Operation Manual
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Sabine Pfeifer, Benjamin Schütte This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions of images. 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.
Table of Contents 10 Introduction 55 Working with projects 10 10 About the Program Versions Key Command Conventions 11 Part I: Getting into the details 12 Setting up your system 12 19 21 21 22 24 25 Setting up audio Setting up MIDI Connecting a synchronizer Setting up video Optimizing audio performance The VST Performance Window The ASIO-Guard Option 26 VST Connections 55 57 57 58 60 62 64 69 69 70 70 80 83 84 85 Creating new projects Opening projects Closing projects Saving projects The Arc
134 Quantizing MIDI and Audio 211 The Control Room (Cubase only) 134 134 134 135 135 135 135 212 214 215 221 224 226 226 136 136 142 Introduction Quantizing Audio Event Starts AudioWarp Quantize (Cubase Only) Quantizing MIDI Event Starts Quantizing MIDI Event Lengths Quantizing MIDI Event Ends Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Only) AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Only) The Quantize Panel Additional Quantizing Functions 227 Audio effects 227 229 235 240 242 242 243 248 143 F
302 Audio processing and functions 430 Track Quick Controls 302 302 313 315 316 317 319 321 322 430 430 432 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 433 435 Remote controlling Cubase 435 435 437 438 442 442 448 325 The Sample Editor 325 332 341 347 353 367 368 Window overview General functions Warping audio Working with hitpoints and slices
542 Working with the Chord Functions 610 Editing tempo and signature 542 542 545 548 549 551 610 611 613 616 617 618 619 552 553 554 Introduction The Chord Track The Chord Track Inspector Section The Chord Editor The Chord Assistant (Cubase only) Creating a Chord Progression from Scratch (Chords to MIDI) Extracting Chords from MIDI (Make Chords) Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with the Chord Track (Follow Chords) Assigning Chord Events to MIDI Effects or VST Instruments 619 625 628 629 The Project
684 File handling 747 Transcribing MIDI recordings 684 690 747 747 747 747 748 749 692 695 696 Importing audio Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) Exporting and importing standard MIDI files Exporting and importing MIDI loops Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase only) 750 751 752 698 Customizing 698 698 700 702 704 706 709 Background Workspaces Using the Setup options Customizing track controls Appearance Applying colors in the Project window Where are the settings stored? 753
779 Polyphonic voicing 858 Working with layouts 779 779 781 783 783 784 784 785 786 787 788 858 858 859 859 859 860 861 789 About this chapter Background: Polyphonic voicing Setting up the voices Strategies: How many voices do I need? Entering notes into voices Checking which voice a note belongs to Moving notes between voices Handling rests Voices and Display Quantize Creating crossed voicings Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 862 Working wit
895 Tips and Tricks 895 895 897 900 Overview Useful editing techniques Frequently asked questions If you wish you had a faster computer 901 Index 9
Introduction About the Program Versions The documentation covers two different operating systems or “platforms”, Windows and Mac OS X. Some features and settings are specific to one of the platforms. This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. If nothing else is said, all descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for both Windows and Mac OS X. The screenshots are taken from the Windows version of Cubase.
Part I: Getting into the details
Setting up your system Setting up audio ! 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.
Setting up audio Multi-channel input and output Most likely however, you will have other audio equipment that you want to integrate with Cubase, using several input and output channels. Depending on the equipment available to you, there are two ways to go: either mixing using an external mixing desk, or mixing using the MixConsole inside Cubase. • External mixing means having a hardware mixing device with a group or bus system that can be used for feeding inputs on your audio hardware.
Setting up audio Connecting for surround sound (Cubase only) If you plan to mix for surround sound, you can connect the audio outputs to a multichannel power amplifier, driving a set of surround channels. Surround sound playback configuration Cubase supports a number of surround formats. Recording from a CD player Most computers come with a CD-ROM drive that can also be used as a regular CD player.
Setting up audio 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 18). Setting levels for each input.
Setting up audio 3. On the ASIO Driver menu, select your audio hardware driver. There may be several options here that all refer to the same audio hardware. When you have selected a driver, it is added to the Devices list. ! Under Windows, we strongly recommend that you access your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifically for the hardware.
Setting up audio If your hardware setup is based on an external clock source For proper audio playback and recording, it is essential that you set the project’s sample rate to the sample rate of the incoming clock signals. If you load a project with a sample rate that is different from your clock source, the program will try to change the settings of the clock source, which may not be what you want.
Setting up audio Setting up the input and output ports Once you have selected the driver and made the settings as described above, you need to specify which inputs and outputs will be used and name these: 1. In the Device Setup dialog, select your driver in the Devices list on the left to display the driver settings for your audio hardware. All input and output ports on the audio hardware are listed. 2. To hide a port, click in the “Visible” column for the port (deselecting the checkbox).
Setting up MIDI Via Cubase In this case, the audio passes from the input into Cubase, possibly through Cubase effects and EQ and then back to the output. You control monitoring via settings in Cubase. This allows you to control the monitoring level from Cubase and add effects to the monitored signal only. 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).
Setting up MIDI If you want to use even more instruments for playback, simply connect MIDI Thru on the sound module to MIDI In on the next instrument, and so on. In this hook-up, you will always play the first keyboard when recording. But you can still use all your devices for providing sounds on playback. ! If you plan to use more than three sound sources, we recommend that you either use an interface with more than one output, or a separate MIDI Thru box instead of the Thru jacks on each unit.
Connecting a synchronizer Setting up MIDI ports in Cubase The Device Setup dialog lets you set up your MIDI system as follows: Ö When you change MIDI port settings in the Device Setup dialog, these are automatically applied. Showing or hiding MIDI Ports The MIDI ports are listed in the Device Setup dialog on the MIDI Port Setup page. By clicking in the “Visible” column for a MIDI input or output, you can specify whether or not it is listed on the MIDI pop-up menus in the program.
Optimizing audio performance Optimizing audio performance This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get the most out of your Cubase system, performance-wise. Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is very brief. Look for details and current information on the Cubase web site. Two aspects of performance There are two distinct aspects of performance with respect to Cubase.
Optimizing audio performance CPU and processor cache It goes without saying that the faster the computer processor, the better. But there are a number of factors that affect the apparent speed of a computer: the bus speed and type (PCI is strongly recommended), the processor cache size and of course, the processor type and brand. Cubase relies heavily on floating point calculations. When shopping for a processor, please make sure that you get one that is powerful in calculating floating point arithmetics.
The VST Performance Window Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only) To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows (on a singleCPU 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 System Properties dialog opens. 3. Select the Advanced tab and click the “Settings…” button in the Performance section.
The ASIO-Guard Option • The overload indicator to the right of the disk indicator lights up, if the hard disk does not supply data fast enough. Try using the Disable Track function to reduce the number of tracks playing back. If this does not help, you need a faster hard disk. Ö You can show a simple view of the performance meter on the Transport panel and on the Project window toolbar. These meters only feature the average and the disk indicator.
VST Connections About this chapter 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.
Setting up busses Setting up busses Cubase uses a system of input and output busses to transfer audio between the program and the audio hardware. - Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio hardware into the program. This means that when you record audio, you will always do this through one or several input busses. - Output busses let you route audio from the program to the outputs on your audio hardware.
Setting up busses - Cubase only: You need a surround bus in the format of your speaker configuration (in this example, 5.1) assigned to the correct outputs (which in turn are connected to the correct speakers). You may want additional surround busses if you tend to work in different surround formats.
Setting up busses Adding input and output busses Depending on whether you have selected the Inputs or the Outputs tab in the VST Connections window, the corresponding busses are listed, with the following information: Column Description Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select and rename busses by clicking on them in this column. Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, surround formats (Cubase only)) of each bus. Audio Device This shows the currently selected ASIO driver.
Setting up busses Setting the Main Mix bus (the default output bus) The Main Mix is the output bus that each new audio, group or FX channel is automatically routed to. Any of the output busses in the VST Connections window can be the default output bus. By right-clicking on the name of an output bus, you can set it as the Main Mix bus. ! The Main Mix is indicated by an orange colored speaker icon next to its name.
Setting up group and FX channels Presets On the Inputs and Outputs tabs you will find a Presets menu. Here you can find three different types of presets: • A number of standard bus configurations. • Automatically created presets tailored to your specific hardware configuration. On startup, Cubase analyzes the physical inputs and outputs provided by your audio hardware and creates a number of hardware-dependent presets with the following possible configurations: - One stereo bus.
External instruments/effects (Cubase only) External instruments/effects (Cubase only) Cubase supports the integration of external effect devices and external instruments, e. g. hardware synthesizers, into the sequencer signal flow. You can use the External Instruments tab and the External FX tab in the VST Connections window to define the necessary send and return ports and access the instruments/effects through the VST Instruments window.
External instruments/effects (Cubase only) Setting up external effects To set up an external effect in the VST Connections window, proceed as follows: 1. Open the External FX tab and click the “Add External FX” button. A dialog opens. 2. Enter a name for the external effect and specify the send and return configurations. Depending on the type of effect, you can specify mono, stereo or surround configurations. • You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the external effect.
External instruments/effects (Cubase only) Setting Description MIDI Device When you click in this column, a pop-up menu opens where you can disconnect the effect from the associated MIDI device, select a MIDI device, create a new device or open the MIDI Device Manager to edit the MIDI device. Used Whenever you insert an external effect into an audio track, this column shows a checkmark (“x”) to indicate that the effect is being used.
External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 2. Enter a name for the external instrument and specify the number of required mono and/or stereo returns. Depending on the type of instrument, a specific number of mono and/or stereo return channels is required. • You also need a MIDI device that corresponds with the external instrument. 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.
External instruments/effects (Cubase only) When you select the external instrument in the VST Instruments window, the following happens: - A parameter window for the external device opens automatically. This may either be the Device window, allowing you to create a generic device panel, an OPT editor window or a default editor. For information about the Device window, the MIDI Device Manager and User device panels, see the chapter “Using MIDI devices” on page 460.
Editing operations Freezing external effects/instruments Just as when working with regular VST instruments and effects, you can also choose to freeze external effects and instruments. The general procedure is described in detail in the chapters “Audio effects” on page 227 and “VST instruments and instrument tracks” on page 252. ! Note that you have to perform Freeze in realtime. Otherwise external effects will not be taken into account.
Editing operations Identifying exclusive port assignments In some cases (i. e. for certain channel types such as cue channels), the port assignment is exclusive. Once a port has been assigned to such a bus or channel, it must not be assigned to another bus, otherwise the connection to the first bus will be broken. To help you identify such exclusive port assignments and avoid accidental reassignment, the corresponding ports are marked in red on the Device Port pop-up menu.
Editing operations Ö You do not have to begin renaming with the topmost selected entry. The renaming will start from the bus where you edit the name, will go down the list to the bottom and then continue from the top until all selected busses have been renamed. Changing the port assignment for a single bus To change the port assignment for a single bus, you proceed as when you added it: Make sure that the channels are visible and click in the Device Port column to select ports.
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 Track list Event display About tracks The Project window is divided vertically into tracks, with a timeline running horizontally from left to right.
Window Overview Track type Description Group Channel By routing several audio channels to a Group channel, you can submix them, apply the same effects to them, see “About Group Channels” on page 192. A Group channel track contains no events as such, but displays settings and automation curves for the corresponding Group channel. Each Group channel track has a corresponding channel in the MixConsole. In the Project window, Group channels are organized as tracks in a special Group Tracks folder.
The track list About parts and events The tracks in the Project window contain parts and/or events. Events are the basic building blocks in Cubase. Different event types are handled differently in the Project window: - Video events and automation events (curve points) are always viewed and rearranged directly in the Project window. - MIDI events can always be found in MIDI parts, which are containers for one or more MIDI events. MIDI parts are rearranged and manipulated in the Project window.
The Inspector The Inspector The area to the left of the track list is called the Inspector. This shows additional controls and parameters for the track you have selected in the track list. If several tracks are selected, the Inspector shows the setting for the first (topmost) selected track. Opening the Inspector To show the Inspector, proceed as follows: 1. On the toolbar, click the “Set up Window Layout” button. 2. Activate the Inspector option.
The Inspector 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 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. Inspector sections The Inspector contains the controls that can be found on the track list, plus some additional buttons and parameters.
The Inspector Parameter Description Inserts section Allows you to add insert effects to the track, see the chapters “Audio effects” on page 227 and “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 449. The Edit button at the top of the section opens the control panels for the added insert effects. Strip section Here you can set up the channel strip modules, see “Using Channel Strip Modules” on page 198. Equalizers section Lets you adjust the EQs for the track.
The Inspector Arranger track For the arranger track, the Inspector displays the lists of available arranger chains and arranger events. See the chapter “The arranger track” on page 152 for details. Folder tracks When a folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and its underlying tracks, much like a folder structure in the Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finder. Ö You can click one of the tracks shown under the folder in the Inspector to have the Inspector show the settings for that track.
The toolbar The toolbar The toolbar contains tools and shortcuts for opening other windows and various project settings and functions. You can show/hide most of the toolbar elements (except the Activate Project and “Set up Window Layout” buttons) by activating/deactivating the corresponding options on the context menu. The following options are available: Option Description Constrain Delay Compensation This is described in the section “Constrain Delay Compensation” on page 265.
The status line Using the toolbox The toolbox can be opened instead of the standard context menus in the event display and editors. It makes the editing tools from the toolbar conveniently available at the mouse pointer position. • To open the toolbox by right-clicking (Win)/[Ctrl]-clicking (Mac), activate the “Pop-up Toolbox on Right-Click” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page).
The info line • To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate the Info Line option. The following elements can be selected for display and editing on the info line: - Audio events Audio parts MIDI parts Video events Markers Automation curve points Transpose events Arranger events Chord events When several elements are selected • If you have selected several elements, the info line shows information about the first item in the selection.
The overview line The overview line The overview line is displayed below the info line in the Project window. In the overview line, events and parts on all tracks are displayed as boxes. • To show or hide the overview line, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate the Overview Line option. You can use the overview line to zoom in or out, and for navigating to other sections of the project.
The ruler Option Positions and lengths displayed as Bars+Beats Linear When this is selected, the ruler will be linear relative to the meter position – bars and beats. This means that if there are tempo changes on the tempo track, there still will be the same distance between bars in Bars+Beats mode. If the ruler is set to a time-based mode, the distance between seconds will vary depending on the tempo changes.
The Snap function The Snap function The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in the Project window. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to certain positions. Operations affected by Snap include moving, copying, drawing, sizing, splitting, range selection, etc. • You turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap icon on the toolbar.
The Snap function 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. This means that a moved event will keep its original position relative to the grid. For example, if an event starts at the position 3.04.01 (one beat before bar 4), Snap is set to Grid Relative and the Grid Type pop-up menu is set to “Bar”, you can move the event in steps of one bar – to the positions 4.04.01, 5.04.01 and so on.
Auto-Scroll Snap to Zero Crossing When this option is activated on the toolbar, splitting and sizing of audio events is done at zero crossings (positions in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you avoid pops and clicks which might otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude changes. Auto-Scroll When the Auto-Scroll option is activated, the waveform display will scroll during playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the window.
Working with projects Creating new projects The New Project command on the File menu allows you to create new projects, either as empty projects or based on a template. Depending on the settings on the General page in the Preferences dialog, either Steinberg Hub or the Project Assistant dialog opens. Steinberg Hub When you start Cubase or create new projects using the File menu, Steinberg Hub opens.
Creating new projects Opening recent projects The Recent category in the category bar of the Projects section contains a list of recently opened projects. When you select an item in this category, the Create button changes to “Open”, allowing you to open the corresponding project. This list is similar to the list in the Recent Projects submenu of the File menu.
Opening projects Opening projects The “Open…” command on the File menu is used for opening saved project files. If you open a project saved with a different program version that contains data for functions not available in your version, this data may be lost when saving the project with your version. • Several projects can be open at the same time. This is useful if you want to copy parts or entire sections from one project to another.
Saving projects Saving projects Save and Save As The commands Save and Save As allow you to save the active project as a project file (file extension “.cpr”). The Save command stores the project under its current name and location, while Save As allows you to rename and/or relocate the file. If a project has not been saved yet or if it has not been changed since it was last saved, only Save As is available.
Saving projects • Templates can contain clips and events just like regular projects. If this is not what you want, make sure to remove all clips from the Pool before you save the project as a template. Templates are always stored in the Templates folder, see “Where are the settings stored?” on page 709. Setting up a default template If you always want the same default project to open when you launch Cubase, you can save a default template. Proceed as follows: 1. Set up a project. 2.
The Archive and Backup functions The Archive and Backup functions Prepare Archive The “Prepare Archive” function verifies that every clip referenced in the project is located in the same folder, and takes actions if that is not the case: • Any files that are located outside the current project folder will be copied into it. Please note that audio files residing within the project folder are not copied to the audio folder.
The Archive and Backup functions This dialog contains the following options: Option Description Project Name Enter a project name if you want to change it from the default (the current name of the project). Keep Current Project Active When this option is activated, the current project will still be the active project after clicking OK. If you wish to switch to the new backup project instead, deactivate this option.
The Project Setup dialog In the following situations, the Cleanup function will list files that are not unused: - If you have moved or renamed files or folders (without updating the project files to use the new paths), there is no way for Cubase to know that these files are used in a project. - If you perform the Cleanup function on a folder in which there are audio files belonging to other projects (outside the folder), these files will be considered “unused”.
The Project Setup dialog Setting Description Company Here you can add a name that will be written as the company name into the iXML chunk when exporting audio files with the corresponding option activated (see “AIFF files” on page 645). The default setting for this can be set in the Preferences dialog (General– Personalization page). Start The start time of the project. Allows you to have the project start at another time than zero.
Zoom and view options ! Setting Description Sample Rate The sample rate at which Cubase records and plays audio. The order of the menu items depends on the sample rates available for your audio hardware. Supported settings are displayed in the upper part of the menu, non-supported settings are displayed in the lower part. Regarding the sample rate, there are two possible scenarios: Either your audio hardware generates the audio clock signals itself or it is clocked externally, i. e.
Zoom and view options You find the following options are available on the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu: Option Description Zoom In Zooms in one step, centering on the project cursor. Zoom Out Zooms out one step, centering on the project cursor. Zoom Full 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 above).
Zoom and view options Zoom presets and cycle markers The pop-up menu to the left of the horizontal zoom control allows you to select, create and organize zoom presets. These are useful if you want to set up different zoom settings (e. g. one where the whole project is displayed in the project window and another with a high zoom factor for detailed editing). With this pop-up menu, you can also zoom in on the area between cycle markers in the project. Click here… …to open the pop-up menu.
Zoom and view options The Zoom history Cubase maintains a history of recent zoom stages, allowing you to undo and redo zoom operations. This way you can zoom in several steps and then easily go back to the zoom stage at which you started. There are two ways to invoke Undo Zoom and Redo Zoom: • Use the items on the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu. You can also assign key commands for these. • Double-click with the Zoom tool (magnifying glass) to Undo Zoom. Press [Alt]/[Option] and double-click to Redo Zoom.
Zoom and view options Option Description Fade Handle Brightness Increases or decreases the brightness of the set fade lines within audio events. Background Color When this is activated, the backgrounds of audio waveforms are Modulation displayed in a different way, reflecting the waveform dynamics. This is especially useful to get an overview when working with small track heights.
Audio handling Audio handling When you work with audio files, it is crucial to understand how audio is handled in Cubase: When you edit or process audio in the Project window, you always work with an audio clip that is automatically created on import or during recording. This audio clip refers to an audio file on the hard disk that itself remains untouched. This means, that audio editing and processing is “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can always undo changes or revert to the original versions.
Scrubbing audio Scrubbing audio The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio part or event by playing back, forwards or backwards, at any speed: 1. Select the Play tool and click a second time on the icon. A pop-up menu opens. 2. Select “Scrub”. 3. Click at the desired position of your audio event or part and keep the mouse button pressed. The project cursor moves to the position where you click. The mouse pointer is not visible anymore. 4. Drag to the left or right.
Editing parts and events • Use the Select submenu on the Edit menu. The following options are available: ! Option Description All Selects all events in the Project window. None Deselects all events. Invert Inverts the selection – all selected events are deselected and all events that were not selected are selected instead. In Loop Selects all events that are partly or wholly between the left and right locator.
Editing parts and events - When this option is activated, the up/down arrow keys are only used to change the track selection – the current event/part selection in the Project window will not be altered. • If the “Auto Select Events under Cursor” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing page), all events on the selected track(s) that are “touched” by the project cursor are automatically selected.
Editing parts and events Option Description Front/Back This function does not actually change the position of the events, but moves the selected events to the front or back, respectively. This is useful if you have overlapping events and want to see one that is partially obscured. For audio events, this is an extra important feature, because only the visible sections of events will be played back.
Editing parts and events • 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. Shared copies are indicated by an equal sign (=) in the top right corner. Note: • When you duplicate audio events, the copies are always shared.
Editing parts and events Using Cut, Copy and, Paste You can cut or copy selected events, and paste them in again, using the functions on the Edit menu. • When you paste an audio event, it is inserted on the selected track, positioned so that its snap point is aligned with the cursor position. If the selected track is of the wrong type, the event will be inserted on its original track. See “The Snap function” on page 52 for information about the snap point.
Editing parts and events • When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while clicking on an event with the Glue tool, this event will be glued together with all following events on this track. You can change the default key command for this in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). Resizing events Resizing events means to move their start or end positions individually.
Editing parts and events Ö Note that the Nudge palette is not visible on the toolbar by default. See “The setup context menus” on page 700 for instructions on how to show and hide items on the toolbar. • You can also resize events with the Scrub tool. For further information on the Scrub tool, see “Scrubbing audio” on page 70. Ö When resizing events, any automation data will not be taken into account.
Editing parts and events Grouping events Sometimes it is useful to treat several events as one unit. This can be done by grouping them: Select the events (on the same or different tracks) and select “Group” from the Edit menu. Grouped events are indicated by a group icon on the right. If you edit one of the grouped events in the Project window, all other events in the same group are affected too (if applicable). Group editing operations include: - Selecting events. Moving and duplicating events.
Editing parts and events • You can adjust the lock options for a locked event by selecting it and selecting “Lock…” from the Edit menu again. This opens a dialog in which you can activate or deactivate the desired lock options. • To unlock an event (turn off all lock options), select it and select “Unlock” from the Edit menu. • It is also possible to lock a whole track, by clicking the padlock symbol in the track list or in the Inspector. This disables all editing of all events on the track.
Range editing Creating new files from events An audio event plays a section of an audio clip, which in turn refers to one or more audio files on the hard disk. However, in some situations you may want to create a new file that consists only of the section played by the event. This is done with the function “Bounce Selection” on the Audio menu: 1. Select one or several audio events. 2. Set up fade in, fade out and event volume (on the info line or using the volume handle) as desired.
Range editing Option Description From Cursor to End Makes a selection on all tracks, from the project cursor to the end of the project. All on Selected Tracks Only used for event selection (see “Selecting events” on page 70). Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see “Using the Select menu” on page 335). Left Selection Side to Cursor Moves the left side of the current selection range to the project cursor position.
Range editing • By using the Trim buttons on the toolbar. The left Trim buttons will move the start of the selection range and the right buttons will move the end. The edges will be moved by the amount specified on the Grid pop-up menu. • By using the Nudge buttons on the toolbar. These will move the whole selection range to the left or the right. The amount of movement depends on the selected display format (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 62) and the value specified on the Grid pop-up menu.
Region operations Deleting selection ranges Again, you can either use “regular” Delete or “Delete Time”: • If you use the Delete function on the Edit menu (or press [Backspace]), the data within the selection range is replaced by empty track space. Events to the right of the range keep their position. • If you use “Delete Time” on the Edit menu’s Range submenu, the selection range is removed and events to the right are moved to the left to close up the gap.
The Edit History dialog The Edit History dialog In the Edit History dialog you can undo and redo many edit actions. Actions that can be undone include all functions in the Project window as well as in the editors. It is also possible to undo audio processes or applied plug-in effects. However, these are better removed and modified using the Offline Process History (see “The Offline Process History dialog” on page 315).
The Preferences dialog The Preferences dialog When you open the File menu (the Cubase menu on a Mac) and select “Preferences…”, the Preferences dialog opens. This dialog provides a large number of options and settings that control the global behavior of Cubase. The dialog has a number of pages, each containing options and settings belonging to a particular topic. • In the list on the left, click on one of the entries to open the corresponding page.
The Preferences dialog Loading a preference preset To load a saved preference preset, simply select a preset from the Preference Presets pop-up menu. The preset is applied immediately. Saving partial preferences settings It is also possible to save partial preferences settings. This is useful when you have made settings that only relate to a certain project or situation, for example. When you apply a saved partial preference preset, you only change the saved settings.
Working with tracks and lanes Setting up tracks Adding tracks To add a track to the project, proceed as follows: 1. Open the “Add Track” submenu from the Project menu or from the track list context menu. 2. Select a track type. If you select the Audio, MIDI, Group Channel, or Instrument option from the Add Track submenu, a dialog opens, allowing you to insert several tracks in one go. Just enter the desired number of tracks in the Count field.
Setting up tracks Naming tracks To rename a track, proceed as follows: 1. Double-click in the name field and type in a new name for the track. 2. Press [Return] to close the name field. • If you want all events on the track to get the same name, hold down any modifier while pressing [Return]. • If “Parts get Track names” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing page) and you move an event from one track to another, the moved event will automatically be named according to its new track.
Setting up tracks • To set the number of tracks to view in the current Project window, use the Track Scale pop-up menu (opened by clicking the arrow button above the vertical zoom control). The track height will be adjusted to show only the number of tracks specified on the pop-up menu. By selecting “Zoom N Tracks” from the pop-up you can manually set the number of tracks to fit in the current Project window. By default, lanes have a track height of 4 rows (see “Working with lanes” on page 94).
Setting up tracks Proceed as follows: 1. Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the (unselected) track you want to resize. The mouse pointer turns into a divider symbol. 2. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the lower border of the track until it reaches the desired height. Now, when you select this track, (and “Enlarge Selected Track” is activated), it will be enlarged. It will revert to the changed size, when you select a different track.
Editing tracks Editing tracks Adding events to a track There are a number of ways to add events to a track: • By recording (see “Basic recording methods” on page 110). • By dragging files and dropping them on the track at the desired position.
Editing tracks Creating parts Parts are containers for MIDI or audio events, or even for tracks (see “Working with folder parts” on page 98). 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. There are two ways to do this: • Draw a part on a MIDI track with the Draw tool. You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Object Selection tool.
Editing tracks • To select a continuous range of tracks [Shift]-click on them. You can also set up Cubase to select tracks on the following actions by activating Preferences: • Selecting a channel in the MixConsole The respective track is automatically displayed in the track list as well. For this to work you have to select “Track” on the “Scroll to Selected…” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & MixConsole).
Working with lanes • Unfold Tracks Select this menu option to unfold all folder tracks in the Project window. Please note that the exact behavior of this function depends on the “Deep Track Folding” setting in the Preferences dialog, see below. • Flip Fold States Select this menu option to flip the fold states of the tracks in the Project window. This means that all tracks that were folded in will be unfolded and all unfolded tracks will be folded in, respectively.
Working with lanes 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 only hear the take that is activated for playback, for example, the last lap of a cycle recording. • MIDI Overlapping MIDI takes (parts) can be played back simultaneously. If you recorded in “Mix-Stacked” mode, you hear all takes from all cycle laps. Lanes can be reordered, sized, and zoomed like regular tracks.
Working with lanes Operation Comp tool Object/Range Selection tool Audition Press [Ctrl]/[Command] to activate the See left. Speaker tool and click at the position where you want playback to start. Move Click and drag on the main track. Resize Drag the resize handles. All takes with Drag the resize handles. the same start and end positions are affected. Resizing is constrained to the end or start of the adjacent takes. This ensures that you do not create overlaps accidentally.
Organizing tracks in folder tracks 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.
Organizing tracks in folder tracks • Hiding/showing data on folder tracks Right-click on the folder track to open the context menu and from the “Show Data on Folder Tracks” submenu select one of the options. This menu is also available in the Preferences dialog (Editing page). The following options are available: Option Description Always Show Data The data on the folder track is always visible. Never Show Data The data on the folder track is never visible.
Organizing tracks in folder tracks Double-clicking a folder part opens the editors for the corresponding track classes present in the folder. The following applies: • All MIDI parts located on the tracks within the folder are displayed as if they were on the same track, just like when opening the Key Editor with several MIDI parts selected.
Dividing the track list 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.
Playback and the Transport panel Background 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 108.
Operations The MIDI Activity, Audio Activity and Audio Level Control sections These sections are useful to monitor the MIDI and audio input and output signals. The Audio Level Control section furthermore contains clipping indicators and an output level control. Ö The audio activity and clipping indicator as well as the output level control refer to the Control Room channel (Cubase only), if the Control Room is activated.
Operations • If the “Locate when Clicked in Empty Space” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page) you can click anywhere in an empty section of the Project window to move the cursor position. • By changing the value in any of the position displays. • By using the position slider above the transport buttons in the Transport panel. The range of the slider relates to the Length setting in the Project Setup dialog.
Operations The following rules apply: • If you change the time format of the primary time display on the Transport panel, the time format of the ruler will be changed as well. This is the same as changing the display format in the Project Setup. Therefore, to have different display formats in the ruler and the main time display you should change the format in the ruler. • The primary time display format is set on the pop-up menu to the right in the main time display.
Operations • By creating cycle markers you can save any number of left and right locator positions, which can be recalled by simply double-clicking on the corresponding marker (see “Editing markers on the marker track” on page 174). • The “Locators to Selection” item on the Transport menu (default key command [P]) sets the locators to encompass the current selection. This is available if you have selected one or several events or made a selection range.
Options and Settings • The “Use Inserts While Scrubbing” option in the Preferences dialog on the Transport–Scrub page allows you to activate insert effects for scrubbing with the jog wheel. By default, insert effects are bypassed. Ö You can also use a jog wheel on a remote controller for scrubbing. Nudging the project cursor The “+” and “–” buttons in the middle of the Shuttle/Jog section allow you to nudge the project cursor position one frame at a time to the right or left.
Options and Settings ! Option Description Play until Selection Start/End Activates playback two seconds before the start or end of the current selection and stops at the selection start or end, respectively. Play until Next Marker This activates playback from the project cursor and stops at the next marker. Play Selection Range This activates playback from the start of the current selection and stops at the selection end.
The Virtual Keyboard • In this section of the Preferences dialog, you will also find the “Chase not limited to Part Boundaries” option. When you activate this option, MIDI controllers are also chased outside the part boundaries, i. e. the Chase will be performed on the part touched by the cursor as well as on all the parts to the left of it. Please note that this option should be deactivated for very large projects, as it considerably slows down operations such as positioning and soloing.
The Virtual Keyboard 4. Use the fader “Note velocity level” to the right of the virtual keyboard to adjust the volume. You can also use the up and down arrow keys for this. 5. Enter the desired notes this way. 6. When you are done, hit the Stop button and close the Virtual Keyboard. When the Virtual Keyboard is hidden, all key commands are available again.
Recording Background 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. Before you start This chapter assumes that you are reasonably familiar with certain basic recording concepts, and that the following initial preparations have been made: • You have properly set up, connected and calibrated your audio hardware.
Basic recording methods Ö You can set up key commands to record-enable all audio tracks simultaneously and to deactivate Record Enable for all audio tracks (Arm/Disarm all Audio Tracks). You will find these commands in the Key Commands dialog, in the MixConsole category (see “Setting up key commands” on page 712). Ö The exact number of audio tracks you can record simultaneously depends on your computer CPU and hard disk performance.
Basic recording methods Stopping recording Again, this can be done automatically or manually: • If you click the Stop button on the Transport panel (or use the corresponding key command, by default [0] on the numeric keypad), recording is deactivated and Cubase goes into Stop mode. • If you click the Record button (or use the key command for recording, by default [*]), recording is deactivated but playback continues. This is known as “manual punch out”.
Audio recording specifics Audio recording specifics Selecting a recording file format The format for recorded files is set in the Project Setup dialog on the Project menu. There are three settings: Sample Rate, Bit Resolution, and Record File Type. While the sample rate is set once and for all when you start working on a new project, the bit resolution and file type can be changed at any time.
Audio recording specifics • The higher the bit resolution, the larger the files and the more strain is put on the disk system. If this is an issue, you may want to lower the record format setting. ! For further information on the options in the Project Setup dialog, see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 62. RAM requirements for recording When recording live music performances, you will often simultaneously record on a large number of tracks at the same time.
Audio recording specifics • The Browse item in this dialog allows you to browse your disks for created track presets, which can be used as a basis (or template) for tracks. This is described in detail in the chapter “Working with track presets” on page 422. 3. Click the Add Track button. A track is added, set to the specified channel configuration. In the MixConsole, a corresponding channel appears. You cannot change the channel configuration for a track.
Audio recording specifics Selecting a folder for the recorded audio files Each Cubase project has a project folder containing (among other things) an “Audio” folder. By default, this is where recorded audio files are stored. However, you can select record folders independently for each audio track if needed. Proceed as follows: 1. To select the same record folder for several audio tracks, select them by pressing [Shift] or [Ctrl]/[Command] and clicking on them in the track list. 2.
Audio recording specifics • Use the audio hardware’s own application program to set the input levels (if possible). See the documentation for the audio hardware. • If your audio hardware supports the ASIO Control Panel function, it may be possible to make input level settings. To open the ASIO control panel, open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu and, in the list to the left (below “VST Audio System”), select your audio card.
Audio recording specifics 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. 6.
Audio recording specifics • In the Preferences dialog (Metering page) you can find the “Map Input Bus Metering to Audio Track (in Direct Monitoring)” option. When Direct Monitoring is activated in the Device Setup dialog, this option allows you to map the input bus metering to monitor-enabled audio tracks. This gives you the opportunity to watch the input levels of your audio tracks when working in the Project window.
Audio recording specifics • Depending on the audio hardware, there may be special restrictions as to which audio outputs can be used for direct monitoring. For details on the routing of the audio hardware, see its documentation. The latency value of the audio hardware configuration does not affect the monitor signal when using ASIO Direct Monitoring. When using Steinberg hardware (MR816 series) in combination with ASIO Direct Monitoring, monitoring will be virtually latency-free.
Audio recording specifics 2. Select the desired option. The following options are available: Option Description Keep History Existing events (or portions of events) that are overlapped by a new recording are kept. 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.
Audio recording specifics • Cubase processes audio internally in 32 Bit Float format – recording in the same format means the audio quality will be kept absolutely pristine. The reason is that the effect processing in the input channel (as well as any level or EQ settings you make there) is done in 32 Bit Float format. If you record at 16 or 24 Bit, the audio will be converted to this lower resolution when it is written to file – with possible signal degradation as a result.
Audio recording specifics 5. Click an insert slot and select an effect from the effect selector. As you see, the included effects are sorted into submenus – you will find the SoftClipper effect on the “Distortion” submenu. The effect is loaded and activated and its control panel is automatically opened. 6. Adjust the effect parameters to your liking. For detailed information on the effect parameters, see the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. 7.
MIDI recording specifics MIDI recording specifics Activating MIDI Thru Normally, when working with MIDI, you will have MIDI Thru activated in Cubase, and Local Off selected in your MIDI instruments. In this mode, everything you play during recording will be “echoed” back out again on the MIDI output and channel selected for the recording track. 1. Make sure that the “MIDI Thru Active” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (MIDI page). 2. Record enable the tracks on which you want to record.
MIDI recording specifics 2. Click the track name in the Inspector to make sure that the topmost section is shown. 3. Open the Input Routing pop-up menu and select an input. The available MIDI inputs are shown. The items on the menu depend on the type of MIDI interface you are using. • If you select the “All MIDI Inputs” option, the track will receive MIDI data from all available MIDI inputs. • If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select a MIDI input, this will be used for all selected MIDI tracks.
MIDI recording specifics Selecting a sound 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 “Program Selector” and “Bank Selector” fields in the Inspector or track list. Program Change messages give access to 128 different program locations.
MIDI recording specifics The MIDI Cycle Record Modes When you record MIDI in cycle mode, the result depends not only on the MIDI Record Mode, but also on which Cycle Record Mode is selected in the MIDI Cycle Record Mode section: Option Description Mix For each completed lap, everything you record is added to what was previously recorded. This is useful for building up rhythm patterns. Record a hi-hat part on the first lap, the bass drum part on the second lap, etc.
MIDI recording specifics Say, for instance, that you record one or several bass parts on track 2. If you now set another track, like track 55, to the same output and MIDI channel as track 2, you can make a separate recording of just pitchbends for the bass parts on track 55. This means that you activate recording as usual and only move the pitchbend wheel during the take.
MIDI recording specifics The content of the MIDI buffer (i. e. what you just played) is turned into a MIDI part on the record enabled track. The part will appear where the project cursor was when you started playing – this means that if you played along during playback, the captured notes will end up exactly where you played them in relation to the project. • 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 The MIDI–MIDI Filter page in the Preferences dialog allows you to prevent certain MIDI messages from being recorded and/or “thruput” ( by the MIDI Thru function). The dialog is divided into four sections: Section Description Record Activating any of these options prevents that type of MIDI message from being recorded. It can, however, be thruput, and if already recorded, it will play back normally.
Options and Settings About Pre-roll and Post-roll Pre-roll value field and on/off switch Post-roll value field and on/off switch The pre-roll and post-roll value fields (below the left/right locator fields) on the Transport panel have the following functionality: • By setting a pre-roll value, you instruct Cubase to “roll back” a short section whenever playback is activated.
Options and Settings • To activate the precount, click the Precount button on the Transport panel. You can also select the “Precount On” option on the Transport menu or set up a key command for this. Precount on/off Click on/off Metronome settings You make settings for the metronome in the Metronome Setup dialog, opened from the Transport menu.
Options and Settings 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.
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Introduction Quantizing means moving recorded audio or MIDI and positioning it on the nearest grid position that is musically relevant. Quantizing is designed to correct errors, but you can also use it in a creative way. You can quantize audio and MIDI to a grid or to a groove. You can also quantize multiple audio tracks simultaneously. Audio and MIDI can be quantized at the same time.
Quantizing MIDI Event Starts AudioWarp quantize prevents warp markers from ending up on the same position. If conflicts occur, only one of the warp markers is quantized. For example, if you use a quantize value of 1/4 on audio that is based on sixteenth notes, the warp markers at the quarter-note positions are quantized to the grid, and the remaining warp markers are moved, keeping the relative distances between the warp markers.
AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks (Cubase Only) Proceed as follows: 1. Create an edit group for the audio tracks that you want to quantize. 2. In the Sample Editor, create hitpoints for at least one of the audio tracks that you want to quantize, and fine-tune the hitpoint detection result with the Threshold slider. 3. Open the Quantize Panel. 4. Set up the parameters in the “Slice Rules” section and click the Slice button. 5.
The Quantize Panel Common Settings Quantize Presets Pop-Up Menu On this pop-up menu, you can select a quantize or a groove preset. Save/Remove Preset The preset controls allow you to save the current settings as a preset, making them available on all “Quantize Presets” pop-up menus. This includes Swing, “Catch Range”, etc. • To save a preset, click the “Save Preset” button (the plus sign) to the right of the Quantize Presets pop-up menu. A preset name is generated automatically, according to your settings.
The Quantize Panel Reset Quantize This button is identical with the “Reset Quantize” function on the Edit menu (see “Reset Quantize” on page 142). ! If you move an audio event manually, the actual event start changes. Therefore, the “Reset Quantize” function has no effect on an event that was moved manually. Quantize Clicking this button applies your settings. Options For Quantizing to a Musical Grid Grid On this pop-up menu you can determine the basic value for the quantize grid.
The Quantize Panel Options for Quantizing to a Groove Groove quantizing is intended for recreating existing rhythmic feels by matching your recorded music to a timing grid generated from a MIDI part or an audio loop. To extract the groove from a MIDI part, from an audio loop, an audio event with hitpoints, or sliced audio, select the material and drag it onto the grid display in the middle of the Quantize Panel.
The Quantize Panel Options for Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks In the “Slice Rules” section, you determine how the audio events are sliced at the hitpoints. Hitpoint Tracks This column lists all audio tracks of your edit group that have hitpoints. Priority In this column, you can define a priority for each track. This specifies which hitpoints are used to slice your audio events. The track with the highest priority defines where the audio is sliced.
The Quantize Panel Reset Click this button to undo the slicing and restore the original state of the audio events. The Crossfades Section The Crossfades section becomes available after you have sliced the audio events. The functions in this section are designed to correct the overlaps or the gaps that might appear due to the re-positioning of your audio.
Additional Quantizing Functions Create If you click the Create button, warp markers are created for all the tracks. Additional Quantizing Functions Freezing MIDI Quantizing The Freeze MIDI Quantize function on the Edit menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, makes the start and end positions of MIDI events permanent. This is useful in situations where you want to quantize a second time, based on the current quantized positions rather than the original positions.
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 145). 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.
Creating fades • If the “Use Mouse Wheel for Event volume and Fades” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page), moving the mouse wheel moves the volume curve up or down. When you press [Shift] while moving the mouse wheel, and position the mouse pointer somewhere in the left half of the event, the fade in end point is moved. When the mouse pointer is in the right half of the event, the fade out start point is moved.
The Fade dialogs Removing fades To remove the fades for an event, select the event and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. If you want to remove the fades in a specific range only, select the fade area with the Range Selection tool and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu.
The Fade dialogs The available options are: Option Description Curve Kind These buttons determine whether the fade curve consists of spline curve segments (left button), damped spline segments (middle button), or linear segments (right button). Fade display This shows the shape of the fade curve. The resulting waveform shape is shown in dark gray, with the current waveform shape in light gray. Click on the curve to add points, and click and drag existing points to change the shape.
Creating crossfades The Process Fade dialogs have the following buttons: Button Function Preview Plays back the fade area. Playback will repeat until you click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during playback). Process Applies the set fade curve to the clip, and closes the dialog. Cancel Closes the dialog without applying any fade. Creating crossfades Overlapping audio material on the same track can be crossfaded, for smooth transitions or special effects.
The Crossfade dialog Removing crossfades To remove a crossfade, proceed as follows: • Select the corresponding events and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. • Use the Range Selection tool to select all fades and crossfades you wish to remove, and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. • Select a crossfade by clicking, and drag it outside the track.
Auto fades and crossfades Option Description Play buttons These buttons allow you to audition the whole crossfade, or the fade out part, or the fade in part. You can set up key commands for this in the following categories of the Key Commands dialog: Media category – Preview Start (triggers crossfade playback), Preview Stop (stops crossfade playback). Transport category – StartStop (triggers global playback), Stop (stops global playback) and StartStop Preview (triggers crossfade playback).
Auto fades and crossfades Making global Auto Fade settings 1. To make Auto Fades settings globally for a project, select “Auto Fades Settings…” from the Project menu. This opens the Auto Fades dialog for the project. 2. Use the Length value field to specify the length of the Auto Fades or Crossfades (1 to 500 ms). 3. Use the checkboxes in the upper right corner to activate or deactivate Auto Fade In, Auto Fade Out, and Auto Crossfades. 4.
Event envelopes Event envelopes An envelope is a volume curve for an audio event. It is similar to the realtime fades, but allows you to create volume changes within the event, not only at the start or end. To create an envelope for an audio event, proceed as follows: 1. Zoom in on the event so that you can view its waveform properly. 2. Select the Draw tool. When you move the Draw tool over an audio event, a small volume curve symbol is shown next to the tool. 3.
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. For this, you can define arranger events, order them in a list, and add repeats as desired.
Setting up the arranger track • You can rename an arranger event by selecting it and changing its name in the Project window info line or by holding down [Alt]/[Option], double-clicking on the name in the arranger chain (see below) and entering a new name. You may want to name your arranger events according to the structure of your project, e. g. Verse, Chorus, etc. 5. Create as many events as you need for your project.
Working with arranger events Working with arranger events You now have a number of arranger events that form the basic building blocks for your arrangement. The next step is to arrange these events using the functions of the Arranger Editor. Creating an arranger chain You can set up an arranger chain in the Arranger Editor or in the Inspector for the arranger track. The Arranger Editor is opened by clicking the “e” button in the Inspector or in the track list.
Working with arranger events An event is dragged into the arranger chain. • By dragging arranger events from the Project window into the arranger chain. If you followed our example, you should now have arranger events arranged in a very basic pop song pattern. However, we have used audio files that are only a few bars long – to turn our pattern into a “song” (or at least into a basic sketch of the song structure), these files must be looped. This is where the Repeats function comes in.
Working with arranger events Editing the arranger chain In the arranger chain on the left, you can do the following: • Select multiple events by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking or [Shift]-clicking as usual. • Drag events to move them in the list. • Drag events holding [Alt]/[Option] to create copies of the selected items. The insert location for both move and copy operations is indicated by a colored insertion line.
Flattening the arranger chain Flattening the arranger chain When you have found an arranger chain that suits your purposes, you can “flatten” it, i. e. convert the list into a linear project. Proceed as follows: 1. Click the Flatten button (or select Flatten Chain from the pop-up menu in the Inspector for the arranger track).
Flattening the arranger chain The Destination section allows you to choose where the result of the flattening is saved. The available options are: Option Description Current Project This is only available if you have selected “Current Chain” as Source. If you activate this option, the result of the flattening of the current chain will be saved in the current project. New Project If you activate this option, you can flatten one or several chains in a new project.
Live mode Live mode If you have set up an arranger track and play it back, you have also the possibility to influence the playback order “live”. Note that the Arranger mode has to be activated to be able to use the Live mode. 1. Set up an arranger chain in the Inspector or in the Arranger Editor for an arranger track, activate the Arranger mode and play back your project. Now you can use your arranger events listed in the lower section of the Inspector to play back your project in Live mode. 2.
Arranging your music to video Option Description 1 bar Jumps to the next section at the next bar line. 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.
The transpose functions Introduction 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. Transpose can be applied on three levels: • To the entire project By changing the project Root Key in the Project window toolbar, the whole project will be transposed (see “Transposing an entire project with the root key” on page 161).
Transposing your music If the events already contain root key information Let’s say you want to create a project based on loops. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the MediaBay and drag some loops into an empty project, see “Inserting the files into the project” on page 402. For this example, import audio loops with different root keys. 2. Open the Root Key pop-up menu in the Project window toolbar and set the project root key.
Transposing your music Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Project menu and select “Transpose” from the Add Track submenu (or right-click the track list select the corresponding option from the context menu). A transpose track is created. You can only have one transpose track in a project. 2. Set the project to the desired root key by selecting the corresponding option from the Root Key pop-up menu in the Project window toolbar. 3.
Transposing your music To check or change the root key setting of a MIDI part, proceed as follows: 1. Select your MIDI part in the Project window and check the Project window info line. A MIDI part with the root key set to “D” 2. Click on the root key value in the info line to open the corresponding pop-up menu and select the desired root key.
Other functions 5. Play back your project. The parts of your project on the same position as the transpose events will be transposed according to the specified transpose values. 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 -2 semitones, for example.
Other functions 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: 1. Open your project. 2. Select the desired event or part and set the “Global Transpose” setting on the info line to “Independent”.
Other functions Locking the transpose track If you want to prevent your transpose events from being changed by mistake, activate the Lock button on the transpose track. This way, you will not be able to move your transpose events or change their transpose values. Muting transpose events Sometimes it might be useful to disable the transpose track, e. g. to hear the original sound of individual tracks.
Other functions 3. Make sure that the “Keep Transpose in Octave Range” button is activated on the transpose track and change the transpose value of the transpose event to 7. Your chord will be transposed accordingly. If you enter a transpose value of 7, your chord will be transposed by seven semitones upwards. In this example, this would be G3/B3/D4. 4. Set the transpose value to 8 semitones.
Using markers Introduction 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 175) or for zooming (see “Zooming to cycle markers” on page 170). Markers are located on the marker track. There are two types of markers: position markers and cycle markers.
The Marker window Editing cycle markers using tools Cycle markers can be edited on marker tracks using the following tools (Snap is taken into account): Tool Use Object Selection tool Drag the start or end handle of a cycle marker with the Object Selection tool to change its start or end position, or drag the upper border to move the whole cycle marker. Double-click on a cycle marker to set the left and right locators.
The Marker window 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. Adding, moving, and removing markers • To select a marker, click on it in the Marker window. • To edit a selected marker, click on it. Select multiple markers by [Shift]-clicking or [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking them. • To add a position marker, open the Functions pop-up menu and select the “Insert Marker” option.
The Marker window Column Description Length In this column you can view and edit the length of cycle markers, see “Cycle markers” on page 169. Description Here you can enter names or descriptions for markers. Editing attributes • To edit a marker attribute, select the corresponding marker, click in the desired attribute column, and make your settings. • To change the attributes of several markers, select the markers and click the checkbox for the desired attribute.
The marker track About marker IDs Each time you add a marker, it is automatically and sequentially assigned an ID number, starting from 1. IDs for cycle markers are shown in brackets and start from [1]. ID numbers can be changed at any time – this allows you to assign specific markers to key commands. Ö If you move a marker from one marker track to another by drag & drop in the Project window and the marker ID is already used on this track, the inserted marker automatically gets a new ID.
The marker track • An empty marker track can also be removed by selecting “Remove Empty Tracks” from the Project menu. Note that Remove Empty Tracks also removes any other tracks that are empty. Editing markers on the marker track The following editing functions can be performed directly on the marker track: • Adding position markers “on the fly”.
Exporting and importing markers Using markers to make range selections in the Project window Besides enabling you to quickly move the project cursor and the locators, markers can be used in conjunction with the Range Selection tool to make range selections in the Project window. This is useful if you quickly want to make a selection that spans all tracks in the project. Moving and copying sections To quickly move or copy complete sections of the project (on all tracks), proceed as follows: 1.
Exporting and importing markers 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 696.
The MixConsole Overview The MixConsole provides a common environment for producing mixes in stereo or surround. It allows you to control level, pan, solo/mute status, etc. for both audio and MIDI channels. Furthermore, it is a convenient environment for setting up the input and output routing for multiple tracks or channels at the same time. The MixConsole allows you to tailor your mixing workflow to suit your own personal artistic and creative vision.
Overview Opening the MixConsole To open the MixConsole you have the following options: • On the Devices menu, select MixConsole. • On the Project window toolbar, click the Open MixConsole icon. Ö If this button is not visible, activate the “Media & MixConsole Windows” option on the toolbar context menu. • Press [F3]. The MixConsole Sections The fader section is the heart of the MixConsole. It is always visible and shows all channels in the same order as in the track list.
Configuring the MixConsole • To show or hide the other MixConsole sections, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate the corresponding options. Section Description Channel Selector In the Channel Selector, you can set up the visibility and positions of channels in the fader section. For further information, see “The Channel Selector” on page 180. Channel Overview In the Channel Overview, all channels are displayed as boxes.
Configuring the MixConsole Showing/Hiding Channels The MixConsole features several functions and elements that help you to show only the channels that you really need to see. Ö Even if a channel is hidden, it is played back and it is affected by all global settings. The Channel Selector The Channel Selector contains the Visibility tab and the Zones tab. These tabs list all channels contained in your project. • Visibility The Visibility tab allows you to determine which channels are shown in the MixConsole.
Configuring the MixConsole Displaying Racks Specific MixConsole functions, such as routing, insert or send handling, are organized in racks. To show the Channel Racks section in the MixConsole, activate the “Show Channel Racks” button. When the Channel Racks section is visible, you can click Racks to open the rack selector. Here, you determine which racks are visible. For more information about the available racks, see “Working with the Channel Racks” on page 190.
Configuring the MixConsole Saving Channel & Rack Configurations To quickly switch between different channel setups, you can save configurations of the channels and racks in the MixConsole. The configurations contain visibility and zone settings as well as the show/hide status of channel types and racks. To save a configuration, proceed as follows: 1. On the toolbar, activate one of the “Channel & Rack Configuration” buttons. 2. Set up the configuration that you want to save. 3.
Keyboard Navigation in the MixConsole Keyboard Navigation in the MixConsole The Channel Selector section, the Channel Rack section, and the fader section can be controlled with the computer keyboard. Activating a Specific Section for Keyboard Control • To activate a section for keyboard control, click with the mouse in an empty area of the section. Activated sections are shown with a white frame. The Channel Selector section is activated • To activate the next section, press [Tab].
Keyboard Navigation in the MixConsole Proceed as follows: • To navigate through the controls, use the arrow keys. • To activate or deactivate a switch, press [Return]. In the Channel Rack section, the following rules apply: • To expand or collapse an active rack, to open or close a value field in a slot, or to open the plug-in panel for a loaded plug-in, press [Return].
Working with the Fader Section In the right corner of an insert slot, you can find a selector: To open the selector… …press [Alt]/[Option]-[Return] • To enable or disable the loaded plug-in, press [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option][Return]. Working with the Fader Section The fader section is the heart of the MixConsole. It shows input and output channels together with audio, instrument, MIDI, group, FX, and ReWire channels that appear in the same order as in the track list.
Working with the Fader Section You can change the width and height for all channels from viewable (narrow) to editable (wide), by using the default key commands [G] and [H]. Ö If the Zoom Palette is shown on the toolbar, you can also use the corresponding zoom tools to increase or reduce the channel width. For further information on setting up the toolbar, see “Using the Setup options” on page 700.
Working with the Fader Section Stereo Pan Law In the Project Setup dialog, in the “Stereo Pan Law” pop-up menu you can select one of several pan modes. These modes are required for power compensation. Without power compensation, the power of the sum of the left and right side is higher (louder) if a channel is panned center than if it is panned left or right. To remedy this, the “Stereo Pan Law” setting allows you to attenuate signals panned center by -6, -4.5, or -3 dB.
Working with the Fader Section • To mute all other channels, click the Solo button for a channel. Click again to turn off Solo. • To deactivate the mute or solo states for all channels simultaneously, click the “Deactivate All Mute States” or “Deactivate All Solo States” buttons on the toolbar. • To activate Solo exclusive mode, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click the Solo button for the channel. The Solo buttons of all other channels are deactivated.
Working with the Fader Section Setting the Volume in the MixConsole Each channel in the fader section of the MixConsole has a volume fader. Depending on the channel type, it controls the following settings: Channel type Description Audio The volume of the channel before it is routed to an output bus, directly or via a group channel. Output The master output level of all audio channels routed to an output bus. MIDI The volume changes in the MixConsole.
Working with the Channel Racks Meter Position: • If Input is activated, the meters show input levels for all audio channels and input/output channels. The input meters are post input gain. • If “Post-Fader” is activated, the meters show post-fader levels. • If “Post-Panner” is activated, the meters show post-fader levels and also reflect pan settings.
Working with the Channel Racks To set up the routing for a channel, proceed as follows: 1. On the toolbar, activate the “Show Channel Racks” button, select Racks and activate Routing. The Routing rack is shown above the fader section. 2. Open the input or the output routing pop-up menu for a channel by clicking one of the slots of the Routing rack. The routing selector opens. It contains only busses and group channels that are configured in the VST Connections window. 3. Select an entry.
Working with the Channel Racks - Mono output busses, mono group output busses, or mono FX channel output busses, provided that these will not lead to feedback. For stereo channels, the following input routing configurations are available: - Mono or stereo input busses or stereo child busses within a surround bus (Cubase only). - External inputs that are configured on the Studio tab of the VST Connections window. These can be mono input busses or stereo input busses.
Working with the Channel Racks Making Filter, Gain, and Phase Settings The Pre rack for MIDI channels allows you to open the Input Transformer. For further information, see “The Input Transformer” on page 595. The Pre rack for audio-related channels features a high-cut and a low-cut filter as well as gain and phase settings. These are described in the following sections.
Working with the Channel Racks Setting the Phase Each audio-related channel and input/output channel has a Phase button. When this button is activated, the phase polarity is inverted for the signal. Use this to correct the phase for balanced lines and microphones that are wired backwards, or microphones that are out of phase due to their positioning. • Phase polarity is important when mixing two similar signals.
Working with the Channel Racks Using FX Chain Presets You can load or save FX chain presets. These presets are useful to save and load all insert rack settings whenever you need them. Other rack settings like EQ or Channel Strip, for example, are not affected. FX chain presets have the file name extension .fxchainpreset. You can also load, tag, and save FX chain presets in the MediaBay, see “Filtering according to media type” on page 399.
Working with the Channel Racks Making EQ Settings The EQ rack is only available for audio-related channels. It features a built-in parametric equalizer with up to 4 bands for each audio channel. To activate an EQ for a specific channel, proceed as follows: 1. Activate the “Show Channel Racks” button on the toolbar, click Racks, and activate Equalizers. The EQ rack is shown above the fader section. 2. Activate an EQ module by clicking its On/Off button.
Working with the Channel Racks 5. Click the EQ type button in the top right corner of the EQ module or open the context menu, and select a filter type from the pop-up menu. EQ bands 1 and 4 can act as parametric, shelving, or high/low-cut filters, while EQ bands 2 and 3 are always parametric filters. 6. Set the Q-Factor with the bottom slider. This determines the width of the affected frequency range. Higher values give narrower frequency ranges. 7.
Working with the Channel Racks • To deactivate an EQ module, double-click its curve point or drag it outside the display. • To adjust the gain, drag the curve point up or down. Press [Ctrl]/[Command] to edit the gain only. • To adjust the frequency, drag it left or right. Press [Alt]/[Option] to edit the frequency only. • To set the Q-factor, press [Shift] while dragging. • To invert the EQ curve, that is to mirror it along the x axis, open the context menu and select “Invert EQ Settings”.
Working with the Channel Racks Using Strip Presets You can load or save strip presets. These allow you to save and load all Channel Strip settings whenever you need them. Strip presets have the file name extension .strippreset. You can also load, tag and save strip presets in the MediaBay, see “Filtering according to media type” on page 399. • To load a preset, open the presets pop-up menu in the top right corner of the Channel Strip rack, select “Load Strip Preset…”, and select a preset.
Working with the Channel Racks Adding FX Channels to a Send To add an FX channel to a send, proceed as follows: 1. Open the context menu for your send, and select “Add FX Channel to Send…”. 2. In the Add FX Channel Track window, select the effect and configuration and click “Add Track”. The FX channel track is added in the Project window, and the send is automatically routed to it. For further information, see “Send effects” on page 235.
Linking Channels (Cubase only) Linking Channels (Cubase only) You can link selected channels in the MixConsole so that any change that is applied to one channel is mirrored by all linked channels. To link channels and edit links and linking configuration, you can use the Control Link options on the MixConsole toolbar. Creating a Linked Group To link channels in the MixConsole, proceed as follows: 1. Select the channels that you want to link. 2. On the MixConsole toolbar, click the Link button. 3.
Linking Channels (Cubase only) Changing Link Settings If you change a setting for a channel of the linked group, the change is applied to the whole group. • To change the link settings for an existing group, select the group, click the Edit button and change the settings in the Control Link dialog. • To unlink channels, select one of the linked channels and click the Link button. You cannot remove individual channels from a link.
Metering (Cubase only) Metering (Cubase only) The MixConsole features a master meter and a loudness meter that can be shown to the right of the fader section. To show the meters, proceed as follows: 1. Click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate the “Control Room/Meter” option. 2. Click the Meter tab at the top of the Control Room/Meter section. By default, the master meter is displayed.
Metering (Cubase only) Parameter Description RMS Max Shows the maximum RMS value. Peak Max Shows the maximum peak value. Loudness Meter The loudness meter complies to the loudness recommendation R 128 of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Measurements that correspond to this recommendation consider loudness, loudness range, and maximum true peak level values. Loudness is measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit, referenced to Full Scale) or LU.
Using Channel Settings Parameter Description Configure Lets you specify a threshold value for the Short Term, the Integrated, Loudness Settings and the True Peak clipping indicators. If values above the set thresholds are detected, the corresponding indicators turn red. To reset all values on playback start, activate the “Reset on Start” option. Reset Loudness Resets all loudness values. Momentary Max Shows the maximum loudness measured over a duration of 400 ms.
Using Channel Settings To show or hide sections of the Channel Settings window, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate the corresponding options. The Channel Settings window is suitable especially for the following actions: • Routing Inserts This is done on the Routing tab in the Inserts section. For further information, see “Using the Routing Editor” on page 231.
Using Channel Settings • Panning Sends This is done on the Panning tab in the Sends section. For further information, see “Setting pan for the sends (Cubase only)” on page 239. • Showing the Output Chain If you click the “Show Output Chain” button on the toolbar, the output chain is shown in the channel faders section of the Channel Settings window. This allows you to keep track of more complicated output routings.
Saving and Loading Selected Channel Settings By default, the Channel Settings window follows the channel selection in the MixConsole. If this is not what you want, open the Functions menu on the Channel Settings window toolbar and deactivate “Follow ‘e’ buttons or selection changes”. To browse through the edited channels, click “Go to Last Edited Channel” or the “Go to Next Edited Channel”. The buttons are only available if at least two channels have been edited in the Channel Settings window.
Adding Pictures Adding Pictures Pictures allow you to recognize your MixConsole channels easily. You can select pictures from the factory content or add new ones to the user library and insert them into your MixConsole channels. Ö Pictures can also be shown in the track list by activating the “Show Track Pictures” function on the track list context menu.
Adding Notes Removing Pictures from the User Library • To remove the picture from a MixConsole channel, click on the picture in the MixConsole to open the Track Pictures Browser, and click “Reset Current Picture”. • To remove a picture from the User Library, click the User button, select the picture and click “Remove Selected Pictures from User Library”. Confirm the message with Delete.
The Control Room (Cubase only) The concept behind the Control Room features is to divide the studio environment into the performing area (studio) and the engineer/producer area (control room) common to traditional studios. With its Control Room features, Cubase provides all the functionality of the analog console’s monitoring section, along with many more features, in a virtual, VST-based audio environment where flexibility and instant recall are expected.
Setting Up the Control Room Channels Setting Up the Control Room Channels The Studio tab of the VST Connections window is where you add channels to the Control Room and configure the input and output routing. Adding Channels to the Control Room To add a new channel to the Control Room, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Studio tab of the VST Connections window and click the Add Channel button. A pop-up menu lists all available channel types and shows how many instances of each type are available. 2.
Setting Up the Control Room Channels Monitor Channels Each Monitor channel represents a set of outputs that are connected to monitor speakers in the Control Room. Up to four Monitor channels can be created for the different sets of speakers in a studio. Monitor channels can be configured for a mono, stereo or surround speaker configuration. Each Monitor can have its own custom downmix settings, input gain, and input phase settings.
Opening the Control Room Routing Channels to Outputs ! Some audio interfaces allow very flexible routing within the hardware itself. Certain routing configurations may cause overloads and damage the speaker equipment. Consult the hardware documentation for further information. The Main Mix Output For the Control Room to function correctly, the Main Mix bus must be assigned to the set of outputs that contains your final mix signal. If you only have one output bus, it is the Main Mix by default.
The Control Room Mixer The Control Room Mixer The Control Room Mixer displays information and controls for the channels that are defined on the Studio tab in the VST Connections window. Sections The Control Room Mixer is divided into a number of sections. • Click a section header to display the controls and settings for the section. • In the upper left corner of the different channel sections, you find the button to activate/deactivate the corresponding channel.
The Control Room Mixer Control Room channel The Control Room channel is the representation of the bus that is set up as the Main Mix bus on the Outputs tab in the VST Connections window. It is shown below the other channels in the Control Room Mixer. Input Selectors You can select the source for the Control Room channel with the buttons directly below the header. Which sources are available depends on the channels that you added to the Control Room.
The Control Room Mixer Deactivate All Listen States When this button is lit, one or more channels in the MixConsole are listen-enabled. Click this button to deactivate Listen for all channels. Use Reference Level When you click this button, the Control Room level is set to the reference level specified in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). The reference level is the level that is used in calibrated mixing environments, such as film dubbing stages.
The Control Room Mixer Cue Channels Section The section for cue channels contains the following parameters: Signal Level The Signal level for the cue channel. Source Buttons Here, you can select which source to use for the cue channel: Mix (Monitor Mix), External Inputs, or the Cue Sends (Cues). The signal presence indicators in the upper left corner of the input selector buttons light up when the source channel is sending data to the cue channel. Click Activates the metronome click.
The Control Room Mixer Click Activates the metronome click. • Use the Click Level and Click Pan controls to set the volume and the pan position of the metronome click for this channel. Listen Enable for Output This button activates the Listen bus function for the Headphone output. If this button is not enabled, the Listen bus is not routed to the Headphones channel. Listen Level This control determines how loud Listen bus signals are when they are routed to the Headphone output.
The Control Room Mixer Speakers Section In the Speakers section, you can select and configure the Monitor sets. The top row of buttons shows what is currently used. Click the first two buttons to step through the available Monitor sets. Each Monitor set has its own settings, including Monitor channel, downmix preset, and inserts, input gain, and input phase. Click the two following buttons to select one of the available downmix presets for the current Monitor.
The Setup Pane The Setup Pane The Setup pane contains additional settings for the channels. To open the pane, click the Setup tab at the bottom right of the Control Room. Input Gain For external inputs, Monitor speaker outputs, and Talkback inputs, you can set the input gain. This can be useful in the following situations: • Use the Gain settings on the external inputs to balance the level of CD players and other sources to the Main Mix level, for A/B comparisons.
The Setup Pane Insert Effects Each Control Room channel has a set of insert effect slots. Inserts for the Control Room Channel • Use the inserts on the Control Room channel for metering and spectral analysis plug-ins. All solos including the Listen bus will come through the Control Room channel allowing analysis of individual sounds. • A brickwall limiter in the last insert slot of the Control Room channel can prevent accidental overloads and damage to speaker systems.
The Setup Pane The Main Mix and the Control Room Channel The channel configuration of the Main Mix determines the channel configuration of the Control Room channel. Switching between a project that has a stereo Main Mix to a project that has a 5.1 Main Mix will cause the Control Room channel in the Control Room Mixer to change from a stereo to a 5.1 configuration. The Control Room configuration also determines the layout of the solo buttons of the channels panner.
Cue Channels and Cue Sends • Reference Level This setting determines the Control Room level used when the “Reference Level” button is activated. • Main Dim Volume This is the amount of gain reduction applied to the Control Room channel when the DIM button is activated. Cue Channels and Cue Sends Cue Sends are used to create discrete cue mixes that performers can listen to during recording. They can be displayed in the MixConsole and in the Inspector of the Project window.
Cue Channels and Cue Sends Ö To apply the function for all cue channels, click anywhere but on a cue channel to open the context menu. The following options are available: • Use Current Mix Levels This copies the fader levels of the selected tracks to the cue sends. This option sets all cue send levels for the selected tracks to the level of the main channel fader. It also changes the cue send status to pre-fader, so that changes in the main mix do not affect the cue sends.
The Control Room Overview The Control Room Overview You can access the Control Room Overview from the Devices menu. The Control Room Overview displays the current Control Room configuration. The window shows all possible channels. Channels that have been added in the VST Connections window, are highlighted, channels that have not been added are grayed out. The Control Room Overview allows you to see the signal flow through the Control Room Mixer.
Audio effects 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. Overview Audio effects can be used in Cubase as follows: • As insert effects.
Overview Smart plug-in processing The VST3 standard features smart plug-in processing, i. e., processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. This is achieved by activating the “Suspend VST3 plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” option in the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page). When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume CPU power on silent passages, i. e.
Insert effects Insert effects As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the audio signal path – this means that the audio channel data will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight different insert effects independently for each audio-related channel (audio track, group channel track, FX channel track, VST instrument channel or ReWire channel) or output bus.
Insert effects The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its control panel opens. You can open the control panel for a loaded effect by double-clicking in the middle of the insert slot. • If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter, you can use this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the effect signal. • To remove an effect, open the pop-up selector and select “No Effect”. • You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way.
Insert effects Using effects in multi-channel configurations (Cubase only) Whether an effect plug-in supports mono, stereo, or multi-channel processing depends on the capabilities of the corresponding plug-in. Regardless of this, all VST2 and VST3 plug-ins can be inserted on tracks with a multi-channel configuration. Surround-capable plug-ins are applied to all speaker channels (or a subset of these), while mono or stereo effects can only process one or two channels.
Insert effects Operations You can change the input/output assignment of the channels by moving connections to the left or right. To do this, use the arrow buttons to the right. • The upper arrow buttons move the input connections, and the lower arrow buttons move the output connections. If the Link checkbox is activated, the input and output connections are always moved together. This is the mode to use when you simply want to process other channels than the default.
Insert effects 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.
Insert effects Here is another solution: 1. Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to the desired output bus. 2. Add the desired effect to the group channel as an insert effect. 3. Route the mono audio track to the group channel. Now the signal from the mono audio track is sent directly to the group, where it passes through the insert effect, in stereo. Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor power.
Send effects Unfreezing If you need to edit the events on a frozen track or make settings for the insert effects, you can unfreeze the track: 1. Click the Freeze button in the Inspector for the track. You will be asked whether you really want to unfreeze the channel and if you wish to keep or delete the freeze files. 2. Click “Unfreeze” or “Keep Freeze files”. This reactivates the frozen insert effects. Clicking “Keep Freeze Files” will unfreeze the channel but not delete the freeze files.
Send effects 4. Click the Add Track button. An FX channel track is added to the track list, and the selected effect, if any, is loaded into the first insert effect slot for the FX channel (in that case, the lit Inserts tab for the FX channel track in the Inspector indicates that an effect has been assigned and automatically activated). • All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedicated “folder” track in the track list.
Send effects • The handling and operation of insert plug-ins for FX channels is the same as for audio channels. See “Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects” on page 229. • You can adjust level, pan and EQ for the send in the Channel Settings window. This can also be done in the MixConsole or in the Inspector. Making settings for the sends The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and route it to the FX channel.
Send effects • On the toolbar of the Channel Settings window, select the FX channel from the Channel Name selector 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. 6. If you want the signal to be sent to the FX channel before the audio channel’s volume fader in the MixConsole, right-click on a send and select “Move to Pre-Fader”.
Send effects • You can also bypass the send effects by clicking the “Bypass Inserts” button for the FX channel. This bypasses the actual effects which may be used by several different channels. Bypassing a send affects that send and that channel only. If you bypass the insert effects, the original sound will be passed through. This may lead to unwanted side effects (higher volume). To deactivate all effects, use the mute button in the FX channel.
Using the side-chain input • If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the pan control will be a miniature surround panner. You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to position the send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring up the surround panner. See the chapter “Surround sound (Cubase only)” on page 266 for details. Ö If both the send (the audio channel) and the FX channel are in mono, the pan control is not available.
Using the side-chain input 6. On the Output Routing selector, locate the Side-Chain node and select the PingPongDelay effect that you set up for the vocal track. This way, the signals from the second (duplicate) track are routed to the effect (and do not end up in the mix). Now every time the signals on the vocal track exceed the threshold, the delay will be deactivated.
Using external effects (Cubase only) Side-chain and Modulation Side-chain signals bypass the built-in LFO modulation and instead apply modulation according to the envelope of the side-chain signal. Since each channel will be analyzed and modulated separately, this allows for creating astonishing spatial modulation effects.
Effect presets • All effects can be edited using a simplified control panel (horizontal sliders only, no graphics). This generic editor is opened using the context pop-up menu in the top right corner of the plug-in panel. Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs, sliders, buttons and graphic curves. Ö The included effects and their parameters are described in detail in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
Effect presets 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. Click in the preset field at the top of the control panel. This opens the Presets browser. • You can also open the Presets browser from the Inspector (Inserts tab) or the Channel Settings window.
Effect presets • The Filters section shows the available preset attributes for the selected effect. This section is similar to the Filters section in the MediaBay, see “The Filters section” on page 406. To show the Filters section, click the “Set Up Window Layout” button and activate the Filters option. • The Location Tree section allows you to specify the folder that is searched for preset files.
Effect presets Saving a default preset To define and save a default preset and use it e. g. in other projects, proceed as follows: 1. Set up the parameters to your liking. 2. Open the Preset Management pop-up menu, and select “Save as Default Preset” from the pop-up menu. Your default preset is saved.
Effect presets 3. In the file dialog that opens, locate the FXP file and click Open. If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect programs. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your own .fxp/.fxb presets with a previous version of Cubase (or any other VST 2 application). 4.
Installing and managing effect plug-ins • Note that when loading insert combination presets, any plug-ins that were previously loaded for the track will be removed, regardless of whether these slots are used in the preset. In other words, saving an inserts preset means saving the states of all insert slots. • You can use the Preset Management pop-up menu to save your settings as preset, or to rename or remove the current preset.
Installing and managing effect plug-ins Ö If an effect plug-in comes with its own installation application, you should use this. As a general rule, always read the documentation or readme files before installing new plug-ins. Installing VST 3 plug-ins on Windows systems On Windows systems, VST 3 plug-ins are installed by dragging the files (with the extension “.vst3”) into the VST3 folder in the Cubase application folder. When you launch Cubase again, the new effects appear on the effect selectors.
Installing and managing effect plug-ins Managing and selecting VST plug-ins To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST PlugIns” tab. • To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put a checkmark in the left column. Only the enabled plug-ins will appear on the effect selectors. • The Instances column indicates how many instances of the plug-in are currently used in Cubase.
Installing and managing effect plug-ins Exporting plug-in information files You can also save plug-in information as an XML file, e. g. for archiving purposes or troubleshooting. The Export function is available for VST, MIDI and Audio Codec plugins. Proceed as follows: 1. Right-click on the desired tab in the Plug-in Information window to open the context menu and select “Export”. A file dialog opens. 2.
VST instruments and instrument tracks Introduction 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. Some VST instruments are included with Cubase, others can be purchased separately from Steinberg and other manufacturers. This chapter describes the general procedures for setting up and using VST instruments.
VST instrument channels 3. You will be asked if you want to create an associated MIDI track connected to the VST instrument. Click Create. The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel opens. A MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the track list. The output of this track is routed to the instrument. 4.
VST instrument channels 9. Play the VST instrument from your MIDI keyboard. You can use the MixConsole settings to adjust the sound, add EQ or effects, etc., just as with regular audio channels. Of course, you can also record or manually create MIDI parts that play back sounds from the VST instrument. ! You can have multiple VST instruments activated at the same time, either different instruments or multiple instances of the same instrument.
Instrument tracks • The On/Off button is used to activate or deactivate the VST instrument. When an instrument is selected from the instrument pop-up menu, it is activated automatically, i. e. the On/Off button is lit. For some instruments you may also bypass the instrument by clicking the Bypass button to the right of the On/Off button. • Click the Edit (“e”) button to open the control panel for the VST instrument.
Instrument tracks • To open the control panel for the VST instrument, click the “Edit Instrument” button in the Inspector. • As with MIDI tracks, you can perform the usual MIDI editing procedures on the instrument track, like duplicate, split, or repeat the track, drag and drop the MIDI parts of an instrument track, etc. For more information, see the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 449.
Instrument tracks Proceed as follows: 1. Open the MediaBay window via the Media menu. 2. In the Results section, open the “Select Media Types” dialog and select “MIDI Loops & Plug-in Presets” (see “Filtering according to media type” on page 399). This is not necessary, but will help you locate your MIDI loops more quickly. 3. In the Results list, select a MIDI loop and drag it to an empty section in the Project window.
What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track? What do I need? Instrument channel or instrument track? • If you need a particular sound without knowing which VST instrument to use, create an instrument track and use the preview features of the Presets browser to find the sound you want. • Do likewise if the instrument track restrictions described above do not matter.
Instrument Freeze 3. Click the Freeze button for the VST instrument (the button to the left of the VST instrument slot), or the Freeze button in the Inspector for the instrument track. The Freeze button in the VST Instruments window… …and in the Inspector. The Freeze Instrument Options dialog opens with the following options for the Freeze operation: • Select “Freeze Instrument Only” if you do not want to freeze any insert effects for the VST instrument channels.
VST instruments and processor load 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”. The tracks and VST instrument are restored and the rendered “freeze file” is deleted.
Using presets for VSTi configuration In addition, you can filter your search by specifying category, style, etc. For example, if you are looking for a bass sound, simply select the Bass category to browse and preview all bass sounds for all instruments. If you know you want a synth bass sound, select Synth Bass as subcategory to filter out all other sounds, etc. You can also browse and preview track presets for instrument tracks, i. e.
Using presets for VSTi configuration Using the “Choose Track Preset” dialog 1. Right-click the track list to open the context menu and on the Add Track submenu select “Add Track Using Track Preset…”. The Choose Track Preset dialog opens. It contains the same sections as the Presets browser. 2. Select a preset from the Results list. The Results section of the Choose Track Preset dialog displays all preset sounds for all track types and VST instruments. 3.
Using presets for VSTi configuration 4. In the Inspector, click in the Programs field. The Presets browser opens. 5. In the Results section, select a preset from the list. 6. Activate playback to audition the selected preset. Simply step through the presets until you find the right sound. It may be helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons between different preset settings easier. 7.
About latency About earlier VST instrument presets You can use any VST 2.x instrument plug-ins in Cubase. Installing VST instrument plug-ins works the same way as for audio effects – see “Installing VST 2 plug-ins on Windows systems” on page 249 and “Installing VST 2.x plug-ins on Mac OS X systems” on page 248. When you install a VST 2 instrument, any previously stored presets for it will be of the old FX program/bank (.fxp/.fxb) standard.
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 228).
Surround sound (Cubase only) Introduction 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 MixConsole can either carry complete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel which is part of a surround setup.
Preparations Available surround configurations The following surround configurations are supported in Cubase: Format Description LRCS LRCS refers to Left Right Center Surround, where the surround speaker is center-rear positioned. This is the original surround format that first appeared as Dolby Stereo in cinema and later as the home cinema format Dolby ProLogic. 5.0 This is the same as 5.1 (see below) but without the LFE channel. The LFE channel is optional in 5.
Preparations Routing You can use the Routing rack in the MixConsole to route audio-related tracks to output busses or group channels with a surround configuration. Routing channels to individual surround channels If you want to place an audio source in one separate speaker channel, you can route it directly to that speaker channel. This is useful for premixed material or multi-channel recordings that do not require panning. • To do this, simply select an individual speaker channel in the Routing rack.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 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. Whether the SurroundPanner V5 can be used for a specific input/output configuration, depends on whether this configuration can be mapped by the panner.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 The plug-in panel Double-click on any of the miniature panner controls to open the plug-in panel in a separate window. The SurroundPanner V5 plug-in offers numerous possibilities to position a mono or stereo sound source. If you work visually oriented, you can simply drag the sound source around in the pan area. To help you execute very exact movements you can use modifier keys to limit the movement direction (e. g. for straight front/rear panning).
Using the SurroundPanner V5 • By clicking and dragging the positioning handle. Note that you do not have to click exactly on the handle in order to move it. You can click anywhere in the pan area and start moving the mouse, the handle then moves in the same direction as the mouse. The pan area showing a stereo sound source Left and right channels Positioning handle The positioning handle can be positioned freely in the pan area and even be moved out of the pan area.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 Restricting movement By default, you can click anywhere in the pan area and drag the mouse to move the sound source. If you want the positioning handle to jump to a specific position, you can click once at that position. However, you can also limit movement to a specific direction, using the corresponding modifier keys (or the arrow icons above the pan area). That way you can scale down your movements, or have the sound source move along a certain axis (e. g.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 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 276.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 Rotating signals The Rotate Signal control is used to rotate the source channels around the positioning handle. All input channels circle around the handle (but they cannot move beyond the borders of the surround field). Orbit controls Orbit Center Radius The Orbit controls are used to rotate the sound source (including all input channels and the positioning handle) around the center of the surround field.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 The LFE encoder Use the LFE encoder in the plug-in panel to set the signal amount sent to the LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel. Ö The LFE channel is used as a full range channel, no low-pass filtering is applied. Center Distribution The Center Distribution control is used to distribute part or all of the center signal to the left and right front speakers.
Using the SurroundPanner V5 Scaling The Scale controls allow you to control the horizontal (Width) and vertical (Depth) expansion of the sound source. 100 % corresponds to the complete width or depth of the surround field. If you reduce both values to 0 %, the distance is reduced to zero and all source channels are centered in one spot. These controls influence the perception of spatiality and ambience, as well as the traceability of signals.
Using the MixConvert V6 plug-in (Cubase only) 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.
Exporting a surround mix Exporting a surround mix When you have set up a surround mix, you can choose to export it using the Export Audio Mixdown function. You have the following export options when working with a surround configuration: • Export to “split” format, resulting in one mono audio file for each surround channel. • Export to interleaved format, resulting in a single multi-channel audio file (e.g. a 5.1 file, containing all six surround channels). • On Windows systems, you can also export a 5.
Automation Introduction In essence, automation means recording the values for a particular MixConsole 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. Working with automation curves Within a Cubase project, the changes in a parameter value over time are reflected as curves on automation tracks.
Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data You can automation enable tracks and MixConsole channels in Cubase by activating their automation Write buttons. Write (W) and Read (R) buttons for all plug-in effects and VST instruments can be found on the corresponding control panels.
Writing automation data Automatic writing of automation data Every action you perform is automatically recorded on automation tracks which you can later open for viewing and editing. To enable the recording of automation events, proceed as follows: 1. Open an automation track by clicking on the “Show/Hide Automation” button of a track in the track list. 2.
Writing automation data 5. If you click and hold, you can draw a curve by adding many automation events. Note that the track color in the track list changes to red to indicate that automation data is being written. 6. When you release the mouse button, the number of automation events is reduced, but the basic shape of the curve remains the same.
Editing automation events • Line tool – Sine, Triangle, or Square mode To activate the Line tool in these modes, click on the Line tool and click again to open a pop-up menu where you can select the desired option. If you click and drag on the automation track with the Line tool in Sine, Triangle, or Square mode and snap to grid is activated, the period of the curve (the length of one curve “cycle”) is determined by the grid setting.
Editing automation events In the automation track editor, smart controls appear on the borders of the editor. These controls allow you to activate a specific editing mode: Editing mode To activate this mode… Description Move Vertically Click in an empty area on This mode allows you to move the entire the upper border of the curve up or down, which is useful to boost editor. or attenuate an otherwise perfect curve.
Automation track operations Removing automation events There are several ways to remove events: • By selecting events and pressing [Backspace] or [Delete] or selecting Delete from the Edit menu, or by clicking on an event with the Erase tool. This will remove the events. The curve is redrawn to connect the remaining events. • By selecting a range (with the Range Selection tool), and pressing [Backspace] or [Delete] or selecting Delete from the Edit menu.
Automation track operations Assigning a parameter to an automation track Default parameters are already assigned to automation tracks when you open them, according to their order in the Add Parameter list. To select which parameter an open automation track displays, proceed as follows: 1. Open an automation track and click on the automation parameter name. A parameter list is shown. The contents depend on the track type.
Automation track operations Note that the “replacing” of the parameter displayed in the automation track is completely non-destructive. If the automation track contains any automation data for the parameter you just replaced, this data is there, although it is not visible. By clicking on the automation parameter name in the track list, you can switch back to the replaced parameter. On the pop-up menu, all automated parameters are indicated by an asterisk (*) after the parameter name.
Automation track operations Showing only used automation tracks 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. those that actually contain automation events), do one of the following: • To close all automation tracks not containing automation events, right-click any track in the track list and select the “Show All Used Automation” option from the pop-up menu.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) The Automation panel (Cubase only) The Automation panel is a floating window, similar to the MixConsole and Transport panel, and can be left open while you work. The Project window will always have the focus. To show the Automation panel, open the Project menu and select the Automation Panel option or click the “Open Automation Panel” button on the Project window toolbar.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) Note that you can change the automation mode at any time, i. e. in play or stop mode or during an automation pass. You can also assign key commands to the automation modes, see “Automation key commands” on page 298. The current automation pass will always punch out as soon as one of the following conditions is met, independent of which automation mode is selected: - If you disable Write. If you stop playback. If you activate Fast Forward/Rewind.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) Ö The automation mode for On/Off switches is always Auto-Latch (even if another mode is selected globally or for the track). Cross-Over The Cross-Over mode is a kind of “manual return time” option (see “Automation Preferences” on page 297). The Cross-Over mode can be used in situations where you are not satisfied with an automation curve or with the automatically applied return settings.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) • In Play mode, the events of the original automation curve are trimmed as the project cursor passes over them. Trim in Play mode, in combination with Fill to Punch Freeze Trim You can freeze your trim curve automatically or manually and render all trim data into a single automation curve. To freeze your trim curve automatically, open the Freeze Trim pop-up menu in the Automation Settings. Select “On Pass End” to perform a freeze whenever a write operation is finished.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) The Functions pop-up menu At the top right of the Automation panel, you will find the Functions pop-up menu, which contains a number of global automation commands. The following functions are available: 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).
The Automation panel (Cubase only) 3. Move the fader until you have found the volume setting you need in the chorus and release the fader to punch out. The volume curve is set from the point of punch out back to where you punched in. The values written while moving the fader to find the right value are deleted, and the volume jumps at exactly the right moment from the value set in the verse to the value found for the chorus.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) Fill combinations You can also combine the various Fill options. • Combining “To Punch” and “To End” will fill the automation track from the punch in position to the end of the project. • 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.
The Automation panel (Cubase only) 4. Release the mouse button. At the moment of release, a final automation event is created. The automation curve is written from this last event through to the end of the project. This procedure can be used with all the Fill options. The Suspend 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.
Automation Preferences The Show options The Show options on the Automation panel always affect all tracks. Clicking these buttons opens the automation tracks for the corresponding parameters, e. g. Volume or Pan. This makes it easy to look at your EQ settings on several tracks, for example. • When you click either Volume, Pan, EQ, Sends, or Inserts, this will open the corresponding automation track(s) for all tracks.
Hints and further options Option Description Continue Writing If you activate this option, the recording of automation will not be blocked when locating to a new position. For example, this can be used to perform multiple automation passes in Cycle mode or if you are using the arranger functions. If this option is deactivated and you write automation data and locate to another position in the project, the writing will be stopped until the mouse button is released or until a Stop command is received.
MIDI controller automation MIDI controller automation Merging automation data When working with Cubase, it is possible to record automation data for MIDI controllers in two places: as MIDI part data and as data on an automation track. If you have such “conflicting” automation data, you can specify separately for every parameter how these will be combined during playback. This is done by selecting an Automation Merge Mode in the track list for the automation track.
MIDI controller automation MIDI Controller Automation Setup settings In the MIDI Controller Automation Setup dialog, you can specify how existing MIDI automation is handled on playback and where new automation data is recorded, in a MIDI part or as track automation. Proceed as follows: 1. On the MIDI menu, select “CC Automation Setup…”. A dialog opens. 2. On the “Record Destination on conflict (global)” pop-up menu, specify the record destination for MIDI controller data.
MIDI controller automation • 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.
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: 1. If you process an event or a selection range, a new audio file is created in the Edits folder, within your project folder.
Audio processing Ö If you activate “Please, don’t ask again”, any further processing you do will conform to the selected method (“Continue” or “New Version”). You can change this setting at any time by using the “On Processing Shared Clips” pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page). Also, “Create New Version” will now be displayed as an option in the dialog for the processing function.
Audio processing Envelope The Envelope function allows you to apply a volume envelope to the selected audio. The dialog contains the following settings: Curve Kind buttons These determine whether the envelope curve consists of spline curve segments (left button), damped spline segments (middle button) or linear segments (right button). Envelope display Shows the shape of the envelope curve. The resulting waveform shape is shown in dark gray, with the current waveform shape in light gray.
Audio processing Clipping detection text If you use the Preview function before applying the processing, the text below the slider indicates whether the current settings result in clipping (audio levels above 0 dB). If that is the case, lower the Gain value and use the Preview function again. • If you want to increase the level of the audio as much as possible without causing clipping, use the Normalize function instead (see “Normalize” on page 306).
Audio processing 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.
Audio processing Pitch Shift This function allows you to change the pitch of the audio with or without affecting its length. You can also create “harmonies” by specifying several pitches or apply pitch shift based on a user specified envelope curve. When the Transpose tab is selected, the dialog contains the following parameters: Keyboard display This is a graphic overview of the transposition setting. Here, you can specify the transpose interval in semitones. • The root note is indicated in red.
Audio processing • If the intervals you add make up a standard chord, this chord is displayed to the right. Note, however, that to include the base pitch (the original, untransposed sound) in the processed result, you need to click the base key in the keyboard display as well, so that it is displayed in blue. Listen Key/Chord button Clicking this button plays a test tone pitched according to the activated interval key on the keyboard display.
Audio processing Envelope display Shows the shape of the envelope curve over the waveform image of the audio selected for processing. Envelope curve points above the center line indicate positive pitch shift, while curve points below the center line indicate negative pitch shift. Initially, the envelope curve will be a horizontal, centered line, indicating zero pitch shift. • You can click on the curve to add points, and click and drag existing points to change the shape.
Audio processing Pitch Shift Mode These are the same parameters as on the Transpose tab, see “Algorithm Settings” on page 308. Example Let’s say that you wish to create a pitchbend effect, so that the pitch is raised linearly by exactly 2 semitones in a specific part of the selected audio. 1. Remove all curve points by clicking the Reset button. 2. Select a linear curve by clicking the Curve Kind button to the right. 3. Make sure that the Range parameter is set to 2 semitones or higher. 4.
Audio processing Resample The Resample function can be used for changing the length, tempo and pitch of an event. The original sample rate of the event is listed in the dialog. Resample the event to a higher or lower sample rate by either specifying a sample rate or by specifying the difference (as a percentage value) between the original sample rate and the desired new one.
Audio processing The dialog contains the following parameters: Mode This pop-up menu determines what the function does: Option Description Flip Left-Right Swaps the left and right channel. Left to Stereo Copies the left channel sound to the right channel. Right to Stereo Copies the right channel sound to the left channel. Merge Merges both channels on each side for mono sound. Subtract Subtracts the left channel information from the right.
Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) Original Length section This section contains information and settings regarding the audio selected for processing: Option Description Length in Samples The length of the selected audio, in samples. Length in Seconds The length of the selected audio, in seconds. Tempo in BPM If you are processing music, and know the actual tempo of the audio, you can enter it here as beats per minute.
Applying plug-ins (Cubase only) 3. Select the desired effect from the submenu. The Process Plug-in dialog opens. About stereo and mono If you are applying an effect to mono audio material, only the left side of the effect’s stereo output will be applied. The process plug-in dialog The process plug-in dialog for the StudioChorus effect The upper section of the process plug-in dialog contains the effect parameters of the selected plug-in.
The Offline Process History dialog Pre/Post-Crossfade These settings allow you to gradually mix the effect in or out. For example, if you activate Pre-Crossfade and specify a value of 1000 ms, the effect is applied gradually from the start of selection, reaching full effect 1000 ms after the start. Similarly, if you activate Post-Crossfade, the processing is gradually removed, starting at the specified interval before the end of the selection.
Freeze Edits 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 • If the selected clip (or the clip played by the selected event) has several edit versions (i. e. there are other clips referring to the same audio file), the following alert will appear: As you can see, you do not have the option to Replace the original audio file in this case. This is because that audio file is used by other clips. Select “New File” to have a new file created in the Audio folder within the project folder.
Detect Silence • If you have zoomed in on the waveform, it may not be completely visible anymore. In this case, the scrollbar to the left of the zoom slider allows you to scroll through the waveform. You can also use the mouse wheel for scrolling through the waveform. • If the Linked option in the Detection section is deactivated, you can use the green square at the beginning and the red square at the end of the audio file to graphically adjust the Open and Close Threshold values (respectively).
The Spectrum Analyzer 3. Click “Preview” to listen to the result. The event is played back repeatedly in its entire length, but with the “closed” sections silenced. 4. Adjust the settings in the Detection section until you are satisfied with the result. 5. In the Output section, activate the “Add as Regions” or the “Strip Silence” option, or both. “Add as Regions” will create regions according to the non-silent sections.
The Spectrum Analyzer The default values give good results in most situations, but you can adjust the settings if you like: Option Description 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. Size of Overlap The overlap between each analysis block.
Statistics Setting Description Max. Sets the highest frequency shown in the graph. By adjusting the Min and Max values, you can take a closer look at a smaller frequency range. Active When this is activated, the next Spectrum Analysis will appear in the same window. When deactivated, new Spectrum Analysis results will appear in separate windows. 5.
About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms Item Description Peak Amplitude The largest amplitude in dB. True Peak The maximum absolute level of the audio signal waveform in the continuous time domain. DC Offset The amount of DC Offset as a percentage and in dB, see “Remove DC Offset” on page 310. Resolution The current calculated audio resolution. Estimated Pitch The estimated pitch. Sample Rate The sample rate.
About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms MPEX MPEX is an alternative high-quality algorithm. You can choose between the following quality settings: Option Description MPEX – Preview Quality Use this mode only for preview purposes. MPEX – Mix Fast This mode is a very fast mode for preview. This works best with composite music signals (mono or stereo material). MPEX – Solo Fast Use this mode for single instruments (monophonic material) and voice.
About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms Option Description Standard – Custom This preset allows you to manually tweak the time stretching parameters (see below). By default, the settings that are shown when you open the dialog are those of the last preset used (except if the Solo preset has been selected, see below). Standard – Solo This mode preserves the timbre of the audio.
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 302). 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.
Window overview Opening the Sample Editor To open the Sample Editor, double-click an audio event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor, or double-click an audio clip in the Pool. You can have more than one Sample Editor window open at the same time. Ö Double-clicking an audio part in the Project window opens the Audio Part Editor, even if the part contains a single audio event only. The Audio Part Editor is described in a separate chapter, see “The Audio Part Editor” on page 371.
Window overview Snap 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. Ö The Sample Editor Snap function is independent of the Snap setting in the Project window toolbar or other editors. It has no effect outside the Sample Editor.
Window overview The following options are available: Option Description Auto This is the default mode. All segments belonging to the same audio event get the same color. Event The segments get the same color as the corresponding event in the Project window. Pitch The segments get different colors depending on their pitch. Chord Track Segments that match the corresponding chord or scale events on the chord track, are highlighted in a special color.
Window overview The AudioWarp tab Disable Warp Changes The AudioWarp tab lets you perform timing settings for your audio. This includes applying swing and manually changing the rhythm of the audio by dragging beats to time positions in the grid (see “Applying swing” on page 344 and “Free Warp” on page 345). • If you click the “Disable Warp Changes” button, any warp modifications you have made are disabled, allowing you to compare the modified sound with the original sound of your audio.
Window overview The Hitpoints tab On this tab, hitpoints can be marked and edited (see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 347). 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 markers based on hitpoints. The Range tab On this tab you will find functions for working with ranges and selections (see “Making selections” on page 335).
Window overview • To zoom in or out, horizontally, resize the viewing area by dragging its left or right edge. • To define a new viewing area, click in the upper half of the Overview and drag a rectangle. The ruler The Sample Editor ruler is located between the overview line and the waveform display. The ruler is explained in detail in the section “The ruler” on page 50. When the Definition tab is open, an additional ruler displays the musical structure of the audio file.
General functions • 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.
General functions • The current zoom setting is shown in the info line, as a “samples per screen pixel” value. Ö You can zoom in horizontally to a scale of less than one sample per pixel! This is required for drawing with the Draw tool (see “Drawing in the Sample Editor” on page 335). • If you have zoomed in to one sample per pixel or less, the appearance of the samples depends on the “Interpolate Audio Images” option in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page).
General functions Scrubbing The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio by playing back, forwards, or backwards, at any speed: 1. Select the Scrub tool. 2. Click in the waveform display and keep the mouse button pressed. The project cursor is moved to the position where you clicked. 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. Adjusting the snap point The snap point is a marker within an audio event.
General functions 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. ! Events and clips can have different snap points. If you open a clip from the Pool, you can edit the clip snap point. If you open a clip from within the project window, you can edit the event snap point. The clip snap point serves as a template for the event snap point.
General functions Option Description Select Event Selects only the audio that is included in the edited event. This is grayed out if you have opened the Sample Editor from the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened for editing, not an event). Cubase only: If the VariAudio tab is open and your audio file is split into separate segments (see “Segments mode” on page 356), all segments that start or end within the event boundaries are selected.
General functions Cut, Copy, and Paste The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands (on the Edit menu, on the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector, or on the main Edit menu) work according to the following rules: • Selecting Copy copies the selection to the clipboard. • Selecting Cut removes the selection from the clip and moves it to the clipboard. The section to the right of the selection is moved to the left to fill the gap. • Selecting Paste copies the data from the clipboard into the clip.
General functions Handling Several Audio Events When you open the Sample Editor with several events selected, the editor contains a few functions that facilitates working with multiple audio events. These functions are designed to display and edit the VariAudio segments of several audio events in context. For further information on VariAudio, see “VariAudio (Cubase only)” on page 353.
General functions Editing regions The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the waveform display and the overview line. There are two ways to edit the start and end positions of a region: • Click and drag the region start and end handles in the waveform display (with any tool). When you move the pointer over the handles, it automatically changes to indicate that you can drag the handles. • Edit the Start and End positions in the corresponding fields in the regions list.
General functions Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback On the Algorithm pop-up menu on the toolbar you can select the algorithm preset to be applied during realtime playback. This setting affects warp changes in Musical Mode, FreeWarp, and Swing. For the VariAudio warping and pitching features, the “Standard – Solo” preset must be used and is applied automatically. The pop-up menu contains various options that govern the audio quality of the realtime time stretching.
Warping audio Warping audio 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. Adjusting loops to the project tempo using Musical Mode Audio loops are normally short audio files containing a defined number of bars with straight beats. These loops can be adjusted to the project tempo by using the Musical Mode function. Proceed as follows: 1.
Warping audio Adjusting complex audio material to the project tempo using Musical Mode If you want to use an audio file with unknown tempo or if the beat of your audio file is not straight, you have to change the “definition” of this audio file first. This is done with the Auto Adjust function on the Definition tab of the Sample Editor Inspector. The Auto Adjust function extracts a “local” definition grid that you can then match with the project tempo using Musical Mode.
Warping audio Ö You can also apply Auto Adjust directly on an audio event or a clip. If no range selection is defined, the grid is calculated for the audio event. If no range selection and no audio event are defined, the grid is calculated for the entire clip. In both cases you need to make sure that the event or clip starts and ends on a bar line. Correcting the local definition grid In some situations, you might not be able to get satisfying results with the “Auto Adjust” function.
Warping audio 8. Click and drag the green vertical line to the left or right to the position of the first downbeat of the following bar and release the mouse button. Repeat the last two steps for all bar lines that need to be corrected. 9. Now have a look at the single beats in between the bars. If you find an incorrect beat position, move the mouse pointer over the corresponding grid line so that the tooltip “Set Beat Position” and a blue vertical line are shown. 10.
Warping audio 3. On the AudioWarp tab, select a suitable grid resolution from the Resolution popup menu. This defines the positions that the swing is applied to. For example, if you select 1/2, the swing is applied in steps of half notes. 4. Move the Swing fader to the right to offset every second position in the grid. This creates a swing or shuffle feel.
Warping audio To correct the timing using the Free Warp tool, proceed as follows: 1. Open the audio file that you want to process in the Sample Editor. 2. Activate the “Snap to Zero Crossing” button on the Sample Editor toolbar. When this button is activated, warp markers will snap to zero crossings. 3. If you want to use the Free Warp tool for selective timing corrections, you can define the local definition grid and activate Musical Mode.
Working with hitpoints and slices Working with hitpoints and slices Cubase can detect hitpoints, musically relevant positions, by analyzing onsets and melodic changes. At these positions a type of marker is added. Hitpoints allow you to create slices, where each slice ideally represents each individual sound or “beat”. Drum or other rhythmic recordings or loops work best with this feature.
Working with hitpoints and slices Using hitpoints has the advantage that the quality of the sound is not affected and no artifacts are being introduced. The audio is cut up into slices that are then moved on the timeline, making this method especially suited for drums, which contain silence between the individual sounds. Furthermore, hitpoint detection is useful for multi-track drum recordings, because the phase alignment is kept stable.
Working with hitpoints and slices Editing hitpoints You can change the state of a hitpoint, insert new hitpoints manually, and move existing hitpoints. Hitpoints can have three different states: enabled, locked, and disabled. “Enabled” is the normal state a hitpoint has immediately after the detection. Hitpoints can be “disabled” so that they are still visible as gray triangles on the timeline, but will not be taken into account for further operations.
Working with hitpoints and slices • To insert a new hitpoint, press [Alt]/[Option] and click at the position where you want to enter the new hitpoint (i. e. at the start of the sound). Manually added hitpoints are locked by default. Moving hitpoints If a hitpoint was either placed too far away from the start of the sound or too far into the sound, you can move it. • To move a hitpoint, press [Alt]/[Option] and point the mouse at the vertical line of the hitpoint.
Working with hitpoints and slices Also consider activating auto fades for the corresponding audio track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help eliminate any clicks between the slices when you play back the part. See “Making Auto Fade settings for individual tracks” on page 150 for details. If the project tempo is higher than the tempo of the original audio event, the slice events are overlapping.
Working with hitpoints and slices Create Regions If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can click the Create Regions button on the Hitpoints tab to automatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be useful to isolate recorded sounds. Create Events If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can click the Create Events button on the Hitpoints tab to automatically create separate events based on the hitpoints.
VariAudio (Cubase only) VariAudio (Cubase only) 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.
VariAudio (Cubase only) In between the different segments you may find gaps where non-tonal portions have been detected, e. g. caused by breath sounds. Audio waveform Segments Gap At the beginning of the waveform, you can see a gap where no segment is shown. Ö The audio waveform displayed on the VariAudio tab is always shown as mono, even if you have opened a stereo or multi-channel file. The piano keyboard to the left of the waveform indicates the pitch positions.
VariAudio (Cubase only) You can zoom in on the segments that you want to edit by holding down [Alt]/[Option] while drawing a selection rectangle. To zoom out, hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click in an empty area of the waveform. If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] and double click in an empty area, the display will be zoomed out to show all segments.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Segments mode If you activate Segments mode on the VariAudio tab, your audio file is analyzed and split into separate segments. ! Due to the data gained during this process, the audio and thus the size of your project can increase. Furthermore, the analysis of long audio files might take some time. When you want to change the pitch of audio that includes non-tonal portions, e. g.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Cutting a segment If you notice that a segment includes more than one note, proceed as follows: 1. On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2. Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the segment that you would like to cut. The mouse pointer becomes a scissor. 3. Click at the desired position to cut the segment. The segment is cut accordingly taking Snap into account.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Moving segments horizontally 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: 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. Click and drag the whole segment to the left or right. The segment is moved accordingly.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Changing the pitch If you want to edit the pitch of a segment, proceed as follows: 1. On the VariAudio tab activate the Pitch & Warp tool. 2. Move the mouse pointer over the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a hand symbol to indicate that you can change the pitch of the segment. If the zoom factor is high enough, a tooltip indicates the found note pitch and the segment’s deviation from this pitch in percent.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Proceed as follows: 1. Select the segments that you want to quantize. 2. Move the Quantize Pitch slider to the right. The selected segments are quantized iteratively. You can set up a key command for Quantize Pitch in the Sample Editor category of the Key Commands dialog (see “Key commands” on page 711). When using the key command, the segments are directly quantized to the next semitone position.
VariAudio (Cubase only) • If you press [Alt]/[Option] while dragging up/down, the tilt anchor is used as an axis around which the micro-pitch curve can be rotated. If you set a tilt anchor… …and press [Alt]/[Option], the mouse pointer becomes a diagonal arrow… …to indicate that you can rotate the micro-pitch curve. 4. Repeat the steps above to set anchors and tilt the micro-pitch curve until you are satisfied with the result.
VariAudio (Cubase only) 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 108). Proceed as follows: 1. After having corrected the segmentation, select the segment for which you would like to change the pitch. 2. Activate the Pitch & Warp tool and click the MIDI Input button. 3.
VariAudio (Cubase only) To warp a segment, proceed as follows: 1. On the VariAudio tab activate the Pitch & Warp tool. 2. To change the timing of a segment, move the mouse pointer over the start/end of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a double arrow and the warp markers are displayed in the ruler. 3. Drag the start/end of the segment to the desired position. If the Snap button is activated, the segment border will snap to the grid.
VariAudio (Cubase only) You can of course change the segmentation to achieve this, but if you want to pitch your audio afterwards, this would affect also any non-tonal portions of the audio. If this is not what you want, proceed as follows: 1. Activate the Pitch & Warp tool and activate the Snap button. In this example the beginning of the segment does not correspond to the beginning of the waveform. 2.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Reset This pop-up menu at the bottom of the VariAudio tab allows you to reset the modifications you performed with the Pitch & Warp tool. It also lets you reset the changes you made in Segments mode by reanalyzing the audio and returning to the original segmentation.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Extracting MIDI You can extract a MIDI part from your audio. This is useful if you have an audio event with a certain tune and sound and you want to create an identical second tune with a MIDI instrument or VST instrument. The extracted MIDI part can also be used to print out notes from within the Score Editor or it can be exported as a MIDI file (see “Exporting and importing standard MIDI files” on page 692).
Generating Harmony Voices for Monophonic Audio The following options are available: Option Description Fixed Velocity All created MIDI notes get the same velocity. Select a velocity value in the Velocity field. Dynamic Velocity Each created MIDI note gets an individual velocity value according to the amplitude of the audio signal. Volume Controller Curve A continuous volume controller curve is created within the MIDI part.
Flattening realtime processing 3. On the Audio menu, select “Generate Harmony Voices…”. 4. Specify the number of voices that you want to create and enter a value for the vibrato reduction. The new voices follow the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices from the chord track voicing. • To open all voices in the Sample Editor, activate the “Open Sample Editor After Completion” option. This allows you to view and edit the different voices.
Flattening realtime processing Proceed as follows: 1. Select the audio events that you want to process. 2. On the Audio menu, open the Realtime Processing submenu and select the Flatten command. Provided that the time stretching factor is not outside the range of 0.5 and 2, a dialog opens where you can select an algorithm for the processing. • If the audio has been transposed, the dialog also contains the “Formant Correction” option.
Flattening realtime processing Whether the “Unstretch Audio” menu item is available depends on whether the time stretching has been applied at event or clip level: • If you have sized an audio event in the Project window using “Sizing Applies Time Stretch” (see “Resizing events using time stretch” on page 77), you can undo the time stretching by selecting the event in the Project window and then applying “Unstretch Audio”. This removes all time stretching and warp markers.
The Audio Part Editor Background 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 55. 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.
Opening the Audio Part Editor - Part List controls for handling several parts: activating parts for editing, restricting editing to active parts only and showing part borders (see “Handling several parts” on page 374). Ö You can customize the toolbar by hiding or reordering its items, see “Using the Setup options” on page 700. The ruler and info line These have the same functionality and appearance as their counterparts in the Project window.
Operations Operations Zooming, selecting and editing in the Audio Part Editor are done just as in the Project window (see the chapter “Working with projects” on page 55). Ö If a part is a shared copy (i. e. you have previously copied the part by [Alt]/[Option][Shift] and dragging), any editing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part.
Operations The independent track loop function The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the edited part. When the loop is activated, the events in the parts that are within the loop will be repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) are played back as usual. The only “interaction” between the loop and the “regular playback” is that the loop starts every time the cycle starts over again.
Options and Settings • The “Edit Active Part Only” button lets you restrict editing operations to the active part only. If you for example select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu with this option activated, all events in the active part will be selected but not the events in other parts. • You can zoom in on an active part so that it spreads to full dialog width by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu.
The Pool Background 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: • All audio and video clips that belong to a project are listed in the Pool. • There is a separate Pool for every project. The way the Pool displays folders and their contents is similar to the way the Mac OS X Finder and the Windows Explorer display folders and lists of files.
Window overview • The Video folder This contains all video clips currently in the project. • The Trash folder Unused clips can be moved into the Trash folder for later permanent removal from the hard disk. These folders cannot be renamed or deleted from the Pool, but any number of subfolders can be added (see “Organizing clips and folders” on page 389).
Window overview 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. Used This column displays the number of times a clip is used in the project.
Window overview About the Status column symbols The Status column can display various symbols that relate to the clips status. The following symbols can be shown: Symbol Description This indicates the current Pool Record folder (see “Changing the Pool Record folder” on page 388). This symbol is shown if a clip has been processed. The question mark indicates that a clip is referenced in the project but missing from the Pool (see “About missing files” on page 384).
Operations • The width of a column can also be adjusted by placing the pointer between two column headers and dragging left or right. The pointer changes to a divider when you place it between two column headers. Operations Most of the Pool-related main menu functions are also available on the Pool context menu (opened by right-clicking in the Pool window).
Operations Using drag and drop When using drag and drop to insert clips into the Project window, please note the following: • Snap is taken into account if activated. • While you drag the clip in the Project window, its position is indicated by a marker line and a numerical position box. Note that these indicate the position of the snap point in the clip. For example, if you drop the clip at the position 10.00, this will be where the snap point ends up.
Operations Removing unused clips 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 “Remove Unused Media” on the Media or context menu. A message appears asking you whether you want to move the file to the Trash or to remove it from the Pool. 2. Make your selection.
Operations 3. Use the Location pop-up menu to specify where to search. The pop-up menu will list all your local drives and removable media. • If you want to limit the search to certain folders, choose “Select Search Path” and select the desired folder in the dialog that opens. The search will include the selected folder and all subfolders. Note also that folders you have recently selected using the “Select Search Path” function will appear on the pop-up menu, allowing you to quickly select them again. 4.
Operations - Sample Rate: various values, choose “Other” for free setting - Date: various search ranges 4. Select one of the search criteria in the pop-up menu to change the search option above the Location pop-up menu. 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. • You can save presets of your search filter settings.
Operations Locate missing files 1. Select “Find Missing Files…” from the Media or context menu. The Resolve Missing Files dialog opens. 2. Decide if you want the program to try to find the file for you (Search), if you want to do it yourself (Locate) or if you want to specify in which directory the program will search for the file (Folder). • If you select Locate, a file dialog opens, allowing you to locate the file manually. Select the file and click “Open”.
Operations Auditioning clips in the Pool There are three ways to audition clips in the Pool: • By using key commands. If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the Preferences dialog (Transport page), you can use [Space] to audition. This is the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar. • By selecting a clip and activating the Audition button. The whole clip will play back, unless you stop playback by clicking the Audition button again.
Operations - MPEG Layer 2 and Layer 3 (MP2 and MP3 files – see “Importing compressed audio files” on page 689) - Ogg Vorbis (OGG files – see “Importing compressed audio files” on page 689) - Windows Media Audio (Windows – see “Importing compressed audio files” on page 689) - Wave 64 (W64 files) They may have the following characteristics: - 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).
Operations • Split channels/Split multi-channel files Activate this option to split stereo or multi-channel audio files into a corresponding number of mono files – one for each channel. Note that if you use this option, the imported files are always copied to the Audio folder of the project’s working directory. If you import files using the Import option on the File menu, the split files are inserted into the project and into the Pool as separate mono tracks.
Operations By default, this is the main Audio folder. However, you can create a new Audio subfolder at any time and designate this as your Pool Record folder: 1. Select the Audio folder or any audio clip. You cannot designate the Video folder (or any of its subfolders) as the Pool Record folder. 2. Select “Create Folder” on the Media or context menu. A new empty subfolder named “New Folder” appears in the Pool. 3. Select the new folder and rename it as desired. 4.
Operations Applying processing to clips in the Pool 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. To find out more about audio processing, see the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 302.
Operations Ö Since the audio and video files are only referenced but not saved in the Pool file, the Pool import is only useful if you have access to all referenced files (which preferably have the same file paths as when the Pool was saved). You can also save and open libraries. These are stand-alone Pool files that are not associated with a project. Working with libraries (Cubase only) You can use libraries to save sound effects, loops, video clips, etc.
Operations Options When you convert a file, you can use the Options pop-up menu to set one of the following options regarding what to do with the new file: Option Description New Files Creates a copy of the file in the audio folder and converts this new file according to the chosen attributes. The new file is added to the Pool, but all clip references will still point to the original, unconverted file. Replace Files Converts the original file without changing clip references.
The MediaBay Introduction One of the biggest challenges in typical computer-based music production environments is how to manage the ever-growing 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.
Working with the MediaBay Accessing the MediaBay To open the MediaBay, select the MediaBay command on the Media menu. You can also use the corresponding key command (by default F5). Setting up the MediaBay window You can show and hide the different sections of the MediaBay (except for the Results list). This is handy, as it allows you to save screen space and enables you to display only the information you need for your work. Proceed as follows: 1.
The Define Locations section Whenever you expand your computer system (for example, by adding new hard disks or an external volume containing media files you want to work with), you should make it a habit to save the new volumes as Locations or add them to your existing Locations. Afterwards, you can hide the Define Locations section from view. That way, the MediaBay occupies less screen space and you can concentrate on the important thing: the Results list.
The Define Locations section The color of the checkmark helps you to identify which folders and subfolders are scanned: - A white checkmark indicates that all subfolders are scanned. - An orange checkmark indicates that at least one subfolder is excluded from the scan. Some subfolders of this folder are excluded from the scan. All subfolders of this folder are included in the scan. • To revert to scanning a complete folder (including all subfolders), click on an orange checkmark.
The Define Locations section Updating the display You can update the display in two ways: by rescanning or by refreshing. Rescanning 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. Use this function if you have made changes to the content of specific media folders and want to scan these folders again.
The Locations section Ö Some Location presets are available by default.
The Results list The Results list The Results list is at the heart of the MediaBay. Here, you will find all the files found in the selected location. As the number of files displayed can be huge (the info field in the top right corner of the Results section shows the number of files found with the current filter settings), you might want to use any of the filter and search options in the MediaBay to narrow down the list. The available options are described below.
The Results list The media types In the “Show Media Types” dialog, you can activate the media types you want to be displayed in the Results list. The following types are available: Option Description Audio Files When this is activated, the list shows all audio files. The supported formats are .wav, .w64, .aiff, .aifc, .rex, .rx2, .mp3, .mp2, .ogg, .sd2 (Mac only), .wma (Win only). MIDI Files When this is activated, the list shows all MIDI files (file name extension .mid).
The Results list Setting up the Results list columns For each media type, or for combinations of media types, you can specify the attribute columns that are displayed in the Results list. In most cases, you will probably only want to display a few main attributes in the Results list and use the Attribute Inspector to view the complete list of attribute values for the files. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the media type (or combination of media types) that you want to make settings for. 2.
The Results list The rating slider 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. This makes it possible to exclude certain files from the search according to their quality. When you move the rating slider, the active rating filter is indicated in red. All files of this rating are displayed in the list.
Previewing files Managing files in the Results list • You can move/copy a file from the Results list to another location by clicking on it and dragging it to another folder in the Define Locations section. You will be asked whether you want to copy or move the file to the new location. • You can change the display order in the Results list by clicking on a column heading, and dragging that heading to another position in the display.
Previewing files • When “Wait for Project Play” is activated, the Play and Stop functions from the Transport panel are synchronized with the Play and Stop buttons in the Previewer section. This option is very useful for previewing audio loops. To use it to its full extent, set the left locator at the beginning of a bar, then start playing back the project using the Transport panel. The loops that you now select in the Results list will start together with the project in perfect sync.
Previewing files Previewing presets via MIDI input MIDI input is always active, i. e. when a MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer (and set up properly), you can directly start playing the notes to preview the selected preset. Previewing presets using a MIDI file Proceed as follows: 1. On the Sequence Mode pop-up menu, select “Load MIDI File”. 2. In the file dialog that opens, navigate to the desired MIDI file, and click Open. The name of the MIDI file is displayed on the pop-up menu. 3.
The Filters section Previewing pattern banks Pattern banks containing drum patterns can be created with the MIDI plug-in Beat Designer. Detailed information on the Beat Designer and its functions can be found in the chapter “MIDI effects” in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. One pattern bank contains 4 subbanks which in turn contain 12 patterns each.
The Filters section 3. Click in the leftmost field, to open the Select Filter Attributes dialog. The dialog shows an alphabetical list of file attributes you can choose from. At the top of the list, the MediaBay maintains an automatically generated list of the last 5 attributes selected during previous searches. 4. Select the attribute(s) you want to use, and click OK. • Note that you can select more than one attribute.
The Filters section 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.
The Filters section Applying an attribute filter The MediaBay allows you not only to view and edit some of the standard file attributes found in all computer files, but it also provides preconfigured attributes, or “tags”, that you can use to organize your media files, see “The Attribute Inspector” on page 410. If you click the Attribute button, the Filters section displays all values found for a specific attribute.
The Attribute Inspector • Attribute values in different columns form an AND condition. This means that files must be tagged according to all these attribute values to be shown in the Results list. Assigning attribute values to your files makes it easy to organize the media files. This is described in detail in the section “The Attribute Inspector” on page 410. Ö You can also create user attributes (see “Defining user attributes” on page 415) to create your own categories.
The Attribute Inspector You have access to the standard attributes and the preconfigured attributes provided by Cubase. Additionally you can define your own attributes and add these to your files. Attributes can be shown in the Attribute Inspector in two different ways: • Click the Dynamic button to show all available attribute values. This list is automatically generated by Cubase. Use this view if you want to see the attributes the selected files have already been tagged with.
The Attribute Inspector Depending on the selected attribute, the following happens: • For most of the attributes, a pop-up menu opens from which you can choose a value. This can be a name, a number and an on/off state. For example, this is the case for the attributes Name, Family Name, or Author. Some of the pop-up menus also have a “more…” entry to open a window with more attribute values.
The Attribute Inspector Editing attributes in the Results list You can also edit attributes directly in the Results list. This allows you for example to assign tags to a number of loop files. ! This is only possible if “Allow Editing in Results List” is activated, see “Preferences” on page 416. Proceed as follows: 1. In the Results list, select the file(s) for which you want to change an attribute value. 2. Click in the column for the value you want to change and make the desired settings.
The Attribute Inspector Ö If the Write Protection and/or the Pending Tags column are not visible, you may have to enable the corresponding attributes for the file type in question in the Attribute Inspector.
The Loop Browser, Sound Browser, and Mini Browser windows 5. When you have set up the attributes for all the media types you are working with, exit the Configuration mode by clicking the “Configure Defined Attributes” button again. Defining user attributes If you find that the available attributes are not suitable for your work, you can define your own attributes and save these in the MediaBay database and the corresponding media files. Proceed as follows: 1.
Preferences Preferences In the Preferences dialog in Cubase, you can find options and settings that control the global behavior of the program. The Preferences dialog contains a special MediaBay page. These settings are also available from within the MediaBay. To open the Preferences pane for the MediaBay, proceed as follows: 1. Click the MediaBay Preferences button in the lower left corner of the window. • A transparent pane appears, covering the window.
Key commands The following options are available in the Results section: Option Description Maximum Items in Results List Use this parameter to specify the maximum number of files that are displayed in the Results list. This avoids unmanageably long lists of files. Note that the MediaBay does not warn you if the maximum number of files has been reached and there might be situations where a certain file you were looking for could not be found, because the maximum number of files was reached.
Working with MediaBay-related windows Working with MediaBay-related windows The MediaBay concept can be found throughout the program, for example when adding new tracks or when choosing presets for VST instruments or effects. The workflow in all MediaBay-related windows is the same as in the MediaBay. Below follow a few examples.
Working with MediaBay-related windows Applying effect presets When you have added an insert effect, you can choose from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu for the effect slot. The Presets browser opens: Applying instrument presets When working with VST instruments, you can choose from a variety of presets via the Presets pop-up menu.
Working with Volume databases 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 Cubase stores all media file information used in the MediaBay, such as paths and attributes, in a local database file on your computer. However, in some cases, it might be necessary to browse and manage this kind of metadata on an external volume.
Working with Volume databases Volume databases are automatically mounted when Cubase is launched. They are shown in the Define Locations section and their data can be viewed and edited in the Results list, as for the other media files in the MediaBay. Rescanning and refreshing Use the Rescan and Refresh MediaBay functions for a volume database if you have modified the scan settings on a different system, for example, by activating additional folders for scanning.
Working with track presets Introduction 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 393), where you can categorize them with attributes.
Types of track presets - Color settings - Drum map settings MIDI track presets MIDI tracks should be used for multi-timbral VST instruments and external instruments. When creating MIDI track presets you can either include the currently set channel, or the currently set patch. See “Creating a track preset” on page 427 for details.
Applying track presets Pattern banks Pattern banks are presets created for the Beat Designer MIDI effect. They behave much like track presets. For detailed information, see “Previewing pattern banks” on page 406 and the chapter “MIDI effects” in the separate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”. Applying track presets When you apply a track preset, all the settings saved in the preset are applied. Track presets can be applied to tracks of their own type only, i. e. audio track presets to audio tracks, etc.
Applying track presets 4. Drag and drop it onto a track of the same type. 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.
Applying track presets 4. When you have found the preset that you want, double-click on it (or click outside the Presets browser). The preset is applied. • To return to the preset that was selected when you opened the Presets browser, click the “Revert to Last Setting” button. Reloading track or VST presets When you have modified the settings of a track or VST preset and are not satisfied with the results, you can revert to the default settings of the preset by clicking the “Reload Track Preset” button.
Creating a track preset Creating a track preset A track preset can be created from an existing audio, MIDI, or instrument track – or a combination of these. Proceed as follows: 1. In the Project window, select one or more tracks. If several tracks are selected, all of them are stored in one combined multi-track preset, see “Multi-track presets” on page 423. 2. Right-click one of the selected tracks in the track list and select “Save Track Preset” from the context menu. The Save Track Preset dialog opens.
Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets Using drag and drop 1. Open the MediaBay from the Media menu. 2. Select a track or VST preset from the list of all presets. 3. Start playback to preview the selected VSTpreset. All settings are applied in realtime to the selected track. If you set up your target track to a cycle and play back in loop, previewing will be very comfortable. Note that you cannot preview multi-track presets. 4.
Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets Using the Add Track function 1. Right-click the track list and select one of the Add Track options on the context menu. 2. Click the Browse button to expand the Add Track dialog. The Presets Browser opens. The options are the same as when applying a preset to an existing track, see “Loading track or VST presets in the Inspector or the context menu of the track” on page 425. The view is filtered to show only the corresponding track presets. 3.
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.
Assigning parameters to quick controls Assignment via the Learn function Using the “QC Learn Mode” button on the Quick Controls tab in the Inspector, you can assign a parameter by moving the corresponding control: • Activate the “QC Learn Mode” button, select the slot to which you want to assign a parameter and use the desired control. All automatable controls can be learned this way.
Connecting quick controls with remote controllers Automatic assignment of VST instrument parameters When you create an instrument track or load a VST instrument via the VST Instruments window (including creating an associated MIDI track), the main parameters of the instrument are automatically assigned to the slots on the Quick Controls tab in the Inspector (if the VST instrument supports this feature).
Quick controls and automatable parameters 3. With your remote control device connected to Cubase via MIDI, select the corresponding MIDI port on your computer in the MIDI Input pop-up menu (or select “All MIDI Inputs”). If your remote controller has its own MIDI input and supports MIDI feedback, you can connect your computer to the device input. Then, select the corresponding MIDI port in the MIDI Output pop-up menu. 4. Click “Apply” to use the new MIDI port assignment. 5. Activate the Learn option. 6.
Quick controls and automatable parameters 3. Open the VST Mixer folder. The pop-up menu lists all channels available in the MixConsole of your current project. 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 quickcontrolling parameters on other tracks. ! Quick controls that are assigned that way cannot work when saved as track presets.
Remote controlling Cubase Introduction 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”. • There is also a Generic Remote Device option, allowing you to use any MIDI controller to remote control Cubase. How to set this up is described in the section “The Generic Remote device” on page 438.
Setting Up 3. Select your MIDI control device model from the Devices list. Depending on the selected device, either a list of programmable function commands or a blank panel is shown in the right half of the dialog window. 4. Select the correct MIDI input from the pop-up menu. If necessary, select the correct MIDI output from the pop-up menu. 5. Click OK to close the dialog. You can now use the MIDI control device to move faders and knobs, activate Mute and Solo, etc.
Operations Operations Global options for remote controllers In the Device Setup dialog, on the page for your remote device, some (or all) of the following global functions may be available (depending on your remote device): Option Description Bank pop-up menu If your remote device contains several banks, you can select the bank you want to use. The bank you select here is used by default when Cubase is launched. Smart Switch Delay Some of the Cubase functions (e. g.
The Generic Remote device 3. Click in the Category column for the control and select one of the Cubase function categories from the pop-up menu. 4. Click in the Command column and select the desired Cubase function from the pop-up menu. The available items on the pop-up menu depend on the selected category. 5. Click “Apply” when you are done. • Click “Reset” to revert to the default settings. The selected function is now assigned to the button or control on the remote device.
The Generic Remote device 3. Select the Generic Remote device in the Devices list to the left. The settings for the Generic Remote device are displayed, allowing you to specify which control on your device should control which parameter in Cubase. 4. Use the MIDI Input and Output pop-up menus to select the MIDI port(s) to which your remote device is connected. 5. Use the pop-up menu to the right to select a bank.
The Generic Remote device Column Description MIDI Channel Clicking in this column opens a pop-up menu, allowing you to select the MIDI channel on which the controller is transmitted. Address The Continuous Controller number, the pitch of a note, or the address of a NRPN/RPN Continuous Controller. Max. Value The maximum value the control will transmit. This value is used by the program to “scale” the value range of the MIDI controller to the value range of the program parameter.
The Generic Remote device Column Description Value/Action Clicking in this column opens a pop-up menu, allowing you to select the parameter of the channel to be controlled (typically, if the “VST Mixer” Device option is selected, you can choose between volume, pan, send levels, EQ, etc.). If the “Command” Device option is selected, this is where you specify the “Action” of the category.
Track Quick Controls Track Quick Controls If you have an external remote control device, you can set it up to control up to eight parameters of each audio track, MIDI track or instrument track, using the Track Quick Controls feature in Cubase. How to set up your device and how to assign parameters to it is described in the chapter “Track Quick Controls” on page 430.
The Remote Control Editor Inspector Section The Inspector contains the settings and the parameter assignment for the selected cell. The upper section contains settings for the text label. The lower section contains settings for the knob and the switches. Status Bar When you position the mouse pointer over an element in the editor window, the status bar shows information on what you can do with this element.
The Remote Control Editor Defining the Controls You can define the operation for a particular switch or knob. This includes changing the LED ring or changing its behaviour, from continuous value representation to on/off, for example. • Right-click the control and select a new control style in the settings window or select the control and select a style in the inspector. Ö To be able to make settings for a control, it has to be assigned to a function.
The Remote Control Editor Control Type Settings for Switches The following options are available for switches: • Momentary The assigned function is active for as long as you keep the switch pressed. • Increasing Stepwise Pressing the switch steps through the available settings until the maximum is reached. • Decreasing Stepwise Pressing the switch steps through the available settings in reverse order until the minimum is reached.
The Remote Control Editor 4. Click on another control to set the Learn focus to that control and assign a parameter to it. 5. Press [Esc] to end Learn mode. Removing the Parameter assignment • To remove the parameter assignment for a cell, activate Learn mode, select the cell, and press [Del] or [Backspace]. • To remove all assignments, click the “Remove All Assignments” button.
The Remote Control Editor Navigating • You can use the cursor keys to navigate in all directions. • When Learn mode is active, pressing [Shift] allows you to step between the controls within the cells. • To step forwards or backwards through the different layouts, use [Tab] and [Shift][Tab]. Adding/Removing Pages • To add a page to a layout, click the “+” button on the right of a page. • To remove a page, click the corresponding “-” button. Ö A layout always contains at least one page.
Apple Remote (Macintosh only) Apple Remote (Macintosh only) Many Apple computers come with an Apple Remote Control, a small hand-held device akin to TV remote controls. It allows you to remotely control certain features in Cubase. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Device Setup dialog and select Apple Remote Control from the Add Device pop-up menu. 2. In the list on the right, the Apple Remote’s buttons are listed. For each button you can open a pop-up menu from which you can select a Cubase parameter.
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”.
The Inspector sections Ö Folding or hiding (via the Setup dialog) a section does not affect the functionality but merely hides the section from view. This means your settings will still be active even if you fold or hide the Inspector settings. The Inspector sections Basic track settings The topmost Inspector section contains the basic track settings. These settings either affect the basic functionality for the track (mute, solo, enable record, etc.
The Inspector sections Parameter Description Bank and Program Selector pop-up menu Allows you to select a sound, see below. (If no bank is available, only the Program selector is shown.) Map pop-up menu Allows you to select a drum map for the track – see “Managing drum maps” on page 520. Apply Track Preset button Allows you to apply a track preset, see “Applying track presets” on page 424.
The Inspector sections Transpose This allows you to transpose all notes on the track in semitones. The available range is -127 to +127 semitones, but remember that the total range of MIDI note numbers is 0 to 127. Furthermore, not all instruments can play back notes over the whole range. Therefore, extreme transpositions can give rather strange and unwanted results. • You can also transpose individual MIDI parts using the Transpose field in the info line.
The Inspector sections Random The Random settings let you introduce random variations to various properties of MIDI notes. Anything from very subtle variations to dramatic changes can be applied. There are two separate “random generators”, set up in the following way: 1. Open the Random pop-up menu and select which note property is randomized. The options are position, pitch, velocity and length.
The Inspector sections Mode Description Note Filter Note Filter works by excluding all notes with pitches outside the specified range. Notes lower than the Min setting or higher than the Max setting will not be played back. Use this to “isolate” notes with certain pitches. 2. Use the two fields to the right to set the minimum and maximum values. These values will be shown as numbers (0 to 127) for the velocity modes and as note numbers (C-2 to G8) for the pitch modes.
MIDI effects Notepad section This is a standard notepad, allowing you to enter notes and comments about the track. Each track has its own notepad in the Inspector. VST Instrument section If the MIDI track is routed to a VST instrument, a new section will appear at the bottom of the Inspector, labeled with the name of the VST instrument. Clicking this section shows a duplicate of the Inspector settings for the VST instrument channel.
MIDI effects Insert and send effects As with audio effects, there are two ways to route the MIDI events on a track to an effect: Ö If you add an insert effect, the MIDI events will be sent to the effect, which will process the data and pass it on to the track’s MIDI output (or to another insert effect). In other words, the MIDI events will be routed “through” the insert effect. Ö If you use a send effect, the MIDI events will be sent both to the track’s MIDI output and to the effect.
MIDI effects MIDI Sends section 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: Item Description Sends State indicator and Bypass button The symbol on the right of the title bar is blue when a send effect is activated. You can click the symbol to bypass all send effects for the track.
MIDI effects About presets 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 • To load a preset, select it from the Presets pop-up menu of the plug-in. • To save your current settings as a preset, click on the “+” button (“Save Preset”) to the right of the Presets menu. You will be asked to specify a name for the preset.
Managing plug-ins Managing plug-ins Selecting Plug-in Information from the Devices menu opens a window in which all loaded plug-ins, audio and MIDI, are listed. • To view the MIDI effect plug-ins, click the MIDI Plug-ins tab. • The leftmost column allows you to deactivate plug-ins. This is useful if you have plug-ins installed that you do not want to use in Cubase. Only plug-ins that are activated (ticked checkbox) will appear on the MIDI effect pop-up menus.
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.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling To help with this, you can use the MIDI Device Manager to specify which MIDI instruments you have connected by selecting from a vast list of existing devices or by specifying the details yourself. Once you have specified which MIDI devices you are using, you can select to which particular device each MIDI track is routed. It is then possible to select patches by name in the track list or Inspector.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling When you open the MIDI Device Manager for the first time, it will be empty (because you have not installed any devices yet). On the following pages we describe how to add a pre-configured MIDI device to the list, how to edit the settings and how to define a device from scratch.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling 4. Select the device in the list. As you can see, it currently contains only an Empty Bank item. 5. Make sure that the Enable Edit checkbox is activated. Now you can use the functions on the Commands pop-up menu on the left to organize the patch structure of the new device. Installing a preset MIDI device To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows: 1. Click the Install Device button. A dialog opens listing all pre-configured MIDI devices.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling Ö Note that if there already exists a panel for the device (Cubase only), opening the device might open this panel first. In this case, click on the Edit (“e”) button to open the Device window. About Patch Banks Depending on the selected device, you may find that the Patch Banks list is divided in two or more main banks. Typically, these are called Patches, Performances, Drums, etc.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling You can also use a filter function here. For this, enter the search term in the Filter field, e.g. “drum”, and press [Return] to display all sounds with “drum” in the name. 3. Click a patch in the list to select it. This sends the appropriate MIDI message to the device. You can also scroll the program selection up or down, as with any value. Renaming patches in a device The pre-configured devices list is based on the factory-preset patches, i.e.
MIDI devices – general settings and patch handling New Preset This adds a new preset in the selected bank or folder. You can rename the preset by clicking it and typing a new name. When the preset is selected, the corresponding MIDI events (Program Change, Bank Select, etc.) are shown in the event display to the right.
About Device panels (Cubase only) This requires some explanation: If you specify a single value in the Range column (e. g. 3, 15 or 127), all added presets will have an event of this type set to the same value. If you instead specify a value range (a start value and an end value, separated by a dash, e. g. 0–63), the first added preset will have an event set to the start value, the next value will be incrementally raised by one and so on, up to and including the end value.
About Device panels (Cubase only) 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. Several device maps can be found in the Knowledge Base on the Steinberg web site (http://knowledgebase.steinberg.net). Opening a device setup Proceed as follows to open a MIDI device setup: 1. Open the MIDI Device Manager from the Devices menu. 2. Click the “Import Setup” button. A file dialog opens. 3.
About Device panels (Cubase only) 7. Close the Device panel and return to the Project window. 8. Select the device from the “Output Routing” pop-up menu for a MIDI track. Note that for some devices, you may have to set the MIDI channel to “Any”. Now the Device panel can be opened by clicking the Open Device Panels button in the Inspector or in the channel for the corresponding track in the MixConsole.
About Device panels (Cubase only) 4. Click the button at the right of the header. The Panels folder is displayed like in the Inspector, but with different available panels. Just like in the Inspector, the panel has to “fit” into the available space to be selectable. 5. Double-click to select a panel. The panel is shown in the Channel Racks section of the MixConsole. Automating device parameters Automation works just like for normal audio and MIDI tracks: 1.
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 some cases, the result of a MIDI function can also be obtained by using MIDI modifiers and effects, see “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 449).
Introduction Transpose The “Transpose Setup...” option on the MIDI menu opens a dialog with settings for transposing the selected notes. Ö You can also use the transpose track for transposing, see “The transpose functions” on page 161. Semitones This is where you set the amount of transposition. Scale Correction Scale Correction transposes the selected notes by forcing them to the closest note of the selected scale type.
Making your settings permanent Making your settings permanent The settings described in the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 449 do not change the MIDI events themselves, but work like a “filter”, affecting the music on playback. Therefore, you may want to make them permanent, i. e. convert them to “real” MIDI events, for example to transpose a track and then edit the transposed notes in a MIDI editor.
Dissolve Part Option Description Include Chase If this is activated, events placed outside the selected part but relating to it will be included in the processing, e. g. a Program Change right before the left locator. For details about chase events, see “About Chase” on page 107. Convert VST3 If this is activated, all VST 3 data within the selected area is converted to MIDI data. 5. Activate the desired options and click OK.
Dissolve Part Dissolving parts into separate channels Setting a track to MIDI channel “Any” will cause each MIDI event to play back on its original MIDI channel, rather than a channel set for the whole track. There are two main situations when “Any” channel tracks are useful: • When you record several MIDI channels at the same time. You may for example have a MIDI keyboard with several keyboard zones, where each zone sends MIDI on a separate channel.
Bounce MIDI Dissolving parts into separate pitches The Dissolve Part function can also scan MIDI parts for events of different pitches, and distribute the events into new parts on new tracks, one for each pitch. This is useful when the different pitches are not used in a melodic context, but rather for separating different sounds (e. g. MIDI drum tracks or sampler sound FX tracks). By dissolving such parts, you can work with each sound individually, on a separate track. Proceed as follows: 1.
Other MIDI functions Other MIDI functions 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. You can specify a gap or overlap for this function with the “Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences dialog (Editing–MIDI page). When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 5 ticks before the next note.
Other MIDI functions Velocity This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate the velocity of notes in various ways. The following types of velocity processing are available: Add/Subtract This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the Amount parameter. Compress/Expand Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI notes by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio setting (0 to 300 %).
Other MIDI functions Delete Notes Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is useful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” after recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog in which you set up the criteria for the function. The parameters have the following functionality: Minimum Length When the Minimum Length checkbox is activated, the note length is taken into account, allowing you to remove short notes.
Other MIDI functions Restrict Polyphony Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can specify how many “voices” are used (for the selected notes or parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is useful when you have an instrument with limited polyphony and want to make sure all notes will be played. The effect is achieved by shortening notes as required, so that they end before the next note starts. Thin Out Data Thins out MIDI data.
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 large-scale 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 471). 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.
Opening a MIDI editor Opening a MIDI editor There are two ways to open a MIDI editor: • Select one or several parts (or a MIDI track, with no parts selected), open the MIDI menu and select Open Key Editor, Open Score Editor, Open Drum Editor, Open List Editor, or Open In-Place Editor (or use the corresponding key command). In Cubase Artist, the Score Editor is opened via the Scores submenu of the MIDI menu.
The Key Editor – Overview • The “Edit Active Part Only” button on the toolbar lets you restrict editing operations to the active part. • The “Zoom to Event” function on the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu lets you zoom in on the active part so that it fills the screen. • 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 The toolbar The toolbar contains tools and various settings for the Key Editor. The following toolbar elements are available: Option Description Set up Window Layout Clicking this button allows you to show/hide the status line and info line for the editor. Solo Editor This function is described in the section “The Solo Editor button” on page 489. Acoustic Feedback This function is described in the section “Acoustic Feedback” on page 490.
The Key Editor – Overview The status line The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Key Editor. 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 Key Editor – Overview The Key Editor Inspector On the left in the Key Editor, you will find the Inspector. It contains tools and functions for working with MIDI data. The Expression Map section (Cubase only) In the Expression Map section you can load an expression map. This is useful if you are working with articulations, see “Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 555.
The Key Editor – Overview The note display The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It contains a grid in which MIDI notes are shown as boxes. The width of a box corresponds to the note length, and the vertical position of a box corresponds to the note number (pitch), with higher notes higher up in the grid. The piano keyboard helps you to find the right note number. For a description of how to display colors in the note display, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 490.
Key Editor operations Events other than velocity values are shown as blocks, the heights of which correspond to the values of the events. The beginning of an event is marked by a curve point. To select an event, click on the curve point, so that it turns red. Ö Unlike notes, events in the controller display have no length. The value of an event in the display is “valid” until the start of the next event. For a description of editing in the controller display, see “Using the controller display” on page 502.
Key Editor operations Playing back You can play back your music as usual when working in a MIDI editor. There are several features designed to make editing easier during playback. The Solo Editor button If you activate the Solo Editor button, only the edited MIDI parts will be heard during regular playback.
Key Editor operations Acoustic Feedback If the Acoustic Feedback icon (speaker symbol) on the toolbar is activated, individual notes will automatically be played back (auditioned) when you move or transpose them, or when you create new notes by drawing. This makes it easier to hear what you are doing. In the Preferences dialog (MIDI page), you can specify whether the Acoustic Feedback function takes into account any MIDI sends or inserts used for the track.
Key Editor operations Option Description Sound Slot (Cubase only) The notes get different colors depending on the articulation that has been assigned to the note in the Expression Map Setup dialog. For more information, see the chapter “Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 555. Voice The notes get different colors depending on their voice (soprano, alto, tenor, etc.). Chord Track The notes get different colors depending on whether they match the current chord, or scale, or both.
Key Editor operations Drawing notes with the Line tool The Line tool can be used for creating series of contiguous notes. To do so, click and drag to draw a line and then release the mouse button. 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. The button will change appearance according to the selected mode. Mode Description Line This is the default mode for the Line tool.
Key Editor operations You can use the tools to the right of the chord type buttons to insert chords. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the tool button to the right of the chord type that you want to insert. 2. Click in the event display, drag sideways to determine the length of the chord, and up or down to determine its pitch. If acoustic feedback is active, you hear the chord while dragging. A tooltip indicates the root note and chord type of the inserted chord.
Key Editor operations Setting velocity values When you draw notes in the Key Editor, the notes will get the velocity value set in the Insert Velocity field on the toolbar. You can use different methods to set the velocity: • When a tool modifier is assigned for the Edit Velocity action in the Select Tool category (in the Preferences dialog, Editing–Tool Modifiers page), you can select one or more notes, press the modifier and click on one of the selected notes to change the velocity.
Key Editor operations Option Description Equal Pitch – all Octaves This function requires that a single note is selected. It selects all notes of this part that have the same pitch (in any octave) as the currently selected note. Equal Pitch – same As above, but selects notes of the exact same pitch only (same Octave octave). Select Controllers in Note Range Selects the MIDI controller data within range of the selected notes, see below.
Key Editor operations Moving and transposing notes To move notes in the editor, use any of the following methods: • Select the notes and use the buttons on the Transpose Palette on the toolbar. • Click and drag to a new position. All selected notes will be moved, maintaining their relative positions. If Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can move the notes, see “Snap” on page 490. ! You can restrict movement to horizontal or vertical by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging.
Key Editor operations • You can also perform the Repeat function by dragging: Select the notes to repeat, press [Alt]/[Option], click the right edge of the last selected note and drag to the right. The longer to the right you drag, the more copies are created (as indicated by the tooltip). Using cut and paste You can use the Cut, Copy and Paste options on the Edit menu to move or copy material within a part or between different parts.
Key Editor operations With these methods, the resulting length will be a multiple of the Length Quantize value on the toolbar. • Use the Trim Start/End buttons on the Nudge palette on the toolbar. This resizes the selected note(s) by moving their start or end positions, in steps according to the Length Quantize value on the toolbar. By default, the Nudge palette is not shown on the toolbar – see “Using the Setup options” on page 700 for more information.
Key Editor operations Editing on the info line The info line shows the values and properties of the selected events. If a single event is selected, its values are displayed on the info line. If several events are selected, the info line shows the values of the first of these events (in color). You can edit the values on the info line using regular value editing. This allows you to move, resize, transpose or change velocity of events in a very precise manner.
Key Editor operations How the Key Editor handles expression maps (Cubase only) When an expression map is assigned to a MIDI track, the musical articulations defined for that map are displayed in the following locations of the Key Editor: On the info line In the event itself if the vertical zoom factor is high enough On the controller lane For more information, see the chapter “Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 555.
Key Editor operations Step input Step input, or step recording, is when you enter notes one at a time (or one chord at a time) without worrying about the exact timing. This is useful, for example, when you know the part you want to record but are not able to play it exactly as you want it. Proceed as follows: 1. Click the Step Input button on the toolbar to activate Step Input mode. 2. Use the note buttons to the right to decide which properties are included when you input the notes.
Key Editor operations Using the controller display By default, the controller display has a single lane, showing one event type at a time. However, you can add as many lanes as you need. The use of several controller lanes allows you to view and edit different controllers at the same time. 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.
Key Editor operations 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. Setting up the available continuous controllers In the MIDI Controller Setup dialog you can specify which continuous controllers are available for selection. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up menu and select “Setup…”.
Key Editor operations Controller lane presets Once you have added the required number of controller lanes and selected the event types you need, you can save this combination as a controller lane preset. For example, you can have a preset with one velocity lane only, another with a combination of velocity, pitchbend and modulation, and so on. This can make working with controllers much quicker. Controller lane presets are organized via the “Controller Lane Setup” pop-up menu.
Key Editor operations You can click and drag to change or add multiple events, draw controller curves, etc: When you move the pointer in the controller lane, the corresponding value is displayed in this field. Ö With the Draw tool and the Line tool in Paint mode, the quantize value determines the “density” of created controller curves (if Snap is activated, see “Snap” on page 490). For very smooth curves, use a small quantize value or turn off Snap.
Key Editor operations Ö If Length Quantize is set to “Quantize Link” and you enter data in Sine, Triangle or Square mode, the density of the events depends on the Zoom factor. • The Sine, Triangle and Square modes create events with values aligned to continuous curves. In these modes, the quantize value determines the period of the curve (the length of one curve “cycle”) and the Length Quantize value determines the density of the events (the lower the Length Quantize note value, the smoother the curve).
Key Editor operations Using cut, copy and paste You can use the standard Cut, Copy and Paste options on the Edit menu to copy and paste events in the controller display: 1. Select the events you want to cut or copy. 2. Select Cut or Copy from the Edit menu. 3. If you want to paste the events into another MIDI part, open that part in another Key Editor window. 4. Position the project cursor where you want to paste the events. 5. Select Paste from the Edit menu.
Key Editor operations • 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 299). The resulting curve is displayed in addition to the curve you entered on the controller lane. Controller curve entered on the controller lane Resulting controller curve (if controller automation was also recorded on a track). These values depend on the selected Automation Merge Mode.
Key Editor operations • Use the Line tool in Line mode for creating linear velocity ramps. Click where you want the ramp to start and drag the cursor to where you want the ramp to end. When you release the mouse button, the velocity values are aligned with the line between the two points. • Parabola mode works in the same way, but aligns the velocity values to a Parabola curve instead. Use this for smooth, “natural” velocity fades, etc.
Key Editor operations • To select another dynamics symbol for an event, click on the triangle in the upper left corner of the event and select a symbol from the pop-up menu. If several events are selected, the same symbol will be applied to all the events. • To step through the available dynamics symbols, use the mouse wheel or the key commands “One down” and “One up” (in the Key Commands dialog, Score Functions category). If several events are selected, they will all change in increments, i. e.
Key Editor operations To view and edit existing Poly Pressure events, proceed as follows: 1. Select Poly Pressure on the “Controller Selection and Functions” pop-up menu. 2. Click on the arrow button next to the note number field to the left of the controller lane. A pop-up menu appears, listing all note numbers for which there already are Poly Pressure events. 3. Select a note number from the pop-up menu. The Poly Pressure events for the selected note number are shown in the controller lane. 4.
The In-Place Editor Editing mode To activate this mode… Description Compress the left/right part of the curve [Alt]/[Option]-click the These modes allow you to compress the left smart control in the or the right part of the curve. upper left/right corner of the editor. Scale Around Absolute Center Click the smart control in This mode allows you to scale the curve the middle of the right around the absolute center, i. e. horizontally border of the editor. around the center of the editor.
The In-Place Editor This expands the MIDI track to show something like a miniature Key Editor, allowing you to edit MIDI notes and controllers. • To zoom or scroll the In-Place Editor, point at the left part of the piano keyboard display so that the pointer changes to a hand. Now you can click and drag to the right or left to zoom in or out vertically, and drag up or down to scroll the editor.
The Drum Editor – Overview The Drum Editor – Overview Toolbar Status line Info line Ruler Inspector Note display Drum sound list Controller display Drum map The toolbar, status line, info line, and Inspector 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 483), with the following differences: • The toolbar has a Solo Instrument button that allows you to mute all sounds except the selected one, see “Muting notes an
The Drum Editor – Overview The following settings are available in the drum sound list: Column Description Pitch The actual note number of the drum sound. This is what links notes on a MIDI track to drum sounds. For example, with the GM Map, all MIDI notes with the pitch C1 are mapped to the Bass Drum sound. Instrument The name of the drum sound.
Drum Editor operations Drum map and names pop-up menus Below the drum sound list there are two pop-up menus, used for selecting a drum map for the edited track or (if no drum map is selected) a list of drum sound names. For an explanation of drum maps, see “Working with drum maps” on page 518. Controller display The controller display in the Drum Editor is the same as in the Key Editor, see “Using the controller display” on page 502.
Drum Editor operations • Clicking with the Drumstick tool on an existing note removes it. This makes drum pattern editing very quick and intuitive. Selecting notes Selecting notes is done by any of the following methods: • Use the Object Selection tool. The standard selection techniques apply. • Use the Select submenu on the context menu (see “Selecting notes” on page 494). • Use the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard to step from one note to the next or previous note.
Working with drum maps 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.
Working with drum maps In the following example, we have modified the drum map so that the Bass Drum sound has different pitch, I-note, and O-note values. I-notes (input notes) When you play a note on your MIDI instrument, the program looks for this note number among the I-notes in the drum map. If you play the note A1, the program finds that this is the I-note of the Bass Drum sound.
Working with drum maps Ö To select the same MIDI channel for all sounds in a drum map, click in the Channel column, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and select the desired channel. All drum sounds are set to this MIDI channel. The same procedure can be used for selecting the same MIDI output for all sounds as well. It can also be useful to select different channels and/or outputs for different sounds. This allows you to construct drum kits with sounds from several different MIDI devices, etc.
Working with drum maps Open the Functions pop-up menu in the top left corner to open a list of available functionalities: Button Description New Map Click this to add a new drum map to the project. The drum sounds are named “Sound 1, Sound 2”, and so on, and have all parameters set to default values. The map is named “Empty Map”, but you can rename it by clicking and typing in the list. New Copy Adds a copy of the currently selected drum map.
Using drum name lists 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.
List Editor operations The event list 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 524. The event display This shows the events graphically. The vertical position of an event in the display corresponds to its entry in the list (i. e. to the playback order), while the horizontal position corresponds to its actual position in the project.
List Editor operations 2. Select the Draw tool and click in the event display at the desired position (relative to the ruler). If you are creating note events, you can click and drag to set the length of the note. 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. • Notes will get the insert velocity value set in the Insert Velocity field on the toolbar, see “Setting velocity values” on page 494.
List Editor operations • 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. 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. Ö For SysEx (system exclusive) events, you can only edit the position (Start) in the list.
List Editor operations • In the top section, the following options are available: Option Description No Focus Select this to deactivate this filtering function. Event Types Only events of the same type as the selected events will be shown. This is the same as activating event types in the Hide section. Event Types and Data 1 Only events of the same type and with the same “Data 1” value will be shown. For example, if a note event is selected, only notes with the same pitch are shown.
Working with SysEx messages Exactly which value is shown for an event depends on the event type.
Working with SysEx messages Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu (on the Mac, this is located on the Cubase menu) and select the MIDI–MIDI Filter page. This allows you to govern which MIDI event types are recorded and/or thru-put. 2. Make sure that recording of SysEx data is not filtered, by deactivating the SysEx checkbox in the Record section. The SysEx checkbox in the Thru section can be left as it is (by default activated).
Recording SysEx parameter changes Some advice • Do not transmit more data than you need. If all you want is a single program, do not send them all, it will only make it harder to find the one you want. Usually, you can specify exactly what you want to send. • If you want the sequencer to dump the pertinent sounds to your instrument each time you load a project, put the SysEx data in a silent “count-in” before the project itself starts.
Editing SysEx messages • To open the MIDI SysEx Editor for an event, click in the Comments column for the event in the List Editor/Project Browser. The display shows the entire message on one or several lines. SysEx messages always begin with F0 and end with F7 with a number of arbitrary bytes in between. If the message contains more bytes than fit on one line, it continues on the next. The Address indication to the left helps you find out on which position in the message a certain value resides.
The basic Score Editor – Overview 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 724. The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score.
Score Editor operations The extended toolbar • To show or hide the extended toolbar, click the “Set up Window Layout” button and activate or deactivate the Tools option. Note value buttons Click one of these to select a note value for input. The “T” and “.” options are for triplet and dotted note values. You can also press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click one of the note value buttons – this will resize all selected notes to the note value you choose.
Score Editor operations About editing parts on different tracks If you have selected parts on two or more tracks and open the Score Editor, you will get one staff for each track (although you can split a staff in two, e. g. when scoring for piano). The staves are tied together by bar lines and placed in the order of the tracks in the Project window.
Score Editor operations Staff Mode This pop-up menu determines how the staff is shown: • When set to “Single”, all notes in the part are shown in the same staff. • When set to “Split”, the part is split on the screen into a bass and treble clef, as in a piano score. You use the Split Point value field to set the note where you want the split to occur. Notes above and including the split note will appear on the upper staff, and notes below the split note will appear on the lower staff.
Score Editor operations 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.
Score Editor operations Interpretation Options These provide additional options for how the score is displayed: Parameter Description Clean Lengths When this is activated, notes that are considered to be chords will be shown with identical lengths. This is done by showing the longer notes as shorter than they are. When Clean Lengths is turned on, notes with very short overlaps are also cut off; a bit as with No Overlap (see below), but with a more subtle effect.
Score Editor operations Selecting a Quantize value When you move the mouse pointer over the score, you will see that the Mouse Time Position field on the status line tracks your movement and shows the current position in bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks. Positioning on screen is controlled by the current Quantize value. If you set this to 1/8, you can only insert and move notes to eighth note positions, at quarter notes, at half bars or at bar positions.
Score Editor operations Selecting notes There are several ways to select notes in the Score Editor: By clicking To select a note, click on its note head with the Object Selection tool. The note head gets red to indicate that it is selected. • 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.
Score Editor operations 3. Select the notes that you want to move. 4. Click one of the selected notes and drag it to a new position and/or pitch. The horizontal movement of the note is “magnetically attracted” to the current Quantize value. The position boxes on the toolbar show what the new position and pitch for the dragged note will be. 5. Release the mouse. The notes appear at their new position.
Score Editor operations Enharmonic Shift The buttons to the right on the extended toolbar allow you to shift the display of selected notes so that for example an F# (F sharp) is instead shown as a Gb (G flat) and vice versa: 1. Select the note(s) you want to affect. 2. Click on one of the buttons to display the selected note(s) a certain way. The “off” button resets the notes to original display.
Score Editor operations 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 Object Selection tool. 2. Open the MIDI menu and select “Set Font…” from the Scores submenu. The Font Settings dialog appears, containing the following settings: Item Description Font This is where you specify the font for the text.
Working with the Chord Functions Introduction The chord functions provide you with many possibilities for working with chords. They allow you to build chord progressions by adding chord events to the chord track. You can transform chord events to MIDI, or you can use the chord track to extract chord information from MIDI data to get an overview of the harmonic structure of a MIDI file. Furthermore, you can transpose MIDI and audio data using the chord track.
The Chord Track Chord Events Chord events are representations of chords that control or transpose playback on MIDI, instrument, and audio tracks. If these tracks are set up to follow the chord track, chord events alter the pitches of MIDI notes and VariAudio segments, see “Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with the Chord Track (Follow Chords)” on page 553. Chord events have a specific start position. Their end, however, is determined by the start of the next chord event.
The Chord Track • To set up voicings for an individual chord event, select it and select the voicing from the Voicing pop-up menu on the info line. Ö When “Automatic Voicings” is activated in the “Chord Track” Inspector, you can only change the voicings for the first chord event on the info line. • To set up a voicing library (Guitar, Piano, or Basic) for the whole chord track, select it from the pop-up menu in the “Chord Track” Inspector section.
The Chord Track Inspector Section • To add a scale event for a chord event, select the chord event, and select a scale type from the “Scale Assistant” pop-up menu on the scale lane. The pop-up menu is available when you select a chord event, and “Automatic Scales” is deactivated. The Scale Assistant shows all available scales for the selected chord events. • To add a scale event anywhere on the scale lane, select the Draw tool, and click at the corresponding position.
The Chord Track Inspector Section Follow Chord Track In the “Chord Track” section of the Inspector you can determine how your track follows the chord track, by selecting an option from the “Follow Chord Track” pop-up menu. The following options are available: Options Description Off “Follow Chord Track” is deactivated. Auto This option is the default setting. The intervals of the original chord or scale are maintained as far as possible.
The Chord Track Inspector Section Configuring Voicing Parameters To configure your own voicing parameters for a specific voicing scheme (basic, piano or guitar), click the “Configure Voicing Parameters” button in the Voicings section. The “Configure Voicing Parameters” dialog for the piano voicing scheme of a MIDI track Ö The “Start Voicing” section for piano, guitar, and basic voicings lets you select a start voicing.
The Chord Editor In the “Voicing Range” section, you can set up the following parameters: Parameter Description Lowest Root Note Sets the limit for the lowest root note. Lowest Note Sets the limit for the lowest note, except the root note. Highest Note Sets the limit for the highest note, except the root note. Guitar Voicings For guitar voicings the following style parameters are available: Parameter Description Triads Sets a triad with four, five or six voices.
The Chord Assistant (Cubase only) • To define a root note, a chord type, a tension, and a bass note for your chord event, click the corresponding buttons. The keyboard display at the bottom of the Chord Editor shows your chord, considering the current voicing settings. • To define a chord with your MIDI keyboard, activate the “MIDI Input” button and play a chord. If the chord is recognized, it is reflected by the chord buttons and the keyboard display.
The Chord Assistant (Cubase only) Gap Mode You can use the Chord Assistant to suggest chords in between two chords. Select all chords in the gap and activate or deactivate the “Gap Mode” button to determine which chord events are considered. • If “Gap Mode” is activated, the suggestions for the chord events in the gap are based on the previous and the next chord. • If “Gap Mode” is deactivated, only the previous chord event is taken into account.
Creating a Chord Progression from Scratch (Chords to MIDI) Complexity Filters for Common Notes The following complexity filters are available for common notes: Parameter Description Chords with x Common Notes These options let you decide how many common notes the next chord shares with the previous chord. A C major chord, for example, has two common notes with an E minor chord (E and G) and one with Eb major (G).
Extracting Chords from MIDI (Make Chords) Converting Chord Events to MIDI Now that you have created a chord progression, you can convert your chord events to MIDI for further editing, or for printing a lead sheet in the Score Editor, for example. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Project menu, and on the “Add Track” submenu, select MIDI or instrument. 2. Select the chord events that you want to convert to MIDI events, and drag them to the newly created MIDI or instrument track.
Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with the Chord Track (Follow Chords) Controlling MIDI or Audio Playback with the Chord Track (Follow Chords) You can use the chord track to control MIDI or audio playback. In this scenario, the chord track is used to transpose already existing MIDI events or VariAudio segments. We recommend to use this function only if you are sure that you do not want to change the MIDI notes or VariAudio segments anymore.
Assigning Chord Events to MIDI Effects or VST Instruments Assigning Chord Events to MIDI Effects or VST Instruments You can assign a chord progression to the Chorder or to HALion Sonic SE. Assigning a Chord Progression to the Chorder 1. Create a MIDI track or an instrument track, and open the “MIDI Inserts” section in the Inspector. 2. Click in the insert slot to open the MIDI effect pop-up menu, and select the Chorder. The effect is automatically activated, and its control panel opens. 3.
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).
Using expression maps in Cubase Expression maps When working on a project, you might want to audition a composition including articulations. In Cubase, this can be achieved using expression maps, which can be selected via the Expression Map section in the Inspector for MIDI or instrument tracks. Within these maps, you can specify the sound mapping and characteristics for all your musical expressions, using the methods described in the table above.
Using expression maps in Cubase The following applies: • Included with Cubase are several track presets which are pre-configured for use with expression maps. They contain sounds that make use of key switches and have different articulations. To indicate that these presets can be used in this context, they have the suffix “VX”. • Track presets for HALion Symphonic Orchestra can also be used with expression maps. The presets are installed automatically with Cubase.
Using expression maps in Cubase Expression maps in the Score Editor In the Score Editor, the articulations that are part of an expression map can be inserted like other symbols. There is a special tab in the Symbols Inspector, containing all articulation symbols of the current expression map. • To insert a symbol, click on it in the Expression Map tab, and click at the desired position in the note display. • To delete an articulation symbol from the score, select it and press [Delete] or [Backspace].
Using expression maps in Cubase • When “Articulations/Dynamics” is selected for a controller lane, the note beginnings are displayed as thin vertical lines in the controller display. • 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 563.
Creating and editing expression maps Expression maps in the List Editor In the List Editor, the Articulations can be viewed and edited in the Comment column. The options are the same as on the Key Editor info line, see above. Directions can be shown either as Text or as Graphic Symbols (like in the Score Editor). Either way, they are followed by the text “VST Expression” in brackets, so as to be easily recognizable and distinguishable from ordinary Score symbols.
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. Proceed as follows: 1. Load the VST instrument you want to use and assign it to a MIDI or instrument track. 2.
Creating and editing expression maps • Apart from creating combined articulations, the Articulation columns also allow you to prioritize articulations, by sorting them into different groups. When the program is looking for sounds and no exact match is found, the group setting defines the “closest match”, i. e. the sound which matches most criteria when searching from left to right is used.
Creating and editing expression maps Parameter Description Transpose This allows you to specify a transpose value. This can be used to select different articulations in some sample libraries, in which different articulations are located on different octaves, for example. Controller 1/2 These allow you to set MIDI Control Change messages and their values for each sound slot. Editing Articulations In the Articulations section, the articulations you added for the sound slots are displayed.
Creating and editing expression maps Latch Mode This setting determines whether the remote key function reacts to note-off messages. • 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. e. the sound slot plays until the key is released. On release, the default (first) sound slot is played again. • When Latch Mode is activated, the key you press is valid until the next key is pressed.
Note Expression 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.
Introduction MIDI controllers A major limitation of MIDI is the nature of controller information. With the exception of poly pressure, controller messages are channel-specific messages, i. e., they affect the entire instrument, regardless of whether they are inserted for a part or a note. Therefore, when using Note Expression with MIDI instruments (hardware or VSTi), it is important to understand that articulation data on one note usually also affects all other notes of the same voice, i. e.
Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab To be able to work with Note Expression, you have to set up the parameters first. This is done on the Note Expression tab in the Inspector of the Project window or the Key Editor. The top area of the Note Expression tab shows a list of parameters. The VST 3 controllers are shown first, followed by the MIDI controllers. Which VST 3 controllers are available depends on the instrument that is used.
Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab 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 577. Overdub When this is activated, you can overdub existing Note Expression data. See “Overdubbing” on page 570.
Mapping controllers Mapping controllers External keyboards have no controls or faders for VST 3 parameters, which can therefore not be recorded directly. To remedy this, you have the possibility to assign a certain MIDI controller (or Pitchbend and Aftertouch) to any of the Note Expression parameters in the list. The MIDI assignment is shown in the CC column in the Inspector. The same MIDI controller can be used for several parameters, but only one of these controllers can be active at a time.
Recording Recording Recording notes and Note Expression data To record MIDI notes together with Note Expression data using an external MIDI device, proceed as follows: 1. Create an instrument track, e. g. using HALion Sonic SE as VST instrument. The Note Expression Inspector tab shows which parameters are available for recording. • You can also load one of the available presets. Some presets were created especially for the use with Note Expression. These have the suffix “.NoteExp”. 2.
Recording When you now start overdubbing, the values for all these controls are attached to the notes that are passed during overdub recording, replacing any existing controller data of the same type. Click here to activate Latch mode Reset Latch Buffer Resetting the Latch buffer Whenever data is present in the Latch buffer, the “Reset Latch buffer” button becomes available. If you click this button, all the memorized values are removed from the Latch buffer.
Editing Note Expression data Editing Note Expression data 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.
Editing Note Expression data Editing functions Drawing in data You can enter or modify curves using the Draw tool or the line tool. The editing is the same as in the controller lanes, see “Adding and editing events in the controller display” on page 504. If the Object Selection tool is selected and the editor is open, you can press [Alt]/[Option] to get the Draw tool. You can enter lines and curves using the line tool in its various modes.
Editing Note Expression data Fixed values • To enter or edit a fixed value (i. e. a straight line), activate “One-Shot Mode” mode by clicking the button in the upper left corner of the window and click with the Draw tool anywhere in the editor to set the value. Note that some VST 3 parameters are one-shot only. For these, this mode is automatically activated.
Editing Note Expression data Editing mode To activate this mode… Description Tilt the left/right part of the curve Click the smart control in the upper left/right corner of the editor. These modes allow you to tilt the left or the right part of the curve, respectively. This is useful if the curve form is exactly the way you want it, but the start or end needs to be boosted or attenuated a bit.
Note Expression and MIDI 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.
Note Expression and MIDI The dialog contains the following options: Option Description Controller Activate this option if you want to use MIDI controllers when working with Note Expression. In the table below, activate the MIDI controllers you want to use and deactivate the MIDI controllers that should be disregarded in the Note Expression context. If MIDI controller data for a deactivated controller is received in Cubase, it will end up on the controller lane.
Note Expression and MIDI 3. On the MIDI menu, open the Note Expression submenu and select “Convert to Note Expression”. The MIDI data of the types you specified in the Note Expression MIDI Setup dialog is converted from controller lane data into Note Expression data, leaving the corresponding controller lanes empty.
HALion Sonic SE Dissolving Note Expression data • To convert Note Expression data into MIDI controller data on controller lanes, select the “Dissolve Note Expression” option from the Note Expression submenu on the MIDI menu. Note that this applies only to Note Expression data that consists only of MIDI controllers (i. e. not the VST 3 controller data).
The Logical Editor, Transformer, and Input Transformer Introduction 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.
Opening the Logical Editor About the Input Transformer This too is very similar to the Logical Editor. Just like the Transformer effect, the Input Transformer works in realtime. However, the Input Transformer filters out and transforms MIDI data as it is recorded. In other words, the settings you make in the Input Transformer will affect the actual MIDI events you record. The Input Transformer is described in the section “The Input Transformer” on page 595.
Setting up filter conditions • To remove a condition, select it and click the “-” button below the list. Ö If you have already defined filter conditions and/or applied a preset, but want to start again from scratch, you can initialize the settings by selecting the Init option from the Presets pop-up menu. You set up a filter condition line by clicking in the columns and selecting options from the pop-up menus that appear.
Setting up filter conditions Conditions Depending on the Filter Target setting, the following options can be selected in the Condition column: Condition Elements will be found if their Filter Target property… Equal …has the exact same value as set up in the Parameter 1 column. Unequal …has any value other than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column. Bigger …has a value higher than the one set up in the Parameter 1 column.
Setting up filter conditions Searching for elements at certain positions (Logical Editor only) Selecting “Position” in the Filter Target column lets you find elements starting at certain positions, either relative to the start of the song or within each bar. • If you select any condition other than the Range or Bar Range 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.
Setting up filter conditions Event type Value 1 Value 2 VST3 Event Not used. The value of the VST3 event parameter. The value range of the VST3 event (0.0 to 1.0) is transformed into the MIDI value range (0-127), i. e., the VST3 event value 0.5 corresponds to 64. For some operations that require a higher resolution, you can make use of the “VST3 Value Operation” parameter, see “Action Target” on page 591.
Setting up filter conditions Searching for controllers There is similar extended functionality when searching for controllers: If you have added an additional “Type = Controller” condition line, the Logical Editor will “know” you are searching for controllers. The Parameter 1 column will then show the names of the MIDI controllers (Modulation, Volume, etc.) when Value 1 is selected as Filter Target. Searching for MIDI channels Each MIDI event contains a MIDI channel setting (1–16).
Setting up filter conditions Searching for properties On the Filter Target pop-up menu, you will find an option called Property. This allows you to search for properties that are not part of the MIDI standard but rather Cubasespecific settings. When the Property option is selected, the Condition column has two options: “Property is set” and “Property is not set”. Which property to look for is selected in the Parameter 1 column.
Setting up filter conditions 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 playing Parameter 2 36/C1 In this example, the action will be performed after playing the C1 note: Filter Target Condition Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Last Event Equal Value 1 36/C1 Cubase only: In this exa
Setting up filter conditions Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Searches for… Position in Chord (Chordtrack) Select the position (interval) in … the specified chord interval in the chord. the selected MIDI part. The Chord track is taken as reference. Voice Select a voice in the chord. …the specified voice in the selected MIDI part. The Musical Context presets give you an idea of the possibilities of this filter target. For further information on presets, see “Working with presets” on page 594.
Selecting a function Maybe you wanted to find all notes that either had the pitch C3 or the MIDI channel 1 (but no non-note events)? Then you need to add some brackets: • 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.
Specifying actions Extract (Logical Editor only) This works like Copy, but will cut the found events instead. Or in other words, Extract will transform all found events and move them to a new part on a new MIDI track. Select (Logical Editor only) This will simply select all found events, highlighting them for further work in the regular MIDI editors. Specifying actions The lower list in the Logical Editor window is the action list.
Specifying actions Ö The Position and Length parameters are interpreted via the time base setting in the Bar Range/Time Base column, with the exception of the Random setting, which uses the time base of the affected events. Operation This setting determines what to do with the Action Target. The options on this pop-up menu are different depending on the selected Action Target. Below, all available operations are listed: Add Adds the value specified in the Parameter 1 column to the Action Target.
Specifying actions Transpose to Scale This is only available when Action Target is set to Value 1, and when the filter conditions are specifically set up to find notes (a “Type = Note” filter condition line has been added). When “Transpose to Scale” is selected, you can specify a musical scale using the Parameter 1 and 2 columns. Parameter 1 is the key (C, C#, D, etc.) while Parameter 2 is the type of scale (major, melodic or harmonic minor, etc.).
Applying the defined actions Cubase only: NoteExp Operation – Create One-Shot (Logical Editor only) This option is only available for notes. It allows you to add Note Expression data for notes in “One Shot” mode, meaning that you add a parameter as Note Expression data. After having added the one-shot parameter, you have to set it to the desired value in a second go. Cubase only: NoteExp Operation – Reverse (Logical Editor only) Reverses the Note Expression data.
The Input Transformer Organizing and sharing presets The Logical Editor presets are stored within the application folder in the Presets\Logical Edit subfolder. While these files cannot be edited “manually”, you can reorganize them (e. g. putting them in subfolders) like any files. 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 Logical Editor is opened.
The Input Transformer Handling the four modules The Input Transformer is really four separate transformers, or modules. • You select which module to view and make settings for by clicking the corresponding Module tab. Module 1 selected for viewing and editing. • The On/Off buttons next to the Module names determine which module(s) are active. Here, Module 1 is inactive and Module 2 is active. The Function pop-up menu The Function pop-up menu contains two options: Filter and Transform.
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 580.
Opening the Project Logical Editor Opening the Project Logical Editor 1. Open the desired project. All elements in the project will be affected, you do not have to make any selection. 2. Select “Project Logical Editor…” from the Edit menu. Window overview List of filter conditions Action List Function and Macro pop-up menus Apply button To understand the Project Logical Editor, it might be a good idea to start by exploring the included presets.
Setting up filter conditions Column Description Filter Target Here you select which property to look for when finding elements. Your choice here affects the available options in the other columns as well, see below! Condition This determines how the Project Logical Editor compares the property in the Filter Target column to the values in the Parameter columns. The available options depend on the Filter Target setting.
Setting up filter conditions Media Type Description Tempo If no container type is specified, this finds tempo events and tempo tracks. Signature If no container type is specified, this finds signature events and signature tracks. Chord If no container type is specified, this finds chord events and chord tracks. Scale Event If no container type is specified, this finds scale events. 3. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.
Setting up filter conditions Combining Media Type and Container Type The combination of the filter targets Media Type and Container Type represents a versatile tool for logical operations: Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all MIDI and instrument parts in the project. Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all automation tracks (not events) in the project whose name contains vol.
Setting up filter conditions Searching for elements at certain positions 1. Select “Position” in the Filter Target pop-up menu. This allows you to find elements starting at certain positions, either relative to the start of the project or within each bar. 2. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition. For positions, the following options are available: Condition An element will be found if it… Equal …has the exact same value as set up in the Parameter 1 column.
Setting up filter conditions • If you select one of the Bar Range options in the Condition column, the Bar Range/Time Base column will show a graphic bar display. You specify the range within the bar by clicking and dragging in the bar display (the specified Bar Range is indicated in blue). The Project Logical Editor will then find all elements starting inside or outside this Bar Range, in all bars (within the current selection).
Setting up filter conditions Ö Note that “event” in this context refers to all the Project window elements that can be modified, e. g. MIDI parts, audio events and parts, or transpose, arranger, and automation events. Three examples: Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all muted MIDI and instrument parts. Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all elements that are selected but not muted. Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all selected audio parts that are empty.
Specifying actions • Without brackets, the conditional expressions are evaluated according to their order in the list. Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all audio parts and events whose name contains perc as well as other parts and events (e. g. MIDI parts) whose name contains drums.
Specifying actions Operation Description Round by This “rounds” the Position value using the value specified in the Parameter 1 column. In other words, the Position value is changed to the closest value that can be divided by the Parameter 1 value. For example, if the Position value is 17 and Parameter 1 is 5, the result of rounding will be 15 (the closest value that can be divided by 5).
Selecting a function Operation Description Sends Bypass Enables, disables or toggles the sends bypass status. Lanes Active Enables, disables or toggles the lanes active status. Name This lets you rename the found elements. Operation Description Replace Replaces names with the text specified in the Parameter 1 column. Append Names will be appended with the string specified in the Parameter 1 column. Prepend The name will be prepended with the string specified in the Parameter 1 column.
Applying Macros Select This will simply select all found elements, highlighting them for further work in the Project window. Applying Macros In the Macro pop-up menu you can select a macro that will be executed automatically after completing the actions defined using the Filter and Action lists. This is useful if you would like to extend the already powerful Project Logical Editor features even further.
Working with presets Organizing and sharing presets The Project Logical Editor presets are stored within the application folder in the Presets\Logical Edit Project subfolder. While these files cannot be edited manually, you can reorganize them (e. g. putting them in subfolders) like any files. 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.
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.
Tempo and signature display Tempo and signature display You can view the current tempo and signature settings of your project in a number of ways: • On the Transport panel. See above, and the section “The Transport panel” on page 101. • By displaying the tempo track and the signature track in the Project window. Open the Project menu, select Add Track and the Signature and/or Tempo options. • In the Tempo Track Editor.
Tempo and signature display About the Tempo Track Editor Time Signature area Tempo curve display If you do not want to display two extra tracks in the Project window, you can also open the Tempo Track Editor to view and edit tempo and signature information. The Tempo Track Editor has a toolbar, info line, and ruler just like other editors in Cubase, plus an area for the display of time signature events and a tempo curve display.
Editing tempo and signature Editing tempo and signature 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 615). Editing the tempo curve ! This section assumes that you are working in tempo track mode, i. e.
Editing tempo and signature Option Description From Start to Cursor Selects all points to the left of the project cursor. From Cursor to End Selects all points to the right of the project cursor. • You can also use the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard to go from one curve point to the next. If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, you can select several points at the same time.
Editing tempo and signature Removing tempo curve points To remove a curve point, either click on it with the Erase tool or select it and press [Backspace]. The first tempo curve point cannot be removed. Recording tempo changes (Cubase only) The Tempo Recording slider on the toolbar of the Tempo Track Editor allows you to record tempo changes “on the fly”: simply start playback and use the slider to raise or lower the tempo at the desired positions.
Process Tempo (Cubase only) 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.
The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) The Process Bars dialog (opened from the Tempo Track Editor or the signature track) uses the global “Insert Silence” and “Delete Time” functions from the Range submenu of the Edit menu. However, the necessary ranges (or parameters) are calculated using a musical “bars+beats-based” environment. The function also ensures that the time signatures stay “in sync” after these operations.
The Beat Calculator Option Description Process Click on this button to apply your changes to the specified bar range. Close Clicking this button without clicking on “Process” first will close the dialog without applying your settings. The Beat Calculator The Beat Calculator is a tool for calculating the tempo of freely recorded audio or MIDI material. It also allows you to set the tempo by tapping. Calculating the tempo of a recording 1.
Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase only) 4. Tap the tempo on the Spacebar of the computer keyboard or with the mouse button. The tempo display will update the calculated tempo between each tap. 5. Click OK to close the Tap Tempo dialog. The tapped tempo is now shown in the Beat Calculator’s BPM display. You can insert it into the tempo track as described above. Merge Tempo From Tapping (Cubase only) This function allows you to create a complete tempo track based on your tapping.
The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) Basic procedure You use the Time Warp tool to drag a musical position (a position in bars+beats format) to a certain position in time. This can be done in the Project window or in an editor, as described below. Here is the general procedure: 1. Make sure tempo track mode is active. You cannot use the Time Warp tool in fixed tempo mode. 2. Select the Time Warp tool.
The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 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. This helps you see what’s going on, but you can also use this for editing the tempo track: • If you press the create/erase modifier key (by default [Shift]) and click on a tempo event in the ruler, it is deleted.
The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 3. Make sure that the correct tracks are set to linear time base or musical time base, respectively. In our example, we want the video track and the audio track with a commentary voice-over to be linear time-based (as well as the marker track, if used). All other tracks should be set to musical time base. You change this by clicking the time base button in the track list or Inspector. Musical time base selected Linear time base selected 4.
The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) Let’s say you need to match another cue to another position later on in the video. If you simply repeat this procedure, you will find that the first cue gets out of sync – since you are still changing the first (and only) tempo event on the tempo track! You need to create a “lock point” – a tempo event at the first cue position: 10.Press [Shift] and click with the Time Warp tool in the event display at the cue position. In our case, this is bar 33.
The Time Warp tool (Cubase only) 4. Select the Time Warp tool. You have already matched the first downbeat with the start of a bar. However, if the recording starts before the first downbeat (with a fill, some silence, etc.), you want to “lock” the first downbeat so that it stays in position: 5. Press [Shift] and click in the event at the position of the first downbeat (the start of the bar). When you press [Shift], the pointer turns into a pencil.
Tempo Detection (Cubase only) Using the Time Warp tool in a MIDI editor This is very similar to using the tool in an audio editor: - When you use the Time Warp tool, a tempo event is automatically inserted at the beginning of the edited part – this tempo event will be adjusted when you warp the tempo grid with the tool. Material before the edited part will not be affected. - Only the default mode for the Time Warp tool is available.
Tempo Detection (Cubase only) The arrow buttons at the bottom right let you change the direction in which the algorithm will analyze the audio material during a manual correction operation. To work backwards, i. e. to reanalyze the beginning of the tempo curve, activate the left arrow button (see “The beginning of the tempo curve needs to be corrected” on page 627). With the Reset button at the bottom left you can delete the complete analysis data and start again from scratch.
Tempo Detection (Cubase only) • 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. The detected tempo is off by half a beat In some cases, the offbeat of a rhythm might be dominant enough to confuse the beat detection algorithm resulting in an offset. In that case it is necessary to shift the tempo events.
Adjusting the audio to the project tempo Finishing Once the tempo map is correct, close the Tempo Detection Panel. You can now set up signature events with the correct time signature. 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: 1.
The Project Browser (Cubase only) Window Overview Time Format pop-up menu Add pop-up menu and Add button Filter pop-up menu Event display Project Structure list 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. Opening the Project Browser You open the Project Browser by selecting “Browser” from the Project menu.
Editing tracks • Items with hierarchical substructures can be folded out by clicking the “+” symbols or the “closed folder” symbols in the Project Structure list. When the substructure of an item is revealed, a “-” symbol or an “open folder” symbol is shown instead – click this to hide the substructure. • To reveal or hide all substructures in the Project Structure list, use the buttons “(+) All” and “(–) All” above the list.
Editing tracks Note that if you have not performed any automation or opened an automation track, the Browser will only contain the audio data. The following parameters are available for the different items: The list columns for audio events Parameter Description Name Allows you to change the name of the event. Double-clicking the waveform image to the left of it opens the event in the Sample Editor. File The name of the audio file referenced by the event’s audio clip.
Editing tracks The list columns for audio parts Parameter Description 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. Start The start position of the part. Editing this value is the same as moving the part in the Project window. End The end position of the part. Editing this value is the same as resizing the part in the Project window. Length The length of the part.
Editing tracks Parameter Description Data 1 The property of this value depends on the type of MIDI event: For notes, this is the note number (pitch). This is displayed and edited as a note name and an octave number, with the values ranging between C-2 and G8. For controller events, this is the type of controller, displayed in words. Note that you can edit this by entering a number – the corresponding controller type is automatically displayed.
Editing tracks Editing Note Expression data in the Project Browser In the Project Browser, you can view and edit the MIDI controller events or VST 3 events of a MIDI note with Note Expression data. For further information about Note Expression, see “Note Expression” on page 565. To view and edit the Note Expression data content of a MIDI note, proceed as follows: 1. In the Project Structure list, select the Note Expression subitem of the MIDI note that you want to view or edit.
Editing tracks 4. Click the Add button. An event of the selected type is added to the part, at the project cursor position. If the cursor is outside the selected part, the event is added at the beginning of the part. Ö It is not possible to add MIDI controller events or VST 3 events to Note Expression data.
Editing tracks Editing the marker track Marker events have the following parameters: Column Description Name The name of the marker. This can be edited for all markers except the left and right locator. Start The position of “regular” markers or the start position of cycle markers. End The end positions of cycle markers. Editing this value is the same as resizing the cycle marker, and will automatically change the Length value as well. Length The length of cycle markers.
Editing tracks 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.
Export Audio Mixdown Introduction 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. Cubase only: By activating the “Channel Batch Export” option you can choose to mix down several channels in one go. For each channel, an individual file will be created.
Mixing down to audio files Mixing down to audio files 1. Set up the left and right locators to encompass the section you want to mix down. 2. Set up your tracks so that they play back the way you want. This includes muting unwanted tracks or parts, making manual MixConsole settings and/or activating the R (Read) automation buttons for some or all MixConsole channels. 3. Open the File menu and select “Audio Mixdown…” from the Export submenu. The Export Audio Mixdown dialog opens. 4.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog 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 643. 8.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog • Cubase only: If Channel Batch Export is activated, you can select/deselect several channels in one go using the [Shift] and/or [Ctrl]/[Command] modifiers and then clicking on any of the checkboxes for the highlighted channels. Note that this toggles the activation status of a channel, i. e. all selected channels that were previously activated will be deactivated and vice versa.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog Element Description Channel Type The type of audio-related channel that is being exported. Channel Name The name of the exported channel. Project Name The name of the Cubase project. 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.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog About the Audio Engine Output section The Audio Engine Output section contains all the settings related to the output of the Cubase audio engine. The following options are available: Option Description Sample Rate (uncompressed file formats only) This setting determines the frequency range of the exported audio – the lower the sample rate, the lower the highest audible frequency in the audio.
The Export Audio Mixdown dialog Option Description Realtime Export Activate this if you want the export to happen in realtime, in which case the process will take at least the same time as regular playback. Some VST plug-ins, external instruments and effects require this in order to have enough time to update correctly during the mixdown – consult the plug-in manufacturers if uncertain. Cubase only: When Realtime Export is activated, the exported audio will be played back via the Control Room.
The available file formats The available file formats The following pages describe the different export file formats, as well as their options and settings.
The available file formats Option Description Insert iXML Chunk This allows you to include additional project-related metadata (e. g. project name, author and project frame rate) in the exported file. Some applications may not be able to handle files with embedded info – if you get problems using the file in another application, deactivate the option and re-export.
The available file formats FLAC files Free Lossless Audio Codec files are audio files that are typically 50 to 60 % smaller than regular Wave files, for example. FLAC is an open source format. Use the Compression Level fader to select the compression level for the FLAC file. Since FLAC is a lossless format, the level has more influence on the encoding speed than on the file size. The default level is 5. MPEG 1 Layer 3 files MPEG 1 Layer 3 files have the extension “.mp3”.
The available file formats Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only) 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 available file formats • Bit Rate/Quality pop-up menu This menu allows you to set the desired bit rate. The available bit rate settings vary depending on the selected mode and/or output channels (see above). If the Variable Bitrate mode is used, the menu allows you to select from various levels of quality, with 10 being the lowest and 100 the highest. Generally, the higher the bitrate or quality you select, the larger the final file will be. The menu also shows the channel format (5.1 or stereo).
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.
Timecode (positional references) Master and slave Calling one device the “master” and another the “slave” can lead to a great deal of confusion. The timecode relationship and the machine control relationship must be differentiated in this regard. In this document, the following terms are used: - The “timecode master” is the device generating position information or timecode. - The “timecode slave” is any device receiving the timecode and synchronizing or “locking” to it.
Timecode (positional references) • 30 fps non-drop SMPTE (N) This is the frame count of NTSC broadcast video. However, the actual frame rate or speed of the video format runs at 29.97 fps. This timecode clock does not run in realtime. It is slightly slower by 0.1 %. • 30 fps drop-frame SMPTE (D) The 30 fps drop-frame count is an adaptation that allows a timecode display running at 29.
Clock sources (speed references) Clock sources (speed references) 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.
The Project Synchronization Setup dialog The dialog is organized into sections separating related groups of settings. The arrows shown between the various sections of the dialog indicate how settings in one section influence settings in another section. In the following, the available sections are described in detail. The Cubase section At the center of the Project Synchronization Setup dialog is the Cubase section. It is provided to help you visualize the role that Cubase takes in your setup.
The Project Synchronization Setup dialog Timecode Preferences When MIDI Timecode is selected, additional options become available in the Cubase section, providing several options for working with external timecode. Lock Frames This setting determines how many full frames of timecode it takes for Cubase to try and establish sync or “lock”. If you have an external tape transport with a very short start-up time, try lowering this number to make lock-up even faster.
The Project Synchronization Setup dialog MC Master Active When this option is activated, transport commands are routed or sent to any device while sync is enabled. Additional routing options become available, see below. Deactivating this option does not affect the operation of the individual MMC Device panels. They can still function regardless of the machine control destination.
The Project Synchronization Setup dialog Machine Control Input (Cubase only) 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.
Synchronized operation MIDI Clock Destinations Some MIDI devices like drum machines can match their tempo and location to incoming MIDI clock. Select any MIDI ports that you wish to output MIDI clock. MIDI Clock Follows Project Position Activate this option to ensure that the MIDI clock device follows Cubase when looping, locating, or jumping while playing. Ö Some older MIDI devices might not respond well to these positioning messages and could take some time synchronizing to the new location.
Example scenario (Cubase only) Example scenario (Cubase only) To better understand how synchronization options can be utilized, an example scenario is provided. Personal music studio In a personal music studio, the user might have the need of synchronizing with an external recording device such as a portable hard disk recorder used for live remote recordings. In this example, MIDI will be used for timecode and machine control while the audio clock will be handled by Lightpipe digital audio connections.
Working with VST System Link Working with VST System Link VST System Link is a network system for digital audio that allows you to have several computers working together in one large system. Unlike conventional networks it does not require Ethernet cards, hubs, or CAT-5 cables; instead it uses the kind of digital audio hardware and cables you probably already possess in your studio.
Working with VST System Link Making connections Below, we assume that you are connecting two computers. Should you have more than two computers, it is still best to start with two and add the others one by one once the system is working – this makes troubleshooting easier if you run into problems. For two computers, you will need two digital audio cables, one in each direction: 1. Use the first digital audio cable to connect the digital output of computer 1 to the digital input of computer 2. 2.
Working with VST System Link The only exception to this procedure is if you are using an external clock – from a digital mixing desk or a special word clock synchronizer, for example. In that case you must leave all your ASIO cards in clock slave or AutoSync mode and make sure that each of them is listening for the signal coming from the synchronizer. This signal is usually passed through your ADAT cables or word clock connectors in a daisy chain fashion.
Activating VST System Link 4. On computer 2, open the MixConsole and locate the corresponding digital input bus. The audio being played back should now “appear” in the program running on computer 2. You should see the input bus level meters moving. 5. Reverse this procedure so that computer 2 plays back and computer 1 “listens”. Now you have verified that the digital connection works as it should.
Activating VST System Link To set things up, open the VST System Link panel: 1. From the Devices menu, open the Device Setup dialog. 2. In the Devices list to the left, select the “VST System Link” entry. The VST System Link settings are shown to the right of the Devices list. Receiving and Sending indicators 3. Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus to define which channel is the networking channel. 4. Activate the Active checkbox at the top left of the panel. 5.
Activating VST System Link To put all computers online, proceed as follows: 1. For all computers, activate the Online checkbox on the VST System Link page. 2. Start playback on one computer to check that the system is working – all computers should start almost instantly and play perfectly in time, with sampleaccurate precision. • The Offset Samples setting allows you to adjust whether one machine will play slightly ahead or behind the rest.
Activating VST System Link 3. If you now open the Input or Output Routing pop-up menu, you will find the specified System Link ports added to the list of MIDI inputs or outputs. This allows you to route MIDI tracks to VST instruments running on another computer, as described in the application examples (see “Using one computer for VST instruments” on page 668).
Activating VST System Link Proceed as follows: 1. Set things up so that you can listen to the audio playback from computer 1. In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e. g. an analog stereo output, connected to your monitoring equipment. 2. On computer 2, route each of the two audio tracks to a separate output bus. These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call them Bus 1 and 2. 3. Route the FX channel track to another VST System Link bus (Bus 3). 4.
Activating VST System Link Setting up a larger network Setting up a larger network is not much more difficult than a two-computer network. The main thing to remember is that VST System Link is a daisy chain system. In other words, the output of computer 1 goes to the input of computer 2, the output of computer 2 goes to the input of computer 3, and so on around the chain. The output of the last computer in the chain must always go back into the input of computer 1, to complete the ring.
Activating VST System Link Even with a slow computer you should be able to stack a whole bunch of extra VST instruments this way, expanding your sound palette considerably. Do not forget that VST System Link MIDI is also sample-accurate, and thus has much tighter timing than any hardware MIDI interface ever invented! Creating a virtual effect rack The effect sends for an audio channel in Cubase can either be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated group or output bus.
Video Introduction 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. Before you start When working on a project involving a video file, you first need to set up your system according to your equipment and your demands.
Before you start Format Description AVI This format is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft. DV This is a video format used by camcorders. Cubase supports all these container formats, but problems may arise when the computer does not have the correct software to decode compressed video and audio streams within the container file. You must also know the type of codec that was used to create the video file.
Preparing a video project in Cubase Ö The Decklink cards by Blackmagic Design are automatically recognized by Cubase. Video will be sent directly to its output. FireWire DV Output 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.
Preparing a video project in Cubase Adopting the video frame rate When using video files within Cubase, it is important to adjust the project’s frame rate to that of the imported video. This ensures that the time displays of Cubase correspond to the actual frames in the video. If the frame rate of an imported video file differs from the frame rate set for the project, the video event shows a warning. In order to match the two frame rates, you have to adjust the frame rate in the Project Setup dialog.
Video files in the Project window Video files in the Project window Video files are displayed as events/clips on a video track, with thumbnails representing the frames in the film. Mute video Show frame numbers Show thumbnails Lock In the track list and in the Inspector, the following buttons are available: Button Description Mute Video When this is activated, video playback is disabled, but playback of any other events in the project continues.
Playing back video Manually generating thumbnail cache files If no thumbnail cache file could be generated during import or if you have to “refresh” a thumbnail cache file of a certain video file, because the file has been edited with an external video editing application, you have the possibility to generate the thumbnail cache file manually.
Playing back video To set up a video output device, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Devices Menu and select “Device Setup…” to open the Device Setup dialog, and select the Video Player page. 2. In the Active column, activate the checkbox for the device that you want to use for playing back video. All devices in your system that are capable of playing back video are listed. The Onscreen Window device serves for playing back the video file on your computer monitor.
Playing back video Setting the window size and video quality 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. The following options are available: Option Description Fullscreen Mode The window is enlarged to occupy the whole (computer) screen. If you are working with more than one monitor, you can move the Video Player window to an extra monitor.
Editing video Ö When the video is played back in full screen mode, the aspect ratio of the video is always kept. Scrubbing video You can scrub video events, i. e. play them back forwards or backwards at any speed. This is done by clicking in the Video Player window and moving the mouse to the left or to the right.
Replacing the audio in a video file Replacing the audio in a video file Once you have edited all audio and MIDI data to the video and created a final mix, you will need to put the new audio back with the video. You can do this by embedding the audio in another stream within the video container file. To replace the audio stream in a video file, proceed as follows: 1. Place the left locator at the start of the video file in Cubase. This will ensure that your audio and video streams are synchronized. 2.
ReWire Introduction 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: • Realtime streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels (256 with ReWire2), at full bandwidth, from the “synthesizer application” into the “mixer application”. In this case, the “mixer application” is of course Cubase.
Activating ReWire channels Quitting a ReWire session When you are finished, you also need to quit the applications in a special order: 1. First quit the synthesizer application. 2. Then quit Cubase. Launching both programs without using ReWire We cannot think of any scenario, in which you would need to run Cubase and the synthesizer application simultaneously on the same computer, without using ReWire, but you can: 1. First launch the synthesizer application. 2. Then launch Cubase.
Using the transport and tempo controls Using the transport and tempo controls ! This is only relevant if the synthesizer application has some sort of built-in sequencer or similar. Basic transport controls When you run ReWire, the transports in the two programs are completely linked. It does not matter in which program you play, stop, fast forward or rewind. However, recording (if applicable) is still completely separate in the two applications.
Routing MIDI via ReWire2 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 ! This feature is only available with ReWire2-compatible applications. When using Cubase with a ReWire2-compatible application, additional MIDI outputs will automatically appear on the MIDI Output pop-up menus for MIDI tracks. This allows you to play the synthesizer application via MIDI from Cubase, using it as one or several separate MIDI sound sources. The MIDI outputs for a Reason song. Here, each output goes directly to a device in the Reason rack.
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). For information on how to import audio files into the Pool and import options, see “About the Import Medium dialog” on page 386.
Importing audio Use Settings No Options dialog will appear when you import. Instead, you can select standard actions from the list below the pop-up menu that are performed automatically each time you import audio files: Option Description Copy Files to Working Directory If files are not already in the project’s audio folder, they are copied there before being imported.
Importing audio Selecting one of the Import Audio CD menu items brings up the following dialog: To import one or more tracks, proceed as follows: 1. If you have more than one CD drive, select the correct one from the Drives pop-up menu at the top left. On opening the CD, the program tries to retrieve the track names from CDDB (a CD database). If no connection to CDDB can be established or the CD track names are not found, you can manually change the generic track name in the Default Name field. 2.
Importing audio 6. Click OK to import the copied audio files into the project, or click Cancel to stop the import and discard the copied files. • If you import more than one audio file into project tracks, a dialog opens in which you have to choose whether to insert the tracks on one track or on different ones. The new track(s) are displayed in the Project window. New audio clips are created and added to the Pool.
Importing audio Importing Audio from video files While you can automatically extract the audio when importing a video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page 678), it is also possible to import the audio from a video file without importing the video itself: 1. Open the File menu, open the Import submenu and select “Audio from Video File…”. 2. In the file dialog that opens, locate and select the video file and click Open.
Importing audio Importing compressed audio files Cubase can import several common audio compression formats. The procedure is the same as when importing any non-compressed audio file, with one important thing to note: • For most compressed file formats, Cubase creates a copy of the file and converts this to Wave format (Windows) or AIFF format (Mac OS X) before importing it. The original compressed file will not be used in the project. The imported file is placed in the designated project Audio folder.
Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) Open Media Framework Interchange (OMFI) is a platform independent file format intended for the transfer of digital media between different applications. Cubase can import and export OMF files (file extension “.omf”), allowing you to use Cubase in conjunction with other audio and video applications.
Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) 3. If you want to create copies of all the media files, choose the “Copy Media” option. By default, the copied audio files are placed in a subdirectory in the export destination folder. To specify a different location for the copied files, use the “Media Destination Path” field. 4. If you want to copy only the portions of audio files that are used in the project, activate “Consolidate Events”.
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files • “Import at Timecode Position” will insert the elements contained in the OMF file at their original timecode positions. This is useful when you want to position every imported element at its exact timecode position, i. e. as it was saved in the OMF file. This way, the elements will end up at their correct time positions even when Cubase uses a different frame rate than the OMF file. This is usually required in a picture-related context.
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files The dialog contains the following options: Option Description Export Inspector Patch If this is activated, the MIDI patch settings in the Inspector – Bank Select and Program Select (used for selecting sounds in the connected MIDI instrument) are included as MIDI Bank Select and Program Change events in the MIDI file.
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files Option Description 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 450. Song name for Type 0 You can use this text field to change the name of the MIDI file as displayed when loading this file in a keyboard. Ö The MIDI file will include the tempo information of the project (i. e.
Exporting and importing MIDI loops Option Description Auto Dissolve Format 0 If this is activated and you import a MIDI file of type 0 into the project, the file will automatically be “dissolved”: For each embedded MIDI channel in the file, a separate track will be inserted in the Project window. If this is deactivated, only one MIDI track will be created. This track will be set to MIDI Channel “Any”, allowing all MIDI events to play back on their original channels.
Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase only) Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase only) You can export Cubase tracks (audio, FX, group, instrument, MIDI, and video) as track archives for import into other Cubase (or Nuendo) projects. All the information associated with the tracks will be exported (channel settings, automation tracks, parts and events, etc.).
Exporting and importing track archives (Cubase only) 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.
Customizing Background The user can customize the appearance and functionality of Cubase in various ways. User configurable items described in this chapter are: • Workspaces By storing different window combinations as workspaces, you can quickly switch between different working modes, see “Workspaces” on page 698.
Workspaces Editing the active workspace There is always one workspace active, even if you have not saved any. To make changes to the active workspace, you simply set up the windows as desired – including opening, closing, moving and sizing windows, and adjusting zoom and track height. The changes are automatically stored for the active workspace. • To keep a workspace from being accidentally changed, select “Lock Active Workspace” from the Workspaces submenu.
Using the Setup options The list to the left shows the workspaces in the active project, while the list to the right shows the workspace presets. While workspaces are stored with each project, workspace presets can be stored globally, allowing you to set up a number of workspaces for use in any project. Workspace presets save the position and size of the main windows only – project-specific windows are not included.
Using the Setup options If presets are available, they can be selected on the lower half of the menu. The info line setup context menu The Setup dialogs 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. The dialog is divided into two sections.
Customizing track controls • If you click the Save button (disk icon) in the Presets section, a dialog opens, allowing you to name the current configuration and save it as a preset. • To remove a preset, select it on the presets pop-up menu and click the trash icon. • Saved configurations are available for selection from the Presets pop-up menu in the Setup dialog or directly from the setup context menu.
Customizing track controls Setting the track type The settings made in the Track Controls Settings dialog apply to the selected track type, which is shown in the menu display in the top left corner of the 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. All settings made in the dialog will apply to all tracks (current and subsequent) of the selected type.
Appearance • You can ungroup controls by using the Ungroup button. Please note that this will remove the selected element and the elements below it in the list from this group. To remove an entire group, select the first (topmost) element belonging to this group and click the Ungroup button. About Wrap Controls This is activated by default. Wrap Controls allows the controls to be dynamically repositioned when resizing the track list.
Appearance Appearance–Work Area The work areas in Cubase are those places where the actual data are displayed such as the Project window event display. In these areas, there are items such as vertical and horizontal grid lines that can be altered in intensity by the controls found on this page. MixConsole Fader Colors This page lets you define the colors for the level faders of the available channel types in the MixConsole.
Applying colors in the Project window • To add more color handles, click the Add button, or [Alt]/[Option]-click at a level position to the right of the meter scale. Each new handle is automatically associated with a default color. • To remove a handle, select the handle and click the Remove button, or [Ctrl]/[Command]-click the handle. Applying colors in the Project window You can use color scheming for an easier overview of tracks and events in the Project window.
Applying colors in the Project window Coloring tracks, parts, or events manually You can color each track, part, or event in the Project window individually by using the Select Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar. About the Select Colors pop-up menu 1. In the Project window, select the item that you want to color. You can select tracks, parts, or events. 2. On the toolbar, open the “Select Colors” pop-up menu and select a color. If parts or events are selected, the color is applied to these parts and events.
Applying colors in the Project window The Project Colors dialog In the Project Colors dialog you can select a different set of colors for items in the Project window. To open the Project Colors dialog, open the Select Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar and choose “Select Colors…”. Adding and editing individual colors In the Project Colors dialog, you can fully customize the color palette. To add new colors to the color palette, proceed as follows: 1. Add a new color by clicking the Insert New Color button.
Where are the settings stored? Saving and resetting color settings • To return to your project colors, click the “Reset To Current Project Defaults” button. • To save the current set as default, click the “Save Current Set as Program Defaults” button. • To apply the default set, click the “Load Program Defaults to Current Set” button. • To return to Cubase’s standard color palette, click the “Reset Current Set to Factory Settings” button.
Where are the settings stored? 3. Select one of the following options in the dialog that appears: Option Description Use current program preferences Opens the program with the current preference settings. Disable program preferences Disables the current preferences, and opens the program with the factory default settings instead. Delete program preferences Deletes the preferences and opens the program with the factory default settings instead. This process cannot be undone.
Key commands Introduction 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. 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.
Setting up key commands Setting up key commands Adding or modifying a key command In the Key Commands dialog you will find all main menu items and a large number of other functions, arranged in a hierarchical way similar to the Windows Explorer and Mac OS Finder. The function categories are represented by a number of folders, each containing various menu items and functions.
Setting up key commands 6. When you have found and selected the desired item, click in the “Type in Key” field and enter a new key command. You can choose any single key or a combination of one or several modifier keys ([Alt]/[Option], [Ctrl]/[Command], [Shift]) plus any key. Just press the keys you want to use. 7. If the key command you enter is already assigned to another item or function, this is displayed below the “Type in Key” field.
Setting up key commands Setting up macros A macro is a combination of several functions or commands to be performed in one go. For example, you can select all events on the selected audio track, remove DC offset, normalize the events and duplicate them, all with a single 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.
Setting up key commands About key commands presets As mentioned above, any changes made to the key commands are automatically stored as a Cubase preference. However, it is also possible to save key commands settings separately. This way, you can save any number of different key command settings as presets for instant recall. Saving key commands presets Proceed as follows: 1. Set up the key commands to your liking. When setting up key commands, remember to click “Assign” to make the changes. 2.
Setting up tool modifier keys About the Reset and Reset All functions These two buttons in the Key Commands dialog will both restore the default settings. The following rules apply: • “Reset” will restore the default key command setting for the function selected in the Commands list. • “Reset All” will restore the default key commands for all commands.
The default key commands The default key commands Below, the default key commands are listed according to category. ! When the Virtual Keyboard is displayed, the usual key commands are blocked because they are reserved for the Virtual Keyboard.
The default key commands Option Key command Lock [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[L] Move to Cursor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[L] Move to Front (Uncover) [U] Mute [M] Mute Events [Shift]-[M] Mute/Unmute Objects [Alt]/[Option]-[M] Open Default Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[E] Open Score Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R] Open/Close Editor [Return] Paste [Ctrl]/[Command]-[V] Paste at Origin [Alt]/[Option]-[V] Paste Time [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[V] Record Enable [R] Redo [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[Z] Repeat
The default key commands File category Option Key command Close [Ctrl]/[Command]-[W] New [Ctrl]/[Command]-[N] Open [Ctrl]/[Command]-[O] Quit [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Q] Save [Ctrl]/[Command]-[S] Save As [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Shift]-[S] Save New Version [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-[S] Media category Option Key command Open MediaBay [F5] Open Mini Browser [F7] Preview Cycle On/Off [Shift]-Num [/] Preview Start [Shift]-[Enter] Preview Stop [Shift]-Num [0] Search MediaBay [Shift]-[F5] To
The default key commands Option Key command Down: Select next in the Project window/Move selected event in the Key Editor one semitone down [Down Arrow] Left: Select next in the Project window/Key Editor [Left Arrow] Right: Select next in the Project window/Key Editor [Right Arrow] Up: Select next in the Project window/ Move selected event in the Key Editor one semitone up [Up Arrow] Bottom Select bottom track in the track list [End] Top: Select top track in the track list [Home] Toggle Selec
The default key commands Tool category Option Key command Erase tool [5] Draw tool [8] Drumstick tool [0] Glue tool [4] Mute tool [7] Next Tool [F10] Play tool [9] Previous Tool [F9] Range tool [2] Object Selection tool [1] Split tool [3] Zoom tool [6] Transport category Option Key command Auto Punch In [I] Auto Punch Out [O] Cycle Num [/] Exchange Time Formats [.
The default key commands Option Key command To Marker 1 to 9 [Shift]-Num [1] to Num [9] Record Num [*] Retrospective Record [Shift]-Num [*] Return to Zero Num [.
The default key commands Option Key command Zoom Out Tracks [Alt]/[Option]-[Up Arrow] or [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Up Arrow] Zoom to Event [Shift]-[E] Zoom to Selection [Alt]/[Option]-[S] Zoom Tracks Exclusive [Z] or [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Down Arrow] 723 Key commands
Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only)
How the Score Editor works About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - How the Score Editor and MIDI data relate. - What Display Quantize is and how it works. Welcome! Welcome to scoring in Cubase! The Score Editor has been created to allow you to get any possible piece of music displayed as a score, complete with all the necessary symbols and formatting.
MIDI notes vs. score notes MIDI notes vs. score notes 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 we change the Display Quantize value to sixteenth notes in the example: With Display Quantize set to sixteenth notes OK, now the timing looks right, but the notes still do not look like what you intended. Maybe you can understand that from a computer’s point of view, you did play sixteenth notes, which is why there are a lot of pauses. But that’s not how you meant it.
Display Quantize 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: As you see, the first note appears one sixteenth note late.
Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes Using the Display Quantize tool With the “Q” tool, you can insert new Display Quantize values anywhere in the score. Inserted Display Quantize values affect the staff from the insertion point onwards, see “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 750. Permanent alteration of MIDI data As a last resort, you can resize, quantize or move the actual note events. However, this would result in the music not playing back like it originally did.
The basics About this chapter 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. Preparations 1.
The project cursor Editing parts on different tracks If you have selected parts on two or more tracks (or several entire tracks – no parts) and open the Score Editor, you get one staff for each track (although you can split a staff in two, e.g. when scoring for piano). Think of the Project window as an overview of your entire score and the tracks as representing one instrument each.
Page Mode Page Mode vs. Edit Mode When Page Mode is not activated, the Score Editor is in Edit Mode. All you can do in Edit Mode, you can also do in Page Mode. But Page Mode offers lots of additional features which are directly related to how the score is displayed and printed. ! This section of the manual assumes you are in Page Mode. It is mentioned explicitly if something in this text specifically relates to Edit Mode.
Changing the zoom factor Changing the zoom factor There are two ways to change the zoom in Page Mode: by setting a zoom factor on the zoom pop-up menu or by using the Zoom tool (magnifying glass). Using the Zoom pop-up menu Above the vertical scrollbar to the right you can find a pop-up menu allowing you to set the zoom factor. By zooming in you can make detailed adjustments to symbols, etc. By zooming out you get a better overview.
The active staff The active staff One thing to note when you are working with multiple staves is the “active” staff. Only one staff at a time can be active, and it is indicated by a blue rectangle to the left of the clef symbol. This staff is active. Ö To make a staff active, click anywhere on it. By default, you can also use the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard to step between staves.
Designing your work space 2. Activate the desired options. Status line Info line Extended toolbar Filter bar Symbols Inspector The status line 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.
Designing your work space Option Description Hide Displays markers in the score for each hidden element (except notes, see “Hiding/showing objects” on page 868). Quantize Displays markers in the score where you have made Display Quantize “exceptions” (see “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 750). Layout Tool Displays markers in the score where you have made adjustments with the Layout tool (see “Graphic moving of notes” on page 805).
About the Score Editor context menus • To specify which units to show on the rulers, open the Zoom pop-up menu and select one of the options. You can choose between points, inches, and centimeters. • To hide the rulers, select “Off” from the pop-up menu. The Position Info window To help you when positioning objects in the score, the Page Mode has a special Position Info window, in which you can view and adjust object positions numerically, in the unit selected for the ruler.
Setting clef, key, and time signature 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 748. Normally, all these symbols appear at the beginning of each staff.
Setting clef, key, and time signature 2. If the project is in 4/4 or 2/2, you can select common time/cut time directly by clicking one of the two symbols on the right. This sets the time signature to 4/4 or 2/2, respectively and also inserts a common/cut time symbol on the staff. 3. If the project is in any other time, set the numerator and denominator above and below the line, respectively. The numerator can consist of several numbers for composite time signatures.
Setting clef, key, and time signature Setting the time signature using the signature track/Tempo Track Editor You can also add, edit and delete time signatures using the signature track or the Tempo Track Editor (see the chapter “Editing tempo and signature” on page 610). Please note the following: • The score always shows the time signature events set in the signature track/Tempo Track Editor, regardless of whether or not the Tempo button is activated.
Setting clef, key, and time signature On the Staff page of the Score Settings dialog 1. Click on a staff to make it the active staff. 2. On the Scores menu, select “Settings…” to open the Score Settings dialog. Select the Staff page at the top to open the Main tab, showing the current settings for the active staff.
Setting clef, key, and time signature Editing the key ! In the Score Settings dialog on the Project–Notation Style subpage (Keys category), you can find the “Key Changes for the entire Project” option. When this is activated, all changes made to the key always affect every staff in the project, i. e. it is impossible to define different keys for different staves (other than the relative display transpose settings for instruments made on the Staff page). Furthermore, on the Staff page, any staff (e.g.
Setting clef, key, and time signature On the Staff page of the Score Settings dialog 1. Make the desired staff active, open the Score Settings dialog and select the Staff page. The Clef/Key section on the Staff page 2. Use the right scrollbar in the Clef/Key section to select the desired key. 3. Click Apply. Ö You can select other staves in the score and make settings for these, without having to close the Score Settings dialog.
Transposing instruments Transposing instruments Scores for some instruments, for example a lot of brass instruments, are written transposed. Therefore, the Score Editor provides a Display Transpose function. With this function notes are transposed in the score without affecting the way they are played back. This allows you to record and play back a multi-staff arrangement, and still score each instrument according to its own transposition. Setting Display Transpose 1.
Exporting pages as image files 4. A standard print dialog appears. Fill out the options as desired. 5. Click Print. Exporting pages as image files You can export a section of a page or a complete page in various file formats. This allows you to import your scores into desktop publishing and drawing applications. Selecting a section of a page for exporting If you only want to export a part of a certain page, proceed as follows: 1. Make sure that you are in Page Mode. 2.
Working order Working order When you prepare a score, we suggest you do things in the following order, since this minimizes the time needed if you make a mistake somewhere and need to redo a step. • Preferably work on copies of recorded tracks. If the parts are fairly complex you might have to change them permanently, after which they do not play back as they originally did. • If memory is an issue, break the score up into segments.
Transcribing MIDI recordings About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - 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. However, if the parts are fairly complicated, you probably need to perform some manual editing of the notes.
Staff settings • For reasons described in the previous chapter, quantizing the track might be a good idea. This reduces the amount of detailed adjustments needed in the Score Editor. • If you need to quantize, always play back your tracks afterwards to make sure timing was not disrupted due to inappropriate quantize settings. You might have to quantize some sections with one value and others with another.
Situations which require additional techniques Situations which require additional techniques The notes may not always appear in the score as you expect them to, initially. This is because there are a number of situations which require special techniques and settings. Below you can find a list of some of these and where to find more information about handling them: • Notes at the same position are considered to be part of a chord. To get independent voicing (e.g.
Inserting Display Quantize changes 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. Select the Display Quantize tool… …to open the Display Quantize dialog. 2. Activate the flags you need and set the quantize values as desired.
The Explode function Adding Display Quantize changes Very often, the score is fine except for a few bars somewhere. To remedy the problem, insert two Display Quantize changes with the tool (one at the beginning of the section, one after it to restore to the current staff settings). If you have mixed triplets and straight notes, it can be tempting to insert many Display Quantize changes. Before you do so, try the Auto Quantize options and their additional settings.
Using “Scores Notes To MIDI” Using “Scores Notes To MIDI” For very complicated scores, there may be situations where you have tweaked the parameters for Display Quantize and Interpretation as best you can, and you still cannot get the score exactly as you want it. Perhaps one setting works fine in one section of the track and another is needed for another section. In such a case, “Scores Notes To MIDI” helps you out.
Entering and editing notes About this chapter 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 Before you start entering notes, you need to make some initial staff settings in addition to those described in the chapter “The basics” on page 730.
Note values and positions Suggested initial settings When you start out entering notes, your staff settings should make your score display the notes as entered.
Note values and positions • By assigning key commands to the different length values. This is done in the Key Commands dialog (in the category “Set Insert Length”). About unusual note values Not all note values can be selected directly, for example double dotted notes.
Adding and editing notes • The third number is the sixteenth note within the beat. Again, the time signature determines the number of sixteenth notes to each beat. In a quarter note based time signature (4/4, 2/4, etc.) there are four sixteenth notes to each beat, in an eighth note based time signature (3/8, 4/8, etc.), there are two sixteenth notes, etc. • The last value is in ticks, with 480 ticks per quarter note (and thus 120 ticks per sixteenth note).
Adding and editing notes 2. Hold down [Alt]/[Option]. A note with the note value specified in the extended toolbar appears. By default, the insert position is the first position of the bar and the pitch is C3. You can however change this using the computer keyboard. • You can change the pitch of the note by using the up and down arrow keys. To transpose the note in octave steps, use the Page Up/Page Down keys. • To change the insert position of the note, use the right and left arrow keys.
Adding and editing notes Adding more notes 1. If you want the next note to have a different length value, select the corresponding note symbol. 2. If you need finer positioning, or if the current value is too fine, change the Quantize value. 3. Move the mouse to the desired position, and click. Notes input at the same position are automatically interpreted as chords, see below. About the interpretation The notes may not always appear in the score as you initially expect them to.
Selecting notes Selecting notes In the operations described in the rest of this chapter, you often work on selected notes. The text below describes how to select notes: By clicking To select a note, click on the note head with the Object Selection tool. The note head gets colored to indicate that it is selected. • To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them. Selected notes • To deselect notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them again.
Moving notes Deselecting everything To deselect everything, simply click in an empty area of the score with the Object Selection tool. Moving notes In the following, you can find descriptions of the various methods to move notes, as well as related features. Moving by dragging Proceed as follows: 1. Set the Quantize value. The Quantize value restricts your movement in time. You cannot place notes on positions smaller than the Quantize value (see “Selecting a Quantize value” on page 755). 2.
Moving notes Moving across staves – the Lock button If you are editing several tracks, you may want to move notes from one staff to another. Proceed as follows: 1. Make the desired Quantize settings and select the notes. Make sure to only select notes on the same staff. 2. Make sure that the “L” (Lock) button on the extended toolbar is deactivated.
Duplicating notes • Right-click one of the layer buttons (1-2-3) on the extended toolbar to bring up a pop-up menu, showing which object types are associated with that layer. A checkmark for an object type means it belongs to that layer. If no checkmark is shown, you can select the object type on the menu to move it to that layer. To lock a layer, click the corresponding layer button, so that it is disabled (not highlighted). You can only select or move objects whose Layer button is activated.
Cut, copy, and paste 3. Release the mouse button to insert the notes. • [Alt]/[Option] is the default modifier key for copying/duplicating. If you like, you can change this in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). The entry for this is found in the Drag & Drop category (“Copy”). Ö You can also move or copy whole bars by dragging the bar handles, see “Moving and duplicating with the bar handles” on page 828.
Editing pitches of individual notes Using key commands Instead of transposing the note with the mouse, you can assign key commands for this. • The commands for which you can assign key commands are found in the Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog. Transpose commands are, for example, “Up” (transpose one semitone up) and “Down” (transpose one semitone down).
Changing the length of notes Changing the length of notes 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”. Changing the “physical” length This changes the actual length of the notes. The change is audible when you play back the music.
Splitting a note in two But you can also make display length adjustments to individual notes in the Set Note Info dialog: 1. Double-click on the note. The Set Note Info dialog opens. 2. Locate the “Length” setting. By default, this is set to “Auto”, which means that the note is displayed according to its actual length (and the Display Quantize settings). 3. Double-click in the value field and enter a new length value (displayed in bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks).
Strategies: Multiple staves • If the default piano clef settings for the upper and lower staff are not what you want, you can adjust these settings now (or you can make key and clef adjustments directly in the score, see “Setting clef, key, and time signature” on page 738). 5. Make whatever additional staff settings you need. These apply to both the upper and lower staves of the split system. 6. Click Apply. Before and after setting a split at C3 Changing the split point Proceed as follows: 1.
Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures Adding notes This is done just as on a single system, see “Adding and editing notes” on page 756. Please note the following: • When you enter a note, use the Mouse Note Position display (in the status line) to determine the pitch. Whether it ends up on the upper or lower staff has nothing to do with where you aim with the mouse. The Split Point setting always decides if a note goes on the upper or lower staff.
Inserting and editing clefs, keys, or time signatures Inserting a symbol on all staves If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] when you insert a symbol with the Draw tool, it is inserted at this position on all staves currently being edited in the Score Editor. • Time signature changes are always inserted on all tracks in the score. Or rather, they are inserted on the signature track, which affects all tracks. • For key changes, Display Transpose is taken into account.
Deleting notes Deleting notes Using the Erase tool Proceed as follows: 1. Select the Erase tool on the toolbar or context menu. 2. One at a time, click on the note(s) you want to erase, or enclose them in a selection rectangle, and click on any of the notes. Using the Delete menu option or the keyboard Proceed as follows: 1. Select the notes that you want to delete. 2. Select Delete from the Edit menu, or press [Delete] or [Backspace] on the computer keyboard.
Staff settings About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - How to make staff settings. - How to work with staff presets. Staff settings Below follows a run-through of all staff settings, more detailed information about the ones already described and references to other places in the manual for some options. The Staff page has four tabs – here, the Main tab is selected. Making settings 1. Open the Score Settings and select the Staff page. 2. With the dialog open, make the desired staff active.
Working with staff presets • 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). However, please note that you need to click Apply before making another staff active – otherwise your settings are lost! ! Staff settings can be saved in the track presets. For more information, see the chapter “Working with track presets” on page 422.
Key and clef • If you only want the “long name” to be shown (i.e. if you do not want a name shown for each system in the score), simply delete the short name. • If the “Show Long Staff Names on new Pages” option is activated in the “Staff Names” section of the Score Settings dialog (Project page), the long name is shown at the beginning of each new page.
Display Quantize and Interpretation Options Auto Quantize • If the project contains no triplets or only triplets, deactivate this option. • If the project contains mixed triplets and straight notes, activate this option (see below). Deviation and Adapt • When Deviation is activated, triplets/straight notes are detected even if they are not exactly “on the beat”. However, if you know your triplets/straight notes are perfectly recorded (quantized or entered by hand), deactivate this option.
Display Quantize and Interpretation Options Interpretation Options Syncopation Activate Syncopation when the program adds more ties to notes crossing beats and bar lines than you prefer. The following options are available: Option Description Relax When Syncopation is “relaxed”, the program applies syncopation in a number of common cases. Full Syncopation is on. Off Syncopation is off, with no exceptions. For a “modern” notation of syncopated notes, activate Syncopation.
Display Transpose 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. This recording in the Key Editor… …is displayed like this when No Overlap is deactivated… …and like this when No Overlap is activated. You can insert “exceptions” to the No Overlap setting on the Staff page of the Score Settings dialog, by using the Display Quantize tool.
The Options tab • You can disable Display Transpose by deactivating the “Display Transpose” button on the toolbar of the Score Editor. For more information, see “Transposing instruments” on page 744. The Options tab Clicking the Options tab in the dialog brings up another page with additional settings. Below follows a brief description of these, with references to more detailed explanations. Switches This section allows you to make beam settings.
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.
Polyphonic voicing About this chapter 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. Without polyphonic voicing you get unnecessary amounts of ties.
Background: Polyphonic voicing How voices are created Cubase allows for up to eight voices. The first thing you do is to set them up. This includes “telling” the program which voices belong to the upper clef and which belong to the lower, how you want rests displayed for each voice, etc. The second thing you do is to move or enter notes into the voices. If you have a recording done already, the program can do much of this work for you, automatically.
Setting up the voices Setting up the voices To set up your score for polyphonic voicing, proceed as follows: 1. Make sure that the desired staff is active. 2. Open the Score Settings dialog and select the Staff page. 3. Select the Polyphonic tab. 4. Open the Staff Mode pop-up menu and select Polyphonic. This makes the voice list in the lower part of the dialog available. It consists of eight rows, one for each voice. They are numbered and therefore we refer to them as voices 1 to 8.
Setting up the voices 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 791.
Strategies: How many voices do I need? Strategies: How many voices do I need? Well, it depends… - If you are scoring for vocals, you simply need one voice for each voice, so to speak. - If you use voices for resolving the problem of overlapping notes (see “Overlapping notes” on page 780), for example when scoring for piano, you need two voices each time two notes overlap. If three notes overlap, you need three voices.
Checking which voice a note belongs to Checking which voice a note belongs to When you select one single note, the corresponding voice button on the extended toolbar is selected. This allows you to quickly find out which voice a certain note is in (after you have used the Move To Voice function, for example). • When you step through the notes using the arrow keys, you only step through the notes in one voice at a time.
Handling rests 3. Use the options in the lower half of the dialog to set up the criteria for the split. Choose from the following options: Option Description Split Note Use this to move all notes below a certain pitch to another voice. Lines To Tracks Use this when you want all musical “lines” to be put in one voice each. The notes with the highest pitch goes to the first voice, the notes with the second highest pitch goes to the second, and so on.
Voices and Display Quantize • You can use the Object Selection tool to manually move rests up/down or sideways to adjust the “picture”. • If needed you can add “rest symbols” (rests that do not affect the playback data in any way) by using the symbols. Voices and Display Quantize When you insert Display Quantize changes (see “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 750), you can either apply the settings to all voices (by [Alt]/[Option]-clicking with the tool) or to the current voice only.
Creating crossed voicings Creating crossed voicings Often, for example in vocal scoring, you have crossed voicings on one system. You can of course move notes manually into voices to get the stem direction and other note properties right, but there is a quicker way. Let’s explain how to do this by example. Without using polyphonic voicing, you have entered this: 1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Polyphonic tab. 2. From the Staff Mode pop-up menu, select Polyphonic. 3.
Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves 10.Select the two notes that you want to be moved to voice 1 and move them, too. All notes in the right voices. The voicing is now correct, as you can tell from the stem directions. However, there is still some work to do on the notes graphical positions (see “Graphic moving of notes” on page 805) and the display of stems and beams for some of the notes (see “Manual adjustment of beams” on page 802).
Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices 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. Open 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.
Additional note and rest formatting About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - 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. Background: Note stems The direction of stems is governed by five things: - How notes are grouped under beams. Any manual manipulation of beams. The Flip Stems function.
Setting stem direction Using Flip Stems Flipping the stem of one or several notes 1. Select the notes. 2. Click the Flip icon on the extended toolbar. All the stems in the selection are now flipped. Those that pointed up now point down and vice versa. The Flip icon • You can also assign a key command for this. In the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, the command is called “Flip” and is found in the Score Functions category.
Stem length Stem direction in the Set Note Info dialog The Set Note Info dialog can be opened by double-clicking on a note head. In its lower left corner you can find a pop-up menu for setting stem direction. - Setting this pop-up menu to Up or Down is the same as using Flip Stems, see “Using Flip Stems” on page 791. - Setting this pop-up menu to Auto makes the program set the stem direction automatically. Stem length Adjusting stem length (Page Mode) 1.
Accidentals and enharmonic shift Accidentals and enharmonic shift Making global settings 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. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Project page and select the Accidentals subpage from the Pages list.
Changing the note head shape Option Description Use this button when you want to hide the accidental completely. Use this button when you want to create a “help accidental” for the selected notes only. Use this button when you want to enclose the accidental in parentheses. To remove these, select “off”. 3. If you want the enharmonic shift to be repeated in the whole bar, activate the “Enharmonic shift for entire bar” option in the Score Settings dialog (Project– Accidentals subpage).
Other note details Other note details Each note has a number of settings in the Set Note Info dialog. The Set Note Info dialog contains the following settings: Option Description Note Head Used for selecting custom note head shapes (see “Changing the note head shape” on page 794). Tablature Used for creating or editing tablature (see “Creating tablature” on on/off and number page 887). This feature can be used for individual notes or together with the automatic tablature function.
Coloring notes Option Description Hide Note Activating this checkbox hides the selected notes. Stem Determines the stem direction, see “Using Flip Stems” on page 791. Tie Determines the direction of ties. When this is set to “Auto”, the program chooses a tie direction depending on the stem direction of the tied notes. Type Determines the note type. There are four options: – Normal. This is how notes usually are displayed. – Grace. When this is selected, notes are displayed as grace notes.
Copying settings between notes 2. Click in the Active column to activate this function for the corresponding element. 3. Click in the Color field to the right to select a color. When color-printing a score, you get the colors you selected for the notes. When you are using a black-and-white printer, the notes appear in black (notes that have not been assigned a color) and different shades of gray (depending on how bright/dark a color was used for the note).
Handling beaming 4. Activate “For Grouping Only”. 5. Click OK. ! Note that the “For Grouping Only” setting only affects the way the numerator is divided. Any changes you make to the “sum” of the numerator number or the denominator result in a change of actual time signature in the project. If you need a grouping which cannot be entered in the current time signature, you have to group notes manually, see below.
Handling beaming Grouping notes using Repeats To show Repeats for the grouped notes, proceed as follows: 1. Make sure that the filter bar is visible in the Score Editor. If the filter bar is not visible, click the “Set up Window Layouts” button on the toolbar and select the Filters option. 2. Activate the “Grouping” checkbox in the filter bar. Now, you see the text “Grouping” below all groups you have created. 3. Select the desired notes. 4.
Handling beaming The Grouping dialog As described above, the Grouping dialog can also be opened by double-clicking an existing grouping text in the score. • Which Grouping dialog appears depends on the grouping option you used for the notes (Beam, Repeats or Accelerando, see above). Removing groups If you have created a group as described above and want to remove it, proceed as follows: 1. Make sure that the “Grouping” checkbox is activated in the display filter bar. 2.
Handling beaming Cross-staff beaming To create a beam that extends from one staff to another, proceed as follows: 1. Set up a split or polyphonic voicing system or open the Score Editor with more than one track. 2. Set up a beam of notes (using the group command) and adjust their pitches so that they are correct even though some of the notes are on the wrong staff. Use the info line to edit the pitches if they are very low or high. 3. Select the notes that should appear on the other staff. 4.
Handling beaming Beam appearance and slant settings Global settings 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: • Thick Beams. Activate this if you want beams to be displayed as thick lines. • Show Small Slants as Flat Beams. When this is activated, beams that would be only slightly slanted are displayed flat.
About tied notes 3. Drag the handle up or down. The slant of the beam changes. Dragging a handle and the effect it has. Ö You can adjust the distance between notes and their beam without changing the beam slant. Select both handles of a beam (by pressing the [Shift] key while selecting the second handle) and drag one of the handles up or down. Mixed stem direction By dragging the beam handles you can put the beam between the note heads: Putting the beam between the notes.
About tied notes Time signature changes By inserting time signature changes, you can change the way notes are cut. This is done in the same way as when you specify how beamed notes are grouped – see “Grouping” on page 797. With a regular 4/4 time signature With a composite time signature (3+2+3 eighth notes) The Cut Notes tool By using the Cut Notes tool, you can disable the automatic cutting mechanism in a bar, and insert manual cuts at any given position in the score. Proceed as follows: 1.
Graphic moving of notes Other options for tied notes Tie direction As described in the section “Tie” on page 796, you can set the direction of the tie manually in the Set Note Info dialog. Flat ties If you prefer ties to be displayed as flat lines, rather than regular “curved” ties, activate the “Flat Ties” option in the Score Settings dialog, on the Project–Notation Style subpage (H.W. Henze Style category).
Cue notes Cue notes You can create cue notes by using voices or by converting individual notes into cue notes. Setting a voice to display cue notes 1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Polyphonic tab. This is described in the section “Setting up the voices” on page 781. 2. Click in the “Cue” column for the voice, so that a checkmark appears. 3. Decide how to handle rests for the voice. You might for example leave “Rests–Show” activated and activate “Reduce”.
Grace notes Grace notes You can turn any note into a grace note. Grace notes are considered to be notes without lengths. This means that once a note is turned into a grace note it does not affect the rest of the score display in any way. Before and after converting to grace notes. Note that after the conversion, the grace notes no longer “interfere” with the interpretation of the other notes. ! Grace notes are always positioned just before the next note on the staff.
Tuplets 3. Activate Crossed, if needed. When this is activated, the stem is crossed by a slanted line, to further indicate that the note is a grace note. 4. Click Apply. The settings are applied to the selected notes. 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.
Tuplets 5. Set the length of the entire tuplet using the “Over” field. 6. Activate Change Length, if needed. If you do, the program alters the length of all notes so that they are exactly the note value the tuplet indicates. If you do not, the lengths of the existing notes is not affected in any way. 7. If you want any other text than the standard above the tuplet, enter it into the “Text” field. The standard text is simply the number in the type field.
Tuplets Tuplet display options In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project–Notation Style subpage (Tuplets category), you can find the following settings for tuplets: Option Description Tuplet Brackets There are three possible settings for this option: – None: Tuplets never have brackets. – Always: Tuplets always have brackets. – …by the head: Brackets are shown only when the tuplets are displayed on the “head side”.
Working with symbols About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - What the different types of symbols are. - How to insert and edit symbols. - Details about special symbols. Background: The different layers A score page is always made up of three layers – the note layer, the layout layer and the project layer. When you add symbols, these are inserted into one of these layers, depending on the type of symbol. The symbols that have a relation to notes – accents, dynamic markings, slurs, lyrics, etc.
The Symbols Inspector 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: You have four tracks that make up a string quartet. You edit them all at the same time and add symbols to the score, both note layer symbols and layout layer symbols. Now you close the Score Editor and open only one of the tracks for editing.
The Symbols Inspector Showing/Hiding Symbols Inspector tabs If you right-click on any tab in the Inspector, a context menu appears. On this menu, you can directly check (show) or uncheck (hide) elements of the Inspector as desired. You can also select different preset configurations from the lower half of the menu. To display all Symbols Inspector tabs, select “Show All”.
The Symbols Inspector Working with symbol palettes You can open any of the Symbols Inspector sections as separate symbol palettes. Opening tabs as palettes 1. In the Symbols Inspector, open the desired symbols tab. 2. Right-click on any of the symbols of the tab. Note that you have to right-click on a symbol. Right-clicking on a tab header opens a different context menu instead. 3. Select “Open As Palette” from the context menu. The selected tab is shown as palette.
Important! – Symbols, staves, and voices Setting up the Favourites tab In the Symbols Inspector, you can find a tab called Favourites. Cubase allows you to fill this tab with a selection of symbols from other tabs. This way, you have instant access to the symbols you use often: 1. Open the Favourites tab. If it is the first time you are using this tab, it is empty. 2. Open the tab from which you want to copy a symbol. Ö Not all symbols can be placed on the Favourites tab. 3.
Adding symbols to the score About the Draw tool Unlike the other MIDI editors, the Score Editor toolbar does not contain a Draw tool. Instead, the Draw tool is “automatically” selected when you insert symbols. The following applies: • Normally, the Draw tool is automatically selected when you click on a symbol in the Inspector. However, if the “Double-Click Symbol to get Draw Tool” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), you need to doubleclick the symbol to get the Draw tool.
Adding symbols to the score 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. Adding a symbol without tying it to a note Note-dependent symbols can be entered freely, too. This allows you to add a fermata to a rest symbol for example. 1. Make sure that the correct staff is active. 2. Click the symbol so that the Draw tool is selected, as described above. 3.
Adding symbols to the score When you draw in a tie or slur, the program uses the Quantize value to find the closest two notes to “attach” the symbol to. In other words, if you want to add the slur/tie to a note at a sixteenth note position, make sure Quantize is set to 1/16th notes or smaller (this is only true for manual drawing in of slurs and ties). Please note that this does not necessarily mean that the symbol has to start or end exactly above/below two notes.
Adding symbols to the score The Bezier slur The Bezier slur is a special slur symbol, found on the Dynamics symbol tab. Unlike the regular slur, this symbol is made up of a bezier curve, allowing you to create more advanced curve shapes. To add a Bezier slur, click on the symbol in the Inspector so that the Draw tool is selected, and click or drag in the score. Clicking creates a Bezier slur of the default length and shape, while dragging creates a straight line.
Adding symbols to the score - 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. Inserting symbols across staves If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while adding a symbol to one staff in a grand staff, this symbol is put in at corresponding positions on all staves. This allows you for example to insert rehearsal marks, repeats, etc.
Adding symbols to the score Adding guitar chord symbols A fretboard symbol of a guitar chord can be inserted anywhere in the score. Guitar symbols are found on the “Guitar Symbols” tab and the Other tab in the Symbols Inspector. • The Guitar Symbols tab contains all Guitar symbols of the current guitar library, see “Using the guitar library” on page 822. If the symbol that you want to insert is among these, select it and insert it as you would any other symbol, see above.
Adding symbols to the score 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. This function is very useful when writing lead sheets, for example.
Adding symbols to the score There are also two additional checkboxes in the Guitar Library dialog: Option Description Use for Make Chord Symbols When this is activated, and you use the “Make Chord Symbol” function (see “Using Make Chord Symbols” on page 842), the program inserts guitar symbols as well as regular chords (if any fitting guitar symbols can be found). If there are several guitar symbols for a certain chord in the guitar library, the first one is used.
Adding symbols to the score You can modify the settings you made on import by right-clicking the image and selecting “Properties” on the context menu, to open the Image Properties dialog. Using layout symbols Layout symbols and texts are inserted on the layout layer. When you are editing a layout containing several tracks, you can have inserted layout symbols and texts automatically copied to any combination of tracks in the layout.
Selecting symbols Selecting symbols Almost all symbols can be selected by clicking on them. For symbols that have a length or size, one or more handles appear. A selected crescendo An exception to this are the slurs and ties which can be selected by clicking on the end points or by drawing a selection rectangle. Using the lock layers Sometimes it can be very hard to click on a symbol or other object in the score without accidentally selecting other symbols nearby.
Moving and duplicating symbols Locking a layer 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 Objects belonging to locked note layers are “grayed out” in the score. This makes it very easy to find out which object belongs to which layer – perhaps especially useful for the layout and project layers.
Moving and duplicating symbols The rulers Unlike other editors, the Score Editor does not have a meter/time position-based ruler. Instead, its rulers are “graphical”, i.e. they indicate the actual x-y position of objects (with “zero” at the upper left corner). • The current pointer position is indicated by thin lines in the rulers. • To hide the rulers, right-click on a ruler and select “Off”. This pop-up menu can also be found above the scrollbar at the far right.
Moving and duplicating symbols Option Description Sel. Staff If “Abs. Pos” is selected (see above), this value shows the distance from the top of the score page to the top of the active staff. You can click and type in a value to move the active staff. If “Rel. Pos” is selected, this value is always 0, since vertical positions are related to the top of the active staff! To Prev Staff The distance between the active staff and the staff above it. Clicking and typing in a value moves the active staff.
Moving and duplicating symbols 3. Double-click on the handle of the bar from which you want to copy or move symbols. The Bar Copy dialog appears. 4. Make sure that only the symbol types that you want to move/copy are checked. 5. If you have several subsequent bars to which you want to copy symbols, set the “Repeats” value to this number of bars. If you only want to copy symbols from one bar to another, make sure that “Repeats” is set to 1. This option is only available for copying, not for moving. 6.
Changing length, size, and shape • If you do not hold down [Alt]/[Option] when dragging the bar handle, the symbols (and other event types specified in the dialog) are removed from the “source” bar. ! If there already are symbols (or other objects) of the specified types in the “target” bars, these are removed. Moving note symbols Note symbols, slurs and ties all have “default positions”. This determines the vertical distance between the note head(s) and the symbol.
Deleting symbols Altering the shape and direction of slurs and ties 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 819. There are two types of slurs and ties in the Symbols Inspector. The up/down variation of each actually represent the same symbol but with different initial direction.
Alignment Alignment Symbols can be aligned as in drawing programs. Proceed as follows: 1. Select all objects that you want to align. 2. Open the Scores menu and select an option from the Align Elements submenu. ! Note symbols like staccato and accents can only be aligned horizontally. The “Dynamics” option is a special function for aligning dynamic symbols, as described in the section “Aligning dynamics” on page 834. Symbol details This section further describes some of the symbol tabs.
Symbol details When you double-click on an existing clef, the Edit Clef dialog appears again, allowing you to change the type. When you right-click on a clef, you can change the type from the context menu. Keys Inserting a key change is similar to inserting a new clef (see above). For further information, see “Editing the key” on page 742. Ö In the dialog that appears when you insert a key change, you can also insert Display Transpose changes.
Symbol details • To insert a crescendo-diminuendo (<>) symbol, select the double crescendo symbol from the tab and drag from left to right. • To insert a diminuendo-crescendo (><) symbol, select the double crescendo symbol from the tab and drag from right to left. • When you have inserted a crescendo or diminuendo symbol, you can move it and resize it by dragging its handles.
Symbol details • In the Score Settings dialog (Project page–Notation Style subpage) you can specify globally how tuplets are displayed. You can also select a font and size for the tuplet numbers in the Font Settings subpage. • You can also right-click on the tuplet group symbol and select the “Extend (+)” or “Reduce (-)” command to extend it to the next chord or to reduce it. Vertical symbols The vertical symbols in the Line/Trill tab are “note-dependent”.
Symbol details Box (rectangle) symbol 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 This is described in the section “Adding a keyboard symbol” on page 820.
Symbol details Da Capo and Dal Segno symbols The “D.C.”, “D.S.”, and “Fine” symbols provide a quick way to insert some common play directions into the score. The symbols are text symbols – you can adjust which font is used on the Project page (Font Settings subpage) of the Score Settings dialog, see “Settings for other fixed text elements” on page 857. • To have these symbols actually affect playback, insert them on the Project layer and use the Arranger mode.
Symbol details User Symbols The User Symbols tab lets you create your own graphic symbols and use these in the score. Creating a user symbol Initially, the User Symbols tab is empty. To create symbols you use the User Symbols editor: 1. Double-click on the empty symbol field on the tab. The User Symbols editor opens. You can also right-click on an empty symbol field and select “Edit…” to open the same dialog. 2. Open the Functions pop-up menu and select the desired zoom factor from the View submenu.
Symbol details The User Symbols editor – tools and functions The toolbar contains the following tools and settings, from left to right: Tool Description Object Selection 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.
Symbol details Menu item Description Import User Symbols… Loads settings for a complete tab from disk. Note that this replaces the current settings. Export/Import Symbol… Lets you save or load individual symbols to/from disk. Importing a symbol replaces the current symbol on the tab. Delete Deletes the selected object(s). Select All Selects all objects in the current symbol. Transform – Scale Symbol Lets you scale (resize) the selected object by specifying a percentage.
Working with chords About this chapter 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. Inserting chord symbols To insert chord symbols in the score, you can insert them manually by using the Chord Symbol button in the Inspector. You can also let Cubase analyze an existing recording and create the chord symbols. Manually To specify and enter a chord symbol, proceed as follows: 1.
Inserting chord symbols 5. If you wish, specify a tension in the Tension field. Again, this can be done by typing or by using the pop-up menu. However, there are some special display options which you can only get by typing (see the table below). You might also want to add some text here (such as “no third”). You can also select the basic tensions from the pop-up menu, and then add special options by typing. Character Description () The tensions are enclosed in brackets.
Inserting chord symbols 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). A staff after using Make Chord Symbols. • Instead of using the “Make Chord Symbols” menu item, you can click the “Make Chord Symbols” button on the extended toolbar.
Global chord settings Global chord settings In the Score Settings dialog on the Project page (Chord Symbols subpage), there are several global settings that affect how chords are displayed. These settings affect all chords in the project. Ö There are several options in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Chords) that also affect how chords are displayed. Chord Symbols Chord Symbols Font • Use the four size value fields to select sizes for the root, the type, the tension, and the bass of a chord.
Working with text About this chapter 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. Adding and editing text symbols This section describes the general procedure for adding and editing text symbols.
Adding and editing text symbols 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.
Adding and editing text symbols 3. Select a font from the Font pop-up menu. How many and which fonts appear depends on what typefaces you have installed on your computer. ! For regular text you should avoid the “Steinberg” fonts. These are the fonts Cubase uses for all scoring symbols, etc. 4. Select a text size from the Size pop-up menu (or enter one manually in the text field). 5. You can also add one or several font options using the checkboxes and pop-up menus.
Different types of text Using text attribute sets To apply the settings in the text attribute set to one or several text blocks, select them, select the set from the Font Set pop-up menu on the Text page in the Score Settings dialog and click Apply. You can also apply a text attribute set to a text block directly in the score by right-clicking it and selecting the set from the context menu.
Different types of text Lyrics This type of text is inserted by selecting Lyrics on the Other symbol tab. You can insert this type of text only on note layers. When you insert lyrics, you should click below or above the note the syllable belongs to. The text then appears horizontally centered around the note and vertically positioned to where you clicked. You can later move it up or down, as with any symbol. Lyrics are tied to the note position. If you move the note, the text moves with it.
Different types of text Adding a second verse To insert a second line of lyrics, proceed as follows: 1. Enter the new lyrics above or below the existing verse. 2. Select all the words that should be in the new verse. 3. Right-click the selected words to open the context menu. 4. Select the appropriate verse from the Move To Verse submenu (Verse 1–6). This assigns the selected lyrics to the selected verse. To indicate that the words belong to another verse, they are automatically displayed in another color.
Different types of text Block Text Block Text allows you to import text from a file on disk or from the clipboard. Proceed as follows: 1. Click the Block Text symbol on the Other tab to activate the Draw tool.
Different types of text Lay Text The Lay Text symbol allows you to insert layout text for multiple staves. This is available only on the layout layer. To hide or show the inserted text for different staves in the layout, deactivate or activate the “L” column for the corresponding tracks on the Layout page of the Score Settings dialog. The text appears in all staves for which you have activated the “L” column. This means that the text is tied to the bar and staff position.
Different types of text 5. Select a text attribute set for the text, or make manual settings for font, size, and style. 6. Click OK. The text is inserted. You can adjust the positioning manually by dragging the text block. Inserting variables When you enter the text, you can also insert special characters or “place holders” for different attributes. When the text is displayed, these characters are replaced by their actual values (e.g. page numbers).
Text functions Text functions In addition to the text symbols that you can add to the different layers, you have other text functions at your disposal that support you while working on the score. These are described in the following sections. The Words tab If you have certain words that you use a lot, you can save 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. Storing a word 1. Open the Words symbol tab.
Text functions Inserting a word You insert words from the Words tab as you would insert any regular symbol, by selecting the appropriate word and clicking in the score. However, you can edit the word after inserting it, just as with text inserted by typing. Find and replace This function allows you to replace all occurrences of a certain word or group of words, with another word or group of words.
Text functions To select a font for staff names, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Project page and select the Font Settings subpage. 2. Select the Project Text tab. 3. Use the “Font For” pop-up menu to select “Staff Names”. 4. Select font, size, and styles for the staff names (or use a text attribute set). 5. Click Apply and close the Score Settings dialog.
Text functions Option Description Other Bar Numbers – Horizontal Offset Sets the horizontal distance between the bar number and the bar line for all other bars. Other Bar Numbers – Vertical Offset Sets the vertical distance between the bar number and the bar line for all other bars. 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. This is used for example when a section repeats.
Working with layouts About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - 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. Background: Layouts Layouts can be viewed as “presets” containing settings for the layout layer: staff spacing, bar lines, layout symbols, etc.
Creating a layout Creating a layout Layouts are created automatically when you open a new combination of tracks for editing. Each track may have been edited before, individually or together with other tracks, it does not matter. What matters is that you open precisely these tracks. For example, to create a layout for a string quartet, select parts on the corresponding tracks and press [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
Using layouts – an example Importing layout symbols By selecting another layout and selecting “Get Form” from the Functions pop-up menu below the list, you import all Layout symbols (inserted from the Layout section in the Symbols Inspector) from the selected layout into the current layout. Managing layouts • To rename a layout, select it in the list and enter the desired name in the Name field to the right in the dialog.
Marker Track to Form 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. Open 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.
Working with MusicXML Introduction 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. This makes it possible to share and exchange sheet music with people who are using score writing programs such as Finale and Sibelius.
Importing and exporting MusicXML files MusicXML can save a great part of this information. However, you have to adjust the scores with the tools available in the Score Editor. Advantages of MIDI Although MusicXML has obvious advantages in the representation of musical scores, there are also restrictions in sound. This is due to the fact that MusicXML as a music notation format has a graphical background and is designed for exchanging representation, not sound.
Importing and exporting MusicXML files Layout Export Import Hidden staves Yes Yes x and y positions of symbols Yes Yes Symbols Export Import Keys Yes Yes Clefs Yes Yes Time Signature Yes Yes Dynamics Yes Yes Ornaments Yes / incomplete Yes / incomplete Articulations Yes / incomplete Yes / incomplete Technicals Yes / incomplete Yes / incomplete Lyrics Yes Yes Chord Symbols Yes Yes Damper Pedal Yes Yes Dynamics Yes Yes Rehearsals Yes Yes Text Yes Yes Layout Te
Importing and exporting MusicXML files Importing MusicXML files 1. Open the File menu and open the Import submenu. 2. On the submenu, select “MusicXML…”. 3. In the file dialog that opens, locate and select the MusicXML file and click “Open”. 4. Another file dialog opens in which you can select the project folder for the new project. Select an existing project folder or create a new one by clicking “Create” and entering a name in the dialog. 5. A new project is created with the name of the MusicXML file.
Designing your score: additional techniques About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: ! 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.
Layout settings The track list The track list lists the tracks included in the layout and allows you to make the following settings: Option Description Brackets These two columns allow you to add braces or brackets, encompassing any number of staves in the layout, see “Adding brackets and braces” on page 878. T This is relevant if the “Modern Time Sign.” option is activated to the right. In that case, you use this column to specify for which tracks the time signature is shown – see below.
Staff size Modern Time Signature When this is activated, time signatures are shown above the staves rather than in them. You can set the size of the modern time signature in the Time Sign section on the Project–Notation Style subpage of the Score Settings dialog. When modern time signature is selected, you use the “T” column in the track list in the Layout page to specify for which tracks time signatures are displayed.
Hiding/showing objects Graphic notation By hiding bar lines, you can produce graphic notation. Hiding notes meant for playback only If you have recorded your music, you may have added glissandos, falls, etc. that sound fine but result in a lot of unnecessary notes. You probably want to hide those notes and insert the suitable symbols instead. Hiding To hide items, proceed as follows: 1. Select all the items you want to hide. 2.
Coloring notes Showing all objects If you select “Hide/Show” from the Scores menu again, all hidden objects are displayed. • You can also use the Reset Layout function to permanently display hidden notes and objects, as described in the section “Reset Layout” on page 881. Showing a hidden note While all hidden notes can be made visible by ticking the Hidden Notes checkbox on the filter bar, you may want to make some of them “permanently” visible again: 1.
Editing existing bar lines 3. Click OK. If you need more splits, double-click on any multi-rest symbol and proceed as above. ! The program automatically splits multi-rests at time signature changes, double bar lines, repeat signs and rehearsal marks.
Creating upbeats 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. Ö The bar line types are part of the Project layer – any changes you make are reflected in all layouts.
Setting the number of bars across the page By hiding rests With this method, the first bar actually gets the same time signature as the following bars – it only looks like an upbeat bar: 1. Enter the notes in the upbeat into the first bar. The first bar before making any adjustments 2. Hide the rests that precede the notes. 3. Drag the bar line between measure one and two to adjust the width of the bar. After hiding the rest and dragging the bar line 4.
Moving bar lines 2. Open the Scores menu and select “Number Of Bars” from the Advanced Layout submenu. The Number of Bars dialog opens. 3. Set the desired number of bars across the page. • 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 Moving bar lines on all staves If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] when dragging a bar line, all bar lines below the one you drag are moved accordingly. Moving a single bar line separately If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging a bar line, the widths of the surrounding bars are not affected. Making an indent on one line • To create an indent, simply drag the first or last bar line on a staff. The sizes of all measures are adjusted proportionally.
Dragging staves Dragging staves For the following operations, you can use the Object Selection tool or the Layout tool. Ö Dragging staves can only be done in Page Mode. Adding space between two grand staves 1. Locate the first staff in the lower of the two systems that you want to spread apart. 2. Click just to the left of the first bar line and keep the mouse button pressed. The entire staff is selected. 3.
Dragging staves 3. Drag downwards or upwards and release the mouse button. The new distance is set for the two staves. Dragging apart the staves in a piano system. Setting the same distance between staves in several systems 1. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the desired staff as described above. 2. Release the mouse button. The corresponding staves in all following systems are moved accordingly. Moving one staff only You may want to move one staff without affecting any other staff in any way: 1.
Adding brackets and braces Adding brackets and braces Brackets and braces are added on the Layout page of the Score Settings dialog. The settings you make are specific for the current layout, i.e. you can have different brackets or braces set up for different track configurations. 1. Open the Score Settings and select the Layout page. In the track list, you can find columns for braces ( { ) and brackets ( [ ). 2. Click in one of the columns and drag downwards in the list to encompass the desired staves.
Auto Layout Auto Layout This item on the Scores menu brings up a dialog with several options. Activating one of these makes the program “go through” the score and make adjustments to measure widths, staff distances, etc. Exactly which parts and properties of the score are affected depends on which option you activate/deactivate. ! The automatic layout adjustments are done just as if you yourself had made them manually.
Auto Layout Hide Empty Staves This hides all empty staves, from the active staff to the end of the score. Note that polyphonic/split staves are in this case treated as one entity, if the clef in the upper system differs from that in the lower system. That is, a piano staff is considered “empty” only if there are no notes on either staff. • If you have activated the “Hidden” option on the filter bar, hidden staves are indicated by a marker with the text “Hide:Name” (where “Name” is the staff name).
Reset Layout Ö The functions “Move Bars” and “Move All Bars” (“Move Bars” + “All Pages”) can also be accessed via the Staff context menu (opened by right-clicking on the blue rectangle to the left of the active staff). Reset Layout This function allows you to delete invisible layout elements, which in effect restores the score to default settings. 1. Select “Reset Layout…” from the Scores menu. The Reset Layout dialog appears.
Breaking bar lines Breaking bar lines 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”. Manually You can break the bar lines in one grand staff or in several grand staves and reconnect them. Breaking bar lines in one grand staff 1. Select the Erase tool. 2. Click on a bar line connecting the two staves. All bar lines between these two staves (except the first and last) are broken.
Scoring for drums About this chapter 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.
Setting up the drum map 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). Setting up the drum map To set up the drum map, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Score Editor for the drums track. This should be a MIDI track to which you have assigned a drum map. 2. Open the Score Settings dialog and select the Staff page. 3.
Setting up the drum map Using note head pairs Not only can you have different drum sounds displayed with different note heads, you can also display different note heads for different note values: 1. Activate the “Use Head Pairs” checkbox. The “Head Symbol” column now shows two head symbols for each drum sound. All head symbols are arranged in pairs – by default an “empty” head and a “filled” head.
Setting up a staff for drum scoring Setting up a staff for drum scoring 1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Options tab. 2. Make sure that “Use Score Drum Map” is activated. 3. If you want a single line drum staff, activate the corresponding option (see “Using “Single Line Drum Staff”” on page 886). 4. If you want flat beams, activate the corresponding option (see “Handling beaming” on page 797). 5.
Creating tablature About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - How to create tablature, automatically and manually. - How to control the appearance of the tablature notes. - How to edit tablature. Cubase is able to produce score in tablature format. This can be done automatically, by “converting” recorded MIDI information. You can also create a tablature staff from scratch and enter the notes “by hand”.
Creating tablature manually 5. If you want to use a capodaster, e.g. on the forth fret, enter the corresponding value in the Capo field. The tablature changes accordingly. 6. Make the desired settings for “No Stems/Rests” and “MIDI Channel 1–6”. No Stems/Rests gives you a score where the notes have no stems and where all the rests are hidden. The “MIDI Channel 1–6” feature is described below. 7. Click Apply. The tablature appears. You get as many note lines as you have activated strings.
Tablature number appearance 3. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Options tab. 4. Set the “System Lines” to as many strings as the instrument you are scoring for has. 5. Raise the Add Space value to 1 or 2. You need a little extra space between note lines to make room for the numbered note heads. Suggested system line settings for guitar tablature 6. On the Tablature tab, activate “Tablature Mode”. 7. Set up whatever other parameters you need in the dialog, and click Apply.
Editing 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 an “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.
The score and MIDI playback About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: - How to use the Arranger mode to have the playback follow the structure of the score. - How to use the “mapped” Dynamics symbols. Ö Cubase only: You can also play back articulations in the Score using the Expression Map and Note Expression functions, see “Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 555 and “Note Expression” on page 565.
Working with mapped dynamics Setting up the symbols You can make settings for the symbols in the Dynamics Mapping Setup dialog. On the left in the upper section, the available symbols are listed. • To open the dialog, right-click on one of the symbols on the Dynamics Mapping tab in the Symbols Inspector and select “Dynamics Mapping…”. When mapped dynamics symbols have been added to the score, you can also double-click on a symbol to open the dialog.
Working with mapped dynamics The Merge modes When you use the parameter VST 3 Volume in the notes and for the dynamics symbols, the result depends on the Merge Mode. The following modes are available: Mode Description Average When this is selected, the average of the two volume messages will be used for the notes. Merge When this is selected, the VST 3 Volume setting for the Dynamics symbols modulates the existing VST 3 Volume setting of the notes.
Working with mapped dynamics • Likewise, if a crescendo symbol is not followed by a dynamic symbol, an end value will be calculated automatically. For a crescendo, this is one value above the start value, and for a decrescendo one value below the start value. Modifying/Editing dynamics symbols You can change the settings for the dynamics symbols at any time in the Dynamics Mapping Setup dialog, as described above.
Tips and Tricks Overview 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. Useful editing techniques Use this section to find out more about some editing techniques that help you to use the score functions more efficiently.
Useful editing techniques Using the bar handles Double-clicking a bar handle opens the Bar Copy dialog. This function is great for copying accents, but you can also use it for copying drum phrases, etc. For more information, see “Moving and duplicating with the bar handles” on page 828. • If you hold down [Shift] and double-click on a bar handle, this and the next bar are selected. This is handy when copying phrases of two or more bars in one go.
Frequently asked questions Examples and scales If you are creating scale examples and similar, you can use the Real Book option and manually hide all symbols at the beginning of the first staff to make the score appear like separate unconnected “lines”. Remember you can also hide the bar lines. An example scale without bar lines Controlling the order and appearance of grace notes Normally, grace notes are beamed. Their order under the beam is controlled by their order in the track.
Frequently asked questions There are a number of short rests after my notes. Your Rests value for Display Quantize might be set to too small a note value. Raise it. Also check the “Clean Lengths” setting. When I change the length of a note, nothing happens. This is because the Display Quantize value puts a restriction on what note values can be displayed. Check that Display Quantize is set to the smallest note value you have in your project.
Frequently asked questions When I select a note, nothing is shown on the info line. The note is probably tied to another note. This means that the second note does not really exist, it is just a graphic indication that the main note is long. Try selecting the main note instead. Symbols from the Layout Symbols tab are sometimes invisible when I open the score. This is not a malfunction. Those symbols are part of a layout.
If you wish you had a faster computer The note has an accidental when it shouldn’t, or it doesn’t when it should. Maybe the note is simply of the wrong pitch? Click on it (using the Object Selection tool) and look at the info line (if this is not shown, see “The info line” on page 735). Move it to the correct pitch (see “Editing pitches of individual notes” on page 763).
Index A Accelerando 799 Accents Above staves 816 Above stems 816 Accidentals About 793 Distance from note 795 ACID® loops 340 Acoustic feedback 490 Sample Editor 333 Score Editor 761 VariAudio 365 Activate Project 57 Adapt (Display Quantize) 774 ADAT Lightpipe 653 Adding chords 549, 551 AES/SPDIF Digital Audio 653 AES17 Meters 203 Aftertouch Deleting 507 Editing 504 Recording 127 AIFF files 645 Algorithms Limitations 324 Sample Editor 340 Time stretching 322 Aligning Dynamics 834 Text 847 Alignment level (
B Auditioning Acoustic feedback 333 Audio Part Editor 373 MIDI editors 490 Pool 386 Project window 69 Sample Editor 333 Speaker tool 333 Using key commands 333, 373 Auto fades Global settings 150 Track settings 150 Auto layout About 879 Hiding empty staves 880 Moving bars 879 Moving staves 879 Auto Quantize 127, 774 Score Editor 535 Auto Save 59 Automatic scales 545 Automatic voicings 544 Automation Auto-Latch mode 290 Cross-Over mode 291 Delta indicator 281 Editing in Project Browser 635 Following events
D Chord events 543 Adding 543, 551 Adding chords 551 Assigning to MIDI effects or VSTis 554 Auditioning 543 Chord type 543 Converting to MIDI 552 Editing 543 Extracting from MIDI 552 Getting suggestions 551 Mapping offset 544 Resolving Display Conflicts 543 Tension 543 Voicings 543 Chord functions About 542 Chord progression Creating 551 Chord symbols Global settings 844 Inserting manually 841 Chord track About 542 Auditioning 542 Controlling MIDI or audio playback 553 Following Chords 553 Inspector sectio
E Device ports Selecting for busses 29 Setting up 28 Diminuendo Drawing 833 Keeping horizontal 834 Direct Monitoring Control Room 226 Display Quantize 534 About 726 Auto 774 In polyphonic voices 786 Rests 728 Tool 729, 750 Display Transpose About 535, 776 Disable 744 Dithering 233 Draw tool 92 MIDI parts 92 Score Editor 816 Drawing In Sample Editor 335 MIDI controllers 504 MIDI notes 491 MIDI parts 92 Drum Editor Creating and editing notes 516 Muting drum sounds 517 Selecting drum maps 520 Drum maps About
G Follow Chord Track 546, 553 Auto 546 Chords 546 Directly 546 Roots 546 Scale events 546 Single Voice 546 Synchronizing Track Data 546 Voicings 546 Fonts 857 Score 846 Frame count 651 Frame rates Mismatch 673 Synchronization 652 Video 673 Free Warp About 345 Freeze Edits 316 MIDI Quantize 142 Tracks 234 VST instruments 258 FX chain presets 195 FX channel tracks About 235 Adding effects for 236 Mixing down to file 638 Routing sends to 237 Setting up 31, 235 G Gain 304 Gap mode Chord Assistant 550 Gate Str
K K Key (Score Editor) Editing 769 Inserting changes 768 Setting initial 738 Setting local keys 743 Setting up 535 Key commands About 711 Conventions 10 Default 717 Importing 715 Loading 715 Modifying 712 Removing 713 Resetting 716 Searching for 713 Keyboard navigation MixConsole 183 Keyboard symbols Adding 820 L Lanes About 94 Audio Part Editor 372 Latency 22 Monitoring 118 VST System Link 662 Lay text 852 Layout settings About 866 Equal spacing 867 Modern time signature 868 Multi-Rests 867 Real Book 867
M MIDI Channel settings 125 Cycle recording 127 Dissolve parts 474 Extracting from audio 366 Local On/Off 20 Record modes 126 MIDI channel In drum maps 519 Selecting for tracks 125 Send effects 457 MIDI clock Destinations 658 Synchronization 653 MIDI controllers Automation setup 300 MIDI devices Defining new for patch selection 462 Device Manager 461 Editing patches 465 Installing 463 Selecting patches 464 MIDI editors Default editor 482 MIDI Input function 500 MIDI effects About 455 Deactivating 459 Inser
N N Navigating MixConsole 183 Noise Gate 305 Normalize Audio effect 306 Note Expression About 565 Editing data 572 MIDI controllers 566 Overdubbing 570 Recording 570 Recording via MIDI 571 Setting up parameters 567 VST3 controllers 565 Note layer symbols 811 About 811 Adding 816 Note length Changing in Score Editor 765 Note symbols Adding 816 Resizing 830 Notepad MixConsole 210 Notes Editing via MIDI 500, 764 NPL files 390 Nudge buttons 106 MIDI editors 496 Project window 73 Nudge key commands 828 Nudging
Q Project cursor 731 Moving 102 Selecting events with 72 Snapping to 53 Project Logical Editor About 597 Actions 605 Filter conditions 598 Functions 607 Macros 608 Opening 598 Overview 598 Presets 608 Project overview line 50 Project scrubbing 105 Project Setup (dialog) 62 Projects Activating 57 Archiving 60 Auto Save (command) 59 Backup 60 Creating 55 Opening 57 Reverting to last version 59 Save as Template (command) 58 Saving 58 Template 59 Punch In 111 Punch Out 112 Q Quantize Automatic during recordin
S Scale events About 544 Adding 545 Assistant 545 Auditioning 545 Automatic scales 545 Changing 545 Follow Chord Track 546 Showing 544 Scale standards Meters 203 Score 776, 874 Adding notes 756 Bows 795 Composite signatures 739 Creating chord symbols 842 Deleting notes 770 Display markers 861 Displaying 533 Ending symbols 837 Explode function 751, 784 Extended toolbar 735 Force screen redraw 746 Gluing notes 765 Grouping signatures 798 Hiding stems 795 Lay text 852 Layers 811 Layout layer symbols 812 Lock
T Status line Drum Editor 514 Key Editor 485 List Editor 522 Project window 48 Score Editor 735 Score Editor (basic) 531 Staves Active staff 533, 734 Changing the split point 767 Displaying staff names 855 Long and short names 855 Moving 876, 879 Options 777 Presets 772 Size 868 Spacing 895 Split staves 534 Steinberg Hub 55 Stem direction About 790 In polyphonic voices 790 Manual flip 791 Set Note Info dialog 796 Step Input 501 Stereo Flip 311 Strip presets 199 Strip Silence 319 Surround About 266 Applying
U Track Quick Controls 442 About 430 Assigning parameters 431 Controlling the MixConsole 433 Remote control setup 432 Removing 432 Renaming 431 Replacing 431 Track types 40 Tracks Adding 87 Adding events 91 Audio channel configuration 114 Coloring 88 Default time base 90 Disabling 93, 106 Duplicating 93 Enabling 106 Folding 93 Freezing 234 Importing/Exporting 696 Linear time base 90 Locking 79 Moving 93 Musical 90 Naming 88 Record-enabling 110 Removing 87 Selecting 92 Soloing 79 Transcription 747 Transform
W VST System Link About 660 Activating 663 Connections 661 Latency 662 MIDI 665 Putting computers online 664 Requirements 660 Setting up sync 661 Settings 662 W Warp markers Editing 346 Resetting 346 Warping segments VariAudio 362 Wave 64 files 646 Wave files 646 Waveform display Sample Editor 331 Waveform zooming 65 Window layouts 698 Windows 10 Windows Media Audio files Exporting 648 Importing 648, 689 Surround format (Pro) 648 Word clock About 653 Workspaces 698 Wrap Controls (track list) 89 Z Zero cr
