Steinberg Sequel 2 Operation Manual

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Tutorial 1: Recording 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
The tutorials
The following chapters provide a quick introduction to Se-
quel. But first, please take a look at the figure below, as it 
gives you an overview of the Sequel program interface:
In this first tutorial, we are going to show you how the Pilot 
Zone, Arrange Zone, and Multi Zone work together when 
recording audio events and Instrument parts.
Recording audio
In this section, we are going to take a look at recording a 
guitar line, adding a drum loop and playing it back. Make 
sure that you have your audio card set up correctly, see 
the chapter “Setting up your system” on page 88.
Creating a new project
By default, Sequel creates a new project when you boot 
up the program. You can change this on the Program Set-
tings Page. See the chapter “The Program Settings Page” 
on page 77 for more details.
To create a new project if a project is already open
Open the Project menu and select the option “New 
Project”.
This will create a new project with nothing in it and close 
the project that was already open. If this project contains 
unsaved changes, you will be asked whether these 
changes should be saved.
The Pilot Zone is described 
in the chapter “The Pilot 
Zone” on page 38.
Details on the Arrange 
Zone can be found in the 
chapter “The Arrange 
Zone” on page 49.
The Multi Zone and its various 
pages are described in the 
chapter “The Multi Zone” on 
page 59.
!You’re not done yet! So far we’ve created a blank 
Sequel project. We still need to save the project. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
Setting the save folder
In order to save projects in Sequel, it is important to make 
sure you know where the projects are going to be saved.
1.Go to the Program Settings Page.
2.Click on the “Project Location” button.
3.A dialog opens allowing you to browse you computer 
and find a suitable location. When you installed Sequel it 
automatically created a location for saving projects.
4.You can click “Create” to create a new folder if you 
would like to save your projects elsewhere.
5.Let’s leave it set to the default folder Sequel has cre-
ated. Click “OK”.
To save a project
1.Open the Project menu and select the “Save Project” 
option.
2.Type in a name for your project – you can use “First 
Sequel Project” for example.
3.Click “OK”.
The project will automatically be saved in the folder you 
specified on the Program Settings Page.
Adding an audio track
ÖThe following sections make references to tutorial 
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.Now let’s add an audio track to record onto. For our exam-
ple we are going to record a guitar. You can also record 
bass or whatever instrument you want. The method is the 
same for any instrument you wish to record.
ÖBy default, the audio input for the track is set to the 
first input available in the “Input Selection” pop-up menu. 
To be able to see the Input selection, make sure the track 
height is set to Large at the bottom of the track list.
1.Click the “Add New Track” button above the track list.
2.In the dialog that appears, select the “Audio” button.
3.Select “empty” and click “OK”. This adds an audio 
track to the project.
4.Double-click the track name and change it to “Guitar”.
!Load the project called “Recording” found in the 
“Sequel Tutorial 1” folder.
Click here to select a 
different input. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
Turning on the Metronome click
We’ll want to have a click or metronome play in the back-
ground as we record the guitar so that what we record 
aligns with the bars and beats displayed in the ruler.
Activate the Metronome button in the Pilot Zone.
The metronome is automatically set to add a two bars pre-
count before recording starts.
We now need to set the speed or tempo of our project. This 
directly affects the speed of the metronome click. You can 
change the tempo in the Tempo display field. For more on 
changing tempo, see “The Tempo (TEMPO)” on page 47.
We have a default setting of 120 which means 120 BPM 
or beats per minute. We can leave it at that.
Adding a drum loop
Let’s add some drums to the project.
ÖAdding a drum loop to your project is not only great for 
supporting the metronome when you are recording bass 
or guitar, its also great if you aren’t a drummer or if you 
don’t have the ability to record drums at home.
1.Select the MediaBay Page in the Multi Zone.
2.In the Category column, select “Drum&Perc”.
3.In the Sub Category column, select “Beats”.4.In the Style column, select a style that suits the style of 
guitar line you would like to record.
5.Activate the Preview button and browse through the 
list on the right until you find a suitable loop.
6.Drag the selected drum loop into the Arrange Zone 
and line it up with bar 1, just below the guitar track.
!You can adjust the metronome volume using the 
“Metronome Level” slider on the Program Settings 
Page in the Multi Zone.
Choose a drum loop……and drag it into the Arrange Zone. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
7.Use the Repeat function to make the loop 4 bars long.
Just click in the middle of the right edge of the event and drag right until 
the loop is repeated to the beginning of bar 5. See “Repeating events” 
on page 57 for more detailed information on repeating.
8.Rename the track “Drums”.
ÖNote that the tempo of the project has now changed to 
match the drum loop. When you drag a file into a project 
and it is the first file to be added, its tempo will define the 
project tempo.
Read more about defining or changing the project tempo in “The Tempo 
(TEMPO)” on page 47.
Setting levels
In our example, we have a guitar playing through an ampli-
fier with a microphone in front of the amplifier’s speaker. 
This microphone is plugged directly into the Steinberg 
MI|4 microphone input. We have set the level on the MI|4 
so that we have enough volume without clipping.
Activating the Record Ready button will allow us to hear 
the guitar. You should see the audio coming in to the right 
of the track.Do the best you can to send the maximum amount of vol-
ume to the audio inputs of your audio card before you hear 
any distortion. Most audio cards show some kind of level 
or volume indication. If yours doesn’t, don’t worry; we can 
change the amount using the track volume slider.
Tuning your instrument
Sequel features a built-in tuner for tuning instruments like 
guitar or bass.
1.Make sure that the guitar track is selected and that the 
Record Ready button is activated so that we can hear the 
input.
2.Activate the Tuner in the Pilot Zone.
3.Pluck a string on your guitar.
The Tuner automatically detects which string you are hit-
ting as long as it is in fairly close proximity to the right tun-
ing. The tuning indicator will move left or right. If it moves 
to the left, the string is flat. If it moves to the right, the 
string is sharp.
The Tuner also displays the current note and octave that 
your string is tuned to. In our case, the D string is a little 
flat, so the tuner is displaying “d 2”. 
4.Tune up each of your instrument’s strings.
5.Deactivate the Tuner.
You are now ready to record!
Indicator moves left and rightNote and octave 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
Recording the guitar
1.Click in the ruler at the position where you want the re-
cording to start to move the project cursor to this position.
You can also click the the “Jump to Previous Marker” and “Jump to Next 
Marker” buttons in the Pilot Zone to position the project cursor in the Ar-
range Zone.
2.Make sure that Cycle is deactivated (not highlighted).
3.Activate the “Record Ready” button for the track you 
want to record on.
4.Click the “Record” button to record the guitar – you 
will automatically get two bars of precount.
This is indicated by two cursors: a red cursor appears at the position 
where you start recording and a black one jumps two bars back and ad-
vances towards the record position. This allows you to see the remaining 
count in time and the record start position at the same time. The red cursor 
will not be shown if the record start position is set to the first bar.
5.Press the space bar when you are finished, to stop re-
cording.
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first piece of 
audio in Sequel. Move ahead to the next section to learn 
how to play it back.
Playback
To listen to what you have just recorded, you have to play 
it back. Playback in Sequel is easy, but there are a few 
tricks to learn so that you’ll be playing back with precision!
To start playback
There are a few ways to start playback in Sequel.
 Click on the play button.
 Press the space bar on your computer keyboard – this toggles 
between start and stop.
 Press the [Enter] key on the numerical computer keypad.
 Double-click in the lower half of the ruler.
To stop playback
 Click on the play button during playback.
 Press the space bar on your computer keyboard – this toggles 
between start and stop.
 Press the [0] key on the numerical computer keypad.
Cycle playback
Sequel has the ability to cycle (or “loop”) a section of your 
project. To set the cycle location, you need to use the left 
and right locators.
1.Let’s draw in a cycle region from bar 2 to 3. This tells 
Sequel that we want to cycle the section between bars 2 
and 3. Turn snap on to help you create a precise region.
You can press [J] on your computer keyboard to toggle Snap on and off.
2.Move the mouse pointer up to the top of the ruler. It will 
turn into a pencil. Click and drag from bar 2 to bar 3.
!Load the project “Playback” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
3.Make sure the Cycle button is activated.
4.Click the “Jump to previous marker” or “Jump to next 
marker” buttons until the song position cursor is sitting di-
rectly on bar 2.
5.Press the space bar to start playback. Sequel will play 
looping over and over again until you press the space bar 
a second time.
Recording instrument parts
In this section we are going to take a look at recording in-
strument parts into a project using instrument tracks.
Creating an instrument track
Let’s start by adding an instrument track to our project. 
1.Click the “Add New Track” button in the Pilot Zone.
2.In the dialog that appears, select the “Instrument” but-
ton.
3.Use the “Category” filter and choose a sound that fits in 
with your song. We are going to select a Synth Pad sound.
4.Rename the track “Synth”. Feel free to give this track a 
different name if you chose a different type of sound.
Recording
Now that we have a track and we have our sound, let’s 
record something. Recording instrument parts is very sim-
ilar to recording audio events. Make sure you read the be-
ginning of this chapter where we discuss recording audio.
ÖSequel automatically finds and uses any MIDI devices 
that we have on our computer.
ÖThe MIDI input to an instrument track is always set to 
“All Inputs”.
1.Activate the “Record Ready” button for the track and 
press a few keys on your MIDI keyboard. You should see 
and hear the MIDI signals coming in to the right of the track.
2.Make sure the Cycle button is turned off.
3.Press the [.] key on your numeric keypad to set the 
song position to bar 1. This will ensure that we start re-
cording at the start of the song.
4.Press the [*] key on your numeric keypad to start re-
cording. Record 4 bars.
5.Press the space bar when you are finished.
6.Turn off “Record Ready” so that we don’t hear the in-
put any more.
!Load the project called “Recording MIDI” found in 
the “Sequel Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first instru-
ment part in Sequel.
Press the [.] key on your numeric keypad to set the song 
position cursor to bar 1 and press the space bar to listen 
back.
Move ahead to the next chapter to learn how to edit the 
audio events and instrument parts we’ve recorded.
!Load the project “MIDI Playback” found in the “Se-
quel Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 2: Editing 
						

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Tutorial 2: Editing
Introduction
In this chapter, we are going to show you how the Pilot 
Zone, Arrange Zone, and Multi Zone work together when 
editing audio events and instrument parts. Refer to the 
chapters “The Pilot Zone” on page 38, “The Arrange Zone” 
on page 49 and “The Multi Zone” on page 59 if you aren’t 
sure about a specific function.
ÖThe following sections make references to tutorial 
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
Editing audio events
In this section we are going to look at some of the audio 
editing functions that are available in Sequel.
Let’s take a look at how to edit events. This includes re-
name, resize, move, copy, repeat, and erase.
Importing
You can import audio events by simply dragging them 
from the MediaBay Page or your desktop and dropping 
them in the Arrange Zone. 
Renaming
Renaming events is easy in Sequel. It’s important to rename 
your audio files to keep your project clean and organized. 
Let’s rename the audio event on the drum track “Drums”:
1.Double-click the name field on the event.
2.Type in “Drums” and when you are done, press [Enter]/
[Return].
The name has now changed to “Drums”.
Resizing
You can resize an event by adjusting start and/or end of 
the event. Used in combination with splitting and repeat-
ing, this is usually all the editing you’ll need.
1.Click on the event you would like to resize. In our case 
let’s resize the “Guitar” and “Synth” events.
2.Position the cursor over one of the triangles at the 
lower left or right of the event. Click and adjust the “Gui-
tar” and “Synth” events so that there isn’t as much empty 
space on the left and right of the event.
Splitting
Splitting is used to cut events.
You can split or cut an event wherever you want or you 
can split them evenly at positions defined by the bars and 
beats position grid displayed in the Arrange Zone.
!Load the project “Event Operations” found in the 
“Sequel Tutorial 2” folder.