Steinberg Sequel 3 Manual
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61 The Multi Zone EQ Presets and Bypass Equalizers Sequel has built-in EQ presets which you can access by clicking in the presets field and selecting a preset from the pop-up menu. Select Reset to clear all EQ settings. To bypass the EQ, click the “Bypass Equalizers” button. The Global Effects tab Each project can have two send effects. These are re- ferred to as “Global Effects”. You can change these ef- fects to whatever you would like. Using global effects can help reduce CPU load on your computer. If e. g. you find you are using the same reverb on every track, you can create a “Global Effects” reverb and use the Amount fader (see below) to send signals to that reverb. Every global effect also features presets which can be ac- cessed by clicking in the “Effect Preset” field. Here you can select a preset from the menu. Select close to remove the preset window. ÖNote that the global effects exist only once for your project, i. e. the effects in this page will not change when changing to another track. For details on each effect and its parameters, see “Effects reference” on page 91. The Amount fader To adjust the amount of signal to apply to the send, use the Amount fader. You can deactivate a send for a parti- cular track, by clicking on the respective Bypass button. The Output Effects tab You can apply two custom and two fixed output effects to the Master channel. These effects are similar to the track effects in that they are pre-fader. The two fixed effects are a maximizer and stereo enhancer. Both are controllable via one knob and a bypass switch. The “Maximizer” raises the overall volume level without clipping the output. The “Stereo Enhancer” spreads the stereo image out to give a project a larger sense of space. For details on each effect and its parameters, see the chapter “Effects reference” on page 91. Bypass Equalizers
62 The Multi Zone The Media Bay page The Media Bay page is a browser for audio and instrument loops, instrument presets, and track presets. This page is extremely useful because not only can you manually enter a name to search along the top of the page, you can also define so called tags, i. e. attributes for each of your media files to narrow the search. Searching for media files The tags predefined for the included media files include items like category/sub category, style/sub style, charac- ter, rating, tempo, time signature and many others. The Media Bay page is made up of five columns (or “fil- ters”) for narrowing the search. To narrow the search even further, click on one of the items in the column list. the re- sults will appear on the far right hand side of the Media Bay page.At the top left of the Media Bay page is the content selec- tion pop-up menu. Here you can decide what content you would like to use the Media Bay page to search through. Selecting “User Content” will only show files that you have added to the content folder on your hard drive. In order to access your own loops via the “Media Bay Page”, they need to be placed in the content folder on your hard drive. You can specify the Content Location on the Program Set- tings page, see “The Program Settings page” on page 71. To make use of the tagging feature, click in the tag columns for a file displayed to the right in the Media Bay page and select a tag value from the pop-ups displayed. To the right of the content selection pop-up menu is the search field. Here you can type in a name to search for. Pressing [Return] will show the results to the right. Search field Search results
63 The Multi Zone Beside that is the rating filter setting. You can use this to automatically get rid of loops and patches that you have given a low rating to. Any files with a lower rating than the one you specify here will be filtered out. Showing Loops, Sounds and Tracks Using the Show Loops, Sounds, and Tracks buttons you can decide what kind of files you want to search for. The “Show Loops” button will only search for audio and in- strument loops. The “Show Sounds” button will only search for instrument presets and instrument track presets, and the “Show Tracks” button will only search for audio track pre- sets. Show Family When you select a loop, the “Show Family” button appears. Activating this button filters the results to only show loops that are part of the same family. The Family Name menu also appears, allowing you to browse all of Sequel’s loop families. Use the Go Back button in the top left hand corner to re- turn to the previous menu. Delete Selected Media Next to the “Show Family” button is the “Delete Selected Media” button. To delete a media file, simply select a loop, track preset, or effect preset and press this button. A dia- log will appear where you can confirm that you want to de- lete this media. Select “Delete” to continue or “Cancel” to close the dialog without deleting. Show Loops Show Sounds Show Tracks Go Back Family NameShow Family
64 The Multi Zone Reset Filters To reset all of the filters, click the “Reset Filters” button in the top left hand corner of the page. Adding Media to the project Once you have found the media you are looking for you can click on one of the results and either drag and drop it directly into the Arrange Zone or preview it to hear it first (see below). Previewing media In the top right hand corner of the Media Bay page is the “Preview Mode” button and the “Preview Volume” slider. If Preview Mode is active (the button is green) and you click on a loop or sound, you will hear it play. When you preview while playing back your project, the project’s tempo and key will be used for preview. If you wish to hear preview the media file in its original tempo and key, make sure that playback is stopped. The “Preview Volume” slider controls the preview volume. Click and drag it left or right to lower or raise the volume. Changing media file attributes You can also change the attributes that are associated with a file such as the category, style, or even give it a rat- ing. To do this, click on the meta data that you would like to change and select something else from the pop-up menu, or set the rating slider to another value. Note that you can select several files simultaneously and change their tags all in one go. Adding Content You can drag and drop events and parts of your own onto the Media Bay page to add them to the content folder. Select an event and drag it onto the Media Bay page and a pop-up will appear. If you are dragging an audio event, the “Save Audio Loop” pop-up appears. If you are dragging an Instrument part, the “Save MIDI Loop” pop-up appears. Preview Volume sliderPreview Mode button
65 The Multi Zone Here you can apply meta data to the loop based on the at- tributes listed along the left hand side of the pop- up win- dow. Click beside the attribute and select a value from the pop-up menu that appears. Setting these attributes will make it easier for you to organize and find the files later. You can name the loop at the bottom of the window. Click “OK” to add it to your user content. The Editor page The Editor page allows you to do advanced editing of your audio events and instrument parts, including audio warp and quantize. The Editor page will be blank unless an event is selected in the Arrange Zone. If you have an audio event selected, the Editor page will become an Audio (Sample) Editor. If an Instrument part is selected, the Key Editor will be shown. The Sample Editor The sample editor allows you to fix or manipulate the tim- ing information of audio files, or to insert silence. The se- lected audio event is displayed in the center of the Editor page. Here you can see a detailed waveform rendering of the audio file. You can zoom in and out using the plus and minus buttons in the bottom right corner. You can also click in the ruler along the top of the editor page and drag up to zoom out and down to zoom in. Once you are zoomed in, you can use the scroll bar along the bottom to scroll left or right. Adding silence You can add silence to an event by selecting a section of the event (by clicking and dragging to create a selection) and then pressing [Delete] or [Backspace] on your com- puter keyboard. This is non-destructive and will not affect the event in anyway. Zoom in and out Volume Mute Transpose Lock Transpose
66 The Multi Zone Volume You can adjust the event volume. This is not connected to the track volume in anyway. To adjust the volume, click and drag up or down. You can also double-click and enter a value from -64 to 24. Zero is the default. Mute You can mute the event by activating the “Mute” button. Deactivate it to unmute the event. Transpose You can change the key of the event by adjusting the transpose value. To change the key click and drag up or down. You can also double-click and enter a value from -24 to 24. Zero is the default. Transpose Lock Activating transpose lock will lock the original transpose value of the event. The event will no longer follow any glo- bal transpose changes throughout the project. Stretch Mode Here you can switch between either the “Song Tempo” or “Original” stretch modes. Simply click to switch between them. Activating “Song Tempo” will lock the events tempo to the project tempo. This function does not quantize the audio, but adjusts the size of the event so that it is playing back at the project tempo. “Original” allows the event to stay in its original tempo. Any changes you make to the file in “Song Tempo” mode will be reverted when you switch to “Original”. When you go back to “Song Tempo” mode the changes you made there will return. Optimization Depending on the type of instrument recorded in your au- dio file, you can set a different option to achieve the best possible stretch result. For example, select the “Drums” option for percussive sounds or try “Solo” for solo wind in- struments. “Mix” is the default, but it might be worth to try any of the other options if you are not happy with the result of a tempo adjustment. Quantize (“Song Tempo” mode) Select a quantize value from the pop-up, used for all quan- tize related functions such as swing and triplets. It also determines the grid resolution for the audio editor. Stretch Mode Optimization Quantize Warp Beats Root Key
67 The Multi Zone Warp Beats (“Song Tempo” mode) Warp Beats will auto quantize the audio event to the project tempo based on the “Quantize” value. See the chapter “Advanced features” on page 73 for more infor- mation. Swing (“Song Tempo” mode) Swing appears when “Warp Beats” has been activated. Swing allows you to add a more human feel to an audio event. Click and drag the slider left or right to add or re- move swing. The effect of using swing is dependent on the “Quantize” value. If the “Quantize” value is set to eighth notes for example, only eighth notes will be af- fected by changing the swing amount. Manual Adjust Beats (“Song Tempo” mode) “Manually Adjust Beats” will only be available if the Warp Beats button is activated. This allows you to manually ad- just how the audio lines up to bars and beats and essen- tially “warp” the audio. Warp points are activated throughout the event that you can move left or right to change the timing. The amount of warp points is depen- dent on the “Quantize” Value. See the chapter on “Ad- vanced features” on page 73 for more information. Number of Bars This allows you to manually enter the length of the audio event in bars. This is helpful if the length of the audio event has not been detected, but you know its length in bars. Reset Beats “Reset Beats” will reset any changes that you have made when “Manual Adjust Beats” is activated. It will restore bars and beats to their original tempo based on the project tempo. Root Key This indicates the key (A, Bb, C#, etc.) that the event is in. If this information is not contained in the meta data, noth- ing will show up here. Warp Beats activated Swing !This function only works with audio that you have recorded or “dragged and dropped” into Sequel. Number of Bars Reset Beats
68 The Multi Zone The Key Editor The Key Editor allows you make various changes to the In- strument part. The Instrument part selected in the Arrange Zone is displayed in the center of the Key editor. Here you can move, edit, and even draw in data. You can zoom in and out using the plus and minus buttons in the bottom right corner. You can also click in the ruler along the top of the Editor page and drag up to zoom out and down to zoom in. Once you are zoomed in, you can use the scroll bar along the bottom to scroll left or right and the little scroll bar on the right hand side to scroll up and down. You can also use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down and [Shift]+mousewheel to scroll left and right. The slider along the right hand side zooms the Key Editor in and out. This makes the notes and the piano roll on the left hand side larger and smaller. You can click on the piano roll to hear a specific pitch. The most important editing functions in the Key Editor are described in the section “Key Editor” on page 23. Mute You can mute the Instrument part by activating the “Mute” button. Deactivate it to unmute the part. Transpose You can change the key of the event by adjusting the transpose value. To change the key click and drag up or down. You can also double click and enter a value from -24 to 24. Zero is the default. Transpose Lock Activating transpose lock will lock the original transpose value of the event. The event will no longer follow any glo- bal transpose changes throughout the project. Quantize value Select a quantize value from the pop-up, used for all quan- tize related functions such as swing and triplets. It also determines the grid resolution for the Key Editor. Triplets On When activated, Triplets On allows you to enter triplets in an Instrument part. The resolution of the Triplets that can be entered is determined by the Quantization Value. Perform Quantize Activating “Perform Quantize” will move all the notes to the nearest bar or beat, depending on the set “Quantize” value. If the “Quantize” value is set to quarter notes, that all notes will move to the nearest quarter note. Horizontal zoomVertical zoom Mute Transpose Lock Transpose Quantize Perform Quantize Swing Legato Slider Triplets On
69 The Multi Zone Swing Swing allows you to add a more human feel to Instrument data. Click and drag the slider left or right to move the notes. The notes that are effected is dependant on the “Quantize” value. If the “Quantize” value is set to eighth notes, then only eighth notes will be effected by changing the swing amount. Legato Slider This slider increases or decreases the amount of legato in the selected Instrument part. Legato is defined as a smooth, even style without any noticeable break between notes. Therefore, when increasing Legato, you are stretch- ing out the notes such that there is no noticeable attack be- tween two notes. Decreasing this value will create shorter notes, sounding more “staccato”. Activated Step Input “Activated Step Input” allows you to enter Instrument data note by note and beat by beat, using a MIDI keyboard or controller. It’s great for quick entry of instrument parts. When activated, this button puts Sequel into step input mode. A blue vertical position line appears. Each time you press a key, a note will be entered at the vertical position line. The length of the note is determined by the Quantiza- tion value. You can use the left/right cursor keys on your keyboard to move the position of the vertical position line. Nudge Left This moves the selected note left based on the “Quantize” value. Nudge Right This moves the selected note right based on the “Quan- tize” value. Root Key This indicates the key (A, Bb, C# etc.) that the part is in. If this information is not available (i. e. if there is no “key” at- tribute), nothing will show up here. Newly recorded parts should show the key defined for the project. Controller Lane (Velocity, Pitch Bend, etc.) The Controller Lane allows us to add in or modify Instru- ment data such as velocity and controller information. The most common use for this is to edit velocity, pitch bend and controller numbers for things like sustain etc. Clicking on the Controller Lane pop-up menu allows you to decide what specific controller data you would like to view or modify. For more information about editing controller data, see “The Controller lane” on page 25. Nudge right Nudge left Root Key Activated Step Input Controller Lane pop up Controller Lane
70 The Multi Zone The Arranger page The Arranger page allows you to change up the project by creating different arrangements. This allows you to play back the project in a non-linear way and is great for live performance. In order to do this you first need to create arrangement parts. Make sure that the “Show Arranger Track” button in the Arrange Zone is activated, see “Show Arranger Track” on page 43. Press and hold [Alt]/[Option] while the mouse is hovered in the Arranger track. The mouse will turn into a pencil. You can then click and drag to create an arrangement part. Pads The 16 rounded squares in the center of the Arranger page are known as pads. Every arrangement part that you create in the Arranger track can be represented by one of these pads. There are only 16 pads though, so you can only access 16 arrangement parts at a time. Pad assignment [Alt]-click along the top of a pad to open a pop-up menu al- lowing you to choose which arrangement part will be linked to that pad. You can also set this to “None” or to “Stop”. Pad name [Alt]-click along the bottom of the pad to name the pad. Arrangement modes There are actually two arrangement modes in Sequel. Note that you can switch modes during playback. You can choose between “Live Pads” or “Chain Play” mode (for a detailed description of these modes, see “Tutorial 4: Live Pads and Chain Play mode” on page 34). Live Pads In this playback mode you can click on a pad at any time to play it. The arrangement part will loop until you click on an- other pad or hit stop. You can also press the correspond- ing key on your computer keyboard to activate the pad. Show Arranger Track Pad “A” Arranger part “A”