Cubase MIDI and Drum Tracks hold MIDI notes and other MIDI data. As you may know, a MIDI note in Cubase is only defined by its position, length, pitch and velocity. This is not nearly enough information to decide how the note should be displayed in a score. The program needs to know more: What type of instrument are we talking about, Drums? Piano? What key is the piece in? What is the basic rhythm? How should the notes be grouped under beams? etc. You provide this information by making settings and working with the Tools available in the Score Editor.
When Cubase stores a MIDI note’s position it makes the measurement in an absolute value, called ticks. There are “always” 15360 ticks to a quarter note. Have a look at the example below.
A quarter note at the end of a 4/4 measure.The note is on the fourth beat of the measure. Now, let’s say you change the Time Signature to 3/4. This shortens the length of a “measure” to only three quarter notes - 46080 ticks. Suddenly our quarter note is in the next measure:
The same note in 3/4.Why? Because by changing the Time Signature you are not changing the MIDI data in the Track/Part (since that would ruin your recording!), the note is still at the same absolute position. It’s just that now each “measure” is shorter, which effectively moves the note in the score.
What we are trying to get across here is that Score Editor is an “interpreter” of the MIDI data. It follows rules that you set up by making settings in dialog boxes, on menus, etc. And this interpretation is “dynamic”, or in other words, it is constantly updated whenever the data (the MIDI notes) or the rules (the Score settings) change.