Steinberg Sequel - 2.0 Operation Manual
Operation Manual
Original Sequel Operation Manual by Steve Kostrey, Michael Baggley
Revision and Quality Control for this version:
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission
by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are
registered trademarks.
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2008.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
6 Introduction
7 Welcome
7 About this manual
7 Key command conventions
8 System requirements and installation
9 About this chapter
9 Minimum requirements
9 Installing Sequel
9 Activating Sequel
10 Register your software
10 Read on…
11 Tutorial 1: Recording
12 The tutorials
12 Recording audio
17 Recording instrument parts
19 Tutorial 2: Editing
20 Introduction
20 Editing audio events
23 Editing instrument parts
26 Tutorial 3: Mixing
27 Introduction
27 Setting levels
27 Setting Pan
28 Mute and Solo
28 Adding EQ
29 Audio effects
31 Adding automation
33 Exporting
35 Tutorial 4: Live Pads and
Chain Play mode
36 Introduction
36 Arranger parts
36 Live Mode
37 Chain Play Mode
38 The Pilot Zone
39 Introduction
39 The Sequel menu (Mac only)
39 The File, Project and Edit menus
42 The Automation buttons
43 The Edit Remote Control Assignment button
43 Minimizing, maximizing and closing
43 The ruler
44 The Tuner
44 The Transport controls
46 The Metronome
46 Computer Usage
46 The Pilot Zone display
48 The Virtual Keyboard
49 The Arrange Zone
50 Introduction
50 The Track list buttons
51 Resizing the Arrange Zone
51 About tracks and track controls
56 Timeline and grid
56 Zooming in the Arrange Zone
57 Working with the Smart Tool
59 The Multi Zone
60 Introduction
60 The Mixer Page
62 The Track Inspector Page
67 The MediaBay Page
70 The Editor Page
75 The Arranger Page
77 The Program Settings Page
79 Advanced features
80 Introduction
80 Adding silence
81 Audio quantization and warp
83 Smart Transpose
85 One button record
85 Remote-controlling Sequel
4
Table of Contents
88 Setting up your system
89 About this chapter
89 General notes on how to set up your system
89 Defragmenting the hard disk (Windows only)
89 MIDI requirements
89 Audio hardware
91 Setting up audio
94 Setting up MIDI
94 Optimizing audio performance
96 Key commands
97 Introduction
97 The available key commands
99 Effects reference
100 Introduction
100 Track/Global Effects
101 Instrument parameters
102 Index
5
Table of Contents
1
Introduction
Welcome
Congratulations and thank you for your purchase of Steinberg Sequel 2. You have now become a member of the
world's largest community of music production software
users. Looking back at more than 20 years of innovation in
computer-based music production, Steinberg has always
been the driving force behind software technology.
Sequel is an entry-level sequencer designed to be an
easy-to-use, all-inclusive music production platform. Sequel provides all of the tools needed to record, edit and
mix music.
Sequel 2 can be used in the ‘traditional’ way to record, edit
and mix audio or virtual instruments. For example, a home
musician could record himself playing an instrument (either
an acoustic or a virtual instrument) or singing. An electric
guitar can be plugged directly into an audio interface and
then be recorded with Sequel’s on-board effects.
Music enthusiasts may want to take a wholly different approach to creating music. Their starting point is Sequel’s
extensive library of loops and phrases. Pieces of music can
be assembled based entirely on loops and without actually
playing a single note on a keyboard or instrument. Typically, this is a more DJ-oriented workflow and very popular
especially for current dance and electronic music styles.
Another key-application of Sequel 2 is live performance.
The concept of mixing and remixing is familiar to practically
everyone today and has become a creative act in its own
right, sometimes totally unrelated to creating new music itself. Sequel provides all the tools necessary to mixing and
remixing music.
The act of performing music on stage using a computer
has become standard in today’s music and club scene.
The goal of performing music on stage might be someone’s primary motivation to use his/her computer for making music. Sequel puts a special focus on the live aspect
of making music, which separates it from traditional sequencers. Instead of linear playback, it has special tools to
perform and interact, by mixing and re-combining sections
of a song or project.
After you have registered Sequel online, take some time to
explore the community section at www.sequel-music.net.
You will find lots of useful information and get to know other
users in our discussion forums. Registering at www.steinberg.net/mysteinberg also gives you access to special offers from Steinberg in the future.
Have fun creating your own music!
The Steinberg Sequel Team
About this manual
This manual is divided into three sections. The first section
guides you through several tutorials showing you how to
use Sequel.
The second section gives you a brief description of every
feature in Sequel. At the end of this manual you will find
useful tips for your work with Sequel and information on
how to set up your computer.
We are sure that after you have completed these sections
you will be on your way to having a lot of fun and making
exciting music.
Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in Sequel use modifier
keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. For example, the default key command for
Undo is [Ctrl]+[Z] under Windows and [Command]+[Z]
under Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in
this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier
key first, in the following way:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]+[key]
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Z] means “press [Ctrl] un-
der Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then press
[Z]”. Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]+[X] means “press [Alt] under
Windows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
7
Introduction
2
System requirements and installation
About this chapter
Installing Sequel
This chapter describes the requirements and installation
procedures for the Windows version and the Mac version
of Sequel.
Minimum requirements
Ö The following requirements are based on performance
measurements for a typical project with an average 12
tracks (incl. 3 to 5 instrument tracks), global effects, compressor and EQ per track, measured at 512 samples buffer
size. Slower computers can still be used, but only using
fewer tracks and/or higher buffer size.
To use Sequel, your computer must meet the following
minimum requirements:
Windows
• Windows XP (Home SP2), Windows Vista (Home Basic)
• Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 2 GHz Desktop, 1.7 GHz Mobile
or Dual Core 1.6 GHz
•1 GB RAM
• 6 GB of free hard disk space
• Windows DirectX compatible audio hardware; ASIO compatible audio hardware recommended for low latency performance.
• Display resolution of 1280x800 pixels
• DVD ROM drive required for installation
• Internet connection required for license activation
Macintosh
• Mac OS X 10.4
• Power Mac G5 1.8 GHz or Core Solo 1.5 GHz
•1 GB RAM
• 6 GB of free hard disk space
• Display resolution of 1280x800 pixels
• CoreAudio compatible audio hardware
• DVD ROM drive required for installation
• Internet connection required for license activation
The installation procedure puts all files in the right places,
automatically.
Windows
1. Insert the Sequel DVD into the DVD drive of your computer.
2. Locate and double-click the file called “Setup.exe” on
the Sequel installation DVD.
3. Follow the instructions on screen.
Macintosh
1. Insert the Sequel DVD into the DVD drive of your computer.
2. Double-click the file called “Sequel.mpkg”.
3. Follow the instructions on screen.
Whether you install Sequel on a Mac or Windows computer you will need to activate Sequel.
Activating Sequel
After installing Sequel you will have to activate the program on your computer.
• As the last step in the installation, the Syncrosoft License
Control Center is opened. The “License Download Wizard”
is displayed.
• If the Licencse Download Wizard is not opened automatically, open the Wizards menu and select the License
Download function to open it.
• Follow the instructions and enter your Sequel activation
code.
9
System requirements and installation
Register your software
We encourage you to register your software! By doing so
you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of updates and other news regarding Sequel. There are two
ways to register:
• In Sequel, open the File menu and select the “User
Registration…” option.
This is an Internet link that will open the Registration page of the Steinberg
web site. To register, follow the instructions on screen. When you launch
Sequel, you will also be prompted to launch the registration process.
• Included on the Sequel installation DVD you can find a
registration form in pdf format. To register, print out the
form, enter all required information and send it to Steinberg.
Read on…
…to learn how to use Sequel:
• First, you will find tutorials that will get you up and run-
ning quickly.
These tutorials refer to projects located in the default project folder, and
a video file that you will find on the program DVD.
• Detailed descriptions of all program functions can be
found in the chapters covering the various Sequel “zones”.
• At the end of this manual you will find information on
more advanced techniques, tips on how to set up your
computer system for audio work, the effects reference,
and a list of the Sequel keyboard shortcuts.
10
System requirements and installation
3
Tutorial 1: Recording
The tutorials
The Pilot Zone is described
in the chapter “The Pilot
Zone” on page 38.
Details on the Arrange
Zone can be found in the
chapter “The Arrange
Zone” on page 49.
The Multi Zone and its various
pages are described in the
chapter “The Multi Zone” on
page 59.
!
The following chapters provide a quick introduction to Sequel. But first, please take a look at the figure below, as it
gives you an overview of the Sequel program interface:
In this first tutorial, we are going to show you how the Pilot
Zone, Arrange Zone, and Multi Zone work together when
recording audio events and Instrument parts.
Recording audio
In this section, we are going to take a look at recording a
guitar line, adding a drum loop and playing it back. Make
sure that you have your audio card set up correctly, see
the chapter “Setting up your system” on page 88.
Creating a new project
By default, Sequel creates a new project when you boot
up the program. You can change this on the Program Settings Page. See the chapter “The Program Settings Page”
on page 77 for more details.
To create a new project if a project is already open
• Open the Project menu and select the option “New
Project”.
This will create a new project with nothing in it and close
the project that was already open. If this project contains
unsaved changes, you will be asked whether these
changes should be saved.
You’re not done yet! So far we’ve created a blank
Sequel project. We still need to save the project.
12
Tutorial 1: Recording
Setting the save folder
!
Click here to select a
different input.
In order to save projects in Sequel, it is important to make
sure you know where the projects are going to be saved.
1. Go to the Program Settings Page.
2. Click on the “Project Location” button.
3. A dialog opens allowing you to browse you computer
and find a suitable location. When you installed Sequel it
automatically created a location for saving projects.
4. You can click “Create” to create a new folder if you
would like to save your projects elsewhere.
5. Let’s leave it set to the default folder Sequel has cre-
ated. Click “OK”.
To save a project
Now let’s add an audio track to record onto. For our example we are going to record a guitar. You can also record
bass or whatever instrument you want. The method is the
same for any instrument you wish to record.
Ö By default, the audio input for the track is set to the
first input available in the “Input Selection” pop-up menu.
To be able to see the Input selection, make sure the track
height is set to Large at the bottom of the track list.
1. Click the “Add New Track” button above the track list.
2. In the dialog that appears, select the “Audio” button.
1. Open the Project menu and select the “Save Project”
option.
3. Select “empty” and click “OK”. This adds an audio
track to the project.
2. Type in a name for your project – you can use “First
Sequel Project” for example.
3. Click “OK”.
The project will automatically be saved in the folder you
specified on the Program Settings Page.
Adding an audio track
Ö The following sections make references to tutorial
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
Load the project called “Recording” found in the
“Sequel Tutorial 1” folder.
Tutorial 1: Recording
4. Double-click the track name and change it to “Guitar”.
13
Turning on the Metronome click
!
Choose a drum loop… …and drag it into the Arrange Zone.
We’ll want to have a click or metronome play in the background as we record the guitar so that what we record
aligns with the bars and beats displayed in the ruler.
• Activate the Metronome button in the Pilot Zone.
The metronome is automatically set to add a two bars precount before recording starts.
We now need to set the speed or tempo of our project. This
directly affects the speed of the metronome click. You can
change the tempo in the Tempo display field. For more on
changing tempo, see “The Tempo (TEMPO)” on page 47.
We have a default setting of 120 which means 120 BPM
or beats per minute. We can leave it at that.
4. In the Style column, select a style that suits the style of
guitar line you would like to record.
5. Activate the Preview button and browse through the
list on the right until you find a suitable loop.
6. Drag the selected drum loop into the Arrange Zone
and line it up with bar 1, just below the guitar track.
You can adjust the metronome volume using the
“Metronome Level” slider on the Program Settings
Page in the Multi Zone.
Adding a drum loop
Let’s add some drums to the project.
Ö Adding a drum loop to your project is not only great for
supporting the metronome when you are recording bass
or guitar, it's also great if you aren’t a drummer or if you
don’t have the ability to record drums at home.
1. Select the MediaBay Page in the Multi Zone.
2. In the Category column, select “Drum&Perc”.
3. In the Sub Category column, select “Beats”.
14
Tutorial 1: Recording
7. Use the Repeat function to make the loop 4 bars long.
Indicator moves left and right Note and octave
Just click in the middle of the right edge of the event and drag right until
the loop is repeated to the beginning of bar 5. See “Repeating events”
on page 57 for more detailed information on repeating.
8. Rename the track “Drums”.
Ö Note that the tempo of the project has now changed to
match the drum loop. When you drag a file into a project
and it is the first file to be added, its tempo will define the
project tempo.
Read more about defining or changing the project tempo in “The Tempo
(TEMPO)” on page 47.
Setting levels
In our example, we have a guitar playing through an amplifier with a microphone in front of the amplifier’s speaker.
This microphone is plugged directly into the Steinberg
MI|4 microphone input. We have set the level on the MI|4
so that we have enough volume without clipping.
Activating the Record Ready button will allow us to hear
the guitar. You should see the audio coming in to the right
of the track.
Do the best you can to send the maximum amount of volume to the audio inputs of your audio card before you hear
any distortion. Most audio cards show some kind of level
or volume indication. If yours doesn’t, don’t worry; we can
change the amount using the track volume slider.
Tuning your instrument
Sequel features a built-in tuner for tuning instruments like
guitar or bass.
1. Make sure that the guitar track is selected and that the
Record Ready button is activated so that we can hear the
input.
2. Activate the Tuner in the Pilot Zone.
3. Pluck a string on your guitar.
The Tuner automatically detects which string you are hitting as long as it is in fairly close proximity to the right tuning. The tuning indicator will move left or right. If it moves
to the left, the string is flat. If it moves to the right, the
string is sharp.
The Tuner also displays the current note and octave that
your string is tuned to. In our case, the D string is a little
flat, so the tuner is displaying “d 2”.
4. Tune up each of your instrument’s strings.
5. Deactivate the Tuner.
You are now ready to record!
15
Tutorial 1: Recording
Recording the guitar
!
1. Click in the ruler at the position where you want the re-
cording to start to move the project cursor to this position.
You can also click the the “Jump to Previous Marker” and “Jump to Next
Marker” buttons in the Pilot Zone to position the project cursor in the Arrange Zone.
2. Make sure that Cycle is deactivated (not highlighted).
3. Activate the “Record Ready” button for the track you
want to record on.
4. Click the “Record” button to record the guitar – you
will automatically get two bars of precount.
This is indicated by two cursors: a red cursor appears at the position
where you start recording and a black one jumps two bars back and advances towards the record position. This allows you to see the remaining
count in time and the record start position at the same time. The red cursor
will not be shown if the record start position is set to the first bar.
Playback
To listen to what you have just recorded, you have to play
it back. Playback in Sequel is easy, but there are a few
tricks to learn so that you’ll be playing back with precision!
Load the project “Playback” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 1” folder.
To start playback
There are a few ways to start playback in Sequel.
• Click on the play button.
• Press the space bar on your computer keyboard – this toggles
between start and stop.
• Press the [Enter] key on the numerical computer keypad.
• Double-click in the lower half of the ruler.
To stop playback
• Click on the play button during playback.
• Press the space bar on your computer keyboard – this toggles
between start and stop.
• Press the [0] key on the numerical computer keypad.
Cycle playback
Sequel has the ability to cycle (or “loop”) a section of your
project. To set the cycle location, you need to use the left
and right locators.
1. Let’s draw in a cycle region from bar 2 to 3. This tells
Sequel that we want to cycle the section between bars 2
and 3. Turn snap on to help you create a precise region.
You can press [J] on your computer keyboard to toggle Snap on and off.
5. Press the space bar when you are finished, to stop recording.
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first piece of
audio in Sequel. Move ahead to the next section to learn
how to play it back.
2. Move the mouse pointer up to the top of the ruler. It will
turn into a pencil. Click and drag from bar 2 to bar 3.
16
Tutorial 1: Recording
3. Make sure the Cycle button is activated.
!
Recording
Now that we have a track and we have our sound, let’s
record something. Recording instrument parts is very similar to recording audio events. Make sure you read the beginning of this chapter where we discuss recording audio.
4. Click the “Jump to previous marker” or “Jump to next
marker” buttons until the song position cursor is sitting directly on bar 2.
5. Press the space bar to start playback. Sequel will play
looping over and over again until you press the space bar
a second time.
Recording instrument parts
In this section we are going to take a look at recording instrument parts into a project using instrument tracks.
Load the project called “Recording MIDI” found in
the “Sequel Tutorial 1” folder.
Creating an instrument track
Let’s start by adding an instrument track to our project.
1. Click the “Add New Track” button in the Pilot Zone.
2. In the dialog that appears, select the “Instrument” but-
ton.
3. Use the “Category” filter and choose a sound that fits in
with your song. We are going to select a Synth Pad sound.
Ö Sequel automatically finds and uses any MIDI devices
that we have on our computer.
Ö The MIDI input to an instrument track is always set to
“All Inputs”.
1. Activate the “Record Ready” button for the track and
press a few keys on your MIDI keyboard. You should see
and hear the MIDI signals coming in to the right of the track.
2. Make sure the Cycle button is turned off.
3. Press the [.] key on your numeric keypad to set the
song position to bar 1. This will ensure that we start recording at the start of the song.
4. Press the [*] key on your numeric keypad to start re-
cording. Record 4 bars.
5. Press the space bar when you are finished.
6. Turn off “Record Ready” so that we don’t hear the in-
put any more.
4. Rename the track “Synth”. Feel free to give this track a
different name if you chose a different type of sound.
17
Tutorial 1: Recording
Congratulations! You have just recorded your first instru-
!
ment part in Sequel.
Load the project “MIDI Playback” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 1” folder.
Press the [.] key on your numeric keypad to set the song
position cursor to bar 1 and press the space bar to listen
back.
Move ahead to the next chapter to learn how to edit the
audio events and instrument parts we’ve recorded.
18
Tutorial 1: Recording
4
Tutorial 2: Editing
Introduction
!
In this chapter, we are going to show you how the Pilot
Zone, Arrange Zone, and Multi Zone work together when
editing audio events and instrument parts. Refer to the
chapters “The Pilot Zone” on page 38, “The Arrange Zone”
on page 49 and “The Multi Zone” on page 59 if you aren’t
sure about a specific function.
Ö The following sections make references to tutorial
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
Editing audio events
In this section we are going to look at some of the audio
editing functions that are available in Sequel.
Let’s take a look at how to edit events. This includes rename, resize, move, copy, repeat, and erase.
Load the project “Event Operations” found in the
“Sequel Tutorial 2” folder.
Importing
You can import audio events by simply dragging them
from the MediaBay Page or your desktop and dropping
them in the Arrange Zone.
Resizing
You can resize an event by adjusting start and/or end of
the event. Used in combination with splitting and repeating, this is usually all the editing you’ll need.
1. Click on the event you would like to resize. In our case
let’s resize the “Guitar” and “Synth” events.
2. Position the cursor over one of the triangles at the
lower left or right of the event. Click and adjust the “Guitar” and “Synth” events so that there isn’t as much empty
space on the left and right of the event.
Renaming
Renaming events is easy in Sequel. It’s important to rename
your audio files to keep your project clean and organized.
Let’s rename the audio event on the drum track “Drums”:
1. Double-click the name field on the event.
2. Type in “Drums” and when you are done, press [Enter]/
[Return].
The name has now changed to “Drums”.
Tutorial 2: Editing
Splitting
Splitting is used to cut events.
You can split or cut an event wherever you want or you
can split them evenly at positions defined by the bars and
beats position grid displayed in the Arrange Zone.
20
Splitting with Snap off
Splitting with Snap off allows you to cut the event anywhere you like, without locking to the grid.
1. Make sure that Snap is deactivated. You can now split
the event anywhere you like.
You can press [J] on your computer keyboard to toggle Snap on and off.
2. Select the “Synth” event.
3. Hover the cursor along the bottom of the event. The
cursor turns into the Split tool.
4. Click anywhere along the bottom of the event to split
it. Create as many splits as you like.
5. Undo your actions by selecting the Undo Split option
from the Edit menu. Make sure there are no splits in the
“Synth” event any more.
4. Cut on bar 1 beat 3, bar 2 beat 3, bar 3 beat 3, and
bar 4 beat 3.
5. Undo your actions by selecting the Undo Split option
from the Edit menu. Make sure there are no splits in the
“Drums” event any more.
Moving
Let’s move all of the events in the project so that all the
events on all tracks line up with bar 2.
1. Make sure that Snap is activated.
You can press [J] on your computer keyboard to toggle Snap on and off.
2. Click and hold the mouse in an empty area of the Ar-
range Zone. Drag to create a selection of all the events.
When you release the mouse button, all of the events will
be selected.
3. With all of the events selected, click and drag them so
that the events line up with bar 2.
Splitting with Snap on
Having the Snap button activated allows you to split or cut
with precision, directly on bars or beats.
1. Make sure that the Snap button is activated.
You can press [J] on your computer keyboard to toggle Snap on and off.
2. Let’s split the “Drums” event on the third beat of every
bar.
3. If you can’t see beats in the grid, zoom in using the [H]
key on your keyboard until you can see them.
Tutorial 2: Editing
4. Click on an empty area of the Arrange Zone so that no
events are selected.
All of the events have moved together, and have stayed in
the same relative position.
5. Select all of the events again, and drag them back to
bar 1.
21
Muting
Muting an event stops you from hearing just that event.
You may want to mute events on a track so that the track
continues to play except for the muted events.
Ö Note that this is different from muting a track.
1. Hover the cursor over the event you wish to mute. The
mute button will appear in the top right hand corner of the
event.
2. Click on the Mute button. The event will turn gray. This
means that the event in muted.
3. To unmute the event click on the “Mute” button again.
Repeating
The Repeat function is great for repeating something over
and over directly after the event you want to repeat. This
function is built right into events in Sequel.
Let’s repeat the “Drums” event:
1. Click on the “Repeat handle” on the middle right side
of the event and drag until the “Repeat Count” is three.
Copying
Copying can be used to copy an event to another area in
the Arrange Zone.
Using copy and paste
1. To copy an event, click on the desired event and choose
“Copy” from the Edit menu. In our case, let’s copy the “Guitar” event.
2. Position the cursor at the point in the project where
you would like the copy to be made. We’ll place the cursor
at bar 5 beat 2.
3. Select the track that you want the event to be copied
to by clicking on it in the track list.
4. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.
Ö If a different track is selected, the Paste command will
paste the event to this track instead. Therefore, always
make sure that the right track is selected before choosing
Paste.
5. We have now two “Guitar” events.
Using the [Ctrl]/[Command] key
1. Place the cursor in the center of the Synth event and
hold down [Ctrl]/[Command].
2. We are going to copy the “Synth” event. Click and
hold the selected event and drag to the position you wish
the copy to be made. In this case, drag until the copy is
lined up with bar 5.
3. Release the mouse button.
4. Now we have two “Synth” events.
2. We now have five “Drums” events. Two original ones
and three repeats.
Tutorial 2: Editing
Erasing
1. Select an event to erase.
2. Press [Delete] or [Backspace] to delete the event.
You can also select the Delete option on the Edit menu.
22
About the Sample Editor
!
The Sample Editor is used for detailed editing. It can be
used for the following:
• Quantization
•Time Warp
• Adding Silence
• Reversing
These features are described in the chapter “Advanced
features” on page 79.
1. To open the Sample Editor, select an audio event and
then select the Editor Page in the Multi Zone.
You can also double click the event in the Arrange Zone to display it in
the Sample Editor.
Editing instrument parts
In this section, we are going to look at some of the editing
functions for instrument parts that are available in Sequel.
Key Editor
The Key Editor is where we can make changes to the instrument data on our instrument tracks.
Load the project “Key Editor” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 2” folder.
Importing
You can import Instrument parts by simply dragging them
from the MediaBay Page or your desktop and dropping
them in the Arrange Zone.
Deleting notes
Select the “Synth” event and go to the Editor Page in the
Multi Zone to view the Key Editor. Here you can see the
synth notes lined up with a keyboard or piano roll on the
left. At the bottom the velocity of each of the notes is
shown and at the top we can see the time ruler.
Let’s delete all the notes in bar 1.
1. Click once and hold the mouse while dragging a selec-
tion rectangle over the first bar.
A common term for this is to “lasso” the notes.
2. The selected audio event is displayed in the center of
the Editor Page. Here you can see a detailed waveform
rendering of the audio file.
The functions along the left side of the window such as Volume, Mute, Transpose, Transpose lock and Reverse are described in the section “The Editor Page” on page 70.
2. Press [Delete] or [Backspace] on your computer key-
board to delete all the notes in the first bar.
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Tutorial 2: Editing
Copying notes
!
Let’s copy all of the notes from the second bar into the
first bar.
1. Lasso all the notes in bar 2.
2. Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag the notes from
bar 2 to bar 1 to copy them.
Resizing notes
We can shorten or lengthen notes using the Key Editor.
Let’s make all the eighth notes in the first two bars into
quarter notes.
1. Lasso all the notes in the first two bars.
2. Put the mouse pointer at the end of any of the lassoed
notes. It changes to look like two arrows pointing away
from each other.
Creating or drawing in notes
We can use the Key Editor to draw in notes. This is great
for creating instrument arrangements that you are having
trouble playing in yourself.
Let’s add some notes to the first two bars of the song:
1. Make the Key Editor larger by clicking on the bar along
the top of the Multi Zone and dragging upwards.
2. Make the notes in the Key Editor larger by adjusting
the zoom slider along the right hand side of the Key Editor.
3. Let’s draw in a G above the first C in bar 1 so that two
notes will be played instead of one.
4. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] so that the cursor becomes a
pencil.
5. Click and drag to draw in an eighth note G.
6. Next, draw in notes above the rest of the notes in bar 1
and 2.
Have fun and experiment with different note placements.
Pressing [Alt]/[Option] is the magic way to get the
Pencil tool, for drawing in instrument parts in the Arrange Zone or events in the Key Editor!
3. Click and drag right to resize the notes.
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Tutorial 2: Editing
The Controller lane
The controller lane
Pop-up menu
The Controller Lane allows us to add in or modify instrument data such as velocity and controller information. The
most common use for this is to edit velocity or pitch bend.
If you find that the velocity is too strong or weak on certain
notes, you can view and edit them at the bottom of the Key
Editor.
1. On the pop-up menu, select the information you wish
to view or change; in this example, choose “Velocity”.
Along the bottom, you can see the velocity setting for each note contained in the instrument part.
2. Hold down [Alt]/[Option] so that the cursor becomes a
pencil.
3. Click and drag to move the velocity information for a
note up or down.
4. You can also click and move the cursor across the
controller lane in a wave-type motion to draw in curves or
ramps in the information.
Move ahead to the next chapter where we will discuss
mixing, EQs, automation, effects, and exporting.
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Tutorial 2: Editing
5
Tutorial 3: Mixing
Introduction
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!
In this chapter, we’ll show you how to get to a mix ready
with proper levels, EQs and effects. Automation will be
added and then we’ll export the audio.
Ö The following sections make references to tutorial
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
Setting levels
The first thing that we need to do is set the levels for our
project. This helps us get a great starting point for the mix
so we can add EQ and effects later.
Load the project “Mixing 1” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
1. Select the Mixer Page in the Multi Zone.
2. Press the space bar on your computer keyboard to
start playing back the project and listen to your mix.
3. Move the faders on each track so that you hear everything the way you like it.
That’s it for setting levels. Let’s check out pan next.
Setting Pan
Load the project “Mixing 2” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
Setting the pan for each track moves its position in the stereo mix. You can either keep the signal balanced in the middle of the left and right speaker, slightly to the left or slightly
to the right or be completely in the left or right speaker.
Keep the “Drums” track in the middle. Move the “Bass”
track slightly to the left and move the “Guitar” track almost
all the way left and the “Synth” track almost all the way to
the right. This will give the mix a little bit more of a feeling
of space.
Ö If for any reason you need to reset a fader back to its
default position of 100, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click directly in
the fader area.
Ö Be careful how high you raise the faders. Make sure
that everything is at a good volume without clipping or distortion or any other unpleasant sounds. You will know that
your tracks are too loud when the Master fader area turns
red. If this happens, lower the levels and click the red Audio Overload indicator to reset it.
Tutorial 3: Mixing
Ö If you need to get the panner back to the center, [Ctrl]/
[Command]-click directly in the panner area.
That’s it for pan, let’s move on to Mute and Solo.
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Mute and Solo
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!
The different sections where Lo, Mid and Hi EQ are shown
Load the project “Mixing 3” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
For each track, there are buttons for Mute and Solo. Mute
will prevent you from hearing the track, and Solo will only
play that track or tracks that have Solo enabled.
Ö You can have several tracks muted or soloed at a time.
Ö When you Solo a track, the other tracks become
muted.
To disable a Solo or Mute simply click the button again.
To simultaneously mute a track that is soloed and solo an-
other track, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click on the solo button of
the track that you wish to solo.
That’s it for Solo and Mute. Let’s move on to adding EQ.
3. Click on the “Equalizers” tab.
Ö Make sure that you have a section of your project playing that features the “Drums” track so that you can hear
your EQ changes.
Each track in Sequel has a 3-band EQ. The low shelf or
bass frequency sets the frequency at which the low tones
will be affected. The parametric mid or middle frequency
sets the frequency at which the middle tones will be
affected. The high shelf or treble frequency sets the frequency at which the high tones will be affected.
Adding EQ
Load the project “Mixing 4” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
EQ or equalization adds or subtracts frequencies, so that
you can place each instrument correctly in the mix. EQ is
subjective and can be influenced by the kind of music you
are mixing or the kind of music that you like to listen to.
We are going to run through the EQ features that Sequel
has to offer, but feel free to experiment and try our different presets on your mix.
1. Select the “Drums” track in the Arrange Zone.
2. Solo the Drums track and select the Track Inspector
Page in the Multi Zone.
You can adjust the frequency of each EQ by clicking on the
corresponding frequency slider and dragging left or right.
The exact frequency that is being affected is displayed in
the EQ settings display.
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Tutorial 3: Mixing
The middle EQ is a parametric EQ. That means that the
!
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Track Effects tab
frequency range of this EQ can be widened or shortened.
To do this, click on the middle width or “Q” slider and drag
right to widen the range and left to shorten it.
You can adjust the EQs level by raising or lowering the
bass, middle, or treble gain slider. To do this, click and
drag up or down on the desired slider.
To bypass the EQ, click the Bypass button.
You can reset any slider by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking on
it. You can also reset the EQ from the EQ Presets pop-up.
Simply click in the EQ Presets field and select “Reset”.
Experiment with the EQs on all your tracks.
Ö A good tip when using EQ is that it’s usually better to
take away EQ (lower the gain) than to add it.
Audio effects
Load the project “Mixing 6” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
Let’s add some effects to our project. In Sequel, there are
three types of effects that we can manipulate:
• Track Effects
• Global Effects
•Output Effects.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see the
chapter “Effects reference” on page 99.
• You can also add effects to instrument parts. This is
described in detail in the section “The Event Effects tab
(instrument tracks only)” on page 64.
Track effects
Track effects are commonly referred to as insert effects.
This is because they are inserted into the signal flow.
1. Select the “Bass” track.
2. Make sure you have the Track Inspector Page se-
lected and click on the “Track Effects” tab.
Listen to, and see the changes we made to the EQ
by loading the project “Mixing 5” found in the “Sequel Tutorial 3” folder.
Now let’s move on to effects.
3. Begin playback and loop (or “cycle”) a section of music
so that you can hear everything.
The tutorial project has its locators and cycle already set for this. Feel free
to change this if you like.
4. Let’s use the Compression fixed insert on the “Bass”
track to smooth it out a little bit.
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Tutorial 3: Mixing
5. Adjust the Threshold slider until the bass sounds
!
Effect Preset
menu
Send effect 1 Send effect 2Amount 1 enabled
smoother and there isn’t such a big difference between
the notes that were played quieter versus the notes that
were played a little louder.
9. Make changes to the effect manually, or select a pre-
set from the “Effect Preset” menu.
6. Raise the “Channel Level” to compensate for the reduction in Gain that the compression has caused on the
“Bass” track.
7. Next let’s add some flange to the “Synth” track to
make it stand out a little bit more. Select the “Synth” track
in the Arrange Zone.
8. Click on the first insert slot and choose “Flanger” from
the Modulation submenu.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see the
chapter “Effects reference” on page 99.
At the end of this section, you can load the next tutorial
that will contain all of the changes we have made.
Global effects
Load the project “Mixing 7” found in the “Sequel
Tutorial 3” folder.
Each project can have two send effects. These are referred
to as Global Effects.
1. Make sure you have the Track Inspector Page selected
and click on the “Global Effects” tab.
Reverb and StereoDelay are set as the default send effects.
You can change them if you like, but remember you only
have two slots that will be used for all tracks.
Let’s add some reverb to the drums:
2. Select the “Drums” track and make sure “Amount 1” is
enabled. This will send the “Drums” to the “Reverb” effect
which is in the Send 1 spot.
3. Move the “Amount 1” slider until you hear the desired
amount of the “Reverb” effect.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see the
chapter “Effects reference” on page 99.
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Tutorial 3: Mixing
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