Quick Start

7
Introduction
Welcome
Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Stein-
berg Cubase/Cubase Studio. 2009 marks the 25th anni-
versary of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH and our
key message “Creativity First” has never had more mean-
ing than today. Over many years and many product gener-
ations Cubase has grown from a classic MIDI sequencer
to possibly the most powerful music production software
money can buy. And as a Cubase user, you have now be-
come a member of the largest community of music soft-
ware users on the planet!
With Cubase you have chosen an advanced music pro-
duction system, which will take you from the very first idea
to the final mix. Maybe you’re a keyboard player, a song-
writer, an instrumentalist or a mixing engineer. Maybe
you’re a professional, a hobby musician, a student or a
teacher – Cubase has it all covered and gives you the
tools you need to record, edit, mix and master your music.
Unique features such as the Arranger Track, VST Sound,
Control Room (Cubase only) and the introduction of in-
dustry standards like VST and ASIO are good examples
for how Steinberg technology has always driven music
technology and paved ways for others to follow.
Designed by the software engineers at Steinberg and the
hardware experts at Yamaha, Steinberg Advanced Inte-
gration hardware is the ideal choice for you as a valued
Cubase customer. Full plug&play connectivity and True In-
tegrated Monitoring™ are only two of the many advan-
tages that come with hardware and software that have
been made for each other.
Cubase 5 puts new creative tools into your hands, which
allow you to realize your musical ideas more easily and in-
tuitively than ever before. LoopMash (Cubase only) is a
revolutionary virtual instrument offering a fresh and innova-
tive way of producing stunning new beats and loop varia-
tions. Groove Agent One pairs powerful drum sampling
with detailed sound shaping – all seamlessly integrated
into Cubase and working hand in hand with the new Beat
Designer plug-in, so you can capture your ideas faster and
experiment freely.
VariAudio offers completely integrated pitch and note
length editing for individual notes in monophonic vocal re-
cordings - bridging the gap between traditional MIDI and
audio editing. The new Pitch Correct plug-in in Cubase in-
troduces easy and automatic intonation control and scale
correction of vocal and monophonic instrument record-
ings. If you are into composing, you will be excited about
VST Expression which takes the pain out of working with
multiple instrument articulations of huge libraries by intro-
ducing customizable and transparently integrated editing
with precision access in the Key and Score Editors. These
are just a few examples of how Cubase supports and ex-
pands your creative vision.
Don’t forget to register at MySteinberg and get access to
online support offers and additional exclusive services.
We also welcome you to the Cubase community at our
online forum cubase.net.
See you around! Your Steinberg Cubase Team
About the manuals and the help
The Cubase documentation is divided into several sec-
tions, as listed below. Some of the documents are in
Adobe Acrobat format (extension “.pdf”) – these can be
accessed in the following ways:
• You can open the pdf documents from the Documentation
submenu on the Help menu in the program.
• Under Windows you can also open these documents from the
Cubase Documentation subfolder on the Windows Start menu.
• Under Mac OS X the pdf documents are located in the folder
“/Library/Documentation/Steinberg/Cubase 5”.
Ö To read the pdf documents, you need to have a suit-
able pdf reader application installed on your computer.
An installer for Adobe Reader is provided on the program DVD.
The Getting Started manual
This is the manual you are reading now. It covers the fol-
lowing areas:
• Computer requirements.
• Installation issues.
• Setting up your system for audio, MIDI and/or video work.
• Tutorials describing the most common procedures for record-
ing, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase.
In other words, this manual does not go into detail on any
Cubase windows, functions or procedures.