Cubase Logical Edit Explained, Part 3

In the concluding part of this series, Simon Millward explains how to create MIDI effects like auto‑pan, tremolo and gating using Logical Edit. This is the last article in a three‑part series.

This month, I'm concluding this three‑part series with a look at some logical manipulations of various kinds of Controller data. Most readers will be familiar with Pitch Bend and Modulation and the wheels that control them, found on most synthesizers. These effects could also be controlled from Logical Edit, but they're probably best left to the dedicated wheels and other functions of Cubase. However, there are a number of more exotic Controllers in the MIDI specification which aren't really suited to wheel manipulation. Logical Edit can manipulate this kind of Controller data in a way that would be difficult to achieve in real time.

Imagine trying to record a fast, accurate MIDI auto‑pan effect in real time; nearly impossible. But with Logical Edit you can tackle this kind of thing reasonably quickly. What you need is a kind of Logical Edit Controller Toolbox and a way of working with it which can be applied to different Controllers. The examples below will outline, above all, ways of 'inserting' Controller events after the notes have been recorded. I'll start with auto‑pan, but I'll also be going on to discuss tremolo and key gate effects, all created with the help of Logical Edit.

Common to some of the tools will be the need to pre‑fill the part with a dummy Controller. Why? Because we will be using the 'Insert' function of Logical Edit and the data to be inserted needs something to latch onto. 'Insert' adds new events to a part only in relation to events already in existence. If a part is empty, 'insert' has no function! Hence, pre‑filling the part with dummy events ensures that we can add new events at the required intensity. All will become clearer as we go on, I promise!

Before going on to specific examples, let's just take a moment to understand a little theory. When we set the EVENT TYPE to 'Control Change' in the FILTER or PROCESSING sections of the Logical Edit page, the VALUE 1 and VALUE 2 columns assume different meanings. Instead of the MIDI note number, the VALUE 1 column corresponds to any one of the available Controllers in the MIDI specification (Modulation is specified as Controller number 1, Volume is Controller number 7, Pan is Controller number 10, and so on). Instead of velocity, the VALUE 2 column defines the setting of the chosen Controller. Both columns may assume values of between 0 and 127.

Now let's get down to business.

• To pre‑fill the part with dummy Controller data, choose or create a part on the Arrange page and go into List Edit.
• Set the 'Insert' line to Control Change and set SNAP to 8.
• Use 'Fill' in the Function menu to insert dummy Controller events at 1/8 note intervals. Leave the Controller events at their default value of 0. Controller 0 is the Bank Select Controller and if this is not convenient for your setup, change it to one of the General Purpose Controllers between 16 and 19, for example, using Logical Edit.
• 'Keep' the part and then go into Key Edit.
• Open the Controller display and select the appropriate Controller icon; a line of dummy Controller events should be visible. These events should have no effect whatsoever on the actual music; they are simply used as the framework to which we can attach other Controller data which WILL have an effect on the music. The dummy events will be deleted after editing has been completed.

You're now ready to create the first tools for your Logical Edit Controller toolbox.

Setting Up Auto Pan

The auto‑pan effect requires the creation of five Logical Edit presets. These will be named as follows: — 'Pan L to R', 'Pan R to L', 'Select Pan', 'Speed Up' and 'Slow Down'. The use of these presets requires the part to be filled with dummy Controller events, as described above. MIDI specifies Controller 10 as pan. A value of 0 for this Controller pans the sound to the extreme left, and a value of 127 pans to the extreme right. The first preset, 'Pan L to R', does simply that — it pans the chosen track from left to right in the stereo image. To create the first preset, go into Logical Edit in expert mode and proceed as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Control Change and the VALUE 1 column to Equal 0.
• In the PROCESSING section, 'Fix' the VALUE 1 column to 10, set the VALUE 2 column to a 'Dyn' setting of 0 to 127 and set the POSITION column to 'Divide' by 2.
• Set Logical Edit to 'Insert' mode and store as a preset under the appropriate name. This preset inserts an ascending value sequence of Controller 10 events for every dummy Controller event it finds.

For the second preset, 'Pan R to L':

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Control Change and the VALUE 1 column to Equal 10.
• In the PROCESSING section, 'Fix' the VALUE 1 column to 10, set the VALUE 2 column to 'Invert' and set the POSITION column to 'Plus' 768.
• Once again, set Logical Edit to 'Insert' mode and store as a preset under the appropriate name. This preset will use the Controller data created by the first preset to insert an inverted version of the events, half a bar (768 ticks) later. (Users of Atari Cubase 3.10 may find a bug with the POSITION part of this exercise, but it works fine with Version 3.01 and I presume the bug has been fixed in the Score 2 version).

For the 'Select Pan' preset, proceed as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Control Change and the VALUE 1 column to Equal 10.
• Ignore the PROCESSING section, and set Logical Edit to 'Select' mode and store as a preset. This preset simply selects all pan data in the part.

For the 'Speed Up' preset, proceed as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Control Change and the VALUE 1 column to Equal 10.
• In the PROCESSING section, set the POSITION column to 'Divide' by 2.
• Set Logical Edit to 'Transform' mode and store as a preset.

The 'Slow Down' preset is created in the same manner, except that 'multiply' by 2 should be entered in the POSITION column. These presets double or halve the speed of all pan events they find in the part.

Before using the presets, we need to create one more general‑purpose preset which will be used to delete the dummy Controller data initially recorded into the part. We'll name this 'DelDummy' and create it as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Control Change and set the VALUE 1 column to Equal 0.
• Ignore the PROCESSING section, and set Logical Edit to 'Delete' mode and store as a preset. You must, of course, adapt your preset if you have used a differently‑numbered dummy Controller.

Using Auto‑Pan

That's the set of auto‑pan tools assembled — now it's time to use them.

• Create a new 2‑bar part on the Arrange page and fill it with dummy Controller events as described above.
• Set the track of the new part to the appropriate MIDI channel — i.e. the same MIDI channel as the track to which you wish to apply an auto‑pan effect.
• Select the new part and go into Key Edit.
• Select the pan Controller from the menu in the Controller display by clicking on the Controller icon.
• Next, set a 1‑bar loop by clicking and dragging the mouse pointer in the Position Bar. Make sure that the pop‑up Event 'select' menu, (next to the GOTO menu), is in 'Looped' mode.
• Action the first auto‑pan preset, 'Pan L to R', from the pop‑up Logical presets menu found in the main Functions menu. A number of pan events will be inserted into the first half of the selected bar.
• Now go back to the Logical presets menu and action the second preset, 'Pan R to L'. This takes care of the second half of the bar with an inverted copy of the first half. The first two presets have been designed to work with a looped 1‑bar section in 4/4 time. You should now have a 'pyramid' shaped pattern of pan events visible in the Controller display.

This 'pyramid' is the essential building block of our auto‑pan. At the moment it will smoothly pan a sound from left to right and back to left again, over a length of one bar. What we need now, however, is a way of repeating the pan over the length of the part and of managing the speed of the auto‑pan. This is achieved with a combination of the Logical Edit auto‑pan tools and other functions of Cubase.

• To repeat the pan, first select all pan events using the 'Select Pan' preset.
• If you have created a part of four bars or more, make sure that the pop‑up edit 'select' menu is in 'Selected Looped' mode and use 'Repeat' found in the pop‑up 'FUNCTION' menu of Key Edit. The selected looped section, (i.e. the pan events alone), will be repeated to the end of the part.
• If you have created a 2‑bar part, as recommended, it is easier to use the Copy and Paste functions found in the Edit menu to repeat the data.
• To change the speed of the auto‑pan, de‑select the loop and use the 'Speed Up' and 'Slow Down' presets.
• Continue to use Key Edit's 'Repeat', or 'Copy and Paste', with the Logical Edit speed presets to arrive at the desired result. Very fast, perfectly‑formed auto‑panning is possible. This kind of effect is difficult to achieve without the Logical Edit auto‑pan toolbox. Finally, when you are completely satisfied with the result, use the 'DelDummy' preset, as described above, to delete all the dummy Controller events that were input at the beginning of the operation and leave Key Edit using 'Keep'.

Knowing Logical Edit can also lead to a more complete understanding of MIDI and Cubase itself.

Remember that you shouldn't create a very long part full of pan data, as this kind of effect can become very memory hungry (a 2‑bar part is usually sufficient). Once you're back on the Arrange page, you can create ghost parts of the original and repeat the auto‑pan for as long as desired. Remember also, however, that this kind of effect is pushing a lot of data all at once down that poor old MIDI cable, so, if your set up allows it, separate things to different MIDI outputs. As with all juicy effects, beware of the tendency to over‑use.

MIDI Tremolo

We'll now look at assembling some Logical Edit tools for the creation of a MIDI tremolo effect. This is really very easy, since the tremolo presets are almost exactly the same as the auto‑pan presets.

Tremolo is rapid variation of the volume of a signal at a fixed rate and depth — the rate and depth are usually adjustable to produce the desired intensity and effect. To create this effect with MIDI, we'll need to manipulate Controller 7 (Volume) data. Proceed as follows:

• Load in or create the auto‑pan presets (if they are not already in memory) as described above and go into Logical Edit.

Every time you see a 10 (Pan) in the VALUE 1 column of either the FILTER or the PROCESSING sections of each preset, change this to a 7 (Volume).

• Store the new settings under new preset names and then follow the procedure for using them as described for the auto‑pan operation. The only difference is that this time you'll be working on Volume data and not Pan data, so you'll need to be looking at Volume data in the Controller display of Key Edit. Remember also that, in order for things to work properly, you must pre‑fill the part with dummy Controller 0 events (or another dummy Controller number, if 0 is not suitable). Alternatively, you could take an existing part containing auto‑pan data and simply convert the Pan data to Volume data using Logical Edit. Remember, however, that the rate of the tremolo effect will invariably be faster than that of an auto‑pan. The result is a very convincing and effective tremolo effect.

Some readers will have found the construction of the auto‑pan and tremolo presets an inordinate amount of work, but remember, it only has to be done once — once created, presets can be saved to disk as part of a 'Set‑Up' or 'Song' file.

Creating A MIDI Gate Effect

The final tools for our Logical Edit Controller toolbox simulate a key‑trigger gate effect. The process involves the manipulation of Volume data, but before we create the necessary presets we must first understand what is meant by a key‑trigger gate effect. Most readers will know what a noise gate is; it's an audio device which opens or closes the signal path according to various threshold and rate settings. Among its simplest functions might be to close the signal path at a very low threshold setting in order to block out unwanted background noise (between the sung lines of a vocalist, for example). The signal path from the microphone would only be open when the vocalist is actually singing. Thus the opening and closing of the gate is governed by the characteristics of the signal in relation to the user settings on the unit. However, the gate can also be set to respond to a secondary input source. This is usually known as the key input. In this mode, you could have, for example, a sustained chord sound (main signal) being gated in and out according to the rhythm of a hi‑hat (key input signal).

A simple key‑trigger effect can be mimicked using MIDI Volume data. The aim of the exercise is to control the volume level of one track according to the rhythm and intensity of another. The notes and the velocities of the chosen key source track would be translated into Volume data. When a note is present, our MIDI gate would be open, and when there's no note it would be closed. With Logical Edit, it's a fairly straightforward matter to translate note events into Volume Controller Events. The Note values themselves need not be translated. Each note event can be simply 'fixed' as a Controller 7 (Volume) event in the VALUE 1 column of Logical Edit. The Velocities of the notes in the VALUE 2 column need not be a concern since they can be directly translated into the actual volume level for each Controller 7 event. So the opening of the MIDI gate presents no real problem — but the closing of the gate is not so simple. Logical Edit does not give us access to the Note Off element of note events. We cannot, therefore, use the end of a note as the point in time to close the gate, by inserting a zero Volume event. My solution involves the creation of four Logical Edit presets which will become part of our ever‑expanding Logical Edit Controller toolbox. I have simply named them, in the order in which they will be used, 'KeyGate 1, 2, 3 and 4'.

For the purposes of this exercise, I will be making reference to 'zero Volume' and 'Volume Up' events. Zero Volume refers to MIDI Controller 7 events with their levels set to 0, and Volume Up refers to MIDI Controller 7 events with their levels set to anything between 1 and 127.

'KeyGate 1' involves the insertion of zero Volume events and is created in Logical Edit in expert mode as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Note and the LENGTcolumn to 'Lower than 144'.
• In the PROCESSING section, 'Fix' the EVENT TYPE to Control Change, 'Fix' the VALUE 1 column to 7, 'Fix' the VALUE 2 column to 0 and the POSITION column to 'Plus 40'.
• Set Logical Edit to Insert mode and store as a preset under the appropriate name. This preset will insert zero Volume events at just under 1/32 (40 ticks) of a note after the onset of each note it finds with a length of less than a dotted 1/16 note (144 ticks), within the part. Or, to put it more simply, this preset forces the gate to close a very short time after the onset of each very short note it finds in the part.

The Logical Edit settings for 'KeyGate 2' are similar to 'KeyGate 1', except that the LENGTcolumn of the FILTER section should be changed to 'Inside 144‑240', and the POSITION column of the PROCESSING section should be changed to 'Plus 88'. This preset works in the same way as 'KeyGate 1' but is concerned with notes of slightly longer duration.

'KeyGate 3' is, once again, similar to the first two presets, except that the LENGTcolumn of the FILTER section should be changed to 'Higher than 239' and the POSITION column of the PROCESSING section should be changed to 'Plus 136'. This preset deals with zero Volume events for all the remaining longer notes within the part.

Some readers will be asking why I bothered to use three presets instead of one. It's true that we could have regulated the length of the gate with one preset, but I have attempted to create something a little more musical which, after exhaustive tests, I have found simulates more closely the actions of a real key‑trigger gate effect. In any case, those readers requiring something very simple could use a single preset for the purposes of the zero Volume part of this exercise and, of course, the settings of each preset could be changed for experimental purposes and other effects.

Finally, 'KeyGate 4' is created as follows:

• In the FILTER section, set the EVENT TYPE to Equal Note and ignore all other columns.
• In the PROCESSING section, 'Fix' the EVENT TYPE to Control Change and 'Fix' the VALUE 1 column to 7.
• Set Logical Edit to 'Transform' mode and store as a preset under the appropriate name. This preset is the Volume Up part of the procedure. It transforms all notes in the part into Volume Up events. At the same time, the velocities (VALUE 2) of these notes are transformed into the actual volume level for each event. The result is a key‑trigger gate effect which is not only sensitive to the length of the notes (thanks to the first three presets) but which is also sensitive to the intensity (velocity) of the playing.

To use the presets simply copy the part, (or mix down the parts), that you wish to use as the source for the key‑trigger gate effect. I would suggest either a hi‑hat part or a bass drum and snare for starters.

• Select the new part and go into Key Edit.
• Select Volume in the Controller display and use the four Logical Edit presets in their numbered order from the pop‑up Logical presets menu found in the main Functions menu.
• The first three presets insert zero Volume events, so there will be no changes particularly visible in the Controller display window, but the moment you use 'KeyGate 4' all notes in the part will disappear and be replaced by a corresponding series of Volume events. When you're satisfied with your Logical efforts, 'keep' the results and go back to the Arrange window.
• You can now change the track to the desired MIDI channel and the Volume data will be imposed upon any music already on that channel. Alternatively, try playing a sustained chord on the chosen channel while cycling on the part containing the Volume data. Remember that, once you have created your presets, they can also be actioned from the Arrange page. The process is not particularly memory‑hungry, so you can even process an entire track. Just remember to copy the part or the track before editing, as all note data will be irretrievably transformed.

The settings of the presets were established after tests with various rhythm patterns and, if you choose your source parts well, you should have no problems. The 'KeyGate' presets may be saved as a Set‑Up file and loaded back into Cubase when required.

So there you have it: the beginnings of a Logical Edit Controller toolbox. The logically adventurous among you may like to design additional tools for some of the other Controllers in the MIDI specification.

Closing Words

I hope that those readers who've been following this series will find that the Logical Edit page has been considerably demystified. The examples presented here provide a useful companion to the Logical Edit section of the Cubase manual. I have attempted to present the details from a practical point of view, and readers who have actually recreated the examples themselves will have benefited most. I do hope that the series has also encouraged a few of you to explore the Logical Edit page further. Logical Edit is best understood in the actual doing rather than in the theory.

Knowing Logical Edit can also lead to a more complete understanding of MIDI and Cubase itself. In many of the examples, Logical Edit was used in conjunction with other parts of the program, and in this way I've tried to encourage the Cubase user to capture the real power of the program by combining the strengths of two or three Editors at the same time. In addition, if you know Logical Edit, then Cubase's 'Input Transform' function in the Options menu becomes child's play.

And so, finally, amid a flood of Logical tears it's... goodbye!

Readers should note that the examples contained in this series apply to the most recent versions of Cubase (V3 and later).