LO4:

Real Time input is one of the simplest methods to

record on Cubase. It can be achieved by selecting the
midi channel and pressing the record button in which
you can use your personal midi keyboard to record
the notes. Example: This is particularly useful for a
musician or producer who wants to lay down the
groundwork for his/her song. This could be a bass
line, chords, or a melody. They can later on use midi
to change the instrument and manipulate their
sound.

The record button can be found on the

transport bar. It is the little red circle. An

alternative for recording is the * key on

the numeric key pad. The alternative method is useful for artists who dont have a lot of time to
produce the track. It take less that a second to press the star key and it means that they can start
recording straight away.

Step Recording: Lets you precisely input notes one at a time. This technique lets you be very
accurate with you note placement whereas real time input can be more loose. This can be achieved
by selecting the pen tool and creating an instrument part on a midi channel. You then need to select
the step input tool as shown below. Step input tool lets you be precise with note lengths and every
time you press a key on the keyboard the notes come up on the screen. This lets you input the notes
in your own time. You do not need to use the pen tool at this point as you would with the clicking in
technique. For example this may be particularly useful in drum and bass music. The bpm of drum
and bass music is between 160 and 180. Due to the fact that the beat is so fast, artists may require
the use of the step recording so that they can make sure that every note of the drum beat is precise
and in time. The notes will be a lot smaller as well so they would have to zoom in and place them
carefully. The step recording technique is also there for someone who perhaps doesnt play the
keyboard, or someone who lacks timing or rhythm skills.

Clicking in is freehand drawing notes wherever you like. This

can be achived by using the pen tool to draw in the notes and
the pencil tool to adjust the placement of the notes. This can
be achieved by selecting the pen tool and creating an event
on a midi channel. After this whilst still using the pen tool you
can input the notes onto the keyboard which is on the screen.
The notes can be placed anywhere you please. For

example clicking in may be particularly useful when writing

simple melodies or just clicking in some basic chords. Artists
who may be writing jingles or simple advert music would most
likely use this technique. Advert music is usually quite basic
and something you can sing along to or hum.

Inserting/Deleting Notes: To insert notes you can

either use the pen tool or the line tool. The line
tool allows you to place a series of the same or
different notes together in a row. To delete notes
you can use the arrow tool to select the notes you
want to remove and then press delete. An
alternate method would be too use the
erase/rubber tool. This is a similar technique to
delete as the first one as you can select a note, or
series of notes you want to erase and then double
click. These tools can be found at the tool bar at
the top of the page as shown below. For

example a tool such as the line tool is perfect

for putting in a scale. All the notes in the scale
may not be correct depending on what scale you aim to use but this can easily be modified by using
the arrow tool to move the notes about. Or the line tool may be useful for drums if you plan to insert
a drum run down at the end of the bar. For the scale it might be particularly useful for classical music
if you are using a grand piano on midi or some strings. For drums it may be a house track.

Inserting/Deleting Events: Events can be found in the controller lane as well as the key editor. Events
can range from main volume to modulation. The controller lane can be at the bottom of the screen
after you select and instrumental part. The picture below shows the different events you can
choose. To place in an event you can use the pen/line tool and draw in when you want the particular
event to take place. My example below shows me controlling the main volume of the instrument on
an event. To delete an event you can select the data with the arrow or erase tool and press delete.

For example this kind of editing may be used on a dance track. If you wanted to start the
song/instrument very quietly or softly with velocity and gradually build it up until the drop hits were
you can drastically increase it, this would be perfect.

Quantisation: Quantization helps you to quickly move all of the musical notes on to the correct
beats. This depends on the time signature which you require for your song. To help me see exactly
where each beat is placed I went onto the preferences menu and selected work area which allowed
me to create a grid like format as you can see in the image below. Once I completed this I simply
chose the time signature and pressed the Q button on keyboard. This is when the quantization
takes place and all notes are exactly in time with the bar. For example this is another technique
for someone who may not be very good at timing or rhythm or for someone who may want to save
time adjusting all the notes exactly and could just quantize them instead. An artists who has just
recorded a solo perhaps for a funk track could quantize the notes of the solo to make sure that they
are in the exact time and place they want them to be.

Pitch:
The pitch can be changed on the key editor.
The on computer keyboard pops up in which you can change the pitch of the notes.

For example this may be useful for someone who does not have availablity of a midi
keyboard and may have to change the pitch or place in the notes by hand. Or if they had
recorded the notes and they simply just wanted to change the pitch of a particular note.

Note length
The note length can be changed in the key editor. You can just use the arrow to drag the note to the
length required. Or an alternative method: when recording and playing through the midi
keyboard you would hold down the note for the allotted time or length you want. For example
this technique is particularly useful if you are making long drones for a classical piece as you can
length them out accordingly.

Placement
The placement of the notes can be changed by using the arrow tool and dragging the note to the
place required. Or an alternative method when recording would be playing the note when you
see the time line going past and you can hit the note in the exact place you want. You can see the
timeline in the image above, which is the black vertical line just behind the note itself. For

example the timeline method is good for freehand musicians who are handy with the keyboard
and decent at timing.

Velocity
Velocity is how hard the note is played. The velocity of each note can be changed in the controller
lane as you can see in the image below. The level of velocity can be changed using the pen tool. Or
an alternative method: When recording using a midi keyboard depending on how hard you hit
the not itself that will alter the velocity. If you hit the keyboard hard then the velocity will be very
high, but if you play the note softly the velocity will be smaller. For example an artist creating a
techno track may use velocity quite a lot. In techno music it sometimes starts off light and builds in
tension and the notes become more hard/snappy in the way they are played which encourages
people to dance.

Stylistic Interpretation
Tempo track: To add in a tempo track you press project, add track then tempo track. There are
different tempo track settings. The first is the Linear setting: Using the line tool you can create
gradual increases or decreases in tempo. Also clicking on the bar function and pressing use quantize
allows you to make smooth curves in the tempo using the pen tool as the image shows below. For

example this technique would be used in pop if they ever so slightly wanted lift the tempo
smoothly or slow the ending down gradually rather than coming to an abrupt stop.

The jump setting gives you a straight line until a point you select using the pen tool and it will
immediately drop or increase to that point. For example this technique may be useful in dance
music. An artist may want the tempo uplifting and fast, then they may want to immediately drop it
for a change, they may decide to drastically increase it again.

Pressing control T takes you to the tempo track editor. On this editor using
the tempo recording tab you can press play or record and live in the
moment change the tempo up and down which gives I more of a natural feel
to it. It means you can listen to your track and change the tempo at exactly
the same time. For example this would suit artists who are going for a
completely natural feel in their song it may be an experiment classical piece were they want to
rhythm and timings of things to be completely free and laid back.

Signature Track: allows you to change the time signature of your song or drum track at DIFFERENT
POINTS SELECTED. For example the image below shows my drum track changing from 4/4 to
12/8 at a particular point I selected. This technique would suit artists who wish to have a very strict
structure in their song and want tempo changes to happen at a very precise point. This could suit
any genre it just depends how free or how strict they wish to be with the piece.

Time Stretching.
Time stretching allows you to drag the midi data or recorded data to the length desired. This would
stretch the value and length of each of the notes. If you select the arrow tool and scroll down to
Sizing Applies Time Stretch. Once this is selected you can simply drag the data. For example this
technique would be particualy useful if you had already recorder the part but you have decided to
change the tempo or increased the bar size. So you would use time strecthing in order to fill it out
until the end of the bar or until the place you want.

Slicing:
It is possible to slice up midi data and move it to wherever you please. One method would be using
the scissor tool to split it at the certain point. Sliced the part in half. For example a house DJ may
make use of this technique. They may want to slice up parts of particular melodies or beats and copy
it to other points in the song. This could be part of a drum roll or a section of a sweep to introduce
new parts.

Beat Marking:
Right click and add in a marker track. This allows you to place down marker points for your track.
Then using the pen tool you can place them in. You can even name the points to signal new parts in
the track e.g verse, chorus etc. For example: most musicians or producers would use this
technique in order to give the song some structure, it will give them an idea of when to put the new
parts in e.g. a chorus and they can build on that. They can also give themselves a rough idea of how
long they want their song to be.

Choosing/Combining Sounds:

You can select sounds by going on devises and selecting VST instruments. You can then select a
synth out of the available options in which you will have lots of sounds to choose from. An

alternative method for choosing sounds would be to link Reason up with Cubase using the
reason rewire setting on Cubase. Reason contains many other different sounds and changes things
up a bit compared to Cubase. For example Cubase contains so many different sounds which can
be manipulated in many different ways as does reason, it suits any artist from any genre. It is a
multipurpose software. The images below show the VST instruments menu and the different synths
that come with it.

Expression:
Controlling dynamics with expression. Allows you to make certain notes louder than others. Can be
found in midi controller. You can control this with the pen tool creating a smooth curve or you can
use the line tool and make the expression very specific. For example this may be particularly
useful on a reggae or trip hop track. They may want to express the snare or a rim shot a lot louder
than the other notes played in percussion. This tool would allow them to do this.

Track Automation:
Right click on the sound selected and press show automation. You then have to press the R button
which enables you to manipulate the automation. The pen tool can be used to draw in the
automaion.The images below show me automating the volume of my sound. The automation tool is
highly useful and can be used for many different things such as volume or effects. My example
belows shows how I have automated the volume. For example this may be particularly useful in
and atmospheric ambient track. They may want to automate in a large amount of reverb or stereo
delay on a piano track but then bring the automation down when they no longer with to use it.

Filter Cut Off:

To control the filter cut off you can go onto the
sound module itself and there will be an option
to control the filtering of the sound. Cut off is
used to block certain frequencies from a sound.

For example this may be particularly useful

for creating a baseline for a drum and bass
track. They may want to cut off all the higher
frequencies and boost the lower ones so that it
is as bassy as possible. They may also want to
increase the attack in order to make the bass
line snappy.