Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

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Handling beaming
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6. Click OK to close the dialog.
Double-clicking on the “Grouping” text opens the Grouping dialog, allowing you to 
adjust the “note value” for the symbols.
Creating an accelerando/ritardando
To create an accelerando/ritardando, proceed as follows:
PROCEDURE
1. Select the notes as described above and select “Accelerando” from the 
Group/Ungroup submenu.
A dialog appears.
2. Use the radio buttons to select the desired combination (i. e. define whether 
you want an accelerando or a ritardando and specify the desired note values) 
and click OK to close the dialog.
Example for accelerando (left) and ritardando (right)
Double-clicking on the “Grouping” text opens the Grouping dialog, allowing you to 
select another combination.
The Grouping dialog
As described above, the Grouping dialog can also be opened by double-clicking an 
existing grouping text in the score.
• Which Grouping dialog appears depends on the grouping option you used 
for the notes (Beam, Repeats or Accelerando, see above). 
						

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Handling beaming
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Removing groups
If you have created a group as described above and want to remove it, proceed as 
follows:
PROCEDURE
1. Make sure that the “Grouping” checkbox is activated in the display filter bar.
2. Select a group by clicking on its “Grouping” text.
3. Press [Backspace] or [Delete].
The grouping is removed.
If you need to remove all groups from the score, hold down [Shift] and double-click 
on the first “Grouping” text.
This selects all “Grouping” symbols, so you can delete them all at once by pressing 
[Backspace] or [Delete].
Removing a note from a group
There is no dedicated “ungroup” command, simply because it is not needed. A 
group can consist of one note if you wish. In other words...
• To remove one note at the end of a group, select it and proceed with grouping 
as above.
• If you select notes in the middle of a beam and then group, three groups are 
created.
Before and after grouping
Automatic grouping
The program can also go through the selected notes and automatically create 
grouping for you, where it is deemed suitable.
PROCEDURE
1. Select the notes that you want checked for auto-grouping.
Typically, you would select all notes on the track by using the Select All command on 
the Edit menu.
2. Right-click on one of the notes and select “Auto Group Notes” from the 
context menu. 
						

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Handling beaming
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Before and after using auto grouping in 4/4
In 4/4 you get for example two groups of eighth notes per bar, in 3/4 you get one 
group per bar, etc.
Cross-staff beaming
To create a beam that extends from one staff to another, proceed as follows:
PROCEDURE
1. Set up a split or polyphonic voicing system or open the Score Editor with 
more than one track.
2. Set up a beam of notes (using the group command) and adjust their pitches 
so that they are correct even though some of the notes are on the wrong staff.
Use the info line to edit the pitches if they are very low or high.
3. Select the notes that should appear on the other staff.
4. Select “Display in Staff” from the context menu for a selected note and select 
a staff from the submenu.
The notes are “graphically” moved to the selected system, but keep their actual pitch.
Before and after moving a note to the lower staff
5. If needed, adjust the beam appearance.
Cross-staff beaming with the beam in the middle
This does not move the affected notes to another track, but merely displays them as 
if they belonged to the other staff.
RELATED LINKS
Manual adjustment of beams on page 1195 
						

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Handling beaming
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Handling beam groups
There are two settings for groups under a beam, Beam Subgroups and 16th 
Subgroups, both found on the Options tab on the Staff page of the Score Settings 
dialog. If “Beam Subgroups” is activated, the program displays subgroups after four 
sixteenth notes under a beam. If you also activate “16th Subgroups”, subgroups 
appear after only two sixteenths.
Beam Subgroups off
Beam Subgroups on
On with 16th Subgroups activated
Beam appearance and slant settings
Global settings
In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project page (Notation Style subpage), you can 
find the following three options for beam appearance in the Beams category:
• Thick Beams.
Activate this if you want beams to be displayed as thick lines.
• Show Small Slants as Flat Beams.
When this is activated, beams that would be only slightly slanted are 
displayed flat.
Without and with “Show Small Slants as Flat Beams”
• Slanted Beams only Slightly Slanted.
Activate this if you only want a slightly slanted beam even though there might 
be a significant pitch difference between the notes under the beam.
Without and with “Slanted Beams only Slightly Slanted” 
						

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Handling beaming
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IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
These settings are global for all staves.
Staff settings
In the Score Settings dialog, on the Options tab of the Staff page, you can find a 
couple of settings for beams as well:
Flat Beams
Activate this when you do not want any slant at all, no matter the pitch 
difference of the notes under the beams.
No Beams
Activate this when you do not want any beams at all.
Manual adjustment of beams
For very detailed control you can manually adjust the beam slant:
PROCEDURE
1. Group and flip notes and adjust the settings described above until the beams 
are as close as possible to how you want them.
2. Click on the corner made up by the beam and the stem.
A handle appears on the corner of beam and stem.
A beam handle
3. Drag the handle up or down.
The slant of the beam changes.
Dragging a handle and the effect it has.
NOTE
You can adjust the distance between notes and their beam without changing the 
beam slant. Select both handles of a beam (by pressing the [Shift] key while selecting 
the second handle) and drag one of the handles up or down. 
						

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About tied notes
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Mixed stem direction
By dragging the beam handles you can put the beam between the note heads:
Putting the beam between the notes
About tied notes
Sometimes, notes are displayed as two or more notes tied together. Generally, 
there are three different occasions when this happens:
• When a note is of an “uneven” length that cannot be displayed without tying 
together two or more notes of different note values.
• When a note crosses a bar line.
• When a note crosses a “group line” within a bar.
The last case requires some explanation: Cubase uses a “cutting mechanism” that 
automatically creates tied notes depending on the length and position of the notes. 
For example, a quarter note is cut in two and tied if it crosses a half note beat, and 
an eighth note is cut in two and tied if it crosses a quarter note beat:
1) This quarter note is cut.
2) This eighth note is cut.
However, this is not always what you want. There are three ways to affect the cutting 
mechanism:
Syncopation
When the Syncopation option is activated on the Main tab of the Staff page in the 
Score Settings dialog, Cubase is less prone to cut and tie notes. For example, the 
second quarter note in the figure above would not have been cut if syncopation had 
been activated.
The Syncopation setting affects the whole track, but you can also make syncopation 
settings for separate sections in the score, by inserting display quantize events.
RELATED LINKS
Inserting Display Quantize changes on page 1122 
						

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About tied notes
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Time signature changes
By inserting time signature changes, you can change the way notes are cut. This is 
done in the same way as when you specify how beamed notes are grouped.
With a regular 4/4 time signature
With a composite time signature (3+2+3 eighth notes)
RELATED LINKS
Grouping on page 1204
The Cut Notes tool
By using the Cut Notes tool, you can disable the automatic cutting mechanism in a 
bar, and insert manual cuts at any given position in the score.
PROCEDURE
1. Select the Cut Notes tool.
2. Select a suitable quantize value from the “Quantize Presets” pop-up menu.
As usual, this determines where you can click.
3. When you are using polyphonic voices, select the voice you want to make 
settings for.
4. Click in the bar containing the notes that you want to cut manually, at the 
position you want them cut.
This inserts a cutflag event in the bar at the position you clicked. If you hold down 
[Alt]/[Option], a cutflag event is inserted for all voices in a polyphonic staff.
A half note, placed at 2.1.3. This is by default cut at 2.3.1 (the middle of the bar). 
When you click at the position 2.2.1, a cutflag event is inserted.
As a result, the regular cutting mechanism is disabled and the note is cut at the 
position you clicked instead.
The following rules apply to cutflag events:
• If a bar contains a cutflag event, the automatic cutting mechanism is disabled 
within that bar.
• All notes or rests that start before and end after a cutflag event are cut at the 
position of the event.
• To display cutflag events, make sure that “Cutflag” is activated on the filter bar.
• To remove a cutflag event, either click again with the Cut Notes tool at the 
same position, or select it and press [Backspace] or [Delete]. 
						

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Graphic moving of notes
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Other options for tied notes
Tie direction
You can set the direction of the tie manually in the Set Note Info dialog.
RELATED LINKS
Other note details on page 1183
Flat ties
If you prefer ties to be displayed as flat lines, rather than regular “curved” ties, 
activate the “Flat Ties” option in the Score Settings dialog, on the Project–Notation 
Style subpage (H.W. Henze Style category).
Graphic moving of notes
There might be instances where the “graphical” order of the notes is not the one 
you want. In this case, you can move notes without affecting the score or playback 
in any way. This can be done with the Layout tool or using your computer keyboard.
By using the Layout tool
PROCEDURE
1. Select the Layout tool in the Score Editor toolbar.
2. Click again on the tool button to open the Mode pop-up menu and select the 
desired option.
3. Click on the note and drag it to the desired position.
Note that movement is restricted to horizontally only.
NOTE
You can also automatically select all notes making up a chord, by holding down 
[Alt]/[Option] and clicking on one of the notes with the Layout tool.
Modes for the Layout tool
The following modes are available:
Move Single Object
In this mode, only the object you move with the Layout tool is affected 
(moved). Use this if you want to “correct” the position of one single note in the 
score, for example. 
						

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Move Notes and Context
In this mode, other score objects are moved accordingly when you move a 
note with the Layout tool. Use this mode if you want to correct the display of 
all score objects within a bar rather than modifying single note positions.
By using the computer keyboard
You can assign key commands for moving objects graphically. In the Key 
Commands dialog on the File menu, the commands are found under the Nudge 
category and called Graphical Left, Graphical Right, Graphical Bottom, and 
Graphical Top (only the Graphical Left and Graphical Right commands apply to 
notes).
After assigning key commands, you select the notes that you want to move and 
press the assigned keys to adjust their graphical position.
Cue notes
You can create cue notes by using voices or by converting individual notes into cue 
notes.
Setting a voice to display cue notes
PROCEDURE
1. Open the Score Settings dialog on the Staff page and select the Polyphonic 
tab.
2. Click in the “Cue” column for the voice, so that a checkmark appears.
3. Decide how to handle rests for the voice.
You might for example leave “Rests–Show” activated and activate “Reduce”. If you 
do, you get rests in this voice, but not as many as otherwise. Empty bars, for example, 
do not have any rests at all.
“Cue” activated for voice 3
4. Close the dialog.
5. Move the notes into the cue voice.
An example of a cue note voice 
						

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RELATED LINKS
Setting up the voices on page 1165
Polyphonic voicing on page 1163
A quick example
Let’s say you have a flute part and want some cue notes for it:
PROCEDURE
1. Switch on polyphonic voices and activate voice 1 and voice 2.
2. Set voice 2 to “Auto” stem direction and centered rests.
3. Set up voice 1 to be a cue voice, with hidden rests and stems pointing up.
4. Insert the cue notes into voice 1.
Turning individual notes into cue notes
PROCEDURE
1. Select one or several notes.
2. Double-click one of the notes.
The Set Note Info dialog appears. You can also click the “i” button on the extended 
toolbar, or right-click on a note head and select “Properties” from the context menu 
to open this dialog.
3. Select Cue from the Type pop-up menu.
4. Click Apply.
The settings are applied to the selected notes.
5. Close the dialog.
Grace notes
You can turn any note into a grace note. Grace notes are considered to be notes 
without lengths. This means that once a note is turned into a grace note it does not 
affect the rest of the score display in any way.