Cubase for scoring Help

recordingwhiz

recordingwhiz

Well-known member
Greetings.

I have a dilema I would appreciate any help from Cubase users out there. (since I never work on that platform)

I am working on a film doing sound editing/SFX/Foley, now that my portion is done for now I am handing the movie over to the composer who works exclusively with Cubase.

The composer hasn't worked on films previously at his studio and is having a hard time making a rough cut of the movie play back smoothly in Cubase on a large enough window or separate monitor, which he considers important to capture the mood of the scenes.

So the question to Cubase gurus is : how can he get the video playing back smoothly on a large secondary monitor and sync'd to his Cubase session?

and before it gets recommended , he is NOT willing to change platforms, as that is what he knows for his music writing.

Thanks all in advance.

Gerry G
 
I also use Cubase for scoring but to be honest have never had a problem with playback, it is probbaly as simple as that his computer is struggling with large file sizes. If you can produce a low res version of the film with just a single audio track for all (non music) audio then that may help.

Cubase can be a bit limited in which type of video files it will handle but if it doesn't like a file type it just won't load it rather than being jumpy in playback.

The only other thing to try is to adjust the video cache size under preferences - video and disabling the video thumbnails and you could also try changing which playback method is being used quicktime or windows media (PC Only, Mac should only give the option of quick time).

As I said I use Cubase for scoring and also for film sound editing and have never had a problem so I don't think it is the platform you need to worry about (IMO its all Tomaahto - Tomayto what software you use).

There are lots of useful articles on the SOS website which might be useful

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/articles/cubasetech.htm
 
Thanks for the reply, this helps a quite a bit.

What formats will work the easiest? I can give him any format from my Vegas session. he is on a failry pimped out i7 with tons of ram and fast drives running XP pro, i was suspecting it was the video format was the cause, but again neither him nor I work with video before on Cubase.

What about sending the video preview to an external monitor he does have a second output tied to a 42" LCD.

Thanks.
 
I tend to use AVI which seems to be pretty stable.

Does he have his second monitor as an extended desktop or is it coming from a video out on the video card? If it is an extended desktop then F8 should bring up the video in a seperate window (to adjust the screen size go to the video preferences again) CTRL click should make it go full screen but as soon as you click on any other part of cubase it will return to its normal window so it is only really useful for reviewing finished work. If he has it as a seperate video out he sould be able to select it under the playback method box.
http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/images/cubasebox2winvideo.l.jpg
 
Ooh one other thing make sure that the frame rate is set correctly in the project setup that can cause a whole heap of problems and can of course mean that the entire soundtrack is out of sync.
 
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