• 16, 24 or 32 bit audio recording and playback capability.
• Windows Multimedia compatible, or...
• DirectX compatible , or...
• Comes with an ASIO driver.
Cubase VST's ASIO Multimedia driver will support multi I/O audio cards with either multiple stereo or multi-channel wave devices.
The de-facto standard for synchronized start of wave devices on one card is supported as well. If the audio card driver supports this standard, sample accurate synchronization between multiple wave devices on one card is guaranteed.
ASIO drivers for Multi-I/O audio cardsWe are currently working together with several audio card manufacturers to create ASIO drivers for Cubase VST. These include, among others, Lexicon, Korg, Event/ Echo, Sonorus and TerraTec, among others. Check our Web Site for the latest news about ASIO drivers.
ISA cards require CPU performanceMulti-channel sound cards for the ISA bus require a lot of CPU performance. Simultaneous 8 channel I/O (4 inputs and 4 outputs) will use 30% to 50% of the available CPU performance.
However, it is possible to perform a manual deactivation of the unused inputs and outputs in order to decrease the demand on CPU performance. Proceed as follows:1. Open the VST Inputs window from the Panels menu.
2. Deactivate any unused Inputs by using the “Active” buttons in the list.
3. Close the VST Inputs window.
If your card has more than one output, this will have one or more Bus sections, to the right. 5. Deactivate any unused Output buses by using the Active buttons.
P The limitations described below does not apply to newer Soundblaster cards, such as Soundblaster AudioPCI 128.
The “full-duplex” mode of the older Soundblaster series is supported. However there are certain limitations associated with the AWE series of Soundblaster:
• If recording is operated with 16-bit quality, playback happens with 8-bit quality.
• If playback is operated with 16-bit quality, recording can only happen with 8-bit quality. In Cubase VST, 8-bit audio recording is not possible. Therefore, the Soundblaster limitations have the following implications:
• To enable audio recording, open the VST Inputs window on the Panels menu and activate the card’s audio input.
All playback will now be in 8-bit quality (provided that the full duplex mode is selected, see below).
• To enable 16-bit audio playback, open Inputs window and deactivate the card’s audio input.
Audio recording is now disabled.
In the ASIO Multimedia Preset list you will find two operation modes for the Soundblaster series or compatible cards. One will set up the system for full duplex operation.
q If the full duplex mode doesn’t work reliably on your computer setup, you may be able to solve the problem by increasing the “I/O recovery time” in the extended BIOS or Advanced Chipset setup.
However, there may be situations when you have to select the Preset for half duplex operation:• When you want to use the WaveSynth/WG MIDI Device on a card in the AWE-64 series (see page 23).
• When the full duplex operation does not work reliably on your computer setup (and the above mentioned fix doesn’t help).
The AWE-64 is basically the same hardware as the AWE 32. However, AWE 64 creates the expanded sound possibilities by using CPU power of the host computer. This will decrease overall audio performance.
P Note: To be able to use full duplex operation you have to disable the Wave synth/WG MIDI device on the AWE-64. Sometimes it will be necessary to deactivate the Creative Music Mapper too. This is done in the SetupMME dialog, as described on page 23.
If you are using Windows Multimedia compatible audio hardware, you will find a list of Presets in the ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog (opened from the Audio System Setup dialog in Cubase VST). If there is a Preset for your audio card, you should select this. If you have an audio card for which there is no Preset, you should select a common Preset and experiment with the settings as described in the Getting into the Details document.
Also please check out our Web Site, <http://www.steinberg.net> to get additional information and the latest hints and tips.
Does your audio card support full duplex operation (recording while playing)? If not, you can enable either the input or the output of the device, but not both at the same time.
Digital InputFor some audio cards it is necessary to apply a signal to the digital input of the card whenever you want to use it. If no digital signal is connected, the input of the card will not be enabled, and a warning message is displayed.
Also, you have to make sure that the Sample Frequency in the Audio System Settings matches the one of the incoming digital audio signal.• If you find the warning message a problem, turn off the digital input in the Inputs window and save a new DEF.ALL file.
From then on the digital input has to be enabled manually before recording.
Does your audio card support full duplex operation (recording while playing)? If not, you can enable either the input or the output of the device, but not both at the same time.
Software synthesizerIf you are using the ASIO Multimedia driver to play back audio, Cubase VST cannot play back MIDI via software synthesizers (like Roland's Virtual Sound Canvas, Seer's Reality or Creative Labs' WaveSynth) and play audio via the same audio card, simultaneously. You will need to deactivate the MIDI output ports for these software synthesizers. Proceed as follows:
1. Start the Setup MME program which comes with Cubase.
2. In the MME Outputs box, click on the name of the software synthesizer.
Cubase VST is not able to gain access to the audio card when a sample editor (like Sound Forge or Wavelab) plays back audio. Please stop playback in the sample editor before you switch to Cubase.