Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

							571
Transcribing MIDI recordings
Inserting Display Quantize changes
Some situations may require different staff settings on dif-
ferent sections of the track. The staff settings are valid for 
the entire track, but you can insert changes wherever you 
like:
1.Select the Display Quantize tool on the toolbar or the 
context menu.
The Display Quantize dialog opens.
2.Activate the flags you need and set the quantize values 
as desired.
For details, see “Display Quantize and Interpretation Options” on page 
588. Additional hints below.
3.If you want to restore the settings to the ones used in 
the Score Settings dialog (Staff page), click the “Restore 
To Staff” button.
4.Move the mouse over the staff where you want to insert 
a new Display Quantize value.
Use the Mouse Time Position display in the status line to find the exact 
location (see 
“The status line” on page 560). The vertical position is of no relevance as long as you click somewhere in the staff.
5.Click the mouse button to insert a Display Quantize 
event.
The new quantize settings are now inserted into the staff at the position 
where you clicked. The settings are valid until a new change is inserted. 
•If you are using polyphonic voices (see “Polyphonic 
voicing” on page 593), you can insert a Display Quantize 
event for all voices by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and clicking 
with the tool.
If the “Display Quantize Tool affects all Voices” option is activated in the 
Score Settings dialog on the Project page (Notation Style subpage, in the 
Miscellaneous category), Display Quantize events is always inserted for all 
voices.
Viewing and editing Display Quantize changes
If you activate the “Quantize” checkbox on the filter bar 
(see 
“Showing and hiding elements” on page 560), a 
marker is shown under the staff for each Display Quantize 
setting you have entered with the tool.
This allows you to edit your settings in the following ways:
•To edit a Display Quantize change event, double-click 
on its marker.
This opens the Display Quantize dialog again – adjust the settings and 
click Apply.
•If the Display Quantize dialog is already open, you can 
select any Display Quantize change event, adjust its set
-
tings in the dialog and click Apply.
•To remove a Display Quantize change, either click its 
marker to select it and press [Backspace] or [Delete], or 
click on it with the Erase tool.
Adding Display Quantize changes
Very often, the score is fine except for a few bars some-
where. To remedy the problem, insert two Display Quan-
tize changes with the tool (one at the beginning of the 
section, one after it to restore to the current staff settings).
If you have mixed triplets and straight notes, it can be 
tempting to insert many Display Quantize changes. Before 
you do so, try the Auto Quantize options and their addi
-
tional settings. See “If your music contains mixed straight 
notes and triplets” on page 589 for details.
Select the Display Quantize tool…
…to open the Display 
Quantize dialog. 
						

							572
Transcribing MIDI recordings
The Explode function
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 598.
1.Pull down the Scores menu, open the Functions sub-
menu and select “Explode”.
The Explode dialog opens.
2.Make sure that “To New tracks” is selected at the top 
of the dialog.
3.Enter the desired number of new tracks.
Note that this is the number of new tracks to be created! For example, if 
you have a three-part polyphonic section and want to split this into three 
separate tracks, you must specify 2 new tracks, since the original track 
holds one of the parts.
4.Use the options in the bottom section to set up the cri-
teria for the split.
Choose from the following options:
5.Click OK.
A number of new tracks are now added to the score and the Project 
window.
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” helps you out. It 
changes the lengths and position of some or all the MIDI 
notes in the edited parts so that they have exactly the val
-
ues currently shown on screen.
1.For safety, go back to the Project window and make a 
copy of the track.
2.Open the part(s) again in the Score Editor.
If you only want some sections of your score to be “converted”, make 
sure to only open those parts.
3.Make sure that the notes you want to affect are not 
hidden (see 
“Hiding/showing objects” on page 665).
4.Select “Scores Notes To MIDI” from the Functions 
submenu on the Scores menu.
The notes are now “converted”.
5.Make whatever adjustments are needed to make the 
score read as intended.
Now that the notes have the exact lengths and positions 
that were previously only displayed, you can probably deac
-
tivate many of the options on the Staff page of the Score 
Settings dialog and delete Display Quantize settings, etc.
If you find the operation did not give you the result you 
were after, you can undo your settings or go back to the 
original track, make a copy of that, and start over.
!Create a copy of the original track first, because it 
will be changed by the operation.
OptionDescription
Split NoteUse this to move all notes below a certain pitch to another 
track. When this is selected, it is pointless to specify more 
than 1 new track.
Lines To tracksUse this when you want all musical “lines” to be put on 
one track each. The notes with the highest pitch remains 
on the original track, the notes with the second highest 
pitch are put on the first new track, and so on. 
Bass To 
Lowest VoiceWhen this is activated, the lowest notes always end up 
on the lowest track. 
						

							4
Entering and editing notes  
						

							574
Entering and editing notes
About this chapter
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.
Score settings
Before you start entering notes, you need to make some 
initial staff settings in addition to those described in the 
chapter 
“The basics” on page 556. To understand why 
and how these settings and the note data in the score in-
teract, please read the chapter “How the Score Editor 
works” on page 551.
There are three ways to open the Score Settings dialog:
•Make the staff active, pull down the Scores menu and 
select “Settings…”.
•Double-click on the blue rectangle to the left of the staff.
If this does not work, the “Double-click on staff flips between full score/
part” option may be activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing 
page), see 
“Displaying single voices or the complete score” on page 557.
•Make the staff active and click the “i” button on the ex-
tended toolbar.
For this to work, make sure no notes or symbols are selected – otherwise, 
clicking the “i” button may open a dialog with settings for the selected ob-
ject instead.
The Score Settings dialog shows the current settings for 
the active staff. For detailed information on the Staff Set
-
tings dialog, see the chapter “Staff settings” on page 586.
Applying settings and selecting other staves
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).
ÖAlways click Apply before making another staff active 
– otherwise your settings are lost!
Staff presets
When you want to reuse settings made for one track in 
other tracks, you can save some time by creating a staff 
preset (see 
“Working with staff presets” on page 587).
ÖThere are a number of staff presets available, set up to 
suit various instruments, etc. These are accessed via the 
Presets pop-up menu on the Staff page of the Score Set
-
tings dialog, or from the Staff context menu, opened by 
right-clicking on the blue rectangle to the left of the staff. 
Use them as they are, or as starting points for your own 
settings.
Suggested initial settings
When you start out entering notes, your staff settings 
should make your score display the notes as entered. We 
suggest the following:
ÖIt is very important that you understand how the Dis-
play Quantize values for notes and rests interact with the 
score. If you select too large a notes/rests value, the notes 
you “click in” may not appear as intended. Please read 
“How the Score Editor works” on page 551. If you have 
mixed triplets and straight notes, see “Display Quantize 
and Interpretation Options” on page 588.
OptionDescription
Display Quantize: Notes64
Display Quantize: Rests64
Auto QuantizeActivated
SyncopationOff
Consolidate RestsOff
Clean LengthsOff
No OverlapOff
ShuffleOff
KeyAs required
ClefAs required
Auto ClefActivate this if you want the program to se-lect a treble or bass clef automatically.
Display Transpose value0
Options tab settingsAs is
Polyphonic tab settingsStaff Mode: Single (for split staves, see “Split (piano) staves” on page 583)
Tablature tab settingsTablature Mode deactivated 
						

							575
Entering and editing notes
Note values and positions
Two of the most important settings for entering notes are 
the length of the note (the note value) and the minimum 
spacing between notes (the Quantize value).
Selecting a note value for input
You can choose the length for entering notes as follows:
•By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64 and activate/deactivate 
the dotted and triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right.
The selected note value is displayed in the Length Quantize field on the 
toolbar and also reflected by the cursor shape of the Insert Note tool.
•By selecting an option from the Length Quantize pop-
up menu on the toolbar.
•By assigning key commands to the different length 
values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog (in the category “Set Insert 
Length”).
About unusual note values
Not all note values can be selected directly, for example 
double dotted notes. Such notes are created by changing 
the length of the note after you have entered it (see 
“Changing the length of notes” on page 582), by gluing 
notes together (see “Lengthening a note by gluing two 
notes together” on page 582) or by using the Display 
Length feature.
Selecting a Quantize value
When you move the mouse pointer over the score the 
Mouse Time Position display in the status line tracks your 
movement and shows the current position in bars, beats, 
sixteenth notes, and ticks.
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 Quantize value is set on the toolbar on the “Quantize 
Presets” pop-up menu:
•You can also assign key commands to the different 
Quantize values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog (in the category “MIDI Quan-
tize”).
•Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the Quan-
tize Panel to create other Quantize values, irregular grids, 
etc.
However, this is not often used when inputting score notes.
The mouse position info
While you often use the graphical position in the actual 
score to determine where the notes go, there are instances 
when you want to verify the position numerically using the 
mouse position info displayed in the status line.
With the Quantize value set to 1/8, you can only input notes at 
eighth note positions. 
						

							576
Entering and editing notes
The Mouse Note Position display shows the pitch accord-
ing to the vertical position of the pointer in a staff. The 
Mouse Time Position display shows the “musical position” 
in bars, beats, sixteenth notes, and ticks:
•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 six
-
teenth notes to each beat. In a quarter note based time sig-
nature (4/4, 2/4, etc.) there are four sixteenth notes to each 
beat, in an eighth note based time signature (3/8, 4/8, etc.), 
there are two sixteenth notes, etc.
•The last value is in ticks, with 480 ticks per quarter note 
(and thus 120 ticks per sixteenth note).
The figures below show some note positions and their 
corresponding position values:
Eighth note positions
Eighth note triplet positionsSixteenth note positions
Adding and editing notes
Entering notes using the computer keyboard
A quick and easy way to enter notes, without having to de-
cide on the pitch, position and note value first is using the 
computer keyboard. To enter a note, proceed as follows:
1.On the toolbar, activate the “Computer Keyboard In-
put” button. 
Now you can enter notes using the computer keyboard.
2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option].
A note with the note value specified in the extended toolbar appears. By 
default, the insert position is the first position of the bar and the pitch is 
C3. You can however change this using the computer keyboard.
•You can change the pitch of the note by using the up 
and down arrow keys.
To transpose the note in octave steps, use the Page Up/Page Down keys.
•To change the insert position of the note, use the right 
and left arrow keys.
Note that for position changes, the Quantize value is taken into account.
•To change the length of the note, hold down [Shift] and 
use the right and left arrow keys.
This changes the note value step by step, passing from one Quantize 
value to the next.
3.To insert the note, press [Return].
The note with the specified pitch and note value is inserted at the se-
lected position and the insert position for the next note changes accord-
ing to the Quantize value. If you press [Shift]-[Return], the insert position 
does not change, allowing you to enter chords.
1.1.7.0 1.1.1.0
1.2.3.0
1.4.1.0 8/8 2/2
4/4 1.1.1.0
1.1.1.01.1.3.0
1.1.3.0
1.2.1.01.1.5.0
1.2.1.0
1.3.1.0
8/8 2/2
4/4
1.8.1.0 1.3.1.0 1.2.1.0
1.5.1.01.2.3.0
1.3.3.0
1.6.1.01.2.5.0
1.4.1.0
1.7.1.01.2.7.0
1.4.3.0
4/4 2/2
8/81.1.1.0
1.1.1.0
1.1.1.01.1.2.40
1.1.2.40
1.1.2.401.1.3.80
1.2.1.80 1.1.3.80
4/4 2/2
8/81.1.5.0
1.2.1.0
1.4.1.80 1.3.1.01.1.6.40
1.2.2.40
1.3.2.401.1.7.80
1.2.3.80
2/2
4/4
8/81.1.1.0
1.1.1.0
1.1.1.01.1.2.0
1.1.2.0
1.1.2.01.1.3.0
1.1.3.0
1.2.1.0 1.2.2.01.1.4.0 1.1.4.0
2/2
4/4
1.4.1.0 1.1.5.0
1.2.1.0
1.3.1.01.1.6.0
1.2.2.0
1.3.2.01.1.7.0
1.2.3.01.1.8.0
1.4.2.0 1.2.4.0
8/8 
						

							577
Entering and editing notes
Entering notes with the mouse
To add a note to the score, proceed as follows:
1.Make the staff active.
Notes are always inserted on the active staff, see “The active staff” on 
page 559.
2.Select the desired note value.
See “Selecting a note value for input” on page 575.
3.If you select the note value by clicking on a symbol on 
the extended toolbar, the Insert Note tool is automatically 
selected – otherwise select the Insert Note tool on the 
toolbar or context menu.
4.Select a Quantize value.
The Quantize value determines the spacing between notes. If you set 
Quantize to 1/1 you only can add notes at downbeats. If you set Quan-
tize to 1/8, you can add notes at eighth note positions, etc.
5.Click in the staff and keep the mouse button pressed.
The Insert Note tool changes into a note symbol (showing the note ex-
actly as it would be inserted in the score). 
6.Move the mouse horizontally to find the correct position.
7.Move the mouse vertically to find the correct pitch.
ÖIf the “Show Note Info by the Mouse” option is activated 
in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), the posi
-
tion and pitch of the note is also shown in a “tooltip” next to 
the pointer while you are dragging. If you find that screen 
redraws are too sluggish, you may want to deactivate this 
option.
8.Release the mouse button.
The note appears in the score.
Adding more notes
1.If you want the next note to have a different length 
value, select the corresponding note symbol.
2.If you need finer positioning, or if the current value is 
too fine, change the Quantize value.
3.Move the mouse to the desired position, and click.
Notes input at the same position are automatically interpreted as chords, 
see below.
About the interpretation
The notes may not always appear in the score as you ini-
tially expect them to. This is because there are a number 
of situations that require special techniques and settings. 
Below you can find a list of some of these and where to 
find more information about handling them:
• Notes at the same position are considered parts of a chord. 
To get independent voicing (for example notes with different 
stem directions), such as for vocal material, you need to use 
polyphonic voicing – see 
“Polyphonic voicing” on page 593.
Without and with polyphonic voicing
• If two notes beginning at the same position have different 
lengths, the longer is displayed as a number of tied notes. To 
avoid this, you can either use the “No Overlap” feature (see 
“No Overlap” on page 590) or polyphonic voicing (see “Poly-
phonic voicing” on page 593).
• One note is often displayed as two notes with a tie. This is only 
how the program displays the note, there is still only a single 
note “stored”.
This single note in the Key Editor is displayed as two tied notes in the 
Score Editor.
• Generally the program adds ties where necessary (if a note 
stretches over a beat), but not always. For more “modern” no
-
tation of syncopated notes (less ties), you need to use the 
syncopation feature, see 
“Syncopation” on page 589.
The same note, without and with Syncopation
• If you want a long note to be displayed as two (or more) tied 
notes, you can use the Cut Notes tool for this.
• If a note has the wrong accidental, this can be changed. See 
“Accidentals and enharmonic shift” on page 606 for details.
!If you activate the “Animate Note Cursor” option in 
the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), you 
do not need to keep the mouse button pressed to 
see the note as it would be inserted in the score.
Accidentals are shown beside the note 
to indicate the current pitch. 
						

							578
Entering and editing notes
• 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 614.
• Stem direction and length is normally automatic, but you can 
set it yourself, see 
“Background: Note stems” on page 604.
• If you are scoring for piano and therefore (or for other reasons) 
need a split staff, there are special techniques for this, see 
“Split (piano) staves” on page 583 and “Polyphonic voicing” 
on page 593.
Selecting notes
In the operations described in the rest of this chapter, you 
often work on selected notes. The text below describes 
how to select notes:
By clicking
To select a note, click on the note head with the Object 
Selection tool. The note head turns red to indicate that it is 
selected.
•To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on 
them.
•To deselect notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them 
again.
•If you hold down [Shift] and double-click on a note, this 
note and all the following notes in the same staff are se
-
lected.
Using a selection rectangle
1.Click in an empty area in the score with the Object Se-
lection tool and keep the mouse button pressed.
2.Drag the mouse pointer to create a selection rectangle.
You can drag to select notes on several voices or staves if you wish.
3.Release the mouse button.
All notes with note heads inside the rectangle are selected.
If you want to deselect one or more of the notes, hold 
down [Shift] and click on them.
Using the keyboard
By default, you can step through (and select) the notes in 
the staff using the left and right arrow keys. If you press 
[Shift], you can select a series of notes as you step 
through them.
•If you are working with polyphonic voices, you step 
through the notes on the current track, i.e. in a split sys
-
tem, you step through the staves.
•If you want to use other keys for selecting notes, you 
can customize the settings in the Key Commands dialog 
(in the Navigate category).
Selecting tied notes
Longer notes are often displayed in the score as one note 
with a tie. If you intend to select the entire note (e.
 g. for de-
leting), you should select the first note, not the tied note.
Deselecting everything
To deselect everything, simply click in an empty area of 
the score with the Object Selection tool.
Selected notes
!There is a setting for this in the Preferences dialog 
(Scores–Editing page): If you activate “Tied notes 
selected as Single Units”, the whole note is selected, 
even if you click on one of the tied notes. 
						

							579
Entering and editing notes
Moving notes
In the following, you can find descriptions of the various 
methods to move notes, as well as related features.
Moving by dragging
Proceed as follows:
1.Set the Quantize value.
The Quantize value restricts your movement in time. You cannot place 
notes on positions smaller than the Quantize value (see 
“Selecting a 
Quantize value” on page 575).
2.Select the note(s) you want to move.
You can select notes across several staves if you wish.
3.Click one of the selected notes and drag it to a new 
position.
The horizontal movement of the note is “magnetically attracted” to the cur-rent Quantize value. The Mouse Time Position and Mouse Note Position 
displays in the status line show the new position and pitch for the dragged 
note.
ÖIf the “Show Note Info by the Mouse” option is activated 
in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), the posi
-
tion and pitch of the note is also shown in a “tooltip” next to 
the pointer while you are dragging. If you find that screen 
redraws are too sluggish, you may want to deactivate this 
option.
4.Release the mouse button.
The notes appear at their new position.
•If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag, movement is 
restricted to vertical or horizontal (depending on the direc
-
tion in which you drag).
•If you move notes vertically and the “Keep moved notes 
within key” option is activated in the Preferences dialog 
(Scores–Editing page), the notes are transposed within 
the current key only.
Moving by using key commands
Instead of dragging the note with the mouse, you can as-
sign key commands for this:
•The corresponding commands can be found in the 
Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog. They are 
listed as “Left”, “Right”, “Top”, and “Bottom”.
•When moving notes to the left or right using key com-
mands, the notes are moved in steps according to the 
Quantize value.
The keys assigned for up/down nudging transpose notes in semitone 
steps.
Moving across staves – the Lock button
If you are editing several tracks, you may want to move 
notes from one staff to another. Proceed as follows:
1.Make the desired Quantize settings and select the 
notes.
Make sure to only select notes on the same staff.
2.Make sure that the “L” (Lock) button on the extended 
toolbar is deactivated.
When this button is activated, you cannot move notes and other objects 
from one staff to another, which is handy if you need to transpose a note 
very high or low, for example.
3.Click on one of the notes and drag them to the new 
system.
The active staff rectangle indicates on which staff the dragged note(s) 
appears.
The Snap mode
The notes you move (or copy) snap to positions defined 
by the note length and Quantize values. Using the Snap 
Type pop-up menu on the Score Editor toolbar you can 
select the Snap mode used when moving or copying 
notes:
•When using the “Grid” mode, notes you move (or copy) 
always snap to exact grid positions.
•When using the “Grid Relative” mode, a note with a cer-
tain position relative to a grid line always maintains that 
relative position to the grid when moved (or copied).
The “L” (Lock) button is 
deactivated. 
						

							580
Entering and editing notes
Acoustic Feedback
To hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the 
speaker icon (Acoustic Feedback) on the toolbar.
About the lock layers
When you are moving and editing notes in the score, you 
might accidentally move other objects nearby. To avoid 
this, assign different types of objects to different “lock lay
-
ers” (up to three) and instruct Cubase to “lock” one or two 
of these layers, making them unmovable.
There are two ways to set up which type of object should 
belong to which lock layer:
•Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu and 
select the Scores–Note Layer page.
This page lets you adjust the layer setting for each object type.
•Right-click one of the layer buttons (1-2-3) on the ex-
tended toolbar to bring up a pop-up menu, showing which 
object types are associated with that layer.
A checkmark for an object type means it belongs to that layer. If no check-mark is shown, you can select the object type on the menu to move it to 
that layer.
To lock a layer, click the corresponding layer button, so 
that it is disabled (not lit). You can only select or move ob
-
jects whose Layer button is activated. For more detailed 
information, see 
“Using the lock layers” on page 628.
ÖThere are also “L” and “P” layer buttons, for the layout 
and project layer. Clicking these buttons allows you to 
lock the layout and project layers (see 
“Background: The 
different layers” on page 619).
Duplicating notes
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 579.
2.Press [Alt]/[Option] and drag the duplicate notes to 
their new position.
•If you want to restrict movements to one direction, press 
[Ctrl]/[Command].
This works just as for moving, as described above.
•If you want to restrict the pitch to inside the current key 
only, make sure that the “Keep moved notes within key” op
-
tion is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing 
page).
3.Release the mouse button to insert the notes.
•[Alt]/[Option] is the default modifier key for copying/dupli-
cating. If you like, you can change this in the Preferences di-
alog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
The entry for this is found in the Drag & Drop category (“Copy”).
ÖYou can also move or copy whole bars by dragging 
the bar handles, see 
“Moving and duplicating with the bar 
handles” on page 631.
Cut, copy, and paste
•To cut notes, select them and choose Cut from the Edit 
menu (or use a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Com
-
mand]-[X]).
The notes are now removed from the score and put on the clipboard.
•To copy notes, select them and choose Copy from the 
Edit menu (or use a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Com
-
mand]-[C]).
A copy of the notes is made, and put on the clipboard. The original notes 
remain where they were.
!The clipboard can only hold one set of notes. If you 
cut or copy and then cut or copy again, the notes 
copied to the clipboard first are lost.