Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual

							Arranger Track
Working with arranger events
261
Creating an arranger chain
You can set up an arranger chain in the Arranger Editor or in the Inspector for the 
arranger track. The Arranger Editor is opened by clicking the “e” button in the 
Inspector or in the track list.
PROCEDURE
1. Click the “e” button to open the Arranger Editor.
On the right in the Arranger Editor, the available arranger events are listed, in the order 
they appear on the timeline. To the left you find the actual arranger chain, which 
shows in which order the events will be played back, from top to bottom, and how 
many times they are repeated.
Initially the arranger chain is empty – you set it up by adding events from the list to the 
chain. There are several ways to add events to the arranger chain:
• By double-clicking on the name of an event in the window section on the right 
(or in the Project window).
When an event is selected in the arranger chain on the left, this will add the 
event above the selected event. When no events are selected in the arranger 
chain, the event will be added at the end of the list.
• By selecting one or more events in the list, right-clicking and selecting “Append 
Selected In Arranger Chain”.
This will add the selected events at the end of the list.
• By dragging and dropping arranger events from the list on the right to the 
arranger chain on the left.
A blue insertion line shows you where the dragged event will end up.
An event is dragged into the arranger chain.
• By dragging arranger events from the Project window into the arranger chain.
If you followed our example, you should now have arranger events arranged in a very 
basic pop song pattern. However, we have used audio files that are only a few bars  
						

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Working with arranger events
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long – to turn our pattern into a “song” (or at least into a basic sketch of the song 
structure), these files must be looped. This is where the Repeats function comes in.
If you want an event to repeat several times, proceed as follows:
• Click in the Repeats field for an event, type in the desired number of repeats 
and press [Enter].
When playing back the arranger chain, the Counter column indicates which 
repeat of this event is currently playing.
• Click in the Mode field for an event and select the desired repeat mode.
When you now play back the arranger chain, you will hear the complete 
arrangement.
2. Make sure that Arranger mode is activated.
In Arranger mode the project will be played back using the arranger settings.
3. Position the Arranger Editor window so that you can see the arranger track in 
the Project window, and click in the arrow column for the event at the top of 
the list.
You will see the project cursor jump to the beginning of the first event specified in the 
arranger chain.
4. Activate playback, either from the Arranger Editor or on the Transport panel.
The events are played back in the specified order.
RELATED LINKS
Arranger Chain Repeat Modes on page 262
Arranger Chain Repeat Modes
Option Button Description
Normal In this mode, the arranger chain will be played back as 
you set it up.
Repeat forever In this mode, the current arranger event will be 
repeated in a loop until you either click on another 
event in the Arranger Editor or press play once again.
Pause after 
RepeatsIn this mode, the playback of the arranger chain will be 
stopped after having played back all repeats of the 
current arranger event. 
						

							Arranger Track
Working with arranger events
263
Editing the arranger chain
In the arranger chain on the left, you can do the following:
• Select multiple events by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking or [Shift]-clicking as 
usual.
• Drag events to move them in the list.
• Drag events holding [Alt]/[Option] to create copies of the selected items.
The insert location for both move and copy operations is indicated by a 
colored insertion line. A blue line indicates that the move or copy is possible; 
a red line indicates that moving or copying events to the current position is not 
allowed.
• Use the Repeats column to specify how many times each event is to be 
repeated.
• Click the arrow to the left of an event in the arranger chain to move the 
playback position to the start of that event.
• To remove an event from the list, right-click on it and select “Remove 
Touched” from the context menu. To remove several events, select them, 
right-click and select “Remove Selected”.
Navigating
To navigate between arranger events, you use the arranger transport buttons.
1) Previous chain step
2) Next chain step
3) First repeat of current chain step
4) Last repeat of current chain step
These controls are available in the Arranger Editor, on the Project window toolbar, 
and on the Transport panel.
In the Arranger Editor, the event that is currently played back is indicated by an 
arrow in the leftmost column, and the indicators in the Counter column. 
						

							Arranger Track
Flattening the arranger chain264
Managing arranger chains
You can create several arranger chains. This way, you can create alternative 
versions for playback.
In the Arranger Editor, the toolbar buttons on the right are used for this:
Click this to rename the current arranger chain.
Creates a new, empty arranger chain.
Creates a duplicate of the current arranger chain, containing the same events.
Removes the currently selected arranger  chain. Only available if you have 
created more than one arranger chain.
In the Inspector, these functions are accessed from the Arranger pop-up menu 
(open
 ed by clicking on the Arranger name field).
The arranger chains you create will be listed on th
 e Name pop-up menu, found in 
the Arranger Editor to the left of the bu ttons, at the top of the arranger track 
Inspector, and in the track list. Please note  that to be able to select another arranger 
chain from the pop-up menu, the Arranger mode must be activated.
Flattening the arranger chain
When you have found an arranger chain that suits your purposes, you can “flatten” 
it, i.  e. convert the list into a linear project.
PROCEDURE
1. Click the Flatten button (or select Flatten Chain from the pop-up menu in the 
Inspector for the arranger track).
The events and parts in the project are reor dered, repeated, resized, moved and/or 
deleted (if these are not within the boundarie s of any used arranger event), so that 
they correspond exactly to the arranger chain.
The Flatten button 
						

							Arranger Track
Flattening the arranger chain
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2. Activate Playback.
The project will now play back exactly as in Arranger mode, but you can view it and 
work with it as usual.
IMPORTANT
Flattening the arranger chain may remove events and parts from the project. Only use 
the Flatten function when you know you do not want to edit the arranger track/chain 
any more. If in doubt, save a copy of the project before flattening the arranger chain.
Flattening options
Sometimes it might be useful to keep the original arranger events even after 
flattening the arranger track. By using flattening options you can define which chain 
is flattened, where it is stored and how it is named together with other options.
PROCEDURE
1. Click the Flattening options button.
2. In the window that opens, select the desired options.
3. You can now flatten the arranger track by clicking the Flatten button.
If you realize that you want to do further arrangements, you can click the “Go Back” 
button and make your adjustments. Your Flattening settings will be kept.
4. Click the “Go Back” button to go back to the Arranger Editor or close the 
window by clicking its Close button.
Flattening options in the Arranger Editor dialog
In the Source section you can specify which arranger chains are flattened.
Current Chain
If you activate this option, only the current chain will be flattened. 
						

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Checked Chains…
If you activate this option, you can select the arranger chains you want to 
flatten in the list to the left.
All Chains
If you activate this option, all arranger chains of the current project will be 
flattened.
The Destination section allows you to choose where the result of the flattening is 
saved. The available options are:
Current Project
This is only available if you have selected “Current Chain” as Source. If you 
activate this option, the result of the flattening of the current chain will be 
saved in the current project.
New Project
If you activate this option, you can flatten one or several chains in a new 
project. In this case it might be useful to use naming options. If you activate 
“Append Chain Name”, the Chain Names will be appended in brackets to the 
project name. If you activate “Use Chain Name”, the new projects will have 
the name of the current arranger chains. If you activate “Add Number”, the 
new projects will be named like the old ones and a number will be appended 
in brackets.
In the Options section you can make further settings. The available options are:
Keep Arranger Track
If you activate this option, the arranger track will be kept when flattening the 
arranger chain. Activate “Rename Arranger Events” to append a number to 
the events, according to their use. For example, if you use arranger event “A” 
two times, the first occurrence will be renamed “A 1” and the second “A 2”.
Make Real Event Copies
Normally, you will get shared copies when flattening the arranger track. If you 
activate this option, real copies will be created instead.
Don’t Split Events
If this option is activated, MIDI notes that start before or are longer than the 
arranger event will not be included. Only MIDI notes that begin and end inside 
the arranger event boundaries will be taken into account.
Open New Projects
If you activate this option, a new project will be created for every flattened 
arranger chain. If you activate the “Cascade New Projects” option the opened 
projects will be cascaded. 
						

							Arranger Track
Live mode
267
Live mode
If you have set up an arranger track and play it back, you have also the possibility to 
influence the playback order “live”. Note that the Arranger mode has to be activated 
to be able to use the Live mode.
PROCEDURE
1. Set up an arranger chain in the Inspector or in the Arranger Editor for an 
arranger track, activate the Arranger mode and play back your project.
Now you can use your arranger events listed in the lower section of the Inspector to 
play back your project in Live mode.
2. Switch into Live mode by clicking on the little arrow in the lower list of the 
Inspector to the left of the arranger event you want to trigger.
The arranger event will be looped endlessly, until you click on another arranger event. 
This might be useful, for example, if you want to loop a guitar solo with a flexible 
length.
In the Jump Mode pop-up menu, you can define how long the active arranger event 
will be played, before jumping to the next one.
• You can stop Live mode by clicking the Stop button or go back to “normal” 
playback in Arranger mode by clicking on any arranger event in the upper list.
In the latter case, playback will be continued from the arranger event where you 
clicked.
RELATED LINKS
Jump Mode options on page 268 
						

							Arranger Track
Live mode
268
Jump Mode options
In the Jump Mode pop-up menu, you can define how long the active arranger event 
will be played, before jumping to the next one.
The following options are available:
None
Jumps to the next section immediately.
4 bars, 2 bars
When one of these modes is selected, a grid of 4 or 2 bars (depending on the 
setting) will be placed on the active arranger event. Whenever the respective 
grid line is reached, playback will jump to the next arranger event. An example:
Let’s say you have an arranger event which is 8 bars long and the grid is set 
to 4 bars. When the cursor is anywhere within the first 4 bars of the arranger 
event when you hit the next arranger event, playback will jump to the next 
event when the end of the fourth bar of the arranger event is reached. When 
the cursor is anywhere within the last 4 bars of the arranger event, playback 
will jump to the next event at the end of the event. 
						

							Arranger Track
Arranging your music to video
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When an event is shorter than 4 (or 2) bars and this mode is selected, 
playback will jump to the next section at the event end.
1 bar
Jumps to the next section at the next bar line.
1 beat
Jumps to the next section at the next beat.
End
Plays the current section to the end, then jumps to the next section.
You can stop Live mode by clicking the Stop button or go back to “normal” playback 
in Arranger mode by clicking on any arranger event in the upper list.
In the latter case, playback will be continued from the arranger event where you 
clicked.
Arranging your music to video
The relative time of your arranger track can be taken as a reference instead of the 
project time. This is useful, if you want to use the arranger track to compose music 
for video and fill a specific video section with music, by repeating the corresponding 
number of arranger events.
If you position your external sync master device to a position that does not match 
the Project Start time, Cubase will jump automatically to the right position in the 
arranger track and will start playback from there, i.
 e. the correct relative position and 
not the absolute project time will be found. The reference for the external timecode 
can be MIDI or any other timecode that can be interpreted/read by Cubase.
An example:
PROCEDURE
1. Set up a project with a MIDI track and three MIDI parts. The first part should 
start at position 00:00:00:00 and end at position 00:01:00:00, the second 
should start at position 00:01:00:00 and end at position 00:02:00:00 and the 
third should start at position 00:02:00:00 and end at position 00:03:00:00.
2. Activate the Sync button on the Transport panel.
3. Add an arranger track and create arranger events that match the MIDI parts.
4. Set up the arranger chain “A-A-B-B-C-C”, activate the Arranger mode and 
play back your project.
5. Start external timecode at position 00:00:10:00 (within the range of “A”).
In your project, the position 00:00:10:00 will be located and you will hear “A” playing. 
Nothing special!
Now, let’s see what happens if your external sync master device starts at a position 
that does not match the Project Start time: 
						

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6. Start at 00:01:10:00 (within the range of what originally was “B”).
In your project, the position 00:01:10:00 will be located and you will hear “A” playing, 
because it plays twice in the arranger track.
7. Start external timecode at position 00:02:10:00 (within the range of what 
originally was “C”).
In your project, the position 00:02:10:00 will be located and you will hear “B” playing, 
because it plays “later” in the arranger track.
NOTE
If the Arranger mode is not activated or no arranger track exists, Cubase will work as 
usual.