Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual

							586
Working with chords
About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
 How to enter chord symbols manually and automatically using 
the “Make Chord Symbol” feature.
 Which settings can be made for chord symbols.
Inserting Chord symbols
Manually
On the Chord Symbols tab, you will find a set of pre-
defined chord symbols, see “Using presets” on page 587. 
If the symbol you want to add is among these, simply se-
lect it and click in the score to insert the chord symbol.
To specify and enter any other chord symbol, proceed as 
follows:
1.Open the “Other” tab and select the chord symbol but-
ton. 
2.Click in the score at the position where you want to in-
sert the chord symbol.
The Edit Chord Symbol dialog opens.
The Edit Chord Symbol dialog.
3.Enter the key (root) note in the Key Note field.
You can either type in a chord letter or step through the chord letters us-
ing the up/down arrows to the right.
4.Specify a chord type in the “Chord Type” field.
You can either enter it directly (for example, by typing a “7”) or select an 
option from the pop-up menu (click the arrow button to open it).
5.If you wish, specify a tension in the “Tension” field.
Again, this can be done by typing or by using the pop-up menu. How-
ever, there are some special display options which you can only get by 
typing (see the table below). You might also want to add some text here 
(such as “no third”, etc.). You can also select the basic tensions from the 
pop-up menu, and then add special options by typing.
6.If you want to have a special bass note (e.g. a C major 
with a D bass note), set the Bass Note pop-up menu to 
this note (this cannot be the same as the key note).
The program will “remember” the relation between key and bass note, so 
that if you change the key note, the bass note will follow.
7.If you want the key note to be displayed in lower case, 
activate the “Key Note in Lower Case” checkbox.
8.If needed, activate the “Enharmonic Shift” option.
9.Click Apply.
The chord symbol appears in the score.
Character Description Example Result
( ) The tensions will 
be enclosed in 
brackets.
/ The tensions will 
be separated by a 
slash sign.
| The tensions will 
be placed above 
one another.
You can also combine several 
options. This is a combination of 
two options, along with a space 
to put the “9” above the “5”. Note 
that only one “(“ sign is needed 
when the “|” option is used. 
						

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Working with chords
To open the Edit Chord Symbol dialog for an existing 
chord, double-click on the symbol.
You can also right-click on the symbol and select “Properties” on the 
context menu to open the dialog.
Using presets
As with many other functions in Cubase, you can create 
chord symbol presets for instant use. Each preset con-
tains all settings in the dialog – i.e. the preset list is a 
“library” of chords. You will find the presets in the Chord 
Symbols tab in the Inspector and in the corresponding 
context menu. The preset handling is the usual:
Click Store to store the current settings as a preset.
A dialog will appear, allowing you to enter a name for the preset.
To load a stored preset, select it from the Presets pop-
up menu or select it from the Presets submenu of the con-
text menu.
Note that this only loads the settings into the dialog – you need to click 
Apply to apply the settings to a selected chord symbol.
To remove a preset, select it on the pop-up menu and 
click Remove.
Using Make Chord Symbol
If you already have recorded the chords for a project, 
Cubase can analyze them and create chord symbols:
1.Open the recording in the Score Editor.
If you want the chords to be inserted on another track, you can create an 
empty part on that track and open it along with the recording.
2.If you like, make settings for how the chords should be 
displayed on the Score Settings–Project page, on the 
Chord Symbols and the Notation Fonts subpages.
You can change all these settings after you inserted the chords as well.
3.Select the notes for which you want chord symbols to 
be created.
If chord symbols should be created for all chords on the track, use the 
Select All function on the Edit menu.
4.Use the arrow keys to make the desired staff active.
This should be the staff on which you want the chord symbols to end up.
5.Select “Make Chord Symbol” from the Scores menu.
The chords appear. They can be moved, duplicated and deleted as any 
other symbol. You can also double-click on a chord symbol to edit it in 
the Edit Chord Symbol dialog (in the same way as when creating chords 
manually – see above).
A staff after using Make Chord Symbol.
Instead of using the “Make Chord Symbol” menu item, 
you can click on the Make Chord Symbol button on the 
extended toolbar.
If the option “Use for ‘Make Chord Symbol’” is activated 
in the Guitar Library subpage of the Score Settings–Project 
page (see “Adding guitar chord symbols” on page 571), 
guitar chord symbols will be added as well (if the guitar li-
brary contains any guitar symbols that match the chords).
About the analysis
 The MIDI chords are expected to be played in their most basic 
inversion. If not, an extra bass note is added. For example, the 
notes CEG are interpreted as C major, but GCE is interpreted 
as C major with a G bass note. If you don’t want any interpre-
tation of the inversion (i. e. no added bass notes) hold down 
[Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting Make Chord Symbol.
 All selected notes on all staves are taken into consideration. 
Whenever there is any change on any staff, the notes are rein-
terpreted and a new chord symbol is added. This means you 
should probably avoid having the melody track in the Score 
Editor when you use Make Chord Symbol, or you will get a lot 
more chords than you expect, possibly with strange tensions.
 In addition to the above, the quantize value is used. At the 
most, there will be a new chord at each quantize position.
 There must be at least three notes at a certain position for the 
program to interpret it as a chord. Also some combinations of 
notes simply don’t make any sense to the program and won’t 
produce any chords.
 The analysis method isn’t perfect since the same set of notes 
can be interpreted differently depending on context. Some 
editing may be required. If you record the track solely to create 
chords automatically, play the chord as simple as possible, in 
the correct inversion, without added octaves, etc. 
						

							588
Working with chords
Global chord settings
On the Score Settings–Project page (Chord Symbols and 
Notation Fonts subpages), there are several global set-
tings that affect how chords are displayed. These settings 
affect all chords in the project.
Chord Symbols
Use the four sections of radio buttons to specify how the 
four most common chord types should be displayed:
If you want the root (key) note to be aligned with the 
bass note, so that they are both displayed at the same ver-
tical position, activate “Align Root Note”.
If you want the tensions to be displayed at the same ver-
tical position as the root note (rather than a bit above the 
root note), activate “Tension Bottom”.
Activate “Scale Chords” to scale a staff (using the Size 
setting on the Options tab on the Score Settings–Staff 
page), and want the chords to be scaled accordingly.
Activate “Use Display Transpose” if you want the chord 
symbols to be affected by the Display Transpose setting 
on the Score Settings–Staff page.
To apply the settings to your score, click “Apply to 
Chords”.
Notation Fonts
Use the Score Font pop-up to select a font for the dis-
play of note heads, clefs etc.
Available are Legacy, Classical and Jazz.
Use the Chord Symbols Font pop-up to select a font for 
the chords.
Cubase comes with its own font for this (Steinberg Chord Symbols), but 
you can also pick any other available font from the pop-up menu.
Use the four size value fields to select sizes for the four 
different chord “elements”.
You can type in values or use the pop-up menus. Normally, you would 
want the “Root” size to be the largest and the “Tension” size the smallest.
Use the radio buttons at the bottom to select a chord 
display mode.
This affects how the key and bass notes are displayed:
Option Description
English Regular notation.
DoReMi “Do-Re-Mi-…” are used instead of “C-D-E-…”
German As English notation, but “B” is displayed as “H”, and “Bb” 
or “A#” are displayed as “B”. 
						

							10
Working with text 
						

							590
Working with text
About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
 Which different types of text are available.
 How to enter and edit text.
 How to set font, size and style.
 How to enter lyrics.
Adding and editing text symbols
This section describes the general procedure for adding 
and editing text symbols. As described in the section 
“Different types of text” on page 592, there are several dif-
ferent types of text symbols, but the basic procedures are 
the same (except for block text symbols, see “Block Text” 
on page 594, and page text symbols, see “Page text” on 
page 594).
Inserting a text symbol
1.If you wish, select a font, size and style for the text (or 
select a text attribute), as described in the section “Selec-
ting font, size and style for the text” on page 591.
The text you insert will use the text settings made when no text is selected, 
but you can change all settings after you inserted the text.
2.Open the desired symbol tab in the Inspector.
The different text symbols are found on the Other, Layout and Project sym-
bol tabs. For information on how to show Inspector tabs, see “Showing/Hi-
ding symbol Inspector tabs” on page 563.
3.Click on the text symbol in the tab to select the Pencil 
tool.
4.Make sure the correct staff is active, and click in the 
score at the position where you want the text to appear.
If you are adding lyrics, you should click above or below a note (lyrics are 
centered around each note and positioned vertically to where you clicked). 
See “Lyrics” on page 592.
5.Enter the text in the text box that appears.
You can use [Backspace] to delete letters, and move the cursor with the 
arrow keys. 
6.When you are done, press [Return].
The text appears. You can move, duplicate or delete it as with any symbol.
About the melisma lines
When you add a text symbol, you will find a handle at the 
right edge of the text. By dragging this handle to the right, 
you can extend a “melisma line” from the text. This has 
several uses:
 If you are adding lyrics and want to indicate that a syllable 
should be sung over several notes:
 If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, and 
you want it to apply to a certain musical phrase only:
 If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, and 
you want it to apply from that point on in the score:
On the Score Settings–Project page, Text Settings sub-
page, you will find two settings that determine the appear-
ance of the melisma lines:
 The Melisma Style pop-up is where you specify whether the 
line should be solid or dotted.
 The Melisma End pop-up allows you to choose whether the 
end of the line should be plain, have an arrow, or form a 
“bracket” up or down.
Making space
 If you find there isn’t enough space between staves, e.g. to 
add lyrics, please see “Dragging staves” on page 615 for info 
on how to separate the staves.
 If you find the score looks crammed after adding text, see 
“Auto Layout” on page 617. 
						

							591
Working with text
Editing the text
If you made a mistake when typing or for some other rea-
son wish to change text, double-click on a text block with 
the Object Selection tool, edit the text and press [Return] 
to close it.
It is also possible to replace all occurrences of a certain 
word in the score, without having to edit the texts manually, 
see “Find and replace” on page 596.
Selecting font, size and style for the text
1.Select the text symbol(s) you want to make settings for.
If nothing is selected, the settings you make will be the “default settings”. 
The next time you insert text, these settings will be used.
2.Open the Score Settings–Text page.
3.Select a font from the Font pop-up menu.
How many and which fonts appear depends on what typefaces you have 
installed on your computer. 
4.Select a text size from the Size pop-up menu (or enter 
one manually in the text field). 
5.If you wish, add one or several text style options using 
the checkboxes and pop-up menus.
Most of the options are common text style variations such as bold, italic, 
underline, etc. But there are also a few special style options:
6.Click Apply to apply the settings to the selected text.
Note that you can select other text blocks while the dialog remains open – 
the dialog will be updated to reflect the settings of the currently selected 
text.
7.When you are done, close the Score Settings dialog.
Text attribute sets
A text attribute set can be seen as a “preset” containing all 
font, size and style settings. By creating text attribute sets 
for the settings you use most often, you can save a lot of 
time.
Creating a text attribute set
1.Open the Score Settings–Project page and select the 
Text Settings subpage.
2.Open the Attribute Sets tab.
3.Pull down the Set pop-up menu and select the “Empty” 
set.
4.Select a font, specify a size and add style options us-
ing the checkboxes.
The options are the same as when you make text settings on the Score 
Settings–Text page (see above).
5.Click in the Set field and enter a name for the new text 
attribute set.
6.Click Store to store the new text attribute set.
Using text attribute sets
To apply the settings in the text attribute set to one or 
several text blocks, select them, select the set from the 
Set pop-up menu on the Score Settings–Text page and 
click Apply. You can also apply a text attribute set to a text 
block directly in the score by right-clicking it and selecting 
the set from the context menu that appears.
If you select a text attribute set on the Text page when 
no text is selected in the score, the settings will be used 
the next time you insert some text.
ÖAfter you’ve selected a set for a text block, there will be 
a “link” between the text and the attribute set. Any changes 
to the attribute set will affect all texts that use it (see below). 
You can still edit any text settings manually (on the Project–Text Settings 
subpage) but then the “link” to the attribute set will be removed.
!For regular text you should probably avoid the “Stein-
berg” fonts. These are the fonts Cubase uses for all 
scoring symbols, etc.
Option Description
Frame Allows you to put the text in a rectangular (“Box”) or oval 
frame.
Melisma 
optionsThese determine the appearance of the “melisma line”, as 
described in the section “About the melisma lines” on 
page 590.
Positioning Allows you to select which side of the text block (left or 
right) should be used for calculating its position.This has 
an effect in situations where that text block is moved au-
tomatically (as a result of an Auto Layout function, when 
you move bar lines manually, etc.). If, for example, the text 
block appears just in front of a note (to the left of it), it will 
appear in a more sensible position after the adjustment, if 
the “Right” option is selected.
Alignment:
Left/Center/
RightAllows you to specify the alignment of the text. These op-
tions are only valid for texts with more than one line. 
						

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Working with text
Editing text attribute sets
If you edit the settings in a text attribute set, all texts using 
this particular set will be affected. This is very practical, 
since it allows you to use the same number of “generic” 
sets for all your projects (for titles, comments, lyrics, etc.), 
and simply change the fonts, sizes, etc. for a different 
project if necessary. This will also make it easier to move 
projects between computers (which may not have the 
same fonts installed).
1.Select the Attribute Sets tab on the Text Settings sub-
page of the Score Settings–Project page.
2.Select the attribute set you want to edit from the Set 
pop-up menu.
3.Change the settings as desired.
This includes the name of the set.
4.Click Apply.
Different types of text
Regular text
The regular Text option selected.
This type of text is inserted by selecting Text in the Other 
or the Layout symbol tabs.
The text is tied to the bar and staff position. If you move 
the bar or the entire staff, it moves with it.
Pasting text
You can paste text (e.g. from another program) into a text 
symbol in the score. To do this, select the text symbol and 
right-click it. Then, select “Text from Clipboard” from the 
context menu. This option is also available on the Func-
tions submenu of the Scores menu.Similarly, you can copy selected text by using the “Text to 
Clipboard” option from the context menu.
Lyrics
The Lyrics option selected.
This type of text is inserted by selecting Lyrics on the 
Other symbol tab.
When you insert lyrics, you should click below or above 
the note the syllable belongs to. The text will then appear 
horizontally centered around the note and vertically posi-
tioned to where you clicked. You can later move it up or 
down, as with any symbol.
Lyrics are tied to the note position. If you move the note, 
the text moves with it. The spacing between notes is also 
adjusted to make the lyrics fit.
Inserting lyrics for a number of notes
1.With lyrics selected, click below or above the first note 
with the Pencil tool.
2.A text input field is opened. Enter the text (the word or 
syllable) for that note.
3.Hit [Tab].
The program moves on to the next note.
4.Input text for this note and hit [Tab] again.
5.Proceed until the last note and then press [Return] or 
click outside the text box.
When you insert lyrics this way, the positions of the notes 
will automatically be adjusted so that no lyric “block” over- 
						

							593
Working with text
laps another. If this is not what you want, you can activate 
the option “Don’t Sync Lyrics” in the Lyrics category on the 
Score Settings–Project page (Notation Style subpage). If 
this is activated, the note positions will not be affected, 
which may be preferable.
When entering words with several syllables you normally 
separate the syllables with a dash (-). By default, the dash 
signs are automatically centered between the syllables – if 
this is not what you want, activate the option “Don’t Center 
Hyphens” in the Lyrics category on the Score Settings–
Project page (Notation Style subpage).
Lyrics and measure widths
When you first enter lyrics, the result may look crammed, 
since the words take up more space than the notes (the lyr-
ics are also selected just after entering the last word, which 
will make them look a bit odd when overlapping). To rem-
edy this, use the auto layout function to automatically adjust 
the measure widths (see “Auto Layout” on page 617).
Before and after using the auto layout function.
Adding a second verse
To insert a second line of lyrics, proceed as follows:
1.Enter the new lyrics above or below the existing verse.
2.Select all the words that should be in the new verse.
3.Right-click the selected words to open a context 
menu.
4.Select the appropriate verse from the Move To Verse 
submenu (Verse 1–6).
This assigns the selected lyrics to the selected verse.
To indicate that the words belong to another verse, they 
are automatically displayed in another color. However, all 
verses will print in black as usual.To select all words in one verse only, press [Shift] and 
double-click on the first word in that verse.
This selects all following words in the verse.
Inserting lyrics into voices
Each voice can have its own lyrics. If for example you have 
a vocal arrangement with several voices, you can add ly-
rics to them, one by one.
1.Click on the Lyrics symbol in the Other symbol tab, so 
that the Pencil tool is selected.
2.Make sure that the correct voice is selected (on the 
extended toolbar). See “Entering notes into voices” on 
page 540.
3.Click on the first note in the selected voice.
4.Enter the lyrics for this voice, using the [Tab] key to 
move from note to note, as described above.
5.Start over, by activating the next voice, clicking on the 
first note in that voice and proceeding as with the first voice.
6.If needed, adjust the position of the lyrics for each 
voice (see below).
Moving lyrics
If you want to move the lyrics up or down, for example to 
make room for a second verse, proceed as follows:
1.Hold down [Shift] and double-click on the first word in 
the lyrics.
All lyric “blocks” are selected.
2.Drag one of the lyric blocks up or down.
All selected lyric blocks are moved accordingly.
Adding lyrics from the clipboard
If you want to prepare your lyrics in another program, you 
can import them into Cubase the following way:
1.Create the lyrics in another program.
Separate words with space as usual, syllables within words with dash 
signs (-).
2.Copy the text.
3.In Cubase, select the first note to which the lyrics 
should be added.
4.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Lyrics from 
Clipboard” from the Functions submenu.
The lyrics are added, starting at the selected note. 
						

							594
Working with text
Layout text
The text symbols in the Layout symbol tab are part of the 
layout layer, and can thus be hidden or shown for different 
tracks in the layout, by activating the “L” column on the 
Score Settings–Layout page. The text will appear in all 
staves, for which you have activated the “L” column. This 
means it is tied to the bar and staff position. If you move 
the bar or the entire staff, it moves with it.
Block Text
Block Text allows you to import text from a file on disk or 
from the clipboard. Proceed as follows:
1.Click on the Block Text symbol in the desired tab to 
bring up the Pencil tool.
You can choose between project layer block text (from the Project tab –
useful for text that should appear on all pages, e. g. the score title), layout 
layer block text (from the Layout tab – if you want to print a title only for a 
particular track layout, e. g. for a particular instrument), or block text used 
for individual parts (from the Other tab – this text will only appear in the 
score for a particular part).
2.Click in the score where you want to insert the text.
A regular file dialog appears.
3.Select a text file or rtf file to import.
4.Click Open.
The text in the file is inserted into the score.
Right-clicking on inserted Block Text brings up a pop-
up menu with the following options:
The RTF Settings dialog
Selecting “Properties” from the context menu (or double-
clicking the Block Text) brings up a dialog with settings for 
the Block Text. These are:
Page text
The page text symbols are found on the Layout and 
Project tabs. They work the same way, but Project Page 
Text is part of the project layout, and will therefore appear 
in all layouts. 
The position of page text isn’t tied to a note, bar or staff 
position. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you move 
other objects on the page, the page text stays where you 
put it. Typically, it’s used for score titles, page numbers, 
copyright information and other text elements that you 
want displayed with all parts (on all pages if you like).
Proceed as follows to enter Page text:
1.Open the Layout or the Project tab of the symbols 
Inspector.
2.Click on the Page Text symbol to bring up the Pencil 
tool.
3.Click in the score.
It doesn’t matter where you click – the positioning is specified in the dia-
log that appears.
4.Enter the text you want displayed in the field at the top 
of the dialog.
You can use special characters to add “variables” such as page numbers 
– see below.
Menu item Description
Import  Text… Imports text from a text file or rtf file. The imported text will 
replace any text currently inserted at the position of the 
Block Text.
Update Text Reloads the text from the file.
Text From 
ClipboardPastes the text from the clipboard into the Block Text.
Text To
ClipboardCopies the Block Text to the clipboard.
Hide Hides the inserted block text. To make the text visible 
again, activate the Hide checkbox in the display filter bar, 
right-click on the text “Hidden” which is displayed for the 
hidden text and select “Show” on the context menu.
Properties Brings up the RTF Settings dialog. You can also open 
this by double-clicking the Block Text.
Setting Description
Font Lets you select the font to use for the Block Text. If “No 
Change” is selected, the font in the original file (if appli-
cable) is used.
Size The text size, as a percentage.
Draw Frame When this is activated, a frame is shown around the 
Block Text.
Word wrap When this is activated, line breaks are used to fit the text 
in the Block Text symbol.
Replace mode In this mode, the Block Text box will be opaque, covering 
what’s under it.
Trans mode In this mode, the Block Text box will be transparent. 
						

							595
Working with text
5.Adjust the settings for how the text should be posi-
tioned:
6.Select a text attribute set for the text, or make manual 
settings for font, size and style.
7.Click OK.
The text is inserted. You can adjust the positioning manually by dragging 
the text block.
Inserting variables
When you enter the text, you can also insert special char-
acters or “place holders” for different attributes. When the 
text is displayed, these characters will be replaced by their 
actual values (e.g. page numbers). The following variables 
are available:
For example, if you enter the text “%l, %r, Page %p”, these 
variables might be shown as “1st Violin, Quartet No.2, 
Page 12” in the score.
Using the Score Settings (Text page)
In the Score Settings (Text page) you can find a number of 
text-related settings. The symbol buttons correspond with 
the symbols found on the Other tab, the Layout tab, and 
the Project tab of the symbols Inspector, see “Symbol de-
tails” on page 579. You can use the Layer pop-up menu 
to switch between the display of the corresponding layers. 
Select the layer you wish to use from the Layer pop-up 
menu.
The text symbols available for this layer will be displayed to the left of the 
pop-up menu.
You can use the text symbols in the same way as you 
would use symbols from the Inspector or a symbol palette.
When you select a text symbol from the Score Settings–Text page, and 
move the mouse pointer over the score, the pointer will change to a pen-
cil, and you can enter text at the position you click on.
The Notepad tab and the Selection tab
Below the text symbols and the Layer pop-up you can find 
two tabs with large text entry fields.
Use the Notepad tab to enter longer text passages. 
When you are happy with the text in terms of wording and 
length, select all or part of the text, and select a note in the 
score. Now, the Insert Lyrics button below the Notepad 
tab becomes available. 
When you click Insert Lyrics, the selected text will be entered into the 
score, starting from the note you selected.
When you select text in the score and open the Selec-
tion tab, the selected word(s) are shown in the text field. 
You can now change the wording of the text, and use the 
text format options to the left to change the appearance of 
the selected text. When you are happy with the text and its 
formatting, click Apply in the Score Settings dialog to ap-
ply your changes to the selected text in the score.
Option Description
Show on all 
pagesWhen this is activated, the text will be shown on all 
pages. The “Except First” checkbox allows you to exclude 
the very first page.
Show on first 
pageWhen this is selected, the text will only be shown on the 
first page.
Line This determines how the text should be aligned. For ex-
ample, if you place several texts on “Top/Left”, you can 
sort them by entering the desired number of lines.
Toggle 
PositionWhen the Left or Right position option is selected to the 
right, activating this checkbox will make the text alternate 
between left and right alignment on even/odd pages.
Position 
buttonsDetermines where on the page you want the text, verti-
cally (Top/Bottom) and horizontally (Left, Center, Right). 
Text to enter Text that will be displayed
%p The current page number.
%l 
(lower case L)The long staff name.
%s The short staff name.
%r The name of the project.