Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 181
•The symbol you create will also be “interpreted” and displayed as a 
written chord to the right of the fretboard symbol.
This can also be edited by double clicking if you like.
•To sort the available symbols in the library according to their root notes, 
click the Sort button.
•To remove a symbol from the library, select it in the list and click Remove.
•To save the current library as a separate file, click the Save button.
A file dialog appears, allowing you to specify a name and location for the file.
•To load a guitar library file, click the Load button.
In the file dialog that appears, locate and open the desired guitar library file. 
❐Loading a guitar library file replaces the current library!
There are also two additional checkboxes in the Guitar Library dialog:
Inserting symbols from the library
Apart from the “Use for ’Make Chords’” option above, there are two 
ways to insert symbols from the guitar library into the score:
•Use the Library pop-up menu in the Guitar Symbol dialog when creat-
ing or editing guitar symbols.
•Right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) on a guitar symbol in the score 
and select a chord symbol from the pop-up menu that appears.
Option Description
Use for ’Make 
Chords’When this is activated, and you use the “Make Chord Symbols” 
function (see page 212), the program will insert guitar symbols as 
well as regular chords (if any fitting guitar symbols can be found). 
If there are several guitar symbols for a certain chord in the Guitar 
Lib, the first one will be used.
Small Display If this is activated, the chord symbols in the list will be displayed in 
the size they will have in the score. If it is deactivated, the symbols 
will be displayed in a larger size, for easier editing. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 182 Working with symbols
Using layout symbols
Symbols inserted from the “Layout” palette belong to the layout layer. 
When you are editing a layout containing several tracks, you can have 
inserted layout symbols automatically copied to any combination of 
tracks in the layout. You decide which tracks should display layout sym-
bols by ticking their “L” column in the Layouts dialog (opened by select-
ing Setup from the Layout Settings submenu on the Scores menu).
Here, layout symbols will be displayed for the tracks “Mono lead” and “Vibes”.
• Any editing you perform to layout symbols is automatically duplicated in the 
other tracks.
• The display of layout symbols for different tracks can be turned off at any time.
• Layout symbols can be copied between layouts, by using the Get Form func-
tion in the Layout List window.
One example of how to use layout symbols: 
Let’s say you are editing a full orchestra score, and want rehearsal 
marks inserted for more than one staff (typically, above each instrument 
group – brass, strings, percussion, etc.). Now all you need to do is in-
sert the rehearsal marks from the Layout symbol palette for one of the 
tracks, open the Layout Settings dialog and tick the “L” column for the 
desired tracks. When you close the Layout Settings dialog, the inserted 
rehearsal marks are automatically duplicated to the specified tracks. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 183
Using global symbols
Symbols inserted from the Global Symbols palette are part of the glo-
bal layer and will therefore appear in all layouts. The global layer also 
contains changes to bar lines (e.g. repeats and double bar lines) and 
bar number offsets. Typically you use global symbols when you know 
you want these shown for all combinations of tracks.
• You can also use global symbols in combination with the Play Order 
mode to have the program play back according to the score – including 
repeats, Da Capos, endings etc.
See page 294.
Selecting symbols
Almost all symbols can be selected simply by clicking on them. For 
symbols that have a length or size, one or more handles appear.
A selected crescendo.
An exception to this are the slurs and ties which can be selected by 
clicking on the end points or by opening a selection rectangle. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 184 Working with symbols
Using the lock layers
Sometimes it can be very hard to click on a symbol or other object in 
the score without accidentally selecting other symbols near by. To 
remedy this, you can assign different types of objects to different “lock 
layers” (up to three) and instruct Cubase SX to “lock” one or two of 
these layers, making them “unmovable”. Furthermore, you can lock the 
layout and global layers separately if needed. Proceed as follows:
Setting up the lock layers
1.Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu, and select the 
Scores–Event Layers page.
2.Assign each event type to a layer (1, 2 or 3).
It is a good idea to assign event types that might “conflict graphically” to different lay-
ers. For example, you might want to assign bar numbers and note symbols to different 
layers, if you find that you accidentally move bar numbers when editing note symbols 
and vice versa.
3.Click OK to close the dialog. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 185
•Alternatively, you can right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) on one of 
the Layer buttons (1-2-3) in the extended toolbar to bring up a pop-up 
menu, showing which object types are associated with that layer.
A checkmark for an object type means it belongs to that layer. If no checkmark is 
shown, you can select the object type from the pop-up menu and move it to that layer.
Locking a layer
To “lock” a layer, click on its number in the lock layer button, so that it 
goes “dark”.
In this figure, layer 2 is locked. Event types assigned to layer 2 cannot be selected, 
moved or deleted.
Visual indication of the layers
Objects belonging to locked event layers will be “greyed out” in the 
score. This makes it very easy to find out which object belongs to 
which layer – perhaps especially useful for the layout and global layers. 
For example, to quickly spot all objects in the layout layer, lock all other 
layers by clicking their buttons. Now, only layout layer objects will be 
shown normally; all other objects will be greyed out. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 186 Working with symbols
Moving and duplicating symbols
There are four general ways to move and duplicate symbols: 
• By dragging them with the mouse (see below).
• By using the computer keyboard (moving only – see page 189).
• By using the bar handles (see page 189).
• By using the Paste Note Attribute function (duplicating note symbols only – 
see page 192).
Moving and duplicating by using the mouse
This is done much as with other objects in Cubase SX. The following 
rules apply:
• Note symbols and note dependant symbols move with the notes/chords they 
belong to. In other words, if you move the note/chord, the symbols move with 
it/them.
• Note symbols (like for example accents and lyrics) can only be moved vertically. 
Some other symbols (like braces and brackets) can only be moved horizontally.
• All other symbols without handles can be moved freely. If you hold down 
[Ctrl]/[Command], movement is restricted to one direction only.
• If the symbol has one or more handles when it is selected, don’t drag it by the 
handles, or you will change its shape instead of moving it.
• The slurs and ties are an exception, they can only be moved by first dragging 
one handle and then the other. However, if you use the Graphic Move tool 
(see page 147) to move the notes they belong to, or if you change the mea-
sure width, they will be adjusted automatically.
• Duplicating is done by moving with [Alt]/[Option] pressed, as always in Cubase 
SX. Slurs, ties and bar lines cannot be duplicated with this method.
There are two features to help you position symbols (and other score 
objects) correctly: the rulers and the Position Info window. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 187
The rulers 
Unlike other editors, the Score Editor does not have a meter/time po-
sition-based ruler. Instead, its rulers are “graphical”, i.e. they indicate 
the actual x-y position of objects (with “zero” at the upper left corner).
•The current pointer position is indicated by thin lines in the rulers.
•To hide the rulers, pull down the pop-up menu above the scroll bar to 
the right and select “Off”.
This pop-up menu can also be shown by right-clicking (Win) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) in 
the ruler.
•To display the ruler again, pull down the same pop-up menu and se-
lect one of the units (inches, centimeters or points).
This setting will also affect the units used in the Position Info window (see below).
The Position Info window
If you need to fine-tune the graphical positions of symbols and other 
objects, you should use the Position Info window. This makes posi-
tioning easier in two ways:
• You get a numerical indication of the exact position of the mouse pointer (and 
any object you are dragging).
• You can move objects or staves by typing in position values. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 188 Working with symbols
You display the Position Info window by clicking in the ruler.
The window contains the following settings and values:
Option Description
Measure in 
Inch/cm/mm/ptClick this label to change units for the Position Info window. This 
choice will also affect the units used in the rulers.
Abs/Rel. Pos Click this label to select whether X-Y position values should be “ab-
solute” (referring to the upper left corner of the current page) or 
“relative” (referring to the upper left corner of the active staff).
X, Y When a single object is selected, these values show the horizontal 
and vertical position of this object.
When no objects or several objects are selected, these values 
show the current horizontal and vertical position of the pointer.
If a single object is selected, you can click on these values and type 
in a new position for the object.
dX, dY When you are moving an object, these values indicate the horizon-
tal and vertical distance you have moved it.
If one or several objects are selected, you can click and type in val-
ues – the objects will be moved by the specified distances.
Sel. Staff If “Abs. Pos” is selected (see above), this value shows the distance 
from the top of the score page to the top of the active staff. 
You can click and type in a value to move the active staff.
If “Rel. Pos” is selected, this value will always be 0, since vertical 
positions are related to the top of the active staff!
To Prev Staff The distance between the active staff and the staff above it.
Clicking and typing in a value will move the active staff.
To Next Staff The distance between the active staff and the staff below it. Click-
ing and typing in a value will move the staves below the active staff. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 189
Dragging symbols across staves
If you drag a symbol across the staves, you will note how the “active 
staff” indicator to the left follows the mouse pointer. Use this as an in-
dication, to make sure that symbols end up in the correct staff.
•If you are editing several tracks at the same time, and want to make 
sure that a symbol isn’t accidentally moved to another track when you 
drag it vertically, click on the “L” button on the extended toolbar.
When this is activated, you cannot move symbols across tracks by dragging.
Moving by using the computer keyboard
You can assign key commands for moving symbols, notes or rests 
graphically in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu. The com-
mands are found under the “Nudge” category and are called “Graphi-
cal Left”, “Graphical Right”, “Graphical Top” and “Graphical Bottom”.
Selecting an object and using one of these commands is the same as 
dragging them with the Graphic Move tool, but this method offers 
higher precision.
Moving and duplicating with the bar handles
This function allows you to move or copy the contents of a whole bar 
to one or several other bars. You can select which elements in the bar 
should be included in the operation. Proceed as follows:
1.Bring up the display filter bar by clicking the “Show Filter View” button 
in the toolbar.
2.In the filter bar, make sure the “Bar Handles” option is activated.
Now, each bar in the score is shown with a handle in the upper left corner.
Bar handles 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 190 Working with symbols
3.Double click on the handle of the bar from which you want to copy or 
move symbols.
The Barcopy dialog appears.
4.Make sure that only the symbol types you want to move/copy are 
checked.
5.If you have several subsequent bars to which you want to copy sym-
bols, set the “Repeats” value to this number of bars.
If you only want to copy symbols from one bar to another, make sure “Repeats” is set 
to 1. This option is only available for copying, not for moving.
6.If you want this dialog to appear every time you perform the move/copy 
operation (see below), activate “Show Dialog”.
7.Click OK to close the dialog.
8.To copy the specified event types to another bar, hold down [Alt]/
[Option], click on the bar handle of the first bar and drag it to the 
“target” bar.
To move the event types instead of copying them, drag the bar handle without holding 
down [Alt]/[Option].
•If you activated “Show Dialog” in step 6 above, the Barcopy dialog ap-
pears, allowing you to confirm your settings.
Click OK to close the dialog and perform the operation.