)
Exporting -- Select region (using P): File => Export => Audio Mixdown.
Note: A wav file could be stereo or mono or 5.1 (6 channels). You can split stereo wav file into 2 different mono wav files.
Remember to select 44kHz, 16bit, Real-time Export, Import into Project (with Pool, Audio Track)
You can split a stereo wav file into 2 mono tracks during import (only during import).

Video 7: Surround Production

VST Connections => Add single Output Bus : Configure ouput with 5.1 as type with Count = 1
Go to Inputs -- Remove existing Stereo Input and Add Bus: 5.1
VST3 plugins are capable of dealing with 5.1 channels instead of stereo channels for each track.
You can also add input bus, with 6 Mono input channel instead of one 5.1 channel.
The usual sequence is: Left, Right, Center, LFE, Left Surround, Right Surround
Export surround sound: Select region (using P), Export=>Audio Mix Down: Audio Engine Output is either 5.1 Out or individual Mono.

Video 8: Editing Audio Part 1

Importing drum beat of different known bpm tempo to your project of different bpm ? For example, audio clip is 100 bpm, your project is 200bpm, what will you do ?
Click on Sample Editor, if you know the bpm rate of the clip, just enter that for that clip. You are basically telling cubase that you "know" what original bpm of that clip. cubase will auto-stretch this based on project tempo. Clip Tempo and Project Tempo are indepndent !!! This must be preferred way than trying to resize the tempo yourself.
If you do not know bpm of clip, go to sample editor, click on Definition, Enable Musical Mode. Select clip region for 1 cycle (1 bar) Click on AutoAdjust. This analyzes the clip and sets the clip tempo. Go to project, change tempo, clip also changes.
If AutoAdjust does not work properly, you can adjust manually. Go to Definition, Enable Manual Adjust. Drag adjust major Bar lines only.
Single drum loop cycle may be equal to multiple bars.
If Drum Loop is long, it may drift with varying tempos. You can select a subrange of audio clip. Use Definition=>Range=>HitPoints=>Slice and close.

Video 9: Editing Audio Part 2

Using VariAudio you can fix pitches. e.g. sax musical piece or vocal song.
Sample Editor => Vari Audio => Pitch & Warp.
Use pitch quantize to approximate to nearest semi-tone.
Use segments to auto-find segments (you can cut and glue them) with aid of waveforms.
When you pitch warp a segment, Warp Tab will be auto-created.
Straighten pitchon segment can be used to fix unwanted pitch variation.
Upper right corner of segment can be used as tilt anchor.

Video 10: Media Management

Open Media Bay or Loop or Sound Browser
Enable deep results.
Rescan as necessary (Red should turn normal)
SoundFrame or VST-Sound is virtual sound repository

Short cuts

In the order of importance:

 Space              - Start/Stop Play
 Shift-F            - Zoom Full
 g, h               - Zoom Out, In.
 f                  - Toggle Autoscroll -- Focus follows the cursor or song
 , / DEL            - Go to Start
 Q                  - Quantize
 C                  - Count/Metronome Toggle
 E and D            - ExtenD current selection till left/right side cursor.
 Alt + K            - Keyboard toggle

 P                  - Auto select region based on current selection. Park Locators to Selection.
 C+Pad 1, C+Pad 2   - Set left and right cycle markers. OR Ctrl+Click, Alt+Click 
 Pad 1, Pad 2       - Go to left and right locators.
 G                  - Cycle Play - Auto Select region with P markers and Play Cycle.

 Alt-Drag           - Duplicate material. Note: Alt+Click is split.
 +/-  Pad           - Scan forward/backward by 1 bar or beat.
 Ctrl +/- Pad       - Move 1 frame up/down. 
 n/b                - Almost same as +/-
 Shift n/b          - Go to next/previous Marker. Useful to scan then go to last bar.

 Alt+ Up/Down       - Track height adjustment. Zoom single track vertical.
 z                  - Exclusive single track vertical. toggles zoom-in and out. Not for fine control.
 Shift-z, Alt-z     - Vertical zoom tracks in and out on all tracks. Good for fine control.

 Alt+ Left/Right    - Nudge start of clip
 S+Alt+ Left/Right  - Nudge end of clip

 L  / Alt-L         - Locate Selection - Go to start/end of current selection. Alt-L is custom mapped.

 Ctrl - L           - Move current selected object to cursor Location. (Locate Selection)

 s / S              - Solo / Project Setup

 Alt+Space          - Play current selection. Better than L+Space since it auto stops.

 Top Tool bar info  - Control selection begin and end points.
 Transport Toolbar  - Control Auto-punch range

 x                  - Cross fade in segments before you glue them together.

 S+Alt+track e      - Bringup all effects GUIs for the current track.

 Ctrl+1-9 (Pad)     - Set Marker. Just press Numpad Number to go to marker.
 Insert             - i.e. Func+Del key inserts a marker
 N, B               - Next/Previous Marker


Customization:
 T                  - Toggle Auto select events under cursor. (Default mapped to external sync)
 K                  - File=>Key Commands
 Y / y              - Select events from Cursor to Start / End


 Select  Current segment --- ??? 


My Devices: 

- I have stereo In buit-in mic - Left and Right - with Realtech drivers.
- I have Stereo Out - Realtech HighDef Stereo Output, Left Mono of stereo, Right Mono of stereo - total 3 devices built-in.
- For stereo output both left and right must be configured properly... if one does not work, both dont work.
- If you connect headphone, you do not have to change Stereo-Out device config. This is handled by highdef audio driver.

Quotes

Massive, Nexus, Sylenth, or Serum aren't going to help you if you can't identify frequency ranges and find how to mix your tunes so all the sounds fit together smoothly. Massive, Kontakt, Battery and Absynth are all great plugins. Beatport.

Software Providers

ReWire is a software protocol, jointly developed by Propellerhead and Steinberg, allowing remote control and data transfer among digital audio editing and related software. The REX shared library is free. http://www.propellerheads.se/download/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=rexsharedlibrary
REX file is nothing but REcycle eXport file ... format for loops like drum loop. Recycle! software (by Steinberg or PropellerHead) can help create REX files for you. Groove Agent can be used for this as well ?
Stylus RMX owned by Spectrasonics - functions as a plug-in and virtual instrument in all major DAW software --including Apple Logic, MOTU Digital Performer, Digidesign Pro Tools Stylus RMX is the first product to offer the combined power of Groove Control with Spectrasonics Advanced Groove Engine (S.A.G.E.) technology.
Native Instruments is the company which provides DAW suite Komplete 11 which contains Kontakt 5 (sampler).
Pro Tools is owned by Digidesign (subsidiary of Avid)
Native Instruments Massive is a DAW. It uses .ksd files for presets. From version 1.3, it is converted to .nmsv files.
Sonar is proffessional DAW provided by Cakewalk. (MIDI editing of Sonar is best)
Melodyne is better than Cubase for VariAudio.
Propellerhead Reason peculiar workflow is focused around a rack design -- emulates hardware setup.
REAPER - which stands for Rapid Environment for Audio Prototyping and Efficient Recording. Cheap ($60) and good!!! Their ACTIONS macro mapping to keyboard and MIDI keys are awesome.
Nuendo is good for audio production for video. Post production tool.
Image-Line FL Studio is one of the Best all-around DAW. around $300. All updates free.

Software Crack Methods

From VSTBackup: Run installer from iso. Copy overwrite ezdrummer.dll from iso. As simple as that. However, from Tone Boosters Bundle in ThavaLibrary, there are separate .key and .dlls are available. Why ? Check for ezdrummer useful plugins/extensions: EZX Libraries, etc.

Omnisphere -- version 2 requires vst 2.4 support or something. :

In ProgramData/Spectrasonics I have 4 files:

 AUDIO11.DAT   -- Stylus
 AUDIO13.DAT   -- Trillian
 AUDIO14.DAT   -- Omnisphere
 AUDIO16.DAT   -- Omnisphere 2

 I removed all of them, then started Omni, just one was generated AUDIO16.DAT. I deleted that one, and brought back the
 old AUDIO16.DAT, did the authorisation again...everything worked except now EVERY ime I close omni and the project the
 patches are lost. Now I brought back the AUDIO14.DAT also, after I tried once to close and openthe project the patches
 were there, saved. Now, the epic question...when is it going to strike again? We'll see.

 The other two, 11 and 13 are for Trilian and Stylus..

Installing Kontakt

Kontakt has been installed using deepstatus .reg file. There is also another R2R version with associated keygen .... Not sure which one should be used.
http://xtant-audio.com/doc/how-to-install-third-party-kontakt-libraries/ Use latest version of kontakt (version must be later than the library).
The extracted sample library always includes one or more Kontakt instrument files (NKIs) and the audio samples – usually in Kontakt’s lossless compression format (NCW).

Monitoring Registry

# Use Windows programs ...
$ reg.exe    # Export registry to .reg file
$ fc.exe  one.reg two.reg > diffs.txt     # See the difference in Reg entries.

Audio Part Editor

See https://ask.audio/articles/five-audio-editing-tips-for-cubase

Lanes can make it easier to work with several audio events in a part. Moving some of the events to another lane can make selecting and editing much easier

Sample Editor

See https://ask.audio/articles/five-audio-editing-tips-for-cubase

Apply plugins to sections of audio.
You can separately control volume of playback preview.
Fix spikes using pencil tool
Get smooth edit cross fades using multiple lanes and partially overlapping clips.
Select Free Audio Warp to fix/align the wave forms without having to cut the clips. Just add warp markers and fix timing.

Compression

Also See: Electronic Producer: Compression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn0E7FXjlR4 Best EQ Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oH4YcpyWSs&list=RDCn0E7FXjlR4&index=2

Known Ranges:

0   DB     : Quitest sound human can hear.
120 DB     : Loudest sound without being painful.
40 - 90 DB : What your loudspeaker range should be.
30-40 DB   : Normal living room background sound
15 DB      : Recording studio background quietest background noise.
0-120 DB   : Dynamic range of human air... No technology/Mic can achieve this wide.

Compression compresses the loudness of the music with-in certain dynamic range so that everything falls with in some audible range.

Note that EQ operates on frequency and compressor operates on loudness.

In other words, compressor helps to lift your music without being clipped. This is called makeup-gain (of quiet sounds). The compressor kicks in after threshold volume. (whether kicks in immediately or gradually depends on knee level) The makeup-gain is required to smoothen the compression at threshold point.

Usually the quiet sounds left untouched, but it is possible to lift them as well.

Compression ratio 2 or 2:1 means, 2 Db increase in output level results in 1 Db only above the threshold input. 2 is mild compression. 4 is normal. 10 is aggressive and 20 is like a limitter. i.e. Above certain level loudness can not increase any further.

Limiters used in live broadcasting to protect speakers; used in mastering (not mixing) to make sure final output is never above certain level. Not used in recording or otherwise.

Gain reduction meter shows (as graph or needle) how much reduction is actually taking place. (i.e. if the input thresholds are actually reached, and if so, how long and how much)

Gain makeup control is labelled as "Output" control in some equipments. Decreasing threshold may result in lot of noise present in low sound range. In that case, you may want to reduce the threshold or compression ratio and such.

Release control (slow/fast) allows how you want to release compression once after kicks in. Too slow release control may act like a constant Fader (all sounds reduced equally). Too high release control may cause minor jumps in loudness levels. ??

Attack control sets how fast the compressor should kick-in after the sound reaches threshold level. Usually leave it at its lowest duration level.

Noise can be controlled by using an additional noise gate, or an expander.

In addition to the normal signal input, a compressor has a side chain input. In normal use, the amount of compression is related to the dynamics of the input signal. The side chain allows triggering compression by another separate signal. De-essing is an important compression technique using the side chain. Many singers have high level sibilants - ‘sss’ sounds. Equalizing the signal will reduce the sibilants, but also make the overall vocal sound dull. The sibilants can be selectively removed by compressing only when there is an excessive level of high frequencies.

Effects

The types of effects that will be discussed here include delay, reverberation, distortion, phasing, flanging, chorusing, pitch changing and the aural exciter.

There are two ways in which an effect can be applied. One is as an insert effect, the other as a bus effect. The bus effect involves creating aux input and about mixing combination of dry input and effected sound.

Closed room causes million reflections. Open air causes single echo (e.g. hard floor only).

Recording and Mixing and Mastering

Setting up to record the backing track takes some time, and in the past it has been common to finish recording all the backing tracks for an album before starting on the overdubs.

A microphone delivers a signal of 1 mV up to around 1 V (in extreme conditions).
The microphone preamplifier amplify this up to around 1 V on peaks
The amount of gain is set using the Gain control.
The microphone input will supply 48 V phantom power to the microphone.
The line input accepts signals of around 100 mV to 1 V
On some consoles, there is no gain control on the line input.
The phase button inverts the signal.
If Mics are positioned at top/bottom, you may want to invert phase of one Mic to prevent canceling.
The filter cuts low frequencies below around 100 Hz.
The pad button attenuates the signal, usually by 20 dB.

The mix console has many buttons with some relevant terminologies:

Solo - Listen to specific channel
PFL  - Pre-Fade Listen. Listen before applying effects.
AFL  - After Fade Listen.

Mastering deals with specific concerns about final media.
e.g. CD can record only 16 bit at 44 KHz.

FAQ

What are the kinds of VST Plugins ? what is VST vs VST2 vs VST3 ?

The plugin may be for instrument (VSTi) or for effects (Insert effect) or groove designer(can ineterpret pattern banks) ? or mixer ??

VST2 vs VST3 -- They are plugin formats -- mostly developer stuff. The VST and VST2 are .dll file plugins. The VST3 plugins have .vst3 suffix (they are still dll libraries). Going forward everything will be VST3 -- they are more powerful. VST2 is EOLed by Steinberg. VST3 supports side chain (in cubase) where as VST2 side chaining with cubase is complex (using SC routing). In other DAWs, (e.g. Reaper) VST2 supports side chain easily.

Which Directories cubase installs into ?

Just after cubase 5 installation, this is how it looks:

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Cubase 5 
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Cubase 5/VSTPlugins    # Nexus.dll etc. Synth/, Filter/, ./Nexus Content 
                                                        # The dll files can be at top Level or organized in subdirs like Synth, Filter, etc.
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Cubase 5/VSTPlugins/Nexus Content/Samples/Rom    # 3.2GB of .nxs files. 
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Cubase 5/vst3          # Groove Agent ONE.vst3, etc  (this is VST3 DLL)
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Cubase 5/Track Presets # Track configs for Instrument, Audio, Midi, Multi .. 50 MB.

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/VSTPlugins             # Nexus.dll, Omnisphere.dll (for sharing)
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/Asio                   # Driver

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steinberg/<Application>/VSTPlugins 
C:/Program Files (x86)/Spectrasonics

C:/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/Steinberg/VST2       #  HALionOne.dll

     Note: C:/Program FIles/Steinberg/ does not even exist. The C:/Program Files/ is mostly used by other plugins.

C:/Program Data/Steinberg/Content: 
    HALionOne SoundBanks     (The .hsb files of size 1.5 GB)
    VST Sound                (The .vstsound files for Groove Agent ONE)

C:/Program Data/VST3 Presets/Steinberg../HALionOne/*.vstpreset   (Bunch of 2KB presets files including Yamaha S90ES)

Also lookup this info about cubase config files location:
https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/cubase-and-nuendo-program-preferences-files-in-detail/

After installing various suites(SG-CG), this is how it looks :

C:
   Waves
            Waves/MaxxAudio: total 4.8M
            -rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 3.7M Jan 19  2015 MaxxAudioControl64.exe*
            -rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 596K Jan 20  2015 WavesSvc64.exe*
            -rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 551K Jan 20  2015 WavesSysSvc64.exe*

   Program Files/Common Files:
          (Usually this dir is empty just after cubase installation)
          Total Size of . : 1.7G    .
          585M    ./Adobe
          522M    ./Native Instruments  (Sampler Kontakt 5)
          267M    ./microsoft shared
          189M    ./OFX                 (Sapphire, After effects related)
          113M    ./Steinberg           (ASIO driver, Halion Sonic SE, Groove Agent SE)
          27M     ./VST3                (iZotope - Break Tweaker dll)
          25M     ./Avid                (iZBreakTweaker.dll*)
          11M     ./System  
          2.4M    ./Propellerhead Software (Rewire.dll, Rex Shared Library.dll)
          649K    ./Digidesign             (Protools. It has StylusRMX wrapper to integrate into protools)
          263K    ./MusicLab               (Realguitar MIDI application from Musiclab company)
          98K     ./DESIGNER         
          3.0K    ./Services

For 32 Bit ... /c/Program Files (x86)/Common Files Total Size of . : 1.7G :

611M    ./Adobe
384M    ./Digidesign          (Pro tools related)
244M    ./OFX                 (Sapphire related)
151M    ./Microsoft Shared
64M     ./Apple
42M     ./VST3                (iZotope iZBreakTweaker.dll)
38M     ./Adobe AIR
35M     ./PACE                (License Server)
34M     ./Avid
26M     ./Steinberg           (ASIO driver, Halion, No groove agent, Realguitar.dll)
16M     ./Intel
15M     ./Native Instruments  (.ksd Massive presets file, .nfm8 instruments files)
9.5M    ./System
4.8M    ./SafeNet Sentinel
2.6M    ./TechSmith Shared
2.5M    ./Skype
2.5M    ./Hewlett-Packard
1.9M    ./Java
1.4M    ./Propellerhead Software (Rewire.dll)
1.4M    ./HP
376K    ./Sonic Shared
295K    ./MusicLab

As of 25 Mar 2017, the installed plugins are:

- C:\Program Files (x86)\Soundlib\G-Player
  G-Player 2 has a new Audio mixer with Compressor, Equalizer and support for external plug-in effects

- C:\Program Files (x86)\Spectrasonics\plug-ins\Omnisphere.dll   (78MB)
- Spectrasonics also has STEAM, SAGE, StylusRMX installed. 

- SwarPlug
- uberschall elastik 2 - Player without soundbank
- Music Lab => Real Guitar 3
- Native Instruments => Kontakt 5
- Native Instruments => Massive
- Native Instruments => VSTPlugins
- Waves => MaxxAudio (ASUS ROG Related)

How to convert audio to MIDI ?

Double click audio clip, open sample editor -- Vari Audio, analyze clip and convert audio to MIDI. Set pitch blending etc options as needed.

What is Steinberg ScriptMaker program ?

Something to do with creating our own preset patches. TODO.

What is insert effects ?

Compressors, filters and limiters. Max 8 insert slots per track.

What is routing track output to group channel ?

You can have virtual group channel to bundle bunch of tracks ... ????

What is vstpreset vs trackpreset in cubase ?

Trackpreset encodes bunch of insert effects. vstpreset encodes info for virtual instrument. e.g. Lead Guitar provided by Halion plugin.

What is VariAudio ?

VariAudio's Pitch and Warp function can analyse your audio files, detecting both the pitch and timing of your mono recordings and splaying the results across a piano-roll style grid. You can then correct pitch and timing simply by dragging on each segment.

Melodyne is better than Cubase for VariAudio.

MIDI vs Instrument track - Difference ?

Instrument tracks include the midi and audio on one track, midi tracks ONLY have midi on them. MIDI tracks suitable for external MIDI devices. Instrument tracks are suitable for VSTi internal instruments. I like instrument tracks as it is better to have the MIDI and audio on one track in many cases. It helps keep a projects track count down making them easier to navigate.

MIDI track does routing of MIDI input to associated VST Rack which outputs Audio. (The editing is mostly MIDI based). Instrument track has Audio output (so typical audio editing functionality is available ??)

What is Pool ?

There is a notion of pool -- A library of files is called a pool ... it is more like media-bin -- a container of various types of files. Pool only contains references, not the content itself. i.e. Pool == list of file names. Recently cut audio clips end up in pool tool... Ctrl+P to manage pool.

What is Difference between Convert Events to Audio Part vs Bounce Selection ?

To join clips, use bounce selection. However if you need a temporary container of audio clips which you do not want to split again later, use audio-part.

What is a PEAK file?

Contains the waveform image of a corresponding Cubase audio file; used for visually displaying the audio data within the Cubase track window; generated automatically when an audio file is recorded or imported into Cubase.

What is Time signature?

First time signature is 4/4, 2/4, etc. The top ruler is fixed for given time signature and does not change when tempo changes (e.g. from 120 to 180, etc).

The primary time display format is: Bar.Beat.SubBeat.0-119. e.g. For 5th Bar, First Beat, Second SubBeat, Half of remaining width is: 5.1.2.60 ; The last part is divided into 120 parts. The frame consists of 48 for the last part. The 1.2.3.120 is same as 1.2.4.0; 0 is never allowed except for the last part.

The secondary time display format is: HH:mm:ss.nnn

The signature and tempo are important when you start modifying things with quantisation. Higher tempo offers you finer grid and finer quantization adjustments.

The musical note option must be enabled for audio clip in order for that audio clip to be auto sized when the tempo changes.

Tempo is independent of signature ... Tempo just specifies the pace. Single song can often change the time signature without changing tempo. Single song can also change tempo dynamically (without changing signature).

The signature specifies how the 'accented beats' gets repeated. The metronome you get is based on the signature that you specify.

What is Track Tempo vs Fixed Tempo ?

When tempo is set to track, you can create new tempo track and control tempo there. Project can have atmost 1 tempo track. Similarly you can have atmost 1 video track.

What is MIDI Loop ?

It is midi file linked to an instrument. Import midi files into cubase and link them to an instrument and export them as a midi loop. The exported midi loops are stored here: Users<user name>AppDataRoamingSteinbergMIDI Loops