User manual

97
Recording
External monitoring
External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it
goes into Cubase) requires some sort of external mixer for
mixing the audio playback with the input signal. This can
be a stand-alone physical mixer or a mixer application for
your audio hardware, if this has a mode in which the input
audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, “Direct
Thru” or similar).
When using external monitoring, you cannot control the
level of the monitor signal from within Cubase or add VST
effects or EQ to the monitor signal. The latency value of
the audio hardware configuration does not affect the mon
-
itor signal in this mode.
Ö If you want to use external monitoring, you need to
make sure that monitoring via Cubase is not activated as
well. Select the “Manual” monitoring mode in the Prefer
-
ences dialog (VST page) and do not activate the Monitor
buttons.
ASIO Direct Monitoring
If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may sup-
port ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be avail-
able for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In this
mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hardware,
by sending the input signal back out again. However, moni-
toring is controlled from Cubase. This means that the audio
hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off
automatically by Cubase, just as when using internal moni-
toring.
• To activate ASIO Direct Monitoring, open the Device
Setup dialog on the Devices menu and activate the Direct
Monitoring checkbox on the page for your audio hardware.
If the checkbox is grayed out, your audio hardware (or its driver) does not
support ASIO Direct Monitoring. Consult the audio hardware manufac
-
turer for details.
• When ASIO Direct Monitoring is activated, you can se-
lect a monitoring mode in the Preferences dialog (VST
page), as when monitoring via Cubase (see
“Monitoring
via Cubase” on page 96).
• Depending on the audio hardware, it may also be possi-
ble to adjust the monitoring level and panning from the
Mixer (including the Control Room section, but excluding
the Talkback and External Return channels – Cubase
only) by adjusting the volume faders, and the input gain
controls and the send levels for Control Room studios.
Consult the documentation of the audio hardware if in doubt.
• VST effects and EQ cannot be applied to the monitor
signal in this mode, since the monitor signal does not pass
through Cubase.
• Depending on the audio hardware, there may be special
restrictions as to which audio outputs can be used for di
-
rect monitoring.
For details on the routing of the audio hardware, see its documentation.
The latency value of the audio hardware configuration
does not affect the monitor signal when using ASIO Direct
Monitoring.
When using Steinberg hardware (MR816 series) in com-
bination with ASIO Direct Monitoring, monitoring will be
virtually latency-free.
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.
Recording audio
You can record audio using any of the general recording
methods (see “Basic recording methods” on page 90).
When you finish recording, an audio file is created in the
Audio folder within the project folder. In the Pool, an audio
clip is created for the audio file, and an audio event that
plays the whole clip appears on the recording track. Fi
-
nally, a waveform image is calculated for the audio event. If
the recording was very long, this may take a while.
Ö If the “Create Audio Images During Record” option is
activated in the Preferences dialog (Record–Audio page),
the waveform image will be calculated and displayed dur
-
ing the actual recording process. This realtime calculation
uses some processing power – if your processor is slow
or if you are working on a CPU-intensive project, consider
deactivating this option.