Steinberg Institute

Steinberg Institute Previous Meeting Topics All Meetings Included a Basic Segment Featuring Cubase Setup and Features Below You Will Find Texts of Meeting Content Since August 2000
APR 2007			Cubase 4 New Features The primary focus of many revisions in Cubase 4 are the result of interaction with audio professionals who spend the majority of each day in their workstation environments. Such people make suggestions about workflow and program utility and these yield elegance in the Cubase and Nuendo interfaces that are unmatched in DAW systems elsewhere. Make no mistake about it - Steinberg software is the go-to solution that gives the best workflow, sound quality, and integration that others imitate. The emphasis is generally on fewer clicks and more production/editing power is available throught the arrange window than in any other platforms in today's marketplace, giving Steinberg Software a leadership position in efficient production. The following features were added in Cubase 4. These are not listed in order of importance. Active Track/Component Emphasis Inactive tracks and components are darkened, emphasizing active components for easier access. In the Mixer View, active channels are emphasised. Customization of Inspector You can customize the inspector to show features you need most, change the order of selections, and deselect features you don't need to see New Suite of VST3 Plugins A new suite of VST3 plugins are included. 33 new plugins, subject to automation offer a pallate of alternatives, all including built-in presets and all are surround capable. These include some nice amp simulators, FX, vocal cloner, etc. Support for DirectX plugins is dropped, thus anticpate replacement of old DirectX plugins should be replaced when upgrading. Some plugins from Version 3.x are changed, so your VST Plugins folder should be migrated to the new version. Delay compensation is built into the VST3 protocol. Waves, antares, etc are all migrated to VST3. You can drag and drop inserts. An onboard Tuner is included and very convenient. The new Multiband Compressor offers a variety of Preset envelope shapes, and you can edit these and save them as your own custom Presets. For Drums, Compressor gives better control for Attack, Length, Release, and output. New Track Presets and Preset Efficiencies Track Presets are available by right click on the Track list. Select "Apply Track Preset" to add. This set of presets was designed by world famous sound designer Hughes & Kettner, and a variety of world-reknoned producers are going to going to create new presets. Of course, you can add your own track presets out of the modifications you create. Presets can work in Multi-Channel projects - this is a STEINBERG EXCLUSIVE. In the spirit of production efficiency, selection of a Preset will addSelection of a Preset will add audio tracks Universal Preset Management system makes it easier to apply presets, and within this system you can select from an index of useful presets. Once you load a Preset, it becomes an element in the Inspector. Under Load Preset, you now find Category, Sub-Category, Style, Character. Would it be nice to have a SYSTEM-WIDE set of Presets including hardware or software? In VST3, all of this is handled for you already. Expect to see a variety of Sound Engineers making available Presets for various Hardware Synths. Keep an eye on cubase.net Bear in mind Rewire Instruments are unable to handle Presets. Dynamic CPU Allocation Dynamic CPU Allocation recognizes portions of tracks that are passing audio and allocates resources to these. This system analyzes tracks ahead of time and assures that your system resources are used for sound production. This technology is a real-time predictive system that recognizes the presence or absence of waveforms, mutes, silence, adn works in conjunction with ASIO technology. HALION ONE Upgraded The orginal Yamaha Motif ROM is included. MEDIA BAY - A Comprehensive Librarian Free Advice: The shortcut to this amazing tool is F5. Here you will find Audio, Track Presets, Midi Presets, Video Vile & VST Plugins, Projects, and it's based on File Names. You can manage your own Tag info & modify the elements, add your own Tags, You are able to audition loops, sounds and sounds as needed throught Media Bay. Media Bay can look at your entire network and load presets used on particular VST or hardware installations, and with one click you can load ALL NECESSARY Componets! Control Room Control Room has been added, giving you complete bus control, a virtual console. Go to VST Connections, chose hardware, open Control Room Mixer. With Control Room, you can click or set up Keyboard Shortcuts. Producers can dim channels -20dB, solo surround channels using number keypad, with 1-3, 7-9, & 5 keys providing solos to control focus on 5.1 channels. Plus, you can mixdown 5.1 to Stereo for a Headphone Mix. Choose studio sends & mix the sound at the TRACK LEVEL!. You can also create up to 4 different Headphone Mixes. With Control Room routing features, you can drop FX into Headphone mixes as needed. Activate Control Room in VST Connections, change "outputs" to "Not Conected", don't "Double." Click on "Studio" tab, set outputs there. When Control Room is running, the small Fader on the Transport controls the Control Room you've created! SEQUEL Integration in 4.1 SEQUEL projects can be brought into Cubase 4.1. If you have not tried sequel, you should, it's killer. With over 5gb of royalty-free loops and sounds, SEQUEL is a terrific bargain at under $100. Sequel is easy to use, and offers far more utility than one might imagine at its price point. Cool Eric Johnson Story! Eric is legendary for his attunment to subtle differences in sound. There are accounts of how something as simple as a cable substitution on his stage setup would lead Eric to notice sound changes and make changes. So what sort of changes do you suppose Eric is making in his studio? He sold his NEVE Console and bought Nuendo, fronted by A Euphonix System. A word to the wise? We think so.
April 2005			Integration Between Steinberg & Yamaha Technologies Yamaha Acquires Steinberg Tight integration can be expected from the merger between Yamaha and Steinberg. There is a strong atmosphere of support and acceptance of Steinberg's innovative development approach. Yamaha has many audio I/O systems, including a variety of controller/mixer boards. New Developments At the High(est) End Euphonics System 5, a super high end ($500,000) large format console used by sophisticated facilities like the Grand Ol' Opry, Kenneth Copeland Ministries and certain artists, has the capability of being a controller for Nuendo, and has partnered with Steinberg in development of its controller interface. These systems are used for large scale post production functions, running up to several hundred tracks. All control surface functions, including EQ, Plugins, Automation, and other resources are controlled by the Euphonics system. It runs on a sophisticated proprietary network system developed by Euphonics. This console's interface is very sophisticated and next month will see shipment of integration with Nuendo. Euphonics is also developing additional products that integrate with Steinberg products. In the post world, more and more projects are coming in on Nuendo. Imagine a studio like Todd AOS, the old Skywalker Studios which runs at 1200 per hour for service. They love the reliability of Nuendo and use it for stem recording, editing, control surface, etc. Nuendo is being used on a large number of live concert performances. Prince, U2 are recording Nuendo systems to track these shows. Legendary producer and Mark Doffler (Brothers in Arms) is running 56 tracks of concert performances with the idea of issuing concert performances within 2 weeks of the show. Mark has old EMI consoles used by the Beatles and Pink floyd in his studio. His state of the art Neve system runs straight into Nuendo, 48 channels at 96k. There is no tape running in the middle. They are running dual Opteron AMDs with SATA Raids. AMD, Steinberg & Yamaha are working closely together. At this time, AMD has the most powerful processor. Expect large leaps in audio production quality and capacity under 64 bit chips and an increase in the technology. Each processor has its own memory cache, and under AMD's unique dual processor architecture, you have no bottleneck in the access to memory gateway. AMD has also announced a dual core processor. Dual core gave 98% performance increase - even using lower end systems. Consequently, you can expect quite a bit of additional technology momentum. AMD has been paying close attention to the audio market. AMD have various vendors making hardware, so their unique single focus is helpful to the acceleration of the improvement of audio technology. At Eric Clapton's "Crossroads" Guitar Festival, which was recorded in Nuendo using 48 tracks at 96k, with 14 hours straight for 2 days, not one single problem took care. Tape was "at the ready" at the background, but was never needed. The MTV Truck had a Neve Capricorn (with a 10 minute boot) crashed twice. It was 110 degrees outside, and this outstanding performance turned quite a few heads. This attention on the part of AMD has instigated further competition from Intel and Apple, who have taken note of the development and made their own strides to improve audio performance. NEW INSTRUMENTS Virtual Bassist is in pre-release and is expected shortly. Groove Agent 2 has been released. It has some new features - and it's designed to be very easy to use. GA 2 has more styles, more variations, and more sounds. Right click on a time period and you get different types of beats in a drop down menu. In addition to GA's slider for levels of complexity, there are A-B-C-D-E basic grooves, and complexity. There are many new electronic sounds. GA2 also functions as a Rewire slave, with 8 stereo outputs. A great advantage of GA is the capacity to record the drum beat on the midi track. There is a control switch that can output to a midi file as well as record to a midi track. So GA has 50% more sounds and styles, and 200% more outputs. It runs as VSTi, AU, Rewire, etc. This broad compatibility is included for Halion 3.1, Halion Player, Virtual Bassist. The Grand 2.0, announced at the Frankfurt Show will be issued in multiple formats as well. Halion's Ram Save Feature is going to be part of The Grand. The new issue will have a new Steinway sample set as well as the Sample Set that made history with the USB Security Keys As for Dongles, new plugins will come with a code. The code is entered into the Synchrosoft License Control Center, and it becomes stored on a Key. In the event your key becomes raggedy, you can purchase a new key and transfer your license authorizations. You can also take some USB keys that have various programs and occupy various USB slots and place all the licenses on one dongle, or choose to copy certain licenses like VSTis on one dongle while using another dongle to be used on a SEPARATE computer to run Cubase SX3. Groove Agent 2 Tips You can run read/write automation using GA2, and the program will follow all automations you select during play. You can also write this to MIDI, simply by choosing the Write to Midi function. You can then edit the midi track under drum or key editors. You can also edit velocities for individual kit components, by selecting a particular component. You can also dissolve (under Midi Menu) the part, and then get separate tracks for each kit component. Remember you have to select input as groove agent in the track, and output obviously goes to Groove agent. And, you can simply select the Groove agent to as a playback VSTi to play the loops you create in the drum editor. In Drum Editor, remember to use the quantize feature to get the drumstick tool to write your hits according to Embracer This is a pad VSTi, similar to Atmosphere that began shipping with SX2.2. It offers surround sound. Studio Manager Integration Yamaha came up with a software editor for their digital mixers, but it wasn't integrated with a workstation like Cubase. Under Yamaha studio manager, you can add various interface, mixer, controller and synth tools to a networked arrangement. For instance using 01X, you can click on the O1X device in the Studio Manager, and the o1x shows up on your compter screen. 01X also has built in FX, so can access all of these FX on the computer. Yamaha had this studio manager software, but it did not run in a workstation like Cubase or Nuendo. A Steinberg Yamaha collaboration developed an integration between the hardware and software. All digital mixing systems also have their own internal libraries, and you can find EQ and other functions for particular instruments, edit them to your liking and save them to a library "user" slot. Once the O1X Studio Manager is loaded on the computer, you could theoretically set up your O1X features for a particular mix when you're not actually connected to the 01X. MOTIF ES + M-LAN Motif ES with M-Lan 16e card can give you 16 outputs from Motif in Firewire, and can give you I/O functionality for your computer. Any track can be midi or can be audio if you have RAM in the keyboard. You could create sound and content with the Motif ES and then select various content you've created in the MOTIF quite spontaneously, and drop this to Cubase SX3 via the M-Lan. Motif also has phantom power for mics. There are Mastering Effects in the MOTIF as well. See Mlancentral.com to find the latest information on Mlan. When you buy an Mlan product, download the latest drivers from this location. See yamahasynth.com for a download of Studio Manager for your mlan studio. Studio manager gives you the entire mixing page for the MOTIF to view on your computer. You can switch functions from this feature and use the mixing page as an onscreen controller for Cubase.
Jan 2005			New Steinberg Releases HALION PLAYER | GROOVE AGENT 2 | FREE REVERB | VIRTUAL BASIS |NUENDO 3 Halion Player In Cubase, of course, you have the ability to open multiple projects at once. Halion is the backbone to a lot of products. It came out in 2001 and was the first cross-platform VST sampler. Halion 3 is a really deep sampler. It was the first software sampler to stream from disk. It became the backbone for "the Grand", Halion String Edition, and the Halion Software Sampler. Many people were seeking to do less tweaking and have more built in sounds. This led to creation of more and more Halion content. Steinberg came up with the idea of creating a Halion Sampler in a PLAYER format. The disk streaming engine has caught the attention of many content providers, and they've been actively creating new titles. Halion Player reads all content that is created in the Halion format. When you load the player, above a keyboard view, you see racks of program elements. You can select from classes, like "bass" or "piano" and then select the type of instrument and view a large variety of sample alternatives. In the Player, you find the typical assortment of output bussing alternatives, like stereo, 5.1, etc. A parameter control feature allows you to program parameters for particular midi controller and have Halion learn the particular midi control. It ships with 2.5 gigs of content, and Skarbee's amazing Wurlitzer and Rhodes are incredible samples, along with Garrison's orchestral percussion and brass library. Halion is the first sample playback tool that can utilize Steinberg's dongle copy protection. So, this allows vendors to trust the security of their software. If someone uses Digital Performer, Cakewalk, or even Pro Tools, the future is good. All new VSTi from now on are going to be able to function as rewire slaves, so the vsti's will be compatible with any system, through rewire. Halion Player is only $99 retail. Back To Top Groove Agent 2 This program is unique, in that it does all the work of programming drums for you. Traditionally when you would lay down drum tracks, you'd load a software drum module or a hardware controller, and you'd have to either write in or record your drum track. Or, you'd sequence the drums, but wind up with a highly repetitive result. Under Groove Agent 2, you select a type of beat, and this links with an appropriate kit. You can link or split the type of beat from the drum kits, and you can link or split the complexitity of the drumming with the complexity of the fills that appear in the material. ] An edit menu allows you to change features like velocity, tune, volume and output. Some of the styles appear in blue. If you move the sliders to these blue beats, right click will bring out further alternatives. Groove Agent 2 can also write midi information to a midi track. You can shuffle, and humanize the beats. You also have the ability to apply a limiter and to change the ambience via knobs. Cubase read and write automation play a significant role in Groove Agent 2. The RH section of the MIDI keyboard can be used as start and stop triggers. As you move your fingers further up the keyboard, complexity increases. Also, the MOD wheel on the keyboard can offer FILLS. Under the SETUP panel (under Edit) you set MIDI output. Then Groove Agent will write to a midi track that is selected, record enabled and set to Groove Agent. You can also split all the drums into separate tracks, under MIDI Dissolve Part. This permits you to change parameters on one drum or cymbal, etc. Under Groove Agent 2, you have more outputs available. You can do up to 8 outputs, in terms of midi tracks. You can also synchronize how Groove Agent 2 behaves in context with your transport. So, it can be set to start and stop with the transport via a right click on the VSTi's LED screen. There are 27 new styles and 9 new drum kits. New file formats, including rewire, audio units, dxi, and vst. This new generation of groove agent also runs as a standalone application. Back To Top Free Reverb came with Cubase SX 3.01 update. It's called Roomworks. It has a variety of presets. It's part of the 3.01 build 514 download. Back To Top Virtual Basis is a new Bass VSTi that is pre-release. Back To Top Nuendo 3.0 Cubase started off in he mid to late 80s in Atari as a midi sequencer. Then it started moving up the food chain and wound up being a full function recording studio program on MAC and PC, but the code base started to become older. This led to creation of a whole new set of products that came out as Nuendo and Cubase SX titles. The major is a special Nuendo mode called edit mode. It causes video to chase to where you've moved the cursor. The edit mode can now do more in Nuendo version 3. Time Warp tools, that realign bars and beats under edit mode in Nuendo 3 permit video to chase when we warp the timeline. Audio Warp adds the ability to change tempos of audio files. Once you activate musical mode, if you know the tempo of audio, you can go into Musical mode to have the audio match the system clock. Warp TO Picture is a unique Nuendo feature. If you need to put a warp marker in an audio track, the video chases warp edits. For instance, in the case of an explosion, you might need to have the sound last longer and match what's happening in the frames. AAF Advanced Authoring Format. Without AAF you had to make many steps to change formats to systems like Apple Logic Pro 7, Adobe Premier, Pro Tools, AV Transfer, Avid Media Composer, Merging Pyramix, Sadie DAW, etc. This feature is a native feature to Nuendo 3. Liquid Edition uses the Xsend protocol to send and receive audio files. Surround Sound in Nuendo; You can place your surround in up to 10.2 channels. For a theme park ride, for instance, or production for a special facility. Mix Convert plugin permits, with the click of a mouse, conversion of a 5.1 or multichannel mix into stereo. This appears as a plugin, under surround/mix convert. The Nuendo mixer has a new button called "listen". It allows you to listen to the individual channel on a separate output, now called the audition bus. Nuendo also has network collaboration capabilities. You can have multiple people sharing the project over the network. Under Network, you can have shared projects, and see each other on the network. Nuendo 3 offers an "Open Global Chatbox," that has offers a chat box, that can be used on a LAN or configured for WAN that permits editors to chat to each other as desired. Pool in post production involves a variety of different types of file, such as audio and Sound FX. In Nuendo 3, you can have custom attributes for the pool. For instance, take a gigabyte of techno loops. Pool libraries based on attributes can be created. As you categorize audio files based on the categories, you can optimize searches and reduce headache. Nuendo was developed for Post Production, where sound for picture needed to be edited, modified, etc. after the video footage was already shot. Back To Top
Oct 2004			SX3 New Features A Review of SX2 Technology Under SX 3 Warp Tabs Quantizing Audio under Audio Warp Acid File Import Midi Device Maps 64 Bit OS Support Play Order Track New External FX Routing Dummy Plugins Studio Output Bus Audio Pre-Record of Up to 10 Minutes Alternative Audio Waveform Visualization New Midi Plugins A review of SX 2 technology. Previously, you had the ability to take a loop and slice it into segments in Cubase before. But this did not work well with vocal tracks, guitar, or other material that does no have transient spikes. You can create Audio Warp Tabs and slice them to hitpoints. Go into sample editor. Right click and go into "hitpoints" and choose Calcuate Hitpoints. You do have sensitivity setting on a fader on the top of the edit screen. There are some presets, including Advanced, Drum, etc. If you get more hitpoints than you need, simply back off on the sensitivity, and you can reduce. You can also use the hitpoint edit mode and obtain a tool to actually move hitpoints. To create audio slices from hitpoints, you can rightclick and select "create audio slices from hitpoints". Once you create audio slices, you won't have the ability to fade-in or fade-out on the entire audio part. But once hitpoints are created, you now have events. In the actual events (slices,) you will have the ability to deal with fades for each event. Changing tempo under the transport bar causes the slices to be played at differing rates. You also had the ability to use a tool called RESIZE APPLIES TIME STRETCH, to permit you to resize. Back to Top Under SX3 Audio Warp has new features. Click on Audio Tempo definition tool. Many samples are delivered in pre-disclosed tempos. Under Audio Tempo Defiinition Tool, you can enter the tempo of the part manually. In regular sample editing mode, the timeline function changes, from the timeline of the arrangement to the timeline of the part itself. Activate Musical Mode, to align the tempo bar in the sample to the project timeline. Changing tempo in the Transport changes tempo of the part in question. IF you don't know the tempo of the loop, under Audio Tempo Definition Tool, first specify the number of bars in the loop under Bars in the inspector. You can use a visual reference to determine tempo. Looking at the track, you simply place the bar marker over the downbeat and drag the downbeat to it's corresponding bar number in the timeline. Remember, musical mode has to be set. This is shown in the toolbar as a 1/8 note. In the Pool, a new column for musical mode offers a checkbox that allows you to activate or deactivate musical mode. In the event you have a loop that is not percussive, you enter sample editor. Turn on audio definition tool, activate musical mode, and the loop will be synched to transport tempo. You can also transpose events. If you've selected an event, you can select transpose option, and simply select the number of half tones you desire for transposition. Notice that the info bar above the timeline has faders that activate when you right click on any particular setting. Back to Top Warp Tabs Enter sample editor. Right click on file. Use the hitpoint detection procedure outlined above. Calculate Hitpoints. Right click, and select Realtime Processing to create Warp Tabs. Now that you have Warp Tabs in place, you can warp the audio in real time to change the feel of the groove. Loop the material, enter edit mode, choose Warp Samples tool, and move tabs where desired. This is not the same as moving hitpoints, because under move hitpoints, you are not moving the waves within the clip. Back to Top Quantizing Audio under Audio Warp Simply rightclick on the sample, and instead of selecting Realtime Processing, choose Quantize Audio. First, set quantize value in the toolbar. Notice that you can do this quantize AFTER you set warp tabs to synch your "feel." Back to Top Acid File Import The musical mode that permits you to time stretch in real time permits you to take Acidized files containing tempo info and import them into the project. You simply load them into the project, and in the Pool, activate musical mode for the loop and you're ready change tempo under transport. Back to Top Midi Device Maps Under Cubase VST, you could create a software control interface for external hardware. Under SX, we have an entire new code base in this generation of the program. So now, in SX 3 we have full support for mixer maps. Under the Part Inspector, you can select a particular map you've selected. Under Devices, Midi Devices, look at Install Device to see what devices are available. You can select a device from this list if it's available. This would enable to access of the instruments in a particular synth. This does not mean you've done a sysex dump from your device to obtain YOUR setup data. Under Import Mixermap, you can select a device. Select Open Device, and you have a virtual controller for the hardware. Remember all settings in the mixermap are subject to automation in the midi track for that device. To create a mixer map from scratch: Go to Install Device. Select Define New. Give it a Name. Open the Mixer Map. Click on the device, and insert faders, knobs, switches, switches, labels, etc. You can also import your own graphic files and overlay them on the mixer map. To load this map into the inspector, have the midi port for the particular track, on the bottom section of the inspector you'll see a section called User Panel. This allows you to select which section of parameters you wish to access. This will then appear in the inspector when User Panel is opened. Back to Top 64 Bit OS Support Cubase is ready to hit the ground running with Win XP 64 bit OS when it's released, and MAC 64 bit systems.. The important new feature of the 64 bit system, is the ability to access up to 4GB of memory. SX 3 is already ready for this development. Obviously, substantial performance enhancements can be expected. Playing a virtual intrument obviously uses some RAM to provide streaming audio from the hard drive in VSTi like Halion, The Grand and others. Virtual Memory in PCs is use of hard drive to provide what RAM should be accommodating. SX 3 is FULLY COMPATIBLE with 64 bit systems. All your plugins will benefit from increased memory addressing. Today's winxp has a 2gb max. Using real ram instead of virtual memory has obvious advantages. There will be no 64 bit version of SX 3 - it's already there. Suggestion: Use the opteron AMD64 processor. Be careful to determine whether 64 bit drivers for your PCI sound interface card are available. The next step is native 64 bit support. Some hardware companies are not ready for this, but expect explosive development. Apple is addressing 64 bit in its upcoming Tiger release of OSX. Back to Top Play Order Track Most sequencers compose projects in a linear fashion. So, you work on the project from start to finish, via the timeline. In the project window, you might be using folder tracks to house various instruments or types of tracks. Remixing is facilitated through the Play Order Track, allowing you to create a variety of versions of the material that can be selected or toggled for use as needed. To create remixes, you used to have to create alternative Arrangements, copy and paste desired sections, and save them separately. Procedure to set up play order: You can have one play order track. Add Play Order Track just as you would add any other type of track. Simpy select the pencil tool and draw on the Play Order Track. Each Play Order part is numbered based on the sequence of selections you have made. Under the Inspector, you select the particular Play Order Part you wish to use and here, you can set the number of timesNot only can you effect selections of various regions, you determine how many times the part in question is played. You can create a number of Play Order Mixes. This facilitates creation of different mixes. The Command "Flatten Play Order" resequences the visual representation of the particular arrangement. A Flattened Play Order is necessary to create a mixdown of the particular arrangement. Still, you'll want to create a saved arrangement of this. Remember to be ware of issues like sustain ON settings, because sustain would continue. Note: Setting all parts to musical mode while using Play Order Tracks permits you to TIME WARP THE ENTIRE PROJECT. Back to Top New External FX Routing Go to VST Connections, select Add External FX. You'll need an I/O Box that has multiple I/O like a Steinberg 8-I/O. Under Send Configuration, you can select any combination of mono. Stereo, or surround send-returns. You would set them according to your outboard gear. Once you set the send/return modes, map the audio device ports under the VST Connections dialog. On the Mixer, right click add track, FX Channel. The plugins you create can be used as inserts also. The FX channel will appear on the mixer as an FX channel, with the name you've given it. If your external device has midi, you can also create a mixermap to control that midi. You can also set pre-delay for latency compensation for the particular device. Back to Top Dummy Plugins Sometimes you'll create a project and froze the project with a plugin that is not present in another secondary system. Instead of getting error messages, you'll get an entry in the mixer wherever a missing plugin is supposed to be. Back to Top Studio Output Bus New output bus - Audition Output. Go go Devices, VST Connections, Studio, Output Bus. If you happen to like to mix on a particular set of speakers, you can send outputs to a different bus. Create your bus in this dialog, port it to where it belongs, and it will bus to where it belongs. Back to Top Audo Pre-Record of Up to 10 Minutes. VST and SX had a Retrospective Record feature. You had to enable this under Preferences. Pretend you have a midi track, record enabled. Pretend you're in Stop Mode. When Retrospective Record is activated, you can assign a key command to Retrospective Record. Now, in 3.0, you can do up to 10 minutes prerecord, which is loaded into RAM. Procedure: Select this feature in Preferences, Record, Retrospective Record. Assign a key command (shift Pad *) is default. At any point in time when a track is selected and record enabled, you can recall the Pre-record, which will load into that track. Back to Top Alternative Audio Waveform Visualization This feature permits changing appearance of waveforms. Under File/Preferences/Background color modulation. Here, you get amplitude based modulation of color density. Framed waveforms are worth seeing - the waveform is outlined and the internals are delivered in WHITE. Back to Top New Midi Plugins There are 2 new plugins. Arpache SX is an arpeggiator, an improved version of Arpache 5. Midi Context Gate. Back to Top
Sep 2004			.Cubase SX 3.0 The Interface New Features in 3.0 Audio Warp Warp Samples Real Time Transpose Edit in Place Play Order Track Workspaces Midi Device Maps VST Connections-Inputs Studio Connections Freeze Instrument Options Volume Envelopes Color Coding The Interface: When you launch Cubase, you'll see an an empty arrange window. You begin by creating a new project. The system will ask you if you want a template. We often suggest you create your own templates and use them. The system will ask where you will store the project. Remember to use effective file management. When you add a track, the system will ask what sort of track settings are required. The "E" button on each track gives a detailed dialog on the channel settings for the particular track. You can import audio, drag & drop, and record audio. When you load an audio file, you will see an image of the file on the track. In the channel settings dialog, you see a rack that allows you to load plugins, you have ability to add insert, EQ and sends. All of these components function in real time, with 32 bit floating point audio. In the project window, it's easy to zoom in or out by pulling the mouse on the timeline, or use the G and H keys. You can open a wave file editor by doubleclicking on the audio track. There are other editors, including a key editor, drum editor, score editor, and others. Pressing F3 gives you the mixer, which provides the opportunity to make channel settings, view meters, and make adjustments on individual tracks. This is a basic view of functionality in the program. Top New Features in 3.0 Audio Warp You might have a situation where you have a person record a live band, but the desire might be there to add to the recording. The live recording might not synchronize with the internal clock in Cubase. To activate the metronome, you go to the transport bar and activate the click. You can use an audio or midi click, selectable via the "Metronome" settings. The time warp tool introduced in SX2 is used to cause the time line to be complimentary to the music. Turning on the time warp, and holding down shift in PC you can move the time to cause the metronome to match up with the tempo with the material. Hold shift key to create the tempo map, and add markers at downbeats as needed. The warp function takes place BETWEEN the markers. So if you are using quantize, or a VSTi like Groove Agent, it will synch SX's clock and the Quantize or VSTi to the tempo map of the material. The time warp tool plays double duty in the audio world to move the bars and beats to cause Cubase's tempo map to match the content's tempo map. In cases where loop manipulation is desired, it's easy to make them fit the project you're looking with. Pretend one loop is at tempo 124. You might be dealing with another loop in another tempo. In SX 2, you would use Hitpoint mode, but in SX 3 there are new menu options to slice samples. The audio definition tool looks at peaks and valleys, and marks points. Hitpoints can create audio slices, and they can then be tempo mapped. You can duplicate the portion by hitting CTRL D. You can select from a number of algorythms and sensitivity settings to optimize your results. Tempo changes set in the transport will be reflected in the pacing of the slices. Resizing of Slice time stretch is found in the selection tool. Select sizing applies time stretch to a resized audio clip. Snap value set to beat will help you correctly size the clip. These edits are NON-Destructive. You have undo history. These features are found in 2.0 and in Nuendo. In 3.0, Audio is a cool, very big new feature. Resize and Apply Time Stretch goes to the next level. Use the Audio Warp tool to have loops change quickly and easily. Use the audio tempo definition tool. You can type in the tempo of your loop, type in the tempo, and the bars and beats in the loop will be lined up. Under the Musical Mode button, specifiy bars and beats, first, then activate music mode. This preps the clip. If you change the tempo in real time, the loop will automatically update itself in real time. Like ACID, under Musical Mode, you can apply the tempo to the loop without going through a hit points selection process. To see which files have musical mode activated, you can look in the pool to see which clips have the mode activated. The original loop remains intact - it's project specific, not clip specific. You can now take all the acidized loops and they will all be usable in SX 3.0. With Musical Mode selected, you will notice the VST System Performance Meter does not show significant additional CPU load. In cases where you don't know the tempo of the loop, you double click on the sample editor of the audio track. In the Audio Warp Tool, you can now activate your audio tempo tool. Listen to the file, and see where the significant bars and beats appear in the editor. Notice where the Downbeats. Audio Tempo Definition Tool will set the bar 1 for the loop to the LOOP, rather than the Project in the timeline. Simply drag the marker for bar 2 in the editor. Simply line up the bars and beats in the loop. This automatically synchs the clip and the metronome. What if you want to change the "feel" of the recording? Top Warp Samples Click on the Warp Samples to change feel. Activate musical mode. Notice that you can change algorythm to change warp settings. This can help to reduce warble or other distortions if they occur. The drop-down is at the far right upper corner of the sample editor. Add warp tabs to tempo in order to control the feel of the rhythm. Then simply slide them to where you want them. You used to have to cut and paste to do these sorts of edits. You can warp in real time. This is great for Remixing, Changing the Groove, or editing a singer or instrumentalist's entry points. This function can be done in real time, in cycle mode, so you can refine your warp settings. Top Real Time Transpose Click on Show Info. Notice the Transpose setting at the upper RH corner of the show info event line. Make changes in 1/2 tones here. This is all non destructive, and the transpose functions take place in real time. Top Edit In Place Key Editor gives you access to Midi Input and Controller Channels like Velocity, pitch bend, etc. You could use a List editor also. But in the project window, it's sometimes difficult to see the editor when you need it. Under Edit in Place, you get a tiny key editor. It's helpful to make the track large in order to be able to see the edit in place. You can do mutiple edit in place lanes at one time, and in cases where you are drawing controller data like pitch bend, you can draw ACROSS portions that are NOT glued together to integrate controller settings with upcoming material. Top Play Order Track This feature permits you to have a number of versions, say an intro, verse, radio version, album mix, quiet version, louder club version, etc. Add a Play Order Track. Isolate a region, and you draw a play order part for on various regions you need. You can select the tracks to add to the play order list, use mutiple incidents of a portion by clicking "n" times, and activate the play order track in the transport, and the version will conform to the play order track. If you have more than one play order. You only have 1 play order track, but can have multiple play lists, selectable through a dropdown in the play order track. In a live setting, you could use a marker track and use your computer to select from among locations in the arrangement. Once you are satisfied with the play order, you can pull down from the Play Order menu, choose Flatten Play Order, and it will rearrange the whole project to conform to what you selected. From here you can mix down and save submixes, or any permutation of the material. Top Workspaces Window layouts have been optimized as Workspaces. You simply save and can later select the screen view you might have working for a particular track or other feature. Top Midi Device Maps Remember Mixer Maps from VST? If have old mixer maps from various modules, you can now choose from instruments or you can create your own devices. You need to know sysex implementation for your particular module, of course, because the various knobs, faders, etc. will be set based on that. Once you build or use a map, you have complete automation in SX for the functionality of that device. Top VST Connections-Inputs Under Devices, you have a dialog on VST Connections-Inputs. Under External FX, you can create send and returns for the interface you might be using. This allows cubase to control the various outboard modules through the multi-channel interface. So on a particular track, you can select the insert for the particular module you've selected, and you will have settings to set delay compensation, send and return gain. If you want a global latency setting, you could set that under Delay in the VST Connections-Inputs under External FX. Top Studio Connections For Yamaha, such as O1X, using Studio Connections, you have the ability to use SX 3 to maintain all settings for the hardware. Yamaha has collaborated with Steinberg to create a simple 1-step integration on a project level. This is a new Software Standard by Steinberg, and is an open arrangement that will very likely see expanded implementation by additional hardware vendors. Top Freeze Instrument Options This turns all midi data into an audio track in the freeze folder. This lightens the CPU burden. Freeze is now available for audio channels. This further lightens CPU burdens for the particular track. You will hear all the settings on the particular track. The freeze function takes time to engage, depending on the plugins and other features involved in the track. Time required to freeze has been optimized in 3.0. This audio freeze feature will be included in Nuendo 3. Top Volume Envelopes Automation of Volume has permitted drawing or riding a fader to modify settings. The volume automation channel records those settings on a per track basis. You can now write the volume envelope directly onto the clip, and this is SEPARATE from the volume automations. Priority is set to volume envelope on the track. This envelope follows the clip. Top Color Coding There are new color coding schemes. These are similar to the drop down color selector in the upper RH corner of the toolbar, but are available on the track itself. Color selections made here are made to the entire track, rather than to the current selection. You can, of course, color code a particular track, cut the track, select the cut clip, and select a color for just that cut in the upper RH corner. Top
Aug 2004			Going DEEPER with VSTi - Halion 3, Wavelab 5, Xphrase, D'Cota, Plex & Others. This meeting covered practical issues related to new features in the mentioned products. See these Steinberg.net links for more info: Halion3; Wavelab 5; Xphrase; D'Cota; Plex
JUN 2004			Studio Organization Tips + Technical Details on Wavelab 5 . Studio Organization Many projects are done on the fly. The notion of creating documentation while doing a project might seem a foreign language to you. But whether or not you plan for it, some day in the future, it may be necessary or desirable to have documentation for the future, not just backups of audio and tracking info, but also, detailed records of your settings. This may save you the experience of having to virtually recreate music (and not get the same results) you once took the time to create. Noted elements of how artists involved in the project and personnel contribute (or fail to contribute) to the project might be helpful in the event these people revisit your studio in the future. Back up everything - for short term and long term purposes. For long term backups, you should choose a format for ALL elements of the project. Then using that format, make sure you've got the record. And keep track of WHERE these archives are kept so you won't find yourself "tail high" digging in boxes while still trying to hold down an important project. Be ware of DAT archives, since the availability of DAT is becoming very limited and the sunset of this technology is approaching faster than you may think. So it's good to move from DAT to DVD if possible. Also, in the event that you archive your projects, using Cubase SX archive function, you might STILL not get the same result because you might not have the same plugins available when you revisit the project. For this reason, it's a good idea to copy the DLLs from your existing VST Plugins folder to your archive, so that in the event a plugin is changed or updated in a way it brings a different sounding effect, you won't be unhappy with the result. Wavelab 5 - An Unofficial Technical Discussion With Wavelab 5, what has really changed is the ability to do DVD audio. The dimensions of the change between Wavelab 4 and 5 are fairly large - video clip, multi-channel monitoring, etc. But to understand Wavelab 5's capabilities, understanding DVD is helpful. There are variances in the DVD Specification, but the "typical" DVD will have certain features: Single Sided DVD - 4.7 gig 9 groups of Data Each group can have 99 tracks of data Each group is a collection of songs played in a specific order, or Alternate Mixes or Different Material. So, for a music DVD, you can do for sound what "scene selection" is on Video DVD. Group Types include Audio Content Value Added Content - still pictures or text (marketed as "additional features") DVD-V Content is optional Data Files are optional Data Files include elements like links to web sites, and other elements that can add intelligence or e-commerce to the DVD. Opening a DVD Audio disc will show a disk structure under the following, neither of which are going to include *.wav files on your computer. From a DVD, you don't directly get tracks you can use for mixes, for instance. Audio_TS Video_TS Audio Formats - Producing DVD is all about Bandwidth, and different projects use different priorities. Discs vary in terms of what is deemed more important in the eyes of the producer, and depending on how relevant an element such as video or audio is on the project, a bandwidth limitation could come into play. So one particular DVD might be dedicated to Video, and have limited bandwidth allocated for Audio. This might lead to a case where having multiple encoding formats such as DOLBY & DTS might be present. Under Wavelab 5, without encoding DTS OR DOLBY, you could get the following results: Channels Uncompressed Resolution Max Minutes 6 16/96 or 24/48 64 2 24/192 64 2 24/96 129 2 16/44.1 421 Notice we did not mention 32 bit here. This is because a DVD disk works in either 24 or 16 bit because of hardware. It's best to keep your data at the highest resolution, during any phase of work, because it keeps your audio path clearer when file based edits are involved, and even if you can't do 24bit on your DVD player today, tomorrow's device may be able to handle 24 bit. You would take your 32 bit files to wavelab and write your DVD in the resolution you like. Power DVD 5, a 49.95 DVD Software Player turns your computer to play multichannel DVD without any necessity of using DOLBY or DTS encoding. Studiocom has a nice surround speaker control system. Win DVD is not helpful for surround because it only uses SPDIF output, not your multichannel analog output. That can interface with the multichannel output you've got coming from the Power DVD 5 through your multichannel output. Video producers, BTW, face the same dilemma and have to use heavy compression to enable them to reach a point where they are able to compression sufficiently to reach a DVD end product. If you review a DVD you will find a string of vid clips in various resolutions, and where high res AUDIO is needed, you might find the video compression is increased. If you make a DVD disc, you are not getting uncompressed audio OR video. This is one reason why you see such a plethora of special FX, since they are masking the compression levels used. Procedure for Making audio Mixdown to 5.1 From Nuendo or Cubase, do audio mixdown, and select 5.1 interleave file. Make a multichannel interleave file. Note that if you do not have an optional encorder like Dolby or DTS, you will create a broadcast wave file here. This file will look like ONE track in the Nuendo or Cubase arrange screen. You can use optional encoders in Nuendo to utilize Dolby or DTS encoders. If you are doing audio for your set-top box, you need to select 48 khz. A DV Camera will record at 48 k. If you are using Dolby encoder, you 'll get an option to "Save as Dolby Digital Wave File." Your Dolby surround receiver will decode this and think it's a normal surround. Normal CD player will give a full-on white noise mayhem extravaganza. If you are writing DTS file, or Dolby AC3, you can use your Power DVD 5 to check your files to see how they work in surround right on the computer without having to write DVD and put them through a surround receiver. In the optional Encorders, you can select variances in how the signal is emphasized in terms of elements like the emphasis or de-emphasis of surround speakers. With DTS, you have two possible extensions - .CPT and .DTS. if you are writing for a movie, it needs to be one of these. Movie people will need the sound for picture in ONE of these formats. You can select how many channels, and under DTS, you can select the compression algorithm. Once you have your interleaved file or you've created an export file in your optional encorder, you're ready for wavelab 5. If you have a video lane, you can show it in the montage. All meters you are familiar with, like spectral analysis, and level/pan will function in full multi-channel screens. Wavelab won't permit you to take tracks to burn to DVD beyond the bandwidth capacity of the DVD. New features: Under preferences, you MUST use a ASIO or other multichannel driver. Under Asio Audio Connections, you should select WAVELAB channels based on which channel (L, R, C. LS, RS, Sub) to match where they are to be heard. This is critical and there is no "right way." Under EDIT, you will select MODE. You can use Mode CD, which will behave like Wavelab 4. If you use MODE DVD, you are ready for surround. Right click on the montage channel screen and "insert surround file" and you're ready to build the montage. With Audio CD you did not HAVE TO use montage window. In Wavelab, an AUDIO MONTAGE is a GROUP as is a convention in the DVD standard features covered above. You can resume the normal process of editing or mastering. Once complete, you can edit DVD text, remember that if you want song name to change it must be done at the "name of audio file" level, so your audio file's name will control the results. Under DVD-A, functions, you can also create a 6 to 2 result, with cutoffs and settings at various DBlevels. Of course, most serious producers will not produce a single surround mix and then mix to 2 channel. You would create 2 master mixes, one full surround, and one stereo. Understanding DVD-A in Wavelab What is DVD-A on wavelab? DVD-A is a spec of it's own. This is NOT a compressed format - it's not lossy, and is excellent for Audio. Most new DVD players DO handle DVD-A, so you should not have a problem. WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND HERE, IS THAT IF YOU ARE DOING SOUND FOR PICTURE, YOU MUST BE EQUIPPED WITH THE PARTICULAR ENCODER FORMAT YOUR PRODUCTION TEAM REQUIRES FOR THE PROJECT. What you GET with Wavelab 5 is the ELIMINATION OF NEED FOR ANY ENCODERS and the ability to write DVD-A non compressed full surround. DVD-A will only play on a DVD-Audio player most of the time. An application like POWER DVD 5 will not play the DVD-A files on your disc because Power DVD will look for an encoded format. Wavelab WILL play the mix. For DVD audio you have to have a DVD audio player. Most DVD players today WILL play DVD-A, but don't be surprised if you find that some end-user does not have hardware that is up to the current spec. One more tip on DVD TYPES. Remember to use a DVD+R if you are planning to write a disk on PC that will later be used on MAC. Wavelab will burn to any of the DVD types supported by Pinnacle Systems' vast database of CD & DVD burners.
MAR 2004			Synth Knowledge - Featuring Reason 2.5 & VSTI's and All About Synthesis and Synth Control in the VST Environment This meeting featured Alex Ginsberg's remarkable mixes using Reason 2.5 and Karl McBryde presented a detailed summary of how synths work.
FEB 2004			I/O & Midi Interface Hardware + Hypersonic VSTI This meeting included a tutorial from Karl McBryde that covered questions about interfaces & hardware. Firstly, you should ask yourselves some questions about what your recording expectations are: How many I/Os and Tracks do you need at once? How many on the sound card? How many outboard modules do you need capacity for? Do you use word clock? A laptop or desktop system? What sort of time code do you need to employ? What is your platform? What kind of control surface do you need? The type of I/O you need depends on these factors. Re: Track counts; You could employ SCSI, Serial ATA, Firewire, USB, or Fibre Channel (FC). The differences relate not so much to physical hardware as they do to the controllers and the possible bandwidth these can tolerate. For Firewire, the Oxford 911 chipset is the best. Tests on throughput on Firewire vs. USB are based on BURSTS - but in audio production, we are more concerned with full sustain rates. Firewire 800 is recommended vs. USB 2 becuase USB is constantlay polling and this polling "Are you here, I'm here." crosstalk slows down. Fiberchannel drivers are best, if you can afford them. IDE will outrun USB & Firewire. Serial ATA has about 20% better performance on PLAYBACK. PLayback requires about 1/3 the processing power as record does, so 32 record channels might yield from 48 to 60 playback channels DEPENDING on how many edits you have in the tracks. This varies, because in the case of each edit, the system has to load and play two files at once. A G4 with FC could play back as many as 128 tracks with a low load on CPU. FC is a 1 gigabit per second data transfer interface technology that maps several common transport protocols including ip and scsi, allowing it to merge high-speed i/o and networking functionality in a single connectivity technology. fibre channel is an open standard as defined by ansi and osi standards and operates over copper and fiber optic cabling at distances of up to 10 kilometers. See http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_FiberChannel.html for more details. Many major studios today using FC environments. Edit density is the most significant factor in track counts. SCSI systems handle higher quanties of edits better than IDE systems. CONTROL SURFACES There are many options available, but don't expect easy control of all 5.1 channels unless you obtain a surface with a Joystick designed for Surround gain control. This is because most systems with a L/R volume control will not control anything BUT the L/R. Tascam 1886 successfully addresses this problem. XP Systems remember that you will need to go through a setup process and you might tweak for a couple of weeks so by all means, don't schedule in a major project just after an OS change or a new system build involving XP. Remember, we have a link on the FORUM that can get you going on system setup for XP. Sound Cards The bottom line for any sound card you should consider for your SX or Nuendo rig is that it must be ASIO compatible. Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) architecture forms the backbone of VST. ASIO addresses any needs a professional audio recording systems might have. It does this by supporting variable bit depths and sample rates, multi-channel operation and synchronization. As a result, the user gets low latency, high performance, easy set up and stable audio recording within VST. The entire system becomes controllable and offers complete and immediate access to the audio system's capabilities. Since its introduction, ASIO has become a supported standard by many leading audio hardware manufacturers - for good reason. Today, over 100 OEMs now offer ASIO compliant hardware for I/O Hardware - Driver Interface In the event you are experiencing stutter, popping, etc. it's often caused by driver settings. Be certain you use the latest drivers for all hardware. Clock Source can be a problem in systems. Make certain you've selected the correct clock source for your components, and that you do not create a conflict. Hypersonic is a very powerful solution to the challenges of creating sounds in the VST environment. Frederick Ravid provided a demo of a newly-mixed song project using this new VSTi. Note that Steinberg has just relased a very significant UPDATE with many new features to Hypersonic as Version 1.1 and an addendum to the manual here. One of the important features of Hypersonc is its ability to vastly simplify the process of building sounds through the VSTi's interface. Try doing this with a tone module, and after being buried in the manual and trying to manage sysex changes, your creative inspiriation is sapped. Hypersonic is so easy to use, it's virtually a revolutionary tone module. A MP3 of this session will be posted here in the near future.
Jan 2004			Review of NAMM 2004, Steinberg and Pinnacle New Products, plus Swar Systems, Classical Indian Music VSTi and WAVES' R1 Parametric Convolution Reverb. Namm 2004 was a very good show, and a good indication of where the industry is heading. There was an air of economic recovery at NAMM - with over 73,000 attendees, and over 10% higher attendance over 2003. Pinnacle Systems/ Steinberg had a completely new look, with a much more streamlined and clean feel. Steinberg featured a new product introduction - the SYSTEM|4, an integrated hardware/software production solution. The M|4 is a 4 in 4 out USB audio/midi interface, the first of a series of new I/O hardware from Steinberg. Steinberg also announced a new integration device - VST Module Architure - continuing Steinberg's open code philosophy, and allowing third party developers to program MIDI plug-ins for VST compatibility. New Steinberg SDK (Software Development Kits) can be expected to exponentially expand the growth of ASIO compliant and VST compatible tools. Steinberg hosted Pinnacle's video editing, and ongoing demos of Version 9, and their top of the line Liquid Edition, the most powerful and comprehensive DVD editing and authoring software that even features 5.1 surround and other audio tools previously native only to Steinberg. Expect a demo of Version 9 and Liquid Edition some time this year at Steinberg Institute. We reviewed a variety of new products including the TASCAM US 2400, a 24 channel control surface that is highly suitable for use with Steinberg and other DAW applications. The US2400 is a fully mapped device with 25 touch sensitive motorized faders and a wide variety of important interface components. We also covered Swar Systems Swar Librarian and Swar Plug VSTi from Swar Systems. These tools are authentic sounding and invaluable tools for adding Classical Indian sounds to your mix. Swar Librarian has the ability to help you choose from among 21 Indian Instruments and utilize over 500 midi loops. This is particularly useful when programming instruments with demanding traditional rhythms like the 33 rhythmic classes of Thekas for Tabla. Good luck creating an authentic sound without knowing how these patters are structured! All you have to do is copy loops from the Librarian and import them into Cubase and Nuendo. Among the most usable and popular Theka rhythms, you will find a variety of Tintal, Rupak, and Dadra in a variety of standard classical indian music time signatures. Using the SwarPlug VSTi, you can pull up any of Swar Systems' 21 instruments, and use them. Another useful application of SwarPlug VSTi and Swar Librarian is to select the desired loops from the Libarian and map them to the keyboard in Halion, so you can move between them with ease and comfort while producing East/West fusion sounds. Categories of sounds Swar offers include Percussions, Drones, Strings, Wind and Voices. Waves Jacob Winn joined us for this meeting and demonstrated the Waves R1 Convolution Reverb. This reverb Plugin utilizes archival analysis by Professor Angelo Farina of Italy's Parma University, who used special microphones to archive the reverberation within real acoustic spaces from a variety of locations within those spaces, and this VST Plugin makes this archive available for your tracks. What is the world coming to? To your Tracks! The bundle includes an extensive library of a multitude of Concert Halls, Churches, Theaters, Recording Studios, Opera Houses, Ampitheaters, Scoring Stages, Clubs, Medium Halls, Small Rooms, Stairwells, Car Interiors (Lincoln Navigator, anyone? No kidding!), Outdoor areas like Caves and Caverns, plus Classic Hardware Reverb Devices. The sound is frankly incomparable.
Aug 2003			Editing from Beginning to Advanced We focused on New Feature High Points in this meeting. This includes custom setups, key commands and file formats; Layouts and how to make the most of them; Rulers and their applications; User Presets; Record destinations; Input Channels and FX Channels; Editing using the crossfade Editor; Batch Processor; Midi Editing features; Using the Mixer for optimization of workflow; and Surround editing
May 2003			New Product Releases Featuring Halion 2.0; Groove Agent; Nuendo 2.0. This meeting gave us an opportunity to review several new Steinberg releases. For Halion 2.0, we demonstrated new features such as the new Waldorf filters, plus new surround content from Wizoo. We discussed format conversion and encouraged people to experiment with the vast library of AKAI format free material that's available on the web. Groove Agent stands in a class of its own - imagine working on an album project and needing to hire the "just right" drummer to fill out the groove... not easy. So Groove Agent works like a manager who knows every drummer in town - and who can mix them together. This is a bar-raising tool from Steinberg, and it's best features include the ability to play at varying complexity levels while having the ability to choose from a variety of styles. The drum kits and styles are set on a timeline, so you can actually set a type of sound and separately select the comlexity level you want. Nuendo 2.0 was an introductory discussion of such features as a new I/O implementation with more control over signal routing and a host of new and flexible mixing and busing features. Plus with 2.0 we have midi implementation, more file formats, improved folder track with group-based overviews, plug-ins -- all in all - 200 new features comprise this release. This was an intro to Nuendo 2.0. The full-on review takes place in our June meeting.
APRIL 2003			Producing the Grammy Award Artist with Frederick Ravid. You start out in the studio with the finest of intentions but all too often, at the end of the day, you have lots of things to fix before you attain a broadcast quality production. Frederick covered a variety of methods he used with world music artist Tito LaRosa to fix glitches in Gain, EQ, and demonstrated his methods for using automation to craft the high quality. The major work of the studio, according to Ravid, is to take the raw production and use your editing and engineering skills to achieve a musical result..
March 2003			Steinberg's US National Technology Guru Greg Ondo covered a variety of new product features, gave a tour of features, and handled Q&A for a large group of attendees.
Feb 2003			Production and Control This meeting featured production processes involved in creating Frederick Ravid's Wizard Music Release "Music of The Healers," with on site (in the Amazon Jungle) and studio recordings of master musicians of Peru, playing indigenous music of the Amazon and the Andes. Many technical problems were faced in the production of this album, and the source tracks were shown, with various problems of noise, distortion, aliasing, and so forth. Methods of correcting these problems were demonstrated. Other Topics Kawai MP 9500 Controller is the controller most respected for reproducing the most velocity and touch sensitivity, and it is the best controller for use with THE GRAND VSTi. The MP9500 has wooden keys and employs traditionl balance rail action with hammer actuation. An important feature of this keyboard is its Touch Curve automation. Turn on the Touch Curve analysis and begin playing from your softest touch to your heaviest, and the MP9500 will program itself to span your veolicty range across the entire spectrum of 128 veolicity gradients. D'Cota is the latest VSTi from Steinberg. This instrument combines the pwer of three types of sound synthesis in the compact editing environment of one synthesizer. The aliasing-free sound engine is very flexible and controllable. You will be amazed by the qualities of sounds the D'Cota can create. We used this instrument in a session during the meeting, adding rich atmospheric and rhytmic character to the mix. VST System Link was discussed, in terms of setup and applications, and handouts with details on use of System Link were provided to attendees.
Jan 2003			VST - The State of the Art Microsoft Direct X 9 will provide encoding for all types of pro audio and video, which essentially means that studios will be able to send encoded mixes in 5.1 or other formats via email, and decode at the receiving end using Direct X 9. This is a major development, because in the past, you had to use Dolby or DTS to encode your full-surround mixes. A significant factor in Microsoft's announcement is that Direct X 9 is open architecture and license free, meaning that any developer can deploy the pro-audio tools in their applications. Good bye high licensing fees for a codec. Halion String Edition, developed by Wizoo's Peter Gorges shows tremendous promise as a solution to adding live strings to the mix, regardless of the musical format you are producing. We demonstrated this with Frederick Ravid's ADAGIO FOR STRINGS, and showed the sonic depth of the instrument. Features include 16 violins, 12 Violas, 10 Cellos and 8 Contra Basses. All articulations are featured, including legato, tremolo, whole tone trills, semitone trills spiccato, pizzzicato. Each section has up to 9 velocity layers. Stevie Wonder came by the Steinberg booth at NAMM and checked this out. PSP PSP Audioware makes some wonderful VST plugins that offer vintage sound and Tube Warmth. PSP also makes Lexicon PSP 42, virtual Lexicon PCM42 stereo delay and phrase sampler. At NAMM PSP said they are about 2 weeks away from releasing a Tube Preamp for VST. Celemony Software's Melodyne, the fabulous pitch and formant control tool is shortly going to be released as a VST compatible plugin. This outstanding tool takes the audio wave and graphically displays it according to the pitches the wave follows. You can select any portion and move it, with tremendous flexibility without changing the natural musical characteristics of the sounds being modified. The 2002 Steinberg Instutute Straightjacket Award was presented to Triniti Coclough, in honor of his diligent work and growing reputation as a sought after engineer. His work with Public Enemy has not only taken him to a new level, but Public Enemy as well, with an album produced in Nuendo. VST System Link (VSL)will go new directions as time marches along. You will see the capability of running system link using Cat 5 networking cable. Other developments related to VSL are the capability of using V-Stack. A recommended tool for viewing both (or more) machines linked with VSL is VNC, which allows a server to view other systems you have set up on VSL using Cat 5 regardless of OS of the VSL clients. Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition, building on the Virtual Guitarist, which primarily focused on acoustic sounds, provides a series of 29 differetn players from teh 502 to the present day. Included is a fully featured multi-effects board, useable both as a separate plug-in in any VST audio path, or integrated with teh Electric Edition. Nuendo 2.0 is about to be released. This new version boasts a redesigned mixer, which is configuarable as to which features you wish to see. Nuendo 2.0 is networkable using Cat 5. New editing features in Nuendo 2.0 include new cross-fade editors. The MIDI engine has been beefed up and features a cool new Magneto interface.
Oct 2002			Jeff Mac of Tech Rep Marketing: Production Using Cubase SX This meeting included a careful discussion of the sonic spectrum, and where components of the mix belong, and are best placed. Jeff started with a drum track, using the LM4, and followed with a bass track using VB1. He added a chord track using PLEX, and with the use of square wave filters to punch the PLEX in and out, caused the Plex track to gain much more interest. Jeff added additional sounds and instruments, and described the frequency "notch" that vocals, and other components of the mix need to have fairly clear, so they can be heard effectively. Look for a PDF of Jeff's outline for this session at this location in the future. Jeff's unique take on the recording process comes from having so many years as a product specialist for many major name brands of pro gear that he had to start his own company to rep them! His perspective comes from a very senior level of recording technology knowledge. BTW, this meeting was entirely run on MAC OSX. That's "OS TEN."
Sep 2002			Greg Ondo Presents VST Studio Tour At this 2 location event, Greg demonstrated the full range of powerful features of SX, featuring SX's highly intuitive interface. Greg emphasized the ease with which SX can be used for production and creation of outstanding final results.
Aug 2002			Automation & the New Plugins In this meeting, we looked at the incredible automation power of SX, and demonstrated how to use automation for Volume, Pan, EQ, and virtually every setting that can be controlled on any VST function as well as in the VST Plugins and VST Instruments. The beauty of SX is that you can see the automation in the Arrange Window, use the pen tool to draw in automation, or cause automation to follow wave forms like Sine, Square, Sawtooth, etc. to create dramatic effects. We looked at some of the new plugins that ship wth SX, and covered setup of PCs using XP Pro to show how to make systems as powerful for audio production as possible.
July 2002			An Example of Native Production Using SX In this meeting we showed how easy it is to begin the music production process straight out of the box using SX. Producer Frederick Ravid showed how a series of audio tracks that were recorded that very day in his studio can be combined, tweaked, edited, EQ'd, FX added, automated, and showed how an impressive end result could be achieved. All this, using the intuitive interfaces of SX, and a few shortcuts. The result of this mixing was that a series of world instrument sounds were transformed to a deep trance mix with powerful musical characteristics.
June 2002			CUBASE SX GETTING INTO THE DETAILS This meeting was an opportunity to go through setup for SX. We started the meeting with a review of computer optimization for Windows XP. These optimizations place the processing power of XP into a mode that supports the background computing operations necessary for audio production. For tips on this setup process, check out http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf. It's a detailed discussion of this issue. Also check out http://service.steinberg.net/knowledge.nsf/show/acpi_kills_audio_performance from the Steinberg site to get info about ACPI and its problems. The combination of these resources will help you tremendously. Following discussion of system optimization, we covered SX setup, from ASIO driver selection, Midi Setup, Creating Scripts for Midi Sound Modules using Steinberg's Scriptmaker, which can be downloaded from http://service.steinberg.net/webdoc.nsf/show/download_e, and a variety of other issues. We looked at Steinberg Voice Machine (Details at http://www.steinberg.net/products/ae/plugins/voicemachine/index.phtml?id=0303030108&sid=08294438 which pretty much does for audio tracks what you wish AutoTune would do - with complete ability to draw in pitch refinement automation. We also reviewed the amazing free VSTi called Delay Llama. Delay Lama is the first VST-instrument to offer both vocal synthesis and a real-time animated 3D interface. Its advanced monophonic vocal synthesis engine enables your computer to sound just like an Eastern monk, with real-time, high resolution control over the vowel sound. Check it out at http://www.audionerdz.com/index2.htm. Next meeting date runs a bit different from our normal schedule - we will meet on the 3rd Tuesday of July - the 16th, since the 23rd conflicts with Summer NAMM.
May 2002			SURROUND SOUND MIXING IN CUBASE SX For this meeting we set up a full surround mixing environment using Genelec Powered Monitors, a laptop, and the powerful Nuendo Audiolink Interface to take a journey through the features of SX. Many elements of the Nuendo Engine have made their way into Cubase, and we explored the details of how the SX arrange window, editors, and other features and functions look and operates. SX Karl McBryde created a demo using a variety of new instruments and features that ship with SX, along with a stunning demo of the new VST Instrument Virtual Guitarist. It's an incredible instrument with all the power and scope that can be imagined in a VSTi. In the discussion about how to set up a 5.1 full surround mixing room, we covered many elements of setup and Karl McBryde suggested that he never uses a pink noise generator to EQ his monitors because the mix itself is not EQ'd in the equipment and it gives him a "false reading." If there are problems with EQ, Karl prefers to work with the acoustics within the mixing room.
April 2002			Production Tips and the Nuendo Audiolink Interfaces were covered. We discussed a variety of audio and midi tracking ideas. Included were creating a separate "wet" FX track that can be more effectively controlled and automated; creating realism in Midi and Audio, using plugins effectively and other ideas. The power of the Nuendo Audiolink interfaces was shown - This hardware makes it possible to use a laptop or any computer as a production system, with Midi, Audio and A/D conversion capabilities.
March 2002			This meeting covered Wavelab 4 and Warp, the Guitar/Amp Modeling plugin. Wavelab 4 has been redesigned, and provides a variety of new features, including a crisp interface. The Warp Guitar/Amp modeling plugin allows a guitar to play directly into the system, and provides complete control of the sound and characteristics of amps, and speakers.
February 2002			THE GRAND. At this meeting, concert pianist Frederick Ravid demonstrated the powerful features and sounds of Steinberg's breathtaking new VST Instrument - The Grand. With 12 layers of velocity sensitivity and control of virtually every feature of the piano through THE GRAND's edit capabilities, tuning, tone color, ambience and other aspects of sound are under control.
September 2001			PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES USING AUDIO TRACKS, EDITORS & PLUGINS This meeting featured a live recording session using Cubase VST's Audio recording capabilities. We reviewed signal path setup, microphone placement, track recording, and techniques for refinement of the track. Isolation of segments of the track and application of plugins was discussed. The track in question was set to different EQ, reverb and delay characteristics, copied to Right and Left channels, and panned to create a stereo image. Detailed discussion on Mastering pointed out how Mastering is oriented towards optimal sound reproduction in the designated end-media, with its particular strengths and weaknesses. Mastering for CD is not the same as mastering the same piece of Audio for Cassette, for instance.
August 2001			CREATING A HOT LATIN MIX & AUDIO/VIDEO PRODUCTION Composer-Arranger Frederick Ravid demonstrated how a production is created, edited, and arranged in the arrange window using Midi instruments. Features included use of Score Editor, List Editor, Key Editor, Midi Continuous Controller Edits, control of Arrange Window appearance, Multiple Track Simultaneous Editing, Structure Menu features, and Arrange Window Editing Tools. Chris Kind of The Compression Chamber provided an example of how he uses Pinnacle DV500 plus Adobe Premiere to create Video presentations. He showed how he creates sound for these productions in Cubase VST and how he preps Sound for Picture in Wavelab.
July 2001			UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL VS. ANALOG RECORDING Karl McBryde gave an excellent powerpoint presentation which details the physics and theory behind 32 bit floating point recording, vs. 24 bit fixed point systems like Pro Tools and similar DAWs and analog. We discussed a variety of issues, including Cubase and Nuendo's leadership in high resolution digital recording, studio microphone selection, live ensemble recording vs. track recording & other meat and potatoes topics.
June 2001			STEINBERG AG REVEALED, PLUS WALDORF ATTACK'S AMAZING POWERThis meeting discussed new developments emerging from Steinberg, as revealed by a visit to Steinberg in Hamburg. Aspects of Steinberg's philosophy were discussed in detail. These included use of the Houston Control Surface, the release of Halion, Steinberg's developing approach to the Web, and other topics. We provided a demonstration of Waldorf's ATTACK drum synth, and showed its amazing power and creative potential.
May 2001			A LIVE ARRANGING SESSION USING CUBASE-NUENDO. This meeting covered the arranging process itself, from creation of an idea to its completion. We featured use of midi and reviewed a variety of tools, including editing tools, the on-screen tools which are used to control the arrange window, the Part Inspector, etc. We had a long discussion on the impacts of various operating systems and features, from Windows and MAC platforms and covered the pros and cons of each. We demonstrated a variety of Nuendo features and provided an overview of Nuendo's distinctions.
APR 2001			VST INSTRUMENTS AND THE INNER WORKINGS OF SYNTH DESIGN Frederick Ravid will review a bundle of Instruments, including LM4, LM9, JX Synth, MDA Dx10, MDA Piano, Model E, PPD Tritium, Waldorf PPG Wave, Native Instruments' B4, Neon, Pro52, the Tassman Synth, Universal Sound Module, VB1, VSampler, and if available, Waldorf's new release, the Attack Drum Synth, and Native Instruments' Reaktor. We'll show some features of these synths, and demonstrate some of their amazing powers. Then we will discuss some of the technicalities of signal path design so you can make more of all your VST Instruments and better utilize sound generating technology.
MAR 2001			MORE DETAILS ABOUT PLUGINS Many more Plugins will be demonstrated This meeting will focus further on plugins, and on a range of valuable Virtual StudioTechnology Instruments. Karl McBryde of Tech Rep Marketing will pull potions and powders from his wizard bag to explain more of where and when to use plugins. We will provide further written documentation at this meeting of important web links you should keep handy. Also, you can expect us to demo many freeware and shareware plugins.
FEB 2001			THE MONDO PLUGIN DEMO EXPERIENCE We are planning to demo every VST plug-in and VST instrument out there so you can start to see the amazing power of Virtual Studio Technology (VST). As Trinity Cocolugh will point out at this meeting, major studios use VST plugins for post production for major artists. Make the most of this opportunity to focus on as many plugins as we can demo. This is a real hands on session, which will broaden your horizons, and help you understand your creative potential better.
JAN 2001			USING THE SCORE EDITOR IN CUBASE VST Special Guest Wizzard Matt Chenoweth will provide a demonstration of the Score editors, from writing music in the score editor from scratch, to editing, arranging, preparing lead sheets, etc. Learn the features of Cubase which attract people like Paul McCartney, Hans Zimmer, and others who create serious arrangements using Cubase. Learn to create lead sheets of your arrangements for studio musicians to use for sessions. The features in the Score Editor are a huge advantage of Cubase VST which cannot be overlooked. Cubase VST with the Score Editor can help wipe out musical illiteratcy in your community! Matt Chenoweth has a very impressive musical resume and he's not finished. His High School jazz band backed up Dizzy Gillespie on PBS, His Choir took 1st place in World Competitions in Vienna, the Jazz Band took 1st place in nationals at Berklee, and the Orchestra took 1st place in nationals in Washington DC. He also spent a lot of time as a recording engineer in Boston working for Down Town recorders (artsits included Peter Wolf) and Newbury Sound (owned by Rick Ocasik). Matt was a studio musician there and at other studios in town. Matt's own band, "Crab Daddy," had a record deal with an indie label in Boston and they toured the US for 5 years playing 200 - 250 shows a year; for crowds as small as 100 to as large as 10,000.
NOV 2000			Recycle 1.7 - It's About Time Get the loop-scoop on Recycle: http://www.steinberg.net/products/ps/recycle/index.phtml?id=030102&sid=02913762 Forget problems with loops in the right key and the wrong tempo. Forget timestretching, sloppy timing - let ReCycle! do the dirty work. ReCycle! is an audio processing tool for drum loops and grooves You've seen Greg Ondo demo use of Rex files, and Recycle. But we're going to have some serious focus on this topic to make sure everyone is up and running. Special Guest Mark Spain is going to bring his V-drums and Frederick Ravid is going to bring a rare Turkish Dumbek plus Alto Sax for Audio recording sessions. We're going to take V-Drums to Audio, Record some Audio Tracks, create content for Recycle's powerful feature set, and cover a variety of Time-Related details.
OCT 2000			GUITAR AS CONTROLLER They say guitars haven't changed since the 70s. Well that's over now. With Roland's new super low latency GR-33 synth powered with the incredible sounds of a JV 1080, controlled through 13 pin midi using a Brian Moore Guitars I-Guitar with an independent midi channel for each string of the guitar plus other elements, this meeting is going to show you incredible new possibilities for using your guitar as controller to do real midi studio work. Guitar players will be stunned by the possibilities and power of controlling midi. Like that pitch bend wheel on your keyboard? Try bending a string! Many instruments sound much more natural using a guitar controller. We'll take some cuts, do demos, and build a session using guitar and keyboard controllers. Plus, Lee Hargrove will be bring some of ROLAND's latest rack mounted gear, including the very fat JV 5080, which is a combination of Sampler and Tone Module with 128 channels and lots of goodies. Since we will focus on production ideas, we'll show you how to make these tools WORK in a Cubase studio.
SEP 2000			CUBASE REAL TIME You've got Cubase, you've been to the meetings where we isolate features and ideas: But putting it all to work and INTEGRATING the huge feature set is a challenge. Here's the chance to witness Cubase, on MAC and PC, being used to create music. We're going from raw inspiration to radio-ready CD in this meeting! This meeting is for everyone, from brand new users to serious studio professionals. Laying down that initial "seed of inspiration" Adding tracks Using Cubase's features to create efficiently Arranging - from composition tips to getting Cubase to make it turn out Troubleshooting your mix Slipping Midi To Audio Using the EQ, Dynamics and Plugins Getting the final mix to CD. Included will be further discussion of the backbone and nerves of recording studio engineering that are essential to cubase: unity gain theory and signal routing using outboard mixers to optimize your Midi-To-Audio recording process.
AUG 2000			GETTING DEEP INTO VST 5.0 PLUS WALDORF'S AMAZING PPG WAVE VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT In this segment we will get deeper into VST 5.0. We will cover more new features and show you how to get more out of your session time with this refined tool. We're taking a systematic sweep through the menus, from beginning to end so you can see the whole program. Between August and September meeting you'll get a great overview of VST 5.0. Then we'll crank up the incredible Waldorf PPG Wave Synth and show you how to take control of this powerful tool. The original Synth was arguably the best sounding of all synths ever made, but it was UNOBTANIUM - it was among the costliest. Enter Virtual Instruments and *click*, you get to plug in this synth to your rig for comparable pocket change. This will be a fun demo.