Using The Built-In EQ In Cubase SX/SL

By Mark Wherry

The Channel Settings window for an audio-based channel offers a full section of controls for the built-in EQ, as seen here between the columns for inserts and sends. Note the Lo and Hi bands are set to High Pass and High Shelving filters respectively, and also notice the EQ button on the Channel Strip is coloured green to show that EQ is active on that channel.

Although there are many third-party equaliser plug-ins available, the EQ built into Cubase SX and SL is both functional and convenient, and has the unique advantage of being closely integrated with the Mixer, Inspector and Channel Settings windows.

Every audio-based channel in Cubase (Audio tracks, Rewire, Group, VST Instrument, Input and Output channels) has a set of four parametric EQ controls that allows you shape the tone of the audio being output from that channel. While you can set the EQ from several different places in Cubase, the best place to start is with a channel's Channel Settings window, which you can open by clicking the 'e-in-the-circle' Edit Channel Settings button for the channel you want to investigate. This button can be found in one of three places: on the actual track in the Track List, next to the track's name at the top of the Inspector, or on the corresponding channel on the Mixer, just below the channel's 'W' Write Automation button.

If you want to EQ a VST Instrument, for example, make sure you click the 'e' on the track or channel that represents the audio output of the VST Instrument, rather than the MIDI track/channel that contains the data being fed into said VST Instrument — you can't EQ a MIDI track!

Tour D'EQ

The EQ section in the Channel Settings window is always to right of the inserts column — I'd say in the centre between the inserts and sends columns, but some channels in Cubase, such as Input and Output channels, don't have the ability to send audio to another buss. You'll notice that the top half of the EQ section in the Channel Settings window contains a graph, with a bright green line to visually indicate the overall EQ curve created by the four separate bands. The horizontal and vertical axes indicate frequency and level (in decibels) respectively, so you can always see at a casual glance how much a particular frequency range is being cut or boosted. You'll notice the EQ is completely flat by default.

Below the graph, you'll notice four columns of duplicate controls for fine-tuning the EQ settings, with each set containing a power-plug-styled button to enable or disable that EQ, and three rotary controls for adjusting the frequency, gain, and Q of each band of EQ. The frequency control (the outer dial in the top row of rotary controls) sets the frequency you want to manipulate, while the gain control (the inner dial) adjusts how much the selected frequency is cut or boosted. Finally, the Q dial (the rotary control at the bottom of each column) sets the range for how many frequencies around the selected frequency should be affected, where a high number indicates a narrow Q and, conversely, a low number indicates a wide Q.The Editing Controls page in the Preferences window allows you to set one of three behaviours for how knobs (or, to be more polite, rotary controls), such as those used for the EQ settings, can be adjusted by the user.

The lowest and highest Q values on the middle two EQ bands, Lo-Mid and Hi-Mid, are 0.0 and 12.0 respectively, whereas setting the Q controls on the Lo and Hi bands to their extreme high and low positions causes those bands to function as high or low shelving/pass filters instead of parametric EQs. See the 'Filters 101' box if you're unsure about these types of filters.

As you would expect, you can double-click the text fields reporting the value of a control to enter a value numerically if you like, but most people will probably find it more intuitive to actually drag the EQ's rotary controls to make adjustments. When dragging the rotary controls, though, it's worth remembering you can Shift-drag them for greater accuracy, and if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, as with most Cubase parameters, you can hover the mouse pointer over a rotary EQ control and use the scroll wheel to adjust the value — and, again, you can hold down Shift while adjusting the scroll wheel for greater accuracy.

An interesting aside here is that if you're not entirely comfortable with the way Cubase responds when you drag a rotary controller, it is actually possible to configure how Cubase's rotary controllers respond to dragging in the Editing Controls page of the Preferences window.

The Knob Mode pop-up menu offers three options and is set to Circular by default, which allows you to drag the rotary control in a circular motion as you would a physical knob — clicking around the edge of the rotary controller automatically sets it to that location. Circular Relative is like Circular, except the rotary controller doesn't jump to the current position of the mouse when you begin to drag, and instead, as you might expect, adjusts the control relative to the position of the mouse. However, I think the easiest way to control on-screen knobs by dragging is with the simple Linear option, enabling you to adjust rotary controllers as you would faders by dragging either horizontally or vertically from the position of the knob.

Finding The Right Frequency

Cubase SX features an off-line spectrum analysis function, as shown here, which plots the curve of the selected audio in the frequency domain. Notice the information text in the top-right area of the graph that details the point representing by the circle (shown here at the top of the peak) on the graph.

With some instruments, there are basic rules you can follow when setting up EQ to shape the sound. Take drums, for example: add a little gain around 60Hz to the kick drum and some 2k for the snare, boost everything above this for the hi-hats and cymbals and Robert's your mother's live-in lover. All right, so perhaps it's not that easy — unless you want to offend a really good engineer — but what do you do if you're not sure what frequency you need to change in order to make the appropriate tonal adjustment? You can hear a harsh sound in the strings that you'd rather not be there, but you're not sure where it is, for example. One solution is to use your ears and drag the EQ point up and down until you find the frequency, but SX users can also use the built-in off-line spectrum analyzer to be a little more precise.

To see a section of audio displayed in the frequency domain, select the appropriate Audio Event on the Project window containing the frequency you want to identify — you could also use the Range Selection tool to highlight the small section of audio you want to analyse, perhaps just an individual note — and choose Audio/Spectrum Analyser. In the Spectrum Analyser window, leave the default options set (Size in Samples = 4096, Size of Overlap = 512, Window used = Hamming, and Normalized Values ticked) and click Process.

A second Spectrum Analyser window will appear that plots a graph with frequency on the horizontal plotted against amplitude on the vertical. If the graph doesn't appear to show anything, you can make the display slightly clearer by enabling both the dB option (to display the amplitude in decibels on the vertical axis) and the Freq. Log option (to display the frequencies on a logarithmic scale, as opposed to a linear scale).

As you hover the mouse horizontally over the graph, notice how a circle appears along the curve: you'll also see a text display in the top right to explain the frequency and amplitude at the point the circle is plotted. One neat feature here if you've selected a single note to analyse is that the highest peak on the graph will usually indicate the pitch of that note. If you click the Frequency (Hz) label along the bottom of the window and choose Note (C) from the pop-up menu, you'll notice that the horizontal scale changes to show pitch instead, and by hovering the mouse over the graph you can figure out the note's pitch.

Once you've identified the appropriate frequency, you can now close the Spectrum Analyzer window and adjust the EQ controls accordingly.

Graphing Functions

The Inspector offers two Sections to adjust the EQ controls if an audio-based track is selected on the Project window's Track List.Getting back to the issue of adjusting the EQ settings, the graph that illustrates the current EQ curve is actually interactive, so you can drag the points around on the graph to make adjustments instead of the using the rotary controls. Assuming you have no EQ bands enabled, double-clicking in the graph will enable one of the EQ bands depending on where in the graph you double-click: to the far left of the graph enables the first EQ while double-clicking to the far right of the graph enables the fourth EQ. Once an EQ is enabled, you'll notice that the actual frequency and gain values are represented by a dot plotted on the horizontal and vertical axes (alongside the number of the corresponding EQ band from one to four), and the Q is illustrated by the shape of the curve around the point.

When you drag a point around in the graph, you can move the X and Y position (thus adjusting the gain and frequency of that band) and this can be a really useful way to find the right frequency you need to EQ while the audio is playing through that channel. It can also be fun to automate this action to create some interesting sweeping effects, which you can do by enabling the 'W' Write Automation button for that channel and putting the sequencer into play while you move the appropriate point on the EQ graph. Afterwards, disable Write Automation, enable the 'R' Read Automation button, rewind and press Play to hear what you've done.

If you want to move the point on the graph in only one direction, either to adjust only the frequency (horizontal), or only the gain (vertical), hold down either the Alt/Option or Control/Command keys down respectively while moving the point. To adjust the Q of the EQ band represented by the dot, hold down Shift while dragging the point up or down (or left and right) instead — the point will stay where it is, but notice how the curve around it changes. Finally, if you want to disable a band of EQ, you can double-click the corresponding point on the graph to disable that band.The Extended Mixer in Cubase SX 3 offers three different ways of configuring EQ settings, as illustrated here — each channel is assigned identical EQ settings.

Bypass, Reset & Preset

Once you've started tweaking with the inbuilt EQ, it's useful to be able to hear comparisons with and without the EQ adjustments; and while you could simply enable and disable the individual EQs, this can be a real pain if you're using all four. To temporarily disable all four EQs simultaneously, simply click that channel's Bypass EQs button, which you'll find in no fewer than five places! Firstly, in the Channel Settings window, there's a Bypass EQs button at the top-right of the EQ section and on the Channel Strip (the diamond-shaped button with a line through the middle), where it glows green when EQs are active and yellow when they're bypassed. This latter button is also duplicated on the Channel Strips found on the Mixer window, and on the appropriate track in the Track List if the Track Height is sufficient. Finally, there's also a Bypass EQ button on the EQ Section title in the Inspector: the thin, blank rectangle to the right of the title of that Inspector Section. Phew!

However, if you realise that the EQ settings you came up with really aren't working, you can reset all four EQs to their default and disabled state on a particular channel by clicking the Reset EQs button, which you'll only find in Channel Settings window to the left of the Bypass button at the top-right of the EQ section. While the icons in Cubase can sometimes be a little confusing, it's worth remembering that hovering the mouse over a button for a brief time will display a handy hint box to tell you the function of that particular button.

If you come up with some EQ settings that you'd like to keep and use on other channels in the current Project — or any other Project for that matter — Cubase lets you store EQ presets within the Channel Settings window that can easily be recalled when you want them. EQ presets are stored within Cubase and aren't saved with specific Projects.

To store a channel's EQ settings as new EQ preset, click the Store EQs button in the Channel Settings window (the '+' button at the top of the EQ section) and a new preset will be added. Double-click the current EQ preset label to the right of the Store EQs button and in the Type In Preset Name window, enter a name for the EQ preset and press Return or click OK. The currently selected EQ preset can always be renamed in this way.

To recall an existing EQ preset, click the current EQ preset label and select a different preset from the pop-up menu. To delete the currently selected EQ preset, simply click the Remove EQs button (the '-' button next to the Store EQs button), although it's worth noting that you won't get a warning before the preset is removed, and this operation cannot be undone.

Filters 101

The following types of filters are available to you in the lowest and uppermost bands of Cubase 's built-in EQ section:

• Low Shelving A low-shelving filter allows you to cut or boost all the frequencies below a corner frequency you can set.
• High-pass A high-pass filter allows only frequencies above the user-defined cutoff point to pass through the filter.
• High Shelving A high shelving filter is the opposite to a low shelving filter, allowing you to cut or boost all the frequencies above the corner frequency.
• Low-pass The low-pass filter is the opposite to a high-pass filter, allowing only frequencies below the cutoff point to pass through the filter.

Other Places To Set The EQ

You might have noticed throughout this article that are many different places to carry out options such as bypassing the built-in EQ. Similarly, there are in fact a couple other places you can adjust the EQ settings in addition to the Channel Settings window we've been looking at. To adjust the EQ settings for an audio-based track on the Project window without opening the Channel Settings window, select the appropriate track, make sure the Inspector is visible, and click the title of the Equalisers Section in the Inspector. Although the presentation of the controls is slightly different, with the controls being shown as sliders instead of knobs, the actual workings and results are exactly the same. Alternatively, there's also an Equaliser Curve Section in the Inspector, which displays a duplicate version of the EQ graph from the Channels Settings window and behaves in exactly the same way.

If you want to have multiple Inspector Sections open simultaneously, such as the Equalisers and the Equaliser Curve, or maybe the Curve and the General Settings Section, you can Control/Command-click to open a new Section in the Inspector without the Section that's currently open closing. Alt/Option-clicking and Inspector Section opens and closes all Inspector Sections.

If you find yourself working in mostly the Mixer window when mixing, Cubase SX users can also access the controls for the built-in EQ via the Extended View on the Mixer, which isn't available to Cubase SL users. Switch to the Extended Mixer View by activating the Show Extended Mixer button on the Common Panel of the Mixer, and you can set an individual channel's Extended strip to show the EQ controls by clicking the small, downward pointing arrow just above the pan control and selecting either EQs, EQs +, or EQs Curve from the pop-up menu. EQs shows the EQ controls as faders, EQs + shows the controls as knobs, while EQs Curve shows the EQ graph at the top of the Extended strip and rows of text to describe the EQ values below. You can click these and then drag the fader that appears while the mouse is held down to adjust the values. You can set all audio-based channels to show EQ controls by clicking the third, fourth or fifth buttons from the top of the Common Panel in the Extended Section in the Mixer.

Published September 2005

Patch of the Week 113: Bass from Heartbeats by The Knife with the prologue

Cubase Preferences

By Mark Wherry

Cubase SX/SL's newly reorganised Preferences window offers a vast number of options that are easily missed but could make your Cubase life much easier, such as the Editing page's options, shown here, described in the main text.

Preferences could be the key to more predictable behaviour and smoother operation — for Cubase, at any rate!

Last month's Cubase Notes seemed to cause a bit of a stir on Steinberg's Cubase.net forum — how dare SOS be allowed to 'review' Cubase SX 3.1 before it's available to the users?! After reading the thread, I thought it would be good to mention that since Sound On Sound expanded its sequencer coverage to include monthly workshops alongside the already regular Notes columns, the idea of Cubase Notes is presently to provide news, tips and items of general interest to Cubase users. It was in this spirit, therefore, that I wrote about the forthcoming 3.1 update, as an expanded news item with some added opinion, to give Cubase users an idea of what they have to look forward to after having worked with the beta. Coverage of updates in Cubase Notes does not constitute an official SOS review!

A More Desirable Cubase

Anyway, getting back to the concept of tips, I thought I'd share a few preferences this month — literally. I was sitting down with a composer friend recently and somehow we got onto the subject of Cubase. He was commenting on how great it would be if you could use MIDI Controllers to control basic automation such as volume on MIDI tracks, and I told him about a preference added in version 3 that would allow him to do just that. So this month I want to share a few Preferences you might not have considered, that could really be helpful. (I should mention that the Preferences window has been tidied up and reorganised a little in Cubase SX/SL 3.1, and the references in this article refer to this new version rather than earlier releases.)

Taking the above example, should you want to use MIDI Controllers to write automation for MIDI tracks (rather than recording the same automation as MIDI data in a Part), simply enable 'MIDI Controller Input to Automation Tracks' in the MIDI page. Now, for example, when you have a MIDI track selected and you generate Controller 7 data, the volume fader on the corresponding MIDI channel will move.

A neat preference that I know quite a few people campaigned for is 'Parts Get Track Names' in the Editing page. Normally, with this option disabled, a Part will keep its original name when moved from one track to another. When the option is enabled, a Part will automatically be renamed to take on the name of the track to which it's being moved or copied. This is useful when you consider that a Part always takes on the name of the track where it was first created, so if you like all of the Parts on your flute track to be called 'flute', even if they came from the violin track original, this is a preference for you.

The Editing page actually has many other useful Preferences too. There's the well-known Link Editors option, which means that an open editor window will always display the contents of the selected parts in the Project window. There's also 'Auto Select Events under Cursor', which, quite literally, automatically selects Events and Parts that fall within the current position of the Project cursor on the selected track. 'Cycle Follows Range Selection' initiates a very Pro Tools-like behaviour where the position of the left and right locators can be set automatically to the current selection made with the Range Selection tool, which is rather handy.

Ah, So That's Why!

Paying homage to the great Dennis Norden, our final selection of Preferences is labelled 'Ah, so that's why!' For example, have you ever noticed the following situation: say you have five tracks and the third track is selected, but the last Object you selected on the Project window was in fact a Part on the first track. Pressing the 'down' cursor key selects the second track and any Object on the second track, instead of simply selecting the fourth track, as you expected. Fear not. Enabling the 'Use Up/Down Navigation Commands for Selecting Tracks only' option in the Editing page will give you exactly the behaviour you expect from now on.

A common question from new users is 'why does the horizontal zoom factor change when I drag the Project cursor along the ruler?' The reason is a Preference called 'Zoom while Locating in Time Scale,' which makes dragging vertically up or down from within the ruler zoom the Event display in and out respectively. Dragging horizontally within the ruler does indeed set the time location of the Project cursor, as you'd expect, but since the ruler is rather small it's easy to accidentally drag above or below it and change the horizontal zoom factor by mistake.

Finally, another version 3-related issue. You'll notice that when you move the mouse into a Controller lane in the Key editor, the mouse always defaults to the Pen tool, rather than the Selection tool as before. Some users find this handy, and you can temporarily make a selection as you would normally with the Selection tool instead by holding down Control/Apple. However, to change this behaviour back to the old way (ie. you get a Selection tool and hold down a modifier for the Pen tool), simply disable 'Controller Lane Editing: Select Tool defaults to Pen' in the Editing — MIDI page.

Join us again for more Preferences fun in another Cubase Notes column soon, and drop us a line if you have anything personal you'd like to share about your Cubase habits... 

Published September 2005

Patch of the Week 112: Getting that Electric Feel with the prologue

Tempo Maps For Pre-Recorded Audio

By John Walden

As described below, the audio file contains a rhythm guitar part with tempo variations. In the first MIDI track, quarter-note 'taps' have been recorded in time with the freely recorded guitar part. After these were edited to tidy up their timing, the second MIDI track was created, removing the MIDI notes on beats two, three and four of each bar to leave whole-note taps.

Sometimes the click can steal the life from a session, so why not start with a live performance?

Cubase SX and SL have a range of tools that allow tempo to be managed and manipulated. For example, for a short audio recording, the Beat Calculator can be used to find the original tempo of the recording and this tempo can then be adopted for the Project or inserted as a tempo change into the Tempo track. The Beat Calculator also includes a Tap Tempo function which allows you to calculate the average tempo of the section by tapping on the computer's space bar (or mouse button) during playback of pre-recorded audio. These functions are very helpful, but they are intended primarily for short sections of audio (perhaps a couple of bars) where the tempo is constant and finding an average tempo is all that's required.

Where these functions are less useful is with longer sections of pre-recorded audio where, for any number of reasons, the tempo may have varied — either because of subtle variations by the musicians while playing the song or because of sections within the arrangement where there are planned, and more dramatic, shifts in tempo. This touches upon one of the obvious pitfalls of working with any of the modern MIDI + Audio recording environments — it is so easy to just set the tempo at the start of the project, start the click track and then slavishly follow it. In reality, most music, when performed live by a group of musicians, will contain some variations in tempo. Even at a subtle level, and just like variations in dynamics, these tempo variations can add to the emotional response of the listener. A simple example would be a slight increase in tempo during a chorus relative to a verse — a live band might do this almost subconsciously, adding to the excitement of the song. However, if the same band have to follow a fixed-tempo click in the studio, they might find it difficult to capture the essence of what gives the live performance some of its character.

Tempo track mode needs to be set in the Transport Panel so SX will follow any tempo changes created.

Fortunately, SX has the necessary tools to allow a tempo 'map' to be constructed from a freely recorded performance (whether recorded as audio or MIDI or both). Indeed, it can be quite a liberating experience in the studio to forget all about the sequencer's tempo and lay down your backing or guide track 'live'. Alternatively, you could use a live recording from a rehearsal session that has the right feel as a basis for constructing a tempo map for a later studio recording of the song. Either way, once the tempo map is constructed within the SX Tempo track, the click track will follow its variations. Any subsequent MIDI parts can then be edited and quantised to the bar grid using all the usual tools, regardless of variations in musical tempo. So, just how do you become the master rather than the slave in the musician-sequencer relationship?

Quick, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow

Despite the absence of several useful tempo tools from VST in the intial relase of SX, the current version has all the necessary tools for the job.

As described more fully below, the 'Merge Tempo from Tapping' tool (found in the 'MIDI / Functions' submenu) provides a way of using a MIDI keyboard to tap in a beat that follows the tempo of a pre-existing performance. Cubase will then take these MIDI notes and automatically construct a tempo 'map' of the performance within the Tempo track. Depending upon how accurate your tapping has been, the resulting tempo map can sometimes require a little fine-tuning, and if so, the Time Warp tool can be used to tidy up any loose ends.The 'Merge Tempo from Tapping' dialogue.

For the purposes of this example, I used a solo rhythm guitar part, recorded directly into SX via a DI. I deliberately played with some minor tempo variations during the main body of the piece and then added a 'double time' section prior to a gradual tempo decrease to provide the finish. I recorded this into a new SX Project with the default tempo set to 120bpm. Although the intention is to create a tempo map within the Tempo track, it is worth setting an original tempo that is easy to recall — if things don't go quite you'd planned, it makes it easier to delete the contents of the Tempo track and return the Project to its original state. The Project also needs to be set to 'Tempo track mode' rather than 'Fixed tempo mode' within the Transport panel.

As a brief aside, it is worth considering the kind of performance you choose to attempt this tempo-mapping process with. For example, some types of audio recording will make it easier to follow the beat than others — a full band recording is easier, because your tapping can follow the drummer as s/he (hopefully!) keeps the timing of the band locked together. The sharper the transients within the audio, the easier it is to follow the timing and locate the exact positions of beats. As in the example illustrated here, a solo guitar or a guitar/vocal performance can also work fine provided the guitar has a fairly strong rhythmic component to it. However, whatever form the live performance takes, make sure the timing itself is tight — while a duff note or two will not matter, attempts to gloss over the section where the bass player and the drummer lost the rhythmic plot are unlikely to prove very successful. While I've used an audio recording here as my 'tempo master' performance, it is perfectly possible to use a freely played MIDI performance — just don't quantise it prior to constructing the tempo map!

Push Me, Pull Me

While the method described here generally works quite well, in some cases it may prove more difficult to construct a tempo map that creates exactly the right feel. For example, the process described here often depends upon matching the sharp transients within an audio performance (by ear when tapping and by eye when editing the positions of the MIDI notes or using the Time Warp tool).

Of course, this assumes that such transients are being played exactly on the beat. This will not apply in situations where the groove is either deliberately pushed or pulled before or behind the beat to create a particular musical feel. In these cases, it can require a good deal more editing work with the Time Warp tool in order to create a tempo map that gives a comfortable musical 'fit' to the pre-recorded groove.

Doolally Tap

The next step simply requires a new MIDI track to be created and, while monitoring the existing performance, to record yourself 'tapping' in MIDI notes, in time, throughout the full length of the track. To make this easier, I usually connect the MIDI track to a suitable MIDI drum device or plug-in so I can hear myself playing along — in this particular example, I used Groove Agent.

As we will see in a moment, the 'Merge Tempo from Tapping' function can work with taps made at a number of musical intervals. For the majority of people, quarter notes (on every beat of the bar) or whole notes (just on the first beat of the bar) are likely to feel most comfortable. There are advantages and disadvantages to having more or fewer 'taps', but in most cases, quarter notes serve as a sensible starting point. However, it is worth using a different MIDI note for the first beat of the bar relative to beats two, three and four. This means that the whole notes can easily be extracted and placed in a second MIDI track if you wish to see whether a tempo map created from whole notes might provide a better match to the live performance. Whatever interval is used, it's a good idea to continue tapping out time for a couple of bars beyond the end of the pre-recorded material to avoid any sudden jumps back to the default tempo.

While most of us might like to think we can play along perfectly in time with another musical performance, the chances are that the recorded MIDI 'taps' might need a little tidying up to tighten the synchronisation between them and the original live performance. Although this step can be omitted, and any sloppiness sorted out using the Time Warp tool as described below, I find it worthwhile to spend a little time editing my playing in the MIDI track. The most effective way of doing this is to use the excellent 'Edit In Place' function (although this is only available to SX users), as this allows the alignment between the transients within the audio and the MIDI notes to be matched visually. Alternatively, providing a suitably high level of zoom-in is used, this can be done quite easily by hand — although remember to switch 'Snap' off first.

Once any editing has been completed, selecting the MIDI part that contains the 'taps' and choosing the 'MIDI / Functions / Merge Tempo from Tapping' option opens the dialogue shown in the screenshot on the previous page. There are only two settings to be made here. First, you specify the musical interval of the taps, and second, you can tick the 'Begin at Bar Start' box. As its name suggests, this forces the first note (which ought to coincide with the first beat of the first bar of the pre-recorded live track) to fall on the start of a bar, so in most cases it should be ticked.

This tempo map was created using quarter-note tapping, and while the basic pattern of tempo variation can be clearly seen, it obviously still needs some tidying up!

With these settings made, a quick click on 'OK' is all that is required and, in a blink of an eye, Cubase will have done the necessary and created a 'map' of the tempo changes within the performance and placed them into the Tempo track. For our example Project, I've shown two Tempo maps: one created based on quarter-note tapping while the other is based on whole-note tapping. As can be seen, the broad patterns are very similar but, because the process creates a tempo curve point for each note within the MIDI track, the quarter-note version looks a little busier. Given that a tempo jump is placed at each tempo curve point, in projects where there are gradual changes of tempo, quarter-note taps are probably going to produce a more appropriate result.

This second tempo map was created using whole-note tapping. The earlier bars seem a little smoother and less subsequent editing is likely to be required. However, the gradual tempo reduction between bars 47 and 57 might require work as it doesn't appear as smooth as in the quarter-note version.

The simplest way to assess the accuracy of the tempo map created, or to compare the results from different maps, is to set a drum module to follow the tempo map and let it play back alongside the original performance. Again, I used Groove Agent for this.

One-Two-Three-Four

Not all forms of music benefit from tempo variations. An obvious example would be some dance-based styles, many of which require the metronomic pulse supplied by a fixed tempo. This said, even with sequenced music written and performed only in a studio context, it can be worth added a bpm or two to the chorus section to see what effect it might have. However, it is probably best to set up this tempo structure before any live audio is recorded (such as the vocals) — although if the variations are kept subtle (a few bpm), the SX tools for time-stretching and compressing audio ought to allow such change to be accommodated after the fact.

Warp Speed

Hopefully, if all went to plan and your ability to follow a beat is up to scratch, the Tempo track resulting from the 'Merge Tempo from Tapping' function might be all that is needed. However, if there are still sections where the new tempo map doesn't sit tightly enough with the timing of the original performance, then a little judicious use of the Time Warp tool is called for.

As shown in the screenshot below, if the Time Warp tool is selected, the positions of the tempo curve points are displayed within the Project window Ruler bar. Zooming in to any problem sections allows the positions of the transients relative to the bar/beat grid to be inspected and, if required, some fine-tuning can be performed using the Time Warp tool to drag the offending bar positions directly onto the start of the transients.

The Time Warp tool can be used to perform any final, detailed tempo editing. Note how bar two seems to hit the beat with the audio exactly but the position of bar three seems a little early. The Time Warp tool can be used to drag the position of bar three to the right to coincide with the audio transient. This would also smooth the tempo value out at bar three closer to the 108/109 bpm seen in bars one and two.

Incidentally, it is perfectly possible to use the Time Warp tool to create a tempo map for pre-recorded audio from scratch. All that is required is to identify the first beat of every bar within the audio and use the Time Warp tool to drag the appropriate ruler positions into place. However, using this approach on its own is generally more time-consuming than combining it with 'Merge Tempo from Tapping' for anything longer than a couple of dozen bars.

Time Is On Your Side

There are all sorts of elements that combine to make a musical performance that engages the attention of the listener and, for many styles of music, tempo variation, whether subtle or dramatic, is an important part of this process. With the vast majority of musicians now using digital technology at the heart of their studios, the 'set and forget' mentality for song tempo is all to easy to fall into. As the example above shows, given the tempo tools within SX, it doesn't have to be this way. You don't always have to be a slave to the (fixed tempo) rhythm. Go on, do yourself a favour and record a 'live' backing track for your next song and get SX to follow you instead.

Published October 2005

Patch of the Week 111: Recreate Midnight City by M83 with the prologue: The Bass

MIDI Tracks & Keyboard Functions

By Mark Wherry

We look at how to use the facilities available to Cubase's MIDI tracks to recreate certain master keyboard functions.

While trawling around the SOS forum this month, I came across a post asking about how to recreate certain master keyboard functions in Cubase, such as a keyboard split that would separate the keyboard into two zones, each controlling a different VST Instrument. Setting up this kind of behaviour in Cubase is fairly easy, and there are actually two slightly different ways of tackling the problem; so in this month's Cubase Notes we will, quite literally, be looking at...Here you can see a keyboard split created via the second method described in the main text, using one track and two sends. Notes received on this track between C-2 and B2 are sent to the Monologue VST Instrument, while notes between C3 and C8 are output to A1.

Doing The Splits

For the sake of example, let's say we want to split our keyboard at C3 (which is the MIDI note for middle-C in Cubase) so that all notes below C3 are played by one VST Instrument, and all notes above and including C3 are played by another. To begin with, load the two VST Instruments of choice in the VST Instruments window.

The first method of setting up this keyboard split is to create two MIDI tracks in the Project window and assign the output of the first track to the first VST Instrument and the output of the second track to the other VST Instrument. The default behaviour in Cubase is that MIDI Thru is active on only the selected track, which is set by the 'Enable Record on Selected Track' preference in the Editing — Project & Mixer page of the Preferences window. (MIDI Thru itself is set by enabling MIDI Thru Active in the MIDI Preferences page, for those who are interested.) However, it's possible to play both MIDI tracks simultaneously by either record-enabling or monitor-enabling both tracks, so that both of them receive incoming MIDI data.

At this point, when you play your MIDI keyboard both VST Instruments are layered on top of each other. The next step is to limit their ranges so that each MIDI track only plays certain notes:

• On the first MIDI track, open the Track Parameters Section of the Inspector. In the Range parameters, set the first pop-up menu to Note Filter (instead of 'Off').
• Next to Note Filter, leave the Min value set to C-2 and set the Max value to B2 by simply double-clicking and typing in the new MIDI note value. This filters incoming notes so that only those that fall within (and including) the Min and Max values are output.
• On the second track, do the same, but this time set the Range Note Filter Min and Max values to C3 and, say, C8, respectively. Now, making sure both tracks are still Record- or Monitor-enabled, playing notes below C3 triggers the first VST Instrument, while notes above and including C3 trigger the second.

As a side note, when you're setting the Min value it can't be higher than the currently set Max value. So if the Min value doesn't seem to be changing, you may need to adjust the Max value first.

Alternatively...

Setting up two tracks for the keyboard split is fine, but it's a little clunky having to make sure both tracks are enabled all the time and having duplicate data recorded on two tracks. Wouldn't be nicer to do the same thing with one track? OK then: to set up the same keyboard split with one track:

• Create a MIDI track and make sure the output is set to 'Not Connected'.
• Now open the Sends section in the Inspector and set the output of the first and second sends to the first and second VST Instruments.
• Next, add a Track FX MIDI plug-in to each of the sends and, finally, activate the two sends. The Track FX plug-in is basically a duplicate of the Track Parameters section in the Inspector, so set up the Range Note Filter parameters as before for the first and second sends. It's possible to hide and show these settings by toggling the 'e' button for each send.

You now have the same keyboard split, but using only one track, and since there are four sends available per track, you could even have a keyboard split with up to four zones.

If you're wondering why we set the track to 'Not Connected' rather than a VST Instrument, and didn't use the Range in Track parameters to define the first zone, using just one send for the second zone, the reason is that setting the Range in Track parameters limits the notes sent to all the sends. So if you set a range for all notes below C3 in track parameters, the send would only ever receive the notes below C3, making it impossible to create the two zones.

Studio Case 2 & Cubase SE 3

Steinberg's original Studio Case bundle for Mac and Windows users proved to be one of the company's most successful products on its release in September 2003, combining a cut-down version of Cubase SX, known as Cubase SE, with 'junior' SE versions of popular virtual instruments such as Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition, Groove Agent, The Grand, D'cota and Halion for just $300. Now Steinberg have introduced the Studio Case 2 bundle, which picks up where the previous bundle left off, featuring Cubase SE 3, a cut-down version of Cubase SX 3, which shares the same VST 2.3 mix engine used in other Cubase products, and adds a new SE version of the recently released Virtual Bassist. 

Published October 2005