Midi Editing in Cubase is For the Stone Ages...

Another time saving feature would be to be able to specify a midi track that acts as a master channel and any other midi channels that are connected to it would get the same notes as they are being put in the master channel.

I need this because I write melodies for an orchestra, and when I have 14 violin channels, I end up doing a lot of manual melody duplication. Very tedious! I use the Vienna Symphonic Library Dimension Strings product. To add to this, I have to add a bit of humanization for each violion channel that is different from the rest.

This would be awesome if Steinberg could provide this. This could be extended to any notes added to the master midi channel so the child track could add transposed notes. So a C4 in the main becomes C3 in the child. Would make orchestration so much easier.

You can do this several ways.

If you use MIDI Tracks with Rack Instruments (as opposed to Instrument Tracks) as your source track you have access to MIDI Sends. In the source track activate a MIDI Send in the source track’s Inspector. In the lower send field select the VSTi you want to play the part. In the upper send field select MIDI Modifiers. In MIDI Modifiers set the transpose value. You might also want to randomize the velocity & position a bit while you are at it.

If you have a MIDI part and ALT-drag it you’ll get a copy of that part. But if you Shift-ALT-drag you’ll get a shared copy. The difference is plain copies can be edited independently, but for shared copies any edit made to one occurs in all of them. So make a shared copy of the part on a new track (either a MIDI or Instrument Track will work). Then in this new track’s Inspector open the MIDI Modifiers tab and set your transposition. Alternatively you can skip using MIDI Modifiers and select the copied part in the Project Window. Then on the Info Line (near the top, you might need to set it to be visible) in the Transpose field set the desired value. This will only transpose that specific shared copy and not the others. This method is useful if you want to play a part twice (i.e. 2 back-to-back copies) the second time an octave higher. Transposing via the Inspector affects the entire track, while using the Info Line only changes the selected part.

Thanks! Damn, I got lost here. Gotta read this very carefully. Maybe they can simplify some of the complexity. At end of the day, I am more of a composer. They can make it simple and powerful.

If you use shared copies to create all the different parts, at the end once all the global changes are made you can convert the parts into regular copies (Ops manual pg186). Then you can tweak each one separately to humanize them. For this the MIDI Logical Editor is your friend. Make and save your own presets - I only use a few of the presets that come with Cubase but have dozens of my own. As CubeDAW pointed out stringing them together in macros is very useful. I’d also recommend assigning Key Commands to the presets you use the most.

Wow! Thanks for that! Will give it a shot! If I understand correctly, as I add/delete notes on the main channel, those changes of notes will reflect immediatly to the shared copies, or do I have to play back?

It’s actually more complicated to describe than it is to actually do. FYI, if it was me, I’d go with the shared copy approach. Often in Cubase there are several ways to get the same results, each with their own advantages. Also you’ll find that if you ask a specific question the folks on the forum will be glad to offer advice.

That’s it exactly. The changes happen right away - although you still have to play it back to hear them. :wink: You might want to set aside some time to just play with the different capabilities independent of any projects you have going. It’s a good idea to skim parts of the manual every so often. You’ll find stuff that 6 months ago didn’t look useful suddenly becoming an important part of your workflow.

A big thank you! I had absolutely no idea… This will surely expidite my workflow!

to name but one example, editing pitchbend data for me is much more cumbersome than in any other daw i work with. one reason being the inability to quickly snap a point to ‘zero crossings’ (=to the value that represents no pitch change). another the whole concept of representing the automation in sets of discrete values and the way that this slows down editing if you want to, say, extend or shrink a pitch ramp. indeed it can be done – but if the automation were represented by just the initial and end values (hiding the in-between events), things would get much faster imo.

better yet, allow the automation data to be drawn using a formula akin to FL studio (which has the most advanced automation features on the market at the moment).

  1. Can’t do that. But in the Key Editor you can set it to color code the notes based on scale and chords. Select “Chord Track” from the color menu in the upper right - the default is velocity. And who doesn’t want to stick the occasional accidental in every so often anyway.

  2. True. Right click on a track to copy it if you want to retain the original. You could also use Track Versions, but you’d need to take care to turn off following the chord track when changing versions. Versions are very useful for trying out different melodic and harmonic options.

  3. Shared copies.

  4. Attribute Articulations are attached to specific notes but Direction Articulations are not and can be freely copied. Read this section of the manual several times - it’s tricky and could be improved.

  5. Again shared copies.

Perhaps we’ve made it to the bronze age? :astonished:

For number 4, not sure shared copies would be it. I imagine a draw tool (i.e. a line), and as you draw this line, the line has a melodic shape attached to it and keeps repeating it in the direction of the line drawn. So imagine, if the notes are only limited to scale notes, your melodic pattern can keep repeating upwards on the scale. Melodies, in the end for me, are melodic shapes.

We are surely past the bronze age by now! :smiley:

It would be nice but would like to make or alter the scales myself and not be limited to the presets.

Absolutely! Like define your own scales…

This is tricky indeed. I like it when articulations are attached to specific notes (I find myself converting all the “Direction” articulations to “Attributes”). What I don’t like, is when I go the the articulation area and select a specific articulation, it selects the note as well. Hence, if I delete the articulation, it deletes the note too. I believe this needs to be separated. I do a lot of expirimentation with different articulations, and if I just want to delete a bunch of Attribute Articulations, it should not delete the notes – but at the same time, they should still be applied per note. Honestly, I think articulations needs a complete redo. I really enjoy how the Vienna Instruments PRO VST does articulations: In sequencer mode, they are are all listed at the top, and each note has it’s own color. So on the midi editor I can select an Articulation Color Mode: Legato: Red, Portato: Blue, etc. etc.

A dual color mode for midi editor would be great too: A note can have two colors (for example: half for Chord Track and another half for Velocity colors).

nectario,

I agree. I want better midi tools. It’s frustrating how little attentions this gets. Meanwhile every version of Cubase seems to have a shiny update to the mixer. I’m done with the mixer. Give me midi or give me death! lol

CUBASE is brilliant here:

  • Expression Maps
  • CC Lane Scale edit tools
  • Shared Copies
  • MIDI Transformer

Where Cubase falls short, IMO:

DP’s Chunks feature (really, very very very very needed)
Sibelius’s Idea/motif saver
Logic’s Relative Grid
Cubase Chord track doesn’t auto-update midi event data
Cubase doesn’t recognize patterns*

patterns
I can’t simply say I want to accent a pattern in my violins, like 3-3-2.
I can’t tell Cubase to change a flute run to a Lydian scale
I can’t save a motif to use later, or in another file for another part of the film, as I can with Sibelius. Patterns people! Music is all patterns. It’s like I have a paint brush and 50 raw paints, but no palette to create my own go-to patterns, no sketch pad, no real tools of artistry. Everything feels very raw. Raw isn’t necessarily bad, but I can’t really make use of most of the RAW elements of Cubase the way I want. I can’t even make my own toolbars and buttons. I can with an 8 year old version of MS Office.

What I really want is an API to allow me to write my own midi editor for Cubase. Steinberg develops so many amazing standards. But Steinberg also struggles with making things intuitive and easy to work with quickly. I blame that on having so many features. But that’s what us users love. I just wish I could bring the features to the forefront that I want to use all the time, and make my own editor. I shouldn’t have to key-command everything. What’s worse, not that many things are key-command-able. And I can’t code a real macro in the program. I’ve resorted to looking at 3rd Party macro software to automate tasks within Cubase. It’s sad. :frowning: Sorry for the rant. But these have been bottling up for a while. Perhaps I could word it better. But I’d have to write a novel I think no one would read. I may already have! lol

I love Cubase. But man I wish I could make it better for editing!

-Sean

I am with you on these! Yes, yes, patterns, patterns!!! Music is all about patterns…

A paint brush would be so much more useful if I could define my own brush pattern. Dragging a line and the pattern repeats. And saving motifs for use elsewhere. In addition, a relative grid would be so useful. Composing for film becomes difficult without a relative grid.

There is a way to do this but I don’t recall what it is. I only use Direction articulations but once accidentally made a set where I forgot to change a few from Attributes and ran into the deleting note issue. Vic_France explained how to remove the articulation. It was something very simple but not intuitive. It might have been applying an Attribute a second time gets rid of it (toggle on and off)?

Thanks, I’ll try it out.