For songwriting and live performance purposes, I would like the following feature (and if it’s already possible with scripting, please let me know so I can use it in the meantime):
I want to record a loop on a track, then I want Cubase to switch to the next track in the “stack” (which is just a pre-determined list) so that I can do another loop of a different instrument on a different track while keeping the flow going.
The user would create a few audio tracks in advance - maybe a piano instrument track, a drum track, a synth track, etc.
Then after the tracks are created, the user creates a “loop record stack” or some similar term that lets them pick the tracks that will get cycled through automatically and record-enabled. So if I put the drum track first on the list, then the bass track, it will let me record a loop of the drums, then it will switch to the bass track and be ready for me to continue without me touching anything.
Some considerations:
The user will likely want to listen to their previous loop to make sure its good before continuing. So this record mode would only start adding notes or audio either when the audio threshold has been reached (to distinguish if the user is listening to the previous loop vs performing the new loop) or when the first MIDI note is played.
That leads to the next function which is to discard any loops that are silent. So if I don’t play any MIDI during the loop, the loop continues on the same playlist without switching to the next track since it will know that the listener hasn’t recorded yet (they let a loop pass before playing again). And for audio that hasn’t met the threshold, it will consider that as a play-through and will discard that as well.
Perhaps add a MIDI-mappable way to “skip to next track in loop stack” so that if we aren’t feeling the current instrument and want to skip it and move onto the next instrument, we can do that quickly.
If somebody wants to record multiple lanes on a track before it switches to the next track on the list, perhaps it’d be good to have a MIDI-mappable key for that as well - to quickly switch the track’s record mode from single take to multi-lane before switching onto the next track on the list.
Another thing to consider is that if the user wants to lay down a kick drum, then have it come around a second time to do the hi hats, etc…THEN switch to the bass track, we’d probably want to have a MIDI-mappable function to tell Cubase to stay on the same track and do multiple MIDI passes on the same track before switching.
Probably makes the most sense to have a mode that stays on the same track until a MIDI-mappable key is pressed to switch to the next track in the list.
Edit: Regarding that last point, we can already toggle between tracks and have them be record-enabled - I get that. This feature request would be sort of like what Elise Trouw does in Ableton, only we’re doing it in Cubase (and I believe that Ableton needs some type of scripting to make it all work). Then add an arrangement component to it and all of the sudden, you get a seamless live performance of a recording on multiple tracks and we only touched a few MIDI buttons to get there.
Final comment to tie it all together what we need:
We can call it a performance track.
Similar to how the arranger track lets you create a list of how many times a section is played before it switches to the next section of the song automatically, this would do the same type of thing, only it’s going through a list of tracks to automatically be able to perform on.
Additionally, it allows the user the following manual mappable options:
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Manually pause the performance track (in case they want to stay on a track longer and they don’t want the next track to be selected yet)
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Manually switch to the next track in the track list (for skipping instruments or when ideas aren’t working and the user wants to move on)
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A loop record mode that can be toggled in real time (to loop record on the same track without switching, or to record audio takes in lanes on the same track before switching to the next track on the list)
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Bonus feature: Arranger function so that when the entire list has completed and all the tracks have been performed, it will move onto the next section and repeat the process again.