Hi… Considering that Cubase Midi editor is not very easy to use with professionnal Vsti using huge articulations and Midi CC list, I tried to switch to another Daw to check if it is easier with… I tried with Reaper and I saw that it is another world… I m now convinced that Steinberg needs to plan a deep review of the Cubase key editor… . I list hereafter some features we need… and which currently exists in another daws…
With Reaper (and others as Protools, cakewalk…) we have, in the key editor view, the list of all midi tracks of the project (visible or not using just one click) with the basic possibilities for each one (view, record, mute, solo, edit or not, colors choice…). With Cubase, we have first to select edited tracks and if we want to renew the edited tracks list we must close the Key editor and to re-open it…
With Reaper, the Midi CC are “customized by their name” (= their assignation). Everybody may understand that it is easier to work when we see “vibrato” on the midi Lane… and not CC21 or CC34 !.. mainly when we have a long list of used Midi CC as on professional libraries now (EX : Chris Hein Lib use about 30 Midi CC) . This assignation is devoted to each track (= each instrument) . It automatically switches on the good “name” when we swith between edited instrument. It is very comfortable and we have some relevant dedicated “actions” for CC64 (Sustain pedal) for example… or to only viewed Midi CC lanes which contains events (Interesting when we use a track previoulsy designed for an instrument and now designed for a new one, because in this case, we generally have to change a lot of Midi CC assignation)
In Reaper (an in another Daw) all markers, regions (including tempo and signature markers) are included in the time line, it consequently doesn’t use a large area . We may use colors for markers and Regions … It is cool to rapidly localize a part in a project…
Reaper includes a smart tool to adjust velocities including compression, extension… It is very usefull to fine adjust velocities in a sequence of notes.
With Reaper, we may define our own tool bar including our preferred features
assigned to buttons clearly named by text or imaged by icons…
In Reaper, the Reaticulate tool (as in another Daws) just occupies a tight and flat line to indicate the choosen Articulation. In Cubase, Expression maps use a wide area… if you use a huge library as professionnal ones (EX : Vienna SL sometimes offers more that 30 articulations… which requires 30 lines in the midi editor of Cubase !)
The “expression map” (The Reaticulate bank tool), in Reaper, is a floating window… easy to use with
beautiful pictogram’s to give an image of each articulation.
In Reaper, we may use “Word” with classical Copy/paste/undo features to prepare articulation maps… Considering that a lot of Art maps are very simlilar… it drastically reduces consumed time to create its… and we only need one “instruction” (two lines… but often the same for a lot of instruments) by articulation. To check if it is OK, you just need to open the Reaticulate window and you just click on the articulation : you may immediatly verify if the selected articulation
is the good one on the plug-in view because the instrument follows in real time your choice. If not, I just have to edit the txt articulation file to modify the false lines… and refresh your map. With expression maps of Cubase, there are no copy/paste/undo possibilities in the editor and for each articulation, we need to introduce three set of data… and it is impossible to rapidly check if our “program” is good because if we click on the articulation in the expression map building tool window, it doesn’t send in real time the articulation message command to the instrument !
If we use more that two “commands” for one articulation, we can’t see simultaneously all of
them in the building expression map tool, we have to scroll a little this part… for each articulation! The reserved space to do that is too small to see more than two commands.
For drum maps, Reaper permits to create directly in the key editor…
and we just have to write the name on each key line… With Cubase, it is a boring and
specific tool … time consuming one… It is probably the reason why we have all
drum maps on the web for Reaper but not for Cubase.
I hope Steinberg will work in these directions… and possibly do better ! … because Cubase is of course very good for audio editing and mixing
(relevant Channel strip, Variaudio is a very interesting tool, relevant instruments and FX plug-ins…)