Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

							Additional note and rest formatting
Grace notes
1201
Before and after converting to grace notes. Note that after the conversion, the grace 
notes nolonger “interfere” with the interpretation of the other notes.
NOTE
Grace notes are always positioned just before the next note on the staff. If there is 
no note after a grace note on the staff, the grace notes are hidden!
Creating grace notes manually
PROCEDURE
1. Locate the note for which you want a grace note.
2. Insert one or more new notes just before it.
The note value and exact position of the note is not important. However, the pitch of 
course is.
From here on there are two ways to go:
• Select the notes and open the Set Note Info dialog, either by double-clicking 
on one of the note heads or by clicking the “i” icon on the extended toolbar.
In the dialog, select the Grace note type.
• Right-click on one of the notes and select “Convert to Grace Note” from the 
context menu.
This turns the note into a grace note without opening any dialog.
Grace notes and beaming
If two grace notes are at exactly the same position (the same tick), they are put onto 
the same stem, as a chord. If multiple grace notes in front of the same note are put 
on different positions (even if they are only one tick apart), they are grouped under 
a beam.
It is possible to have beamed grace notes overlapping a beam of regular notes, as 
in the example below:
Grace notes in the middle of a group of regular notes 
						

							Additional note and rest formatting
Tuplets
1202
Editing a grace note
PROCEDURE
1. Select one or several grace notes and open the Set Note Info dialog.
2. Select a note value for the stem.
3. Activate Crossed, if needed.
When this is activated, the stem is crossed by a slanted line, to further indicate that 
the note is a grace note.
4. Click Apply.
The settings are applied to the selected notes.
5. Close the dialog.
Converting grace notes to normal notes
PROCEDURE
1. Select the notes that you want to convert.
If you want to make sure that all notes in the score are normal notes, you can select 
all notes (using the Select All command on the Edit menu).
2. Double-click on one of the selected grace notes.
The Set Note Info dialog appears.
3. Select “Normal” from the “Type” pop-up menu.
4. Click Apply.
Tuplets
The regular Display Quantize values do not apply to any other divisions than triplets. 
To create quintuplets, septuplets, etc., follow the instructions below.
There are two methods for creating tuplets:
• With permanent alteration to the MIDI data. This is the “drawing” mode to use 
when you want to build the tuplet from scratch. It does not put any demand 
on the notes’ positions before the tuplet is created. 
						

							Additional note and rest formatting
Tuplets
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• As display quantize. This is the method you use when the tuplet is recorded 
and plays back as you want it, but is not displayed correctly.
Actually, in the first case, you make permanent alterations and set display quantize 
settings, all in one go. In the second case you only make display quantize settings.
With permanent change to MIDI data
PROCEDURE
1. Insert as many notes as the tuplet consists of.
This would typically be 5, 7 or 9. If the tuplet contains rests, simply leave space for 
those, but make sure that the current Display Quantize value allows them to be 
shown.
Five sixteenth notes, about to be converted to a quintuplet.
2. Select all the notes that make up the tuplet.
3. Select “Build N-Tuplet…” from the Scores menu.
The Tuplets dialog appears.
4. Set the type of tuplet in the Type field.
“5” means a quintuplet, “7” means a septuplet, etc.
5. Set the length of the entire tuplet using the “Over” field.
6. Activate Change Length, if needed.
If you do, the program alters the length of all notes so that they are exactly the note 
value the tuplet indicates. If you do not, the lengths of the existing notes is not affected 
in any way.
7. If you want any other text than the standard above the tuplet, enter it into the 
“Text” field.
The standard text is simply the number in the type field. If the tuplet is put under a 
beam the text is put just above it. If there is no beam, the text is found in the middle of 
a bracket.
8. Click Build.
The tuplet appears. The notes have now been moved to the tuplet positions and their 
length might have changed.
9. If needed, edit the lengths and pitches of the notes in the tuplet.
You can also make various settings for the appearance of the tuplet – see below. 
						

							Additional note and rest formatting
Tuplets
1204
RELATED LINKS
Tuplet display options on page 1204
Without permanent change to MIDI data
PROCEDURE
1. Select the notes in the tuplet group.
In this case, the notes play back correctly but are not displayed as a tuplet (yet).
2. Select “Build N-Tuplet…” from the Scores menu to bring up the Tuplets 
dialog.
3. Make settings in the dialog, as described above.
4. Click Quantize.
Now the tuplet is displayed correctly. You can make additional settings for how the 
tuplet should appear, as described below.
5. If necessary, adjust the notes.
IMPORTANT
Lengths and positions in a tuplet group are probably best edited using the info line.
Editing tuplet settings
PROCEDURE
1. Double-click on the text above the Tuplet group to bring up the Tuplets dialog.
2. Adjust the Text setting.
3. Click Apply.
The changes are applied to the tuplet, without affecting the tuplet type or length.
Grouping
If the Tuplet is a quarter note long or shorter, the notes are automatically grouped 
under a beam. If it is longer you have to perform the grouping manually.
RELATED LINKS
Grouping on page 1188
Tuplet display options
In the Score Settings dialog, on the Project–Notation Style subpage (Tuplets 
category), you can find the following settings for tuplets: 
						

							Additional note and rest formatting
Tuplets
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Tuplet Brackets
There are three possible settings for this option:
• None: Tuplets never have brackets.
•Always: Tuplets always have brackets.
• …by the head: Brackets are shown only when the tuplets are displayed 
on the “head side”.
Display Tuplet values by the Beams
When this is activated, tuplets are displayed on the “beam side” of the notes 
instead of on the note head side.
Suppress Recurring Tuplets
When this is activated, and you have several tuplets of the same type in the 
same bar, only the first of these is displayed as a tuplet.
Show Tuplet Brackets as “Slurs”
When this is activated, the tuplet brackets are “slur-like” (rounded). 
						

							1206
Working with symbols
About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
• What the different types of symbols are.
• How to insert and edit symbols.
• Details about special symbols.
Background: The different layers
A  s c o r e  p a g e  i s  a l w a y s  m a d e  u p  o f  t h r e e  l a y e r s  –  t h e  n o t e  l a y e r ,  t h e  l a y o u t  l a y e r  a n d  
the project layer. When you add symbols, these are inserted into one of these layers, 
depending on the type of symbol. The symbols that have a relation to notes – 
accents, dynamic markings, slurs, lyrics, etc. – are put in the note layer. Other 
symbols, such as some types of text, can be inserted either on the layout layer 
(which is individual for each layout) or on the project layer (common for all layouts). 
You can change the layer type by right-clicking the symbol and selecting the layer 
type from the context menu.
1) Layout layer symbols
2) Note layer symbols
Note layer symbols
Let’s look at the note layer symbols first.
• Note symbols. These are each tied to a single note. Examples of note symbols 
are accents and lyrics. When you move the note, the symbol moves with it. 
The same is true if you cut the note and then paste; the symbol is cut and 
pasted together with the note. 
						

							Working with symbols
Background: The different layers
1207
• Note-dependent symbols. Only a few symbols belong to this category, for 
example the arpeggio lines. In one way, these behave just like grace notes. 
They always precede a note or chord. If there is no note “after them” on a staff, 
they disappear.
• All other note layer symbols (tempo, dynamics, chords, etc.). Their position is 
related to the bar. (Whichever way you edit the notes, these symbols remain 
unaffected.) However, their positions are fixed within a measure. If you for 
example change the spacing of the bars across the page, this affects the 
symbols positions.
RELATED LINKS
Setting the number of bars across the page on page 1289
Grace notes on page 1200
Layout layer symbols
Now let’s examine the layout layer symbols. The layout layer is not stored individually 
for each track, as the other symbols are. Instead it is common to a “set of tracks”. 
Let’s illustrate this with an example:
You have four tracks that make up a string quartet. You edit them all at the same 
time and add symbols to the score, both note layer symbols and layout layer 
symbols.
Now you close the Score Editor and open only one of the tracks for editing. All your 
note layer symbols are there just as you left them, but the layout layer symbols have 
disappeared! Don’t worry, close the editor again, and open all four tracks for editing 
and the symbols are back.
This is due to the fact that the layout layer symbols are part of a “bigger entity” called 
“layout”. And a layout is something that is stored not per track, but for a group of 
tracks. Each time you open the same combination of tracks for editing, you get the 
same layout.
RELATED LINKS
Working with layouts on page 1269
Project layer symbols
Project layer symbols are layout symbols that are present in all layouts.
Using project layer symbols in conjunction with the Arranger mode, you can have 
playback in the program follow the score – repeats, Da Capos, and endings are 
played back properly allowing you to hear your compositions as they would be 
played back by live players. 
						

							Working with symbols
The Symbols Inspector
1208
Why three layers?
There are several reasons for this division into layers:
• Many of the symbols that are in the layout layer can be stretched to span over 
several staves, or for other reasons make more sense to think of as belonging 
to a certain group of tracks.
• The layout layer is only one part of the bigger concept of layouts. Layouts 
allow you to easily extract parts from a full score and perform automatic 
formatting.
• Typically, you want to display some symbols – repeat bar lines, endings, score 
titles, etc. – for all layouts in a score. To achieve this, insert them on the project 
layer.
RELATED LINKS
Working with layouts on page 1269
The available symbols on page 1210
The Symbols Inspector
To display the Symbols Inspector, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the 
toolbar and activate the Symbols option.
Customizing the Symbols Inspector
You can customize the appearance of the Symbols Inspector by showing/hiding 
tabs and by specifying their order in the Inspector.
Showing/Hiding Symbols Inspector tabs
If you right-click on any tab in the Inspector, a context menu appears. On this menu, 
you can directly check (show) or uncheck (hide) elements of the Inspector as 
desired.
You can also select different preset configurations from the lower half of the menu. 
To display all Symbols Inspector tabs, select “Show All”.
The Symbols Inspector Setup dialog
If you right-click on any closed tab in the Symbols Inspector and select “Setup…” 
from the context menu, a dialog appears. In this dialog you can configure where the 
separate tabs are placed in the Inspector and save/recall different configurations of 
the Inspector. 
						

							Working with symbols
The Symbols Inspector
1209
The dialog is divided into two columns. The left column displays the currently visible 
tabs in the Inspector, and the right column displays the currently hidden tabs.
• You can change the current show/hide status by selecting items in one 
column and using the arrow buttons in the middle of the dialog to move them 
to the other column. The changes are reflected directly in the editor.
• You can change the order of the (visible) tabs in the Symbols Inspector with 
the “Move Up” and “Move Down” buttons.
The changes are reflected directly in the Score Editor.
A customized Symbols Inspector
• If you click the Save button (disk icon) in the Presets section, you can name 
the current configuration and save it as a preset.
• To remove a preset, select it and click the trash icon.
• Saved configurations are available for selection from the Presets pop-up 
menu in the dialog or directly from the Inspector context menu.
• To revert back to the default Inspector settings, right-click on any of the tabs 
and select “Default” from the context menu. 
						

							Working with symbols
The Symbols Inspector
1210
Working with symbol palettes
You can open any of the Symbols Inspector sections as separate symbol palettes.
Opening tabs as palettes
PROCEDURE
1. In the Symbols Inspector, open the desired symbols tab.
2. Right-click on any of the symbols of the tab.
Note that you have to right-click on a symbol. Right-clicking on a tab header opens a 
different context menu instead.
3. Select “Open As Palette” from the context menu.
The selected tab is shown as palette.
Moving and handling palettes
Palettes are handled as any window, which means that you can:
• Move a palette to another position by dragging its title bar.
• Close a palette by clicking its close button.
In addition, you can select whether the palette is shown horizontally or vertically, by 
right-clicking and selecting “Toggle” from the context menu.
The available symbols
The following symbols palettes/tabs are available:
• Quick Staff Setup
•Favourites
•Keys
•Clefs
• Time Signature
•Chord Symbols
•Guitar Symbols
•Cubase Pro only: Expression Map
• Dynamics Mapping