Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Operation Manual
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221 MIDI processing and quantizing You can specify the desired gap or overlap with the “Legato Overlap” setting in the Preferences (Editing–MIDI page). When using Legato with this setting, each note will be extended to end 5 ticks before the next note. When you activate “Legato Mode: Selected Only”, the length of the note will be adjusted so that it reaches the next selected note, allowing you e.g. to only apply Legato to your bass line (when playing on a keyboard). Fixed Lengths This function resizes all selected notes to the length set with the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the MIDI editor toolbar. Delete Doubles This function removes 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. Delete Controllers This function removes all MIDI controllers from the se- lected MIDI parts. Delete Continuous Controllers This function removes all “continuous” MIDI controller events from the selected MIDI parts. Therefore, “on/off” events such as sustain pedal events are not removed. Delete Notes Allows you to delete very short or weak notes. This is use- ful for automatically removing unwanted “ghost notes” af- ter recording. Selecting “Delete Notes…” opens a dialog in which you set up the criteria for the function. The parameters have the following functionality: Minimum Length When the Minimum Length checkbox is activated, the note length is taken into account, allowing you to remove short notes. You can either specify the minimum length (for notes to be kept) in the value display or by dragging the blue line in the graphical length display below. The graphical length display can correspond to 1/4 bar, one bar, two bars or four bars. You change this setting by clicking in the field to the right of the display. In this case, the whole length display corresponds to two bars, and the Minimum Length is set to 1/32nd notes (60 ticks). Minimum Velocity When the Minimum Velocity checkbox is activated, the ve- locity of notes is taken into account, allowing you to re- move weak notes. You specify the minimum velocity (for notes to be kept) in the value display. Remove when under This setting is only available when both Minimum Length and Minimum Velocity is activated. By clicking the value display, you select whether both length and velocity crite- ria must be met for notes to be deleted, or whether one of the criteria will suffice. !This function is only available from within the MIDI editors. !This function always affects whole MIDI parts. !This function always affects whole MIDI parts. !This function always affects whole MIDI parts.
222 MIDI processing and quantizing OK and Cancel Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without deleting notes. Restrict Polyphony Selecting 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 Length This function scans for Sustain pedal on/off events, length- ens the affected notes to match the Sustain pedal off posi- tion, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/off events. Delete Overlaps (mono) This function allows you to make sure that no 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 transmitted be- fore the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then be used to automatically solve 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 This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate the velocity of notes in various ways.The following types of velocity processing are available: Add/Subtract This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the Amount parameter. Compress/Expand Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI notes by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio setting (0 – 300%). The principle behind this is that multi- plying different velocity values with a factor higher than 1 (over 100%) will also make the differences between ve- locity values greater, while using a factor lower than 1 (un- der 100%) will make the differences smaller. In short: To compress (“even out” velocity differences), use ratio values below 100%. After compression, you would probably want to add a velocity amount (with the Add/Subtract function) to maintain the average velocity level. To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ra- tio values above 100%. Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/ Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the mid- dle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0), expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only be between 0 and 127! Limit This function allows you to make sure that no velocity val- ues fall outside a given range (the Lower and Upper val- ues). Any velocity values outside this range are raised/ lowered to exactly the Lower/Upper values. 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 Thins out MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on your ex- ternal MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense con- troller curves etc. You can also manually thin out the controller data by using the quantize function in the Key Editor.
223 MIDI processing and quantizing Extract MIDI Automation This option allows you to automatically convert continuous controller data of a MIDI part into MIDI track automation data. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the desired MIDI part containing the continuous controller data. 2.Select “Extract MIDI Automation”. (This command is also available on the Key Editor context menu.) The controller data will automatically be removed from the controller lane in the editor. 3.In the Project window, open the automation track(s) for the respective MIDI track. You will find that an automa- tion track has been created for each of the continuous controllers in the part. ÖPlease note that this function can only be used for con- tinuous controllers. Data such as Aftertouch, Pitchbend or SysEx cannot be converted to MIDI track automation data. ÖRemember that to be able to hear the automation data, you have to activate the Read button for the respective au- tomation track(s). Reverse This function inverts the order of the selected events (or of all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to play backwards. Note that the effect is different from re- versing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individual notes will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it’s only the order of playback that is changed. !This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to quickly and easily convert the continuous controllers of your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI track automa- tion data, making them available for editing in the Project window.
225 The MIDI editors Introduction There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase Essential. You can use the tools and functions in the Project window for large-scale editing, or use the functions on the MIDI menu to process MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is affected by the MIDI functions?” on page 214). 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 – Over- view” on page 227. The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corre- sponds to a separate drum sound. This is the editor to use when you’re editing drum or percussion parts. For more information, see “The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 242. The List Editor shows all events in the selected MIDI parts as a list, allowing you to view and edit their proper- ties numerically. For more information, see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 249. The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score. This offers basic score editing and printing – see “The Score Editor – Overview” on page 253 for details). ÖYou can define each of the editors mentioned above as your default MIDI editor, see below. Please note that features that are identical in these editors (especially in the Key and Drum Editors) will be described in the Key Editor section. The sections about the Drum Ed- itor (see “The Drum Editor – Overview” on page 242), and the List Editor (see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 249) describe the specific features of these editors only. 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) and select Open Key Editor, Open Drum Editor, Open List Editor from the MIDI menu or Open Score Editor from the Scores submenu (or use the corresponding key command). The selected parts (or all parts on the track, if no part was selected) will open in the chosen editor. Double-click a part to open it in the default editor. Which editor opens depends on the Default Edit Action setting in the Preferences (Event Display–MIDI page). If the option “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned” is activated and a drum map is selected for the edited track (see “Selecting a drum map for a track” on page 247), the Drum Editor will open. This way you can double- click to open the Key Editor (or the Score Editor or List Editor, depending on your preferences) but drum tracks will automatically open in the Drum Editor. ÖIf the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any ed- iting you perform will affect all shared copies of this part. Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Option]+[Shift] and drag- ging, or by using the Repeat function with the “Shared copies” option activated. In the Project window, shared copies are indicated by the part name in italics and an icon in the bottom 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, you might find it somewhat hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing. For such cases the editor toolbar features a few functions to make working with multiple parts easier and more com- prehensive: The Part List menu lists all parts that were selected when you opened the editor (or all parts on the track, if no parts were selected), and lets you select which part should be active for editing. When you select a part from the list, it is automatically made active and centered in the note display.
226 The MIDI editors ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by select- ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool. The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit- ing operations to the active part only. For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu on the Edit menu with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected. Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a se- lection rectangle), only the notes in the active part will be selected. “Edit Active Part Only” activated on the toolbar. You can zoom in on the active part so that it fills the screen by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom sub- menu on the Edit menu. The button “Show Part Borders” can be used if you want to see clearly defined borders for the active part. When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, mak- ing 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 begin- ning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part. “Show Part Borders” activated on the toolbar. It is possible to cycle between parts (making them ac- tive) using key commands. 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 edi- tors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 322.
227 The MIDI editors The Key Editor – Overview The toolbar As in other windows, the toolbar contains tools and vari- ous settings. You can specify which toolbar items should be shown and store/recall different toolbar configurations – see “The Setup dialogs” on page 314. The info line The info line shows information about selected MIDI notes. You can edit all values on the info line using regular value editing (see “Editing on the info line” on page 235 for details). Length and position values are displayed in the format currently selected for the ruler (see below). To hide or show the info line, click the icon in the toolbar. Ruler Info line Toolbar Note display Controller display Show/Hide Info line Solo Editor button Key Editor toolsAutoscroll on/off Audition on/off Part list Show/Hide Part borders Edit active part only Auto Select Controllers Nudge Tools Snap on/off Velocity for inserted notesGrid modes Quantize settingsStep Input MIDI InputStep/MIDI input controls Color pop-up menu Chord recognition display Mouse pointer display: Current pitch and meter position
228 The MIDI editors The ruler The ruler shows the time line, by default in the display for- mat 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 21. At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two addi- tional 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 probably set the display format to “Bars+Beats” in “Bars+Beats Linear” mode when edit- ing MIDI. The note display The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It con- tains 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 to the left serves as a guide for finding the right note number. For a description on how to display colors in the note dis- play, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 231. The chord recognition function Cubase Essential features a handy chord recognition function that helps you identify chords in the Key Editor note display. To find out which chord is formed by simulta- neously played notes, place the project cursor over the notes. All MIDI notes currently “touched” by the project cursor are analyzed and the chord recognition display in the toolbar shows you which chord the notes form. In the picture above, the project cursor touches the notes C, Eb and G. As shown in the chord recognition display, this results in a C minor chord. The controller display The area at the bottom of the Key Editor window is the controller display. This consists of one or several control- ler lanes, each showing one of the following properties or event types: Velocity values of the notes. Pitch Bend events. Aftertouch events. Poly Pressure events. Program Change events. SysEx events. Any type of continuous controller event.
229 The MIDI editors To change the size of the controller display, drag the di- vider between the controller display and the note display. This will make the controller display larger and the note display smaller, or vice versa. 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. Events in the controller display (that is, anything other than velocity values) are shown as “blocks”, the heights of which correspond to the “values” of the events. However, events that have been recorded (or drawn with a low quantize value) may appear more like “filled curves”, simply because they are positioned very closely: If you zoom in on the upper “curve”, you will find that it consists of sep- arate events. 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 “Editing in the controller display” on page 237. Key Editor operations Zooming Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the stan- dard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Zoom tool or the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu. When you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool, the result depends on the option “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Hori- zontal Zooming Only” in the Preferences (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. It is available in the Key Editor and in the List Editor. 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 in the toolbar. The mouse pointer changes to a knife symbol. 2.Locate the notes that you wish to edit. 3.To edit a single note, click on it with the Trim tool. The range between the mouse cursor and the end of the note will be removed. You can use the mouse position display in the toolbar to find the exact position for the trim operation. 4.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. If you delete the second event……the first event will be “valid” until the start of the third event.
230 The MIDI editors 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 Pref- erences (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). ÖNote that when you trim the beginning of a note in the List Editor, the note may move to a different position in the list (since other events may now begin before the edited event). ÖNote that the trimmed note ends don’t snap to the grid. 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: Solo button If you activate the Solo button, only the edited MIDI parts will be heard during regular playback. Autoscroll As described in the section “Autoscroll” on page 40, the Autoscroll 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 Autoscroll – this way, the events you are working with will stay visible. The Autoscroll buttons in each MIDI editor are independent of the Project window Autoscroll setting, which means that Autoscroll can be activated in the Project window and de- activated in the MIDI editor you are working in. Auditioning If the speaker icon 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’re doing. Snap Snap activated on the toolbar. The Snap function helps you find exact positions when ed- iting in a MIDI editor. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to certain positions. Operations affected by snap include moving, duplicating, drawing, siz- ing, etc. How Snap works depends on the Snap mode pop-up menu next to the Snap button. See “Snap” on page 38. 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 Setup dialog (see “The Quantizing functions” on page 214). 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 the display.