Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

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MIDI processing
Other MIDI functions
The following items can be found on the Functions sub-
menu of the MIDI menu:
Legato
Extends each selected note so that it reaches the next 
note.
You can specify a gap or overlap for this function with the 
“Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences dialog (Edit
-
ing–MIDI page).
When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 
5 ticks before the next note.
When you activate “Legato Mode: Between Selected 
Notes Only”, the length of the note will be adjusted so that 
it reaches the next selected note, allowing you to apply 
Legato only to your bass line, for example.
ÖYou can also apply a legato using the “Scale Length/
Legato” slider in the MIDI editors, see 
“The Length sec-
tion” on page 379.
Fixed Lengths
This function resizes all selected notes to the length set 
with the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the MIDI editor 
toolbar.
Delete Doubles
This function removes double notes, i. e. notes of the same 
pitch on the exact same position from the selected MIDI 
parts. Double notes can occur when recording in Cycle 
mode, after Quantizing, etc.
Delete Controllers
This function removes all MIDI controllers from the se-
lected MIDI parts.
Delete Continuous Controllers
This function removes all “continuous” MIDI controller 
events from the selected MIDI parts. Therefore, “on/off” 
events such as sustain pedal events are not removed.
Delete Notes
Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is use-
ful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” af-
ter recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog 
in which you set up the criteria for the function.
The parameters have the following functionality:
Minimum Length
When the Minimum Length checkbox is activated, the note 
length is taken into account, allowing you to remove short 
notes. You can either specify the minimum length (for notes 
to be kept) in the value field or by dragging the blue line in 
the graphical length display below.
!This function is only available from within the MIDI 
editors. 
						

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MIDI processing
•The graphical length display can correspond to 1/4 bar, 
one bar, two bars or four bars.
You change this setting by clicking in the field to the right of the display.
In this case, the whole length display corresponds to two bars, and the 
Minimum Length is set to 32nd notes (60 ticks).
Minimum Velocity
When the Minimum Velocity checkbox is activated, the ve-
locity of notes is taken into account, allowing you to re-
move weak notes. You specify the minimum velocity (for 
notes to be kept) in the value display.
Remove when under
This setting is only available when both Minimum Length 
and Minimum Velocity is activated. By clicking in this field, 
you select whether both the length and the velocity criteria 
must be met for notes to be deleted, or whether one of the 
criteria will suffice.
OK and Cancel
Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to 
the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without 
deleting notes.
Restrict Polyphony
Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec-
ify how many “voices” are used (for the selected notes or 
parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is useful when 
you have an instrument with limited polyphony and want to 
make sure all notes will be played. The effect is achieved 
by shortening notes as required, so that they end before 
the next note starts.
Pedals to Note Length
This function scans for Sustain pedal on/off events, length-
ens the affected notes to match the Sustain pedal off posi-
tion, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/off events.
Delete Overlaps (mono)
This function allows you to make sure that no notes of the 
same pitch overlap (i.
 e. that one starts before the other 
ends). Overlapping notes of the same pitch can confuse 
some MIDI instruments (a new Note On is transmitted be
-
fore the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then 
be used to automatically solve the problem.
Delete Overlaps (poly)
This function shortens notes when required, so that no 
note begins before another ends. This happens regard
-
less of which pitch the notes have.
Velocity
This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate 
the velocity of notes in various ways.
The following types of velocity processing are available:
Add/Subtract
This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity 
values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the 
Amount parameter.
Compress/Expand
Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI notes 
by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio setting 
(0–300
 %). The principle behind this is that multiplying dif-
ferent velocity values with a factor higher than 1 (over 
100
 %) will also make the differences between velocity val-
ues greater, while using a factor lower than 1 (under 100 %) 
will make the differences smaller. In short:
•To compress (“even out” velocity differences), use ratio 
values below 100
 %.
After compression, you would probably want to add a velocity amount 
(with the Add/Subtract function) to maintain the average velocity level.  
						

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MIDI processing
•To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ra-
tio values above 100 %.
Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/
Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the mid
-
dle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0), 
expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only 
be between 0 and 127!
Limit
This function allows you to make sure that no velocity val-
ues fall outside a given range (the Lower and Upper val-
ues). Any velocity values outside this range are raised/
lowered to exactly the Lower/Upper values.
Fixed Velocity
This function sets the velocity of all selected notes to the 
Insert Velocity value on the toolbar in the MIDI editors.
Thin Out Data
Thins out MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on your ex-
ternal MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense con-
troller curves, etc. 
ÖCubase only: This also thins out MIDI controller and 
VST
 3 events that form part of Note Expression data.
You can also manually thin out the controller data by using 
the quantize function in the Key Editor.
Extract MIDI Automation
This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to 
quickly and easily convert the continuous controllers of 
your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI track automation data, 
making them available for editing in the Project window. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired MIDI part containing the continu-
ous controller data.
2.On the MIDI menu, open the Functions submenu and 
select “Extract MIDI Automation”.
3.In the Project window, open the automation tracks for 
the respective MIDI track. You will find that an automation 
track has been created for each of the continuous control
-
lers in the part. 
ÖIn the MIDI editors, the controller data will automati-
cally be removed from the controller lane.
This function can only be used for continuous controllers. 
Data such as Aftertouch, Pitchbend, or SysEx cannot be 
converted to MIDI track automation data.
ÖMIDI controller automation is also affected by the Au-
tomation Merge Mode, see “MIDI controller automation” 
on page 241.
Reverse
This function inverts the order of the selected events (or of 
all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to 
play backwards. Note that the effect is different from re
-
versing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individual notes 
will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it is only the 
order of playback that is changed.
Merge Tempo from Tapping (Cubase only)
This function allows you to create a complete tempo track 
based on your tapping, see the section 
“Merge Tempo 
From Tapping (Cubase only)” on page 469. 
						

							31
The MIDI editors 
						

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The MIDI editors
Introduction
There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase. You can use 
the tools and functions in the Project window for large-
scale editing, or the functions on the MIDI menu to process 
MIDI parts in various ways (see 
“What is affected by the 
MIDI functions?” on page 367). For hands-on graphical ed-
iting of the contents of MIDI parts, you use the MIDI editors:
•The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting 
notes graphically in an intuitive piano roll-style grid.
The Key Editor also allows for detailed editing of non-note events such 
as MIDI controllers. For more information, see “The Key Editor – Over-
view” on page 377.
•The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score 
and comes with advanced tools and functions for notation, 
layout and printing.
The Score Editor in Cubase is described in detail in “Part II: Score layout 
and printing (Cubase only)” on page 550. Cubase Artist features a basic version of the Score Editor, see “The basic Score Editor – Overview” on 
page 411.
•The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes 
advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corre
-
sponds to a separate drum sound. 
This is the editor to use when you are editing drum or percussion parts. 
For more information, see 
“The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 397.
•The List Editor shows all events in the selected MIDI 
parts as a list, allowing you to view and edit their properties 
numerically. It also allows you to edit SysEx messages.
For more information, see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 404 and “Working with SysEx messages” on page 407.
•The Edit In-Place function allows you to edit MIDI parts 
directly in the Project window.
This is similar to working in the Key Editor, but makes it easier to edit MIDI 
in context with other track types, see 
“The In-Place Editor” on page 396.
•Cubase only: You can also edit MIDI in the Project 
Browser.
The Project Browser is described in the chapter “The Project Browser 
(Cubase only)” on page 477.
ÖYou can define each of the editors mentioned above 
as your default MIDI editor, see below. 
This chapter describes how to use the MIDI editors. Fea-
tures that are identical in these editors are described in 
the Key Editor section. The sections about the Drum Edi
-
tor, the In-Place Editor, the List Editor, and the basic Score Editor only describe the features that are specific to 
these editors. The Score Editor for Cubase is described in 
detail in 
“Part II: Score layout and printing (Cubase only)” 
on page 550.
Opening a MIDI editor
There are two ways to open a MIDI editor:
•Select one or several parts (or a MIDI track, with no parts 
selected), open the MIDI menu and select Open Key Editor, 
Open Score Editor, Open Drum Editor, Open List Editor, or 
Open In-Place Editor (or use the corresponding key com
-
mand).
In Cubase Artist, the Score Editor is opened via the Scores submenu of 
the MIDI menu.
The selected parts (or all parts on the track, if no part was selected) will 
open in the selected editor.
•Double-click a part.
The default editor opens. Which editor this is, depends on the Default 
Edit Action setting in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–MIDI page).
If the “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned” option 
is activated and a drum map is selected for the edited 
track (see 
“Selecting a drum map for a track” on page 
401), the Drum Editor will open. 
If the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any edit-
ing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part. 
Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Option]-
[Shift] and dragging, or by using the Repeat function with 
the “Shared copies” option activated. In the Project win
-
dow, shared copies are indicated by an equal sign (=) in 
the top right corner of the part. 
						

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The MIDI editors
Handling several parts
When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI 
track containing several parts) selected, the editor con
-
tains a few functions that make working with multiple parts 
easier and more comprehensive:
•The “Currently Edited Part” pop-up menu on the toolbar 
lists all parts that are opened in the editor (or all parts on the 
track if no parts were selected). Here you can select which 
part is active for editing.
When you select a part from the list, it is automatically active and cen-tered in the note display.
ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by select-
ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool.
•The “Edit Active Part Only” button on the toolbar lets 
you restrict editing operations to the active part.
For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu 
with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected. 
Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a 
selection rectangle), only the notes in the active part will be selected.
“Edit Active Part Only” is activated on the toolbar.
•The “Zoom to Event” function on the Zoom submenu of 
the Edit menu lets you zoom in on the active part so that it 
fills the screen.
•The “Show Part Borders” button on the toolbar lets you 
see clearly defined borders for the active part.
When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, 
making the borders easily discernible. In the Key Editor, there are also two 
“markers” in the ruler with the name of the active part, marking its begin
-ning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part.
“Show Part Borders” is activated on the toolbar.
•Key commands allow you to cycle between parts (mak-
ing them active).
In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, you will find two functions for 
this: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key 
commands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts in the edi
-tors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 542. 
						

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The MIDI editors
The Key Editor – Overview  
The toolbar
The toolbar contains tools and various settings for the Key 
Editor. The following toolbar elements are available:
ÖYou can show/hide most of the toolbar elements by 
activating/deactivating the corresponding options on the 
context menu. Furthermore, you can store/recall different 
toolbar configurations, see 
“Using the Setup options” on 
page 534.
Toolbar
Info line
Inspector
Controller 
display
Ruler
Status line
Note 
display
OptionDescription
Set up Window 
LayoutClicking this button allows you to show/hide the status 
line and info line for the editor.
Solo EditorThis function is described in the section “The Solo Edi-tor button” on page 380.
Acoustic 
FeedbackThis function is described in the section “Acoustic Feed-back” on page 381.
Auto-ScrollThis button activates/deactivates Auto-Scroll for the 
Key Editor, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 380.
Tool buttonsThese are the tools used for editing in the Key Editor.
Independent 
Track LoopThis button activates/deactivates the independent track 
loop, see “The independent track loop” on page 381.
Auto Select 
ControllersUse this button to also select all available controller 
data for a note when selecting the note in the editor.
Show Note Ex-pression DataWhen this button is activated, Note Expression data is 
shown in the Key Editor (Cubase only), see “Note Ex-pression (Cubase only)” on page 428. 
Multiple Part 
ControlsThese controls allow you to show/hide the part borders 
and switch between several selected parts, see “Han-dling several parts” on page 376.
Indicate 
TranspositionsWhen this button is activated, MIDI notes are dis-played according to their transposition settings, see “Indicate Transpositions” on page 135.
Insert VelocityUse this field to specify a velocity value for any notes 
that are entered in the editor.
Nudge PaletteThe Nudge buttons allow you to move or trim elements 
in the editor, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 384.
Transpose 
PaletteThe transpose buttons allow you to transpose the se-lected notes, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 384.
Snap/QuantizeThe Snap controls are described in the section “The Snap function” on page 45 and the quantize functions in the chapter “MIDI processing” on page 366.
Step/MIDI InputThese controls are described in the sections “Editing notes via MIDI” on page 387 and “Step input” on page 388.
Event ColorsThe Color options are described in the section “Color-ing notes and events” on page 382.
Edit VST 
InstrumentThis button opens the VST Instrument panel (if the track 
is routed to a VST instrument).
Option Description 
						

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The MIDI editors
The status line
The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Key 
Editor.
It displays the following information:
•To show or hide the status line, click the “Set up Win-
dow Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deacti-
vate the “Status Line” option.
The info line
The info line shows information about the selected MIDI 
note. If several notes are selected, the values for the first 
note are displayed (in color). You can edit all values on the 
info line using regular value editing (see 
“Editing on the 
info line” on page 386 for details). Length and position 
values are displayed in the format currently selected for 
the ruler. Cubase only: If the Note Expression editor is 
open, the info line shows information about the selected 
Note Expression events (see 
“Editing Note Expression 
data” on page 434).
•To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window 
Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate 
the “Info Line” option.
The ruler
The ruler shows the timeline, by default in the display format 
selected on the Transport panel. You can select a separate 
format for a MIDI editor ruler on the Ruler pop-up menu, 
opened by clicking the arrow button to the right of it. For a 
list of the available formats, see 
“The ruler” on page 44.
At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two addi-
tional items:
•If “Time Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display, and 
controller display will be linear in relation to time.
This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between 
the bar lines will vary depending on the tempo.
•If “Bars+Beats Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display, 
and controller display will be linear in relation to tempo.
This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between 
beats will be constant.
In most cases, you would set the display format to 
“Bars+Beats” and “Bars+Beats Linear” mode when 
editing MIDI.
The Key Editor Inspector
On the left in the Key Editor, you will find the Inspector. It 
contains tools and functions for working with MIDI data.
The Expression Map section (Cubase only)
In the Expression Map section you can load an expression 
map. This is useful if you are working with articulations, 
see 
“Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 419.
The Note Expression section (Cubase only)
The Note Expression section contains functions and set-
tings related to Note Expression, see “Setting up the Note 
Expression Inspector tab” on page 430.
The Quantize section
The Quantize section allows you to access the main quan-
tize parameters. These are identical with the functions on 
the Quantize panel (see 
“The Quantize Panel” on page 
111) and the Advanced Quantize submenu of the Edit 
menu (see “Advanced Quantize functions” on page 110).
OptionDescription
Mouse Time 
PositionThis displays the exact time position of the mouse pointer, 
in the format selected for the ruler, allowing you to perform 
editing or to insert notes at exact positions.
Mouse Note 
PositionThis displays the exact pitch of the mouse pointer posi-tion, making it easier to find the right pitch when entering 
or transposing notes.
Current Chord 
DisplayWhen the project cursor is positioned over notes making 
up a chord, this chord is displayed here. 
						

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The MIDI editors
The Transpose section
The Transpose section allows you to access the main pa-
rameters for transposing MIDI events. These can also be 
found in the Transpose dialog, see 
“Transpose” on page 
367.
The Length section
The Length section contains the length-related options 
from the Functions submenu of the MIDI menu (see 
“Other 
MIDI functions” on page 371) as well as a Length/Legato 
slider.
•Use the “Scale Length/Legato” slider to change the 
length of the selected MIDI events (or all events of the ac
-
tive part if no events are selected).
At the maximum value the notes reach the beginning of the next note.
•Use the “Freeze MIDI Lengths” button to the right of the 
“Scale Length/Legato” slider to make the new length set
-
tings permanent. 
•Use the Overlap slider to finetune the distance between 
consecutive notes.
At “0 Ticks”, the “Scale Legato” slider extends each note so that it 
reaches the next note exactly. Positive values cause the notes to overlap 
and negative values allow you to define a small gap between the notes.
•Activate the “Between Selected” option if you want to 
use the Legato function or slider to extend a note until the 
next selected note (instead of the following note in the part).
This is identical with activating the “Legato Mode: Between Selected 
Notes Only” option in the Preferences dialog.
The note display
The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It con-
tains a grid in which MIDI notes are shown as boxes. The 
width of a box corresponds to the note length, and the 
vertical position of a box corresponds to the note number 
(pitch), with higher notes higher up in the grid. The piano 
keyboard helps you to find the right note number. 
For a description of how to display colors in the note dis-
play, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 382.
The controller display
The area at the bottom of the Key Editor window is the 
controller display. It consists of one or several controller 
lanes, each showing one of the following properties or 
event types:
• Velocity values of the notes
• Pitchbend events
• Aftertouch events
• Poly Pressure events
• Program Change events
• SysEx events
• Articulations and Dynamics (see “Expression maps (Cubase 
only)” on page 419 and “Working with mapped dynamics” on 
page 685).
• Any type of continuous controller event (see “Editing continu-
ous controllers on the controller lane” on page 392)
To change the size of the controller display, drag the di-
vider between the controller display and the note display.
Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller 
display, with higher bars corresponding to higher velocity 
values.
Each velocity bar corresponds to a note in the note display.
Events other than velocity values are shown as blocks, the 
heights of which correspond to the values of the events. 
The beginning of an event is marked by a curve point. To 
select an event, click on the curve point, so that it turns red.
ÖUnlike notes, events in the controller display have no 
length. The value of an event in the display is “valid” until 
the start of the next event. 
						

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The MIDI editors
For a description of editing in the controller display, see 
“Using the controller display” on page 388.
Key Editor operations
Zooming
Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the stan-
dard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Zoom 
tool or the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu.
•When you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool, the result 
depends on the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal 
Zooming Only” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing–
Tools page).
If this is activated, the window will only be zoomed horizontally; if not, the 
window will be zoomed both horizontally and vertically.
Using the Trim tool
The Trim tool allows you to change the length of note 
events by cutting off the end or the beginning of notes.
Using the Trim tool means moving the note-on or the note-
off event for one or several notes to a position defined with 
the mouse. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the Trim tool on the toolbar.
The mouse pointer changes to a knife symbol.
2.To edit a single note, click on it with the Trim tool. The 
range between the mouse pointer and the end of the note 
will be removed.
You can use the mouse note info on the status line to find the exact po-sition for the trim operation.
3.To edit several notes, click and drag with the mouse 
across the notes.
A line is displayed. The notes will be trimmed along this line.
Trimming the end of three note events.
•By default, the Trim tool will cut off the end of notes. To 
trim the beginning of the note(s), press [Alt]/[Option] while 
dragging.
•If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will 
get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or 
end time for all edited notes.
You can change the Trim tool key commands in the Pref-
erences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
ÖNote that the trimmed note ends or starts do not snap 
to the grid.
Playing back
You can play back your music as usual when working in a 
MIDI editor. There are several features designed to make 
editing easier during playback.
The Solo Editor button
If you activate the Solo Editor button, only the edited MIDI 
parts will be heard during regular playback.
Auto-Scroll
As described in the section “Auto-Scroll” on page 47, the 
Auto-Scroll function makes the window “follow” the project 
cursor during playback, so that the current play position is 
visible at all times. However, when you are working in a 
MIDI editor, you may want to deactivate Auto-Scroll – this 
way, the events you are working with will stay visible.
The Auto-Scroll buttons in each MIDI editor are indepen-
dent of the Project window Auto-Scroll setting, which 
means that Auto-Scroll can be activated in the Project win
-
dow and deactivated in the MIDI editor you are working in.