7.5

726
How the Score Editor works
MIDI notes vs. score notes
MIDI notes vs. score notes
MIDI tracks in Cubase hold MIDI notes and other MIDI data. As you may know, a MIDI
note in Cubase is only defined by its position, length, pitch and velocity. This is not
nearly enough information to decide how the note is to be displayed in a score. The
program needs to know more: What type of instrument are we talking about, Drums?
Piano? What key is the piece in? What is the basic rhythm? How should the notes be
grouped under beams? You provide this information by making settings and working
with the tools available in the Score Editor.
An example of the MIDI/score relationship
When Cubase stores a MIDI note’s position, it makes the measurement in an absolute
value, called ticks. There are 480 ticks to a quarter note. Have a look at the example
below:
A quarter note at the end of a 4/4 measure
The note is on the fourth beat of the measure. Now, let’s say you change the time
signature to 3/4. This shortens the length of a “measure” to only three quarter notes –
1440 ticks. Suddenly our quarter note is in the next measure:
The same note in 3/4
Why? Since you are not changing the MIDI data in the track/part (that would ruin your
recording!) by changing the time signature, the note is still at the same absolute
position. It is just that now each “measure” is shorter, which effectively moves the note
in the score.
What we are trying to get across here is that the Score Editor is an “interpreter” of the
MIDI data. It follows rules that you set up by making settings in dialogs, on menus, etc.
And this interpretation is “dynamic”, or in other words, it is constantly updated
whenever the data (the MIDI notes) or the rules (the score settings) change.
Display Quantize
Let’s say you used the Project window to record a figure with some staccato eighth
notes. When you open the Score Editor, these notes are displayed like this:
This does not look anything like what you intended. Let’s start with the timing –
obviously, you were off at a couple of places (the third, fourth and last note all seem to
be a 32nd note late). You can solve this by quantizing the figure, but this would make
the passage sound too “stiff”, and not fit in the musical context. To resolve this
problem the Score Editor employs something called “Display Quantize”.
Display Quantize is a setting which is used to tell the program two things:
• How precise the Score Editor is to be when displaying the note positions.
• The smallest note values (lengths) you want displayed in the score.
In the example above, the Display Quantize value seems to be set to 32nd notes (or a
smaller note value).