Arranger mode "pause after repeat" different in C6 vs C5

Problem
In Cubase 6 the behaviour of arranger mode “pause after repeat” has a different behaviour then in Cubase 5

Cubase 5: Playing stops at end of event A, cursor jumps directly to begin of event B - Playing continues with one single keystroke

Cubase 6: Playing stops at end of event A, cursors stays at end of event A - Plaing continues only after two keystrokes (keystroke one jumps to begin of next Event, keystroke two starts playing)

Reproduction
Could be reproduced with attached simple project on fresh installations of Cubase 5 and Cubase 6 on Vista32bit as well as on Win7 64 bit


Status, Comments

Confirmed, here on Mac.
(I have a feeling this may have been a deliberate change, but, if so, I do wish that this new behavior were at least optional). It is currently a “feature loss” for live performances.

Yes, This removes an important live function from Cubase 6, and if there is some advantage to it operating in this new manner I’m having difficulty seeing it, probably doesn’t apply to how I use it.

Do please return it to the way it was or provide the new behavior as a prefs option.

In 6.0.1 the behavior is the same. An unnecessary extra keystroke is needed.

I cannot see the advantage to this behavior, and one disadvantage is clear: It is no longer possible to run live cues with a single keystroke.

Is this really the intended behavior?

:cry: :unamused:

Here is the response from Steinberg USA:

Hi,

Sorry for the wait. I found out this is an intended design change. You will have to find a way to adjust to this new behavior.

A workaround of course is to program a macro to hit ‘Next Chain Step’ then ‘Start’. I hope that ends up being a true equivalent.

I found out this is an intended design change

Intended… for what purpose? (I see only the current disadvantage).

I can’t imagine what purpose there could be for not advancing the cursor to the beginning of the next step in the chain, since the only thing that could possibly happen at that point (in pause after repeats mode) is to advance to the next step in the chain

One more reply to this… I checked this workaround, it appears to be equivalent…

A workaround of course is to program a macro to hit ‘Next Chain Step’ then ‘Start’. I hope that ends up being a true equivalent.

Just built that macro… yes, it works (so long as I remember that the very first Arranger Part is started with the regular Start command… otherwise it will move to the next Arranger Part before playing).

However, I’ve just noticed another inconsistency (although I suppose it could be argued that it is in fact logical)…
As we know, in previous versions, it would cue up to next Arranger part, whereas now it simply pauses… except when reaching the end of the final Arranger Part, where it does re-cue up to the first Part again.

Also now, when using the regular Start command, there really is something wrong if using MIDI Parts… the current Part pauses, then the next Start command cues up to the next Part (which would be fine if it simply continued to play from there, rather than stopping), but, not content with simply stopping (which we don’t want anyways), it actually plays the first MIDI event momentarily. In other words, it is completely unusable in a live situation (fortunately, the Macro you posted does solve that situation :wink: )

It really sometimes looks as if company is not “getting into the details”. Clearly that cannot be the intended behavior. I would suggest that there is no intention behind the midi event playing momentarily, and it’s a bug.

Sheesh!

Surely :slight_smile:
It also does the same thing if you hit Stop after the Arranger has paused at the end of a Part.

As regards the macro…

it works (so long as I remember that the very first Arranger Part is started with the regular Start command… otherwise it will move to the next Arranger Part before playing).

That is of course inconvenient for live (one more thing to have to verify before hitting the key). The workaround is to create an empty Arranger Part at the very start of the chain, then use only the macro.

Well, here is the response from USA Support:

Ah well, at least they’ve recognized it (now their earlier response wasn’t encouraging, was it? :wink: )

Yes, I would go farther than to say it “wasn’t encouraging”… It had the flavor of Steinberg of yore. A bit of hubris showing through. Of course it’s hard to detect tone over the internet.

Hello Everyone!

for me on Mac using Cubase 6.02 when I mark my last arranger chain event with “pause after repeat”, simply nothing happens: it does not pause (also, it does not pause no matter which event I set this to), but simply goes on.

And also, strangely the entire chain starts over from the beginning. Of course this would be equivalent to restarting my song in a live situation, unless I can quickly click stop.

By the way, does anyone know about an external controller (foot pedal preferably) that could be programmed to activate the Arranger Chain command buttons (last repeat of current chain step, next/ previous chain step, stop) - I do not have time to click on the computer while playing my song…

Thanks!

I use this:

BUMP

I also need the old behavior for cliktrax in a musical show…
I am back on Cubase 5.5.1 because of this bug…

Can we have a feedback when this bug gets adressed?

I might need to setup a couple of Cubase Systems for this purpose…
Unable to buy new Cubase 5 licences anywhere …

thanx,

Nik

I am still on Cubase 5.5.3 and I think I know why the developers changed it with v6.

I have a long project (>1 hour) with many arranger events. Each event consists of 3-4 minutes of music - in fact, each event is a complete song for an on-stage performance. Now I can chose any arranger event using the arranger track with one click and play it back. Playback stops when the event is finished (because I set ‘pause after repeats’ for each event), and it jumps to the beginning of the next event in the chain (which doesn’t have to be the next in the project time line; well, that’s the sense of the arranger track, isn’t it).

If I jump to any event manually and hit play, all is fine. If the arranger sequence is different from the project time line, and the next event is jumped to automatically, I sometimes get on some MIDI/VSTi tracks weird rubbish (some MIDI data played back quickly, taken from somewhere else inside the project) when I hit play. It takes some seconds untill Cubase behaves normal. An absolute disaster on stage. ;-(

Only solution I have found is to flatten the arranger chain to make the project time line match the arranger track time line.

In Cubase 6 they changed it so you have to interactively jump to the next event’s start, so the new location is played back without the MIDI / VSTi rubbish. As I wrote, if I jump to any arranger event manually, I never have any problem. It only happens if the new start point is jumped to automatically by the arranger track after the old event is finished.

So instead of really fixing the problem, they changed the behaviour to not make the problem occur anymore, because the user now has to contribute an interaction (additional click). No automatic jump to next event start, no problem. Sounds somehow a bit hm… lazy, doesn’t it?

Sorry for my poor english, I hope you get what I mean.

If it helps to fix the issue, I can send my Cubase 5 project to Steinberg.

Timo

Hi Timo,
i see you´re point…haven´t check that out yet…
For my special “cliktrak” task i´m only using audio files…
When you´re playing MIDI/VSTis LIVE along with the audio tracks ,then you can´t bounce all this stuff to audio,
of course…

hope they fix this…

Any words???

Any word if this ever gets changed back to Cubase 5 behaviour?
Not fixed in 6.0.7…