Cubase Ruler Track Show Seconds Easier to Read
This calendar month we have a look at edifice tempo maps for writing to picture in Cubase, using Markers, Time Warping and the Process Tempo command.
Last month we started to investigate working with video in Cubase, looking specifically at the pros and cons of having your video running within or outside of Cubase, and how to use the built-in video playback features. In this month's article nosotros're going to take a look at the process of actually building tempo maps in Cubase, and you lot might want to follow the examples discussed with an empty Project on your own organization. You won't need any additional video files or musical content for these examples. If you lot're interested in running Cubase with an external video car, cheque out the 'Slave To The Cubase ' box for more information.
Project Time
1 matter to conduct in mind if y'all're running video in Cubase is that the timecode of the video always needs to be locked to the timecode of the Project. Terminal month we looked at how to set up the Projection start time (in the Projection Setup window) and aligning the Video Event to be in sync with the Project; only quite frequently this will still need farther adjusting, which is to say you probably don't always want the commencement of the video to be the outset of the Projection. For example, say the 24-frame video starts at 01:00:00:00, your music starts at 01:00:05:00, and you want the first bar of music to be bar three at 120bpm. It'due south a good idea to exit a couple of empty confined at the start of your Project in case you need to take an up-shell or make changes later.
Keeping the video where information technology is, y'all could attain this by setting the tempo to 96bpm at the beginning of the Project (bar i) and putting a tempo change to 120bpm at bar three, merely this is an awkward solution. It would make it harder to use upwards-beats, and if you subsequently got real musicians to play your music against a click rails, you'd have to manually cut in a click at the right tempo (120bpm) so they had a proper count-in.
To aid in these situations, Cubase has a neat command called Prepare Timecode at Cursor (in the Projection card), which does exactly what it says. To fix bar three to be 01:00:05:00 you would set your Project Cursor to bar iii, select Fix Timecode at Cursor, enter the timecode and click OK. Cubase will automatically piece of work out the offset that is required to make the timecode y'all entered hit the cursor'due south bar and beat position, so in this instance, bar iii will now be 01:00:05:00, and you don't take to worry well-nigh tempo changes.
When you lot alter the starting time fourth dimension of the Project, either in the Projection Setup window or with the Set Timecode at Cursor control, Cubase will prompt you lot to see if yous want any existing objects to motility so they stay at the same timecode position. Near of the fourth dimension yous'll want to say 'No', when working with confined and beats. And spot the missing word...
If you already accept content in your Project, before the Gear up Timecode operation is consummate Cubase will prompt yous: 'Y'all accept modified the timecode offset. Practice you want [to] continue the Project content at its timecode positions?' Aside from the missing word, this seemingly disruptive question is actually adequately straightforward. Most of the time y'all'll desire to say 'No' to this question: if y'all have some MIDI and audio Parts on the Project window already at bar 3, you probably desire to proceed them at bar iii. Clicking 'Aye' would movement your existing objects so their timecode position was preserved, which would identify them at musically irrelevant locations.
If you lot're using Cubase with an external video actor, you accept nothing else to worry virtually. Nevertheless, if yous're using the built-in video player, y'all'll need to make sure you readjust the position of the Video Upshot and then that it'south in sync with the Project's timecode again. In theory, if the Video Outcome is the only Consequence in the Projection (and it'southward already correctly lined upwards before the timecode adjustment), y'all could answer 'Yes' to the question. All the same, if the new timecode is subsequently than the old fourth dimension, this moves the kickoff point of the Event behind the kickoff of the Project, and Cubase's video thespian doesn't always seem happy near this. So the best option is probably to readjust the start of the Video Event manually, cropping either the showtime or the end positions as you would for whatsoever other type of Event on the Projection window.
Hit Me Baby, One More Fourth dimension
Once you've got the initial tempo set and the Project first time sorted out, a common task is to identify various hitpoints in the video that you want to tie in with something musically meaningful. One useful technique is to create a Marker track in your Projection and add Markers to stand for the hitpoints in the video. To create a Marker track, select Projection / Add Rails / Marker, and you might like to enable Cubase's Carve up Track List function by clicking the appropriate push button (which looks like an empty rectangular box) at the very top of the Rail List, only where the Track Listing and the Ruler intersect. In this mode, the Issue Brandish and Rail List are split into two areas, and by default the Marker rail is automatically moved into the upper expanse. The two areas of the Rails List can be vertically scrolled independently of each other (and you tin drag the dividing line between the two areas to resize them every bit you wish) and this makes information technology possible to keep the Marker track at the summit of the Project window, no matter what tracks are visible in the lower part of the Track List.
Creating a Marker track is a helpful way to place points in the video that you desire to align to musically relevant locations. Y'all can then use the Time Warp tool, as illustrated here, to create appropriate tempo changes when dragging confined or beats onto Markers.
Allow's say you lot have a hitpoint at 01:00:30:xviii. To create a Mark at this position, first gear up the Project Cursor to this timecode location. Equally mentioned concluding month, when you're working with film you'll probably want to have Bars+Beats set as your Main Time Display and Timecode equally your Secondary Time Brandish. And so to ready the Project Cursor to a timecode location, click in the Secondary Display area on the Ship Console and type in the required timecode value. After this, you can insert a Marker by clicking the Add Marker button on the Marker track itself, or by pressing Insert on Windows-based systems (no default Key Command is assigned on the Mac version), and the Mark is added at the Project Cursor'southward position.
Y'all'll probably want to give the Mark a name to betoken what's going on at the time of that hitpoint, such as 'Human types in Marking proper noun in Cubase ', and to do this, kickoff make sure you have Bear witness Marker Names enabled in the Event Display-Markers page of the Preferences window. When a Marker is selected on the Project window, its Name ID and Start time are shown in the Event Infoline, and you tin can enter a name past clicking underneath the name field, typing the proper name and pressing Return. Marker information can too exist edited in the Inspector, so long every bit the Mark rails is selected, and also in the Mark window, which you can open by selecting Projection / Markers or pressing Ctrl/Apple+K. In these latter two views, the Mark name is listed in the Description field.
The last affair y'all might want to consider when using the Marker track for hitpoints is to switch its timebase from the default Musical option to Linear, which you tin exercise by clicking the illuminated note button on the Marker track then it changes to a non-illuminated clock. Musical timebase is the setting to which all Cubase tracks default, with the exception of the Video runway, and this means that Events on a track are stored in relation to their music position in bars and beats. Therefore, if you have an event at bar iii and y'all change the tempo, the issue still occurs at bar three, simply the exact fourth dimension at which it occurs in minutes and seconds will have changed depending on whether the new tempo is faster or slower. Linear time, by contrast, stores Events in relation to their absolute position in time, regardless of bars, beats and tempo. If the Marker rails was left in Musical time, the Markers representing the hitpoints would migrate depending on the tempo, which is absolutely not what you want. Enabling Linear fourth dimension on the Mark runway prevents this.
Slave To The Cubase
The MIDI Timecode Destinations group allows you lot to gear up which MIDI ports in your system volition output MIDI Timecode from Cubase. Dealing with an external video device in Cubase is slightly easier than using the built-in player, fifty-fifty though it offers less integration. Every bit long equally your external device is set up with the picture, whatsoever dialogue, effects and music tracks, and set up to receive incoming timecode, the corporeality of setup required in Cubase is fairly minimal. In terms of timecode, Cubase is only capable of outputting MTC, although many MIDI interfaces tin translate this into LTC (Linear Timecode, which carries SMPTE timecode data as an audio indicate) if needed, and even if yours doesn't, you tin use a device like Rosendahl's MIF MIDI Time Code box to do the job.
To output timecode to a MIDI port in Cubase, beginning make sure the right frame rate and SMPTE start time are set in the Project Setup window, which tin be opened past selecting Project / Project Setup or pressing Shift+S (meet last month's Cubase Technique article for more data about this). Next, open the Synchronisation Setup window past selecting Transport / Sync Setup or Control/Command-clicking the Sync push on the Transport window, and enable the appropriate MIDI port to which y'all desire MIDI Time Code to be sent in the MIDI Timecode Destinations group.
Underneath this group, you lot'll find an selection labelled 'MIDI Timecode Follows Project Time', and when this is enabled the MIDI Time Code that Cubase outputs will precisely follow the Projection's playback. Then when you ready loops or relocate the Projection Cursor during playback, the MIDI Timecode volition reflect the position of the Project Cursor exactly. If you lot're experimenting with ideas, such as looping, but would similar the timecode to continue as if the Projection was even so playing in a linear style, disable this option, and the timecode volition be continuous from the point at which you start playback until y'all press cease.
Doing The Fourth dimension Warp
In one case yous've created some hitpoints, the next pace is to come up up with a musical structure to contain these hitpoints in a way that makes sense. Cubase SX2 introduced the Time Warp tool, allowing you elevate bars and beats on to specific linear fourth dimension positions, and, as you tin can imagine, combing the Time Warp tool with the Markers is a pretty handy way of building a tempo map in Cubase. As a simple instance, the Marking nosotros created in the previous section at 01:00:xxx:18 happens to fall at beat xv.4.3.0 in the musical timebase. Since it's almost hitting bar 16, you might want to simply motion bar xvi so 01:00:30:eighteen hits this musical location.
To do this, select the Fourth dimension Warp tool, make certain Snap mode is enabled and set Snap to Events. Now, drag the first beat of bar sixteen in the Marking rails onto the Marker, and because Snap is ready to Events, you'll notice that the bar line y'all're dragging automatically locks to the Marker every bit the mouse pointer gets close. And, equally an aside, if you don't drag inside the Mark track surface area, the bar line won't snap to the Marker.
Here you tin see tempo changes in the instance described in the main text before processing with the Process Tempo performance. The Time Warp tool works past automatically adjusting the concluding tempo change in the Project so the bar or beat yous're dragging will hit the required position. In the current example, the tempo at the start of the Project is adjusted because we don't accept any other tempo changes in the Project right now, which means the tempo at the start of the Project will now be 121.008bpm. This ways that bar three now hits 01:00:04:23 instead of 01:00:05:00; being one frame out might not matter too much, so you might exist happy to live with it.
Nonetheless, what if beingness one frame out did matter? One possibility to consider is to put bar iii dorsum to its original location and put a subtle tempo modify halfway through, maybe at bar 9, instead. Comport in mind that usually you lot could choose a location that made sense musically, instead of an arbitrary position, just this is just intended to illustrate the process. Start past undoing the previous operation where bar sixteen was dragged to 01:00:30:18, so that the tempo at the start of the Project is once more 120bpm and bar three hits 01:00:05:00. Next create a Tempo Event at bar three by Shift-clicking bar three in the Event Brandish (not in the Ruler) with the Time Warp Tool. This, in effect, locks bar three to 01:00:05:00, as it's impossible for the Time Warp tool to affect the tempo backside bar three at this point.
Next create another Tempo Event at bar nine; again, this effectively locks all the confined behind bar nine from being afflicted by tempo changes afterwards bar 9. Now, you can drag bar 16 to the Marker once more at 01:00:xxx:eighteen and the last tempo change will be adjusted — in this case the tempo change at bar nine — so that bar 16 hits the required timecode, leaving all the confined before bar nine (including the all-important bar three) alone.
And that's basically all there is to using the Fourth dimension Warp tool to build tempo maps. Ane nice thing about the Time Warp tool is that as you hover the mouse around the Event Display, an info box is drawn detailing the electric current musical time and timecode position of the mouse. This is a quick fashion to see what the timecode value of a bar or beat is without moving the Project Cursor. Another signal is that you'll notice that when the Time Warp tool is selected, Cubase draws the locations of tempo changes in the Ruler, indicated by small triangles. In the same way that Shift-clicking in the Upshot Display creates a new tempo alter, Shift-clicking a Tempo Outcome in the Ruler deletes information technology.
Process Tempo
The Fourth dimension Warp tool is truly a great help for edifice tempo maps, but it has a couple of limitations: considering simply the final tempo alter is adjusted when you drag a bar, it means you can just bear upon 1 tempo change at a fourth dimension, and information technology has to be an immediate (what Cubase would term a Leap Issue) change. What if yous wanted to suit several tempo changes simultaneously so that you could affect a sequence of Tempo Events proportionally to hit a cut in the picture? For this, you'll need the Procedure Tempo command.
Procedure Tempo is a powerful command to process tempo changes within a given range in social club to hit a specific timecode position with a musical location.
Forgetting the previously discussed examples, imagine you take a 24fps Project starting at 01:00:00:00 with an initial tempo of 120bpm. At bar five there'due south a Jump Tempo Event to 110bpm, and at bars 13 and 21 there are two Ramp Tempo Events to 124 and 115 bpm respectively (encounter the screen on the previous page). Bar 25 currently hits 01:00:48:20, only yous just got a new version of the picture and you demand to make the music slower as the picture is now a bit longer and bar 25 now needs to hit 01:00:53:02 instead.
To practice this, open the Tempo Editor and click the Process Tempo button on the Tempo Editor's toolbar. If you don't come across the button, right-click an empty space of the Tempo Editor'southward toolbar and make certain Process Tempo is selected in the listing of elements to exist displayed on the toolbar.
In the Process Tempo window, make certain Time Display Format is set up to Timecode. Adjacent, set the range of the Project where tempo changes should be processed in the Procedure Range section. If you select a group of Tempo Events in the Tempo Editor earlier opening the Process Tempo window, Cubase volition automatically set the Process Range according to the choice. However, in this case, set the Start to bar one (1.one.1.0) and the End to bar 25 (25.one.1.0) — the Terminate value should always be the musical location you want to hit with a given timecode position. Next, fix the Cease value in New Range to the timecode value you want to striking, in this instance 01:00:53:02, click Process, and and then click Shut to close the window.
You'll notice that Cubase scales the tempo changes; and because there was no Tempo Event at bar 25 (the bar at the end of the range), a tempo change volition exist automatically inserted to preserve the original tempo at that point. All the same, if y'all desire to continue with the same tempo during bar 25 as before, just delete the newly inserted tempo modify every bit this will take no effect on bar 25 itself striking the correct tempo position. If you lot cheque bar 25, you'll encounter information technology at present hits 01:00:53:02 equally we intended.
And that's all there is to it! Having read both this and last calendar month's commodity, I hope y'all at present have a better understanding non just of how to use Cubase's video-related features, but also how to decide which ones accommodate the task at manus. Whether using video inside or exterior of Cubase, and whether you utilize the Time Warp tool or Process Tempo (or both) for edifice your tempo maps, all that remains is for you lot to really write the cue and sell it to a director! And, unfortunately, in that location isn't a plug-in that can do that for y'all just yet.
Cubase News
Steinberg Arrangement 4. Following the release of Cubase SX/SL 3.1, Steinberg have released an update patch for both Mac and Windows users to v3.1.1 (build 944) that can be downloaded from the company's FTP site at ftp.steinberg.net/Download/ in either the 'Cubase_SX_3/3.1.one.944/' or 'Cubase_SL_3/3.ane.ane.944/' folders. Although there are no existent new features in this release, there's a big list of bug fixes, including improved OMF treatment. The ability to Ctrl-Tab betwixt open up windows is working again, and Cubase will no longer crash when dragging files betwixt the desktop, Puddle and Project windows, working with multiple Projects that use Studio Connections, playing back automation data to MIDI Device Panels, moving Parts nested inside a Folder, or pressing Ctrl+R to open the Score Editor. And then basically, if y'all plant version iii.i crashing quite a bit, 3.one.one should help. And good news for SL users: the Track Folding feature that was supposed to be in the 3.i update was accidentally omitted, merely it'southward been included in the three.1.i update.
Mac users who had purchased Steinberg's System four have been unable to upgrade to Mac Os X Tiger due to the driver for the MI4 USB audio and MIDI interface beingness incompatible with this latest version of the Mac operating organization. Fortunately, Steinberg have now addressed this outcome and released a Tiger-compatible version of the MI4 driver, which can exist downloaded from www.steinberg.de/DocSupportDisplay_sb1488.html.
Unfortunately, this commuter has only been approved for running the MI4 with Cubase SL three.1, and Steinberg state that it is incompatible with Cubase SL2, which was the version supplied as part of the original System iv bundle. System 4 is at present supplied with Cubase SL 3.1 and the Tiger-compatible driver, and Steinberg recommend that existing users contact their local Steinberg dealer for an upgrade to SL 3.ane at an "extremely attractive price".
Source: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/working-video-0
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