Getting the most from Cubase - Part 2
Ian Waugh, our resident Cubase expert has a wealth of power user tips to let you get the most from the world's most popular sequencer. In Part 2 he looks at Cubasis.
1 Quick start
The quickest way to get to learn your way around Cubasis is to run the Tutorial which is accessed from the Help menu.
2 More room
If you're running the program on a small monitor or simply need more room to see the arrangement, click the left/right triangle at the bottom left of the Arrange window to toggle the Inspector on and off.
3 Over-the-top performance
If performance seems a little sluggish or you get glitches in playback, open the VST Performance meter from the Panel menu. This shows the load on the CPU and the hard disk. Don't worry if they blip into the red when starting or stopping but if they hog the red during playback it means your computer is running out of steam. The solution, other than buying a faster computer, is to cut back on the number of effects, VST instruments and possibly audio tracks you are using.
4 Smooth operator
Hold down Shift in the Mixer while dragging a fader to slow down its movement to give you greater accuracy.
5 Overloaded
When setting audio levels in the Mixer during playback, keep your eye on the level meters. If the level is too high the audio could distort. If it reaches a danger level the Clip indicator above the LED will light so lower the fader a little. Click on the Clip indicator to reset it.
6 Many Solos
The quickest way to listen to an individual audio track is to solo it in the Mixer by clicking on its Solo button. You can solo several tracks in this way; it's far easier than messing with the Mutes in the Arrange window.
7 Data drawing
Open the Controller editor by clicking on the button at the bottom left of the Key editor. It will probably be showing velocity data. Click on the Change Controller button and select the controller you want to display and edit. Edit individual items of data with the Pencil tool by clicking on or above the data and dragging the Pencil up and down. You can edit several data items by clicking and dragging the Line tool (sometimes referred to as the Crosshairs tool) across them. With it you can draw velocity fades, pan movements and so on.
8 Shhhh
If you're mixing your MIDI tracks with the MIDI mixer, you can mute all the audio tracks by clicking the Audio Mute button.
Keyboard Shortcuts |
* (Numeric keypad) Record |
9 All change
In the Arrange window, you can quickly make all MIDI Track Outputs the same. Hold down Alt, click on the Out column of any MIDI track and select the required output from the list. All Tracks will now be set to this Output.
10 Open sesame
When you double-click on a MIDI part in the Arrange window it will open in the Key editor by default. You can make it open in any of the three editors by selecting Double Click Opens in the Options menu.
11 The magic click number
If the above tip doesn't work - that is, if double-clicking does not open an editor - triple-click. We've found that some versions of Cubasis require a triple-click to open an editor.
12 Instant reset
In the Mixer, to reset faders to their default setting - 0dB - hold down Ctrl and click on a fader.
13 Solo player
When editing a part, you often want to hear it in isolation from the rest of the song. You can do this in any of the editors by clicking the Edit Solo button.
14 Data Maker
Create new data in the Controller editor by holding down Alt and dragging with the Line tool. This is particularly useful for data like pan, pitchbend and modulation. Note, you cannot create velocity data if there are no notes there as each velocity value must be attached to a note.
Top Tip - Selfish Files |
When starting a new arrangement, create a new folder, give it the name of the song and store all your audio parts there. In the Audio Pool (Panel menu) you can import audio from anywhere on your hard disk. Don't do it! Instead, copy any files or samples that you want to use into the song folder you've just created. Do not share files among songs. The road to confusion lies in using the same file in more than one song. If all files relating to a song are in one place you can confidently move them, copy, archive them or delete them without affecting any other song. |
