If you are only using MIDI in Cubase you're missing half the fun. Cubase is also a fully-fledged multi-track recording system with some very powerful features you are going to want to use. That being said, let's get the audio set-up.

Audio Hardware

As fast and as powerful as computers have become, the built-in audio capabilities of most computers leaves much to be desired. While it's usually fine for games, playing on the internet, or even listening to MP3s, when it comes to high quality, multi-channel playback and recording of audio, an upgraded sound card or external audio interface is a must. Here are a few basics to think about when purchasing a sound card/audio interface:

Getting audio in and out of Cubase

Audio interfaces come in two basic flavors: an internal audio card or an external audio interface.

Internal Sound Card This can be the cheapest way to get audio in and out of your PC. However, don't be completely drawn in by their low price. Internal sound cards are usually not that much better than the hardware that came with your computer. And while most come with some type of built-in synthesizer on the card, more often than not the sounds of these are a bit thin. They are also more susceptible to noise and interference from the other components inside your computer. As always, though, there are some exceptions. A few manufactures do make sound cards that are professional units, with studio quality sound. However, these units are not available at your local computer mega-mart, nor are they as inexpensive as the "sound blaster" type of sound card.

External Audio Interface External audio interfaces are just that; an audio interface that connects to your computer either by a USB connection or a FireWire (IEEE 1394) connection. These interfaces have the advantage of usually having better sound quality than sound cards, as well as options for multiple inputs (microphones, instruments, line-level signals), and multiple outputs (for mixing or even surround sound applications). One of the big advantages that come from an external interface is that they can be used with a Laptop computer (and some even powered by the laptop) for a "mobile" recording setup. External interfaces will also (for the most part) work with PCs and Macs right out of the box.

The Setup, Part 1

Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing your chosen audio interface (and software drivers if applicable).

1. Launch Cubase, select Device Setup from the Devices menu.

2. Click on VST Audiobay in the list.

3. Select your audio hardware driver from the Master ASIO Driver** menu. There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hardware (in the example shown we are using mLAN, which is a FireWire networking protocol sponsored by Yamaha). When you have selected a driver, it is added to the Devices list.

**Under Windows, we strongly recommend that you access your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifically for the hardware, if available. If no ASIO driver is installed we recommend that you check with your audio hardware manufacturer if they have an ASIO driver available, for example for download via the Internet.

4. Select the driver in the Devices list to open the Driver settings for your audio hardware.

5. Bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and adjust the settings as recommended by the audio hardware manufacturer.

Under Windows, you can open the control panel by clicking the Control Panel button.

The control panel that appears when you click this button is provided by the audio hardware manufacturer and not Cubase SX/SL (unless you use DirectX or MME, see below). Hence it will be different for each audio card brand and model.

The Control panels for the ASIO Multimedia and ASIO DirectX drivers are an exception, as they are provided by Steinberg. They are described in the HTML Help, opened by clicking the Help button in the respective dialog. See also the notes below.

Under Mac OS X, you will find the control panel for your audio hardware in the System Preferences (“Other” section), opened from the Apple menu or from the Dock.

If you are using the built-in audio hardware of the Macintosh, you use the “Sound” control panel in the System Preferences to set levels, balance, etc.

If you are using ASIO audio hardware, you can click the Control Panel button to bring up its panel.

6. If you plan to use several audio applications simultaneously, you may want to activate the option “Release ASIO Driver in Background” on the VST Audiobay page. This will allow another application to play back via your audio hardware even though Cubase is running.

The application that is currently active (i.e. the “top window” on the desktop), will get access to the audio hardware. Make sure that any other audio application accessing the audio hardware is also set to release the ASIO (or Mac OS X) driver so Cubase can use it when it becomes the active application again.

7. If your audio hardware and its driver support ASIO Direct Monitoring, you may want to activate the Direct Monitoring checkbox.

If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may support ASIO Direct Monitoring. In this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hardware, by sending the input signal back out again. However, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off automatically by Cubase, just as when using internal monitoring.

8. Click Apply and then OK to close the dialog.

The Setup, Part 2

1. Select VST Connections from the Devices menu.

The VST Connection window will open, displaying the following:

Depending on which tab you have selected, Input or Output, the window lists the current input or output busses, with the following three columns:

Bus Name - Lists the busses. You can select busses and rename them by clicking on them in this column.
Speakers - Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, surround formats) of each bus.
Audio Device - This shows the currently selected Master ASIO driver.
Device Port - When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button in the Bus Name column) this column shows which physical input/output on your audio hardware is used by the bus.

2. Click in the Device Port column to select an INPUT port for a channel in the bus. This is the input FROM your sound card/interface TO Cubase (in this case it is our mLAN Inputs 1 & 2).

3. Click on the Output Tab.

4. Click in the Device Port column to select an OUTPUT port for a channel in the bus. This is the output FROM Cubase TO your sound card/interface (in this case it is our mLAN outputs 1 & 2).

5. You are now set, and can close the window.