Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

							561
Working with symbols
Adding a slur/tie between two notes
1.Select two notes.
2.Click the correct slur/tie symbol in the Inspector, so 
that the Pencil tool is selected.
3.Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and [Shift] and click on 
one of the two notes.
The slur/tie is added between the two selected notes.
Inserting a slur over a selection of notes
1.Select a span of notes.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Insert Slur”.
A slur is created, starting at the first selected note and ending at the last.
The Bezier slur
The Bezier slur is a special slur symbol, found on the Dy-
namics symbol tab. Unlike the regular slur, this symbol is 
made up of a bezier curve, allowing you to create more ad-
vanced curve shapes.
To add a Bezier slur, click on the symbol in the Inspector 
so that the Pencil tool is selected, and click or drag in the 
score. Clicking creates a Bezier slur of the default length 
and shape, while dragging creates a straight line.
You will find that the default Bezier slur has four curve 
points – one at each end and two along the curve.
To move the slur, click on it (but not on a curve point) 
and drag.
To resize the slur, click and drag the end points.
To change the shape of the slur, click on one of the mid-
dle curve points and drag in any direction.Right-clicking on a curve point brings up a context menu 
with the following options:
Creating trills
If you have recorded or entered a trill, Cubase can help 
you display this properly:
1.Select the notes that make up the trill.
2.Right-click on one of the notes and select “Build 
Trill…” from the context menu.
3.Select an option from the dialog that appears.
The radio buttons determine how the trill should look. Activate the “Help 
Note” option if you want an extra note to indicate between which notes 
the trill should be played.
4.Click OK.
Now the following happens:
 All notes except the first one (and possibly the second) are 
hidden.
 The first note automatically gets a display length matching the 
length of the whole trill.
 If you choose to include a help note, the second note is con-
verted to a “Graphic” note, with brackets but without stem. 
Otherwise, the second note is hidden, too.
 The trill symbols you selected in the dialog are inserted.
Inserting symbols across staves
If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while adding a symbol to 
one staff in a grand staff, this symbol will be put in at cor-
responding positions on all staves. This allows you for ex-
ample to insert rehearsal marks, repeats, etc. for all instru-
ments at the same time.
Option Description
Add Points/
Reduce PointsAdds another pair of curve points to the Bezier slur. This 
allows you to create very complex slur shapes. After add-
ing points, there will be an additional menu item “Reduce 
Points” – selecting it removes the additional curve points.
Add Thickness Makes the Bezier slur thicker.
Reduce 
ThicknessMakes the Bezier slur thinner.
Hide This hides the slur symbol, see “Hiding/showing objects” 
on page 599. 
						

							562
Working with symbols
Adding a keyboard symbol
The “Other” tab contains a piano keyboard symbol, useful 
for example in educational scores. The symbol has the fol-
lowing properties:
To insert the keyboard symbol, select it from the Inspec-
tor, click with the Pencil tool at the desired position and 
drag a box to specify the approximate size of the keyboard.
After you have inserted the keyboard symbol, you can 
drag its edges to resize it vertically or horizontally.
If you right-click on an inserted keyboard symbol and 
select “Properties” from the context menu, a dialog opens 
allowing you to specify further properties for the symbol.
You can also double-click on an inserted keyboard symbol to open this 
dialog.
Adding guitar chord symbols
A fretboard symbol of a guitar chord can be inserted any-
where in the score. 
Guitar symbols are found on the “Guitar Symbols” tab and 
the “Other” tab in the Symbols Inspector.
The Guitar Symbols tab contains all Guitar symbols of 
the current guitar library, see “Using the guitar library” on 
page 563. If the symbol you want to insert is among these, 
select it and insert it as you would any other symbol, see 
above.
To insert a guitar symbol not present in the guitar library, 
proceed as follows:
1.Open the “Other” tab.
2.Click on the guitar chord symbol, so that the Pencil 
tool is selected.
3.Click in the score, at the position where you want the 
symbol to appear.
The Guitar Symbol dialog appears.
To put a black dot on any fret and string, click on it. 
To remove it, click again.
To add a symbol just above the string, outside the fret-
board, click there.
Consecutive clicks allow you to select between a ring (open string), a 
cross (do not play this string) and no symbol.
Option Description
Size Governs the width of the keys.
Start Note This is the leftmost note in the keyboard symbol.
Show Note 
NamesWhen this is activated, each C key is displayed with 
note name and octave (C1, C2, etc.).
White/Black 
Keys transparentActivate these if you want the white and/or black keys 
to be transparent. 
						

							563
Working with symbols
To add a capodaster number, click to the left of the 
symbol.
Consecutive clicks allow you to step through the possibilities.
You can also add a capodaster symbol (a line over the 
strings), by setting the “Capo String” parameter to a value 
higher than 0.
By adjusting the Capo End and Start values, you can create capodaster 
symbols that span fewer strings.
Use the “Size” value field to adjust the size of the chord 
symbol.
If you want the symbol to be horizontal, activate the 
“Horizontal” checkbox.
To display more or fewer frets than the default six, 
change the “Frets” value.
4.Click Apply.
The guitar symbol appears in the score. 
Clicking the Insert Notes button will insert the actual 
notes in the chord into the score.
You can also right-click on a guitar symbol and select “Insert Notes” from 
the context menu.
You can edit the symbol at any time by double-clicking it, 
changing the settings in the dialog and clicking Apply. 
Note that you can also access the symbols you have de-
fined in the guitar library by right-clicking a guitar symbol – 
see below.
ÖIf you select “Make Chord Symbol” from the context 
menu, the corresponding chord symbol will be displayed 
above the guitar symbol. This function is very useful when 
writing lead sheets, for example.
Using the guitar library
The above method is fine if you only want to add a few 
chord symbols to your score. If you need a lot of chord 
symbols, or if you are using chord symbols in a lot of dif-
ferent scores, you can gather all your chord symbols in a 
“guitar library” instead. This way you do not have to recre-
ate the same chord symbol over and over again.
Defining chord symbols
1.Double-click on one of the symbols in the Guitar Sym-
bols tab in the Inspector to open the guitar library.
Alternatively, you can open the Score Settings–Project page and select 
the “Guitar Library” subpage.
2.To add a guitar chord symbol to the library, click the 
New button.
A chord symbol appears in the list to the left.
3.To edit the chord symbol, double-click it in the list.
This opens the Guitar Symbol dialog, as when editing a chord symbol in 
the score. 
The symbol you create will also be “interpreted” and its 
name will be displayed to the right of the fretboard symbol.
This can also be edited by double-clicking if you like.
To sort the available symbols in the library according to 
their root notes, click the Sort button.
To remove a symbol from the library, select it in the list 
and click Remove.
To save the current library as a separate file, select 
“Save…” from the Functions pop-up menu.
A file dialog appears, allowing you to specify a name and location for the 
file.
To load a guitar library file, select “Load current Pane…” 
from the Functions pop-up menu.
In the file dialog that appears, locate and open the desired guitar library file. 
!Loading a guitar library file replaces the current 
library! 
						

							564
Working with symbols
There are also two additional checkboxes in the Guitar 
Library dialog:
Inserting symbols from the library
Apart from the “Use for Make Chords” option above, there 
are two ways to insert symbols from the guitar library into 
the score:
Use the Functions pop-up menu on the Guitar Library 
subpage of the Score settings–Project page when creat-
ing or editing guitar symbols.
Right-click on a guitar symbol in the score and select a 
chord symbol from the Presets submenu on the context 
menu.
Adding an image file
You can insert image files as symbols into the Score. This 
allows you to import logos, copyright symbols, images of 
finger positions, etc. 
Proceed as follows:
1.In the Symbols Inspector, open the Other, the Layout 
or the Project tab.
Image files can be inserted on all three layers, see “Background: The dif-
ferent layers” on page 556.
2.Click on the Image File button to select the Pencil tool. 
Click in the score at the position where you want to insert 
the file.
A file dialog opens.
3.Locate and select the image file you want to insert.
The lower section of the Import dialog contains the follow-
ing settings:
To copy the referenced file into the Project folder, acti-
vate the “Copy to Project folder” option. 
This is recommended as it will make it easier to manage all files used in a 
project.
If you modify your score, by adding staves for example, 
the position of an inserted image file will change. If this is 
not what you want, activate “Stick to Page” to keep it at a 
fixed position in your staff.
The Transparency parameter allows you to set the de-
sired transparency of the image.
4.Click Open to insert the file.
The image file is inserted. Its size depends on the printer 
resolution. However, you can scale the image by dragging 
its handles. To restore the printer resolution, right-click on 
the image to open the context menu and select “Snap to 
Printer Resolution”.
You can modify the settings you made on import by right-
clicking on the image and selecting “Properties” on the 
context menu, to open the Image Properties dialog.
Option Description
Use for Make 
ChordsWhen this is activated, and you use the “Make Chord 
Symbol” function (see “Using Make Chord Symbols” on 
page 578), the program will insert guitar symbols as well 
as regular chords (if any fitting guitar symbols can be 
found). If there are several guitar symbols for a certain 
chord in the Guitar Library, the first one will be used.
Small Display If this is activated, the chord symbols in the list will be 
displayed in the size they will have in the score. If it is de-
activated, the symbols will be displayed in a larger size, 
for easier editing. 
						

							565
Working with symbols
Using layout symbols
Symbols inserted from the Layout tab belong to the layout 
layer. When you are editing a layout containing several 
tracks, you can have inserted layout symbols automatically 
copied to any combination of tracks in the layout. You de-
cide which staves should display layout symbols by ticking 
their “L” column in the Score Settings–Layout page 
(opened by selecting “Settings…” on the Scores menu).
Here, layout symbols will be displayed for the first two tracks.
 Any editing you perform to layout symbols is automatically du-
plicated in the other tracks.
 The display of layout symbols for different tracks can be deac-
tivated at any time.
 Layout symbols can be copied between layouts, by using the 
Get Form function on the Functions pop-up menu on the 
Score Settings–Layout page.
One example of how to use layout symbols: 
Let’s say you are editing a full orchestra score, and want 
rehearsal marks inserted for more than one staff (typically, 
above each instrument group – brass, strings, percussion, 
etc.). Now all you need to do is insert the rehearsal marks 
from the Layout tab for one of the tracks. To do so, open 
the Score Settings–Layout page, tick the “L” column for 
the desired tracks/staves and click Apply.
Using Project symbols
Project symbols are part of the project layer and will there-
fore appear in all layouts. The project layer also contains 
changes to bar lines (e.g. repeats and double bar lines) 
and bar number offsets. Typically you use Project symbols 
when you know you want these shown for all combina-
tions of tracks.ÖYou can also use Project symbols in combination with 
the Arranger mode to have the program play back accord-
ing to the score, e. g. repeats, Da Capos and endings.
See “Scores and the Arranger mode” on page 618.
Selecting symbols
Almost all symbols can be selected by clicking on them. 
For symbols that have a length or size, one or more han-
dles appear.
A selected crescendo
An exception to this are the slurs and ties which can be 
selected by clicking on the end points or by drawing a se-
lection rectangle.
Using the lock layers
Sometimes it can be very hard to click on a symbol or 
other object in the score without accidentally selecting 
other symbols nearby. To remedy this, you can assign dif-
ferent types of objects to different “lock layers” (up to 
three) and instruct Cubase to “lock” one or two of these 
layers, making them “unmovable”. Furthermore, you can 
lock the layout and project layers separately if needed.
Proceed as follows:
Setting up the lock layers
1.Open the Preferences dialog, and select the Scores–
Event Layers page. 
						

							566
Working with symbols
2.Assign each event type to a layer (1, 2 or 3).
It is a good idea to specify different layers for event types that might con-
flict “graphically”. For example, you might want to assign bar numbers 
and note symbols to different layers, if you find that you accidentally 
move bar numbers when editing note symbols and vice versa.
3.Click OK to close the dialog.
Alternatively, you can right-click on one of the Layer but-
tons (1-2-3) on the extended toolbar to bring up a pop-up 
menu, showing which object types are associated with 
that layer.
A checkmark for an object type means it belongs to that layer. If no 
checkmark is shown, you can select the object type from the pop-up 
menu to move it to that layer.
Locking a layer
To “lock” a layer, click on its lock layer button.
In this figure, layer 2 is locked. Event types assigned to layer 2 cannot 
be selected, moved or deleted.
Visual indication of the layers
Objects belonging to locked event layers will be “greyed 
out” in the score. This makes it very easy to find out which 
object belongs to which layer – perhaps especially useful 
for the layout and project layers. For example, to quickly 
spot all objects in the layout layer, lock all other layers by 
clicking their buttons. Now, only layout layer objects will 
be shown normally; all other objects will be greyed out.
Moving and duplicating symbols
There are four ways to move and duplicate symbols: 
 By dragging them with the mouse (see below).
 By using the computer keyboard (moving only – see “Moving 
by using the computer keyboard” on page 567).
 By using the bar handles (see “Moving and duplicating with 
the bar handles” on page 568).
 By using the Paste Note Attributes function (duplicating note 
symbols only – see “Copying settings between notes” on 
page 545).
Moving and duplicating by using the mouse
This is done much as with other objects in Cubase. The 
following rules apply:
 Note symbols and note-dependent symbols move with the 
notes/chords they belong to. In other words, if you move the 
note/chord, the symbols move with it/them.
 Note symbols (like accents and lyrics) can only be moved ver-
tically. Other symbols (like braces and brackets) can only be 
moved horizontally.
 All other symbols without handles can be moved freely. If you 
hold down [Ctrl]/[Command], movement is restricted to one 
direction only.
 If the symbol has one or more handles when it is selected, do 
not drag it by the handles, or you will change its shape instead 
of moving it.
 Slurs and ties are an exception, as they can only be moved by 
first dragging one handle and then the other. However, if you 
use the Layout tool (see “Graphic moving of notes” on page 
550) to move the notes they belong to, or if you change the 
measure width, they will be adjusted automatically.
 Duplicating is done by moving with [Alt]/[Option] pressed, as 
always in Cubase. Slurs, ties and bar lines cannot be dupli-
cated with this method.
There are two features to help you position symbols (and 
other score objects) correctly: the rulers and the Position 
Info window. 
						

							567
Working with symbols
The rulers 
Unlike other editors, the Score Editor does not have a 
meter/time position-based ruler. Instead, its rulers are 
“graphical”, i.e. they indicate the actual x-y position of ob-
jects (with “zero” at the upper left corner).
The current pointer position is indicated by thin lines in 
the rulers.
To hide the rulers, pull down the pop-up menu above 
the scroll bar to the right and select “Off”.
This pop-up menu can also be shown by right-clicking in the ruler.
To display the ruler again, pull down the same pop-up 
menu and select one of the units (inches, centimeters or 
points).
This setting will also affect the units used in the Position Info window 
(see below).
The Position Info window
If you need to fine-tune the graphical positions of symbols 
and other objects, you should use the Position Info win-
dow. This makes positioning easier in two ways:
 You get a numerical indication of the exact position of the 
mouse pointer (and any object you are dragging).
 You can move objects or staves by typing in position values.
You display the Position Info window by clicking in the ruler.
The window contains the following settings and values:
Dragging symbols across staves
If you drag a symbol across the staves, you will note how 
the “active staff” indicator to the left follows the mouse 
pointer. Use this as an indication, to make sure that sym-
bols end up in the correct staff.
If you are editing several tracks at the same time, and 
want to make sure that a symbol is not accidentally moved 
to another track when you drag it vertically, click on the “L” 
button on the extended toolbar.
When this is activated, you cannot move symbols across staves by drag-
ging.
Moving by using the computer keyboard
You can assign key commands for moving symbols, notes 
or rests graphically in the Key Commands dialog on the File 
menu. The commands are found under the “Nudge” cate-
gory and are called “Graphical Left”, “Graphical Right”, 
“Graphical Top” and “Graphical Bottom”.
Selecting an object and using one of these commands is 
the same as dragging them with the Layout tool, but this 
method offers higher precision.
Option Description
Measure in 
Inch/cm/mm/ptClick this label to change units for the Position Info win-
dow. This choice will also affect the units used in the rulers.
Abs/Rel. Pos Click this label to select whether X-Y position values 
should be “absolute” (referring to the upper left corner of 
the current page) or “relative” (referring to the upper left 
corner of the active staff).
X, Y When a single object is selected, these values show the 
horizontal and vertical position of this object.
When no objects or several objects are selected, these 
values show the current horizontal and vertical position of 
the pointer.
When a single object is selected, you can click on these 
values and type in a new position for the object.
dX, dY When you are moving an object, these values indicate 
the horizontal and vertical distance you have moved it.
You can click and type in values to move the object(s) by 
the specified distances.
Sel. Staff If “Abs. Pos” is selected (see above), this value shows 
the distance from the top of the score page to the top of 
the active staff. 
You can click and type in a value to move the active staff.
If “Rel. Pos” is selected, this value will always be 0, since 
vertical positions are related to the top of the active staff!
To Prev Staff The distance between the active staff and the staff above 
it. Clicking and typing in a value will move the active staff.
To Next Staff The distance between the active staff and the staff below 
it. Clicking and typing in a value will move the staves be-
low the active staff. Option Description 
						

							568
Working with symbols
Moving and duplicating with the bar handles
This function allows you to move or copy the contents of a 
whole bar to one or several other bars. You can select 
which elements in the bar should be included in the oper-
ation. Proceed as follows:
1.Bring up the display filter bar by clicking the “Show Fil-
ter View” button on the toolbar.
2.On the filter bar, make sure the “Bar Handles” option 
is activated.
Now, each bar in the score is shown with a handle in the upper left corner.
3.Double-click on the handle of the bar from which you 
want to copy or move symbols.
The Bar Copy dialog appears.
4.Make sure that only the symbol types you want to 
move/copy are checked.
5.If you have several subsequent bars to which you want 
to copy symbols, set the “Repeats” value to this number of 
bars.
If you only want to copy symbols from one bar to another, make sure “Re-
peats” is set to 1. This option is only available for copying, not for moving.
6.If you want this dialog to appear every time you per-
form the move/copy operation (see below), activate 
“Show Dialog”.
7.Click OK to close the dialog.
8.To copy the specified event types to another bar, hold 
down [Alt]/[Option], click on the bar handle of the first bar 
and drag it to the “target” bar.
To move the event types instead of copying them, drag the bar handle 
without holding down [Alt]/[Option].
If you activated “Show Dialog” in step 6 above, the Bar 
Copy dialog appears, allowing you to confirm your settings.
Click OK to close the dialog and perform the operation.
Now, the following happens:
If you activated “Note Symbols” in step 4 above, the 
note symbols are copied from the “source” bar and pasted 
onto notes at the same positions in the “target” bar. If 
there is a note symbol for a certain note in the “source” 
bar, but no note at the corresponding position in the “tar-
get” bar, the symbol will be ignored.
The actual positions of notes are used as a basis for this operation – not 
the displayed positions.
 If you activated other types of symbols in step 4 above, these 
will simply be moved to the same graphical position in the “tar-
get” bar.
 If you set “Repeats” to a number larger than 1 in step 5 above, 
the same symbols will be pasted into that number of bars 
(starting from the one you drag the bar handle to).
 If you do not hold down [Alt]/[Option] when dragging the bar 
handle, the symbols (and other event types specified in the di-
alog) are removed from the “source” bar.
Moving note symbols
Note symbols, slurs and ties all have “default positions”. 
This determines the vertical distance between the note 
head(s) and the symbol. 
You can manually adjust the vertical positions of individ-
ual symbols, but if you move or transpose their notes, the 
symbols are automatically reset to their default positions. 
This also ensures that note symbols and slurs are positioned sensibly 
when you change the Display Transpose settings.
Bar handles
!If there already are symbols (or other objects) of the 
specified types in the “target” bars, these will be re-
moved.
If you copy the note symbols from the first bar to the second bar…
…only symbols that find corresponding note positions in the second 
bar will be copied. 
						

							569
Working with symbols
To reset the vertical positions of note symbols and slurs 
in a score, right-click on the corresponding object and se-
lect “Default position” from the context menu.
Changing length, size and shape
You can change the shape of any symbol that has a 
length. Proceed as follows:
Changing the length of a symbol
1.Select the symbol.
The handles appear.
Symbols with a length have two handles when selected.
2.Drag one of the handles.
You may be restricted to vertically or horizontally only, depending on the 
type of symbol.
Resizing note symbols and dynamics
1.Right-click on a dynamic or note symbol.
2.Select the desired option from the Size submenu.
The size of the symbol will change accordingly.
Changing the symbol size.
Altering the shape and direction of slurs and 
ties
ÖThis section describes how to alter the “regular” slur 
and tie symbols. How to add and edit Bezier slur symbols 
is described in the section “The Bezier slur” on page 561.There are two types of slurs and ties in the Symbols In-
spector. The up/down variation of each actually represent 
the same symbol but with different initial direction. You 
can perform the following editing to slurs and ties:
By dragging the middle handle up/down you can 
change the shape of the curve. 
Dragging the middle handle of a slur changes its shape.
By selecting a slur or a tie and clicking the “Flip” symbol 
on the extended toolbar or by selecting “Flip Position” in 
the context menu, you can change the direction and posi-
tioning of the slur or tie.
Actually, there are three “modes” for a slur or tie. You step through these 
three modes by clicking the button.
By dragging the end points of a slur or tie, you can 
change its shape without affecting its “relation” to the 
notes it belongs to.
In other words, the end point of the slur/tie will then keep its relative dis-
tance to that note when the note is moved with the Layout tool or when 
the measure width is adjusted.
By holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] and dragging the 
end points of a slur or tie, it can be detached from the 
notes it belonged to.
ÖTo restore the default shape of a symbol, right-click on 
it and select “Default position” from the context menu. See 
“Moving note symbols” on page 568.
To change the default shape and spacing of slurs and 
ties, open the Score Settings–Project page and edit the 
settings “Slur’s Start & End Distance from Note Head” 
and “Slur’s Middle Distance from Note Head” in the Spac-
ings subpage.
These settings will be used for all new slurs and ties you create, as well as 
for all existing slurs for which you have not manually changed the shape.
!In the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), 
there is a preference called “Keep Crescendo Sym-
bols Horizontal”. When this is activated, crescendo 
and diminuendo symbols will never be slanted. 
						

							570
Working with symbols
Deleting symbols
This is done as with all other objects in Cubase, either 
with the Erase tool or by selecting it and pressing [Delete] 
or [Backspace].
Copy and paste
All symbols except those in the Layout and Project tabs 
can be copied and pasted just as any other object in Cu-
base. The following applies:
Symbols that were tied to notes (e.g. accents) will be-
come “free-floating” objects when pasted. 
That is, they are not tied to any note any more. If this is not what you 
want, consider copying with the bar handles, as described in the section 
“Moving and duplicating with the bar handles” on page 568.
Alignment
Symbols can be aligned as in drawing programs. Proceed 
as follows:
1.Select all objects you want to align.
2.On the Scores menu, Align Elements submenu, select 
the desired option.
The “Dynamics” option is a special function for aligning 
dynamic symbols, as described in the section “Aligning 
dynamics” on page 572.
Symbol details
This section further describes some of the symbol tabs.
The “Clefs etc.” tab
Clefs
You can insert a clef symbol anywhere in the score. This will 
have an effect on the notes, just as the first clef on the staff 
has. And just as with the first clef, the type is selected from 
a dialog that appears as soon as you click. See “Inserting 
and editing clefs, keys or time signatures” on page 522 and 
“Setting key, clef and time signature” on page 499.
Option Result
Left
Right
Top
Bottom
Center Vertically
Center 
Horizontally
!Note symbols like staccato and accents can only be 
aligned horizontally.