Polyphony in Cubase 14 score editor

Hello all,
I’m trying to work myself into the new score editor and already struggling with some simplest tasks.
I have a midi track with 4 voices assigned to 4 midi channels for choir. For several hours I tried to create a score sheet with a two part notation system. In the upper system I’d like to have soprano with stems up and alto with stems down. In the lower system tenor with stems up and bass with stems down. How can I assign the 4 midi channels to 4 voices so that the score looks like described above? I am frustrated… Is there anyone who can help?
Thank you in advance.

I think the easiest way is to have each voice on seperate tracks; but the Manual CB14 (score editor manual p.5) says:


JonB

Thank you. Already tried it in the instrument settings but it doesn’t work.
If I make 4 different tracks, how can I set it that 2 tracks are in the upper system and 2 tracks in the lower? Because when I select the 4 tracks and open the score editor I have 4 single systems, each for a voice. How can I change that?

Just for clarification. In the post above by @Buer, Voices refer to this property found on the Info Bar in the Key Editor and is independent of the MIDI Channel.

image

I still don’t get how this is supposed to be done…


I assigned the voices to all midi channels and tried to set something up in the instrument settings but still parts of the tenor appear in the upper system. Any ideas how this can be fixed?

Request in progress, you could vote here:

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If I set up the instrument track (with Midi) and asign a choir patch to the instrument, then I get a two staff system in the score editor. Midi-channel set to any, and then write (or record) midi notes onto the track, I get midi notes layed out as score in the editor. Stems are set according to voice selection. Select note and click voice in the upper panel.


The Midi track for the notes above. I think the split point is set to c3 as default.

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@Buer’s response is 99% correct.

If you are writing for choir then it’s worth starting off with a grand staff if you don’t already have one. In Score > Change Instrument Type for Selected Track you can choose ‘Choir reduction’ which creates a grand staff with two voices on each staff.

The Score Editor will try to split existing MIDI notes into separate voices. It doesn’t use a fixed split point – it tries to find the best voicing depending on the content.

It is not necessary to use MIDI channels for voices. If you need to insert notes into a specific voice, or change the voice of notes already entered, then use the 1-4 voice buttons in the toolbar, as shown above.

See also the tips in Move note from LH piano to RH piano stave in Score Editor? - #2 by PaulWalmsley for moving notes between staves

Sorry for the confusion with the voice selector in the Info Line – that is the one from C13 that no longer has any effect. I’ve added a task to remove or replace it

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Yeah, sorry that was my bad.
Can we have it replaced with the new version also in the Key Editor?

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I’ve added a task to replace it in both editors

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Okay, thank you for answers.

I got it done that way but to be honest it is not really satisfying in this new score editor. Let me explain:
So this is what I get when I open the score editor (Tesxt is only for illustration):


Voices are a mess. I am now able to make it work with the buttons above you mentioned:

That is indeed how it should look like. But it is so complicated and time consuming to manually move some notes into another staff and then select some notes to assign a voice. I quickly recorded 2 measures as an example. But when I imagine composing some longer piece for 4 voices choir… that would take me so long to create a usable score… I remember in older Cubase versions it was so easy… Just set it on polyphony and assign a voice to each midi channel.

How can it be that something so easy cannot be done in the new score editor?

Here is another thing that is annoying for choir scores:


I cannot find a way to hide the rests. But in traditional choir music this notation example is very common. That the rests in the measure of the upbeat are not shown and in the last measure as well for purpose of repetition.

Moreover I can’t find a way to hide the tempo assignment, cannot find a way to connect the bar line in the end and cannot find a way to change the brackets like here for example:

How do you input the notes for your scores? Do you record MIDI for each voice separately?

One of the reasons that we changed the relationship between channels and voices is that this breaks other use cases, eg changing the channel will change the playback behaviour if you have a multitimbral VST instrument. Channels and voices can now be independent. However, I can see from your use case that using MIDI channels for voices can be useful for note input. I’ve added this request to our list.

For the rests you need to insert a pickup bar that is one beat long. For the rests at the end we don’t currently support mid-bar repeat barlines because Cubase can’t play them back.

The tempo can be hidden from the Info Line in the Tempo Track. Show In Score > Hide

If you produce a lot of this type of score then I would urge you to take a look at Dorico, because it’s much easier to create this sort of content. It only took me a couple of minutes to create this (and I’m not very efficient with note input). There are lots of features for condensing multiple staves into one, combining voices onto one staff, inputting into several players at once. Mid-bar repeats are supported and work in playback too. There’s lots of control over the appearance of brackets. There’s also a lot of choral users on the forum (Daniel, the Dorico Product Manager is also a choir director…)

Dorico SE is free: Dorico SE: Free Music Notation Software | Steinberg

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Yes, most of the time I input them separately.
Thank you for adding it to the list and your detailed answer.

Dorico sounds interesting. But then it’s a lot of money again. My main focus is on DAW and production. Thought after the new score editor was advertised I could use it for some classical projects as well.
I’m not sure if Dorico SE can do all that stuff?

The issue with the rests could easily be solved if they could be hidden, like in older cubase versions. Actually no need to play them back because it is just for the score??

No solutions for the brackets in the beginning and the disconnected barlines in the end?

Dorico sounds interesting. But then it’s a lot of money again. 

Dorico SE is free. I recommend it I write a lot for choir, and use the pro version. Have never regretted it. Try the free and buy an upgtrade later if you are satisfied.

The Choir grand staff in the Score Editor has braces because it was intended to be a choir reduction for piano. It doesn’t have joined barlines because they would intersect the lyrics. You could try changing the instrument to the generic Grand Staff (in the ‘sketch’ section) as this does have joined barlines.

Alternatively you could create separate instruments for SA and TB (and then rename them)- these are bracketed but don’t have joined barlines:

Currently we don’t have a lot of the advanced options for things like braces, brackets and barline joins. Some of these are things we may add in future versions.

If you have a DAW/production focus then Cubase may be the best choice for you, but if you are working on classical or choral music and you want the fine control over the notation conventions then Dorico would be a better fit. You can currently export a Dorico project from Cubase. It’s not currently possible to import Dorico projects into Cubase, but we’re looking at how to facilitate that workflow. Dorico also supports VST instruments.

I think that if you need detailed control then you will end up fighting the way Cubase works. For example you talk about hiding rests in order to achieve mid-bar repeats, but that’s because Cubase doesn’t have any concept of them, and you won’t be able to play them back. Dorico can handle this easily because it’s designed to handle more complex musical structures, and you don’t need to hide any rests.

How did you do it :smile: I’m trying out Dorico now but I’m not able to create a choir reduction like that with 4 voices stems up/down up/down…

Here’s a project as a starting point. Please do ask on the Dorico forum if you want more help for working with choral scores as the community are very supportive.

choir reduction.dorico (645.0 KB)

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I am trying to edit existing midi data, I cannot make the 2 lower notes stem up and down, I tired to push the 1 2 3 4 voice buttons but they do not save with the note, I activated voice 3 and 4 but that mess up completely the score adding weird beams, what should I do please ?

I fixed the issue by playing around assigning voices… But how to see which note belong to which voice one back to the midi key editor ?

One thing to note is that the stem direction is contextual. For instance, all these notes are in the first voice as ‘Prefer stems up’, but when they cross the B line then they flip to stem down.

If you add notes in the second voice (‘Prefer stems down’) then the voice 1 notes flip back to stem up:

In the current version it’s not easy to see the voice that each note is in, except by selecting the note and looking at the state of the voice indicator buttons 1…4 in the toolbar. In the next update you should be able to see notes coloured by voice which will make situations like this much clearer.