Operation Manual
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer Thanks to: Georg Bruns The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement.
Table of Contents
10 Part I: Getting into the details 103 The Transpose functions 11 About this manual 12 Welcome! 104 104 107 13 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 14 14 18 20 20 20 About this chapter Setting up busses Using the busses Setting up Group and FX channels About monitoring External instruments/effects (Cubase only) 25 The Project window 26 28 34 56 Background Window Overview Operations Options 59 Playback and the Transport panel 60 61 63 65 Background Operations Options and Se
169 VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 170 170 170 172 174 174 175 175 178 179 219 The Sample Editor 220 221 224 230 231 234 238 241 243 Introduction VST Instrument channels vs.
299 Remote controlling Cubase 372 VST Expression 300 300 301 302 304 304 373 374 377 Introduction Setting Up Operations The Generic Remote device Track Quick Controls Apple Remote (Macintosh only) 380 The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer 381 381 382 382 386 387 389 389 389 305 MIDI realtime parameters and effects 306 306 306 310 313 Introduction The Inspector – General handling The Inspector sections MIDI effects Managing plug-ins 314 Using MIDI devices 315 315 320 323 Background M
427 Synchronization 479 Key commands 428 428 429 430 431 436 437 438 438 440 443 480 480 483 484 Background Synchronization signals Synchronizing the transport vs.
511 Entering and editing notes 540 Additional note and rest formatting 512 512 513 514 516 517 518 518 519 520 521 521 521 522 522 523 541 541 541 542 542 543 544 545 545 545 549 550 551 552 552 About this chapter Score settings Note values and positions Adding and editing notes Selecting notes Moving notes Duplicating notes Cut, copy and paste Editing pitches of individual notes Changing the length of notes Splitting a note in two Working with the Display Quantize tool Split (piano) staves Strategies:
590 Working with layouts 617 The score and MIDI playback 591 591 591 591 591 592 592 618 618 618 619 About this chapter Background: Layouts Creating a layout Opening a layout Layout operations Using layouts – an example Marker Track to Form 620 Tips and Tricks 621 621 622 624 593 Working with MusicXML 594 595 Introduction Importing and exporting MusicXML files About this chapter Layout settings Staff size Hiding/showing objects Coloring notes Multiple rests Editing bar lines Creating upbeats Setting
Part I: Getting into the details
1 About this manual
Welcome! This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Cubase. Here you will find detailed information about all the features and functions in the program. About the program versions The documentation covers two program versions; Cubase and Cubase Studio, for two different operating systems or “platforms”; Windows and Mac OS X. Some features described in the documentation are only applicable to the Cubase version.
2 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses
About this chapter Here’s an example: Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog inputs and outputs and digital stereo connections (10 inputs and outputs all in all). Furthermore, you work with a surround setup in 5.1 format (Cubase only). Here’s a list of busses you may wish to add: 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.
Preparations Mac OS X only: Retrieving channel names Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs and outputs on your audio hardware. For example, if you are using a 5.1 surround speaker setup, you should name the outputs according to which speaker they are connected to (Left, Right, Center and so on). For some audio cards, you can automatically retrieve the ASIO channel names for the ports of your audio hardware: 1. Open the Device Setup dialog via the Devices menu. 2.
The VST Connections window Column Description You add and set up busses in the VST Connections window, opened from the Devices menu. Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button in the Bus Name column) this column shows which physical inputs/outputs on your audio hardware are used by the bus. Click You can route the click to a specific output bus, regardless of the actual Control Room output, or indeed when the Control Room is disabled. Adding a bus 1.
1. Select the surround bus in the list and right-click on it. When creating new audio, group or FX channels in the mixer, they will automatically be routed to the default bus. A pop-up menu appears. ! The default bus is indicated by an orange colored speaker icon next to its name in the VST Connections window. 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.
Using the busses • If you press [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select an input or output bus in the Track list or the Mixer Routing View (Cubase only), it will be chosen for all selected channels. This section describes briefly how to use the input and output busses you have created. For details refer to the chapters “Recording” on page 66 and “The mixer” on page 109. This makes it easy to quickly set several channels to use the same input or output.
Viewing the busses in the mixer Here you can do the following: In the mixer, busses are represented by input and output channels (shown in separate panes to the left and right in the window). You can show or hide these independently by clicking the Hide Input Channels and Hide Output Channels buttons in the common panel: • Check and adjust the recording level using the Input Gain knobs and/or the level fader. See “Setting input levels” on page 71. • Change the phase of the input signal.
Setting up Group and FX channels Setting the monitoring level When you are using the Control Room for monitoring, this is set in the Control Room Mixer, see “The Control Room Mixer” on page 141. When you are monitoring via the Main Mix bus, you can adjust the monitoring level in the regular Project Mixer. The Group/FX tab in the VST Connections window shows all Group channels and FX channels in your project. You can create new Group or FX channels by clicking the corresponding Add button.
6. Click in the Device Port column for the Return Bus “Left” and “Right” ports and select the inputs on your audio hardware. 2. Connect an unused input pair on your audio hardware to the output pair on your hardware device. ! Please note that it is possible to select input/output ports for external effects/instruments that are already used (i.e. that have been selected as inputs/outputs in the VST Connections window).
• A parameter window appears, showing the Delay, Send Gain and Return Gain settings for the external FX bus. You can adjust these as necessary while playing back. The parameter window also provides the “Measure Effect’s Loop Delay for Delay Compensation” button. This is the same function as the “Check User Delay” option in the VST Connections window. It provides Cubase with a Delay value to be used for delay compensation.
How to use the external instrument Favorites are device configurations that you can recall at any time, like a library of external devices that are not constantly connected to your computer. They also allow you to save different configurations for the same device, e.g. a multi-effect board or an effect that provides both a mono and a stereo mode. Once you have set up the external instrument in the VST Connections window, you can use it as a VST Instrument.
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 150 and “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on page 169. ! Note that you have to perform Freeze in realtime. Otherwise external effects will not be taken into account.
3 The Project window
Background Track type Description MIDI For recording and playing back MIDI parts. Each MIDI track has a corresponding MIDI channel strip in the mixer. It is possible to edit MIDI tracks directly in the Project window, using the Edit In-Place function (see “The InPlace Editor” on page 356). A MIDI track can have any number of automation tracks for automating mixer channel parameters, insert and send effect settings etc.
• Audio events can be displayed and edited directly in the Project window, but you can also work with audio parts containing several events. This is useful if you have a number of events which you want to treat as one unit in the project. Audio parts also contain information about the time position in the project. and end, i.e. which section of the audio clip will be played back by the audio event.
Window Overview Toolbar Info line Project overview Ruler Inspector The Track list with various track types The event display, showing audio parts and events, MIDI parts, automation, markers, etc. The Track list • The Track list area for an automation track (opened by clicking the Show/Hide Automation button on a track): The Track list displays all the tracks used in a project. It contains name fields and settings for the tracks. Different track types have different controls in the Track list.
Ö Please note that not all Inspector tabs are shown by default. You can show/hide Inspector sections by rightclicking on an Inspector tab and activating/deactivating the desired option(s). 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 (see “Handling tracks” on page 38), the Inspector shows the setting for the first (topmost) selected track.
Parameter Description Instrument tracks Output Routing Here you decide to which output the track should be routed. For audio tracks you select an output bus (see “Setting up busses” on page 14) or Group channel, for MIDI tracks you select a MIDI output and for Instrument tracks, you select the Instrument to which it is routed.
FX channel tracks are automatically placed in a special folder, for easier management. When this folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and the FX channels it contains. You can click one of the FX channels shown in the folder to have the Inspector show the settings for that FX channel – this way you don’t have to “open” a folder track to access the settings for the FX channels in it.
Project Root Key Snap on/off Autoscroll and Suspend Autoscroll when Editing Grid pop-up menu Snap mode Quantize value • If you edit a value on the info line, the value change is applied to all selected elements, relatively to the current values. Snap to Zero Crossing If you have two audio events selected and the first is one bar long and the other two bars long, the info line shows the length of the first event (one bar).
The ruler • If you use the “Timecode” or “User” options and the option “Show Timecode Subframes” is activated in the Preferences (Transport page), the frames will also display subframes. The ruler at the top of the event display shows the timeline. Initially, the Project window ruler uses the display format specified in the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 34), as do all other rulers and position displays in the project.
Operations The following settings are available in the Project Setup dialog: Creating a new project Setting Description You create a new project in the following way: Start The start time of the project. Allows you to have the project start at another time than zero. Also used for setting the sync start position when synchronizing Cubase to external devices (see “Setting up Cubase for external sync to timecode” on page 433).
Zoom and view options • You can zoom the contents of parts and events vertically, using the waveform zoom slider in the top right corner of the event display. Zooming in the Project window is done according to the standard zoom techniques, with the following special notes: This is useful when viewing quiet audio passages. • When you are using the Zoom tool (magnifying glass), the result depends on the option “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal Zooming Only” in the Preferences (Editing–Tools page).
• You can use the Track scale pop-up (opened by clicking the arrow button above the vertical zoom control) to set the number of tracks to view in the current Project window. 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.
• If you want to rename a preset, select “Organize…” from the pop-up menu. In the dialog that appears, select the desired preset in the list and click the Rename button. A second dialog opens, allowing you to type in a new name for the preset. Click OK to close the dialogs. ! Description Transparent Events When this is activated, events and parts will be transparent, showing the waveforms and MIDI events only.
Option Description Show Controllers Governs whether non-note events (controllers, etc.) should be shown in MIDI parts in the Project window. • You can drag the track view rectangle to view other sections of the project. This can also be done by clicking anywhere in the upper part of the overview – the track view rectangle will be moved to where you clicked. The number of tracks shown will not change.
Ö Note that you can also automatically enlarge the selected track, see “The Enlarge Selected Track option” on page 36. Once you have created tracks, you can manipulate and rearrange them in various ways: • To rename a track, double-click in the name field and type in a new name. Disabling audio tracks If you hold down any modifier key when pressing [Return] to close the name field, all events on the track will get the name you entered.
In the Preferences (Editing–Project & Mixer page), you can find the following option affecting the track folding behavior: • You can resize the upper part by clicking and dragging the divider between the Track list sections. • Deep Track Folding When this is activated, any folding settings you make in the Track Folding submenu of the Project menu also affect the sub-elements of the tracks, i.e.
• By selecting “Audio File…” or “Video File…” from the Import submenu on the File menu. Musical time base selected This opens a file dialog, allowing you to locate the file you wish to import. When you import a file this way, a clip is created for the file and an event that plays the whole clip is inserted on the selected track, at the position of the project cursor.
To add events to a MIDI part, you use the tools and functions in a MIDI editor (see “The Key Editor – Overview” on page 340). Adding events to audio parts is done in the Audio Part Editor (see “Window overview” on page 255) by pasting or by using drag and drop. • Open Options Dialog An Options dialog appears when you import, allowing you to select whether you want to copy the files to the Audio folder and/or convert them to the project settings.
Scrubbing Selecting events The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio by playing back, forwards or backwards, at any speed: Selecting events is done using any of the following methods: 1. Select the Scrub tool. • Use the Arrow tool. Note that the Play tool and the Scrub tool share the same tool button. If the tool icon on the toolbar doesn’t show a “scrub symbol”, first click on the icon to select it, then click again and select “Scrub” from the pop-up menu.
• If the option “Auto Select Events under Cursor” is activated in the Preferences (Editing page), all events on the selected track(s) that are “touched” by the project cursor are automatically selected. • The cross hair cursor is only available for tools where such a function is of any use. The Mute tool for example does not use a cross hair cursor, as you have to click directly on an event to mute it.
• Use the Nudge buttons in the toolbar. Note: These move the selected events to the left or right. The amount of movement depends on the selected display format (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 34) and the value set on the Grid pop-up menu. ! • When you duplicate audio events, the copies are always shared. This means that shared copies of audio events always refer to the same audio clip (see “Audio processing” on page 205).
Ö If you split a MIDI part so that the split position intersects one or several MIDI notes, the result depends on the option “Split MIDI Events” in the Preferences (Editing– MIDI page). 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.
To select one of the resizing modes, select the Arrow tool and then click again on the Arrow tool icon on the toolbar. This opens a pop-up menu from which you can select one of the resizing mode options. • It is also possible to resize events by using the Trim buttons (located in the Nudge palette) on the toolbar. This will move the start or end position of the selected Event(s) by the amount set on the Grid pop-up menu.
4. Release the mouse button. Group editing operations include: The part is “stretched” or “compressed” to fit the new length. • • • • • • For MIDI parts, this means that the note events are stretched (moved and resized). • • • Controller data will be moved. • For audio parts, this means that the events are moved, and that the referenced audio files are time stretched to fit the new length. Selecting events. Moving and duplicating events. Resizing events.
• To unlock an event (turn off all lock options), select it and select “Unlock” from the Edit menu. another track in the Track list will automatically solo that track instead – the solo state “moves” with the track selection. If the option isn’t activated, the track you solo stays soloed, regardless of the selection. • 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.
Editing in Lane Display mode 4. To turn off Lanes mode, select “Lanes Off” from the Lane Display Type pop-up menu. When you are recording in Stacked cycle recording mode, each take ends up on a separate lane on the track, see “Recording audio in Stacked mode” on page 77 and “Cycle Record mode: Stacked/Stacked 2 (No Mute)” on page 82. However, you can also select this lane mode manually for individual tracks, and use it when editing in the Project window.
Range editing Adjusting the size of the selection range Editing in the Project window isn’t necessarily restricted to handling whole events and parts. You can also work with selection ranges, which are independent from the event/part and track boundaries. You can adjust the size of a selection range in the following ways: • By dragging its edges. The pointer takes the shape of a double arrow when you move it over an edge of the selection range.
Making selection ranges for several non-contiguous tracks You can create selection ranges that cover several tracks by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]. However, it is also possible to exclude tracks from a selection range: Function Description Paste Pastes the clipboard data at the start position and track of the current selection. Existing events are not moved to make room for the pasted data. Paste at Origin Pastes the clipboard data back at its original position.
Region operations Regions are sections within a clip, with various uses. While regions are perhaps best created and edited in the Sample Editor (see “Working with regions” on page 228), the following region functions are available in the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu: Function Description Event or Range as Region This function is available when one or several audio events or selection ranges are selected.
• Muting a folder part. This will mute its contained events and parts. Editing markers in the Marker window Tracks inside a folder can be edited as one entity by performing the editing directly on the folder part containing the tracks. You can also edit individual tracks within the folder by showing the contained tracks, selecting parts and opening editors as usual. Double-clicking a folder part opens the editors for the corresponding track classes present in the folder.
The following actions can be performed in the Marker window: • Selecting markers • Adding markers • Drawing markers Click the Add button or press [Insert] (Windows only) on the computer keyboard to add position markers at the current project cursor position Select “Cycle Markers” from the Show pop-up menu and click the Add button to add a cycle marker between the left and right locator. Use the Pencil tool (or press [Alt]/[Option] and use the Arrow tool) to draw position markers.
Editing markers in the Project Browser Exactly how Snap works depends on which mode is selected on the Snap mode pop-up menu. If you have a Marker track in the Project window, you can create and edit all marker parameters, including marker IDs, in the Project Browser. For details about editing markers in the Project Browser see “Editing the Marker track” on page 418. Options The Snap function The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in the Project window.
Events Grid + Cursor In this mode, the start and end positions of other events and parts become “magnetic”. This means that if you drag an event to a position near the start or end of another event, it is automatically aligned with the start or end of the other event. For audio events, the position of the snap point is also magnetic (see “Adjusting the snap point” on page 226). This is a combination of the “Grid” and “Magnetic Cursor” modes.
Proceed as follows: 1. Open a project that contains audio or MIDI parts/ events. 2. Enable both the “Autoscroll” and the “Suspend Autoscroll when Editing” buttons (both buttons turn blue). 3. Start playback. 4. Edit an audio or MIDI part/event of your project (e.g. click and drag it to a different location on its track). The Autoscroll button will turn orange. Autoscrolling is now suspended, i.e.
4 Playback and the Transport panel
Background Active Arranger chain Arranger Selector This chapter describes the various methods available for controlling Playback and Transport functions in Cubase. Current Arranger event Activate Arranger Mode Previous/Next Arranger event The Transport panel Below you can find a brief description of each item on the Transport panel. Metronome click on/off The pictures below show the Transport panel with all controls visible (note that the Jog/Shuttle control is available in Cubase only).
About Pre-roll and Post-roll • If the option “Locate when Clicked in Empty Space” is activated in the Preferences (Transport page) you can click anywhere in an empty section of the Project window to move the cursor position. These items are described in the chapter “Recording”, see “About Pre-roll and Post-roll” on page 84. Changing the Transport panel setup • By changing the value in any of the position displays.
Ö When cycle mode is activated on the Transport panel, the area between the left and right locator will be repeated (cycled) on playback. About the Transport panel display formats However, if the right locator is positioned before the left, this will work as a “jump” or “skip mode” – when the project cursor reaches the right locator it will immediately jump to the left locator position and continue playback from there.
Options and Settings The Shuttle Speed control (Cubase only) The “Return to Start Position on Stop” preference This setting is found on the Transport page in the Preferences (found on the File menu under Windows, or on the Cubase menu under Mac OS X). The shuttle speed control (the outer wheel on the Transport panel) allows you to play the project at any playback speed, forwards or backwards. This provides a quick way to locate or “cue” to any position in the project.
Playback functions At the beginning of the first chorus you have another program change event which makes the same synth switch to a string sound. Apart from the standard transport controls on the Transport panel, you can also find a number of functions on the Transport menu that can be used to control playback.
The Virtual Keyboard 3. Activate the Record button and press a key on your computer keyboard to enter a note. The Virtual Keyboard can be displayed in the Transport panel. It allows you to play and record MIDI notes by using your computer keyboard or mouse. This is useful if you have no external MIDI instrument at hand and you do not want to draw in notes with the Pencil tool. The Virtual Keyboard can perform all functions that can be controlled by external MIDI keyboards, e.g.
5 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: Record Enable in the Inspector, Track list and mixer • You have properly set up, connected and calibrated your audio hardware.
• If you activate recording during playback, Cubase will immediately enter Record mode and start recording from the current project cursor position. • If the Punch Out button is activated on the Transport panel, recording will be deactivated when the project cursor reaches the right locator. This is known as “manual punch in”. This is known as “automatic punch out”.
Audio recording specifics Audio pre-record This feature allows you to capture up to 1 minute of any incoming audio you play in Stop mode or during playback, “after the fact”. This is possible because Cubase can capture audio input in buffer memory, even when not recording. 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, record format (bit depth) and record file type.
• The higher the bit depth, the larger the files and the more strain is put on the disk system. Selecting an input bus for a track Here we assume that you have added and set up the required input busses (see “Setting up busses” on page 14). Before you record, you need to specify from which input bus the track should record. You can do this in the Inspector or in the mixer: If this is an issue, you may want to lower the record format setting.
Recording from busses 4. Use the file dialog that appears to navigate to the desired folder (or create a new folder with the Create button). You can also select an output bus, a group bus or an FX channel bus as an Input for your recording. Tip: if you want to have separate folders for different types of material (speech, ambient sounds, music, etc.), you can create subfolders within the Project’s “Audio” folder and assign different tracks to different subfolders.
3. Play back the audio and check the level meter for the input channel. The signal should be as loud as possible without exceeding 0dB (the Clipping indicator for the input bus should not light up). Adjusting the Input Gain. 3. Play back the audio and check the level meter of the input channel. The Clipping indicator The signal should be reasonably loud but should not reach 0dB (the Clipping indicator for the input bus should not light up). 4.
Monitoring • Manual. This option allows you to turn input monitoring on or off by clicking the Monitor button in the Inspector, the Track list or in the mixer. In this context, “monitoring” means listening to the input signal during recording. There are three fundamentally different ways to do this: via Cubase, externally (by listening to the signal before it reaches Cubase), or by using ASIO Direct Monitoring (which is a combination of both other methods – see below). • While Record Enabled.
Ö If you want to use external monitoring, you need to make sure that monitoring via Cubase is not activated as well. Ö If you are using RME Audio Hammerfall DSP audio hardware, make sure that the pan law is set to -3dB in the card’s preferences. Select the “Manual” monitoring mode in the Preferences (VST page) and do not activate the Monitor buttons. Recording ASIO Direct Monitoring Recording is done using any of the general recording methods (see “Basic recording methods” on page 67).
Recording overlapping events Recording audio in cycle mode The basic rule for audio tracks is that each track can play back a single audio event at a time. This means that if two or more events are overlapping, only one of them will be heard at any given time. If you are recording audio in cycle mode, the result depends on two factors: • The “Cycle Record Mode” setting on the Transport panel. • The “Audio Cycle Record Mode” setting in the Preferences (Record–Audio page).
Create Events mode (Preferences) The events after splitting. Note that since the original take events overlap each other, clicking with the Scissors tool will split all takes at the same position. 2. For each section of the take, use the “To Front” function to bring the best take to the front. This way, you can quickly combine the best sections of each take, using the first vocal line from one take, the second line from another take, and so on.
To play back the different “takes”, proceed as follows: • The events are stacked above each other, each on a different lane. 1. In the Project window, holding [Alt]/[Option], rightclick the event that was created during cycle recording. Provided that the “Popup Toolbox on Right Click” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tools page) is activated, this brings up the context menu. 2. Select the “Set To Region” menu item. A submenu appears with the takes you recorded during cycle record.
5. To turn off the lane display mode for the track, click the Lane Display Type button in the Track list and select “Lanes Off”. An example This example shows how to apply the “SoftClipper” effect while recording. Note that this is only an example. The principle is the same for all effects (or combinations of effects). If the button is hidden, you can bring it to view in the Track Controls Settings dialog – see “Customizing track controls” on page 472. 1.
Ö If you just want to use the Thru function for a MIDI track without recording, activate the monitor button for the track instead. Now the extended panel for the input channel shows the insert slots. 6. Click on an insert slot and select an effect from the context menu. This is useful e.g. if you want to try out different sounds or play a VST instrument in realtime without recording your playing.
3. Click the track name in the Inspector to make sure the topmost section is shown. • If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] and select a MIDI output, this is selected for all selected MIDI tracks. 3. Use the Channel pop-up menu to select a MIDI channel for the track. 4. Pull down the Input Routing pop-up menu and select an input. • If you set the track to MIDI channel “Any”, each MIDI event on the track will be sent out on the channel stored in the event itself. The available MIDI inputs are shown.
Recording Recording MIDI in cycle mode Recording MIDI is done according to the basic recording methods (see “Basic recording methods” on page 67). When you finish recording, a part containing MIDI events is created in the Project window.
Recording different types of MIDI messages Cycle Record mode: Stacked/Stacked 2 (No Mute) In this mode, the following happens: ! • Each recorded cycle lap is turned into a separate MIDI part. • The track is divided into “lanes”, one for each cycle lap. • The parts are stacked above each other, each on a different lane. • All takes but the last one are muted (Stacked). • If Stacked 2 is selected, no muting takes place.
System Exclusive messages 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. System Exclusive (SysEx) is a special type of MIDI message used to send data that only makes sense to a unit of a certain make and type.
Options and Settings Filtering MIDI Recording-related Transport Preferences A couple of settings in the Preferences (Transport page) are relevant for recording. Set these according to your preferred method of work: Deactivate Punch In on Stop If this is activated, punch in on the Transport panel is automatically deactivated whenever you enter Stop mode.
An example: Metronome settings 1. Set the locators to where you want to start and end recording. You make settings for the metronome in the Metronome Setup dialog, opened from the Transport menu. 2. Activate Punch in and Punch out on the Transport panel. 3. Activate the option “Stop after Automatic Punch Out” in the Preferences (Transport page). 4. Set suitable pre-roll and post-roll times by clicking in the corresponding fields on the Transport panel and typing in time values. 5.
Precount Options Description Use Time Signature at Project Time When this is activated, the precount will be in the time signature set on the tempo track. Furthermore, any tempo changes on the tempo track during the precount will be applied. Use Signature This lets you set a time signature for the precount. In this mode, tempo changes on the tempo track will not affect the precount. MIDI Click Description Activate MIDI Click Selects whether or not the metronome will sound via MIDI.
Recovery of audio recordings after system failure Normally, when a computer crashes, all changes made to your current project since you last saved it will be lost. Usually, there is no quick and easy way to recover your work. With Cubase, when your system crashes while you are recording (because of a power cut or other mishap), you will find that your recording is still available, from the moment when you started recording to the time when your computer crashed.
6 Fades, crossfades and envelopes
Creating fades • If the option “Fade Handles always on Top” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page), the fade handles stay at the top of the event, and vertical help lines indicate the exact end or start points of fades. There are two main types of fade-ins and fade-outs in audio events in Cubase: fades created by using the fade handles (see below) and fades created by processing (see “Fades created by processing” on page 90).
Creating and adjusting fades with the Range Selection tool Removing fades To remove the fades for an event, select the event and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. You can also use the Range Selection tool to remove fades and crossfades within the selected range this way. “Handle-type” fades can also be created and adjusted with the Range Selection tool, in the following way: Fades created by processing 1. Select a section of the audio event with the Range Selection tool.
The Fade dialogs Restore button The Fade dialogs appear when you edit an existing fade or use the “Fade In”/“Fade Out” functions on the Process submenu on the Audio menu. The picture below shows the Fade In dialog; the Fade Out dialog has identical settings and features. The Restore button (to the right above the fade display) is only available when editing fades made by dragging the fade handles. Click this to cancel any changes you have made since opening the dialog.
Preview, Apply and Process The buttons in the bottom row are different depending on whether you are editing a fade made with the fade handles or applying a fade using processing: The Edit Fade dialog Overlapping section The Process Fade dialog The Edit Fade dialogs have the following buttons: Button • If the events do not overlap but are directly consecutive (lined up end-to-start, with no gap) it is still possible to crossfade them – provided that their respective audio clips overlap! In this case, th
Curve shape buttons • Once you have created a crossfade, you can edit it by selecting one or both crossfaded events, and selecting “Crossfade” from the Audio menu again (or by doubleclicking in the crossfade zone). These buttons give you quick access to some common curve shapes. This opens the Crossfade dialog, see below.
Auto Fades and Crossfades Length settings You can adjust the length of the crossfade area numerically in the “Length” field. If possible, the length change will be applied equally to “both sides” of the crossfade (i.e. Cubase tries to “center” the crossfade). ! Cubase features an Auto Fade function that can be set both globally, i.e. for the entire project, and separately for each audio track.
6. If you want to use the settings you have made in future projects, click the “As Default” button. Event Envelopes The next time you create a new project, it will use these settings by default. 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: 7. Click OK to close the dialog.
7 The Arranger track
Introduction 3. On the Project window toolbar, make sure that Snap is activated, and that the Grid resolution is set to a mode that allows your arranger events to snap to appropriate positions in the project. The Arranger track allows you to work with sections of your project in a non-linear fashion, to simplify arranging to the maximum extent.
Working with arranger events • Double-clicking on the name of an event in the window section on the right (or in the project window). 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. When an event is selected in the Arranger chain on the left, this will add the event above the selected event.
• Click in the Mode field for an event and select the desired repeat mode. • Use the Repeats column to specify how many times each event should be repeated. Option • Click the arrow to the left of an event in the Arranger chain to move the playback position to the start of that event. Button Description Normal In this mode, the Arranger chain will be played back just as you set it up.
• In the Inspector, these functions are accessed from the Arranger pop-up menu (opened by clicking on the Arranger name field). 2. In the window that appears, select the desired options. The Arranger chains you create will be listed on the Name pop-up menu, found in the Arranger Editor to the left of the buttons, at the top of the Arranger track Inspector, and in the Track list. Please note that to be able to select another Arranger chain from the pop-up menu, the Arranger mode must be activated.
Option Description Don’t Split Events If this option is activated, MIDI notes that start before or are longer than the Arranger event will not be included. Only MIDI notes that begin and end inside the Arranger event boundaries will be taken into account. Open New Projects • 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.
Ö If the Arranger mode is not activated or no Arranger track exists, Cubase will work as usual. Arranging your music to video The relative time of your Arranger track can be taken as a reference instead of the project time. This is useful, if you want to use the Arranger track to compose music for video and fill e.g. a specific video section with music, by repeating the corresponding number of Arranger events.
8 The Transpose functions
Introduction Transposing an entire project with the Root Key Cubase offers transpose functions for audio, MIDI and instrument parts and for audio events. These allow you to create variations of your music or change the harmonics of an entire project or separate sections. The root key you specify for a project will be the reference that audio or MIDI events in your project will follow. You can however exclude separate parts or events from being transposed, e.g.
3. Now (with the root key set), record audio or MIDI. Recording with a project root key The recorded events will get the project root key. Let’s say that you want to record a guitar line for a project that is in D# minor, but your guitar player prefers to play in A minor. In this case, change the project root key to A, so that you can record your guitar. Proceed as follows: 4. When you are done and satisfied with the result, you can change the project root key and your events will follow.
To check or change the root key setting of a MIDI part, proceed as follows: 3. To create another transpose event, click with the pencil tool on the first transpose event. By default, the transpose value of new transpose events is set to 0. 1. Select your MIDI part in the Project window and check the Project window info line. You can add more transpose events by clicking with the pencil tool. A MIDI part with the root key set to “D” 4.
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: Indicate Transpositions When you transpose your music, you may sometimes want to visually compare the original sounds and the transposed music.
If no transpose track exists or if no transpose event has been added, Global Transpose will be set to Follow. If Global Transpose is set to Follow, the selected part will follow all global transpositions. 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. 3.
9 The mixer
About this chapter The picture shows an extended mixer (see “Normal vs. Extended channel strips” on page 112). Overview This chapter contains detailed information about the elements used when mixing audio and MIDI, and the various ways you can configure the mixer. The mixer offers a common environment for controlling levels, pan, solo/mute status etc. for both audio and MIDI channels. Some mixer-related features are not described in this chapter.
About the multiple mixer windows What channel types can be shown in the mixer? You may have noticed that there are in fact several separate mixer items selectable from the Devices menu (in Cubase Studio there are two mixer items). These are not separate mixers, but rather separate views of the same mixer.
About multi-channel audio (Cubase only) Opening the Extended Mixer via the Mixer Common panel… Cubase has full support for surround sound. Each audio channel and bus in the mixer can carry up to 6 speaker channels. This means that if you have an audio track configured for 5.1 surround sound, for example, it will have a single channel strip in the mixer, just like mono or stereo tracks, but its level meter will have six meter bars, one for each speaker channel. …and via the Mixer context menu.
The common panel • For a description of the options for MIDI channels, see “Selecting what to show in the extended MIDI channel strip” on page 128. The common panel appears to the left in the mixer windows and contains settings for changing the look and behavior of the mixer, as well as global settings for all channels. Shows/hides the Routing panel Buttons for showing/hiding the extended panel Selecting globally from the common panel 1. Open any of the mixer windows.
• To set the “Can Hide” status for individual channels in the mixer, see below. Showing/hiding individual channels (the “Can Hide” setting) The View options pop-up is opened by clicking the down arrow located just above the fader panel of a channel strip. You can also show/hide individual channels of any type in the mixer. For this, you can assign channels a “Can Hide” status, which allows you to hide these channels collectively. Proceed as follows: 1.
About the Command Target • You can now return to this stored configuration at any time, by clicking the “Select Channel View Set” button (the down arrow to the left of the “Store View Set” button) and selecting it from the pop-up menu. Command targets let you specify which channels should be affected by the “commands” (basically all the functions that can be assigned key commands) when working with the Mixer, e.g. what to display in the extended mixer, the width setting of the channel strips, etc.
The audio-related channel strips Channel Input/ Output Routing Channel View options pop-up The Can Hide State for the channel Input Gain control (Cubase only) The speaker configuration for the channel Input Phase switch (Cubase only) Narrow/Wide button Pan control The common panel (see “The common panel” on page 113) Level fader and meter Listen button (see the chapter “Control Room (Cubase only)” on page 135) Edit button (opens the Channel Settings window) Record Enable and Monitor buttons Channel
The MIDI channel strips This opens the control panel for a connected VST Instrument.
Ö Cubase uses 32 bit floating point processing internally, so there is virtually limitless headroom – signals can go way beyond 0dB without clipping. Having higher levels than 0dB for individual audio channels is therefore not a problem in itself. The audio quality will not be degraded by this. • MIDI channels handle fader volume changes in the mixer by sending out MIDI volume messages to the connected instrument(s).
Adjusting Input Gain (Cubase only) Level meters for MIDI channels The level meters for MIDI channels do not show actual volume levels. Instead, they indicate the velocity values of the notes played back on MIDI tracks.
• You can un-mute or un-solo all channels by clicking the Mute or Solo indicator on the common panel. • To make fine pan adjustments, hold down [Shift] when you move the pan control. Listen Mode (Cubase only) • To select the (default) center pan position, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on the pan control. • For MIDI channels, the pan control sends out MIDI pan messages. The result depends on how your MIDI instrument is set to respond to pan – check your documentation for details.
• If Stereo Dual Panner is selected, there will be two pan controls with the upper controlling pan for the left channel, and the lower controlling pan for the right channel. About the “Stereo Pan Law” setting (audio channels only) In the Project Setup dialog there is a pop-up menu named “Stereo Pan Law”, on which you can select one of several pan modes.
• The EQ section, either with value sliders (“EQs”) or as numerical settings with a curve display (“EQs curve”). • A duplicate of the mixer channel strip (without the extended panel but with the input and output settings panel). These two views have exactly the same controls but different graphic layouts. The EQ section is also available in the Channel Settings window. For EQ parameter descriptions, see “Making EQ settings” on page 123.
Changing channels in the Channel Settings window Making EQ settings You can view any channel’s settings from a single window. Each audio channel in Cubase has a built-in parametric equalizer with up to four bands.
The Equalizers + Curve pane in the Channel Settings window consists of four EQ modules with parameter sliders, an EQ curve display and some additional functions at the top. Using the curve display When you activate EQ modules and make settings, you will see that your settings are automatically reflected in the curve display above. You can also make settings directly in the curve (or combine the two methods any way you like): 1. To activate an EQ module, click in the curve display.
• In the Inspector (Equalizers tab) and in the Channel Settings window, click the Bypass button (next to the EQ button) so that it turns yellow. EQ in the channel overview If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector or the “Overview” view mode is selected in the extended mixer, you will get an overview of which EQ modules, insert effects and effect sends are activated for the channel. Click again to deactivate EQ Bypass mode.
Proceed as follows: Changing the meter characteristics 1. In the mixer, select the channel you want to copy settings from. In the Mixer context menu, opened by right-clicking anywhere on the mixer panel, there is a submenu named “Global Meter Settings”. Here you can make settings for the preferred meter characteristics, with the following options: 2. Click the “Copy First Selected Channel’s Settings” button on the common panel.
Using group channels • Mute functionality depends on the setting “Group Channels: Mute Sources as well” in the Preferences (VST page). You can route the outputs from multiple audio channels to a group. This enables you to control the channel levels using one fader, apply the same effects and equalization to all of them etc. To create a group channel, proceed as follows: By default, when you mute a group channel no audio will pass through the group.
You can also make routing settings in the Inspector. • You can also select the “Overview” option – this shows a graphic overview of which insert effect slots and effect sends are activated for the channel. For details on routing surround channels (Cubase only), see “Surround in the mixer” on page 182. You can click the indicators to turn the corresponding slot/send on or off.
Every MIDI channel has its own channel settings window. 2. Right-click somewhere on the gray mixer panel. The Mixer context menu appears. 3. Select “Link Channels” from the context menu. • To unlink channels, select one of the linked channels and select “Unlink Channels” from the Mixer context menu. The channels are unlinked. Note that you do not have to select all the channels that are linked, only one of them. Ö It is not possible to remove individual channels from Link status.
Ö Linked channels have individual automation tracks. These are completely independent, and are not affected by the Link function. • “Save All Mixer Settings” saves all channel settings for all channels. When you select any of the above options, a standard file dialog opens where you can select a name and storage location on your disk for the file. The Window submenu The Mixer context menu, opened by right-clicking anywhere on the Mixer window background, provides the Window submenu.
Ö The ASIO and Disk load meters can also be shown on the Transport panel (as “Performance”) and on the Project window toolbar (as “Performance Meter”). Loading All Mixer Settings Selecting “Load All Mixer Settings” from the context menu allows you to open a saved mixer settings file, and have the stored settings applied to all channels for which there is information included in the file. All channels, output settings, VST Instruments, sends and “master” effects will be affected.
VST Mixer Diagrams ! Note that the AFL/PFL Listen Bus architecture is available only in Cubase.
Summing Objects Group Channel FX Channel Output Bus Main Mix Bus Studio Channel Monitor Control Room Objects (Cubase only) Control Room Channel Phones Channel 133 The mixer
Overall (Cubase only) 134 The mixer
10 Control Room (Cubase only)
Background With its Control Room Mixer and Control Room Overview 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.
Control Room operations Control Room channels There are five types of channels that you can create, each defining either an input or output of the Control Room Mixer. As more channels are created, the Control Room Mixer expands to display controls for each channel. In traditional analog studios, the control room section of the console contained the most used set of controls in the whole studio. Often, the studio monitor level had all the markings rubbed off from so much use.
A great deal of confusion can result if outputs and Monitor channels share the same device ports. As a starting point, set all the outputs to “Not Assigned” while the Control Room is set up. ! ! The Control Room Mixer is designed to display information and controls only for the channels you have defined in the VST Connections dialog. For example, if you have not defined any Studio channels, they will not appear in the Control Room Mixer.
External inputs Outputs – Main Mix Create external input channels for every playback device you wish to be able to monitor in the Control Room. There are six available external inputs with channel configurations from mono up to 6.0 surround. Use external inputs to quickly listen to CD players, master recorders, or other workstations. For the Control Room to function correctly, the Main Mix on the Outputs tab must be assigned to the set of outputs that actually contains your final mix signal.
! Sharing audio device ports between outputs and Control Room channels can cause confusing behavior and possible overload of those ports without any indication from Cubase. It is advisable to disconnect all outputs from all device ports when first configuring the Control Room. ! Be aware that some audio interfaces allow very flexible routing within the hardware itself. Certain routing configurations could cause overloads and possible damage to speaker equipment.
The Control Room Mixer 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. 7. 8. 29. 9. 6. 10. 11. 28. 12. 13. 27. 26. 14. 25. 24. 15. 23. 6. 6. 22. 21. 20. The Control Room Mixer is where you access all the features of the Control Room. The Control Room Mixer can be resized to accommodate more channels and to display more controls. 19. 18. 17. 16. 1. Input Phase Each external input and Monitor speaker output has an Input Phase reversal switch. When lit, all audio paths within the channel have their phase reversed.
3. Channel inserts 14. Activate Talkback Each channel in the Control Room Mixer has inserts available. While most channels have six pre-fader and two post-fader inserts, the external inputs and Monitors only have six pre-fader inserts. Click the TALK button to turn on the Talkback system, allowing communication between the control room and performers in the studio.
25. Metronome Level and Pan 34. Solo Rear Channels The Level and Pan controls determine how the Metronome will be heard in each channel. These controls are independent for each channel. This solos all rear channels. 26. Activate Metronome Click This button defeats all speaker solos, resetting them to normal playback. This determines whether click signals are sent to each channel. When lit, click signals will be heard in that output. 36. Listen to Solo Channels on Center Monitor 35.
The different Control Room Mixer panels are handled in the same way as the Project Mixer panels, see “Configuring the mixer” on page 112. ! Inserts for external inputs Each external input has its own set of six inserts. By clicking the button next to the name of an external input at the left of the Mixer window the inserts associated with that channel are displayed in the extended view.
Suggested settings Just below the configuration display, all settings for automatic downmixing of multi-channel sources are shown. There are four downmix presets. Some will automatically be configured for the sets of monitors you have defined. Each preset is adjustable with the MixConvert plug-in, which you access by clicking the small arrow icon above the Downmix Presets section.
Control Room preferences • Reference Level This setting determines the Control Room level used when the Reference Level button is activated. There are several preferences for the Control Room Mixer. These are found in the Preferences dialog (VST–Control Room page). • Main Dim Volume This is the amount of gain reduction applied to the Control Room channel when the DIM button is activated. Studios and Studio Sends Studio Sends are displayed in the Cubase Project Mixer and the Inspector.
Setting up a Studio cue mix • In the Inspector, a Studio Sends tab can be found. This displays all Studio Sends for the selected track. The Studio Sends are very flexible. There are several ways to create a cue mix for each Studio in a very fast and efficient manner. Simple “more me” mixes and more complex discrete mixes are easily accommodated by the Studio Sends. Please note that not all Inspector sections are available by default.
4. Choose the “Use Current Pan Settings” option to copy pan information from the main mix to the Studio Sends on selected tracks. 4. Either use the up and down arrow buttons or click on the numeric readout to open a pop-up fader and adjust the gain as necessary. Studio Sends are either mono or stereo. If the Send is mono, the pan setting will still be copied. However, the output of the Studio Send will be a sum of the left and right channels.
Direct Monitoring and latency 2. In the Studio Channel mixer strip right-click to open the context menu. In the Studio submenu, select the “Reset Studio Sends” command. The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the internal processing power of the host computer system for all routing and processing, which means they are subject to the computer’s latency.
11 Audio effects
About this chapter In the program, effects compatible with previous VST versions will be easily recognized: 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 manual “Plug-in Reference”.
About tempo sync This is achieved by activating the option “Suspend VST3 plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” in the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page). Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from the host application (in this case, Cubase). Typically, this is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo. When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume CPU power on silent passages, i.e.
As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best suited for insert effects where you do not want the level to be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dithering” on page 155) and maximizers – both typically used as insert effects for output busses. • You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
Insert effects in the channel overview If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector or the “Channel Overview” view mode is selected in the extended mixer, you will get an overview of which insert effects, EQ modules and effect sends are activated for the channel. You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of the overview). 3. Double-click on the small signal diagram for the effect to open the Routing Editor window.
Operations • Insert effects added to an output bus will affect all audio routed to that bus, like a “master insert effect”. You can move connections to the effect inputs and outputs sideways to route the audio to/from inputs/outputs other than the standard configuration. To do this, click the arrow buttons to the right. Typically you would add compressors, limiters, EQ or other plug-ins to tailor the dynamics and sound of the final mix. Dithering is a special case, as described below.
Applying dithering Here’s another solution: 1. Open the VST Output Channel Settings window by clicking the “e” button for the Output channel in the mixer. 1. Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to the desired output bus. You can also display the Inserts section in the extended mixer pane. 2. Add the desired effect to the group channel as an insert effect. 2. Open the Inserts pop-up menu for slot 7 or 8.
After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track play back as before but the insert effects do not have to be calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it is finished and you do not need to edit it anymore. • If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the signal passes through the effects in series, from the top (the first slot) downward.
• All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedicated “folder” track in the Track list. 4. When you add an effect, its control panel will automatically appear. When you set up send effects, you would normally set the wet/dry Mix control to all “wet”. This makes it easy to manage and keep track of all your FX channel tracks, and also allows you to save screen space by folding in the FX Channel folder. This is because you control the balance between the wet and the dry signal with the effect sends.
Making settings for the sends 4. Click the power button for the effect send so that it lights up in blue. The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and route it to the FX channel. This can be done in the mixer (in the extended panel), in the Channel Settings window or in the Inspector for the audio track. The example below shows the Channel Settings window, but the procedure is similar for all the sections: This activates the send. 5.
Normally you want the effect send to be proportional to the channel volume (post-fader send). The picture below shows where the sends are “tapped” from the signal in pre and post-fader mode. • 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.
FX channels and the Solo Defeat function 3. From the submenu, select “Send Routing” and “Control Strip”. When mixing, you might sometimes want to solo specific audio channels, and listen only to these while other channels are muted. However, this will mute all FX channels as well. If the soloed audio channels have sends routed to FX channels, this means you will not hear the send effects for the channels.
Creating a Ducking delay Now every time the signals on the vocal track exceed the threshold, the delay will be deactivated. Since the threshold for the delay effect is fixed, you may have to adjust the volume of track 2, in this example, to ensure that vocal parts of low or middle volume will also silence the delay effect. The delay repeats can be silenced by side-chain signals exceeding a certain threshold. You can use this feature to create a so-called “ducking delay” for your vocals.
Editing effects 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 stereo or surround modulation effects. Feel free to experiment with the functions to see what they have to offer! All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button.
Effect presets 4. Activate playback to audition the selected preset. Simply step through the presets until you found the right sound. It may be helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons between different preset settings easier. Effect preset management in Cubase is very versatile. In the MediaBay – or with certain limits in the Save Preset dialog – you can assign attributes to presets which allow you to organize and browse them according to various criteria.
About earlier VST effect presets 2. Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu. This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset. As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in Cubase. For a description of how to add VST plug-ins, see “Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on page 166. When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored presets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/ .fxb).
Saving insert effect combinations • You can use the Preset Management pop-up to save your settings as preset, or to rename or remove the current preset. You can save the complete insert effect rack for a channel together with all parameter settings as an inserts preset. Inserts presets can be applied to audio, instruments, FX channel or group tracks.
Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X Organizing VST 2 plug-ins To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Cubase and drag the plug-in file to one of the following folders: If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins installed with Cubase are placed in appropriate subfolders according to the effect type.
Managing and selecting VST plug-ins VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST PlugIns” tab. This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can add/remove folder locations by using the corresponding buttons. If you click “Add”, a file dialog is opened, where you can select a folder location. • To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put a check mark in the left column.
12 VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
Introduction VST Instrument channels VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound sources) that are contained within Cubase. They are played internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST Instruments, just as with audio tracks. You can access a VST Instrument from within Cubase by creating a VST Instrument channel and associating this channel with a MIDI track.
• If you do not want the plug-in control panels to open every time you load a plug-in, open the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page) and deactivate “Open Effect Editor After Loading it”. 8. Open the mixer. You will find one or more channel strips for the audio outputs of the VST Instrument. VST Instrument channel strips have the same features and functionality as group channel strips, with the addition of an Edit button at the bottom of the strip for opening the VST Instrument control panel.
Properties • Click the Edit (“e”) button to open the control panel for the VST Instrument. • Each Instrument track has a corresponding channel strip in the mixer. • Below the Edit button is a small LED that will light up when MIDI data is received by the instrument. • In the Inspector, you can select a VST Instrument from the Instrument pop-up menu. • The rightmost button allows you to activate the desired output for the instrument.
Restrictions 3. In the Viewer section, select the desired MIDI loop and drag it in an empty section in the Project window. • Instrument tracks have no MIDI Sends. An Instrument track is created and the Instrument part is inserted at the position where you dragged the file. The Inspector will reflect all settings saved in the MIDI loop, e.g. the VST instrument that was used, applied Insert effects, Track parameters, etc.
Exporting instrument tracks as MIDI file • When you start playback, the rendered audio file is played back from an “invisible” audio track, routed to the VST Instrument’s mixer channel. Thus, any effects, EQ or mixing automation will still be applied. You can also export instrument tracks as standard MIDI files, see “Exporting MIDI files” on page 464. Please note: • You can also freeze the mixer channel of the VST Instrument.
Unfreezing The Freeze Instrument Options dialog appears with the following options for the Freeze operation: 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”.
All VST 2 instruments can import “.fxb/.fxp” files and also convert them to the VST 3 standard. Once converted, you can use all VST 3 features. See “About earlier VST Instrument presets” on page 178. Using the Presets browser Ö For further information on Track presets and VST presets, see the chapter “Working with Track Presets” on page 288. 2. Make sure that the track settings are shown in the Inspector. 1. Create an instrument track and select it in the Track list.
8. Double-click the desired preset to select it and close the dialog. 3. If necessary, click on the track name at the top of the Inspector to open the basic track settings. 4. Click in the Programs field in the Inspector. Using the “Browse Sounds” dialog The Presets browser is opened. 1. Open the Project menu–Add Track submenu and select “Browse Sounds…”. The Browse Sounds dialog is opened. It contains the same sections as the Apply Track Presets dialog (Browser, Viewer and Filter). 5.
You cannot change the default folder, but you can add further subfolders inside the instrument’s preset folder. have converted the old “.fxp/.fxb” presets to VST 3 presets. If you save new presets for a VST 2 plug-in these will automatically be saved in the new “.vstpreset” format in the default location. • Under Windows, the default preset folder is in the following location: Boot drive\Documents and Settings\\Application data\VST3 Presets.
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 152). An external instrument bus is an input (return) to your audio hardware, along with a MIDI connection via Cubase and few additional settings.
13 Surround sound (Cubase only)
Background • You configure Cubase for surround by defining input and output busses in the desired surround format, and specifying which audio inputs and outputs should be used for the different channels in the busses. This is done in the VST Connections window. What is Surround sound? Surround is a common name for various techniques for positioning audio in reference to the listener.
Operations Surround in the mixer Surround sound is supported throughout every stage of the signal path in the Cubase mixer, from input to output bus. Each bus or audio channel can carry up to 6 surround speaker channels. Setting up the surround configuration Output bus configuration Before you can start working with surround sound, you have to configure a surround output bus, through which all the speaker channels of the chosen surround format are routed.
Format Description Routing channels directly to surround channels Quadro The original Quadraphonic format for music, with one speaker in each corner. This format was intended for vinyl record players. LRCS+Lfe Same as LRCS but with an Lfe sub-channel added. If you want to place an audio source in one separate speaker channel only, you can route it directly to that speaker channel. This is useful for pre-mixed material or multi-channel recordings that do not require panning.
Using the SurroundPanner The SurroundPanner controls Cubase has a special feature for graphically positioning a sound source in a surround field. This is actually a special plug-in which distributes the audio from the channel in various proportions to the surround channels. 1. Open the mixer and locate the channel you wish to position. This could be a mono or stereo channel. 2. From the Output Routing pop-up menu, select the “whole surround bus” option (not a specific speaker channel).
Mode – Standard/Position/Angle • In Standard Mode, the signal levels from the individual speakers are indicated by colored lines from the speakers to the center of the display. The Standard Mode/Position Mode/Angle Mode switch allows you to work in three modes: • In Position Mode, the concentric circles will help you determine the level of the signal at a certain position. • In both Standard and Position mode, the speakers in the front are aligned, as they would normally be in a cinema-type situation.
The LFE encoder (all modes) Additional parameters (Standard mode) If the selected surround setup includes an LFE channel, a separate LFE level encoder is available in the SurroundPanner window. Use this to set the signal amount sent to the LFE channel. You can also set this using the small red strip to the right of the SurroundPanner in the mixer channel strip, or by typing in a number in the LFE value field in the larger SurroundPanner that can be shown in the extended channel strip. • Center Level.
Exporting a Surround mix When you have set up a surround mix, you can export it with the Export Audio Mixdown function. This function exports a single selected output bus – this means that all channels that you want to be part of the mix must be routed to the surround output bus. You have the following export options when doing surround work: • Export to “split” format, resulting in one mono audio file for each surround channel.
14 Automation
Ö Note that the Read button is automatically enabled when you enable the Write button. This allows Cubase to read existing automation data at any time. Introduction In essence, automation means finding and recording, for each and every moment of your project, the right values for a particular mixer 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.
There are two approaches you can use to create automation curves: • By using write automation in the mixer you do not have to manually select parameters from the Add Parameter list. • “Offline”, by manually drawing the curves on automation tracks in the Project window. You can work much like you would using a “real” physical mixer. Every action you perform is automatically recorded on automation tracks which you can later open for viewing and editing. See “Editing automation events” on page 200.
The Automation panel Automation modes Cubase provides three different punch-out modes for automation, available on the Automation Mode pop-up menu on the main toolbar and in the Mode section on the Automation panel. The Automation panel is a floating window, similar to the Mixer and Transport panel. You can leave it open while you work – the Project window will always have the focus. Selecting the automation mode in the Automation panel and the Cubase toolbar.
Touch Typically, you would use Touch mode in situations where you want to make a change lasting only a few seconds to an already set up parameter. As the name implies, Touch will write automation data only for as long as you actually touch a parameter control – punch-out occurs as soon as you release the control. After punch-out, the control will return to the previously set value.
Automation performance utilities Now, re-touch the fader and move it towards the original value. As soon as you cross the original curve, punch-out occurs automatically. The automation modes described above become far more effective when used in combination with the Cubase automation performance utilities. These are a number of options and functions tailored to specific situations, allowing you to write automation data quickly and efficiently. You will find these utilities on the Automation panel.
The Suspend options • To suspend the reading of automation data for all parameters/parameter groups, click the Suspend Read button at the top of the section. When any of the options below the Suspend Read button are enabled, clicking Suspend Read will disable these buttons. The Show options The parameters or parameter groups selected here are excluded from the reading or writing of automation data – giving you full manual control of these parameters.
The Settings section Global options Return Time The Return Time setting determines how fast the automated parameter returns to any previously automated value when you release the mouse button. The default setting is 33ms. Make sure that the return time is set to a value higher than 0, to prevent sudden jumps in your parameter settings (which may lead to crackles). In the Settings section of the Automation panel you will find a number of global options and commands.
The Options pop-up menu • Cubase only: Also, in the channel settings window, you can link a send’s panorama settings to the panorama settings displayed in the channel strip (by enabling the option “Link Send Routing Panners to Channel Panner as Default” in the Preferences–VST page). Show Data on Tracks When this option is activated, audio waveforms or MIDI events will be displayed not only on the audio or MIDI tracks, but also on the corresponding automation tracks.
Opening automation tracks Every track has a number of automation tracks, each showing one automation parameter. For audio, Instrument, group channel, MIDI and FX channel tracks, there are two ways you can open an automation track for the channel: • By right-clicking the track in the Track list and selecting “Show Automation” from the context menu. • By clicking along the left edge of the track in the Track list.
4. Select a parameter from the list and click OK. • Use the Delete options in the Functions pop-up menu of the Automation panel, see “The Functions pop-up menu” on page 195. The parameter will then replace the current parameter in the automation track. Using these commands will also lead to the removal of automation tracks. Ö Note that the “replacing” of the parameter displayed in the automation track is completely non-destructive.
Muting automation tracks 3. Click the Write button in the control panel to enable Write mode. The Read button is enabled as well. All effects and VST Instruments have Write/Read buttons on their control panels. These work exactly like the corresponding buttons in the mixer or in the Track list. 4. Start playback and adjust some effect parameters in the control panel. You can mute individual automation tracks by clicking their Mute buttons in the Track list.
About the static value line 4. If you click and hold, you can draw a curve by adding a multitude of single automation events. When you open an automation track for a parameter for the first time, it does not contain any automation events (unless you have previously adjusted that parameter with write automation activated), and this is reflected in the event display as a straight horizontal black line, the “static value” line. This line represents the current parameter setting.
• The Line tool in Parabola mode works in the same way, but aligns the automation events with a parabolic curve instead, resulting in more “natural” curves and fades. • By selecting a range (with the Range Selection tool), and pressing [Backspace] or [Delete] or selecting Delete from the Edit menu. Note that the result depends on the direction from which you draw the parabolic curve. • By clicking in the parameter display on an automation track and selecting “Remove Parameter” from the pop-up.
Ö The settings you make for a controller are applied to all MIDI tracks that use this controller. MIDI Controller automation Merging automation data MIDI Controller Automation Setup settings When working with Cubase, it is possible to record automation data for MIDI controller data in two places: as MIDI part data and as data on an automation track.
The following options are available: Option Description MIDI Part Select this when you want to record MIDI part automation. Automation Select this to record the controller data on an automation Track track in the Project window. 3. On the “Automation Merge mode (global)” pop-up menu, specify the global Automation Merge Mode, i.e. the mode that will be used for all automation tracks with the setting “Use Global Settings”, see above. By default, this is set to “Average”.
15 Audio processing and functions
Background • Furthermore, the original, unprocessed audio file can still be used by other clips in the project, by other projects or by other applications. 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.
Common settings and features Envelope If there are any settings for the selected Audio processing function, these will appear when you select the function from the Process submenu. While most settings are specific for the function, some features and settings work in the same way for several functions: The “More…” button If the dialog has a lot of settings, some options may be hidden when the dialog appears. To reveal these, click the “More…” button.
Gain The dialog contains the following settings: Sources mix Allows you to specify a mix ratio between the original (the audio selected for processing) and the copy (the audio on the clipboard). Pre- and Post-Crossfade See “Pre/Post-Crossfade” on page 206. Allows you to change the gain (level) of the selected audio. The dialog contains the following settings: Noise Gate Gain This is where you set the desired gain, between -50 and +20dB.
Linked Channels Phase Reverse This is available for stereo audio only. When it is activated, the Noise Gate is opened for both channels as soon as one or both channels exceed the Threshold level. When Linked Channels is deactivated, the Noise Gate works independently for the left and right channel. Reverses the phase of the selected audio, turning the waveform “upside down”. Dry/Wet mix When processing stereo audio, this pop-up menu allows you to specify which channel(s) should be phase-reversed.
• To specify a transpose interval, click on one of the keys. Option Description The key is indicated in blue, and the program plays test tones in the base pitch and transpose pitch to give you an audible confirmation. Solo Fast Use this mode for single instruments (monophonic material) and voice. Solo Musical Same as above but higher quality. Poly Fast Use this for processing monophonic and polyphonic material. This is the fastest setting that gives still very good results.
Envelope display Range 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. This parameter determines the vertical pitch range of the envelope.
7. Create a new curve point to set the duration of the pitchbend, i.e. the time the pitch should remain transposed by 2 semitones. • Resampling to a higher sample rate will make the event longer and cause the audio to play back at a slower speed with a lower pitch. 8. Finally, create a point where you want the pitchbend to end. • Resampling to a lower sample rate will make the event shorter and cause the audio to play back at a faster speed with a higher pitch.
This pop-up menu determines what the function does: Option Description Option Description Swaps the left and right channel. Length in Seconds The length of the selected audio, in seconds. Flip Left-Right 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 and vice versa.
The process plug-in dialog Algorithm section Allows you to select a time stretch algorithm: MPEX 4 and Realtime mode. • MPEX 4 mode This mode is based on Prosoniq’s proprietary MPEX (Minimum Perceived Loss Time Compression/Expansion) algorithm. This algorithm (which is also used in Prosoniq’s TimeFactory™ application) uses an artificial neural network for time series prediction in the scale space domain to achieve high end time and pitch scaling. This gives the best possible audio quality result.
The Offline Process History dialog Tail This parameter is useful if you are applying an effect that adds material after the end of original audio (such as reverb and delay effects). When the checkbox is activated, you can specify a tail length using the slider. The tail time is included when playing back with the Preview function, allowing you to find the appropriate tail length. If you want to remove or modify some or all processing from a clip, this can be done in the Offline Process History dialog.
• To modify the settings of the selected processing, click the “Modify” button. Freeze Edits This opens the dialog for the processing function or applied effect, allowing you to change the settings. This works just as when you applied the processing or effect the first time.
Detect Silence The Detect Silence function on the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu searches for silent sections in an event and either splits the event, removing the silent parts from the project, or creates regions corresponding to the nonsilent sections. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor. You can select several events if you like, in which case you will be allowed to make separate settings for each selected event. 2.
• You can use the Preview function to listen to the result. The event is played back repeatedly in its entire length, but with the “closed” sections silenced. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are satisfied with the result. 6. Now activate the “Add as Regions” or the “Strip Silence” checkbox, or both. “Add as Regions” will create regions according to the non-silent sections. “Strip Silence” will split the event at the start and end of each nonsilent section, and remove the silent sections in between.
Statistics (Cubase only) 4. You can adjust the display with the settings in the display window: Setting Description dB When this is activated, the vertical axis shows dB values. When it is deactivated, values between 0 and 1 are shown. Freq. log When this is activated, frequencies (on the horizontal axis) are displayed on a logarithmic scale. When it is deactivated, the frequency axis is linear. Precision Indicates the frequency resolution of the graph.
16 The Sample Editor
Background The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio by cutting and pasting, removing or drawing audio data, processing or applying effects (see “Audio processing and functions” on page 204). This editing can be called “nondestructive”: The actual file (if created or imported from outside the project) will remain untouched and using the Offline Process History you can undo modifications or revert to the original settings at any time (see “The Offline Process History dialog” on page 214).
Window overview The Elements menu The toolbar The toolbar contains the following tools: Acoustic Feedback The Sample Editor tools Audition, Loop & Volume controls Solo Editor Show Info If you hold [Alt]/[Option] and right-click in the Sample Editor to bring up the context menu, you will find a submenu called “Elements”. By activating or deactivating options on this submenu, you specify what is shown in the editor window. Some of these options are also available as icons on the toolbar.
• You can customize the toolbar by right-clicking it and using the context menu to hide or show items. The Definition tab • Selecting Setup from the context menu allows you to rearrange sections on the toolbar, store toolbar presets, etc. See “Using the Setup options” on page 471.
The VariAudio tab (Cubase only) The Range tab Disable Pitch Changes On this tab you will find functions for working with ranges and selections (see “Making selections” on page 227). The Process tab On this tab you can edit single notes of your audio file and change their pitch and/or timing, in a way that is similar to the editing of MIDI notes (see “Understanding the waveform display in VariAudio” on page 243).
The ruler • This submenu also allows you to select whether you want the zero axis and/or the half level axis indicated in the waveform display. The Sample Editor ruler is located between the thumbnail and the waveform displays. The ruler is explained in detail in the section “The ruler” on page 33.
Option Description Using key commands Zoom to Event Zooms in so that the editor shows the section of the clip corresponding to the edited audio event. This is not available if you opened the Sample Editor from the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened for editing, not an event). If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the Preferences (Transport page), you can start/ stop auditioning by pressing [Space]. This is the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.
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 at which you click. 3. Drag to the left or right. The project cursor follows the mouse pointer and the audio is played back. The speed and pitch of the playback depends on how fast you move the pointer. 3.
• It is also possible to define a snap point for a clip (for which there is no event yet). Function To open a clip in the Sample Editor, double-click it in the Pool. After having set the snap point using the procedure described above, you can insert the clip into the project from the Pool or the Sample Editor, taking the snap point position into account. ! Events and clips can have different snap points. If you open a clip from the pool you can edit the clip snap point.
Cut, Copy and Paste Processing The Cut, Copy and Paste commands (on the Edit menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the main Edit menu) work according to the following rules: The Processing features (on the Select Process menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Process submenu on the Audio menu) can be applied to selections in the Sample Editor, as can the effects (on the Select Plug-in menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Plug-in
There are two ways to edit the start and end position of a region: Creating a region 1. Select the range that you want to convert into a region. • Click and drag its start and end handles in the waveform display (with any tool). 2. Click the “Show Regions” button on the toolbar, or activate the “Regions” option on the Elements submenu of the context menu. When you move the pointer over the handles, it will automatically change to an arrow pointer to indicate that you can drag the handles.
Removing regions To remove a region from a clip, select it in the list and click the Remove Region button above the list. Exporting regions as audio files If you create a region in the Sample Editor, the region can be exported to disk as a new audio file. This is done from the Pool, see “Exporting regions as audio files” on page 269. Drawing in the Sample Editor • In this mode, you can adjust the start and end of the event in the clip by dragging the event handles in the waveform display.
Autoscroll It is also possible to activate/deactivate Musical mode from within the Pool by clicking the corresponding checkbox in the Musical mode column. When you have correctly set a tempo or length for an audio clip, this information is saved with the project. This allows you to import files into the project with Musical mode already activated. The tempo (if set) is also saved when exporting files. Autoscroll and Suspend Autoscroll when Editing activated.
Manually adjusting grid and tempo 3. Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the audio file until the pointer changes to a green flag (Set Grid Start). If you want to manually adjust the grid and tempo of your audio file, because you have a very special loop and the automatic functions did not lead to satisfying results, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Definition tab in the Sample Editor Inspector and activate the Manual Adjust tool. 2. Select a suitable resolution value from the Grid popup menu.
8. Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command], click and drag the red flag (Stretch Bars) to the left or right until the second bar in the ruler is aligned with the position of the second downbeat of the sample, and release the mouse button. 10. Now have a look at the single beats in between the bars, and, if necessary, use the blue flag (Adjust Beat Position - Single) to adjust them. Drag the flag until the single beat position is aligned with the waveform, and release the mouse button.
Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback If you select the Advanced menu item, a dialog opens where you can manually adjust the three parameters that govern the sound quality of the time stretching: In the Algorithm pop-up in the toolbar you can select the algorithm to be applied on realtime playback. Parameter Description Grain size The realtime time stretching algorithm splits the audio into small pieces called “grains”. This parameter determines the size of the grains.
Ö The term “loop” is used throughout this section. Loop in this context usually means an audio file with a musical time base, i.e. the length of the loop represents a certain number of bars and/or beats at a certain tempo. Playing the loop back at the right tempo in a cycle set to the correct length will produce a continuous loop without gaps. ! When a selection range is defined, hitpoints will only be detected within this range.
• The audio event is replaced by an audio part, containing the slices (double-click the part to view the slices in the Audio Part Editor). If you edited a clip from the Pool, you need to drag it to an audio track to get a part with the slices. ! When you create slices, all events containing the edited clip will also be replaced. • The loop is automatically adapted to the project tempo. This takes the loop length you specified into account: e.g.
• If you hear a single sound split into two slice you can disable an individual slice by pressing [Alt]/[Option] (the pointer turns into a cross) and clicking on the corresponding hitpoint handle. • To activate Q-points, open the Preferences (Editing– Audio page) and activate the option “Hitpoints have QPoints”. Next time you use the Calculate Hitpoints function, the hitpoints will have Q-points. The hitpoint handle gets smaller and its line disappears to indicate that it is disabled.
Ö You can also create grooves from a MIDI part by selecting the part and dragging it on the grid display in the middle of the Quantize Setup dialog or by selecting “Part to Groove” from the Advanced Quantize submenu on the MIDI menu. Proceed as follows: 1. Set the desired tempo. 2. Select the part in the Project window. 3. Select “Close Gaps” from the Advanced submenu on the Audio menu. Other hitpoint functions Time stretch is applied on each slice to close the gaps.
A typical application of warp tabs is to use them to synchronize audio to video. ! The next step is to see where the first warp tab needs to be added. It may be useful to hear the metronome click to determine when the tempo of the audio clip drifts from the project tempo. To hear the metronome, activate the Click button on the Transport panel and play back using the transport controls.
10. With the mouse button still pressed, drag the warp tab so that the position lines up with the first beat of the bar in the ruler. Next to the warp tab handle in the ruler, a number is shown. This number indicates the warp factor, i.e. the amount of stretch. Warp factor numbers higher than 1.0 indicate that the audio region preceding the warp tab is expanded and will play back slower. Warp factor numbers lower than 1.
Flattening the realtime processing Moving the insert position of existing warp tabs If you simply wish to change the insert position of a warp tab in the audio, click and drag the warp tab header in the ruler. However, this will change the warping. You can “flatten” the realtime processing at any time. This can be done to serve two purposes; to reduce the CPU load and to optimize the sound quality of the processing.
Proceed as follows: 3. Select an algorithm and click OK. After the processing, any loop that was previously stretched in realtime or had been pitch shifted will play back exactly the same, but Musical mode will be deactivated and the realtime pitch shifting will be set to 0. 1. Select the audio event(s) you wish to process. 2. Select “Flatten” from the Realtime Processing submenu of the Audio menu or use the corresponding button in the Process tab.
VariAudio (Cubase only) Understanding the waveform display in VariAudio Ö Before you continue, make sure you read the tutorial in the Getting Started manual. When you open monophonic vocal recordings in the Sample Editor and click the Segments or the Pitch & Warp mode on the VariAudio tab, your audio will be analyzed and segmented to display the tonal portions, i.e. the notes sung or played. This process is called segmentation.
The vertical position of a segment indicates its average pitch. If Pitch & Warp mode is activated and you move the mouse pointer over a segment, a piano roll will be displayed, showing the found pitches. Micro-pitch curves If you move the mouse over a segment… …a piano roll is shown in the waveform. This portion of the waveform cannot be represented as a micro-pitch curve. The horizontal position of a segment indicates the time position and the length.
Applying editing, offline processes and VariAudio • When you click Proceed, your edits will be applied, and you will loose your VariAudio data. The following offline processes and edits that affect the length of the audio file, may lead to the re-analysis of the audio material: • When you click Proceed and Keep, your edits will be applied. Any VariAudio data in the audio file will be kept. Offline processes that may not affect existing VarioAudio data are Envelope, Fade In/Out, Normalize or Silence.
Ö Note that you can drag the segment start/end only until it reaches the start/end of the next segment. Segments cannot overlap each other. Editing the segmentation includes changing the start and end position of a segment, cutting or gluing segments, and moving or deleting them. Just select the section of the file that you want to change, activate Segments mode, and edit the segmentation for the desired section.
Pitch & Warp mode 3. Click to glue the active segment to the next segment. If several segments are selected, they will all be glued together. Snap will not be taken into account. ! If you activate Pitch & Warp mode in the VariAudio tab, you can change the pitch and the timing of your audio. When the resulting segment pitch cannot be calculated because of an increase in non-tonal data, the segment will be deleted.
You can set up the way in which a note will snap to a certain pitch in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page): Pitch Quantize You can also quantize the audio pitch upwards or downwards to iteratively reduce the deviation from the nearest semitone position. • If you use “Absolute Pitch Snapping” (by default no modifier) the segment will be pitched to the next semitone.
If you want to change the pitch modulation only for the segment start or end, you can set an “anchor point” to specify which part of the pitch should be affected: • If you want to remove a tilt anchor from a segment, hold down [Alt]/[Option], position the mouse cursor at the top border of the segment until it turns to a glue tube, and click. The tilt anchor will be deleted. 1. Move the mouse pointer over the top border of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes an I-beam symbol. 2.
Proceed as follows: Warping segments 1. After having corrected the segmentation, select the segment for which you would like to change the pitch. ! 2. Activate Pitch & Warp mode and click the MIDI Input button. Any correction of the segmentation must be applied before warping segments. Time correction, i.e. warping at segment level, is useful if you want to align a musical accent to a certain position, or change or quantize the timing of single segments in monophonic vocal recordings.
• You can change the insert position of a warp tab in the audio by clicking and dragging the warp tab header in the ruler. This will change the warping (see “Editing Warp tabs” on page 251). 2. Move the mouse pointer over the start of the segment so that it becomes a double arrow and drag the segment start to the beginning of the bar. The segment border will snap to the grid at the exact bar position.
Listening to your modifications Now the beginning of the waveform matches the desired bar position. You can listen to the results of your modifications using the following methods: • By activating Acoustic Feedback on the toolbar. The segments will be played back when you adjust the pitch or while nudging, navigating and selecting segments. This way you can easily audition your modifications while editing. • By using the Play tool on the toolbar.
Proceed as follows: 6. Click OK. A MIDI part is created. 1. Open the Sample Editor by double-clicking your audio file in the Project window or the Pool. Ö If your audio event references only a section of the audio clip, only this range will be extracted. 2. Open the VariAudio tab. You can also use a key command to extract your audio as MIDI. In this case no dialog will be opened and the settings that were used for the previous extraction will be used instead.
17 The Audio Part Editor
Background Window overview The Audio Part Editor allows you to view and edit the events inside audio parts. Essentially, this is the same type of editing that you do in the Project window, which means that this chapter contains a lot of references to the chapter “The Project window” on page 25. Audio parts are created in the Project window in one of the following ways: • By selecting one or several audio events on the same track, and selecting “Events to Part” from the Audio menu.
About lanes • To move an event to another lane without accidentally moving it horizontally, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag it up or down. If you make the editor window larger, this will reveal additional space below the edited events. This is because an audio part is divided vertically in lanes. This is the default modifier key for this – you can adjust this in the Preferences if you like.
Operations ! • When auditioning with the Speaker tool or Audition icon, audio will be routed directly to the Control Room (Cubase only) or to the Main Mix (the default output bus) if the Control Room is disabled. In Cubase Studio, the Main Mix bus is always used for auditioning. Zooming, selecting and editing in the Audio Part Editor are done just as in the Project window (see “Operations” on page 34). By using regular playback • Note that if a part is a shared copy (i.e.
Handling several parts • It is possible to cycle between parts, making them active using key commands. When you open the Audio Part Editor with several parts selected – all on the same track or on different tracks – they might not all “fit” in the editor window, which can make it hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing. In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, there are two functions: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”.
Options and Settings Creating an audio part from regions 1. In the Project window, select the event you recorded in Cycle mode. The following options and settings are available in the Audio Part Editor: After recording, this will play the last take. • Snap 2. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Events to Part”. You can specify an independent Snap mode (and snap value for the Grid mode) in the editor. The functionality is exactly the same as in the Project window.
18 The Pool
Background The content of the Pool is divided into three main folders: • The Audio folder 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: This contains all audio clips and regions currently in the project. • The Video folder This contains all video clips currently in the project. • All audio and video clips that belong to a project are listed in the Pool.
The info line Column Description Click the “Show Info” button on the toolbar to show or hide the info line at the bottom of the Pool window. It shows the following information: Tempo This shows the tempo of audio files, if available. If no tempo has been specified, the column displays “???”. Number of audio files in the Pool Number of audio files in use Total size of all audio files in the Pool Number of files in the Pool that are not in the project folder (e. g.
Sorting the Pool contents Operations You can sort the clips in the Pool by name, date etc. This is done by clicking on the corresponding column heading. Clicking again on the same heading switches between ascending and descending sort order. Ö Most of the Pool-related main menu functions are also available on the Pool context menu (opened by right-clicking in the Pool window). Renaming clips or regions in the Pool The arrow indicates the sort column and sort order.
• Note that the clip will be positioned so that its snap point is aligned with the selected insert position. You can also open the Sample Editor for a clip by double-clicking it, and perform the insert operation from there. This way you can set the snap point before inserting a clip. 3. The clip is inserted on the selected track or on a new audio track. If you cancel, neither the clip nor the associated events are deleted.
Removing regions 2. Specify the name of the file(s) to search for in the Name field. To remove a region from the Pool, select it and select “Delete” from the Edit menu (or press [Backspace] or [Delete]). You can use partial names or wildcards (*). Note that only audio files of the supported formats will be found. Ö For regions there is no alert if the region is used in the project! 3. Use the Location pop-up menu to specify where to search.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the “Name” text to the right of the name field and click on the arrow that appears. • You can save presets of your search filter settings. To do this, click Save Preset on the Presets submenu and enter a name for the preset. Move the mouse pointer over the “Name” text to the right of the name field and click… …to show the Extended Search pop-up menu. Existing presets can be found at the bottom of the list.
Locate missing files Proceed as follows: 1. Select “Find Missing Files” from the Media or context menu. 1. Open the Pool and locate the clip(s) for which files are missing. The Resolve Missing Files dialog opens. 2. Check the Status column – if it says “Reconstructible”, the file can be reconstructed by Cubase. 3. Select the reconstructible clips and select “Reconstruct” from the Media menu. The editing is performed and the edit files are recreated.
If you have activated the Audition Loop button before you audition, the following will happen: This is a standard file dialog, where you can navigate to other folders, audition files, etc. The following audio file formats can be imported: • When you click the Audition button to audition a clip, the clip is repeated indefinitely until you stop playback by clicking the Audition or Audition Loop button again.
About the Import Audio CD dialog When you select a file in the Import Medium dialog and click Open, the Import Options dialog opens: You can import tracks (or sections of tracks) from an audio CD directly into the Pool by using the “Import Audio CD…” function on the Media menu. This opens a dialog in which you can specify which tracks should be copied from the CD, converted to audio files and added to the Pool. For details about the Import from Audio CD dialog, see “Importing audio CD tracks” on page 459.
To do this, proceed as follows: Undoing processing 1. Select the Audio folder or any audio clip. If you have applied processing to a clip, in the Project window, the Sample Editor, or in the Pool, this is indicated by the red and gray waveform symbol in the Status column. This processing can always be undone using the Offline Process History, see “The Offline Process History dialog” on page 214. You cannot designate the Video folder (or any of its subfolders) as the Pool Record folder. 2.
Prepare Archive Importing and exporting Pool files (Cubase only) The option “Prepare Archive” on the Media menu is useful if you want to archive a project. It verifies that every clip referenced in the project is located in the same folder, and takes actions if that is not the case: You can import or export a Pool as a separate file (file extension “.npl”), by using the “Import Pool” and “Export Pool” options on the Media or context menu.
Convert Files Conform Files By using this command, you will change all selected files that have different file attributes than what is specified for the project, to conform to this standard. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the clips in the Pool. 2. Select “Conform Files” on the Media menu. A dialog opens allowing you to choose between keeping or replacing the original unconverted files in the Pool.
19 The MediaBay
Introduction The VST Sound features can easily be recognized by the VST Sound symbol. One of the biggest challenges in typical computer-based music production environments is how to manage the evergrowing number of plug-ins, instruments, presets, etc. from multiple sources. With VST Sound, Cubase offers a comprehensive system to organize sounds and sound-related files, with the powerful MediaBay at its core.
Key commands • Pattern banks: .patternbank Pattern banks contain drum patterns created with the MIDI plug-in “Beat Designer”, see “Previewing pattern banks” on page 284. Many of the MediaBay functions can be performed using key commands. These can be found in the Key commands dialog (Media category). For details on setting up and using key commands, see the chapter “Key commands” on page 479. • Project files (from Cubase, Nuendo, Sequel): .cpr, .npr, .
Window overview The Viewer section, see “Finding files in the Viewer section” on page 279. The Tag Editor (Cubase only), see “The Tag Editor (Cubase only)” on page 284. The Browser section, see “Browsing for media files” on page 276. p The Scope section, see “Previewing files in the Scope section” on page 283. Browsing for media files The info line The info line is located at the bottom of the window. To the left in the default MediaBay window you will find the Browser section.
The VST Sound node • Orange folder icons are displayed when a scanning process was interrupted. • Yellow icons are displayed for folders that have not been scanned. The VST Sound node in the Browser section The Browser section provides a shortcut to user content and factory content files, including the preset folders. You can find this node at the top of the Browser folder hierarchy, at the same level as the File System node.
Rescan on Select • You can switch the Browser display between the Full view and the Focus view. When you activate this button, selecting a folder in the Browser section will cause this folder to be rescanned. This ensures that the MediaBay will always display the current content of a folder. If you select a folder and switch to the Focus tab only this folder and its subfolders are shown. When you switch back to the Full view, the entire file system node can be accessed again.
Finding files in the Viewer section Browse Selection Presets If you constantly find yourself returning to specific folders during your work, you can save these browse locations as presets so that selecting such a preset will take you to the folder instantly. Proceed as follows: The Viewer section consists of two panes: the Filter section at the top and below it, the Viewer display. In the Filter section, you can set up filters and define searches for specific files.
Filtering the Viewer display Performing a Details search (Cubase only) The MediaBay provides a number of filter buttons that can be used to limit the number of files displayed in the Viewer section. These buttons are situated at the top of the Viewer section and can be used to show all supported file types or any combination of file types. You can also perform a search for a particular file name in the file system. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the root folder of your hard disk in the Browser section.
• The condition pop-up menu contains the following options: When you select the Category search mode, the Filter section will show the tag columns, each with its own list of tag values. If the columns are wide enough, a number displayed before a filter name indicates how many files match this criteria. Option Description contains The search result must contain the text or number specified in the text field to the right.
• Selected tag values in the same tag column form an OR condition. • You can change which tag type is displayed in each column by clicking on the column title and selecting another tag from the tag list pop-up menu. This means that files must be tagged according to either one or the other value to be displayed in the Viewer section. How to configure the tag list is described in the section “Managing the tag lists” on page 284. • To select a tag value, simply click on it.
Previewing MIDI files • Cubase only: When the option “Allow Editing in Viewer” is activated in the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page), you can also edit tags in the Viewer. Transport controls Output Auto Play Otherwise this is possible only in the Tag Editor. Play in Project context Previewing files in the Scope section The Scope section for a MIDI file Below the Viewer you will find the Scope section. It allows you to play back files selected in the Viewer section. • To preview a MIDI file (.
The Tag Editor (Cubase only) 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.
Editing tags in the Tag Editor 3. To display a certain tag in the Filter section, the Viewer display or the Tag Editor, activate the corresponding checkbox for this tag: You can use the Tag Editor to edit tag values of the various media files. Tag values can be chosen from pop-up lists, entered as text or numbers or set to Yes or No. The “Category” tag is selected for display in the Filter tag lists, the Viewer and in the Tag Editor. ! In Cubase Studio, tags can be edited only in the Viewer.
Tagging media files • To remove the attribute value from the selected files, right-click in the Value column for the desired attribute and select “Remove Tag” from the context menu. The search functions, especially the Category search mode, become a truly powerful media management tool when making extensive use of tagging.
Tagging multiple files simultaneously • If you have set new attribute values for a file that is write-protected, this will be reflected in the Pending Tags column. There is no limit as to how many files can be tagged at the same time, but you need to be aware that the tagging of thousands of files in one go may take quite a while. This operation is executed in background, so that you can continue with your work as usual.
20 Working with Track Presets
Introduction The following data will be saved in instrument track presets: • • • • • • • • • • • Track presets are templates from audio, MIDI or instrument tracks that can be applied to newly created or existing tracks of the same type. They contain sound and channel settings, thus allowing you to quickly browse, preview, select and change sounds, or reuse channel settings across projects.
Applying track presets Multi track presets You can use multi track presets e.g. when recording setups that require several microphones (a drum set or a choir, where you record always under the same conditions) and have to edit the resulting tracks in a similar way, or for layered tracks, where you use several tracks to generate a certain sound instead of manipulating only one track. When you apply a track preset, all saved settings are applied, see “Types of track presets” on page 289.
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. Applying a multi track preset 1. Select several tracks in your project. The selected tracks have to be of the same type, number and sequence as the tracks in the track preset. Applying track or VST presets in the Inspector or the context menu of the track 2. Right-click the track to open the context menu and select “Apply Track Preset”. 1.
Extracting sound from an instrument track or VST preset For instrument tracks, you can extract the “sound” of an instrument track preset or VST preset, that means the VST Instrument and its settings. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the instrument track to which you want to apply a sound. 2. Click the VST Sound button below the Output Routing field in the Inspector. 3. Enter a file name in the “File Name” field. The track preset file name extension .trackpreset is assigned automatically.
Creating tracks from track presets or VST presets • If you want to see the contents of presets subfolders within the VST Sound node, click the “Show Location” option to open the Browser section (see “Browsing for media files” on page 276). Using drag and drop 3. Select a track or VST preset. 1. Open the Sound Browser from the Media menu. 2. Select a track or VST preset from the list of all presets. 4. Hit the Play button on the Transport panel to preview the selected preset. 3.
Using a MIDI file 1. Open the “Browse Sounds” dialog and select a MIDI or instrument track preset or a VST preset. The preview buttons appear on the lower right. (In the Sound Browser, the preview buttons appear in the Scope section.) 2. Click the Choose MIDI File button, select a MIDI file (.mid) in the file dialog that appears and click OK. 3. Click the MIDI Input button and activate “Play” (the Play button is now available). The chosen MIDI file file will be played back with the track or VST preset.
21 Track Quick Controls
Introduction Cubase can give you instant access to up to eight parameters of each audio, MIDI or instrument track. This is done with the aid of the so-called quick controls, set up on the Quick Controls Inspector tab for these tracks. The track’s main volume parameter is assigned to quick control 1. 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.
Setting up quick controls on an external remote controller 6. Move the control (knob, fader or other) on your remote control device that you want to use for the first quick control. Quick controls become really powerful when used in combination with a remote controller. 7. In the Device Setup dialog, click the Learn button. Setting up the connection between the slots on the Quick Controls Inspector tab and a remote control device is easy. Proceed as follows: 1.
Quick controls and automatable parameters 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 feature has one special extension: you can use quick controls not only to access certain parameters of the current track, but also to control all automatable parameters. This makes it possible to use the Quick Controls tab of a dedicated track as a kind of “mini mixer”, controlling parameters on other tracks.
22 Remote controlling Cubase
Introduction Selecting a remote device 1. Pull down the Devices menu and select Device Setup. 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”. A dialog window opens with a list of device categories and devices shown in the left part of the window. 2.
Writing automation using remote controls • In the Project window (Track list) and the mixer (bottom of channel strips) you will now see white stripes indicating which channels are currently linked to the remote control device. Automating the mixer in Touch mode using a remote control device is done in the same way as when you operate onscreen controls in Write mode.
Assigning remote key commands Accessing user panel parameters via remote control devices (Cubase only) For some of the supported remote devices, you can assign any Cubase function (to which a key command can be assigned) to generic buttons, wheels or other controls. As of this writing, these devices are: • • • • • • • • Cubase allows you to control external MIDI devices through user device panels. When you have assigned project parameters to a device panel to be displayed in the Mixer (i.e.
3. Select the Generic Remote device in the Devices list to the left. Column Description MIDI Status Clicking in this column pulls down a pop-up menu, allowing you to specify the type of MIDI message sent by the control. The options are Controller, Program Change, Note On, Note Off, Aftertouch and Polyphonic Pressure. Also available are Continuous Control NRPN and RPN, a way to extend the available control messages.
Track Quick Controls Column Description Channel/ Category This is where you select the channel to be controlled or, if the “Command” Device option is selected, the Command category. Value/Action Clicking in this column pulls down 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.).
23 MIDI realtime parameters and effects
Introduction • For a MIDI track, up to nine sections (eight in Cubase Studio) are available. Which of these sections are displayed in the Inspector is determined in the setup context menu or the Setup dialog of the Inspector. 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.
Ö Note that the functionality of the Bank and Patch selector settings (used for selecting sounds in the connected MIDI instrument) depends on the instrument to which the MIDI output is routed, and how you have set it up in the MIDI Device Manager. Parameter Description Read/Write buttons Used for automating the track settings – see “Enabling and disabling the writing of automation data” on page 189.
Transpose An example: 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. Let’s say you have three notes with the velocity values 60, 90 and 120, and wish to “even out” the velocity differences somewhat.
2. Set the desired range of random deviation by entering values in the two number fields. Mode Description Note Limit This function allows you to specify a pitch range, and forces all notes to fit within this range. Notes outside the specified range are transposed up or down in octave steps until they fit within the range. Note: If the range is too “narrow”, so that some notes cannot be fit within the range by octave-transposing, these notes will get a pitch in the middle of the range.
MIDI effects VST Instrument section If the MIDI track is routed to a VST Instrument, a new subpanel 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. This makes it easy to adjust the channel settings for the VST Instrument while you are editing the MIDI track.
MIDI Inserts section MIDI Sends section This allows you to add up to four MIDI insert effects. The section contains the following items: Item Description Preset Management button Click this to open the track presets pop-up menu and select an insert preset or apply an insert from a track preset, see “Previewing MIDI, instrument and VST presets independently of tracks” on page 293.
About presets Applying a MIDI insert effect – an example Several of the MIDI plug-ins come with a number of presets for instant use. Here is a step-by-step example of how to add a MIDI insert effect to a MIDI track: 1. Select the MIDI track and open the Inspector. MIDI In and Out activity indicators 2. Open the MIDI Inserts tab in the Inspector. • Alternatively you could use the mixer: bring up the extended mixer panel and select “Inserts” on the view options pop-up menu for the track’s channel strip.
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.
24 Using MIDI devices
Background banks, each bank containing 128 programs. If your instruments support MIDI Bank Select, you can use the Bank Selector field in the Inspector to select a bank, and then the Program Selector field to select a program in this bank. 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).
Defining a new MIDI device Cubase Studio: List of connected MIDI devices. The first time you open the MIDI Device Manager, this list will be empty. If your MIDI device is not included in the list of pre-configured devices (and is not a “plain” GM or XG device), you need to define it manually to make it possible to select patches by name. This is handled slightly differently for Cubase and Cubase Studio. Use these buttons to install/remove devices.
Installing a preset MIDI device • You can rename a device in the Installed Devices list by double-clicking and typing – this is useful if you have several devices of the same model, and want to separate them by name instead of by number. To install a preset MIDI device, proceed as follows: 1. Click the Install Device button. A dialog appears listing all pre-configured MIDI devices. For now we assume that your MIDI device is included in this list.
Limitations Renaming patches in a device There is no easy way to import a patch name script into an existing MIDI device. For a complex workaround based on XML editing, see the separate pdf document “MIDI Devices”. The pre-configured devices list is based on the factorypreset patches, i.e. the patches included in the device when you first bought it.
The Commands pop-up menu contains the following items: ! Create Bank Creates a new bank at the highest hierarchical level of the Patch Banks list. You can rename this by clicking on it and typing a new name. Different devices use different schemes for Bank Select. When you insert a Bank Select event, you should check the device’s documentation to find out whether to choose “CC: BankSelect MSB”, “Bank Select 14 Bit”, “Bank Select 14 Bit MSB-LSB Swapped” or some other option.
Basic concept 3. Specify a Default Name below the event display. The added events will get this name, followed by a number. You can rename presets manually in the Patch Banks list later. The panel editing features in the MIDI Device Manager can be seen as a separate application or entity within Cubase. It allows you to build device maps complete with control panels, including all parameters controllable from within Cubase.
4. Click Open. The Import MIDI Devices dialog appears where you can select one or several devices for import. 8. Select the device from the “Output Routing” pop-up menu for a MIDI track. A device setup file can contain one or several MIDI devices. 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 strip for the corresponding track in the Mixer.
Ö If you cannot see any panels in the “Panels” folder, although you have successfully set up a MIDI device with several panels, make sure you selected the correct channel from the Channel pop-up menu, preferably “Any” to see all device panels. Also make sure that the panels fit into the space, otherwise they will not be available in the “Panels” folder.
About Studio Connections (Cubase only) Studio Connections is the name of an initiative led by Steinberg and Yamaha. The initiative intends to create industry standards for totally integrated system environments using software and hardware products. If you have an SM2 component installed, there is an additional menu item on the Devices menu.
When a MIDI track is routed to such a device, the “Open Device Panels” button becomes available. Total Recall Total Recall means that you can save and recall all settings of your hardware and software products by opening one integrated file in a DAW such as Cubase or Nuendo. Also you will have instant and organized access to hardware editors.
25 MIDI processing and quantizing
Introduction • In the Project window, the MIDI functions apply to all selected parts, affecting all events (of the relevant types) in them. 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. • In the MIDI editors, the MIDI functions apply to all selected events. If no events are selected, all events in the edited part(s) will be affected.
Ö Any settings you make in the dialog are immediately reflected in the Quantize pop-up menus. However, if you want your settings permanently available on the Quantize pop-up menus, you have to use the presets functions (see “Presets” on page 328). Setting up quantize on the toolbar At its most basic, setting up quantizing consists of selecting a note value from the Quantize pop-up menu on the toolbar (in the Project window or a MIDI editor).
Magnetic Area The Non Quantize setting This allows you to specify that only notes within a certain distance from the grid lines should be affected by quantizing. This setting affects the result of the quantizing. It allows you to set a “distance” in ticks (120ths of sixteenth notes). • When the slider is set to 0%, the Magnetic Area function is deactivated, i.e. all notes are affected by quantizing.
• If you activate the “Auto” checkbox in the Quantize Setup dialog, any change you make in the dialog is immediately applied to the selected MIDI parts or notes. have selected the “Quantize Link” option on the Length Quantize pop-up menu, the function will resize the note according to the quantize grid, taking the Swing, Tuplet and Magnetic Area settings into account. A great way of using this feature is to set up a playback loop, and adjust the settings in the dialog until you get the desired result.
Freeze Quantize Semitones There may be situations when you want to make the quantized positions “permanent”. For example, you may want to quantize notes a second time, having the results based on the current quantized positions rather than the original positions. To make this possible, select the notes in question and select “Freeze Quantize” from the Advanced Quantize submenu. This makes the quantized positions permanent. This is where you set the amount of transposition.
Making your settings permanent Merge MIDI in Loop The “Merge MIDI in Loop” function combines all MIDI events on all unmuted tracks, applies MIDI modifiers and effects and generates a new MIDI part, containing all the events as you would hear them play back. Proceed as follows: The settings described in the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 305 do not change the MIDI events themselves, but work like a “filter”, affecting the music on playback.
2. Set the locators to encompass the part. • When you have imported a MIDI file of Type 0. Simply select the part and choose Locators to Selection from the Transport menu (or use the corresponding key command, by default [P]). MIDI files of Type 0 contain only one track, with notes on up to 16 different MIDI channels.
Bounce Selection 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.
Delete Notes You can specify a gap or overlap for this function with the “Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences (Editing–MIDI page). 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. When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 5 ticks before the next note.
OK and Cancel The following types of velocity processing are available: Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without deleting notes. Add/Subtract This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the Amount parameter. Restrict Polyphony Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can specify how many “voices” should be used (for the selected notes or parts).
Extract MIDI Automation This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to quickly and easily convert the continuous controllers of your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI track automation data, making them available for editing in the Project window. Proceed as follows: 1. Select the desired MIDI part containing the continuous controller data. 2. Select “Extract MIDI Automation”. (This command is also available on the Key Editor context menu.
26 The MIDI editors
Introduction Please note that features that are identical in these editors (especially in the Key and Drum Editors) will be described in the Key Editor section. The sections about the Drum Editor (see “The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 358), the In-Place Editor (see “The In-Place Editor” on page 356) and the List Editor (see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 365) describe the specific features of these editors only. There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase.
Handling several parts • The button “Show Part Borders” can be used if you want to see clearly defined borders for the active part. When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI track containing several parts) selected, you might find it somewhat hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing. When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, making the borders easily discernible.
The Key Editor – Overview Toolbar Info line Ruler Note display Controller display The toolbar Mouse pointer display: Current pitch and meter position As in other windows, the toolbar contains tools and various settings. You can specify which toolbar items should be shown and store/recall different toolbar configurations – see “Using the Setup options” on page 471.
At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two additional items: The chord recognition function Cubase features a handy chord recognition function that helps you identify chords in the Key Editor note display. To find out which chord is formed by simultaneously played notes, place the project cursor over the notes. All MIDI notes currently “touched” by the project cursor are analyzed and the chord recognition display in the toolbar shows you which chord the notes form.
Key Editor operations Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller display, with higher bars corresponding to higher velocity values: Zooming Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the standard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Zoom tool or the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu. • When you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool, the result depends on the option “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal Zooming Only” in the Preferences (Editing–Tools page).
• If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or end time for all edited notes. The independent track loop The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the MIDI part being edited. When the loop is activated, the MIDI events within the loop will be repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) will be played back as usual.
Coloring notes and events Acoustic Feedback By using the Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can select a color scheme for the events in the editor. The following options are available: If the speaker icon 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’re doing.
• If you click once, the created note will have the length set on the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the toolbar. 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 create a longer note by clicking and dragging. The length of the created note will be a multiple of the Length Quantize value.
Selecting notes • To select all notes of a certain pitch, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on the desired key in the keyboard display to the left. Selecting notes is done using any of the following methods: • Use the Arrow tool. All notes of the corresponding pitch are selected. The standard selection techniques apply, like selecting by clicking on the note or using a selection rectangle.
Moving and transposing notes • Selecting Duplicate from the Edit menu creates a copy of the selected note and places it directly after the original. To move notes in the editor, use any of the following methods: If several notes are selected, all of these are copied “as one unit”, maintaining the relative distance between the notes. • Click and drag to a new position. • Selecting “Repeat…” from the Edit menu opens a dialog, allowing you to create a number of copies of the selected note(s).
Resizing notes Muting notes To resize a note, use one of the following methods: Individual notes can be muted in the Key Editor, as opposed to muting an entire MIDI part in the Project window. This allows you to exclude notes from playback, but keep the option to bring them back again at any time. To mute a note, use one of the following methods: • Position the arrow tool at the start or end of the note, so that the pointer takes on the shape of a small double arrow.
How the Key Editor handles Expression maps 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. It is also possible to click the Pitch or Velocity field in the info line and play a note on your MIDI keyboard – the pitch or velocity will be adjusted according to the note you played.
3. Use the note buttons on the toolbar to decide which properties should be changed by the MIDI input. 3. Click anywhere in the note display to set the start position (the desired position of the first note or chord). You can enable editing of pitch, note-on and/or note-off velocity. The step input position is shown as a blue line in the note display, and in the lower mouse pointer display in the toolbar.
Editing in the controller display Selecting the event type About controller lanes Each controller lane shows one event type at a time. To select which type should be displayed, use the pop-up menu to the left of the lane. By default, the controller display has a single lane, showing one event type at a time. However, you can add lanes by clicking the plus button or by opening the Quick context menu and selecting “Create new controller lane”.
Controller lane presets • You can use the Pencil tool or the Line tool in Paint mode to change the velocity values of several notes by painting a “freehand curve”. Once you have added the required number of controller lanes and selected the event types you need, you can store this combination as a controller lane preset. You could for example have a preset with one velocity lane only, another with a combination of velocity, pitchbend and modulation, and so on.
Ö If there is more than one note at the same position (e.g. a chord), their velocity bars will overlap in the controller lane. Ö With the Pencil 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 344). If none of the notes are selected, all notes at the same position will be set to the same velocity value when you draw.
• In Parabola mode, you can use modifier keys to determine the shape of the parabola curve. [Option] if you want to change the existing events rather than creating new ones. Again, the snap value for the positioning will be a quarter of the quantize value. If you press [Ctrl]/[Command], the parabola curve will be reversed.
Deleting events in the controller display • 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 202). The resulting curve is displayed in addition to the curve you entered on the controller lane. You delete events by clicking on them with the Eraser tool or by selecting them and pressing [Backspace].
The In-Place Editor To add a new Poly Pressure event, proceed as follows: 1. Select Poly Pressure on the event type pop-up menu. The In-Place Editor makes it possible to edit MIDI parts directly in the Project window, for quick and efficient editing in context with other tracks. 2. Set the note number by clicking on the keyboard display. The selected note number is displayed in the upper value field to the left of the controller display. Note that this only works for the topmost lane.
• Clicking on the little gray triangle in the upper right corner of the Track list for the edited track brings up a local toolbar with some settings specific to the In-Place Editor. For descriptions of these settings, see “The toolbar” on page 340. • Just like in the Key Editor, you can edit velocity or continuous controllers at the bottom of the In-Place Editor.
The Drum Editor – Overview Toolbar Ruler Drum sound list Note display Drum Maps Controller display The toolbar and info line The drum sound list These are much the same as the toolbar and info line in the Key Editor (see “The Key Editor – Overview” on page 340), with the following differences: • The Drum Editor has no Pencil tool – instead there is a Drumstick tool (for entering and removing notes) and a Line tool with various line and curve modes (for drawing several notes in one go or editing contro
Drum Editor operations The note display The basic handling (zooming, playback, auditioning, etc.) is the same as in the Key Editor (see “Key Editor operations” on page 342). The following sections describe the procedures and features specific to the Drum Editor. Creating and editing notes The standard way of entering notes in the Drum Editor is to click with the Drumstick tool. The note display of the Drum Editor displays notes as diamond symbols.
Ö You can also adjust the position of notes by quantizing (see “The Quantizing functions” on page 326). Setting velocity values The notes you enter will get the insert velocity value set in the insert velocity field on the toolbar – to speed up things you may want to assign key commands to the insert velocity options. See “Setting velocity values” on page 345. Again, which quantize value is used depends on whether Global Quantize is used.
Working with drum maps Now, take a look at the drum sound list (you may have to drag the divider between the list and the note display to the right to see all columns). The columns show the settings of the drum map for each sound. 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.
About Pitch, I-note and O-note Usage This can be a somewhat confusing area, but once you’ve grasped how it all works it is not very complicated. Going through the following “theory” will help you make the most out of the drum map concept – especially if you want to create your own drum maps. Again, the purposes are different for I-notes and O-notes: Ö Changing the I-note settings allows you to choose which keys will play which drum sounds, when playing or recording from a MIDI instrument.
Ö The settings for the drum sounds are exactly the same as in the Drum Editor (see “Drum map settings” on page 361). 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. As in the Drum Editor, you can click the leftmost column to audition a drum sound.
O-Note Conversion This function on the MIDI menu goes through the selected MIDI part(s) and sets the actual pitch of each note according to its O-note setting. This is useful if you want to convert a track to a “regular” MIDI track (with no drum map) and still have the notes play back the correct drum sound.
The List Editor – Overview Toolbar Ruler Value display Event list Event display The toolbar The event display The toolbar contains several items that are the same as in the Key Editor (edit solo, snap, quantize settings, etc.). These are described earlier in this chapter. The following toolbar items are unique to the List Editor: This shows the events graphically. The vertical position of an event in the display corresponds to its entry in the list (i.e.
Setting the display format Editing in the list Just like in the Project window, you set the display format (bars+beats, seconds, etc.) by right-clicking in the ruler and selecting an option from the pop-up menu. This setting affects both the ruler and all start, end and length values shown in the list. The list allows you to perform detailed numerical editing of the events properties.
Ö For SysEx (system exclusive) events, you can only edit the position (Start) in the list. • To see one event type only (hide all other event types), press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click its checkbox. If you [Ctrl]/[Command]-click again, all checkboxes are cleared (all events will be visible). However, when you click the Comment column, the MIDI SysEx Editor opens, in which you can perform detailed editing of system exclusive events (see “Working with System Exclusive messages” on page 368).
In addition to the above options, the menu also gives you access to the presets available in the Logical Editor (see “The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer” on page 380). Furthermore, the “Setup…” item on the Mask pop-up menu gives you direct access to the Logical Editor. In that editor you can create very complex masking settings. Exactly which value is shown for an event depends on the event type.
Bulk dumps 4. When done recording, select the new part and open the List Editor from the MIDI menu. Recording a bulk dump in Cubase This allows you to check that the SysEx dump was recorded – there should be one or several SysEx events in the part/event list. In any programmable device, the settings are stored as numbers in computer memory. Change those numbers, and you will change the settings.
Editing System Exclusive messages • If the dump is very short (for instance, a single sound) you can put it in the middle of the project to re-program a device on the fly. However, you can achieve the same effect by using Program Change. This is definitely preferable, since less MIDI data is sent and recorded. Some devices may be set up to dump the settings for a sound as soon as you select it on the front panel. • If you create parts with useful “SysEx dumps”, you can put these on a special muted track.
Editing a value The selected value can be edited directly in the main display or in the decimal and binary displays. Just click on it and type in the desired value as usual. Adding and deleting bytes Using the Insert and Delete buttons or their corresponding computer keyboard keys, you can add and delete bytes from the message. Inserted data will appear before the selection. To delete the complete SysEx message, select it in the List Editor and press [Delete] or [Backspace].
27 VST Expression
Introduction About articulations Musical articulations, or expressions, define how certain notes “sound”, i.e. how they should be 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).
Expression Maps are, for example, useful in the following situations: 5. On the MIDI menu, select “VST Expression Setup…”. The VST Expression Setup window opens. This shows the details of the Expression Map and can be used to create or edit Expression Maps, see “Creating and editing Expression Maps” on page 377. • When you want to enter musical articulations directly in one of the MIDI editors, especially the Score Editor, without having to record MIDI data first. 6.
Expression Maps that were saved separately Articulations in the Score Editor It is also possible to define your own Expression Maps, see “Creating and editing Expression Maps” on page 377. To load these, proceed as follows: In the Score Editor, articulations can be inserted like other symbols. There is a special tab in the Symbols Inspector, containing all articulation symbols of the current Expression Map. 1.
To display the available articulations (i.e. all articulations set up in the selected Expression Map), open the pop-up menu to the left of the lane and select “Articulations”. • To insert new attributes on the controller lane, select the Pencil tool and click at the respective note line in the corresponding row of the controller lane. Instead of selecting the Pencil tool, you can also hold down a modifier key (by default [Alt]/[Option]) and click at the desired position.
Articulations in the List Editor Adding sound slots 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. Now, you create the “sound slots”, one for each articulation you want to add. Proceed as follows: 1. In the Sound Slot section to the right of the Maps list, a sound slot is added automatically when a new map is created. This is the default slot that will be used.
Output Mapping Editing Articulations When you have added the desired sound slots, you can map these to certain “sound characters” or “expressions” of an instrument, e.g. a bowed violin or a pizzicato violin, a plain trumpet, a muted trumpet or a trumpet playing staccato. The available sounds depend on the instrument that is selected for the MIDI or instrument track. You can also create expressions by editing the incoming MIDI data, for example by changing the note length or velocity.
Remote Key Settings Set Remote Keys The Remote Keys specify which key on an external device will be used to play a certain sound slot, i.e. these keys will then be used to insert articulations instead of notes. Remote keys can be specified manually for each slot in the Sound Slots section of the window. However, you can also automatically assign a range of keys on your external device to the sound slots in the Expression Map.
28 The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer
Introduction About the Transformer MIDI effect The Transformer effect is a realtime version of the Logical Editor, allowing you to apply editing to the events played back from a track “on the fly”. The Transformer contains virtually the same settings and functions as the Logical Editor – where there are differences between the two, this is clearly stated on the following pages. Most of the time you will perform your MIDI editing graphically in one of the MIDI editors.
Window overview Description Condition This determines how the Logical Editor should compare the property in the Filter Target column to the values in the Parameter columns (see below). The available options depend on the Filter Target setting. Parameter 1 Here you set which value the element properties should be compared to (depending on the Filter Target).
Conditions Below, the different Filter Targets (and their corresponding Condition and Parameter options) are described in more detail. 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.
Searching for Value 1 or Value 2 Searching for note pitch or velocity A MIDI event is composed of several values. What is displayed for Value 1 and 2 depends on the type of event: If you add another condition line with the Filter Target “Type”, Condition “Equal” and Parameter 1 set to “Note”, the Logical Editor will “know” you are searching for pitch or velocity. This has the following benefits: Event type Value 1 Value 2 Notes The Note Number/ Pitch. The velocity of the note.
Searching for element types Below, you will find a few examples on how the Last Event filter target can be used. Selecting Type as the Filter Target allows you to find elements of a certain type only. Here, the action will only be performed when the sustain pedal is down: • The Condition column contains only three options: Equal, Unequal and All Types. • Clicking the Parameter 1 column displays a pop-up menu, listing the available types (Note, Poly Pressure, Controller, etc.).
Selecting a function • If two condition lines are combined with a boolean Or, one of the conditions (or both) must be fulfilled for an element to be found. The Logical Editor will find all events that are notes (regardless of their position) and all events starting at the beginning of the third bar (regardless of their type). When you add a new condition line, the boolean setting defaults to And.
Copy (Logical Editor only) Option Description This will copy all found elements, transform them according to the action list and paste them into a new part on a new MIDI track. The original events are not affected. Channel Allows you to change the MIDI channel setting. See “Searching for MIDI channels” on page 384. Type Allows you to change the event type, e.g. transform aftertouch events to modulation events.
For example, if the Action Target value is 17 and Parameter 1 is 5, the result of rounding will be 15 (the closest value that can be divided by 5). Another word for this type of operation would be “quantizing”, and it is actually possible to use it for this, by setting the Action Target to “Position” and specifying a quantize value with Parameter 1 (in ticks, with 480 ticks per quarter note). Use Value 2 This is only available when Action Target is set to Value 1.
Storing your own settings as a preset For example, if you apply this to note velocities with Parameter 1 set to 0 and Parameter 2 set to -100, you create a velocity fade-out, keeping the original velocity relations: If you have made Logical Editor settings that you want to use again, you can store them as a preset: 1. Click on the Store Preset button on the right of the Preset menu. A dialog for specifying a name for the new preset is displayed. 2. Enter a name for the preset and click OK.
Opening the Input Transformer The Function pop-up menu To open the Input Transformer for a MIDI track, select the track and click the Input Transformer button in the Inspector to open the pop-up menu: The Function pop-up menu contains two options: Filter and Transform. • In Filter mode, only the filter conditions (the upper list) are taken into account. All events matching the conditions set up will be filtered out (excluded from the recording).
29 The Project Logical Editor
Introduction By combining filter conditions, functions, the specific actions, and additional macros, you can perform very powerful processing. 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 380.
Setting up filter conditions General procedure Column Description Bar Range/ Time Base This column is only used if the Filter Target is set to “Position”. If one of the “Bar Range” options is selected in the Condition column, you use the Bar Range/Time Base column to specify “zones” within each bar (allowing you to find e.g. all elements on or around the first beat of every bar).
Combining Media Type and Container Type 3. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition. The combination of the filter targets Media Type and Container Type represents a versatile tool for logical operations: For media types, the following options are available: Condition Description Equal This finds the Media Type set up in the Parameter 1 column. All Types This finds all Media Types.
For example, if you have set up the Project Logical Editor like this… Condition An element will be found if it… Inside Cycle …is inside the set cycle. Exactly matching Cycle …exactly matches the set cycle. • If you select any condition other than the Range, Bar Range, Cursor, Loop or Cycle options, you set up a specific position (in PPQ, seconds, samples, or frames) in the Parameter 1 column. Use the Bar Range/Time Base column to specify the time base.
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. Searching for elements of certain lengths 1. Select Length in the Filter Target pop-up menu. This allows you to find elements of a certain length only. The Length parameter is interpreted via the time base setting in the Bar Range/Time Base column, i.e. in PPQ, seconds, samples, or frames. Three examples: 2.
Specifying actions • If two condition lines are combined with a boolean Or, one of the conditions (or both) must be fulfilled for an element to be found. The lower list in the Project Logical Editor window is the action list. This is where you specify any changes that should be made to the found elements, relevant for the function type Transform. The Project Logical Editor will find all parts or events that match exactly the cycle.
Operation Description Operation Description Set Relative Random Values between This will add a random value to the current Position value. The added random value will be within the range specified with Parameter 1 and 2. Note that these can be set to negative values. For example, if you set Parameter 1 to -20 and Parameter 2 to +20, the original Position value will get a random variation, never exceeding ±20. Sends Bypass Enables, disables or toggles the sends bypass status.
Selecting a function Applying the defined actions Once you have set up filter conditions, selected a function and set the required actions (or loaded a preset), you apply the actions defined with the Project Logical Editor by clicking the Apply button. The left pop-up menu at the bottom of the Project Logical Editor is where you select the function – the basic type of editing to be performed. Project Logical Editor operations can be undone just like any other editing.
Organizing and sharing presets The Project Logical Editor presets are stored within the application folder in the Presets\Logical Edit Project subfolder (see also “Where are the settings stored?” on page 478). 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.
30 Editing tempo and signature
Background A note about tempo-based audio tracks For tempo-based tracks, the start position of audio events on the timeline depends on the current tempo setting. However, it is important to realize that the actual audio (“within” the events) will play back as recorded, regardless of any tempo changes you make. Therefore, it is good practice to make the proper tempo and time signature settings before you start recording tempo-based audio.
About the tempo and signature tracks The toolbar The tempo track and the signature track allow you to view and edit tempo and signature data in the project context. The toolbar contains various tools and settings: Activate Tempo Track Tools Snap on/off Autoscroll Show Info Snap pop-up The selected tempo • The Inspectors for these tracks show the positions and values of individual tempo curve points or signature events.
Editing tempo and signature Selecting tempo curve points Curve points can be selected as follows: You can use the options of either 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 (see below) which is available only in the Tempo Track Editor. • Using the Arrow tool. The standard selection techniques apply. • Using the Select submenu on the Edit menu.
Adjusting the curve type You can change the curve type of a tempo curve segment at any time, using the following method: 1. With the Arrow tool, select all curve points within the segment you want to edit. To set the tempo in fixed mode: • Adjust the value numerically in the tempo display on the Tempo Track Editor toolbar or in the Track list. • On the Transport panel, click on the tempo value to select it, enter a new value and press [Enter]. 2.
Process Tempo (Cubase only) The Process Bars dialog (Cubase only) Process Tempo allows you to define a specific length or end time for a set range, and the tempo track will automatically set a tempo that will fit the range in the specified time. 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 on the Edit menu.
Option Description Action – Reinterpret Bars When you select this action, clicking the Process button will reinterpret the bar range to fit the specified time signature. This is very special in the sense that both bars+beats positions of the notes and the tempo are being changed to fit the new time signature, but the playback of the notes will stay just the same. If you want to reinterpret e.g.
Merge Tempo From Tapping The Time Warp tool This function allows you to create a complete tempo track based on your tapping. Typically, you would use this if you have an audio file with no tempo mapping and want to be able to add other material afterwards, etc. The Time Warp tool lets you adjust the tempo track so that “musical time-based” material (positions related to the tempo) matches “linear time-based” material (positions in time). Some typical applications: 1.
Viewing and adjusting tempo events While you are dragging, the track(s) you are editing are temporarily switched to linear time base. This means that the contents of the tracks remain at the same time positions regardless of the tempo (there is an exception to this in the Project window, see below). When you select the Time Warp tool, the ruler of the active window is shown in brown. Existing tempo events are shown in the ruler as “flags” with the tempo values displayed. 4.
6. Click in the event display at the start of bar 33 and drag to the desired position in the video. Matching a musical score to video Here’s an example of how to use the Time Warp tool in “musical events follow” mode. Let’s say you are creating the music for a film. You have a video track, an audio track with a commentary and some audio and/or MIDI tracks with your music. Now you want to match the position of a musical cue to a position in a video film. The musical cue is located in bar 33.
You need to create a “lock point” – a tempo event at the first cue position: Making a tempo map for a “free” recording The following example shows how to use the Time Warp tool in the Sample Editor to create a tempo map matching freely recorded music. Let’s say you have recorded a drummer, playing without a metronome – this typically means the tempo varies ever so slightly.
Using the Time Warp tool in a MIDI editor Now, if you simply adjusted that beat in the tempo grid to match the beat in the recording, the tempo event at the first downbeat would be changed – this would ruin the match in the previous bars! We need to lock these by inserting a new tempo event.
31 The Project Browser
Window Overview Time Format (display format) pop-up menu Add pop-up menu and Add button for creating new parts, events and regions. Project Structure list. This is where you navigate through the project. Filter pop-up menu, used for MIDI editing Event display. This is where you view and edit parts, events and regions. The Project Browser window provides a list based representation of the project. This allows you to view and edit all events on all tracks by using regular value editing in a list.
• To select a display format for all position and length values, use the Time Format pop-up menu. Audio track • You can sort events in the display by columns, by clicking the column heading. Track Data subitem of the audio track For example, if you want to sort events by their start positions, click that column heading. An arrow appears in the column heading, indicating that events are sorted by that column.
The list columns for audio parts Parameter Description Parameter Description End Name The name of the part. Double-clicking on the part symbol beside it opens the part in the Audio Part Editor. This is only used for note events, allowing you to view and edit the end position of a note (thereby resizing it). Length Start The start position of the part. Editing this value is the same as moving the part in the Project window. This is only used for note events.
Filtering MIDI events Editing Automation tracks When you are editing MIDI in the Project Browser, the large number of different MIDI events displayed can make it hard to find the events you want to edit. The Filter pop-up menu allows you to select a single event type for display.
Editing the Marker track Editing time signatures Marker events have the following parameters: When “Signature track” is selected in the Project Structure list, the event display shows the time signature events in the project: Column Description Name The name of the marker. This can be edited for all markers except the left and right locator. Parameter Description Start The position of “regular” markers or the start position of cycle markers. Position The position of the event.
32 Export Audio Mixdown
Introduction Mixing down to audio files The Export Audio Mixdown function in Cubase allows you to mix down audio from the program to files on your hard disk, in a number of formats. In the Channel Selection section, you can choose which channels (or busses) to export. By activating the “Channel Batch Export” option you can choose to mix down several channels at once. For each channel, an individual file will be created. 1. Set up the left and right locators to encompass the section you want to mix down.
• Activate the “Auto Update Name” option (so that a checkmark is displayed before it) to add a number to the specified file name every time you click the Export button. • Cubase only: When Realtime Export is activated, the exported audio will be played back via the Control Room. The Audition Volume fader allows you to adjust the Control Room volume. Note that if the Control Room is deactivated and for channel batch exports, there will be no Audition Volume fader in the dialog.
• 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. • Ogg Vorbis files (see “Ogg Vorbis files” on page 424). • Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only, see “Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only)” on page 425). Ö Most of the settings described below for AIFF files are available for all file types.
Option Description Option Description Insert Broadcast Wave Chunk This allows you to include information about the date and time of creation, a timecode position (allowing you to insert exported audio at the correct position in other projects, etc.) along with author, description and reference text strings 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.
Wave files For MPEG 1 Layer 3 files the following options are available in the File Format section: Wave files have the extension “.wav” and are the most common file format on the PC platform. Wave files support the same options as AIFF files. Option Description Bit Rate fader By moving this fader, you can select a bit rate for the mp3 file. As a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality and the larger the file.
Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows only) • Mode This is a continuation of the Windows Media Audio format developed by Microsoft Inc. Due to the advanced audio codecs and lossless compression used, WMA Pro files can be decreased in size with no loss of audio quality. Furthermore, WMA Pro features the possibility of mixing down to 5.1 surround sound. The files have the extension “.wma”. The WMA Pro encoder can use either a constant bit rate or a variable bit rate for encoding to 5.
To manually specify the dynamic range, first put a checkmark in the box to the left by clicking in it, and then enter the desired dB values in the Peak and Average fields. You can enter any value between 0 and -90dB. Note, however, that it is usually not recommended to change the Average value, since this affects the overall volume level of the audio and therefore can have a negative effect on the audio quality.
33 Synchronization
Background Synchronization signals What is synchronization? Basically there are three types of synchronization signals for audio: timecode, MIDI clock and word clock. Synchronization is said to exist when you make two pieces of equipment agree on time or tempo and position info.
MIDI Clock Synchronizing Cubase’s playback MIDI Clock is a tempo-based type of synchronization signals, i.e. it is related to the number of “beats per minute”. MIDI Clock signals are suitable for synchronizing two devices that agree on tempo, such as Cubase and a drum machine. Let’s assume now that we use external timecode synchronization with Cubase. For example, we might synchronize playback to a tape recorder. ! Timecode coming from an analog tape recorder will always vary slightly in speed.
If you aim to perform synchronization to external signals, we strongly recommend that you obtain proper synchronization equipment. This encompasses: Making basic settings and connections • An audio card that can be slaved to external word clock. • A synchronizer that can read timecode (and possibly house clock) and generate the required sync signals from that, such as the Steinberg TimeLock Pro. Setting the Frame Rate The frame rate is the number of frames per second in a film or on a video tape.
Proceed as follows: Synchronization settings 1. Open the Preferences dialog (accessed from the File menu under Windows or the Cubase menu on the Mac) and select the Transport page. In the following sections you will find a description of how to set up your system for the different timecode sources: 2. Enter the desired frame rate under “User Definable Framerate”. Internal Timecode In this mode, Cubase is the master.
Send MIDI Clock in Stop Mode Setting Up When the option “Send MIDI Clock in Stop Mode” in the Project Synchronization Setup dialog (MIDI Clock Destinations section) is activated, Cubase will send MIDI Clock signals to the selected MIDI Clock destinations even when Cubase is in Stop mode. 1. Connect the desired MIDI Outputs from Cubase to the device(s) that you plan to synchronize. 2. Open the Project Synchronization Setup dialog from the Transport menu.
MIDI Timecode • You can also set this with the function “Set Timecode at Cursor” on the Project menu. In this mode, Cubase is the slave and the timecode is sent by the MIDI Timecode Source specified in the corresponding section. This is useful if you know that a certain position in your project coincides with a certain timecode position in the external device.
ASIO Audio Device ! Hardware and software requirements for APP • Your computer audio hardware (in the example above, this would be an ADAT card in your computer) must support all the functionality required for the ASIO Positioning Protocol. That is, it must be able to read the digital audio and the corresponding position information from the external device. • There must be an ASIO 2.0 driver for the audio hardware.
You can now set up the synchronization: 5. A message appears, asking you whether you want to keep the project content at its timecode positions. Select “No”. 1. Open the Project Synchronization Setup dialog and set the Timecode Source to “ASIO Audio Device”. This will make all events and parts keep their positions relative to the project start. The ASIO Audio Device is selected as Timecode Source. 6. Close the Project Setup dialog. 7.
Machine Control 4. Open the Project Synchronization Setup dialog via the Transport menu in Cubase. Cubase can control external tape transports and similar devices via MIDI Machine Control. This allows you to operate an external tape transport from Cubase’s Transport panel. That is, Cubase can make the tape recorder locate to a certain position, start, stop, rewind, etc. 5. In the Master Machine Control Device section, activate the “MC Master Active” checkbox. 6.
Cubase as MMC slave (Cubase only) It is now possible to control the external tape recorder independently or together with Cubase: This is set up in the MIDI Machine Control Slave section. Simply specify the MIDI ports and the MMC Device ID. • If you activate the Online button on the MMC Master panel you can use the transport buttons on the panel to control the transport of the device.
Working with VST System Link • The audio hardware must have digital inputs and outputs. 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.
Synchronization • Typically, the ASIO control panel for an audio card contains some indication of whether the card receives a proper sync signal or not, and the sample rate of that signal. Before you proceed, you need to make sure that the clock signals on your ASIO cards are synchronized correctly. This is essential when cabling any kind of digital audio system, not just VST System Link. ! This is a good indication that you have connected the cards and set up clock sync properly.
Setting up your software Settings for the audio hardware Now it is time to set up your programs. The procedures below describe how to set things up in Cubase. If you are using another program on the other computer, please refer to its documentation. When you send VST System Link data between computers, it is important that the digital information is not changed in any way between the programs.
Ö If you do not see the name of each computer appearing once you have made it active, you may have to check your settings. 23-bit audio (the least significant bit of this last channel will be used for networking). In practice this makes no discernible difference to the audio quality, since you will still have around 138dB headroom on this channel.
VST System Link sends and understands all transport commands, so you can play, stop, fast forward, rewind, etc. the entire network from one computer without a problem – try it! If you jump to a locator point on one machine, all other machines will also instantly jump to that locator point. You can even scrub on one computer and have the video and audio on another computer actually scrub right along with you.
Setting up a larger network 5. Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding four VST System Link input busses. This 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.
4. Route the VST Instrument channel to the desired output bus. 4. Route the channel to the desired output bus. If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1. If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1. 5. Activate monitoring for the track. 5.
34 Video
Background ! Trying to import or play back a file not supported by the selected video playback engine leads to unpredictable results – if no information on the number of frames, the length and the pixel resolution is available in the Import Video dialog, the Pool or the MediaBay, you cannot import/play this file properly with this particular video playback engine. ! You can change the video playback engine in the Device Setup dialog.
• Under Mac OS X, only the QuickTime playback engine is available, supporting the formats AVI, MPEG, QuickTime and DV. If your system has a FireWire port, there is also a FireWire option – see below. ! In the Track list and Inspector, you will find the following controls for video tracks: QuickTime as a video playback engine is available only if you have QuickTime 7.1 (or higher) installed on your computer. If you do not have QuickTime, or if a version lower than 7.
Playing back video file using video hardware • The Import dialog has an option for extracting the audio from a video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page 450) and for generating a thumbnail cache file for the video file, see below. Under Windows, multi-head graphics cards that support overlay functionality can be used to display the video picture on an external TV or computer monitor in full screen mode. The manufacturers nVIDIA and Matrox have working (and tested) solutions available.
The generated thumbnail cache file will be stored in the same folder as the video file and will get the name of the file with the suffix “.videocache”. Proceed as follows: Generating thumbnail cache files during video import 2. Right-click the file to open the context menu and select “Generate Thumbnail Cache”, or select “Generate Thumbnail Cache” from the Media menu. 1. Open the Pool window and locate the video file you want to create a thumbnail cache file for.
• When you have a video file in a format not supported by Cubase, use an external application to convert the file to a format that Cubase can import. Replacing the audio in a video file Extracting audio from a video file 1. Pull down the File menu and select “Replace Audio in Video File…”. Cubase has a special function for replacing the audio in a video file: If a video file contains audio, it can be extracted.
35 ReWire
Introduction Launching and quitting ReWire and ReWire2 are special protocols for streaming audio between two computer applications. Developed by Propellerhead Software and Steinberg, ReWire provides the following possibilities and features: When using ReWire, the order in which you launch and quit the two programs is very important: • Realtime streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels (256 with ReWire2), at full bandwidth, from the “synthesizer application” into the “mixer application”. 1.
Activating ReWire channels Using the transport and tempo controls ReWire supports streaming of up to 64 separate audio channels, while ReWire2 supports 256 channels. The exact number of available ReWire channels depends on the synthesizer application. Using the ReWire Device panels in Cubase, you can specify which of the available channels you want to use: ! This is only relevant if the synthesizer application has some sort of built-in sequencer or similar.
How the ReWire channels are handled in Cubase When you activate ReWire channels in the ReWire Device panels, they will become available as channel strips in the mixer. The ReWire channel strips have the following properties: • ReWire channels appear to the right of the other audio and MIDI channel strips in the mixer. • ReWire channels may be any combination of mono and stereo, depending on the synthesizer application. • ReWire channels have the same functionality as regular audio channels.
36 File handling
Working with Projects • Click Activate to open and activate the new project. The active project is indicated by the blue Activate Project button in the upper left corner of the Project window. To activate a different project, simply click its Activate Project button. New Project The New Project command on the File menu allows you to create a new project, either as an empty project or based on a template: 1. Select New Project from the File menu. The templates list is displayed.
Save and Save As Save as Template 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. This function allows you to save the current project as a template.
Back up Project Auto Save This function is very useful if you want to move or backup your project. 1. Select “Back up Project…” from the File menu. A file dialog opens in which you can choose an existing empty folder or create a new folder to save the project. 2. Click OK. If you activate the Auto Save option in the Preferences (General page), Cubase will automatically save backup copies of all open projects with unsaved changes. The “Back up Project Options” dialog opens.
Importing audio Option Description Open ‘Default’ Template The default template is opened, see “Setting up a default template” on page 457. Show Open Dialog The Open dialog opens on launch, allowing you to manually locate and open the desired project. Show Template Dialog The Template dialog opens on launch, allowing you to create a new project from one of the templates. In Cubase audio can be imported in a variety of different formats.
To import one or more tracks, proceed as follows: Column Description 1. If you have more than one CD drive, select the correct one from the Drives pop-up menu at the top left. CD Track as shown When you import an audio CD track, the file is named according to this column. The names are pulled automatically from CDDB, if possible. You can rename a track by clicking in the CD Track column and typing a new name. You can also apply a generic name to all audio CD tracks, if no name was available in CDDB.
Importing Audio from Video files 2. Select “Audio File…” from the Import submenu on the File menu. While you can automatically extract the audio when importing a video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page 450), it is also possible to import the audio from a video file without importing the video itself: 3. On the file type pop-up menu in the file dialog, select REX File or REX 2 File. 4. Locate and select the file you want to import, and click Open. 1.
Exporting and importing OMF files (Cubase only) The following file types are supported: MPEG audio files MPEG, which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name of a family of standards used for encoding audio-visual information (e.g. movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format. 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 “.
• When referencing media files (see below), you can set the referenced output path by entering it in the “Media Destination Path” field or by clicking on “Browser…” and choosing it in the file dialog that appears. Importing OMF files All file references will be set to this path. You can create references to media destinations that do not exist on the system you are currently working with, making it easy to prepare files for use in projects on another system or in a network environment. 2.
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files The dialog contains the following options: Cubase can import and export Standard MIDI Files, which makes it possible to transfer MIDI material to and from virtually any MIDI application on any platform. When you import and export MIDI files, you can also specify whether certain settings associated with the tracks should be included in the files (automation tracks, volume and pan settings, etc.).
Option Description Option Description Export Locator Range If this is activated, only the range between the locators will be exported. Import to Left Locator 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 306.
Exporting and importing tracks (Cubase only) 2. In the file dialog that opens, select the XML file and click Open. The Import Options dialog opens. 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 (mixer channel settings, automation tracks, parts and events, etc.).
Other Import/Export functions 5. Delete any files you do not want to keep by selecting them and clicking Delete. • For exporting scores, see “Exporting” on page 504. 6. Close the dialog by clicking the Close button. • For exporting and importing tempo tracks, see “Exporting and importing tempo tracks” on page 405. Cleanup The Cleanup function on the File menu helps you to save hard disk space by locating and – if you like – deleting unused audio files in the project folders on your disk. 1.
37 Customizing
Background Workspaces The user can customize the appearance and functionality of Cubase in various ways. A configuration of Cubase windows is called a “workspace”. A workspace stores the size, position and content of all windows, allowing you to quickly switch between different working modes via the menu or by using key commands. For example, you may want as large a Project window as possible when you are editing, whereas you may want the Mixer and effect windows open during mixdown.
Creating a new workspace 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 store the position and size of the main windows only – project-specific windows are not included. 1. Pull down the Window menu and open the Workspaces submenu. 2. Select “New Workspace”.
Using the Setup options The Setup dialogs If you select “Setup…” from the setup context menus, the Setup dialog opens. This allows you to specify which elements should be visible/hidden and to set the order of the elements. You can also save and recall setup presets in this dialog.
Customizing track controls For each track type you can configure which track controls should be shown in the Track list. You can also specify the order of controls and group controls so that they are always shown adjacent to each other. This is done using the Track Controls Settings dialog.
3. Click Group. 2. Click OK to save the settings as a preset. A number is displayed in the Group column for the grouped controls. The first group created has the number 1, the second 2, and so on. Saved presets are available for selection from the Presets pop-up menu and from the pop-up menu in the top left corner of the Track list. 4. Click OK. • To remove a preset, select it in the Track Controls Settings dialog and click the Delete button (the minus sign). The controls are now grouped.
Appearance 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. All other preferences will be left unchanged. In the Preferences dialog, you will find a page called Appearance. This page differs for Cubase and Cubase Studio.
Meters Work Area The coloring of meters in Cubase can be controlled in sophisticated ways. Multiple colors can help to visually indicate what levels are being reached, e.g. in a channel of the VST Mixer. To do this, the meter on the Appearances– Meters page has color handles that allow you to define what color the meter will have at a given signal level. The work areas in Cubase are those places where the actual data are displayed such as the project window event display.
Coloring parts and events 2. To bring up the color palette, click the Track Color Selector. There are two ways to color parts and events in the Project window: Using the color selector Click the arrow in the track name title bar or… 1. Select the desired parts or events. 2. Choose a color from the Color Selector in the toolbar. …click the color strip in the Track list. In the Mixer, click the Channel Color Selector below the channel name. 3. Select a color from the color bar.
Customizing the event background To add new colors to the color palette, proceed as follows: On the Event Display page in the Preferences dialog, you can find the option “Colorize Event Background”. 1. Click the Insert New Color button in the Event Colors section to add a new color. A new color icon and color name are added to the Event Colors section. 2. Click the color field next to the name field to activate the new color for editing. 3. In the Standard Colors section, select the standard color.
Where are the settings stored? Setting As you have seen, there are a large number of ways in which you can customize Cubase. While some of the settings you make are stored with each project, others are stored in separate preference files. If you need to transfer your projects to another computer (e.g. in another studio), you can bring all your settings along by copying the desired preference files and installing them on the other computer.
38 Key commands
Introduction functions. When you open a category folder by clicking the plus sign beside it, the items and functions it contains are displayed with the currently assigned key commands. Most of the main menus in Cubase have key command shortcuts for certain items on the menus. In addition, there are numerous other Cubase functions that can be performed via key commands. These are all default settings.
5. Alternatively, you can use the search function in the dialog to find the desired item. 2. Click the Search button (the magnifying glass icon). The search is conducted and the first matching command is selected and displayed in the Commands list below. The Keys column and the Keys list show the assigned key commands, if any. For a description of how to use the search function, see below. 6. When you have found and selected the desired item, click in the “Type in Key” field and enter a new key command.
5. Repeat the procedure to add more commands to the macro. Saving key commands presets Proceed as follows: Note that commands are added after the currently selected command in the list. This allows you to insert commands “in the middle” of an existing macro. 1. Set up the key commands and macros to your liking. When setting up key commands, remember to click “Assign” to make the changes. 2. Click the Save button next to the Presets pop-up menu.
4. Navigate to the file you want to import and click “Open”. The file is imported. 5. Click OK to exit the Key Commands dialog and apply the imported settings. The settings in the loaded key commands or macros file now replace the current settings. 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.
The default key commands Edit category Option 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.
Editors category Option Key command Show/Hide Info view [Ctrl]/[Command]-[I] Show/Hide Inspector [Alt]/[Option]-[I] Show/Hide Overview [Alt]/[Option]-[O] File category Option Key command Close [Ctrl]/[Command]-[W] New [Ctrl]/[Command]-[N] Open [Ctrl]/[Command]-[O] 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 Proje
Tool category Option Key command Key command Play Selection Range [Alt]/[Option]-[Space] [5] Recall Cycle Marker 1 to 9 [Shift]-Num [1] to Num [9] [8] Record Num [*] Drumstick tool [0] Retrospective Record [Shift]-Num [*] Glue tool [4] Return to Zero Num [.
Part II: Score layout and printing
1 How the Score Editor works
About this chapter MIDI notes vs. score notes In this chapter you will learn: MIDI tracks in Cubase hold MIDI notes and other MIDI data. As you may know, a MIDI note in Cubase is only defined by its position, length, pitch and velocity. This is not nearly enough information to decide how the note should be displayed in a score.
Display Quantize chapter “Working with symbols” on page 555) or using musical articulations (see the chapter “VST Expression” on page 372). Let’s say you used the Project window to record a figure with some staccato eighth notes.
Ö Set the Rests value according to the smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat. 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: Common Display Quantize settings would be to have Notes set to 16 (sixteenth notes) and Rests set to 4 (quarter notes).
Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes Sometimes you will enter and edit notes by hand (or rather using the mouse and/or the computer keyboard) and at other times you will record them from a MIDI keyboard. Most of the time, you will do a combination of both. In the chapter “Transcribing MIDI recordings” on page 505 you will find out how to make a recorded score as legible as possible without making any permanent changes to the MIDI data.
2 The basics
About this chapter Editing whole tracks When preparing a score for printing, you probably want to open whole MIDI tracks in the Score Editor. To do this, select the track(s) in the Track list and make sure no parts are selected – then open the Score Editor as described above. 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.
Page Mode Editing individual parts in Page Mode When you view a single part in Page Mode, the bars before and after the part will normally be shown as empty measures in the Score Editor. This is to preserve the layout of the track, i.e. the spacing between staves and bar lines, number of bars per staff, etc. When you are preparing a score for printout, you should set the Score Editor to Page Mode. This is done by selecting Page Mode from the Scores menu.
Making page setup settings Using the Zoom tool The Zoom tool in the Score Editor works much like in the Project window: Before preparing the score for printout, you have to make some page settings for your project. This does not have to be the first thing you do, but it is a good working habit, because it will also affect the on-screen display of the score. • Click once with the Zoom tool to zoom in one step. • Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click once with the Zoom tool to zoom out one step. 1.
The info line The Symbols Inspector The info line displays information about the selected note. It can be hidden/displayed by clicking the “Show Info” button on the toolbar, or by using a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[I]. The symbol buttons, which are used to add symbols to the score, can be found in the Inspector to the left of the score display. • To display the Inspector, click the Show Symbols button on the toolbar.
The Position Info window Option Description To help you further when positioning objects in the score, 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. To display the Position Info window, click in the ruler. Split Rests Displays markers in the score wherever you have split multiple rests (see “Splitting multi-rests” on page 601).
Setting key, clef and time signature 6. Open the Time Signatures tab of the Inspector and click on the symbol for the time signature value that you wish to use. When preparing to enter notes into a score, you will probably want to start out by setting the desired key, clef 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.
If you need to enter half a bar somewhere (for example) you have to make a time signature change (e.g. from 4/4 to 2/4 and back again). See “Inserting and editing clefs, keys or time signatures” on page 522 to find out how to enter time signature changes. Please note: • 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.
On the Score Settings–Staff page 3. Activate the “Lower Staff” checkbox. 1. Click on a staff to make it the active staff. 4. Set a clef for the lower staff. 2. On the Scores menu, select “Settings…” to open the Score Settings dialog. Select the Staff page at the top to open Main tab, showing the current settings for the active staff.
On the key context menu 2. Use the right scroll bar in the Clef/Key section to select the desired key. When you right-click on a key symbol, a context menu with a list of all available keys is opened. This menu also contains the following options: 3. Click Apply. • You can select other staves in the score and make settings for these, without having to close the Score Settings dialog.
Transposing instruments Disabling Display Transpose You can also disable Display Transpose by clicking on the “Disable Display Transpose” button on the Score Editor toolbar. This can be useful, if you work with transposing instruments and want to show the scored key and not the concert key. Scores for some instruments, for example a lot of brass instruments, are written transposed. Therefore, the Score Editor provides a Display Transpose function.
• You can adjust the size of the rectangle by clicking and dragging its handles with the Object Selection tool. • You can move the rectangle to another position in the score by clicking and dragging. • When opening the Score Editor, begin with the adjustments described above. You should always begin by setting page margins, etc. • If you have recorded music into tracks already, try adjusting the graphic display of the score much as possible without permanently editing the notes.
3 Transcribing MIDI recordings
About this chapter Strategies: Preparing parts for score printout In this chapter you will learn: Below follow a few tips that you might want to refer to when preparing a score for printout: • How to prepare your parts for score printouts. • How to use the Display Quantize tool to handle “exceptions” in the score. • How to resolve parts that contain mixed notes and triplets.
Staff settings • If two notes beginning at the same position have different lengths, the longer one will be displayed as a number of tied notes. To avoid this, you will either have to use the No Overlap feature (see “No Overlap” on page 528) or polyphonic voicing (see “Polyphonic voicing” on page 531). The first thing to do after opening the Score Editor is to make initial staff settings. This is done on the Score Settings–Staff page.
Inserting Display Quantize changes If you run into trouble Below you can find a few simple troubleshooting steps that will help you pinpoint other common problems: 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: • The note I recorded is displayed with the wrong length. For example, I recorded a sixteenth and got a quarter note.
The Explode function • If you are using polyphonic voices (see “Polyphonic voicing” on page 531), you can insert a Display Quantize event for all voices by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and clicking with the tool. This function allows you to “split” the notes on a staff into separate tracks. It is also possible to use this function to convert a polyphonic staff into polyphonic voices – this is described in the section “Automatically – the Explode function” on page 536.
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” will help you out.
4 Entering and editing notes
About this chapter Staff presets When you want to reuse settings made for one track in other tracks, you will save some time by creating a staff preset (see “Working with staff presets” on page 525). 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.
Note values and positions Positioning on screen is controlled by the current Quantize value. If you set this to 1/8, for example, you can only insert and move notes to eighth note positions, at quarter notes, at half bars or at bar positions. It is a good strategy to set the Quantize value to the smallest note value in the project. This does not stop you from inputting notes at “coarser” positions. However, if you set the Quantize value to too small a note value, it is easier to make mistakes.
The upper field shows the pitch according to the vertical position of the pointer in a staff. The lower field shows the “musical position” in bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks: 2/2 4/4 8/8 • The relation between beats and bars depends on the time signature: In 4/4 there are 4 beats to a bar. In 8/8 there are eight, in 6/8 there are six, etc. • The third number is the sixteenth note within the beat. Again, the time signature determines the number of sixteenth notes to each beat.
Entering notes with the mouse 3. Move the mouse to the desired position, and click. To add a note to the score, proceed as follows: Notes input at the same position are automatically interpreted as chords, see below. 1. Make the staff active. About the interpretation Notes are always inserted on the active staff. See “The active staff” on page 496 for details. The notes may not always appear in the score as you initially expect them to.
• If two notes on the same position are too close to each other or if you want their “graphical order” in the score reversed, you can do this without affecting playback. See “Graphic moving of notes” on page 550. • Stem direction and length is normally automatic, but you can set it yourself. See “Background: Note stems” on page 541.
Moving notes • When moving notes to the left or right using key commands, the notes will be moved in steps according to the Quantize value. In the following, you will find descriptions of the various methods to move notes, as well as related features. The keys assigned for up/down nudging will transpose notes in semitone steps. Moving by dragging Moving across staves – the Lock button Proceed as follows: If you are editing several tracks, you may want to move notes from one staff to another.
Duplicating notes Acoustic Feedback To duplicate notes in the score, proceed as follows: 1. Set the Quantize value and select the desired notes. You can duplicate any block of notes, even on several systems at the same time. The Snap mode applies, see “The Snap mode” on page 517. Acoustic Feedback is activated. To hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the speaker icon (Acoustic Feedback) on the toolbar. 2. Press [Alt]/[Option] and drag the duplicate notes to their new position.
Using key commands Notes that you have put on the clipboard by cutting or copying can be inserted into the score again as follows: Instead of transposing the note with the mouse, you can assign key commands for this. 1. Activate the desired staff. 2. Move the project cursor to the position where you want the first note to appear. • The commands for which you can assign key commands are found in the Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog.
Changing the length of notes Lengthening a note by gluing two notes together You can create unusual note length values by gluing notes of the same pitch together. 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”. 1. Insert the notes you want to glue together (if they do not already exist). 2.
2. Locate the “Length” setting. 4. Set the Splitpoint value to a suitable note. By default, this is set to “Auto”, which means that the note is displayed according to its actual length (and the Display Quantize settings). All notes below this note value will be put on the lower clef, all above will be put on the upper clef. 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 you need to enter a note with a very high or low pitch, which makes it wind up on the wrong staff when you click, first enter a note with the wrong pitch, and then edit its pitch as described in the section “Editing pitches of individual notes” on page 519. As described above, when you have parts on several tracks selected in the Project window, these will be put on one staff each, when you open the Score Editor. This allows you to work on several staves in parallel.
Inserting a symbol on all staves If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] when you insert a symbol with the Pencil tool, it will be 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. The Layout tool on the context menu 2. Click on the clef and drag it to the desired position. Or rather, they are inserted on the signature track, which affects all tracks.
5 Staff settings
Ö If the option “Apply closes Property Windows” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), clicking Apply will also close the dialog. About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: • How to make staff settings. • How to work 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).
Key and clef Applying a preset directly in the score If you right-click on the blue rectangle to the left of a staff, a context menu will appear, listing all available presets. Select one to apply it to the staff. How staff presets are stored The staff presets are stored as individual files in the Presets–Staff Presets folder within the Cubase program folder. The presets are available for selection in any project you create or edit.
Display Quantize values 3. Deactivate the Auto Quantize option. 4. Set all the Interpretation Options. These are described in detail below. 5. Examine the score. 6. If necessary, use the Display Quantize tool to insert “exceptions” to the staff settings. See “Inserting Display Quantize changes” on page 508.
For a “modern” notation of syncopated notes, activate Syncopation. No Overlap When notes starting at the same position have different lengths, the program tends to add more ties than you may want. This can be avoided by using No Overlap.
Display Transpose The Options tab This is used when preparing parts for instruments that are not scored at the actual concert key. For example, if you want the note C3 to be played by an alto sax, you have to score it as an A3 – nine semitones up. Luckily, the Display Transpose setting takes care of this for you: • Use the pop-up menu to select the instrument for which you’re scoring. • If the pop-up menu does not list your instrument, you can set the desired transposition with the Semitones value field.
The Polyphonic tab System Sizes This section allows you to set the number of system lines and to control spacing between the lines: Option Description System Lines The number of lines in a system. For regular scoring, this should be set to 5. Add Space Allows you to increase or decrease the space between the lines in a system. Size Allows you to set a size for the systems, as a percentage (with 100% being the default value). In effect, this setting scales the score vertically.
6 Polyphonic voicing
About this chapter How voices are created 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. 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.
Voices and MIDI channels Internally the program organizes the notes into voices by changing their MIDI channel values. Normally you set it up so that notes with MIDI channel 3 belong to voice 3 etc. Most of the time the link between MIDI channels and voices will be totally transparent to you as a user. Sometimes you can take advantage of this relationship, as described later in this chapter.
About the polyphonic presets 9. Decide on a stem direction for each voice, by selecting from the pop-up in the Stems column. The Presets pop-up menu on the Polyphonic tab (below the list of voices) contains three very useful setups. Instead of making settings by hand, you can select one of the presets, saving some time. The presets are: If you select Auto, the program will make decisions about which stems go in which direction (just as when not using polyphonic voices).
Strategies: How many voices do I need? Here, three voices are available on the upper staff. 4. If you need to switch the voice icons to the right “clef”, click somewhere in the system you want to insert notes in. Well, it depends… • If you are scoring for vocals, you simply need one voice for each voice, so to speak. • Often you will use voices for resolving the problem of overlapping notes (see “Overlapping notes” on page 532), for example when scoring for piano.
Moving notes between voices 2. Make sure “To Polyphonic Voices” is selected at the top of the dialog. Manually 3. Use the options in the lower half of the dialog to set up the criteria for the split. To manually move notes to another voice, proceed as follows: Choose from the following options: 1. Select the note(s) you want to move to a particular voice. 2. Right-click on one of the notes and select “Move to Voice” from the context menu.
Handling rests • Insert Display Quantize “exceptions” anywhere in the score, independently for each voice. With polyphonic voices, you often get more rest symbols than desired. Proceed as follows: 1. Make sure the option “Display Quantize tool affects all Voices” is deactivated. • If a voice does not need any rests at all, you can deactivate rests separately for this voice on the Polyphonic tab on the Score Settings–Staff page. 2. Select the voice for which you wish to insert a Display Quantize event.
Creating crossed voicings 8. Select the two notes that should be moved from voice 1 to voice 2. Often, for example in vocal scoring, you will 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: Two notes in voice 1 selected. 9. Move the notes to voice 2.
Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All Staves Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices If you have already created some tracks which look and play back as they should, and you want to combine these into one track with polyphonic voices, there is a special function on the Scores menu for this: 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.
7 Additional note and rest formatting
About this chapter Using Flip Stems In this chapter you will learn: Flipping the stem of one or several notes • • • • • • 1. Select the notes. 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. 2. Click the Flip icon on the extended toolbar. All the stems in the selection are now flipped.
Stem direction in the Set Note Info dialog Resetting stem length and beam slants The Set Note Info dialog can be opened by double-clicking on a note head. In its lower left corner you will find a pop-up for setting stem direction. 1. Make sure the display filter bar is visible (if not, click the Show Filter View button in the toolbar). 2. Make sure the “Stems/Beams” checkbox is activated on the filter bar.
Changing the note head shape • Activate one of the following options by clicking on the graphics: Option Description Force Notes outside the scale get accidentals and accidentals are repeated even within the same bar. Force all Every single note in the score gets an accidental. 1. Select the notes for which you wish to change the note head shape. Make sure not to select the stems, only the note heads. 2. Open the Set Note Info dialog.
Other note details Option Description Bracket Head When this is activated, notes will be displayed with brackets: Each note has a number of settings in the Set Note Info dialog. Bracket Head on and off 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 543). Tablature on/off and number Used for creating or editing tablature (see “Creating tablature” on page 613).
Coloring notes Copying settings between notes You can assign colors to notes using the color pop-up menu on the toolbar. If you have made various settings in the Set Note Info dialog for a note, and want to use these settings for other notes as well, there is an easy way to do this: 1. Simply select the notes for which you wish to use colors, click the Color Scheme Selector field to the right in the toolbar and pick a color from the pop-up menu. 1. Set up the first note as desired.
3. Set the denominator, if necessary. Grouping quarter notes or larger under a beam (“Brillenbass”) 4. Activate “For Grouping Only”. It is also possible to use the grouping feature for notes that are not displayed with beams (quarter notes, half notes, etc.). The result are so called “Brillenbass” symbols, commonly used for indicating repeated accompaniment patterns, etc.
3. Press [Backspace] or [Delete]. Creating an accelerando/ritardando The grouping is removed. To create an accelerando/ritardando, proceed as follows: 1. Select the notes as described above and select “Accelerando” from the Group/Ungroup submenu. A dialog appears. • If you need to remove all groups from the score, hold down [Shift] and double-click on the first “Grouping” text. This selects all “Grouping” symbols, so you can delete them all at once by pressing [Backspace] or [Delete].
Cross-staff beaming Handling beam groups To create a beam that extends from one staff to another, proceed as follows: There are two settings for groups under a beam, Beam Subgroups and 16th Subgroups, both found on the Options tab on the Score Settings–Staff page. If “Beam Subgroups” is activated, the program displays subgroups after four sixteenth notes under a beam. If you also activate “16th Subgroups”, subgroups appear after only two sixteenths. 1.
• Slanted Beams only Slightly Slanted. Mixed staff direction Activate this if you only want a slightly slanted beam even though there might be a significant pitch difference between the notes under the beam. By dragging the beam handles you can put the beam between the note heads: Putting the beam between the notes. Without and with “Slanted Beams only Slightly Slanted” ! These settings are global for all staves.
Time signature changes The following rules apply to cutflag events: 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 should be grouped – see “Grouping” on page 545. • If a bar contains a cutflag event, the automatic cutting mechanism is disabled within that bar. • All notes or rests that start before and end after a cutflag event will be cut at the position of the event.
3. Click on the note and drag it to the desired position. 5. Move the notes into the cue voice. Note that movement is restricted to horizontally only. Polyphonic voicing is described in detail on “Polyphonic voicing” on page 531. Ö You can also automatically select all notes making up a chord, by holding down [Alt]/[Option] and clicking on one of the notes with the Layout tool. By using the computer keyboard An example of a cue note voice You can assign key commands for moving objects graphically.
Grace notes Editing a grace note 1. Select one or several grace notes and open the Set Note Info dialog. 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.
• As display quantize. This is the method you use when the tuplet is recorded and plays back as you want it, but is not displayed correctly. 8. Click Build. The tuplet appears. The notes have now been moved to the tuplet positions and their length might have changed. Actually, in the first case, you make permanent alterations and set display quantize settings, all in one go. In the second case you only make display quantize settings. With permanent change to MIDI data 9.
Tuplet display options On the Score Settings–Project page, Notation Style subpage (“Tuplets” category), you 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”.
8 Working with symbols
About this chapter Layout layer symbols Now let’s examine the layout layer symbols. The layout layer is not stored individually for each track, as the other symbols are. Instead it is common to a “set of tracks”. Let’s illustrate this with an example: In this chapter you will learn: • What the different types of symbols are. • How to insert and edit symbols. • Details about special symbols. You have four tracks that make up a string quartet.
Which symbols are part of which layer is described in the section “The available symbols” on page 558 and onwards. • You can change the current show/hide status by selecting items in one column and using the arrow buttons in the middle of the dialog to move them to the other column. The Symbols Inspector The changes are reflected directly in the editor. • You can change the order of the (visible) tabs in the Symbols Inspector with the “Move Up” and “Move Down” buttons.
Setting up the Favourites tab 2. Select “Open as Palette” from the context menu. The selected tab will be shown as palette. In the Symbols Inspector, you will 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 most often: 1. Open the Favourites tab. If it is the first time you are using this tab, it will be empty. Moving and handling palettes 2.
and a saxophone part), it will not be there when you view each track by itself in the Score Editor. If you want the same symbols to appear in other layouts as well, you can copy the form of one layout to another. If you want a symbol to appear in all layouts, use the Project tab. 3. Either click on the note or above or below it. If you click on the note, the symbol is put in at a predefined distance from the note. If you instead click “above or below” the note, you decide for a vertical position yourself.
Ö There are two types of slurs – “regular” slurs and Bezier slurs (with which you have full control over thickness, curve shape, etc.). 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 the correct staff is active. Slurs, ties and the Display Quantize value 2. Click the symbol so that the Pencil tool is selected, as described above.
Adding a slur/tie between two notes Right-clicking on a curve point brings up a context menu with the following options: 1. Select two notes. 2. Click the correct slur/tie symbol in the Inspector, so that the Pencil tool is selected. 3. Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and [Shift] and click on one of the two notes. The slur/tie is added between the two selected notes. Inserting a slur over a selection of notes 1. Select a span of notes.
Adding a keyboard symbol 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 563. If the symbol you want to insert is among these, select it and insert it as you would any other symbol, see above.
• To add a capodaster number, click to the left of the symbol. Defining chord symbols 1. Double-click on one of the symbols in the Guitar Symbols tab in the Inspector to open the guitar library. Consecutive clicks allow you to step through the possibilities. • You can also add a capodaster symbol (a line over the strings), by setting the “Capo String” parameter to a value higher than 0. Alternatively, you can open the Score Settings–Project page and select the “Guitar Library” subpage.
There are also two additional checkboxes in the Guitar Library dialog: Option Description Use for Make Chords When this is activated, and you use the “Make Chord Symbol” function (see “Using Make Chord Symbols” on page 578), the program will insert 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 will be used.
Ö You can also use Project symbols in combination with the Arranger mode to have the program play back according to the score, e.g. repeats, Da Capos and endings. Using layout symbols Symbols inserted from the Layout tab belong to the layout layer. When you are editing a layout containing several tracks, you can have inserted layout symbols automatically copied to any combination of tracks in the layout.
Moving and duplicating symbols 2. Assign each event type to a layer (1, 2 or 3). It is a good idea to specify different layers for event types that might conflict “graphically”. For example, you might want to assign bar numbers and note symbols to different layers, if you find that you accidentally move bar numbers when editing note symbols and vice versa. There are four ways to move and duplicate symbols: • By dragging them with the mouse (see below).
The rulers Option Description 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). X, Y When a single object is selected, these values show the horizontal and vertical position of this object. When no objects or several objects are selected, these values show the current horizontal and vertical position of the pointer.
Moving and duplicating with the bar handles • If you activated “Show Dialog” in step 6 above, the Bar Copy dialog appears, allowing you to confirm your settings. This function allows you to move or copy the contents of a whole bar to one or several other bars. You can select which elements in the bar should be included in the operation. Proceed as follows: Click OK to close the dialog and perform the operation.
• To reset the vertical positions of note symbols and slurs in a score, right-click on the corresponding object and select “Default position” from the context menu. 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. You can perform the following editing to slurs and ties: Changing length, size and shape • By dragging the middle handle up/down you can change the shape of the curve.
Deleting symbols Option Result Left This is done as with all other objects in Cubase, either with the Erase tool or by selecting it and pressing [Delete] or [Backspace]. Right Copy and paste All symbols except those in the Layout and Project tabs can be copied and pasted just as any other object in Cubase. The following applies: Top • Symbols that were tied to notes (e.g. accents) will become “free-floating” objects when pasted. Bottom That is, they are not tied to any note any more.
When you double-click on an existing clef, the same dialog appears allowing you to change the type. • In the Line/Trill tab you will find a line symbol which allows you to create the following type of change in dynamics: When you right-click on a clef, you can change the type from the context menu. Time signatures Crescendo and diminuendo (decrescendo) You can insert a time signature symbol at the beginning of any bar.
• If the option “Keep Crescendo Symbols ‘Horizontal’” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), crescendo/diminuendo symbols will never be slanted when you draw them, but stay horizontal. Tuplet group symbols Also, this option prevents you from accidentally dragging an endpoint up or down when moving the symbol. These are “graphical” tuplet group symbols, as opposed to the “real” tuplets.
• If the option “Hide Pedal Markers” is activated in the Miscellaneous category of “Notation Style” subpage of the Score Settings–Project page, all pedal markers are hidden. Additional symbols If you click on the “Select Symbol” button and then into the score, the “Select Symbol” dialog opens. Here you can choose note heads, accidentals and rests that work only as drawing elements, i.e. they do not insert any note data into the track.
Da Capo and Dal Segno symbols Tempo change as note symbol This symbol allows you to specify a tempo change as a change from one note value to another. The example above would mean “lower the tempo by a third”. The “D.C.”, “D.S.” and “Fine” symbols provide a quick way to insert some common play directions into the score.
The Note Linked pop-up lets you create symbols linked to note positions. This affects the whole symbol, not a selected graphic object. 6. Continue creating new symbols this way. • You can edit existing symbols at any time by selecting them to the left and using the tools and functions. Any changes you make are automatically stored in the User Symbols tab for the project. You can also export symbols, for use in other projects, see below.
9 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 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).
Using presets • Instead of using the “Make Chord Symbols” menu item, you can click on the Make Chord Symbols button on the extended toolbar. As with many other functions in Cubase, you can create chord symbol presets for instant use. Each preset contains all settings in the dialog – i.e. the preset list is a “library” of chords. You will find the presets in the Chord Symbols tab in the Inspector and in the corresponding context menu.
Global chord settings Notation Fonts On the Score Settings–Project page (Chord Symbols and Notation Fonts subpages), there are several global settings that affect how chords are displayed. These settings affect all chords in the project. Chord Symbols • Use the Score Font pop-up to select a font for the display of note heads, clefs etc. Available are Legacy, Classical and Jazz. • Use the Chord Symbols Font pop-up to select a font for the chords.
10 Working with text
About this chapter About the melisma lines When you add a text symbol, you will find a handle at the right edge of the text. By dragging this handle to the right, you can extend a “melisma line” from the text. This has several uses: In this chapter you will learn: • • • • Which different types of text are available. How to enter and edit text. How to set font, size and style. How to enter lyrics.
Editing the text 6. Click Apply to apply the settings to the selected text. Note that you can select other text blocks while the dialog remains open – the dialog will be updated to reflect the settings of the currently selected text. If you made a mistake when typing or for some other reason wish to change text, double-click on a text block with the Object Selection tool, edit the text and press [Return] to close it. 7. When you are done, close the Score Settings dialog.
Lyrics Editing text attribute sets If you edit the settings in a text attribute set, all texts using this particular set will be affected. This is very practical, since it allows you to use the same number of “generic” sets for all your projects (for titles, comments, lyrics, etc.), and simply change the fonts, sizes, etc. for a different project if necessary. This will also make it easier to move projects between computers (which may not have the same fonts installed). The Lyrics option is selected.
• When entering words with several syllables you normally separate the syllables with a dash (-). By default, the dash signs are automatically centered between the syllables – if this is not what you want, activate the option “Don’t Center Hyphens” in the Lyrics category on the Score Settings– Project page (Notation Style subpage). Inserting lyrics into voices Each voice can have its own lyrics. If you have a vocal arrangement with several voices, you can add lyrics to them, one by one. 1.
Layout text The RTF Settings dialog The text symbols in the Layout symbol tab are part of the layout layer, and can thus be hidden or shown for different tracks in the layout, by activating the “L” column on the Score Settings–Layout page. The text will appear in all staves for which you have activated the “L” column. This means it is tied to the bar and staff position. If you move the bar or the entire staff, it moves with it.
Using the Score Settings (Text page) 5. Adjust the settings for how the text should be positioned: Option Description Show on all pages When this is activated, the text will be shown on all pages. The “Except First” checkbox allows you to exclude the very first page. Show on first page When this is selected, the text will only be shown on the first page. Line This determines how the text should be aligned.
Text functions • Right-clicking one of the fields opens a context menu with a number of options: The Words tab If you have certain words that you use a lot, you can “store” these as dedicated symbols on the Words tab. This will save time, since you do not have to type the same word over and over again. • Select “Edit…” to open the Custom Text Editor dialog. • Select “New” to add a new empty symbol to the Words tab. • Select “Remove” to delete any unwanted symbols from the Words tab.
Staff names Bar Numbers You can make settings for staff names in several places: Bar Number settings can be made in several places as well: • On the Score Settings–Layout page, you specify whether the staff names should be shown at all, and whether to use the names of the actual edited tracks in the score. General settings In a multi-track layout, you can choose for which tracks the staff names should be shown, by clicking in the “N” column for each track. 1.
Offsetting bar numbers • You can also define text attribute sets on the Text Settings subpage, as a means to quickly change text. 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. Note that you can select a defined attribute set from the context menu opened when right-clicking on a text element (see “Text attribute sets” on page 582). This is used for example when a section repeats.
11 Working with layouts
About this chapter Creating a layout In this chapter you will learn: Layouts are created automatically when you open a new combination of tracks for editing. • • • • • • What layouts are and what they contain. How to create layouts. How to use layouts for opening combinations of tracks. How to apply, load, save and delete layouts. How to import and export layouts. An example of how layouts can be used.
Here you can perform a number of operations: Using layouts – an example Opening the tracks in a layout The following text outlines the basic steps for extracting a musical part from a full score. To select another combination of tracks for editing, select the corresponding layout in the list. 1. Prepare the entire score, including all formatting. This might include inserting Project layer Block Text for the Score title, setting the bar line type, etc.
12 Working with MusicXML
Introduction Is MusicXML better than MIDI? MusicXML is a music notation format developed by Recordare LLC in 2000 based primarily on two academic music formats. It allows the representation of scores in the current symbolic representation of western music notation, used since the 17th century. With Cubase you can now import and export MusicXML files created with version 1.1.
Importing and exporting MusicXML files Export Cubase can import and export MusicXML files, which makes it possible to transfer musical scores to and from applications that support this file format.
Exporting MusicXML files 1. Set up the score the way you want it in the Score Editor of Cubase. 2. Open the File menu and open the Export submenu. 3. On the submenu, select “MusicXML…”. Note that this option is only available when the Score Editor is open. 4. A file dialog opens in which you can choose an existing empty folder or create a new folder for saving the MusicXML file (as *.xml file).
13 Designing your score: additional techniques
About this chapter Option Description 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 should be shown – see below. N This option lets you specify for each staff in a layout whether the staff name should be shown. L If this is activated, any layout symbols will be shown; otherwise they will be hidden. This allows you to e.g.
Hiding/showing objects 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 Score Settings–Project page (Notation Style subpage). 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 should be displayed.
Hiding in the current layout only Showing a hidden note If you want the hiding to be “local” to the current layout, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] when selecting “Hide/Show” as described above. While all hidden notes can be made visible by ticking the Hidden Notes checkbox on the display filter bar, you may want to make some of them “permanently” visible again: ! 1. Activate the Hidden Notes checkbox on the display filter bar. This is not possible when hiding notes, only other symbols. 2.
Splitting multi-rests Editing bar lines To divide one long multiple rest into several shorter ones, proceed as follows: Editing existing bar lines 1. Double-click on the multi-rest symbol. For each bar line, you can choose whether you want a regular, single bar line, a double bar line, a repeat sign, etc. The Split Multi-Rest dialog appears: 1. Double-click on the bar line for which you want to edit the settings. A dialog appears with a number of bar line types. 2.
Creating upbeats By hiding rests By using the Pickup Bar feature With this method, the first bar will actually have the same time signature as the following bars – it will only look like an upbeat bar: With this method, the upbeat actually contains exactly the number of beats displayed. That is, if you have an upbeat of one beat, your project starts with one bar in 1/4 time. 1. Enter the notes in the upbeat into the first bar. 1. Change the time signature of the first bar to the length of the upbeat.
Manually • To bring the bar back up to the previous staff, use the Glue tool to click on the last bar line on the upper of the two staves. In Page Mode, you have full control over the number of bars appearing across the page, by using the Number of Bars dialog or the tools. This will in fact move all measures in the lower staff up to the upper. Ö If you want to use the “Max.
Dragging staves Making an indent on one line • To create an indent, simply drag the first or last bar line on a staff. For the following operations, you can use the Object Selection tool or the Layout tool. The sizes of all measures are adjusted proportionally. 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 you wish to spread apart. 2.
Setting the distance between staves within a grand staff Moving staves between pages By using the “Move to Next/Previous Page” commands on the Staff context menu, you can quickly edit the page breaks. 1. Locate the lower staff in the grand staff you wish to spread apart. 2. Click just to the left of its first bar line and keep the mouse button pressed. Moving staves to the next page 1. Locate and activate the staff you want to move to the top of the next page. The entire staff gets selected. 3.
Ö You can also open the Auto Layout dialog by clicking the Auto Layout button on the extended toolbar. 3. Close the dialog. The score is displayed with brackets or braces according to the settings you made. • You can edit brackets and braces in the dialog by dragging the ends of the indicator in the list. • To remove a bracket or brace, click on its indicator in the list. Move bars Ö You can automatically get broken bar lines based on the brackets you have added – see “Breaking bar lines” on page 608.
Reset Layout All Pages Activate this if you want to apply the options above to all pages. Please note that this setting will be applied to the active staff and onwards. If you want all pages in the score to be affected, you have to make the very first staff (the first staff on the first page) the active staff. 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 Automatically If you have added brackets for some staves on the Score Settings–Layout page (see “Adding brackets and braces” on page 605), you can have bar lines broken between each bracketed “section”, giving a clearer indication of which staves belong together: 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 1.
14 Scoring for drums
About this chapter Pitch vs. Display Note In this chapter you will learn: In the Drum Map Setup dialog you will find a column Pitch and a column Display Note. • • • • 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. • The Pitch corresponds to the I-note for the drum sound and cannot be edited here. • The Display Note value is used to set where the note should be displayed vertically.
Option Description Customizing note head pairs Head Symbol Clicking in this column opens a window in which you can select a note head symbol for the sound. If “Use Head Pairs” is activated in the dialog, you can select a note head pair instead. If you do not like the default pairs of note heads, you can edit these: Voice This allows you to make all notes with this pitch belong to a certain voice, so that they get e.g. a common rest handling and stem direction. ! 1.
Setting up a staff for drum scoring Using “Single Line Drum Staff” 1. Open the Score Settings–Staff page and select the Options tab. When this option is activated on the Options tab on the Score Settings–Staff page, there is only one line in the system. Furthermore, notes can only appear below the line, on the line and above the line. 2. Make sure “Use Score Drum Map” is activated. 3.
15 Creating tablature
About this chapter • If you are not using one of the predefined instruments, set the open tuning of each string using the value fields. In this chapter you will learn: You can create tablature for up to 12 strings. To disable a string, set it to Off, the lowest value. • How to create tablature, automatically and manually. • How to control the appearance of the tablature notes. • How to edit tablature. 5. If you want to use a capodaster, e.g.
3. Make sure the option “MIDI Channel 1–6” is activated and convert the notes into tablature, as described above. 8. Press the mouse button and drag up and down until the note appears on the desired string with the correct fret number (you can also verify the pitch on the toolbar, as usual). 4. The notes will automatically be placed on the right strings. When you drag up and down, the program automatically selects the lowest possible string.
Editing on the info line You can change the pitch of notes on the info line as usual. The string and fret number will be updated automatically in the score. Note head shape If you only want to enter a fret number for your notes (Tablature mode off), you can use the Set Note Info dialog on regular notes. 1. Double-click on the head of a note. The Set Note Info dialog appears. 2. Activate the Tablature option and set a fret number in the value field to the right.
16 The score and MIDI playback
About this chapter The MIDI Meaning function In this chapter you will learn: The MIDI Meaning function interprets some dynamic symbols, affecting the velocity of notes during playback. • How to use the Arranger mode to have the playback follow the structure of the score. • How to use the MIDI Meaning function. • How to use crescendo/diminuendo symbols with integrated dynamics. Ö This is done in realtime during playback – the actual notes are not affected! Proceed as follows: 1.
Dynamic crescendo symbols 4. On the Score Settings–Project page, select the MIDI Meaning subpage and make sure the Active checkbox is ticked. In the Symbols Inspector – Dynamics tab, you will find a special crescendo symbol: The dynamic crescendo/diminuendo makes use of the MIDI Meaning function and uses the velocity scaling you have set up for the dynamics symbols in this dialog. 5. Start playback.
17 Tips and Tricks
Overview both instruments (you can mute the notes of the second voice, if playback is an issue). If you do this, it will be much easier to extract single parts later by using the “Extract Voices” command. 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.
Optimizing rests Speeding up inserting key changes If you have a number of consecutive empty bars, you can replace them with one multiple rest. See “Multiple rests” on page 600. If you have a grand staff with many instruments, inserting key changes one by one can take a lot of time. In this case, activate “Key changes for the entire Project” on the Key context menu or on the Score Settings–Project page (Notation Style subpage, Keys category).
When I change the length of a note, nothing happens. When using polyphonic voices, a number of rests are drawn on top of each other. 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. As above, you should try hiding rests on the Score Settings–Staff page (Polyphonic tab), center rests and possibly manually moving or hiding rests.
Symbols have disappeared. Are they layout symbols? Then maybe they belong to another layout than the one you are editing now. If that is not the reason, maybe you have inserted the symbol into the wrong staff, see “Important! – Symbols, staves and voices” on page 558. A symbol doesn’t move with its staff. Auto Layout produces far too wide spacing. Maybe you have inserted the symbol into the wrong staff. Please observe the warning in the section “Important! – Symbols, staves and voices” on page 558.
Index
A Accelerando 547 Accents Above Staves 559 Above Stems 559 Accidentals About 542 Distance From Note 544 ACID® loops 231 Acoustic Feedback 344 Score Editor 518 Activate Next/Previous Part 339 Activate project button 456 Active Part 339 Active Staff 496 Adapt (Display Quantize) 527 Add Bus 16 Add Space 530 Add Track 38 Adding Notes 514 Adjust Fades to Range 90 Advanced Quantize 329 Aftertouch Deleting 355 Editing 353 Recording 82 AIFF files 422 Align Dynamics 572 Symbols 570 Text 582 Alt/Option key 12 Always
Auto Layout About 606 Hide Empty Staves 606 Move Bars 606 Move Bars and Staves 607 Move Staves 606 Optimize All 607 Spread Page 606 Auto Monitoring modes 73 Auto Quantize 81, 527 Auto Save 458 Auto Select Events under Cursor MIDI editors 346 Project window 44 Automatic MIDI Record Quantize 81 Automation Auto-Latch mode 192 Cross-Over mode 192 Delta indicator 190 Editing in Project Browser 417 MIDI Controller 202 Opening automation subtracks 197 Return Time 195 Showing and hiding 197 Tempo 198, 405 Touch mod
Cleanup 459, 467 Clefs Editing 523 Inserting 522 Moving 523 Setting Initial 499 Click 85 Clips, see “Audio clips” Close Gaps Sample Editor 238 Close project 456 Color pop-up menu 545, 600 MIDI editors 344 Project window 39 Color tool 39 Coloring notes 545, 600 Colorize Event Background 37 Computer keyboard display Virtual Keyboard 65 Configuring Studio Sends 146 Configuring the Control Room Mixer 143 Conform Files 272 Consolidate Rests 528 Constrain Delay Compensation 179 Context menus 498 Control Room Abou
Delete Time 52 Detect Silence 216 Dev (Display Quantize) 527 Device Panels About 320 Inspector 30 Mixer 122 Device Ports Selecting for busses 16 Setting up 15 Dialogs 498 Diminuendo Affecting MIDI playback 619 Drawing 571 Keeping Horizontal 572 Disable sends 160 Disable Track 63 Disk meter 131 Display Arrow Tool after Inserting Symbol 559 Display filter bar 497, 498 Display format 33 Display Length 520, 544 Display Markers 592 Display Quantize About 490 Auto 527 In Polyphonic Voices 537 Inserting changes 50
Event Envelopes 95 Event Lock Layers 565 Events Audio 27 Color 39 Duplicating 45 Grouping 48 Locking 48 Moving 44 Muting 49 Overlapping in audio part 256 Overlapping in Project window 44 Removing 49 Renaming 46 Renaming all on track 39 Resizing 46 Resizing with time stretch 47 Selecting 43 Sliding contents 48 Splitting 46 Events (Snap mode) 57 Events from Regions 53 Events to Part 42 Explode 509, 536 Export OMF 462 Export Audio Mixdown 420 Export MIDI files 464 Export Options (MIDI files) 464 Export selecte
Grouping notes 545 Accelerando 547 Beam 546 Brillenbass 546 Repeats 546 Ritardando 547 Guitar Chord Symbols 562 Guitar Library 563 H Hide Empty Staves About 606 All Pages 607 Hide First Bar Line in Parts 601 Hide Notes beyond Limits 530 Hide Pedal Markers 573 Hiding Objects 599 Hitpoints About 234 Editing manually 236 Use pop-up menu 235 Horizontal Zooming Only 35 I Image file Inserting in the Score Editor 564 Import Audio CD 269 Audio files 41 Audio from Video file 461 Medium in Pool 268 MIDI files 464 M
L L Button 517 Lanes Audio Part Editor 256 Stacked Audio Recording 77 Stacked MIDI Recording 82 Latency Monitoring 73 VST System Link 439 Layout Layer 556 Symbols 556 Layout Page (Score Settings dialog) 598 Layout Settings About 598 Equal Spacing 598 Modern Time Signature 599 Multi-Rests 598 Real Book 598 Size 598 Staff Separators 598 Layout tool 523, 550, 560 Move Notes and Context 550 Move Single Object 550 Layouts About 591 Creating 591 Export 592 Opening 591 Opening Tracks In 592 Operations 592 Selectin
MediaBay Browse Selection Presets 279 Browser 276 Context menu search 282 Detail search 280 Filter buttons 280 Media files 274 Scanning operations 277 Scope 283 Search 281 Supported files 274 Tag Editor 284 Tags 284 User tags 286 Viewer 279 VST Sound node 277 Write Protection 287 Melisma Lines 581 Merge All Staves 539 Merge Clipboard 207 Merge MIDI in Loop 331 Merge Record Mode Audio 75 MIDI 81 Merge Tempo from Tapping 336, 408 Meters Characteristics 126 Coloring of 475 Input level 71 Peak Hold Time 126 Pos
Monitors (Control Room Channel) 137, 138, 144 Mouse Position Box 513 Move Bars About 606 All Pages 607 Move Bars and Staves 607 Move Controller (Quantize setting) 328 Move Hitpoints 236 Move Notes and Context 550 Move Single Object 550 Move Staves About 606 All Pages 607 Move to Back/Front 44 Move to Cursor 44 Move to Next/Prev.
Output busses About 14 Adding 16 Mixing down to file 420 Routing channels to 18 Surround configurations 182 Viewing in the mixer 19 Output channels 117 Output selection Multiple audio channels 18 Multiple MIDI channels 80 Outputs (Audio) 15 Outputs (MIDI) 79 Over Quantize 328 Overlapping events Audio Part Editor 256 Project window 44 Overview 38 Overwrite (Cycle Record mode) 81 P Padlock symbol 48 Page Selecting 495 Page Mode 495 Page number indicator 495 Page Numbers 585 Page Setup 496 Page Text 585 Pan L
Project Activating 456 Creating 34 Opening 456 Saving 457 Saving templates 457 Template 457 Project Browser 414 Project cursor 494 Autoscroll 57 Moving 61 Selecting events with 44 Snapping to 57 Project Layer 556 Symbols 556 Project Logical Editor About 392 Actions 397 Filter conditions 393 Functions 399 Macros 399 Opening 392 Overview 392 Presets 399 Project overview line 38 Project scrubbing 63 Project Setup dialog 34 Projects Backup 458 Punch In Automatic 68 Manual 67 Punch Out 68 Q Q tool 508 Q-points
S S button 49 Sample Editor Audio clip information 222 AudioWarp tab 222 Audition 225 Definition tab 222 Elements menu 221 Free Warp 238 Hitpoints tab 223 Info line 222 Inspector 222 MIDI Input 249 Process tab 223 Range tab 223 Toolbar 221 VariAudio tab 223 Zooming 224 Sample rate 34 Sample size 69 Save 457 Save New Version 457 Scissors tool MIDI editors 348 Project window 46 Score Editor 521 Score Drum Map About 610 Display Pitch 610 Initializing 611 Setting Up 610 Score Editor 498 Adding an image file 564
Speaker tool Audio Part Editor 257 Project window 42 Speakers (SurroundPanner) 185 Spectacle Bass 546 Spectrum Analyzer 217 Split Events 46 Range 52 Split at Cursor MIDI editors 348 Project window 46 Split Loop MIDI editors 348 Project window 46 Split MIDI Events 46 Split Note Explode Function 509, 536 Piano Staff 521 Split Staff Setting up 521 Split Tool 603 Spread Page About 606 All Pages 607 Square mode Automation 201 MIDI editing 354 Stacked Cycle Recording Audio 77 MIDI 82 Staff Mode Split 521 Staff Na
T Tablature Automatic Creation 614 Capo 614 Clef 615 Editing 615 Manual Creation 615 MIDI Channels 614 Number Note Head 615 Talkback (Control Room Channel) 137, 139, 144 Tap Tempo 407 Templates 457 Tempo About 402 Calculating 407 Editing 404 Editing in Project Browser 418 Importing and exporting 405 Setting in Fixed mode 405 Tapping 407 Tempo based tracks 40 Tempo Change Symbol 574 Tempo recording 198, 405 Tempo Symbols 574 Text Adding 581 Aligning 582 Block Text 585 Editing 582 Font, Size and Style 582 Imp
Transpose Info line 32 MIDI function 330 MIDI Modifier 308 Transpose track About 104 Transposing 519 Transposing instruments 503 Triangle mode Automation 201 MIDI editing 354 Trills 561 Trim buttons 47 Trim tool 342 Tuplet Quantize Setup 327 Tuplets 552 Display Options 554 Group Symbols 572 U Undo Processing 214 Quantize 329 Recording 74 Zoom 37 Ungroup 48 Unlock 48 Unlock Layout when editing single parts 495 Unstretch Audio 242 Upbeats 602 Upd button 504 Update Display 423 Update Origin 262 Use colors for
VST Performance window 131 VST plug-ins Getting info 167 Installing 166 VST Ports 15 VST presets Removing 290 VST System Link About 435 Activating 440 Connections 438 Latency 439 MIDI 442 Putting computers online 441 Requirements 438 Setting up sync 439 Settings 440 Z Zero Crossings 57 Zoom 495 About 35 History 37 Mouse wheel 496 Pop-up menu 495 Presets 36 Sample Editor 224 Tool 496 Track height 35 Waveforms 35 Zoom N Tracks 36 Zoom Tool Standard Mode 35 Zoom while Locating in Time Scale 35 W Warp tabs Cr
