Steinberg Cubase 4 Getting Started Manual

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Tutorial 2: Editing audio
Reverse
The “Reverse” command reverses the audio selection. 
This will sound as if you were playing a tape backwards.
1.With the Object Selection tool, click on the audio 
event you wish to change. In our case, let’s pick the bass 
audio event.
You can also use the “Range Selection” tool and select the section of 
audio you want.
2.On the Audio menu–Process submenu, select “Re-
verse”.
3.If you have copied events in the Project window, this di-
alog box will open. It asks if...

6
Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI 

43
Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
Introduction
In this chapter, we are going to add some more instru-
ments to our song. In the previous tutorials, we have re-
corded audio. Now we are going to record using MIDI.
There are two ways in which we can have MIDI sounds 
appear in Cubase: via virtual instruments, that is a synthe-
sizer inside your computer or through the use of a tradi-
tional hardware keyboard.
This tutorial will focus on virtual instruments, while the chap-
ter “Tutorial 5: External...

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
5.Click on the “Edit Instrument” button to open the con-
trol panel for “HALionOne”.
6.If you want “HALionOne” to stay always on top while 
you are working you can right click on the bar near the top 
of the instrument and select “Always on Top”.Browsing sounds
We are now going to load sounds into our virtual instrument 
“HALionOne”.
1.Click the “Preset” button in “HALionOne” and choose 
“Load Preset” from the pop-up menu.
2.In the “Category” section, make sure...

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
MIDI recording
Now that we have our sound, let’s record something. Re-
cording MIDI is very similar to recording audio, see the 
chapter “Tutorial 1: Recording audio” on page 23. 
Setting MIDI input
1.Make sure you have a MIDI keyboard connected to your 
computer either directly through USB or a MIDI interface.
See the chapter “Setting up your system” on page 13 for information on 
setting up MIDI in your computer.
2.We want to have our MIDI keyboard routed to...

46
Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
MIDI playback
We are now going to learn how to play back MIDI in Cu-
base. You might think this is very simple – just hit “Play”. It 
is actually this simple, but there are a few tricks to learn so 
that you’ll be playing back what you want with precision.
To start playback
Click the Start button on the Transport panel.
Press the space bar on your computer keyboard.
This toggles between start and stop.
Press the [Enter] key of the numerical computer keypad....

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
Cycle recording
You can record MIDI while the Cycle is activated.
Recording MIDI drums
1.Let’s add another “Instrument” track and choose 
“HALionOne” as our instrument.
2.Click in the program field in the Inspector and load a 
drum sound of your choice found under the category 
“Drums&Perc”, sub-category “Drumset”.
3.Rename this new track to “Drums”.
4.Make sure the Cycle button is activated and set the 
left locator to “9” and the right locator to “13”.
This...

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
12.Now move and copy this drum part so that the rest of 
the song has a drum beat.
Move and copy were discussed in the chapter “Tutorial 2: Editing audio” 
on page 33.
13.Glue all the parts together as one.
The Glue tool was discussed in the chapter “Tutorial 2: Editing audio” on 
page 33.
The Key Editor
The Key Editor is where we can make changes to our MIDI 
data.
Erasing MIDI notes
1.Double-click on the “Drums” part so that the Key Editor 
opens.
Here we can...

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
5.Now erase all the other hi-hat notes from bar 2 
through 8 using any method you like.
Copying MIDI notes
Let’s copy the MIDI notes in bar 1 to bars 2 through 8.
1.Lasso the hi-hat notes in bar 1. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] 
and drag the notes in bar 1 to bar 2. This copies them.
2.Continue copying until bar 9.
Creating or drawing in MIDI notes
Now we need to draw in a cymbal crash in bar 25.
1.Scroll over to bar 25 and click on the piano roll on the 
left hand...

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
The Controller lane
The “Controller Lane” allows us to add in or modify MIDI 
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 filter etc.
If you find that the MIDI velocity is too loud or quiet on cer-
tain notes, you can view and edit them at the bottom of the 
Key Editor.
1.Make sure you can see the Controller Lane by clicking 
on the “Controller Lane...