How to edit or copy notes from multiple takes on a MIDI track?

Cubasis
,
1

Create a MIDI track, set to loop for a bar. Record a few notes. Stop. Now record a few more notes. Stop.

Note that the track now only displays the most recent notes recorded. Mute the track. Only the most recent notes are muted. Unmute. Double-click the area which shows the notes, opening the editor. Only the most recent notes appear as editable events, however, the piano keyboard still shows both sets of notes playing.

Select and copy the first bar, paste onto the second bar. Note that only the most recent notes are copied.

Undo. Select the first bar. Erase it. Now you can finally see the first set of notes recorded. But this is at the cost of losing your second recording.

Is there some way to see/edit/copy the first set of notes recorded — the notes “under” the most recent take? It’s like there’s some multi-layer thing happening on each track, but there’s no way to get at anything but the last group of notes recorded.

I find this behavior utterly baffling, and can’t understand how you can do anything non-trivial in a MIDI sequencer which behaves this way — but I also don’t see anyone else noting such a behavior.

Am I missing some view which shows ALL the notes one has recorded on a track — not just those from the last time you pressed record? Is this a documentation issue? Am I just being dense and overlooking something incredibly obvious?

2

Hi TimW1,

“Glue” lets you combine several MIDI events into a single event.
These are the steps.

  1. Tap the “SELECT” button in the sub menu
  2. Make a section of the events you want to combine into a single event
  3. Tap the “GLUE” butto

Does this help to resolve the problem?

Thanks,
Lars

3

Lars - thank you SO MUCH for your reply!

Sadly, no: the problem is that you cannot select/edit/copy all the notes you have recorded. I’m not trying to glue two notes together, (See note at bottom, though.) I’m trying to (for example) duplicate a bar — including all its notes.

(The idea here is that one can build up a drum or keyboard loop on a track as one likes, and then make a copy of that. Basic DAW/sequencer behavior.)

I’ll try to explain again. (You might want to try this in the software.)

Record some notes on a 1-bar track. For example, as quarter notes:

C-E-C-E

Now stop recording, and look at the screen. You can see each of those notes as blocks. If you copy that bar, you get the C-E-C-E pattern.

Now start recording again on that track, in that same 1-bar loop, and overlay some more notes. Again, as quarter notes:

G-G-G-G

Now, when you play this back, you’ll HEAR all the notes you recorded:

1-2-3-4 (note count)
C-E-C-E (sounds at the same time as…)
G-G-G-G

Now look at the screen again. You only only see “G-G-G-G” events. The “C-E-C-E” notes, even though they still sound, do not appear.

They also cannot be copied: Select the bar, and use “COPY:” and “PASTE” to make a copy. The new bar (the copy) will only contain (and play) G-G-G-G. (The C-E-C-E wasn’t copied, and does not sound when you play the new bar.)

This would seem to make Cubasis 3 unusable as a basic drum/keyboard sequencer. Building up a drum (or keyboard) track over multiple punches/takes — and then making many copies of that loop — is a common thing to want to do.

—

NOTE: There are other things that also do not seem to work. For example, regarding your suggestion: I have never been able to get the “GLUE” icon to do anything. Selecting a bar full of notes does not activate it. Double-clicking in the selected bar opens up a MIDI note/event editor, but that does not contain a “GLUE” icon. Selecting multiple notes in that editor does not light up the top “GLUE” icon either. So it’s not clear to me when and how “GLUE” could even be used.

BUT, I only mention this because you’ve asked: I can live without being able to glue two notes together. But it would be much more useful if Cubasis 3 could copy an entire bar of music.

Thank you again!