I love the chord track feature in CB and have started to use it more and more. There is one question which irks me, however.
When I add a chord track to a project I can choose which MIDI tracks are affected by it. This is as simple as choosing the appropriate track in the chord track’s inspector. Once you choose a particular track, that one track will be controlled by the chord track. So far so good. Now I have several MIDI tracks which I want to be controlled by the chord track. There is an option “use monitored tracks” as an alternative to choosing a particular track in the chord track’s inspector. However, even a MIDI track who is unmonitored (i.e., the little speaker symbol on its track is off) will start to follow the chord track. In other words, all MIDI tracks suddenly start dancing to the music of the chord track once I choose “use monitored tracks”.
What am I not understanding here? Perusing the manual didn’t shed any light on the situation either.
As far as I know the ‘use monitored track’/list of instruments selection on the chord track is just for previewing the chords on the chord track. I usually just mute the chord track since I don’t want to hear the preview.
You set which tracks are to follow the chord track on their respective inspectors.
“Use Monitored Tracks” mean tracks, where the Monitor is enabled (prange speaker icon), or Record Enable is enabled (red dot).
In Cubase, the default setting is: “Enable Record on Selected MIDI Track”, in Preferences > Editing > Project & MixConsole. So once you select any note, the Record Enable is enabled, and the Chord track plays thru it.
thanks for pointing this out. So what you are saying is that any selected track – whether it has its monitor icon (the little speaker) turned on or not – will be considered as monitored and hence play along with the chord track?
In my experience ANY MIDI track (whether selected or not, and whether monitored or not) will be taken over by the chord track. To substantiate this I will have to go back and experiment a little, though.
Yes, exactly. If this preferences is enabled, and Use Monitored Tracks is selected in the Chord Track, any selected MIDI/Instrument track will be considered as “Monitored” and the Chord track will use this track immediately.
ANY MIDI track, that’s strange. Are you using mult-timbral Instrument tracks?
I think this whole way of hearing the Chord Track is inflexible and can even create problems. A better approach would be for the Chord Track to appear as a MIDI Input that could be used like any other.
I posted a feature request for this awhile back that didn’t get any traction. If your’re inclined, you can give it a +1 here: