basic Cubase fader/levels question

R

Roger Mac

New member
Ok. This is almost embarrasing. :)

Do the Cubase Mixer faders affect the recording input level or are they only controlling the output volume level? In other words, are the mixer faders before or after the actual "record-to-disk" step?

So, if I set faders to zero, then set input levels properly during a test track, can I then crank up the mixer faders while recording so that there is more volume, or am I also screwing up the input recording levels?

I know I could try this but I won't have time until the weekend and I "need" to know now. :)
Thanks.
 
Cubase SX has both input and output faders. The input faders do affect the recording level, but this happens AFTER the A/D conversion so it will not affect your converters. The output faders will not affect what is being recorded, but merely what you hear back.
 
input vs. output faders

Very cool (Input & Output faders).

I bought Studio Case which comes with Cubase SE.

I am set as "Monitor Via Cubase - Manual". So, IF I understand correctly (and that is a big if), during recording, the mixer faders control the monitored level, not the input level. Is this correct?

I also just found this in the SE manual...
"----------------
Setting input levels
When monitoring a channel signal source in stop mode, the meters show the level at the input selected for the audio channel. So if the connected signal source is sounding you should see activity in both the Track list meter and in the mixer strip for that channel.

- Note that it is not possible to set input gain with the mixer fader!

Check the levels coming in to Cubase SE, and if necessary, adjust the
input level in one of the following ways:
• Adjust the output level of the sound source or external mixer.
• Use the audio hardware’s own application program to set the input levels, if this possibility is provided.
• If your audio hardware supports the ASIO Control Panel function, it may be possible to make input level settings.
-------------"

Which sounds like I can't control input levels from within Cubase. ??
 
Like the man said, Cubase has both input and output faders. The input faders control the input levels, as well as the monitoring levels when monitoring through Cubase. Honestly, I don't see the point of monitoring through Cubase when recording external sources if your soundcard provides for direct monitoring as you'll get latency. About the only reason I can see for monitoring through Cubase is if you're applying FX on the input channels and you want to hear them while recording.

The output faders set the output volume and these are the faders that you use when mixing.
 
Alrighty.

So are both the input & output faders in the same Devices>Mixer window?
If true then do I assume "input" & "output" simply refers to when you are using them (recording vs mix down)?
 
hmmm

Wow!

Ok, that pic was very helpful & very confusing. :) Now I'm wondering, I believe SE is a lower version than SX/SL because That panel is "somewhat" like mine.

- I have a section of the window with several faders (labeled "In1" or "In1 + In2").
- I can hide/unhide the Master Out.
But what you labeled (in writing) as "In", I have no idea where that comes from.
 
yeah, here, let me break it down for ya.

- the "in" thing is the "stereo in" fader.. you can have a whole bunch of those. generally stereo in 1 will be inputs 1 and 2 on your soundcard (Left and Right), stereo in 2 will be inputs 3 and 4 on your soundcard... rinse, repeat.

set the level on that fader cautiously, that's the level you'll record at.

- the thing i oh so technically referred to as "monitor level out" is all the tracks that you've recorded and their *playback* volume. this is what you use to "mix" the song.. get the tracks to sound good together after you've recorded all your instruments.

- the "master out" label refers to the overall output volume.. so when you're mixing your giant mess of tracks down to a single .wav file you'll have control over the master volume... make sure it's not going into the red when you playback the tracks and all will be well.


hopefully that helped a bit.
 
oh, to answer your initial question: as long as the stereo in fader is capturing sound and you've record enabled a track, it doesn't matter at all what levels the track mixer is showing, you can't screw up the track by having the channel mixer fader down too low.. throw them all down to 0 if you like.. you just won't get playback out of those channels until you throw the faders back up.
 
Ok. I DO have all those faders. :)

Actually I was hoping to leave the playback channel faders as is, but throw the record-enabled channel mixer fader UP without affecting the recorded levels (so that the vocalist can hear herself easier).

Can I assume that, if turning down the record enables fader doesn't affect recording, then turning up shouldn't matter either?
 
Roger Mac said:
Can I assume that, if turning down the record enables fader doesn't affect recording, then turning up shouldn't matter either?
Click to expand...
Absolutely :) The track volume doesn't effect the recording. The recording is only effected by the input levels set in your soundcard's mixer and the input levels in Cubase's mixer. Not the channel/track fader. The channel/track faders only come into play during the actual mixing process. So yes, you can raise the channel fader as far as you want, it will not affect the recorded sound. It will only affect your mix balance (and if it goes in the red, and thus pushes your MIX channel output past zero, it will clip). So when you're tracking the vocalist, and you want to help her/him, go ahead and push it up, just be sure you bring it down to sane levels during mixdown.

BTW what you show on the input and output (the leftmost and the rightmost channels in the pic above) is dependent on what soundcard you have, and how you have set things up in Cubase itself. So, if your soundcard has 8 inputs and 8 outputs, you can have 4 stereo (or 8 mono or 3 stereo and 2 mono, or some other combination) inputs and 4 stereo outputs. How you actually see them meaning whether they're configured as stereo or mono, or even whether they're visible or not, depends on how they're setup in Cubase's VST Connections dialog.

Please note that the above is based on Cubase SX 2. There may be some differences in your version. In any case, I can't stress enough how helpful and complete the Help system is in Cubase (it's virtually the whole manual, except it's also indexed and searchable), so if we've missed something, you can be sure that you'll find the answers there. I'd suggest you do a search/take a look at the section dealing with "VST Connections".
 
great point. for example i've only got 1 stereo bus going right now even though i have 10 inputs on my soundcard.. i'll reconfigure it when i record, say, a drumkit or an entire band but when it's just me in my music room i don't need more than 2 inputs visible at once.

cubase is cool like that.

oh, i also want to correct myself when i said "turn them all down to 0 if you like"... because yeah.. 0 is high.. frankly, i'm just used to my 4track where 0 is the bottom and 10 is as high as you can go and 7-8 being optimal.
 
Let me see if I've got this straight

I'm using a laptop running Cubase SE with a M-Audio MobilPre USB for my microphones. The MobilPre has input gain controls and a clipping light for each channel. If I adjust the gain on the MobilPre so the light doesn't come on, I avoid clipping from the A/D converters. I can then adjust the input fader in Cubase for the best level to avoid clipping within Cubase.

Does that about sum it up?
 
Great info guys. But I have to ask. What's the difference between a "input levels in Cubase mixer" and "channel/track fader"? I thought this was the same thing.
 
irishfolker, yes pretty much.. but remember that the levels are cumulative, even if each channel is not peaking the sum of all the channels playing together might cause your master output to peak.

Roger Mac, the "input levels" are just that: the volume of whatever you're "inputting" into the computer. here's a better way to put it: when you record a track you're basically just making a .wav file. the "input level" on the input bus controls how loud (or how "big" the waveform looks) the .wav file is as you're creating (recording) the file. the "channel fader" is used to raise and lower the volume of the .wav file to make it sound good against the other tracks, it's not actually altering the file itself. capice?
 
don't worry about it too much, it'll all make sense when you've got no choice but to make sense out of it... all you really need to know is "if it sounds good then it *is* good".

Cheers,
Rob
 
Generally, if you are not sure how to use the input faders, I would not touch them. Cubase has been setup to sort of mimic an "inline" console.
 
Roger Mac said:
Great info guys. But I have to ask. What's the difference between a "input levels in Cubase mixer" and "channel/track fader"? I thought this was the same thing.
Click to expand...
Look at the pic above again. The input levels are set with the input faders. Those are the leftmost faders. The channel/track faders are the ones in the middle. They do not affect the sound during recording. They (the channel faders) only come into play during the mixing stage.
 
input faders??

Ok, I must be missing something. Where the picture shows a left most section (input faders) and a middle section (channel/track fader), my mixer only shows one section. Since I see all the tracks recorded previously, I assume my window is currently only showing the channel/track faders.
I guess I need to figure out where my input faders are or where they went.
 
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