User manual

147
Control Room (Cubase only)
Background
Large console Monitoring sections
In traditional analog studios, the audio console maintained
control over every audio signal in the studio, including the
control room monitors, headphone systems, external 2-
track tape machines and communications such as the talk-
back system.
The console itself provided a means of creating multiple
cue mixes for performers in the studio. Using available aux
sends, the engineer could create multiple cue mixes for
the various performers, each one having a unique mix tai-
lored for that person or group of performers.
With the advent of the DAW, many of the functions of the
console started being performed inside the audio soft-
ware, allowing for more flexibility and instant recall of any
setting. In many studios, the console sat idle except for
adjusting the playback level of the speakers, switching to
monitor external devices and routing signals to head-
phones and other cue mix playback systems.
Smaller hardware units have been made to replace the
monitoring section using a simple volume knob with
speaker and input switches. Some even include a talkback
system and headphone amplifiers.
Surround sound
With more and more surround recording and mixing being
performed in the DAW environment, the needs of the mon-
itoring section have become magnified. Surround speaker
setups must be able to work with smaller, stereo speakers
and even mono speaker systems. Switching back and forth
between them can become quite complicated. Also, the
ability to perform downmixes of multi-channel audio is now
needed on a regular basis for many audio professionals.
Virtual Control Room solution
Cubase has now added the functionality of the control
room monitoring section of large format analog consoles to
the virtual audio environment of VST with the creation of the
Control Room Mixer and Control Room Overview windows.
The concept
The concept behind creating the Control Room features
was to divide the studio environment into the performing
area (studio) and the engineer/producer area (control
room) common to traditional studios. Previously, an analog
console or some method of speaker control and monitor
routing was necessary to provide this functionality to the
DAW environment.
Cubase now provides all the functionality of the analog
console’s monitoring section, along with many more fea-
tures, in the virtual world where flexibility and instant recall
are expected.
Control Room features
The following features are available for the Control Room
Mixer:
• Support for up to four sets of monitors with various speaker
configurations from mono up to 6.0 Music or Cine speaker
systems.
• Dedicated Headphone output.
• Support for up to four discrete cue mix outputs called “Studios”.
• Dedicated Talkback channel with flexible routing and automatic
record defeat.
• Support for up to six external inputs with configurations up to
6.0 surround.
• Click track routing and level control to all Control Room out-
puts.
• Flexible Listen Bus options with the Listen Dim setting that
allows Listen-enabled tracks to be heard in context with the
whole mix.
• Listen Bus Enabling on both Control Room and Headphone
outputs.
• User-definable downmix settings using the MixConvert plug-in
for all speaker configurations.
• Individual speaker soloing for all speaker configurations.
• Multiple inserts on each Control Room channel for metering
and surround de-coding among other possibilities.
• Monitor Dim function with adjustable level.
• User-defined Calibrated Monitor level for post-production
mixing in a calibrated environment.
!
Please note that when we speak of “the Mixer” in this
chapter we refer to the Control Room Mixer window.
The normal Cubase Mixer is referred to as the
“Project Mixer”. For information about the Project
mixer, see the chapter “The mixer” on page 118.