Deep learning Cubase here. I just don’t understand why we have pre and post roll?
If I want, say, to record four bars, and I want a pre-roll, I simply take the Loop to two bars before the punch in point (disengaging the “Lock Punch in points to Loop function”).
Even less sure why we need a post roll?
My method seems more plaible and effective.
Are there any advantages to using Pre-roll and Post roll? Are there any scenarios at all where Pre-roll is better?
Thank you
Z
IMO, that’s just a matter of personal preferences. If you want to track something the outcome is basically the same.
Pre- and post-roll can come in handy if yo want to avoid setting up a surrounding loop each time. You can also assign a key command to it. Post-roll avoids abrupt endings, I guess that’s its main purpose.
Also, these rolls might serve as a reminescence to old tape days, depending on their length.
Great Answer Reco. Pre-rolls can’t be seen though - visibly on the track
I think pre-roll gets more use when making just regular linear recordings than looped recordings. The idea comes from mag tape recording days.
I only use pre roll at the beggining of a song when I have not enough bars to the left.
I know I know I could start the song in bar 8…
I would at least consider bar 2 to avoid running into potential trouble with plugins that require some time to initialize. Maybe, this is a thing from the past, I can’t say. I have not started any project at hard left for ages…
Even back then, the feature was intended more for audio than for MIDI.
When I’m recording something, I need a bit of a warm-up to get into the groove. 
Hard drive space was limited back then, and if, for example, you wanted to record a guitar part and replace only a specific section, these functions worked very well.
The playback starts, and you can hear what’s happening in the previous section.
The ‘actual’ recording then starts at the point where you want to replace the existing recording.
These days, that’s perhaps not so important anymore.
You simply create or duplicate a new audio track, for example, and then record there. Or use the loop recording function. I’m not exactly sure what these things are called in English. I work with the German interface. 
For recordings at the start of a project, I always have a ‘pre-roll’ in the project settings.
My project doesn’t start at bar zero or one, but at -1.
That way, you have enough ‘headroom’ if you want to start on bar 1.
When working with video, you have to synchronise the timecode and beats and bars anyway to start on bar 1, for example.
You could also go into project setup and set “Time Offset (Bars+Beats)” to 2 or 4, then you have some bars to the left and still can have your song beginning at bar 1…
Loops? Man, I use pre-roll before the overdub to get my guitar pick ready and momentarily psyche up. What’s this “loops” stuff?
German translation is “Pre-Roulade” and “Post-Roulade”. Mmmhhhh, yummy.
Now i am hungry. 
What I mean by loop is to loop the backing track, not using an audio loop. You can give yourself x bars before the record cuts in
Pre roll is an essential part of my workflow. For recording it is frequently necessary to play a few bars before punching in. When editing, during playback I instantly relocate to the previous bar or two by double clicking my spacebar. Very useful.
The screenshot in @ZeroZero’s first post shows an actual loop that surrounds a punch in and out area. If one just wants to do one single take it doesn’t matter if it’s done this way or via pre-roll. However, if one wants to do multiple takes and still keep the same amount of space before/after punch in/out with each new try then this looped method is the way to go like @raino pointed out. That’s why this “loop stuff” can have an advantage over pre rolls @DosWasBest.
It’s a ‘left over’ from the days of tape.
It allowed the engineer to hear that the joins going into the replaced audio between the locators, and also out, were good.
Remember, there was no way edit or fudge them, they had to be perfect….
These days in Cubendo it’s irrelevant - everyone should be using Pre Record with a setting of 30” or so if they can.
