Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

CUBASE SXPolyphonic voicing 6 – 111
Checking which voice a note belongs to
When you select one (and only one) note, the corresponding voice 
button on the extended toolbar is selected. This allows you to quickly 
find out which voice a certain note is in (after you have used the Move 
To Voice function, for example).
•When you step through the notes using the arrow keys, you will only 
step through the notes in one voice at a time. 
This can be used as a quick way to check which notes belong to the same...

CUBASE SX6 – 112 Polyphonic voicing
Automatically – the Explode function
The Explode function distributes notes, either into new tracks (see 
page 57) or into polyphonic voices:
1.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Explode…” from the Global 
Functions submenu.
The Explode dialog, set to create polyphonic voices.
2.Make sure “To Polyphonic Voices” is selected at the top of the dialog.
3.Use the options in the lower half of the dialog to set up the criteria for 
the split.
Choose from the following...

CUBASE SXPolyphonic voicing 6 – 113
Alternative ways of handling voices
Below we suggest further “advanced” ways of putting notes into 
voices. This is based on the relation between voices and MIDI chan-
nels, so please make sure you understand how this connection works.
• You can use the Logical Editor (described in its own chapter in the Operation 
Manual) to put notes into voices, based on other more complex criteria, like for 
example their pitch and length. This is done by setting up the Logical...

CUBASE SX6 – 114 Polyphonic voicing
Handling rests
With polyphonic voices you often get more rest symbols than desired.
•If a voice doesn’t need any rests at all, you can turn off rests for each 
voice individually in the Staff Settings dialog on the Polyphonic tab.
•If you only need rests from one voice on a staff, turn Rests–Center on 
for that voice (this is done in the same dialog). If two or more voices 
have rests, turn Rests–Center off. The program then automatically 
makes sure the rests don’t...

CUBASE SXPolyphonic voicing 6 – 115
Voices and display quantize
When you insert display quantize changes (see page 55), you can ei-
ther apply the settings to all voices (by [Alt]/[Option]-clicking with the 
tool) or to the current voice only.
❐If the option “Display Quantize tool affects all Voices” is activated in the 
Notation Style–Switches dialog (Scores–Global Settings submenu), the 
display quantize settings will always affect all voices (even if you don’t 
press [Alt]/[Option] and click).
Making...

CUBASE SX6 – 116 Polyphonic voicing
4.Click at the position you want to insert the event.
The Display Quantize dialog appears.
5.Fill out the dialog as described on page 46. 
6.Click Apply. 

CUBASE SXPolyphonic voicing 6 – 117
Creating crossed voicings
Often, for example in vocal scoring, you will have crossed voicings on 
one system. You can of course move notes manually into voices to get 
the stem direction and other note properties right, but there’s a quicker 
way. Let’s explain how to do this by example. Without using polyphonic 
voicing, you have entered this:
1.Open the Staff Settings dialog and select the Polyphonic tab.
2.From the Staff Mode pop-up menu, select Polyphonic....

CUBASE SX6 – 118 Polyphonic voicing
8.Select the two notes that should be moved from voice 1 to voice 2.
Two notes in voice 1 selected.
9.Move the notes to voice 2.
The quickest way to do this is to press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click the voice Insert [2] 
button on the extended toolbar.
Two notes moved to the right voice.
10.Select the two notes that should be moved to voice 1 and move 
them too.
All notes in the right voices.
The voicing is now correct, as you can tell from the stem directions. 
However,...

CUBASE SXPolyphonic voicing 6 – 119
Automatic polyphonic voicing – Merge All 
Staves
If you have already created some tracks which look and play back as 
they should, and you want to combine these into one track with poly-
phonic voices, there is a special function on the Scores menu for this:
1.Open the tracks (up to four) in the Score Editor.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Merge All Staves” from the 
Global Functions submenu.
Now a new track is created and shown in the score. The track will...

CUBASE SX6 – 120 Polyphonic voicing
Converting voices to tracks – Extract Voices
This function does the opposite of “Merge All Staves” – it extracts 
polyphonic voices from an existing track and creates new tracks, one 
for each voice. Proceed as follows:
1.Open a track containing 2-8 polyphonic voices in the Score Editor.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Extract Voices” from the Glo-
bal Functions submenu.
A number of new tracks is created and added to the display of the Score Editor. Each 
track...