I miss the hand! Having the ability to move an object (note, marking or text) in any direction with one easy stroke had become so innate to my working that not having the hand tool is causing some issues.
Plus, does anyone know how to add text that isn’t connected to a note, that I can place where I want. E.G. I want to add a subtitle I brackets just below the main title. The Score layout option has no option for such a text. Using the Text tool only works when a note is connected and I can’t place the text where I want. If there is a way of moving it, nothing seems to be in the manual. If nothing works then I suggest that a fix is needed so as to enable some flexibility with text and score work.
I read that some time ago and it didn’t fill me with much joy. The recent upgrade is still well below what is needed.
Until then, I am still hoping that there is a solution to what I would like to do at this moment. Place text, other than Titles or net connected information, upon the score. Or, be able to move the current text options to where I need them.
You can move staff text horizontally to different beats as anchor points.
What text options are you trying to move where? Earlier you said you were trying to create a subtitle but that isn’t done by using staff text or system text in Dorico (and you said “other than titles or other net connected information” so I assume you mean you have some other text to place that isn’t a subtitle).
No, Still looking for a subtitle although (when I’m satisfied that Cubase can actually do what I need) I will need to add comments such as Stage Directions and Dialogue Cues for my musicals. Yes, I know Text can move sideways but I’m wanting to move upwards on the page just below the Title. How is Staff or System Text different? I haven’t looked at that yet, I must say. Will do when I get back on to the score.
Thank you again
Staff text is free text assigned to a particular staff and shows up only in that part (and on the score). System text appears once over the system but appears in all parts.
If you’re doing this kind of stuff for musicals you are probably going to need to use Dorico. It has a lot of advanced capabilities in this area.
I’ve been using Cubase since 1992. Back then it could do everything from a Score point of view. Adding Dorico or Sibelius or any other score program was once a waste of time and money. The fact that Steinberg has gone backwards in trying to go forwards, making it necessary for me to purchase a new software for scoring, is equally a mindless waste of energy. Some say, I should go back to 13. Well, I upgraded from 11 which doesn’t work on my new system. I would have to purchase 13, I presume. But, again, it’s all backwards.
Sorry for the rant but I feel like I’m going round in circles at the moment. Maybe 15 will be better!
Jonathan
I know to you it feels like going backwards, but to me and many others, it is a huge leap forwards. For years I’ve been working in Cubase for composing and Dorico for engraving. The old Cubase Score Editor was never satisfactory for my needs and the needs of many others, so I was doing a lot of repeated work - basically manually renotating what I had done in Cubase. For me this new Score Editor is wonderful because it means suddenly I won’t have to do all this repeat work and can easily bring the work over and have it look the same. For me and quite a few others it is a huge step forwards.
I know it is probably frustrating for you because in the old score editor you could do almost everything. I’ve seen what people could do in it, but I also know that it was also very time-consuming. Dorico gets you the results much more quickly. I’m sure you see the improvement in the default appearance of the score with the Dorico based editor in Cubase.
A lot of Dorico users have recently come from Finale and used Finale for many many years, and it was discontinued. Their initial feedback, once they have gotten used to it, is many of them are working much faster in Dorico than they ever have before, getting scores done in half the time. This is my experience as well and is one of the reasons why I never got into the old Cubase Score Editor even though it would have allowed me to keep everything in one program.
No, I could make the engraving work very quickly. It was always the compositional and arranging work which took time for me but I always had an ear for turning the tracks into recordings, so nuancing note lengths and velocities was equally as important as the notation.
So, practically speaking @moggs sounds like you need to get hold of a full C13 install..? Not at my machine today, but I think that’s still all available on either the website or through the SDA. Worth a look…
Seems it would (with a bit of extra work.!) help your situation more readily. Bonus, you can then plan your longer term future way forward, at a pace you decide.
For me, the part that always took too much time when I tried to use Cubase for engraving was moving notes around. As far as I could figure out there were only two spacing algorithms in the old Cubase Score Editor - an exactly proportional one where each longer note value took up exactly twice the smaller one (an eighth twice the width of a 16th, a quarter twice the width of an eighth, a half twice the width of a quarter, a whole note twice the width of a half), or an equal spacing one where all note values (sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, whole) all took up exactly the same amount of horizontal space.
Because neither spacing algorithm produced results that were anywhere near what musicians expected to see, I would have had to move all notes left or right on the page to manually space every single note on every single page from each other. Manually nudging every single note on every single page to try to manually fine tune spacing would have added many many hours of work to the score engraving process for me, especially for large orchestral scores, and it was hard to justify when most dedicated notation programs do a good job of this out of the box without me having to spend those hours doing manual spacing on notes. So after some initial experiments about 20 years ago with the Score Editor (and again several years later), I quickly moved to notation software instead (Finale at first).
Musical Theatre has lots of heavy demands on the engraving when it comes to the types of things you need to do in the notation software. I’m not sure whether they will bring enough engraving features from Dorico to Cubase to make this sort of thing possible, but I doubt it because they obviously do not want to bring all Dorico features to Cubase. So it seems to me that you have some decisions to make between purchasing Dorico or going back to Cubase 13 Score Editor. You can download Cubase 13 in the SDA and install it and run it of course as @Puma0382 says.
I agree that there was some tweaking required on the odd occasion with note placement but not most of the notes – that must have been painful. Generally if I moved barlines sideways the notes created better spacing within.
I can see what this new scoring version does for many people who just want to get a decent print without too much fuss. The formatting is good, the automation of articulation etc. has a value (although for me, it creates more issues than it fixes) but there are a number of issues (previously demonstrated here and in other threads) which get in the way.
Ultimately, to my eyes and way of working, the score editor is very much a Dorico Lite version. I do feel dudded because, to me, every upgrade should be moving us forward. This part of 14 has definitely sent me backwards or, at least sideways if, indeed, I am obliged to purchase Dorico itself just to do what I have always been able to do.
To be fair, I did not do my homework before I upgraded to 14. At the time, I was in a rush as I had been forced to upgrade all of my hardware due to a nasty crash and I went for the latest version of Cubase, as you do! Had I investigated better, I may well have only upgraded to 13.
Now, that’s all understandable but it seems to me that Steinberg made a decision without fully realising the consequences. Yes, there are those who wanted an easier way of getting to print but the reality is that due to the singular formatting option, every piece of music will look the same. There’s no option for individuality. No flexibility and no add-ons possible.
So, I am forced to make a long term decision that may help me or not. You see, having to transfer all of my files into a new form of software will still require further editing of a massive amount of work. That I will have to pay for the privilege both in monetary terms and in time learning the different system means that my projects will be delayed, yet again. Lucky for me, I’m not trying to make a living out of this. It has always been a hobby and there is always hope that some success may arise… I’m not holding my breath either… but this realisation puts me in an unfortunate space. Self-publishing is now almost too complex.
I can make what I have work. Adding text boxes to PDFs is not difficult even if a bit messy. Along with my bigger projects, I create arrangements for choirs (I sing in two) and this has become less realistic with this new version. Having to fix things after the fact is tedious. The other option is to farm out my score work to someone else to finish off. That sounds like fun…
In any case, I appreciate what you both have suggested.
Jonathan
Two people already told you, I am goona be the third, and I will use caps:
YOU CAN USE CUBASE 13 IF YOU HAVE A CUBASE 14 LICENSE. It is included.
Open the Steinberg Download Assistant, open the section “All products (separate licenses required)”, click on Cubase 13 (Pro in your case?), then download Cubase.
You can have both 13 and 14 installed parallel on the same machine.
