Basic scoring help

After a few years in the piano rolls and a little music comp/ theory study … I decided to venture off into the scoring editor.

I watched a tutorial on the basic tools, how to get split staffs, etc., thought I had the hang of it and ventured away.

First, when I opened the score editor in an existing project and tried to insert and move a couple of notes, my C6 … which has been entirely stable … gave me one of those ‘your system has become unstable, save your project under another name’ warnings.

I rebooted and this time instead of using the score editor in an existing project, I used one of the templates in the ‘scoring’ tab on the projects window.

Things seemed wierd. I’d place a 1/4 note on a line and try to place two 1/8ths notes above it … and it would automatically slur into 3/8ths notes.

I’d place the 1/4 note with the dot highlighted … but the graphics would show a 1/2 note instead of the dotted 1/4.

I’d place the note in a space and it would sharp or flat it without me seemingly doing anything (the project showed no sharps or flats in the key signature).

Finally, it seemed really difficult to place the note without some unwanted rest interjecting itself before the last note placed.

After an hour or so, I gave up.

Can this really be all that finicky? Or am I missing some basic preferences that makes doing this more ‘basic?’

Any help appreciated.

Como

Hola Como Baila,

I use the score editor quite a bit, no crashes at all. The set up up is more or less default, but it’s worth restricting the note and rest settings to say quaver or semiquaver to start off with which will reduce the score subtlety but make things easier to move around and also be more readable. It’s in score settings under STAFF.

Spending a little bit of time getting to know the main score settings page will really help. (double click on left edge of score to display the options) also set consolidation, clean lengths and no overlaps ticked.

The score settings also allow you to split staves, transpose, change notation styles and so on.

I have also removed sustain pedals, bar numbering and made a few other tweaks to things like barline thickness, all of which makes for a less cluttered look. I find it best to work in page mode which isn’t the default. A tiny arrow head on the right side of the screen sets the size of score you see

I have put the create chord symbol option onto a key shortcut which is handy for me…Normal routine is to highlight any chordal group of notes and press the C7 button in the functions list. This creates handy notation from the chord

There are some issues with the text, words sometimes appear doubled or on other pages of score, I am guessing this is a bug - drives me nuts all the time as it’s quite random in behaviour.

Some more tips,
You can set the number of bars on any line by going to Scores> Advanced layout
Change chord signs, by rightclick properties
Change barline look by rightclick properties

I generally export as .jpg files and finish in a DTP …File>Export>Scores It gives quite high resolution but is set very low by default (only 70 dpi)

I have been using score for a while now and it can produce some fine results, just takes some dedication. I had to brush up on my theory of music too so as to conform to accepted standards.

I hope this gives you fresh incentive, good luck

P.

Gracias, Amigo!

You have given me a lot to digest. I was aware of the page setting … which I used … and all the options that present when you click just to the left of the staff.

I’d appreciate specific help with the best settings for 4 things … if this is staight forward.

BTW … I was not so concerned with developing a printable score as I was with using he score editor to help improve my music reading and being able to transcribe sheet music into midi.

  1. Can you prevent a note on a line from being incorporated into a slur if you have smaller (time wise, of course!) notes on the lines or spaces above it?

  2. If you restrict to quavers and semiquavers … how do you add dotted notes? Is there a simple over-ride?

  3. What do you use as a visual guideline to place the note properly within the measure? It drives me batty to continuously have little rests interposed when I thought I was placing an 1/8th note right over the ‘dot’ on a dotted 1/4 note, i.e., measure x.2.2. The ruler isn’t clearly helpful as it appears to deal with the width of the page, not the position of the cursor for note placement.

  4. Finally, what is the story with the notes going sharp or flat on their own when I have no sharps or flats in the key signature of C? Is this flukey behavior or is there a setting that will prevent this unless I use an over-ride?

Thanks again!

PS … are you in Spain and, if so, what part? I’m particularly fond of Galicia. But that’s probably because I’m Scots!

Oh … and I’m not sure I understood, but are you saying there is a method for inputting and entire chord?

I’ll search the manual … but if anyone knows the page/ section number or a link to some infor about that, I’d appreciate it.

Como

Hi Como,
the first thing I would read about, for the Score, is “Display Quantizing”, and, if you are inputting notes at the same position, but of different lengths, you’ll need also to learn about Polyphonic voices. The Score section of the manual is really very good… I’d recommend going through it slowly, and trying things out as you read about them :wink:.

Thanks for the gentle ‘RTFM,’ Vic … with direction to where to start reading!

If my eyes glaze over after a few paragraphs, I guess it’ll be back to the piano roll for me.

BTW … who needs sleeping pills, when you can read the Cubase Operation Manual for free? Well, sort of free.

Como

Yes, but even that is o.k. when it stands for “Read The Fabulous Manual”! :smiley:

Hi Como,

Re:

  1. I rarely compose in score, merely make played pieces look presentable, so I can’t be a lot of help here. I don’t think I’ve encountered a problem
  2. You can select a dot or triplet along with your choice of note for insertion. Previously played notes are displayed correctly. A slight adjustment to note length might be needed, you can select the note in question and set its length in the toolbar top left
  3. I set Quantise appropriately in the top toolbar
  4. Not quite sure what you mean? Black notes will be displayed with either a sharp or flat, you can switch these or remove the sign completely using the enharmonic shift toolbar. There are also options for display of accidentals in the Score settings>project menu to suppress repetition on a sequence of notes within a bar.

Have you noticed that you can right click on notes to flip tails, hide them, remove stems and so on?

P

ps. I am in Spain, although I’m a Londoner. I live in the Andalusian hills behind the Costa del Sol, about half an hour from Málaga - how unlucky am I?

@ Vic … thanks, Bro! Fabulous it is.

@ Parrot … ahh, ‘Las Casas Blancas,’ not too unlucky … unless you invested in the local real estate in recent years. If you get to Sevilla sometime, make sure to check out Anselmas in the Triana for great, non-tourist tableau flamenco … it opens at 12 am sharp!

Como

Yeah, the white-wash villages! I bought in 2002 and although prices eventually fell back, I have been ok and ‘El crisis financial’ hasn’t hit me too hard. I’ll look out for Anselmas.

Regarding “RTFM”, I sat with my hard copy C4 manual open as I found that it was hard to concentrate using the pdf and trying to flip back and forth to experiment. I don’t think the implementation has changed much from C4 to C6.

P

As a somewhat infrequent user the score editor, and far from expert with it, I find some adjustments easier to make in the piano roll, so I keep that open as well and use whichever editor I find easier for the task in hand.

(Some things - eg editing (recorded) sustain pedal data - I prefer to do in the list editor, but usually I just open that as and when needed.)

Thanks, Chase … that’s a big ‘why didn’t I think of that … duh!’

Como

The best help I can give with regards to using the Score Editor in Cubase (and I have been using it since Cubase Score VST) is very simple:

Go and buy Sibelius.

The new version just winds me up so much. I can do in Sibelius in two minutes what would take a fiddly hour in Cubase, and then export.

@zoot … I do so appreciate a decisive opinion.

After reading the suggested sections on ‘Display quantization’ and other parts of the manual with the frequent caveats of why you need to make extra adjustments with the Q tool under varying circumstances … it became clear to me that the score editor is better suited for putting your midi data into compositional notation than for entering midi data. That is to say its about making notes look right on the score, not making the score have the right notes.

It does seem like it offers a handy way for entering VST Expression for those familiar with music notation, which I am not. The controller lanes will work just fine for me.

Thanks for your well-considered opinion.

Como