Impressed with Cubase- am I crazy? What impresses you?

[bduffy]

susiwong/geroyannis: Sorry, I wrote a lot but didn't really explain why I preferred the other method. I use the Draw tool about 80-90% of the time. With modifiers, when I let go of of keyboard I'm always back at the Draw tool. With Cubase, I'm not popping in and out of Draw mode, I'm basically hunting for the tool (looking along the number keys for the right button) and then hunting for the draw tool again. It sounds so immensely trivial (and it probably is! :lol), but some of us just get stuck in our ways. I'll doubtless get used to doing things the old fashioned way.

In fact, I have one of those configurable Nostromo gaming pad things which I guess I could configure for Key Editor shortcuts. Might make things a bit easier rather than trying to remember which numeric key is the slice tool, which numeric key is the glue tool, etc. etc.

You get pretty used to using the numerical keys (or the right-click, for those who prefer) for switching tools, FWIW. Took me a little while to get used to it from Sonar, back in the day.

[LawrenceF]

quick question: Can you stretch a selection of notes in Cubase? (i.e., not just lengthen the notes in realtime by dragging, but alter their start times in proportion?)

Yes. From the timeline in a midi part, not in the key editor.

[bduffy]

quick question: Can you stretch a selection of notes in Cubase? (i.e., not just lengthen the notes in realtime by dragging, but alter their start times in proportion?)

Yes. From the timeline in the midi part, not in the key editor.

Sure you can do that in the Key Editor, using the inspector up top, no?

[LawrenceF]

I don't think so. You can change the note length etc but I don't think you can stretch a range of selected notes like you can by stretching a part on the timeline.

At least I don't know how... maybe since I never wanted to. Educate me.

[bduffy]

I don't think so. You can change the note length etc but I don't think you can stretch a range of selected notes like you can by stretching a part on the timeline.

At least I don't know how... probably since I never wanted to. Educate me.

I might be a little unclear what the exact goal is here...are we trying to change the relative starting time of a bunch of disparate notes? The length? Ending times? What?

[fandango]

It's mainly for when you do retrospective MIDI record (or record without a metronome). As you have no metronome (except your own judgement), MIDI that's sent to the timeline isn't in time with the current tempo, so you stretch/compress it so that it fits and then you can quantise. In SONAR you have to select all the notes and then do "Right-Click->Lengthen..." and basically use guesswork and trial and error to get the notes positions in the right range.

(the link on the previous page has a small flash anim showing it done in realtime - courtesy of Reaper, interestingly.)

[bduffy]

It's mainly for when you do retrospective MIDI record (or record without a metronome). As you have no metronome (except your own judgement), MIDI that's sent to the timeline isn't in time with the current tempo, so you stretch/compress it so that it fits and then you can quantise. In SONAR you have to select all the notes and then do "Right-Click->Lengthen..." and basically use guesswork and trial and error to get the notes positions in the right range.

OK, so you're time stretching the MIDI notes. Sorry, Lawrence is right: you'd have to do that in the main arrange window.

[fandango]

Slip editing the MIDI clip in the arrange window is fine. Good to know it's in there.

[LawrenceF]

It's mainly for when you do retrospective MIDI record (or record without a metronome). As you have no metronome (except your own judgement), MIDI that's sent to the timeline isn't in time with the current tempo, so you stretch/compress it so that it fits and then you can quantise. In SONAR you have to select all the notes and then do "Right-Click->Lengthen..." and basically use guesswork and trial and error to get the notes positions in the right range.

Well that explains it. I've never recorded midi without a tempo reference but sure, you can stretch the part to fit any tempo or warp the tempo to fit the part.

6 of one...

I'm sure all sequencers have some method for that kind of thing. I like that note select method in Reaper though, that's pretty cool. The retrospective thing makes sense.

Edit: Actually the logical editor can do this in the key editor. There is a preset there already called "half tempo" which ... duh... stretches the note positions to half the tempo. You would only need to lessen the move percentage to something small, assign that editor preset to a key modifier and tap it to make the notes get farther and farther apart on each tap.

Again, it's the boolean logic that allows doing most anything to midi notes. Here it's multiplying the current position(s) by 2. To get smaller increments you'd reduce that number.

[bduffy]

Ah, Logical Editor. One day I'll sit down and learn you proper...

[LawrenceF]

Ah, Logical Editor. One day I'll sit down and learn you proper...

Yeah... worth it.

It's difficult to understand the value of it just talking about it so what I usually do is ask some really ridiculous question like...

"35 midi tracks in a classical project. Producer decides he doesn't want *any* F#'s in the entire song anywhere. How do you delete (or change) them all at once?"

Ridiculous hypothetical right?

But it gets to the point of being able to randomly attack/change/modify/move etc,etc, anything midi from anywhere at any time without leaving the timeline... for those difficult edits that aren't so ridiculous.

[Midi_Glider]

The logical editor is like the Doomsday weapon of midi editing!


what it can effortlessly accomplish in one swift rule base operation can very often be replaced only by hours on hours of painstaking editing (or just be un achievable otherwise!)


The project logical editor is equally brilliant for some wicked project wide operations and workflow acceleration.

Best,
midi.

[bduffy]

Ah, Logical Editor. One day I'll sit down and learn you proper...

Yeah... worth it.

It's difficult to understand the value of it just talking about it so what I usually do is ask some really ridiculous question like...

"35 midi tracks in a classical project. Producer decides he doesn't want *any* F#'s in the entire song anywhere. How do you delete (or change) them all at once?"

Ridiculous hypothetical right?

But it gets to the point of being able to randomly attack/change/modify/move etc,etc, anything midi from anywhere at any time without leaving the timeline... for those difficult edits that aren't so ridiculous.

Absolutely. I have a few commonly recurring tasks that I use it for (such as ramping relative velocities, something sorely missed form Sonar!), but I just don't know how to enter the Boolean language properly yet to fully control it myself. Will do, soon...

[koolkeys]

It seems to me that with the later versions of Cubase 4 and with Cubase 5, a lot of the criticism of Cubase has disappeared. Sure it still has it's critics and it's problems. But from those I've talked to, it's now very stable, and turned into a very robust application(though it was already pretty deep).

Considering all this, and considering how they are still adding cool features like VST Expression is a good thing. Something tells me that the Yamaha purchase of Steinberg has been a good one.

I mean, think back a couple of years and this thread would have been trashed by now with people who don't like Cubase for whatever reason, and recommending their apparent "superior" host.

Add to that how many people I've seen that are jumping to Cubase because of all this, and it's a pretty good day for Cubase, IMO.

Brent

[LawrenceF]

but I just don't know how to enter the Boolean language properly yet to fully control it myself. Will do, soon...

The first part is the selection criteria which can get really deep with multiple criteria so you only affect what you want.

The second part is what action to take. Transpose it, change another cc value, change the duration, whatever.

It's all choice based so as you go through and make choices just use basic logic to get what you want. The criteria is wide ranging and many of the action steps are math based, rounding, multiplying, adding, etc for values.

One of my most used logical editor functions is in the Project Logical Editor, where I've setup keyboard presets to trim automation values +/- 5%. Select a range and hit a key, all automation in the range will be affected.

Of course you also can string multiple logical presets together with macros.