Steinberg Nuendo Expansion Kit User Manual
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82 Entering and editing notes About this chapter In this chapter you will learn: How to make various settings for how notes are displayed. How to enter notes. 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. Score settings Before you start entering notes, you need to make some initial staff settings in addition to those described in the chapter “The basics” on page 59. To understand why and how these settings and the note data in the score interact, please read the chapter “How the Score Editor works” on page 54. 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 (Scores-Editing page), double-clicking will instead switch between display of either the whole score or the current voice. If your score shows more than one track, dou- ble-clicking will display this track and hide all others. If your score shows only one track, double-clicking will either show the layout that contains most of the tracks or, if no multi-track layout exists, all tracks. Make the staff active and click the “i” button on the ex- tended toolbar. For this to work, make sure no notes or symbols are selected – other- wise, clicking the “i” button may open a dialog with settings for the se- lected object instead. The Score Settings dialog shows the current settings for the active staff. Applying settings and selecting other staves 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). How- ever, please note: ÖAlways 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 (see “Working with staff presets” on page 106). ÖThere are a number of staff presets available, set up to suit various instruments, etc. The presets are accessed via the Presets pop-up menu on the Score Settings–Staff page, or from the Staff context menu, opened by right- clicking on the blue rectangle to the left of the staff. Use them as they are, or as starting points for your own settings. Suggested initial settings When you start out entering notes, 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. ÖIt is very important that you understand how the dis- play 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 “How the Score Editor works” on page 54. If you have mixed triplets and straight notes, see “Display quantize” on page 74. Option Description Names As desired Display Quantize: Notes 64 Display Quantize: Rests 64 Auto Quantize Activated Syncopation Off Consolidate Rests Off Clean Lengths Off No Overlap 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 “Split (piano) staves” on page 92.) Tablature tab settings Tablature Mode deactivated
83 Entering and editing notes 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 activate/deactivate the dotted and triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right. The selected note value is displayed 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 dotted notes. Such notes are created by changing the length of the note after you have put it in (see “Chan- ging the length of notes” on page 90), by gluing notes to- gether (see “Lengthening a note by gluing two notes together” on page 91) or by using the Display Length feature. 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 move- ment and shows the current position in bars, beats, six- teenth 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 project. 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 dialog to create other quantize values, ir- regular grids, etc. However, this is not often used when inputting score notes. 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 numer- ically using the mouse position box: With the quantize value set to “1/8 Note”, you can only input notes at eighth note positions.
84 Entering and editing notes 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 signature determines the number of six- teenth 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 sixteenth 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. Adding and editing notes Entering notes using the computer keyboard A quick and easy way to enter notes, without having to de- cide on the pitch, position and note value first is using the computer keyboard. To enter a note, proceed as follows: 1.On the toolbar, activate the “Keyboard Input” button. Now you can enter notes using the computer keyboard. The “Keyboard Input” button 2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option]. A note with the note value specified in the extended toolbar appears. By default, the insert position is the first position of the bar and the pitch is C3. You can however change this using the computer keyboard, see below. You can change the pitch of the note by using the up and down arrow keys. To transpose the note in octave steps, use the Page Up/Page Down keys. To change the insert position of the note use the right and left arrow keys. Note that for position changes, the Quantize value is taken into account. To change the length of the note, hold down [Shift] and use the right and left arrow keys. This changes the note value step by step, passing from one quantize value to the next. 3.To insert the note, press [Return]. The note with the specified pitch and note value is inserted at the desired position and a the insert position for the next note changes according to the Quantize value. When you press [Shift]+[Return] the insert position will not change, allowing you to enter chords. 1.1.7.0 1.1.1.0 1.2.3.0 1.4.1.0 8/8 2/2 4/4 1.1.1.0 1.1.1.01.1.3.0 1.1.3.0 1.2.1.01.1.5.0 1.2.1.0 1.3.1.0 8/8 2/2 4/4 1.8.1.0 1.3.1.0 1.2.1.0 1.5.1.01.2.3.0 1.3.3.0 1.6.1.01.2.5.0 1.4.1.0 1.7.1.01.2.7.0 1.4.3.0 4/4 2/2 8/81.1.1.0 1.1.1.0 1.1.1.01.1.2.40 1.1.2.40 1.1.2.401.1.3.80 1.2.1.80 1.1.3.80 4/4 2/2 8/81.1.5.0 1.2.1.0 1.4.1.80 1.3.1.01.1.6.40 1.2.2.40 1.3.2.401.1.7.80 1.2.3.80 2/2 4/4 8/81.1.1.0 1.1.1.0 1.1.1.01.1.2.0 1.1.2.0 1.1.2.01.1.3.0 1.1.3.0 1.2.1.0 1.2.2.01.1.4.0 1.1.4.0 2/2 4/4 1.4.1.0 1.1.5.0 1.2.1.0 1.3.1.01.1.6.0 1.2.2.0 1.3.2.01.1.7.0 1.2.3.01.1.8.0 1.4.2.0 1.2.4.0 8/8
85 Entering and editing notes Entering notes with the mouse To add a note to the score, proceed as follows: 1.Make the staff active. Notes are always inserted on the active staff. See “The active staff” on page 62 for details. 2.Select the desired note value. See “Selecting a note value for input” on page 83. 3.If you select the note value by clicking on a symbol on the extended toolbar, the Insert Note tool is automatically selected – otherwise select the Insert Note tool from the toolbar or Quick menu. 4.Select a quantize value. The quantize value determines 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 eighth note positions, etc. 5.Click in the staff and keep the mouse button pressed. The Insert Note tool changes into a note symbol (showing the note ex- actly as it would be inserted in the score). 6.Move the mouse horizontally to find the correct position. Check the mouse position box – the position snaps to the grid defined by the current quantize value. This allows you to easily find the correct position. 7.Move the mouse vertically to find the correct pitch. ÖIf the option “Show Note Info by the Mouse” is acti- vated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing 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 deacti- vate this option. 8.Release the mouse button. The note appears in the score. Adding more notes 1.If you want the next note to be 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 the desired position, 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 ini- tially expect them to. This is because there are a number of situations that require special techniques and settings. Below you can find 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 independent voicing (for example notes with different stem directions), such as for vocal material, you need to use polyphonic voicing – see “Polyphonic voicing” on page 95. Without and with polyphonic voicing 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” fea- ture (see “No Overlap” on page 75) or polyphonic voicing (see “Polyphonic voicing” on page 95). 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.!If you activate the option “Animate Note Cursor” in the Preferences (Scores-Editing page), you do not need to keep the mouse button pressed to see the note as it would be inserted in the score. Accidentals are shown beside the note to indicate the current pitch
86 Entering and editing notes Generally the program adds ties where necessary (if a note stretches over a beat), but not always. For more “modern” no- tation of syncopated notes (less ties), you will need to use the syncopation feature, see “Syncopation” on page 74. The same note, without and with Syncopation. If you 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 “Accidentals and enharmonic shift” on page 113. 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 “Graphic moving of notes” on page 122. Stem direction and length is normally automatic, but you can set it yourself. See “Background: Note stems” on page 111. If you are scoring for piano and therefore (or for other reasons) need a split staff, there are special techniques for this, see “Split (piano) staves” on page 92 and “Polyphonic voicing” on page 95. If you run into trouble Below you can find some questions and answers that will help you pinpoint some common mistakes: The note I put in has the wrong length. For example, I added a sixteenth and got a quarter note. You probably have the wrong display quantize value set. Open the Score Settings–Staff page. If Auto Quantize is activated, deactivate it, unless you have mixed triplets and regular notes. Also check the Notes and Rests display quantize values. If the settings are too “coarse”, change them to a smaller note value. If you for example need the program to dis- play an eighth note rest, Rests display quantize must be set to “8” or a smaller value (please refer to the chapter “How the Score Editor works” on page 54). If No Overlap is activated, you might want to turn it off. There is a pause after a note that I don’t want. You probably added a note with the wrong note value. Either lengthen the note (physically or graphically – see “Changing the length of notes” on page 90) or delete the one you have (see “Deleting notes” on page 94) and add a new one with the correct note value. There is no pause after the note although there should be one. Either the note is too long (delete and enter a new one or change the cur- rent note length, physically or graphically). Or Rests display quantize is set to too large a note value. Open the Score Settings–Staff page and lower it. The note has an accidental when it shouldn’t, or it doesn’t when it should. Maybe the note is simply of the wrong pitch? Click on it (using the Ob- ject Selection tool) and look at the info line (if this is not shown, see “The info line” on page 63). Move it to the correct pitch (see “Editing pitches of individual notes” on page 89). If this is not the reason, maybe you have the wrong key set? And finally, you can also use enharmonic shifting (see “Accidentals and enharmonic shift” on page 113). Notes are not grouped under beams the way I want it. Normally the program groups eighth notes, sixteenths etc. under beams. This can be deactivated. There is also detailed control of which notes are grouped under a beam, see “Handling beaming” on page 116. Selecting notes In the operations described in the rest of this chapter, you will often work on selected notes. The text below de- scribes how to select notes in various ways: By clicking To select a note, click on its note head with the Object Selection tool. The note head turns red to indicate that it is selected. To select more notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them. To deselect notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them again. If you hold down [Shift] and double-click on a note, this note and all the following notes in the same staff are se- lected. Selected notes
87 Entering and editing notes Using a selection rectangle 1.Click in an empty area in the score with the Object Se- lection tool and keep the mouse button pressed. 2.Drag the mouse pointer. A selection rectangle appears. You can drag to select notes on several voices or staves if you wish. 3.Release the mouse button. All notes with their note heads inside the rectangle are selected. If you want to deselect one or more of the notes, hold down [Shift] and click on them. Using the keyboard By default, you can step through (and select) the notes in the staff using the left and right arrow keys. If you press [Shift], you can select a series of notes as you step through them. If you are working with polyphonic voices, you will step through the notes in the current track, i.e. in a split system, you will step through the staffs. If you want to use other keys for selecting notes, you can customize the settings in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu (in the Navigate category). Selecting tied notes Longer notes are often displayed in the score as one note with a tie. When you intend to select the entire note for deleting etc., you should select the first note, not the tied note. Deselecting everything To deselect everything, simply click in an empty area of the score with the Object Selection tool. Moving notes Moving by dragging 1.Set the quantize value. The quantize value will restrict your movement in time. You cannot place notes on positions smaller than the quantize value. If Quantize is set to “1/8 Note” for example, you will not be able to move the notes to a six- teenth note position. However, you will be able to put them on any eighth note, quarter note, half note or whole note position. 2.Select the note(s) you want to move. You can select notes across several staves if you wish. 3.Click one of the selected notes and drag it to a new position. The horizontal movement of the note is “magnetically attracted” to the current quantize value. The mouse position box on the toolbar shows what the new position and pitch for the dragged note will be. ÖIf the option “Show Note Info by the Mouse” is acti- vated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing 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 deacti- vate this option. 4.Release the mouse button. The notes appear at their new position. If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag, movement is restricted to vertical or horizontal only (depending on the direction in which you drag). If you move notes vertically and the option “Keep moved notes within key” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing page), the notes will be transposed within the current key only. Moving by using key commands Instead of dragging the note with the mouse, you can as- sign key commands for this: The commands for which you should assign keys are found in the Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog. The commands are listed as “Left”, “Right”, “Top” and “Bottom”. !There is a setting for this in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing page): If you activate “Tied notes selected as Single Units”, the whole note will be selected, even if you click on one of the tied notes.
88 Entering and editing notes When moving notes to the left or right using key com- mands, the notes will be moved in steps according to the current quantize value. The keys assigned for up/down nudging will transpose notes in semitone steps. Moving across staves – the Lock button If you are editing several tracks, you may want to move notes from one staff to another. Proceed as follows: 1.Make the desired Quantize settings and select the notes. Make sure to select only notes on the same staff. 2.Make sure the “L” (Lock) button on the extended tool- bar is deactivated. When this button is activated, you cannot move notes and other objects from one staff to another, which is handy if you for example need to trans- pose a note very high or low. 3.Click on one of the notes and drag them to the new system. The active staff rectangle indicates on which staff the dragged note(s) will appear. The Snap mode The notes you move, or copy, will snap to positions de- fined by the note length and quantize values. Using the Snap pop-up menu in the Score Editor toolbar you can set the Snap mode used when moving or copying notes: When using the “Grid” Snap mode, notes you move or copy will always snap to exact grid positions. When using the “Grid Relative” Snap mode, a note with a certain position relative to a grid line will always maintain that relative position, to the grid, when moved or copied. Activating auditioning Auditioning activated. To hear the pitch of the note while moving, activate the speaker icon (Acoustic Feedback) on the toolbar. About the lock layers When you are moving and editing notes in the score, you might accidentally move other objects nearby. To avoid this, assign different types of objects to different “lock lay- ers” (up to three) and instruct Nuendo to “lock” one or two of these layers, making them unmovable. There are two ways to set up which type of object should belong to which lock layer: Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu and select the Scores–Event Layer page. This page lets you adjust the layer setting for each object type. Right-click on one of the layer buttons (1-2-3) in the ex- tended toolbar to bring up a pop-up menu, showing which object types are associated with that layer. A checkmark for an object type means it belongs to that layer. If no checkmark is shown, you can select the object type on the menu to move it to that layer. To lock a layer, click on its Lock Layer button, so that it is not blue. You can only select or move objects whose Layer button is activated. For more detailed information, see “Using the lock layers” on page 138. The “L” (Lock) button is deactivated.
89 Entering and editing notes ÖThere are also “L” and “P” layer buttons, for the layout and project layer, respectively. Clicking these buttons allows you to lock the layout layer and project layer (see “Background: The different layers” on page 127). Duplicating notes 1.Set the quantize value and select the desired notes. You can duplicate any block of notes, even on several systems at the same time. The Snap mode applies, see “The Snap mode” on page 88. 2.Press [Alt]/[Option] and drag the notes to their new position. If you want to restrict movements to one direction only, press [Ctrl]/[Command]. This works just as for moving, as described above. If you want to restrict the pitch to inside the current key only, make sure the option “Keep moved notes within key” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing page). 3.Release the mouse button to insert the notes. [Alt]/[Option] is the default modifier key for copying/du- plicating. If you like, you can change this in the Prefer- ences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifiers page). The entry for this is found in the Drag & Drop category (“Copy”). ÖYou can also move or copy whole bars by dragging the bar handles, see “Moving and duplicating with the bar handles” on page 141. Cut, copy and paste To cut notes, select them and select Cut from the Edit menu (or use a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Com- mand]-[X]). The notes are now removed from the score and put on the clipboard. To copy notes, select them and select Copy from the Edit menu (or use a key command, by default [Ctrl]/[Com- mand]-[C]). A copy of the notes is made, and put on the clipboard. The original notes remain where they were. Notes that you have put on the clipboard by cutting or copying can be inserted into the score again in the follow- ing way: 1.Activate the desired staff. 2.Move the project cursor to the position where you want the first note to appear. This is done by holding down [Alt]/[Option] and [Shift] and clicking at the desired position in the score. 3.Select Paste from the Edit menu (or use a key com- mand, by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[V]). The notes are pasted in, beginning at the project cursor. If the cut or cop- ied notes come from different staves, they w i l l a l s o b e i n s e r t e d o n d i f f e r e n t staves. Otherwise, the notes are inserted on the active staff. They keep the pitch and relative positions they had when you cut or copied them. Editing pitches of individual notes By dragging The simplest way to edit the pitch of a note would be to drag it up or down. Remember to hold down [Ctrl]/[Com- mand] to avoid moving the note sideways as well. If the option “Keep moved notes within key” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing page), notes will be transposed within the current key only. To avoid accidentally moving the note into another staff, activate the Lock button (see “Moving across staves – the Lock button” on page 88). When you drag the mouse up and down before releas- ing the button, accidentals are shown beside the note to indicate the current pitch. This helps you verify the vertical position for the note. Using the Transpose palette The Transpose palette on the toolbar contains buttons for transposing the selected notes up or down in steps of one semitone or one octave. To show the Transpose palette, right-click the toolbar and activate “Transpose Palette” on the context menu that appears. !The clipboard can only hold one set of notes. If you cut or copy and then cut or copy again, the notes that first were on the clipboard will be lost.
90 Entering and editing notes Using key commands Instead of transposing the note with the mouse, you can assign key commands for this. The commands for which you can assign key commands are found in the Nudge category in the Key Commands dialog. The commands are listed as “Top” (transpose one semitone up) and “Bottom” (transpose one semitone down). Using the info line You can use the info line to change the pitches (and other properties) of one or several notes numerically, see the chapter “The Project window” in the Nuendo Operation Manual. If you have several notes selected and change the pitch on the info line, the changes will be relative. That is, all selected notes will be transposed by an equal amount. If you have several notes selected, hold down [Ctrl]/ [Command] and change the pitch on the info line, the changes will be absolute. That is, all selected notes will be set to the same pitch. Via MIDI 1.On the toolbar, activate the MIDI Input button and the Record Pitch button to the right. If you also want to change the note-on and/or note-off velocity of the notes via MIDI, this can be done by also activating the corresponding velocity buttons, as described in the chapter “The MIDI editors” in the Nuendo Operation Manual. To edit notes via MIDI (pitches only), set up the buttons like this. 2.Select the first note you want to edit. 3.Press a key on your MIDI keyboard. The note takes on the pitch of the key you pressed. The program then se- lects the next note. 4.To change the pitch of the next selected note, simply press the desired key. In this manner you can change the pitches of as many notes as you wish, by simply pressing the relevant keys. You can also use key commands (by default the left and right arrow key) to pass from one note to the other. For example, if you make a mistake, you can step back to the pre- vious note by pressing the left arrow key. Changing the length of notes When it comes to note lengths, the Score Editor is special in that it doesn’t necessarily display the notes with their actual length. Depending on the situation, you may want to change the “physical length” of the notes or the “display length”. Changing the “physical” length This will change the actual length of the notes. The change will be audible when you play back the music. By using the Insert Note tool 1.Select the note symbol with the desired note value on the extended toolbar. 2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click on the note(s) you wish to set to this length. By using the extended toolbar Using the extended toolbar is another quick way to set a number of notes to the same length: 1.Select the notes you want to change. 2.Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on one of the note icons on the extended toolbar. All the selected notes now get the note value on which you clicked. By using the info line You can also edit length values numerically on the info line. The same rules apply as when changing the pitch of notes (see “Using the info line” on page 90). !Remember that the appearance of notes and rests in the score is determined by the display quantize set- tings on the Score Settings–Staff page. Depending on the display quantize “Notes” and “Rests” values, notes may be displayed as if they were longer than they really are (see “Display quantize” on page 56).