Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 MIDI Devices And Features Manual

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 31
The Edit Panel window
After selecting a name and a panel size in the Add Panel dialog, click 
OK to open the Edit Panel dialog. When a panel has been added you 
can switch between all edit windows (Device/Edit Panel/Patch Banks) 
by using the pop-up menu at the top of the window for an open device.
The Edit Panel window contains the following sections:
Device structure (top left)
This is the device “tree” where you can navigate the device structure 
and its nodes, subnodes...

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Objects area (right) 
This area contains the predefined objects which can be dragged and 
dropped into the edit area. At the top of this area there is a pop-up 
menu where you can select Object categories; backgrounds, faders, 
knobs, data entry, switches and labels, see page 33.
Device item properties (bottom left)
This contains all data and options pertaining to the currently selected 
node, subnode or parameter.
•When a node or subnode is selected in the device...

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 33
The available objects
On the Objects pop-up in the top right corner you can select between 
object categories. Faders, knobs, data entry and switches are control 
objects, i.e. you have to define a parameter assignment to them when 
inserted into the edit area, whereas labels and backgrounds are only 
graphic elements. The object categories are as follows:
Object category Description
Backgrounds Here you can select various background colors and borders.
Faders There are...

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Operations in the Edit Panel window 
(Cubase SX only)
On the following pages, we will describe the basic operations in the 
Edit Panel window. For a more “hands on” description of how to cre-
ate panels, see page 39.
Creating a panel
1.Either create a new MIDI Device (see page 14), or select a preset de-
vice from the Add MIDI Device dialog, see page 29.
2.In the MIDI Device Manager dialog, select the device in the Installed 
Devices list and click the “Open Device”...

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 35
When you add graphic objects (backgrounds and labels) these are sim-
ply added to the edit area, but when you add control objects (switches, 
faders etc.), the Control Parameter Assignment dialog appears:
In this dialog you can create and define a name for the parameter and 
set the parameter value range and a transmission message (see be-
low). When you have set up the parameters as desired, click OK to 
close the dialog.
Parameter value
In the “Min” and “Max” fields you...

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Object handling
Selecting objects
You select an individual object by clicking on it.
•Select multiple objects by pressing [Shift] and clicking on each object in turn.
•You can also click in an empty area and drag a selection rectangle around 
one or more objects, to select them.
Moving objects
Simply click-drag an object to a new location and drop it. 
•You can also use the arrow keys to move a selected object one pixel horizon-
tally or vertically. 
•If you press [Shift]...

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Editing text
Double-click on any text (text object or text label on a control object) 
and enter the text.
Aligning objects horizontally/vertically
Select multiple objects, then right-click/[Ctrl]-click to open the con-
text menu. 
•For horizontal alignment, your options are Left, Centre and Right. 
•For vertical alignment, you can choose Top, Middle and Bottom.
Spacing objects evenly
Select multiple Objects and open the context menu. Select “Space 
Evenly Horizontally” or...

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Panel Edit Settings
Test Template
Puts the currently edited panel into live test mode. All controls will be 
fully functional, transmitting MIDI data to the device. Activate this 
mode when you want to try out the panel to make sure that all param-
eters are set up correctly. You cannot edit objects while in test mode, 
so make sure to deactivate Test Template when you’re done testing.
Depth Focus
This is useful when editing very complex panels, or panels featuring 
nested...

CUBASE SX/SLMIDI devices 1 – 39
Building a control panel – a tutorial 
(Cubase SX only)
In this tutorial we will create a simple control panel for a device:
1.Open the MIDI Device Manager window, and click the Install Device 
button.
Here you can choose from a list of pre-defined devices, or define a custom device. In 
this example we will use a Korg Triton preset.
2.Once you have installed the Triton device, select it by clicking on its 
name in the Installed Devices list and click the “Open Device”...

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4.For this tutorial, select “Inspector size” and click OK.
The main Panel Edit window will now open. The blue rectangle is the panel edit area.
Now you can begin adding objects to the Panel. Let’s start with a suit-
able background. Backgrounds are selected from the area to the right 
of the edit area.
5.Drag a background object into the blue rectangle (in the edit area) 
and release the mouse button.