Quick Start

20
Setting up your system
Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase
The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system
in the following ways:
Ö Note: When you change MIDI port settings in the De-
vice Setup dialog, these are automatically applied in the
program.
Showing or hiding MIDI Ports
The MIDI ports are listed in the Device Setup dialog on the
MIDI Port Setup page. By clicking in the “Visible” column
for a MIDI input or output, you can specify whether or not it
should be listed on the MIDI pop-up menus in the program.
If you are trying to hide a MIDI port which is already se-
lected for a track or a MIDI device, a warning message will
appear, allowing you to hide – and disconnect – the port
or to cancel the operation and keep the MIDI port visible.
Setting up the “All MIDI Inputs” option
When you record MIDI in Cubase, you can specify which
MIDI input each recording MIDI track should use. How-
ever, you can also select the “In All Inputs” option for an
input port, which causes any MIDI data from any MIDI in-
put to be recorded.
The “In All Inputs” option on the MIDI Port Setup page al-
lows you to specify which inputs should be included when
you select All MIDI Inputs for a MIDI track. This can be es-
pecially useful if your system provides several instances of
the same physical MIDI input – by deactivating the dupli-
cates you make sure only the desired MIDI data is recorded.
Ö If you have a MIDI remote control unit connected, you
should also make sure to deactivate the “In All Inputs” op-
tion for that MIDI input.
This will avoid accidentally recording the data from the remote control
when the “All MIDI Inputs” option is selected as input for a MIDI track.
Connecting a synchronizer
When using Cubase with external tape transports, you will
most likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All
connections and setup procedures for synchronization are
described in the
chapter “Synchronization” in the Opera-
tion Manual.
Setting up video
Cubase plays back video films in AVI, Quicktime or MPEG
formats. Under Windows, video can be played back using
one of the following playback engines: Video for Win-
dows, DirectShow or Quicktime. This ensures compatibil-
ity with as wide a range of video files as possible. Under
Mac OS X, Quicktime is always used as playback engine.
Generally there are two ways to play back video:
• Without any special hardware at all, using the computer
CPU.
In this case, the “codec” is in software. While this will be fine in many sit-
uations it does put a limit on the size of the video window as well as the
quality of the image.
• Using video hardware that for example connects to an
external monitor.
Mac OS X: Using a FireWire port, you can play back video on an external
monitor using a DV-to-analog converter or a DV camera (see also the
chapter “Video” in the Operation Manual).
This is valid for DV video and QuickTime is used for playback.
Windows: Multi-head graphics cards which support overlay functionality
can be used to display the video picture on an external monitor. The fol-
lowing manufacturers have working (and tested) solutions available:
nVIDIA and Matrox.
If you plan to use special video hardware, install it and set
it up as recommended by the manufacturer.
Before you use the video hardware with Cubase, we re-
commend that you test the hardware installation with the
utility applications that came with the hardware and/or the
Windows Media Player or Quicktime Player (Mac OS X)
applications.
!
Make sure that all equipment is turned off before
making any connections!
!
Always make all connections with all equipment
turned off!