Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 401
Flip Stems
Normally the direction of the note stems is automatically selected ac-
cording to the note pitches, but you can change this manually if you like:
1.Select the notes for which you want to change (flip) the stem direc-
tion.
2.Pull down the MIDI menu and select Flip Stems from the Scores sub-
menu.
Working with text
You can use the Text tool to add comments, articulation or instrumen-
tation advice and other text strings anywhere in the score:
Adding a text string
1.Select the Text tool from the toolbar or Quick menu.
2.Click anywhere in the score.
A text input line dialog box appears.
3.Enter the text and press [Return].
Editing text
To edit an already added text string, double click it with the Arrow tool. 
This opens the text for editing, and you can use the arrow keys to 
move the cursor, delete characters with the [Delete] or [Backspace] 
keys and type new text as usual. Finish by pressing [Return].
•To delete a text block, select it with the Arrow tool and press [Back-
space] or [Delete].
•You can move or duplicate text blocks by dragging (or [Alt]/[Option]-
dragging) them, just as with notes. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 402 The MIDI Editors
Changing the text font, size and style
To change the font settings for the text you have added, proceed as 
follows:
1.Select the text block by clicking it with the Arrow tool.
2.Pull down the MIDI menu and select “Font Settings…” from the Scores 
submenu.
A Font Settings dialog appears, containing the following settings:
3.When you’ve made your settings, click Apply.
If you like, you can leave the Font Settings dialog open, select another text block and 
adjust the settings for that – just remember to click Apply before you select a new text 
block.
• If you make settings in the Font Settings dialog with no text block se-
lected, the settings will be used as default for all new text.
In other words, all text you enter from then on will get the settings you have specified 
(although you can of course change this manually for each text block as usual).
Item Description
Font  This is where you specify the font for the text. Which fonts are 
available on the pop-up menu depends on which fonts you have in-
stalled on you computer. You probably don’t want to use the 
“Steinberg” fonts - these are special fonts used by the program 
(e.g. for score symbols) and not suited for common text.
Size Sets the size of the text.
Frame Allows you to encase the text in a rectangular (box) or oval frame.
Text style options These checkboxes determine whether the text should be bold, 
italic, and/or underlined. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 403
Printing
To print your score, proceed as follows:
1.Open the parts you want to print in the Score Editor.
Printing is only available from within the Score Editor.
2.Select Page Setup from the File menu and make sure all your Printer 
settings are correct.
This includes paper size and margins.
3.Close the Page Setup dialog and select Print from the File menu.
4.The standard Print dialog appears. Fill out the options as desired.
5.Click Print. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 404 The MIDI Editors
Common MIDI editor options and settings
Snap
Snap activated on the toolbar.
The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in a 
MIDI editor. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and posi-
tioning to certain positions. Operations affected by Snap include mov-
ing, duplicating, drawing, sizing, etc.
• When the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected in the ruler, the Quantize 
value on the toolbar determines the Snap value.
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 page 333).
• When any time-based display format is selected in the ruler, editing snaps to 
whole seconds.
Coloring notes and events
By using the Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can select a 
color scheme for the events in the editor. The following options are 
available:
When any of the first three options is selected, you can select “Setup” 
from the Colors pop-up menu. This opens a dialog in which you can 
specify which colors should be associated with which velocities, 
pitches or channels, respectively.
Option Description
Velocity The notes get different colors depending on their velocity values.
Pitch The notes get different colors depending on their pitch.
Channel The notes get different colors depending on their individual MIDI channel 
values.
Part The notes get the same color as their respective part in the Project win-
dow. Use this option when you are working with two or more tracks in an 
editor, to see better which notes belong to which track. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 405
Working with drum maps
Background
A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of different drum 
sounds with each sound placed on a separate key (i.e. the different 
sounds are assigned to different MIDI note numbers). One key plays a 
bass drum sound, another a snare and so on.
Unfortunately, different MIDI instruments often use different key as-
signments. 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 device, it is very likely that your snare drum becomes a ride 
cymbal, or your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc. – just because the drum 
sounds are distributed differently in the two instruments.
To solve this problem, and simplify several aspects of MIDI drum kits 
(like using drum sounds from different instruments in the same “drum 
kit”), Cubase LE features so-called drum maps. A drum map is basi-
cally 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 being 
sent to the MIDI instrument. Among other things, the map determines 
which MIDI note number is sent out for each drum sound, and so 
which sound is played in the receiving MIDI device.
A solution to the problem above would therefore be to make up drum 
maps for all your instruments. When you want to try your drum pattern 
on another instrument, you simply switch to the corresponding drum 
map and your snare drum sound will remain a snare drum sound. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 406 The MIDI Editors
Drum map settings
A drum map consists of settings for 128 drum sounds (one for each 
MIDI note number). To get an overview of these settings, open the 
Drum Map Setup dialog and select “GM Map” from the Drum Maps 
list on the left.
Now, take a look at the drum sound list. The columns show the settings 
of the drum map for each sound.
Here’s a brief description (details follow below):
Column Description
Pitch The actual note number of the drum sound. This is what links notes on a 
MIDI track to drum sounds. For example, with the above drum map, all 
MIDI notes with the pitch C1 would be mapped to the Bass Drum 
sound. More on this below.
Instrument The name of the drum sound.
Quantize This value is used when entering and editing notes.
Mute Allows you to mute a drum sound, excluding it from playback.
I-note This is the “input note” for the drum sound. When this MIDI note is sent 
into Cubase LE, (i.e. played by you), the note will be mapped to the cor-
responding drum sound (and automatically transposed according to the 
Pitch setting for the sound). See below.
O-note This is the “output note”, i.e. the MIDI note number that is sent out every 
time the drum sound is played back. See below.
Channel The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI channel.
Output The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI output. If you set this to 
“Default”, the MIDI output selected for the track will be used. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 407
About Pitch, I-note and O-note
This can be a somewhat confusing area, but once you’ve grasped 
how it all works it’s not very complicated. Going through the following 
“theory” will help you make the most out of the drum map concept – 
especially if you want to create your own drum maps.
As we said earlier, a drum map is a kind of “filter”, transforming notes 
according to the settings in the map. It does this transformation twice; 
once when it receives an incoming note (i.e. when you play a note on 
your MIDI controller) and once when a note is sent from the program 
to the MIDI sound device.
In the following example, we have modified the drum map, so that the 
Bass Drum sound has different Pitch, I-note and O-note values.
I-notes
Let’s look at what happens on input: When you play a note on your 
MIDI instrument, the program will look for this note number among the 
I-notes in the drum map. In our case, if you play the note A1, the pro-
gram will find that this is the I-note of the Bass Drum sound.
This is where the first transformation happens: the note will get a new 
note number according to the Pitch setting for the drum sound. In our 
case, the note will be transformed to a C1 note, because that is the 
Pitch of the Bass Drum sound. If you record the note, it will be re-
corded as a C1 note. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 408 The MIDI Editors
O-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 real time (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 instru-
ment will be a B0 note.
Usage
So, what’s the point of all this? Again, the purposes are different for I-
notes and O-notes:
• Changing the I-note settings allows you to choose which keys will play 
which drum sounds, when playing or recording from a MIDI instrument.
For example, you may want to place some drum sounds near each other on the key-
board so that they can be easily played together, move sounds so that the most impor-
tant sounds can be played from a short keyboard, play a sound from a black key 
instead of a white, and so on.
If you never play your drum parts from a MIDI controller (but draw them in the editor) 
you don’t need to care about the I-note setting.
• The O-note settings let you set things up so that the “Bass Drum” sound 
really plays a bass drum.
If you’re 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 instru-
ment (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 don’t have to care 
about this anymore – you just select another drum map when you want to use another 
MIDI instrument for drum sounds. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 409
The channel and output settings
You can set separate MIDI channels and/or MIDI outputs for each 
sound in a drum map. The following rules apply:
• 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.
In other words, the MIDI channel setting you make in the Track list or Inspector for the 
track is normally disregarded. If you want a drum sound to use the channel of the track, 
set it to channel “Any” in the drum map.
• If the MIDI output is set to “default” for a sound in a drum map, the sound will 
use the MIDI output selected for the track.
Selecting any other option allows you to direct the sound to a specific MIDI output.
By making specific MIDI channel and output settings for all sounds in 
a drum map, you can direct your drum tracks directly to another MIDI 
instrument simply by selecting another drum map – you don’t need to 
make any channel or output changes for the actual track.
• To select the same MIDI channel for all sounds in a drum map, click the 
Channel column, press [Ctrl]/[Command] and select the desired channel.
All drum sounds will be set to this MIDI channel. The same procedure can be used for 
selecting the same MIDI output for all sounds as well.
It can also be useful to select different channels and/or outputs for dif-
ferent sounds. This allows you to construct drum kits with sounds 
from several different MIDI devices, etc.
Managing drum maps
Selecting a drum map for a track
To select a drum map for a MIDI track, use the Map pop-up menu in 
the Inspector. Initially, the Map pop-up menu will only contain one 
map: “GM Map”. However, you will find a number of drum maps in-
cluded on the program CD – how to load these is described below. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 410 The MIDI Editors
The Drum Map Setup dialog
To set up and manage your drum maps, select “Drum Map Setup” from 
the Map pop-up menus or the MIDI menu. This opens the following 
dialog:
This is where you load, create, modify and save drum maps. The list to 
the left shows the currently loaded drum maps; selecting a drum map 
in the list displays its sounds and settings to the right.
You can click the leftmost column to audition a drum sound. Note: if 
you audition a sound in the Drummap Setup dialog, and the sound is 
set to MIDI output “Default”, the output selected on the Default pop-
up menu in the lower left corner will be used. 
Below the drum sound list you will find a number of buttons, with the 
following functionality:
Button Description
New Map Click this to add a new drum map to the project. The drum sounds will be 
named “Sound 1, Sound 2” and so on, and have all parameters set to de-
fault values. The map will be named “Empty Map”, but you can rename it 
by clicking and typing in the list.
New Copy Adds a copy of the currently selected drum map. This is probably the 
quickest way to create a new drum map: select the map that is similar to 
what you want, create a copy, change the desired drum sound settings 
and rename the map in the list.
Remove Removes the selected drum map from the project.