Cubase SX/SL 2 Power!

Score Editor Window

The Score Editor window, like the Key, Drum, List, and Audio editing windows , is available from the MIDI menu.

How To

To launch the Score Editor:

• Select a MIDI part or track and press Ctrl(PC)/ (Mac)+R on your keyboard or select Score Edit from the MIDI menu.

In the Score Editor, you have two basic display modes: Page mode (SX only) and Edit mode. You can switch from Page mode to Edit mode by selecting the option in the Score menu. This is a toggle option, meaning that if you are in Edit mode, the option displays Page mode to switch to that mode, and, inversely, if you are in Page mode, the option displays Edit mode. By default, Cubase opens the editor in Edit mode. The main difference between the two is that Page mode is like the Page Display mode on a word processor: It lets you see the page as it will appear once printed and includes the elements that are part of the page layout. Therefore, you can position your title, add printing elements, and so on. Both editing modes display similar toolbars , so let's look at the functions of these tools.

Whenever you make a staff active by clicking in the area to the left of a staff, the content found in another opened editing window reflects the content of that activated staff. An active staff displays a thick border at the beginning of each staff line, and the Score Editor's title bar shows the name of the active staff. In Figure 16.2, the Cello staff is the active one.

There are five separate rows of tools inside the Score Editor. Which ones are visible is determined by the first toolbar's Show/Hide buttons (see Figure 16.3).

Let's look at each of these rows to understand its purpose:

• Toolbar. The first section below the Title bar, this represents most of the tools found in other editing windows.

• Info Line. The black row displays information on a selected event. When one event is selected, the information for this event is displayed in white. When more than one event is selected, the information appears in yellow. To reveal or hide this row, you can click the Info button found in the toolbar.

• Tool Strip. This displays many of the tools you need to insert and edit notes, rests, and symbols in your score (see Figure 16.4). You will find more information regarding this toolbar later in this chapter. To reveal or hide this row, you can click the Tool Strip button found in the toolbar.

  Figure 16.4. The Score Window toolbars.

• Filter bar. This displays a series of check boxes. Each check box is an invisible item that you can choose to see by checking the appropriate box. Filtered items do not appear on printed paper. To reveal or hide this row, you can click the Show Filter View button found in the toolbar (see Figure 16.3).

• Ruler bar. Shown in points in Figure 16.4, and visible in Page mode, the Ruler bars aligns text elements from your score with a horizontal and vertical ruler, found on the top and left part of the editing window. You can change the units displayed in this Ruler bar by right-(PC)/Ctrl-(Mac)clicking in the Ruler. A context menu displays the available options. To hide the rulers, select the Off option from this context menu.