Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual
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361 The MIDI editors Working with drum maps Background A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of dif- ferent drum sounds with each sound placed on a separate key (i.e. the different sounds are assigned to different MIDI note numbers). One key plays a bass drum sound, another a snare and so on. Unfortunately, different MIDI instruments often use differ- ent key assignments. This can be troublesome if you have made a drum pattern using one MIDI device, and then want to try it on another. When you switch device, it is very likely that your snare drum becomes a ride cymbal, or your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc. – just because the drum sounds are distributed differently in the two instruments. To solve this problem, and simplify several aspects of MIDI drum kits (like using drum sounds from different instru- ments in the same “drum kit”), Cubase features so-called drum maps. A drum map is a list of drum sounds, with a number of settings for each sound. When you play back a MIDI track for which you have selected a drum map, the MIDI notes are “filtered” through the drum map before be- ing sent to the MIDI instrument. Among other things, the map determines which MIDI note number is sent out for each drum sound, and so which sound is played in the re- ceiving MIDI device. A solution to the problem above would therefore be to set up drum maps for all your instruments. When you want to try your drum pattern on another instrument, you simply switch to the corresponding drum map and your snare drum sound will remain a snare drum sound. Drum map settings A drum map consists of settings for 128 drum sounds (one for each MIDI note number). To get an overview of these settings, open the Drum Editor and use the Map pop-up menu below the drum sound list to select the “GM Map” drum map. This drum map is set up according to the General MIDI standard. For in- formation on how to load, create and select other drum maps, see “Managing drum maps” on page 363. 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 set- tings of the drum map for each sound. Here’s a brief description (details follow below): ÖAll settings in a drum map (except the Pitch) can be changed directly in the drum sound list or in the Drum Map Setup dialog (see “The Drum Map Setup dialog” on page 363). Note that the changes you make will affect all tracks that use the drum map. Column Description Pitch The actual note number of the drum sound. This is what links notes on a MIDI track to drum sounds. For example, with the above drum map, all MIDI notes with the pitch C1 would be mapped to the Bass Drum sound. Instrument The name of the drum sound. Quantize This value is used when entering and editing notes as de- scribed in the sections “Creating and editing notes” on page 359 and “Moving, duplicating or repeating notes” on page 360. Mute Allows you to mute a drum sound, excluding it from play- back. See “Muting notes and drum sounds” on page 360. I-note This is the “input note” for the drum sound. When this MIDI note is sent into Cubase, (i.e. played by you), the note will be mapped to the corresponding drum sound (and automatically transposed according to the Pitch set- ting for the sound). O-note This is the “output note”, i.e. the MIDI note number that is sent out every time the drum sound is played back. Channel The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI channel. Output The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI output. If you set this to “Default”, the MIDI output selected for the track will be used.
362 The MIDI editors About Pitch, I-note and O-note 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. As mentioned earlier, a drum map is a kind of “filter”, transforming notes according to the settings in the map. It does this transformation twice; once when it receives an incoming note (i.e. when you play a note on your MIDI controller) and once when a note is sent from the program to the MIDI sound device. In the following example, we have modified the drum map, so that the Bass Drum sound has different Pitch, I-note and O-note values. I-notes (input notes) Let’s look at what happens on input: When you play a note on your MIDI instrument, the program will look for this note number among the I-notes in the drum map. In our case, if you play the note A1, the program will find that this is the I- note of the Bass Drum sound. This is where the first transformation happens: the note will get a new note number according to the Pitch setting for the drum sound. In our case, the note will be trans- formed to a C1 note, because that is the pitch of the Bass Drum sound. If you record the note, it will be recorded as a C1 note. O-notes (output notes) The next step is the output. This is what happens when you play back the recorded note, or when the note you play is sent back out to a MIDI instrument in realtime (MIDI Thru): The program checks the drum map and finds the drum sound with the pitch of the note. In our case, this is a C1 note and the drum sound is the Bass Drum. Before the note is sent to the MIDI output, the second transformation takes place: the note number is changed to that of the O- note for the sound. In our example, the note sent to the MIDI instrument will be a B0 note. Usage Again, the purposes are different for I-notes and O-notes: ÖChanging the I-note settings allows you to choose which keys will play which drum sounds, when playing or recording from a MIDI instrument. For example, you may want to place some drum sounds near each other on the keyboard so that they can be easily played together, move sounds so that the most important sounds can be played from a short keyboard, play a sound from a black key instead of a white, and so on. If you never play your drum parts from a MIDI controller (but draw them in the editor) you need not care about the I-note setting. ÖThe O-note settings let you set things up so that the “Bass Drum” sound really plays a bass drum. If you’re using a MIDI instrument in which the bass drum sound is on the C2 key, you set the O-note for the Bass Drum sound to C2. When you switch to another instrument (in which the bass drum is on C1) you want the Bass Drum O-note set to C1. Once you have set up drum maps for all your MIDI instruments, you need not care about this anymore – you just select another drum map when you want to use another MIDI instru- ment for drum sounds. The channel and output settings You can set separate MIDI channels and/or MIDI outputs for each sound in a drum map. The following rules apply: When a drum map is selected for a track, the MIDI channel settings in the drum map override the MIDI chan- nel setting for the track. In other words, the MIDI channel setting you make in the Track list or In- spector for the track is normally disregarded. If you want a drum sound to use the channel of the track, set it to channel “Any” in the drum map. If the MIDI output is set to “default” for a sound in a drum map, the sound will use the MIDI output selected for the track. Selecting any other option allows you to direct the sound to a specific MIDI output. By making specific MIDI channel and output settings for all sounds in a drum map, you can direct your drum tracks directly to another MIDI instrument simply by selecting an- other drum map – you need not make any channel or out- put changes for the actual track. ÖTo select the same MIDI channel for all sounds in a drum map, click the Channel column, press [Ctrl]/[Com- mand] and select the desired channel. All drum sounds will be set to this MIDI channel. The same procedure can be used for selecting the same MIDI output for all sounds as well.
363 The MIDI editors It can also be useful to select different channels and/or out- puts for different sounds. This allows you to construct drum kits with sounds from several different MIDI devices, etc. Managing drum maps Selecting a drum map for a track To select a drum map for a MIDI track, use the Map pop- up menu in the Inspector or in the Drum Editor. Selecting “No Drum Map” turns off the drum map func- tionality in the Drum Editor. Even if you do not use a drum map, you can still separate sounds by name using a name list (see “Using drum name lists” on page 364). The Drum Map Setup dialog To set up and manage your drum maps, select Drum Map Setup from the Map pop-up menus or the MIDI menu. This opens the following dialog: The Drum Map Setup dialog This is where you load, create, modify and save drum maps. The list to the left shows the currently loaded drum maps; selecting a drum map in the list displays its sounds and settings to the right.ÖThe settings for the drum sounds are exactly the same as in the Drum Editor (see “Drum map settings” on page 361). As in the Drum Editor, you can click the leftmost column to audition a drum sound. Note: if you audition a sound in the Drum Map Setup dialog, and the sound is set to MIDI output “Default”, the output selected on the Output pop-up menu in the lower left corner will be used. When audi- tioning a Default output sound in the Drum Editor, the MIDI output se- lected for the track will be used, as described in section “The channel and output settings” on page 362. Open the Functions pop-up menu in the top left corner to open a list of available functionalities: ÖDrum maps are saved with the project files. If you have created or modified a drum map, you should use the Save function to store it as a separate XML file, available for loading into other projects. If you always want to have the same drum map(s) included in your projects, you may want to load these into the template – see “Save as Template” on page 457. !Initially, the Map pop-up menu will only contain one map: “GM Map”. However, you will find a number of drum maps included on the program DVD – how to load these is described below. Button Description New Map Click this to add a new drum map to the project. The drum sounds will be named “Sound 1, Sound 2” and so on, and have all parameters set to default values. The map will be named “Empty Map”, but you can rename it by clicking and typing in the list. New Copy Adds a copy of the currently selected drum map. This is probably the quickest way to create a new drum map: se- lect the map that is similar to what you want, create a copy, change the desired drum sound settings and re- name the map in the list. Remove Removes the selected drum map from the project. Load Opens a file dialog, allowing you to load drum maps from disk. On the Cubase DVD you will find a number of drum maps for different MIDI instruments – use this function to load the desired maps into your project. Save Opens a file dialog for saving the drum map selected in the list. If you have created or modified a drum map, you should use this function to save it as a file on disk – this allows you to load it into other projects. Drum map files have the extension “.drm”. Edit head pairs Allows you to customize the note pairs, see “Customizing note head pairs” on page 611. Init Display NotesAllows you to reset the Display Notes entry to the original setting, i. e. the Pitch entry. Close Closes the dialog.
364 The MIDI editors O-Note Conversion This function on the MIDI menu goes through the selected MIDI part(s) and sets the actual pitch of each note accord- ing to its O-note setting. This is useful if you want to con- vert a track to a “regular” MIDI track (with no drum map) and still have the notes play back the correct drum sound. A typical application is if you want to export your MIDI re- cording as a standard MIDI file (see “Exporting and impor- ting standard MIDI files” on page 464) – by first performing an O-Note Conversion you make sure that your drum tracks play back as they should when they are exported. Use Head Pairs and Edit in Scores These options are explained in detail in the section “Set- ting up the drum map” on page 610. Using drum name lists Even if no drum map is selected for the edited MIDI track, you can still use the Drum Editor if needed. As previously mentioned, the drum sound list will then only have four col- umns: Audition, Pitch, Instrument (drum sound name) and Quantize. There will be no I-note and O-note functionality. In this mode, the names shown in the Instrument column depend on the selection on the Names pop-up menu, just below the Map pop-up in the Drum Editor. The options on this pop-up menu are the currently loaded drum maps plus a “GM Default” item which is always avail- able. This means you can use the drum sound names in any loaded drum map without using I-notes and O-notes, if you want to.
365 The MIDI editors The List Editor – Overview The toolbar 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: The Insert pop-up menu is used when creating new events. This is where you determine what type of event to add (see “Inserting events” on page 366). The Mask pop-up menu and Filter view (Show Filter View button) allow you to hide events from view, based on their type and other properties. See “Filtering” on page 367. The Value View button can be used for hiding and showing the Value display (see below). The List Editor has no info line (numerical editing is avail- able in the list instead). ÖIf you see an empty or incomplete list of items although the items are visible in the Key Editor, check if you have ac- tivated any filters (see “Filtering” on page 367). The list This lists all events in the selected MIDI part(s), in the or- der (from top to bottom) in which they are played back. You can edit the event properties by using regular value editing, see “Editing in the list” on page 366. The event display This shows the events graphically. The vertical position of an event in the display corresponds to its entry in the list (i.e. to the playback order), while the horizontal position cor- responds to its actual position in the project. This is where you add new parts or events, drag to move them, etc. The value display This display shows the “value” of each event, allowing for easy viewing and graphical editing. Typically, the value shown is the “Data 2” or “Value 2” property (amounts to MIDI controller events, velocity for notes, etc.). You can show or hide this display by clicking the “Show List Value View” button on the toolbar. List Editor operations Customizing the view You can click and drag the divider between the list and the event display to make one area wider and the other narrower. Furthermore, the list can be customized in the following ways: You can change the order of the columns by dragging the column headings. You can resize columns by dragging the dividers be- tween the column headings. Event display Event listValue displayRuler Toolbar
366 The MIDI editors Setting the display format 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 set- ting affects both the ruler and all start, end and length val- ues shown in the list. Zooming You can change the horizontal magnification in the event display by using the zoom slider below the display or the Zoom tool (the magnification glass). Inserting events To add a new event to the edited part, proceed as follows: 1.Use the Insert pop-up menu on the toolbar to select the event type. 2.Select the Pencil tool and click in the event display at the desired position (relative to the ruler). If you are creating note events, you can click and drag to set the length of the note. The new event appears in the list and in the display. Its properties will be set to default values, but can be ad- justed in the list. Notes will get the insert velocity value set in the insert velocity field on the toolbar. See “Setting velocity values” on page 345. Editing in the list The list allows you to perform detailed numerical editing of the events properties. The columns have the following functionality: You can edit several events at once. If several events are selected and you edit a value for one event, the other selected events’ values will be changed as well. Normally, any initial value differences between the events will be main- tained – i.e. the values will change by the same amount. If you press [Ctrl]/ [Command] when you edit, however, all events will get the same value. Column Description L An arrow in this column indicates the event that starts closest before the project cursor position. If you click in this column for an event, the project cursor is moved to the start of that event. Double-clicking moves the cursor position and starts/stops playback – useful for audition- ing when editing in the list. Type The event type. This cannot be changed. Start The start position of the event, shown in the format se- lected for the ruler. Changing this is the same as moving the event. Note that moving the event past any other event in the list will re-sort the list (the list always shows the events in the order they are played back). End This is only used for note events, allowing you to view and edit the end position of a note (thereby resizing it). Length This is only used for note events. It shows the length of the note – changing this resizes the note and automati- cally changes the End value as well. Data 1 This is the “data 1” or “value 1” property of the event. The content of this depends on the event type – for notes, this is the pitch, for example. Where applicable, the val- ues are shown in the most relevant form. For instance, the Data 1 value for notes is shown as a note number in the format selected in the Preferences (Event Display–MIDI page). See also the table in the section “Editing in the va- lue display” on page 368. Data 2 This is the “data 2” or “value 2” property of the event. The content of this depends on the event type – for notes, this is the note-on velocity value, for example. See the ta- ble in the section “Editing in the value display” on page 368. Data 3 This is the “data 3” or “value 3” property of the event. This value is only used for note events, where it corresponds with the note-off velocity. Channel The MIDI channel of the event. Note that this setting is normally overridden by the channel setting for the track. To make a MIDI event play back on “its own” channel, set its track to channel “Any” in the Project window. Comment This column is used for some event types only, providing an additional comment about the event.
367 The MIDI editors ÖFor SysEx (system exclusive) events, you can only edit the position (Start) in the list. 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). Editing in the event display The event display allows you to edit the events graphically using the tools on the toolbar. You can edit single events as well as several selected events simultaneously. To move an event, click and drag it to a new position. Note that moving the event past any other event in the display will re-sort the list (the list always shows the events in the order they are played back). As a result, the vertical position of the event in the display will change as well. To make a copy of an event, press [Alt]/[Option] and drag it to a new position. To resize a note, select it and drag its end point with the Arrow tool as in the Project window. This only works with notes. To mute or unmute an event, click on it with the Mute tool. You can mute or unmute several events in one go by enclosing them in a selection rectangle with the Mute tool. You can select a color scheme for the events with the Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar. This affects how all MIDI events are shown in the List, Key and Drum Ed- itors – see “Coloring notes and events” on page 344. To delete an event, select it and press [Backspace] or [Delete], or click on it with the Eraser tool in the event dis- play. Filtering Clicking the “Show Filter View” button on the toolbar opens an additional filter bar that allows you to hide spe- cific event types from view. For example, it may be hard to find note events if the part contains a lot of controllers. By hiding these, the list becomes more manageable. To hide an event type, activate its checkbox on the filter view.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). ÖThe event types remain hidden even if you close the fil- ter view. To make sure you see all events, open the filter view and check that all checkboxes are deactivated. ÖThe filter view does not remove, mute or change the events in any way. Masking The Mask function is similar to the filter view but allows you to hide events based on other criteria as well. Pro- ceed as follows: 1.Select an event (or several events) of the type you want to view. 2.Pull down the Mask pop-up menu on the toolbar and select one of the options. The results are as follows: Option Description Event Types Only events with the type of the selected event will be shown. This does the same as the filter view but is quicker if you only want to view a single event type. Event Types and Data 1Only events of the same type and with the same “Data 1” value will be shown. For example, if a note event is se- lected, only notes with the same pitch will be shown. If a controller event is selected, only controllers of the same type will be shown. Event Channels Only events with the same MIDI channel value as the se- lected event will be shown.
368 The MIDI editors 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. When you apply any of the Logical presets or use the Lo- gical Editor to create masking settings yourself, only the events that meet the criteria specified will be visible. To deactivate the Mask function, select “Nothing” from the Mask pop-up menu. The most typical usage of the Mask function is to view a certain type of controller only (e.g. Modulation, Breath Control, etc.). Since these are all the same event types (controller), this would not be possible using the filter view. With the “Event Types and Data 1” option on the Mask pop-up menu, it is! Editing in the value display The value display to the right of the event display is a tool for quick viewing and editing of multiple values, e.g. veloci- ties or controller amounts. The values are shown as hori- zontal bars, with the bar length corresponding to the value. A velocity ramp in the value display You edit the values by clicking and dragging. Note that the pointer automatically takes on the shape of the Pencil tool when you move it into the value display – you do not have to select the Pencil tool for this.Exactly which value is shown for an event depends on the event type. The following table shows what is displayed and edited in the Data columns and the value display: For note events there will also be a value in the Data 3 column, which is used for note-off velocity. The value display can be hidden from view by clicking the “Show List Value View” button on the toolbar, so that it is not lit. Working with System Exclusive messages SysEx (System Exclusive) messages are model-specific messages for setting various parameters of a MIDI device. This makes it possible to address device parameters that would not be available via normal MIDI syntax. Every major MIDI manufacturer has its own SysEx identity code. SysEx messages are typically used for transmitting patch data, i.e. the numbers that make up the settings of one or more sounds in a MIDI instrument. Cubase allows you to record and manipulate SysEx data in various ways. The following sections point to various features that help you manage and create SysEx data. To learn about the possibilities of the MIDI Device Man- ager for controlling your device, see the chapter “Using MIDI devices” on page 314. Event type Data 1 Data 2 Value display Note Pitch (note number)Note-on velocityVelocity Controller Controller type Controller amountController amount Program ChangeProgram numberNot used Program number Aftertouch Aftertouch amountNot used Aftertouch amount Pitchbend Bend amount Not used Bend amount SysEx Not used Not used Not used Articulations Not used Not used Not used
369 The MIDI editors Bulk dumps Recording a bulk dump in Cubase In any programmable device, the settings are stored as numbers in computer memory. Change those numbers, and you will change the settings. Normally, MIDI devices allow you to dump (transmit) all or some settings in the device’s memory in the form of MIDI SysEx messages. A dump is therefore (among other things) a way of making backup copies of the settings of your instrument: sending such a dump back to the MIDI device will restore the settings. If your instrument allows the dumping of a few or all of its settings via MIDI by activating some function on the front panel, this dump will probably be recordable in Cubase. 1.Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu (on the Mac, this is located on the Cubase menu) and select the MIDI–MIDI Filter page. This allows you to govern which MIDI event types should be recorded and/or thru-put. 2.Make sure that recording of SysEx data is not filtered, by deactivating the SysEx checkbox in the Record section. The SysEx checkbox in the Thru section can be left as it is (by default activated). This way, SysEx messages will be recorded but not echoed back out to the instrument (which might lead to unpredictable results). 3.Activate recording on a MIDI track and initiate the dump from the front panel of the instrument.4.When done recording, select the new part and open the List Editor from the MIDI menu. This allows you to check that the SysEx dump was recorded – there should be one or several SysEx events in the part/event list. Transmitting a bulk dump back to a device 1.Make sure the MIDI track with the System Exclusive data is routed to the device. You may want to check your device’s documentation to find details about which MIDI channel should be used, etc. 2.Solo the track. This might not be necessary, but it is a good safety measure. 3.Make sure the device is set up to receive SysEx mes- sages (often, receiving SysEx is turned off by default). 4.If necessary, put the device in “Standby to Receive System Exclusive” mode. 5.Play back the data. Some advice Do not transmit more data than you need. If all you want is a single program, do not send them all, it will only make it harder to find the one you want. Usually, you can specify exactly what you want to send. If you want the sequencer to dump the pertinent sounds to your instrument each time you load a project, put the SysEx data in a silent “count-in” before the project itself starts. !If your MIDI instrument does not offer a way to initiate a dump “by itself”, you have to send a Dump Request message from Cubase to start the dump. In that case, use the MIDI SysEx Editor (see “Editing System Exclu- sive messages” on page 370) to insert the specific Dump Request message (see the instrument’s docu- mentation) at the beginning of a MIDI track. When you activate recording, the Dump Request message will be played back (sent to the instrument), the dump will start and be recorded as above.
370 The MIDI editors 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. When you want to use one of them, drag it to an empty unmuted track and play it back from there. Do not transmit several SysEx dumps to several instruments at the same time. Make a note of the current device ID setting of the instrument. If you change this, the instrument may refuse to load the dump later. Recording System Exclusive parameter changes Often you can use SysEx to remotely change individual settings in a device, e. g. open a filter, select a waveform, change the decay of the reverb etc. Many devices are also capable of transmitting changes made on the front panel as SysEx messages. These can be recorded in Cubase, and thus incorporated into a regular MIDI recording. Here’s how it works: let’s say you open up a filter while playing some notes. In that case, you will record both the notes and the SysEx messages generated when you opened of the filter. When you play it back, the sound changes exactly like it did when you recorded it. 1.Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu, se- lect the MIDI–MIDI Filter page and make sure that SysEx is recorded, i.e. the Sysex checkbox in the Record section is deactivated. 2.Make sure the instrument is actually set to transmit changes of front panel controls as SysEx messages. 3.Record normally. When you’re done, you can check that the events were recorded pro- perly in the List Editor. Editing System Exclusive messages While SysEx events are shown in the List Editor/Project Browser, their entire content is not (only the beginning of the message is displayed in the Comment column for the event). Also, you cannot edit the event (other than moving it) as you can with other event types in the List Editor. Instead, you have to use the MIDI SysEx Editor for this. To open the MIDI SysEx Editor for an event, click in the Comments column for the event in the List Editor/Project Browser. The display shows the entire message on one or several lines. SysEx messages always begin with F0 and end with F7 with a number of arbitrary bytes in between. If the mes- sage contains more bytes than fit on one line, it continues on the next. The Address indication to the left helps you find out on which position in the message a certain value resides. You can edit all values except for the first (F0) and last one (F7). Selecting and viewing values To select a value, either click on it or use the cursor keys. The selected byte is displayed in various formats: In the main display, values are shown in hexadecimal format. To the right of this, values are shown in ASCII format. At the bottom of the dialog, the selected value is shown in binary and decimal formats.