Changing Midi Note Length while Maintaining Relative Position

Cubase
1

https://www.reddit.com/r/cubase/comments/c6s2m1/changing_midi_note_length_while_maintinging/

I’ve run into this problem as well and can’t find an answer or a proper workaround.

Before I’m approached by Moderators explaining why it’s “Not useful” or “Confusing” what I’m wanting, I will reference the Reddit link above that has visual photos attached. I will also give my own example as to why this feature is extremely valuable to me and is currently hindering my workflow:

I write a 1 bar midi progression on piano with 4 notes, and I realize that I want to increase the length of the playing to fit 2 bars. I cannot stretch out the length of the notes to fit the duration of my selection WHILE also moving the starting positions of my event to match it per my selection in the Key Editor only for selected MIDI notes in order to prevent overlap.

The closest I have of this is the Sizing Applies Time Stretch tool in the general project window, but it is not listed as available in the Key Editor, which is where I need that function.

The reason why this is important:
In order for me to complete the followed example above, I need to select the 4 notes, increase their length by dragging the side (Or quantizing lengths sure), and then note by note, deselecting the furthest leftmost note in the selection, and clicking Nudge Right for my current selection to move over, repeating the step for each note, and that only works if I have adjusted all my settings to the perfect quantization and whatnot.

In my example, this is only repeated three times, but if I was working with a piano part? With hundreds of small lines where the playing of the musician was just short, it would be tremendously helpful to be able to have a sort of “Time Stretch” to be able to be used on selected MIDI notes. Or some of the notes need to be stretched while others remain the same, meaning I could not simply adjust the entire MIDI event from the main center view or by adjusting the entire grid.

Specifically selected MIDI notes in the Key Editor

Thanks for reading, I hope I was thorough enough. I don’t mean any disrespect to our helpful volunteers, but I’m looking for an answer to this problem and not discussion on whether it’s a problem or not for me. It is a problem for me :slight_smile:

And I added the tag Feature Request because if it isn’t possible, then I strongly recommend it be added, as I have spent hours looking through YouTube videos and watching How To Edit Midi in the Key Editor tagged videos with no help in finding a proficient way to get past this hurdle.

Thanks again

2

For your example, I would use the Half Time preset in the logical editor.

1 Like
3

Just adding for completeness to @GlennO’s reply.

In Cubase you can multiply both note start location and duration using the Logical Editor.

For the short example you provide, you could also use Grid Shuffle mode, and simply lengthen the notes with the mouse. It will be much easier for you to try it out than for me to explain here, so check out both, it will give you a great opportunity to delve into what Cubase can do using the Logical Editor, and the various grid modes.

Good luck.

1 Like
4

Thank you both for the suggestions! Without diving too much into variations of possibilities, I do believe the Grid’s Shuffle Mode option is what I’m looking for. I’m not sure it’d work with layered notes, but I’m sure if it’s too much of a hassle, I’d just cut/paste into a different MIDI track, make appropriate length extensions/edits there and then reinsert.

And just for fun, I did go into the logical editor and was perusing the options, but they seemed fixed to preset lengths (Ex. Extend by 1/8, 1/16 or 1 second, 0.5 seconds) which wouldn’t be very flexible to use unless most of the edits I knew would need to be changed in exactly that way, but I’d still be limited to those specific edits or would have to make a custom.

But it seems like I can make do with the Grid Shuffle mode and tinkering with that, thank you once again so very much.

I will say as well, none of the tutorials I watched even broached the subject of changing the Grid but that seems like the best solution.

5

It will not. It’s not really meant for this, it’s just a little trick.

I hope you don’t take offense, but if you spend more time examining the options in the the LE you will see that any value you want to use is available one way or another. The key to it is exploring the interface, and examining the factory presets that it comes with.

Also take the time to learn how this forum is organized, we use tags which are immensely helpful. For example observe the edit I made to the tags here, and click on the tag.

8

That sounds interesting, but I don’t follow. Are you referring to the shuffle snap type? Can you briefly explain how that would work?

9

Yes, shuffle snap type. it’s just a by-product really, with limited use, like with just a few notes.

vid2

10

There’s a Double Time preset too, if you want to speed things up.

11

Amazing trick. How the heck did you discover that?

12

From just exploring the program, randomly trying stuff.