Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual
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401 MIDI processing and quantizing Minimum Velocity When the Minimum Velocity checkbox is activated, the ve- locity of notes is taken into account, allowing you to re- move weak notes. You specify the minimum velocity (for notes to be kept) in the value display. Remove when under This setting is only available when both Minimum Length and Minimum Velocity is activated. By clicking in this field, you select whether both the length and the velocity criteria must be met for notes to be deleted, or whether one of the criteria will suffice. OK and Cancel Clicking OK performs the automatic delete according to the rules set up. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without deleting notes. Restrict Polyphony Selecting this item opens a dialog in which you can spec- ify how many “voices” are used (for the selected notes or parts). Restricting the polyphony this way is useful when you have an instrument with limited polyphony and want to make sure all notes will be played. The effect is achieved by shortening notes as required, so that they end before the next note starts. Pedals to Note Length This function scans for Sustain pedal on/off events, length- ens the affected notes to match the Sustain pedal off posi- tion, and then removes the Sustain Controller on/off events. Delete Overlaps (mono) This function allows you to make sure that no notes of the same pitch overlap (i. e. that one starts before the other ends). Overlapping notes of the same pitch can confuse some MIDI instruments (a new Note On is transmitted be - fore the Note Off is transmitted). This command can then be used to automatically solve the problem. Delete Overlaps (poly) This function shortens notes when required, so that no note begins before another ends. This happens regard - less of which pitch the notes have. Velocity This function opens a dialog that allows you to manipulate the velocity of notes in various ways. The following types of velocity processing are available: Add/Subtract This simply adds a fixed number to the existing velocity values. You set the value (positive or negative) with the Amount parameter. Compress/Expand Compresses or expands the “dynamic range” of MIDI notes by scaling the velocity values according to the Ratio setting (0–300 %). The principle behind this is that multiplying dif- ferent velocity values with a factor higher than 1 (over 100 %) will also make the differences between velocity val- ues greater, while using a factor lower than 1 (under 100 %) will make the differences smaller. In short: •To compress (“even out” velocity differences), use ratio values below 100 %. After compression, you would probably want to add a velocity amount (with the Add/Subtract function) to maintain the average velocity level. •To expand (create greater difference in velocity), use ra- tio values above 100 %. Before you expand, you may want to adjust the velocity with the Add/ Subtract function, so that the average velocity is somewhere in the mid- dle of the range. If the average velocity is high (near 127) or low (near 0), expansion will not work properly, simply because velocity values can only be between 0 and 127! Limit This function allows you to make sure that no velocity val- ues fall outside a given range (the Lower and Upper val- ues). Any velocity values outside this range are raised/ lowered to exactly the Lower/Upper values.
402 MIDI processing and quantizing Fixed Velocity This function sets the velocity of all selected notes to the Insert Velocity value on the toolbar in the MIDI editors. Thin Out Data Thins out MIDI data. Use this to ease the load on your ex- ternal MIDI devices if you have recorded very dense con- troller curves, etc. You can also manually thin out the controller data by using the quantize function in the Key Editor. Extract MIDI Automation This is an extremely useful function as it allows you to quickly and easily convert the continuous controllers of your recorded MIDI parts into MIDI track automation data, making them available for editing in the Project window. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the desired MIDI part containing the continu- ous controller data. 2.Select “Extract MIDI Automation”. (This command is also available on the Key Editor context menu.) The controller data will automatically be removed from the controller lane in the editor. 3.In the Project window, open the automation track(s) for the respective MIDI track. You will find that an automa - tion track has been created for each of the continuous controllers in the part. This function can only be used for continuous controllers. Data such as Aftertouch, Pitchbend, or SysEx cannot be converted to MIDI track automation data. ÖRemember that to be able to hear the automation data, you have to activate the Read button for the respective au - tomation track(s). ÖMIDI controller automation is also affected by the Au- tomation Merge Mode, see “MIDI controller automation” on page 261. Reverse This function inverts the order of the selected events (or of all events in the selected parts), causing the MIDI music to play backwards. Note that the effect is different from re - versing an audio recording. With MIDI, the individual notes will still play as usual in the MIDI instrument – it is only the order of playback that is changed. Merge Tempo from Tapping This function allows you to create a complete tempo track based on your tapping, see the section “Merge Tempo From Tapping” on page 459.
404 The MIDI editors Introduction There are several ways to edit MIDI in Nuendo. You can use the tools and functions in the Project window for large- scale editing, or the functions on the MIDI menu to process MIDI parts in various ways (see “What is affected by the MIDI functions?” on page 392). For hands-on graphical ed- iting of the contents of MIDI parts, you use the MIDI editors: •The Key Editor is the default MIDI editor, presenting notes graphically in an intuitive piano roll-style grid. The Key Editor also allows for detailed editing of non-note events such as MIDI controllers. For more information, see “The Key Editor – Over- view” on page 406. •The Score Editor (Nuendo Expansion Kit only) shows MIDI notes as a musical score and comes with advanced tools and functions for notation, layout and printing. •The Drum Editor (Nuendo Expansion Kit only) is similar to the Key Editor, but takes advantage of the fact that with drum parts, each key corresponds to a separate drum sound. •The List Editor shows all events in the selected MIDI parts as a list, allowing you to view and edit their properties numerically. It also allows you to edit SysEx messages. For more information, see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 424 and “Working with SysEx messages” on page 427. •The Edit In-Place function allows you to edit MIDI parts directly in the Project window. This is similar to working in the Key Editor, but makes it easier to edit MIDI in context with other track types, see “The In-Place Editor” on page 422. •You can also edit MIDI in the Project Browser. Like the List Editor, the Project browser shows the events in a list and al- lows you to perform numerical editing. However, you will probably find the List Editor better suited for MIDI editing, since it has various dedi -cated features and functions for this. The Project Browser is described in the chapter “The Project Browser” on page 464. ÖYou can define each of the editors mentioned above as your default MIDI editor, see below. Please note that features that are identical in these editors will be described in the Key Editor section. The sections about the In-Place Editor (see “The In-Place Editor” on page 422) and the List Editor (see “The List Editor – Overview” on page 424) describe the specific features of these editors only. Opening a MIDI editor There are two ways to open a MIDI editor: •Select one or several parts (or a MIDI track, with no parts selected), pull down the MIDI menu and select Open Key Editor, Open Score Editor (Nuendo Expansion Kit only), Open Drum Editor (Nuendo Expansion Kit only), Open List Editor or Open In-Place Editor (or use the corresponding key command). The selected parts (or all parts on the track, if no part was selected) will open in the chosen editor. •Double-click a part to open it in the default editor. Which editor opens depends on the Default Edit Action setting in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–MIDI page). Nuendo Expansion Kit only: If the “Edit as Drums when Drum Map is assigned” option is activated and a drum map is selected for the edited track, the Drum Editor will open. This way you can double-click to open the Key Edi - tor (or the Score Editor, List or In-Place Editor, depending on your preferences) but drum tracks will automatically open in the Drum Editor. ÖIf the part you open for editing is a shared copy, any editing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part. Shared copies are created by pressing [Alt]/[Op - tion]-[Shift] and dragging, or by using the Repeat function with the “Shared copies” option activated. In the Project window, shared copies are indicated by the part name in italics and an icon in the bottom right corner of the part.
405 The MIDI editors Handling several parts When you open a MIDI editor with several parts (or a MIDI track containing several parts) selected, you might find it somewhat hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing. For such cases the editor toolbar features a few functions to make working with multiple parts easier and more com - prehensive: •The Part List menu lists all parts that were selected when you opened the editor (or all parts on the track if no parts were selected), and lets you select which part is active for editing. When you select a part from the list, it is automatically made active and centered in the note display. ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by select- ing an event within this part with the Arrow tool. •The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit- ing operations to the active part only. For example, if you select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu with this option activated, only events in the active part will be selected. Similarly, if you select notes by dragging with the Arrow tool (making a selection rectangle), only the notes in the active part will be selected. “Edit Active Part Only” is activated on the toolbar. •You can zoom in on the active part so that it fills the screen by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom sub - menu of the Edit menu. •The button “Show Part Borders” can be used if you want to see clearly defined borders for the active part. When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, making the borders easily discernible. In the Key Editor, there are also two “markers” in the ruler with the name of the active part, marking its begin -ning and end. These can be moved freely to change the size of the part. “Show Part Borders” is activated on the toolbar. •It is possible to cycle between parts (making them ac- tive) using key commands. In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, you will find two functions for this: “Activate Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key commands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts in the edi - tors. For further information, see “Setting up key commands” on page 581.
406 The MIDI editors The Key Editor – Overview The toolbar The toolbar contains tools and various settings for the Key Editor. The following toolbar elements are available: ÖYou can show/hide most of the toolbar elements (ex- cept for the “Set up Window Layout”, Solo Editor, and Acoustic Feedback buttons, which are always visible) by activating/deactivating the corresponding options on the context menu. ÖYou can specify which toolbar items are shown and store/recall different toolbar configurations, see “Using the Setup options” on page 572. Toolbar Info line Note display Controller display Ruler Status line OptionDescription Set up Window LayoutClicking this allows you to show/hide the status line and info line for the editor. This button is always available on the toolbar. Solo EditorThis is described in the section “The Solo Editor but-ton” on page 409. This control is always available on the toolbar. Acoustic Feed-backThis is described in the section “Acoustic Feedback” on page 410. This control is always available on the toolbar. Auto-ScrollThis button activates/deactivates Auto-Scroll for the Key Editor, see “Auto-Scroll” on page 409. Tool buttonsThese are the tools used for editing in the Key Editor. Independent Track LoopThis button activates/deactivates the independent track loop, see “The independent track loop” on page 409. Auto Select ControllersUse this button to also select all available controller data for a note when selecting the note in the editor. Part ListThe Part List allows you to switch between several se-lected parts when working in the Key Editor, see “Han-dling several parts” on page 405. Indicate TranspositionsWhen this is activated, MIDI notes are displayed ac-cording to their transposition settings, see “Indicate Transpositions” on page 133. Insert VelocityUse this field to specify a velocity value for any notes that are entered in the editor. Nudge PaletteThe Nudge buttons allow you to move or trim elements in the editor, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 413. Transpose PaletteThe transpose buttons allow you to transpose the se-lected notes, see “Moving and transposing notes” on page 413. Snap/QuantizeThe Snap controls are described in the section “The Snap function” on page 48 and the quantize functions in the chapter “MIDI processing and quantizing” on page 391. Step/MIDI InputThese controls are described in the sections “Editing notes via MIDI” on page 416 and “Step input” on page 416. Event ColorsThe Color options are described in the section “Color-ing notes and events” on page 410. Edit VST InstrumentThis button opens the VST Instrument panel (if the track is routed to a VST instrument). Option Description
407 The MIDI editors The status line The status line is displayed below the toolbar in the Key Editor. It displays the following information: •To show or hide the status line, click the “Set up Win- dow Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deacti- vate the Status Line option. The info line The info line shows information about the selected MIDI note. If several notes are selected, the values for the first note are displayed (in color). You can edit all values on the info line using regular value editing (see “Editing on the info line” on page 415 for details). Length and position values are displayed in the format currently selected for the ruler (see below). •To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate the Info Line option. The ruler The ruler shows the timeline, by default in the display format selected on the Transport panel. You can select a separate format for a MIDI editor ruler on the Ruler pop-up menu, opened by clicking the arrow button to the right of it. For a list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on page 47. At the bottom of the pop-up menu, there are two addi- tional items: •If “Time Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display, and controller display will be linear in relation to time. This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between the bar lines will vary depending on the tempo. •If “Bars+Beats Linear” is selected, the ruler, note display, and controller display will be linear in relation to tempo. This means that if the ruler shows bars and beats, the distance between beats will be constant. In most cases, you would set the display format to “Bars+Beats” and “Bars+Beats Linear” mode when editing MIDI. The note display The note display is the main area in the Key Editor. It con- tains a grid in which MIDI notes are shown as boxes. The width of a box corresponds to the note length, and the vertical position of a box corresponds to the note number (pitch), with higher notes higher up in the grid. The piano keyboard to the left serves as a guide for finding the right note number. For a description of how to display colors in the note dis- play, see “Coloring notes and events” on page 410. OptionDescription Mouse Time PositionThis displays the exact time position of the mouse pointer, in the format selected for the ruler, allowing you to perform editing or to insert notes at exact positions. Mouse Note PositionThis displays the exact pitch of the mouse pointer posi-tion, making it easier to find the right pitch when entering or transposing notes. Current Chord DisplayWhen the project cursor is positioned over notes making up a chord, this chord is displayed here.
408 The MIDI editors The controller display The area at the bottom of the Key Editor window is the controller display. This consists of one or several control - ler lanes, each showing one of the following properties or event types: • Velocity values of the notes • Pitchbend events • Aftertouch events • Poly Pressure events • Program Change events • SysEx events • Articulations (see the chapter “VST Expression” in the Nuendo Expansion Kit manual). • Any type of continuous controller event (see “Editing continu- ous controllers on the controller lane” on page 421) To change the size of the controller display, drag the di- vider between the controller display and the note display. This will make the controller display larger and the note display smaller, or vice versa. Velocity values are shown as vertical bars in the controller display, with higher bars corresponding to higher velocity values. Each velocity bar corresponds to a note in the note display. Events other than velocity values are shown as blocks, the heights of which correspond to the values of the events. The beginning of an event is marked by a curve point. To select an event, click on the curve point, so that it turns red. ÖUnlike notes, events in the controller display have no length. The value of an event in the display is “valid” until the start of the next event. For a description of editing in the controller display, see “Editing in the controller display” on page 417. Key Editor operations Zooming Zooming in the Key Editor is done according to the stan- dard zoom procedures, using the zoom sliders, the Zoom tool or the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu. •When you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool, the result depends on the “Zoom Tool Standard Mode: Horizontal Zooming Only” option in the Preferences dialog (Editing– Tools page). If this is activated, the window will only be zoomed horizontally; if not, the window will be zoomed both horizontally and vertically. Using the Trim tool The Trim tool allows you to change the length of note events by cutting off the end or the beginning of notes. It is available in the Key Editor and in the List Editor. Using the Trim tool means moving the note-on or the note- off event for one or several notes to a position defined with the mouse. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the Trim tool on the toolbar. The mouse pointer changes to a knife symbol. 2.Locate the notes that you wish to edit. 3.To edit a single note, click on it with the Trim tool. The range between the mouse pointer and the end of the note will be removed. You can use the mouse note info on the status line to find the exact po- sition for the trim operation.
409 The MIDI editors 4.To edit several notes, click and drag with the mouse across the notes. A line is displayed. The notes will be trimmed along this line. Trimming the end of three note events. •By default, the Trim tool will cut off the end of notes. To trim the beginning of the note(s), press [Alt]/[Option] while dragging. •If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging, you will get a vertical trim line, allowing you to set the same start or end time for all edited notes. You can change the Trim tool key commands in the Pref- erences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). ÖNote that when you trim the beginning of a note in the List Editor, the note may move to a different position in the list (since other events may now begin before the edited event). ÖNote that the trimmed note ends or starts do not snap to the grid. Playing back You can play back your music as usual when working in a MIDI editor. There are several features designed to make editing easier during playback. The Solo Editor button If you activate the Solo Editor button, only the edited MIDI parts will be heard during regular playback. Auto-Scroll As described in the section “Auto-Scroll” on page 50, the Auto-Scroll function makes the window “follow” the project cursor during playback, so that the current play position is visible at all times. However, when you are working in a MIDI editor, you may want to deactivate Auto-Scroll – this way, the events you are working with will stay visible. The Auto-Scroll buttons in each MIDI editor are indepen- dent of the Project window Auto-Scroll setting, which means that Auto-Scroll can be activated in the Project win - dow and deactivated in the MIDI editor you are working in. The independent track loop The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affect- ing only the MIDI part being edited. When the loop is acti- vated, the MIDI events within the loop will be repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) will be played back as usual. The only “in - teraction” between the loop and the “regular playback” is that every time the cycle starts over again, so does the loop. To set up the independent track loop, proceed as follows: 1.Activate the loop by clicking on the Loop button on the toolbar. If it is not visible, right-click the toolbar and add the Independent Track Loop Settings section – see “Using the Setup options” on page 572. When the loop is activated, the cycle is not shown in the ruler. 2.Now you need to specify the length of the loop. You have the following possibilities: •[Ctrl]/[Command]-click and [Alt]/[Option]-click in the ruler to set the start and end of the loop, respectively. •Click and drag in the upper part of the ruler to move the locators to the desired positions. The independent track loop is indicated in purple in the ruler. When the corresponding options are activated on the context menu, the track loop start and end are also displayed in the Status line. ÖThe MIDI events will be looped as long as the Loop button is activated and the MIDI editor window is open. To turn the loop into actual MIDI notes, use the Repeat Loop function on the MIDI menu, see “Repeat Loop” on page 399.
410 The MIDI editors Acoustic Feedback If the speaker icon on the toolbar is activated, individual notes will automatically be played back (auditioned) when you move or transpose them, or when you create new notes by drawing. This makes it easier to hear what you’re doing. In the Preferences dialog (MIDI page), you can specify whether the Acoustic Feedback function takes into account any MIDI sends or inserts used for the track. Activate the “Audition through MIDI Inserts/Sends” option if you want the layering of MIDI instruments (by MIDI sends) to be ac - tive within the MIDI editors as well. This way, the acoustic feedback of the editors sends the MIDI data not only to the output selected for the track, but additionally through any MIDI inserts and MIDI sends assigned to it. Note, however, that this also means that the MIDI events will be sent through any MIDI plug-ins assigned to this track. Snap The Snap function helps you find exact positions when editing in a MIDI editor. It does this by restricting horizon - tal movement and positioning to certain positions. Opera- tions affected by snap include moving, duplicating, drawing, sizing, etc. •How Snap works depends on the Snap Type pop-up menu next to the Snap button. See “The Snap function” on page 48. •When the “Bars+Beats” display format is selected in the ruler, the snap grid is set by the Quantize value on the toolbar. This makes it possible to snap not only to straight note values but also to swing grids set up in the Quantize Setup dialog (see “The quantizing functions” on page 392). When any of the other display formats is selected in the ruler, positioning is restricted to the displayed grid, i. e. you can snap in finer increments by zooming in, and in coarser increments by zooming out the display. Coloring notes and events By using the Event Colors pop-up menu on the toolbar, you can select a color scheme for the events in the editor. The following options are available: For all of the options except “Part” the pop-up menu also contains a “Setup…” option. This option opens a dialog in which you can specify the colors that are associated with which velocities, pitches, or channels, respectively. Creating and editing notes To draw in new notes in the Key Editor, you use the Pencil tool or the Line tool. Drawing notes with the Pencil tool With the Pencil tool, you insert single notes by clicking at the desired time (horizontal) and pitch position (vertical). •When you move the pointer in the note display, its bar position is indicated on the status line, and its pitch is indi - cated both on the status line and on the piano keyboard to the left. This makes it easy to find the right note and insert position. For a descrip-tion of how to show the status line, see “The status line” on page 407. OptionDescription VelocityThe notes get different colors depending on their velocity values. PitchThe notes get different colors depending on their pitch. ChannelThe notes get different colors depending on their MIDI channel value. PartThe notes get the same color as their respective part in the Project window. Use this option when you are work-ing with two or more tracks in an editor, to make it easier to see which notes belong to which track. GridMatchThe notes get different colors depending on their time position. For example, this mode makes it easy to see if the notes in a chord start at the exact same beat.