• What is the Shuttle feature used for in Cubase SX?
• Is there an easy way to nudge the cursor and audio files in Cubase SX?
• When is the Scrub feature in Cubase SX useful?
• If I have a good understanding of the Left and Right Locators, why would I need to bother with the Markers in Cubase SX?

What is the Shuttle feature used for in Cubase SX?

The Shuttle and Jog wheels are circular controls found on the Transport window. Both features are designed to make it easy to find exact portions of your song. Although jog and shuttle were initially power tools for tape machines before the ability to "see" song positions on a huge display screen in a rainbow of spiffy colors, they can still be useful for zeroing in on exactly the right spot of a downbeat.

The Jog Wheel is "endless" in the way that you must keep rotating it in the desired direction to keep the file moving in its path, and it's best imagined as a fancy scrub tool. On the other hand, the Shuttle Wheel moves the signal at faster speeds as you turn the wheel in the desired direction.

In any case, the shuttle wheel is just plain fun to play around with. Short on song ideas? Shuttle your song backwards and prepare to freak out. Melodies, chord patterns and reversed hi-hats are likely to send you rooting around for a way to record the wacky stuff to another source so you can pick the choice bits out for your next hit.

In reality, you can just reverse an entire mix with the Reverse command in the Process submenu of the Audio menu, but the ability to play it back at different speeds might not be so easy. Also, if you get the shuttle down just right, you can get a laugh here and there out of folks who remember the days of 24-track machines. The slow ramping sounds they made as they went into rewind and fast forward modes are easy to mimic, and it can sometimes get a rise out of a guy doing a vocal when you ask for another pass and send the shuttle sound into his cans.

Is there an easy way to nudge the cursor and audio files in Cubase SX?

Nudging the cursor is accomplished by using the Nudge buttons (shown as "+" and "-") in the center of the Jog Wheel on the Transport Window. Each click of the mouse on either button advances or retreats the position of the project's cursor by one frame.

To nudge audio files, you must first make sure the Nudge buttons are visible in the tool bar. Left click (PC) or Option + click (Mac) on the tool bar. Select Nudge Buttons in the pop-up menu, and they should appear on the tool bar. Since nudging the files in increments of bars and beats is silly because you could just drag them to the correct position, you're probably going to need to change the Project Display Preferences to Frames or Samples.

Once you've changed the ruler, highlight the file you'd like to nudge. Use the Grid pop-up menu to select the amount of frames or samples you'd like to nudge the part. As you would imagine, the forward arrow nudge button nudges the part forward in time, while the backward arrow button nudges the part back in time.

You can also nudge ranges of audio files in the same manner. Lasso the files you'd like nudge. Once they're highlighted, select the amount of nudge from the Grid pop-up menu and nudge away!

When is the Scrub feature in Cubase SX useful?

The ability to "scrub" audio files comes from the days of tape machines. By keeping the playback head engaged while turning the reel forward or backward at slow speeds, you could zero in on the exact location of where sounds begin and end. Likewise, even portions of words or single notes within a series of quickly-played notes can be located with precision.

Imagine you have to locate exactly where the first audible part of a snare drum hit occurs on your audio track. If you needed to edit the audio track, you'd change the pointer into the Scrub tool by clicking and holding on the button with the speaker icon in the middle of the top panel of the session window.

Select Scrub from the contextual menu that appears. Drag the cursor back and forth over the audio part until you're right on top of the first audible part of the snare drum and leave the cursor there. Change the cursor back into the arrow tool and double-click on the file.

The track's Audio Editor window will open, and the cursor should be exactly where the snare drum begins. Scrub comes in handy for finding the exact start and end points for editing one word or note in vocal tracks.

If I have a good understanding of the Left and Right Locators, why would I need to bother with the Markers in Cubase SX?

This is all a matter of preference of course, and it's true, if you're pretty handy with the Left and Right Locators, you could probably get along just fine without using the Markers in Cubase SX. Most Cubase users find Markers useful for defining several ranges in the song for quick access, often for the purpose of for editing, playing back and recording in a looped region.

You can set markers in a variety of ways, but the most popular method is to create a Marker Track. Select Marker from the Add Track Submenu in the Project Menu. You'll notice two buttons on the Marker Track's Track List panel: Add Marker and Add Cycle. Since cycles can be easily accessed via the 10-key portion of your keyboard, it's probably a good idea to create markers for sections of your arrangement like verse, chorus, intro, etc.

Set the Left and Right Locators to the range of your verse and click on the Add Cycle Marker button in the Marker Track plate in the Track List. You'll see an icon appear in the track that defines that range, which can be accessed at any time via the keyboard by entering the corresponding number. Since the number 1 is usually used to return to the top of the song, add a marker at the top of the song before you create marker regions you'll be using a lot. They'll receive names starting with 2 after you've created the marker at 1. When you enter the corresponding key on your keyboard, the Left and Right Locators will automatically snap to that loop range and the cursor will be at the top of the loop, ready to play.