User manual

104
The Transpose functions
Introduction
Cubase offers transpose functions for audio, MIDI and in-
strument parts and for audio events. These allow you to
create variations of your music or change the harmonics of
an entire project or separate sections.
Transpose can be applied on three levels:
• On the entire project
By changing the project Root Key in the Project window toolbar, the
whole project will be transposed (see “Transposing an entire project with
the Root Key” on page 104).
• On sections of the project
By creating Transpose events on the Transpose track, you can set trans-
pose values for separate sections of your project (see “Transposing sep-
arate sections of a project using Transpose events” on page 106).
• On individual parts or events
By selecting individual parts or events and changing their transpose
value in the info line, you can transpose individual parts or events (see
“Transposing individual parts or events using the info line” on page 106).
Apart from the transpose features described in this chap-
ter, you can also transpose all MIDI notes on the selected
track using the MIDI modifiers (see “Transpose” on page
308), selected notes using the Transpose dialog (see
“Transpose” on page 330), and MIDI tracks using MIDI ef-
fects (see the separate manual “Plug-in Reference”).
Transposing your music
In the following sections we will describe the different
possibilities of transposing your music. Note that these
can also be combined. However, we recommend you to
set the root key first, before recording or changing trans-
pose values on the transpose track.
Transposing an entire project with the Root Key
The root key you specify for a project will be the reference
that audio or MIDI events in your project will follow. You can
however exclude separate parts or events from being trans-
posed, e.g. drums or percussion (see “The Global Trans-
pose setting” on page 107).
Depending on whether you are using events which already
contain root key information or not, the procedures differ
slightly.
If the events already contain root key information
Let’s say you want to create a project based on loops.
Proceed as follows:
1. Open the MediaBay and drag some loops into an emp-
ty project, see “Browsing for media files” on page 276.
For this example, import audio loops with different root keys.
2. Now, open the Root Key pop-up menu in the Project
window toolbar and set the project root key.
The entire project will be played back with this root key. Note that by de-
fault, the project root key is not specified (“-”).
A loop-based project with different event root keys
The separate loops will be transposed in order to match
the project root key. If you e.g. have imported a bass loop
in C and the project root key is set to E, the bass loop will
be transposed up by 4 semitones.
!
The transpose functions do not change the actual
MIDI notes or the audio, but only affect the playback.
!
As a general rule, you should always set the root key
first when you work with content with a defined root
key.