Are you missing out on the Logical Editor functions?

Cubase
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1

If you work with MIDI but have not checked out the Logical MIDI Editor yet you are missing something.
In this post I explain the MIDI logical Editor. Once you look through the MIDI Logical Editor you will also be able to work with the Project Logical Editor:

Rirst of all, use the “Infobar” and the Midi Insert “MIDI Monitor” in combination with the Logical Editor and you will look through it in no time!

Here we go:
Let’s say that you are concentrating on a midi sequence that you have played in and have it open in the “Key Editor”. Now you would like to operate/select notes that have certain attributes. Click on one of these particular notes and have a look at it’s attributes in the Infobar.
Now ask your self the question what do all the notes I wan’t to operate/select have in common and what is the difference to the notes that I would not like to operate/select.

Are the target notes all off beat? Do the target notes have a particular length that the non target notes do not have? Are the target notes maybe D#1’s? Are they maybe only D#1’s that a shorter then 0.0.0.11 as shown in the Infobar?
Ok lets say the targeted notes are all “D#1’s that a shorter then 0.0.0.11”.

Now you can open the “Logical Editor/Transformer” and tell it for instance:" If the type Equals “Note” and it has the certain attribute length “less or equal=0.0.0.11” and it also has the attribute “Value 1 (which is pitch when type is note) equals D#1”…

Stop.

Now you have set the conditions in the upper section which is basically:" If this and that equals or is less then this and blah blah blah…"

Now you could concentrate on the Action below. Don’t do this if you are not so much into the logical editor yet.
Instead you should remove all actions from the action list below and just set the “Function” beneath to “Select”.
Now when you apply the preset you can see exactly which notes you are addressing with the conditions you have set because they become selected and highlighted.

After you look through that you can start concentrating on the Actions.

Here is a very simple logical preset:

The Problem it addresses:
Imagine the following chord sequence in the Keyeditor:
long, long, long, short (very short all most minimum length value)
_ _ _ .
_ _ _ .
_ _ _ .

Now you select all (Ctrl+A) the notes and drag the ends of the notes to the left because you would like the sequence to be more staccato as you have changed the instrument.
But it will not be possible to shorten all notes at once to the very short value because the “short (very short almost minimum length value)” has taken the minimum possible length value already. This blocks the function and you cannot continue to drag the ends to the left and shorten the other notes.
← I hope the problem is clear.

Solution:
You can create a logical presets:

Shorten Notes

Condition:
If type equals note

Action:
Length multipl by 0.900

Function: Transform

Lenghten Notes:

Condition:
If type equals note

Action:
Length multipl by 1.100

Function: Transform

Once you have created the presets you can assign them to KeyCommands.
Just go to “File–> Key Command…” search for the name that you gave your Logical Preset and assign it to a Key:

Shorten Notes: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Y
Lenghten Notes: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+X

There you go! You have created your own feature!

So, I hope that this post could give you some impression of the endless posibilitys that the Logical Editor provides. Feel free to share your Logical Editor ideas in this thread! If you have any questions feel free to ask this community!

Cubase Rulez!
Gr,
JHP

2

Very kind of you to set this out, JHP. I will look at it soon on Cubase.

A week or two ago I actually went and tried to become familiar with the logical editor. I wasn’t successful, for two main reasons, as I recall:

  1. The syntax of the command sequences was difficult for me to grasp. I think I wanted to do something like lower the volume of the left hand notes of a piano by some amount. Couldn’t quite get the commands right …
  • hopefully your example will help with this step.
  1. I wasn’t insightful enough to dream of what I could accomplish using the logical editor. I didn’t go as far as youtubing for ideas … I’m sure there is a lot I could use it for that I’m not thinking about.

Thanks again, JHP!

3

Logical editor is great for changing values such as the velocity of a series of notes all at once, or note positions because often MIDI is inconsistent in how it records.

Cheers

PS. And to the 2nd poster … Don’t copy verbatim when quoting, particularly for long posts! :laughing:

4

Amen to that ! :unamused:

5

That was me - sorry (edited)!

Very interested to read “…often MIDI is inconsistent in how it records”. Yikes, that’s not good. I thought MIDI timing errors were pretty much a thing of the past … My work is “freely recorded” enough that I guess I don’t notice …

6

Very interested to read “…often MIDI is inconsistent in how it records”. Yikes, that’s not good. I thought MIDI timing errors were pretty much a thing of the past … My work is “freely recorded” enough that I guess I don’t notice …

I use a Parallel MIDI interface instead of USB for that reason.

Also, the system timestamp can stray over time so a reboot helps if say you’ve been editing or mixing for some time between takes or the system itself has become unstable for whatever reason.

The timing mainly effects sections of a performance so as JHP suggests, you can select a bunch of notes and use the Logical Editor to change their position and/or velocity at once.

7

MIDI Timing Issues are always a result of system hard- and software components, MIDI hardware and and MIDI drivers. It sometimes can be a pain to get good MDI timing on a system and sometime it’s smooth and works well.

I very often hear and see that people blame there DAW of choice for the MIDI Timing issues but that’s a result of misconception.
Just to make this perfectly clear every sequencer has a extremely low neglectable mount of latency jitter when it comes to timing. There is a really good Sound on Sound article about MIDI Timing issues:

By I have tested the latency of Cubase 5 once and remember that I had lower measurements for latency and jitter in Cubase then the author of the SOS article measured. I assume that the reason for this, could be the virtual midi connection that is used, or can be found in the components of a system.

If you want to test the MIDI latency and jitter of a sequencer you can use a virtual MIDI cable and route a MIDI track out of the Sequencer and back in, so you bypass the hardware. You will then see that the jitter is extremely low.

Spread the word, let it be known to the inculpatory novices that Cubase does not have timing issues and that there is an interaction between components involved here!
… But this thread was about the Logical Editor and not MIDI Timing Problems. :confused:

Hmm, I suggested way more than just that.
Just to point out, The Logical Editor is not just a tool to select “a bunch of notes” and change the position and velocity of MIDI at once. You can do so much with this tool.
For instance you can select all notes that are off beat by a certain range.


Ok, you could go into the Key Editor and select all the notes beneath a certain Key.
But this is a very good example and challenge to get the hang of the logical editor.
Question what do all of these notes have in common.

  1. They are Notes
  2. They are let’s say beneath C1

So….

Conditions:
If Type Equals Note
And
Value One (which will turn into Pitch) is less or Equal C1

Actions.
None

Function: Select

Here is a gif that illustrates this basic example:
LogicalEditorSlectAllBeneathC1Example.gif
If you go through a couple of more examples the logical editor becomes clear i guaranty. Just take one to two hours to fiddle around with it.

Well youtoube is the wrong place for Cubase ideas. The right place is Cubase. If one faces a challenge then one should go through it and find the solution. There is no “that is not possible” in digital audio. Also there is no you can’t do that in Cubase. There is always a way to get where you want to and to express your thoughts to the output of your audio monitors. :slight_smile:

With the Logical Editor you can create your own features.
It gets even better:
Logical Presets are combinable with the Macros which are combinable with the generic remote feature.

That is Power!

Gr,
JHP

8

Hi Jan

Sorry if I hijacked the thread a bit but getting back to the Logical Editor I use it for those two functions with a great amount of precision but also I find it time consuming and would like an easier to way to move notes without physically dragging the mouse.

For example I select the note and using the values of the logical editor I can nudge it left or right using arrow keys (unless that’s how it already works) so maybe with your expertise you can explain how this is achieved.

What I’m doing now is expanding the display with the G key and using a laptop trackpad (or trackball on a desktop) and dragging the notes with quantize off.

I hope I’m making that clear since I’d not want to confuse anyone. :mrgreen:

9

:laughing: He’s the guy that used to have the forum nickname “Brains”.
Welcome Back! :slight_smile:

Gr,
JHP

10

Hows the rubberised kit… :laughing:

11

It’s me “mystery shopper” trying to see if Cubase is right for meeeeeeeeeee!

12

Question: where are the presets that one created in C5 located,so that I can drop them in the C6 preset folder?
Where should it be dropped off/

Thanks!

13

Heres one for the 'Unskilled" Musician, using cubase,and has boxing gloves for keyboard skills…

Use the Logical editor for inputing Intervals, i.e Perfect fifth,Octave,minor third,minor 7th, major 7t etc, I use presets Ive made in the Logical editor, to tun single notes into Chords/Power chords, etc, all in a split second using the LOGICAL EDITOR!..tadaa, in conjunction with key commands, i can input extra notes at will, and generate chord progression very easily,and a whole lot quicker than using ANY chord gemerator.

The presets reside in the logical presets folder…(think its app data , or common files folder…Ill check tomorrow and report.

As Jan said the project logical editor can be a MONSTER time saver. :smiley:

thanks to Steve In chicago, for the tip, as I had been looking for this specific functionality for years…and now I have all music theory about intervals via key commands…trust me it is a really sweet timesaver! :smiley:

14

Nice set of presets you’re describing there! :slight_smile:

By the way, in Cubase 6 the Logical Editor provides some new VST3 and Note Expression attributes. So next to being able to manipulate monophonic CC’s we now also have the ability to address the polyphonic note expressions as well.

The Logical presets are saved here:
C:\Users[Your Username]\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase 6\Presets\Logical Edit

Gr,
JHP