Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Menu Reference Manual
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11 Menu Reference Events to Part This allows you to create a part from selected audio events. Dissolve Part This menu item dissolves a selected audio part and makes any audio events it contains appear as independent ob- jects on the track. Snap Point to Cursor This allows you to set the snap point to the current cursor position. Bounce Selection This allows you to create either a new clip or a new audio file from a selection. Find Selected in Pool This can be used to quickly find the clips in the Pool for events selected in the Project window. When this menu item is selected, the Pool opens with the corresponding clip(s) highlighted. Update Origin The original start position where a clip was recorded in the project is shown in the Pool’s “Origin Time” column. As this value can be used as a basis for the “Insert into Project” Media menu item (and other functions), you can change it if desired. This can be done by selecting the corresponding clip in the Pool, moving the project cursor to the new posi- tion and selecting this menu item. Crossfade This allows you to create a crossfade between two se- lected consecutive audio events. If the two events overlap, the crossfade will be applied to the overlapping area. If they do not overlap (but their respective audio clips do), the events are resized and a crossfade is applied in the overlapping range. Remove Fades This will remove any fades or crossfades from a selected event. Open Fade Editor(s) This opens the Fade dialog for a selected event. Note that this will open two dialogs if the event has both fade-in and fade-out curves. Adjust Fades to Range This allows you to adjust a fade area according to a range selection. Offline Process History… This opens the Offline Process History dialog. In the dia- log you can remove some or all processing previously ap- plied to a clip. See the dialog help for details. Freeze Edits… This allows you to make any processing or applied effects permanent for a clip. MIDI menu Open Key Editor This opens the Key Editor for the selected MIDI part(s) or track(s). This editor consists of a piano-roll type graphic interface, with the notes shown as boxes in a grid. Scores This opens a submenu, allowing you to open the Score editor and containing several Score Editor functions. The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score. Open Drum Editor This opens the Drum Editor which is designed especially for editing drum and percussion tracks. Open List Editor This opens the List Editor. In this editor, MIDI notes, con- trollers and other events are shown in a list.
12 Menu Reference Over Quantize Quantizing is a function that automatically moves re- corded notes, positioning them on exact note values. This quantizes the selected MIDI parts or notes, according to the current Quantize pop-up menu setting. Iterative Quantize Instead of moving a note to the closest quantize grid posi- tion, Iterative Quantize moves it only part of the way. You specify how much the notes should be moved towards the grid with the Iterative Strength setting in the Quantize Setup dialog. Quantize Setup… In the Quantize Setup dialog you can make various quan- tize settings. Advanced Quantize Transpose… This opens the Transpose dialog, where you can make transpose settings for selected notes. Freeze MIDI Modifiers This function applies all filter settings to the respective track and takes the result as the new standard. Dissolve Part This item has two uses: To separate events according to MIDI channel when a MIDI Part contains events on different channels (MIDI channel “Any”). To separate MIDI events according to pitch. Drum tracks typically have separate drum sounds for each pitch. O-Note Conversion This function (only available if a drum map has been as- signed for the MIDI track) goes through the selected MIDI part(s) and sets the actual pitch of each note according to its O-note setting. This is useful if you want to convert the track to a “regular” MIDI track (with no drum map) and still have the notes play back the correct drum sound. Functions Option Description Quantize LengthsThis will quantize the length of the notes without chang- ing their start positions. At its most basic level, this func- tion will set the length of the notes to the Length Quantize value on the toolbar of the MIDI editors. Quantize EndsThe Quantize Ends function on the Quantize submenu will only affect the end positions of notes. Apart from that, it works just like regular quantizing, taking the Quantize pop-up menu setting into account. Undo QuantizeYou can revert the selected MIDI notes to their original, unquantized state at any time. This is independent from the regular Undo History. Freeze QuantizeThere may be situations when you want to make the quantized positions “permanent”. For example, you may want to quantize notes a second time, having the results based on the current quantized positions rather than the original positions. To make this possible, select the notes in question and use this function.Option Description Legato Extends each selected note so that it reaches the next note. You can specify the desired gap or overlap with the “Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences (Editing page). Fixed LengthsResizes all selected notes to the length set with the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the MIDI Editor tool- bar. Delete DoublesRemoves double notes, i.e. notes of the same pitch on the exact same position. Double notes can occur when recording in Cycle mode, after Quantizing, etc. This func- tion always affects whole MIDI parts. Delete ControllersRemoves all MIDI controller events from the selected MIDI parts. This function always affects whole MIDI parts. Delete Continuous ControllersRemoves all continuous MIDI controller events from the selected MIDI parts. On/Off events, such as sustain pedal events, are not removed. This function always af- fects whole MIDI parts. Delete Notes…Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is useful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” after recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog in which you set up the criteria for the function. Restrict PolyphonySelecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec- ify how many “voices” should be used (for the selected notes or parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is use- ful 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 LengthThis function scans for sustain pedal on/off events, lengthens the affected notes to match the sustain pedal off position, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/ off events.
13 Menu Reference Logical Presets This submenu contains various presets that let you per- form advanced “search and replace” operations on MIDI data. Drum Map Setup… This is where you load, create, modify and save drum maps. The list to the left shows the currently loaded drum maps; selecting a drum map in the list displays its sounds and settings to the right. Insert Velocities… All MIDI editors feature an Insert Velocity pop-up, where one of five different velocity values can be selected when inserting notes. This menu item allows you to specify which five velocity values should be available on the Insert Velocity pop-up menu. Reset This function sends out note-off messages and resets controllers on all MIDI channels. You can use this if you experience hanging notes or stuck controllers etc. Media menu Open Pool Window Opens the Pool. Open MediaBay Opens the MediaBay. Open Loop Browser Opens the Loop Browser. Open Sound Browser Opens the Sound Browser. Import Medium… The Import Medium dialog is used for importing files di- rectly into the Pool. Import Audio CD… This opens a dialog that allows you to import audio from audio CDs. Find Missing Files… This opens the Resolve Missing Files dialog that can be used to find referenced files that may have been moved or renamed etc. In the dialog that appears, decide if you want the program to try to find the file for you (Search), if you want to do it yourself (Locate) or if you want to specify in which direc- tory the program should search for the file (Folder). Remove Missing Files If the Pool contains audio files that cannot be found or re- constructed, you may want to remove these: Select this item to remove all missing files from the Pool (and remove their corresponding events from the Project window). Delete Overlaps (mono)This function allows you to make sure that no two 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 trans- mitted before the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then be used to automatically rectify 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… Opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate the velocity of notes in various ways. 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 This thins out your MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense controller curves etc. Extract MIDI AutomationThis option allows you to automatically convert continu- ous controller data of a MIDI part into MIDI track automa- tion data. Reverse This inverts the order of the selected events (or of all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to play backwards. Note though, that the effect is different from reversing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individ- ual notes will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it’s only the order of playback that is changed. Option Description
14 Menu Reference Reconstruct If a missing file cannot be found (e.g. if you have acciden- tally deleted it from the hard disk), it will normally be indi- cated with a question mark in the Status column in the Pool. However, if the missing file is an edit file (a file cre- ated when you process audio, stored in the Edits folder within the project folder), it may be possible for the pro- gram to reconstruct it by recreating the editing to the orig- inal audio file. Convert Files… This opens the Convert Options dialog which operates on selected files. Use the pop-up menus to specify which au- dio file attributes you want to keep and which you want to convert. Conform Files… This will change all selected files that have different file at- tributes to what is specified for the project, to conform to this standard. Generate Thumbnail Cache This generates a thumbnail cache of the video, used for display in case of strained computing resources. Create Folder This allows you to create a new audio or video subfolder. Empty Trash To delete a file permanently from the hard disk, it must first be moved to the Trash folder. When clips are in the Trash folder they can be removed permanently by using this command. Remove Unused Media This function finds all clips in the Pool that are not used in the project, and either moves them to the Pool Trash folder where they can be permanently deleted, or removes them from the Pool. Prepare Archive… This command should be used when you want to archive a project. It checks that every clip referenced in the project is located in the same folder. Set Pool Record Folder This is used to designate a new Pool Record folder. Se- lect the folder, and choose this command to change the Pool Record folder to the selected folder. Minimize File This allows you to change the size of audio files according to the audio clips referenced in a project. The files pro- duced using this option will only contain the audio file por- tions actually used in the project, which can significantly reduce the size of the project (given that large portions of the audio files are unused). New Version This allows you to create a new version of a selected clip. The new version appears in the same Pool folder, with the same name but with a “version number” after it, to indicate that the new clip is a duplicate. The first copy made of a clip will logically get the version number “2” and so on. ÖCopying a clip does not create a new file on disk, but just a new edit version of the clip (referring to the same original file). Insert into Project This allows you to insert clips selected in the Pool into the project, at the current cursor position or at the clip’s Ori- gin position. Select in Project With this function you can find out which events in the project refer to a particular clip in the Pool. Select the clip in the Pool, and use this menu item. The corresponding event(s) will then be selected in the Project window. Search Media… You can perform a search of the Pool to locate particular clips. You can specify various criteria to match in the dia- log that appears.
15 Menu Reference Transport menu Transport Panel This opens the Transport panel. Locators to Selection This will set the locators to encompass the current selec- tion or selection range. Locate Selection This moves the project cursor to the start of the current selection or selection range. Locate Selection End This moves the project cursor to the end of the current se- lection or selection range. Locate Next Marker This moves the project cursor to the next marker position. Locate Previous Marker This moves the project cursor to the previous marker posi- tion. Locate Next Event This moves the project cursor to the next event start or end on the selected track. Locate Previous Event This moves the project cursor to the previous event start or end on the selected track. Play from Selection Start/End This activates playback from the beginning or end of the current selection. Play until Selection Start/End This activates playback two seconds before the start or end of the current selection and stops at the selection start or end, respectively. Play until Next Marker This will activate playback from the current project cursor position to the next marker and stop. Play Selection Range This will play back the current selection range and stop at the end. Loop Selection This will loop playback of the current selection range. Use PreRoll When this is activated and you start playback or record- ing, Cubase Essential will “roll back” a bit before starting. Use PostRoll When this is activated, Cubase Essential will play back a short section after automatic punch-out. Start Record at Left Locator If this is activated, the project cursor will jump to the left locator position and begin recording when you hit the Record button. If this is off (unticked), recording will start directly from the current project cursor position. Metronome Setup… Opens the Metronome Setup dialog where you can make various metronome settings. Metronome On Activates the metronome. Precount On Activates precount – a count-in that will be heard when you start recording from stop mode and the metronome is activated. This can also be activated on the Transport panel. You can specify the number of precount bars in the Metronome Setup dialog. Project Synchronization Setup… Opens a dialog where settings relating to synchronization can be made.
16 Menu Reference Use External Sync Activates synchronization. Retrospective Record Performs retrospective MIDI recording. If the Retrospective Record function is enabled in the Preferences (Record– MIDI page), and a MIDI track is record enabled, any MIDI notes you play in stop mode or during playback are cap- tured in buffer memory. If you then select Retrospective Record, the MIDI notes you played – i.e. the contents of the buffer memory – are turned into a MIDI part on the record enabled MIDI track. The MIDI part will appear where the cursor was when you started playing. Devices menu Time Display This opens a separate window showing the time display. This is a larger view of the time display in the Transport panel, showing the position of the project cursor in the se- lected primary time format. MIDI Device Manager The MIDI Device manager allows you to install MIDI de- vices. You can either select pre-configured MIDI devices from a list, or define a device from scratch. Mixer This opens the Mixer. All audio, MIDI, FX channel and Group tracks in a project have a corresponding channel strip in the Mixer, as do Output busses and any activated VST Instruments and ReWire channels. Plug-in Information The Plug-in Information window lists all installed VST and MIDI plug-ins, and shows various information about them. VST Connections Opens the VST Connections window. This where you set up Input and Output busses to route the audio between your audio hardware and Cubase Essential in various channel configurations (mono and stereo). VST Instruments Opens the VST Instruments window, where you can se- lect up to 16 VST Instruments. When a VST Instrument has been selected for a slot in the window, the corre- sponding instrument is selectable as a destination on the MIDI output pop-up for MIDI and Instrument tracks. VST Performance This window indicates the current CPU load and disk transfer rate. Video Opens the default video player. The default video player is selected in the Device Setup dialog. Show Panel Opens a panel where you can directly select any of the currently available devices on the Device menu. Device Setup… This dialog allows you to add or remove remote control devices and to make various basic settings for audio and MIDI such as selecting ASIO drivers and MIDI ports etc.
17 Menu Reference Window menu Close Closes the currently active window. If the active window is a Project window, the project will be closed. Close All Closes all windows including all open projects. Minimize All Minimizes all windows. Restore All Restores all minimized Cubase Essential windows. Tile Horizontally/Vertically (Windows only) Arranges the open windows next to each other on screen. Cascade (Windows only) Arranges the open windows in a partially overlapping pattern. Windows… Opens a dialog where you can manage and make settings for all open windows. The open windows list Selecting a window from the list at the bottom of the menu brings it to front. Help menu Documentation (Acrobat PDF format) ÖTo read these documents, you need to have a suitable PDF reader application. An installer for Adobe Reader ist provided on the program DVD. Registration When you click this item, the Steinberg web page is opened, where you can register your product. An active internet connection is required. Credits and Copyrights Lists credits and copyright information and opens the Steinberg web site. About Cubase Essential ÖUnder Mac OS X, this menu item is accessed from the Cubase Essential menu. This opens a window with information about the Cubase Essential version number etc. Option Description Getting Started Opens the Getting Started book in Acrobat pdf for- mat. Operation ManualOpens the Operation Manual in Acrobat pdf format. Remote Control DevicesOpens the separate pdf document describing the MIDI remote control devices supported by Cubase Essential. Plug-in ReferenceOpens the separate pdf document containing de- scriptions of the included plug-in audio effects, MIDI effects, HALionOne, and their parameters. Menu ReferenceOpens the Menu Reference (the document you have in front of you) in Acrobat pdf format.