Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 161
The symbol palettes
Displaying palettes
From the main menus
1.Select Symbol Palettes from the Scores menu.
2.From the submenu that appears, select any of the symbol palettes.
3.If you want one more palette, of some other type, select it as with the 
first one.
You can have more than one symbol palette on the screen at a time.  
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 162 Working with symbols
Directly from the palette
1.Right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) in a palette.
A pop-up menu appears.
The symbol palette pop-up.
2.If you want the new palette to replace the current one, simply select 
the desired palette from the list.
The window will now show the selected palette.
3.If you want to display the new palette without closing the current one, 
hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and select a palette from the list.
A new window opens with the selected palette. The first palette window remains open.
Moving and handling palettes
Palettes are handled as any window, which means that you can:
•Move a palette around by dragging its title bar. 
•Close a palette by clicking its close box.
In addition, you can select whether the palette should be shown hori-
zontally or vertically, by right-clicking ([Ctrl]-clicking under Mac OS if 
you’re using a mouse with only one button, or haven’t configured the 
mouse for right-clicking) and selecting “Toggle” from the context menu 
that appears.   
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 163
The available symbols
The illustrations below show all the symbols available, divided by 
group (see above). The captions contain additional information about 
the symbols in the group.
The “Clef etc.” palette.
The “Dynamics” palette.
Clef change
Key change (and/or display transpose change)Time signature change
Slur down
Slur up Dynamics
Diminuendo
“Dynamic” crescendo
Tie up
Crescendo
“Double” cresc./dim.Bezier Slur
Tie down  
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 164 Working with symbols
Line Octave
Tuplet bracketLine Octave
Tuplet bracket Beam
Beam BeamBeam Arpeggio
Hand indicationArpeggioArpeggio
Trill
Trill Trill StrumStrum Staccato
Tenuto
Accent
PizzicatoAccent
Accent
AccentAccent
Staccato
Staccato
ArticulationTremolo Bow up
FallTremolo Bow down
Articulation Glissando
Articulation Articulation ArticulationFermat Thumb pos.Damped
Fall Fermat
Diamond note Spoken tone
Glissando Closed Hihat Open Hihat
Bracket beam Acc. voice
Main voice
Bracket beam
Articulation
Staccato
Staccato
Staccato Staccato
The “Note Symbols” palette. These symbols 
are always tied to a note.The “Line/Trill” palette. Please note that 
the arpeggios, hand indication and strum 
symbols are all “note dependant”! Tremolo
DoitFermatHand indication
Segno (sizable)
Ending
Ending Trill
Trill
Trill Turn 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 165
The “Graphics” palette. This contains note heads, accidentals and rests that can be 
“drawn in” without affecting the score in any way. They do not affect MIDI playback!
The “Other” palette.
The “Layout” palette. All these symbols are drawn in their own “layer”.
Lyrics
Guitar chord symbol
Chord Regular text
Block Text (import)
Pedal down
CodaRepeat
Pedal up
Segno
Segno (sizable)
Box symbolRepeat
Keyboard symbol
Segno
EndingPage Text
Rehearsal mark
Coda
Ending D.C. al Fine (text)
Box symbol Tempo as note value
Tempo as numberRehearsal mark Text (layout layer)
Keyboard symbol Da Capo al Coda (text)
Fine (text) Da Capo al Fine (text) Dal Segno al Fine (text)
Dal Segno al Coda (text)   
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 166 Working with symbols
The “Global” palette. These symbols will be present in all layouts.
The “Words” palette. This is described on page 231.
The “User Symbols” palette. This is described on page 204.
Further details about many of the symbols can be found on page 197.   
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 167
Creating a custom palette
On the Symbol Palettes submenu, you will find a palette called Custom. 
Cubase SX allows you to fill this palette with any selection of symbols 
from other palettes. In this way, you can have instant access to the sym-
bols you use often:
1.Open the Custom palette.
If it’s the first time you are using this, it will be empty.
2.Open another palette from which you want to copy a symbol.
3.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click on the symbol you want to add to 
the Custom palette.
The symbol appears on the Custom palette.
4.Repeat this with other symbols.
•To remove a symbol from the Custom palette, hold down [Alt]/[Option] 
and click on it. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 168 Working with symbols
Important! – Symbols, staves and voices
Most symbols belong to a staff when inserted. Only note symbols, slurs 
and ties are an exception. They belong to notes and therefore to voices. 
It is extremely important that the correct staff is active when you insert 
a symbol (if you are editing multiple staves, of course).
If you for example insert a symbol with the wrong staff active, the sym-
bol might later appear to have disappeared, simply because you edit 
another configuration of tracks (the track you actually inserted the 
symbol to might not have been opened for editing).
The same is true for note symbols and their relation to voices. Make 
sure the correct voice is active when inserting symbols or they might 
wind up at the wrong position, fermats may be turned upside down etc.
Layout symbols work slightly differently. Instead of belonging to a cer-
tain staff or voice, they belong to a layout. Since different track combi-
nations use different layouts, this means that if you insert a layout 
symbol in the score when you are editing two tracks (for example a 
trumpet and a saxophone part), it will not be there when you view 
each track by itself in the Score Editor. If you want the same symbols 
to appear in other layouts as well, you can copy the form of one layout 
to another. If you want a symbol to appear in all layouts, you can use 
the Global Symbols palette. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 169
Adding symbols to the score
Making space and handling margins
• If you find there isn’t enough space between staves to add symbols (like for 
example text) please see page 263 for info on how to separate the staves.
• If you find the score looks crammed after adding symbols, check out the sec-
tion on automatic layout on page 267.
❐Symbols you add outside the margins will not be printed!
About the Pencil tool
Unlike the other MIDI editors, there is no Pencil tool among the tools 
on the Score Editor toolbar. Instead, the Pencil tool is “automatically” 
selected when you insert symbols. There are various rules for how this 
is done:
•Normally, the Pencil tool is automatically selected when you click on a 
symbol in a palette.
•However, if the option “Double Click Symbol to get Pencil tool” is ac-
tivated in the Preferences–Scores dialog, you need to double click 
the symbol to get the Pencil tool.
This is useful if you want to insert symbols using the Staff Functions menu as de-
scribed below (and therefore don’t want the Pencil tool to appear every time you select 
a symbol).
•In the same Preferences dialog, you will find an option called “Display 
Arrow tool after Inserting Symbol”. When this is activated, the Object 
Selection (“Arrow”) tool is automatically selected after you have in-
serted a symbol.
If you want to insert a lot of symbols with the Pencil tool, you may want to deactivate 
this option. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 170 Working with symbols
Adding note symbols
Adding a symbol to one note
1.Make sure the Note Symbols palette is visible.
2.Click (or double click) on the desired symbol in the palette.
As mentioned above, the “Double Click Symbol to get Pencil tool” preference deter-
mines whether you need to double click. In any case, the Pencil tool is automatically 
selected.
3.Either click on the note or above or below it.
If you click on the note, the symbol is put in at a predefined distance from the note. If 
you instead click “above or below” the note, you decide for a vertical position yourself. 
In either case, the symbol is aligned horizontally with the note. It can later be moved 
up/down.
Clicking on a note inserts the note symbol (in this case a tenuto) at a predefined 
distance from the note head.
There are two options in the Notation Style dialog (Switches tab) on 
the Scores–Global Settings menu that affect the vertical positioning 
of note symbols:
•Accents above Stems.
When this is activated, accent note symbols are displayed at the stem side of notes in-
stead of the note head.
•Accents above Staves.
When this is activated, accent note symbols are displayed above the staff, regardless 
of the stem direction of the notes. This setting overrides the “Accents above Stems” 
option.