How to Mix in Cubase

Cubase's mixing interface resembles a real-world hardware mixer

Cubase's mixing capabilities are among its most essential features. After you have recorded multiple audio "channels," which are the ingredients of your audio project, you will want to bring all those ingredients together in a final package, which is called the "mix." You want to carve out a space for each sound in your audio project, so everything sounds like it "belongs" where it is and nothing sounds out-of-place. Cubase has a number of tools that help you achieve this.

Things You'll Need

• Cubase session with multiple audio channels

Instructions

1. Click and drag a channel fader to turn it up or down. Each audio channel can be turned up or down independently, and the output channel fader controls the overall level on all channels. MIDI channels send MIDI volume messages to instruments, so if you have an external MIDI device set up, it must be configured to respond to MIDI messages.

2. Play back the loudest parts of your project and observe the level readouts below each level meter to make sure none of the channels are peaking over 0dB. Since the digital noise floor is so far down, you can actually mix at a lower level than this, -3dB, and push everything up later when you're mastering. This way you can preserve headroom and prevent any clipping.

3. Hold the "Shift" key while clicking and dragging the input gain control on a channel receiving input if you wish to boost the input signal. Do not use the input gain control as you would a fader. It is not designed to be adjusted frequently during playback, as faders are.

4. Click the input phase switch next to the input gain control if you wish to reverse the polarity of an incoming signal. This is useful if you are mixing two similar sounds and the result sounds "hollow," as though one signal is partially canceling out the other. If the two signals are out of phase with one another, reversing the polarity for one of the sounds will help.

5. Click the "Mute" button to mute a particular channel, or click the "Solo" button to hear only that channel. You can solo several channels at once.

6. Click and drag the marker in a pan control on a stereo channel to adjust the distribution of that channel's audio across the left and right stereo channels. Hold "Ctrl" and click to re-center the pan control.

References

• Steinberg: Cubase Operation Manual