Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual

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Key commands
Editors category
File categoryMedia category
MIDI category
Navigate category
Insert Silence [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[E]
Left Selection Side to Cursor [E]
Lock [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[L]
Move to Cursor [Ctrl]/[Command]+[L]
Mute [M]
Mute Events [Shift]+[M]
Mute/Unmute Objects [Alt]/[Option]+[M]
Open Default Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]+[E]
Open Score Editor [Ctrl]/[Command]+[R]
Open/Close Editor [Return]
Paste [Ctrl]/[Command]+[V]
Paste at Origin [Alt]/[Option]+[V]
Paste Time [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[V]
Record Enable [R]
Redo [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[Z]
Repeat [Ctrl]/[Command]+[K]
Right Selection Side to Cursor [D]
Select All [Ctrl]/[Command]+[A]
Select None [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[A]
Snap On/Off [J]
Solo [S]
Split At Cursor [Alt]/[Option]+[X]
Split Range [Shift]+[X]
Undo [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Z]
Ungroup [Ctrl]/[Command]+[U]
Unlock [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[U]
Unmute Events [Shift]+[U]
Option Key command
Show/Hide Infoview [Ctrl]/[Command]+[I]
Show/Hide Inspector [Alt]/[Option]+[I]
Show/Hide Overview [Alt]/[Option]+[O]
Option Key command
Close [Ctrl]/[Command]+[W]
New [Ctrl]/[Command]+[N] Option Key commandOpen [Ctrl]/[Command]+[O]
Quit [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Q]
Save [Ctrl]/[Command]+[S]
Save As [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift]+[S]
Save New Version [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Alt]/[Option]+[S]
Option Key command
Open MediaBay  [F5]
Open Loop Browser [F6]
Open Sound Browser [F7]
Option Key command
Quantize [Q]
Option Key command
Add Down:
Expand/Undo selection in the 
Project window to the bottom/ 
Move selected event in the 
Key Editor down 1 octave[Shift]+[Down Arrow]
Add Left:
Expand/Undo selection in the 
Project window/
Key Editor to the left[Shift]+[Left Arrow]
Add Right:
Expand/Undo selection in the 
Project window/
Key Editor to the right[Shift]+[Right Arrow]
Add Up:
Expand/Undo selection in the 
Project window to the top/
Move selected event in the Key 
Editor up one octave[Shift]+[Up Arrow]
Down:
Select next in the Project window/
Move selected event in the 
Key Editor one semitone down[Down Arrow]
Left:
Select next in the Project window/
Key Editor[Left Arrow]
Right: 
Select next in the Project window/
Key Editor[Right Arrow] Option Key command 
						

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Key commands
Nudge category
Project category
Score Functions category
Tool categoryTransport category
Up:
Select next in the Project window/ 
Move selected event in the 
Key Editor one semitone up[Up Arrow]
Bottom
Select bottom track in the track list[End]
Top: 
Select top track in the track list[Home]
Option Key command
End Left [Alt]/[Option]+[Shift]+[Left Arrow]
End Right [Alt]/[Option]+[Shift]+[Right Arrow]
Left [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Left Arrow]
Right [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Right Arrow]
Start Left [Alt]/[Option]+[Left Arrow]
Start Right [Alt]/[Option]+[Right Arrow]
Option Key command
Open Browser [Ctrl]/[Command]+[B]
Open Markers [Ctrl]/[Command]+[M]
Open/Close Pool [Ctrl]/[Command]+[P]
Open Tempo Track [Ctrl]/[Command]+[T]
Setup [Shift]+[S]
Show/Hide Track Colors [Shift]+[C]
Option Key command
Insert Voice: Next [Alt]/[Option]+Pad[+]
Insert Voice: Previous [Alt]/[Option]+Pad[-]
Option Key command
Delete tool [5]
Draw tool [8]
Drumstick tool [0]
Glue tool [4]
Mute tool [7]
Next Tool [F10] Option Key commandPlay tool [9]
Previous Tool [F9]
Range tool [2]
Select tool [1]
Split tool [3]
Zoom tool [6]
Option Key command
AutoPunch In [I]
AutoPunch Out [O]
Cycle Pad [/]
Exchange time formats [.]
Fast Forward [Shift]+Pad [+]
Fast Rewind [Shift]+Pad [-]
Forward Pad [+]
Input Left Locator [Shift]+[L]
Input Position [Shift]+[P]
Input Right Locator [Shift]+[R]
Input Tempo [Shift]+[T]
Insert Marker [Insert] (Win)
Locate Next Event [N]
Locate Next Marker [Shift]+[N]
Locate Previous Event [B]
Locate Previous Marker [Shift]+[B]
Locate Selection [L]
Locators to Selection [P]
Loop Selection [Shift]+[G]
Metronome On [C]
Nudge Down [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [-]
Nudge Up [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [+]
Panel (Transport panel) [F2]
Play Selection Range [Alt]/[Option]+[Space]
Recall Cycle Marker 1 to 9 [Shift]+Pad [1] to Pad [9]
Record Pad [*]
Retrospective Record [Shift]+Pad [*]
Return to Zero Pad [.] or Pad [,]
Rewind Pad [-]
Set Left Locator [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [1] Option Key command 
						

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Key commands
Workspace category
Zoom category
Set Marker 1 [Ctrl]/[Command]+[1]
Set Marker 2 [Ctrl]/[Command]+[2]
Set Marker 3 to 9 [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [3] to [9] or
[Ctrl]/[Command]+ [3] to [9]
Set Right Locator [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [2]
Start [Enter]
Start/Stop [Space]
Stop Pad [0]
To Left Locator Pad [1]
To Marker 1 [Shift]+[1]
To Marker 2 [Shift]+[2]
To Marker 3 to 9 Pad [3] to [9] or [Shift]+[3] to [9]
To Right Locator Pad [2]
Use External Sync [T]
Option Key command
Lock/Unlock Active Workspace [Alt]/[Option]+Pad [0]
New [Ctrl]/[Command]+Pad [0]
Organize [W]
Workspace 1-9 [Alt]/[Option]+Pad [1-9]
Option Key command
Zoom Full [Shift]+[F]
Zoom In [H]
Zoom In Tracks [Alt]/[Option]+[Down Arrow]
Zoom Out [G]
Zoom Out Tracks [Alt]/[Option]+[Up Arrow] or
[Ctrl]/[Command]+[Up Arrow]
Zoom to Event [Shift]+[E]
Zoom to Selection [Alt]/[Option]+[S]
Zoom Tracks Exclusive [Z] or [Ctrl]/[Command]+
[Down Arrow] Option Key command 
						

							Part II:
Score layout and printing 
						

							1
How the Score Editor works 
						

							491
How the Score Editor works
About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
 How the Score Editor and MIDI data relate.
 What display quantize is and how it works.
Welcome!
Welcome to scoring in Cubase! The Score Editor has 
been created to allow you to get any possible piece of 
music displayed as a score, complete with all the neces-
sary symbols and formatting. It allows you to extract parts 
out of a full orchestra score, to add lyrics and comments, 
create lead sheets, score for drums, create tablature, etc. 
In other words: just about any type of notation you could 
ever desire!
There are a few basic principles to how the Score Editor 
works, which you have to understand to make full use of it. 
So please bear with us during this chapter, we’ll try to be 
as concise as possible.
How the Score Editor operates
The Score Editor does the following:
 Reads the MIDI notes in the MIDI parts.
 Looks at the settings you have made.
 Decides how the MIDI notes should be displayed according to 
the settings.
The Score Editor takes MIDI data and settings as input and produces a 
score as output.
The Score Editor does all this in real time. If you change 
some of the MIDI data (for example by moving or shorten-
ing a note) this is immediately reflected in the score. If you 
change some of the settings (for example the time signa-
ture or key signature) this is also immediately apparent.
You should not think of the Score Editor as a drawing pro-
gram, but rather as an “interpreter” of MIDI data.
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 de-
fined by its position, length, pitch and velocity. This is not 
nearly enough information to decide how the note should 
be displayed in a score. The program needs to know more: 
What type of instrument are we talking about, Drums? Pi-
ano? What key is the piece in? What is the basic rhythm? 
How should the notes be grouped under beams? etc. 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 be-
low.
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’s 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.
MIDI data
Score Editor Score display
Score settings 
						

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How the Score Editor works
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 doesn’t 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 fig-
ure, 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 pro-
gram two things:
How precise the Score Editor should be when display-
ing 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).
Let’s say we change the display quantize value to six-
teenth notes in the example:
With display quantize set to sixteenth notes.
OK, now the timing looks right, but the notes still don’t 
look like what you intended. Maybe you can understand 
that from a computer’s point of view, you did play sixteenth 
notes, which is why there are a lot of pauses. But that’s 
not how you meant it. You still want the track to play back 
short notes, because it is a staccato part, but you want 
something else “displayed”. Try setting the display quan-
tize value to eighth notes instead:
With display quantize set to eighth notes.
Now we have eighth notes, as we wanted. All we have to 
do now is to add staccato articulation which can be done 
with one simple mouse click using the Pencil tool (see the 
chapter “Working with symbols” on page 561).
How did this work? By setting the display quantize value 
to eighth notes, you give the program two instructions, 
that would sound something like this in English: “Display 
all notes as if they were on exact eighth note positions, re-
gardless of their actual positions” and “Don’t display any 
notes smaller than eighth notes, regardless of how short 
they are”. Please note that we used the word “display”, 
which leads us to one of the most important messages of 
this chapter:
Choose your display quantize values with care
As explained above, the display quantize value for notes 
puts a restriction on the “smallest” note value that can be 
displayed. Let’s see what happens if we set it to quarter 
notes:
With display quantize set to quarter notes.
Oops, this doesn’t look too good. Well of course it 
doesn’t! We have now instructed the program that the 
“smallest” note that occurs in the piece is a quarter note. 
We have explicitly told it that there are no eighth notes, no 
sixteenths, etc. So when the program draws the score on 
screen (and on paper) it quantizes the display of all our 
eighth notes to quarter note positions, which makes it look 
!Setting a display quantize value does not alter the 
MIDI notes of your recording in any way, as regular 
quantizing does. It only affects how the notes are 
displayed in the Score Editor (and nowhere else)! 
						

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How the Score Editor works
like above. But again, please note that when you hit Play, 
the passage will still play as it originally did. The display 
quantize setting only affects the score image of the re-
cording. One last important note:
Using Rests display quantize
Above we used display quantize for notes. There is a sim-
ilar setting called “Rests” display quantize which is used 
to set the smallest rest to be displayed. Often, this setting 
is very effective:
Let’s start with the following note example:
As you see, the first note appears one sixteenth note late. 
If we change the display quantize value for notes to eighth 
notes, the score will be displayed like this:
With Notes display quantize set to eighth notes.
Unfortunately, this moves the first note to the same posi-
tion as the second, since sixteenth note positions aren’t 
allowed. We can solve this by inserting extra display quan-
tize values within the bar with the Display Quantize tool 
(see “Inserting display quantize changes” on page 514), 
but there is a much easier way: Change the display quan-
tize value for notes back to sixteenths, but set the display 
quantize value for rests to eighth notes! This tells the pro-
gram not to display any rests smaller than eighth notes, 
except when necessary. The result looks like this:
With Notes display quantize set to sixteenth notes, but Rests display 
quantize set to eighth notes.
How did this work? Well, you instructed the program not 
to display any rests smaller than eighth notes, except 
when “necessary”. Since the first note appeared on the 
second sixteenth note position, it was necessary to put a 
sixteenth rest at the beginning of the figure. All other rests, 
however, can be hidden by displaying the notes as eighth 
notes, and were therefore not “necessary”.
This leads us to the following general guidelines:
ÖSet the Notes display quantize value according to the 
“smallest note position” you want to be shown in the score.
For example, if you have notes on odd sixteenth note positions, the Notes 
display quantize value should be set to sixteenth notes.
ÖSet the Rests display quantize value according to the 
smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed for a 
single note, positioned on a beat.
A common setting would be to have Notes display quan-
tize set to 16 (sixteenth notes) and Rests display quantize 
set to 4 (quarter notes).
Handling exceptions
Unfortunately, the guidelines above won’t work perfectly in 
every situation. You may for example have a mix of straight 
notes and tuplets of different types, or you may wish to 
display equally long notes with different note values de-
pending on the context. There are several methods you 
can try:
Automatic display quantize
If your score contains both straight notes and triplets, you 
can use automatic display quantize. When this is acti-
vated, Cubase tries to “understand” whether the notes 
should be display quantized to straight notes or triplets. 
See “If your music contains mixed straight notes and trip-
lets” on page 510.
Using the Display Quantize tool
With the “Q” tool, you can insert new display quantize val-
ues anywhere in the score. Inserted display quantize val-
ues affect the staff from the insertion point onwards. See 
“Inserting display quantize changes” on page 514.
!Even if you manually enter notes in the score using 
perfect note values, it is very important that you have 
your display quantize settings right! These values are 
not just used for MIDI recordings! If you for example 
set the display quantize value for notes to quarter 
notes and start clicking in eighth notes, you will get 
eighth notes in the track (as MIDI data), but still only 
quarter notes in the display! 
						

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How the Score Editor works
Permanent alteration of MIDI data
As a last resort, you can resize, quantize or move the ac-
tual note events. However, this would result in the music 
not playing back like it originally did. Often it is possible to 
get the score to look the way you want without altering any 
MIDI data.
Summary
This closes our discussion on the basic concept of display 
quantizing. There are a number of other special situations 
which require more advanced techniques, which you will 
find out about in the next chapters. You will also read 
about other settings which work along the same lines as 
display quantize but each with its own application. These 
are called “interpretation options”.
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 507 you 
will find out how to make a recorded score as legible as 
possible without performing any permanent changes to 
the MIDI data. The chapter “Entering and editing notes” 
on page 517 shows you how to enter and edit notes using 
the mouse. In real life, even if you have recorded the piece 
perfectly, you will often have to do some permanent edit-
ing to your recording before printing. Which leads to this 
conclusion:
!You will have to read both chapters in order to un-
derstand how to produce legible scores! 
						

							2
The basics