So the main reason I bought Cubase was to be able to break down chords into their component parts so that, for example, I could enter chords on the track and then break them down for the various instrument sections to play. I thought I was clear on whether this was possible, but perhaps I wasn’t. in any case, the answer I was given doesn’t work.
And this is apparently something folks really want – doing some searching on the web I note a lot of folks have tried, with no success, to duplicate this functionality which exists in Logic (and Studio One, if we are just throwing DAWs out there :>).
At first glance you might think you could just explode the track into other tracks, but this just separates things by pitches and not by chord position. The logical editor looks like it might do the trick, but it doesn’t have the right functionality. There is, for example, the ability to select the highest pitch, but it’s the highest pitch of the track/section – so it can’t pick the highest pitch for EACH chord (which is what you really need).
It does have the ability to separate out things by chord position, but here’s the rub: they are the ACTUAL position of the chord, and if they are voiced differently this means you may well (and do) end up getting the root, for example, bouncing around between the lowest and even the very highest position in the chord. The same for the others – this clearly isn’t useful for assigning parts to instruments meant to play the lowest note.
I’ve seen a few folks say they really have licked this problem, only to then admit they aren’t getting the right results. So I don’t think it’s possible but I thought I’d at least throw it out there. Again, what I’d like to do is just pick off the very LOWEST note of each chord, regardless of its actual chord position (so it might be the root, fifth, or third). Same for the highest, which might not always be the fifth, 7th or 9th (if I could do this I could then delete and be left with the middle note(s)).
Finding the lowest is easy, use the context variable “Note Number in Chord”.
It’s the uppermost note that’s less, er, commodiously found.
If you haven’t tried the Score Editor explode function, Set the the staff to be polyphonic, when you explode the notes, the lines, or SATB voices will be on different channels, eg, the top voice- soprano- on 1, alto 2, etc.
You can then select the voices individually by channel via the logical editor, or, in the Score Editor simply by navigating horizontally with the arrow keys.
Unless I see it wrong, finding the lowest note number in chord does NOT find the lowest note, it finds the lowest in the chord (the bass note). The bass could very well be higher than the third or fifth due to voicing. It sure works that way when I try it. I haven’t tried the Score Editor I think, so I’ll give it a shot and hope it does it the correct way.
I can show you results that are not working – when I use that lowest note number if does NOT return the root of the chord (or when it does it only returns one).
Do you have an actual scripted example of it working in the Logical Editor? Because I sure can’t get it working.
I can’t tell what you’re doing over there, but you should probably double check to make sure you’re using the exact parameter for it’s specific purpose.
Okay, my (real) bad. When I ran this, um, function, I was extracting those selected parts. Unfortunately, the way the piano roll displays is to center the notes in the display. So, bear with me for a moment – I select the highest notes (position 3 in a 4 note chord) and instead of looking like they are way up there, they appear in the extracted track way DOWN there (well, centered which appears very low). Had I actually opened up the piano roll and looked to see where the notes were positioned I would have seen they were in the correct octave.
Sigh. So MUCH to learn. But I do appreciate your patience and the patience of others here. I think I have plenty to keep me busy at the moment.
