Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 361
Selecting notes
Selecting notes is done using any of the following methods:
•Use the Arrow tool.
The standard selection techniques apply.
•Use the Select submenu on the Quick menu.
The options are:
•You can also use the left and right arrow keys on the computer key-
board to step from one note to the next or previous.
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection will be kept, allowing 
you to select several notes.
•To select all notes of a certain pitch, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and 
click on the desired key in the keyboard display to the left.
You can also press [Shift] and double click on a note to select all the following notes 
of the same pitch.
•If the option “Auto Select Events under Cursor” is activated in the 
Preferences dialog (Editing page), all notes currently “touched” by the 
project cursor are automatically selected.
Option Description
All Selects all notes in the edited part.
None Deselects all events.
In Loop Selects all notes that are partially or completely inside the 
boundaries of the left and right locators.
From Start to Cursor Selects all notes that begin to the left of the project cursor.
From Cursor to End Selects all notes that end to the right of the project cursor.
All notes of the corresponding 
pitch are selected. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 362 The MIDI Editors
Moving and Transposing notes
To move notes in the editor, use any of the following methods:
•Click and drag to a new position.
All selected notes will be moved, maintaining their relative positions. If Snap is activated, 
this determines to which positions you can move the notes, see page 404.
❐Note also that you can restrict movement to horizontal or vertical only by 
holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging.
•Use the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard.
This method allows you to transpose the selected notes, without risking to move them 
horizontally. You can also use the Transpose function (see page 343) or the info line 
(see page 355) for this. Note that pressing [Shift] and using the up and down arrow 
keys will transpose notes in steps of one octave.
•Use the Move to Cursor function on the Edit menu.
This moves the selected notes to the project cursor position.
•Select a note and adjust its position or pitch on the info line.
See page 366.
You can also adjust the position of notes by quantizing (see page 333).
Duplicating and Repeating notes
Notes are duplicated much in the same way as events in the Project 
window:
•Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the note(s) to a new position.
If Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can copy the notes (see 
page 404).
•Selecting “Duplicate” from the Edit menu creates a copy of the se-
lected note and places it directly after the original.
If several notes are selected, all of these are copied “as one unit”, maintaining the rela-
tive distance between the notes.
•Selecting “Repeat” from the Edit menu opens a dialog, allowing you 
to create a number of copies of the selected note(s).
This works just like the Duplicate function, except that you can specify the number of 
copies. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 363
Using cut and paste
You can use the Cut, Copy and Paste functions on the Edit menu to 
move or copy material within a part or between different parts. When 
you paste copied notes, you can either use the regular Paste function 
or the Paste Time function on the Edit menu’s Range submenu.
• “Paste” inserts the copied notes at the project cursor position, without affect-
ing existing notes.
• “Paste Time” inserts at the project cursor position, but moves (and if neces-
sary, splits) existing notes to make room for the pasted notes. 
Selecting “Paste Time” with this data on the Clipboard 
and the project cursor here...
...will give you this: 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 364 The MIDI Editors
Resizing notes
To resize a note, use one of the following methods:
•Position the arrow tool at the start or end of the note, so that the 
pointer takes on the shape of a small double arrow. Click and drag to 
the left or right to resize the note.
This method allows you to resize the note from either direction.
•Click with the Pencil tool within the note box and drag to the left or the 
right (to make the note shorter or longer, respectively).
With both these methods, the resulting length will be a multiple of the 
Length Quantize value on the toolbar.
•Select the note and adjust its length on the info line.
See page 366 for details on info line editing.
Splitting notes
There are three ways to split notes:
•Clicking on a note with the Scissors tool splits the note at the position 
you pointed (taking the Snap setting into account if activated).
If several notes are selected, they are all split at the same position if applicable.
•If you select “Split at Cursor”, all notes that are intersected by the 
project cursor are split at the cursor position.
•If you select “Split Loop”, all notes that are intersected by the left or 
right locator are split at the locator positions.
Gluing notes
Clicking on a note with the Glue tube tool will “glue it together” with 
the next note of the same pitch. The result will be one long note span-
ning from the start of the first note to the end of the second note, and 
with the properties (velocity, etc.) of the first note. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 365
Muting notes
Individual notes can be muted in the Key Editor, as opposed to muting 
an entire MIDI part in the Project window. This allows you to exclude 
notes from playback, but keep the option to bring them back again at 
any time. To mute a note, use one of the following methods:
• Click on it with the Mute tool.
• Select the Mute tool and drag a rectangle, enclosing all notes you want to 
mute.
• 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 se-
lect it and choose Unmute from the Edit menu. The default key com-
mand for this is [Shift]+[U].
Deleting notes
To delete notes, either click on them with the Eraser tool or select 
them and press [Backspace]. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 366 The MIDI Editors
Editing on the info line
The info line shows the values and properties of the selected event(s). 
If a single event is selected, its values are displayed in light blue on the 
info line. If several events are selected, the info line shows the values 
of the first of these events, in yellow.
Several events selected.
You can edit the values on the info line using regular value editing. 
This allows you to move, resize, transpose or change velocity of 
events in a very precise manner.
• If you have several events selected and change a value, all selected 
events will be changed relatively.
In other words, the value will be changed by an equal amount for all selected events.
• If you have several events selected, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and 
change a value, the change will be absolute.
In other words, the value setting will be the same for all selected events. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 367
Editing Notes via MIDI
You can change the properties of notes via MIDI. For example, this 
can be a fast way to get the right velocity value, since you will hear the 
result even as you edit:
1.Select the note you want to edit.
2.Click on the MIDI connector symbol on the toolbar.
The symbol should be lit. This enables editing via MIDI.
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 note in the edited part is automatically selected, making it 
easy to quickly edit a series of notes.
•If you want another try, select the note again (easiest by pressing the 
[←] key on the computer keyboard) and again play a note on your 
MIDI instrument. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 368 The MIDI Editors
Editing in the controller display
About controller lanes
By default, the controller display has a single lane, showing one event 
type at a time. However, you can easily 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.
This hides the lane from view – it doesn’t affect the events in any way.
• If you remove all lanes, the controller display will be completely hidden.
To bring it back again, select “Create new controller lane” from the Quick menu. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 369
Selecting event type
Each controller lane shows one event type at a time. To select which 
event type should be displayed, use the pop-up menu to the left of the 
lane.
•Selecting “Setup...” opens a dialog in which you can specify which 
Continuous Controller event types you want available on the pop-up 
menu.
Controller types in 
this list are already 
listed on the pop-
up menu.Controller types 
in this list are not 
listed on the pop-
up menu.
Click this button to add the selected 
Controller type to the pop-up menu. Click this button to remove the Controller 
type selected in the left list from the pop-
up menu. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 370 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 tool. The different Pencil tool 
modes offer the following possibilities:
• In Draw mode, you can use the Pencil tool to change the velocity of a single 
note: click on its velocity bar and drag the bar up or down.
While you drag, the current velocity value is shown in the display to the left.
• You can use Draw mode or Paint mode to change the velocity values of sev-
eral notes by painting a “freehand curve”.
When editing velocity, these two modes have the same functionality.