Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

6
Working with tracks and lanes 

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Working with tracks and lanes
Setting up tracks
Adding tracks
To add a track to the project, proceed as follows: 
1.Open the “Add Track” submenu from the Project 
menu or from the track list context menu.
The new track is added below the currently selected track in the track 
list.
2.Select the desired track type.
If you select the Audio, MIDI, Group Channel, or Instrument option from 
the Add Track submenu, a dialog opens, allowing you to insert several 
tracks in one go. Just enter the desired...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Resizing tracks
•To change the width of the track list area, drag the bor-
der between the track list and the event display.
•To change the height of an individual track, click on its 
lower border in the track list and drag up or down.
•To change the height of all tracks simultaneously, hold 
down [Ctrl]/[Command] and resize one of the tracks in this 
way.
If “Snap Track Heights” is activated on the Track Scale pop-up menu 
(see below), the track height will change in...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Defining the track time base
In the Inspector or track list you can set the time base in-
dividually for each track, by clicking on the “Toggle Time-
base” button. Tracks can be either musical (tempo) or 
linear (time) based or follow the Transport Main display:
•Musical 
On a track using musical time base, the positions of events are repre-
sented as meter values (bars, beats, 1/16th notes and ticks, with 120 
ticks per 1/16th note). If you change the playback tempo, the...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Creating parts
Parts are containers for MIDI or audio events, or even for 
tracks (see 
“Working with folder parts” on page 79). 
Creating MIDI parts
A MIDI part is automatically created when you record. This 
will contain the recorded events. However, you can also 
create empty MIDI parts and later add events to them. 
There are two ways to do this:
•Draw a part on a MIDI track with the Pencil tool.
You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Moving tracks
•To move a track, click and drag it up or down in the list.
•To move one or several selected tracks to a folder, se-
lect “Move Selected Tracks to New Folder” from the con-
text menu.
Disabling tracks
Audio tracks can be disabled by selecting “Disable Track” 
from the track list context menu. Disabling a track is similar 
to muting it (see 
“Muting events” on page 65), since a dis-
abled track will not be played back. However, disabling a 
track not only...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Lanes are handled differently, depending on whether you 
work with audio or MIDI:
•Audio
As each audio track can only play back one single audio event at a time, 
you will only hear the take that is activated for playback (e.
 g. the last lap 
of a cycle recording). 
•MIDI
Overlapping MIDI takes (parts) can be played back simultaneously. For 
example, if you recorded in “Mix-Stacked” mode, you hear all takes from 
all cycle laps. There is no playback priority between...

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Working with tracks and lanes
•To glue cuts, select a range that spans all the cuts that 
you want to glue and double-click.
The gluing affects all the lanes of a track.
•To correct the timing of a range, hold down [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand]-[Alt]/[Option] (the tool modifier for Slip Event) and 
drag with the mouse.
The mouse pointer changes its shape to indicate that you can change 
the timing.
ÖFor all comping operations except “Slip Events”, Snap 
is taken into account. 
Cubase only: You can also perform a...

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Working with tracks and lanes
Organizing tracks in folder tracks
Creating Folder tracks
Moving tracks into a folder is a way to structure and orga-
nize tracks in the Project window. By grouping tracks in 
folder tracks, you can solo and mute them in a quicker and 
easier way and perform editing on several tracks as one 
entity. Folder tracks can contain any type of track includ
-
ing other folder tracks.
Working with folder tracks
•Creating a folder track
On the Project menu open the “Add Track”...

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Working with tracks and lanes
• Splitting a folder part with the Scissors tool.
• Gluing folder parts together with the Glue tube tool. This will 
only work if the adjacent folder parts contain events or parts 
on the same track.
• Resizing a folder part resizes the contained events and parts 
according to the selected resizing method.
• Muting a folder part. This will mute its contained events and 
parts.
Tracks inside a folder can be edited as one entity by per-
forming the editing directly on the...