Handy Keystroke: Set Punch In/Out to cursor on the fly

Cubase
1

Hi - I’m enjoying the separate loops for playback (the blue bar at the top) from Punch in/out (the red triangles and red bar at the top).

I recently realized there was a keystroke for setting the Punch In/Out locations on the fly very quickly (e.g., while playing through the project). So, for example, I start playback from the left of where I know the Punch In point will be, and when the playback cursor gets there, I hit “CTRL-ALT Num 1”. The project keeps playing, and when the cursor gets to the Punch Out point I hit “CTRL-ALT Num 2”. (I don’t know if those are default ones, or if I entered those myself).

It’s so quick and sweet this way - I used to have to do a long multistep process instead: stop playback at the punch in, manually copy the cursor position from the transport bar and manually copy it into the Punch In field … then repeat for the Punch Out.

So nice this way! Hope this helps somebody down the road …

(And of course there are keystrokes for setting the Locator Beginning/End positions, I think the default ones might be CTRL Num 1/CTRL Num 2).

2

I would be helpful if you included the verbatim names of the commands you refer to so people can search for them in the Key Commands search box. (they are not assigned by default)

3

Yes, the SET PUNCH IN/OUT TO PROJECT CURSOR POSITION is not assigned by default. I kept my key command in-line with the PUNCH IN/OUT nomenclature with CTRL+ALT+I/O

4

Yes, you’re welcome!

Not at DAW currently, you can just type “Punch” in the search box and you’ll find it in two shakes of a lamb’s tail ( that’s how I found it).

Wonderful command/KS!

5

Great tip! I assigned Shift + I to set the punch in at cursor position and Shift + O for the punch out, so it would be easy to remember, since “i” alone ACTIVATES the already set punch-in point, and “o” alone activates the already set punch-out point.
Note that when you set the punch in/out points at the cursor positions, you will not see anything marking that position in the top window (though the position will be indicated in the transport bar). But once then follow that with the “i” or “o” keys, the red punch-in/out flag will appear at the top of the window.