Part 1: Though Logical Edit is potentially one of Cubase's most useful features, it's also one of its most feared and misunderstood. In this three‑part series, Simon Millward aims to explain it... This is the first article in a three‑part series.
This is the first part in a short series devoted to one of the most neglected features of Steinberg's Cubase — the Logical Edit screen. Almost every Cubase user could make use of its facilities, but most are put off by the seemingly inscrutable and mathematical nature of its presentation. What this series does not intend to do is to plunge the reader in at the deep end, so I will be taking it little by little, beginning with a basic overview and some simple examples in this article, and progressing later to more complex problems. I am assuming, however, that the reader knows a little about the theory of MIDI. And, of course, reading the Logical Edit section of the Cubase manual would be helpful.
Before looking at Logical Edit itself, let's take some time to think about the logical aspects of music, generally. Most users will already be aware that many aspects of music can be expressed as mathematical data. In the context of MIDI, numbers are given to all the notes within the normal pitch range, numbers express the intensity (velocity) of these notes, and a sequencer will express their durations in terms of numbers of pulses. It follows, then, that if we are expressing three of the fundamental elements of musical expression (pitch, velocity and duration) as numbers, it's an easy matter to carry out logical operations upon them. Of course, there is no purely logical element in the making of good music, but this is not the point of Logical Edit. Logical Edit is a tool which reduces certain kinds of otherwise extremely laborious edit operations to one or two clicks of the mouse and enhances the creative control the user has over his or her music. There are moments in the lives of most sequencer users when a question which starts something like 'If only I could...' or 'Why can't I...?' is asked. Logical Edit can often provide the answer. Musicians and programmers often come up with rather abstract requirements for the processing of their music. Logical Edit offers a facility with which custom‑designed processing tools can be assembled by the user to fulfil these requirements. More than anything else, Logical Edit saves time.
We can express many potential Logical Edit operations in plain English — for example: 'if the MIDI event type is a note, then add 10 to the velocity' or 'if the MIDI event type is a note, then fix the duration at 96' or 'if the MIDI event type is a note and is equal to 36, then extract this note from the track and put it onto a new track'. These statements are fairly easy to understand and are examples of real Logical Edit functions I have used on numerous occasions. If you can understand these statements, the second step is simply to translate their logic onto the Logical Edit page of Cubase.
So we should now get to know some of the basic aspects of the Logical Edit page in Expert mode (Figure 1). For the purposes of this tutorial, the Easy Mode screen will not be used, as I consider it far more useful to get to know Expert Mode one step at a time.
Note value (pitch), velocity and duration (as mentioned above), are found on the Expert Logical Edit screen in the guise of VALUE 1, VALUE 2 and LENGTH. These are clearly marked in the FILTER and PROCESSING sections. So, for starters, we already know where to find some of the most important musical parameters on the Logical Edit screen. It is now simply a matter of knowing how to manipulate them. Why call the columns vague names like VALUE 1 and VALUE 2? This is because Logical Edit can be made to act on data other than notes, such as pitch bend and modulation. For the moment we are going to limit ourselves to note data alone.
I tend to visualise the FILTER and PROCESSING sections as equivalent to an IF, THEN statement, as found in computer languages. Those already familiar with a computer language will understand the logic of this. Essentially the logic of the Logical Edit screen can be simply expressed in the following statement: 'IF condition is true (or not true) THEN do the following calculation'. In the FILTER section we therefore set one or a number of conditions which 'filter' the type of data going through and in the PROCESSING section we specify the calculations/actions which are to take place on the chosen data. If you are not already familiar with the Logical Edit screen, now is a good time to take a look at it. Logical Edit may be selected from the Edit menu or called from the computer keyboard using [Control] [L]. Familiarise yourself especially with the contents of the pop‑up menus which are marked with a downward pointing arrow. These are opened simply by clicking with the Left mouse button. This may already have become a little complicated, and I can hear people asking what this has got to do with music, so let's get straight on to three introductory examples:
Practical Examples
- EXAMPLE 1
Problem: The feel of the bass line you have just recorded is perfect but it was played too softly.
Solution:
• While still on the Arrange page, make sure you have the part or track in question selected.
• Go to Logical Edit by selecting it from the Edit menu or use [Control][L] on the computer keyboard.
• Ensure that the screen is in Expert mode and initialise it by clicking on the 'Init' button in the lower right corner.
• Adjust the FILTER section so that the EVENT TYPE (column 1) 'equals note'. Leave all other FILTER columns in 'ignore' mode.
• Now adjust the PROCESSING section VALUE 2 (velocity) to 'Plus 10'. If you initialised the screen correctly, the Perform mode should already be in 'Transform' .
• Clicking on 'Perform' will add 10 to the velocity of all notes in the chosen pattern or track, thus making the part louder. Why 10? MIDI specifies a range of 0‑127 for the velocity of notes and 10 makes a reasonable audible difference. But please note that not all synths react in the same way to velocity information and some are not velocity sensitive at all.
- EXAMPLE 2
Problem: You have recorded a repeating synth melody which sits well in the song but you would like it to be more staccato (ie. quick notes with short durations).
Solution:
• Select the part or track in question on the Arrange page and go to Logical Edit.
• Initialise the screen.
• Adjust the FILTER section EVENT TYPE to 'Equal Note'.
• Adjust the PROCESSING section LENGTcolumn to 'Fix 96'.
• Ensure that the Perform operation mode is in 'Transform' .
• Clicking on 'Perform' will change the length of all notes in the chosen part or track to semi‑quavers (short notes). Why 96? Cubase has a resolution of 384 pulses per quarter note. There are four semiquavers in a quarter note; 384 divided by four equals 96. If this is not staccato enough, then try 48, or even 24.
- EXAMPLE 3
Problem: You often program drums as 'MIDI tracks' instead of 'Drum tracks' and, as often happens, you have the bass drum, snare and hi‑hat on the same track but wish to separate the bass drum onto its own track in order to do some detailed editing.
Solution:
• Go into Logical Edit from the Arrange page.
• Adjust the FILTER section EVENT TYPE column to 'Equal Note', and the VALUE 1 column to 'Equal 36 (C1)'.
• Adjust the Perform mode in the PROCESSING section to 'Extract' and leave all the columns in 'Keep' mode.
• Clicking on Perform will extract the chosen note 36 (or C1) from the part and automatically create a new track on the Arrange page within which to store the extracted notes. Why note number 36? The range of the full piano keyboard is expressed in MIDI as note numbers 21 to 108. As many will already know, the standard position for the main bass drum happens to be 36. This is also usually the first key of the keyboard found on most modern synthesizers.
There are other ways of dealing with the above problems, but these examples have been used as a simple way into Logical Edit. Things have been kept at a deliberately basic level to take into account those who have never used Logical Edit before and those who maybe don't know too much about the theory of MIDI. Of course, Logical Edit is capable of very much more elaborate and exciting functions so, for those of you who dare, let's go deeper.
Creating And Using Presets
One man's logic is not always the same as the next man's, so abstract problems are often better understood if they are noted down in plain English. Consider the following: a Cubase user requires a function which would take out selected groups of chosen notes from his/her music and store them elsewhere, ready for various kinds of processing. After processing, the chosen notes would be returned to their original positions. This doesn't appear to be particularly complex but fulfilling the requirement elegantly with Cubase is probably not quite as simple as it looks.
I first thought that the solution could be achieved in one or two moves — for example, going into Key or Grid Edit, choosing the required notes and then going directly into Logical Edit to use the 'extract' function (found in the PROCESSING operation type menu). There's just one problem: the 'extract' function is only available in Logical Edit if you go in directly from the Arrange screen. What was required, therefore, was some kind of system whereby notes chosen in List or Key Edit could be labelled and then extracted from the part after having returned to the Arrange screen. I decided that Logical Edit provided a reasonable way of achieving this but it involved more than one function.
The solution required the creation of two Logical Edit Presets. Presets provide a convenient method for repeating complex logical operations with one click of the mouse. The Presets menu is found in the lower left‑hand corner of the expert Logical Edit screen. User Presets can be saved into this menu and called directly as a pop‑up window from the Functions menu when in other parts of the program.
The procedure for creating our first Logical Edit preset runs as follows:
• Go into the Expert Logical Editor as normal.
• Choose a preset in the 'PRESETS' menu which you do not need.
• Click on 'Init' to initialise the screen.
• Set the 'EVENT TYPE' in the 'FILTER' section to 'Equal Note'.
• Select 'Fix 16' in the 'CHANNEL' column of the 'PROCESSING' section and make sure that the processing operation mode is in 'Transform'.
• Rename the current Preset with a new name by double‑clicking on the existing name to open the pop‑up entry box. If you wish to overwrite another existing Preset, select this while holding down 'Alternate'. Rename as 'Fix to 16', for example, and click on 'Store'.
This Preset will be used to label notes or parts. It changes (or fixes) the MIDI channel of the chosen notes or parts to 16. Why MIDI channel 16? Well, firstly, a relatively harmless labelling system was required, and the MIDI channels of notes may be changed with no immediate repercussions on the actual performance of the music, since the MIDI channel showing in the output channel on the Arrange page overrides that of the notes themselves. (Unless you are using 'Any' on one of your tracks). Secondly, channel 16 seemed the most likely one which would not already be in use. An alternative labelling system would have to be found if channel 16 was not appropriate.
Logical Edit Preset 2 is created in a similar manner:
• Go into Logical Edit directly from the Arrange page.
• Choose a Preset you do not need in the 'PRESETS' menu
• Click on 'Init' to initialise the screen
• Select 'Equal Note' and 'Equal 16' in the 'EVENT TYPE' and 'CHANNEL' columns of the 'FILTER' section
• Select 'extract' mode in the 'PROCESSING' operation menu.
• Rename your Preset as 'Extractor', for example, and click on 'Store' .
This Preset will be used to 'extract' chosen notes or parts from a track after they have been labelled using the other Preset. It may be called only on the Arrange page, since the Logical Edit 'extract' function is not available when in the other editors.
If you wish to keep your Presets, they should be saved as part of a Song file or as a Setup file.
The procedure for using these Presets runs as follows:
• Select a part on the Arrange page which requires editing and go into Key Edit (for example). The notes which you need to extract should be selected, one by one, using the mouse with the shift key or using a stretch box.
• Once they are selected, go to the 'Functions' menu and select 'Logical'. A pop‑up menu containing the Logical Edit Presets will appear.
• Select the first preset, 'Fix to 16'. This will label the selected notes.
• Now go back to the Arrange page by pressing the Return key or clicking 'Keep' on the screen.
• With the part still selected, (ie. still black) go into the 'Functions' menu and select 'Logical' again. This time choose the second Preset, 'Extractor'. You will see a newly created track and part appear on the screen below the existing tracks. This part will contain the chosen notes.
• After you have treated the extracted data in the desired fashion, it can later be put back into the original part using Cubase's 'Merge' function. Select and drag the extracted part while pressing 'Control' and 'Alternate' and let go of the mouse over the original part.
As you can see, the use of Presets can be very convenient and saves a lot of time. Uses for the above procedure could include the taking out of a segment of an arrangement for transmission on another MIDI channel, the extraction of every other note in a melodic sequence for special effects, and so on. Clearly, the concept of labelling events can have considerable advantages in sorting events into different categories for separate processing.
Processing Potential
Compared to the first three examples above, this last procedure gives the user an insight into the real potential of Logical Edit. Consider also the wealth of other functions available in the pop‑up menus of the PROCESSING section. There is the possibility of adding or subtracting, multiplying or dividing the chosen data by a given value, fixing the data type to a set value, dynamically adjusting parts between two values, and random operations on data. Certain of these functions are better suited to specific data types and operations. For example, it is possible to raise the values of notes by one semitone using 'multiply by 1.02' , but it is far easier to simply use 'plus 1'. The multiplication function is far better used in the 'POSITION' column; if the position is multiplied by two, this will halve the tempo of a given part and if we divide by two this will double the tempo. These two functions are already saved as Presets in the 10 Presets which come with Cubase. The dynamic function (dyn) can be effectively used in the velocity column (VALUE 2) to produce crescendos and diminuendos (so sequences can be faded in or out between two user‑defined values). This is effective for snare or timpani rolls and all other musical situations requiring dynamic ornamentation. It is probably irresistible to use the random function on note values at least once, but random can be used to better effect with note velocity, for example. If you have a part that seems rather lifeless, or a repetitive synth part into which you wish to inject a little variation, then entering, for example, a random variation between 85 and 100 in the velocity column (VALUE 2) may be the answer.
I hope these tips have whetted your appetite for my second instalment next month, which will feature Logical Edit hi‑hat processing. See you then!