Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Getting Started Manual

11
Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project
window 

CUBASE SE11 – 132 Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window
About this tutorial
This tutorial describes some of the procedures for editing in the Project 
window. Typically, this is where you do the “large-scale” editing and re-
arranging of events. Again, please note that this tutorial only describes 
some of the many functions in the Project window – for details and full 
descriptions, see the Operation Manual.
Preparations
This tutorial is based on an existing file, included on the Cubase SE 
DVD. 
•...

CUBASE SETutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 11 – 133
Overview
As you can see, this project contains four audio tracks (drums, bass, 
guitar and strings) with a few events. Try playing back the project from 
the beginning!
Well, it’s obvious that things are pretty disorganized here; the audio 
events do not fit together very well. The goal of this tutorial is to make 
some sense out of this, by editing in the Project window.
While this tutorial describes the editing of audio events, most of these...

CUBASE SE11 – 134 Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window
Moving and copying events
Let’s start by making the events start at the same time:
1.Select the Arrow tool by clicking its icon in the toolbar.
2.Make sure the Snap button is activated and the Grid option is selected 
on the Snap pop-up menu.
The Snap function helps you find the correct positions when moving 
and editing, by making objects “magnetic” to certain positions (or to 
other objects). When the Grid option is selected and the Grid...

CUBASE SETutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 11 – 135
OK, that’s much better, but there are still things to fix. For example, the 
Wah guitar event ends after one bar, while the other events last two 
bars. Let’s add a copy of the guitar event:
7.Press [Alt]/[Option], click the Wah guitar event and drag it one bar to 
the right.
A copy of the event is created.
Now we have a two-bar, slightly cheesy disco pattern. We could just 
activate Cycle playback and listen to these two bars over and over...

CUBASE SE11 – 136 Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window
Muting and erasing events
A quick way of adding variation is to remove stuff. We could for exam-
ple let the different instruments appear gradually instead of all at the 
same time:
1.Select the Mute tool from the toolbar.
2.Click on the first two Bass Synth events, and then on the first two 
Hi Strings events.
They are “greyed out” indicating that they’re muted.
3.Start playback from the beginning.
Fine, now the bass appears at bar 3 and the...

CUBASE SETutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 11 – 137
Splitting and resizing events
Well, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all – it may have been 
better with some guitar at the beginning, but maybe with some varia-
tion. Here’s an idea:
1.Pull down the Edit menu and select Undo.
The last deleted guitar event reappears.
2.Select Undo again.
The first guitar event reappears. 
Cubase SE has unlimited undo – you could go back all the way to the 
start of this tutorial by undoing your actions,...

CUBASE SE11 – 138 Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window
6.Click with the Scissors tool at the fourth beat in the Wah guitar event 
(at the beat just before the start of bar 3).
The event is split in two; one three beat long and another one beat long. If you were to 
play back this section now, you wouldn’t hear any difference, though.
7.Select the Arrow tool again.
8.Drag the first guitar event two beats to the left and play back.
Not too bad, but we could use a little more guitar in the second bar:...

CUBASE SETutorial 4: Editing in the Project window 11 – 139
Adding a fade
The strings in bar 5 appear rather abruptly – they would benefit from 
being faded in. In the Mixing tutorial we created a fade by automating 
a fader – let’s try another method instead:
1.Click on the first Hi Strings event with the Arrow tool.
The event is selected. The blue handles at the top are fade and volume handles.
2.Click at the upper left handle and drag it to the right.
A thin blue line indicates the fade-in.
3.Play...

CUBASE SE11 – 140 Tutorial 4: Editing in the Project window
5.Click one of the buttons to the right below the curve display to get a 
more exponential fade curve.
6.Click OK to close the dialog and play back the section again.
Now we would want the same fade to be applied to the second string 
event. While we could repeat the settings manually, it’s probably eas-
iest to copy the faded event:
7.Remove the second string event by clicking it with the Eraser tool.
8.Select the Arrow tool again, press...