Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Operation Manual

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MIDI processing and quantizing
You can specify the desired gap or overlap with the “Legato 
Overlap” setting in the Preferences (Editing–MIDI page).
When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 
5 ticks before the next note.
When you activate “Legato Mode: Selected Only”, the 
length of the note will be adjusted so that it reaches the 
next selected note, allowing you e.g. to only apply Legato 
to your bass line (when playing on a keyboard).
Fixed Lengths
This function...

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MIDI processing and quantizing
OK and Cancel
Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to 
the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without 
deleting notes.
Restrict Polyphony
Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec-
ify how many “voices” should be used (for the selected 
notes or parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is use-
ful when you have an instrument with limited polyphony 
and want to make sure all notes will be played. The effect 
is achieved by...

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MIDI processing and quantizing
Extract MIDI Automation
This option allows you to automatically convert continuous 
controller data of a MIDI part into MIDI track automation 
data. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired MIDI part containing the continuous 
controller data.
2.Select “Extract MIDI Automation”. (This command is 
also available on the Key Editor context menu.)
The controller data will automatically be removed from the controller lane 
in the editor.
3.In the Project window, open the...

23
The MIDI editors 

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The MIDI editors
Introduction
There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase Essential. 
You can use the tools and functions in the Project window 
for large-scale editing, or use the functions on the MIDI 
menu to process MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is 
affected by the MIDI functions?” on page 214). For 
hands-on graphical editing of the contents of MIDI parts, 
you use the MIDI editors:
The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting 
notes graphically in an intuitive piano...

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The MIDI editors
ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by select-
ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool.
The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit-
ing operations to the active part only.
For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu on the Edit menu 
with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected. 
Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a se-
lection rectangle), only the notes in the...

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The MIDI editors
The Key Editor – Overview 
The toolbar
As in other windows, the toolbar contains tools and vari-
ous settings. You can specify which toolbar items should 
be shown and store/recall different toolbar configurations 
– see “The Setup dialogs” on page 314. 
The info line
The info line shows information about selected MIDI 
notes. You can edit all values on the info line using regular 
value editing (see “Editing on the info line” on page 235 
for details). Length and position values are...

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The MIDI editors
The ruler
The ruler shows the time line, by default in the display for-
mat selected on the Transport panel. You can select a 
separate format for a MIDI editor ruler on the Ruler pop-up 
menu, opened by clicking the arrow button to the right of 
it. For a list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on 
page 21.
At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two addi-
tional items:
If “Time Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display and 
controller display will be linear in...

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The MIDI editors
To change the size of the controller display, drag the di-
vider between the controller display and the note display. 
This will make the controller display larger and the note 
display smaller, or vice versa.
Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller 
display, with higher bars corresponding to higher velocity 
values:
Each velocity bar corresponds to a note in the note display.
Events in the controller display (that is, anything other than 
velocity values) are...

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The MIDI editors
By default, the Trim tool will cut off the end of notes. To 
trim the beginning of the note(s), press [Alt]/[Option] while 
dragging.
If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will 
get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or 
end time for all edited notes.
You can change the Trim tool key commands in the Pref-
erences (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
ÖNote that when you trim the beginning of a note in the 
List Editor, the note may move to a different...