Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

 
CUBASE SX
 
How the Score Editor works 1 – 11 
How the Score Editor operates
 
The Score Editor basically does the following: 
• Reads the MIDI notes in the MIDI parts.
• Looks at the settings you have made.
• Decides how the MIDI notes should be displayed according to the settings.
 
The Score Editor takes MIDI data and settings as input and produces a score as 
output. 
The Score Editor does all this in real time. If you change some of the 
MIDI data (for example by moving or shortening a note) this...

 
CUBASE SX
 
1 – 12 How the Score Editor works 
MIDI notes vs. score notes
 
MIDI tracks in Cubase SX hold MIDI notes and other MIDI data. As 
you may know, a MIDI note in Cubase SX is only defined by its posi-
tion, length, pitch and velocity. This is not nearly enough information to 
decide how the note should be displayed in a score. The program 
needs to know more: What type of instrument are we talking about, 
Drums? Piano? What key is the piece in? What is the basic rhythm? 
How should the notes...

 
CUBASE SX
 
How the Score Editor works 1 – 13 
Display quantize
 
Let’s say you used the project window to record a figure with some 
staccato eighth notes. When you open the Score Editor it displays it 
like this:
This doesn’t look anything like what you intended. Let’s start with the 
timing – obviously, you were off at a couple of places (the third, fourth 
and last note all seem to be a 32nd note late). You can solve this by 
quantizing the figure, but this would make the passage sound too...

 
CUBASE SX
 
1 – 14 How the Score Editor works 
OK, now the timing looks right, but the notes still don’t look like what 
you intended. Maybe you can understand that from a computer’s point 
of view, you did play sixteenth notes, which is why there is a lot of 
pauses. But that’s not how you meant it. You still want the track to 
play back short notes, because it is a staccato part, but you want 
something else “displayed”. Try setting the display quantize value to 
eighth notes instead: 
With display...

 
CUBASE SX
 
How the Score Editor works 1 – 15 
Choose your display quantize values with care
 
As explained above, the display quantize value for notes puts a restric-
tion on the “smallest” note value that can be displayed. Let’s for a sec-
ond look what happens if we set it to quarter notes: 
With display quantize set to quarter notes. 
Oops, this doesn’t look too good. Well of course it doesn’t! We have 
now instructed the program that the “smallest” note that occurs in the 
piece is a quarter note....

 
CUBASE SX
 
1 – 16 How the Score Editor works 
Using Rests display quantize
 
Above we used display quantize for notes. There is a similar setting 
called “Rests” display quantize which is used to set the smallest rest 
to be displayed. Often, this setting is very effective:
What if the original note example looked like this:
As you see, the first note is moved and appears one sixteenth note 
later. If we change the display quantize value for notes to eighth notes, 
the score will be displayed like...

 
CUBASE SX
 
How the Score Editor works 1 – 17 
This leads us to the following general guidelines: 
• Set the Notes display quantize value according to the “smallest note po-
sition” you want to be shown in the score.
 
For example, if you have notes on odd sixteenth note positions, the Notes display quan-
tize value should be set to sixteenth notes.
 
• Set the Rests display quantize value according to the smallest note value 
(length) you want to be displayed for a single note, positioned on a beat....

 
CUBASE SX
 
1 – 18 How the Score Editor works 
Summary
 
This closes our discussion on the basic concept of display quantizing. 
There are a number of other special situations which require more ad-
vanced techniques, which you will find out about in the next chapters. 
You will also read about other settings which work along the same 
lines as display quantize but each with its own application. These are 
called “interpretation flags”. 
Entering notes by hand vs. recording notes
 
Sometimes you will...

 
2
 
The basics 

 
CUBASE SX
 
2 – 20 The basics 
In this chapter you will learn:
 
• How to open the Score Editor.
• How to set up the page size and margins.
• How to switch between Page Mode and Edit Mode.
• How to hide and show the symbol palettes, the toolbar and extended toolbar.
• How to set up the ruler.
• How to set a zoom factor.
 
Preparations
 
1. 
In the project window, create a MIDI track for each instrument. 
Please note that you can prepare a piano (split) staff from a single track, there’s no 
need to...