User manual

20
Setting up your system
ASIO Direct Monitoring
If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may sup-
port ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be
available for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In
this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hard
-
ware, by sending the input signal back out again. How-
ever, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means
that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be
turned on or off automatically by Cubase.
Monitoring is described in detail in the chapter “Record-
ing” on page 89. However, when setting up, there is one
thing to note:
• If you want to use the external monitoring via your audio
hardware, make sure that the corresponding functions are
activated in the card’s mixer application.
Ö If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio
hardware, make sure that the pan law is set to -3
dB in the
card’s preferences.
Setting up MIDI
This section describes how to connect and set up MIDI
equipment. If you have no MIDI equipment, you can skip
this section. Note that this is only an example – you might
need or want to hook things up differently!
Connecting the MIDI equipment
In this example we assume that you have a MIDI keyboard
and an external MIDI sound module. The keyboard is used
both for feeding the computer with MIDI messages for re
-
cording and for playing back MIDI tracks. The sound mod-
ule is used for playback only. Using Cubase’s MIDI Thru
feature (described later) you will be able to hear the cor-
rect sound from the sound module while playing the key-
board or recording.
A typical MIDI Setup
If you want to use even more instruments for playback, sim-
ply connect MIDI Thru on the sound module to MIDI In on
the next instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will al
-
ways play the first keyboard when recording. But you can
still use all your devices for providing sounds on playback.
Setting MIDI Thru and Local On/Off
On the MIDI page in the Preferences dialog (located on
the File menu under Windows and on the Cubase menu
under Mac OS X), you will find a setting called “MIDI Thru
Active”. This is related to a setting in your instrument
called “Local On/Off” or “Local Control On/Off”.
• If you use a MIDI keyboard instrument, as described earlier in
this chapter, MIDI Thru should be activated and that instru
-
ment should be set to Local Off (sometimes called Local Con-
trol Off – see the instrument’s operation manual for details).
!
Make sure that all equipment is turned off before
making any connections!
!
If you plan to use more than three sound sources, we
recommend that you either use an interface with
more than one output, or a separate MIDI Thru box
instead of the Thru jacks on each unit.