In previous versions of Cubase pro I was able to drag a system to move it vertical position. That no longer works in Cubase 14. Has that function been removed? I can’t believe it would be. The only options I can see are to set the number of systems on a page. But if this is a jazz or pop tune it’s common for a score not fill the whole page. This results in huge gaps between each system. How can we now increase or decrease the distance between two systems?
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Those are global settings.
I´d prefer to have it adjustable from system to system like in the old score editor. My goal is to write easily readable, but compact scores for my musicians. This is not achievable with strict global settings most of the time.
I need full control over distances between and number of bars per system!
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So it sounds like the ability to drag systems vertically has been removed? I hope this is not the case. I can’t see any reason for removing basic features like that, unless it’s to try and pressure users to payout of Dorico. I didn’t think Steinberg was that sort of company, so maybe removing this function was an accident when they updated V14? Or is there some new way of moving systems individually which we don’t know about?
For now I’m having to move back to Cubase 13 for all my music printing.
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here´s a drum part I notated in Cubase 13.
As always, I try to notate as compact as possible, so that my musicians don´t have to turn pages while playing. The results may be not the most aesthetically beautiful, but the most practical ones for the purpose.
You can see in this example that I moved the lines vertically as close as possible.
Also please look at how I edited the number of bars per line, so that songparts are recognizable.
Hi,
The setting you want in this case is a global setting - Vertical Justification under Vertical Spacing. The default setting will automatically expand the vertical distance between systems to evenly stretch them out to fit the page once the page is above a certain percentage full (a threshold). You should increase this percentage setting as from the sounds of it you want the systems close together at the top unless the page is already quite full.
Thanks, but unfortunately is only works if you have enough systems to fill the page. I often don’t when I’m printing a jazz tune. With Cubase 11-1 3 you could just drag the systems to any distance you like even if they don’t fill the page.
No that’s not what I mean - you are misunderstanding. The advice I am giving you is specifically for your situation where you do not have enough systems to fill the page. I mean in the case of a page that is not full, the default justification settings cause it to spread out the systems too much because it is trying to put the bottom system at the bottom of the page with the top system at the top and it is trying to equally spread out the remaining systems in between that. If you change the settings, instead the systems will get bunched up close together at the top of the page (with a big gap below the bottom system) instead of with big gaps in between each system. This sounds like what you want. This is a setting change I regularly make in Dorico too, as if a page is only a little over half full I don’t want huge vertical gaps between staves and would instead rather have them closer together at the top of the page for readability by the performer.
This post is for Dorico but explains the behaviour (albeit unfortunately only with an example of a score and not parts):
What you probably want is the top example with high percentage values. You don’t necessarily have to use 100%, even 90% or so will probably be fine. The default I think is 60% which means if the system is a little over half full it will add spacing to stretch everything out to fit the page - this is not what I like and I always change it to 90% or so (or maybe even more) for readability by performers.
Again, I emphasize - these settings make almost no difference when the page is completely full, or nearly completely full. It is only when the page is not completely full that these settings really have an impact. You are trying to say these settings will not help you because your page is not completely full, and meanwhile these settings are for exactly your situation - where there are not enough systems to fill the page. Try it and you will see.
@Antiphones Here is an example of a tuba part in Dorico. With the default settings it looks like this:
You can see how the systems get spread out with vertical space between them, because it is trying to put the bottom system on the bottom of the page and so it adds extra spacing between all of the systems to accomplish this.
To fix this, in Dorico I change the vertical justification percentage settings to this:
And then it looks like this:
Now there is space at the bottom (after the end of the tune) instead of in between each system.
I think what you want is for it to look like the bottom picture in your case, instead of looking like the top picture.
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