Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

							6
Working with tracks and lanes 
						

							72
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 number of tracks in the Count 
field.
•For audio and group channel tracks, the channel config-
uration – mono, stereo or surround configuration (Cubase 
only) – can be set in the Configuration pop-up menu. 
ÖThe “Add Track Using Track Preset” option allows you 
to select a Track Preset. This is described in the chapter 
“Working with track presets” on page 331.
Once you have created tracks, you can manipulate and re-
arrange them in various ways. This is explained in the fol-
lowing sections.
Removing tracks
To remove tracks, you have the following options:
•Select the track you want to remove, open the Project 
menu and select “Remove Selected Tracks”.
•In the track list, right-click on the track you want to re-
move, and select “Remove Selected Tracks” from the 
context menu.
•You can also remove all tracks not containing any 
events by selecting “Remove Empty Tracks” from the 
Project menu. 
Naming tracks
To rename a track, proceed as follows:
1.Double-click in the name field and type in a new name 
for the track.
2.Press [Return] to close the name field.
•If you want all events on the track to get the same name, 
hold down any modifier while pressing [Return].
•If “Parts get Track names” is activated in the Prefer-
ences dialog (Editing page) and you move an event from 
one track to another, the moved event will automatically be 
named according to its new track. Otherwise the event 
will retain the name of the track it was previously on.
Coloring tracks
All tracks are automatically assigned a color.
•To control which colors are used for new tracks, use the 
“Auto Track Color Mode” pop-up menu in the Preferences 
dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page). 
The available options are described in the section “Applying track colors 
automatically” on page 537.
•To change the color for existing tracks, use the Select 
Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar.
This is described in detail in the section “About the Select Colors pop-up menu” on page 538.
•To change the color for a track you can also press 
[Ctrl]/[Command], point the mouse at the strip where the 
track color is shown and click.
The color strip is shown, allowing you to select the desired color.
This method works in several places where the track color is visible, i. e. 
in the track list, the track name field in the Inspector, and the channel 
name field in the Mixer.
•To override the track color for individual events and 
parts, use the Color tool or the Select Colors pop-up 
menu.
For more information, see “Coloring tracks, parts, or events manually” on 
page 538. 
						

							73
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 fixed increments when you 
resize it.
•To set the number of tracks to view in the current Project 
window, use the Track Scale pop-up menu (opened by 
clicking the arrow button above the vertical zoom control).
The track height will be adjusted to show only the number of tracks speci-
fied on the pop-up menu. By selecting “Zoom N Tracks” from the pop-up 
you can manually set the number of tracks to fit in the current Project 
window.
By default, lanes (see “Working with lanes” on page 76) 
have a track height of 4 rows. If you still have difficulties to 
discern the recorded takes, you can size the lanes individ
-
ually as usual. Lanes can be reordered as usual.
Data display on the tracks
Changing the width and the height of tracks naturally has 
an effect on how the track controls and the parts or events 
on the track are displayed. The following happens when 
you resize a track’s height or width:
•The track controls will be placed where they best “fit in” 
by default. The controls shown for tracks in the track list 
will adapt to the track size.
If you prefer to have the controls in fixed positions, deactivate the “Wrap 
Controls” option in the Track Controls settings dialog (see 
“Customizing 
track controls” on page 535). 
•The contents of events and parts will not be shown if 
the height of a track is very small.
You can change this behavior by activating “Show Data on Small Track 
Heights” in the Preferences (Event Display).
About the Enlarge Selected Track option
When this option is activated on the Edit menu (or in the 
Preferences dialog, Editing–Project & Mixer page), the se
-
lected track is enlarged automatically. This is useful if you 
are stepping through the tracks in the track list, to check 
or edit the settings. The tracks will revert to the size they 
had before when they are deselected. You can adjust the 
size directly in the track list if the default enlargement fac
-
tor does not suit you. 
While this is the program behavior you will want in most 
cases, it may be a disadvantage when changing the track 
height you started out with for one or more tracks (i.
 e. their 
“original” height, before “Enlarge Selected Track” was ac
-
tivated). As soon as you try to resize a track, it is selected 
and automatically enlarged. Instead of turning off “Enlarge 
Selected Track”, resizing the desired track(s) and the acti
-
vating “Enlarge Selected Track” again, you can resize a 
track in the track list without selecting it.
Proceed as follows:
1.Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the 
(unselected) track you want to resize.
The mouse pointer turns into a divider symbol.
2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the lower border of 
the track until it reaches the desired height.
Now, when you select this track, (and “Enlarge Selected Track” is acti-
vated), it will be enlarged. It will revert to the changed size, when you se-lect a different track.
!This behavior is different when “Enlarge Selected 
Track” is activated on the Edit menu (see 
“About the 
Enlarge Selected Track option” on page 73). 
						

							74
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 events will 
play back at an earlier or later time. Musical time base is indicated by a 
note symbol.
•Time Linear
On a track using linear time base, the events will be positioned on spe-cific time positions – changing the playback tempo will not affect the 
time position of events. Linear time base is indicated by a clock symbol.
•Follow Transport Main Display
This uses the primary time format setting on the Transport panel. When 
this is set to “Bars+Beats”, tracks with musical time base will be added. 
When this is set to any of the other options (Seconds, Timecode, Sam
-
ples, etc.), all new tracks will use linear time base.
Which time base suits better depends on the type of proj-
ect and recording situation.
ÖIn the Preferences dialog (Editing page), you can find 
the “Default Track Time Type” option (Cubase only). This 
allows you to specify the default track time type for new 
tracks (audio, group/FX, MIDI, and marker tracks). 
For more information about tempo changes, see the chap-
ter “Editing tempo and signature” on page 462.
Editing tracks
Adding events to a track
There are a number of ways to add events to a track:
•By recording (see “Basic recording methods” on page 
90).
•By dragging files and dropping them on the track at the 
desired position.
You can drag from the following locations: the desktop, the MediaBay 
and its related windows (see the chapter “The MediaBay” on page 311), 
the Pool, a library (a Pool file that is not attached to a project) (Cubase 
only), the “Find media” dialog, another open Project window, the Audio 
Part Editor, the Sample Editor (press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag to cre
-
ate an event of the current selection, or click in the left column of the re-
gion list and drag to create an event from a region).
When you drag the clip into the Project window, its position will be in-
dicated by a marker line and a numerical position box.
•By importing an audio or video file using the Import sub-
menu on the File menu.
When you import a file this way, a clip is created for the file and an event 
that plays the whole clip is inserted on the selected track, at the position 
of the project cursor.
•By importing a MIDI file using the Import submenu.
See “Exporting and importing standard MIDI files” on page 527.
•By grabbing audio CD tracks and converting them to au-
dio files.
See “Importing audio CD tracks” on page 522.
•By importing only the audio portion of a video file and 
converting it to an audio file.
See “About thumbnail cache files” on page 513. 
•By using Copy and Paste on the Edit menu.
This allows you to copy all kinds of events between projects. You can 
also copy events within the project, e. g. from the Sample Editor.
•By drawing.
This is possible for marker and automation tracks e. g. For audio, MIDI 
and instrument tracks, you can only draw parts (see 
“Creating parts” on page 75). 
!Internally, events on musical time based tracks use the 
same high precision for positioning (64 bit floating 
point values) as linear time based events. However, 
switching between linear and musical time base re
-
sults in a very small loss of precision (introduced by 
the mathematical operations used for scaling values in 
the two different formats). Therefore you should avoid 
switching repeatedly between the two modes. 
						

							75
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 
tool.
•Double-click with the Arrow tool on a MIDI track, be-
tween the left and right locator.
To add events to a MIDI part, you use the tools and func-
tions in a MIDI editor (see “The Key Editor – Overview” on 
page 377).
Creating audio parts
There is no way of automatically creating audio parts on 
recording. On recording audio events are created always. 
To create audio parts, you have the following possibilities: 
•Use the “Events to Part” function on the Audio menu to 
gather existing audio events into a part.
This creates an audio part containing all selected audio events on the 
same track. To remove the part and make the events appear as indepen-
dent objects on the track again, select the part and use the “Dissolve 
Part” function on the Audio menu.
•Draw a part on an audio track with the Pencil tool.
You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow 
tool.
•Double-click with the Arrow tool on an audio track, be-
tween the left and right locator.
ÖYou can use Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop in the 
Audio Part Editor to add events to existing audio parts 
(see 
“Window overview” on page 295).
Selecting tracks
•To select a track, click on it in the track list.
A selected track is indicated by a light gray color in the track list.
•To select several tracks press [Ctrl]/[Command] and 
click on them. 
•To select a continuous range of tracks [Shift]-click on 
them.
You can also set up Cubase to select tracks on the follow-
ing actions by activating Preferences:
•Selecting a channel in the mixer
The respective track is automatically displayed in the track list as well. 
For this to work you need to activate the “Scroll to Selected Track…” op
-tion in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer).
•Selecting an event in the Project Window
The corresponding track is automatically selected, if the “Track Selection 
Follows Event Selection” option is activated in the Preferences dialog 
(Editing).
•Activating the solo button for the track
The track gets automatically selected, if the “Select Channel/Track on 
Solo” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & 
Mixer).
•Clicking the Edit button (e) for the track
The track gets automatically selected, if the “Select Channel/Track on 
Edit Settings” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Proj
-ect & Mixer). 
Duplicating tracks
•To duplicate a track together with all contents and 
channel settings, right-click the track list and select “Du
-
plicate tracks” from the context menu, or select “Duplicate 
tracks” from the Project menu.
The duplicated track will appear below the original track.
This track is selected. 
						

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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 “zeroes” the output volume from the track, 
but actually shuts down all disk activity for it. For more in
-
formation, see “About track disable/enable” on page 86.
Track folding
On the Project menu you will find the Track Folding sub-
menu, allowing you to quickly show, hide or invert what is 
displayed in the Project window event display. This en
-
ables you for example to divide the project into several 
parts (by creating several folder tracks for the different 
project elements) and showing/hiding their contents by 
selecting a menu function (or using a key command). You 
can also fold in automation tracks this way. The following 
options are available:
•Toggle Selected Track
When you select this menu option, the fold state of the selected track is 
reversed, i.
 e. if the track was folded in (its elements (subtracks) were hid-
den), it is now unfolded (all subtracks displayed) and vice versa.
•Fold Tracks
Select this menu option to fold in all open folder tracks in the Project win-
dow. Please note that the exact behavior of this function depends on the 
“Deep Track Folding” setting in the Preferences dialog, see below.
•Unfold Tracks
Select this menu option to unfold all folder tracks in the Project window. 
Please note that the exact behavior of this function depends on the 
“Deep Track Folding” setting in the Preferences dialog, see below.
•Flip Fold States
Select this menu option to flip the fold states of the tracks in the Project 
window. This means that all tracks that were folded in will be unfolded 
and all unfolded tracks will be folded in, respectively.
•Move Selected Tracks to New Folder
This menu option is available, if at least one folder track is available. Se-
lecting this option moves all selected tracks to the folder track.
ÖYou can assign key commands for these menu options 
in the Key Commands dialog (Project category).
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page), 
you can find the following option affecting the track folding 
behavior:
•Deep Track Folding
When this is activated, any folding settings you make in the Track Fold-
ing submenu of the Project menu also affect the subelements of the 
tracks, i.
 e. if you fold in a folder track which contains 10 audio tracks 5 of 
which have several automation tracks open, all these audio tracks within 
the folder track will be folded in as well.
Working with lanes
ÖTo simplify matters, the descriptions in the following 
paragraphs focus on cycle recordings with takes. How
-
ever, you can also apply lane operations and comping 
methods on overlapping events or parts that you assem
-
ble on one track! 
If you perform a cycle recording in the “Keep History” or in 
“Cycle History + Replace” modes (audio) or in the 
“Stacked” or “Mix-Stacked” modes (MIDI), the recorded 
cycle laps are shown on the track with the last recorded 
take active and shown on top. 
The “Show Lanes” mode provides a very comfortable work-
ing environment and a good overview of all your takes. If you 
activate the “Show Lanes” button, the recorded takes are 
shown on separate lanes. 
Click the “Show Lanes” button…
…to display the recorded takes on different lanes. 
						

							77
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 lanes on a MIDI 
track.
Lanes can be reordered, sized, and zoomed like regular 
tracks.
In the following you will learn how to play back, cut, and 
activate different takes on different lanes.
Comping operations
After recording different takes in a cycle recording and ac-
tivating the “Show Lanes” button to display the recorded 
laps on separate lanes, you have several possibilities to 
assemble a “perfect” take. This process is often referred to 
as comping. You can comp your takes using the Object 
Selection or the Range Selection tools. 
Comping with the Object Selection tool
With the Object Selection tool selected, you can perform 
the following actions: 
•To select a take for playback, click on it in the event dis-
play.
The selected take is displayed in the current track color on the lane and 
on the main track. All other takes are dimmed. On playback, you will only 
hear the selected take.
•To audition a certain section of a take, hold down [Ctrl]/
[Command] and click with the Speaker tool.
This works even if the take is not selected for playback.
•To cut a take, hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click at the 
desired position.
The cutting affects all lanes of a track. If you cut a MIDI part and the cut 
position intersects one or several MIDI notes, the result depends on the 
“Split MIDI Events” option in the Preferences dialog, see 
“Splitting events” on page 62.
•To adjust the cut position, position the mouse pointer 
over a cut and move the cut point to the left or to the right. 
This way you can finetune your edits. If you position the mouse pointer in 
the lower part of a cut take, you will adjust the length instead.
•To correct the timing of a take, select the desired take, 
hold down [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option] (the tool mod
-
ifier for Slip Event) and drag with the mouse.
The mouse pointer changes its shape to indicate that you can change 
the timing.
Comping with the Range Selection tool
With the Range Selection tool selected, you can perform 
the following actions: 
•To bring the selected range to front, select a range on a 
lane and double-click it.
Double-clicking the range brings it to front. 
						

							78
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 multi-track comping 
using edit groups (see 
“About Group Editing (Cubase 
only)” on page 80), for example, to comp two guitar tracks 
recorded with different microphones.
Comping with the cursor keys
Another way of comping is to use the cursor keys to navi-
gate through the takes and the lanes and the “Move To 
Front (Uncover)” key command (by default [U]) to bring 
the active take to front. 
Using the Solo button
To solo a lane, you can activate the Solo button for it. This 
allows you to hear the lane in project context. If you want 
to hear the take without project context, you will also have 
to activate the main track’s Solo button.
ÖThe Solo button also comes in handy in case you used 
the lowermost lane for assembling your “perfect take” in
-
stead of using the comping techniques. 
Additional steps
After rearranging the overlapping events so that you hear 
what you want, you can perform additional steps.
Audio
1.Apply auto fades and crossfades to the comped 
events. 
2.Select all events and select “Delete Overlaps” from 
the Advanced submenu on the Audio menu to put all 
events in the top lane and resize the events so that over
-
lapping sections are removed. 
3.Open the Audio menu and select the “Bounce Selec-
tion” function to create a new and continuous event of all 
selected events.
MIDI
1.Open your takes in a MIDI editor to perform fine ad-
justments like removing or editing notes.
2.Select all parts in the Project window and use the 
“Merge MIDI in Loop” option from the MIDI menu with the 
“Erase Destination” option activated to create a single 
MIDI part containing your “perfect take”.
Before…
…and after gluing. 
						

							79
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” submenu and select “Folder”, 
or right-click the track list and select “Add Folder Track” from the context 
menu.
•Moving tracks into a folder
Open the Project menu and use the “Move Selected Tracks To New 
Folder” command from the Track folding submenu, right-click on the 
track in the track list and select the command from the context menu or 
set up and use the corresponding key command (found in the Project 
category of the Key Commands dialog).
•Removing tracks from a folder
Drag a track out of the folder and release it in the track list to remove it 
from the folder.
•Hiding/showing tracks in a folder
Click on the “Expand/Collapse Folder” button (the folder icon) to hide or 
show the tracks located in a folder or use the corresponding options in 
the Track Folding submenu of the Project menu (see 
“Track folding” on 
page 76). Hidden tracks are played back as usual. 
•Hiding/showing data on folder tracks
Right-click on the folder track to open the context menu and from the 
“Show Data on Folder Tracks” submenu select one of the options. This 
menu is also available in the Preferences (Editing page). The following 
options are available:
•Muting and soloing folder tracks
Click the Mute or Solo button on the folder track to mute or solo all 
tracks in the folder as one unit. 
Working with folder parts
A folder part is a graphic representation of events and 
parts on the tracks in the folder. Folder parts indicate the 
position and length of the events and parts, as well as on 
which track they are (their vertical position). If part colors 
are used, these are also shown in the folder part.
Any Project window editing you perform to a folder part 
affects all the events and parts it contains. You can select 
several folder parts if you like – this allows you to handle 
and edit them together. The editing you can perform in
-
cludes:
• Moving a folder part. This will move its contained events and 
parts (possibly resulting in other folder parts, depending on 
how the parts overlap).
• Using cut, copy and paste.
• Deleting a folder part. This will delete its contained events and 
parts.
A folder track
Tracks in the folder
OptionDescription
Always Show DataThe data on the folder track is always visible.
Never Show DataThe data on the folder track is never visible.
Hide Data When 
ExpandedThe data on the folder track is only visible if the 
folder is not expanded. 
						

							80
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 folder part containing 
the tracks. You can also edit individual tracks within the 
folder by showing the contained tracks, selecting parts 
and opening editors as usual.
Double-clicking a folder part opens the editors for the cor-
responding track classes present in the folder. The follow-
ing applies:
•All MIDI parts located on the tracks within the folder are 
displayed as if they were on the same track, just like when 
opening the Key Editor with several MIDI parts selected.
To be able to easily discern the different tracks in the editor, give each 
track a different color in the Project window and use the “Part Colors” 
option in the editor (see 
“Coloring notes and events” on page 382).
•If the folder contains tracks with audio events and/or au-
dio parts, the Sample and/or Audio Part Editors are opened 
with each audio event and audio part in a separate window.
About Group Editing (Cubase only)
One very convenient feature in Cubase is the Group Edit-
ing mode for folders. It allows you to quickly group events 
and parts across multiple tracks without having to select 
all the events or parts. This is useful for multi-track record
-
ings of drum sets e.g., where you often want to edit the dif-
ferent drum tracks (bass drum, snare, toms, etc.) together. 
Edit groups are also useful, if you want to quantize multiple 
tracks, see 
“Quantizing multiple audio tracks (Cubase 
only)” on page 114.
You activate the Group Editing mode by clicking the “=” 
button in the track list for a folder or by using the default key 
command [K] (“Toggle Edit Group on Selected Tracks“). 
If the Group Editing mode is activated and you select an 
event, a part or a range on a track inside the folder track, 
other events, parts or ranges that have the same start and 
end time and the same playback priority, are also selected 
and temporarily grouped.
Temporarily means that on every new selection with the 
Object Selection or the Range Selection tool, Cubase 
looks for corresponding events or parts inside the folder 
and groups them. If you edit the start or end point of a sin
-
gle event or part before activating the “=” button for group 
editing, will cause this event or part to be excluded from 
the group.
Edit actions in Group Editing mode affect all grouped 
events, parts or ranges. If you select another take by using 
the small “To Front” arrow at the right side of one event of 
an Edit Group e.g., all other tracks inside the Edit Group 
also switch to the corresponding take. This is very useful 
for comparing takes of a multi-track recording.
ÖThe Group Editing setting overwrites any regular group 
settings in the edit group. For further information, see 
“Grouping events” on page 64.