Steinberg Cubase 7 User Manual
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481 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 471). For hands-on graphical editing 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 – Overview” on page 483. •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 724. Cubase Artist features a basic version of the Score Editor, see “The basic Score Editor – Overview” on page 531. •The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corresponds 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 514. •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 522 and “Working with SysEx messages” on page 527. •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 512. •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 629. 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. Features that are identical in these editors are described in the Key Editor section. The sections about the Drum Editor, 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 724.
482 The MIDI editorsOpening a MIDI editor 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 command). 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 520), the Drum Editor will open. If the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any editing 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 window, shared copies are indicated by an equal sign (=) in the top right corner of the part. Handling several parts When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI track containing several parts) selected, the editor contains 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 centered in the note display. ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by selecting an event within this part with the Object Selection tool.
483 The MIDI editorsThe Key Editor – Overview •The “Edit Active Part Only” button on the toolbar lets you restrict editing operations to the active part. •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 beginning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part. •Key commands allow you to cycle between parts (making 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 editors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 712. The Key Editor – Overview Toolbar Info line Inspector Controller display Ruler Status line Note display
484 The MIDI editorsThe 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 save/recall different toolbar configurations, see “Using the Setup options” on page 700. 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 Editor button” on page 489. Acoustic FeedbackThis function is described in the section “Acoustic Feedback” on page 490. Auto-ScrollThis button activates/deactivates Auto-Scroll for the Key Editor, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 489. 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 489. Auto Select ControllersUse this button to also select all available controller data for a note when selecting the note in the editor. Show Note Expression DataWhen this button is activated, Note Expression data is shown in the Key Editor (Cubase only), see “Note Expression” on page 565. Multiple Part ControlsThese controls allow you to show/hide the part borders and switch between several selected parts, see “Handling several parts” on page 482. Indicate TranspositionsWhen this button is activated, MIDI notes are displayed according to their transposition settings, see “Indicate Transpositions” on page 165. 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 496. Transpose PaletteThe transpose buttons allow you to transpose the selected notes, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 496. Snap/QuantizeThe Snap controls are described in the section “The Snap function” on page 52 and the quantize functions in the chapter “MIDI processing” on page 471. Step/MIDI InputThese controls are described in the sections “Editing notes via MIDI” on page 500 and “Step input” on page 501. Event ColorsThe Color options are described in the section “Coloring notes and events” on page 490. Edit VST InstrumentThis button opens the VST Instrument panel (if the track is routed to a VST instrument).
485 The MIDI editorsThe Key Editor – Overview 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 Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate 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 499 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 572). •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 50. At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two additional 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. 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 position, 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.
486 The MIDI editorsThe Key Editor – Overview 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 555. The Note Expression section (Cubase only) The Note Expression section contains functions and settings related to Note Expression, see “Setting up the Note Expression Inspector tab” on page 567. The Chord Editing section The Chord Editing section allows you to enter chords instead of single notes, see “Inserting and Editing Chords with the Chord Editing Tools” on page 492. The Quantize section The Quantize section allows you to access the main quantize parameters. These are identical with the functions on the Quantize Panel (see “The Quantize Panel” on page 136). The Transpose section The Transpose section allows you to access the main parameters for transposing MIDI events. These can also be found in the Transpose Setup dialog, see “Transpose” on page 472. 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 477) 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 active 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 settings permanent. •Use the Overlap slider to fine-tune 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.
487 The MIDI editorsThe Key Editor – Overview The note display The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It contains 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 display, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 490. 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 - System Exclusive events - Articulations and Dynamics (see “Expression maps (Cubase only)” on page 555 and “Working with mapped dynamics” on page 891). - Any type of continuous controller event (see “Editing continuous controllers on the controller lane” on page 507) To change the size of the controller display, drag the divider 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.
488 The MIDI editorsKey Editor operations 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. For a description of editing in the controller display, see “Using the controller display” on page 502. Key Editor operations Zooming Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the standard 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 position 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 Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). ÖNote that the trimmed note ends or starts do not snap to the grid.
489 The MIDI editorsKey Editor operations 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 54, 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 independent of the Project window Auto-Scroll setting, which means that Auto-Scroll can be activated in the Project window and deactivated in the MIDI editor you are working in. The independent track loop The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the MIDI part being edited. When the loop is activated, the MIDI events within the loop will be repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) will be played back as usual. The only “interaction” between the loop and the “regular playback” is that every time the cycle starts over again, so does the loop. To set up the independent track loop, proceed as follows: 1.Activate the “Independent Track Loop” button on the toolbar. If it is not visible, right-click the toolbar and add the Independent Track Loop Settings section – see “Using the Setup options” on page 700. ÖIf you have previously set up a loop range in the Project window, this is now hidden from the ruler in the MIDI editor. 2.Specify the length of the independent track loop by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking and [Alt]/[Option]-clicking in the ruler to set the start and end of the loop, respectively. Alternatively, you can click and drag in the upper part of the ruler to move the locators to the desired positions. The independent track loop is indicated in purple in the ruler. When the corresponding options are activated on the context menu, the track loop start and end are also displayed on the status line. The MIDI events will be looped as long as the “Independent Track Loop” button is activated and the MIDI editor is open. •To turn the loop into actual MIDI notes, use the Repeat Loop function on the MIDI menu, see “Repeat Loop” on page 476.
490 The MIDI editorsKey Editor operations Acoustic Feedback If the Acoustic Feedback icon (speaker symbol) on the toolbar is activated, individual notes will automatically be played back (auditioned) when you move or transpose them, or when you create new notes by drawing. This makes it easier to hear what you are doing. In the Preferences dialog (MIDI page), you can specify whether the Acoustic Feedback function takes into account any MIDI sends or inserts used for the track. Activate the “Audition through MIDI Inserts/Sends” option if you want the layering of MIDI instruments (by MIDI sends) to be active within the MIDI editors as well. This way, the acoustic feedback of the editors sends the MIDI data not only to the output selected for the track, but additionally through any MIDI inserts and MIDI sends assigned to it. Note, however, that this also means that the MIDI events will be sent through any MIDI plug-ins assigned to this track. Snap The Snap function helps you find exact positions when editing in a MIDI editor. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to certain positions. Operations affected by snap include moving, duplicating, drawing, sizing, etc. The Snap function is described in detail in the section “The Snap function” on page 52. •When the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected in the ruler, the snap grid is set by the quantize value on the toolbar. This makes it possible to snap not only to straight note values but also to swing grids set up in the Quantize Panel (see “The Quantize Panel” on page 136). When any of the other display formats is selected in the ruler, positioning is restricted to the displayed grid, i. e. you can snap in finer increments by zooming in, and in coarser increments by zooming out. Coloring notes and events By using the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can select a color scheme for the events in the editor. The following options are available: OptionDescription VelocityThe notes get different colors depending on their velocity values. PitchThe notes get different colors depending on their pitch. ChannelThe notes get different colors depending on their MIDI channel value. PartThe notes get the same color as their corresponding part in the Project window. Use this option when you are working with two or more tracks in an editor, to make it easier to see which notes belong to which track. Grid MatchThe notes get different colors depending on their time position. For example, this mode makes it easy to see if the notes in a chord start at the exact same beat.