Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual
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![Page 1096
The basics
Opening the Score Editor
1096
Opening the Score Editor
Editing one or several parts
To open one or several parts in the Score Editor, select the parts (on the same or
on different tracks) and select “Open Score Editor” from the MIDI menu or “Open
Selection” from the Scores menu. The default key command for this is
[Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
• You can also select the Score Editor as your default editor, allowing you to
open it by double-clicking parts.
This is done with the Default Edit Action...](http://img.usermanuals.tech/thumb/86/98229/w64_d_1507296127-steinberg-cubase-8-manual_d-1095.png "Page 1096
The basics
Opening the Score Editor
1096
Opening the Score Editor
Editing one or several parts
To open one or several parts in the Score Editor, select the parts (on the same or
on different tracks) and select “Open Score Editor” from the MIDI menu or “Open
Selection” from the Scores menu. The default key command for this is
[Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
• You can also select the Score Editor as your default editor, allowing you to
open it by double-clicking parts.
This is done with the Default Edit Action...")
How the Score Editor works Display Quantize 1091 This does not look anything like what you intended. Let’s start with the timing – obviously, you were off at a couple of places (the third, fourth and last note all seem to be a 32nd note late). You can solve this by quantizing the figure, but this would make the passage sound too “stiff”, and not fit in the musical context. To resolve this problem the Score Editor employs something called “Display Quantize”. Display Quantize is a setting which is used to tell the program two things: • How precise the Score Editor is to be when displaying the note positions. • The smallest note values (lengths) you want displayed in the score. In the example above, the Display Quantize value seems to be set to 32nd notes (or a smaller note value). Let’s say we change the Display Quantize value to sixteenth notes in the example: With Display Quantize set to sixteenth notes OK, now the timing looks right, but the notes still do not look like what you intended. Maybe you can understand that from a computer’s point of view, you did play sixteenth notes, which is why there are a lot of pauses. But that’s not how you meant it. You still want the track to play back short notes, because it is a staccato part, but you want something else “displayed”. Try setting the Display Quantize value to eighth notes instead: With Display Quantize set to eighth notes Now we h ave eight h n ote s, as w e w an ted. Al l we h ave to do n ow is to add st accato articulation which can be done with one simple mouse click using the Draw tool or using musical articulations. How did this work? By setting the Display Quantize value to eighth notes, you give the program two instructions that would sound something like this in English: “Display all notes as if they were on exact eighth note positions, regardless of their actual positions” and “Don’t display any notes smaller than eighth notes, regardless of how short they are”. Please note that we used the word “display”, which leads us to one of the most important messages of this chapter: IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT Setting a Display Quantize value does not alter the MIDI notes of your recording in any way, as regular quantizing does. It only affects how the notes are displayed in the Score Editor (and nowhere else)! RELATED LINKS Working with symbols on page 1206 Expression maps (Cubase Pro only) on page 778
How the Score Editor works Display Quantize 1092 Choose your Display Quantize values with care As explained above, the Display Quantize value for notes puts a restriction on the smallest note value that can be displayed. Let’s see what happens if we set it to quarter notes: With Display Quantize set to quarter notes Oops, this doesn’t look too good. Well of course it doesn’t! We have now instructed the program that the “smallest” note that occurs in the piece is a quarter note. We have explicitly told it that there are no eighth notes, no sixteenths, etc. So when the program draws the score on screen (and on paper) it quantizes the display of all our eighth notes to quarter note positions, which makes it look like above. But again, please note that when you hit Play, the passage still plays as it originally did. The Display Quantize setting only affects the score image of the recording. IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT Even if you manually enter notes in the score using perfect note values, it is very important that you have your Display Quantize settings right! These values are not just used for MIDI recordings! If you for example set the Display Quantize value for notes to quarter notes and start clicking in eighth notes, you get eighth notes in the track (as MIDI data), but still only quarter notes in the display! Using Rests as Display Quantize setting Above we used Display Quantize for notes. There is a similar Display Quantize setting called “Rests” which is used to set the smallest rest to be displayed. Often, this setting is very effective. Let’s start with the following note example: As you see, the first note appears one sixteenth note late. If we change the Display Quantize value for notes to eighth notes, the score is displayed like this: With Display Quantize: Notes set to eighth notes Unfortunately, this moves the first note to the same position as the second, since sixteenth note positions are not allowed. We can solve this by inserting extra Display Quantize values within the bar with the Display Quantize tool, but there is a much easier way: Change the Display Quantize value for notes back to sixteenths, but set the value for rests to eighth notes! This tells the program not to display any rests smaller than eighth notes, except when necessary. The result looks like this: With Display Quantize: Notes set to sixteenth notes, but Rests set to eighth notes.
How the Score Editor works Display Quantize 1093 How did this work? Well, you instructed the program not to display any rests smaller than eighth notes, except when “necessary”. Since the first note appeared on the second sixteenth note position, it was necessary to put a sixteenth rest at the beginning of the figure. All other rests can be hidden by displaying the notes as eighth notes, and were therefore not “necessary”. This leads us to the following general guidelines: • Set the Notes value according to the “smallest note position” you want to be shown in the score (e. g. if you have notes on odd sixteenth note positions, set the Notes to sixteenth notes). • Set the Rests value according to the smallest note value (length) you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat. Common Display Quantize settings would be to have Notes set to 16 (sixteenth notes) and Rests set to 4 (quarter notes). RELATED LINKS Inserting Display Quantize changes on page 1122 Handling exceptions Unfortunately, the guidelines above do not work perfectly in every situation. You may for example have a mix of straight notes and tuplets of different types, or you may wish to display equally long notes with different note values depending on the context. There are several methods you can try: Automatic Display Quantize If your score contains both straight notes and triplets, you can use Auto Quantize. When this is activated, Cubase tries to “understand” whether the notes should be display quantized to straight notes or triplets. RELATED LINKS If your music contains mixed straight notes and triplets on page 1157 Using the Display Quantize tool With the “Q” tool, you can insert new Display Quantize values anywhere in the score. Inserted Display Quantize values affect the staff from the insertion point onwards. RELATED LINKS Inserting Display Quantize changes on page 1122
How the Score Editor works Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes 1094 Permanent alteration of MIDI data As a last resort, you can resize, quantize or move the actual note events. However, this would result in the music not playing back like it originally did. Often it is possible to get the score to look the way you want without altering any MIDI data. Summary This closes our discussion on the basic concept of display quantizing. There are a number of other special situations which require more advanced techniques described in the next chapters. The interpretation options which work along the same lines as Display Quantize are also explained. Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes Sometimes you enter and edit notes by hand (or rather using the mouse and/or the computer keyboard) and at other times you record them from a MIDI keyboard. Most of the time, you do a combination of both. In real life, even if you have recorded the piece perfectly, you often have to do some permanent editing to your recording before printing. RELATED LINKS Transcribing MIDI recordings on page 1119 Entering and editing notes on page 1127
1095 The basics About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: • How to open the Score Editor. • How to switch between Page Mode and Edit Mode. • How to set up the page size and margins. • How to hide and show the Symbols Inspector, the toolbar, and the extended toolbar. • How to set up the ruler. • How to set a zoom factor. • How to make initial settings for clef, key, and time signature. • How to transpose instruments. • How to print and export your score. Preparations PROCEDURE 1. In the Project window, create a MIDI track for each instrument. You can prepare a piano (split) staff from a single track, i. e. there is no need to create one track for the bass clef and one for the treble clef. 2. Name each track after the instrument. This name can later be used in the score if you like. 3. Record on the tracks or create empty parts on all tracks. You can make very long parts that cover the entire project, or you can start out with shorter parts to begin with. If you choose the latter option, you can always go back later and add new parts or copy existing parts.
The basics Opening the Score Editor 1096 Opening the Score Editor Editing one or several parts To open one or several parts in the Score Editor, select the parts (on the same or on different tracks) and select “Open Score Editor” from the MIDI menu or “Open Selection” from the Scores menu. The default key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R]. • You can also select the Score Editor as your default editor, allowing you to open it by double-clicking parts. This is done with the Default Edit Action pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–MIDI page). Editing whole tracks When preparing a score for printing, you probably want to open whole MIDI tracks in the Score Editor. To do this, select the track(s) in the track list and make sure no parts are selected – then open the Score Editor as described above. Editing parts on different tracks If you have selected parts on two or more tracks (or several entire tracks – no parts) and open the Score Editor, you get one staff for each track (although you can split a staff in two, e. g. when scoring for piano). Think of the Project window as an overview of your entire score and the tracks as representing one instrument each. Editing predefined combinations of tracks You can open the Score Editor for a certain combination of tracks that you edited before. RELATED LINKS Layout operations on page 1271 Displaying single voices or the complete score When the Double-click on staff flips between full score/part option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page), double-clicking on the blue rectangle to the left of a staff switches between display of either the whole score or the current voice.
The basics The project cursor 1097 The project cursor The project cursor appears as a vertical line across the staff. When you open the Score Editor, the view is automatically scrolled so that the project cursor is visible in the window. This means you do not always see the beginning of the edited part when you first open the Score Editor. • Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and [Shift] and click anywhere in the score to move the project cursor there. This is handy when the project cursor is not visible. This is not possible if Computer Keyboard Input mode is activated. RELATED LINKS Entering notes using the computer keyboard on page 1132 Playing back and recording You can play back and record MIDI in the Score Editor using the standard transport commands, just like in the other MIDI editors. RELATED LINKS MIDI Editors on page 686 Page Mode When you are preparing a score for printout, you should set the Score Editor to Page Mode. This is done by selecting Page Mode from the Scores menu. When Page Mode is activated, a checkmark appears next to this menu option. In Page mode, the window switches to display one page at a time, as it appears on printout. Page Mode vs. Edit Mode When Page Mode is not activated, the Score Editor is in Edit Mode. All you can do in Edit Mode, you can also do in Page Mode. But Page Mode offers lots of additional features which are directly related to how the score is displayed and printed.
The basics Page Mode 1098 IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT This section of the manual assumes you are in Page Mode. It is mentioned explicitly if something in this text specifically relates to Edit Mode. Changing the Background in Page Mode In Page Mode, you can specify different background textures for the score by selecting an option from the Background Texture pop-up menu on the toolbar. NOTE The background texture only affects the display and is not used for printing. Using the scrollbars in Page Mode In Page Mode, the scrollbars are used to scroll the image of the page inside the window. Moving between pages in Page Mode If your score takes up more than one page, you use the page number indicator in the lower right corner to move to another page in your score. The number can be adjusted using the standard editing techniques. The page number indicator – adjust it to move to another page. Also, if Auto-Scroll is activated on the toolbar, the score display follows the project cursor position. This way you can scroll the score by using fast forward or rewind. Editing individual parts in Page Mode When you view a single part in Page Mode, the bars before and after the part is normally shown as empty measures in the Score Editor. This is to preserve the layout of the track, i. e. the spacing between staves and bar lines, number of bars per staff, etc. If you want to view and print a single part, without any surrounding empty bars, activate the “Unlock Layout when editing single parts” option in the Preferences dialog (Scores–Editing page). Note, however, that if you adjust the layout when editing the part in this mode, this erases the layout for the whole track!
The basics Changing the zoom factor 1099 Changing the zoom factor There are two ways to change the zoom in Page Mode: by setting a zoom factor on the zoom pop-up menu or by using the Zoom tool (magnifying glass). Using the Zoom pop-up menu Above the vertical scrollbar to the right you can find a pop-up menu allowing you to set the zoom factor. By zooming in you can make detailed adjustments to symbols, etc. By zooming out you get a better overview. • If you select “Fit Page”, the zoom factor is adjusted according to the window size so that the whole page becomes visible. • If you select “Fit Width”, the zoom factor is adjusted according to the window width so that the full width of the page becomes visible. NOTE This pop-up menu can also be opened by right-clicking in the ruler. Using the Zoom tool The Zoom tool in the Score Editor works much like in the Project window: • Click once with the Zoom tool to zoom in one step. • Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click once with the Zoom tool to zoom out one step. • Drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool to set a custom zoom factor. The section encompassed by the rectangle is zoomed to fill the window.
The basics The active staff 1100 • Hold down a modifier key and right-click with the Zoom tool to open the Zoom context menu, and select the desired Zoom setting. Using the Mouse wheel You can also zoom by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] and moving the mouse wheel. The mouse position is kept (if possible) when zooming in or out. The active staff One thing to note when you are working with multiple staves is the “active” staff. Only one staff at a time can be active, and it is indicated by a blue rectangle to the left of the clef symbol. This staff is active. NOTE To make a staff active, click anywhere on it. By default, you can also use the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard to step between staves. Making page setup settings Before preparing the score for printout, you have to make some page settings for your project. This does not have to be the first thing you do, but it is a good working habit, because it also affects the on-screen display of the score. PROCEDURE 1. On the File menu, select Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog appears. This is the regular operation system Page Setup dialog, described in detail in your system’s documentation. The only things that Cubase adds to this are the margin settings. 2. Select the preferred printer, paper size, orientation, etc.