Surround Sound (Cubase Pro only)

Cubase has integrated surround sound features with support for several formats. This support goes all the way through the audio path: all audio-related channels (i. e. audio and instrument tracks as well as group channels) and busses can handle multi-channel speaker configurations. A channel in the MixConsole can either carry complete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel which is part of a surround setup.

Cubase offers the following surround-related features:

• Audio-related tracks can be routed freely to surround channels.

• The VST MultiPanner plug-in is automatically applied to audio-related tracks with a mono or stereo configuration that are routed to output channels with a multi-channel configuration (other than stereo). It is available in the Inspector and MixConsole and can be used to graphically position channels in the surround field.

• The MixConvert V6 plug-in is used to convert a surround channel into a different format if the corresponding input/output configuration is not handled by the VST MultiPanner. Cubase places MixConvert V6 automatically where needed. Furthermore, the plug-in is described in detail in the separate PDF document “Plug-In Reference”.

• Cubase supports surround-specific plug-ins, that is, plug-ins with multi-channel support specifically designed for surround sound mixing tasks (the included “Mix6to2” plug-in is an example of this). Furthermore, any VST 3 plug-in features multi-channel support and can therefore be used in a surround configuration, even if it was not specifically designed for surround. All plug-ins are described in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.

• You configure Cubase for surround sound by defining input and output busses in the desired surround format and specifying which audio inputs and outputs are used for the different channels in the busses.