The Cubase Q&A Thread

[deadly_habit]

Lovin cubase. Still on the sx 3 tip. Are the newer version alot better? Thinkin bout upgrading.

upgradinf to 5 this month
more bulit in plugs and simplified alot of bs sx3 had
ie linkining midi to vst
now just select vst and all that is done

[rubadub]

Hi sorry if this has been asked before but is there a way of checking in the mixer whether individual tracks are clipping, like the red button on the master but for each one. Cheers.

[Dub_Fiend]

Hi sorry if this has been asked before but is there a way of checking in the mixer whether individual tracks are clipping, like the red button on the master but for each one. Cheers.

There isn't a clip alert button like on the Master Fader for every track, but you can check those numbers underneath each of the faders to see the highest peak that has played on that particular channel


Dub Fiend

[paradigm_x]

A tad off-topic, but still amusing anyway...

I recently had a Cubase 5 dongle problem, and even though the light was on, the dongle had stopped working entirely, though at the time I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with it...

So I went onto the forums explaining my problem, and I casually mentioned I had upgraded from the crappy cracked version of SX 3 that floats around... INSTANTLY I had people telling me the cracked version had caused the dongle to break, and I'd need to re-format my XP installation, and other flamery which was sorta like "It's your own stupid fault, haXXors are baaaaaaad etc..." until someone asked me to try the dongle in another computer and then it was clear the dongle had broken anyway

...

Dub Fiend

I decided to wipe it anyway, been a year and a half, got tons of new bits coming. Ive heard cubase support is pretty bad, half the reason ive delayed buying for so long ... no excuses now tho.

im so excited

[Dub_Fiend]

Hehe I'm definitely happy that I bought Cubase 5... I was sick of that virus-ridden software USB dongle thing >.> Plus, you get free awesome updates, and it's just so much easier to use... It feels more like a proper DAW, and it's nice that you get HalionONE with it as well, so you could theoretically make some tunes without any external VSTs...

Oh, one thing I have to say... It'd be a very good idea to install the 5.01 update, cause they streamlined something with REVerence as it was hogging LOADS of CPU when I first used it... I had to put my buffer size to the highest it could go and even then I was getting CPU overloads ¬_¬


Dub Fiend

[paradigm_x]

cheers man. yeah, the updates are already downloaded and ready to install... im like a kid at christmas, Cubase and Komplete5.

My new, 100% legal setup will be

Cubase 5
Komplete 5
Audiorealism ADM and ABL2
Sonalksis TBK (actually randomly bumped into the bloke who wrote it, had to buy it after that...)
A few Audio Damage plugs
A shit load of UAD stuff.
Nebula3

Plus a few freebies (TAL, Bootsy, span etc)

If i cant write a tune with that i want shooting

[FSTZ1]

yeah man

I believe you can do amazing shit with an all legit setup

[Dub_Fiend]

My new, 100% legal setup will be

Cubase 5
Komplete 5
Audiorealism ADM and ABL2
Sonalksis TBK (actually randomly bumped into the bloke who wrote it, had to buy it after that...)
A few Audio Damage plugs
A shit load of UAD stuff.
Nebula3

Plus a few freebies (TAL, Bootsy, span etc)

Personally, I think I'd have:

Cubase 5
Komplete 5
Synplant
RealGuitar2
UAD-2 and all that stuff
A load of other freebie stuff

I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but what the hey


Dub Fiend

[paradigm_x]

thats what i currently has. not planning on getting anything else, although ive got around $120 of UAD vouchers left.

Been slowing going legit over the last few years, only cubase because, well, customer support id heard was appalling and it was a looot of money... but the time has come.

im hoping/thinking this will keep me going for a long time. all the stuff i use, in one nice, legit package. Im actually trimming down, prob wont use Acoustic Piano, Elektric Piano etc, at least for ages; massive, absytnth reaktor and kontakt will keep me going for months... i also got a nice bag of green in prep for this week

i should have done this a long time ago, as soon as i bought a few bits i used em all the time. much more satisfying. cant believe its taken this long . You value your tools so much more when you buy them, plus you dont spend ages dling/installing/removing synths all the time.

also, last time i installed a 'demo' synth to work on a mates tunes, he gave a virus... PITA on a non interneted DAW, with no AV.

not any more.

i know im banging on, embarrasing (:oops:) im actually very excited indeed.

cheers.

[rubadub]

Another question here, I've got cubase sx3. Wanted to know if you can do logic style eq where if you solo the track you can see where the freqs are, or do you have to use a freq analyser in another window. cheers.

[deadly_habit]

with most eqs yea you'd have to use a separate analyzer plugin

[paradigm_x]

Hi sorry if this has been asked before but is there a way of checking in the mixer whether individual tracks are clipping, like the red button on the master but for each one. Cheers.

I dont think so. This may be due to this reason; Cubase uses 32 bit floating point mixing, which means you cant clip it, except at the master out. Hence, no need for a clip indicator.

Tests have been done (not by me tho TBH); you can ramp a sine at full blast in each channel, totally in the red, and so long as the master out doesnt clip, youll get a perfect sinewave out.

The only things AFAIK that can clip are outputs, and badly programmed plugins (eg some waves plugs clip in the red, not 32bit FP).


edit - woo 808 posts (boom)

[rubadub]

Ahh this why it would explain why some of my old mixdowns don't seem to bad even though I knew nothing about mixing or mastering or headroom at the time, and only the audio and midi were mixed all the midi was mixed on the channel faders. I'm guessing though that this still needs to be done before mastering otherwise everything would fuck up?

[step correct]

Hi sorry if this has been asked before but is there a way of checking in the mixer whether individual tracks are clipping, like the red button on the master but for each one. Cheers.

There isn't a clip alert button like on the Master Fader for every track, but you can check those numbers underneath each of the faders to see the highest peak that has played on that particular channel


Dub Fiend

OK, is there some kind of setting that does this? Because on 4 the numbers only change when you adjust the fader. Regardless of how loud the actual signal is.. ie. I can turn the fader down so said number reads -10 but the signal still looks like it hits at around -3 or so. Or are you supposed to just adjust the gain and all that on the actual vst until you sort of "match" where the fader is? This shit is driving me nuts, please help.

[step correct]

OK, nevermind... I kind of worded that whole paragraph wrong. Basically I was asking how much does the gain on your ACTUAL VST compared to where it hits in your mixer matter?

But anyhow, next question.. How come when I bounce out my wavs to an Audio track it seems to throw it off beat a little bit????
I find myself manually having to adjust my WAVs to put theme back into groove. WTF? Sup with that? Some kind of midi clock setting?

[deadly_habit]

OK, nevermind... I kind of worded that whole paragraph wrong. Basically I was asking how much does the gain on your ACTUAL VST compared to where it hits in your mixer matter?

But anyhow, next question.. How come when I bounce out my wavs to an Audio track it seems to throw it off beat a little bit????
I find myself manually having to adjust my WAVs to put theme back into groove. WTF? Sup with that? Some kind of midi clock setting?

what version?

[cloak and dagger]

A couple of questions regarding SX3:

1. Is there an easy way to group and move/copy & paste automations in SX3? I know you can group some values together and use ctrl-x/ctrl-v, but I'm used to using Reason where you can group an automation event just like one with MIDI notes, so it's really easy to click & drag around and keep track of. I feel like there has to be a way to do this in SX3 that I'm just not aware of, since I can't imagine the Reason sequencer being ahead of Cubase in any way.


2. Speaking of ways in which Reason is ahead of Cubase SX3, is there a way to apply swing so that the notes are late instead of early (meaning they move to the left instead of the right on the piano roll)? Also, how do I apply swing to a bunch of MIDI clips without using the quantize insert or doing them one-by-one?

[dj.ik]

A couple of questions regarding SX3:

1. Is there an easy way to group and move/copy & paste automations in SX3? I know you can group some values together and use ctrl-x/ctrl-v, but I'm used to using Reason where you can group an automation event just like one with MIDI notes, so it's really easy to click & drag around and keep track of. I feel like there has to be a way to do this in SX3 that I'm just not aware of, since I can't imagine the Reason sequencer being ahead of Cubase in any way.


2. Speaking of ways in which Reason is ahead of Cubase SX3, is there a way to apply swing so that the notes are late instead of early (meaning they move to the left instead of the right on the piano roll)? Also, how do I apply swing to a bunch of MIDI clips without using the quantize insert or doing them one-by-one?

Dunno if there is a better way but

1) If you hold Shift (not Ctrl), you can use to mouse to select automation parts, midi parts, audio parts, and them move them all together.

If you want to copy and paste multiple automations and parts, you can, but you need to make sure the corresponding track is highlighted (colum second from the left) always needs to be the first track you wish to copy to, the others below will then follow. (I know that hardly made no sense, it is pretty straight forward though)

2) The quantize feature will set all your groves. You can change the grid but selecting the correct setting....if you want it late, your looking for the 1/16 dotted.

Alternatively, you can set the groove of any midi part by selecting the part and then 'part to groove'.

This is great if you're working with breaks for example - if you pull a rex'd break into kontakt > map the slices to midi > bring in the midi file into your project > select part to groove > select your 'groove' from the quantize list > now the grid lines will change to the match the groove of your break, and you can quantize exactly to that groove, make sense?

[cloak and dagger]

Cool, thanks for the reply.


Man, I've been at this for hours, and I still can't figure out a good way to move automations for VST plugins. The "Automation Follows Events" only applies to audio, since there's no way to officially link a MIDI track with the VST plugin track. Adding both the MIDI and VST tracks to a folder track and then moving the folder event does nothing. Do I seriously have to select and move all automations manually? I feel like it would be a huge pain in the ass when moving multiple tracks at once around the sequencer.

[step correct]

OK, nevermind... I kind of worded that whole paragraph wrong. Basically I was asking how much does the gain on your ACTUAL VST compared to where it hits in your mixer matter?

But anyhow, next question.. How come when I bounce out my wavs to an Audio track it seems to throw it off beat a little bit????
I find myself manually having to adjust my WAVs to put theme back into groove. WTF? Sup with that? Some kind of midi clock setting?

what version?

Using 4 (LE because I wanted to use a legit version and that came with my Soundcard)

I coudn't open Pusherman on there. Or any of the tracks I made on SX3




Needless to say when I bounce out my WAVs they seem to get thrown a little to the right.. what's that shit all about?