Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 191
Now, the following happens:
• If you activated “Note Symbols” in step 4 above, the note symbols are copied 
from the “source” bar and pasted onto notes at the same positions in the “tar-
get” bar. If there is a note symbol for a certain note in the “source” bar, but no 
note at the corresponding position in the “target” bar, the symbol will simply 
be ignored.
The actual position of notes are used as a basis for this operation – not the displayed 
position.
• If you activated other types of symbols in step 4 above, these will simply be 
moved to the same graphical position in the “target” bar.
• If you set “Repeats” to a number larger than 1 in step 5 above, the same sym-
bols will be pasted into that number of bars (starting from the one you drag 
the bar handle to).
• If you didn’t hold down [Alt]/[Option] when dragging the bar handle, the sym-
bols (and other event types specified in the dialog) are removed from the 
“source” bar.
❐If there already are symbols (or other objects) of the specified types in 
the “target” bars, these will be removed!
If we copy the note symbols from the first bar to the second bar…
…only symbols that find corresponding note positions in the second bar will be copied. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 192 Working with symbols
Duplicating note symbols with the Paste Note Attributes 
function
By using the “Paste Note Attributes” function on the Scores–Staff 
Functions menu, you can copy the properties of one note (including all 
note symbols) to any number of other notes. This is described on 
page 133.
About moving note symbols
Note symbols, slurs and ties all have “default positions”. This deter-
mines the vertical distance between the note head(s) and the symbol. 
•You can manually adjust the vertical positions of individual symbols, 
but if you move or transpose their notes, the symbols are automatically 
reset to their default positions. 
This also ensures that note symbols and slurs are positioned sensibly when you 
change the display transpose settings.
•To reset the vertical positions of all note symbols and slurs in a score, 
hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on the Force Update (“UPD”) 
button on the extended toolbar.
All note symbols are reset to their default positions, and all slurs and ties are set to 
their original lengths and shapes (see below). 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 193
Changing length and shape
Generally you can change the shapes of any symbol that has a length. 
Proceed as follows:
Resizing
1.Select the symbol.
The handles appear.
Symbols with a length have two handles when selected.
2.Drag one of the handles.
You may be restricted to vertically or horizontally only, depending on the type of symbol.
❐In the Preferences–Scores dialog, there is a preference called “Keep 
Crescendi Symbols Horizontal”. When this is activated, crescendo and 
diminuendo symbols will never be slanted.
Altering the shape and direction of slurs and ties
• This section describes how to alter the “regular” slur and tie symbols. 
How to add and edit Bezier slur symbols is described on page 175.
There are two types of slurs and ties in the symbol palette. The up/
down variation of each actually represent the same symbol but with 
different initial direction. You can perform the following editing to slurs 
and ties:
•By dragging the middle handle up/down you can change the shape of 
the curve. 
Dragging the middle handle of a slur changes its shape. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 194 Working with symbols
•By selecting a slur or a tie and clicking the “Flip” symbol on the ex-
tended toolbar, you can change the direction and positioning of the 
slur or tie.
Actually, there are three “modes” for a slur or tie. You step through these three modes 
by clicking the button:
•By dragging the end points of a slur or tie, you can change its shape 
without affecting its “relation” to the notes it belongs to.
In other words, the end point of the slur/tie will then keep its relative distance to that note 
when the note is moved with the Layout tool or when the measure width is adjusted.
•By holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] and dragging the end points of a 
slur or tie, it can be detached from the notes it belonged to.
❐You can restore all shape changes to default, by [Ctrl]/[Command]-click-
ing the Force Update (UPD) icon on the extended toolbar. See page 192.
•To change the default shape and spacing of slurs and ties, open the 
Spacings dialog on the Scores–Global Settings submenu and edit 
the settings “Slur’s Start & End Distance from Note Head” and “Slur’s 
Middle Distance from Note Head”.
These settings will be used for all new slurs and ties you create, as well as for all exist-
ing slurs for which you haven’t manually changed the shape.
Double clicking symbols
A number of symbols can be double clicked. In these cases, a dialog 
or menu appears where you can input information that either affects 
the look of the symbol or the MIDI data it creates. This is described for 
each type of symbol in the “Symbol Details” section on page 197. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 195
Deleting symbols
This is done as with all other objects in Cubase SX, either with the 
Erase tool or by selecting and pressing [Delete] or [Backspace].
Copy and paste
All symbols except those in the Layout and Global Symbols palettes 
can be copied and pasted just as any other object in Cubase SX. The 
following rule applies:
•Symbols that were tied to notes (e.g. accents) will become “free-floating” 
objects when pasted. 
That is, they are not tied to any note any more. If this is not what you want, consider 
copying with the bar handles, as described on page 189. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 196 Working with symbols
Alignment
Symbols can be aligned as in drawing programs. Proceed as follows:
1.Select all objects you want to align.
2.Select one of the options from the Scores–Align Elements submenu.
❐Note symbols like staccato and accents can only be aligned horizontally.
The “Dynamics” option is a special function for aligning dynamic sym-
bols, as described on page 199.
Option Result
Left
Right
Top
Bottom
Center Vertical
Center Horizontal 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 197
Symbol details
This section further describes some of the symbol palette options.
The “Clef etc.” palette
Clefs
You can insert a clef symbol anywhere in the score. This will have an 
effect on the notes, just as the first clef on the staff has. And just as 
with the first clef, the type is selected from a dialog that appears as 
soon as you click. More details on page 88 and page 31.
When you double click on an existing clef the same dialog appears al-
lowing you to change the type.
Time signatures
You can insert a time signature symbol at the beginning of any bar. In-
serting a new time signature will insert a change into the tempo track, 
as described on page 88.
When you click with the Pencil tool, a dialog appears allowing you to 
specify the time signature. When you double click on an existing time 
signature symbol the same dialog appears allowing you to change the 
type. This dialog is described in detail on page 32.
•You can select a font and size for time signatures in the Text Settings 
dialog on the Scores–Global Settings submenu (Global Text tab).
The default font for this is the included “Steinberg Notation” font.
Key signatures
Inserting a key signature change is functionally similar to inserting a 
new clef (see above). Details about key signatures in general can be 
found on page 36.
•In the dialog that appears when you insert a key change symbol, you 
can also insert display transpose changes. 
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 198 Working with symbols
The “Dynamics” palette
Dynamics
There are dynamic symbols ranging from ffff to pppp, plus “special” 
dynamic symbols such as sforzando, fortepiano, etc. 
•By selecting a dynamic symbol and clicking the “+” and “–” buttons 
on the extended toolbar, you can quickly edit dynamics in the score.
You can use this feature to step between pppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, fff and ffff.
•In the Line/Trill palette you will find a line symbol which allows you to 
create the following type of change in dynamics:
Crescendo and diminuendo (decrescendo)
In the Dynamics palette, there are three kinds of crescendo symbols: 
regular crescendo, regular diminuendo and a “double” crescendo (di-
minuendo–crescendo).
• To insert a crescendo (), select the corresponding symbol 
from the palette and drag from left to right.
• If you draw a crescendo symbol from right to left, the result will be a diminu-
endo symbol, and vice versa.
• To insert a crescendo-diminuendo () symbol, select the double crescendo 
symbol from the palette and drag from left to right. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with symbols 8 – 199
• To insert a diminuendo-crescendo (>
						

							CUBASE SX8 – 200 Working with symbols
The “Graphics” palette
There are a number of note head, rest and accidental symbols in the 
“Graphic” symbol palette. These work only as drawing elements, i.e. 
they do not insert any note data into the track.
The “Line/Trill” palette
Octave symbols
The octave symbols (8va and 15va) act as a “local display transpose” 
(see page 38) – they shift the display of the score one/two octaves 
down.
•By dragging the end of the dotted line, you can specify exactly which 
notes should be affected by the octave symbol.
Only notes beneath the dotted line are display transposed.
Tuplet group symbols
These are “graphical” tuplet group symbols, as opposed to the “real” 
tuplets.
•After inserting a tuplet group symbol, you can double click on its num-
ber and enter any number from 2 to 32.
•You can specify globally how tuplets should be displayed in the Nota-
tion Style dialog on the Scores–Global Settings submenu.
You can also select a font and size for the tuplet numbers in the Text Settings dialog 
on the same menu. 
Vertical symbols
The vertical symbols in the Line/Trill palette are “note dependant”. This 
means that they must be inserted in front of a note. For more informa-
tion see page 158 and the text about grace notes (which behave sim-
ilarly) on page 150.