Chord Pads - Recording in Pattern Mode (Is this broken?)

Just reaching out to other users opinion on the pattern mode for Chord Pads.

I love the pattern mode for playing chords and building the vibe of a song, as the backbone, however i get the following issues when it comes to recording the resulting performance:-

  1. When recording, the first chord always fails to register for some reason (When in pattern mode). i.e. if i start recording from Bar 1 and press a key for chord C @ Bar 1 (after the pre-count) nothing appears in the timeline. Subsequent chords do.

  2. When recording using pattern mode MIDI notes just seem to sustain (You can see long notes in the timeline) or random notes appear. Whatā€™s baffling is that the MIDI data thatā€™s recorded can be incredibly different to how the performance sounded when i was playing it. So somehow different MIDI data is recorded into the timeline vs what is being played. - Which doesnā€™t make sense, as the correct MIDI data is being sent to the Instrument at time of playing(?!).

Anyone else get those issues? If so, iā€™d love for them to be fixed as it totally wrecks the usability of the pattern mode. Iā€™m guessing itā€™s slightly bugged, but also amazed that the issue hasnā€™t already been raised.

Two (near) work arounds i have found:-

  1. instead of recording the performance, if you use retrospective MIDI record to save your performance - it seems to pick up the chords better (i.e. the first chord isnā€™t missed on bar 1). However, over-sustained notes seem to remain a problem. :frowning:

  2. If you use the standard Chord Pad mode to flesh out some ideas, and then save those chords to the Chord Track, you can drag the MIDI loop that you liked the sound of in pattern mode to the track, and then set the track to follow the chord track.

ā€¦However, you lose the ability of being able to create rhythmic stabs, whereby each key press will recycle the MIDI loop - Doing the above will just transpose the MIDI loop as a whole.

Thanks for any input anyone has on this subject.

1 Like

re: 1

Iā€™m very far from expert on the various chord function but does the ā€˜mapping offsetā€™ help with this ?

1 Like

Oh that was a quick reply!

Iā€™m not sure, as iā€™ve never tried that option, it seems to relate to Chord Track, rather than Chord Pads - but iā€™ll sure give it a try later. Really appreciate the reply - thankyou!

1 Like

As I say - Iā€™m far from expert - but I assumed that was to fix ā€˜earlyā€™ notes for the chord trackā€¦maybe something similar for Chord Padsā€¦

Let us know :smiley:

Sadly that didnā€™t help, but i appreciate the effort to helpā€¦ :frowning:

I submitted a question to Greg on last nights hangout and you can see the issue being replicated on his screen:-

Obviously i respect his position so he canā€™t really call out bugs on the live stream, but he failed to record the first chord when in record mode live on stream - even though you can hear his keys being pressed.

And you can see the resulting MIDI Data is nowhere as free-flowing when playing when the playhead is stopped. It just doesnā€™t correspond to hearing when his keys are pressed. And many presses just donā€™t record at all.

But at the end he kinda dismissed that there is an issue there, which was disappointing, especially after seeing it fail live on stream.

I just wish there was a workaround, as the correct MIDI data is finding itā€™s way to the VST Instrument when stopped or in playback modeā€¦ So thereā€™s gotta be a way of capturing it somehow, even if i have to route it outside of Cubase and drag the MIDI clip back in - maybe thatā€™s going to be my solution.

Normally iā€™m in my studio and playing parts in, but iā€™m recovering from Covid and trying to chill in the evenings using only a laptop and 2 octave keyboard - and this pattern mode feature can take you a long way in coming up with compositionsā€¦ ifā€¦onlyā€¦iā€¦couldā€¦getā€¦itā€¦toā€¦record! haha :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hi, I am using Cubase 12 and experiencing this exact issue. Did you ever find a solution/cause?

Thanks

Chris

It looks like you may have the option ā€œLatch Chordsā€ enabled.

Click on the cog at the bottom left corner of the Chord Pads window (Circled in red) ā€¦

ā€¦and make sure the checkbox ā€œLatch Chordsā€ (Circled in red) is UN-checked. :wink:

Was this problem solved? I just cant get chord pad patterns to record correctly.Timing is off and the pattern gets recorded alot differently than intended. Thanks.

The problem is still there, the only way I can get improvement is if I donā€™t record anything in the first bar (So allow a lead-in), and ensure that Automatic Record Quantise is disabled:
Screenshot 2023-10-04 at 09.11.12

Thank you for your speedy reply. I did indeed have AutoQuantize enabled. With AQ disabled and with a one bar lead-in,the pattern seems to be recording correctly so far. Thanks!

Also- Is it possible to drag and drop a chord pad onto a track,as normal,but with the pattern instead of a single chord?

Whatā€™s iā€™ve noticed is that if you play anything within that first bar it seems to sit in a buffer and can affect the recording as a whole. So stay completely clear of it! :slight_smile:

Thereā€™s a few ways of doing this, you can drop the MIDI loop onto the track and loop it, and then set that track to ā€˜followā€™ chord track. Then you can drag your pads to the chord track to create the song/progression that you want.

The follow mode then will transpose the notes based on your chord track, itā€™s a great way of composing, and you can then go in and tweak individual notes to suit also.

The other method is that you can add an Arpache SX MIDI insert on the track you want to have a pattern and load that up with a MIDI arp - although the interface for browsing presets is really poor (It closes everytime you select one!).

Whatever plays on that track will go through the arp/midi pattern in real-time. So you can just drop chords on there, for example.

If youā€™re fleshing out song ideas, the chord track and using the arranger track to try out different sections is a really strong feature of Cubase for me. Both aspects are well worth learning.

Nice! That worked wellā€¦I dragged the midi loop from media bay and as you said,had the track follow chordtrack.Excellent. It would be convenient to be able to just drag a chord pad with its default pattern onto the track,but it simply just plays the chord without the default pattern.I agree that trying out song ideas like this is a fantastic Cubase feature.

Same bug here in Cubase 13, any update on this issue?

Sadly not, as itā€™s been years already I doubt it will ever be deemed a priority to get fixed. Frustrating as would be a nice feature if it workedā€¦ :frowning: