User manual

173
Control Room (Cubase only)
Virtual Control Room – The concept
The concept behind the Control Room features in Cubase
is to divide the studio environment into the performing area
(studio) and the engineer/producer area (control room)
common to traditional studios. Previously, an analog con
-
sole or some method of speaker control and monitor rout-
ing was necessary to provide this functionality to the DAW
environment.
With its Control Room Mixer and Control Room Overview
features, Cubase provides all the functionality of the ana
-
log console’s monitoring section, along with many more
features, in a virtual, VST-based audio environment 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 auto-
matic 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 decoding among other possibilities.
• Monitor Dim function with adjustable level.
• User-defined Calibrated Monitor level for postproduction mix-
ing in a calibrated environment.
• Adjustable Input Gain and Input Phase on all external inputs
and Speaker outputs.
• Full-sized meters on every Control Room channel.
• Support for up to four aux sends (Studio Sends) for creation
of discrete cue mixes for performers. Each Studio output has
its own cue mix.
• The ability to disable the Control Room Section when working
with an external monitoring solution or console.
Control Room operations
In traditional analog studios, the control room section of
the console contained the most used set of controls in the
whole studio.
The need to constantly be able to switch monitoring
sources, adjust the volume of monitors and route various
cue mixes and other sources to headphone systems is the
norm in most sessions. Meeting the needs of several per
-
formers in the studio plus a producer and the engineer be-
comes a constant task that requires flexibility and ease of
operation. Communication between everyone must be
flawlessly clear without intruding on the creativity of
performers.
The Cubase Control Room Mixer is designed to fill those
needs with a simple yet highly flexible solution. The virtual
mixing environment of VST is the ideal solution to the var
-
ied needs of a control room matrix. With a virtual mixer, a
high degree of customization and precise settings are
possible with the ability to completely recall these settings
at any time.
Configuring the Control Room
The Control Room features are configured in several loca-
tions within Cubase.
• The hardware inputs and outputs for the Control Room chan-
nels are defined in the VST Connections window on the Stu-
dio tab. Here you can also enable and disable the Control
Room.
• The Control Room Overview gives you a visual overview of the
Control Room channels and signal flow. It is opened via the
Devices menu.
• The Control Room Mixer allows operation of the Control
Room features. It can be opened from the Project window
toolbar (Media & Mixer Windows section), the Devices menu,
or the Studio tab in the VST Connections window.
• Some general Control Room settings can be found in the
Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page).