Ableton user trying to learn Cubase. I don’t know how you guys do it?

Cubase
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Hello Cubase users. After recently realising that I can record in Cubase with next to no latency I decided to try and make the hop over from Ableton (at least for non-electronic projects) and have come to one realisation:

I don’t know how you guys do it.

I’m trying to do simple things like halving the project speed so I can transcribe parts easier or grabbing the timeline whilst sketching out midi to move and scroll through my work and it’s having none of it. It’s driving me up the wall. I’m sure I’ll come across other stuff that irritates me about Cubase but those are the main ones so far.

Are these things that can be done in Cubase or am I going to have to resort to doing my MIDI work in Ableton and exporting it over?

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Hi and welcome on the forum,

Simply change the tempo of the project.

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I think if you go to Cubase after having used Live and think it is going to be an easy switch, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment… DAWs are highly complex pieces of software and they can differ enormously in workflow and features (especially Live and Cubase).
Basically you’re going to have to learn Cubase like when you started out with Live. Reading manual, googling, watching videos, try and error, and so on. You will find that you will miss some dearly loved features you are so used to having in Live and scream in agony, but maybe you will also find awesome features in Cubase that aren’t in Live. Maybe you will decide that Cubase isn’t for you.
I don’t think there is an easy way out. A couple of years I got fed up with Cubase and tried several other DAWs, and immediately got hellishly annoyed by them because they weren’t Cubase and the workflow I was so used to :wink:

There is no direct switch for halving the tempo as far as I know. You could just change the current tempo in the respective field in the transport panel. If you work with audio events, you need to put them in “musical mode” so that they follow the tempo automatically (select all audio events, click “musical mode” in the info bar.
For scrolling through the timeline I usually use SHIFT+mouse wheel which scrolls horizontally through the arrangement (CTRL-mouse wheel lets you zoom)

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Once you get it you’ll get it. A few starter tips.

First and foremost, Cubase is the most complex and customizable DAW. It’s a DAW you need to create templates for imo. Once you get it customized and templated, nothing will beat it.

-Get accustomed to organizing everything into FolderTracks

-Key Commands, Cubase has a lot. Take a day to go through and figure them out, what’s useful to you.
-Specifically, bind and memorize the ‘Zoom’, ‘Selection’ and ‘Location’ commands. This allows you to move quick.
-realize the potential with macros

-Workspaces - learn what these are, what windows they include, how they work.

-Visibility Configurations to only see the tracks you need to see, use the key commands.

-Use Ctrl+F / find tracks

-Use Cycle Markers, their various options, and their key commands to navigate to and loop areas of a song.

-the ‘Project Logical Editor’ is the most important part of Cubase that %98 percent of users never get into. You can create custom functions like (show only tracks with ‘Vocal’ in name and coloured red). same deal with the ‘Logical Editor’ but it is MIDI focused.
-Project/Logical Editor scripts can be used in and stacked in macros, and macros can be used at the end of P/LE scripts.

There are great videos on the Steinberg youtube Channel

Cubase - YouTube

Greg Ondo does hangouts that are 3 hours long, over time, he has nearly covered almost every aspect of Cubase both basic and advanced:
2021:
Club Cubase with Greg Ondo | Cubase Live-Stream 2021 - YouTube
2020:
Club Cubase with Greg Ondo | Google Hangouts 2020 - YouTube
2019:
Club Cubase with Greg Ondo | Google Hangouts 2019 - YouTube

Dom Sigalas’s channel
Dom Sigalas - YouTube
Cubase Tutorials
Cubase Tutorials - YouTube
20 reasons why Cubase mixer is the best
20 Reasons Why Cubase Mixer is the BEST! -MEGA Walkthrough​:level_slider::level_slider::level_slider:#mixer #cubase #mixing #console - YouTube
5 reasons to always Cubase control room
5 Reasons To ALWAYS Use Control Room in Cubase Pro #cubase #controlroom #tutorial - YouTube

also check out Ian Kirkpatricks (Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez, etc) streams on Twitch
cloudology’s Videos - Twitch

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