Steinberg Nuendo Expansion Kit User Manual

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Transcribing MIDI recordings 

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About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
 How to make initial staff settings to make a score as legible as 
possible.
 How to use the Display Quantize tool to handle “exceptions” 
in the score.
 How to resolve parts that contain mixed notes and triplets.
About transcription
This chapter assumes you have a MIDI recording that you 
want to transform into a printable score. However, if the 
parts are fairly complicated, you will probably need to per-
form some...

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Transcribing MIDI recordings
Staff settings
The first thing to do after opening the Score Editor is to 
make initial staff settings. This is done on the Score Set-
tings–Staff page. There are three ways to open the Score 
Settings dialog:
Make the staff active, pull down the Scores menu and 
select “Settings…”.
Double-click on the blue rectangle to the left of the staff.
Please note that when the option “Double-click on staff flips between full 
score/part” is activated in the Preferences dialog...

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Display quantize
The display quantize settings.
This is where you give the program basic information 
about how to interpret your playing. There are “fixed” dis-
play quantize values plus an “Auto” option which should 
only be used when your music contains mixed straight 
notes and triplets. For background information about dis-
play quantize, see “Display quantize” on page 56.
If your music only contains “straight” notes or triplets
1.Set the Notes display quantize value...

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For a “modern” notation of syncopated notes, activate 
Syncopation.
Without and with Syncopation.
Again, without and with Syncopation.
Please note that you can insert “exceptions” to the Synco-
pation setting on the Score Settings–Staff page, by using 
the Display Quantize tool. You can also create tied notes 
in various combinations by using the Cut Notes tool.
Consolidate Rests
Activate this when you want small consecutive rests 
joined into one (an eight note rest and a...

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Shuffle
In jazz it is very common to score a shuffled beat as 
straight notes, simply to make it more legible. 
When the Shuffle flag is activated, the program searches 
for eighth note or sixteenth note pairs where the second 
note is played late (with a “swing feel” or as the third note 
in a triplet). Such pairs are displayed as regular eighth or 
sixteenth notes instead of triplet-based figures.
Without and with Shuffle.
Display transpose
This is used when preparing...

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Score Drum Map
These settings are all described in the chapter “Scoring 
for drums” on page 185.
System Sizes
This section allows you to set the number of system lines 
and to control spacing between the lines. See “Creating 
tablature manually” on page 191 for an example of how 
this can be used with tablature.
Fixed Stems
Activate this if you want all note stems to end at the same 
vertical position. The Up and Down fields let you specify 
the desired positions for stems...

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If two notes on the same position are too close to each 
other or if you want their order in the part reversed, you 
can do this without affecting playback. See “Graphic mo-
ving of notes” on page 122.
If a note has the wrong accidental, this can be changed. 
See “Accidentals and enharmonic shift” on page 113.
Stem direction and length are automatic, but you can 
change them manually if you wish. See “Background: 
Note stems” on page 111.
If you need a split staff (e. g....

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If you are using polyphonic voices (see “Polyphonic voi-
cing” on page 95), you can insert a display quantize event 
for all voices by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and clicking with 
the tool.
If the option “Display Quantize Tool affects all Voices” is activated on the 
Score Settings–Project page (Notation Style subpage, in the Miscella-
neous category), display quantize events will always be inserted for all 
voices.
Viewing and editing display quantize changes
If you...

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Using “Scores Notes To MIDI”
For very complicated scores, there may be situations 
where you have tweaked the parameters for display quan-
tize and interpretation as best you can, and you still can’t 
get the score exactly as you want it. Perhaps one setting 
works fine in one section of the track and another is 
needed for another section.
In such a case, “Scores Notes To MIDI” will help you out. 
It changes the lengths and position of some or all the MIDI 
notes in the...