Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

							CUBASE SX/SLThe Project window 5 – 141
MIDI tracks
1.Make sure the Lane Display Type button is visible in the track list.
If it is hidden, you need to select Track Controls Settings from the context menu for the 
track and add the Lane Display Type item in the dialog that appears.
2.Click the Lane Display Type button and select “Lanes Auto” or “Lanes 
Fixed”.
•In Lanes Auto mode, extra lanes will automatically be added where 
necessary – if two MIDI parts overlap, they will automatically be put on 
separate lanes.
•In Lanes Fixed mode, you have to move MIDI parts between lanes 
manually (by dragging them or by using the “Move to Next Lane/Previ-
ous Lane” commands on the Edit menu or Quick menu).
In this mode, there will always be an extra, empty lane at the bottom of the track – if you 
move a part there, another lane will be added and so on.
3.You can edit the overlapping parts as usual – by cutting, deleting or 
muting sections in the Project window or by opening them in a MIDI 
editor.
In an editor, parts on different lanes will be treated just like parts on different tracks – 
you can use the part list pop-up menu to select an active part for editing, etc. 
Note that there is no playback priority between lanes on a MIDI track – all unmuted 
parts will be heard during playback.
4.To merge all overlapping parts into one, make sure the MIDI track is 
selected, position the left and right locator around the parts and select 
“Merge MIDI in Loop” from the MIDI menu.
In the dialog that appears, activate the Erase Destination option and click OK. This 
merges all unmuted MIDI between the locators to a single part.
5.To turn off Lanes mode, select “Lanes Off” from the Lane Display 
Type pop-up menu. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL5 – 142 The Project window
Range editing
Editing in the Project window isn’t necessarily restricted to handling 
whole events and parts. You can also work with selection ranges, 
which are independent from the event/part and track boundaries.
Creating a selection range
To make a selection range, drag with the Range Selection tool.
When the Range Selection tool is selected, the Select submenu on 
the Edit menu has the following items for making selection ranges:
•Double clicking on an event with the Range Selection tool creates a 
selection range encompassing the event.
If you hold down [Shift] you can double click several events in a row, and the selection 
range will expand to encompass them all. Double clicking a second time on an event 
opens it for editing in the Sample Editor.
Option Description
All Makes a selection that covers all tracks, from the start of the 
project to the end (as defined by the Length setting in the 
Project Setup dialog).
None Removes the current selection range.
Invert Only used for event selection (see page 126).
In Loop Makes a selection between the left and right locator, on all tracks.
From Start to Cursor Makes a selection on all tracks, from the start of the project to 
the project cursor.
From Cursor to End Makes a selection on all tracks, from the project cursor to the 
end of the project.
All on Selected Tracks Only used for event selection (see page 126).
Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see page 399).
Left Selection Side 
to CursorMoves the left side of the current selection range to the project 
cursor position.
Right Selection Side 
to CursorMoves the right side of the current selection range to the 
project cursor position. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLThe Project window 5 – 143
Adjusting the size of the selection range
You can adjust the size of a selection range in the following ways:
• By dragging its edges.
The pointer takes the shape of a double arrow when you move it over an edge of the 
selection range.
• By holding down [Shift] and clicking.
The closest selection range edge will be moved to the position at which you clicked.
• By adjusting the selection range start or end position on the info line.
• By using the Trim buttons on the toolbar.
The left Trim buttons will move the start of the selection range and the right buttons will 
move the end. The edges will be moved by the amount specified on the Grid pop-up.
This Trim button will move the end of the selection range to the right by 1 beat.
• By using the Nudge buttons on the toolbar.
These will move the whole selection range to the left or the right. The amount of move-
ment depends on the selected display format (see page 105) and the value specified 
on the Grid pop-up menu.
Note that the contents of the selection are not moved – using the Nudge 
buttons is the same as adjusting the start and end of the selection range 
at the same time, by the same amount.
• The Trim buttons and the Nudge buttons are located in the Nudge pal-
ette, which is not visible in the toolbar by default. 
See page 767 for instructions on how to show and hide items in the toolbar. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL5 – 144 The Project window
Making selection ranges for several non-contiguous tracks
As described above, selection ranges can cover several tracks. How-
ever, it is also possible to exclude tracks from a selection range:
1.Create a selection range from the first to the last desired track.
2.Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click in the selection range on the tracks 
you want to exclude from the selection.
3.In the same manner, you can add a track to the selection range by 
[Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking in the selection range area on the track.
Moving and duplicating
•To move a selection range, click and drag it to a new position.
This will move the contents of the selection range to the new position. If the range in-
tersected events or parts, these will be split before moving, so that only the sections 
within the selection range are affected.
•To duplicate a selection range, hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag.
You can also use the Duplicate, Repeat and Fill Loop functions, just as when duplicat-
ing events (see page 129). 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLThe Project window 5 – 145
Using Cut, Copy and Paste
When working with selection ranges, you can either use Cut, Copy 
and Paste on the Edit menu, or use the functions “Cut Time” and 
“Paste Time” on the Range submenu on the Edit menu. These work 
differently to their related functions on the Edit menu:
Deleting selection ranges
Again, you can either use “regular” Delete or “Delete Time”:
•If you use the Delete function on the Edit menu (or press [Backspace]), 
the data within the selection range is replaced by empty track space.
Events to the right of the range keep their position.
•If you use “Delete Time” on the Edit menu’s Range submenu, the se-
lection range is removed and events to the right are moved to the left 
to close up the gap.
Function Description
Cut Cuts out the data in the selection range and moves it to the 
Clipboard. The selection range is replaced by empty track 
space in the Project window, meaning that events to the right 
of the range keep their positions.
Copy Copies the data in the selection range to the clipboard.
Paste Pastes the clipboard data at the start position and track of the 
current selection. Existing events are not moved to make room 
for the pasted data.
Paste at Origin Pastes the clipboard data back at its original position. Existing 
events are not moved to make room for the pasted data.
Cut Time Cuts out the selection range and moves it to the Clipboard. 
Events to the right of the removed range are moved to the left 
to fill out the gap.
Paste Time Pastes the clipboard data at the start position and track of the 
current selection. Existing events are moved to make room for 
the pasted data.
Paste Time at Origin Pastes the clipboard data back at its original position. Existing 
events are moved to make room for the pasted data. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL5 – 146 The Project window
Other functions
On the Range submenu on the Edit menu, you will find three more 
range editing functions:
Region operations
Regions are sections within a clip, with various uses. While regions 
are perhaps best created and edited in the Sample Editor (see page 
402), the following region functions are available on the Audio menu 
in the Project window: 
Function Description
Split Splits any events or parts that are intersected by the selection 
range, at the positions of the selection range edges.
Crop All events or parts that are partially within the selection range are 
cropped, that is, sections outside the selection range are removed. 
Events that are fully inside or outside the selection range are not af-
fected.
Insert Silence Inserts empty track space from the start of the selection range. 
The length of the silence equals the length of the selection range. 
Events to the right of the selection range start are moved to the 
right to “make room”. Events that are intersected by the selection 
range start are split, and the right section is moved to the right.
Function Description
Event or Range as 
RegionThis function is available when one or several audio events 
or selection ranges are selected. It creates a region in the 
corresponding clip, with the start and end position of the re-
gion determined by the start and end position of the event 
or selection range within the clip.
Events from Regions This function is available if you have selected an audio event 
whose clip contains regions within the boundaries of the 
event. The function will remove the original event and re-
place it with event(s) positioned and sized according to the 
Region(s). 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLThe Project window 5 – 147
Options
Snap
The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in the 
Project window. It does this by restricting horizontal movement and po-
sitioning to certain positions. Operations affected by Snap include mov-
ing, copying, drawing, sizing, splitting, range selection, etc.
•You turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap icon in the toolbar.
Snap activated.
• When you are moving audio events with Snap activated, it isn’t neces-
sarily the beginning of the event that is used as Snap position reference. 
Instead, each audio event has a snap point, which you can set to a rele-
vant position in the audio (such as a downbeat, etc.).
The snap point is preferably set in the Sample Editor since it will allow for a higher de-
gree of precision (see page 397). You can however also set the snap point directly in 
the Project window, in the following way: 
1.Select an event.
2.Place the project cursor at the desired position within the selected 
audio event.
3.Pull down the Audio menu and select “Snap Point To Cursor”.
The snap point is set at the cursor position.
The snap point for an event is displayed as a blue line in the Project window. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL5 – 148 The Project window
Exactly how Snap works depends on which mode is selected on the 
Snap mode pop-up menu.
The following sections describe the different Snap modes:
Grid
In this mode, the Snap positions are set with the Grid pop-up menu to 
the right. The options depend on the display format selected for the 
ruler. For example, if the ruler is set to show bars and beats, the grid 
can be set to bars, beats or the quantize value set with the next pop-up 
menu to the right. If a time- or frame-based ruler format is selected, the 
grid pop-up menu will contain time- or frame-based grid options, etc.
When seconds is selected as ruler format, the grid pop-up menu contains time-
based grid options.
Grid Relative
When you move events and parts in this mode they will not be “mag-
netic” to the grid. Rather, the grid determines the step size for moving 
the events. This means that a moved event will keep its original posi-
tion relative to the grid. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLThe Project window 5 – 149
For example, if an event starts at the position 3.04.01 (one beat be-
fore bar 4), Snap is set to Grid Relative and the Grid pop-up is set to 
“Bar”, you can move the event in steps of one bar – to the positions 
4.04.01, 5.04.01 and so on. The event will keep its relative position to 
the grid, i.e. stay one beat before the bar lines.
•This only applies when dragging existing events or parts – when you 
create new events or parts this mode works like the Grid mode.
Events
In this mode, the start and end positions of other events and parts be-
come “magnetic”. This means that if you drag an event to a position 
near the start or end of another event, it is automatically aligned with 
the start or end of the other event. For audio events, the position of the 
snap point is also magnetic (see page 397).
•Note that this includes marker events on the marker track.
This allows you to snap events to marker positions, and vice versa.
Shuffle
Shuffle mode is useful when you want to change the order of adjacent 
events. If you have two adjacent events and drag the first one to the 
right, past the second event, the two events will change places.
The same principle works when changing the order of more than two 
events:
12345
5 2 4 3 1
Dragging event 2 past event 4...
...changes the order of events 2, 3 and 4. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SL5 – 150 The Project window
Magnetic Cursor
When this mode is selected, the project cursor becomes “magnetic”. 
Dragging an event near the cursor causes the event to be aligned with 
the cursor position.
Grid + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Grid” and “Magnetic Cursor” modes.
Events + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Events” and “Magnetic Cursor” modes.
Events + Grid + Cursor
This is a combination of the “Events”, “Grid” and “Magnetic Cursor” 
modes.
Snap to Zero Crossing
When this option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio 
page), splitting and sizing of audio events is done at zero crossings 
(positions in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you 
avoid pops and clicks which might otherwise be caused by sudden 
amplitude changes.
This setting affects all windows in all open projects – with the exception 
of the Sample Editor (which has its own Snap to Zero Crossing button).
Autoscroll
Autoscroll activated.
When this option is activated, the waveform display will scroll during 
playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the window.
•If the option “Stationary Cursor” is activated in the Preferences dialog 
(Transport page), the project cursor will be positioned in the middle of 
the screen (if possible).