Copy and paste with accuracy

Cubase
1

In the middle of my violin string section track I want to copy that segment perfectly to my empty cello section track if I use copy and paste it just doesn’t get lined up can you assist? Is there a special copy paste procedure?

Alan Russell

2

Hi,

Use Copy + Paste at Origin (Ctrl/Cmd + C & Alt/Opt + V). This will paste to the original position.

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3

@Alan-Russell
Please observe that this works only if you copy/paste the part in the arrange view or if you copy/paste note events in a midi editor. It does not work for other midi events like controller, as Cubase will automatically quantize the events and delete any doubles.
If you work with 120 ticks per 16th (default setting) then Cubase will quantize to only a few positions, potentially deleting suttleties when using copy and paste (at origin):

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4

@Alan-Russell
Another way to consider doing it is:

  1. Select (“Arrow Tool”) all the violin parts you want to copy to the cello line
  2. CTRL-C on a PC
  3. Put the Cursor at the left most edge of the selected violin piece (there’s a key command for that, it might even be a default one, “L”).
  4. Set the L or R marker to the Cursor (CTRL Num 1 or Num 2, respectively, on a PC) - that’s so you can very easily get the Cursor back to that location, by hitting Num 1 or Num 2, if it happens to move (e.g., if you happen to hit play).
  5. Open the cello track, make sure it’s in focus
  6. Make sure the Cursor is still at the Locator position you chose in Step 3
  7. CTRL-V. The violin parts will now appear on the cello track, at the same position they were in on the violin track

This seems long, but it takes probably less than 10 seconds in total to do once you have muscle memory.

I don’t know how this method is affected by the very interesting Cubase paste imprecisions highlighted by @Johnny_Moneto .

5

It is still not working for me I highlight the part in the track I want to copy control – C I then go to an empty track put the cursor all the way at the beginning by pressing “L” or in my case the period
I then press control V and the copied part goes only to the beginning of the empty track why is it not copying its location?

6

Very close, @Alan-Russell !

I’m not quite sure what this means, sorry ^
.

But this is the most important part: it was not correct to put the cursor at the beginning of the project (where your selecting “.” caused it to be), because, as you found out, the pasting location when you hit CTRL-V will be the Cursor location at that time.

The Cursor location should be at the beginning of “the left most edge of the first violin note you want to copy (there’s a key command for that, it might even be a default one, “L”).”.

I’ve revised the steps I wrote “10 days ago” a bit so that it’s more likely to get your job done, use the following, rather than the ones I typed before:

  1. Use the"Draw" Tool (looks like a pencil) to draw a part in the cello track that starts before the first violin note you want to copy/ paste to the cello track, and ends after the last violin note you want to copy/ paste.
  2. Select (using the “Arrow Tool”) the first single violin note of the many that you want to paste to a cello track, so that it is highlighted black.
  3. Put the Cursor at the left most edge of that violin note (there’s a key command for that, it might even be a default one, “L”).
  4. Set the L or R marker to the Cursor location (using CTRL Num 1 or Num 2, respectively, on a PC) - that’s so you can very easily get the Cursor back to that location, by hitting NumPad 1 or NumPad 2, if it happens to move (e.g., if you happen to hit play).
  5. Now select every single violin note you want to copy, and no others. You can do this using the Select (aka Arrow) Tool for now, there may be other methods you can use later.
  6. Select the new Cello part you created in Step 1, make sure it’s in focus
  7. Make sure the Cursor is still at the Locator position you chose in Step 3, i.e., at the left most margin of the first violin note you want to copy/ paste.
  8. CTRL-V. The violin parts will now appear on the cello track, in the new Part you drew in Step 1, at the same position they were in on the violin track

See how this works for you :slight_smile:

Remember, this is just one easy to do it, iirc, others that also will work were posted earlier in this thread.

7

Hi,

Use Alt + V instead of Ctrl + V, as written above.

8

Hi,

I just want to mention, this behaviour is the same, if you Copy + Paste at Origin (Ctrl + C and Alt + V), and also if you do the basic Copy + Paste (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V)