Introduction

ReWire is a special protocol for streaming audio between two computer applications.

Developed by Propellerhead Software and Steinberg, ReWire provides the following possibilities and features:

• Realtime streaming of up to 128 separate audio channels, at full bandwidth, from the synthesizer application into the mixer application.

  In this case, the mixer application is Cubase. An example of a synthesizer application is Propellerhead Software’s Reason.

• Automatic, sample-accurate synchronization between the audio in the two programs.

• The possibility to have the two programs share one audio card and take advantage of multiple outputs on that card.

• Linked transport controls that allow you to play, rewind, etc., either from Cubase or from the synthesizer application (provided it has some kind of transport functionality).

• Automatic audio mixing functions of separate channels as required.

  In the case of Reason, for example, this allows you to have separate channels for the different devices.

• Additionally, ReWire offers the possibility to route MIDI tracks in Cubase to the other application for full MIDI control.

  For each ReWire-compatible device, a number of extra MIDI outputs is made available in Cubase. In the case of Reason, this allows you to route different MIDI tracks in Cubase to different devices in Reason, with Cubase serving as the main MIDI sequencer.

• The overall load on your system is reduced significantly, compared to when using the programs together in the conventional way.