Entries Tagged 'tips & techniques' ↓

We’ve been getting a lot of requests recently for Cubase tips and techniques. Video tutorials are a great way to learn, and there are a lot of free ones available online. Here are 53 free online video and flash tutorials for Cubase SX3 and Cubase 4.

If you’re using another version of Cubase (such as Cubase LE, Cubase SE, or Cubase SL) most of the core concepts still apply. Though some functions may not be available in your version, you can still learn a lot by checking out these tutorials.

Links to the videos will open up in a new window or tab in your browser. All content belongs to the respective copyright owner; please support them by visiting their websites (links provided where known).

Cubase SX3

Beginner Level Cubase SX3 Tutorials (from MusicPro Guides)

• Adding virtual instruments, audio and MIDI tracks (~6 min)
• Layering and building up arrangements with multiple instruments (~5 min)
• Creating loops with cycle recording (~6 min)

Cubase SX3 Tutorials (from grooveboxmusic.com)

• Overview of track types (~6 min)
• Setting up and recording audio (~4 min)
• Organizing your session with markers (~9 min)

Ten Cubase SX3 Flash Tutorials (~45 min total) (from Auxbuss Publications)

• Use the menu on the left hand side to access ten flash tutorials about MIDI multitracking, VSTi connections, processing audio, automation in detail, dragging events in the logical editor, and audio objects.

…and two more:

• Sidechaining: How to create sidechaining for use with compression or gate effects in Cubase SX3 (~3 min)
• Vocal comping and lanes (~11 min) (from ASK Video)

Cubase 4

Eight Cubase 4 Flash Tutorials (~20 min total) (from Digital Music Doctor)

• Eight flash tutorials about mixing, mastering, using Audio Warp, MIDI editing, using Rewire and soft synths, and the score editor in Cubase 4.

Twenty Four Cubase 4 Video Guides (from SteinbergUsers.com)

• 24 free flash tutorials for Cubase 4 covering FX sends in Cubase, using foldertracks, offline processing, the play order track, studio manager, rendering VST instrument tracks, using notation in Cubase, MIDI devices, external FX integration, audio setup, beat calculator, stacked recording, inplace MIDI editing, using Twiddly.Bits in Cubase, Audiowarp, edit history, MIDI setup, workspaces, Audiowarp hitpoints, crossfades, film score with Cubase, and Timewarp.

…and finally three more for good measure:

• Cubase Installation Tips: Audio and midi device setup in Cubase 4 (~7 min)
• Cubase Project Setup: Setting up a new project and creating basic connections between Cubase 4 and your audio interface (~9 min)
• Cubase Recording Overview: Basic steps for recording audio and midi in Cubase 4 (~9 min)

If you have any favourite free online video tutorials for Cubase that aren’t listed here, please let me know about them. -kf

Unlikely as it may seem, there are times my nonprofit sector world and my recording/engineering world collide. The nonprofit where I work does a popular weekly podcast. The volunteer podcast crew record the show using GarageBand on an Intel iMac. A few months ago we splurged and got them a Samson C01U USB condenser mic.

The show is recorded on Saturdays, when I’m not in the office. Since they got the new mic, I’d noticed that I’d been having to turn the volume way up on my computer to hear the podcasts. I’d been meaning to talk to the crew about it; I figured they just needed to tweak some volume settings.

It turns out they’d been talking into the end of the mic (like an SM57) rather than using it as a side-address mic. Now, before I continue, dear readers (I assume there are more than one of you), please identify your most immediate response:

• Group A: “Well, duh! How grossly obvious. Ten lashes with a wet soba noodle for blatant technical ineptitude and foolishness.”

• Group B: “Side-address? What the hell are you talking about??”

Group A, please stand by. I would like to talk to you in a moment.

Group B: Just like people, microphones come in all different sizes, colours and flavours. “Side-address” refers to what part of the mic you talk into (or sing, or produce whatever kind of noise it is you do). In most microphones, the part that picks up sound is called the diaphragm. Typically this is a thin, flat, circular piece of mylar or some other super thin material. It vibrates in response to sound waves, and these vibrations eventually get turned into an audio signal through a process that’s really above and beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Anyway, the orientation of the diaphragm determines which end of the mic you talk into. The diaphragm in an end-address mic is perpendicular to the body of the mic. Imagine the letter “T,” where the vertical line represents the microphone, and the horizontal top line represents the diaphragm. Of course the diaphragm is a lot smaller than that and is inside a capsule, but you get the idea.

In the photo below, observe Jean-Pierre singing a moving rendition of “Non, je ne regrette rien” using an end-address mic:

In a side-address mic, the diaphram is parallel to the body of the mic. Logically then, you need to talk into the side of the microphone to get a decent sound signal. Here, Melanie is recording a voice-over track to the upcoming sci-fi motion picture The Adventures of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby in Outer Space using a side-address mic:

Obviously you can feel like a real idiot when you point the wrong end of the mic towards a singer’s face and somebody (like a real recording engineer) notices. Which is why one of the first of many stupid questions I asked at recording school was: “How do you know if a microphone is a side-address or an end-address mic?” It turns out it’s not such a stupid question, since I later found out pretty much everyone else in the class was wondering the same thing.

Anyway, the answer is: read the manual that came with the microphone, or just ask. Most of the time the shape of the mic will give it away, but it’s not always obvious. For example, the Samson C01U looks kinda long and elongated (some might say phallic, but that’s also above and beyond the scope of this tutorial). Long phallic mics are often end-address mics, so it’s an easy mistake to make.

After a while you get to know which mics are which, but until then you just ask, and then if you want you can use cute stickers to remind yourself. Trust me, you’ll seem a lot smarter asking “Is this a side-address or an end-address mic?” than making assumptions. And if anyone makes fun of you for asking that question, tell me who and I’ll go smack them upside the head.

Which brings me back to you, Group B, and I hope you’re still reading. If you just spent the last few paragraphs rolling your eyes, get over it. Few of us aside from Phil Ramone emerged from their mother’s womb knowing the difference between an end-address and a side-address mic. Just recently I re-read an old Studio SOS article that featured a recording musician with over 30 years’ experience who was incorrectly using a Rode NT1 (a side-address mic) as an end-address mic.

Which just goes to show, you can still make mistakes, no matter how much experience you have. Now wouldn’t it be a nicer world if we all just got over ourselves and showed a little more patience for the rest of the plebs, along with some tolerance—nay, encouragement!—for even more stupid questions? -kf

PS: Sweetwater Sound has an amazing glossary of studio microphone terms here.

*And soon-to-be rock stars

In my previous post I talked about the importance of making a plan before starting any recording project. I explained how to identify all the steps in your project by doing a brain dump, then described sequencing by end time.

Another way to approach sequencing tasks is by start time. I call this the “Next Actions” method, and it’s inspired a bit by David Allen’s ubiquitous Getting Things Done book, or GTD. (People either love or hate GTD. For me, it really works. Go read the book if you like; although it’s written with a business audience in mind, the concepts can apply to any field.)

The “Next Actions” method is really great if you’re bursting with energy, can’t wait to get started and want to take advantage of that momentum.

Rather than think of absolute deadlines, identify all the things you can get done RIGHT NOW. In other words, what tasks can you do that don’t rely on any other tasks you haven’t done yet? Let’s have a look again at my list and highlight the things I know I can do right now:

THINGS TO DO TO GET MY CD DONE

• ask Melinda if she’ll play cello for 2-3 songs
• update my version of Logic
• finish writing songs
• rent a good preamp
• record bedtracks at Mom and Dad’s place while they’re on vacation (ask them first?)
• find a good vocal mic (read reviews?)
• get a new bass player
• type out lyrics
• determine song order
• design the CD insert
• schedule venue for CD release party
• ask Dan where he got his CDs manufactured – price? turnaround time?
• get my guitar set up
• buy new tubes for my amp
• do overdubs over Christmas holidays at home
• etc…

We’ll call that list of highlighted items your “Next Actions” list. Now pick any one of your Next Actions and go do it! Right now!

Here’s the most important part: each time you finish a task, go back and see what other task this now enables you to do, and add it to your “Next Actions” list. For example, once I’ve done:

• finish writing songs

This now enables me to do the following task I wasn’t able to do before:

• type out lyrics

…so I’ll add that to my “Next Actions” list.

Just keep going back and reviewing your list, and ask yourself: am I able to do this action right now? (Do I have enough information, etc.?) If yes, then it goes on your “Next Actions” list.

Never put anything on your “Next Actions” list that’s depending on something else, no matter how easy a task may seem. Anything on your “Next Actions” list that’s not doable right now just takes up your mental energy. For example, you can’t schedule your cello session until you know whether or not Melanie is willing to play cello. Keep it off the “Next Actions” list until you’ve talked to Melanie. Then, once you’ve crossed off “Talk to Melanie,” add either “schedule cello session” (or “find a new cello player”!) to your “Next Actions” list.

Okay, this might seem really basic, but trust me, it’s a useful way to think about planning. This method is great if you have a lot of creative energy, but you get bored focusing on just one task. You’ll usually have a bunch of items on your “Next Actions” list that you can choose from, so you’ll always be able to pick the task you have the energy and time for.

The danger of course is that unless you’re scrupulous about constantly reviewing your list, things can end up running longer than you expect. Most people who’ve never done a recording project before seriously underestimate the amount of time needed to get a project done. It’s just human nature. If you’re really new at this, you might want to stick with a system with clear deadlines to start, like the “scheduling by end time” method I described in my last post. Eventually you’ll develop an intuitive grasp of how long it realistically takes to get things done, and you can try organizing your tasks by “Next Actions” instead.

No matter which method you try, you’ll never regret taking the time to plan. In my experience the more time you spend planning, the smoother (and quicker) a project will go. Of course there’s such a thing as overplanning – you don’t need to spend a year planning a 3-song demo – but in my experience far more people are guilty of underplanning. Having a plan might not seem very rock-and-roll, but it’ll help you achieve your dreams a lot faster, and make the ride a lot more fun. -kf

*And soon-to-be rock stars

Making a great recording involves more than just gear and talent. It takes planning. Some people are just naturally good at planning; others suck at it. There are lots of ways to go about planning, and usually it just takes finding the method that works for you. In this tutorial I’m going to start by (hopefully) convincing you why you need to plan before you start recording anything. Then I’m going to walk through a few different ways to do this, and try to point out which way works best for which people.

A plan (or production schedule, or whatever you want to call it) is just a map of what you want to do, and by when. In the event planning world (and probably a lot of other worlds) we sometimes use something called a “critical path” to keep us on track. Simply put, this is just a list of what has to get done by what deadline and in what order in order to meet a certain ultimate deadline.

Say you want to release a CD. Typically you’ll want to start by picking the date by which you want the CD in your hands. You could always keep that date undetermined, but if you do that, there’s a strong possibility your project will become The Recording Project That Never Ends. Much as I’m sure you love the recording process, don’t you want to get your music out there? Yes? Well, get planning!

Besides, having a target release date makes it a lot easier to plan your CD release party, submit music festival applications, etc. You can start plugging the release date at shows and building a buzz for your CD before it’s even out there. If you’re really organized and you have a really strong fan base, you might even start taking pre-orders. Here’s a really cool trick: if you’re super planned, you could even tell your fans when the MIXES will be ready. You could even upload your rough mixes to myspace and ask your fans to vote on which track they like best (guess which track is the single?), or even on the song order. How cool is that???

Okay, so now that I’ve got you convinced to pick a target release date, start writing your production schedule. There are a few ways to go about this.

One thing I like to do is to do a brain dump of every single possible task I can think of that needs to happen in order for me to have a CD in my hands. Don’t worry about the timing of these tasks for now. Just get yourself a piece of paper and do a total brain dump. It might look something like this:

THINGS TO DO TO GET MY CD DONE

• ask Melinda if she’ll play cello for 2-3 songs
• update my version of Logic
• finish writing songs
• rent a good preamp
• record bedtracks at Mom and Dad’s place while they’re on vacation (ask them first?)
• find a good vocal mic (read reviews?)
• get a new bass player
• type out lyrics
• determine song order
• design the CD insert
• schedule venue for CD release party
• ask Dan where he got his CDs manufactured – price? turnaround time?
• get my guitar set up
• buy new tubes for my amp
• do overdubs over Christmas holidays at home
• etc…

You get the picture. Write as much down as you can. Your list will be a lot longer than this!

Once you can’t think of anything else that needs to happen, then you need to start putting those items in order. Typing these items into a simple word processor works well – that way you can cut and paste and move things around as you need to. Another good way to do it is to put each task onto a 2×2 post-it note, stick them to the wall and move them around as you need to. This is a good way to visualize those tasks that don’t necessarily have to happen sequentially, but can happen at the same time as other tasks. It can be helpful to write on each post-in note how long you expect the task to take.

You might find once you get started you don’t have enough information to make certain scheduling decisions (for example, you’re not sure how long manufacturing takes, or whether your folks will let you use their house while they’re on vacation). Make educated guesses for now, and highlight the items you need to research. Then do that research, and come back and adjust your production schedule as necessary.

There are two ways of looking at sequencing tasks: by start time or by end time. Either way works. Pick whichever way works best for you. I like to work to deadlines, so I typically schedule things by end time. In other words, I work from the end (my target release date) and figure out the latest by which I need to do each thing in order to meet that deadline.

For example, say my target CD release date is August 26. I know the CD manufacturer needs 10 days, so the absolute latest I can get the master to the manufacturer is August 16. My friend Jacob needs 4 days to master the CD, so I need to get him the finished mixes no later than August 12. Etc., etc., etc. This is an example of a true critical path, where each deadline is your absolute latest deadline.

Warning – don’t fall into the trap of “working to the critical path!” The critical path is just a reminder of your absolute drop-deadlines. Make sure you build in plenty of extra padding around dates (i.e. add extra time to manufacturing, mastering, etc.) in your actual production schedule. When unexpected delays happen (say your keyboard player gets the flu) then you can refer to your critical path to see just exactly how much leeway you have.

Jim Munroe at No Media Kings has an excellent flash tutorial that describes a variation of the “scheduling by end time” method. His tutorial – Time Management for Anarchists – is geared towards all creative types, not just musicians. The way Jim explains it is great – go watch it now!!

In my next post I’ll talk about another approach to planning your project that’s a little more flexible, a little more dangerous, and (for some) a lot more fun. -kf