Copy/Paste Multiple Time Sigs

I think this is actually THE ‘B’ WORD THAT MUST NOT BE USED ON STEINBERG.NET!

  1. Open the Time Sig Editor…

  2. Select multiple time sig ‘markers’.

  3. Hold down Alt and drag mouse. It will -look- as though it is about to copy/paste those time sig markers to your new location. WUNDERBRA!!!

  4. Well… except that it doesn’t actually do that. TRAININGBRA!

What it actually does, is -move- the time sig markers… I guess.

Obviously, I want to be able to copy/paste time sig markers en masse.

So… can you make the -function- match the UI? That would really help.

Which leads into another micro-rant:

A LOT of concert music requires not just multiple time sigs but -groups- of alternating time sigs. In most 20th century music you’re most often thinking in time-sig-groups, not one time sig. eg. ( 4 bars of 3/16 + 1 bar 4/16 ). That’s one -group-. And one should be able to -easily- manipulate those -groups- as a single object in Cubase/Score.

IOW: There should be a ‘Meta-Time Sig’ marker… a way to wrap a group of bars in ‘brackets’ that would represent a single object that can be instantly copied/drawn/cut/pasted just as individual time sigs can be done now.

Put it this way: Ever seen a picture of Bartok? Not the happiest guy, right? Now picture Bela having to individually notate EACH FRICKIN’ TIME SIG MARKER in Cubase? The guy woulda just given up. (And that’s the joke… we’re talking FOLK music here. It’s 2015 and entering a one chord Serbian Wedding Song in Cubase takes longer than a Chopin Nocturne.)

I would be happy just with compound time signatures.

Yes. But if the above feature actually -worked- as it appears to be designed, that would be a start.

I rant about this (not that anyone asks) because I have a theory: ALL music is driven by the tools. When people stopped using pen/paper they became slaves to what computers do well. And one reason so much music is so CRAP is because it’s SO FRICKIN’ HARD to execute various things like… compound time sigs. No matter how one tries, a person will -always- fall back on what the medium makes easiest.

In short: loops and 4/4 prevail because it’s so damned hard to write -anything- else with a machine.

All one has to do is listen to an old episode of something like The Outer Limits or basically -any- TV show up until 1980 (when the machines came to town.) Those guys could -write- back in the day.

Whoooo +1,000,000 to your latest rant. Absolutely. As a composer I find myself constantly constantly constantly having to be alert to tool-bias. Finale: steady streams of same note values. Sonar: using fewer controllers than is appropriate. Cubase: ?? many … read the fora.

Though, I will say, the OP doesn’t strike me as that important (sorry). If only there were a very fast way to insert a time signature at a a bar number, that would satisfy me, Stravinsky, and Bartok.

OK… for whoever… I just realised that…

Although the Alt/Drag method does not work… and the Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V method does not work…

The right click Edit|Copy Edit|Paste method -does- work. Huzzah.

Now… just repeat 100xs and I’m done!