Can you draw a midi track in Cubase Artist 8?

Cubase
#1

My bandmate has regular cubase and he says that on his DAW he can click on a lane and select “create event track” and it will take him to another view of the midi track with either a drum map or piano chords and he can click and draw and add notes perfectly.

The way I am doing it is by sending midi outs from my ancient ensoniq eps sequencer and assigning VST instruments to the 8 tracks I am limited to and the problem is that the timing of the sequencer is always off so my bandmate has to go in there and move everything I recorded (I am the main songwriter) so it is in perfect time. It is time-consuming and it would be a lot easier if I could do what he does and draw the notes (or play them once I have the drum timing perfect, which is the main problem) but I simply don’t see that option for artist.

Also, steinberg refuses to allow people to update to previous versions. I would be fine updating from artist 8 to regular or pro 8 but that isn’t an option - they will only let you update to the newest version (10) and I don’t have 550 dollars, my soul, and my firstborn to give to them for it.

#2

Sure you can draw MIDI Parts and MIDI events in Cubase Artist with the pencil tool in the key editor. Certainly a look into the manual will help.

Well, then you can´t update. But if the above is the reason, then you dobn´t need to.

#3

The key editor is grey and will not do anything when I click on it. Whenever I select a track, highlighting the lane in grey, it still does nothing. I can’t get it to turn black so I can utilize it and I have searched and searched the manual and I still cannot figure it out. If I could figure it out using the manual, I wouldn’t be asking for help.

#4

The manual says to do this:

To open a MIDI part in the Key Editor, do one of the following:

Double-click a MIDI part in the Project window.

Select a MIDI part in the Project window and press Return or Ctrl/Cmd-E.

Select a MIDI part in the Project window and select MIDI > Open Key Editor.

When I double-click (either right or left click) on a midi part, either in the left side of the lane or in the lane itself, nothing happens. When I select a midi part in the project window and hit enter/return, nothing happens. When I have highlighted (selected a midi part) and go to the midi tab at the top of the screen the “open key editor” option is still in grey letters instead of black and so it does absolutely nothing when I click on it.

It is frustrating when people tell me to “look in the manual” as if I hadn’t thought of that already.

#5

Look throuh the forums and you get an idea why I say this…

Is the track locked?

#6
#7

I am not sure what you mean by locked. I am trying to do this immediately upon opening Cubase. I will go back and have another look at Cubase and the manual but I assume by your responses that tracks are locked automatically from the get go and I have to unlock them first to use the features I want to use.

#8

The tracks start out unlocked. You have to lock them manually. Either way I still cannot use those functions. I am adding a screenshot. The functions in black open other windows. The functions in grey don’t do anything at all.
cubase.png

#9

Man it sure took long enough and some searching but the manual doesn’t tell you to do this. You have to select the pencil (draw) function and then click on the lane in the midi part. It highlights the lane and THEN the key editor will open.

Note: THIS IS NOT IN THE MANUAL.

Which is why I want to throttle people when they don’t assist in any way and smugly tell me to read the manual as a response.

#10

Using the pencil tool does not „highlight the lane“, it creates a MIDI part. Whatever you referred to as „MIDI part“ is none.
And sorry I have to say it - MIDI parts and -events and the necessary MIDI terminology are explained in the manual.