Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Operation Manual

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4.Select a Quantize value.
As described above, the Quantize value will determine the spacing between notes. If 
you have Quantize set to “1/1 Note” you will only be able to add notes at downbeats. 
If you set Quantize to “1/8 Note” you will be able to add notes at all eighth note posi-
tions etc.
5.Click in the staff and keep the mouse button pressed.
A note appears under the mouse pointer.
6.Move the mouse horizontally to find the correct position.
Check the lower mouse position box on the toolbar – the position is “magnetically” at-
tracted to the grid defined by the current Quantize value. This allows you to easily find 
the correct position.
7.Move the mouse vertically to find the correct pitch.
The upper mouse position box shows the pitch at the pointer position, making it easy 
to find the right pitch.
8.Release the mouse button.
The note appears in the score.
The notes you enter will get the insert velocity value set in the insert 
velocity field on the toolbar. See page 407.
Selecting notes
There are several ways to select notes in the Score Editor:
By clicking
To select a note, click on its note head with the Arrow tool. The note 
head gets inverted to indicate that it is selected.
•To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them.
•To deselect notes, hold [Shift] down and click on them again.
•If you hold down [Shift] and double click on a note, this note and all 
the following notes in the same staff are selected. 
						

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Using a selection rectangle
1.Press the mouse button with the Arrow tool in some free (white) 
space in the score.
2.Drag the mouse pointer.
A rectangle appears. You can drag to select voices on several voices or staves if you 
wish.
3.Release the mouse button.
All notes with their note heads inside the rectangle get selected.
If you want to deselect one or more of the notes, hold down [Shift] and 
click as described above.
Using the keyboard
By default, you can step through the notes in the staff using the left 
and right arrow keys. If you press [Shift], you will select the notes as 
you step through them.
•If you want to use other keys for selecting notes, you can customize 
the settings in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu (in the 
Navigate category).
Deselecting everything
To deselect everything, simply click with the Arrow tool in some “free” 
(white) space in the score.
Deleting notes
Notes can be deleted in two ways:
Using the Eraser tool
1.Select the Eraser tool from the toolbar or Quick menu.
2.Click on the Note(s) you want to erase, one at a time or drag over 
them with the mouse button pressed. 
						

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Using the keyboard or delete menu item
1.Select the notes you want to delete.
2.Select Delete from the Edit menu, or press [Delete] or [Backspace] on 
the computer keyboard.
Moving notes
To move or transpose notes, proceed as follows:
1.Set the Quantize value.
The Quantize value will restrict your movement in time. You can not place the notes on 
positions smaller than the Quantize value. If Quantize for example is set to “1/8 Note”, 
you will not be able to move the notes to a sixteenth note position. However, you will 
be able to put them on any eighth note, quarter note, half note or whole note position.
2.If you want to hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the 
speaker icon on the toolbar. 
When it is on, you will hear the current pitch of the “dragged” note.
3.Select the note(s) you plan to move.
4.Click one of the selected notes and drag it to a new position and/or 
pitch.
The horizontal movement of the note is “magnetically attracted” to the current Quantize 
value. The position boxes on the toolbar show what the new position and pitch for the 
dragged note will be.
5.Release the mouse.
The notes appear at their new position.
•If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag, movement is restricted to 
vertical or horizontal only (depending on in which direction you drag).
•You can also move selected notes by using key commands, as as-
signed in the Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog.
When moving notes to the left or right using key commands, the notes will be moved in 
steps according to the current Quantize value. The keys assigned for up/down nudg-
ing will transpose notes in semitones steps. 
						

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Duplicating notes
1.Set the Quantize value and select the notes, as for moving.
2.Press [Alt]/[Option] and drag the notes to their new position.
•If you want to restrict movements to one direction only, press [Ctrl]/
[Command].
This works just as for moving, as described above.
•[Alt]/[Option] is the default modifier key for copying/duplicating. If you 
like, you can change this in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Tool Modi-
fiers page).
The entry for this is found in the Drag & Drop category (“Copy”).
Changing the length of notes
As described earlier in this section (see page 454), the displayed 
length of a note isn’t necessarily the actual note length, but also de-
pends on the Note and Rest Display Quantize settings in the Staff 
Settings dialog. This is important to remember when you change the 
length of a note, since it can give rise to confusing results.
There are several ways to change the length of a note in the Score 
Editor:
By using the Note tool
1.Select a Note value that you wish to apply to the Note.
This can be done by clicking a note value icon in the extended toolbar or by selecting 
a new Length value.
2.Select the Note tool if it isn’t already selected.
3.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click on the notes you wish to set to this 
length. 
						

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By using the note value icons on the extended toolbar
Using the extended toolbar is another quick way to set a number of 
notes to the same length:
1.Select the notes you want to change.
2.Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on one of the note icons on 
the extended toolbar.
All the selected notes are now given the length of the clicked note.
By using the info line
You can also edit length values numerically on the info line, just like in 
the Key and Drum Editors (see page 412).
Splitting and Gluing notes
•If you have two notes strung together by a tie, and click on the “tied” 
note head with the Scissors tool, the note will be divided into two, 
with the respective length of the “main” and the tied note.
•Conversely, if you click on a note with the Glue Tube tool it will be 
joined to the next note with the same pitch.
Enharmonic Shift
The buttons to the right on the extended toolbar allow you to shift the 
display of selected notes so that for example an F# (F sharp) is instead 
shown as a Gb (G flat) and vice versa:
1.Select the note(s) you want to affect.
2.Click on one of the buttons to display the selected note(s) a certain 
way.
The “off” button resets the notes to original display. The other five options are 
double flats, flats, No (no accidentals shown, regardless of pitch), sharps and 
double sharps. 
						

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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 direction.
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. 
						

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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 “Set Font” from the Scores sub-
menu.
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 
installed 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. 
						

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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.
3.This includes paper size and margins.
4.Close the Page Setup dialog and select Print from the File menu.
5.The standard Print dialog appears. Fill out the options as desired.
6.Click Print.
Common MIDI editor options and settings
Snap
Snap activated on the toolbar.
The Snap function helps you find exact positions when editing in a MIDI 
editor. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to 
certain positions. Operations affected by snap include moving, dupli-
cating, drawing, sizing, etc.
• How Snap works depends on the Snap mode pop-up menu next to the Snap 
button.
See page 113.
• When the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected in the ruler, the snap grid 
is set by the quantize value on the toolbar.
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 373).
• When any of the other display formats is selected in the ruler, positioning is 
restricted to the displayed grid, i.e. you can snap in finer increments by zoom-
ing in and in coarser increments by zooming out the display.  
						

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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 options (apart from “Part”) is selected, you can se-
lect “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 make it easier to see which notes belong to which track.
GridMatch The notes get different colors depending on their time position. This 
mode makes it easy to see e.g. if the notes in a chord start at the exact 
same beat. 
						

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