Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							CUBASE SXDesigning your score – additional techniques 12 – 261
Moving bar lines
The following operations can be made using the regular Object Se-
lection tool or the Graphic Move tool, it doesn’t matter.
Moving a bar Line
If you drag a bar line to the left or right, the surrounding measures are 
adjusted proportionally.
Moving bar lines on all staves
If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] when dragging a bar line, all bar lines 
below the one you drag will be moved accordingly.
Moving a single bar line separately
If you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging a bar line, the 
widths of the surrounding bars are not affected.
Making an indent on one line
•To create an indent, simply drag the first or last bar line on a staff.
The sizes of all measures are adjusted proportionally.
Before and after dragging the first bar line on the first staff. 
						

							CUBASE SX12 – 262 Designing your score – additional techniques
Making indents on several lines
If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag the first or last bar line in a 
system, all following systems will get the same indent. If you want all 
lines on all pages to be indented in the same way, hold down [Alt]/
[Option] and drag the appropriate bar line on the first system of the 
score.
The last bar line in the piece
Cubase SX attempts to move the last bar line and space the bars on 
the last line in a sensible way, but you can change this manually by 
dragging the last bar line if you like. You can also double click on it if 
you want another type of bar line than the default.
Resetting bar spacing
To reset the bar spacing to standard values for several lines, proceed 
as follows:
1.Locate the first line for which you want to reset the bar spacing, and 
make one staff in that system active.
2.Select “Number of Bars” from the Layout Functions submenu on the 
Scores menu.
3.Specify the number of bars that you already have on the line.
4.Click on “This Staff”.
Optionally, you might reset “All Staves” lines at the same times, as described on page 
259.
5.Click OK to close the dialog.
The bar spacing is reset for the currently selected staff and all following staves. 
						

							CUBASE SXDesigning your score – additional techniques 12 – 263
Dragging staves
The following operations can be made using the regular Object Se-
lection tool or the Graphic Move tool, it doesn’t matter. However, 
dragging staves can only be done in Page Mode.
Adding space between two grand staves
1.Locate the first staff in the lower of the two systems you wish to 
spread apart.
2.Click just to the left of the first bar line and keep the mouse button 
down. The entire staff is selected.
3.Drag downwards or upwards and release the mouse.
The system you dragged has moved down and all the systems below it have moved 
with it. 
Before…
…and after dragging the upper system, to make room. 
						

							CUBASE SX12 – 264 Designing your score – additional techniques
Setting the same distance between all grand staves
1.Hold down the [Alt]/[Option] key.
2.Drag the first staff of the second system, until you have the correct 
distance between this and the first system.
3.Release the mouse button and the [Alt]/[Option] key.
All systems will now be the same distance apart as the one you dragged and that 
above it.
❐This operation affects the system you drag and all following systems.
Setting the distance between staves within a grand staff
1.Locate the staff you wish to spread apart.
Click just to the left of its first bar line and keep the mouse button down. The entire 
staff gets inverted.
2.Drag downwards or upwards and then release the mouse.
The staff you dragged has now moved down and all the other staves in the system are 
adjusted accordingly. 
Dragging the staves in a 
piano system apart. 
						

							CUBASE SXDesigning your score – additional techniques 12 – 265
Setting the same distance between staves in several systems
1.Hold down the [Alt]/[Option] key.
2.Drag the desired staff as described above.
3.Release the mouse button and [Alt]/[Option] key.
The corresponding staves in all following systems are moved accordingly.
Moving one staff only
You may wish to move one staff without affecting any other staff in any 
way:
1.Hold down the [Ctrl]/[Command] key.
2.Drag any staff as described above.
Moving staves between pages
By using the “Move to Next/Previous Page” commands on the Layout 
Functions submenu, you can quickly edit the page breaks:
Moving staves to the next page
1.Locate the staff you want to move to the top of the next page, and 
make it the active staff.
This can be any staff except the first staff on the page.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Move to Next Page” from the 
Layout Functions submenu.
The active staff (and any following staves on the page) are moved to the next page.
Moving staves to the previous page
1.Make the staff at the top of the page the active staff.
If any other staff is active, Move To Previous Page will be greyed out. Also, the function 
will not work for the first staff on the first page.
2.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Move to Previous Page” from 
the Layout Functions submenu.
The active staff, and as many of the following staves as there are room for, are moved 
to the previous page. If the previous page is “full” already, nothing will happen. 
						

							CUBASE SX12 – 266 Designing your score – additional techniques
Adding brackets and braces
Brackets and braces (curly brackets) are added in the Layout Settings 
dialog. The settings you make are specific for the current layout, 
meaning you can have different brackets or braces set up for different 
track configurations.
1.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Setup” from the Layout Set-
tings submenu.
In the track list, you will find columns for braces ( { ) and brackets ( [ ).
2.Click in one of the columns and drag downwards in the list to encom-
pass the desired tracks.
The column indicates graphically which tracks will be encompassed by the brace or 
bracket.
3.Close the Layout Settings dialog.
The score is displayed with brackets or braces according to the settings you made.
•You can edit brackets and braces in the dialog by dragging the ends 
of the indicator in the list.
•To remove a bracket or brace, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click 
on its indicator in the list, at the topmost track.
• You can automatically get broken bar lines based on the brackets you 
have added – see page 272.
• If the option “Show Braces in Edit Mode” is activated in the Preferences–
Scores dialog, brackets and braces are shown in Edit Mode as well.
Click at the first track for which 
you want a bracket or brace……and drag downwards in the list 
to enclose the desired tracks. 
						

							CUBASE SXDesigning your score – additional techniques 12 – 267
Auto Layout
This item on the Scores menu brings up a submenu with nine options. 
Selecting one of these makes the program “walk through” the score 
and make adjustments to measure widths, staff distances etc. auto-
matically. Exactly which parts and properties of the score are affected 
depends on which option you select and the result depends on the 
settings you make in the Auto Layout dialog, as described below.
❐The automatic layout adjustments are done just as if you yourself had 
made them manually. This means that if there’s something you don’t like, 
you can always change it manually, as described above. 
						

							CUBASE SX12 – 268 Designing your score – additional techniques
The Auto Layout dialog
The Auto Layout dialog contains settings that affect the result of the 
Auto Layout functions. 
•The dialog appears when you use the Bars and Staves or Optimize All 
functions (or click the Auto Layout icon on the score toolbar).
To make settings for the other Auto Layout functions, select Bars and Staves, make 
the desired settings and click Cancel. Often you can set up these settings as desired, 
once and for all.
The dialog contains the following settings:
Setting Description
Max. Number of Bars This allows you to specify the maximum number of bars per staff 
when using the “Bars and Staves” or “Optimize All” functions.
Minimum Distance 
between StavesWhen you use an Auto Layout function that moves staves 
(changes the vertical staff distance), this setting determines the 
minimum allowed distance between the staves.
Minimum Distance 
between Grand 
StavesThis sets the minimum allowed distance between Grand Staves 
in the same way.
Auto Space/Page 
ModeThe higher the value the more space is allowed for each element 
in the score (and thus, the fewer the bars across the page).
Add to Auto Layout 
DistanceThis number adds to the distance between staves that will be 
added when you use any of the Auto Layout functions. The 
higher the number, the larger the distance between staves.
‘Spread Page’ Bottom 
DistanceThis adds to the white space that will appear on the bottom of a 
page when using the Spread Page functions.  
						

							CUBASE SXDesigning your score – additional techniques 12 – 269
Move bars
This option looks at the currently active grand staff, and attempts to 
adjust the measure widths, so that all notes and symbols get as much 
room as possible. The number of bars on the staff is not affected.
•You can perform this function for several staves in one go, by drag-
ging a selection rectangle over their left edges, and then selecting 
Move Bars.
•You can also perform the Move Bars function by selecting the staff 
and clicking on the Auto Layout button on the extended toolbar.
For this to work, an entire staff must be selected (black) – otherwise a “Bars and 
Staves” operation is performed (see below).
Move All Bars
This works like Move Bars, but affects all grand staves from the active 
one to the end of the score.
Move Staves
This changes the measure width (as with Move All Bars) but also the 
vertical staff distance, of the active staff and all following staves.
Hide Empty Staves
This hides all empty staves, from the active staff to the end of the 
score. Note that polyphonic/split staves are in this case treated as 
one entity, if the clef in the upper system differs from that in the lower 
system. That is, a piano staff is considered “empty” only if there are no 
notes on either staff.
•If you have activated the “Hidden” option on the Filter Bar, hidden 
staves are indicated by a marker with the text “Hidden:Name” (where 
“Name” is the staff name).
To display hidden staves, either delete their “Hidden” markers, or select Show from the 
Staff Functions submenu. 
						

							CUBASE SX12 – 270 Designing your score – additional techniques
•If you activate the option “Auto Layout: Don’t hide first staff” in the 
Preferences–Scores dialog, staves in the very first grand staff will not 
be hidden, even if they are empty.
This is useful for example if you are creating an orchestra score, and want to show the 
complete “layout” of the orchestra on the first page of the score, without hiding anything.
Bars and Staves
This is a combination of Move All Bars and Move Staves, plus auto-
matic calculation of the number of bars across the page - the function 
tries to optimize the number of bars across the page for each staff 
(with the maximum number of bars as set in the dialog).
•The Bars and Staves operation can also be performed by clicking on 
the Auto Layout button on the extended toolbar.
For this to work, no staves must be selected (black) – otherwise a “Move Bars” opera-
tion is performed (see above).
Spread Page
This corrects the vertical layout of the staves on the current page, so 
that they “fit onto the page”. In other words, this removes white space 
at the bottom of the page.
Spread All Pages
This is the same as Spread Page, but affects all pages from the cur-
rent and onwards.
Optimize All
All of the above in one fell swoop. This procedure might take some 
time but usually yields great results.