I’m having issues with dragging MIDI drum patterns from Groove Agent SE6 to an instrument track in Cubase Elements 14.
For some reason the kick drum sounds in some parts disappear when I play the track in Cubase. When I drag a fill of one bar’s lenght using the icon on the photo in some cases the sound is gone but I can still see the MIDI signal in the track.
There could be a couple of different reasons, depending on the details of what you’re doing.
What instrument is the exported MIDI triggering?
This could be it. I have had Groove Agent open while simultaneously playing the track in Cubase after having dragged it from Groove Agent. Should I close Groove Agent completely and then play the track in Cubase?
I forgot to mention that after converting the MIDI to audio in Cubase the sound of the kick drum still is gone. It is always kick drum sounds.
Can you take a screen capture of your entire Cubase project window with Groove Agent Open while Cubase is playing?
Be sure to disable “follow transport” in GA.
I don’t know if I have done that. Where do I do that? Which button?
According with the screenshot you provided that’s ok.
It’s in the lower left corner.
It’s a known issue and already reported in the Groove Agent forum.
Yeah, same issue. Still a problem in Cubase 15 I see. No solution or work around?
As a workaround, you could use the Beat Designer MIDI insert, or the MIDI Drum Editor. Maybe they’re not as convenient–but they are probably more flexible than the built-in GA pattern editor.
The Beat Designer sadly isn’t a feature in Elements 14 which I’m using. I tried the Drum Editor but it has the same issue.
A while ago I caught some flak in this forum for being critical of Cubase but I find the issue with Groove Agent and Cubase unacceptable. I can’t be the only guy who finds it unusable. It shouldn’t be necessary with workarounds even if they did work. I must admit I’m seriously considering switching to another DAW. Am I overreacting? Is this weird communication flaw between GA and Cubase OK? I don’t know the other DAW’s well enough to know if they have similar issues and you just have to live with these obstacles but I’m willing to give it a try.
I wasn’t aware of that.
I mean you could use the Drum Editor to compose the patterns instead of doing it in the GA editor. It can’t have the same issue if you’re just using a MIDI track to trigger GA as a Rack Instrument (for example).
I’ve never used that built-in pattern editor, because I don’t think it’s flexible enough–but yeah, it ought to work if it’s there.
It is extremely frustrating when “nice to have” features don’t actually work, and don’t get fixed in a timely manner–but when it comes to getting stuff done, at least the core features are stable, and usually there’s a decent workaround for things that don’t work. You’re overreacting a bit IMHO.
No.
Most complex software has some issues like this at some point. The thing that makes the difference is how seriously Support/Development take such issues, and how long they take to acknowledge and resolve them.
Can you sequence GA drums with Cubase? Yes.
Can you do it all the ways you should be able to do it? Clearly not.
Is Steinberg going to fix this anytime soon? I don’t know
Thank you for the honest reply. I will look into the Drum Editor again. It appears I haven’t done it properly.
But I still feel like this is like buying a car with AC but having to pay extra if you want the AC to work. An included “Nice to have” should definitely work - as you say. But hey… I’m repeating myself. Thank you again.
You’re using Groove Agent SE - Main as the output? Are you using a Rack Instrument?
I’d make sure the power-button on the VST is actually active and that you can hear sound when you mouse-click on the pads.
One thing I see is that you have “Trommer” where I would expect to see the “Master” output. When you click on Trommer do you see a list of all 16 outputs?
It’s probably something very simple. When you create a new project and add the GA VST, and allow it to add a new track for you (when using Rack Instrument at least), it should work.
Enable the Monitor button, next to (right of) the Record Arm, on the track
Could be your drum maps perhaps? Using a drum map by misstake, having the wrong one selected, or in the case of GA not doing a “create drum map from instrument” in cubase after updating/editing the GA kit brings a lot of confusion.
Or might be you are outside the midi event (if your screenshot is showing two notes that you’re not hearing)
