Cubase SX/SL 2 Power!

Chapter 6. Track Classes

When you create a new empty project, as you did in Chapter 4, a blank project appears with no tracks. No matter what you decide to do from this point forward, you need to add tracks to your project. In Cubase, tracks are just like containers. Without tracks, you won't have containers into which you can record events.

Here's a summary of what you will learn in this chapter:

• Explore the different tools available in the track Inspector and Track List areas.

• What track classes are and what purpose they serve.

• What are the differences between MIDI and audio effects?

• What are the differences between track insert and send effects?

• Define the Cubase audio hierarchy in terminology and learn how it applies to your project.

• Organize your project by using folder tracks.

• Learn when and why you would use group tracks.

There are eight types, or classes, of tracks:

• Audio tracks for audio events and automation.

• MIDI tracks for MIDI events and automation.

• Effects (FX) tracks for audio plug-ins that are being used in the current project by several audio tracks. Previous Cubase users will notice that this replaces the VST Send effect and VST Master effect panels.

• Folder tracks to group other tracks into, such as different takes of a solo, VST instruments that are used in a project, and automation of the master bus outputs.

• Group channel tracks, which group different track outputs into a single output bus channel or simply group them under a single group channel in the mixer panel. This provides a common set of controls for all the channels assigned to this group. For example, you can have all the backup singers grouped to the same group fader. When you want the background vocals to go down, you only need to reduce the level of this group fader, rather than reducing the level of all the backup singers' tracks.

• Marker tracks, as you saw in Chapter 4, easily manage your Markers.

• Ruler tracks (SX only) allow you to view the time displayed in more than one format simultaneously . For example, if you're working with a time-coded video project, you might need to see this timecode while you're working on cues, but also need to see where bars and beats fall to add musical events at the proper times.

• Video tracks synchronize your music to a digital video file.