Cubase SX/SL 2 Power!

Chapter 16. Score Editing

Creating a score with Cubase offers a way of turning your MIDI sequence into sheet music that musicians can read. To accomplish this task, you take what you recorded into your MIDI sequencer and convert it into musical notation. When you create and edit a song in Cubase, you create different tracks of MIDI events. Each one of those tracks can become a sheet of music. You can combine different tracks to create a more complex conductor score or create a lead sheet to give chord and rhythm indications to a group of studio musicians .

We will only scratch the surface of scoring possibilities offered in Cubase, as this could be a subject of an entire book. This chapter is meant to give you a quick look at the scoring possibilities found in Cubase. For a more in-depth look at the scoring capabilities of Cubase functions, you should read the online documentation provided with the software. We cover the basics and some of the more advanced techniques involved in scoring with Cubase. Finally, this chapter assumes that you know how to enter notes in a MIDI sequencer and focuses on laying out the information in a proper way.

Score editing functions are available in both SX and SL versions; however, the SL version does not support the Page mode display discussed in this chapter. In other words, whenever references are made to this mode, it applies only to SX users.

Here's a summary of what you will learn in this chapter:

• About the score function and inherent differences with other editors in Cubase.

• How to prepare a project to get the best scoring results out of MIDI events.

• How the score function uses layers to place different types of symbols.

• What Layout settings are and why you should use them when preparing music sheets for musicians.

• How you can adjust Staff settings for each staff in your score.

• How to understand and work in different score modes.

• What you can do with the extended toolbar functions to change the appearance of notes on staves.

• How to use the Symbol Palette to insert additional markings in your score in order to make it easier for musicians to read.

• How to work with different types of text in a score.

• How to print and export a score to paper or graphic files.