The Getting Started This is the manual you are reading now. The Getting Started covers the following areas: Computer requirements. Installation issues. Tutorials describing the most common procedures for record- ing, playing back, mixing and editing in Cubase LE. In other words, this book does not go into detail on any Cubase LE windows, functions or procedures. You should be familiar with the concepts and methods de- scribed in the Getting Started manual before moving on to the Operation Manual.
Add page 7 to Favourites. The dialog help To get information about the active dialog, click its Help button. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. The screenshots are taken from the Windows version. Key command conventions Many of the default key commands in Cubase LE use mod- ifier keys, some of which are different depending on the op- erating system. If you are using a Macintosh computer with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click. Add page 8 to Favourites.
Add page 9 to Favourites. Hard disk size — The size of the hard disk determines how many minutes of audio you will be able to record. Recording one minute of stereo CD quality audio requires 10 MB of hard disk space. Hard disk speed — The speed of the hard drive also de- termines the number of audio tracks you can run.
Wheel mouse — Although a regular mouse will work fine with Cubase LE, we recommend that you use a wheel mouse. This will speed up value editing and scrolling considerably. Any audio equipment required to listen to the sound from your MIDI devices. Audio hardware Cubase LE will run with audio hardware that meets the fol- lowing specifications: Support of at least the As of this writing, all current Macintosh models provide at least built- in 16 bit stereo audio hardware.
For detailed information, refer to the documentation describing your computer. Depending on your preferences and requirements, using the built-in audio hardware may be sufficient for use with Cubase LE.
Some Macintosh models have audio outputs but no inputs. This means that you can only play back audio — recording is not possible without additional audio hardware. Add page 10 to Favourites. In this case, the driver allows Cubase LE to use the audio hard- ware. For audio hardware, there are two different cases, requiring different driver configurations: If the audio hardware has a specific ASIO driver Professional audio cards often come with an ASIO driver written especially for the card.
This allows for communica- tion directly between Cubase LE and the audio card. The ASIO driver may also provide special support for mul- tiple inputs and outputs, routing, synchronization, etc. Audio card-specific ASIO drivers are provided by the card manufacturers. This requires two types of drivers: A DirectX driver for the audio card, allowing it to communicate with DirectX. If the audio card supports DirectX, this driver should be supplied by the audio card manufacturer. This driver is included with Cu- base LE, and does not require any special installation.
Hardware Installation Installing the audio hardware and its driver 1. Install the driver for the card. The MI4 serves as copy protection, so there's no need for a separate dongle. Many of the differences between the two products are likely to be fairly academic to most users, such as the reduction of the maximum track count from to a mere , and the absence of a surround-sound audio path, which the MI4 wouldn't support anyway. The best way to make sure the System 4 caters to all your software needs is to download the PDF comparison chart from Steinberg's web site.
Unless the score element is important to you, the biggies are likely to be the lack of off-line processing with VST and Direct X plug-ins, and the more limited configurability of the mixer. Otherwise, most of the best new features from the SX2 upgrade are present and correct, most notably the multiple-take track view function, which Mark Wherry rightly praised to the heavens in his original review. All you have to do is run the device installer and follow the prompts as to when to plug, unplug and re-plug the device into your PC.
The first thing you'll notice when all is done is the presence of a new '4' icon in your Windows System Tray. This opens the MI4 Panel, which illustrates the internal routing of the interface and allows more in-depth configuration of it than is possible with the hardware alone.
The mic preamps can be set up by enabling 48V phantom power or a dB pad, and you can toggle between the XLR and the jack connectors. Finally, the MI4 Panel lets you switch the direct monitoring source between input 1 on its own for the high-impedance instrument connection , and each of the two analogue pairs. This is a less effective solution than allowing the user free rein to set up a monitor mix of all four input signals, and it's annoying that there's no way of hearing inputs 2, 3 and 4 other than panned as part of a stereo pair.
I was also disappointed to find it's not possible to directly monitor the digital input. The other software side of the MI4 is its ASIO driver control panel, a customised version of that sold by Propagamma and licensed for many different USB products from many different manufacturers. This driver offers a choice of six latency settings, ranging from a 'relaxed' milliseconds down to a 'high speed' 7 milliseconds, measured on the input and output combined at The remaining controls concern the device's clock rate and bit depth.
Whilst the MI4 is capable of bit, 96kHz performance on both the inputs and outputs, the limited bandwidth of USB 1. Though Steinberg obviously envisage the hardware being used in conjunction with their software, it's worth pointing out that the MI4's four-in, four-out capability is only available if you use the ASIO drivers — to Windows it appears as a standard stereo device.
In this case, the digital output mirrors the main analogue stereo outputs, a feature that could come in handy if you want to record to a Minidisc or something. The MI4 Panel provides a nice overview of the unit's internal routing, and allows you to configure various settings not accessible with the hardware, such as phantom power, input selection, and the direct monitoring source.
On my 1. Nevertheless, I found that stability at low latencies was rather better than I'd anticipated, either due to differences in the hardware or improvements made to the driver since I last looked at it. Except on the 'high speed' setting, the dreaded clicks and pops were entirely absent, and although real overloads still tended to have a truly stultifying effect on Windows, the MI4 was well behaved.
In terms of audio quality, my tests with Rightmark's Audio Analyser very much agreed with the results listed in the MI4's technical specifications. Recording the MI4's outputs into my Echo Layla 24 gave a respectable noise figure of Where day-to-day use is concerned, I could find little to complain about on the quality front. The instrument input is clean and provides plenty of gain, while the mic preamps appear perfectly neutral and quiet.
The outputs also sounded good to these subjective ears, comparing well with the Layla 24, though the maximum output level was about 6dB lower than that more expensive, mains-powered device at its dBV setting. All round, Steinberg's System 4 comes across as a good way to leap nimbly into the world of computer recording, or replace an existing setup with a more compact and mobile one.
The package is certainly very comprehensive, with a versatile hardware component and software that — albeit a 'mere' cut-down version of Cubase SX2 — is still massively powerful. The decision to choose the System 4 over its most obvious competitor, Digidesign's M Box, will rest largely on whether the look of Pro Tools LE floats your boat more than that of Cubase, and I think it fair to say that Steinberg's is the more open and flexible bit of software.
For a lot of musicians this will be a non-issue, but soft-synth aficionados and those who require live-input monitoring should be mindful of the CPU penalty they're liable to pay when taking advantage of the speedier settings provided by the MI4's ASIO driver.
0コメント