P Don’t forget to check out the example files in the Score Tutorial folder (within the Cubase VST folder). They provide a lot of hands-on tips on how to use the program efficiently.
If you hold down [Shift] while moving a note (or a number of notes), and drag sideways to start with, you don’t have to worry about it being transposed. Another way is to press [Ctrl] and use the left and right arrow key to move the selected note(s) to the left or right, in steps corresponding to the Snap value.
If you have a number of staves that you want displayed with an equal distance (for example,all strings of a grand staff in a full orchestra score), this can be done using the Position window:
1. Open the Preferences–Scores–Editor Behaviour dialog and deactivate the option “Global Staff Spacing with [Alt]-[Ctrl]”.If the Staff Spacing values are not visible, you need to click on the window’s zoom box.
4. Use the Delta Previous Staff or Delta Next Staff settings to specify the desired distance between the staves.
Don’t close the value box yet!
All selected staves are spaced according to your settings.
• If you do this with the “Global Staff Spacing with [Alt]-[Ctrl]” option activated, all staves in the score are affected.
If you are working on a full score with more than one instrument in one staff (2 flutes,2 trumpets etc), you should use polyphonic voices. And even if both instruments play the same notes, you should insert notes for both instruments (you can mute the notes of the second voice, if playback is an issue). If you do this, it will be much easier to extract single parts later (by using the “Extract Voices” command).
This function on the Score menu can help you work quicker, in the following way:
1. Create two empty Tracks, one for “Global Text”, another for “Important Phrases”.
2. Pull down the Score menu and select “Edit...” from the Move Events To submenu.
Now they will be added to the list on the Move Events To submenu.
4. When working on the scores, copy global form remarks from time to time to the “Global Text“ Track.
This is done by selecting the object(s), holding down [Alt] and selecting the “Global Text” Track from the Move Events To submenu.
When it’s time to extract single parts from the full score, you can copy form remarks and phrases (for cue notes) from the Tracks into the single parts, thereby saving time and work.
• If you hold down [Shift] and double click on a bar handle, this and the next bar are selected.
This is handy when copying phrases of two or more bars in one go.
• Use the “Show Invisible” dialog or the Filter Bar to make indicators appear in the score. Then select these indicators together with the notes before you Copy. This ensures the notes are copied with their formatting etc.
• Double click the bar handle of one of the bars, and make sure all relevant Event types are checked in the dialog. Then select the bars you want to copy by [Shift]-clicking their bar handles, and copy them by [Alt]-dragging the bar handles.
This function converts the score data, as displayed, to MIDI data. You might run into a situation when your score is displayed to 99% of perfection. That last 1% forces you to turn off functions in Staff settings (like Clean Lengths, No Overlap and Auto Quant) which makes the other parts of the score illegible. In this case, try “Score Notes To MIDI”. But work on a copy of the Track! For more info, see page 82.
Having no System lines at all might seem like stupid idea to start with. But, this option allows you to create chord sheets really quickly. See the Make Chords feature described on page 224.
A lead sheet created by specifying “0” system lines.If you are creating scale examples and similar, you can use the Real book option and manually hide all symbols at the beginning of the first staff to make the score appear like separate unconnected “lines”.
For scales, remember you can also hide the bar lines.An example scale without bar lines.
Grace Notes are normally beamed. Their order under the beam is controlled by their order in the Track. It is enough to put a grace note one tick before the next grace note to make them appear in the desired order under the beam.
Initially the grace notes are put in with a 32nd note beam. By double clicking the note and changing the “flag” type in the Note Info dialog, you can change this. If you click the “As Default” button in the dialog, your selection will be used as default for all subsequent grace notes.
Complex grace notes.1. Use the Save As dialog on the File menu to save the current settings as a “Preferences” file.
This saves all current Preferences as a separate file. Later the owner of the computer can restore his own settings by loading the Preferences file.
Now the text sets of the Song are used instead of those stored in the Preferences. 4. If the wrong fonts still are used, make sure all fonts that are defined in your Text Attribute Sets are installed on the computer.
Select all notes to be played with one hand. Select “Lyrics” from the “Other” Symbols Palette. Make sure the “To” menu is set to “All Selected (Events)”. Hold down [Alt] and click on one of the selected notes. Type in for example “r” and press [Return]. Proceed with the other hand.
Using lyrics for drum hand indications.Using Lyrics for fingering.
If you instead insert the new key on one staff and hold down [Alt] when clicking with the Pen, this key change is inserted on all staves in the Grand Staff.
• Work an a smaller section of the score at a time. Break the piece up into Parts and work on those Parts individually until the final layout stage.
• When you are working on the Layout, turn on “Layout Layer Only” whenever possible.
• Switch On Multi Rests as late as possible.
• When working in Edit mode, set Default Bars Across The Page to a small value, for example 2.
• In Edit mode, resize the window so that only one grand staff at a time is visible.
• Consider upgrading your computer hardware.