Quick Start

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Tutorial 3: Recording and editing MIDI
MIDI playback
We are now going to learn how to play back MIDI in Cu-
base. You might think this is very simple – just hit “Play”. It
is actually this simple, but there are a few tricks to learn so
that you’ll be playing back what you want with precision.
To start playback
• Click the Start button on the Transport panel.
• Press the space bar on your computer keyboard.
This toggles between start and stop.
• Press the [Enter] key of the numerical computer keypad.
• Double-click in the lower half of the ruler.
• Select the MIDI event called “Strings” and choose
“Loop Selection” from the Transport menu.
To stop playback
• Click the Stop button on the Transport panel.
• Clicking the Stop button twice moves the cursor to the
position in the project, where you started playback.
• Press the space bar on your computer keyboard.
This toggles between stop and start.
• Press the “0” key of the numerical computer keypad.
Cycle playback
Cubase has the ability to loop or cycle a section of your
project. To set the cycle location you need to use the left
and right locator.
1. On the Transport panel, set the left locator to “1” and
the right locator to “5”.
This tells Cubase that we want to loop or cycle between bars 1 and 5.
Meaning we will have a 4 bar loop since the end of bar 4 is the beginning
of bar 5.
2. Make sure that the Cycle button is activated.
3. Click the Start button on the Transport panel and Cu-
base will play looping over and over until you click Stop.
Recording modes with cycle off
There are three different modes for recording when the
cycle is turned off. This is called linear recording.
• Normal
“Normal” allows you to record on top of previously recorded MIDI. You
will be able to see both MIDI parts on the screen overlapping each other.
• Merge
“Merge” joins or merges any MIDI data previously recorded on the track.
An example of this is when recording drums – adding the kick drum on
one pass and then the snare drum on another pass. The MIDI data is
then joined together as one MIDI part.
• Replace
“Replace” mode will replace or overwrite any previous MIDI recording
that was on the track.
!
For this section, make sure you load the project
“MIDI Playback” found in the “Tutorial 3” folder.
!
The default key command for this is [Shift]+[G]. This
is the quickest way to loop the selected MIDI event
and start playback!
The left locator set to “1”.
The right locator set to “5”.
Cycle activated