• I'm used to seeing my Wave images as framed waves. Is there a way to change this view in Cubase SX?
• How do I change the way my waveforms are colored in Cubase SX?
• How do I apply different skins in Cubase SX?
• I'd like to get less clutter on my mixers in Cubase SX. How do I do this?
• The big Transport window in SX doesn't collapse like earlier versions of Cubase. Is there a way to trim the size of the Transport window down easily?
• Can I have more than one Ruler Track in Cubase SX?

I'm used to seeing my Wave images as framed waves. Is there a way to change this view in Cubase SX?

The Event Display preferences on the Audio Page of the Preferences in the File Menu offers you several options for displaying audio wave images. If you choose the Interpolate Audio Images option, single samples are drawn in curves; if you deselect this option, the images are represented in steps. The Wave Image Style box allows you to choose whether to have the audio presented as solid images, frames or inverted images (inverted images shows the waves as solid inside frames).

Your computer needs to work harder to display your wave images as frames or inverted images. The performance can seem sluggish when showing multiple wave images in these formats. Deactivating these options can improve the overall performance of the software. You can also select to show or disable the volume curves with the Show Event Volume Curves Always box. If this box is deselected, the volume handles on the wave images will only be shown when the audio event is selected.

The Show Waveforms box enables the user to choose whether or not to display wave images at all. Unchecked, this box displays the files as blocks with the file name. The Background Color Modulation preference switches the background of the wave images into modes that show the dynamics of audio files when you're working with tiny track height settings.

How do I change the way my waveforms are colored in Cubase SX?

The Event Display Page, which is found in the Preferences section of the File Menu, offers a host of settings for how events are displayed in the session view. You can choose to colorize the background of events, make the events transparent (which makes the borders of the parts invisible, but shows the waveforms and MIDI events), display events on small track heights (this option will attempt to show the track's data even when the track height is very small) and show event names, which toggles the names of the events on or off in the project window.

There are also preferences for video clips, which can display thumbnails of the video across a track. A cache setting is also available to allocate more memory to the video thumbnail track if the thumbnails aren't showing up correctly. You can also change how the Event Displays look. There are settings that allow you to interpolate audio images, letting you view the audio data in steps or curves.

You can configure the wave image style to solid, framed or inverted images (this setting also affects the appearance of waves in the Sample Editor and Audio Part Editor). You can also show or hide the volume curves created by volume handles on the files. There is also a special background color option for identifying the dynamics of wave files within small track heights.

How do I apply different skins in Cubase SX?

By selecting Appearance in the Preferences dialog box, you can change the entire look of the program. Simply select the appearance scheme you like, click Apply and restart the program to see the changes. You can also adjust the contrast and brightness of various GUI elements as well as complete color changes for buttons, panels and more.

If you'll need to be working on different Cubase SX workstations from time to time, it might be wise to stick with the default settings and colors to avoid confusion while on the clock. Cubase SX also allows you to store three different mixer instances (best thought of as three separate mixer windows), which you can configure in many different way.

If you'd like one mixer instance to reveal only group, ReWire and FX return tracks, you can load the mixer (by selecting the desired mixer instance in the Device menu) and toggle the various show/hide options to reveal only group, ReWire and FX tracks. As each mixer has a corresponding F-key, you can now launch more defined mixer instances with one keystroke.

Additionally, the option to display the three mixer instances as normal or extended channel strip layouts is easily configured by clicking on the corresponding position of each mixer in the mini mixer map on the bottom left hand corner of the mixer windows.

Although the fader buttons cannot be turned off (the faders themselves must be shown at all times), the two extended panel sections can be launched with one click. Cubase was always a great-looking program, and the latest SX version is no exception.

I'd like to get less clutter on my mixers in Cubase SX. How do I do this?

Cubase SX mixing boards are more flexible than any previous version of the software, and they're one of the program's great advantages. You can choose to show your mixers in wide or narrow views by clicking on the Wide/Narrow buttons on the right side of mixer plus you can choose to show or hide any number of track types in each mixer instance.

Cubase SX has three mixer instances, while Nuendo has four. At the bottom left hand corner of the mixer panel, you'll find a host of icons that represent various types of tracks, including Input Channels, Output Channels, MIDI Tracks, Audio Tracks, ReWire Tracks and more. By clicking on these various icons, you're choosing whether or not the track type will be revealed in the mixer's instance.

For instance, if you click on the Input Channel icon, you'll see the Input Channel will vanish from the mixer's instance. Likewise the Output Channel will vanish if you click on that icon. You'll probably wish to keep the Input Channels hidden for clutter reasons as most input can be trimmed via other methods, and there are a variety of ways to make certain Cubase SX is seeing signal at the inputs, but you'll probably want to keep your stereo Output Channel visible as it now takes the place of the old Master Stereo Outs in previous versions of the program.

You can choose to show MIDI, ReWire and Group channels in one mixer instance while reserving another for audio tracks only. This allows you to configure your mixer instances for immediate location of tracks in the mixer. When you wish to find a track in a mixer instance, click on the track in the track list and open the mixer instance you've selected for its track type. It should be waiting for you in the center of the mixer.

The big Transport window in SX doesn't collapse like earlier versions of Cubase. Is there a way to trim the size of the Transport window down easily?

The Transport Window is the command center of the project's basic movement and recording settings, including tempo, cycle record mode, Preroll and Postroll settings, sync options and more as well as the panel that contains the regular transport commands, including stop, record, play, fast forward, rewind, shuttle, etc.

Like other the mixer instances in Cubase SX, the Transport Window is highly configurable to taste. You'll find some elements on the Transport Window are repeated in other windows. The time and position information can be found at the top of the session window tool bar as well as buttons for stop, play, fast forward and rewind.

These redundancies make it easy to streamline the Transport Window for a variety of users. You can choose to show almost nothing or everything in the Transport Window by left-clicking (Control + click for Mac) anywhere inside the window. A contextual menu will appear which allows you to select which items you wish to hide or show.

Everything is configurable here from MIDI input activity to jog/scrub, main transport keys and more. If you look at the bottom half of this contextual menu, you'll see a list of Transport Window layouts, which are designed for optimum results for various tasks.

If you'd like to create your own custom Transport Window layouts, use the Setup option on the pop-up menu and name them by using the Save command (the icon that looks like a disk). After you name them, they'll appear in the bottom half of the pop-up menu for easy selection.

Can I have more than one Ruler Track in Cubase SX?

Yes, you can have several rulers in one project window. The ruler at the top of the project window displays the passage of time in the time line according to the preferences set in the Project Preferences, which are found in the Project Menu. However, you can easily change the ruler's format by clicking the arrow button to the right of the ruler and selecting a different format from the drop down menu that appears. You can choose from bars and beats, seconds, time code, samples, time linear, bars and beats linear and a user mode.

If you'd like to add more rulers to the session window, add a track as you normally would (Alt + click in track list, or select Add Track from Project Menu) and when the drop-down menu appears, select Ruler Track. Any number of Ruler Tracks can be added to the project, and you can choose to have them display different formats by clicking in the left-hand part of the ruler and selecting the desired format from the drop-down menu. The formats are fairly self-explanatory. If you wish to use your rulers with a Tempo Track that contains tempo information, you should select Time Linear or Bars + Beats Linear, as these will reflect the tempo changes in the ruler display.