Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Operation Manual

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The MIDI editors 21 – 451
The info line
The info line shows information about selected MIDI notes, just like in 
the Key and Drum Editors. You can edit all values on the info line us-
ing regular value editing (see page 412 for details).
•To hide or show the info line, click the “Show Info” button in the toolbar.
The extended toolbar
The extended toolbar (shown or hidden by clicking the “Show Tool 
Strip” button on the main toolbar) contains the following items:
Note value buttons
Click one of these to select a note value for input. The “T” and “.” op-
tions are for triplet and dotted note values. You can also press [Ctrl]/
[Command] and click one of the note value buttons – this will resize all 
selected notes to the note value you choose.
Enharmonic shift
Allows you to manually select whether a note should be shown with 
flat or sharp accidentals. See page 465. 
						

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The score display
The main area of the Score Editor window shows the notes in the 
edited parts on one or several staves. 
• If you are editing one or several parts on the same track, as much of them as 
possible is shown on several staves – one above the other – just as with a 
score on paper.
• If you are editing parts on several tracks, they are put on a grand staff (multiple 
staves, tied together by bar lines).
• The number of measures across the screen depends on the size of the window 
and the number of notes in each measure.
The maximum number of bars across the page is four.
• The end of the last part is indicated by a double bar line.
• Unlike the other MIDI editors, the Score Editor does not have a ruler.
A conventional ruler would not make sense, since there is no exact relationship between 
a note’s horizontal position in the score and its musical position in the Project. 
						

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Score Editor operations
Opening the Score Editor
To open one or several parts in the Score editor you proceed much as 
with the other editors: select one or several tracks or any number of 
parts (on the same or different tracks), and select “Open Score Editor” 
from the Scores submenu on the MIDI menu. The default key command 
for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]-[R].
•You can also select the Score editor as your default editor, allowing 
you to open it by double clicking parts.
This is done with the Default Edit Action pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (event 
Display – MIDI page).
About editing parts on different tracks
If you have selected parts on two or more tracks and open the Score 
editor, you will get one staff for each track (although you can split a 
staff in two, e.g. when scoring for piano). The staves are tied together 
by bar lines and placed in the order of the tracks in the Project window.
•If you need to rearrange the staves: close the editor, go back into the 
Project window, drag the tracks to the order you want them, and open 
the Score Editor again.
The Active Staff
Just as in the other editors, all MIDI input (as when recording from 
your instrument) is directed to one of the tracks, here called the Active 
staff. The Active staff is indicated by a black rectangle in the left part 
of the first visible bar.
To change Active staff, click in the staff you want to activate.
The Active staff 
						

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Getting the score displayed correctly
When you open the Score Editor for a part recorded in real time, the 
score may not look as legible as you would first expect. The Score Ed-
itor can ignore the minor time variances in performance and make a 
neater score almost instantly. To achieve this, there are a number of 
Staff Settings that determine how the program displays the music.
• Note that the time signature follows the time signature(s) on the Tempo 
track and are common to all tracks/staves in the score.
There are two ways to open the Staff Settings dialog:
•Double click in the white area to the left of the staff.
•Activate a staff by clicking in it, and select “Staff Settings” from the 
Scores submenu on the MIDI menu.
The Staff Settings dialog appears.
The settings you make in this dialog are independent for each staff (track), 
but common for a piano staff which you have created by choosing the 
“Split” Staff Mode option (see below). 
						

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Staff Mode
This pop-up determines how the staff should be shown: 
•When set to “Single”, all notes in the part are shown in the same staff.
•When set to “Split”, the part is split on the screen into a bass and tre-
ble clef, as in a piano score. 
You use the Splitpoint value field to set the note where you want the split to occur. 
Notes above and including the split note will appear on the upper staff, and notes 
below the split note will appear on the lower staff.
Before and after setting a split at C3.
Display Quantize
Notes are not an absolute language, and you must give the program a 
few hints on how the score should be displayed. This is done using 
the Display Quantize section of the Staff Settings dialog. 
						

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21 – 456 The MIDI editors
These are only display values used for the graphics in the Score Editor. 
They do not affect the actual playback in any way.
Here is a description of the functions:
Parameter Description
Notes Determines the smallest note value to be displayed and the “small-
est position” to be recognized and properly displayed. Set this to the 
smallest significant note position used in your music. 
For example, if you have notes on odd sixteenth note positions, you 
should set this value to 16.
The “T” values are for triplet note values.
This setting is partly overridden by Auto Quantize (see below).
Rests This value is used as a “recommendation” – the program will not dis-
play rests smaller than this value, except where necessary. In effect, 
this setting also determines how the length of notes should be dis-
played. Set this value according to the smallest note value (length) 
you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat.
Auto Quantize Generally, if your music contains mixed triplets and straight notes, try 
activating this checkbox. Otherwise, make sure it is deactivated.
Auto Quantize uses involved methods to make your score look as 
legible as possible. Auto Quantize allows you to mix straight notes 
with tuplets (triplets) in a part. But, Auto Quantize also uses the (dis-
play) Quantize value. If it can't find an appropriate note value for a 
certain note or group of notes, it will use the set Quantize value to 
display it.
If the part is imprecisely played and/or complex, Auto Quantize may 
have a problem “figuring out” exactly what you “mean”.
Dev This option is only available if Auto Quantize is on. When Dev (Devi-
ation) is activated, triplets/straight notes will be detected even if they 
are not exactly “on the beat”. However, if you know your triplets/
straight notes are perfectly recorded (quantized or entered by hand), 
turn this off.
Adapt This option is only available if Auto Quantize is on. When Adapt is 
activated, the program “guesses” that when one triplet is found, 
there are probably more triplets surrounding it. Turn this on if not all 
of your triplets are detected. 
						

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Key and Clef
The correct Key and Clef are set using the two scroll bars in the Key & 
Clef section.
If you activate the “Auto Clef” checkbox, the program attempts to guess the correct 
clef, judging from the pitch of the music.
•To set the clef and key for the lower staff, activate the “Lower Staff” 
checkbox in the Key/Clef section.
Display Transpose
Some instruments, for example a lot of brass instruments, are scored 
transposed. For this purpose, the Staff Settings dialog allows you to 
specify a separate Display Transpose setting for each staff (track). This 
transposes the notes in the score (i.e. how they are displayed) without 
affecting how the notes play back. This allows you to record and play 
back a multi staff arrangement, and still score each instrument accord-
ing to its own transposition.
•Use the pop-up menu to select the instrument for which you are 
scoring.
You can also manually set a display transpose value with the Semitones box above. 
						

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Flags
These provide additional options for how the score should be dis-
played:
Parameter Description
Clean Lengths When this is activated, notes that are considered to be chords will 
be shown with identical lengths. This is done by showing the longer 
notes as shorter than they are. When Clean Lengths is turned on, 
notes with very short overlaps are also cut off; a bit as with No Over-
lap (see below), but with a more subtle effect. 
No Overlap When this is activated one note will never be shown as overlapping 
another, lengthwise. This allows long and short notes starting at the 
same point to be displayed without ties; the long notes are cut off in 
the display. This will make the music more legible.
An example measure with No Overlap deactivated...
...and with No Overlap activated.
Syncopation When this function is activated, syncopated notes are shown in a 
more legible way.
This is a dotted quarter at the end of a bar when Syncopation is Off...
...and when it is On.
Shuffle Activate this function when you have played a shuffle beat and want 
it displayed as straight notes (not triplets). This is very common in 
jazz notation. 
						

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Applying your settings
After you’ve made your settings, click Apply to apply them to the active 
staff. You can select another staff in the score and make settings for 
that, without having to close the Staff Settings dialog first – just remem-
ber to click Apply before you change staff, otherwise your changes will 
be lost.
•As in many other dialogs and property windows in Cubase SE, you 
can store your settings as presets.
This is done according to the usual procedures: click Store to store the current set-
tings as a preset, select a preset from the pop-up menu to load it into the dialog or use 
the Remove button to remove the currently selected preset.
Entering notes with the mouse
To enter notes into a part in the Score Editor, you use the Note tool. 
However, first you need to set the note value (length) and spacing:
Selecting a note value for input
This can be done in two ways:
•By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64th and turn on and off the dotted and 
triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right. The selected note value is dis-
played in the Length value field on the toolbar and in the Note tool cursor shape.
•By selecting an option from the Length Q pop-up on the toolbar. 
						

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Selecting a Quantize Value
When you move the mouse pointer over the score, you will see that 
the position box on the toolbar tracks your movement and shows the 
current position in bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks.
Positioning on screen is controlled by the current Quantize value. If 
you for example set this to “1/8 Note” you can only insert and move 
notes to eighth note positions, at quarter notes, at half bars or at bar 
positions. It is a good strategy to set the Quantize value to the small-
est note value in the piece. This doesn’t stop you from inputting notes 
at “coarser” positions. However, if you set the Quantize value to too 
small a note value, it is easier to make mistakes.
The Quantize value is set with the Quantize pop-up on the toolbar.
•You can also assign key commands to the different Quantize values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, under the heading “MIDI 
Quantize”.
•Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the Quantize Setup 
dialog to create other quantize values, irregular grids, etc.
However, this is not often used when entering score notes.
Entering a note
To add a note to the score, proceed as follows:
1.Make the staff active.
Notes are always put in on the active staff.
2.Select the type of note by selecting a note value.
This is described in detail above.
3.If you selected the note value by clicking on a symbol on the extended 
toolbar, the Note tool was automatically selected – otherwise select 
the Note tool from the toolbar or Quick menu.
With the Quantize value set to “1/8 Note”, you 
can only input notes at eighth note positions.