Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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MIDI processing and quantizing
Making your settings permanent
The settings described in the chapter “MIDI realtime para-
meters and effects” on page 305 do not change the MIDI 
events themselves, but work like a “filter”, affecting the 
music on playback. Therefore, you may want to make them 
permanent, i.e. convert them to “real” MIDI events, for ex-
ample to transpose a track and then edit the transposed 
notes in a MIDI editor. For this, you can use two com-
mands from the MIDI menu:
“Freeze MIDI Modifiers” – This applies all filter settings 
permanently to the respective track. 
With this function, the settings are “added” to the events on the track, 
and all modifiers will be set to zero.
“Merge MIDI in Loop” – This merges all selected tracks 
(or parts) to create a new track.
The settings are applied during the merge and will still be displayed later 
in the respective menus.
These two functions are described in the following sec-
tions.
Freeze MIDI Modifiers
The “Freeze MIDI Modifiers” function affects the following 
settings for MIDI tracks:
 Several settings on the main tab of the Inspector (program 
and bank selection and the Delay parameter).
 The settings on the MIDI Modifiers tab (i.e. Transpose, Veloc-
ity Shift, Velocity Compression and Length Compression).
 The settings on the MIDI Inserts tab (if, e. g., you are using an ar-
peggiator and want to convert the added notes to real events).
The following settings for MIDI parts are taken into account 
as well:
 The Transpose and Velocity settings for parts displayed on the 
info line – the Volume setting is not taken into account. 
To use the “Freeze MIDI Modifiers” function, proceed as 
follows:
1.Select the desired MIDI track.
2.Pull down the MIDI menu and select “Freeze MIDI 
Modifiers”.
The Inspector settings will be converted to MIDI events and inserted at 
the beginning of the part(s). All notes of the part(s) will be modified ac-
cordingly and the Inspector settings will be reset.
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:
1.Make sure only the desired MIDI track(s) are unmuted.
If you only want to include events from a single track in the merge opera-
tion, you may want to solo the track.
2.Set up the left and right locators to encompass the 
area you want to merge.
Only events starting within this area will be included.
3.Select the track on which you want the new part to be 
created.
This can be a new track or an existing track. Data in the cycle area on the 
track can be kept or overwritten (see below).
4.Select “Merge MIDI in Loop” from the MIDI menu.
A dialog appears with the following options:
5.Click OK.
A new part is created between the locators on the destination track, con-
taining the processed MIDI events.
Applying effects to a single part
Normally, the MIDI modifiers and effects affect a whole 
MIDI track. This may not always be what you want – you 
may want to apply some MIDI effects to a single part for 
example (without having to create a separate track for that 
part only). The Merge MIDI in Loop function can help:
1.Set up your MIDI modifiers and MIDI effects the way 
you want them for the part.
This will of course affect the whole track, but focus on the part for now.
Option Description
Include Inserts If this is activated, any MIDI insert effects currently acti-
vated for the track(s) will be applied.
Include Sends If this is activated, any MIDI send effects currently acti-
vated for the track(s) will be applied.
Erase 
DestinationIf this is activated, all MIDI data between the left and right 
locator on the destination track will be deleted.
Include Chase If this is activated, events placed outside the selected part 
but relating to it will be included in the processing, e. g. a 
Program Change right before the left locator. For more 
about chase events, see “About Chase” on page 64. 
						

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MIDI processing and quantizing
2.Set the locators to encompass the part.
Simply select the part and choose Locators to Selection from the Trans-
port menu (or use the corresponding key command, by default [P]).
3.Make sure the track holding the part is selected in the 
Track list.
4.Select Merge MIDI in Loop.
5.In the dialog that appears, activate the desired effect 
options, make sure that Erase Destination is activated and 
click OK.
Now a new part is created on the same track, containing the processed 
events. The original part is deleted.
6.Turn off or reset all MIDI modifiers and effects, so that 
the track plays back as usual.
Dissolve Part
The Dissolve Part function on the MIDI menu has two sep-
arate uses:
When you work with MIDI parts (on MIDI channel “Any”) 
containing events on different MIDI channels.
Dissolve Part separates the events according to MIDI channel.
When you want to separate MIDI events according to 
pitch.
A typical example would be drum and percussion tracks, where each 
pitch usually corresponds to a separate drum sound.
ÖWhen dissolving a part into either separate channels 
or separate pitches, you can automatically remove the si-
lent (empty) areas of the resulting parts by activating the 
“Optimized Display” checkbox in the Dissolve Part dialog.
This option is not available when “Dissolve to Sublanes” is activated, see 
“Dissolving to sublanes” on page 333.
Dissolving parts into separate channels
Setting a track to MIDI channel “Any” will cause each MIDI 
event to play back on its original MIDI channel, rather than 
a channel set for the whole track. There are two main situ-
ations when “Any” channel tracks are useful:
When you record several MIDI channels at the same 
time.
You may for example have a MIDI keyboard with several keyboard zones, 
where each zone sends MIDI on a separate channel. Recording on an 
“Any” channel track allows you to play back the recording with different 
sounds for each zone (since the different MIDI notes play back on sepa-
rate MIDI channels).
When you have imported a MIDI file of Type 0.
MIDI files of Type 0 contain only one track, with notes on up to 16 different 
MIDI channels. If you were to set this track to a specific MIDI channel, all 
notes in the MIDI file would be played back with the same sound; setting 
the track to “Any” will cause the imported file to play back as intended.
The Dissolve Part function scans MIDI parts for events on 
different MIDI channels and distributes the events into new 
parts on new tracks, one for each MIDI channel found. This 
allows you to work with each musical part individually. Pro-
ceed as follows:
1.Select the parts containing MIDI data on different 
channels.
2.Select “Dissolve Part” from the MIDI menu.
3.In the dialog that appears, select the “Separate Chan-
nels” option.
Now, for each MIDI channel used in the selected parts, a 
new MIDI track is created and set to the corresponding 
MIDI channel. Each event is then copied into the part on 
the track with the corresponding MIDI channel. Finally, the 
original parts are muted.
An example:
This part contains 
events on MIDI 
channels 1, 2 and 3.
Selecting “Dissolve Part” creates new parts on new tracks, set to 
channels 1, 2 and 3. Each new part contains only the events on the 
respective MIDI channel.
The original MIDI part is 
muted. 
						

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MIDI processing and quantizing
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 con-
text, but rather for separating different sounds (e.g. MIDI 
drum tracks or sampler sound FX tracks). By dissolving 
such parts, you can work with each sound individually, on 
a separate track. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the parts containing MIDI data.
2.Select “Dissolve Part” from the MIDI menu.
3.In the dialog that appears, select the “Separate 
Pitches” option.
A new MIDI track is created for each used pitch in the selected parts. 
The events are then copied into the parts on the track for the corres-
ponding pitch. Finally, the original parts are muted.
Dissolving to sublanes
In the lower right section of the Dissolve Part dialog, you 
will find the option “Dissolve to Sublanes”. When this is 
activated, the part will not be dissolved onto different 
tracks but onto different sublanes of the original track, al-
lowing for a better management of MIDI material that “be-
longs together”.
This is useful when working with drums for example, as it 
allows you to split up a part into different drum sounds and 
edit these independently. When you have made the de-
sired modifications, you can reassemble all your drums 
into one part using the Bounce Selection command, see 
below.
This option is especially handy when working with instru-
ment parts on instrument tracks. “Normal” dissolving would 
lead to a number of different tracks each routed to a sepa-
rate instance of the connected VST instrument. When dis-
solving parts to sublanes, the parts will still reside on the 
same track, with all parts using the same VST instrument 
instance.
Bounce Selection
With this function, you can combine MIDI parts on several 
lanes to a single MIDI part. This can be used to reassem-
ble a drum part that you dissolved onto several lanes for 
editing, see above. Simply select the MIDI parts on the dif-
ferent lanes that you want to combine and select “Bounce 
Selection” on the MIDI menu.
During the bounce process, any muted parts will be re-
moved. If transpose and velocity values were specified for 
the parts, these are taken into account as well.
Repeat Loop
With this function, the events inside the independent track 
loops will be repeated until the end of the part, i. e. the 
notes that were previously only played repeatedly are now 
actual notes on the MIDI track. Events to the right of the 
independent track loop (within the same part) will be re-
placed by this function. For more information about inde-
pendent track loops, see “The independent track loop” on 
page 343.
Other MIDI functions
The following items can be found on the Functions sub-
menu of the MIDI menu:
Legato
Extends each selected note so that it reaches the next note. 
						

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You can specify a gap or overlap for this function with the 
“Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences (Editing–MIDI 
page).
When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 
5 ticks before the next note.
When you activate “Legato Mode: Selected Only”, the 
length of the note will be adjusted so that it reaches the 
next selected note, allowing you e.g. to only apply Legato 
to your bass line (when playing on a keyboard).
Fixed Lengths
This function resizes all selected notes to the length set 
with the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the MIDI editor 
toolbar.
Delete Doubles
This function removes double notes, i.e. notes of the same 
pitch on the exact same position from the selected MIDI 
parts. Double notes can occur when recording in Cycle 
mode, after Quantizing, etc.
Delete Controllers
This function removes all MIDI controllers from the se-
lected MIDI parts.
Delete Continuous Controllers
This function removes all “continuous” MIDI controller 
events from the selected MIDI parts. Therefore, “on/off” 
events such as sustain pedal events are not removed.
Delete Notes
Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is use-
ful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” af-
ter recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog 
in which you set up the criteria for the function.
The parameters have the following functionality:
Minimum Length
When the Minimum Length checkbox is activated, the note 
length is taken into account, allowing you to remove short 
notes. You can either specify the minimum length (for notes 
to be kept) in the value field or by dragging the blue line in 
the graphical length display below.
The graphical length display can correspond to 1/4 bar, 
one bar, two bars or four bars.
You change this setting by clicking in the field to the right of the display.
In this case, the whole length display corresponds to two bars, and the 
Minimum Length is set to 32nd notes (60 ticks).
Minimum Velocity
When the Minimum Velocity checkbox is activated, the ve-
locity of notes is taken into account, allowing you to re-
move weak notes. You specify the minimum velocity (for 
notes to be kept) in the value display.
Remove when under
This setting is only available when both Minimum Length 
and Minimum Velocity is activated. By clicking in this field, 
you select whether both the length and the velocity criteria 
must be met for notes to be deleted, or whether one of the 
criteria will suffice.
!This function is only available from within the MIDI 
editors. 
						

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MIDI processing and quantizing
OK and Cancel
Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to 
the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without 
deleting notes.
Restrict Polyphony
Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec-
ify how many “voices” should be used (for the selected 
notes or parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is use-
ful when you have an instrument with limited polyphony 
and want to make sure all notes will be played. The effect 
is achieved by shortening notes as required, so that they 
end before the next note starts.
Pedals to Note Length
This function scans for Sustain pedal on/off events, length-
ens the affected notes to match the Sustain pedal off posi-
tion, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/off events.
Delete Overlaps (mono)
This function allows you to make sure that no notes of the 
same pitch overlap (i.e. that one starts before the other 
ends). Overlapping notes of the same pitch can confuse 
some MIDI instruments (a new Note On is transmitted be-
fore the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then 
be used to automatically solve the problem.
Delete Overlaps (poly)
This function shortens notes when required, so that no 
note begins before another ends. This happens regard-
less of which pitch the notes have.
Velocity
This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate 
the velocity of notes in various ways.The following types of velocity processing are available:
Add/Subtract
This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity 
values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the 
Amount parameter.
Compress/Expand
Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI 
notes by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio 
setting (0–300 %). The principle behind this is that multi-
plying different velocity values with a factor higher than 1 
(over 100 %) will also make the differences between ve-
locity values greater, while using a factor lower than 1 (un-
der 100 %) will make the differences smaller. In short:
To compress (“even out” velocity differences), use ratio 
values below 100 %.
After compression, you would probably want to add a velocity amount 
(with the Add/Subtract function) to maintain the average velocity level. 
To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ra-
tio values above 100 %.
Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/
Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the mid-
dle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0), 
expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only 
be between 0 and 127!
Limit
This function allows you to make sure that no velocity val-
ues fall outside a given range (the Lower and Upper val-
ues). Any velocity values outside this range are raised/
lowered to exactly the Lower/Upper values.
Fixed Velocity
This function sets the velocity of all selected notes to the 
Insert Velocity value on the toolbar in the MIDI editors.
Thin Out Data
Thins out MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on your ex-
ternal MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense con-
troller curves etc. 
You can also manually thin out the controller data by using 
the quantize function in the Key Editor. 
						

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MIDI processing and quantizing
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.)
The controller data will automatically be removed from the controller lane 
in the editor.
3.In the Project window, open the automation track(s) 
for the respective MIDI track. You will find that an automa-
tion track has been created for each of the continuous 
controllers in the part.
This function can only be used for continuous controllers. 
Data such as Aftertouch, Pitchbend or SysEx cannot be 
converted to MIDI track automation data.
ÖRemember that to be able to hear the automation data, 
you have to activate the Read button for the respective au-
tomation track(s).
ÖMIDI controller automation is also affected by the Au-
tomation Merge Mode, see “MIDI Controller automation” 
on page 202.
Reverse
This function inverts the order of the selected events (or of 
all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to 
play backwards. Note that the effect is different from re-
versing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individual notes 
will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it is only the 
order of playback that is changed.
Merge Tempo from Tapping
This function allows you to create a complete tempo track 
based on your tapping, see the section “Merge Tempo 
From Tapping” on page 408. 
						

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The MIDI editors 
						

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The MIDI editors
Introduction
There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase. You can 
use the tools and functions in the Project window for 
large-scale editing, or the functions on the MIDI menu to 
process MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is affected 
by the MIDI functions?” on page 326). For hands-on 
graphical editing of the contents of MIDI parts, you use the 
MIDI editors:
The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting 
notes graphically in an intuitive piano roll-style grid.
The Key Editor also allows for detailed editing of non-note events such 
as MIDI controllers. For more information, see “The Key Editor – Over-
view” on page 340.
The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score 
and comes with advanced tools and functions for notation, 
layout and printing.
The Score Editor is described in detail in “Part II: Score layout and prin-
ting” on page 487.
The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes 
advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corre-
sponds to a separate drum sound. 
This is the editor to use when you’re editing drum or percussion parts. 
For more information, see “The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 358.
The List Editor shows all events in the selected MIDI 
parts as a list, allowing you to view and edit their properties 
numerically. It also allows you to edit SysEx messages.
For more information, see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 365 and 
“Working with System Exclusive messages” on page 368.
The Edit In-Place function allows you to edit MIDI parts 
directly in the Project window.
This is similar to working in the Key Editor, but makes it easier to edit MIDI 
in context with other track types. See “The In-Place Editor” on page 356.
You can also edit MIDI in the Project Browser.
Like the List Editor, the Project browser shows the events in a list and al-
lows you to perform numerical editing. However, you will probably find the 
List Editor better suited for MIDI editing, since it has various dedicated fea-
tures and functions for this. The Project Browser is described in the chap-
ter “The Project Browser” on page 413.
ÖYou can define each of the editors mentioned above 
as your default MIDI editor, see below. 
This chapter describes how to use all editors except the 
Score Editor (which is described in detail in “Part II: Score 
layout and printing” on page 487). 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 Ed-
itor (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.
Opening a MIDI editor
There are two ways to open a MIDI editor:
Select one or several parts (or a MIDI track, with no parts 
selected), pull down the MIDI menu and select Open Key 
Editor, Open Score Editor, Open Drum Editor, Open List 
Editor or Open In-Place Editor (or use the corresponding 
key command).
The selected parts (or all parts on the track, if no part was selected) will 
open in the chosen editor.
Double-click a part to open it in the default editor.
Which editor opens depends on the Default Edit Action setting in the 
Preferences (Event Display–MIDI page).
If the option “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned” 
is activated and a drum map is selected for the edited 
track (see “Selecting a drum map for a track” on page 
363), the Drum Editor will open. This way you can double-
click to open the Key Editor (or the Score Editor, List or In-
Place Editor, depending on your preferences) but drum 
tracks will automatically open in the Drum Editor.
ÖIf the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any ed-
iting you perform will affect all shared copies of this part.
Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift] and drag-
ging, or by using the Repeat function with the “Shared copies” option 
activated. In the Project window, shared copies are indicated by the part 
name in italics and an icon in the bottom right corner of the part. 
						

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The MIDI editors
Handling several parts
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.
For such cases the editor toolbar features a few functions 
to make working with multiple parts easier and more com-
prehensive:
The Part List menu lists all parts that were selected when 
you opened the editor (or all parts on the track, if no parts 
were selected), and lets you select which part should be 
active for editing.
When you select a part from the list, it is automatically made active and 
centered in the note display.
ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by select-
ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool.
The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit-
ing operations to the active part only.
For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu on the Edit menu 
with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected. 
Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a se-
lection rectangle), only the notes in the active part will be selected.
“Edit Active Part Only” is activated on the toolbar.
You can zoom in on the active part so that it fills the 
screen by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom sub-
menu on the Edit menu.The button “Show Part Borders” can be used if you 
want to see clearly defined borders for the active part.
When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, mak-
ing the borders easily discernible. In the Key Editor, there are also two 
“markers” in the ruler with the name of the active part, marking its begin-
ning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part.
“Show Part Borders” is activated on the toolbar.
It is possible to cycle between parts (making them ac-
tive) using key commands.
In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, you will find two functions for 
this: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key 
commands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts in the edi-
tors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 480. 
						

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The MIDI editors
The Key Editor – Overview 
The toolbar
As in other windows, the toolbar contains tools and vari-
ous settings. You can specify which toolbar items should 
be shown and store/recall different toolbar configurations 
– see “Using the Setup options” on page 471. 
The info line
The info line shows information about selected MIDI 
notes. You can edit all values on the info line using regular 
value editing (see “Editing on the info line” on page 348 
for details). Length and position values are displayed in 
the format currently selected for the ruler (see below).
To hide or show the info line, click the icon in the toolbar.
The ruler
The ruler shows the timeline, by default in the display for-
mat selected on the Transport panel. You can select a 
separate format for a MIDI editor ruler on the Ruler pop-up 
menu, opened by clicking the arrow button to the right of 
it. For a list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on 
page 33.
Toolbar
Info line
Ruler
Note 
display
Controller 
display
Show/Hide Info line Solo Editor 
buttonKey Editor 
toolsAutoscroll 
on/offAcoustic FeedbackPart list Show/Hide Part 
borders
Edit active 
part only Auto Select 
Controllers
Nudge ToolsTranspose Palette
Snap on/off Velocity for inserted notes
Grid modes
Indicate Transpositions
Quantize settings Step Input
MIDI InputStep/MIDI input controls
Color pop-up 
menu
Independent track 
loop on/offLoop rangeChord recogni-
tion display Mouse pointer display: Current 
pitch and meter position
Open Device 
Button