Transposing

Several transposing options are available to move existing notes to other note values. If you have one or more MIDI events selected, only those notes will be affected by the transposition. If either a MIDI part is selected in the project window or you have either the key or list editors open, all notes in that part will be affected by transposition.

Transpose by Semitones

The simplest form of transposition is by semitones. You can define the number of semitones to transpose in the Transpose Setup… found under the MIDI menu. (See Figure 11.16.)

Figure 11.16 The Transpose Setup dialog box.

The number of semitones can be positive or negative depending on which direction you wish to move the notes. For example, in order to take a bass line and move it up a whole octave higher, input +12 semitones for the value. To move the bass line down an octave, input -12 semitones.

Transpose by Scale

It is also possible to transpose individual notes based on their placement within a musical scale. This enters into music theory and can be applied in very creative and interesting ways. Basically, Nuendo will look at each selected note and determine if it fits within a defined musical scale. If not, it will be moved to the closest scale note.

You can enter values for the current scale and key, including no scale, and then set a scale and key that you desire the notes to match. For example, the settings shown in Figure 11.17 will convert all note values to ones that fall within the C Major scale.

Figure 11.17 Transpose scale settings for C Major.

Note The semitone transposition is applied first before the scale transposition. All settings of the transpose setup are applied together. You must set the semitone transposition to 0 to avoid its application.

Use Range for Transposition

You may limit the values that transposing can create by setting notes in the Use Range fields. If a transposed note falls outside these boundaries, it will either be moved an octave to within the range or moved to the range limit if the first option is not possible.

For example, if both the upper and lower limits are set to the same note value, all selected MIDI notes will be changed to that single value. This could be used to convert a musical passage into a percussion part.