A straight line, to be exact. A straight, horizontal line. With the input points of said line quantized to quarter notes.
In an automation lane. In the Key Editor. In the Controller area of the editor window. Anywhere, really. Can I just have a straight line, please?
The most obvious choice for this was the line tool. It seemed like there would be a way to select the âstraight lineâ option and then use a keyboard modifier as you click-n-drag said line to restrict its movement to the horizontal - similar to what happens when you hold ctrl and move an automation point.
Oh good! There is! According to the manual:
âDrawing Note Events with the Line Tool
In the note display, the Line tool allows you to draw a series of contiguous note events along different line shapes.
To create contiguous note events, click and drag in the note display.
To restrict movement to horizontal, press Ctrl/Cmd and drag.
The notes have the same pitch.
If Snap is activated, the note events and controller events are positioned and sized according to the Quantize and Length Quantize values.â
Look at that! Press ctrl! In the Key Editor! Thatâs where I am! With the line tool! Thatâs what Iâm using! On v9! Thatâs what I have! And quantized controller events, just like I want! Itâs almost as if someone wrote this manual page specifically for me!
Except - no. Thatâs not what happens. Ctrl does not do that with the line tool - literally ANYWHERE. Holding ctrl with the line tool has the same functionality everywhere in Cubase, and that is to defeat Snap To. It does not lock the line tool to the horizontal. Why does the manual say otherwise??
First of all, I donât understand, why do you need to send the same value again, and again. You can send it only once, and then the value remains until you change it.
Yes, you are right, this doesnât work.
You can observe the value you are drawing on the left side of the Key Editor, under the name of the Controller you are currently working on. SO you can make sure your Start and End values are the same. But in this case, Cubase will draw only 2 points, because it doesnât make sense to draw more of them.
Draw any line (steeper = more nodes). Then select all these nodes, double click to the value in the Info Line, type new value. Hold down Ctrl/Cmd and hit Enter to confirm the value. All events get the same value.
Or draw any line, and use MIDI Logical Editor. If Event = Controller X, Value 2 Set to Fixed Value Y.
Can you just put in quarter notes with the same velocity and use those to trigger? Either basic note on command or if you need CC then use the velocity?
In the Key Editor, you can draw MIDI Notes and MIDI Controllers by using the line tool(s). In the Drum Editor, you can draw MIDI Controllers (not MIDI Notes) only. This is what Iâm talking about.