I think I figured out a decent workaround today.. still far from perfect. But it’s functional.
I’m new to Cubase, I LOVE so many other features it has. I want to BELIEVE. Steinberg.. seriously.. I finished a track in Cubase not understanding how this works and it was really annoying for a new user.
First of all, if you haven’t done extensive midi programming playing in multiple live takes, doing a comp, THEN doing another live take over the whole section. Don’t come back at me saying “You’re doing it wrong” or "Just mute all your previous takes one by one manually and lose your comp” or “just use track versions”. Nope, nope, nope.
If you’re saying this.. then playing/performing longer midi takes into the daw CLEARLY isn’t part of your daily workflow.
For context: I work as a session Pianist/Keyboardist (lots of post-production) and I need an efficient workflow to record my way through a tune, in section chunks, using many takes quickly and efficiently.
If you’re a producer/composer and have used Ableton, Logic, Reaper or ProTools like I have. You just know how it should work.
Rant over, here’s the workaround:
SOLO THE EMPTY LANE BELOW BEFORE RECORDING:
Setup: Use “New Parts” and “Stacked” (in both cycle and record midi modes)
The “solution” is to SOLO the empty lane that always appears at the bottom before hitting record. Soloing the empty lane prevents the previous takes lanes or comped lanes from playing while still preserving them.
When you hit stop the last take you just played will be selected along with your previous comp. From here you have options.
Option 1:
If you want to go back to your previous comp and just use bits here and there from your new take. Mute that new midi clip first. My mute shortcut is 0. Then you can comp that new take into your previous comp which is still in tact.
Option 2
If you want what you just played as your new take use your comp tool and swipe across your fresh take whether it’s muted or not. This will erase your previous comps. I prefer to mute first as it’s becoming muscle memory to hit 0 anytime I push stop.
Option 3:
As a slight variation to Option 2. (For the worry warts like me) If you’re pretty sure you want to use your fresh take as your main but still might want to go back to your previous comp. NOW you make a duplicate track version and keep working with the peace of mind that you can always revert or compare your previous comp if you need to.
Bonus for speed:
Assign “Solo Lane” to a key command.
Assign “Mute/Unmute Objects”
Now when you finish a new take after you push stop.
- “Mute/Unmunte” key command to mute the fresh take (if you want)
- Down arrow to select the new empty lane below.
- “Solo Lane” key command.
Now you’re ready to record again.
Don’t forget to unsolo that lane when you’re done or cubase will obviously just play that lane.
That’s it. It’s still annoying that you have to do the extra key commands at all. But once you know the key command sequence at least it’s functional.
Here’s what we need as a new option IN ADDITION (<–for the naysayers) to what you already have.
"when recording: Auto-Mute ALL previous takes and record to new lane without overwriting the previous comp”. As a bonus you could give us the option of it being either muted on unmuted after you hit stop.