The drum editor is really nice. It would be even nicer if it allowed us to have a “pattern paintbrush” tool.
Those familiar with BFD probably know what I’m talking about. For those that don’t, I’ll just describe one or two highlights.
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You can prepare a rudiment on a paint tool. Let’s say a paradiddle. You click and drag to the right, and the hits are drawn. Velocity is variable, according to the pattern loaded. As long as the mouse key is kept pressed, moving up/down increases/decreases velocity of all the notes currently being drawn. When reaching the end of the loaded pattern, it loops over.
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Half time / Double Time button.
- You can arm this before using the tool and use it (for example, the aforementioned 16th notes paradiddle could become 8th notes paradiddle, or 32nd note paradiddle.
- Or, you can make a selection and the tool stretches/shrinks the selection accordingly.
Cubase could take it a step further, and have a “global” paintbrush, where you can paint two lanes simultaneously (for example Kick and Snare) with a predefined pattern.
I think this is a useful feature, as it allows for quick programming of more convincing rolls, drags, ghost notes, by greatly reducing velocity-related busiwork.