i work primarily in the track and key editors. i’ve figured out how to do the things below with a mouse, but i’d like to use some key combinations to save some time and improve my workflow. i’ve read through the operation manual and searched in the documentation for answers to my questions, but haven’t found any. hope one of you can steer me in the right direction.
what key command can i use to set the loop range’s left or right end to the current cursor position ?
here i’m talking about the highlighted bar that can be set to span a number of measures across the track editor’s bars/beats ruler, that governs what section of a piece is looped when looping is enabled.
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how can i turn on/off midi monitoring in a trouble-free manner ?
ideally, i want the ‘monitor’ mode [icon that looks like a loudspeaker] to turn on automatically whenever i select a midi/vsti track and be on for only that track. however, it seems like i can set these only manually.
if that’s not possible, is there any way to turn off monitoring on ALL tracks at once ?
[actually, on a similar vein, i’d like a way to turn off any of the audio states – solo, mute, record, monitor – on all tracks at once by using a single key command. is that possible ? ]
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3. how can i set the key editor to use a specific midi channel ?
if no notes are selected in the key editor, any notes i play on the mock ‘keyboard’ of the key editor are sent out channel 1, as is anything i draw into a controller lane. my current ‘work-around’ for the controller lane is that i re-select them after drawing them, then change their channel from the information bar, which is cumbersome. i still haven’t figured out a way to set the mock keyboard to send on a specific channel.
i can get it to do this if i set the midi channel selector in the track’s header [in the track editor] to a specific channel [rather than ‘any’], but that completely defeats the purpose of having multiple channels on the track .
Set Left Locator to Project Cursor Position: Ctrl/Cmd + Num 1
Set Right Locator to Project Cursor Position: Ctrl/Cmd + Num 2
There is no default KeyCommand, but you can assign one in the Key Commands window. The Monitor command is under the Edit folder.
To setup the Monitor behavior, open Preferences > VST > Auto Monitor. While-Record enabled seems to do, what you want to. But it seems to work for Audio tracks only. :-/
No, there is no Turn Off All Monitor command
It doesn’t send it on MIDI Channel 1, but on the channel, which is selected as a MIDI Output Channel, I would say. So, change the MIDI Output Channel of the track.
well, as i mentioned, i can’t do this. as far as i can see, if i set the midi output channel to ‘any’, then notes i play from my keyboard get recorded on the appropriate channel, but events drawn in and played from within the editor window itself go out channel one. if i set the midi output channel to a specific value in the track editor, ALL output goes to that channel, regardless of the channel they’re being sent on, which means i wouldn’t be able to have notes play on different channels any more. this is necessary because of the way that various articulations are delivered in the libraries. for example, two different violin articulations are two completely different instruments, so when they’re loaded into kontakt, they’re on different channels, but in real life, they’re the same instrument, so it seems strange that i’d have to put them on a completely different staves [tracks].
You can get keyboard stickers for Cubase shortcuts, its handy for first time learning if your brain is like mine. After a while should not be necessary, but couple it with a cheap querty keyboard and it may help
Yes, when you draw a new MIDI Note, Cubase has to select one channel by default. Cubase use MIDI Channel 1 by default. How could Cubase know, which MIDI Channel should be used for the new MIDI Note? You can change the MIDI Channel of every single MIDI Note later.
Yes, this is wanted behaviour. The MIDI Channel settings in the track has higher priority, then the settings of every single MIDI Note. If you want to “listen” the MIDI Note Channel, use “Any” in the track. This is the only way, how to do this.
Then you have to use MIDI Channel “any”.
The only one issue, I can see in your scenario is, if you write a new MIDI Note, this MIDI Note is played back always on MIDI Channel 1 (when you use “any”). And you have to change the channel manually later. But as I said, how should Cubase know, which MIDI Channel do you want to use for this note?
Using Articulations (Expression Map) should solve this issue. When you set dedicated Articulation, the MIDI Channel should change.
this is, in fact, the nut of my question precisely. i.e., 'what button can i push [or method can i follow] to tell cubase ‘use this channel when i’m playing the mock keyboard or drawing in the controller lane’.
excellent !! i’ve never used this before, i’ll give it a try.
thank you !
Rather than mixing midi channels in a single midi event there are other things you can do. For example, you can use two tracks to send to the same instrument with one track set to one channel etc. You can edit both parts together in the midi editor and swap between the ‘active’ part when you draw notes in. As they’re on different tracks you don’t care that they’re both drawn in as channel 1.
If I record with many midi channels then I split the event by midi channel to give me many events and then move them to other tracks.
Mind you, could be a feature request - to be able to set the default midi channel when drawing in midi data…
Turning off monitoring on all tracks - this can be done with a Project Logical Editor (PLE) script. See my JPEG.
Mute/Solo cancelling - At the top of the project window you get Mute and Solo cancel buttons which turn off all these (right click near the top of the project window to control which buttons you see). Also ‘Deactivate All Solo States’ and similar for Mute are the key commands you need.
I tried those once, but after awhile the stickers moved around a bit (or later even fell off) so I ended up with a gooey sticky keyboard. Plus you don’t have stickers for the Key Commands you add - and I add a bunch.
Now I keep a file with a several column list of Key Commands. Then I use the Snipping Tool to capture it as an image that I set as the background image on my monitors so they are always right there.
+1000! Now I keep a file with a several column list of Key Commands. Then I use the Snipping Tool to capture it as an image that I set as the background image on my monitors so they are always right there.
Thank you, Rodger! That is such a great idea and one of those, Vic-like, why didn’t I think of that moments.
This may or may not help, but here’s some of the ways I tend to work with locators and editing in the Key Editor and other editors.
I often set the locators to the selected measure with the letter P – one of the most useful for me.
I set my right and left locators, mostly, with Alt-click and Ctrl-Click in the ruler track, but the Num 1, Num 2 method is in my vocabulary. I also use N and B for moving around measures and parts. I put some dedicated navigation buttons into my generic remote – RTZ, go to end, a few others.
The Marker Track is very helpful – I use cycle markers and name them (A Section, B Section, verse, chorus, build, etc.), so I can Zoom and Cycle sections
In the Key Editor – If I want to see separate lines, I use the color to show which part is which more easily. I use "shared copies on tracks I’m doubling. Sometimes I want to edit all the parts at once, other times I want to make sure I don’t mess up one part when meaning to work on another. So, the various color options in the key editor might help you if you’re not already using them.
I know I didn’t address your very clear questions one by one, but I hope some of this helps. Good luck.
i successfully created a PLE to disarm all active record states, and saved it to ‘GlobalRecordOff’. i then did the same thing to turn off all active monitor states. i went into the key mapper and was able to find GlobalRecordOff in the list under ‘process project logical editor’ and bound it to a key combo, but GlobalMonitorOff was nowhere in the list. so i went back into the PLE, deleted GlobalMonitorOff, remade it from scratch, then tested it to make sure it worked. i then went back into the key mapper again. not only did GlobalMonitorOff still not appear, but the binding i’d just created for GlobalRecordOff was now gone !
i’ve never used this before, i’ll give it a try.