Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 Plug-In Reference Manual

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MIDI effects
6.Now you can play the keyboard and control the varia-
tions according to the selected switch modes.
These work as follows:
To turn the variation switch feature off, select the “No 
Switch” mode.
Compress
This MIDI compressor is used for evening out or expanding 
differences in velocity. Though the result is similar to what 
you get with the Velocity Compression track parameter, the 
Compress plug-in presents the controls in a manner more 
like regular audio compressors. The parameters...

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MIDI effects
Density
This generic control panel affects the “density” of the 
notes being played from (or thru) the track. When this is 
set to 100 %, the notes are not affected. Lowering the 
Density setting below 100 % will randomly filter out or 
“mute” notes. Raising the setting above 100 % will instead 
randomly add new notes.
Micro Tuner
The Micro Tuner lets you set up a different microtuning 
scheme for the instrument, by detuning each key. 
 Each Detune field corresponds to a key in an octave...

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MIDI effects
MIDIEcho
This is an advanced MIDI Echo, which will generate addi-
tional echoing notes based on the MIDI notes it receives. 
It creates effects similar to a digital delay, but also features 
MIDI pitch shifting and much more. As always it is impor-
tant to remember that the effect doesn’t “echo” the actual 
audio, but the MIDI notes which will eventually produce 
the sound in the synthesizer.
The following parameters are available:
Quantize
The echoed notes will be moved in position to a...

34
MIDI effects
Length Decay
This parameter lets you adjust how the length of the ech-
oed notes should change with each successive repeat. 
The higher the setting (25 –100), the longer the echoed 
notes will be compared to their original notes.
About ticks and note values
The timing and position-related parameters (Echo-Quant., 
Length and Quantize) can all be set in ticks. There are 480 
ticks to each quarter note. While the parameters allow you 
to step between the rhythmically relevant values (dis-...

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MIDI effects
The Quantizer has the following parameters:
Step Designer
The Step Designer is a MIDI pattern sequencer that sends 
out MIDI notes and additional controller data according to 
the pattern you set up. It does not make use of the incom-
ing MIDI, other than automation data (such as recorded 
pattern changes).
Creating a basic pattern
1.Use the Pattern selector to choose which pattern to 
create.
Each Step Designer can hold up to 200 different patterns.
2.Use the Quantize setting to specify...

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MIDI effects
Adding controller curves
The Controllers pop-up menu has two more items: two 
controller types.
You can select which two controller types (filter cutoff, 
resonance, volume, etc.) should be available on the pop-
up menu by clicking the Setup button and selecting con-
trollers from the lists that appears.
This selection is global to all patterns.
To insert controller information in a pattern, select the 
desired controller from the pop-up menu and click in the 
controller display to draw...

37
MIDI effects
Track Control
The Track Control effect contains three ready-made con-
trol panels for adjusting parameters on a GS or XG com-
patible MIDI device. The Roland GS and Yamaha XG 
protocols are extensions of the General MIDI standard, al-
lowing for more sounds and better control of various in-
strument settings. If your instrument is compatible with 
GS or XG, the Track Controls effect allows you to adjust 
sounds and effects in your instrument from within Cubase 
Essential.
Selecting a...

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MIDI effects
XG Effects + Sends
The following controls are available when the XG Effects 
+ Sends mode is selected:
XG Global Settings
In this mode, the parameters affect global settings in the 
instrument(s). Changing one of these settings for a track 
will in fact affect all MIDI instruments connected to the 
same MIDI output, regardless of the MIDI channel setting 
of the track. Therefore, to avoid confusion it might be a 
good idea to create an empty track and use this only for 
these global...

39
MIDI effects
Transformer
With the Transformer you can perform very powerful MIDI 
processing on the fly, without affecting the actual MIDI 
events on the track.
Setting up filter conditions
The upper list is where you set up the filter conditions, de-
termining which events to find. The list contains one or sev-
eral conditions, each on a separate line.
To add a new line (condition) click the Add Line button 
to the right.
The new line is added at the bottom of the list. If there are many lines, you...

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MIDI effects
Searching for notes of certain lengths
Only note events have lengths (actually, a note is made up 
of separate note-on and note-off events but in Cubase 
Essential it is considered as a single event with a length). 
Therefore, the “Length” Filter Target is only valid if you’re 
specifically searching for notes – there has to be another 
condition line with the Filter Target “Type”, Condition 
“Equal” and Parameter 1 set to “Note”. See “Combining 
multiple condition lines” on page 42 for...