EDIT:
Hi everyone
I’m editing my original post after giving it some more thought and narrowing in on the core functionality of my feature request. I’ll leave the original post below for those interested.
The feature would allow DAW users to rank, comment, sort, and filter lanes while recording, using one or more hotkeys—or MIDI commands—assigned to give the latest take a 1–5 star rating, or simply a thumbs up/down.
An addition to this would be comments on the events themselves. In my original post, I imagined this being done by an AI voice assistant, allowing the user to speak directly to the DAW so that it automatically types a comment onto the event. Both the ranking and the comment would appear as an overlay on top of the waveform, MIDI data, or other event data, making it directly visible in the project window.
Without the AI voice assistant, the commenting feature could still work via manual user input. While this might not be very practical during recording—and doing it afterward may somewhat defeat the purpose—it could still have its uses.
The next level of the feature would be a sorting and filtering function. Similar to a table in Excel, the lanes could be sorted and filtered by ranking or other criteria—for example, reverting to a chronological order of the recordings. This could create a clear overview before listening back for editing.
If AI implementation were included, another useful sub-feature could be automatic similarity detection across takes. Takes could then be sorted and filtered based on their similarities, making it quicker to identify the best candidates for overdubs.
I still believe the feature would benefit greatly from having an AI voice assistant for comment input. However, I realize that the AI aspect of my original post did put off some initial responders—and understandably so. In a very short time, AI has revealed its darker side to many people who create out of passion, and letting it in can certainly give off Trojan horse vibes. I can also imagine that implementing AI would be an entirely different level of complexity. So perhaps a simple feature for ranking, commenting, sorting and filtering lanes in Cubase would be a solid first step.
Cheers - Anders
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ORIGINAL POST:
Hello Cubase developers
I can only imagine that Cubase is on the verge of breaking through to the AI realm, and I’m thinking of a use for AI as help for solo artist like myself not having the luxury of an engineer or a producer to keep an overview while trying to stay in the zone for the sake of a performance.
Personally I can easily do hundreds of takes, while shaping and trying to refine the vibe of my song, and sifting through all those takes to finding the takes I like afterwards is daunting to say the the least. Not to mention comping becomes quite an overwhelming puzzle.
Now imagine an AI listening in on all the takes considering basic musical aspects like pitch, timing and amplitude (maybe it could be a setting what the AI should pay more attention to). Depending on the quality perceived by the AI, the lanes would get ranked/sortet automatically.
Furthermore if the AI could be set to listen in on my own comments after a take, it could use what I actually have to say about the performance myself on top of simply ranking the musical aspects. This would create an even better overview of the best takes even if they may have been “happy accidents”.
Ex. 1: I nail a take both pitch- and timing-wise but I mispronounce a word and I might say something like: “Damn, great pitch but I messed up “artificial””. The AI would pick up on my comment recognizing that the take - in my opinion - had some good and some bad and add that to the ranking and even add a note to the take saying: “Great pitch but the word “artificial” was mispronounced”.
Ex. 2: I nail another performance, but I find it’s too clean and polished for the style I’m going for. The AI will of course recognize that musically the take should be ranked high but as the it hears me saying eg.: “Erh… this was too boring. It needs more grit.” it will move the take a few places down and add a note saying: “Too boring. Needs grit”.
Ex. 3: Maybe I do a take that is not the prettiest of performances, but I really like some of its imperfections and say: “Oh yeah. Landing slightly flat on that high C is just what I going for”. Again the AI would pick up on my comment, rank it higher, than it would based sole on pitch and timing and add a note of my comment to the take.
This type of AI assistant could be used for all types of instrument, as long as a mic is connected to pick up the comments. The function would of course require a note attribute to be added to all types of events. This could be accessed from the info bar, the event editor and the inpector. But to truly offer the overview that this requested function could create, the notes created by the AI or as old fashioned user input should be visible, and even searchable, on the events themselves in the project window. I suggest a Toggle-able overlay on events to keep a cleaner look for users not utilizing this function. This overlay could hold other information as well.
I’d imagine that this function would be as useful even if people are collaborating two or more people and not only for solo artists depending entirely on themselves in a recording situation.
Feel free to comment. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. And also, if someone can share ideas for workflows when working with large stacks og lanes to help me out while hopefully waiting for this feature I’d be grateful.
Cheers - Anders
on me.