Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual
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CUBASE LE19 – 352 The MIDI Editors About editing MIDI There are several ways to edit MIDI in Cubase LE. 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 page 332). 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. • The List Editor shows all events in a MIDI part as a list, allowing you to view and edit their properties numerically. Unlike the other editors, in the List Editor you can only view and edit one part at a time. • The Score Editor shows MIDI notes as a musical score. This is the editor to use when you are used to reading and writing scores and when you are preparing your music for printing. About this chapter This chapter describes how to use the MIDI Editors. Please note that a lot of features are identical in these editors – they are all described in the Key Editor section. The sections about the List Editor (see page 378) and the Score Editor (see page 385) describe the specific fea- tures of these editors only. At the end of this chapter you will find infor- mation about working with drum maps.
CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 353 Opening a MIDI editor There are two ways to open a MIDI editor: • Select one or several parts and select Open Key Editor or Open List Editor from the MIDI menu (or use the corresponding key command). Note that the List Editor only opens a single part at a time. For details about opening the Score Editor, see page 388. • Double click a part. Which editor opens depends on the settings in the Preferences (Event Display–MIDI page): Double clicking will open the editor selected on the Default Edit Action pop-up menu. . • If the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any editing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part. Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Option]+[Shift] and dragging, or by us- ing the Repeat function with the “Shared copies” option activated. In the Project win- dow, shared copies are indicated by the part name in italics and an icon in the lower right corner of the part (see page 76).
CUBASE LE19 – 354 The MIDI Editors The Key Editor – Overview The toolbar As in other windows, the toolbar contains tools and various settings. Info line on/off Edit Solo buttonKey Editor tools AutoScroll on/offMouse pointer display: Current pitch and Current meter position Snap on/off Quantize value (also used for Snap)Length Quantize value Velocity value for created notesColor pop-up menu Audition on/off Edit via MIDI input on/offEdit via MIDI options
CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 355 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 page 366 for details). Length and position values are displayed in the format cur- rently selected for the ruler (see below). •To hide or show the info line, click the “i” icon in the toolbar. The ruler The ruler shows the time line, by default in the display format selected on the Transport panel. You can select a separate format for a MIDI editor ruler by clicking the arrow button to the right of it and selecting an option from the pop-up menu that appears. For a list of the avail- able formats, see page 57. At the bottom of the pop-up menu there are two additional items: •If “Time Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display and controller dis- play 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 control- ler 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 editing MIDI.
CUBASE LE19 – 356 The MIDI Editors The note display The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It contains 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. The controller display The area at the bottom of the Key Editor window is the controller dis- play. This consists of one or several controller 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. • Any type of continuous controller event. 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.
CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 357 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: ❐Unlike notes, events in the controller display have no length. The value of an event in the display will be “valid” until the start of the next event: •To change the size of the controller display, drag the divider between the controller display and the note display. This will make the controller display larger and the note display smaller, or vice versa. For a description of editing in the controller display, see page 368. If you zoom in on this “curve”, you will find that it consists of separate events: If you delete the second event... ...the first event will be “valid” until the start of the third event.
CUBASE LE19 – 358 The MIDI Editors Key Editor operations Zooming Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the standard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Magnifying Glass tool or the Zoom submenu on the Edit menu. Playing back You can play back your music as usual when working in a MIDI editor. There are a couple of features making it easier to edit during playback: Solo button If you activate the Solo button, only the edited MIDI parts will be heard during regular playback. Autoscroll As described on page 93, 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 button on the toolbar of each MIDI editor is indepen- dent for the editor. For example, this means you can have Autoscroll deactivated in the Key Editor and activated in the Project window, should you so like.
CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 359 Auditioning If the speaker icon on the toolbar is activated, individual notes will au- tomatically 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. Creating and editing notes Drawing notes To draw new notes in the Key Editor, you use the Pencil tool. In the default “Draw” mode (see below), you insert single notes by clicking with the Pencil tool at the desired time position and pitch (height). •When you move the pointer in the note display, its bar position is indi- cated in the toolbar, and its pitch is indicated both in the toolbar and on the piano keyboard to the left. This makes it easy to find the right note and insert position. •If Snap is activated, this determines the start position of the created note (see page 404).
CUBASE LE19 – 360 The MIDI Editors •If you just click once, the created note will get the length set on the Length Quantize pop-up menu on the toolbar. You can create a longer note by clicking and dragging the pointer with the mouse but- ton pressed. The length of the created note will be a multiple of the Length Quantize value. •The notes will get the Insert Velocity value set on the toolbar. • Just like the Arrow tool in the Project window, the Pencil tool has several different modes. To select one of the modes, click on the Pencil tool icon on the toolbar when the tool is already selected. This opens a pop-up menu from which you can select one of the Pencil modes. The tool icon will change appearance according to the selected mode. Mode Description Draw This inserts single notes, as described above. Paint Allows you to insert multiple notes by dragging with the mouse button pressed. If Snap is activated, the notes will be positioned and sized ac- cording to the Quantize and Length Quantize values. If you press [Ctrl]/ [Command] while painting, movement will be restricted to horizontal only (i.e. the painted notes will have the same pitch). Line When this mode is selected, you click and drag to create a straight line, in any angle. When you release the mouse button a series of notes will be created, aligned with the line. If Snap is activated, the notes will be spaced and sized according to the Quantize value. Parabola, Sine, Trian- gle, SquareThese modes insert events along different curve shapes. While they can be used for creating notes, they’re probably best suited for controller edit- ing (see page 372).