Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
When you set the current Fade as the Default fade, the 
length value is included as part of the default settings.
Presets
If you have set up a fade-in or fade-out curve that you may 
want to apply to other events or clips, you can store it as a 
preset by clicking the Store button.
To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up 
menu. 
To rename the selected preset, double-click on the 
name and type a new one. 
To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up 
menu and click Remove.
Preview, Apply and Process
The buttons in the bottom row are different depending on 
whether you are editing a fade made with the fade handles 
or applying a fade using processing:
The Edit Fade dialogs have the following buttons:The Process Fade dialogs have the following buttons:
Creating crossfades
Overlapping audio material on the same track can be 
crossfaded, for smooth transitions or special effects. You 
create a crossfade by selecting two consecutive audio 
events and selecting the Crossfade command on the Au-
dio menu (or by using the corresponding key command, 
by default [X]). The result depends on whether the two 
events overlap or not:
If the events overlap, a crossfade is created in the over-
lapping area.
The crossfade will be of the default shape – initially a linear, symmetric 
crossfade, but you can change this as described below.
If the events don’t overlap but are directly consecutive 
(lined up end-to-start, with no gap) it’s still possible to 
crossfade them – provided that their respective audio 
clips overlap! In this case, the two events are resized so 
that they overlap, and a crossfade of the default length 
and shape is applied.
The default crossfade length and shape are set in the Crossfade dialog 
(see “Default buttons” on page 93).
!Stored fade-in presets will only appear in the Fade In 
dialog, and fade-out presets will only appear in the 
Fade Out dialog.
Button Function
OK Applies the set fade curve to the event, and closes the dialog.
Cancel Closes the dialog.
Apply Applies the set fade curve to the event, without closing the 
dialog.
The Edit Fade dialog.
The Process Fade dialog.Button Function
Preview Plays back the fade area. Playback will repeat until you click 
the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during play-
back).
Process Applies the set fade curve to the clip, and closes the dialog.
Cancel Closes the dialog without applying any fade.
Overlapping section 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
An example:
The events in themselves do not overlap, but their clips do. Therefore, 
the events can be resized so that they overlap, which is required for a 
crossfade to be created.
When you select the Crossfade function, the two events are resized so that 
they overlap, and a default crossfade is created in the overlapping section.
If the events don’t overlap, and cannot be resized 
enough to overlap, a crossfade cannot be created.
Cubase only: You can specify the length of the cross-
fade using the Range Selection tool: make a selection 
range covering the desired crossfade area and use the 
Crossfade command.
The crossfade is applied in the selected range (provided that the events 
or their clips overlap, as above). You can also make a selection range af-
ter creating the crossfade and use the function “Adjust fades to Range” 
on the Audio menu.
Once you have created a crossfade, you can edit it by 
selecting one or both crossfaded events, and selecting 
“Crossfade” from the Audio menu again (or by double-
clicking in the crossfade zone). 
This opens the Crossfade dialog, see below.
Removing crossfades
To remove a crossfade, select the events and select “Re-
move Fades” from the Audio menu, or use the Range Se-
lection tool:
1.Drag the Range Selection tool in the Project window, 
so that the selection encloses all of the fades and cross-
fades you wish to remove.
2.Select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu.
You can also remove a crossfade by clicking and drag-
ging it outside the track.
The Crossfade dialog
The Crossfade dialog contains separate, but identical, 
sections for the fade-in and fade-out curve settings in the 
crossfade on the left, and common settings on the right.
Fade Displays
Shows the shape of the fade-out and fade-in curve, re-
spectively. You can click on the curve to add points, and 
click and drag existing points to change the shape. To re-
move a point from the curve, drag it outside the display.
Curve kind buttons
These buttons determine whether the corresponding fade 
curve should consist of spline curve segments (left but-
ton), damped spline segments (middle button) or linear 
segments (right button).
Curve shape buttons
These buttons give you quick access to some common 
curve shapes.
Equal Power and Gain
If you activate the “Equal Gain” checkbox, the fade 
curves are adjusted so that the summed fade-in and fade-
out amplitudes will be the same all along the crossfade 
region. This is often suitable for short crossfades.
If you activate the “Equal Power” checkbox, the fade 
curves are adjusted, so that the energy (power) of the 
crossfade will be constant all along the crossfade region.
Audio clips. Audio events.
!Equal Power curves have only one editable curve 
point. You cannot use the Curve kind buttons or the 
presets when this mode is selected. 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
Play buttons
The “Play Fade Out” and “Play Fade In” buttons allow 
you to audition the fade-out or fade-in part only, without 
the crossfade.
The “Play Crossfade” button plays back the whole 
crossfade.
You can also use the Transport play controls to play back 
the crossfaded audio events. However, that method will 
play back all unmuted audio events on other tracks as well.
Pre-roll and Post-roll
When auditioning with the Play buttons, you can choose 
to activate pre-roll and/or post-roll. Pre-roll lets you start 
playback before the fade area, and post-roll lets you stop 
playback after the fade area. This can be useful for audi-
tioning the fade in a context.
To specify how long the pre- and post-rolls should be, 
click in the time fields and enter the desired time (in sec-
onds and milliseconds).
To activate pre- and post-roll, click the respective but-
ton. To deactivate, click the button again.
Length settings
You can adjust the length of the crossfade area numeri-
cally in the “Length” field. If possible, the length change 
will be applied equally to “both sides” of the crossfade 
(i.e. Cubase tries to “center” the crossfade).
Presets
If you have set up a crossfade shape that you may want to 
apply to other events, you can store it as a preset by click-
ing the Store button.
To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu. 
To rename the selected preset, double-click on the 
name and type in a new one. 
To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up 
menu and click Remove.
Default buttons
Clicking the “As Default” button stores all of the current 
settings as the default crossfade. These settings will then 
be used whenever you create new crossfades.
The Crossfade Length setting is included in the Default 
settings. However, it is only applied if the events to be 
crossfaded don’t overlap – otherwise the crossfade will be 
in the overlap area (see “Creating crossfades” on page 91).
Clicking the “Recall Default” button copies the curves 
and settings of the Default crossfade to the Crossfade 
dialog.
Auto Fades and Crossfades
Cubase features an Auto Fade function that can be set 
both globally, i.e. for the entire project, and separately for 
each audio track. The idea behind the Auto Fade function 
is to create smoother transitions between events by ap-
plying short (1–500 ms) fade-ins and fade-outs.
Making global Auto Fade settings
1.To make Auto Fades settings globally for the project, 
select “Auto Fades Settings...” from the Project menu.
This opens the Auto Fades dialog for the project.
!To be able to resize a crossfade this way, it must be 
possible to resize the corresponding event. For ex-
ample, if the left crossfaded event already plays its 
audio clip to the end, its endpoint cannot be moved 
any further to the right.
!As mentioned earlier, fades are calculated in real 
time during playback. This means that the larger the 
number of audio tracks with Auto Fades activated in 
a project, the higher the demands on the processor.
!Note that auto fades are not indicated by the fade 
lines! 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
2.Use the checkboxes in the upper right corner to acti-
vate or deactivate Auto Fade In, Auto Fade Out and Auto 
Crossfades, respectively.
3.Use the Length value field to specify the length of the 
Auto Fade or Crossfade (1-500 ms).
4.To adjust the shapes of Auto Fade In and Auto Fade 
Out, select the “Fades” tab and make settings as in the 
regular Fade dialogs.
5.To adjust the shape of the Auto Crossfade, select the 
“Crossfades” tab and make settings as in the regular 
Crossfade dialog.
6.If you want to use the settings you have made in future 
projects, click the “As Default” button.
The next time you create a new project, it will use these settings by default.
7.Click OK to close the dialog.
Making Auto Fade settings for a separate track
By default, all audio tracks will use the settings you have 
made in the project’s Auto Fades dialog. However, since 
Auto Fades use computing power, a better approach may 
be to turn Auto Fades off globally and activate them for in-
dividual tracks, as needed:
1.Right-click the track in the Track list and select “Auto 
Fades Settings...” from the context menu (or select the 
track and click the “Auto Fades Settings” button in the In-
spector).
The Auto Fades dialog for the track opens. This is identical to the project’s 
Auto Fades dialog, with the addition of a “Use Project Settings” option.
2.Deactivate the “Use Project Settings” option.
Now, any settings you make will be applied to the track only.
3.Set up the Auto Fades as desired and close the dialog.
Reverting to project settings
If you want a track to use the global Auto Fade settings, 
open the Auto Fades dialog for the track and activate the 
“Use Project Settings” checkbox.
Event Envelopes
An envelope is a volume curve for an audio event. It is sim-
ilar to the real-time fades, but allows you to create volume 
changes within the event, not only at the start or end. To 
create an envelope for an audio event, proceed as follows:
1.Zoom in on the event so that you can view its waveform 
properly.
2.Select the Pencil tool.
When you move the Pencil tool over an audio event, a small volume curve 
symbol is shown next to the tool.
3.To add an envelope point, click in the event with the 
Pencil tool.
A blue envelope curve and a curve point appear.
4.Drag the curve point to adjust the envelope shape.
The waveform image reflects the volume curve.
You can add as many curve points as you like.
To remove a curve point from the envelope, click on it 
and drag it outside the event.
The envelope curve is a part of the audio event – it will 
follow when you move or copy the event.
After copying an event with an envelope, you can make independent ad-
justments to the envelopes in the original event and the copy.
ÖIt is also possible to apply an envelope to the audio 
clip using the Envelope function on the Process submenu 
on the Audio menu.
See “Envelope” on page 218.
ÖTo remove an event envelope curve from a selected 
event, open the Audio menu and select the Remove 
Volume Curve option. 
						

							7
The Arranger track 
						

							96
The Arranger track
Introduction
The Arranger track allows you to work with sections of 
your project in a non-linear fashion, to simplify arranging to 
the maximum extent. Instead of moving, copying and past-
ing events in the Project window event display to create a 
linear project, you can define how different sections are to 
be played back, like a playlist.
For this, you can define arranger events, order them in a list, 
and add repeats as desired. This offers a different and more 
pattern-oriented way of working, which complements the 
usual linear editing methods in the Project window. 
You can create several Arranger chains, making it possi-
ble to store different versions of a song within the project 
without sacrificing the original version. When you have 
created an Arranger chain that you like, you have the op-
tion of “flattening” the list, which creates a normal linear 
project based on the Arranger chain. You can chose to 
keep the Arranger track or to remove it. 
You can also use the Arranger track for live performances 
on the stage, in clubs or at parties.
Setting up the Arranger track
Let’s say you have prepared a number of audio files that 
form the base of a typical pop song, with introduction, 
verse, chorus and bridge. Now you want to arrange these 
files.
The first step is to create an Arranger track. On the Ar-
ranger track, you define specific sections of the project by 
creating arranger events. These can be of any length, may 
overlap and are not bound to the start or end of existing 
events and parts. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the project for which you want to create arranger 
events.
2.Open the Project menu and select “Arranger” from the 
Add Track submenu (or right-click in the Track list and se-
lect Add Arranger track).
An Arranger track is added. There can be only one Arranger track in a 
project, but you can set up more than one Arranger chain for this track, 
see “Managing Arranger chains” on page 99.
3.On the Project window toolbar, make sure that Snap 
is activated, and that the Grid resolution is set to a mode 
that allows your arranger events to snap to appropriate 
positions in the project.
Snap to events is activated, i. e. when drawing in the Project window, 
new events will snap to existing events.
4.On the Arranger track, use the Pencil tool to draw an 
event of the desired length.
An Arranger event is added, called “A” by default. Any following events 
will be named in alphabetical order. 
You can rename an Arranger event by selecting it and 
changing its name in the Project window info line or by 
holding down [Alt]/[Option], double-clicking on the name 
in the Arranger chain (see below) and entering a new 
name.
You may want to name your arranger events according to the structure of 
your project, e. g. Verse, Chorus etc.
5.Create as many events as you need for your project.
In this example, arranger events have been created that correspond to a 
classic pop song structure. Note how there is no real time line in the 
project: the music sequence is determined by the arranger events.
Events can be moved, resized and deleted using the stan-
dard techniques. Please note:
If you want to change the length of a event, select the 
Arrow tool and click and drag the bottom corners of the 
event in the desired direction.
If you copy an Arranger event (by [Alt]/[Option]-drag-
ging or by using copy/paste), a new event will be created 
with the same name as the original.
However, this new event will be totally independent from the original event.
Double-clicking on an arranger event adds it to the cur-
rent Arranger chain. 
						

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The Arranger track
Working with arranger events
You now have a number of arranger events that form the 
basic building blocks for your arrangement. The next step 
is to arrange these events using the functions of the Ar-
ranger Editor.
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 Arranger track. 
To the right in the Arranger Editor, the available arranger 
events are listed, in the order they appear on the time line. 
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 should be repeated.
Initially the Arranger chain will be empty – you set up the 
Arranger chain by adding events from the right list to the 
Arranger chain. There are several ways to add events to 
the Arranger chain.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 will add the 
event above the selected event. When no events are selected in the Ar-
ranger chain on the left will add the event to the end of the list.
By selecting one or more events in the right 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 
right list to the left list.
A blue insertion line shows you where the dragged event will end up in the 
list.
Here, the Verse event is dragged into the Arranger chain and placed af-
ter the first chorus.
By dragging arranger events from the Project window 
and dropping them in the Arranger chain.
If you followed our example, you should now have arranger 
events arranged in a very basic pop song pattern. How-
ever, we have used audio files that are only a few bars 
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 de-
sired 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 Inspector…
…or the Track list…
…to open the Arranger Editor. 
						

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The Arranger track
Click in the Mode field for an event and select the de-
sired repeat mode.
When you now play back the Arranger chain, you will hear 
the complete arrangement. Proceed as follows:
1.Make sure that Arranger mode is activated.
When Arranger mode is activated, the project will be played back using 
the Arranger settings.
The Arranger mode button must be activated.
2.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 so that 
the arrow becomes blue.
You should see the project cursor jump to the beginning of the first event 
specified in the Arranger chain.
3.Activate playback, either from the Arranger Editor or 
on the Transport panel.
The events are played back in the specified order.
Editing the Arranger chain
In the Arranger chain to 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 while holding [Alt]/[Option] to create cop-
ies of the selected items.
The insert location for both move and copy operations is indicated by a 
blue or red line in the list. A blue line indicates that the move or copy is 
possible; a red line indicates that if the current position were to be used, 
a move or copy is not allowed.
Use the Repeats column to specify how many times 
each event should 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 se-
lect “Remove Touched” from the pop-up menu that ap-
pears. To remove several events, select them, right-click 
and select “Remove Selected”.
Navigating
To navigate between arranger events, you use the Ar-
ranger transport buttons:
These controls are available in the Arranger Editor, the 
Project window toolbar, and 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.
Option Button Description
Normal In this mode, your Arranger chain will be played 
back normally, just as you set it up.
Repeat for-
everIn this mode, the current Arranger event will be re-
peated 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 re-
peats of the current Arranger event.
First repeat of current chain step Previous chain step
Next chain stepLast repeat of current chain step 
						

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The Arranger track
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:
In the Inspector, these functions are accessed from the 
Arranger pop-up menu (opened by clicking on the Ar-
ranger name field).
The Arranger chains you create will be listed on the Name 
pop-up menu, found in the Arranger Editor to the left of 
the buttons, at the top of the Arranger track Inspector, and 
in the Track list. Please note that to be able to select an-
other Arranger chain from the pop-up menu, Arranger 
mode must be activated.
Flattening the Arranger chain
When you have found an Arranger chain that suits your pur-
poses, you can “flatten” it, i. e. convert the list into a linear 
project. Proceed as follows:
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 reordered, repeated, resized, 
moved and/or deleted (if these are not within the boundaries of any used 
Arranger event), so that they correspond exactly to the Arranger chain.
The Flatten button
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.
Flattening options
Sometimes it might be useful to keep the original Arranger 
events even after flattening the Arranger track. By using flat-
tening options you can define which chain should be flat-
tened (Source section), where it should be stored and how 
it should be named (Destination section) together with 
other options (Options section). 
1.Click the Flattening options button.
2.In the window that appears, select the desired options.
In the Source section you can specify, which Arranger 
chain should be flattened. The available options are:
Button Description
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 avail-
able if you have created more than one Arranger chain.
!Flattening the Arranger chain may remove events 
and parts from the project. Only use the Flatten func-
tion when you know you don’t want to edit the Ar-
ranger track/chain any more. If in doubt, save a copy 
of the project before flattening the Arranger chain.
Option Description
Current  Chain If you activate this option, only the current chain will be 
flattened.
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. 
						

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The Arranger track
The Destination section allows you to choose where the 
result of the flattening should be saved. The available op-
tions are:
In the Options section you can make further settings. The 
available options are:
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 also click 
the “Go Back” button and make your adjustments. Your Flattening set-
tings 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.
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. 
1.Add an Arranger track by selecting “Arranger” from the 
Add Track submenu of the Project menu.
2.Create the desired Arranger events by drawing with 
the Pencil tool on Arranger track.
3.Set up an Arranger chain in the Inspector for the Ar-
ranger track or in the Arranger Editor, activate the Ar-
ranger mode and play back your project.
Now you can use your Arranger events listed in the lower 
section of the Arranger track Inspector to play back your 
project in Live Mode:
4.Switch into Live mode by clicking on the little arrow in 
the lower list of the Arranger track Inspector to the left of 
the Arranger event you want to trigger.
The Arranger event will be looped endlessly, until you click on another Ar-
ranger event. This might be useful, if you want to loop e.g. a guitar solo with 
a flexible length.
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. The “Select grid” pop-up menu will always be taken 
into account. When the grid is set to “1 Bar” and you click the STOP 
button e.g., playback will be stopped after the next bar.
Option Description
Current  Project This option 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 cur-
rent 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 Name(s) will be appended in brackets 
to the project name. If you activate “Use Chain Name”, 
the new project(s) will have the name of the current Ar-
ranger chain(s). If you activate “Add Number”, the new 
project(s) will be named like the old ones and a number 
will be appended in brackets.
Option Description
Keep Arranger 
TrackIf you activate this option, the Arranger Track will be kept 
when flattening the Arranger chain. If you activate the op-
tion “Rename Arranger Events” a number will be ap-
pended to the events according to their use. If e.g. you 
use Arranger event “A” two times, the first occurrence 
will be renamed “A 1” and the second “A 2”.
Make Real Event 
CopiesNormally, you will get shared copies when flattening the 
Arranger track. If you activate this option, real copies will 
be created instead.
Don’t Split 
EventsIf the 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 
ProjectsIf you activate this option, a new project will be created 
for every flattened Arranger chain. If you activate the op-
tion “Cascade New Projects” the opened projects will be 
cascaded.