Operation Manual
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling Thanks to: Ashley Shepherd The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement.
Table of Contents
11 Part I: Getting into the details 12 About this manual 13 Welcome! 14 Setting up your system 15 20 22 22 22 Setting up audio Setting up MIDI Connecting a synchronizer Setting up video Optimizing audio performance 25 VST Connections 26 26 26 29 30 30 34 About this chapter The VST Connections window Setting up busses Setting up group and FX channels About monitoring External instruments/effects (Cubase only) Editing operations 36 The Project window 37 39 39 42 43 43 44 44 45 47 Window Overv
117 Fades, crossfades and envelopes 187 Audio effects 118 120 121 121 122 123 188 188 189 194 198 200 200 200 203 Creating fades The Fade dialogs Creating crossfades The Crossfade dialog Auto fades and crossfades Event envelopes 124 The arranger track 125 125 126 128 129 130 Introduction Setting up the arranger track Working with arranger events Flattening the arranger chain Live mode Arranging your music to video 131 The transpose functions 132 132 135 Introduction Transposing your music Other func
244 Audio processing and functions 331 Working with track presets 245 245 253 254 255 256 257 259 259 332 332 333 335 336 Background Audio processing Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) The Offline Process History dialog Freeze Edits Detect Silence The Spectrum Analyzer Statistics About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms 337 Track Quick Controls 338 338 339 340 261 The Sample Editor 262 266 272 276 281 292 Window overview General functions Warping audio Working with hitpoints and slices VariAudio (C
374 The MIDI editors 375 375 377 380 396 397 398 400 403 404 405 407 409 409 411 412 452 The Project Logical Editor (Cubase only) Introduction Opening a MIDI editor The Key Editor – Overview Key Editor operations The In-Place Editor The Drum Editor – Overview Drum Editor operations Working with drum maps Using drum name lists The List Editor – Overview List Editor operations Working with SysEx messages Recording SysEx parameter changes Editing SysEx messages The basic Score Editor – Overview Score Editor
550 Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only) 509 Video 510 510 511 513 514 516 516 516 Introduction Before you start Preparing a video project in Cubase Video files in the Project window Playing back video Editing video Extracting audio from a video file Replacing the audio in a video file 551 How the Score Editor works 552 552 552 552 553 555 517 ReWire 518 518 519 519 520 520 520 Introduction Launching and quitting Activating ReWire channels Using the transport and tempo controls How the ReWi
573 Entering and editing notes 603 Additional note and rest formatting 574 574 575 576 578 579 580 580 581 582 582 583 583 583 584 585 604 604 604 605 606 606 607 608 608 608 612 614 614 615 616 About this chapter Score settings Note values and positions Adding and editing notes Selecting notes Moving notes Duplicating notes Cut, copy, and paste Editing pitches of individual notes Changing the length of notes Splitting a note in two Working with the Display Quantize tool Split (piano) staves Strategies:
655 Working with layouts 684 The score and MIDI playback 656 656 656 656 656 657 658 685 685 685 About this chapter Background: Layouts Creating a layout Opening a layout Layout operations Using layouts – an example Marker Track to Form 659 Working with MusicXML 660 661 Introduction Importing and exporting MusicXML files 688 Tips and Tricks 689 689 690 692 About this chapter Layout settings Staff size Hiding/showing objects Coloring notes Multiple rests Editing bar lines Creating upbeats Setting the
Part I: Getting into the details
1 About this manual
Welcome! This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase. Here you will find detailed information about all the features and functions in the program. About the program versions The documentation covers two program versions, Cubase and Cubase Artist, for two different operating systems or “platforms”, Windows and Mac OS X. Some features described in the documentation are only applicable to the Cubase version.
2 Setting up your system
Setting up audio ! Multi-channel input and output Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any connections! Connecting audio Exactly how to set up your system depends on many different factors, e. g. the kind of project you wish to create, the external equipment you want to use, or the computer hardware available to you. Therefore, the following sections can only serve as examples. How you connect your equipment, i. e.
• When using the Mixer inside Cubase, you can use the inputs on your audio hardware to connect microphones and/or external devices. Use the outputs to connect your monitoring equipment. Cubase only: You can create very complex setups using external instruments and external effects, and integrate Cubase seamlessly with all your external equipment using the Control Room feature (see the chapters “VST Connections” on page 25 and “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 172).
Making settings for the audio hardware Most audio cards come with one or more small applications that allow you to configure the inputs of the hardware to your liking. This includes: • Selecting which inputs/outputs are active. • Setting up word clock synchronization (if available). • Turning monitoring via the hardware on/off (see “About monitoring” on page 19). • Setting levels for each input.
• Under Windows, you open the control panel by clicking the Control Panel button. If your hardware setup is based on an external clock source The control panel that opens when you click this button is provided by the audio hardware manufacturer – not Cubase (unless you use DirectX, see below). Hence it will be different for each audio card brand and model.
When the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver is selected in the Device Setup dialog, you can open the ASIO Control Panel and adjust the following settings (for more details, click the Help button in the control panel): • Direct Sound Output and Input Ports In the list on the left in the window, all available Direct Sound output and input ports are listed. In many cases, there will be only one port in each list. To activate or deactivate a port in the list, click the checkbox in the left column.
ASIO Direct Monitoring If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may support ASIO Direct Monitoring (this feature may also be available for audio hardware with Mac OS X drivers). In this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the audio hardware, by sending the input signal back out again. However, monitoring is controlled from Cubase. This means that the audio hardware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off automatically by Cubase. ule is used for playback only.
The MIDI signal from the keyboard will be recorded in Cubase and at the same time be re-routed back to the instrument so that you hear what you are playing, without the keyboard “triggering” its own sounds. When “MIDI Thru” is active in Cubase, MIDI data received is immediately “echoed” back out. MIDI data coming in to the instrument is played by the “Synth” inside it.
Connecting a synchronizer ! Short response times (latency) Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any connections! When using Cubase with external tape transports, you will most likely need to add a synchronizer to your system. All connections and setup procedures for synchronization are described in the chapter “Synchronization” on page 493. Setting up video Cubase plays back video files in a number of formats, such as AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG. QuickTime is used as playback engine.
Some program functions may “eat up” all the available memory, e. g. recording, the use of effect plug-ins, and the pre-loading of samples (see also “RAM requirements for recording” on page 92 and “Smart plug-in processing” on page 188). ! When a function has used up all the memory made available by the operating system, the computer will crash. Always keep in mind the RAM limitation of your operating system when setting up your projects.
Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only) To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows (on a single-CPU system), the “system performance” has to be optimized for background tasks: 1. Open the Control Panel and select the System settings. 2. On the left, select the “Advanced system settings” option. • The ASIO meter (at the top) shows the ASIO time usage, i. e. the time required to complete the current processing tasks. The more tracks, effects, EQ, etc.
3 VST Connections
About this chapter Setting up busses This chapter focuses on the settings you can perform in the VST Connections window. Here you can set up input and output busses, group and FX channels, external effects, and external instruments. Furthermore you can use this window to configure the Control Room (Cubase only) and access the Control Room itself. Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to transfer audio between the program and the audio hardware.
Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog inputs and outputs and digital stereo connections (10 inputs and outputs all in all). Furthermore, you work with a surround setup in 5.1 format (Cubase only). In this scenario, you may want to add the following busses: Input busses • Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input pair. This will let you record stereo material.
3. Select a (channel) configuration. Mac OS X only: Port selection and activation On the settings page for your audio card (opened via the Device Setup dialog, see above), you can specify which input and output ports are active. This allows you to use the Microphone input instead of the Line input or even to deactivate the audio card input or output completely, if required. Ö This function is only available for Built-In Audio, standard USB audio devices and a certain number of other audio cards.
Adding child busses (Cubase only) Presets A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels – 6 channels in the case of the 5.1 format. If you have a mono track in the project, you can route it to a separate speaker channel in the bus (or route it to the parent surround bus and use the SurroundPanner to position it in the surround image).
About monitoring Connecting the external effect/instrument The VST Connections window allows you to set up the busses used for monitoring, activate/deactivate the Control Room and open the Control Room Mixer. For details about using the Control Room and setting up the Studio tab in the VST Connections window, see the chapter “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 172. When the Control Room is disabled on the Studio tab of the VST Connections window, the Main Mix bus is used for monitoring.
• You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the external effect. You can then click the “Associate MIDI Device” button to connect the two. You can use the MIDI Device Manager to create a new MIDI device for the effect. Note that delay compensation will only be applied for the effect when you use MIDI devices. For information about the MIDI Device Manager and user device panels see the chapter “Using MIDI devices” on page 356.
Setting up external instruments Setting Description To set up an external instrument in the VST Connections window, proceed as follows: Return Gain Allows you to adjust the level of the signal coming in from the external instrument. Note however that excessive output levels from an external device may cause clipping in the audio hardware. The Return Gain setting cannot be used to compensate for this – you have to lower the output level on the device instead.
About the Favorites buttons In the VST Connections window, both the External FX tab and the External Instruments tab feature a Favorites button. To reestablish the broken connection to the external device, simply right-click the entry for the device in the Bus Name column and select “Connect External Effect”. The icon is removed, and you can use the external device within your project as before.
Editing operations Selecting/Deselecting multiple entries On the different tabs of the VST Connections window the corresponding busses or channels are shown in a table containing a tree view with expandable entries. After you have set up all the required busses for a project it might be necessary to edit the names and/or change port assignments. Cubase provides a number of features to make such tasks easier.
• To use letters from the alphabet, proceed as with numbers, but enter a capital letter instead of a number. For example, if you have three FX channels that you want to be named “FX A, FX B, and FX C”, you select all the channels and enter the name “FX A” for the first. All other channels are then renamed automatically. The last letter that can be used is Z. If you have more selected entries than there are letters available, the remaining entries will be skipped.
4 The Project window
Window Overview The Project window is the main window in Cubase. This provides you with an overview of the project, allowing you to navigate and perform large scale editing. Each project has one Project window. Toolbar Status line Info line Project overview Ruler Inspector The track list with various track types The event display, showing audio parts and events, MIDI parts, automation, markers, etc.
Track type Description About parts and events Instrument This allows you to create a track for a dedicated instrument, making VST instrument handling easier and more intuitive. Instrument tracks have a corresponding channel strip in the Mixer. Each instrument track can have any number of automation tracks in the Project window. However, Volume and Pan are automated from within the Mixer.
The track list 2. In the gray area in the middle, activate the Inspector option. The track list displays all the tracks used in a project. It contains name fields and settings for the tracks. Different track types have different controls in the track list. To see all available controls, you may have to resize the track in the track list (see “Resizing tracks” on page 73).
Not all Inspector tabs are shown by default. You can show/hide Inspector sections by right-clicking on an Inspector tab and activating/deactivating the desired options on the Inspector Setup context menu. Ö Make sure that you right-click on an Inspector tab and not on the empty area below the Inspector, as this will open the Quick context menu instead. Parameter Description Output Routing Here you decide to which output the track is routed.
Instrument tracks As explained in the chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page 206, the Inspector for an instrument track shows some of the sections from VST instrument channels and MIDI tracks. MIDI tracks When a MIDI track is selected, the Inspector contains a number of additional sections and parameters, affecting the MIDI events in realtime (e. g. on playback). Which sections are available for MIDI tracks is described in the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 348.
• Toggle Time Base button • Lock button • Notepad section Option Description Auto-Scroll When this is activated, buttons for the options “AutoScroll” and “Suspend Auto-Scroll when Editing” are displayed, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 47. Locators When this is activated, the left and right locator positions are displayed on the toolbar. Signature track and tempo track Transport Buttons When this is activated, the transport buttons from the Transport panel are also displayed on the toolbar.
• To change the number of rows in which the tools are arranged on the toolbox, keep the right mouse button pressed on the toolbox until the mouse pointer changes to a double arrow, and drag to the bottom or right. The info line The info line is displayed below the status line in the Project window. The tools can be arranged in one, two, or three horizontal or vertical rows. The status line The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Project window.
Editing transpose and velocity for MIDI parts When one or several MIDI parts are selected, the info line contains Transpose and Velocity fields. • Adjusting the Transpose field transposes the selected parts in semitone steps. Note that this transposition does not change the actual notes in the part – it is just a “play parameter”, affecting the notes on playback. The transposition you specify for a part on the info line is added to the transposition set for the whole track.
• To set the display format globally (for all windows), use the primary display format pop-up on the Transport panel, or hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and select a display format in any ruler. • If you use the “Timecode” or “User” options and the “Show Timecode Subframes” option are activated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page), the frames will also display subframes. There are 80 subframes per frame.
3. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Snap Point To Cursor”. The snap point is set at the cursor position. The snap point for an event is displayed as a vertical line in the Project window. The Snap Type pop-up menu To determine how the Snap function works, open the Snap Type pop-up menu and select one of the available options. Grid Relative If you select this Snap type, events and parts will not be “magnetic” to the grid. Rather, the grid determines the step size for moving the events.
The same principle works when changing the order of more than two events: 1 2 3 4 5 2 5 Auto-Scroll When the Auto-Scroll option is activated, the waveform display will scroll during playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the window. You can find the Auto-Scroll button on the toolbars of the Project window and all editors.
5 Working with projects
Creating new projects Choosing a template The Project Assistant dialog is opened by selecting the “New Project…” command on the File menu. In this dialog you can access recently opened projects and create new projects, which can either be empty or based on a template. Category bar Template list In the category bar of the Project Assistant dialog, the available factory templates are sorted into the predefined categories Recording, Production, Scoring, and Mastering.
Open Other The “Open Other” button allows you to open any project file on your system. This is identical to using the Open command from the File menu, see below. • You can drag projects from the MediaBay into the Cubase application window (not into an existing Project window) to open them. About the “Missing Ports” dialog The “Open…” command on the File menu is used for opening saved project files. Project files created with Cubase (file extension “.cpr”), Nuendo (file extension “.
A word about file extensions Under Windows, file types are indicated by three letter file name extensions (such as *.cpr for Cubase project files). Under Mac OS X, it is not necessary to use file name extensions, since the file types are stored internally in the files. However, if you want your Cubase projects to be compatible with both platforms, make sure that the “Use File Extension in File Dialog” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (General page).
Auto Save Once you have performed a Prepare Archive operation, you can use the “Back Up Project” function to create a backup of the project file, containing copies of all necessary media files (with the exception of VST Sound content, see below). If you activate the Auto Save option in the Preferences dialog (General page), Cubase will automatically save backup copies of all open projects with unsaved changes. These backup copies are named “-xx.bak”, where xx is an incremental number.
Cleanup 1. Select “Back up Project…” from the File menu. A file dialog opens in which you can choose an existing empty folder or create a new folder to save the project. 2. Click OK. The “Back up Project Options” dialog opens. The Cleanup function on the File menu helps you to save hard disk space by locating and – if you like – deleting unused audio files in the project folders on your disk. 1. Select “Cleanup…” from the File menu. If there are any open projects, an alert shows.
Startup Options The Project Setup dialog The “On Startup” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (General page) allows you to specify what happens when you launch Cubase. General settings for the project are made in the Project Setup dialog. This is opened by selecting “Project Setup…” from the Project menu. Ö If the “Run Setup on Create New Project” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (General page), the Project Setup dialog will open automatically when you create a new project.
Setting Description Setting Description Start The start time of the project. Allows you to have the project start at another time than zero. Also used for setting the sync start position when synchronizing Cubase to external devices (see the chapter “Synchronization” on page 493). The format of this value is always in timecode. When you change this setting you will be asked whether you want to keep the project content at its timecode positions.
Zoom and view options Zooming in the Project window is done according to the standard zoom techniques, with the following special notes: • You can zoom the contents of parts and events vertically, using the waveform zoom slider in the top right corner of the event display. This is useful when viewing quiet audio passages. • When you are using the Zoom tool (magnifying glass), the result depends on the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal Zooming Only” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page).
The upper part of the menu lists the zoom presets: • To store the current zoom setting as a preset, select Add from the pop-up menu. A dialog opens, allowing you to type in a name for the preset. • The “Zoom Full” preset is always available. Selecting this option zooms out so that the whole project is visible. “The whole project” means the timeline from the project start to the length set in the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 54).
Option Description Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned If this is activated, parts on MIDI tracks with drum maps assigned will be shown with drum note symbols in the Project window. Also, the parts will automatically open in the Drum Editor when double-clicked (overriding the Default Edit Action setting above). Note Name Style Determines how MIDI note names (pitches) are displayed in editors, etc.
Scrubbing audio Editing parts and events The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio part or event by playing back, forwards or backwards, at any speed: This section describes techniques for editing in the Project window. If not explicitly stated, all descriptions apply to both events and parts, even though we use the term “event” for convenience. 1. Select the Play tool and click a second time on the icon. A pop-up menu opens. 2. Select “Scrub”.
Option Description Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see “Window overview” on page 262). Left/Right SelecThese two functions are only used for range selection tion Side to Cursor editing (see “Creating a selection range” on page 66). ! Note that these functions work differently when the Range Selection tool is selected (see “Creating a selection range” on page 66).
Moving events • Use the Nudge buttons on the toolbar. To move events in the Project window, use the following methods: These move the selected events to the left or right. The amount of movement depends on the selected display format (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 54) and the value set on the Grid pop-up menu. • Click and drag to a new position. All selected events are moved, maintaining their relative positions. You can only drag events to tracks of the same type.
• Audio and MIDI parts can also be duplicated by clicking on the part, pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift], and dragging. This creates a shared copy of the part. If you edit the contents of a shared copy, all other shared copies of the same part are automatically edited in the same way. • Selecting “Fill Loop” from the Functions submenu on the Edit menu creates a number of copies starting at the left locator and ending at the right locator.
• Select “Split at Cursor” from the Edit menu, Functions submenu. This splits the selected events at the position of the project cursor. If no events are selected, all events (on all tracks) that are intersected by the project cursor will be split. • Select “Split Loop” from the Edit menu, Functions submenu. This splits events on all tracks at the left and right locator positions.
• It is also possible to resize events by using the Trim buttons (located in the Nudge palette) on the toolbar. 4. Release the mouse button. The part is “stretched” or “compressed” to fit the new length. This will move the start or end position of the selected event(s) by the amount set on the Grid Type pop-up menu. The sizing type currently selected applies to this method too, with the exception of “Sizing Applies Time Stretch” which is not possible with this method.
Group editing operations include: • • • • • • • • Selecting events. Moving and duplicating events. Resizing events. Adjusting fade-in and fade-out (audio events only, see “Creating fades” on page 118). Splitting events (splitting one event will automatically split any other grouped events that are intersected by the split position). Locking events. Muting events. Deleting events. • You can adjust the lock options for a locked event by selecting it and selecting “Lock…” from the Edit menu again.
• You can also mute whole tracks by clicking the Mute (“M”) button in the track list, the Inspector or the Mixer. Clicking the Solo (“S”) button for a track mutes all other tracks.
Option Description Editing selection ranges Left Selection Side to Cursor Moves the left side of the current selection range to the project cursor position. Adjusting the size of the selection range Right Selection Side to Cursor Moves the right side of the current selection range to the project cursor position. You can adjust the size of a selection range in the following ways: • Double-clicking on an event with the Range Selection tool creates a selection range encompassing the event.
Using Cut, Copy, and Paste Function Description When working with selection ranges, you can either use Cut, Copy and Paste on the Edit menu, or use the functions “Cut Time” and “Paste Time” on the Range submenu on the Edit menu. These work differently to their related functions on the Edit menu: Crop All events or parts that are partially within the selection range are cropped, that is, sections outside the selection range are removed.
To undo and redo your actions, proceed as follows: The Preferences dialog 1. On the Edit menu, select “History…”. The Edit History dialog opens. The dialog contains a list of all your edits, with the most recent action at the bottom of the list. The Action column displays the name of the action while the Time column tells you when this action was performed. In the Details column further details are shown. Here you can enter new text by double-clicking in the column. 2.
Saving a preference preset When you have made your preferences settings, proceed as follows to save all settings as a preset: 1. Make sure that the “Store marked preferences only” option is not activated. When you have made your specific preferences settings, proceed as follows to save the partial settings as a preset: 1. Activate “Store marked preferences only”. A new “Store” column is added to the Preferences list.
6 Working with tracks and lanes
Setting up tracks Naming tracks To rename a track, proceed as follows: Adding tracks To add a track to the project, proceed as follows: 1. Double-click in the name field and type in a new name for the track. 1. Open the “Add Track” submenu from the Project menu or from the track list context menu. 2. Press [Return] to close the name field. The new track is added below the currently selected track in the track list.
Resizing tracks Data display on the tracks • To change the width of the track list area, drag the border between the track list and the event display. Changing the width and the height of tracks naturally has an effect on how the track controls and the parts or events on the track are displayed. The following happens when you resize a track’s height or width: • To change the height of an individual track, click on its lower border in the track list and drag up or down.
Editing tracks Defining the track time base In the Inspector or track list you can set the time base individually for each track, by clicking on the “Toggle Timebase” button. Tracks can be either musical (tempo) or linear (time) based or follow the Transport Main display: • Musical On a track using musical time base, the positions of events are represented as meter values (bars, beats, 1/16th notes and ticks, with 120 ticks per 1/16th note).
Creating parts Selecting tracks Parts are containers for MIDI or audio events, or even for tracks (see “Working with folder parts” on page 79). • To select a track, click on it in the track list. A selected track is indicated by a light gray color in the track list. Creating MIDI parts A MIDI part is automatically created when you record. This will contain the recorded events. However, you can also create empty MIDI parts and later add events to them. This track is selected.
Moving tracks • To move a track, click and drag it up or down in the list. • To move one or several selected tracks to a folder, select “Move Selected Tracks to New Folder” from the context menu. Ö You can assign key commands for these menu options in the Key Commands dialog (Project category).
Lanes are handled differently, depending on whether you work with audio or MIDI: • Audio As each audio track can only play back one single audio event at a time, you will only hear the take that is activated for playback (e. g. the last lap of a cycle recording). • MIDI Overlapping MIDI takes (parts) can be played back simultaneously. For example, if you recorded in “Mix-Stacked” mode, you hear all takes from all cycle laps. There is no playback priority between lanes on a MIDI track.
• To glue cuts, select a range that spans all the cuts that you want to glue and double-click. The gluing affects all the lanes of a track. Ö The Solo button also comes in handy in case you used the lowermost lane for assembling your “perfect take” instead of using the comping techniques. Additional steps After rearranging the overlapping events so that you hear what you want, you can perform additional steps. Audio 1. Apply auto fades and crossfades to the comped events. Before… 2.
Organizing tracks in folder tracks Creating Folder tracks Moving tracks into a folder is a way to structure and organize tracks in the Project window. By grouping tracks in folder tracks, you can solo and mute them in a quicker and easier way and perform editing on several tracks as one entity. Folder tracks can contain any type of track including other folder tracks.
• Splitting a folder part with the Scissors tool. • Gluing folder parts together with the Glue tube tool. This will only work if the adjacent folder parts contain events or parts on the same track. • Resizing a folder part resizes the contained events and parts according to the selected resizing method. • Muting a folder part. This will mute its contained events and parts.
Dividing the track list It is possible to divide the track list into two parts. Both sections will have independent zoom and scroll controls (if needed), but resizing the window vertically will affect the lower section only (if possible). This is useful if you are working with a video track along with multi-track audio, for example.
7 Playback and the Transport panel
Background The MIDI Activity, Audio Activity and Audio Level Control sections This chapter describes the various methods available for controlling playback and transport functions in Cubase. The Transport panel The Transport panel contains the main transport functions in Cubase, as well as many other options related to playback and recording. The following sections can be shown on the Transport panel, from left to right: • Virtual Keyboard, see “The Virtual Keyboard” on page 88.
Numeric Key Function [2] Go to Right Locator On the Transport menu, the following functions are available: [3-9] Go to marker 3 to 9 Function Description Locate Selection/Locate Selection End Moves the project cursor to the beginning or end of the current selection. For this to be available, you must have selected one or more events or parts, or made a selection range.
• The primary time display format is set on the pop-up menu to the right in the main position display. • Click and drag in the upper half of the ruler to “draw” a locator range. If you click on an existing locator range, you can drag to move it. • Pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] and pressing [1] or [2] on the numeric keypad sets the left or right locator to the project cursor position.
• The “Use Inserts While Scrubbing” option in the Preferences (Transport–Scrub page) allows you to activate insert effects for scrubbing with the shuttle speed control. By default, insert effects are bypassed. Ö You can also access the shuttle speed control via a remote control device.
Playback functions Apart from the standard transport controls on the Transport panel, you can also find a number of functions on the Transport menu that can be used to control playback. The items have the following functionality: Option Description Post-roll from Selection Start/End Starts playback from the beginning or end of the currently selected range and stops after the time set in the Post-roll field on the Transport panel.
The Virtual Keyboard The Virtual Keyboard can be displayed in the Transport panel. It allows you to play and record MIDI notes by using your computer keyboard or mouse. This is useful if you have no external MIDI instrument at hand and you do not want to draw in notes with the Pencil tool. The Virtual Keyboard can perform all functions that can be controlled by external MIDI keyboards, e. g. playing and recording MIDI notes.
8 Recording
Background Record-enabling tracks This chapter describes the various recording methods that you can use in Cubase. As it is possible to record both audio and MIDI tracks, both recording methods are covered in this chapter. Cubase can record on a single track or on several tracks (audio and/or MIDI) simultaneously. To make a track ready for recording, activate the Record Enable button for the track in the track list, in the Inspector, or in the Mixer.
Activating recording Automatically Activating recording, i e. performing and setting up manual and automatic punch in recording is identical for audio and MIDI. Cubase can automatically switch from playback to recording at a given position. This is known as “automatic punch in”. A typical use for this is if you need to replace a section of a recording, and want to listen to what is already recorded, up to the recording start position.
Cycle recording File type Description Cubase can record and play back in a cycle – a loop. You specify where the cycle starts and ends by setting the left and right locators. When the cycle is active, the selected section is seamlessly repeated until you hit Stop or deactivate cycle mode. Broadcast Wave File In terms of audio content, the same as regular Wave files, but with embedded text strings for supplying additional information about the file (see below).
Please consider the RAM limitation (see “RAM” on page 22) of your operating system when setting up your project for recording. ! When a recording has used up all the memory made available by the operating system, the computer may crash. For each audio channel, 2.4 MB of RAM are required for mixer settings, etc. One minute of audio recording with a sample rate of 96 kHz on a mono track will increase memory usage by another 176 KB (Windows Task Manager, average).
• In the Mixer, you select an input bus on the Input Routing pop-up menu at the top of the track’s channel strip. If this pop-up menu is not shown, you need to open the Mixer Routing View by clicking the “Show Routing” button in the extended Mixer common panel or by selecting “Show Routing View” from the Window submenu of the Mixer context menu. See “Configuring the Mixer” on page 148 for more information about the Mixer. Click here to show or hide the input and output settings.
To check the level of the “unprocessed” signal coming into the audio hardware, you need to switch the level meters to “Meter Input”. In this mode, the input channel level meters will show the level of the signal at the input of the bus, before any adjustments such as input gain, EQ, effects, level or pan: 1. Right-click in the Mixer window to open the context menu. • If you record in 16- or 24-bit format, the available headroom is lower, which means clipping can occur if the signal is too loud.
5. After a few seconds stop the recording. An audio event is created, starting at where the cursor position was when you activated recording. If you were in stop mode and the cursor was at the beginning of the project, you may have to move the event to the right in the next step. If you were playing along to a project you, leave the event where it is. When monitoring via Cubase, you can select one of four Auto Monitoring modes in the Preferences dialog (VST page): 6.
External monitoring External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it goes into Cubase) requires some sort of external mixer for mixing the audio playback with the input signal. This can be a stand-alone physical mixer or a mixer application for your audio hardware, if this has a mode in which the input audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, “Direct Thru” or similar).
Undoing recording Option Description If you decide that you do not like what you just recorded, you can delete it by selecting Undo from the Edit menu. The following will happen: Cycle History + Replace Existing events (or portions of events) that are overlapped by a new recording are replaced by the new recording. However, if you record in cycle mode, all takes from the current cycle recording are kept.
3. Locate the input channel (bus) from which you record. About the record format When you record with effects, consider setting the bit resolution to 32 Bit Float. This is done in the Project Setup dialog opened via the Project menu. Note that this is not required in any way – you can also record with effects in 24 or 16 Bit format. However, there are two advantages to the 32 Bit Float format: If the input channels are hidden, click on the Show/Hide Input Channels button to the left.
9. Activate recording. MIDI recording specifics 10. When you are finished, you can play back the recorded audio track. Activating MIDI Thru As you can hear, the effect you applied is now a part of the actual audio file. 11. If you do not want to record more with the same plugin, deactivate it by clicking in the insert slot and selecting “No Effect”. Normally, when working with MIDI, you will have MIDI Thru activated in Cubase, and Local Off selected in your MIDI instruments.
Naming MIDI ports in Cubase Setting the MIDI channel and output MIDI inputs and outputs are often displayed with unnecessarily long and complicated names. However, you can rename your MIDI ports to more descriptive names: The MIDI channel and output settings determine where the recorded MIDI is routed during playback, but are also relevant for MIDI Thru in Cubase. Channel and output can be selected in the track list or in the Inspector.
Selecting a sound About overlap and the MIDI Record Mode You can select sounds from within Cubase by instructing the program to send Program Change and Bank Select messages to your MIDI device. This is done using the “Patch Selector” and “Bank Selector” fields in the Inspector or track list. MIDI tracks are different from audio tracks when it comes to overlapping parts: All events in overlapping parts are always played back.
Option Description Continuous messages Overwrite As soon as you play a MIDI note (or send any MIDI message), all MIDI you have recorded on previous laps is overwritten from that point. Make sure that you stop playing before the next lap begins – otherwise you will overwrite the entire take. Keep Last Each completed lap replaces the previously recorded lap. If you deactivate recording or press Stop before the cursor reaches the right locator, the previous take will be kept.
The Reset function The Reset function on the MIDI menu sends out note-off messages and resets controllers on all MIDI channels. This is sometimes necessary if you experience hanging notes, constant vibrato, etc. when punching in and out on MIDI recordings with pitchbend or controller data. There are two other options to perform a reset: • The Retrospective Record Buffer Size setting in the Preferences dialog (Record–MIDI page) determines how much data can be captured.
Options and Settings Filtering MIDI Recording-related Transport Preferences A couple of settings in the Preferences dialog (Transport page) are relevant for recording. Set these according to your preferred method of work: Deactivate Punch In on Stop If this is activated, punch in on the Transport panel is automatically deactivated whenever you enter Stop mode.
An example: Metronome settings 1. Set the locators to where you want to start and end recording. You make settings for the metronome in the Metronome Setup dialog, opened from the Transport menu. 2. Activate Punch in and Punch out on the Transport panel. 3. Activate the “Stop after Automatic Punch Out” option in the Preferences dialog (Transport page). 4. Set suitable pre-roll and post-roll times by clicking in the corresponding fields on the Transport panel and typing in time values. 5.
Further configuration options for MIDI and audio clicks are available in the Click Outputs section: Option Description Activate MIDI Click Selects whether or not the metronome sounds via MIDI. MIDI Port/ Channel This is where you select a MIDI output and channel for the metronome click. For the metronome click you can also select a VST instrument previously set up in the VST Instruments window.
9 Quantizing MIDI and audio
Introduction Where are the quantize functions located? Quantize functions on the Edit menu What is quantizing? Quantizing is a function that moves recorded audio or MIDI, positioning it on the nearest grid position that is musically relevant. Quantizing can be used to correct errors, or in a creative way. In Cubase, you can quantize audio and MIDI to a grid (see “Options for quantizing to a musical grid” on page 113) or to a groove (see “Options for quantizing to a groove” on page 113).
Quantize functions on the Quantize Panel MIDI – quantizing MIDI event starts The Quantize Panel provides different settings and parameters (see “The Quantize Panel” on page 111). You can open it by clicking on the corresponding button on the toolbar or by opening the Edit menu and selecting “Quantize Panel”. If you select several MIDI notes in a part and use the Quantize function on the Edit menu, the MIDI note starts are quantized, i. e.
However, if you have selected the “Quantize Link” option on the Length Quantize pop-up menu, the function resizes the notes according to the quantize grid, taking the Swing, Tuplet, and Catch Range settings into account. Quantize MIDI Event Ends The “Quantize MIDI Event Ends” function on the Edit menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, moves the ends of your MIDI notes to the nearest grid positions, taking the Quantize pop-up menu setting into account.
Grid display iQ option and Iterative Strength setting In the middle of the Quantize Panel the grid display is shown. The green lines indicate the quantize grid, i. e. the positions that audio or MIDI is moved to. If you quantize your audio or MIDI with the iQ option activated, a “loose” quantization is applied. This means that your audio or MIDI moves only part of the way to the closest quantize grid position. You can specify an Iterative Strength value to the right of the iQ option.
Options for quantizing to a musical grid Tuplet Quantizing to a grid is useful if you want to place your recorded audio or MIDI on the nearest position that is musically relevant. This parameter allows you to create rhythmically more complex grids by dividing the grid into smaller steps. Options for quantizing to a groove Groove quantizing is intended for creating certain rhythmic feels by matching your recorded music to a timing grid generated from a MIDI part or an audio loop.
Length (MIDI only) Preparations Use this parameter to specify how much the length of the notes is affected by the groove. This is done by modifying the note-off value. To prepare your audio tracks for quantization, proceed as follows: Ö For drums, the Length setting will be ignored as drum sounds cannot be sustained. Pre-Quantize This pop-up menu lets you quantize your audio or MIDI to a musical grid before groove quantizing. This helps you to get the notes closer to their groove destination.
If you open the Quantize Panel for an edit group and at least one of the tracks has hitpoints, the “Slice Rules” section appears. The section “Slice Rules” In this section you determine how the audio events are sliced at the hitpoints. Range With this parameter, you can set the minimum distance between two hitpoints on different tracks.
The Quantize section After having sliced your audio events, you can proceed with setting up the quantize parameters, see “Options for quantizing to a musical grid” on page 113 or “Options for quantizing to a groove” on page 113. Quantize Click this button to apply your settings and quantize your audio. The Crossfades section The Crossfades section only appears after you have sliced your audio.
10 Fades, crossfades and envelopes
Creating fades There are two types of fade ins and fade outs in audio events in Cubase: event-based fades that you create by using the fade handles and clip-based fades created by processing (see “Clip-based fades” on page 119). Event-based fades Selected audio events have triangular handles in the upper left and right corners. These can be dragged to create a fade in or fade out, respectively. The fade handles are visible when you point the mouse at the event. Creating a fade in.
• If you select a range encompassing a middle section of the event, but not reaching neither the start nor the end, a fade in is created from the beginning of the event to the beginning of the selected range, and a fade out is created from the end of the selected range to the end of the event. ! You can select multiple audio events on separate tracks with the Range Selection tool, and apply the fade to all of them simultaneously.
The Fade dialogs Option Description Presets In this section you can set up presets for fade in or fade out curves that you want to apply to other events or clips. To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu. To rename the selected preset, double-click on the name and type in a new one. To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu and click Remove. As Default button This button is only available when editing fades made by dragging the fade handles.
Creating crossfades Overlapping audio material on the same track can be crossfaded, for smooth transitions or special effects. You create a crossfade by selecting two consecutive audio events and selecting the Crossfade command on the Audio menu (or by using the corresponding key command, by default [X]). The result depends on whether the two events overlap or not: • If the events overlap, a crossfade is created in the overlapping area.
Auto fades and crossfades Option Description Equal Gain Activate this parameter to adjust the fade curves so that the summed fade in and fade out amplitudes will be the same all along the crossfade region. This is often suitable for short crossfades. Equal Power Play buttons Activate this parameter to adjust the fade curves so that the energy (power) of the crossfade will be constant all along the crossfade region. Equal Power curves have only one editable curve point.
5. To adjust the shape of the Auto Crossfade, select the “Crossfades” tab and make settings as in the regular Crossfade dialog (see “The Crossfade dialog” on page 121). 6. If you want to use your settings in future projects, click the “As Default” button. 7. Click OK to close the dialog. Making Auto Fade settings for individual tracks Event envelopes An envelope is a volume curve for an audio event.
11 The arranger track
Introduction The arranger track allows you to work with sections of your project in a non-linear fashion, to simplify arranging to the maximum extent. Instead of moving, copying and pasting events in the Project window to create a linear project, you can define how different sections are to be played back, like a playlist. 3.
• Double-clicking on an arranger event adds it to the current arranger chain. • By selecting one or more events in the list, right-clicking and selecting “Append Selected In Arranger Chain”. This will add the selected events at the end of the list. Working with arranger events • By dragging and dropping arranger events from the list on the right to the arranger chain on the left. You now have a number of arranger events that form the basic building blocks for your arrangement.
Option Button Description Repeat forever In this mode, the current arranger event will be repeated in a loop until you either click on another event in the Arranger Editor or press play once again. Pause after Repeats In this mode, the playback of the arranger chain will be stopped after having played back all repeats of the current arranger event. When you now play back the arranger chain, you will hear the complete arrangement.
The arranger chains you create will be listed on the Name pop-up menu, found in the Arranger Editor to the left of the buttons, at the top of the arranger track Inspector, and in the track list. Please note that to be able to select another arranger chain from the pop-up menu, the Arranger mode must be activated. 2. In the window that opens, select the desired options. Flattening the arranger chain When you have found an arranger chain that suits your purposes, you can “flatten” it, i. e.
In the Options section you can make further settings. The available options are: Option Description Keep Arranger Track If you activate this option, the arranger track will be kept when flattening the arranger chain. Activate “Rename Arranger Events” to append a number to the events, according to their use. For example, if you use arranger event “A” two times, the first occurrence will be renamed “A 1” and the second “A 2”.
Option Description 1 beat Jumps to the next section at the next beat. End Plays the current section to the end, then jumps to the next section. • You can stop Live mode by clicking the Stop button or go back to “normal” playback in Arranger mode by clicking on any arranger event in the upper list. In the latter case, playback will be continued from the arranger event where you clicked.
12 The transpose functions
Introduction Transposing an entire project with the root key Cubase offers transpose functions for audio, MIDI and instrument parts and for audio events. These allow you to create variations of your music or change the harmonics of an entire project or separate sections. The root key you specify for a project will be the reference that audio or MIDI events in your project will follow. You can however exclude separate parts or events from being transposed, e. g.
The entire project will be played back with this root key. To do so, the separate loops are transposed to match the project root key. For example, if you have imported a bass loop in C and the project root key is set to E, the bass loop will be transposed up by 4 semitones. 3. Right-click the transpose track in the track list and select “Set root key for unassigned events” from the context menu. This sets the project root key for all parts or events not containing any root key information.
Changing the root key of single events or parts If you want to check if an audio event or part has root key information or if you want to change it, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Pool and display the Key column by activating the Root Key option on the View/Attributes pop-up menu. 2. Click in the Key column for the desired audio event and set the root key according to your needs. You can also check and assign root keys in the MediaBay.
Ö You can also transpose the whole project using the transpose track. This is useful if your singer does not reach a certain pitch, for example. You could then transpose the whole project by approx. -2 semitones. Always remember to verify that the “Global Transpose” setting for drums and percussion is set to “Independent” on the info line (see “The Global Transpose setting” on page 136).
The Global Transpose setting If you are working with drum and percussion loops or special effects (FX) loops, you will want to exclude these from being transposed. This can be achieved by locking them using the Global Transpose setting. Proceed as follows: Ö Recorded events are independent from Global Transpose. If no transpose track exists or if no transpose event has been added, Global Transpose will be set to Follow. 1. Open your project. 2.
To understand the principle behind this, follow the example below: 1. Create a MIDI part, enter a C major chord, open the Key Editor and activate “Indicate Transpositions”. 4. Set the transpose value to 8 semitones. As “Keep Transpose in Octave Range” is activated, your chord will now be transposed to the nearest interval or pitch. This way you can observe and understand what happens when you change the transposition. 2. Add a transpose track and create a transpose event.
13 Using markers
Introduction Editing cycle markers using tools Markers are used to locate certain positions quickly. If you often find yourself jumping to a specific position within a project, you should insert a marker at this position. You can also use markers to make range selections (see “Using markers to make range selections in the Project window” on page 142) or for zooming (see “Zooming to cycle markers” on page 139). Markers are located on the marker track.
To open the Marker window, you have the following possibilities: • Open the Project menu and select “Markers”. • Click the Show button in the marker section on the Transport panel. • Use a key command (by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[M]). The Type pop-up menu • By selecting an entry from the Type pop-up menu, you specify which markers (position markers, cycle markers, or all) are shown in the marker list.
Sorting and reordering columns You can customize the display of the marker attributes in the marker list by sorting or reordering the columns. Proceed as follows: • To sort the marker list by a specific attribute, click on the corresponding column header. • To reorder the marker attributes, drag and drop the corresponding column headers. • To adjust the width of a column, place the mouse pointer between two column headers and drag left or right.
Ö Markers shown on the marker track are exactly the same as shown in the Marker window, and any changes made on the marker track are reflected in the Marker window and vice versa. • Drawing in cycle markers. To draw a cycle marker range, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and use the Pencil tool or the Arrow tool. If Snap is activated on the toolbar, this determines at which positions you can draw markers.
• If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while you drag the range, the selection in the Project window is copied instead. Exporting and importing markers In Cubase, markers and marker tracks can be imported and exported in different ways. You have the following possibilities: Marker key commands You can check or change any key command assignments for the marker commands in the Transport categories of the Key Commands dialog. In the following section, the available key commands for markers are listed.
Importing markers as part of a track archive (Cubase only) You can import position markers and cycle markers by importing track archives containing a marker track. The following settings are imported: • The start and end positions of cycle markers • The marker IDs For a description of how to import track archives, see “Importing tracks from a track archive” on page 529.
14 The Mixer
Overview • Mixing down several audio tracks (complete with automation and effects if you wish) to a single audio file. See the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown” on page 484. Opening the Mixer The Mixer can be opened in several ways: • By selecting Mixer from the Devices menu. • By clicking the Mixer icon on the toolbar. If this icon is not visible, you need to activate the “Media & Mixer Windows” option on the toolbar context menu first. • By using a key command (by default [F3]).
• VST instrument channels, see the chapter “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page 206. VST instrument (VSTi) channels can be reordered in the track list which will in turn be mirrored in the Mixer. Input and output busses in the Mixer • You can also save channel configurations as view sets (see “Channel view sets” on page 151), which are then accessible from all Mixer windows. Ö All options for configuring the Mixer described in this chapter are identical for all Mixer windows.
Normal vs. extended channel strips • You can add effects or EQ to the busses. See “Recording with effects (Cubase only)” on page 98 for an example of how to add effects to your recording at the input bus stage. ! The settings you make for the input channel will be a permanent part of the recorded audio file! • You can open the Channel Settings window to add effects or EQ. These will affect the whole bus.
The common panel The common panel can be found on the left of the Mixer window. It contains settings for changing the look and behavior of the Mixer, as well as global settings for all channels. In standard mode (extended view is hidden), the common panel contains the following controls: Global Mute, Solo and Listen buttons Global automation Read/Write buttons Reset Mixer/Reset Channels Channel settings copy/ paste, see “Copying settings between audio channels” on page 161.
The View Options pop-up menu 2. Repeat this for all the channels that you want to hide. Each channel strip in the Mixer features a View Options pop-up menu, which is used for two things: 3. On the common panel, click the “Hide Channels set to ‘Can Hide’” button. • To determine what is shown in the extended panel for individual channels in the Mixer. This hides all channels set to “Can Hide”.
Channel view sets Channel view sets are saved configurations of the Mixer window, allowing you to quickly switch between different layouts for the Mixer. The following settings are stored in view sets: • Narrow channel strips contain a narrow fader, miniature buttons, and the View Options pop-up menu. In the extended panel, only the Channel Overview and the Meter are shown in narrow mode. (All other parameters are shown again when you return to wide mode.) • Settings for individual channel strips (e. g.
Basic mixing procedures About the level meters for audio channels Setting volume in the Mixer When playing back audio in Cubase, the level meters in the Mixer show the level of each audio channel. In the Mixer, each channel strip has a volume fader. • For audio channels, the faders control the volume of the channels before they are routed (directly or via a group channel) to an output bus.
About the Input Gain control About the Input Phase control Each audio-related channel and input/output channel features an Input Gain knob. It controls the gain for the incoming signal, before EQ and effects. The Input Gain knob is not meant to be used as a volume control in the Mixer, as it is not suited for continuous level adjustments during playback. However, it can be used to cut or boost the gain.
• Clicking the Solo button for a channel mutes all other channels. A soloed channel is indicated by a lit Solo button, and also by the lit Global Solo icon on the common panel. Click the Solo button again to turn off Solo. • Several channels can be soloed at the same time. However, if you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click the Solo button for a channel, any other soloed channels are automatically un-soloed (i. e. this Solo mode is exclusive).
Audio-specific procedures This section describes the options and basic procedures regarding audio channels in the Mixer.
• You also have the option of displaying four sends at a time (the Sends 1–4 and 5–8 menu items). These modes offer the additional benefit of displaying send levels as dB values. • Cubase only: The Panner section (where applicable). If the channel is routed to a surround bus, you can view a compact version of the SurroundPanner in the extended panel. Double-click on it to open the full SurroundPanner panel. • The Meter section. Select the Meter option to view large level meters in the extended panel.
• To select the (default) center pan position, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on the pan control. Ö If you reverse the left and right channels, the area between the pan controls is red instead of blue/gray. • To view the pan settings in a separate window, where you can change the settings using sliders, double-click on the pan control. When moving combined pan controls so that the left or right pan control reaches its maximum pan value, it naturally cannot go any further.
Panning Bypass You can bypass the panning for all audio-related track types. To do this, press [Shift]–[Alt]/[Option] and click on the pan setting for the respective channel (on the fader panel or in the extended Mixer view). Every channel has its own Channel Settings window (although you can view each in the same window if you like – see below). Click the Edit button to open the Channel Settings window. When panning is bypassed for a channel, the following happens: • Mono channels are panned center.
Selecting a track in the Project window automatically selects the corresponding channel in the Mixer (and vice versa). If a Channel Settings window is open, this will immediately switch to show the settings for the selected channel. This allows you to have a single Channel Settings window open in a convenient position on the screen, and use it for all your EQ and channel effect settings. You can also select a channel manually (thereby changing what is shown in the open Channel Settings window).
The Equalizers + Curve pane in the Channel Settings window consists of four EQ modules with parameter sliders, an EQ curve display and some additional functions at the top. 6. To invert an EQ band (i. e. reflect the curve along the x axis), click the Inverse button to the right of its On/Off button. This button is hidden when the EQ module is deactivated. This is very useful if you want to filter out unwanted noise.
EQ bypass Whenever one or several EQ modules are activated for a channel, the EQ button lights up in green in the Mixer channel strip, Inspector (Equalizer and Channel sections), track list, and Channel Settings window (top right corner of the EQ section). You can also bypass all EQ modules. This is useful, as it allows you to compare the sound with and without EQ.
Proceed as follows: Changing the meter characteristics 1. In the Mixer, select the channel you want to copy settings from. On the Mixer context menu, there is a submenu named “Global Meter Settings”. Here you can make settings for the preferred meter characteristics, with the following options: 2. On the common panel, click the “Copy First Selected Channel’s Settings” button. • If Hold Peaks is activated, the highest registered levels are “held” and are shown as static horizontal lines in the meter.
Saving and loading Mixer settings It is possible to save complete Mixer settings for all or all selected audio-related channels in the Mixer. These can later be loaded into any project. Channel settings are saved as Mixer settings files. These have the file extension “.vmx”. 2. Open the Mixer context menu and select “Load Selected Channels”. A standard file dialog opens, allowing you to locate the saved file. 3. Select the file and click Open. The channel settings are applied to the selected channels.
Routing When you play back an audio track (or any other audio-related channel), you route it to an output bus. In the same way, when you record on an audio track you select from which input bus the audio is received. The input and output routing for a channel can be set up via the Inspector or the Mixer. For large projects, it is convenient to use the Mixer for this, since it allows you to set inputs and outputs for multiple channels at the same time.
Routing audio to output busses in the Mixer Settings for group channels Output busses let you route audio from the program to the outputs on your audio hardware. To route the output of an audio channel to one of the active busses, proceed as follows: The group channel strips are almost identical to audio channel strips in the Mixer. The descriptions of the Mixer features earlier in this chapter apply to group channels as well. Some things to note: 1.
MIDI-specific procedures • The Sends section, with 4 send effect slots for the channel. This section describes basic procedures for MIDI channels in the Mixer. The sends can also be found in the Inspector and the Channel Settings window for MIDI channels. How to use MIDI send effects is described in the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 348. MIDI channel strips • The Meter section.
Every MIDI channel has its own Channel Settings window. Utilities Link/Unlink channels This function is used to “link” selected channels in the Mixer so that any change applied to one channel will be mirrored by all channels in that group. Only channels of the same type (audio-related or MIDI) can be linked with each other. You can link as many channels as you like, and you can also create as many groups of linked channels as you like. To link channels in the Mixer, proceed as follows: 1.
What will be linked? The following rules apply to linked channels: • Only level, mute, solo, select, monitor and record enable will be linked between channels. Effect/EQ/pan/input and output routing settings are not linked. • Any individual channel settings you have made before linking will remain until you alter the same setting for any of the linked channels.
VST Mixer Diagrams ! Note that the AFL/PFL Listen Bus architecture is available only in Cubase.
Control Room Objects (Cubase only) 170 The Mixer
The Mixer
15 Control Room (Cubase only)
Virtual Control Room – The concept The concept behind the Control Room features in Cubase is to divide the studio environment into the performing area (studio) and the engineer/producer area (control room) common to traditional studios. Previously, an analog console or some method of speaker control and monitor routing was necessary to provide this functionality to the DAW environment.
VST Connections – Studio tab Monitors The Studio tab of the VST Connections window is where you configure the inputs and outputs for the Control Room Mixer. You can also enable or disable the Control Room and open the Control Room Mixer. The channel width of the Control Room channel is shown in the Configuration field on the top right of the tab. For more information about the VST Connections window, see the chapter “VST Connections” on page 25.
Talkback Exclusive assignment of Monitor channels The Talkback is a mono input used for a communications system between the control room and performers in the studio. Only one mono Talkback channel is available. Even though the port assignment to the Control Room channels is generally exclusive, it might be useful to create Monitor channels that share device ports with each other as well as inputs and outputs.
Output click enabling Disabling the Control Room There may be a situation when you want the click to be routed always to a specific output bus, regardless of the actual Control Room settings, or indeed when the Control Room is disabled. In these cases, enable the click on specific outputs using the Click column on the Outputs tab in the VST Connections window. Once you have created all the channels for your studio configuration, the Control Room functions are available for use.
The Control Room Mixer 3. 2. 4. 5. 6. 1. 7. 8. 27. 9. 6. 10. 26. 11. 12. 25. 24. 13. 23. 14. 15. 16. 6. 22. 21. 20. 19. 18. 17. 6. The Control Room Mixer is where you can access all the features of the Control Room. It is designed to display information and controls only for the channels you have defined in the VST Connections window. For example, if you have not defined any Studio channels, they will not appear in the Control Room Mixer.
The Control Room Mixer has a variety of controls, some that are similar to the Project Mixer and some that are unique to Control Room operations. In the following each control is briefly described: 11. Listen Activate/Deactivate All Listen 1. Input Phase This gain control adjusts the volume of the Main Mix when channels have been put in Listen mode. This allows you to keep listen-enabled channels in context with the Main Mix.
21. Channel labels 29. These labels reflect the names entered in the VST Connections window. 30. 22. Talkback Enable to Studio and talkback amount In order for Talkback signals to be routed to a Studio, the Talkback Enable to Studio button must be lit. Clicking on it turns it on or off. When Talkback Enable is deactivated, the Talkback DIM setting has no effect on this output. The value below the button controls the amount of Talkback signal fed to the output of each Studio. 32. 36. 31. 33. 34. 35.
36. Downmix Preset Selection With these buttons you can select the downmix preset for the current Monitor. Automatic configuration of the downmix settings follows a logical path. For example, if you have defined one set of 5.1 monitors and another set of stereo monitors, Cubase will create a 5.1 to stereo downmix preset and another downmix to mono. 37. Downmix labels This area displays the names of the four downmix presets. You can click on a name to change it.
Inserts for the Talkback channel Suggested settings The Talkback channel has a separate set of eight inserts. In order to view and adjust them, the Talkback must be enabled via the TALK button located in the bottom right section of the Control Room Mixer. Click once on the TALK button to activate the Talkback system. The inserts for external inputs are now replaced with the Talkback inserts. Once the Talkback is disabled, the view reverts to external input inserts.
Control Room preferences • Exclusive Device Ports for Monitor Channels There are several preferences for the Control Room Mixer. These are found in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). When activated, the port assignment for Monitor channels is exclusive (see “Exclusive assignment of Monitor channels” on page 175). • Reference Level This setting determines the Control Room level used when the Reference Level button is activated.
• In the Inspector, a Studio Sends tab can be found. This displays all Studio Sends for the selected track. Please note that not all Inspector sections are available by default. To show/hide a section, right-click on an Inspector section and select/deselect the corresponding option on the context menu. The name of each Studio is displayed in the Control Room Mixer. To hear the Studio Sends mix in the Studio output, the input selector for each Studio must be set to “Aux”.
Fortunately, the Studio Sends have an option to adjust multiple send levels at the same time, allowing you to keep the blend intact while lowering the overall volume to make room for “more me” signals. Once you have created a Studio Send mix, proceed as follows to adjust their relative levels: 1. Select all the channels you wish to modify. Only selected channels are affected by the context menu commands. 2.
Using Studio Sends from outputs Each output also has Studio Sends. Studio Sends from the Main Mix output can be used to route the main mix instantly to the Studio output. Any level changes made to the main mix are reflected in the signal sent by the Studio Send. Setting the level lower than 0 dB can leave headroom for “more me” signals in the Studio channel output. Post-Fader Studio Sends It is also possible to use the Studio Sends as post-fader aux sends.
Direct Monitoring and latency The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the internal processing power of the host computer system for all routing and processing, which means they are subject to the computer’s latency. When recording with several performers at once, a system capable of running at very low ASIO buffer settings will be necessary to take full advantage of all the Studio Send features.
16 Audio effects
About this chapter About VST 3 Cubase comes with a number of effect plug-ins included. This chapter contains general details about how to assign, use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their parameters are described in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. ! This chapter describes audio effects, i. e. effects that are used to process audio, group, VST instrument, and ReWire channels.
However, be aware that this can lead to a situation where you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the system can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always find the passage with the largest number of events playing simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the required performance.
As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best suited for insert effects where you do not want the level to be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dithering” on page 193) and maximizers – both typically used as insert effects for output busses.
• To bypass all inserts for a track, click the “Bypass Inserts” button. This button can be found on the right of the title bar of the Inserts section in the Inspector or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to indicate that the inserts of this track are bypassed. In the track list and the channel strip in the Mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in yellow.
The columns in the diagram represent the channels in the current configuration, with signals passing from top to bottom. The gray field in the middle represents the actual effect plug-in. • The squares above the effect represent inputs to the effect plug-in. • The squares below the effect represent outputs from the effect plug-in.
Dithering Dithering is a method for controlling the noise produced by quantization errors in digital recordings. The theory behind this is that during low level passages, only a few bits are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantization errors and hence distortion. For example, when “truncating bits”, as a result of moving from 24 to 16 bit resolution, quantization errors are added to an otherwise immaculate recording.
Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track Unfreezing Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor power. If you are using a large number of insert effects for a track, you may reach a point where the computer cannot play back the track properly (the CPU overload indicator in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.).
Setting up send effects Adding and setting up effects Adding an FX channel track As mentioned above, you can add a single insert effect when you create the FX channel track. To add and set up effects after the FX channel track is created, you can either use the Inspector for the track (click the Inserts tab) or the VST FX Channel Settings window: 1. Pull down the Project menu, open the “Add Track” submenu and select “FX Channel”. A dialog opens. 1.
• You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/ [Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot. 2. Pull down the Routing pop-up menu for a send by clicking in the empty slot, and select the desired routing destination. • To remove an insert effect from a slot, click in the slot and select “No Effect” from the pop-up menu. To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to use.
• In the Fader section of the Channel Settings window, select the FX channel from the pop-up menu and adjust its effect return level. By adjusting the return level, you control the amount of the signal sent from the FX channel to the output bus. Ö Use the channel’s Mute button to determine whether a send in pre-fader mode is affected. This is done with the “Mute Pre-Send when Mute” option in the Preferences dialog (VST page).
• To use the pan control as a crossfader, determining the balance between the stereo sides when the stereo send signal is mixed to mono, route a send from a stereo channel to a mono FX channel track. • To use the surround panner to position the send signal in the surround image, route a send from a mono or stereo channel to an FX channel track in surround format.
3. Open the Inserts tab for the first Vocal track in the Inspector and select “PingPongDelay” from the Effects pop-up menu. The control panel for the effect opens. 4. On the control panel for the effect, make the desired effect settings and activate the Side-Chain button. Try out the effect settings to find out which settings will work best with your project. For detailed descriptions of the parameters, see the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
About drag & drop When you drag effects from one insert slot to another (on the same channel or between different channels), the following applies: • When you move an effect within a channel (e. g. from slot 4 to slot 6), the side-chain connections will be kept. • When you drag and drop an effect between two channels, the side-chain connections will not be kept. • When copying an effect into another effect slot (for the same or a different channel), the side-chain connections will not be copied, i. e.
• Inserts presets that contain insert effect combinations These can contain the whole insert effects rack, complete with settings for each effect, see “Saving insert effect combinations” on page 203. Selecting effect presets Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful presets for instant selection. To select an effect preset in the Presets browser, proceed as follows: 1. Load an effect, either as a channel insert or into an FX channel. The control panel for the effect is displayed. 2.
About earlier VST effect presets 2. Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu. The Save Preset dialog opens. As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in Cubase. For a description of how to add VST plug-ins, see “Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on page 203. When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored presets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/ .fxb). You can import such files, but the preset handling will be slightly different.
Saving insert effect combinations You can save the complete insert effect rack for a channel together with all parameter settings as an inserts preset. Inserts presets can be applied to audio, instruments, FX channel, or group tracks. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the desired track in the track list and open the Inserts Inspector section. 2. Load a combination of insert effects and adjust the parameters (or select effect presets) for each effect. 3.
Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X Organizing VST 2 plug-ins To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase and drag the plug-in file to one of the following folders: If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins installed with Cubase are placed in appropriate subfolders according to the effect type.
Managing and selecting VST plug-ins VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST PlugIns” tab. This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can add/remove folder locations by using the corresponding buttons. If you click “Add”, a file dialog opens, where you can select a folder location. • To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put a checkmark in the left column.
17 VST instruments and instrument tracks
Introduction VST instrument channels VST instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound sources) that are contained within Cubase. They are played internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST instruments, just as with audio tracks. You can access a VST instrument from within Cubase by creating a VST instrument channel and associating this channel with a MIDI track.
• If you do not want the plug-in control panels to open every time you load a plug-in, open the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page) and deactivate “Open Effect Editor After Loading it”. You can open a plug-in panel at any time by clicking the “e” button of the corresponding plug-in slot. 4.
• Click the Edit (“e”) button to open the control panel for the VST instrument. • Below the Edit button is a small LED that will light up when MIDI data is received by the instrument. • The rightmost button allows you to activate the desired output for the instrument. This is useful when you are using VST instruments that have a large number of audio busses, which may be confusing. Click one of the entries in the pop-up list to activate/deactivate output busses for this instrument.
Restrictions 3. In the Results list, select a MIDI loop and drag it to an empty section in the Project window. • Instrument tracks have no MIDI sends. • MIDI volume and pan cannot be controlled (there is no “MIDI fader” tab in the Inspector); instead, the VST instrument volume and pan are used (via the “Channel” tab in the Inspector). This applies also to the respective automation parameters.
Exporting instrument tracks as MIDI file You can also export instrument tracks as standard MIDI files, see “Exporting MIDI files” on page 527. Please note the following: • As there is no MIDI patch information in an instrument track, this information is missing in the resulting MIDI file. • If you activate “Export Inspector Volume/Pan”, volume and pan information of the VST instrument will be converted and written into the MIDI file as controller data.
The Freeze Instrument Options dialog opens with the following options for the Freeze operation: Unfreezing If you need to make adjustments (either to the MIDI tracks, to the VST instrument parameters or to the VST instrument channels if these were frozen) you need to unfreeze the VST instrument: 1. Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument again (either in the VST Instruments window or in the Inspector). You will be asked to confirm this operation. 2. Click “Unfreeze”.
As described in the chapter “Audio effects” on page 187, there are two types of VST presets that can be used: the VST 2 standard FXB/FXP files and the VST 3 preset standard with the extension “.vstpreset”. Some of the included VST instruments use the VST 2 preset standard, and others use the VST 3 standard. All VST 2 instruments can import FXB/FXP files and also convert them to the VST 3 standard. Once converted, you can use all VST 3 features, see “About earlier VST instrument presets” on page 215.
Using the “Choose Track Preset” dialog To select a VST instrument preset, proceed as follows: 1. Right-click the track list to open the context menu and on the Add Track submenu select “Add Track Using Track Preset…”. 1. Load a VST instrument (either in the VST Instruments window or via an instrument track). The Choose Track Preset dialog opens. It contains the same sections as the Presets browser. 2. If you use the VST Instruments window, select a MIDI track routed to the instrument.
Saving VST instrument presets Importing and converting FXB/FXP files You can save your settings as presets for further use (e. g. in other projects): To import FXP/FXB files, proceed as follows: 1. In the VST instrument panel, click the button to the right of the preset name and select “Save Preset…”. This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset. 1. Load any VST 2 instrument you may have installed, and click the VST Sound button to open the Preset Management pop-up menu. 2.
External instruments (Cubase only) Constrain Delay Compensation Cubase features full delay compensation throughout the entire audio path. This means that any delay inherent in the VST plug-ins you use will automatically be compensated for during playback, so that all channels are kept in perfect sync (see “About plug-in delay compensation” on page 189).
18 Surround sound (Cubase only)
Introduction Available surround configurations 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 Mixer can either carry complete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel which is part of a surround setup.
Preparations Routing channels to child busses Output bus configuration Before you can start working with surround sound, you have to configure a surround output bus, through which all the speaker channels of the selected surround format are routed. How to add and set up busses in the VST Connections window is described in detail in the section “Setting up busses” on page 26.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 Cubase has a special feature for graphically positioning a sound source in the surround field or modifying existing premixes: the SurroundPanner V5. This plug-in distributes the audio from the input channels in various proportions to the output surround channels. • To view a slightly larger version of the miniature surround control in the extended Mixer panel, select the Panner option on the View Options pop-up menu.
The plug-in panel Positioning signals in the pan area Double-click on any of the miniature panner controls to open the plug-in panel in a separate window. In the pan area, you see a graphical representation of the sound source, with the left and right channels shown in yellow and red. Here, you can position the sound source using the mouse: • By clicking at the desired position in the pan area. When you release the mouse button, the sound source jumps to that position (with the positioning handle, i. e.
Speaker channels – Solo and Mute vs. Disabling The speakers that are distributed around the surround field represent the output configuration. You can disable speakers or solo/mute them. This speaker is muted. This speaker is soloed. This speaker is disabled. • By clicking on one of the icons above the pan area, the corresponding positioning mode is activated persistently. That way you do not have to keep the corresponding modifier key pressed all the time.
Ö To move one of the panning balls in this mode, you do not have to click directly on them. You will always move the panning ball that is nearer to the position of the mouse pointer. ! When panning in independent positioning mode, automation data is written for several parameters. Due to this, special automation rules apply, see “Automation” on page 225. ! Automation data for the independent positioning mode is always written for the complete sound source, not for individual channels.
Radius When using the Orbit Center control, the Radius encoder allows you to control the distance of the sound source from the center of the surround field (without changing the angle). Ö The LFE channel is used as a full range channel, no low-pass filtering is applied. Center Distribution An example: The Center Distribution control is used to distribute part or all of the center signal to the left and right front speakers. a) Radius = 141.4 b) Radius = 116.
For example, by using the front divergence, you can acoustically intensify the distance from the action on screen as perceived by the audience. General plug-in controls • At 0 % the perception is very focused (concentrated in one spot). • At 100 % the perception is very diffuse (hard to locate). At the top left of the plug-in panel you will find a button to bypass the SurroundPanner V5. If this is activated, the panner attempts to route the input signals to the appropriate output channels (e. g.
Resetting all parameters [Alt]/[Option]-click the Reset button in the lower right corner of the plug-in panel to reset all controls to their default values. Constant power “What goes in, must come out again.” This principle can be taken literally with regard to the SurroundPanner V5. It means that the power of a source channel is identical to the power of the corresponding output signal.
19 Automation
Introduction In essence, automation means recording the values for a particular Mixer or effect parameter. When you create your final mix, you will not have to worry about having to adjust this particular parameter control yourself – Cubase will do it for you. Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data You can automation enable tracks and Mixer channels in Cubase by activating their automation Write buttons.
Ö You will also find global Read/Write buttons on the Automation panel, see “The Read/Write buttons” on page 235. 4. Disable Write. The Read button remains enabled. 5. Start playback. All actions you recorded will be reproduced exactly. Writing automation data There are two approaches you can use to create automation curves: manually (see “Manual writing of automation data” on page 229) and automatically (see “Automatic writing of automation data” on page 229).
6. When you release the mouse button, the number of automation events is reduced, but the basic shape of the curve remains the same. This “thinning out” of events is governed by the Reduction Level setting in the Automation Settings section of the Automation Preferences, see “Automation Settings” on page 241. 7. If you now activate playback, the automated parameter will change with the automation curve. In the Mixer, the corresponding fader moves accordingly. 8.
Editing in the automation track editor The automation track editor allows you to perform additional scaling operations for selection ranges on existing controller curves. The editor is automatically displayed when you drag a selection rectangle (with the Arrow tool) on a ramp type automation track. Editing mode To activate this mode… Description Stretch Click and drag in the lower part of the editor. This allows you to stretch the selected curve.
Automation track operations Assigning a parameter to an automation track Most of the tracks in your project have automation tracks, one for each automated parameter. Automation tracks are hidden by default. Default parameters are already assigned to automation tracks when you open them, according to their order in the Add Parameter list.
2. Select “More…”. The Add Parameter dialog opens. This dialog shows a list with all parameters that can be automated for the selected channel (sorted into different categories), including the parameters for any assigned insert effects. To view the parameters in a category, click the “+” sign for the corresponding category folder. Repeat the above procedure to assign all the parameters you want to automate to separate automation tracks. Ö Tempo changes cannot be automated on automation tracks.
Showing only used automation tracks The “Automation follows Events” setting If a lot of automation tracks are used, it may be impractical to have them all open in the track list. If you want to view only the automation tracks that are used (i. e.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) Automation modes Cubase provides three different punch out modes for automation, available on the upper part of the Automation panel and on the Automation Mode pop-up menu on the Project window toolbar. Selecting the automation mode on the Automation panel… The Automation panel is a floating window, similar to the Mixer and Transport panel, and can be left open while you work. The Project window will always have the focus.
Touch Typically, you use Touch mode in situations where you want to make a change lasting only a few seconds to an already set up parameter. As the name implies, Touch will write automation data only for as long as you actually touch a parameter control – punch out occurs as soon as you release the control. After punch out, the control will return to the previously set value.
When enabling Trim on the Automation panel, a trim curve is positioned in the exact middle position of your automation track. You can use the trim curve to modify the original automation curve. Just drag the trim curve up or down and add automation events to it. These increase or decrease the values of the original automation curve, but allow you to preserve the original data. Trim data is edited like any other automation data and it is stored with the project.
The following functions are available: 3. Move the fader until you have found the volume setting you need in the chorus and release the fader to punch out. Function Description Delete All Automation in Project This removes all automation data from your project. Delete Automation of Selected Tracks This removes all automation data for the selected track(s). Delete Automation in Range This deletes all automation data between the left and right locators on all tracks.
Loop To use the Loop option, you must first set up a loop range with the left and right locators. When you then select Loop, punching out will set the found value within the range defined by the left and right locator. • Combining “To Start” and “To End” will fill the automation track from the beginning to the end of the project. Feel free to experiment! One shot vs. continuous fill Fill combinations The Fill options can be used in two different ways: You can also combine the various Fill options.
The Suspend options • When an automation pass is in progress for a particular parameter and you write-suspend this parameter, it will punch out of the automation pass. The Show options The parameters or parameter groups selected here are excluded from the reading or writing of automation data – giving you full manual control of these parameters. Ö The “Others” options refer to all parameters not covered by Volume, Pan, Mute, EQ, Sends, or Inserts.
Automation Preferences Hints and further options If you click the button in the bottom left of the Automation panel, you open the Automation Preferences. These are divided into General and Automation Settings. Automation key commands In the Key Commands dialog (opened from the File menu in Cubase), in the Commands section on the left, you will find an Automation category which lists all automation commands to which you can assign key commands.
The following options are available: Proceed as follows: Option Description 1. On the MIDI menu, select “CC Automation Setup…”. Use Global Settings When this is selected, the automation track uses the “global” Automation Merge Mode specified in the MIDI Controller Automation Setup dialog, see below. A dialog opens. Replace 1 Part Range When this is selected, the part data has playback priority over the automation track data, i. e.
• In the table in the lower section of the dialog, you can specify the record destination and the Automation Merge Mode separately for all the available MIDI controllers. This gives you full control over the MIDI automation (destination as well as merge mode) in your project. 4. Click in the Record Destination column for a MIDI controller to open the pop-up menu where you can choose where you want recorded data of this particular MIDI Controller to end up. 5.
20 Audio processing and functions
Background Audio processing in Cubase can be called “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can always undo changes or revert to the original versions. This is possible because processing affects audio clips rather than the actual audio files, and because audio clips can refer to more than one audio file. This is how it works: If you attempt to process an event that is a shared copy (i. e.
Envelope The Preview, Process, and Cancel buttons These buttons have the following functionality: Button Description Preview Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the current settings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during Preview playback). You can make adjustments during Preview playback, but the changes are not applied until the start of the next “lap”.
Fade In and Fade Out Merge Clipboard For a description of these functions, see the chapter “Fades, crossfades and envelopes” on page 117. Gain This function mixes the audio from the clipboard into the audio selected for processing, starting at the beginning of the selection. ! Allows you to change the gain (level) of the selected audio. The dialog contains the following settings: For this function to be available, you need to have cut or copied a range of audio in the Sample Editor first.
Normalize Attack Time The time it takes for the gate to open fully after the audio level has exceeded the threshold level. Min. Opening Time This is the shortest time the gate will remain open. If you find that the gate opens and closes too often when processing material that varies rapidly in level, try raising this value. Release Time The time it takes for the gate to close fully after the audio level has dropped below the threshold level. Linked Channels This is available for stereo audio only.
Pitch Shift Volume/Amplitude Allows you to lower the volume of the pitch-shifted sound. Multi Shift When this is activated, you can add several transpose values, creating multi-part harmonies. This is done by adding intervals in the keyboard display (see above). Note that you cannot use the Preview function in Multi Shift mode. • If the intervals you add make up a standard chord, this chord is displayed to the right.
Using envelope based Pitch Shift Curve Kind These buttons determine whether the envelope curve consists of spline curve segments (left button), damped spline segments (middle button) or linear segments (right button). Spline curve segment envelope When the “Envelope” tab is selected, you can specify an envelope curve on which the pitch shift will be based. This allows you to create pitchbend effects, pitch-shift different sections of the audio by different amounts, etc.
Pitch Shift Mode Remove DC Offset These are the same parameters as on the Transpose tab, see “Algorithm Settings” on page 249. This function will remove any DC offset in the audio selection. A DC offset is when there is too large a DC (direct current) component in the signal, sometimes visible as the signal not being visually centered around the “zero level axis”.
Reverse Time Stretch Reverses the audio selection, as when playing a tape backwards. There are no parameters for this function. Silence Replaces the selection with silence. There are no parameters for this function. Stereo Flip This function allows you to change the length and “tempo” of the selected audio without affecting the pitch. The dialog contains the following parameters: Define Bars section This function works with stereo audio selections only.
Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) Resulting Length section These settings are used if you want to stretch the audio to fit within a specific time span or tempo. The values will change automatically if you adjust the Time Stretch Ratio (see below). Option Description Samples The desired length in samples. Seconds The desired length in seconds. BPM The desired tempo (beats per minute).
• If the lower section is hidden, click the “More…” button to display it. Clicking the button again (now labeled “Less…”) will hide the lower section. Process button Applies the effect and closes the dialog. Cancel button The following settings and functions are available in the common, lower section of the dialog: Closes the dialog without applying the effect.
The left part of the dialog contains a list of all processing you have added to the clip, with the most recent operations at the bottom of the list. The “Start” and “Length” columns indicate which section of the clip was affected by each operation. The “Status” column indicates if the operation can be modified or undone. 3. Locate the operation you want to edit and select it by clicking on it in the list. • To modify the settings of the selected processing, click the “Modify” button.
Detect Silence The Detect Silence function searches for silent sections in an event and either splits the event, removing the silent parts from the project, or creates regions corresponding to the non-silent sections. • To open the Detect Silence dialog, select one or several audio events in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor. On the Audio menu, open the Advanced submenu and select “Detect Silence”.
6. Click the Process button. Setting Description Min. time open Determines the minimum time that the function will remain “open” after the audio level has exceeded the Open Threshold value. If the audio contains repeated short sounds, and you find that this results in too many short “open” sections, try raising this value. Min. time closed Determines the minimum time that the function will remain “closed” after the audio level has dropped below the Close Threshold value.
The default values give good results in most situations, but you can adjust the settings if you like: Setting Description Min. Sets the lowest frequency shown in the graph. Option Description Max. Size in Samples The function divides the audio into “analysis blocks”, the size of which is set here. The larger this value, the higher the frequency resolution of the resulting spectrum. Sets the highest frequency shown in the graph.
Statistics About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms In Cubase, time stretching and pitch shifting algorithms are used for numerous operations (e. g. the Time Stretch and Pitch Shift offline processes, in the Sample Editor, or by the Flatten function). Depending on the feature, some or all of the following algorithm presets are available. élastique The élastique algorithm is suited for both polyphonic and monophonic material. The algorithm has three modes, and there are three presets for each mode.
Option Description Parameter Description MPEX – Poly Musical Use this for processing monophonic and polyphonic material. This is the recommended MPEX default quality setting. You can use this for drum loops, mixes, chords. Overlap Overlap is the percentage of the whole grain that will overlap with other grains. Use higher values for material with a stable sound character.
21 The Sample Editor
Window overview The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio by cutting and pasting, removing, or drawing audio data, and by processing audio (see the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 244). This editing is “non-destructive”: The actual file will remain untouched so that you can undo modifications or revert to the original settings at any time. The Sample Editor also contains most of the realtime time stretching functions in Cubase.
The toolbar Snap The toolbar contains various tools for selecting, manipulating and playing back audio, as well as options that affect the appearance and behavior of the Sample Editor. The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in the Sample Editor by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to certain grid positions. You turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap button in the Sample Editor toolbar.
The info line The AudioWarp tab Disable Warp Changes The info line is displayed below the toolbar. It shows information about the audio clip, such as the audio format and the selection range. Initially, length and position values are displayed in the format specified in the Project Setup dialog. For information about configuring the info line, see “Using the Setup options” on page 534.
The overview line The Hitpoints tab Event Start Selection Snap Point On this tab, hitpoints can be marked and edited (see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 276). Hitpoints allow you to slice your audio and to create groove quantize maps from your audio. You can also create markers, regions, events, and warp tabs based on hitpoints. Event End Viewing area The overview line displays the whole clip.
The waveform display and the level scale • Select the “Show Half Level Axis” option on the context menu of the waveform display, if you want the half level axes to be shown. Half-level axis The waveform display shows the waveform image of the edited audio clip according to the wave image style set in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page), see “Adjusting how parts and events are shown” on page 57.
Option Description Zoom to Event Zooms in so that the editor shows the section of the clip corresponding to the edited audio event. This is not available if you have opened the Sample Editor from the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened for editing, not an event). Zoom In/Out Vertically This is the same as using the vertical zoom slider (see above). Undo/Redo Zoom These options allow you to undo/redo the last zoom operation.
3. Drag to the left or right. The audio is played back. The speed and pitch of the playback depend on how fast you drag. To open a clip in the Sample Editor, double-click it in the Pool. After having set the snap point, you can insert the clip into the project from the Pool or the Sample Editor with the set snap point position. Adjusting the snap point The snap point is a marker within an audio event.
• The current selection is indicated in the corresponding fields on the Range tab of the Sample Editor Inspector. You can fine-tune the selection by changing these values. Note that the values are relative to the start of the clip, rather than to the project timeline. Using the Select menu On the Select menu on the Range tab and on the Select submenu of the Edit menu you find the following options: Option Description All Selects the whole clip.
Insert Silence Working with regions Selecting “Insert Silence” (on the Edit menu, on the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector, or on the Range submenu of the main Edit menu) inserts a silent section with the same length as the current selection, at the selection start. Regions are sections within a clip. One of the main uses for regions is Cycle recording, in which the different “takes” are stored as regions (see “Recording audio” on page 97).
Editing regions Creating audio events from regions The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the waveform display and the overview line. To create new audio events from regions using drag & drop, proceed as follows: 1. In the list, click on the region and keep the mouse button pressed. 2. Drag the region to the desired position in the project and release the mouse button. A new event is created.
Musical Mode Warping audio Musical Mode allows you to lock audio clips to the project tempo by using realtime time stretching. This is very useful if you want to use audio in your project without worrying too much about timing. Warping is a term used to describe the realtime time stretching of a selected section of audio. Warping is generally used to correct the tempo or timing of audio. If you want to use Musical Mode, verify that the length in bars corresponds to the audio file you imported.
4. Activate the Musical Mode button. 3. Select a range that is covering one or several bars. Your loop is warped and stretched automatically to adapt it to the project tempo. The rulers reflect the change. This selection should cover the section that you want to use in your project. The definition grid will be calculated for this section only. 4. Click the Auto Adjust button. The snap point is moved to the start of the selected range, which is now also the start position of the local definition grid.
Correcting the local definition grid In some situations, you might not be able to get satisfying results with the “Auto Adjust” function. In this case you can manually modify the grid and tempo of your audio file. Proceed as follows: 6. Click and drag the blue vertical line to the left or right to the position of the first downbeat in the second bar and release the mouse button. The beginning of the next bar is set, and all bar positions in the grid are adjusted so that the bars have the same length. 1.
10. Click and drag the grid line to align the single beat position with the waveform, and release the mouse button. 3. On the Algorithm pop-up menu on the toolbar select the algorithm preset that fits the audio material best. For details about the available options, see “Standard” on page 260. 4. Move the Swing fader to the right to offset every second position in the grid. This creates a swing or shuffle feel.
To correct the timing using the Free Warp tool, proceed as follows: 1. Open the audio file that you wish to process in the Sample Editor. • To change the insert position of a warp tab in the audio, click and drag the warp tab handle in the ruler. This will change the warping. 2. Activate the “Snap to Zero Crossing” button on the Sample Editor toolbar. When this button is activated, warp tabs will snap to zero crossings. 3.
When you have successfully detected the hitpoints for an audio file, you can do a number of useful things: • Change the tempo of the audio material without affecting the pitch and audio quality. • Extract the timing (a groove map) from a drum loop. The groove map can then be used to quantize other events, see “Create Groove Quantize Preset” on page 111. • Use slices to replace individual sounds in a drum loop. • Extract sounds from loops. You can further edit these slices in the Audio Part Editor.
Auditioning and hitpoints • You can audition the hitpoint slices (i. e. the area between two hitpoints) by pointing and clicking in any slice area. The pointer changes to a speaker icon and the corresponding slice is played back from the beginning to the end. Navigating between hitpoints • You can navigate between the slices using the arrow keys or by pressing the [Tab] key. • You can select the next or previous hitpoint marker using the Locate Next/Previous Hitpoint commands.
• To move a hitpoint, press [Alt]/[Option] and point the mouse at the vertical line of the hitpoint. The mouse pointer changes to a double arrow and the tooltip “Move Hitpoint” is shown. You can now drag the hitpoint to its new position. Moved hitpoints are locked by default. Slicing audio Once you have set up the hitpoints as needed, you can slice the audio by clicking the Create Slices button on the Hitpoints tab.
Slicing multi-track drum recordings Create Warp Tabs If you have a multi-track drum recording that you want to quantize using hitpoints, you can put all the tracks belonging to the recording in an edit group, calculate the hitpoints for the relevant tracks (e. g. Kick, Snare, and Hihats), and use the “Divide Audio Events at Hitpoints” command on the Audio menu (Hitpoints submenu) to slice all tracks of the recording at once.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Understanding the waveform display in VariAudio With the AudioWarp features, editing audio in the time domain has become significantly easier. However, editing pitch was limited to having just one single numeric “transpose” value per event or part. VariAudio offers completely integrated vocal editing and pitch alteration of individual notes in monophonic vocal recordings and can solve intonation and timing problems with only a few mouse clicks.
The vertical position of a segment indicates its average pitch. If the Pitch & Warp tool is active and you move the mouse pointer over a segment, a piano keyboard is displayed, showing the found pitches. The average pitch of a segment is calculated from its micropitch curve. Micro-pitch curves represent the progression of the pitch for the tonal portion of the audio. Micro-pitch curves If you move the mouse over a segment… …a piano keyboard is shown in the waveform.
• Cut, paste, and delete (see “Editing selection ranges” on page 269), or drawing notes (see “Drawing in the Sample Editor” on page 268). ! Because of the reanalysis any existing VariAudio data becomes invalid. Therefore, you should always apply offline processing or edits before using the VariAudio features. If you apply editing that affects the audio itself (like cutting portions, etc.
3. Click at the desired position to cut the segment. Changing the note start or end point If you find that a note starts or ends too early or too late, e. g. when the reverb of a note or a consonant is not included in the segment, proceed as follows: The segment is cut accordingly taking Snap into account. ! 1. On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2. To change the length of a segment, move the mouse pointer over the start/end of the segment.
Moving segments horizontally Pitch & Warp tool After cutting a segment it may be necessary to move segments horizontally, for example, if you notice that a note is at the wrong position. Proceed as follows: If you activate the Pitch & Warp tool on the VariAudio tab, you can change the pitch and the timing of your audio. ! 1. On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2. Move the mouse pointer over the upper border of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a double arrow. 3.
There are three different modes that affect the way in which a note will snap to a certain pitch that can be accessed using the following modifier keys: Quantize Pitch You can also quantize the audio pitch upwards or downwards to iteratively reduce the deviation from the nearest semitone position. Option Description Default modifier Absolute Pitch Snapping Pitches the segment to the next semitone.
If you want to change the pitch modulation only for the segment start or end, you can set an “anchor point” to specify which part of the segment is affected. Proceed as follows: • If you want to remove a tilt anchor from a segment, hold down [Alt]/[Option], position the mouse pointer at the top border of the segment until it turns to a glue tube, and click. The tilt anchor is deleted. 1. Move the mouse pointer over the top border of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes an I-beam symbol. 2.
MIDI Input You can change the pitch on the fly by selecting the segment you want to change and pressing a key on your MIDI keyboard or using the Virtual Keyboard (see “The Virtual Keyboard” on page 88). • In Step mode you can step through the segments by selecting the first segment that you would like to change and pressing a MIDI key. The next segment will automatically be selected afterwards. This allows you to work in a more creative way, for example, to develop completely new melody lines via MIDI.
3. Drag the start/end of the segment to the desired position. Editing Warp tabs If the Snap button is activated, the segment border will snap to the grid. When you drag the segment border, warp tabs are shown not only at the border but also at the adjacent segment borders to indicate which portions of the audio are stretched/affected. In some cases the beginning of the waveform does not correspond to the beginning of a segment, e. g.
Now the beginning of the segment matches the beginning of the bar, but we want the beginning of the waveform to match the beginning of the bar: 3. Point at the warp handle displayed in the ruler so that it turns into a double arrow and drag it to the beginning of the waveform. The background is displayed in orange to indicate which part of the waveform is affected by the change.
• You can disable your warp modifications by clicking the Disable Warp Changes button on the AudioWarp tab or by setting up and using the “VariAudio – Disable Warp Changes” key command in the Key Commands dialog, Sample Editor category (see “Key commands” on page 541). The following options are available: Option Description Just Notes and No Pitchbend Data Only notes are included in the MIDI part. Notes and Static Pitchbend Data A pitchbend event is created for each segment.
The following options are available: Proceed as follows: Option Description 1. Select the audio events that you want to process. First Selected Track The MIDI part will be placed on the first selected MIDI or instrument track. Note that any MIDI parts from previous extractions that are on this track will be deleted. 2. On the Audio menu, open the Realtime Processing submenu and select the Flatten command. New MIDI Track A new MIDI track will be created for the MIDI part.
Selecting an algorithm for the flattening When you flatten the realtime processing, you can use the MPEX 4 algorithm or the Realtime algorithm to process the audio. The MPEX 4 algorithm may produce better sound quality than the realtime processing. The Realtime algorithm corresponds to the algorithm preset selected on the Sample Editor toolbar. For a detailed description of the available presets, see “About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms” on page 259.
22 The Audio Part Editor
Background Window overview The Audio Part Editor allows you to view and edit the events inside audio parts. Essentially, this is the same type of editing that you do in the Project window, which means that this chapter contains a lot of references to the chapter “Working with projects” on page 48. Audio parts are created in the Project window in one of the following ways: • By selecting one or several audio events on the same track, and selecting “Events to Part” from the Audio menu.
About lanes Auditioning If you make the editor window larger, this will reveal additional space below the edited events. This is because an audio part is divided vertically in lanes. There are several ways to listen to the events in the Audio Part Editor: By using the Speaker tool If you click somewhere in the editor’s event display with the Speaker tool and keep the mouse button pressed, the part will be played back from the position where you clicked.
Ö The Audio Part Editor also supports the key commands “Preview start” and “Preview stop” in the Media category of the Key Commands dialog. These key commands stop the current playback, no matter if you are in normal playback or in audition mode. Handling several parts The independent track loop function Therefore, the toolbar features a few functions to make working with multiple parts easier and more comprehensive: The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the edited part.
• It is possible to cycle between parts, making them active using key commands. In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, there are two functions: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key commands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts. See “Setting up key commands” on page 542 for instructions on how to set up key commands.
23 The Pool
Background • By using a key command – by default [Ctrl]/[Command][P]. Every time you record on an audio track, a file is created on your hard disk. A reference to this file – a clip – is also added to the Pool. Two general rules apply to the Pool: The content of the Pool is divided into the following main folders: • The Audio folder • All audio and video clips that belong to a project are listed in the Pool. This contains all audio clips and regions currently in the project.
• External Files – the number of files in the Pool that do not reside in the project folder (e. g. video files) The Pool window columns Various information about the clips and regions can be viewed in the Pool window columns. The columns contain the following information: Column Description Media This column contains the Audio, Video and Trash folders. If the folders are opened, the clip or region names are shown and can be edited. This column is always shown.
• You can rearrange the order of the columns by clicking on a column heading and dragging the column to the left or right. The mouse pointer changes to a hand when you place it on the column heading. Inserting clips into a project To insert a clip into a project, you can either use the Insert commands on the Media menu or use drag and drop. Using menu commands • The width of a column can also be adjusted by placing the pointer between two column headers and dragging left or right.
Deleting clips Removing unused clips Removing clips from the Pool To remove a clip from the Pool without deleting it from the hard disk, proceed as follows: This function finds all clips in the Pool that are not used in the project. You can then decide whether to move them to the Trash folder (from where they can be permanently deleted) or to remove them from the Pool: 1. Select the clip(s) and select “Delete” from the Edit menu (or press [Backspace] or [Delete]). 1.
Searching for audio files Extended Search functionality The search functions can help you locate audio files in the Pool, on your hard disk or on other media. This works much like the regular file search, but with a couple of extra features: Apart from the search criterion Name, additional search filters are available. The Extended Search options allows for a very detailed search, helping you to master even the largest sound database. 1. Click the Search button on the toolbar.
5. If you want to display more search options, select the desired element from the “Add filter” submenu. This allows you, for example, to add the Size or the Sample Rate parameters to the already displayed Name and Location parameters. Locate missing files 1. Select “Find Missing Files…” from the Media or context menu. The Resolve Missing Files dialog opens. • You can save presets of your search filter settings. To do this, click Save Preset on the Presets submenu and enter a name for the preset.
Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Pool and locate the clip(s) for which files are missing. 2. Check the Status column – if it says “Reconstructible”, the file can be reconstructed by Cubase. 3. Select the reconstructible clips and select “Reconstruct” from the Media menu. The editing is performed and the edit files are recreated. Removing missing files from the Pool If the Pool contains audio files that cannot be found or reconstructed, you may want to remove these.
They may have the following characteristics: • Split channels/Split multi-channel files • Stereo or mono • Any sample rate (although files with another sample rate than the one used in the project will play back at the wrong speed and pitch – see below). • 8, 16, 24 bit or 32 bit float resolution. Various video formats can be imported. For information about the supported video formats, see “Video file compatibility” on page 510.
Changing the Pool Record folder Applying processing to clips in the Pool All audio clips that you record in the project will end up in the Pool Record folder. The Pool Record folder is indicated by the text “Record” in the Status column and by a red dot on the folder itself. You can apply audio processing to clips from within the Pool in the same way as to events in the Project window. Simply select the clip(s) and choose a processing method from the Audio menu.
3. After the minimizing is finished, another alert appears, because the file references in the stored project have become invalid. Click Save Now to save the updated project or click Later to proceed with the unsaved project. Only the audio portions actually used in the project remain in the corresponding audio file(s) in the Pool Record folder. Save Library Opens a file dialog for saving the library file (file extension “.npl”).
Option Description Replace Files Converts the original file without changing clip references. The references are however saved with the next save action. New + Replace in Pool Creates a new copy with the chosen attributes, replaces the original file with the new one in the Pool and redirects the current clip references from the original file to the new file. This is the option to select if you want your audio clips to refer to the converted file, but still want to keep the original file on disk (e. g.
24 The MediaBay
Introduction One of the biggest challenges in typical computer-based music production environments is how to manage the evergrowing number of plug-ins, instruments, presets, etc. from multiple sources. Cubase features an efficient database for media file management that allows you to handle all your media files from within your sequencer program.
Proceed as follows: 1. Click the “Set up Window Layout” button in the lower left corner of the MediaBay window. A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a gray area containing checkboxes for the different sections. 2. Deactivate the checkboxes for the sections you want to hide from view. Any changes you make here are directly reflected in the MediaBay window. Note that the Results list cannot be hidden.
The Define Locations section • To revert to scanning a complete folder (including all subfolders), click on an orange checkmark. The checkmark becomes white, to indicate that all folders are scanned. The scanning status for the individual folders themselves is indicated by the color of the folder icons: • A red icon means that the folder is currently being scanned. • A light blue icon means the folder has been scanned. • A dark blue icon is displayed for folders which are excluded from the scan.
Updating the display To define a location, proceed as follows: You can update the display in two ways: by rescanning or by refreshing. 1. In the list to the left, select the desired folder. Rescanning A naming dialog for the new location is displayed. When you click the Rescan button, the selected folder is rescanned. If a folder contains a large number of media files, the scanning process may take some time.
• To select the parent folder of the selected folder, click the “Browse Containing Folder” button. • To remove a location from the pop-up menu, select it and click the “Remove Browse Location Definition” button. • To show the files contained in the selected folder and any subfolders (without showing these subfolders), activate the Deep Results button. When this button is deactivated, only the folders and files contained in the selected folder are shown.
Click here to open the pop-up menu. Option Description Pattern Banks When this is activated, the list shows all pattern banks (file name extension .patternbank). Pattern banks are generated by the MIDI plug-in Beat Designer. For more information, see “Previewing pattern banks” on page 320 and the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. Track Presets When this is activated, the list shows all track presets for audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks (file name extension .trackpreset).
The rating slider Similarly, if you double-click on a track preset, it will be applied to the active track, if the track type matches the track preset. Otherwise, a new track will be inserted, containing the settings of the track preset. With this setting, only files with a rating of at least 2 are displayed. Using the rating slider above the Results list, you can specify rating settings for your files, ranging from 1 to 5.
Previewing MIDI files The elements visible in this section and their functions depend on the type of media file. ! Transport controls Output The Previewer section is not available for video files, project files, and audio track presets. Previewing audio files Transport controls Preview level Auto Play New Results Selection Align Beats to Project To preview a MIDI file (.mid), you first have to select an output device from the Output pop-up menu.
Previewing presets using a MIDI file Previewing presets via the computer keyboard Proceed as follows: Proceed as follows: 1. On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select “Load MIDI File”. 1. Activate the “Computer Keyboard Input” button. 2. In the file dialog that opens, navigate to the desired MIDI file, and click Open. The keyboard display in the Previewer section works in the same way as the Virtual Keyboard, see “The Virtual Keyboard” on page 88.
• “Auto Play New Results Selection” works as for audio files, see above. The following options are available: Option Description contains The search result must contain the text or number specified in the text field to the right. omits The search result must not contain the text or number specified in the text field to the right. equals The search result must correspond exactly to the text or number specified in the text field to the right, including any file extension.
Applying an attribute filter Advanced text search You can also perform very advanced text searches using boolean operators. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the desired location. 2. Activate Logical filtering by clicking on the Logical button at the top of the Filters section. A condition line appears. 3. Select the desired attribute on the Attributes pop-up menu, or leave the setting on “Any Attribute”. 4. Make sure that the condition is set to “matches”. 5.
• Selected attribute values in the same column form an OR condition. The Attribute Inspector This means that files must be tagged according to either one or the other attribute value to be displayed in the Results list. Attributes (or “tags”) for media files are sets of metadata providing additional information on the file. When you have selected one or more files in the Results list, the Attribute Inspector shows a two-column list of attributes and their values.
• Click the Defined button to show a configured set of attributes for the selected media type. In this mode, you can choose which attributes are displayed (regardless of whether corresponding values are available for the selected files). For more information on how to set up the list of displayed attributes, see “Managing the attribute lists” on page 326.
About the color scheme used in the Attribute Inspector The colors used for the displayed values in the Attribute Inspector have the following meaning: Color Description White This represents a “normal” attribute: One or more files are selected in the Results list, and they have the same values. Yellow Yellow color stands for an “ambiguous” attribute: Multiple files are selected in the Results list, and their values differ.
• You can change the write-protection status of your media files, provided that the file type allows write operations and you have the necessary operation system permissions: To set or remove the write protection attribute for a file, simply select the file in the Results list and select “Set/Remove Write Protection” from the context menu. • You can also select several attributes and activate/deactivate their checkboxes in one go.
5. Click OK. The new attribute is added to the list of available attributes and will be displayed in the Attribute Inspector and the Results list. • To remove a user attribute, select it in the attribute list and click the “Remove User Attribute” button (the “-” sign). • A transparent pane appears, covering the window. In the center of it is a gray area where the available preferences for the Locations section and the Results list are displayed. The attribute is removed from any attribute list.
Option Description Show File Extensions in Results List When this is activated, file name extensions (e. g. .wav or .cpr) are displayed in the Results list. Scan unknown File Types When scanning for media files, the MediaBay ignores files with an unknown file extension. However, when this option is activated, the MediaBay tries to open and scan any file in the search location and ignores those files that cannot be recognized.
The Presets browser opens: Presets and programs have the following icons: Icon Description This preset contains settings for all loaded programs. This program only contains settings for the first or the selected instrument slot. Working with Volume databases Applying instrument presets When working with VST instruments, you can choose from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu.
Creating a volume database Removing volume databases To create a separate volume database file for a drive, proceed as follows: When you have worked on another computer using an external hard disk and return to your own computer and connect the external device again as part of your system setup, you do not need a separate volume database for it any more. Any data on this drive can then be included in the local database file again, by removing the extra database file. 1.
25 Working with track presets
Introduction Instrument track presets Track presets are templates from audio, MIDI or instrument tracks that can be applied to newly created or existing tracks of the same type. They contain sound and channel settings, and allow you to quickly browse, preview, select and change sounds, or reuse channel settings across projects. Track presets are organized in the MediaBay (see the chapter “The MediaBay” on page 311), where you can categorize them with attributes.
Applying track presets Multi-track presets You can use multi-track presets, for example, when recording setups that require several microphones (a drum set or a choir, where you always record under the same conditions) and you have to edit the resulting tracks in a similar way. Furthermore, they can be used when working with layered tracks, where you use several tracks to generate a certain sound instead of manipulating only one track.
Ö You can also drag and drop track presets from the Windows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder, but in this case, no preview for track presets is possible. Loading track or VST presets in the Inspector or the context menu of the track 1. In the Project window, select a track. 2. Click in the Load Track Preset field at the top of the Inspector (above the track name) or right-click the track in the track list and select “Load Track Preset”. The Presets browser opens. Applying a multi-track preset 1.
Extracting sound from an instrument track or VST preset For instrument tracks, you can extract the “sound” of an instrument track preset or VST preset, that means the VST instrument and its settings. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the instrument track to which you want to apply a sound. 2. Click the VST Sound button below the Output Routing field in the Inspector. The Presets browser opens, showing a list of all available presets. 3. Select an instrument track preset or VST preset by double-clicking on it.
In the MediaBay, all presets are available under the (virtual) VST Sound node, see “The VST Sound node” on page 314. Ö If you want to use a MIDI track preset for a pre-configured VST instrument setup, load the VST instrument(s) in the VST Instruments window, select a VST instrument patch, save the track preset, and do not change the patch afterwards.
26 Track Quick Controls
Introduction Cubase can give you instant access to up to eight different parameters (e. g. track, effect, or instrument controls). This is done with the aid of the so-called quick controls, set up on the Quick Controls Inspector tab for the corresponding track. The Quick Controls tab can be used as a kind of track control center, an area in which your most important parameters are assembled in one place.
Manual assignment via the Inspector tab Removing parameter assignments Proceed as follows to manually assign track parameters: • To remove a parameter from a slot, double-click the parameter name to select it and press the [Delete] or [Backspace] key. Confirm by pressing [Return]. 1. On the Quick Controls tab, click on the first quick control slot. A pop-up menu opens. It lists all parameters currently accessible for this particular track.
This will open the Quick Controls section on the right of the dialog: The remote controller setup for quick controls is saved globally, i. e. independent of any projects. If you have various remote controllers, you can store and load several quick control setups using the Export and Import buttons. Quick controls and automatable parameters 3.
4. Now assign a parameter of one particular channel to quick control 1, and another parameter of another channel to quick control 2. The Quick Controls tab has become a “secondary” mixer, dedicated to quick-controlling parameters on other tracks. ! Quick controls that are assigned that way cannot work when saved as track presets.
27 Remote controlling Cubase
Introduction Selecting a remote device It is possible to control Cubase via MIDI. A large number of MIDI control devices is supported. This chapter describes how to set up Cubase for remote control. The supported devices are described in the separate PDF document “Remote Control Devices”. 1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu. 2. If you cannot find the remote device you are looking for, click on the plus sign in the top left corner and select the device from the pop-up menu.
• In the Project window (track list) and the Mixer (bottom of channel strips) you will now see white stripes indicating which channels are currently linked to the remote control device. Audio 10 can be remote controlled, while Audio 11 is not linked to the remote control device. ! Sometimes communication between Cubase and a remote device is interrupted or the handshaking protocol fails to create a connection.
The Generic Remote device • Click “Reset” to revert to the default settings. The selected function is now assigned to the button or control on the remote device. A note about remote controlling MIDI tracks While most remote control devices will be able to control both MIDI and audio channels in Cubase, the parameter setup may be different. For example, audio-specific controls (such as EQ) will be disregarded when controlling MIDI channels.
5. Use the pop-up menu to the right to select a bank. Banks are combinations of a certain number of channels, and are used because most MIDI devices can control only a limited number of channels at a time (often 8 or 16). For example, if your MIDI control device has 16 volume faders, and you are using 32 Mixer channels in Cubase, you would need two banks of 16 channels each. When the first bank is selected you can control channel 1 to 16; when the second Bank is selected you can control channel 17 to 32.
8. If necessary, make settings for another bank. Note that you only need to make settings in the bottom table for this bank. The table at the top is already set up according to the MIDI remote device. • If necessary, you can add banks by clicking the Add button below the Bank pop-up menu. Clicking the Rename button allows you to assign a new name to the currently selected bank, and you can remove an unneeded bank by selecting it and clicking the Delete button. 9.
28 MIDI realtime parameters and effects
Introduction For each MIDI track, you can set up a number of track parameters, or modifiers, and MIDI effects. These affect how the MIDI data is played back, “transforming” MIDI events in realtime before they are sent to the MIDI outputs. On the following pages, the available parameters and effects are described. Keep in mind: • The actual MIDI events will not be affected – the changes happen “on the fly”.
Parameter Description Expression Map section (Cubase only) Monitor button When this is activated (and the “MIDI Thru Active” option is activated in the Preferences dialog, MIDI page), incoming MIDI will be routed to the selected MIDI output. Toggle Time Base button Switches between musical (tempo related) and linear (time related) time base for the track, see “Defining the track time base” on page 74.
• You can also transpose individual MIDI parts using the Transpose field in the info line. The transposition in the info line (for the individual part) is added to the transpose value you have set up for the whole track in the Inspector. Ö This setting is also affected by the global Transpose settings. For detailed information, see the chapter “The transpose functions” on page 131. Velocity Shift This setting lets you change the dynamics of all notes on the track.
• To deactivate the Random function, pull down the Random pop-up menu(s) and select “OFF”. Range The Range function lets you specify a note (pitch) or velocity range and either force all notes to fit within this range, or exclude all notes outside this range from playback. As with the Random function, there are two separate Range settings. Set them up as follows: 1. Pull down the Range pop-up menu and select one of the following four modes: Mode Description Vel.
Quick Controls section MIDI Inserts section This allows you to configure quick controls, e. g. to use remote devices. See the chapter “Track Quick Controls” on page 337 for details. MIDI effects Cubase comes with a number of MIDI effect plug-ins, capable of transforming the MIDI output from a track in various ways. Just like the MIDI modifiers, MIDI effects are applied in realtime to the MIDI data played back from the track (or to MIDI you play live “thru” the track).
About presets MIDI Sends section Several of the MIDI plug-ins come with a number of presets for instant use. MIDI In and Out activity indicators Save and Remove Preset buttons This allows you to add up to four MIDI send effects. Unlike audio send effects, you can select and activate send effects individually for each track. The section contains the following items: • To load a preset, select it from the Presets pop-up menu.
3. Click in one of the insert slots to open the MIDI effect pop-up menu. 4. Select the desired MIDI effect from the pop-up menu. The effect is automatically activated (the power button for the insert slot lights up) and its control panel appears, either in a separate window or in the MIDI Inserts section below the slot (depending on the effect). Now all MIDI from the track will be routed through the effect. 5. Use the control panel to make settings for the effect.
29 Using MIDI devices
Background The MIDI Device Manager allows you to specify and set up your MIDI devices, making global control and patch selection easy. But the MIDI Device Manager also features powerful editing functions that can be used to create MIDI device panels (Cubase only). MIDI device panels are internal representations of external MIDI hardware, complete with graphics.
Defining a new MIDI device Cubase Artist: List of connected MIDI devices. The first time you open the MIDI Device Manager, this list will be empty. Use these buttons to install/remove devices. Here you specify to which MIDI output the selected device is connected. If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-configured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you need to define it manually to make it possible to select patches by name.
Installing a preset MIDI device • You can rename a device in the Installed Devices list by double-clicking and typing – this is useful if you have several devices of the same model, and want to separate them by name instead of by number. To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows: 1. Click the Install Device button. A dialog opens listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we assume that your MIDI device is included in this list. 2. Locate and select the device in the list and click OK.
Limitations Renaming patches in a device There is no easy way to import a patch name script into an existing MIDI device. For a complex workaround based on XML editing, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”. The pre-configured devices list is based on the factorypreset patches, i.e. the patches included in the device when you first bought it.
The Commands pop-up menu contains the following items: Create Bank • To remove an event, select it and press [Delete] or [Backspace]. ! Creates a new bank at the highest hierarchical level of the Patch Banks list. You can rename this by clicking on it and typing a new name. New Folder Creates a new subfolder in the selected bank or folder. This could correspond to a group of patches in the MIDI device, or just be a way for you to categorize sounds, etc.
3. Specify a Default Name below the event display. The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can rename presets manually in the Patch Banks list later. 4. Click OK. A number of new presets have now been added to the selected bank or folder, according to your settings. Device panels in the program In this section we will take a look at a pre-configured MIDI device panel to illustrate how it can be used in Cubase.
6. Select the correct MIDI output from the Output popup menu, select the device in the list and click the Open Device button. The device control panel opens in a separate window. The Edit (“e”) button at the top opens the Edit Panel window, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”. Showing panels in the Inspector 1. In the Inspector, open the User Panel tab and click on the arrow on the right. A “Panels” folder is shown with the selected device in a node structure below it.
Showing panels in the Mixer 1. Open the Mixer and make sure that the extended channel view is shown. If you click in the name field, all parameters in the device are shown and can be selected for automation. 2. Open the View options pop-up menu for the MIDI channel connected to the device and select “User Panel”. 3. Click the arrow next to the label “user” at the top of the extended section of the channel strip. The Panels folder is displayed like in the Inspector, but with different available panels.
If you have an SM2 component installed, there is an additional menu item on the Devices menu. This dialog can also be opened any time from the Studio Manager’s Synchronize menu. Click OK for the Dump to start. Virtual MIDI Devices If you have a new OPT component (e. g. the DM2000) which uses a new special interface, you can access these components as virtual MIDI Devices in the MIDI track’s output routing (if the output of the OPT is configured).
30 MIDI processing
Introduction This chapter describes the various MIDI processing functions available on the MIDI menu. They offer various ways to edit MIDI notes and other events, either in the Project window or from within a MIDI editor. MIDI functions vs. MIDI modifiers • In the Project window, the MIDI functions apply to all selected parts, affecting all events (of the relevant types) in them. • In the MIDI editors, the MIDI functions apply to all selected events.
Use Range When this is activated, transposed notes will remain within the limit that you specify with the Low and High values. If a note would end up outside this limit after transposition, it is shifted to another octave, keeping the correct transposed pitch if possible. If the range between the upper and lower limit is very narrow, the note will be transposed “as far as possible”, i. e. to notes specified with the Low and High values.
Applying effects to a single part Dissolving parts into separate channels Normally, the MIDI modifiers and effects affect a whole MIDI track. This may not always be what you want. For example, you may want to apply some MIDI effects to a single part (without having to create a separate track for that part only).
An example: This is useful when working with drums for example, as it allows you to split up a part into different drum sounds and edit these independently. When you have made the desired modifications, you can reassemble all your drums into one part using the Bounce MIDI command, see below. This part contains events on MIDI channels 1, 2, and 3. This option is especially handy when working with instrument parts on instrument tracks.
Other MIDI functions Delete Doubles The following items can be found on the Functions submenu of the MIDI menu: Legato Extends each selected note so that it reaches the next note. This function removes double notes, i. e. notes of the same pitch on the exact same position from the selected MIDI parts. Double notes can occur when recording in Cycle mode, after Quantizing, etc. Delete Controllers This function removes all MIDI controllers from the selected MIDI parts.
• The graphical length display can correspond to 1/4 bar, one bar, two bars or four bars. You change this setting by clicking in the field to the right of the display. In this case, the whole length display corresponds to two bars, and the Minimum Length is set to 32nd notes (60 ticks). Delete Overlaps (mono) This function allows you to make sure that no notes of the same pitch overlap (i. e. that one starts before the other ends).
• To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ratio values above 100 %. Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/ Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the middle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0), expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only be between 0 and 127! This function can only be used for continuous controllers.
31 The MIDI editors
Introduction There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase. You can use the tools and functions in the Project window for largescale editing, or the functions on the MIDI menu to process MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is affected by the MIDI functions?” on page 367). For hands-on graphical editing of the contents of MIDI parts, you use the MIDI editors: • The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting notes graphically in an intuitive piano roll-style grid.
Handling several parts When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI track containing several parts) selected, the editor contains a few functions that make working with multiple parts easier and more comprehensive: • The “Show Part Borders” button on the toolbar lets you see clearly defined borders for the active part. When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, making the borders easily discernible.
The Key Editor – Overview Toolbar Status line Info line Ruler Inspector Note display Controller display The toolbar Option Description The toolbar contains tools and various settings for the Key Editor. The following toolbar elements are available: Nudge Palette The Nudge buttons allow you to move or trim elements in the editor, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 384.
The status line The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Key Editor. At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two additional items: It displays the following information: Option Description Mouse Time Position This displays the exact time position of the mouse pointer, in the format selected for the ruler, allowing you to perform editing or to insert notes at exact positions.
The Transpose section The Transpose section allows you to access the main parameters for transposing MIDI events. These can also be found in the Transpose dialog, see “Transpose” on page 367. The Length section The Length section contains the length-related options from the Functions submenu of the MIDI menu (see “Other MIDI functions” on page 371) as well as a Length/Legato slider.
For a description of editing in the controller display, see “Using the controller display” on page 388. • By default, the Trim tool will cut off the end of notes. To trim the beginning of the note(s), press [Alt]/[Option] while dragging. Key Editor operations • If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or end time for all edited notes.
The independent track loop Acoustic Feedback The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the MIDI part being edited. When the loop is activated, the MIDI events within the loop will be repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) will be played back as usual. The only “interaction” between the loop and the “regular playback” is that every time the cycle starts over again, so does the loop.
Coloring notes and events Creating and editing notes By using the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can select a color scheme for the events in the editor. The following options are available: To draw in new notes in the Key Editor, use the Pencil tool or the Line tool. Option Description Velocity The notes get different colors depending on their velocity values. Pitch The notes get different colors depending on their pitch.
Ö To determine another mode for the Line tool you can click on the Line tool and click again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the desired option. • Selecting a predefined velocity value from the Insert Velocity pop-up menu. The menu contains five different predefined velocity values. The “Setup…” item opens a dialog that allows you to specify which five velocity values are available on the pop-up menu. (This dialog can also be opened by selecting “Insert Velocities…” from the MIDI menu.
Option Description Equal Pitch – same Octave As above, but selects notes of the exact same pitch only (same octave). Select Controllers in Note Range Selects the MIDI controller data within range of the selected notes, see below. • To step from one note to another, use the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard. If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection will be kept, allowing you to select several notes.
Ö When you move selected notes to a different position, any selected controllers for these notes will move accordingly. For further information, see also “Moving events” on page 392. Ö You can also adjust the position of notes by quantizing (see “Quantizing MIDI and audio” on page 108). • “Paste Time” inserts at the project cursor position, but moves (and if necessary, splits) existing notes to make room for the pasted notes.
• To unmute a note, either click it or enclose it with the Mute tool, or select it and choose Unmute from the Edit menu. Splitting notes There are three ways to split notes: • Clicking on a note with the Scissors tool splits the note at the position you pointed (taking the Snap setting into account if activated). The default key command for this is [Shift]-[U]. If several notes are selected, they are all split at the same position.
How the Key Editor handles drum maps When a drum map is assigned to a MIDI or instrument track (see “Working with drum maps” on page 400), the Key Editor will display the drum sound names as defined by the drum map.
3. Use the note buttons on the toolbar to decide which properties are changed by the MIDI input. 4. Specify the desired note spacing and length with the Quantize and Length Quantize pop-up menus. You can enable editing of pitch, note-on and/or note-off velocity. The notes you input will be positioned according to the Quantize value and have the length set with the Length Quantize value.
Each MIDI track has its own controller lane setup (number of lanes and selected event types). When you create new tracks, they get the controller lane setup used last. Selecting the event type Each controller lane shows one event type at a time. To select which type is displayed, use the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up menu to the left of the lane.
3. Click OK. ! The MIDI Controller Setup dialog can be opened from different areas in the program. The settings are global, i. e. the setup you choose here affects all areas of the program where MIDI controllers can be selected. Controller lane presets All controller values can be edited with the Pencil or the Line tool. If you have selected more than one controller event on a controller lane, the controller lane editor is displayed, see “Working with selection ranges” on page 395.
• Clicking and dragging with the Line tool in Line mode allows you to create events in a straight line. This is the best way to draw linear controller ramps. Converting a controller curve to a ramp using the Line tool. Ö In Line and Parabola modes, the Length Quantize value determines the “density” of created controller curves (if Snap is activated). For very smooth curves, use a small Length Quantize value or turn off Snap.
Moving events Deleting events in the controller display You can move events in a controller lane, much like you can with notes: You delete events by clicking on them with the Erase tool or by selecting them and pressing [Backspace]. Deleting a controller event makes the last event before this valid up until the next event. It does not “zero” any controller changes. 1. Click with the Arrow tool to select the events that you want move or copy.
• If conflicting controller data exists in two different places, you can specify what will happen on playback by making settings for the Automation Merge Mode (see “Merging automation data” on page 241). The resulting curve is displayed in addition to the curve you entered on the controller lane. Controller curve entered on the controller lane • You can use the Pencil tool or the Line tool in Paint mode to change the velocity values of several notes by painting a “freehand curve”.
• The remaining three Line tool modes (Sine, Triangle and Square) align the velocity values to continuous curve shapes. If there is more than one note at the same position (e. g. a chord), their velocity bars will overlap on the controller lane. If none of the notes are selected, all notes at the same position will be set to the same velocity value when you draw. To edit the velocity of only one of the notes at the same position, first select the note in the note display.
To add a new Poly Pressure event, proceed as follows: 1. Select Poly Pressure on the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up menu. 2. Set the note number by clicking on the keyboard display. The selected note number is displayed in the upper value field to the left of the controller display. Note that this only works for the topmost lane.
Ö If you hold down [Shift] while clicking on any of the smart spots, you get the vertical scaling mode. • To move the whole selection up/down or left/right, click on a controller event inside the editor and drag the curve. By pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] when clicking and dragging, you can restrict the direction to horizontal or vertical movement, depending on the direction in which you start dragging. Ö Snap is taken into account when moving controller curves horizontally.
The Drum Editor – Overview Toolbar Status line Info line Ruler Inspector Note display Drum sound list Drum map Controller display The toolbar, status line, info line, and Inspector The drum sound list These are much the same as the toolbar, status line, info line, and Inspector in the Key Editor (see “The Key Editor – Overview” on page 377), with the following differences: The drum sound list lists all drum sounds by name (according to the selected drum map or name list – see below), and lets you adju
Drum map and names pop-up menus Column Description Mute Allows you to mute a drum sound, excluding it from playback, see “Muting notes and drum sounds” on page 399. I-Note This is the “input note” for the drum sound. When this MIDI note is sent into Cubase, (i. e. played by you), the note is mapped to the corresponding drum sound (and automatically transposed according to the Pitch setting for the sound). O-Note This is the “output note”, i. e.
The position of the created note depends on the following factors: • If Snap is deactivated on the toolbar, the note appears exactly where you clicked. In this mode, notes can be positioned freely. • If Snap is activated and Use Global Quantize is deactivated on the toolbar, the note snaps to positions according to the quantize value set for the sound in the drum sound list. You can set up different quantize values for different drum sounds.
Working with drum maps Background A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of different drum sounds with each sound placed on a separate key (i. e. the different sounds are assigned to different MIDI note numbers). One key plays a bass drum sound, another a snare, and so on. Unfortunately, different MIDI instruments often use different key assignments. This can be troublesome if you have made a drum pattern using one MIDI device, and then want to try it on another.
For example, you may want to place some drum sounds near each other on the keyboard so that they can be easily played together, move sounds so that the most important sounds can be played from a short keyboard, play a sound from a black key instead of a white, and so on. If you never play your drum parts from a MIDI controller (but draw them in the editor) you need not care about the I-note setting. O-notes (output notes) The next step is the output.
The Drum Map Setup dialog Button Description To set up and manage your drum maps, select Drum Map Setup from the Map pop-up menu or the MIDI menu. This opens the following dialog: Remove Removes the selected drum map from the project. Load… Opens a file dialog, allowing you to load drum maps from disk. The Cubase DVD contains a number of drum maps for different MIDI instruments – use this function to load the desired maps into your project.
Using drum name lists Even if no drum map is selected for the edited MIDI track, you can still use the Drum Editor. As previously mentioned, the drum sound list then only has four columns: Audition, Pitch, Instrument (drum sound name), and Quantize. There is no I-note and O-note functionality. In this mode, the names shown in the Instrument column depend on the selection on the Names pop-up menu, just below the Map pop-up menu in the Drum Editor.
The List Editor – Overview Toolbar Filters bar Status line Ruler Value display Event list Event display The toolbar The event list The toolbar contains several items that are the same as in the Key Editor. The following toolbar items are unique to the List Editor: This lists all events in the selected MIDI part(s), in the order (from top to bottom) in which they are played back. You can edit the event properties by using regular value editing, see “Editing in the list” on page 405.
List Editor operations The new event appears in the list and in the display. Its properties will be set to default values, but can be adjusted in the list. Customizing the view You can click and drag the divider between the list and the event display to make one area wider and the other narrower. Furthermore, the list can be customized in the following ways: • You can change the order of the columns by dragging the column headings.
• You can edit several events at once. If several events are selected and you edit a value for one event, the other selected events’ values will be changed as well. Filtering Normally, any initial value differences between the events will be maintained – i. e. the values will change by the same amount. If you press [Ctrl]/ [Command] when you edit, however, all events will get the same value. The Filters bar is displayed below the toolbar in the List Editor. It contains two sections.
The Hide section (filtering out event types) The Hide section on the Filters bar allows you to hide specific event types from view. For example, it may be hard to find note events if the part contains a lot of controller data. By hiding the controllers, the list becomes more manageable. Exactly which value is shown for an event depends on the event type.
Normally, MIDI devices allow you to dump (transmit) all or some settings in the device’s memory in the form of MIDI SysEx messages. A dump is therefore (among other things) a way of making backup copies of the settings of your instrument: sending such a dump back to the MIDI device will restore the settings. 4. When done recording, select the new part and open the List Editor from the MIDI menu.
• If the dump is very short (for instance, a single sound) you can put it in the middle of the project to re-program a device on the fly. However, you can achieve the same effect by using Program Change. This is definitely preferable, since less MIDI data is sent and recorded. Some devices may be set up to dump the settings for a sound as soon as you select it on the front panel. • If you create parts with useful SysEx dumps, you can put these on a special muted track.
Editing a value The selected value can be edited directly in the main display or in the ASCII, decimal, and binary displays. Just click on it and type in the desired value as usual. Adding and deleting bytes Using the Insert and Delete buttons or their corresponding computer keyboard keys, you can add and delete bytes from the message. Inserted data will appear before the selection. • To delete the complete SysEx message, select it in the List Editor and press [Delete] or [Backspace].
The basic Score Editor – Overview Toolbar Status line Info line Extended toolbar This section describes the basic Score Editor, which is available in Cubase Artist. The full-featured version of the Score Editor that is available in Cubase is described in detail in “Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only)” on page 550. The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score.
Score Editor operations The extended toolbar Opening the Score Editor • To show or hide the extended toolbar, click the “Set up Window Layout” button and activate or deactivate the Tools option. Note value buttons To open one or several parts in the Score Editor, select one or several tracks or any number of parts (on the same or different tracks), and select “Open Score Editor” from the Scores submenu of the MIDI menu. The default key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
Getting the score displayed correctly When you open the Score Editor for a part recorded in real time, the score may not look as legible as you expect. The Score Editor can ignore the minor time variances in performance and make a neater score almost instantly. To achieve this, there are a number of Staff Settings that determine how the program displays the music. • When set to “Split”, the part is split on the screen into a bass and treble clef, as in a piano score.
Option Description Auto Quantize Generally, if your music contains mixed triplets and straight notes, try activating this checkbox. Otherwise, make sure it is deactivated. Auto Quantize is used to make your score look as legible as possible. Auto Quantize allows you to mix straight notes with tuplets (triplets) in a part. But Auto Quantize also uses the (display) Quantize value.
Applying your settings After you have made your settings, click Apply to apply them to the active staff. You can select another staff in the score and make settings for that, without having to close the Staff Settings dialog first – just remember to click Apply before you change staff, otherwise your changes will be lost. • You can also assign key commands to the different Quantize values. This is done in the Key Commands dialog, in the “MIDI Quantize” category.
• To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them. • To deselect notes, hold [Shift] down and click on them again. • If you hold down [Shift] and double-click on a note, this note and all the following notes in the same staff are selected. Moving notes To move or transpose notes, proceed as follows: 1. Set the Quantize value. 2. If you want to hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the Acoustic Feedback button (speaker icon) on the toolbar.
Changing the length of notes Enharmonic Shift As described earlier (see “Getting the score displayed correctly” on page 413), the displayed length of a note is not necessarily the actual note length, but also depends on the Notes and Rests values for Display Quantize in the Staff Settings dialog. This is important to remember when you change the length of a note, since it can lead to confusing results.
• To delete a text block, select it with the Arrow tool and press [Backspace] or [Delete]. • You can move or duplicate text blocks by dragging (or [Alt]/[Option]-dragging) them, just as with notes. 3. Select “Print…” from the File menu. 4. A standard print dialog appears. Fill out the options as desired. 5. Click Print. Changing the text font, size and style To change the font settings for the text you have added, proceed as follows: 1. Select the text by clicking it with the Arrow tool. 2.
32 Expression maps (Cubase only)
Introduction About articulations Musical articulations, or expressions, define how certain notes “sound”, i. e. how they are sung or performed on a given instrument. They allow you to specify that a string instrument is bowed (not plucked), a trumpet muted (not played open), and so on. Articulations also define the relative volume of notes (to play some notes louder or softer than the others) or changes in pitch (create a tremolo). Articulations can be divided into “Directions” and “Attributes”.
• When you want to play/record music in realtime and control articulation changes while playing. • When you open and edit projects from other users. By using expression maps, you can map the articulation information to a different instrument set or content library quickly and easily. Ö You can also use the Note Expression functions to add articulations directly on your MIDI notes in the Key Editor. This is described in detail in the chapter “Note Expression (Cubase only)” on page 428.
Expression maps in the Project window In the Inspector for MIDI and instrument tracks, the Expression Map section is available. This indicates whether an expression map is used for a track. It also shows the sound slots that are active for playback and for realtime input. This indicates that an expression map is used for the track. This shows which Remote Key is being pressed. This marks the slot that is currently played back.
• All articulations that are specified for the selected expression map are available on the controller lane. They appear on different rows one above the other. The order in which they are listed is the same as in the expression map. The different groups (1 to 4) are also reflected here, see “Groups” on page 426. They are separated by black lines. Articulations belonging to the same group are shown in the same color. • Directions are displayed as bars in the controller lane.
Creating and editing expression maps Creating expression maps based on the key switches used in an instrument You can automatically extract mapping information from your connected VST instruments and convert it into a new expression map. This makes it very easy to set up expression maps for the instruments you often work with. Creating an expression map from scratch Proceed as follows: 1.
4. To create a complex articulation, made of several different single articulations, click in the other Articulation columns (Art. 2-4) for the sound slot and add the corresponding articulations. For each new articulation, an additional entry is added in the Articulations section. • Apart from creating combined articulations, the Articulation columns also allow you to prioritize articulations, by sorting them into different groups.
Option Description Latch Mode Description Here, you can enter a descriptive text. For example, this can be the name of the symbol (e. g. Accent) or the long name of a direction (e. g. pizz and pizzicato). This setting determines whether the remote key function reacts to note-off messages. Group This column allows you to specify the group, or importance of the symbol, see below. • When Latch Mode is deactivated, the key you press on your MIDI input device is valid for as long as the key is held, i.
3. On the Key Mapping pop-up menu, you can specify with which keys on your device you want to trigger the sound slots. You can choose whether you want to use all keys on the keyboard as remote keys, or whether only the white or black keys are used. 4. Click OK to close the dialog. Saving your settings When you have made the desired settings, you need to save the expression map.
33 Note Expression (Cubase only)
Introduction Note Expression offers a very intuitive way of controller editing in Cubase. As an alternative to working with controller lanes in the Key Editor, controller data can be viewed and edited directly on the associated MIDI note events in the event display. With Note Expression, a note and its associated controller data are treated as a unit. When you quantize, move, copy, duplicate, or delete notes, all their associated controller information will follow.
• If you want to listen to your editing, activate the Acoustic Feedback button on the Key Editor toolbar. Playback is triggered when you enter or change Note Expression data. All controllers that are present at the mouse position will be used during playback. If an asterisk (*) is displayed in front of a parameter name, data for this controller exists. The number to the right of a parameter determines the MIDI controller mapped to the parameter for recording, see “Mapping controllers” on page 431.
In the lower part of the Note Expression tab, the following global settings and parameters are available: Option Description MIDI as Note Express ion If this button is activated, incoming MIDI controllers will be recorded as Note Expression data, see “Recording MIDI controllers as Note Expression data” on page 438. Overdub When this is activated, you can overdub existing Note Expression data. See “Overdubbing” on page 432.
MIDI Learn Recording Another way to assign the knobs and faders of your MIDI instrument to Note Expression parameters is using the MIDI Learn function. Proceed as follows: Recording notes and Note Expression data 1. Select the parameter to which you want to assign a MIDI controller. 2. Below the list, click the MIDI Learn button to the right of the MIDI assignment pop-up menu. 3. Use the knob or fader on your MIDI device that you want to assign to the selected Note Expression parameter.
Latch mode When Cubase receives controller data from an external MIDI device, this information, i . e. the setting of the faders and knobs on the device, is automatically written to the Latch buffer. By activating Latch mode when overdubbing Note Expression data, you can add the data in the Latch buffer to the notes while these are played back. This can be useful when you want to overdub Note Expression data starting at specific controller values (i. e.
Editing Note Expression data • You can close the editor by clicking outside of it in the event display. In the Key Editor, you can view and edit the Note Expression data for notes in the Note Expression editor. This is opened by double-clicking a note in the event display. In the editor, you can add Note Expression data from scratch. All parameters that are marked as visible in the Inspector are displayed as curves in the editor.
• To paste all the Note Expression data from one note to other notes, set up the key command “Paste Note Expression” in the Key commands dialog (Note Expression category). This pastes all the Note Expression information of one or several notes for which you have used the Copy command into the currently selected notes.
Modifying the data using the smart spots The editor offers various modes for editing the Note Expression data. Most editing modes are activated by clicking the various so-called “smart spots”, situated on the editor frame. Editing mode To activate this mode… Description Scale Around Relative Center [Alt]/[Option]click the smart spot in the middle of the right border of the editor. This mode allows you to scale the curve relative to its center. This can be used to boost or reduce vibrato, for example.
Setting the length of the release phase To determine the length of the release phase, drag the release length handle or enter the value manually on the info line. You can also modify the release length after having edited or recorded controller data. Only the controllers within the specified length will be heard during playback.
Recording MIDI controllers as Note Expression data To record Note Expression data using standard MIDI controller messages, activate the “MIDI as Note Expression” button on the Note Expression Inspector tab and enter the notes and controllers using your MIDI device. Afterwards, you can copy, paste and move the notes and the associated controller data will follow. However, you should not shift individual notes from a chord, because this leads to conflicting controller messages.
Distributing notes to different channels If you do not have a VST 3 instrument, but still want to use the Note Expression functions, proceed as follows: 1. Add a multi-timbral instrument, open its control panel, and assign the same sound to different channels. 2. In the Inspector for the corresponding MIDI track, make sure the MIDI output pop-up menu is set to “Any”. 3. Enable the “MIDI as Note Expression” button and record or enter MIDI notes with expression as needed. 4.
34 The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer
Introduction About the Transformer MIDI effect Most of the time you will perform your MIDI editing graphically in one of the MIDI editors. But there are times when you want more of a “search and replace” function on MIDI data, and that’s where the Logical Editor comes in. ! The Logical Editor is only available in Cubase! However, the Transformer MIDI effect and the Input Transformer that share many of the functions with the Logical Editor are also available in Cubase Artist.
Window overview Column Description Condition This determines how the Logical Editor compares the property in the Filter Target column to the values in the Parameter columns (see below). The available options depend on the Filter Target setting. Parameter 1 Here you set which value the element properties are compared to (depending on the Filter Target).
Condition Elements will be found if their Filter Target property… Bigger …has a value higher than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Bigger or Equal …has a value that is the same as or higher than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Less …has a value lower than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Less or Equal …has a value that is the same as or lower than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column.
Searching for Value 1 or Value 2 A MIDI event is composed of several values. What is displayed for Value 1 and 2 depends on the type of event: Event type Value 1 Value 2 Notes The Note Number/ Pitch. The velocity of the note. PolyPressure The key that was pressed. The amount of pressure for the key. Controller The type of Controller, displayed as a number. The amount of Control Change. Program Change The Program Change number. Not used. Aftertouch The amount of pressure. Not used.
Searching for MIDI channels Searching for properties Each MIDI event contains a MIDI channel setting (1–16). Normally, these settings are not used, since the MIDI event plays back on the MIDI channel set for its track. However, you can come across MIDI parts with events set to different channels, for example in the following scenarios: On the Filter Target pop-up menu, you will find an option called Property.
Here, the action will only be performed when the sustain pedal is down: Filter Target Condition Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Last Event Equal MIDI Status 176/Controller Last Event Equal Value 1 64 Last Event Bigger Value 2 64 In this example, the action will be performed when the note C1 is pressed (the “Note is playing” condition is only available in the Input Transformer and in the Transformer effect): Filter Target Condition Parameter 1 Type is Equal Note Last Event Equal Note is playi
• Expressions within brackets are evaluated first. If there are several layers of brackets, these are evaluated “from the inside out”, starting with the innermost brackets. You add brackets by clicking in the bracket columns and selecting an option. Up to triple brackets can be selected. Insert Exclusive This will transform the found elements according to the action list.
Option Description Divide by Value 1 This adjusts value 1 in the events. As described in the section “Searching for Value 1 or Value 2” on page 444, what is displayed for value 1 depends on the event type. For notes, value 1 is the pitch. Divides the Action Target value by the value specified in the Parameter 1 column. Value 2 This adjusts value 2 in the events. As described in the section “Searching for Value 1 or Value 2” on page 444, what is displayed for value 2 depends on the event type.
Add Length (Logical Editor only) Linear Change in Loop Range (Logical Editor only) This is only available when Action Target is set to Position. Furthermore, it is only valid if the found events are notes (and thus have a length). When Add Length is selected, the length of each note event will be added to the Position value. This can be used for creating new events (using the Insert function) positioned relative to the end positions of the original notes.
Applying the defined actions Once you have set up filter conditions, selected a function and set the required actions (or loaded a preset), you apply the actions defined with the Logical Editor by clicking the Apply button. ! In the Logical Editor, processing is not performed until you click the Apply button. When using the Transformer MIDI effect, there is no Apply button – the current settings are automatically applied in realtime during playback or live playing.
Opening the Input Transformer The Function pop-up menu To open the Input Transformer for a MIDI track, select the track and click the Input Transformer button in the Inspector to open the pop-up menu. The Function pop-up menu contains two options: Filter and Transform. • In Filter mode, only the filter conditions (the upper list) are taken into account. All events matching the conditions set up will be filtered out (excluded from the recording).
35 The Project Logical Editor (Cubase only)
Introduction On the Edit menu you will find the function “Project Logical Editor…”. This opens a Project Logical Editor for the entire project. It works similar to the Logical Editor on the MIDI menu, see the chapter “The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer” on page 440.
Setting up filter conditions General procedure Column Description Bar Range/ Time Base This column is only used if the Filter Target is set to “Position”. If one of the “Bar Range” options is selected in the Condition column, you use the Bar Range/Time Base column to specify “zones” within each bar (allowing you to find all elements on or around the first beat of every bar, for example).
3. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition. For media types, the following options are available: Condition Description Equal This finds the Media Type set up in the Parameter 1 column. All Types This finds all Media Types.
Ö To take maximum advantage of this feature, we recommend using a standard nomenclature in your projects (Drums, Perc, Voc, etc.). Searching for elements at certain positions 1. Select “Position” in the Filter Target pop-up menu. • If you select any condition other than the Range, Bar Range, Cursor, Loop or Cycle options, you set up a specific position (in PPQ, seconds, samples, or frames) in the Parameter 1 column. Use the Bar Range/Time Base column to specify the time base.
Three examples: Condition An element will be found, if it… Less …has a value lower than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Less or Equal …has a value that is the same as or lower than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Inside Range …has a value that is between the values set up in the Parameter 1 and Parameter 2 columns. Note that Parameter 1 should be the lower value and Parameter 2 the higher.
• If two condition lines are combined with a boolean Or, one of the conditions (or both) must be fulfilled for an element to be found. The Project Logical Editor will find all parts or events that match exactly the cycle. ! When you add a new condition line, the boolean setting defaults to And.
Operation Description Operation Description Set Relative Random Values between This will add a random value to the current Position value. The added random value will be within the range specified with Parameter 1 and 2. Note that these can be set to negative values. For example, if you set Parameter 1 to -20 and Parameter 2 to +20, the original Position value will get a random variation, never exceeding ±20. Sends Bypass Enables, disables or toggles the sends bypass status.
Selecting a function Applying the defined actions Once you have set up filter conditions, selected a function and set the required actions (or loaded a preset), you apply the actions defined with the Project Logical Editor by clicking the Apply button. The left pop-up menu at the bottom of the Project Logical Editor is where you select the function – the basic type of editing to be performed. The available options are: Delete Deletes all elements found by the Project Logical Editor.
This also makes it easy to share presets with other Cubase users, by transferring the individual preset files. Ö The list of presets is read each time the Project Logical Editor is opened. Setting up key commands for your presets If you have stored Project Logical Editor presets, you can set up key commands for them: 1. Pull down the File menu and select “Key Commands…”. The Key Commands dialog opens. 2.
36 Editing tempo and signature
Background Whenever you create a new project, Cubase will automatically set the tempo and time signature for this project. The tempo and signature settings can be displayed in two ways: either on dedicated tracks in the Project window or in the Tempo Track Editor. Tempo modes Before we go into detail about tempo and signature settings, you should understand the different tempo modes.
• The signature track’s background always shows bars. This is independent of the ruler display format setting. The toolbar The toolbar contains various tools and settings: • In the track list for the tempo track, on the far right, you can specify the display range by clicking on the numbers at the top or bottom and dragging up or down. Note that this does not change the tempo setting, but changes the display scale of the tempo track.
Editing tempo and signature Selecting tempo curve points You can use the options of the Tempo Track Editor or the tempo and signature tracks to edit tempo and signature settings. The descriptions given below are valid in both cases. The only exception is the tempo recording slider, which is available only in the Tempo Track Editor (see “Recording tempo changes (Cubase only)” on page 466). Editing the tempo curve ! This section assumes that you are working in tempo track mode, i. e.
Adjusting the curve type Setting the fixed tempo You can change the curve type of a tempo curve segment at any time, using the following method: When the tempo track is deactivated, the tempo track curve is grayed out (but still visible). Since the tempo is fixed throughout the whole project, there are no tempo curve points. Instead, the fixed tempo is displayed as a horizontal black line in the tempo curve display. 1. With the Arrow tool, select all curve points within the segment you want to edit. 2.
Exporting and importing tempo tracks (Cubase only) You can export the current tempo track for use in other projects by selecting “Tempo Track” from the “Export” submenu of the File menu. This allows you to save the tempo track information (including time signature events) as a special XML file (file extension “.smt”). To import a tempo track, select “Tempo Track” from the Import submenu of the File menu.
Option Description Action – Insert Bars When you select this action, clicking the Process button will insert the specified number of empty bars with the set time signature at the start position specified above. Action – Delete Bars When you select this action, clicking the Process button will delete the specified number of bars, beginning at the start position specified above.
Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase only) The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) This function allows you to create a complete tempo track based on your tapping. Typically, you would use this if you have an audio file with no tempo mapping and want to be able to add other material afterwards, etc. 1. Create an empty time-based MIDI track and, while playing back your audio material, tap the new tempo on your MIDI keyboard and record the created notes onto the new MIDI track.
While you are dragging, the track(s) you are editing are temporarily switched to linear time base. This means that the contents of the tracks remain at the same time positions regardless of the tempo (there is an exception to this in the Project window, see below). Viewing and adjusting tempo events When you select the Time Warp tool, the ruler of the active window is shown in brown. Existing tempo events are shown in the ruler as “flags” with the tempo values displayed. 4.
Matching a musical score to video 6. Select the “Warp Grid (musical events follow)” mode. Here’s an example of how to use the Time Warp tool in “musical events follow” mode. Let’s say you are creating the music for a film. You have a video track, an audio track with a commentary and some audio and/or MIDI tracks with your music. Now you want to match the position of a musical cue to a position in a video film. The musical cue is located in bar 33. There are no tempo changes in the project (yet).
11. Now match the second musical cue to the correct video position by dragging the musical position to the desired time position as before. The new tempo event is edited – the first tempo event is unaffected and the original cue is still matched. • If you know you are going to match several cues this way, make it a habit to press [Shift] each time you use the Time Warp tool to match positions. This adds a new tempo event – that way, you do not have to add tempo events afterwards as described above.
9. Locate the last beat that is in sync. This would be the beat just before the position where the audio and tempo drift apart. 10. Press [Shift] and click at that position to insert a tempo event there. This locks this matched position. The material to the left will not be affected when you make adjustments further along. 11. Now match the tempo grid to the next (unmatched) beat by clicking and dragging with the Time Warp tool. The tempo event you inserted in step 10 will be adjusted. 12.
The Tempo Detection Panel Detecting the basic tempo of an audio event The Tempo Detection Panel contains the functions for analyzing the tempo of an audio event. It is opened via the Project menu. 1. In the Project window, select the audio event that you want to analyze. 2. On the Project menu, select “Tempo Detection…”. The Tempo Detection Panel opens. 3. Click the Analyze button. The following happens: • A rough tempo map based on the beat analysis is created for the selected audio clip.
The detected tempo has jumps and spikes although it should be steady If you get the message that the algorithm has detected irregular tempo changes, even though you know that the material has a more or less steady tempo, you can use the “Smooth Tempo” function. • To retrigger the tempo analysis based on the assumption that the event has a steady tempo, click the “Smooth Tempo” button. Irregular spikes or tempo changes are removed during this analysis.
Adjusting the audio to the project tempo If you want freely recorded audio to follow a fixed tempo or a different project tempo, you can use the Set Definition From Tempo dialog to save the tempo information from the tempo track in the corresponding audio clips. Proceed as follows: The audio tracks will now follow any tempo changes in the project. Therefore, you can disable the tempo track and set a fixed tempo for your project or edit the tempo track for a new tempo map.
37 The Project Browser (Cubase only)
Window Overview Time Format (display format) pop-up menu Add pop-up menu and Add button for creating new parts, events and regions. Project Structure list. This is where you navigate through the project. Filter pop-up menu, used for MIDI editing Event display. This is where you view and edit parts, events and regions. The Project Browser window provides a list based representation of the project. This allows you to view and edit all events on all tracks by using regular value editing in a list.
• You can sort events in the display by columns, by clicking the column heading. For example, if you want to sort events by their start positions, click that column heading. An arrow appears in the column heading, indicating that events are sorted by that column. The direction of the arrow indicates whether the events are sorted in ascending or descending order. To change the direction, click the column heading again.
The list columns for audio parts Parameter Description Parameter Description End Name The name of the part. Double-clicking on the part symbol to the left of it opens the part in the Audio Part Editor. This is only used for note events, allowing you to view and edit the end position of a note (thereby resizing it). Length Start The start position of the part. Editing this value is the same as moving the part in the Project window. This is only used for note events.
Ö For SysEx (system exclusive) events, you can only edit the position (Start) in the list. However, clicking the Comment column opens the SysEx Editor, in which you can perform detailed editing of system exclusive events. For a description of this, see “Working with SysEx messages” on page 407.
Each Automation item in the Project Structure list will have a number of subentries, one for each automated parameter. Selecting one of these parameters in the Project Structure list shows its automation events in the list: You can use the two columns in the list to edit the position of the events and their values.
Editing time signatures When “Signature track” is selected in the Project Structure list, the event display shows the time signature events in the project: Parameter Description Position The position of the event. Note that you cannot move the first time signature event. Signature The value (time signature) of the event. You can add new time signature events by clicking the Add button. This creates a 4/4 event, at the beginning of the bar closest to the project cursor position.
38 Export Audio Mixdown
Introduction Mixing down to audio files The Export Audio Mixdown function in Cubase allows you to mix down audio from the program to files on your hard disk in a number of formats. In the Channel Selection section, you can choose which channels (or busses) to export. 1. Set up the left and right locators to encompass the section you want to mix down. Cubase only: By activating the “Channel Batch Export” option you can choose to mix down several channels in one go.
7. In the Audio Engine Output section, specify whether you want to export all subchannels of a multi-channel bus as separate mono files (Split Channels), downmix all subchannels to one mono file (Mono Downmix), or export only the left and right channels of a multi-channel bus to a stereo file (L/R Channels). For details about the settings relating to the audio engine, see “About the Audio Engine Output section” on page 488. 8.
At the right of the Name and the Path fields there are two pop-up menus with a number of options: Element Description Project Name The name of the Cubase project. Naming Options Counter (Cubase only) This is only available for batch export. Use this to include an incrementing number in the generated files names in order to create unique file names. • Select “Set to Project Name” to set the Name field to the project name.
About the File Format section Option Description In the File Format section, you can select the file format for your mixdown files and make additional settings that are different for each file type. For details, see “The available file formats” on page 489. Split Channels Activate this if you want to export all subchannels of a multi-channel bus as separate mono files. L/R Channels Activate this if you want to export only the left and right subchannels of a multi-channel bus into a stereo file.
About the Import Options dialog AIFF files If you activate any of the options in the “Import into Project” section, the Import Options dialog will open for each exported channel when the export is complete. For a detailed description of the options in this dialog see “About the Import Medium dialog” on page 306. AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined by Apple Inc. AIFF files have the extension “.aif” and are used on most computer platforms.
Wave files MPEG 1 Layer 3 files Wave files have the extension “.wav” and are the most common file format on the PC platform. MPEG 1 Layer 3 files have the extension “.mp3”. By use of advanced audio compression algorithms, MP3 files can be made very small, yet maintaining good audio quality.
Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only) • Mode pop-up menu This is a continuation of the Windows Media Audio format developed by Microsoft Inc. Due to the advanced audio codecs and lossless compression used, WMA Pro files can be decreased in size with no loss of audio quality. Furthermore, WMA Pro features the possibility of mixing down to 5.1 surround sound. The files have the extension “.wma”. The WMA Pro encoder can use either a constant bit rate or a variable bit rate for encoding to 5.
To manually specify the dynamic range, first put a checkmark in the box to the left by clicking in it, and then enter the desired dB values in the Peak and Average fields. You can enter any value between 0 and -90 dB. Note, however, that it is usually not recommended to change the Average value, since this affects the overall volume level of the audio and therefore can have a negative effect on the audio quality. The Quiet Mode in a Windows Media player can be set to one of three settings.
39 Synchronization
Background What is synchronization? Synchronization is the process of getting two or more devices to play back together at the same exact speed and position. These devices can range from audio and video tape machines to digital audio workstations, MIDI sequencers, synchronization controllers, and digital video devices. Synchronization basics There are three basic components of audio/visual synchronization: position, speed, and phase.
• VITC (Vertical Interval Timecode) is contained within a composite video signal. It is recorded onto video tape and is physically tied to each video frame. • MTC (MIDI Timecode) is identical to LTC except that it is a digital signal transmitted via MIDI. In Cubase the following frame rates are available: Timecode standards • 24 fps • 23.9 fps (Cubase only) This frame rate is used for film that is being transferred to NTSC video and must be slowed down for a 2-3 pull-down telecine transfer.
Clock sources (speed references) MIDI clock Once the position is established, the next essential factor for synchronization is the playback speed. Once two devices start playing from the same position, they must run at exactly the same speed in order to remain in sync. Therefore, a single speed reference must be used and all devices in the system must follow that reference. With digital audio, the speed is determined by the audio clock rate. With video, the speed is determined by the video sync signal.
Timecode Source Timecode Preferences The Timecode Source setting determines whether Cubase is acting as timecode master or slave. When MIDI Timecode is selected, additional options become available in the Cubase section, providing several options for working with external timecode. When set to “Internal Timecode”, Cubase is the timecode master, generating all position references for any other device in the system. The other options are for external timecode sources.
Auto-Detect Frame-Rate Changes MMC Device ID Cubase can notify the user when the frame rate of timecode changes at any point. This is helpful in diagnosing problems with timecode and external devices. This notification will interrupt playback or recording. Deactivating this option will avoid any interruption in playback or recording. The MMC device ID should be set to the same number as the receiving device.
Machine Control Input (Cubase only) MIDI Timecode Destinations Cubase can respond to machine control commands from external MIDI devices. Cubase can follow incoming transport commands (locate, play, record) and respond to record-enabling commands for audio tracks. This allows Cubase to easily integrate into larger studio systems with centralized machine control and synchronization such as theatrical mixing stages. Cubase can send MTC to any MIDI port.
Example scenarios (Cubase only) Always Send Start Message MIDI clock transport commands include Start, Stop, and Continue. However, some MIDI devices do not recognize the Continue command. By activating the “Always Send Start Message” option, you can avoid this problem with specific MIDI devices. Send MIDI Clock in Stop Mode Activate this option if you are working with a device that needs MIDI clock to run continuously in order to operate arpeggiators and loop generators.
Requirements 5. On the Transport panel, activate the Sync button. This routes transport commands to the hard disk recorder via MIDI and sets Cubase as the timecode slave. 6. On the hard disk recorder, enable MMC and MTC. Follow the instructions on how to set up the unit to receive MMC commands and transmit MTC. The following equipment is required for VST System Link operation: • Two or more computers. 7. In Cubase, click the Play button.
• If a card has more than one set of inputs and outputs, choose whichever one that suits you – for simplicity usually the first set is best. • Typically, the ASIO control panel for an audio card contains some indication of whether or not the card receives a proper sync signal, including the sample rate of that signal. Synchronization This is a good indication that you have connected the cards and set up clock sync properly. Check your audio hardware’s documentation for details.
Setting up your software Settings for the audio hardware Now it is time to set up your programs. The procedures below describe how to set things up in Cubase. If you are using another program on the other computer, please refer to its documentation. When you exchange VST System Link data between computers, it is important that the digital information is not changed in any way between the programs.
1. From the Devices menu, open the Device Setup dialog. Ö If you do not see the name of each computer appearing once you have made it active, you need to check your settings. Go through the procedure above again and make sure that all ASIO cards are listening to the digital clock signals correctly, and that each computer has the correct inputs and outputs assigned to the VST System Link network. 2. In the Devices list to the left, select the “VST System Link” entry.
Scrubbing via VST System Link You can scrub on one computer and have the video and audio on another computer scrub along. However, the playback on the linked systems may not be perfectly in sync while scrubbing and there are some further restrictions you should bear in mind when scrubbing via VST System Link: • Use the jog/shuttle control on the Transport panel or a remote controller for scrubbing. Scrubbing with the Scrub tool does not work over a VST System Link connection.
Hearing the network audio If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio really is not an issue – just plug the outputs of each computer into the desired channels on the external mixing desk, start playback on one of the computers, and you are good to go. However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the computer and just use a desk for monitoring (or maybe not use any external mixer at all).
Once you have done this, the transmission of all the transport, sync, and MIDI information to the whole network is handled pretty much automatically. However, where you may run into confusion in a large network is in the transmission of audio signals back to a central mix computer. If you have lots of hardware inputs and outputs on your ASIO cards, you do not have to send audio via the chain at all, but can transmit it directly to the master mix computer via one or more of its other hardware inputs.
8. Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the sends and select the VST System Link bus assigned to the reverb in step 3. 9. Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as usual. The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and processed through its insert effect, without using any processor power on computer 1. You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the “virtual effect rack”.
40 Video
Introduction The following container formats are supported by Cubase: Cubase supports the integration of video files in your project. You can play back video files in various formats and via different output devices from within Cubase, edit your music to the video, extract the audio material from a video file, and replace the audio later with different audio material.
Frame rates FireWire DV Output Cubase is capable of working with different types of video and film frame rates. For an overview about the supported frame rates, refer to the section “Frame rate (speed)” on page 495. You have the option to use FireWire ports on the computer to output DV video streams to external converters such as various camcorders and standalone FireWire to DV conversion units. These units can be connected to a television or projector for large format viewing.
Ö When importing video files via the Pool or by using drag and drop, Cubase can automatically extract the audio from a video file. Whether this happens, depends on the “Extract Audio on Import Video File” setting in the Preferences dialog (Video page). For further information about extracting audio from a video file, see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page 516.
Video files in the Project window one. If you have long video clips and/or work with a large zoom factor, you may have to raise the “Thumbnail Memory Cache Size” value. Video files are displayed as events/clips on a video track, with thumbnails representing the frames in the film. About thumbnail cache files When importing video, Cubase automatically creates a thumbnail cache file.
Ö The thumbnail cache file is generated in the background so that you can continue working with Cubase. To set up a video output device, proceed as follows: 1. Pull down the Devices Menu and select “Device Setup…” to open the Device Setup dialog, and select the Video Player page. Playing back video ! ! For playing back video files, you must have QuickTime 7.1 or higher installed on your computer. There is a freeware version and a “pro” version, which offers additional video conversion options.
Setting the window size and video quality Setting the aspect ratio To resize the Video Player window and/or change the playback quality of the video, select the appropriate option on the context menu of the Video Player window. Resizing the Video Player window by dragging its borders may lead to a distorted image. To prevent this, you can set an aspect ratio for video playback.
Editing video • By using the “Extract Audio from Video File” option on the Media menu. Video clips are played back by events just as audio clips are. You can use all the basic editing operations on video events, just as with audio events. You can take a single event and copy it many times for the creation of mix variations. A video event may also be trimmed using the event handles to remove a countdown for instance.
41 ReWire
Introduction Launching and quitting ReWire and ReWire2 are special protocols for streaming audio between two computer applications. Developed by Propellerhead Software and Steinberg, ReWire provides the following possibilities and features: When using ReWire, the order in which you launch and quit the two programs is very important: • Realtime streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels (256 with ReWire2), at full bandwidth, from the “synthesizer application” into the “mixer application”. 1.
Activating ReWire channels ReWire supports streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels, while ReWire2 supports 256 channels. The exact number of available ReWire channels depends on the synthesizer application. Using the ReWire Device panels in Cubase, you can specify which of the available channels you want to use: 1. Pull down the Devices menu and select the menu item with the name of the ReWire application. All recognized ReWire compatible applications will be available on the menu.
How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase Routing MIDI via ReWire2 ! When you activate ReWire channels in the ReWire Device panels, they will become available as channel strips in the Mixer. The ReWire channel strips have the following properties: • ReWire channels appear to the right of the other audio and MIDI channel strips in the Mixer. • ReWire channels may be any combination of mono and stereo, depending on the synthesizer application.
42 File handling
Importing audio In Cubase audio can be imported in a variety of different formats. For example, you can import tracks from audio CDs, or import audio files saved in different formats (compressed and uncompressed). • When importing multiple files at the same time, you can select to convert the imported files automatically if necessary, i.e. if the sample rate is different than the project’s or the resolution is lower than the project setting.
Selecting one of the Import Audio CD menu items brings up the following dialog: 5. Click on the Copy button to create a local copy of the audio file(s) or section(s). The copied files are listed at the bottom of the dialog. By default, imported audio CD tracks will be stored as Wave files (Windows) or AIFF files (Mac) in the Audio folder of the current project. To change the folder, click Destination Folder and select a different folder from the dialog.
• If you want to copy and import a section of an audio CD track only, select the track in the list and specify the start and end of the selection to be copied by dragging the handles in the copy selection ruler. Ö For information about importing video files, see “Importing video files” on page 511. Play Stop ReCycle by Propellerhead Software is a program designed especially for working with sampled loops.
Ö You can achieve similar results by using Cubase’s own loop slicing features, see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 276. Importing compressed audio files Cubase can import (and export, see “Mixing down to audio files” on page 485) several common audio compression formats.
• When referencing media files (see below), you can set the referenced output path by entering it in the “Media Destination Path” field or by clicking on “Browser…” and choosing it in the file dialog that opens. Importing OMF files All file references will be set to this path. You can create references to media destinations that do not exist on the system you are currently working with, making it easy to prepare files for use in projects on another system or in a network environment. 2.
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files The dialog contains the following options: Cubase can import and export standard MIDI files, which makes it possible to transfer MIDI material to and from virtually any MIDI application on any platform. When you import and export MIDI files, you can also specify whether certain settings associated with the tracks are included in the files (automation tracks, volume and pan settings, etc.).
Option Description Option Description Export Locator Range If this is activated, only the range between the locators will be exported. Export includes Delay If this is activated, the delay of the MIDI track will be included in the MIDI file. For more information about the Delay option, see “Basic track settings” on page 349. Import Controller as Automation Tracks If this is activated, MIDI controller events in the MIDI file will be converted to automation data for the MIDI tracks.
Support for the Yamaha XF data format Exporting tracks as track archives Cubase supports the Yamaha XF format. XF is an extension of the standard MIDI file format that allows you to save song-specific data with a MIDI file of type 0. 1. Select the tracks you wish to export. When importing a MIDI file containing XF data, this data is placed in parts on separate tracks called “XF Data”, “Chord Data”, or “SysEx Data”. You can edit such a part in the List Editor (e. g. to add or change lyrics).
3. Click in the Import column on the left to select the desired track(s) or click “Select all Tracks”. A checkmark is shown for all selected tracks. 4. Choose which media files to use. • Select “Use Media Files From Archive” if you want to import the track without copying the media files into your project folder. • Select “Copy Media To Project Folder” if you want to import the media files into your project folder. For the “Perform Sample Rate Conversion” option, see below. 5. Click OK.
43 Customizing
Background Workspaces The user can customize the appearance and functionality of Cubase in various ways. A configuration of Cubase windows is called a “workspace”. A workspace stores the size, position and content of all windows, allowing you to quickly switch between different working modes via the menu or by using key commands. For example, you may want as large a Project window as possible when you are editing, whereas you may want the Mixer and effect windows open during mixdown.
Creating a new workspace 1. Pull down the Window menu and open the Workspaces submenu. 2. Select “New Workspace”. 3. In the dialog that opens, enter a name for the workspace. 4. Click OK. The workspace is stored and will appear on the submenu. It is now the active workspace. 5. Set up the windows you want to include in the new workspace. This may include opening, moving and sizing windows, and adjusting zoom and track height.
Using the Setup options The Setup dialogs You can customize the appearance of the following elements: • • • • • Transport panel Info line Channel Settings window Toolbars Inspector If you select “Setup…” from the setup context menus, the Setup dialog opens. This allows you to specify which elements are visible/hidden and to set the order of the elements. You can also save and recall setup presets in this dialog.
Customizing track controls For each track type you can configure which track controls are shown in the track list. You can also specify the order of controls and group controls so that they are always shown adjacent to each other. This is done using the Track Controls Settings dialog. • To change the track type, click the arrow to the right in the menu display and select a track type from the pop-up menu.
To group controls, proceed as follows: Saving presets 1. Make sure that you have selected the correct track type. You can save track controls settings as presets for later recall: 2. In the “Visible Controls” section, select at least two controls. You can only group controls that are adjacent to each other in the list. To group controls that are currently not adjacent in the list, use the Move Up/Down buttons first. 3. Click Group. A number is displayed in the Group column for the grouped controls.
Meters The coloring of meters in Cubase can be controlled in sophisticated ways. Multiple colors can help to visually indicate what levels are being reached, e. g. in a channel of the VST Mixer. To do this, the meter on the Appearances– Meters page has color handles that allow you to define what color the meter will have at a given signal level.
This offers you several options for automatically assigning colors to tracks that are added to the project. The following options are available: • To reset the color of a track, part, or event, select the corresponding item and choose the “Default Color” option from the “Select Colors” pop-up menu. Option Effect About the Color tool Use Default Event Color The default color (gray) is assigned.
The Project Colors dialog Setting intensity and brightness In the Project Colors dialog you can select a different set of colors for items in the Project window. To increase or decrease the intensity and the brightness of all colors, use the corresponding buttons in the Project Colors section. To open the Project Colors dialog, open the Select Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar and choose “Select Colors…”.
• Under Windows, preference files are stored in the following location: “\Users\\”. On the Start menu, you will find a shortcut to this folder for easy access. • Under Mac OS X, preference files are stored in the following location: “/Library/Preferences// ” under your home directory. The full path is: “/Users//Library/Preferences//”. Ö The RAMpresets.
44 Key commands
Introduction Setting up key commands Most of the main menus in Cubase have key command shortcuts for certain items on the menus. In addition, there are numerous other Cubase functions that can be performed via key commands. These are all default settings. Adding or modifying a key command You can customize existing key commands to your liking, and also add commands for many menu items and functions that currently have no key command assigned.
4. In the list, select the item to which you want to assign a key command. Already assigned key commands are shown in the Keys column as well as in the Keys section in the top right corner. Searching for key commands If you want to know which key command is assigned to a certain function in the program, you can use the Search function in the Key Commands dialog: 1. Click in the search text field at the top left of the dialog and type in the function for which you want to know the key command.
Macros are set up in the Key Commands dialog as follows: 1. Click the Show Macros button. The macro settings are shown in the lower part of the dialog. To hide these from view, click the button (now renamed Hide Macros) again. 2. Click New Macro. A new, unnamed macro appears in the Macros list. Name it by typing the desired name. You can rename a macro at any time by selecting it in the list and typing in a new name. You can also assign key commands to macros.
Loading earlier key commands settings If you have saved key commands settings with an earlier program version, it is possible to use them in this Cubase version, by using the “Import Key Command File” function, which lets you load and apply saved key commands or macros: • “Reset All” will restore the default key commands for all commands.
4. Hold down the desired modifier key(s) and click the Assign button. The current modifier keys for the action are replaced. If the modifier keys you pressed are already assigned to another tool, you will be asked whether you want to overwrite them. If you do, this will leave the other tool without any modifier keys assigned. 5. When you are done, click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog.
Option Key command Option Key command Snap On/Off [J] Toggle Location Tree Solo [S] [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num [4] Split At Cursor [Alt]/[Option]-[X] Toggle Locations [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num [8] Split Range [Shift]-[X] Toggle Previewer Toggle Edit Group on Selected Tracks [K] [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-Num [2] Undo [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] Ungroup [Ctrl]/[Command]-[U] Unlock [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[U] Unmute Events [Shift]-[U] MIDI category Option Key com
Nudge category Transport category Option Key command Option Key command End Left [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]-[Left Arrow] Auto Punch In [I] End Right [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]-[Right Arrow] Auto Punch Out [O] Left [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Left Arrow] Cycle Num [/] Right [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Right Arrow] Exchange time formats [.
Option Key command Start/Stop [Space] Stop Num [0] To Left Locator Num [1] To Marker 1 [Shift]-[1] To Marker 2 [Shift]-[2] To Marker 3 to 9 Num [3] to [9] or [Shift]-[3] to [9] To Right Locator Num [2] Use External Sync [T] Windows category Option Key command Inline: Key Commands [Shift]-[F4] Inline: Settings [Shift]-[F3] Inline: View Layout [Shift]-[F2] Workspace category Option Key command Lock/Unlock Active Workspace [Alt]/[Option]-Num [0] New [Ctrl]/[Command]-Num [0] Orga
Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only)
1 How the Score Editor works
About this chapter MIDI notes vs. score notes In this chapter you will learn: MIDI tracks in Cubase hold MIDI notes and other MIDI data. As you may know, a MIDI note in Cubase is only defined by its position, length, pitch and velocity. This is not nearly enough information to decide how the note is to be displayed in a score.
Display Quantize Let’s say you used the Project window to record a figure with some staccato eighth notes. When you open the Score Editor, these notes are displayed like this: This does not look anything like what you intended. Let’s start with the timing – obviously, you were off at a couple of places (the third, fourth and last note all seem to be a 32nd note late). You can solve this by quantizing the figure, but this would make the passage sound too “stiff”, and not fit in the musical context.
Using Rests as Display Quantize setting Above we used Display Quantize for notes. There is a similar Display Quantize setting called “Rests” which is used to set the smallest rest to be displayed. Often, this setting is very effective. Let’s start with the following note example: Ö Set the Rests value according to the smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat.
Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes Sometimes you enter and edit notes by hand (or rather using the mouse and/or the computer keyboard) and at other times you record them from a MIDI keyboard. Most of the time, you do a combination of both. In the chapter “Transcribing MIDI recordings” on page 568 you can find out how to make a recorded score as legible as possible without making any permanent changes to the MIDI data.
2 The basics
About this chapter Editing parts on different tracks In this chapter you will learn: • • • • • • • • • How to open the Score Editor. How to switch between Page Mode and Edit Mode. How to set up the page size and margins. How to hide and show the Symbols Inspector, the toolbar, and the extended toolbar. How to set up the ruler. How to set a zoom factor. How to make initial settings for clef, key, and time signature. How to transpose instruments. How to print and export your score.
Page Mode Editing individual parts in Page Mode When you are preparing a score for printout, you should set the Score Editor to Page Mode. This is done by selecting Page Mode from the Scores menu. When Page Mode is activated, a checkmark appears next to this menu option. When you view a single part in Page Mode, the bars before and after the part is normally shown as empty measures in the Score Editor. This is to preserve the layout of the track, i.e.
Ö This pop-up menu can also be opened by right-clicking in the ruler. Using the Zoom tool The Zoom tool in the Score Editor works much like in the Project window: Making page setup settings Before preparing the score for printout, you have to make some page settings for your project. This does not have to be the first thing you do, but it is a good working habit, because it also affects the on-screen display of the score. 1. On the File menu, select Page Setup.
The status line The following options are available: The status line features the Mouse Time and the Mouse Note Position displays as well as the Current Chord Display, which helps you identify chords in the Score Editor note display. It can be hidden/displayed using the “Status Line” option in the “Set up Window Layout” pane. Option Description Bar Handles Displays the bar handles, used for copying bars (see “Moving and duplicating with the bar handles” on page 631).
In the Symbols Inspector setup dialog you can specify exactly which symbol tabs are shown. For a detailed description, see “The Symbols Inspector Setup dialog” on page 620. About the Score Editor context menus The ruler Many functions and settings of the Score Editor can be accessed via context menus, opened by right-clicking on certain elements of the score. For example, if you choose a note, the note context menu opens, listing note-related functions.
Setting clef, key, and time signature When preparing to enter notes into a score, you probably want to start out by setting the desired clef, key, and time signature for the staff. The text below assumes you are working on one track only. If you have multiple staves, you either make this setting independently for each staff or for all staves at once, see “Staff settings” on page 570. Normally, all these symbols appear at the beginning of each staff.
If you need to enter half a bar somewhere (for example) you have to make a time signature change (e.g. from 4/4 to 2/4 and back again). See “Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures” on page 584 to find out how to enter time signature changes. Composite time signatures and the For Grouping Only option For composite signatures, the numerator can be made up of up to four groups. For example, “4+4+3+/” on the upper line and 8 on the lower means the time signature is 11/8.
On the Staff page of the Score Settings dialog 3. Activate the “Lower Staff” checkbox. 1. Click on a staff to make it the active staff. 4. Set a clef for the lower staff. 2. On the Scores menu, select “Settings…” to open the Score Settings dialog. Select the Staff page at the top to open Main tab, showing the current settings for the active staff.
• Hide Setting the key for a split system If you select this, the key is hidden. If you have a split system with two staves (see “Split (piano) staves” on page 583 and “Strategies: How many voices do I need?” on page 597) you can set different keys for the upper and lower staff. • Properties If you select this, the Edit Key dialog opens. In the Edit Key dialog If the current key is anything but C major/A minor (no accidentals), you can set the key directly in the score: 1.
Printing from the Score Editor Setting Display Transpose 1. Make the desired staff active, open the Score Settings dialog and select the Staff page. 2. In the Display Transpose section, select your instrument from the transpose pop-up menu or adjust the value directly in the Semitones field. When you have made all necessary changes to the score display and are satisfied with the result, you can go ahead and print your score, e. g. to hand out note sheets. Proceed as follows: 1.
Exporting • If needed, use polyphonic voicing to resolve overlapping notes, create piano systems, handle crossing voices, etc. To export the score, proceed as follows: • When all this is done, decide if you need to perform “destructive” editing. 1. Make sure that you are in Page Mode. 2. Select the page that you want to export. You might for example have to permanently alter the length or position of some of the recorded notes. 3.
3 Transcribing MIDI recordings
About this chapter Preparing parts for score printout In this chapter you will learn: Below follow a few tips to note when preparing a score for printout: • How to prepare your parts for score printouts. • How to use the Display Quantize tool to handle “exceptions” in the score. • How to resolve parts that contain mixed notes and triplets. About transcription This chapter assumes you have a MIDI recording that you want to transform into a printable score.
Staff settings The first thing to do after opening the Score Editor is to make initial staff settings. This is done in the Score Settings dialog, on the Staff page. There are three ways to open the Score Settings dialog: • Make the staff active, pull down the Scores menu and select “Settings…”. • If two notes beginning at the same position have different lengths, the longer one is displayed as a number of tied notes.
Inserting Display Quantize changes Some situations may require different staff settings on different sections of the track. The staff settings are valid for the entire track, but you can insert changes wherever you like: 1. Select the Display Quantize tool on the toolbar or the context menu. The Display Quantize dialog opens.
The Explode function 5. Click OK. This function allows you to “split” the notes on a staff into separate tracks. It is also possible to use this function to convert a polyphonic staff into polyphonic voices – this is described in the section “Automatically – the Explode function” on page 598. Using “Scores Notes To MIDI” ! Create a copy of the original track first, because it will be changed by the operation. 1. Pull down the Scores menu, open the Functions submenu and select “Explode”.
4 Entering and editing notes
About this chapter Staff presets In this chapter you will learn: • How to make various settings for how notes are displayed. • How to enter notes. • How to use tools and settings to make the score as legible as possible. • How to set up a split (piano) staff. • How to work with multiple staves. Score settings When you want to reuse settings made for one track in other tracks, you can save some time by creating a staff preset (see “Working with staff presets” on page 587).
Note values and positions Selecting a Quantize value Two of the most important settings for entering notes are the length of the note (the note value) and the minimum spacing between notes (the Quantize value). When you move the mouse pointer over the score the Mouse Time Position display in the status line tracks your movement and shows the current position in bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks.
The Mouse Note Position display shows the pitch according to the vertical position of the pointer in a staff. The Mouse Time Position display shows the “musical position” in bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks: • The relation between beats and bars depends on the time signature: In 4/4 there are 4 beats to a bar. In 8/8 there are eight, in 6/8 there are six, etc. • The third number is the sixteenth note within the beat. Again, the time signature determines the number of sixteenth notes to each beat.
Entering notes with the mouse 3. Move the mouse to the desired position, and click. To add a note to the score, proceed as follows: Notes input at the same position are automatically interpreted as chords, see below. 1. Make the staff active. Notes are always inserted on the active staff, see “The active staff” on page 559. 2. Select the desired note value. See “Selecting a note value for input” on page 575. 3.
• If two notes on the same position are too close to each other or if you want their “graphical order” in the score reversed, you can do this without affecting playback, see “Graphic moving of notes” on page 614. • Stem direction and length is normally automatic, but you can set it yourself, see “Background: Note stems” on page 604.
Moving notes In the following, you can find descriptions of the various methods to move notes, as well as related features. Moving by dragging • When moving notes to the left or right using key commands, the notes are moved in steps according to the Quantize value. The keys assigned for up/down nudging transpose notes in semitone steps. Moving across staves – the Lock button Proceed as follows: 1. Set the Quantize value. The Quantize value restricts your movement in time.
Ö There are also “L” and “P” layer buttons, for the layout and project layer. Clicking these buttons allows you to lock the layout and project layers (see “Background: The different layers” on page 619). Acoustic Feedback To hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the speaker icon (Acoustic Feedback) on the toolbar. Duplicating notes To duplicate notes in the score, proceed as follows: 1. Set the Quantize value and select the desired notes.
Notes that you have put on the clipboard by cutting or copying can be inserted into the score again as follows: 1. Activate the desired staff. 2. Move the project cursor to the position where you want the first note to appear. This is done by holding down [Alt]/[Option] and [Shift] and clicking at the desired position in the score. 3. Select Paste from the Edit menu (or use a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[V]).
Changing the length of notes 4. If you want to glue more notes, click again. When it comes to note lengths, the Score Editor is special in that it does not necessarily display the notes with their actual length. Depending on the situation, you may want to change the “physical length” of the notes or the “display length”. By gluing together a quarter note, an eighth note and a sixteenth note… Changing the “physical” length …you get a double dotted quarter note.
Working with the Display Quantize tool There are instances when you want different staff settings for different sections of the track. The settings on the Staff page of the Score Settings dialog are valid for the entire track, but by using the Display Quantize tool you are able to insert changes and exceptions wherever you like. This is described in detail in the section “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 571. 6. Click Apply.
If several staves share settings, you can save some time by using staff presets. Set up the staff settings for the first staff, and save them as a preset. This preset can then be applied to any of the other staves, one at a time, see “Working with staff presets” on page 587 for details.
Ö If some of the staves are bracketed (straight brackets only, as set up in the Score Settings dialog on the Layout page, see “Adding brackets and braces” on page 672), inserting a symbol for one of these staves inserts it for all other staves within the bracket. Staves outside the bracket are not affected.
5 Staff settings
About this chapter • To make settings for another staff, simply make it active in the score (by clicking anywhere in the staff or by using the up/down arrow keys on the computer keyboard). In this chapter you will learn: However, please note that you need to click Apply before making another staff active – otherwise your settings are lost! • How to make staff settings. • How to work with staff presets.
Key and clef How staff presets are stored The staff presets are stored as individual files in the Presets–Staff Presets folder within the Cubase program folder. The presets are available for selection in any project you create or edit. Staff names These fields allow you to specify a “long” and a “short” name for the staff. The long name is shown for the very first system for this staff in the score (at the start of the project), while the short name is shown for the remaining systems.
Display Quantize values 3. Deactivate the Auto Quantize option. 4. Set all the Interpretation Options. These are described in detail below. 5. Examine the score. 6. If necessary, use the Display Quantize tool to insert “exceptions” to the staff settings. See “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 571. Notes and Rests • Generally, the Notes value should be set to a value equal to, or smaller than, the “smallest note position” that you want to be shown in the score.
For a “modern” notation of syncopated notes, activate Syncopation. No Overlap When notes starting at the same position have different lengths, the program tends to add more ties than you may want. This can be avoided by using No Overlap.
Display Transpose The Options tab This is used when preparing parts for instruments that are not scored at the actual concert key. For example, if you want the note C3 to be played by an alto sax, you have to score it as an A3 – nine semitones up. Luckily, the Display Transpose setting takes care of this for you: • Use the pop-up menu to select the instrument for which you are scoring. • If the pop-up menu does not list your instrument, you can set the desired transposition with the Semitones value field.
The Polyphonic tab System Sizes This section allows you to set the number of system lines and to control spacing between the lines: Option Description System Lines The number of lines in a system. For regular scoring, this should be set to 5. Add Space Allows you to increase or decrease the space between the lines in a system. Size Allows you to set a size for the systems, as a percentage (with 100 % being the default value). In effect, this setting scales the score vertically.
6 Polyphonic voicing
About this chapter How voices are created In this chapter you will learn: • • • • How to decide when to use polyphonic voicing. How to set up voices. How to automatically convert your score to polyphonic voicing. How to enter and move notes into voices. Background: Polyphonic voicing Polyphonic voicing allows you to resolve a number of situations impossible to score properly otherwise: • Notes starting at the same position, but with different lengths.
Voices and MIDI channels Internally the program organizes the notes into voices by changing their MIDI channel values. Normally you set it up so that notes with MIDI channel 3 belong to voice 3 etc. Most of the time the link between MIDI channels and voices is totally transparent to you as a user. Sometimes you can take advantage of this relationship, as described later in this chapter.
10. Decide on a stem direction for each voice, by selecting from the pop-up menu in the Stems column. If you select Auto, the program makes decisions about which stems go in which direction (just as when not using polyphonic voices). You can always force stem direction for individual notes by using the Flip Stem function, see “Flipping the stem of one or several notes” on page 604.
Strategies: How many voices do I need? 4. If you need to switch the voice icons to the right “clef”, click somewhere in the system you want to insert notes in. Well, it depends… 5. Select one of the voices by clicking on the corresponding button. • If you are scoring for vocals, you simply need one voice for each voice, so to speak.
Moving notes between voices Automatically – the Explode function Manually The Explode function distributes notes, either onto new tracks (see “The Explode function” on page 572) or into polyphonic voices: To manually move notes to another voice, proceed as follows: 1. Select the note(s) you want to move to a particular voice. 1. Pull down the Scores menu and select “Explode” from the Functions submenu. 2. Right-click on one of the notes and select “Move to Voice” from the context menu.
Alternative ways of handling voices Below we suggest further “advanced” ways of putting notes into voices. This is based on the relation between voices and MIDI channels, so please make sure that you understand how this connection works. • Cubase only: You can use the Logical Editor (see the chapter “The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer” on page 440) to put notes into voices, based on other more complex criteria, like for example their pitch and length.
3. Select the Display Quantize tool. 3. Activate voice 1 and 2 only, and make settings for them as in the picture below. 4. Click at the position at which you want to insert the event. The Display Quantize dialog appears. 4. Click Apply. The staff is in Polyphonic staff mode, but all notes are still in the same voice. 5. Pull down the Scores menu and select “Explode” from the Functions submenu. 6. In the dialog that appears, select the “To Polyphonic Voices” option and activate “Lines To Tracks”.
10. Select the two notes that you want to be moved to voice 1 and move them, too. Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves If you have already created some tracks which look and play back as they should, and you want to combine these into one track with polyphonic voices, there is a special function on the Scores menu for this: All notes in the right voices. The voicing is now correct, as you can tell from the stem directions.
Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices This function does the opposite of “Merge All Staves” – it extracts polyphonic voices from an existing track and creates new tracks, one for each voice. Proceed as follows: 1. Open a track containing 2 to 8 polyphonic voices in the Score Editor. 2. Pull down the Scores menu and select “Extract Voices” from the Functions submenu. A number of new tracks is created and added to the display of the Score Editor. Each track contains the music from one polyphonic voice.
7 Additional note and rest formatting
About this chapter Setting stem direction In this chapter you will learn: In polyphonic voices • • • • • • How to control stem direction. How to control beaming, and create cross-staff beaming. How to make detailed adjustments to note appearance. How to perform “graphic moving” of notes. How to create grace notes. How to create tuplets. The voice stem settings In the Score Settings dialog, on the Staff page (Polyphonic tab), the stem direction can be set separately for each voice.
Independent stem direction under a beam If you need stems attached to the same beam to go in different directions, this is achieved by dragging the beam’s start and end points, as described in the section “Manual adjustment of beams” on page 612. This feature is available in Page Mode only. Stem length Adjusting stem length (Page Mode) 1. Click on the end of the stem so that a handle appears. The stem handle is selected.
Accidentals and enharmonic shift Enharmonic shift Making global settings If one or several notes are not displayed with the accidentals that you want, you can perform an Enharmonic Shift operation on them. In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project page (Accidentals subpage), you can find a number of options for how accidentals are displayed in the score. Once set, these are valid for all tracks in the project. Proceed as follows: 1.
4. Select one of the note heads. Option Description 5. Click Apply. No Ledger Lines Turns off ledger lines for notes with high or low pitches. The settings are applied to the selected notes. 6. If you like, select other notes and make settings for them. No Stem Hides the note stem completely 7. When you are done, close the dialog. No Flag/Beam Activate this to hide the flags or beams of the selected notes.
Coloring notes Copying settings between notes You can assign colors to notes using the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar. Proceed as follows: If you have made various settings in the Set Note Info dialog for a note, and want to use these settings for other notes as well, there is an easy way to do this: 1. Simply select the notes for which you want to use colors, open the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar and pick a color. 1. Set up the first note as desired.
3. Set the denominator, if necessary. Grouping quarter notes or larger under a beam (“Brillenbass”) 4. Activate “For Grouping Only”. It is also possible to use the grouping feature for notes that are not displayed with beams (quarter notes, half notes, etc.). The result are so called “Brillenbass” symbols, commonly used for indicating repeated accompaniment patterns, etc. 5. Click OK. ! Note that the “For Grouping Only” setting only affects the way the numerator is divided.
• Double-clicking on the “Grouping” text opens the Grouping dialog, allowing you to adjust the “note value” for the symbols. Removing groups Creating an accelerando/ritardando 1. Make sure that the “Grouping” checkbox is activated in the display filter bar. To create an accelerando/ritardando, proceed as follows: If you have created a group as described above and want to remove it, proceed as follows: 1. Select the notes as described above and select “Accelerando” from the Group/Ungroup submenu. 2.
Automatic grouping The program can also go through the selected notes and automatically create grouping for you, where it is deemed suitable. Proceed as follows: The notes are “graphically” moved to the selected system, but keep their actual pitch. 1. Select the notes that you want checked for autogrouping. Typically, you would select all notes on the track by using the Select All command on the Edit menu. Before and after moving a note to the lower staff 2.
Beam appearance and slant settings Manual adjustment of beams Global settings For very detailed control you can manually adjust the beam slant: 1. Group and flip notes and adjust the settings described above until the beams are as close as possible to how you want them. In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project page (Notation Style subpage), you can find the following three options for beam appearance in the Beams category: 2. Click on the corner made up by the beam and the stem.
The last case requires some explanation: Cubase uses a “cutting mechanism” that automatically creates tied notes depending on the length and position of the notes. For example, a quarter note is cut in two and tied if it crosses a half note beat, and an eighth note is cut in two and tied if it crosses a quarter note beat: This quarter note is cut. This eighth note is cut. However, this is not always what you want.
Other options for tied notes By using the computer keyboard Tie direction You can assign key commands for moving objects graphically. In the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, the commands are found under the Nudge category and called Graphical Left, Right, Bottom and Top (only the Graphical Left and Right commands apply to notes). As described in the section “Tie pop-up menu” on page 607, you can set the direction of the tie manually in the Set Note Info dialog.
A quick example Creating grace notes manually Let’s say you have a flute part and want some cue notes for it: 1. Locate the note for which you want a grace note. 1. Switch on polyphonic voices and activate voice 1 and voice 2. The note value and exact position of the note is not important. However, the pitch of course is. 2. Set voice 2 to “Auto” stem direction and centered rests. From here on there are two ways to go: 3. Set up voice 1 to be a cue voice, with hidden rests and stems pointing up. 2.
4. Click Apply. 3. Select “Build N-Tuplet…” from the Scores menu. The settings are applied to the selected notes. The Tuplets dialog appears. 5. Close the dialog. Converting grace notes to normal notes 1. Select the notes that you want to convert. If you want to make sure that all notes in the score are normal notes, you can select all notes (using the Select All command on the Edit menu). 2. Double-click on one of the selected grace notes. The Set Note Info dialog appears. 4.
Without permanent change to MIDI data Tuplet display options 1. Select the notes in the tuplet group. In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project–Notation Style subpage (Tuplets category), you can find the following settings for tuplets: In this case, the notes play back correctly but are not displayed as a tuplet (yet). 2. Select “Build N-Tuplet…” from the Scores menu to bring up the Tuplets dialog. 3. Make settings in the dialog, as described above.
8 Working with symbols
About this chapter Layout layer symbols Now let’s examine the layout layer symbols. The layout layer is not stored individually for each track, as the other symbols are. Instead it is common to a “set of tracks”. Let’s illustrate this with an example: In this chapter you will learn: • What the different types of symbols are. • How to insert and edit symbols. • Details about special symbols.
Which symbols are part of which layer is described in the section “The available symbols” on page 621 and onwards. • You can change the current show/hide status by selecting items in one column and using the arrow buttons in the middle of the dialog to move them to the other column. The Symbols Inspector The changes are reflected directly in the editor. To display the Symbols Inspector, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate the Symbols option.
3. Select “Open as Palette” from the context menu. The selected tab is shown as palette. When you place the mouse pointer on a symbol, a tooltip shows you information about the function. Further details about many of the symbols can be found in the section “Symbol details” on page 634. Setting up the Favourites tab Moving and handling palettes Palettes are handled as any window, which means that you can: In the Symbols Inspector, you can find a tab called Favourites.
Layout symbols work slightly differently. Instead of belonging to a certain staff or voice, they belong to a layout. Since different track combinations use different layouts, this means that if you insert a layout symbol in the score when you are editing two tracks (for example a trumpet and a saxophone part), it is not there when you view each track by itself in the Score Editor. If you want the same symbols to appear in other layouts as well, you can copy the form of one layout to another.
Adding text 4. Click on one of the notes. The symbol is added to each selected note, at a predefined distance. The symbols can be moved later. There are special methods for working with text, described in their own chapter, “Working with text” on page 645. Adding slurs and ties Slurs can be drawn in manually or inserted automatically for a group of notes. Ties are usually added by the program but can also be drawn in as “graphic” symbols.
3. Position the mouse close to the first note and drag to a position close to the second note. The default Bezier slur has four curve points – one at each end and two along the curve. The end points of the slur/tie snap to their default positions – holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] allows you to move the end points freely. There are two special functions for inserting a slur or tie that automatically spans from one note to another.
• If you choose to include a help note, the second note is converted to a “Graphic” note, with brackets but without stem. Otherwise, the second note is hidden, too. • The trill symbols you selected in the dialog are inserted. • If you right-click on an inserted keyboard symbol and select “Properties” from the context menu, a dialog opens allowing you to specify further properties for the symbol. You can also double-click on an inserted keyboard symbol to open this dialog.
3. Click in the score, at the position where you want the symbol to appear. The Guitar Symbol dialog appears. You can edit the symbol at any time by double-clicking it, changing the settings in the dialog and clicking Apply. Note that you can also access the symbols that you defined in the guitar library by right-clicking a guitar symbol – see below. Ö If you select “Make Chord Symbol” from the context menu, the corresponding chord symbol is displayed above the guitar symbol.
• The symbol you create is also “interpreted” and its name is displayed to the right of the fretboard symbol. This can also be edited by double-clicking if you like. • To sort the available symbols in the library according to their root notes, click the Sort button. • To remove a symbol from the library, select it in the list and click Remove. • To save the current library as a separate file, select “Save…” from the Functions pop-up menu.
You can modify the settings you made on import by rightclicking on the image and selecting “Properties” on the context menu, to open the Image Properties dialog. One example of how to use layout symbols: Let’s say you are editing a full orchestra score, and want rehearsal marks inserted for more than one staff (typically, above each instrument group – brass, strings, percussion, etc.). Now all you need to do is insert the rehearsal marks from the Layout tab for one of the tracks.
Setting up the lock layers Locking a layer 1. Open the Preferences dialog and select the Scores– Note Layer page. To “lock” a layer, click on its lock layer button. In this figure, layer 2 is locked. Event types assigned to layer 2 cannot be selected, moved, or deleted. Visual indication of the layers 2. Assign each event type to a layer (1, 2, or 3). It is a good idea to specify different layers for event types that might conflict “graphically”.
• Slurs and ties are an exception, as they can only be moved by first dragging one handle and then the other. However, if you use the Layout tool (see “Graphic moving of notes” on page 614) to move the notes they belong to, or if you change the measure width, they are adjusted automatically. • Duplicating is done by moving with [Alt]/[Option] pressed, as always in Cubase. Slurs, ties, and bar lines cannot be duplicated with this method.
Dragging symbols across staves If you drag a symbol across the staves, you can see how the “active staff” indicator to the left follows the mouse pointer. Use this as an indication to make sure that symbols end up in the correct staff. 3. Double-click on the handle of the bar from which you want to copy or move symbols. The Bar Copy dialog appears.
The following happens: • If you activated “Note Symbols”, the note symbols are copied from the “source” bar and pasted onto notes at the same positions in the “target” bar. If there is a note symbol for a certain note in the “source” bar, but no note at the corresponding position in the “target” bar, the symbol is ignored. The actual positions of notes are used as a basis for this operation – not the displayed positions.
Altering the shape and direction of slurs and ties Deleting symbols Ö This section describes how to alter the “regular” slur and tie symbols. How to add and edit Bezier slur symbols is described in the section “The Bezier slur” on page 624. This is done as with all other objects in Cubase, either with the Erase tool or by selecting it and pressing [Delete] or [Backspace]. There are two types of slurs and ties in the Symbols Inspector.
Symbol details The following options are available: Option Result This section further describes some of the symbol tabs. Left The “Clefs etc.” tab Right Clefs You can insert a clef symbol anywhere in the score. This has an effect on the notes, just as the first clef on the staff has. And just as with the first clef, the type is selected from the Edit Clef dialog that appears when you select the Clef symbol and click in the Score.
• You can select a font and size for time signatures in the “Text Settings” subpage of the Score Settings dialog (Project page). The default font for this is the included “Steinberg Notation” font. The Dynamics tab There are dynamic symbols ranging from ffff to pppp, plus “special” dynamic symbols such as sforzando, fortepiano, etc. • By selecting a dynamic symbol and clicking the “+” and “-” buttons on the extended toolbar, you can quickly edit dynamics in the score.
The Line/Trill tab The Other tab Octave symbols Lyrics and text symbols are described in the chapter “Working with text” on page 645. Chord symbols are described in the section “Inserting Chord symbols” on page 641. The octave symbols (8va and 15va) act as a “local display transpose” (see “Transposing instruments” on page 565) – they shift the display of the score one/two octaves down. • By dragging the end of the dotted line, you can specify exactly which notes are affected by the octave symbol.
The Layout tab Box (rectangle) symbol Rehearsal marks This is a “generic” box symbol, which may be useful for different purposes. If you double-click on a box, a dialog opens in which you can specify whether the box is transparent or not, and whether the border is visible. This dialog can also be opened by selecting “Properties” from the context menu. The box symbol is available on the “Other” and “Layout” tabs. The keyboard symbol These come in two flavors: as numbers and as letters.
Endings are available on the Layout tab (for the layout layer), the Project tab (for the project layer), and the Line/ Trill tab (for the note layer). Which one to choose depends on the score; while it is handy to insert endings once and for all as Project symbols, this does not allow you to make individual adjustments for the different parts. • You can right-click on an ending symbol and select the “Extend (+)” or “Reduce (-)” command to extend it to the next chord or to reduce it.
The User Symbols editor – tools and functions The toolbar contains the following tools and settings, from left to right: Tool Description Arrow Use this to select objects – press [Shift] to select more than one. Click and drag to move objects – press [Ctrl]/ [Command] to drag vertically or horizontally only or press [Alt]/[Option] to copy. To delete an object, select it and press [Backspace] or [Delete]. Line Draws a straight line. Rectangle Creates a rectangle.
9 Working with chords
About this chapter 4. In the “Chord Type” field, specify a chord type. You can either enter it directly (for example, by typing a “7”) or select an option from the pop-up menu (click the arrow button to open it). In this chapter you will learn: • How to enter chord symbols manually and automatically using the “Make Chord Symbols” feature. • Which settings can be made for chord symbols.
• To open the Edit Chord Symbol dialog for an existing chord, double-click on the symbol. You can also right-click on the symbol and select “Properties” on the context menu to open the dialog. 5. On the Scores menu, select “Make Chord Symbols”. The chords appear. They can be moved, duplicated and deleted as any other symbol. You can also double-click on a chord symbol to edit it in the Edit Chord Symbol dialog (in the same way as when creating chords manually – see above).
The analysis method is not perfect since the same set of notes can be interpreted differently depending on context. Some editing may be required. If you record the track solely to create chords automatically, play the chord as simple as possible, in the correct inversion, without added octaves, etc. The Current Chord Display Cubase features a handy chord recognition function that helps you identify chords in the Score Editor note display.
• Use the radio buttons at the bottom to select a chord display mode. This affects how the key and bass notes are displayed: Option Description English Regular notation. DoReMi “Do-Re-Mi-…” are used instead of “C-D-E-…” German As English notation, but “B” is displayed as “H”, and “Bb” or “A#” are displayed as “B”.
10 Working with text
About this chapter About the melisma lines When you add a text symbol, you can find a handle at the right edge of the text. By dragging this handle to the right, you can extend a “melisma line” from the text. This has several uses: In this chapter you will learn: • • • • Which different types of text are available. How to enter and edit text. How to set font, size, and style. How to enter lyrics.
Editing the text 6. Click Apply to apply the settings to the selected text. If you made a mistake when typing or for some other reason want to change text, double-click on a text block with the Object Selection tool, edit the text and press [Return] to close it. • It is also possible to replace all occurrences of a certain word in the score, without having to edit the texts manually, see “Find and replace” on page 652.
Editing text attribute sets Pasting text If you edit the settings in a text attribute set, all texts using this particular set are affected. This is very practical, since it allows you to use the same number of “generic” sets for all your projects (for titles, comments, lyrics, etc.), and simply change the fonts, sizes, etc. for a different project if necessary. This also makes it easier to move projects between computers (which may not have the same fonts installed). You can paste text (e.g.
3. Press the [Tab] key. To indicate that the words belong to another verse, they are automatically displayed in another color. However, all verses are printed in black as usual. The program moves on to the next note. • To select all words in one verse only, press [Shift] and double-click on the first word in that verse. This selects all following words in the verse. Inserting lyrics into voices 4. Input text for this note and press [Tab] again. 5.
4. Pull down the Scores menu and select “Lyrics from Clipboard” from the Functions submenu. The lyrics are added, starting at the selected note. Menu item Description Text To Clipboard Copies the Block Text to the clipboard. Hide Hides the inserted block text. To make the text visible again, activate the Hide checkbox in the filter bar, rightclick on the text “Hidden” which is displayed for the hidden text and select “Show” on the context menu.
4. Adjust the positioning settings for the text: Using the Score Settings (Text page) Option Description Show on all pages When this is activated, the text is shown on all pages. The “Except First” checkbox allows you to exclude the very first page. Show on first page When this is selected, the text is only shown on the first page. In the Score Settings dialog on the Text page, you can find a number of text-related settings.
Text functions • Right-clicking one of the fields opens a context menu with a number of options: The Words tab If you have certain words that you use a lot, you can “store” these as dedicated symbols on the Words tab. This saves time, since you do not have to type the same word over and over again. • Select “Edit…” to open the Custom Text Editor dialog. • Select “New” to add a new empty symbol to the Words tab. • Select “Remove” to delete any unwanted symbols from the Words tab.
6. Click OK. Now all occurrences of the “Find” words are replaced with the “Replace” words. • You can fine-tune the vertical and horizontal position of staff names with some of the options on the Project– Spacing subpage of the Score Settings dialog. Staff names Bar Numbers You can make settings for staff names in several places: Bar Number settings can be made in several places as well.
Offsetting bar numbers If you double-click on a bar number, a dialog appears, allowing you to skip a number of bars in the otherwise continuous bar numbering. • You can also define text attribute sets on the Text Settings subpage, as a means to quickly change text. Note that you can select a defined attribute set from the context menu opened when right-clicking on a text element (see “Text attribute sets” on page 647). This is used for example when a section repeats.
11 Working with layouts
About this chapter Creating a layout In this chapter you will learn: Layouts are created automatically when you open a new combination of tracks for editing. • • • • • • What layouts are and what they contain. How to create layouts. How to use layouts for opening combinations of tracks. How to apply, load, save and delete layouts. How to import and export layouts. An example of how layouts can be used.
Using layouts – an example Opening the tracks in a layout To select another combination of tracks for editing, select the corresponding layout in the list. • You can keep the dialog open while you are editing, and use this function for selecting which tracks to edit.
Marker Track to Form If you have created markers in the Project window which denote the start of each new “section” in your music (verse, bridge, chorus, etc.), you can automatically transfer these markers into the current layout: 1. Pull down the Scores menu, open the Advanced Layout submenu and select “Marker Track to Form”. Now, rehearsal marks and double bar lines are inserted in the score, at the position of each marker. 2.
12 Working with MusicXML
Introduction Is MusicXML better than MIDI? MusicXML is a music notation format developed by Recordare LLC in 2000 based primarily on two academic music formats. It allows the representation of scores in the current symbolic representation of western music notation, used since the 17th century. With Cubase you can now import and export MusicXML files created with version 1.1.
Importing and exporting MusicXML files Notes Export Import Lyrics Yes Yes Chord Symbols Yes Yes Damper Pedal Yes Yes Dynamics Yes Yes Rehearsals Yes Yes Text Yes Yes Import Layout Text Yes N.A. Yes “Credits” Cubase can import and export MusicXML files, which makes it possible to transfer musical scores to and from applications that support this file format.
Exporting MusicXML files 1. Set up the score the way you want it in the Score Editor of Cubase. 2. Open the File menu and open the Export submenu. 3. On the submenu, select “MusicXML…”. Note that this option is only available when the Score Editor is open. 4. A file dialog opens in which you can choose an existing empty folder or create a new folder for saving the MusicXML file (with the extension “.xml”).
13 Designing your score: additional techniques
About this chapter The track list In this chapter you will learn: The track list lists the tracks included in the layout and allows you to make the following settings: • • • • • How to change the staff size. How to create multi-rests. How to add and edit bar lines. How to create upbeats. How to set measure spacing and the number of bars across the page. How to control staff and grand staff spacing. How to use the Auto Layout dialog. How to use the Reset Layout function. How to break bar lines.
Staff Separators For all tracks in a layout When this option is activated, separator symbols are inserted at the beginning of each grand staff. 1. Open the Score Settings and select the Layout page. 2. Change the Size parameter. The values range from 25 % up to 250 % of the normal size. 3. Click Apply. All staves now get the desired size. Staves that have individual size settings (see above) still are proportionally smaller/larger.
Hiding Showing one object To hide items, proceed as follows: 1. Make sure that “Hide” is activated on the filter bar. 1. Select all the items you want to hide. 2. Click on the “Hide” text marker below the object you want to display again. 2. Select “Hide/Show” from the Score menu or click on the “H” (Hide) button on the extended toolbar. The text is selected. 3. Press [Backspace] or [Delete]. The object appears. Undo is available if you change your mind.
Multiple rests Multi-rest appearance Multiple consecutive rests can be automatically displayed as multi-rests. Proceed as follows: The Project page in the Score Settings dialog contains several subpages, on which you can make settings for multi-rests: 1. Open the Score Settings and select the Layout page. 2. Set the Multi-Rests option to the number of empty bars that are “allowed” before Cubase displays them as a multi-rest.
2. If you want the bar line to be shown with “brackets”, activate the Brackets checkbox. 5. Activate the “Pickup Bar” option and click OK. This is only relevant for repeat signs. 3. Click on the desired bar line type. The dialog closes and the bar line type is changed. 4. If you do not want to display bar lines at the beginning of the parts, open the Score Settings dialog on the Project– Notation Style subpage (Bar Lines category) and activate the “Hide First Bar line in Parts” option.
5. If you use bar numbers, adjust them as described in the previous example. • To change the number of bars for the active staff only, click “This Staff”. • To change the number of bars for the active staff and all following staves, click “All Staves”. In other words, to set all systems on all pages to the same number of bars, make the very first staff active and use the All Staves option.
Moving bar lines The last bar line in the score Moving a bar line Cubase attempts to move the last bar line and space the bars on the last line in a sensible way. But you can change this manually by dragging the last bar line, if you like. To change the type of the last bar line, double-click it and select the desired type. If you drag a bar line to the left or right, the surrounding bars are adjusted proportionally.
3. Drag downwards until you have reached the desired distance between the staves and release the mouse button. 3. Drag downwards or upwards and release the mouse button. The new distance is set for the two staves. Dragging the staves in a piano system apart. Before… Setting the same distance between staves in several systems 1. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the desired staff as described above. …and after dragging the upper system Setting the same distance between all grand staves 2.
Moving staves to the previous page 1. Make the staff at the top of the page the active staff. If any other staff is active, the “Move to Previous Page” option cannot be used. Also, the function does not work for the first staff on the first page. 2. Right-click on the blue rectangle to the left of the staff, and select “Move to Previous Page” from the context menu. The active staff, and as many of the following staves as there are room for, are moved to the previous page.
Move bars Move Bars and Staves This option looks at the currently active grand staff, and attempts to adjust the measure widths, so that all notes and symbols get as much room as possible. The number of bars on the staff is not affected.
Reset Layout Breaking bar lines This function allows you to delete invisible layout elements, which in effect restores the score to default settings. Sometimes you may not want a bar line to stretch all the way across a grand staff. If this is the case, you have the possibility to “break it”. 1. Select “Reset Layout…” from the Scores menu. The Reset Layout dialog appears. Manually Breaking bar lines in one grand staff 1. Select the Erase tool. 2. Click on a bar line connecting the two staves.
Automatically If you have added brackets for some staves on the Layout page of the Score Settings dialog (see “Adding brackets and braces” on page 672), you can have bar lines broken between each bracketed “section”, giving a clearer indication of which staves belong together: 1. Open the Score Settings dialog from the Score menu and, on the Project page, select the “Notation Style” subpage. 2. In the Bar Lines section, locate and activate the “Break Bar Lines with Brackets” option.
14 Scoring for drums
About this chapter Use Score Drum Map on/off For the drum map settings to be used in the score, you need to activate the “Use Score Drum Map” option in the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page (Options tab). In this chapter you will learn: • • • • How to set up the drum map. How to set up a staff for drum notes. How to enter and edit drum notes. How to use a single line drum staff. Background: Drum maps in the Score Editor When scoring for drums, you can assign a unique note head to each pitch.
! Please note that many different drum maps can be created for a project. Which one you get depends on which drum map is assigned to the edited track. These drum maps are totally independent of one another, i.e. each pitch can have different settings in different drum maps. Customizing note head pairs If you do not like the default pairs of note heads, you can edit these: 1. On the Functions pop-up menu, select “Edit head pairs”.
Setting up a staff for drum scoring Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Options tab. When this option is activated on the Options tab of the Staff page in the Score Settings dialog, there is only one line in the system. Furthermore, notes can only appear below the line, on the line and above the line. 2. Make sure that “Use Score Drum Map” is activated. 3.
15 Creating tablature
About this chapter • If you are not using one of the predefined instruments, set the open tuning of each string using the value fields. In this chapter you will learn: You can create tablature for up to 12 strings. To disable a string, set it to Off, the lowest value. • How to create tablature, automatically and manually. • How to control the appearance of the tablature notes. • How to edit tablature. 5. If you want to use a capodaster, e.g.
1. Many guitar synthesizers are able to transmit each string on a different MIDI channel. If you have such an instrument, set it up so that the high E string transmits on MIDI channel 1, the B string transmits on MIDI channel 2, etc. 6. On the Tablature tab, activate “Tablature Mode”. This feature can be used for MIDI string instruments with up to six strings. 2. Record the project. Quantize and edit it as desired. 7. Set up whatever other parameters you need in the dialog, and click Apply. 3.
Editing Tablature can be edited like any other score. You can move notes, handle beaming, stem direction, etc. Moving notes to another string If you want for example a “C” to appear as a “8” on the low E-string rather than a “3” on the A-string on a guitar, proceed as follows: 1. Select one note or a number of notes that you want to move to a new string. 2. Right-click on one of the selected notes and, from the “Move to String” submenu, select the desired string.
16 The score and MIDI playback
About this chapter Working with mapped dynamics In this chapter you will learn: Apart from the dynamics symbols found on the Dynamics tab, you can also use 12 “mapped” Dynamics symbols. These make use of the Note Expression functionality in Cubase, see the chapter “Note Expression (Cubase only)” on page 428.
In the dialog, you can make the following settings: Send Controller Change Velocities You can also send an additional MIDI controller (except MIDI controllers 7 and 11, which are used for the “Send Volume” function). You can create dynamics by defining different velocities for the different symbols. Proceed as follows: 1. Activate the “Change Velocities” checkbox in the lower section of the dialog. 2.
• Crescendi and Decrescendi are updated intelligently, i. e. when you have inserted a crescendo between two dynamics symbols and the order of these symbols is reversed, the decrescendo automatically becomes a crescendo. • When you insert a crescendo symbol which is not preceded by a Dynamic symbol, the “assumed” start value is mezzo forte (mf). • Likewise, if a crescendo symbol is not followed by a dynamic symbol, an end value will be calculated automatically.
17 Tips and Tricks
Overview Polyphonic voicing This chapter provides useful information about editing techniques and answers to a number of questions that might arise when you use the Score Editor. For more information about the functions referred to, please use the index and check the previous chapters. If you are working on a full score with more than one instrument in one staff (2 flutes, 2 trumpets, etc.), you should use polyphonic voices.
In this case, try using the “Scores Notes To MIDI” function. Note that you should work on a copy of the track! For more information, see “Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”” on page 572. Optimizing rests Complex grace notes Speeding up inserting key changes If you have a number of consecutive empty bars, you can replace them with one multiple rest, see “Multiple rests” on page 667. Zero system lines Having no system lines at all might seem like a stupid idea to start with.
There are a number of short rests after my notes. I have an unnecessarily large amount of rests. Your Rests value for Display Quantize might be set to too small a note value. Raise it. Also check the “Clean Lengths” setting. Especially with polyphonic voicing, superfluous rests may be created. Try deactivating rests for one or more voices. You might also leave the rests activated in the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page (Polyphonic tab) and then hide the rests you do not need, one by one.
I can’t select an object on the screen, or I can’t select an object without selecting another object. Drag a selection rectangle around the objects. Then hold down [Shift] and deselect all the objects you do not want included, by clicking on them. You should also check out the lock layer function. Symbols have disappeared. Are they layout symbols? Then maybe they belong to another layout than the one you are editing now.
Index
A Accelerando 610 Accents Above Staves 622 Above Stems 622 Accidentals About 606 Distance from note 607 ACID® loops 272 Acoustic Feedback 381 Sample Editor 267 Score Editor 580 VariAudio 290 Activate Project button 50 Adapt (Display Quantize) 589 ADAT Lightpipe 496 Advanced Quantize 110 AES/SPDIF Digital Audio 496 Aftertouch Deleting 392 Editing 390 Recording 103 AIFF files 489 Algorithms Sample Editor 271 Time stretching 259 Align Dynamics 635 Text 647 All MIDI Inputs 21 Appearance 536 General 536 Meters 5
AudioWarp Unstretch Audio 293 Auditioning Acoustic Feedback 267 Audio Part Editor 296 MIDI editors 381 Pool 306 Project window 58 Sample Editor 267 Speaker tool 267 Using key commands 267, 296 Auto fades Global settings 122 Track settings 123 Auto Layout About 672 Hide empty staves 673 Move bars 673 Move staves 673 Auto Quantize 103, 589 Score Editor 414 Auto Save 52 Automation Auto-Latch mode 236 Cross-Over mode 236 Delta indicator 229 Editing in Project Browser 481 Follow events 234 Merging part and autom
Click button 106 Clips, see “Audio clips” Clock sources 496 Close project 50 Color tool Project window 538 Colors Assigning to MIDI notes 608 MIDI editors 382 Project window 538 Tracks 72 Comping 77 Conforming Files 310 Connecting Audio 15 MIDI 20 Constrain Delay Compensation 216 Context menus Opening 13 Control Room About 173 Configuring 173 Disabling 176 Exclusive port assignment 175 Features 173 Main Mix 181 Operations 173 Overview 185 Preferences 182 Suggested settings 181 Control Room channels About 17
Display Quantize 413 About 553 Auto 589 In polyphonic voices 599 Rests 554 Tool 554, 571 Display Transpose About 414, 591 Disable 566 Dithering 193 Drawing In Sample Editor 268 MIDI controllers 390 MIDI notes 382 MIDI parts 75 Drum Editor Creating and editing notes 398 Muting drum sounds 399 Selecting drum maps 401 Drum maps About 400 Editing in score 678 Making settings 400 MIDI channel and output 401 Selecting 401 Setup dialog 402 Drum name lists 403 Drum notes About 677 Adding and editing 679 Head pairs
F Fade handles 118 Fade In/Out functions 119 Fades Auto fades 122 Creating 118 Editing in dialog 120 Presets 120 Processing 119 Removing 119 With Range Selection tool 118 Fill Loop 62 Filter bar List Editor 404 Filtering MIDI in Project Browser 481 MIDI messages 105 FireWire DV Output 511 Fit Page/Width 558 Fixed Lengths 371 Fixed Stem Length 592 Fixed Tempo 463 Fixed Velocity 373 Flat Ties 614 Flip Crescendo 635 Slurs and Ties 633 Stems 417, 604 Folder parts 79 Folder tracks Creating 79 Group editing 80 Hi
Info line Changing note length 582 Customizing 534 Drum Editor 397 Editing articulations 423 Editing the note pitch 581 Key Editor 378 Pool 300 Project window 43 Sample Editor 264 Score Editor 560 Score Editor (basic) 411 I-Notes 400 Input busses About 26 Adding 28 Mixer 147 Input gain About 153 Setting record level 95 Input levels 16, 94 Input phase About 153 Input ports 19 Input selection Multiple audio channels 164 Multiple MIDI channels 101 Input Transformer 450 Inputs Audio 27 MIDI 100 Insert effect co
Lock layers 628 Lock Record 107 Logical Editor About 441 Actions 447 Filter conditions 442 Functions 447 Opening 441 Presets 450 Loop Audio Part Editor 297 MIDI editors 381 Lyrics About 648 In voices 649 Inserting manually 648 Verse 649 M Mac OS X Port activation 28 Port selection 28 Machine control About 494 Input source 499 Output destinations 498 Macros 543 Magnetic Cursor (Snap mode) 47 Magnifying Glass tool 56 Main Mix Control Room 175 Setting up 28 Marker list Navigating 140 Marker tracks About 141 A
MIDI notes Assigning colors 608 Deleting 386 Display Length 582 Drawing 382 Duplicating 580 Editing velocity 393 Grouping automatically 611 Grouping in score 608 Head shape 606 Insert velocity 383 Ledger lines 607 Moving 384, 579 Moving graphically 614 Muting 386 Muting in Drum Editor 399 Resizing 385 Selecting 383 Selecting in score 578 Splitting 582 Splitting and gluing 386 Transpose (function) 367 Transposing (in editor) 384 MIDI outputs In drum maps 401 Renaming 101 Selecting for tracks 101 Send effects
Notes Editing via MIDI 387, 581 NPL files 309 Nudge buttons 86 MIDI editors 384 Project window 61 Nudge key commands 631 Nudging notes 579 Numeric keypad 83 O Octave symbols 636 Offline Process History 254 Offline processing VariAudio 282 Ogg Vorbis files Exporting 490 Importing 525 OMF files 525 O-Notes 400 Opening projects 50 Output busses About 26 Adding 28 Default 28 Mixer 147 Mixing down to file 485 Surround 219 Output ports 19 Output selection Multiple audio channels 164 Multiple MIDI channels 101 Ou
Preferences About 69 Presets 69 Transferring 539 Pre-roll 105 Previewing Track presets 333, 334 Printing Page setup 559 Scores 418, 566 Processing About 245 Settings and functions 245 Undoing 254 Project Assistant dialog 49 Project Browser 478 Project cursor 557 Moving 84 Selecting events with 60 Snapping to 47 Project Logical Editor About 453 Actions 458 Filter conditions 454 Functions 460 Macros 460 Opening 453 Overview 453 Presets 460 Project overview line 44 Project scrubbing 86 Project Setup (dialog) 5
Reverse (audio processing) 252 Reverse (MIDI function) 373 ReWire About 518 Activating 519 Channels 520 Routing MIDI 520 REX files 524 Ritardando 610 Root key Setting for unassigned events 133 Routing Effect sends 196 Effect sends (Panning) 197 For surround setup 219 Group channels 165 Ruler 561, 630 About 44 Additional time scales 45 Ruler tracks 45 Sample Editor 265 S Sample Editor Audio clip information 264 Audition 267 Auditioning 267 Auto Adjust 273 Auto-Scroll 263 Free Warp 275 Info line 264 Inspecto
Selecting Events in Project window 59 MIDI notes 383 MIDI notes in score 578 Send effects (Audio) 194 Sends Disabling 197 Set Note Info dialog 607 Shared copies 62 Shuffle 590 Side-Chain Drag & drop 200 Using 198 Signal levels 94 Silence 252 Sine mode Automation 230 MIDI editing 391 Slices About 276 Creating 279 Slurs Adding 623 Bezier slurs 624 Inserting 624 Shape and direction 633 Snap MIDI editors 381 Project window 45 Sample Editor 263 Zero crossings 47 Zero crossings (Sample Editor) 263 Snap modes 579
Swing Quantizing 113 Sample Editor 275 Symbol palettes About 560 Available symbols 621 Customizing 621 Displaying 620 Moving and handling 621 Symbols Inspector Customizing 620 Sync Selection 479 Synchronization About 494 Operation (Sync mode) 500 Recording in Sync mode 91 Setting up 496 Speed references 496 Timecode 494 Timecode preferences 497 Timecode source 497 System Exclusive About 407 Bulk Dumps 407 Editing 409 Recording parameter changes 409 T Tablature Automatic Creation 681 Capo 681 Clef 682 Editi
Tracks Adding 72 Adding events 74 Audio channel configuration 93 Coloring 72 Default time base 74 Disabling 76 Disabling/Enabling 86 Duplicating 75 Folding 76 Freezing 194 Importing/Exporting 529 Locking 65 Moving 76 Musical/Linear time base 74 Naming 72 Record-enabling 90 Removing 72 Selecting 75 Soloing 66 Transcription 569 Transferring Projects and settings 539 Transformer (MIDI effect) 441 Transport menu Functions 83 Playback options 87 Transport panel Customizing 534 Display format 84 Hiding and showin
VST Connections 26 About 26 Editing 34 Exclusive port assignment 175 Presets 29 Studio tab 174 VST instruments Activating 208 Browsing for sounds 213 Channels 208 Freezing 211 Presets 212 Saving presets 215 Setting up 207 Using VST System Link 507 VST Performance window 24 VST plug-ins Getting info 204 Installing 203 VST presets Removing 333 VST System Link About 501 Activating 503 Connections 501 Latency 502 MIDI 505 Putting computers online 504 Requirements 501 Setting up sync 502 Settings 503 Windows Me
