Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							CUBASE SXWorking with chords 9 – 211
3.If you wish, specify a tension in the “Tension” field.
Again, this can be done by typing or by using the pop-up menu. However, there are 
some special display options which you can only get by typing (see the table below). 
You might also want to add some text here (such as “no third”, etc.). If you wish, you 
can select the basic tensions from the pop-up menu, and then add special options by 
typing.
4.If you want to have a special bass note (e.g. a C major with a D bass 
note) set the Bass Note pop-up menu to anything but the key note.
The program will “remember” the relation between key and bass note, so that if you 
change the key note, the bass note will follow.
5.If you want the key note to be displayed in lower case, activate the 
“Keynote in lower case” checkbox.
6.If needed, click on the button labelled “Enharm. Shift”, to turn this on 
or off.
7.Click Apply.
The chord symbol appears in the score.
❐You can make further settings to determine how the chords should be 
displayed – see page 214.
•If you want to edit a chord, select the symbol, adjust the settings in the 
dialog and click Apply.
If the dialog is closed, you can open it by double clicking the chord symbol.
Character Description Example Result
( ) The tensions will be enclosed in 
brackets.
/ The tensions will be separated by 
a slash sign.
| The tensions will be placed 
above one another.
You can also combine several options. This is a 
combination of two options, along with a space 
to put the “9” above the “5”. Note that only one 
“(“-sign is needed when the “|” option is used. 
						

							CUBASE SX9 – 212 Working with chords
Using presets
As with many other functions in Cubase SX, you can create presets 
for instant use. Each preset contains all settings in the dialog – i.e., 
the preset list is a “library” of chords. The preset handling is the usual:
•Click Store to store the current settings as a preset.
A dialog will appear, allowing you to enter a name for the preset.
•To load a stored preset, select it from the Presets pop-up menu.
Note that this only loads the settings into the dialog – you need to click Apply to apply 
the settings to a selected chord symbol.
•To remove a preset, select it on the pop-up menu and click Remove.
Using Make Chord Symbols
If you have already recorded the chords for a song, Cubase SX can 
analyze them and create chord symbols:
1.Open the recording in the Score Editor.
If you want the chords to be inserted on another track, you can create an empty part on 
that track and open it along with the recording.
2.If you like, make settings for how the chords should be displayed in 
the Chord Settings dialog on the Scores–Global Settings submenu.
You can change all these settings after you inserted the chords as well.
3.Select the notes for which you want chord symbols to be created.
If chord symbols should be created for all chords on the track, use the Select All func-
tion on the Edit menu.
4.Use the arrow keys to make the desired staff active.
This should be the staff in which you want the chord symbols to end up.
5.Select “Make Chord Symbols” from the Scores–Staff Functions sub-
menu.
The chords appear. They can be moved, duplicated and deleted as any other symbol. 
You can also double click on a chord symbol to edit it in the Edit Chord Symbol dialog 
(in the same way as when creating chords manually – see above). 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with chords 9 – 213
A staff after using Make Chord Symbols.
•Instead of using the “Make Chord Symbols” menu item, you can click 
on the Make Chord Symbols button on the extended toolbar.
•If the option “Use for ‘Make Chord Symbols’” is activated in the Guitar 
Library dialog (see page 178), guitar chord symbols will be added as 
well (if the guitar library contains any guitar symbols that match the 
chords).
About the analysis
• The MIDI chords are expected to be played in their most basic inversion. If 
not, an extra bass note is added. For example, the notes CEG are interpreted 
as C major, but GCE is interpreted as C major with a G bass note. If you don’t 
want any interpretation of the inversion (no special bass notes) hold down 
[Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting Make Chord Symbols.
• All selected notes on all staves are taken into consideration. Whenever there 
is any change on any staff, the notes are reinterpreted and a new chord sym-
bol added. This means you should probably avoid having the melody track in 
the Score Editor when you use Make Chord Symbols, or you will get a lot 
more chords than you expect, possibly with strange tensions.
• In addition to the above, the quantize value is used. At the most, there will be 
a new chord at each quantize position.
• There must be at least three notes at a certain position for the program to in-
terpret it as a chord. Also some combinations of notes simply don’t make any 
sense to the program and won’t produce any chords.
• The analysis method isn’t perfect since the same set of notes can be inter-
preted differently depending on context. Some editing may be needed. If you 
record the track solely to create chords automatically, play the chord as sim-
ple as possible, in the correct inversion, without added octaves, etc. 
						

							CUBASE SX9 – 214 Working with chords
Global chord settings
In the Chord Settings dialog on the Scores–Global Settings menu, 
there are several global settings that affect how chords are displayed. 
These settings affect all chords in the project.
The dialog has two tabs, Types and Font:
Chord types
•Use the four sections of radio buttons to specify how the four most 
common chord types should be displayed.
•If you want the root (key) note to be aligned with the bass note, so that 
they both are displayed at the same vertical position, activate “Align 
Root Note”.
•If you want the tensions to be displayed at the same vertical position 
as the root note (rather than a bit above the root note), activate the 
“Tension Bottom” checkbox.
•Activate the “Scale Chords” option if you want to scale a staff (using 
the Size setting on the Options tab in the Staff Settings dialog), and 
want the chords to be scaled accordingly.
• Activate “Use Display Transpose” if you want the chord symbols to be 
affected by the display transpose setting in the Staff settings dialog.
•To apply the settings to your score, click “Apply to Chords”. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with chords 9 – 215
Chord font
•Use the Font pop-up to select a font for the chords.
Cubase SX comes with a special font for this (Steinberg Chord Symbols), but you can 
use any font you like.
•Use the four size value fields to select sizes for the four different chord 
“elements”.
You can type in values or use the pop-up menus. Normally, you would want the “Root” 
size to be the largest and the “Tension” size the smallest.
•Use the radio buttons at the bottom to select a chord display mode.
This affects how the key and bass notes are displayed:
Option Description
English Regular notation.
DoReMi “Do-Re-Mi-…” are used instead of “C-D-E-…”
German As English notation, but “B” is displayed as “H”, and “Bb” or “A#” are 
displayed as “B”. 
						

							CUBASE SX9 – 216 Working with chords 
						

							10
Working with text 
						

							CUBASE SX10 – 218 Working with text
In this chapter you will learn:
• About the different types of text.
• How to enter and edit text.
• How to set font, size and style.
• How to enter lyrics.
Adding and editing text symbols
This section describes the general procedure for adding and editing 
text symbols. As described on page 223, there are several different 
types of text symbols, but the basic procedures are the same (except 
for block text symbols, see page 228, and page text symbols, see 
page 229):
Inserting a text symbol
1.If you wish, select a font, size and style for the text (or select a text at-
tribute) as described on page 220.
The text you insert will use the text settings made when no text is selected, but you can 
change all settings after you inserted the text.
2.Make sure the desired symbol palette is visible.
The different text symbols are found on the Other, Layout and Global Symbols palettes.
3.Click or double click on the text symbol in the palette, so that the Pen-
cil tool is selected.
4.Make sure the correct staff is selected, and click in the score at the 
position you want the text.
If you are adding lyrics, you should click above or below a note (lyrics are centered 
around each note and positioned vertically to where you clicked). See page 224.
5.Enter the text in the text box that appears.
You can use [Backspace] to delete letters, and move the cursor with the arrow keys. 
6.When you are done, press [Return].
The text appears. You can move, duplicate or delete it as with any symbol. 
						

							CUBASE SXWorking with text 10 – 219
About the melisma lines
When you add a text symbol, you will find a handle at the right edge of 
the text. By dragging this handle to the right, you can extend a “mel-
isma line” from the text. This has several uses:
• If you are adding lyrics and want to indicate that a syllable should be sung 
over several notes:
• If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, and you want it to ap-
ply to a certain musical phrase only:
• If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, and you want it to ap-
ply from that point on in the score:
In the Text Settings dialog (see page 220) you will find two settings 
that determine the appearance of the melisma lines:
• The Melisma Style pop-up is where you specify whether the line should be 
solid or dotted.
• The Melisma End pop-up allows you to choose whether the end of the line 
should be plain, have an arrow, or form a “bracket” up or down. 
						

							CUBASE SX10 – 220 Working with text
Making space
• If you find there isn’t enough space between staves, e.g. to add lyrics, please 
see page 263 for info on how to separate the staves.
• If you find the score looks crammed after adding text, check out Automatic 
Layout on page 267.
Editing the text
If you made a mistake when typing or for some other reason wish to 
change text, double click on a text block with the Object Selection 
tool, edit the text and press [Return] to close it.
•It is also possible to replace all occurrences of a certain word in the 
score, without having to edit the texts manually – see page 233.
Selecting font, size and style for the text
1.Select the text symbol(s) you want to make settings for.
If nothing is selected, the settings you make will be the “default settings”. The next time 
you insert text, these settings will be used.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Font Settings” from the Text 
submenu.
The Font Settings dialog is displayed.
3.Select a font from the pop-up.
How many and which fonts appear depends on what typefaces you have installed on 
your computer. 
❐For regular text you should probably avoid the “Steinberg” fonts. These 
are the fonts Cubase SX uses for all scoring symbols, etc.
4.Select a text size from the Size pop-up menu (or enter one manually in 
the text field).