Cubase vst- Getting into the Details by - HTML preview

Audio Files

When you record, your audio hardware digitizes the audio signal coming from the microphone (or other sources) and stores the digital data as a file on your hard disk.

 

One File per Recording

 

One file is always created for each single recording you make.

 

File Format

The audio files created when you record in Cubase VST are Wave files (WAV), the most common audio file format for the PC. It is also possible to import and export audio files in the AIFF format, which is a very common Macintosh format.

Since practically all Windows audio processing programs read and write Wave or AIFF files, this allows you to process your Cubase VST files in other programs, and import files that have been created elsewhere, into Cubase VST. See the chapter “Importing and Exporting Audio” for information about importing and exporting files.

Stereo files

 

This version of Cubase VST uses “Interleaved” stereo files, that is, both “stereo sides” are saved in the same file.

 

About “split stereo” files

Earlier versions of Cubase and some other audio softwares use “Split” stereo files, where each “stereo side” is a separate file. In other words, “Split” stereo files always come in pairs, one file for the left side and one for the right side. You cannot import Split stereo files into Cubase VST at the same time. You can, however, import Split stereo files one by one as normal mono files. You can also export split stereo files with the Export Audio Track function (see page 516).

Audio Files are big

Audio files are comparatively large, compared to Cubase VST Song files, MIDI files, or for example, word processor files. For each minute of recording at 44.1 kHz mono, you will use up 5 MBytes of hard disk storage per mono audio channel. This means that to record continuously on four channels for three minutes, you will need 60 Mbyte of free hard disk space (5MByte * 4 channels * 3 minutes = 60MByte).

Take good care of your Audio Files!

This can not be repeated too many times: Back up your files! Hard disk crashes are a well known fact in the computer industry, and the only way to insure yourself against any disasters is to maintain a meticulous back-up scheme. If you work professionally, we suggest you invest in a removable disk based, DAT based or other back-up system and that you keep multiple copies of all files.