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Recording
Audio pre-record
This feature allows you to capture up to 1 minute of any in-
coming audio you play in Stop mode or during playback,
“after the fact”. This is possible because Cubase can cap-
ture audio input in buffer memory, even when not recording.
Proceed as follows:
1. Open the Preferences dialog (Record–Audio page).
2. Specify a time (up to 60 seconds) in the “Audio Pre-
Record Seconds” field.
This activates the buffering of audio input, making Pre-Record possible.
3. Make sure an audio track is record-enabled and re-
ceives audio from the signal source.
4. When you have played some audio material you want
to capture (either in Stop mode or during playback), click
the Record button.
5. After a few seconds stop the recording.
An audio event is created, starting at where the cursor position was
when you activated recording. If you were in stop mode and the cursor
was at the beginning of the project, you may have to move the event to
the right in the next step. If you were playing along to a project you, leave
the event where it is.
6. Select the Arrow tool and place the cursor on the bot-
tom left edge of the event so that a double arrow appears,
then click and drag to the left.
Now the event is extended and the audio you played before activating re-
cord is inserted – this means that if you played along during playback,
the captured notes will end up exactly where you played them in relation
to the project.
Monitoring
In this context, “monitoring” means listening to the input
signal during recording. There are three fundamentally dif
-
ferent ways to do this: via Cubase, externally (by listening
to the signal before it reaches Cubase), or by using ASIO
Direct Monitoring (which is a combination of both other
methods – see below).
Monitoring via Cubase
If you monitor via Cubase, the input signal is mixed in with
the audio playback. The advantage of this is that you can
adjust the monitoring level and panning in the Mixer, and
add effects and EQ to the monitor signal just as during
playback (using the track’s channel strip – not the input
bus!).
The disadvantage of monitoring via Cubase is that the
monitored signal will be delayed according to the latency
value (which depends on your audio hardware and driv
-
ers). Therefore, monitoring via Cubase requires an audio
hardware configuration with a low latency value. You can
check the latency of your hardware in the Device Setup
dialog (VST Audio System page).
Ö If you are using plug-in effects with large inherent de-
lays, the automatic delay compensation function in Cubase
will increase the latency. If this is a problem, you can use the
Constrain Delay Compensation function while recording,
see
“Constrain Delay Compensation” on page 154.
When monitoring via Cubase, you can select one of four
Auto Monitoring modes in the Preferences dialog (VST
page):
• Manual
This option allows you to turn input monitoring on or off by clicking the
Monitor button in the Inspector, the track list or in the Mixer.
• While Record Enabled
With this option, you will hear the audio source connected to the channel
input whenever the track is record enabled.
• While Record Running
This option switches to input monitoring only during recording.
• Tapemachine Style
This option emulates standard tapemachine behavior: input monitoring in
Stop mode and during recording, but not during playback.
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).