How to set up a new Project in Cubase.
Introduction
when setting up ensure you know all about the programme and how it works, here is and insight to what is consisted within the project, a little information is that a DAW is a digital audio workstation which is an electronic device software application for recording, editing and producing audio files which can be such as songs, sound effects, human speeches and musical pieces, here are a few examples of DAW's:
- PreSonus Studio One
- FL Studio
- Sony Acid Pro
- Ableton Live
- Apple Logic
To sequence a track in Cubase i had to ensure that i used the Cubase 6 on the Apple Mac OS, Version 10.7.5. to set up this i had to load cubase then ensure there was no tracks there and add my own tracks by selected 'project' then 'add track' then select 'instrument', the rest will be explained late on. To keep on top of the process you must make sure you use the precise Mac OS version listed above.
How to Create tracks
- Open up the cubase software
- Then click 'Create' in the bottom right
How to assign Synths to tracks (Hal Lion SE & Sylenth)
- There will then be a blank screen and then go to the top task bar and go across to 'project' then 'add track' then 'instrument'
- A task bar will pop up and click the no VST... then select 'HALion Sonic SE' select the amount of tracks wanted
- Then select the pencil tool to draw the box that the bars go in to produce the sound
- hover over the blank task bar on the left hand side and then it will pop up with a screen which says 'results' then type in 'synth' and select a string instrument or which instrument fits best
How to input Midi Data (notes)
- Double click on the track previously created to start to add the notes
- Then again click the pencil/draw tool to start to input your notes
- You can vary the length of the notes by extending the blocks to 2,3 or 4 or however long they are needing to be depending on the length note
How to use the Groove agent & media bay to create the drum track (samples)
- A task bar will pop up and click the no VST... then select 'HALion Sonic SE' select the amount of tracks wanted
- Then select the pencil tool to draw the box that the bars go in to produce the sound
- Select drum in media bay
- Then open the groove agent on the left hand side in the different groups
- Then open media bay and select the variety of drum kit needed.
- And drag the selected dum into the groove agent into the group 1
- Groove agent is a software programme used in cubase for drum beats
- Groove agent is also known as a a sampler which uses different artists in different areas
- Within groove agent you can use media bay which can search for different instruments for yourselves to use within the recording
- You can also edit the recording especially when editing the drum you can move them up and down to edit the sound.
- FACT: in the 1960's Paul McCarthy from The Beatles used a Mellotron to produce these sounds within their music
Media bay
- media bay involves samples which can be dragged into the groove agent which i spoke about previously,
- To open media bay you are to go into the 'media' file at the top then down to Mediabay then select the sample wanted.
Samplers
A sampler is an electronic or digital musical instrument which is similar to the synthesiser, but instead of generating sounds manually they can create sounds with filters and oscillators it uses sound recordings of real instruments. The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are then played back by means of the sampler program itself, a MIDI keyboard, sequencer or another triggering device. there are types of samplers and example is a hardware sampler.
Often samplers offer filters, effects units, modulation via low frequency oscillation which the sounds can be modified in many different ways.
Software Synthesis
- Oscillator:
- A1/A2 which generates a wave form for different sounds
- Sine Waves- which creates muffled sound which can sometimes be heard as a fluffy sound.
- Square waves- which produce a digital sound.
- Triangle Waves- which sits in the middle of Sine and Square waves
- Saw tooth- which produces a harsh and powerful sound.
- Envelope and ADSR:
- The envelop changes the velocity of the sound over a set time during the piece.
- A- Attack
- The fast attack is how quickly the sound reaches the highest velocity
- The slow attackis a slower version of the fast attack, but it takes longer to reach the right velocity.
- D- Decay
- How quickly the sound drops to the sustain level
- S- Sustain
- The constant volume after the sound is released after the decay
- R- Release
- How quickly the sound fades when a note ends.
- Filter EQ:
- The Filter is a form of EQ which boosts the high and low frequencies.
- Equalisers manage the high/low frequency of audio/sounds, they do this by changing the wavelength which changes the pitch, humans can hear up to 20kHz but nothing below 20Hz. They boost the different frequency’s to get an overall sound.On the mixing desk there is a series of green dials, these are the dials to use to change the frequency from low to high, or high to low, when you turn all to low the it stops frequency we call this the low pass filter.
- Low frequency oscillator:
- The low frequency oscillator changes the volume from lows to highs and highs to lows.
Midi
Midi is not music and doesn't actually include any actual sounds, it is nothing more than data, which is basically a set of instructions, midi data contains a list of events and messages that tell an electronic device how to generate a certain sound, a device could be a musical instrument, a computer sound card, a mobile phone etc. basically all it is a code and the files are stored as (.mid) they are all collected as a small size, and people are able to open and edit the file as well as playing is back. Midi files are usually used for karaoke industry or video games and they used to be used on mobile phones.
Midi Specifications
All midi is, is a code which is a message format. There are 2 types of Midi message bytes which are, the status byte and the data byte.
The Status bytes always begin with 1,and data bytes with 0. that leaves only 7 bits per byte to represent the message (128 possible values).
Midi messages begin with the status byte, where 3 bits (sss) are used to denote the type of message, and 4 bits (nnnn) to denote the channel number to which the message apply (max. 16 channels)
Midi Connections
Midi connections is all the devices that connect together, for example from the keyboard and the computer there is a Midi IN and OUT which the IN is the connection from the keyboard to the computer where as the Midi OUT is from the computer back to the computer if you are wanting to change the sound from the normal standard noise to a different sound.
Midi Manager
The Midi Manger is similar to the Key Editor in Cubase but it basically shows everything that happens in a chronological order and what the file type is and how many bytes there is within a note/file whilst the file is telling the computer to do it.
Midi Channels
All a Midi channel is, is messages which can be referred as 1 to 16 while in realityy they are represented by a binary value 0 to 15 (0-f)
For example the Status byte of a note off message for channel 7 is '86'
message Status Data 1 Data 2
Note off 8n Note Number Velocity
Note on 9n Note Number Velocity
Polyphonic aftertouch An Note Number Pressure
Control change Bn Controller Number Data
Program Change Cn Program Number -
Channel aftertouch Dn Pressure -
Pitch Wheel En LSbyte MSbyte
Midi Controller Information
An example of a Midi Keyboard Controller is the KeyStudio 49i, it has a Midi OUT but no Midi IN this is because these Keyboards do not have a Midi Thru.
