Steinberg Sequel User 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 into a project, adding in a drum loop and playing 
it back. Make sure that you have your audio card set up. 
For detailed information on the audio setup, see the chap-
ter “Setting up your system” on page 80.
Creating a new project
By default, Sequel creates a new project when you boot 
up the program. You can change this in the “Program Set-
tings Page”. See the chapter “The Program Settings 
page” on page 71 for more details.
To create a new project if a project is already open
Click the “New Project” button in the Pilot Zone.
This will create a new project with nothing in it and close 
the project that was already open. If this contains unsaved 
changes, you will be asked whether these changes should 
be saved.
The Pilot Zone is explained 
in the chapter “The Pilot 
Zone” on page 37.
Details on the Arrange 
Zone can be found in the 
chapter “The Arrange 
Zone” on page 48.
The Multi Zone and its various 
pages are described in the 
chapter “The Multi Zone” on 
page 55.
!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 default 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 pops up allowing you to browse you com-
puter and find a suitable location. When you installed Se-
quel it automatically made a location for saving projects.
4.You can click “Create” to make 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.Click the “Save Project” button in the Pilot Zone.
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 to the folder you 
have specified in 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 
guitar or whatever instrument you want. The method is the 
same for any instrument you wish to record.
1.Click the “Add New Track” button in the Pilot Zone.
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. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
5.Select the desired input for the track from the “Input 
Selection” pop-up menu.
To be able to see the Input selection, make sure the track height is set to 
Medium track height at the bottom of the track list.
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 two bars of 
count-in 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 46.
We have a default setting of 120 which means 120 BPM 
or beats per minute. We can leave it at that.
Adding in 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 arent a drummer or if you 
dont have the ability to record drums at home.
1.Select the Media Bay 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 that you would like to record.
5.Activate the Preview button and browse through the 
results until you find something suitable.
Click here to select an input. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
6.Drag the selected drum loop into the Arrange Zone 
and line it up at bar 1, just below the guitar track.
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 53 for more detailed information on repeating.
8.Rename the track “Drums”.
ÖNotice 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 46.
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 and hear 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.
Choose a drum loop……and drag it to the Arrange Zone.
Indicator moves left and rightNote and octave 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
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 string until all your strings are in tune.
5.Deactivate the tuner.
You are now ready to record!
Recording the guitar
1.Click the “Jump to Previous Marker” button a few times 
in the Pilot Zone to make sure that we start recording at 
bar 1.
2.Make sure that cycle is deactivated (not highlighted).
3.Click the “Record” button to record the guitar – you 
will automatically get two bars of precount.
4.Press the space bar when you are finished, to stop re-
cording.
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first piece of 
audio into 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 zone.
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 loop (or “cycle”) 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 loop or cycle between bars 2 and 3. 
Turn snap on to help you create a precise region.
2.Move the mouse pointer up to the top of the ruler zone. 
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” and “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 and Sequel will 
play looping over and over again until you press the space 
bar again.
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 “Instruments” 
button.
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, lets 
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 numerical 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 numerical keypad to start re-
cording. Record 4 bars.
5.Press the space bar when you are finished.
!Load the project called “Recording MIDI” found in 
the “Sequel Tutorial 1” folder. 
						

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Tutorial 1: Recording
6.Turn off “Record Ready” so that we don’t hear the in-
put any more.
Congratulations! You just recorded your first Instrument 
part in Sequel.
Press the [.] key on your numerical keypad to set the song 
position 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 37, “The Arrange Zone” 
on page 48 and “The Multi Zone” on page 55 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.
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 to “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 
lets resize the “Guitar” and “Synth” events.
2.Position the cursor over one of the triangles at the bot-
tom left or right of the event. Click and adjust the “Guitar” 
and “Synth” events so that there isn’t as much empty 
space on the left and right of the event.
!Load the project “Event Operations” found in the 
“Sequel Tutorial 2” folder.