Dragging a file into Cubase and it goes to the bottom

Since Cubase 14 dropped, whenever you drag an audio file into Cubase to CREATE a new track (so in to the track list, not the arrange window) and it is above a Folder track, the file ends up being added to Cubase at the bottom of the project file, instead of where you intended it to go.

This could be the case for other types of tracks like group tracks or effects, etc, i haven’t tested.

I am running Cubase 14.05 tho, so i am not sure if this is fixed in any of the recent updates.
This was not the behaviour in previous versions, so it seems to be a bug?

Hi,

This is by design, as there were users complaining about the other (older) way. If you want to import the Audio Event into a specific track, drop the file into the Arranger area.

I don’t want to import the file into a specific track, i want to import the file into a new track.
It works as intended if i drag it above any other track like an audio track, why would it not work above a folder track and move the file instead to the bottom of a 400 track project?

I don’t understand the logic here?

Hi,

Oh, I’m sorry, I probably messed up 2 cases. If I recall correctly, the feature, which was removed, is the one, that in the past, you could also drop the file inbetween the tracks in the Arranger area, to create a new track. This is not possible anymore.

Could you please attach a screenshot of your track list and mark, where do you drop the file?

Not seeing that here. Dragging and dropping an audio file into the track list creates the track at the position of the green insert indicator which appears when you hover over the track list.

You can still drop the file in between any tracks by dragging the file to the track list (as mentioned above).

There’s an been awful lot of this since Cubase 13.

Hi,

Yes, you can do so. But in the past, you could also drop it inbetween the tracks in the Arranger area (not the Track List, which is still possible).

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Ok i did some investigating.
When you drag a file in between 2 tracks, you get a green line.
In cubase 13, this line stayed in place at the top of a track, and you could move down with the mouse to all the way to the bottom of that track, but the green line would stay above, until you pass the bottom of that track into the next track, then it shifts down one slot.

Cubase 14 functions differently.
The point at which the green line will move to the next track is ‘in the middle’ of a track…
So once you pass the middle point of a track it will move to the bottom of the track.

The problem lies in the situation that previously, you would need to be BELOW the top line of a track, for the file to go above that track.
And if you do this when there is a folder track below in cubase 14,
the file goes all the way to the bottom of the project.
It doesn’t do this in cubase 13 and before.

Because of the way cubase 13 and previous has ALWAYS worked, my default behaviour to insert a track, is to aim a little BELOW a track, to insert it. this was the only way to insert a track in cubase 13 and before.

But they have changed that behaviour in cubase 14 and it is broken when there is a folder track involved in situation.

I use a lot of folders to organise different elements of my tracks, and importing an audio file above a folder track, happens quite often for me.
So to have this behaviour broken, is frustrating, specially with 20 years of muscle memory using cubase everyday :slight_smile:

On top of that, i was doing more tests with group tracks & FX tracks…
If you add 2 fx tracks & 2 group tracks…
Try to insert an audio file anywhere between them, it’s impossible.
I tried this in cubase 13 and the same results.
It does not behave as expected (where the green line indicates).

@Martin.Jirsak any chance on testing these issues?

Can i get a response from someone to recognise these issues and get them reported so they can be fixed for everyone sake?

This got me curious so I ran a test. I have two machines, one with Nuendo 13 and one with Cubase 14 Pro. Both monitors are side by side so it’s easy to compare.

I set up identical projects with audio and MIDI tracks, group and FX tracks and folder tracks as well. I used the same audio file to drag into both projects and got the following results:

Audio and MIDI tracks.

I could drag the file anywhere amongst audio or MIDI tracks and a new track would be created where the green line appears between tracks. (Not above or below, but right where the green line is). This is consistent in N13 and C14.

Folder tracks

In N13 I can drag a file anywhere around folder tracks (above or below) and the new track will be created where the green line is, just like audio / MIDI tracks above.

In C14 it’s fuzzier. I can drag a file immediately below a folder track and it will work every time, but dragging to a slot above a folder track is variable… sometimes it will work and sometimes the new track ends up at the bottom of the list. I haven’t been able to find what conditions affect this.

Group and FX tracks

These tracks are a special case.

When I create either one of these tracks, they will appear by default inside a folder marked either ‘Group’ or ‘Effect’. If you’re dragging a file into the project, it wouldn’t make sense for the file to appear inside those folders, so if you try to do that the new track defaults to the bottom of the track list.

In my case, however, I tend to drag the group or FX tracks out of their folders and place them somewhere meaningful in my projects, so they’re now ‘free floating’. In this case, you would expect that dragging an external file above or below a group or FX track would behave the same as the other tracks, but it doesn’t.

You can’t drag a file above a group or FX track or between multiple group or FX tracks, even when they’re free floating, but you can drag below the last of either of them. I think this is because they retain their ‘folder’ flags even if they’re no longer in their group or FX folders, i.e. they continue to behave as if they were in their default folders. I could argue that, once the group or FX tracks are pulled out of their default folders, their ‘folder’ flags should be turned off and they should behave like any other random track (when it comes to dragging in files).

I hope that explanation was clear. This group / FX behaviour is consistent in both N13 and C14.

So, my findings are that most behaviours are the same when dragging in tracks to N13 or C14, but there is a difference around folder tracks. The fact that the behaviour is not 100% repeatable in C14 suggests that there is actually an issue that needs to be looked at.

Test was done on Windows 11, Nuendo 13 and Cubase 14 Pro, all at latest updates.

The condition is this.
If you are dragging the file below an audio track with a folder track below, which means dragging to the top half of the folder track (so the green line is above), the file goes to the bottom of the whole project.
If you drag the file to the bottom half of the audio track with the green line showing below, it should work in CB14.

This is a different behavior to get used to because previously in cb13 and before, you always imported a track above, by going to the track below.
This has been changed to a split half way through each track now, so muscle memory for me will always aim to the track below (usually the top half) and in this case with a folder track, it just errors out and goes to the bottom of the project.

So you can actually get it to go into the right spot if you re-train your brain a little from how it used to be.
But either way these errors/programming mistakes with the folder tracks and etc, should still be fixed as they are a different issue which is still broken.
Currently only one half of the position works, while the other half is broken.

This goes for Group & Effect tracks also.
When a green line shows you where it should import, it should import there, not end up at the bottom of a project.

Tested on Windows also!