How do I change the settings so that whenever I move or copy events where other events are in the Project Window, the old events that are there get completely replaced by the new ones, both for MIDI and audio? I don’t want anything merged or overlapped in this case, I just want the old events completely erased/replaced by the ones I’m moving there.
Hi,
As far as I know, this is not possible. You always have to delete the data first.
Really? This is an essential editing option that quite literally saves huge amounts of keystrokes/clicking/time when you need it/use it, for both MIDI and audio. Are you sure? It would be really surprising if a pro DAW like Cubase didn’t have this basic option, as it exists in others I’ve used.
But Cubase is very click heavy unnecessarily so I guess I wouldn’t be super surprised actually. 
Hopefully there is a way to enable this, hidden somewhere because it’s night and day speed-wise when you need it and use it.
Destructive editing is never a good idea imho.
It’s very common at the studio I work. There are many times when it’s highly useful. There are many times when one doesn’t want a pasted MIDI part to merge with the existing one on playback or for it to merge with the MIDI part underneath when you glue things together (again, if there’s a setting that I can change to make this happen when I want it to please let me know!), and many times when you don’t want any existing underlying audio to stay in the area that you’re pasting to in order to keep things clean and clear (you can use Delete Overlaps, but it’s one more unnecessary step when you don’t want existing audio to stay). The editors here who use Pro Tools use it often for both MIDI and audio.
I was actually wondering the same thing today, it would have been incredibly handy.
Perhaps I’m missing what you are after here but there is a midi function to delete duplicate notes.
This sounds like a candidate for a good Macro/PLE involving Range tool.
Can you give a scenario where you’d need this? Are the replacement parts the same length as the originals?
Hi,
The Delete Doubles function deletes just an exactly double notes. So the note has to have the same Pitch and the very same Note Start. Then one of the Note is deleted. See the documentation here.
This shouldn’t require any kind of extra keystroke, and it doesn’t matter how big or small the new event or the replacement event is. One example is when you move a MIDI event over an existing MIDI event in the Project window and simply want the new one to completely replace/erase the old one. If the new event is shorter then the old event is deleted only where you paste the new part. If the new event is longer than the old event then the old event gets deleted completely. This eliminates any extra selecting and deleting before you paste the new MIDI event over the old one in the Project window. It saves a lot of time when composing and should definitely be an option if it isn’t there already somewhere.
Put simply: When you move events on top of other events in the Project window, it’s completely destructive of whatever is there.
Just to clarify: I’m talking about MIDI events in the Project window, not individual MIDI notes in the MIDI editors. I mean the little squares/rectangles in the Project Window where MIDI data is (is it called an Event in Cubase?).
Yeah, that function isn’t in Cubase.
Sounds like it would be a useful feature.
Ok, I’ll crawl back under the stone I came from.
Totally. I was surprised that it wasn’t there years ago. And I guess it still isn’t there. It causes lots of wasted time in many, many situations.
Preferences > Editing > Delete Overlaps
Preferences > Editing > MIDI > Split MIDI Events
Preferences > Editing > MIDI > Split MIDI Controllers
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