Cubase 9 Pro: how to move MIDI notes vertically?

Cubase
1

I Cubase 5 I can do like so:

In Cubase 9 I can not do it. Why? Is it an option or what?

2

I assure you that it does work. Hopefully someone will chime in here to advise what setting/option needs to be changed.

Regards :sunglasses:

3

So in your instance it is ok? (the key here is the gap between the lines)

4

Tough to tell by the pictures what editor you are using or what the “gap between the lines” is that you mentioned. What I can report is that I can move midi notes vertically (and horizontally) when I am using the key editor. Just like you show in CB5.

Maybe you are opening a different editor by default. You can set the default editor to the “Key Editor” (or whatever you want) in the Cubase Preferences>Editors menu.

Regards :sunglasses:

5

I had an answer to a related question…

the punch line was:

…select notes, release mouse, hold down ctrl, drag with mouse. Ctrl will restrict the effects of the drag to either horizontal or vertical. It doesn’t know which until the drag starts, so you must be careful to begin the drag in a vertical direction.

6

Thanks for the link.
Cubase 8.5 and 9.0.20 - I cannot get that to work with multiple selected notes.

Key Editor
The selected notes work as normal - vertical and horizontal movement.
cmd (Mac) constrains movement to one direction.


Drum Editor
Same problem as shown in the first post - selected notes only move horizontally.
I cannot find a modifier or preference to unlock the vertical direction.

7

I’ve just found this:
A multiple selection can be dragged vertically when limited to one note (drum instrument).
Perhaps this is a deliberate change by Steinberg - dragging all the notes from one drum instrument to another is very common, but multiple instruments to multiple instruments is less likely to be used.

8

I have had this issue with the drum editor. The problem I think is that the drums are not necessarily lined up in frequency order

9

It has to do with drum maps. They can be totally rearranged which creates a mess when you move multiple notes simultaneously.

10

@Richard834, so this is an obvious bug!

@Prock Cubase doesn’t have a lot of editors. It’s obvious that this is a drum editor.
You can move hits vertically if you select hits of one line (note). If you want to move vertically bass kick and snare simultaneously (let’s say you want to make them tom 1 and tom 2), you can not do it.

Why it isn’t an issue in Cubase 5 or default GM drum map? This issue also exist in Cubase 8.5.
I don’t know why other people doesn’t complain about this. To me it’s very stupid. I am pretty often don’t want to mess with midi signals and record whatever midi hits, than move them to the right notes (drum hits) with mouse.

There should be at least an option.

Studio One or Reaper makes me less frustrated than upgrading from 5th Cubase to 8-9.

11

It seems like Steinberg decided to disable the ability in later versions as moving notes from different lines/instruments had sporadic results using varied drum maps (which is very commonplace these days).

12

Here’s how KEY modifiers are working now in the drum editor:

  • Pressing the key before moving notes:
    • Ctrl - add to selection / remove from selection;
    • Shift - only add to selection;
    • Alt - delete / add note (will reset selection);
    • Ctrl + Shift - change velocity (cool feature);
  • Pressing the keys after dragging notes somewhere (e.g. press & hold left mouse button):
    • by default notes are moving only horizontally (this is wrong, they should move everywhere like in key editor);
    • Ctrl - lock to vertical moving only (but you can not move notes vertically, so this is nonsense);
    • Shift - doesn’t do anything (it could be used to lock only to horizontal moving, which is by default now);
    • Alt - duplicate notes;

Thumbs up if you agree.

13

I wouldn’t say I am using this vertical moving a lot. But It against common sense and can be treated as a bug.

I doubt it is about drum maps, cuz drum editor has a grid, and than the grid binds to “notes”. So it has nothing to do with a drum map. You drag notes, than cubase decide which drum to trigger in a VSTi according do drum map when you hit PLAY.

I like the concept of drum maps and drum editor in Cubase, and this was one of my favorite features in compare with others.

I will live without this vertical dragging. Just saying… don’t wanna someone tried to be smarter than me. It’s a common mistake of many software that leading to dumbness of users.

(ha-ha, what a big conclusions)

14

Unfortunately a list of all key modifiers doesn’t seem to exist in the manual. But I think this tutorial shows all the new ones available in C8.5.

The first part applies to drum editing the second part to key editing.

If you look at Martins final post here:

I think that is pretty comprehensive. If anyone knows of additional key modifiers, it would be swell to add to the list.

Regarding the original issue, I didn’t realize that it no longer worked as the same in C5. When I transpose drums, it’s usually just one track, not multiple tracks. Was this dropped due to the new drum editor features in C8 such as only seeing the drum tracks with drum its on them?

The only work-around I know of is to open the drums in the key editor, make your transpositions, then open it in the drum editor.

15

I have been using Cubase SX3 for many years but have recently had to admit defeat and upgrade to a 64bit machine. This inability to move drum parts vertically is the first major frustration I have experienced and one Cubase should seriously address as it ridiculous.