Zoom R16 and Cubase LE 4

This is a.pdf version of the web page at: http://kevinselby.com/zoom/r16/live/R16_Cubase.html This page is a batch of screenshots showing how to use.wav files from the Zoom R16 with Cubase LE4 (which comes bundled with the R16). This page IS about: recording various instruments to the R16 in stand-alone mode (i.e., the R16 is not connected to a computer) copying the.wav files created by the R16 from its SD card to your computer and then pulling those.wav files into Cubase LE4 (comes bundled with the R16) and playing around with your recording inside Cubase using the files from a recent gig performed by the Kevin Selby Experiment (in its duo incarnation) on 2010-03-20 at Bookwalter Winery. These files can be downloaded from: http://cidff4333f24cfb0b44.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/zoom/r16/live and consist of 4 mono.wav files and 1 stereo.wav files of the live performance of the song: Brown Eyed Girl using the R16 as a "control surface" to control the faders within Cubase to help mix the song down. Some folks feel that "tactile control" is just more natural to them when mixing down multiple tracks. This page is NOT about: using the R16 as an "audio interface" device. That whole concept is dealt with in the manual and on other websites. If I get really industrious I MIGHT create a tutorial on that whole thing. Alright.let's get started shall we? The Zoom R16 comes bunded with Cubase LE 4. Perhaps you're reading this in the distant future and maybe Zoom starts bundling it with Cubase LE 5 or Cubase LE 72, hard to say, but the concepts will most likely still apply. For our example, I am using the.wav files from a live recording of my duo "The Kevin Selby Experiment" on 3/20/2010. The song is "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. You could still follow along down below with your own files within your studio, for example, if you wish. I just happened to have these files handy and I wanted to see how they would work out within Cubase (my DAW of choice is Sonar Home Studio 6). The files at: http://cid-ff4333f24cfb0b44.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/zoom/r16/live MONO-000.WAV - Kevin Vocal MONO-001.WAV - Norm Vocal MONO-002.WAV - Norm Guitar (line out from his amp) MONO-003.WAV - Kevin Acoustic Guitar (from Zoom effects pedal) STE-001.WAV - stereo file from the PSR-S700. I pre-recorded the drums, bass, and wurlitzer electric piano to a "song" on the PSR-S700. I then simply start the "song" on the PSR and away we go (with Norm and I playing our guitars). Ordinarily I would only have bass and drums in the song. The wurlitzer electric piano is a tad loud, but I can't change it after the fact. BrownEyedGirl_Cubase_Mixdown.mp3 - mixdown file of the Cubase project. Either use the files above and download them and stick them in a hard drive location like: c:\cubase\live\audio (or similar) OR, transfer the.wav files from the SD card in your R16 to a place on your hard drive so we can pull them into Cubase. Assuming you have made it through the nearly impossible task of actually INSTALLING Cubase LE 4 (pretty soon they'll start asking for a DNA sample to be uploaded to them), then it's time to open Cubase LE 4 and create a New Project. Open Cubase LE 4 (wait patiently while ET "phones home" to make sure you're not an evil abuser of stolen software) and when you're at the main screen let's perform the following steps:
Click File, then New Project. You should see the following window:
I'm going to choose Empty and then add my tracks manually. I click OK. Now Cubase asks me where I want to save the Project file. I'll choose c:\cubase\live: (remember, the.wav audio files are sitting in the c:\cubase\live\audio subfolder)
Click OK. You should now have a blank Cubase Project where you can start adding Audio tracks and importing your audio.
Right-click in the project window as shown in the screenshot and choose Add Audio Track:
After you choose Add Audio Track, you'll see this: Since I have 4 mono tracks to add, I'll choose 4 in the count field and choose Mono for the configuration and click OK.
Cubase then sets these tracks up for me. Now I need to add 1 stereo track, so I'll right-click again and choose Add Audio Track but this time I'll chose 1 in the count field and Stereo for the configuration and click OK.

You should now see this:

Notice that you have 4 mono tracks and 1 stereo track. You are now ready to import your.wav files from the R16.
Now is a good time to click File, then choose Save. It will ask you what name to give your Cubase project file. I chose BrownEyedGirl and clicked OK:
Now might be a good time to name your tracks so you can easily work between them. You have to double-click the existing track names (e.g., Audio 01, Audio 02, etc.) and then rename them as follows: o Track 1 - Kevin Vocal o Track 2 - Norm Vocal o Track 3 - Norm Guitar o Track 4 - Kevin Guitar o Track 5 - PSR-S700
Your Cubase window should now look like this:
Now you are ready to import/assign the.wav files from the R16 to the tracks within Cubase.
Click on Track 1 (Kevin Vocal) and then click File, then Import, then Audio File:
You will see it open up to your file system. Navigate to where you stored the.wav files you downloaded from this website (or where you stored the.wav files from the SD card that was in the R16) and choose MONO-000.wav (this is the.wav file of Kevin's vocal):
IF you have your.wav files stored in the Audio folder under the main project folder like I do, then Cubase will just attach the file(s) to the tracks and be on its merry way. If the.wav files live somewhere else on the hard drive, then Cubase will allow you to either Import the files to the project folder or leave them where they currently live at and just use pointers to the files. Whatever works for you is fine, but I prefer to have everything nicely structured. Cubase will now create a "peak" (or image) file of what the.wav file(s) look like. Continue "importing" the.wav's MONO-001.wav, MONO-002.wav, MONO-003.wav and STE-001.WAV to their respective tracks.
Now Cubase should look like this:
Congratulations! You now have the files from your R16's SD card sitting inside Cubase and you can finally "see" what your recordings look like. You can now start messing with Pan, Volume, EQ, and effects. Let's pan the first 4 mono tracks to give us a little space in the mix.
Here is the Mixer window (Click Devices, choose Mixer) showing the pan settings for the various tracks:
Notice I've panned Norm's vocal and guitar Left 30 and I've panned my vocal and guitar Right 30. Also notice that I've lowered the track volume a little on the lead vocal track since it was a little "hot" for the overall mix. I also raised the volume of the PSR since it is running Drums and Bass and I want it to form the real basis of the song. I COULD have "Normalized" the PSR track to give me a hotter signal, but I'll let you play with that. Now it's time to give the vocals and guitars just a splash of Reverb. We'll use a Send/Return FX channel for this.

Right-click in the project window under the last audio track and choose Add FX Channel Track as shown in the following screenshot:
A window will come up asking what Effect you want to use. I chose the built-in Roomworks SE (cuz it sounds like reverb to me!).
Cubase will add the FX Channel track and the Roomworks SE window will come up. Let's choose a decent "room" reverb and see how it works for us. Click the little box icon in the screenshot below and choose "Load Preset":
In the window that comes up, choose a decent "room" type of reverb (I chose "Large Living Room") and click OK. Now you have to "Send" signal from the first four tracks to the FX channel. Click on Track 1 (Kevin Vocal) and click the little "e" icon which opens the VST Audio Channel Settings window.
In the first Send slot, click it and choose FX1 - Roomworks SE as follows:
Once you've chosen the FX send you must "turn it on" by clicking on the little "on" button icon: Also make sure that the "Send Level" is set to 0.00.
Do the same steps for tracks 2, 3, and 4. Do NOT add a send effect for Track 5 (the PSR-S700). It already has effects within its sound signal.
Hey hey.now our tracks are sounding a little fresher. Since the Roomworks SE effect is stereo, it gives our first four tracks a nice stereo reverb to "live" in. You can hear the difference between no effects and our Roomworks SE effect by simply muting and UN-muting the FX channel. This screenshot shows the FX Channel muted. Mute and un-mute the FX channel while the song is playing to hear the difference.
If you're satisfied that you have a good mix (and heck, it's good enough for this demo, now ain't it?), then it's time to "render" a final stereo.wav file (which we can then convert to.mp3 and share with you right here!). Oops.before we can render, I noticed that I'm clipping occasionally during the song, so I'm gonna pull the Stereo Out channel down to about -2.0. Yes, I'm sure I could use the VSTDynamics effect to do some compression/limiting, but I'm gonna let you play with that. In order to Export a mixdown of this project, we have to select the left and right "locators" as follows: o Using the transport controls, hit Rewind to go to the complete beginning of the song. o Then hit CTRL-pad1 (number pad 1). o Then go to the end of the song and hit CTRL-pad2 (number pad 2). o You should now have selected the entire song. o Just for grins, hit CTRL-A to make sure all Tracks are selected.

To mixdown our song, click File, then Export, then Audio Mixdown:
Just name the file BrownEyedGirl_Cubase_Mixdown or something similar and make sure your settings match this screenshot:
Click Export and Cubase should export your file out to the.wav file you specified (in my case, in my Audio subfolder). Now you can burn the.wav to CD or use a converter like Switch to convert to.mp3. I converted my.wav file to a 256 Kb/s.mp3 file and it can be downloaded at: http://cidff4333f24cfb0b44.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/zoom/r16/live/BrownEyedGirl%5E_Cubase%5E_Mixdown.mp3 Using the R16 as a "control surface" within Cubase: This wasn't as easy as I thought, but once I had everything configured correctly it was kind of cool. The idea is to hook the R16 up to the computer via a standard USB cable, set it to "Audio Interface mode" and then configure Cubase LE 4 to "see" the R16 as a "Mackie Control" device. Once this is done, the faders and transport buttons on the R16 will control the faders and transport buttons within Cubase.
Here are the steps: FIRST: go to Zoom's R16 site at: http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r16/ and make sure your R16 firmware is up to date AND make sure your audio driver (either Windows or Mac) is ALSO up to date. Once you have updated firmware and audio driver, plug the R16 into your computer via a standard USB cable. The R16 will prompt you for what type of "interface" it should be. Choose "Audio Interface" as shown in this screenshot: [mine is set to 44.1kHz so don't freak out if yours is too]
Now launch Cubase LE4 and open the project you've been working on. To get Cubase to recognize the R16 as a Mackie Control device, click Devices, and then choose Device Setup.
In the Device Setup screen, click on the little "+" sign at the top left and choose Mackie Control (you MAY have to scroll down looking for "Remote Devices" folder until you see it):
Once you choose that, your screen SHOULD look like the following screenshot, but you MIGHT have to click the MIDI Input and MIDI Output drop-downs and choose Zoom R16:
IF everything is configured correctly and it all works, then you should now be able to use the transport controls on the R16 as well as the Faders to control their counterparts within Cucbase LE4. IN MY OPINION: yeah.I suppose it's kind of cool, and if I turned on the ability to record fader movements and store them in the project then definitely this would be cool, HOWEVER, I sometimes cannot STAND how all over the map the faders are when I just want to set a particular track fader to -2.0. Period. Exactly -2.0. The fader movements rarely land on exact numbers so that's my main beef. Other than that.very cool! So gosh.congratulations.you've used Cubase to work with R16.wav files from the R16's SD card. You can now play around with the various effects and what-not within Cubase and just have fun. I noticed that Cubase worked a LOT better when I downloaded ASIO4All (the open source ASIO driver that works with nearly all soundcards). I stopped getting pops and clicks and the audio was very smooth after switching to the ASIO4All driver. IF you have it installed, Cubase will recognize it and you can change it by performing the following steps: Click Devices, then choose Device Setup.

In the window that comes up, click on VST Audio System and then up on the top right of the window choose ASIO4All v2 (or whatever version you have) in the ASIO Driver drop-down:
I hope this helps you use the R16 and Cubase together. This was my first time using Cubase and I gotta say it's definitely a decent DAW for the price (which is free because it's bundled with the R16). Enjoy! Kevin B. Selby

In this example, we are using strictly Send/Return effects. We have the Reverb set to use: preset 02 SoftHall. We have the Chorus/Delay set to use: preset 14 Natural. Note how mic/instrument signals come into Inputs, through the Gain and to the Track(s).
We are routing the microphone into Input 1/Track 1 and giving it both Reverb and Chorus/Delay. The keyboard is coming into Inputs 7/8 stereo and we give it Reverb only. We would pair Tracks 7/8. Zoom R16

Headphone

L R Main
Reverb (02 - Soft Hall) Chorus/Delay (14 - Natural) Send/Return Effects
Note how all Track faders route to the Master fader and then out of the machine via Headphone and L/R Main Outs.
In this example, we are still using Send/Return effects but we are focusing on the Insert effect assigned to Input 1.

H Headphone L R

Rec Setting: Dry
Insert Effect Assigned to Input 1
Because the Rec Setting for the Insert effect is set to Dry, if you were to record the vocal, rewind, and immediately hit Play, YOU WOULD NOT HEAR THE INSERT EFFECT.
Because at this point, you are only using it for monitoring the signal that is coming into Input 1 and into the Insert effect. In order to hear the Insert effect: after you hit rewind and BEFORE you hit Play, you MUST go in and Assign the Insert effect to Track 1 (remember: its currently assigned to Input 1).

Zoom R16

H Headphone
In this example, we have already recorded the vocal on Track 1 and have RE-assigned the Insert effect (from its previous assignment to Input 1) to Track 1.
Now, when you hit Rewind and Play you WILL hear the Insert effect on the vocal on Track 1.

Why? M

Because we are routing Track 1 (which has a.wav file attached to it) THROUGH the Insert effect and out the Headphone/Main outs. Note we are STILL using Send/Return effects since the Send/Return effects are independent of the Insert effect.
Insert Effect Assigned to Track 1

Rec Setting: Wet

Because the Rec Setting for the Insert effect is set to Wet, if you were to record the vocal, rewind, and immediately hit Play, YOU WOULD DEFINITELY HEAR THE INSERT EFFECT.
Because you told the R16 to record Track 1 Wet which means it will allow the Insert effect to be burned in or printed to the track. In fact, you could take the.wav file assigned to Track 1 and pull it off the SD card and play it on your friends computer and you would hear the vocal WITH effect burned into it.
In this example, we have already recorded the vocal on Track 1 and have assigned the Insert effect to Track 1.
We have configured the R16 to bounce Track 1 THROUGH the Insert effect to Track 2 and thus Track 2 now has the Insert effect burned in or printed to it.
Track 2 now is completely standalone in terms of having the Insert effect already applied to it.
R16 configured to Bounce Track 1 to Track 2 with the Insert effect applied. Both Track 1 fader AND Master fader affect the volume of the resulting.wav file on Track 2
Note that for purposes of this illustration (and a general best practice), we turned Send/Return effects for Track 1 OFF because we didnt want them to go to Track 2 in the bounce. You COULD leave them on and Track 2 would then have the Insert effect AND the Send/Return effects.
In this example, all of our tracks are the way we want them (i.e., maybe some of them have had the Insert effect burned in and some have not). 1
Note we are still using Send/Return effects. We now use the Insert effect to create the Master track using one of the Mastering presets. The mastering preset at this point applies to the ENTIRE mix (and is usually used to compress or expand or limit the overall mix in some manner).

Insert Effect Assigned to Master Track