Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Operation Manual

231
The MIDI editors
Coloring notes and events
By using the Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can 
select a color scheme for the events in the editor. The fol-
lowing options are available:
When any of the options (apart from “Part”) is selected, 
you can select “Setup” from the Colors pop-up menu. 
This opens a dialog in which you can specify which colors 
should be associated with which velocities, pitches or 
channels, respectively.
Creating and editing notes
To draw in new notes in the Key...

232
The MIDI editors
Setting velocity values
When you draw notes in the Key Editor, the notes will get 
the velocity value set in the insert velocity field on the tool-
bar.
You can use one of four different methods for determining 
the velocity:
When a key command is assigned for the Select tool–
Edit Velocity action (in the Editing–Tool Modifiers page of 
the Preferences dialog), you can select one or more notes, 
press [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Shift] and click on one of the 
selected notes to change the...

233
The MIDI editors
Toggle selections
If you want to toggle the selected elements within a selec-
tion rectangle, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and enclose the 
same elements within a new selection rectangle. Once 
you release the mouse button, the previous selection is 
deselected and vice versa.
Selecting controllers within the note range
You can select the controllers within the range of the se-
lected notes. The following applies:
When the Auto Select Controllers button is activated 
on the toolbar, the...

234
The MIDI editors
Using cut and paste
You can use the Cut, Copy and Paste options on the Edit 
menu to move or copy material within a part or between 
different parts. When you paste copied notes, you can ei-
ther use the regular Paste function or the function “Paste 
Time” from the Range submenu of the Edit menu.
 “Paste” inserts the copied notes at the project cursor position 
without affecting existing notes.
 “Paste Time” inserts at the project cursor position, but moves 
(and if necessary,...

235
The MIDI editors
Select the note(s) and choose Mute from the Edit menu. 
The default key command for this is [Shift]+[M].
Muted notes are “dimmed” in the note display.
To unmute a note, either click it or enclose it with the Mute 
tool, or select it and choose Unmute from the Edit menu. 
The default key command for this is [Shift]+[U].
Deleting notes
To delete notes, either click on them with the Eraser tool 
or select them and press [Backspace].
Editing on the info line
The info line shows the...

236
The MIDI editors
3.Use the note buttons on the toolbar to decide which 
properties should be changed by the MIDI input.
You can enable editing of pitch, note-on and/or note-off velocity.
With this setting, the edited notes will get the pitch and velocity values 
of the notes input via MIDI, but the note-off velocities will be kept as 
they are.
4.Play a note on your MIDI instrument.
The note selected in the editor will get the pitch, velocity and/or note-off 
velocity of the played note.
The next...

237
The MIDI editors
Editing in the controller display
About controller lanes
By default, the controller display has a single lane, show-
ing one event type at a time. However, you can add lanes 
by right-clicking in the display and selecting “Create new 
controller lane” from the Quick menu. This allows you to 
view and edit different controllers at the same time.
The controller display with three lanes set up.
To remove a lane, right-click in it and select “Remove this 
Lane” from the Quick menu, or...

238
The MIDI editors
Editing velocity values
When “Velocity” is selected for viewing, the lane shows 
the velocity of each note as a vertical bar.
Velocity values are edited with the Pencil or the Line tool. 
The different tools and Line tool modes offer several pos-
sibilities, as listed below.
ÖIf the option “Controller Lane Editing: Select Tool de-
faults to Pen” is activated in the Preferences (Editing–MIDI 
page), the Arrow tool automatically switches to the Pencil 
tool when you move the pointer...

239
The MIDI editors
Adding and editing events in the controller display
When any option other than “Velocity” is selected for a 
controller lane, you can create new events or edit the val-
ues of existing events using the Pencil tool or the Line tool 
in its various modes: 
Clicking with the Pencil tool or the Line tool in Paint 
mode creates a new event.
Note the “Select Tool defaults to Pen” option – see “Editing velocity va-
lues” on page 238. 
Press [Alt]/[Option] and use the Pencil tool or the Line...

240
The MIDI editors
ÖIn Line and Parabola modes, the length quantize value 
determines the “density” of created controller curves (if 
Snap is activated).
For very smooth curves, you should use a small length quantize value or 
turn off Snap. To avoid over-dense controller curves (which may cause 
MIDI playback to “stutter”), use a medium-low density.
The Sine, Triangle and Square modes create events 
with values aligned to continuous curves.
In these modes, the quantize value determines the period of...