Hi, anyone know where i can get the tone…think it’s called a sine wave 
for use in gain staging please 
tried searching the interweb and Soundcloud but I think I’m not using the correct search term…
cheers, Kevin 
Cheers mate…would never have thougt of that search term
Plugins → Tools → TestToneGenerator 
It’s already there in Cubase.
Oh my word… what an idiot I am…thank you…
so it is hahaha (and when I think about it, I knew that as well)
Though the stock Cubase test tones are OK, I would actually cut a few shekels loose and buy one of the higher quality signal generators, especially if you want to use the one at 1 kHz. As in all things, you get what you pay for.
Interesting, what do you need that the test tone generator can’t do?
Hi Strophoid, I apologize, I was totally joking in my reply. I thought my little emoticons got that point across, but my skill in communicating on the internets obviously leaves something to be desired!
Joking is not allowed here! Making music is a serious business. As a punishment you should lock yourself into a dark room and listen to Justin Bieber for 48 hours. Don’t you dare to return to this forum until you have served your time.
Oh wow, I completely missed the emoticons 
My bad!
Done.
How, so quickly, you may ask?
One word - gravity waves.
(OK, two words.)
Cubase’s (Pro 8) included Test Tones generator is very good, imho. It offers multiple frequencies, wave types, noise types – all in all, a very useful tool for setting gain and checking system response and passing along files with line-up tones in place, if needed. I was very pleased to find it included in Cubase.
Suggestion – Make a track with the tone generator in place as part of your standard templates.
Great question, great answers – no joke!
I honestly can not think of a more hideous punishment 
How is the sine tone used for gain staging?
I was thinking the same thing.
From what I’ve learnt so far it’s used to set levels throughout the project, plugins and all…at, for example, neg 18…
but I’m still trying to get to grips with it, I’ve been recording stuff way too hot because I did not realise that the faders could be set to input, (yeah, I’m that daft) soon as I set them to input everything was banging in the red huge.
so I set about trying to figure out gain staging then I come across the fact that if you use 32 bit FP you cannot clip…WHAT!!!
so whats the point in gain staging?
so basically this still has me very confused… so excuse me if I’m talking bollocks…( the most likely possibility)
best, Kevin
In theory: there’s no point!
In practice: there’s some. Some plugins behave differently depending on signal level (mostly those which emulate analog gear). Also it may be difficult to set compressor settings if your gain is all over the place.
Then you have to remember once the signal leaves Cubase (export, monitors, external FX, etc) you are not in the floating-point land anymore. These are critical stages of the signal path, where you have to watch your gain.
The simplest analogy is to think of your signal levels as water pressure and your cubase mixer as well… a mixer tap… if you try and force too much water through the tap you’re going to burst it…
Analogous to Jarno’s last paragraph above
Jarno, matjones…thanks, those simple but concise explanations help a lot…