After reading through some parts of the manual I cant find the answers to 3 questions which bother me since months:
I have to say that I love cubase but it is honestly a little bit complicated to use in the sense that drawing and moving midi doesnt seem to be very flexible. I am used to work with FL Studio where I can simply draw my notes, make them smaller by dragging the edge, transpose and move without having to switch modes. Is this possible in cubase? Switching between modes everything can really slow down things, I really do hope there is a way since I compose with the mouse.
My other issue is that im used to the music playing back from the start whenever I press enter. I know this can be achieved with a hotkey combination but this is too complicated. How do I automatically make the song start from wherever I clicked on the piano roll whenever I press enter?
What I mean is I dont want to switch from the pencil tool to the selector tool and then eraser. In FL Studio for example I click on an empty space and it would draw a note, clicking on a note allows for dragging the notes freely on the piano roll without restrictions, then when I want to increase the length I simply click on the edge of the note and drag horizonzaly. I can then erase all notes by holding right click and going over the notes with the cursor.
Is something like this possible in cubase? If yes then how?
I started out composing with mouseclicks in just the way you described so I had to get used to Cubase’s sort-of-clumsy mouse operating, but now I quickly switch modes by using the numbers on my keyboard. When you get used to that, it’s a nice way to work when editing audiofiles too.
I am not operating my pc right now, so off the top of my head: 1 is for the basic cursor, 7? Or 3 Is for muting, 8 for drawing.
anyway, look in the mouse menu or symbols in the upper section. Hover your mouse over them and it will show what key to use.
For a lot of tasks you don’t need to switch tools. Just using the pencil tool you can still select a note by clicking on it with the pencil and drag on the end to lengthen or shorten it. Once selected you can delete by hitting the delete key, or move it up and down to new pitches with the up down arrow keys, go to the next or previous note with the left and right arrows, or mute it with the m-key (Ops manual Pg. 717 for list of other useful default key commands). You can also add your own key commands and macros to meet your specific needs.
Right clicking allows you to select different tools from a pop-up menu - but just right clicking and releasing always takes you to to the arrow tool. Learn and use the key commands to select tools (e.g 1, arrow, 4 glue, 7 mute, etc.). Holding the alt key with the arrow tool lets you copy a note by dragging, or split it by clicking. I assigned two extra buttons on my mouse to “7” and “8” so I have my 3 most used tools (mute, draw and arrow) available on the mouse.
The Key Editor is most effective when you keep one hand on the computer keyboard.
Also don’t forget you can edit various values of selected note(s) from the info line such as moving or shortening notes off of the grid line without turning off the snapping, changing velocity en mass.
It is a good idea to skim through portions of the manual that you’ve read before. Something that seemed of no use (and therefore easily forgotten) a few months back can suddenly seem very useful. A lot of tasks in Cubase can be accomplished in several different ways. Play around and find the ones that suit you best.