User manual

22
Setting up your system
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” on page 493.
Setting up video
Cubase plays back video files in a number of formats,
such as AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG. QuickTime is used as
playback engine. Which formats can be played back de
-
pends on the video codecs installed on your system, see
the chapter
“Video” on page 509.
There are several ways to play back video, e. g. without any
special hardware, using a FireWire port, or using dedicated
video cards, see
“Video output devices” on page 511.
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 rec-
ommend that you test the hardware installation with the
utility applications that came with the hardware and/or the
QuickTime Player application.
Optimizing audio performance
This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get
the most out of your Cubase system, performance-wise.
Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be
used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is
very brief. Look for details and current information on the
Cubase web site!
Two aspects of performance
There are two distinct aspects of performance with re-
spect to Cubase.
Tracks and effects
Simply put: the faster your computer, the more tracks, ef-
fects and EQ you will be able to play. Exactly what consti-
tutes a “fast computer” is almost a science in itself, but
some hints are given below.
Short response times (latency)
Another aspect of performance is response time. The term
“latency” refers to the “buffering”, i. e. the temporary stor-
ing, of small chunks of audio data during various steps of
the recording and playback process on a computer. The
more and larger those chunks, the higher the latency.
High latency is most irritating when playing VST instru-
ments and when monitoring through the computer, i. e.
when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase Mixer
and effects. However, very long latency times (several
hundred milliseconds) can also affect other processes like
mixing, e.
g. when the effect of a fader movement is heard
only after a noticeable delay.
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the
problems associated with very long latency times, a sys
-
tem that responds fast will always be more convenient to
work with.
• Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible
to “trim” your latency times, usually by lowering the size
and the number of buffers.
For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are us-
ing a DirectX driver under Windows, the dialog help.
System factors that affect performance
RAM
Generally speaking, the more RAM is installed in your
computer, the better.
This limitation is imposed by the operating system, and it
is independent of the amount of RAM that you may have
installed in your computer!
!
Make sure that all equipment is turned off before
making any connections!
!
On computers running a Windows 32-bit operating
system, a running application can address a maxi-
mum of 2 GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer
running Mac OS
X, this limit is 4 GB.
The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X are
able to assign considerably more than 4
GB of RAM
to a running 64-bit application.