Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Score Layout And Printing Manual

							4
Entering and editing notes using
the mouse 
						

							CUBASE SX4 – 62 Entering and editing notes using the mouse
In this chapter you will learn:
• How to make various settings for how notes are displayed.
• How to enter notes by using the mouse.
• How to use tools and settings to make the score as legible as possible.
• How to set up a split (piano) staff.
• How to work with multiple staves.
Staff settings
Before you start entering notes, you need to make some initial staff 
settings in addition to those described in the chapter “The basics”. To 
understand why, and how these settings and the note data in the 
score interact, please read the chapter “How the Score Editor works”.
There are three ways to open the Staff Settings dialog:
•Make the staff active, pull down the Scores menu and select “Setup” 
from the Staff Settings submenu.
•Double click to the left of the staff.
•Make the staff active and click the “i” button on the extended toolbar.
For this to work, make sure no notes or symbols are selected – otherwise, clicking the 
“i” button may open a dialog with settings for the selected object instead.
Either way, the Staff Settings dialog appears and shows the current 
settings for the staff. 
						

							CUBASE SXEntering and editing notes using the mouse 4 – 63
Applying settings and selecting other staves
The Staff Settings dialog is non-modal (see page 31). This means you 
click Apply to apply the settings you’ve made to the active staff.
To make settings for another staff, simply make it active in the score 
(by clicking anywhere in the staff or by using the up/down arrow keys 
on the computer keyboard). However, please note:
• Remember to click Apply before making another staff active – otherwise 
your settings will be lost!
Staff presets
When you want to reuse settings made for one track in other tracks, 
you will save some time by creating a staff preset. This is described on 
page 94.
• There are a number of staff presets available, set up to suit various in-
struments, etc.
The presets are accessed via the Presets pop-up menu in the Staff Settings dialog, or 
from the Staff Settings submenu on the Scores menu. Use them as they are, or as 
starting points for your own settings. 
						

							CUBASE SX4 – 64 Entering and editing notes using the mouse
Suggested initial settings
When you start out entering notes using the mouse, your staff settings 
should make your score display the notes as entered. We suggest the 
following:
You will find out later how to adapt these settings in detail to make the 
score read as you want it to.
• It is very important that you understand how the display quantize values 
for notes and rests interact with the score. If you select too large a 
notes/rests value, the notes you “click in” may not appear as intended. 
Please read the chapter “How the Score Editor works”. If you have mixed triplets and 
straight notes, please refer to page 46.
Option Description
Names As desired.
Display Quantize: Notes 64
Display Quantize: Rests 64
Auto Quantize Activated.
Clean Lengths Off.
No Overlap Off.
Syncopation Off.
Shuffle Off.
Key As desired.
Clef As desired.
Auto Clef Activate this if you want the program to select a treble or 
bass clef automatically.
Display Transpose 0
Options tab settings As is.
Polyphonic tab settings Staff Mode: Single (for split staves, see page 85).
Tablature tab settings Tablature Mode deactivated. 
						

							CUBASE SXEntering and editing notes using the mouse 4 – 65
Note values and positions
Two of the most important settings for entering notes (and the ones 
you will change most often) are the length of the note (the note value) 
and the minimum spacing between notes (the quantize value).
Selecting a note value for input
This can be done in one of three ways:
• By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64th and turn on and off the dotted and 
triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right. The selected note value is dis-
played in the Length value field on the toolbar and in the Insert Note tool cursor shape.
The note value is reflected in the extended toolbar, the Length value field and the 
Insert Note tool shape.
• By selecting an option from the Length pop-up menu on the toolbar.
• By assigning key commands to the different length values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, under the category “Set 
Insert Length”.
About unusual note values
Not all note values can be selected directly, for example double dot-
ted notes. Such notes are created by changing the length of the note 
after you have put it in (see page 82), by gluing notes together (see 
page 83) or by using the Display Length feature. 
						

							CUBASE SX4 – 66 Entering and editing notes using the mouse
Selecting a display quantize value
When you move the mouse pointer over the score, you will see that 
the position box on the toolbar tracks your movement and shows the 
current position in bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks.
Positioning on screen is controlled by the current quantize value. If 
you for example set this to “1/8 Note” you can only insert and move 
notes to eighth note positions, at quarter notes, at half bars or at bar 
positions. It is a good strategy to set the quantize value to the smallest 
note value in the piece. This doesn’t stop you from inputting notes at 
“coarser” positions. However, if you set the quantize value to too small 
a note value, it is easier to make mistakes.
The quantize value is set on the toolbar in the Quantize pop-up menu:
•You can also assign key commands to the different quantize values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, under the category “MIDI 
Quantize”.
•Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the Quantize Setup di-
alog to create other quantize values, irregular grids, etc.
However, this is not often used when inputting score notes.
With the quantize value set to “1/8 Note”, you 
can only input notes at eighth note positions. 
						

							CUBASE SXEntering and editing notes using the mouse 4 – 67
The “mouse position box”
While you will most often use the graphical position in the actual score 
to determine where the notes go, there are instances when you will 
want to verify the position numerically using the mouse position box:
The upper field shows the pitch according to the vertical position of 
the pointer in a staff. The lower field shows the “musical position” in 
bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks:
• The relation between beats and bars depends on the time signature: In 4/4 
there are 4 beats to a bar. In 8/8 there are eight, in 6/8 there are six, etc.
• The third number is the sixteenth note within the beat. Again, the time signa-
ture determines the number of sixteenth notes to each beat. In a quarter note 
based time signature (4/4, 2/4, etc.) there are four sixteenth notes to each 
beat, in an eighth note based time signature (3/8, 4/8, etc.), there are two six-
teenth notes, etc.
• The last value is in ticks, with 480 ticks per quarter note (and thus 120 ticks 
per sixteenth note).
The figures below show some note positions and their corresponding position values:
Eighth note positions.
Eighth note triplet positions.
Sixteenth note positions.
2/2
4/4
8/81.1.1.01.1.3.0 1.1.5.0 1.1.7.0
1.1.1.01.1.3.0 1.2.1.0 1.2.3.0
1.1.1.01.2.1.0 1.3.1.0 1.4.1.01.2.1.01.2.3.0 1.2.5.0 1.2.7.0
1.3.1.01.3.3.0 1.4.1.0 1.4.3.0
1.5.1.01.6.1.0 1.7.1.0 1.8.1.0
2/2
4/4
8/81.1.1.0 1.1.2.40 1.1.3.80 1.1.5.0
1.1.1.0 1.1.2.40 1.1.3.80 1.2.1.0
1.1.1.0 1.1.2.40 1.2.1.80 1.3.1.01.1.6.40 1.1.7.80
1.2.2.40 1.2.3.80
1.3.2.40 1.4.1.80
2/2
4/4
8/81.1.1.0
1.1.2.0 1.1.3.0 1.1.4.0
1.1.1.01.1.2.0 1.1.3.0 1.1.4.0
1.1.1.0 1.1.2.0 1.2.1.0 1.2.2.01.1.5.01.1.6.0 1.1.7.0 1.1.8.0
1.2.1.01.2.2.0 1.2.3.0 1.2.4.0
1.3.1.0 1.3.2.0 1.4.1.0 1.4.2.0 
						

							CUBASE SX4 – 68 Entering and editing notes using the mouse
Adding and editing notes
Entering one note by dragging
To add a note to the score, proceed as follows:
1.Make the staff active.
Notes are always put in on the active staff. See page 25 for details.
2.Select the type of note by selecting a note value.
This is described in detail above.
3.If you selected the note value by clicking on a symbol on the extended 
toolbar, the Insert Note tool was automatically selected – otherwise 
select the Insert Note tool from the toolbar or Quick menu.
4.Select a quantize value.
Described above. The quantize value will determine the spacing between notes. If you 
set quantize to “1/1 Note” you will only be able to add notes at downbeats. If you set 
quantize to “1/8 Note” you will be able to add notes at all eighth note positions etc.
5.Click in the staff and keep the mouse button pressed.
A note appears under the mouse pointer.
6.Move the mouse horizontally to find the correct position.
Check the mouse position box – the position is “magnetically” attracted to the grid de-
fined by the current quantize value. This allows you to easily find the correct position.
7.Move the mouse vertically to find the correct pitch.
• If the option “Show Note Info by the Mouse” is activated in the Preferen-
ces dialog (Scores page), the position and pitch of the note will also be 
shown in a “tool tip” next to the pointer while you’re dragging.
If you find that screen redraws are too sluggish, you may want to deactivate this option.
8.Release the mouse button.
The note appears in the score.
The pitch is shown here. 
						

							CUBASE SXEntering and editing notes using the mouse 4 – 69
Clicking directly
When you get better acquainted with the Score Editor and find it easy 
to aim at the right position directly, you don’t need to drag the note 
around as described above. Simply aim at the correct position and 
click once.
If you have problems getting the pitch right
•Normally, you are allowed to “draw” notes with any pitch. But if the op-
tion “Keep moved notes within key” is activated in the Preferences–
Scores dialog, the pitches are restricted to inside the current key only.
•When you drag the mouse up and down before releasing the button, 
accidentals are shown beside the note to indicate the current pitch.
This helps you verify the vertical position before releasing the mouse button.
Adding more notes
1.If the next note is of another note value, select a new note value.
2.If you need finer positioning, or if the current value is too fine, change 
the quantize value.
3.Move the mouse to input the new note, and click.
Notes input at the same position are automatically interpreted as chords, see below.
About the interpretation
The notes may not always appear in the score as you expect them to, 
initially. This is because there are a number of situations which require 
special techniques and settings. Below follows a list of some of these 
and where to find more information about handling them:
• Notes at the same position are considered parts of a chord. To get indepen-
dent voicing (for example notes with different stem directions), such as for vo-
cal material, you need to use polyphonic voicing – see page 101.
Without and with polyphonic voicing 
						

							CUBASE SX4 – 70 Entering and editing notes using the mouse
• If two notes beginning at the same position have different lengths, the longer 
will be displayed as a number of tied notes. To avoid this, you will either have 
to use the “No Overlap” feature (see page 48) or polyphonic voicing (see 
page 101).
• One note will often be displayed as two notes with a tie. This is only how the 
program displays the note, there is still only a single note “stored”.
This single note in the Key Editor is displayed as two tied notes in the Score Editor.
• Generally the program adds ties where necessary (if a note stretches over a 
beat), but not always. For more “modern” notation of syncopated notes (less 
ties), you will need to use the syncopation feature described on page 49.
The same note, without and with Syncopation.
• If you specifically want a long note to be displayed as two (or more) tied notes, 
you can use the Cut Notes tool for this.
• If a note has the wrong accidental, this can be changed. See page 127.
• If two notes on the same position are too close to each other or if you want 
their “graphical order” in the score reversed, you can do this without affecting 
playback. See page 147.
• Stem direction and length is normally automatic, but you can set it yourself. 
See page 122.
• If you are scoring for piano and therefore (or for other reasons) need a split staff, 
there are special techniques for this, described on page 85 and page 101.