Steinberg Cubase Le 8 Manual

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor
491
Controller Display
The area at the bottom of the Drum Editor window is the controller display.
It consists of one or several controller lanes that show one of the following 
properties or event types:
• Velocity values of the notes
• Pitchbend events
• Aftertouch events
• Poly Pressure events
• Program Change events
• System Exclusive events
• Any type of continuous controller event
Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller display. Each velocity bar 
corresponds to a note in the note display. Higher bars correspond to higher velocity 
values.
Events other than velocity values are shown as blocks. The block corresponds to 
the event values. The beginning of an event is marked by a curve point.
When you select a line in the drum sound list, only the velocity controller events that 
belong to the note events on this line are displayed in the controller display.
If you select more than one line in the drum sound list, the controller lane shows all 
velocity controller events for all notes on the selected lines. This is useful when you 
have to adjust the controller values between different drum sounds.
NOTE
Unlike note events, controller events have no length. The value of a controller event 
in the display is valid until the beginning of the next controller event. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor
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Drum Sound List
The drum sound list lists all drum sounds by name and lets you adjust and 
manipulate the drum sound setup in various ways.
NOTE
The number of columns in the list depends on whether a drum map is selected for 
the track or not.
Pitch
Actual note number of the drum sound. This is what links notes on a MIDI track 
to drum sounds. For example, with the GM Map, all MIDI notes with the pitch 
C1 are mapped to the Bass Drum sound.
Instrument
Name of the drum sound.
Quantize
This value is used when entering and editing notes.
Mute
Mute drum sounds.
I-Note
Input note for the drum sound. When this MIDI note is sent into Cubase, that 
is you play it, the note is mapped to the corresponding drum sound and 
automatically transposed according to the Pitch setting for the sound.
O-Note
Output note, that is the MIDI note number that is sent out every time the drum 
sound is played back.
Chan
MIDI channel, on which the drum sound is played back.
Output
MIDI output on which, the drum sound is played back. If you set this to 
Default, the MIDI output selected for the track is used.
RELATED LINKS
Muting Notes and Drum Sounds on page 494 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations493
Drum Map and Names Menus
Below the drum sound list are two pop-up menus that are used for selecting a drum 
map for the edited track or, if no drum map is selected, a list of drum sound names.
R
ELATED LINKS
Drum Maps on page  495
Drum Editor Operations
This section describes the principa l editing operations within the Drum Editor.
Creating and Editing Note Events with the Drum Tool
• To create a note, select the Drumstick  tool  and click in the Drum Editor.
If  Snap  
is deactivated on the toolbar, the note event appears exactly where 
you clicked.
If you have activated  Snap and 
 deactivated Use Global Quantize  on the 
toolbar, the note events snap to positions according to the quantize value set 
for the sound in the drum sound list. You can set up different quantize values 
for different drum sounds.
If  Snap  and Use Global Quanti
 ze are activated, the note snaps to positions 
according to the  Quantize setting on the toolbar.
The length of the inserted note is determined by the  Inse
 rt Length setting on 
the toolbar. However, if this is set to  Drum-Map Link, the note gets the length 
of the quantize value for the drum sound.
• To remove a note, select the  Drums
 tick tool and click on an existing note.
• To audition the drum sounds, click the leftmost column of the drum sound list.
Moving and Transposing Note Events
There are several options to move and transpose note events.
• To move note events in the editor, select the  Object Sel
 ection tool and drag 
them to a new position.
All selected note events are moved, maintaining their relative positions.  Snap 
is ta
 ken into account.
• To allow only horizontal and vertical movement, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command]  while dragging. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
494
• To move note events via the Nudge Palette buttons on the toolbar, select the 
note events and click a Nudge Palette button.
This moves the selected note events by the amount that is set on the 
Quantize pop-up menu.
• To move note events to the project cursor position, select the note events and 
select Edit > Move to > Cursor.
• To move a note event via the info line, select a note event and edit the 
Position or Pitch on the info line.
• To transpose note events, select the note events and use the up and down 
arrow keys.
• To transpose note events via the Transpose Setup dialog, select the note 
events and select MIDI > Transpose Setup.
• To transpose note events in steps of one octave, press [Shift] and use the up 
and down arrow keys.
NOTE
• When you move selected note events to a different position, any selected 
controllers for these note events move accordingly.
• You can also adjust the position of note events by quantizing.
R
ELATED LINKS
Transpose on page 422
Muting Notes and Drum Sounds
IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
The mute state for drum sounds is part of the drum map. Therefore, any other tracks 
using the same map are also affected.
• To mute individual notes, click or enclose them with the Mute tool, or select 
Edit > Mute.
• If a drum map is selected, the drum sound list has a Mute column. Click in the 
Mute column for a drum sound to mute that sound.
• To mute all drum sounds other than the selected one, click the Solo 
Instrument button on the toolbar.
RELATED LINKS
Selecting a Drum Map for a Track on page 498 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
495
Drum Maps
A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of different drum sounds with 
each sound placed on a separate key. For example, the different sounds are 
assigned to different MIDI note numbers. One key plays a bass drum sound, another 
a snare, and so on.
Different MIDI instruments often use different key assignments. This can be 
troublesome if you have made a drum pattern using one MIDI device and then want 
to try it on another. When you switch devices, it is very likely that your snare drum 
becomes a ride cymbal or your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc., because the drum 
sounds are distributed differently in the two instruments.
To solve this problem and to simplify several aspects of MIDI drum kits, such as 
using drum sounds from different instruments in the same drum kit, Cubase features 
drum maps. A drum map is a list of drum sounds, with a number of settings for each 
sound. When you play back a MIDI track for which you have selected a drum map, 
the MIDI notes are filtered through the drum map before they are sent to the MIDI 
instrument. The map determines which MIDI note number is sent out for each drum 
sound and which sound is played on the receiving MIDI device.
When you want to try your drum pattern on another instrument, you simply switch 
to the corresponding drum map, and your snare drum sound remains a snare drum 
sound.
If you want to have the same drum maps included in your projects, you can load 
these into the template.
NOTE
Drum maps are saved with the project files. If you have created or modified a drum 
map, use the Save function to save it as a separate XML file to make it available for 
loading into other projects.
RELATED LINKS
Saving a Project Template File on page 48
Drum Map Setup Dialog
This dialog allows you to load, create, modify, and save drum maps.
To open the Drum Map Setup dialog, select Drum Map Setup from the Map 
pop-up menu or the MIDI menu. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
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The list on the left shows the currently loaded drum maps. The sounds and settings 
of the selected drum map are displayed on the right.
NOTE
The settings for the drum sounds are the same as in the Drum Editor.
Output
Allows you to select the output for the drum map sounds.
Drum Sound List
Lists all drum sounds and their settings. To audition a drum sound, click the 
leftmost column.
NOTE
If you audition a sound in the Drum Map Setup dialog and the sound is set 
to MIDI output Default, the output that is selected on the Output pop-up 
menu in the lower left corner is used. When auditioning a default output sound 
in the Drum Editor, the MIDI output selected for the track is used.
The Functions pop-up menu contains the following options:
New Map
Adds a new drum map to the project. The drum sounds are named “Sound 1, 
Sound 2, etc.” and have all parameters set to default values. The map is 
named “Empty Map”.
To rename the drum map, click the name in the list and type in a new name.
New Copy
Adds a copy of the currently selected drum map to create a new drum map. 
You can then change the drum sound settings of the copy and rename the 
drum map in the list.
Remove
Removes the selected drum map from the project. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
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Load
Allows you to load drum maps into your project.
Save
A l l o w s  y o u  t o  s a v e  t h e  d r u m  m a p  t h a t  i s  s e l e c t e d  i n  t h e  l i s t  o n  d i s k .  D r u m  m a p  
files have the extension .drm.
Edit head pairs
Allows you to customize the note pairs.
Init Display Notes
Allows you to reset the Display Notes entry to the original setting, that is the 
Pitch entry.
RELATED LINKS
Drum Map Settings on page 497
Channel and Output Settings on page 497
Drum Map Settings
A drum map consists of settings for 128 drum sounds, one for each MIDI note 
number.
• To get an overview of the drum map settings, open the Drum Editor and use 
the Map pop-up menu below the drum sound list to select the GM Map drum 
map.
The GM map is set up according to the General MIDI standard.
You can change all drum map settings except the pitch directly in the drum sound 
list or in the Drum Map Setup dialog. These changes affect all tracks that use the 
drum map.
RELATED LINKS
Drum Sound List on page 492
Drum Map Setup Dialog on page 495
Channel and Output Settings
You can set separate MIDI channels and/or MIDI outputs for each sound in a drum 
map. When a drum map is selected for a track, the MIDI channel settings in the 
drum map override the MIDI channel setting for the track.
You can select different channels and/or outputs for different sounds. This allows 
you to construct drum kits with sounds from several different MIDI devices, etc. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
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• To make a drum sound use the channel of the track, set the channel in the 
drum map to Any.
• To make the sound use the MIDI output that is selected for the track, set the 
MIDI output for a sound in a drum map to default.
• To send the sound to a specific MIDI output, select any other option.
• To select the same MIDI channel or MIDI device for all sounds in a drum map, 
click in the Channel column, press [Ctrl]/[Command], and select a channel or 
output.
• If you make specific MIDI channel and output settings for all sounds in a drum 
map, you can switch between drum maps to send your drum tracks to another 
MIDI instrument.
Selecting a Drum Map for a Track
• To select a drum map for a MIDI track, open the Map pop-up menu in the 
Inspector or in the Drum Editor and select a drum map.
• To deactivate the drum map functionality in the Drum Editor, open the Map 
pop-up menu in the Inspector or in the Drum Editor and select No Drum 
Map.
Even if you do not use a drum map, you can still separate sounds by name 
using a name list.
NOTE
Initially, the Map pop-up menu only contains GM Map.
About I-Notes, O-Notes and Pitches
Going through the following theory helps you make the most out of the drum map 
concept – especially if you want to create your own drum maps.
A drum map is a kind of filter that transforms notes according to the settings in the 
map. It does this transformation twice; once when it receives an incoming note that 
is when you play a note on your MIDI controller, and once when a note is sent from 
the program to the MIDI sound device.
The following example shows a modified drum map with a bass drum sound that has 
different pitch, I-note, and O-note values. 
						

							MIDI Editors
Drum Editor Operations
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I-Notes (Input Notes)
When you play a note on your MIDI instrument, the program looks for this note 
number among the I-notes in the drum map. If you play the note A1, the program 
finds that this is the I-note of the bass drum sound.
This is where the first transformation happens: the note gets a new note number 
according to the pitch setting for the drum sound. In our case, the note is 
transformed to a C1 note, because that is the pitch of the bass drum sound. If you 
record the note, it is recorded as a C1 note.
For example, you can place drum sounds near each other on the keyboard so that 
they can be easily played together, move sounds so that the most important sounds 
can be played from a short keyboard, play a sound from a black key instead of a 
white. If you never play your drum parts from a MIDI controller but draw them in the 
editor you do not need the I-note setting.
O-Notes (Output Notes)
The next step is the output. This is what happens when you play back the recorded 
note, or when the note you play is sent back out to a MIDI instrument in realtime 
(MIDI Thru):
The program checks the drum map and finds the drum sound with the pitch of the 
note. In our case, this is a C1 note and the drum sound is the bass drum. Before the 
note is sent to the MIDI output, the second transformation takes place: the note 
number is changed to that of the O-note for the sound. In our example, the note sent 
to the MIDI instrument is a B0 note.
The O-note settings let you set things up so that the bass drum sound really plays 
a bass drum. If you are using a MIDI instrument in which the bass drum sound is on 
the C2 key, you set the O-note for the bass drum sound to C2. When you switch 
to another instrument (in which the bass drum is on C1) you want the bass drum 
O-note set to C1. Once you have set up drum maps for all your MIDI instruments, 
you can select another drum map when you want to use another MIDI instrument for 
drum sounds.
Setting Pitches of Notes According to their O-Note Settings
You can set the pitch of notes according to their O-note settings. This is useful if 
you want to convert a track to a regular MIDI track with no drum map and still have 
the notes play back the correct drum sound.
It’s a typical use case to export your MIDI recording as a standard MIDI file. If you 
first perform an O-note conversion, you make sure that your drum tracks play back 
as intended when they are exported.
• To perform an O-note conversion, select MIDI > O-Note Conversion.
RELATED LINKS
Exporting and importing standard MIDI files on page 622 
						

							MIDI Editors
SysEx Messages
500
Drum Name Lists
Drum name lists allow you to use the Drum Editor even if no drum map is selected 
for the edited MIDI track. The drum sound list then consists of the columns 
Audition, Pitch, Instrument (drum sound name), and Quantize.
This means that you can use the drum sound names in any loaded drum map 
without using I-notes and O-notes.
In the drum name list mode, the names that are shown in the Instrument column 
depend on the selection on the Names pop-up menu at the bottom of the Drum 
Editor. The pop-up menu contains the currently loaded drum maps and GM Map.
SysEx Messages
SysEx (System Exclusive) messages are model-specific messages for setting 
various parameters of a MIDI device. This makes it possible to address device 
parameters that would not be available via normal MIDI syntax.
Every major MIDI manufacturer has its own SysEx identity code. SysEx messages 
are typically used for transmitting patch data, for example, the numbers that make 
up the settings of one or more sounds in a MIDI instrument.
Cubase allows you to record and manipulate SysEx data in various ways.
RELATED LINKS
Using MIDI devices on page 413
Bulk Dumps
In any programmable device, the settings are saved as numbers in computer 
memory. If you change these numbers, you will change the settings. Normally, MIDI 
devices allow you to dump (transmit) all or some settings in the device’s memory in 
the form of MIDI SysEx messages.
A dump is therefore, among other things, a way of making backup copies of the 
settings of your instrument: sending such a dump back to the MIDI device restores 
the settings.
If your instrument allows the dumping of a few or all of its settings via MIDI by 
activating some function on the front panel, this dump will probably be recordable 
in Cubase.