I would love to have a very simple way to just manually add Names to the notes in the piano roll (on a per-track basis).
Kind of like suggested in this thread: Steinberg Forums
It would be very easy to quickly set up key switches or drum names if you prefer to work with the regular key editor and see the piano roll alongside meaningful names in the context of your instrument (whatever it might be).
I could imagine it being implemented in a very slick way, for example:
MODIFIER KEY + doubleclick a key of the piano roll to make the key display a text field, allowing for quick renaming. At the top or bottom, there could be small icons to import/export your custom names.
That’s it. No further configuration, no complicated modification of input/output, just plain simple names assigned to notes.
+1, obviously, since I’m the one who posted the original thread in 2012…
Seems to me like this should really be a no brainer, but unfortunately, Cubase dev team doesn’t seem to share my (and our) point of vue…
It’s a shame, though, because I really feel Cubase would be stronger with this, and it would create a great tool that could be “community-driven” with tons of useful shared maps.
I feel like, over the years, while instruments parameters have grown more and more important (with VSTs like sample modeling’s for example), the midi interface has been somewhat neglected, VST expression beeing built with an old sample library architecture in mind (several inputs → one output).
An overhauled, highly customisable midi editor would be I think a huge feature for Cubase 9. Or at least, custom note names.
I found also that - note expression - function (not expression map) can be used to assign or stick a specific VSTi articulations (VSL, Kontakt,SWAM,…) to a note. Condition: replace -note- keyswitches by -CC- keyswitches in the VSTi.
The workflow in PianoRoll view is simple as:
select one note
assign a specific articulation CC keyswitch via the plugin or a remote app (VSL) to that note, say “staccato”.
repeat for other notes
Done!
The only problem I have is that those CC messages embeded in notes (note expressions) are sent too late to VSTi (whatever it is Kontakt or VSL) to change articulation on time (chasing). The only tweak is to move them earlier with logical editor and/or macros.
I noted that when CC values are entered manualy with pencil tool, timing/chasing is correct.
