Cubase Tutorial Part 1: Basics

Hi everyone, here i am starting my tutorial series with Steinberg Cubase, one of the most powerful Music Production Suite widely used across whole Music Industry. I will purposely ignore going into much details in all my tutorials unless it's a need because no one ever wants to read a user guide. So my approach would be simple : To make you learn by doing examples.

However before starting that, we need to understand some basics :

1. Understanding Cubase Interface 
2. How to setup I/O of Cubase ?
3. How to connect external synth[or you can say your piano] to Cubase ?

Understanding Cubase Interface

Cubase Interface is very simple. At the bottom there is a Transport panel which has playback controls like Play/Pause/Stop and some other controls which let the user to change Track's tempo , enable/disable Repeat Mode , start recording, enable/disable metronome, etc. On left side, we have an Inspector window where you can modify your Track's specific setting like Inserting/Deleting effects, changing track volume,  equalizing and many more. And in the centre, we have Track Sequencer where we can arrange clips, define song length, change automation curves(if defined any) and many more. There are two markers on the top of Track Sequencer which marks the start and end of final track. So this is just the brief about cubase interface. The more you explore the more you know.

How to setup I/O of Cubase ?

Install any version of cubase on your machine. Trail versions have some limitations that varies upon individual software. Some of them disable saving the project. So it would be better to purchase full version of the software or any other way you know ( ;p ). 

Setting up Input/Output :

If you have an external microphone then navigate to Menu Devices>VST Connections>Input Tab. Now you can see "Stereo In" as Bus Name. There is another option "Device Port" which is where you can choose your microphone in the list. Do this for both Left & Right channel. Similarly, go to Output tab and select the output for your cubase which would be by default routed to your speakers. 

Setting up Third Party VST Instruments :

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. In simple words, they are virtual instruments ( See Wikipedia article about VST here). It means that you don't need a real sitar or real drums. You can install an VST Plugin and it will replicate the same sound as if it were produced through real instrument. Now these days, most of the songs we hear are produced electronically and have lots of VST Instruments. But some instruments like Flute is impossible to be replicated accurately by any VST till now although there are many for flute but they do not sound real. Getting back to the point, there are many VSTs available and you can search them in internet. Below is the rough list of some of the VSTs i use :

• Native Instruments Kontakt Player ( It has huge amount of libraries for piano, guitar, string and i would personally recommend this)
• iZotope Ozone ( Effect plugin for mastering)
• iZotope iDrums ( Drum machine)
• Virtual Guitar
• iZotope Nectar (Effect plugin for vocal processing)
• Autotune (Effect plugin for voice modulation)

And the list goes on..

They comes either as .exe file or in case of Kontakt you have to install Kontakt player vsti first(which is an .exe) and then download the libraries for whatever instruments you need.

At the time of installing vsti, it asks the path where you want to install that vsti. Select your VST Plugin folder's path that has already been set-up at the time of Cubase's installation(path - System Drive/Steinberg/VstPlugins/). Alternatively, cubase lets you to add another location where it can search and detect any external VST instruments.  Remember that after installation, plugin can be recognized as .dll file. So make sure that .dll file of your particular VST exists in your plugin folder. Now when you launch cubase, it will automatically detect any new VST instruments you have installed and it will display in the effect or instrument panel.

Cubase itself has lots of inbuilt great VSTs like HALionOne (Synth), Monologue(Synth), Groove Agent( Drum Machine), Embracer(Synth), etc. One can create great music with inbuilt plugins also. You can listen their demo track which comes with installation package or you can download it from their official site. This demo track has been made by using only built-in plugins.

How to connect your external synth to cubase ?

Most of the synth coming these day have USB connectivity which makes connecting it to the pc more convenient. Just connect your usb cable to the pc before launching cubase. This should be done before because cubase detects everything on startup. Make sure that when you connect it first time then let the pc install its required drivers before launching cubase.

To test, slow down your keyboard's volume to 0 db (because then your keyboard will play its sound which we don't want), add any vst instrument in cubase (for ex- Monologue) and then play any key of your keyboard.  It should trigger cubase selected vst's to generate the sound (in this case Monologue will generate sound). Now you are ready to play around. 

In case sound is not coming, go to Devices>Device Setup and then select Midi Port Setup option on the left side of navigation tree. It displays all the Midi Input controllers connected. You should be able to see your synthesizer in this list as an Input device. If not then make sure whether the USB cable is properly connected or not. If not then remove the cable, shut down cubase, again connect the cable tightly and then launch cubase. Generally this will resolve the problem.

So these were some of the basics of cubase we have just covered now. I have also made a YouTube video for the same. You can watch it here : https://youtu.be/UHc751tcDBI

Thanks for reading. See you soon again in my next blog post.

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