MAKE PRODUCING MUSIC EASIER (100+ issues & suggestions)

Kudos to the super-cool team - so far so good! (now get back to work :~)

Here are some issues identified, enhancements and also suggestions to improve, refine and redefine the UX. Some of these may be related to v2 as my testing of v3 was very limited so far -

  1. Playhead scrubbing - removed in v3. Please bring it back.
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  2. Chord buttons - please bring these back as pads cannot do what editable chord buttons can do. Check out my Dance Monkey videos to see edited chords with notes spanning lower/higher octaves for each chord. Pads cannot do that and they cannot display chord keys on the keyboard because there is no keyboard - just pads. Pad chords may have their uses but please bring back the 10 Chord buttons.
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    - YouTube
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3. In v2, the handles in the miniature keyboard snap keys to screen edges - please bring this back in v3. Fine scrolling the keyboard is hard to position it to fit the screen precisely for capturing videos. The X button on the top right is too thick (just use the button from v2 which is perfect). Also, the inner/top corners of the keyboard are rounded - inner corners of all bottom panels should be squarish to align with the top panels on screen edges. All corners of top panels should be squarish because of the toolbar on the top.
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4. Octave buttons - need buttons to scroll the keyboard by an octave up or down. Most of the DAWs and AUs have this feature. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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5. Dual keyboards (like GarageBand) or better yet, triple keyboards (like SynthMaster One) for a wider range of playable keys. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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6. Search - Media Bay without knockout search feature is only half-baked, half functional and hence half user-friendly. Ability to rate, tag, search, filter and sort files (currently glitchy) will add more muscle to it (see: Gmail). Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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7. Ratings - Implement this with a scale 1-5 for instruments (see: Factory synth), presets, projects, files which gives us 5 levels of favorites indicating their importance/usefulness as opposed to simple one-dimensional Favorites feature that gives only one vague level of favorites and no clue of how important or trivial the file is.
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8. Tags - ability to add tags to files and ability to search/filter by tags (see Factory synth with an intuitive Tag Cloud! to filter instruments).
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9. Sorting by modified date is sorting by the “string value” of the date column instead of the underlying “date value”. Eg: files with time 12:20 pm (noon) sorting above files with time 10:10 pm (night) when sorted by date descending.
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10. Folders are not very functional. Storing a project inside a folder does not scroll to the project inside the folder and highlight it on launching Cubasis or opening the Media Bay - leaving us clueless as to which project we are currently working on (unless we know in which subfolder to find it).
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11. New Project is created in the root directory instead of in the selected subfolder.
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12. No breadcrumbs display for sub folder navigation, losing track of current path until we drill up to the top level again. The “<” icon in the navigation looks like a “|” - please make it more angled.
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13. When Move is pressed and canceled, the row is still highlighted in purplish blue color and Delete/Auto Play buttons are disabled for the row.
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14. Display duration of audio files in the Media Bay.
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15. Display File Count in folder names as a visual cue of its contents. (eg: Demo (12), Test (0)). Or show folders with files inside them in bold and empty folders with normal font weight or light gray/disabled look.
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16. Auto-Save - Do not re-save for just opening a project, checking its track settings or swiping through its timeline and updates its modified date that messes up the sort order. This is frustrating as we shy away from opening old projects to refer to their settings, etc. This also affects modified dates of folders which is a bummer and so, using folders to keep modified date from messing up sort order of files within the folders is of no use. See LumaFusion, BeatMaker 3, etc - they work perfectly - saving the project only when a change is made to it. This was promised with v3 but still not there yet. Make Auto Save intelligent and optimal. Also, do not update Modified Date of folders if any file inside them is modified. Please add this feature to v2 too.
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17. Persist sort orders across sessions.
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18. Persist track heights across sessions.
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19. Persist collapsed status of the Inspector on the left across sessions.
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20. Persist Auto Scroll in playback mode across sessions. These preferences should be global and not project-specific. You can even add a section under Settings and have these switches so we can control what preferences to persist across sessions and what preferences to reset to default.
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21. Background Audio - force set Background Audio back to OFF on launching Cubasis every time! However, as suggested by Samu, this is not recommended for IAA apps. Or maybe you could make some intelligent decision during launch of Cubasis to see if background audio is requested by other IAA apps, if possible, and act accordingly (even if background audio was not turned on in the previous session) which may resolve some reported connection issues to IAA apps.
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22. My Presets should not have Steinberg icons to their left (see: Master Strip presets). Display a User icon instead.
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23. Factory presets should not be deletable or editable. For instance, we are able to delete Master Strip presets (I think I’m wrong on this one)
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24. Saving a factory preset did not save along with its customizations for Master Strip.
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25. User presets are not sorted until closed and reopened (after creating a new preset).
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26. Warn before deleting presets. Delete is a destructive action - if the deleted item cannot be safely moved into the Trash Can, seek a confirmation from the user (displaying the preset name in the popup) before deleting; otherwise, it’s gone POOF!
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27. Warn before deleting folders if they are not empty.
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28. Error: “One plugin not found no name” on launching Cubasis which is vague - display the name of the plugin in the error so we can reload/reassign it or report it or deal with it or do whatever.
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29. After undo, keep the items selected as they were before. Currently, everything gets unselected after undo/redo.
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30. After splitting an event, both the split events become deselected. Leave the split event on right selected like most other tools do (including v2) because the user mostly wants to delete/act on the split event on the right. Apply this same logic to MIDI note splitting too.
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31. When we open Master Strip, show presets list on the left and highlight the current preset instead of showing plugins.
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32. In Master Strip, the output meter numeric reading displays are gone at times, until turned off and on.
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33. Optional Note Names on Black Keys too.
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34. Make note names on the white keys a bit darker as they are too light to see in captured videos.
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35. Pinch vertically in the arranger should resize track heights naturally as pinching on left column is hard without messing up Arm, Mute, Solo and other switches. See other DAWs. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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36. Shortcut buttons for quick track heights - Short, Medium, Tall - similar to Mixer widths. This is really useful on iPhone version where tracks cannot be resized in height! Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  • Short - display just the instrument names. No switches like Mute, Solo, etc. in this height.
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  • Medium - display instrument names and just the Mute and Solo switches on the track column on the left for each track. Most people would prefer this ideal height while working with more tracks. Try this beautiful Medium height for yourself (with just Mute and Solo switches visible) and you will NEVER go back to the default Tall height again! On my iPad Pro 11”, I see 7 tracks with default tall height but with track heights reduced to Medium (only Mute and Solo switches visible), I can see 12 tracks!! And they look very ELEGANT in this Medium height. For these reasons, I resize tracks heights to Medium every time I launch Cubasis. If users want to see all the switches, they can switch to Tall height quickly to access Freeze, Arm, Monitor and other switches. Freeze and Monitor are rarely used switches and Arm switch with default focused track behavior setting doesn’t usually need to be messed with and ok to hide them in this height. In fact, we accidentally Arm some audio tracks at times and while recording MIDI on another track, it records on both tracks and so, this height will hide the Arm switch gracefully and always arm only the current track with default behaviors as expected.
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  • Tall - Default track heights. This tall height is ideal on desktop apps with more screen real estate - not mobile apps. More height only gives access to more switches like Freeze and Arm and not much to gain in track visibility or functionality.
    More height = fewer visible tracks.
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  1. Snapshots are missing in v3! For the crazy autosave feature messing up modified dates on just opening a project, snapshots were a workaround solution as they cannot be opened or edited and retained their modified dates. When I wanted to open an old project, I just extract its snapshot, open the extracted project and blow off the extracted project after my use. But now, the Snapshot feature is gone. Duplicate Project option (whose modified dates get updated when we open them) is not much of use compared to readonly snapshots - please change Duplicate into Snapshot. Snapshots are backups that give us peace-of-mind. Bring back Snapshot feature or true Versions feature like StaffPad -
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    https://www.staffpad.net/it-s-here-the-staffpad-2020-update
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  2. Copy an event, paste it while the MIDI editor is open, where does it go? It apparently gets added to the undo history.
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  3. Volume of the song in LumaFusion / videos uploaded to YouTube from LF is a bit louder compared to volume inside Cubasis with default volume settings.
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  4. Master FX disappeared after deleting all tracks.
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  5. Mixdown as MusicXML - please bring this feature from Cubase! This will resolve many import issues/errors with scoring/notation apps using just MIDI files (I’ll pay your asking price for this as an IAP). MusicXML format contains all the articulations such as slurs and is used for importing/exporting music notation between notation apps. MIDI format doesn’t have all the data such as slurs and is for interchanging songs between DAWs and notation apps. However, MusicXML export from Cubasis would be nice and PRECISE and will not have import errors in scoring apps. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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  6. Add a Sheet Music score tab (maybe a mini Dorico?) in the arranger for the entire project with ability to show/hide individual instrument staves from tracks, play, scroll, export as MusicXML and PDF, Print, etc. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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    Michael Good, Author at MusicXML - Page 5 of 6
    MusicXML has become the most successful standard for music notation interchange since MIDI. Back in 2007, Steinberg was the first major commercial DAW vendor to add MusicXML import and export in Cubase 4.1. MusicXML format has long had widespread support among notation and scanning programs. moving a score from DAWs like Logic to notation programs like Finale is a much more common workflow than moving scores in the other direction. MusicXML export is a terrific boon for musicians who compose in Logic and then want to produce end scores in a full-featured notation program like Finale.
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  7. I heard from StaffPad devs that MIDI files exported from Cubasis have Invalid Velocity values like 176 causing messy import.
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  8. Mixdown as MIDI is exporting muted tracks too (these should be excluded just like they are excluded from Mixdown to WAV, etc).
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  9. MIDI play button missing in My Midi and Mixdown sections.
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  10. Play button missing for FLAC files.
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  11. Optional Note Names on MIDI notes inside MIDI editor (see: FL Studio).
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  12. Zoom in to the max in MIDI editor - makes events/notes show at wrong locations, misaligned, incorrect and also some events disappear, etc.
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  13. Double tap on Playhead bar to start playback from the tapped position quickly (see GarageBand, StaffPad).
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  14. Treeview of tracks in the arranger with all effects, automations, pitch-bend, etc to see all in one place as collapsible child nodes. Currently, these are located in different places -
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    Treeview of tracks in Arranger - #2 by MobileMusic - Cubasis - Steinberg Forums
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  15. Retain zoom factor in MIDI and Automation editors - Also, please add this feature to v2 too. -
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    Retain zoom factor in MIDI and Automation editors - #5 by LSlowak - Cubasis - Steinberg Forums
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  16. Track templates and copy/paste track settings - (add this feature to v2 too). For this, you may convert the Add, Delete and Duplicate track buttons into a popup where these buttons may be moved into along with the new Copy, Paste buttons and Track Heights buttons (Short, Medium, Tall). Copy/Paste should work at the entire track level and also individual event level (to copy/paste its Volume, Faders, etc) within the same project or across other projects (see LumaFusion where we can copy/paste selected settings from one clip to another clip or another project, quickly).
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    Track Templates - Cubasis - Steinberg Forums
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  17. Editing Values - Ability to key in values in Mixer, Automation editor, etc similar to Audio editor where we can assign a tempo using a popup. This can be made as a simple popup like Audio editor’s popup or specific popups with dropdowns of valid range values (eg: Pan), radio buttons (eg: Mute on/off), etc. to limit input to predefined set of valid values. Sure, we can increase the height of Mixer to gain some fine control on iPads for volume in the way we slide the volume faders but not much and it is still a hassle on iPhone version where the Mixer is already short. I love the Automation editor but it is a real pain to set values precisely. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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  18. Reset automation params, double tap data point in values/scroller on the right to reset values Long tap to key in values. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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  19. What is 0R’ight and 0L’eft values for Pan in Automation editor?? How are these different from C’enter?
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  20. After moving the scroller on the right from default C to R in Automation editor for Pan, I was not able to go back to C again because C was not available anymore! Instead, it gave me options like 0R, 0L, etc. Again, this is the frustrating and dreadful part of using Automation editor - make editing/resetting these values EASIER.
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  21. Undo to remove an added audio event/track doesn’t reduce project size - we need to Clear History (no such option in v2). If I drag an audio file on to an audio track and then Undo, it should delete the corresponding audio file from the project folder too (if it is not used anywhere else in the project). Currently, it doesn’t delete the file and thereby increases project file size. Also, please add this optimization feature to v2 too.
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  22. Delete unused audio track, then delete corresponding audio file from Files app is messing up and removing unrelated audio events from other unrelated tracks upon relaunching Cubasis (maybe going by some array elements).
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  23. Toolbar - switchable single toolbar using a chevron icon like StaffPad for more “vertical room”? The second/edit toolbar may be switched on demand using the chevron icon or maybe made visible automatically on selecting something. Or make it possible to collapse/expand the 2nd toolbar dynamically. One extra row of vertical room will really make a HUGE difference and gives us a big bang! Even more so on iPhone version.
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  24. Editing and undoing in Mixer results in lost history (restores incorrectly from lost/empty history).
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  25. Tap hold Tempo value and drag it down “over the Tempo Tap button” to change tempo. Tempo goes up instead of going down. Drag it sideways “away from the Tempo Tap button” - it works. This works as expected in v2 but broken in v3 and also hard/slow to drag/use in v3.
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  26. Mixer gradient colors - green, yellow, orange, red to show how hot the volumes are.
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  27. Spectrum graphs in the Mixer (see: ZenBeats).
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  28. Spectrum Analyzers in effects, plugins, IAPs, etc - currently, we have to rely on just our ears for adjusting EQ, etc which is an old-fashioned way of doing things. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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  29. While duplicating/renaming a project, deleting characters in the middle of the file name in the popup deletes chars from the end of the file name. Also, long names are extending outside the popup boundaries towards left.
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  30. Edit file name popup - do not auto select the entire file name as it is frustrating to unselect to just edit the name. If user wants to clear out the value, there is an X button for it on the right in the field. Auto selecting text in an edit field is relevant to Windows but outdated and bad UX for touch screen iOS.
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  31. Keep selections as-is after undo or redo. Currently, it unselects everything after undo/redo.
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  32. Undo redo should scroll to the restored event/note like a text editor otherwise we won’t know what got undone where if it is outside the screen boundaries. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.
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  33. Undo/Redo history popup has short vague/repeating/identical names leaving us clueless what they actually are and making the history popup less useful - the popup should be made wider with more identifying history item names and changes. Use CONDENSED font if necessary to display more text.
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  34. After importing a file, keep the Media Bay open and do not close it (like it behaves in v2).
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  35. Auto Stop playback at the end of the song. Otherwise, it will keep playing into the empty oblivion - FOREVER - with no more sound!
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  36. I find GarageBand is optimized excellently giving us hours of use consuming just 10% of battery (like a plain text editor). Please tweak Cubasis code to perform with optimal battery use (I checked and background audio is turned off in Cubasis with just 2 AU tracks which does not compare with the battery performance of GB).
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  37. Duplicating a track is removing the R Automation switch from the current track.
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  38. Deleting a track is removing the R automation switch from the tracks below it.
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  39. Unplugging headphones is making MicroSonic drums play out of sync with the rest of the instruments. Plugging back the headphones plays drums in sync again.
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  40. Double tapping on a track with Loop play turned on adds an empty event at times, track wide.
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  41. Fluorescent/gradient event/track/UI colors (see: ZenBeats).

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Please do apply the bug fixes to v2 too.

I have another user-friendly enhancement suggestion to increase productivity I’ll suggest soon (I have to write an article on it first).

Cheers!

1 Like
  1. Media Player with controls. Currently, we have only the Play button and if we need to audition something in the middle or end of the song, we need to wait until it plays to that point and if we miss to notice or audition, we end up playing it all over again. This is counter-productive. Sure, we can create a new project, drag the audio file into it to play from any position we want but this kills the workflow and hence, a basic media player is needed which can be reused in the Media Bay. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  2. Video Import

  3. Patterns

  4. Drummer (see: GarageBand)

  5. Chord Bank that we can pick and assign to any of the 10 Chord Buttons and still be able to edit the chord notes for the button to add notes of lower octaves, for instance. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  6. Strum mode - ability to strum notes using Chord Buttons. Strumming is a more natural way to play chords. Also add Strum Level (the minute delay between the strummed notes) to have a fine control.

  7. Highlight corresponding Chord Button on playing a MIDI chord (just as keyboard keys are depressed during playback of individual notes). This will be very useful to screen record chord videos showing chord buttons and how powerful Cubasis is! Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  8. Copy/Paste chords from one/all button(s) into another button or another track’s chord button(s) or into another project’s track’s chord button(s)… This will be really helpful. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  9. Undo/Redo Chord Button edit. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  10. Collapse parameters as child nodes in Automation editor to reduce clutter and keep them collapsed as default to reduce clutter or make it as a preference setting or allow to Collapse all/Expand all. Way too many to scroll for each track. Needless to say, persist the expand/collapse status across sessions so we don’t have to repeat the expand/collapse every time we open the Automation editor.

  11. Show only the parameters for the CURRENT track in Automation editor. Currently, it shows all parameters for ALL tracks unnecessarily which adds up into hundreds of items resulting in a scroll-fest. Editing parameters of other tracks - while focused on a different track - is not intuitive. If we want to edit another track’s automation, we can always tap on that track to access its automation editor. This is a trivial issue to resolve as you just have to filter to show parameters for the current track only as opposed to not filtering at all which fetches data for all tracks like it is doing now.

  12. Mixdown as MP3 because WAV are too large and M4A is a niche format that doesn’t play on Android. Renaming M4A to MP3 may work but users are either not savvy or their O/S doesn’t allow to rename.

  13. Mono/Legato and Glide in Micrologue and Microsonic. Sorely missing basic features (the newer Arpeggiator IAP has Legato). Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  14. Vibrato on swiping up on keys like GarageBand Pitch mode and SynthMaster One. Glide on swiping across keys like GarageBand Pitch mode. Ability to sync vibrato to tempo. These are really powerful features for EXPRESSIVE playing! Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  15. Display recorded event while it is being recorded including its waveform, MIDI, etc. instead of just an hourglass.

  16. Flexible display of various panels on the top or bottom and ability to move them too. Currently, the Keyboard, Mixer, Automation editor, MIDI editor, Settings, etc display only fixed to the bottom, overwriting anything in that place before. If we can display the Keyboard on the bottom and the Mixer on the top, it is just a location change and it should function the same way right? I understand there are panels for Keyboard, editors, FX, AUs, etc but Cubasis needs to become more intelligent in placement of panels flexibly and not place them fixed-to-bottom, etc - especially when there is WASTED ROOM on the top with no other panel. With the newly rewritten v3 using Auto-Layout, it should be more possible now. More power for users to view more panels simultaneously.

  17. LOCKING - ability to LOCK events and tracks to prevent any accidental changes to them or deletes (see: LumaFusion)

  18. Ability to minimize/collapse the mini vertical Keyboard inside the piano roll editor to gain more horizontal room. Also, persist its collapsed/expanded state across sessions. Also, POLISH this mini keyboard’s quality a bit as it is coarse and not on par with the rest of the UI. Please add these features to v2 too.

  19. Drum Library - ability to mix-n-match drum instruments, assign to drum pads to create new drum kits (see: FL Studio Mobile). Make the drum sound selection popup taller. Currently, drum kits do not share sounds across instruments.

  20. Ability to Sort drum kit sounds in Edit mode by key or name. Currently, they are sorted only by keys which are hard to locate by name because they are not alphabetical in order (see Poison 202 preset sorting options). Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  21. At times, switching between pads/keys makes keys too wide showing only like 8-10 keys and needing to resize and reposition the keyboard all over again.

  22. Ability to convert audio files into other formats from the Media Bay.

  23. Persist display preference of Time or Measure in the toolbar across sessions.

  24. Microtones - please bring the Tuner plugin from Cubase as an Internal Effect because that’s what it is in Cubase.

  25. Tapping on/near playhead bar in playback mode stops playback at times for no reason instead of continuing to play from tapped position.

1 Like
  1. Suggested by arktek - the group solo button takes priority over a track solo when you solo one individual track in a mix. So when you un-solo that track everything is muted until you find the group track that the soloed track belongs to.

  2. Suggested by arktek - it would be nice that when we have the mixing faders up and we go into an effect from there and we close the effect window that we return back to the fader window instead of being thrown straight back into the arrangement (this refers to point # 93 “Flexible display of various panels” but explains a specific use case where the behavior is not as expected).

  1. Suggested by Iskander -

a) managing transport, faders etc. with a MIDI controller (why not Steinberg CC121?)
b) markers
c) tempo map
d) solution for the migration of projects from C2 to C3 (still many problems with empty WAVE-tracks). Tool or script?

Vote on your desired features or add your own needs here…

Cheers!

  1. Suggested by ehehehe - Ableton Link / Midi sync/learn, side-chaining and PDC gets my vote!

  2. Volumes and fades of some instruments cannot be controlled by using volume/fade handles of the event.

  3. Ability to collapse group tracks to reduce clutter for more room (see Treeview suggestion above).

  4. Chord detector - also would be nice if we can point to a YouTube song video to detect its chords

  5. Tempo detector by listening to a played audio or using an audio file.

These bug-fixes, enhancements, UX features will make Cubasis 3 EASY-TO-USE and more appealing over v2.

The rewritten v3 with Auto-Layout should enable you to resolve many of these issues.

Yes cubasis 3 is WEAK compare to beatmaker 3 and is half the price. I feel stupid buying this app cause it really is not that good. Too much is missing, workflow is to constraint…
To much klick/tapping to to hear the effect what you’re looking for…

The drum pads need separate controls to be able to mix and sculpt Individual soundS even better like drums.

I mean why give the option to layer but not controlling the individual layers.

WOW, that’s an impressive list, powerobject!
Thanks for sharing this with us!

Best,
Lars

  1. This refers to #59 ability to collapse the 2nd toolbar. The Shop, Settings and Help icons could be wrapped into a single dropdown toolbar item and gain 2 icon space on the right of the toolbar to place these new icons -

a) Collapse/Expand toggle icon to collapse 2nd toolbar to gain more room

b) Maximize/Restore quick toggle icon (or two separate icons as a dropdown) - in Maximize mode, Media Bay, Mixer, Keyboard and all other FX/AU panels are closed (if open), Inspector on the left is collapsed, the track heights are set to short/medium, 2nd toolbar is collapsed, tracks are zoomed in/out horizontally to fit and show all events on one screen, maybe the meter in the toolbar is switched to show Time instead of Bars. If you have two separate icons for Maximize/Restore, in Maximize mode, tapping Maximize again will overwrite Restore parameters with Maximized parameters (effectively serving as a quick way to close out all open panels and widen the view) and cancels Restore mode because tapping on Restore will restore to Maximized. in Restore mode, it restores everything back to where/how it was before - generically - if Maximize was not tapped twice before tapping Restore. This icon/s should continue playback if it was in playback mode already. Also after maximizing and before tapping Restore, if user opens a new panel like keyboard or FX or AU, Restore mode should get canceled because the user intends to re-start working on it from its current state.

  1. This refers to #93 - Flexible display of panels. Instead of closing existing panels while displaying new ones, do not close previous panels - just overlay the new ones over existing ones so users can get back to the previous panel when they close the top ones. Or better yet, make it as a configurable Setting to close previous panels before opening new panels - for more power. Also, enable users to move panels to top or bottom for more flexibility and ability to see more panels simultaneously. A “Move to Top” button in the bottom panels and Move to Bottom in the top panels would enable users to move their location. Also a Swap button on ALL the panels will switch the Top panel to Bottom and Bottom panel to Top - this is useful where the user wants to see both panels that are fixed to bottom like the Mixer and Automation editor simultaneously, for instance. With these simple changes, this #93 can be gracefully resolved by giving control of panel placement to the user and no need to code some voodoo logic using AI to intelligently open panels. Also, please add this feature to v2 too.

  2. Undo/Redo are affecting zoom factor in the Arranger/MIDI/Automation editors for no reason. Retain the zoom factor on undo/redo.

  3. Persist Mixer widths and Track widths across sessions.

  4. Persist Mixdown popup settings across sessions.

  5. In v3, tracks get selected unnecessarily on swiping/scrolling horizontally across Mixer (works fine in v2 - can scroll the Mixer without changing the current track focus).

  6. Zoom in to max in MIDI editor has issues.

  7. Media Bay doesn’t update the date of current project on launch until switched to another section of the bay and back to Projects. As mentioned above, projects get their modified dates updated unnecessarily on just opening them and this one doesn’t show the updated modified date on launch.

  8. Renaming a project is updating its Modified Date unnecessarily and messing up its sort order. Rename is just a file-name change - not changes to its actual content.

  9. Battery Performance - this refers to #72. To squeeze more juice out of battery, offer switches to turn off modules like CPU, DSP, etc (default: OFF). These modules may be constantly querying the System to display status info and draining the battery. These stats are rarely viewed unless there is crackling/distortion and if the user wants, they can always turn on the switches to see the status. Alternatively, you may make them update periodically once in 0, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds (if the switches are turned ON) and make it configurable in Settings (On/Off, UpdateInterval).

  10. Templates in v2 are all scattered all over the place in the file list due to no folders. Prefix their names with “[Template]” at the beginning (instead of at the end) so we can sort them by name to see them all in one place. Same issue with Demo projects - use the prefix “[Demo]” at the beginning of their names.

  11. Piano Roll Editor - offer a Switch (or just re-use the same Lock button) to lock the pressed state of Velocity, Move, Length and other buttons for user-friendliness -

  1. Tap the Help icon - tap in the Search field - type the first character - it closes the iOS keyboard without letting us complete typing the search term and forcing us to reopen the keyboard to complete typing.
  1. Mixer and it’s buttons Mute, Solo, R, W, E, Arm, Monitor, Automation icon, on/off switch, Full Screen button (on AU panels), close X button, fonts, etc look more elegant and well balanced/proportionate in v2 but uglified in v3 including icons and fonts. The entire Mixer looks much elegant in v2 but an eye-sore to look at in v3 with rounded top corners like the keyboard and other panels. The new v3 should look better than v2 but it doesn’t. Not sure why the cool icons were replaced by coarse icons. Try to use this same v2 design/icons/buttons in v3. Same applies to toolbar icons and inspector icons too (elegant in v2). No need to replace them with less appealing ones in the new version.

  2. The thin fonts in v3 are hard on the eyes. Fonts in v2 are so easy to look at and more comfortable. Thicker fonts are desired. Use contemporary CONDENSED fonts to accommodate more text (required in History popups to make its items accommodate more uniquely identifying text as mentioned above anyway). See Audiokit Synth One, Digital D1 and the discontinued Alchemy Mobile apps with contemporary and elegant condensed fonts (the best I’ve seen so far in mobile apps) and also desktop FL Studio which is an eye-candy with elegant CONDENSED fonts, graphics, graphs and more -

https://audiokitpro.com/synth/

https://audiokitpro.com/digitald1/

https://www.google.com/search?q=alchemy+mobile&tbm=isch

.

  1. As suggested by Vlad11 - Midi mapping and midi external control
  1. Audio format conversion/mixdown from Media Bay such as WAV-to-MP3, Audio-to-MIDI, etc - this refers to #99: You could send files to your server from within Cubasis to do the conversion, if necessary (some conversion apps do it this way). Here are some online conversion tools - maybe you could replicate something like these on your server -

.

  1. About #124 and using condensed fonts -

CUBASIS logo uses CONDENSED font ideally - just apply the same condensed font design to the rest of the UI to pack more text in less space which is also ELEGANT, futuristic and easy on the eyes.

CUBASIS 2

CUBASIS 3
https://www.labfreq.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screenshot_20200617-030000-e1592957558734.png

Hi Lars,

I’ve edited many of these points - you may like to read them again.

Hope you address these in your future releases. Can’t wait to see them resolved/implemented!

Cheers!

Shekar

  1. There is no way to reduce Pitch Bend Automation data points density in Piano Roll editor.

About “Highlight Chord buttons during playback of MIDI” listed above - maybe you could use the SUM of all pressed key positions in the played MIDI to match the cached sums (for performance) of all chord key positions in the chord buttons and if any matching chord buttons is/are found, highlight the button/s.

  1. Auto Play of MIDI and other formats in Media Bay is missing.

  2. Persist MIDI editor height and zoom factor across sessions.

  3. Persist Automation editor height and zoom factor across sessions.

  4. Ability to tap and move events without having to select them first (see LumaFusion). This should not affect the selection of the selected events.

  5. Playhead Scrubbing of audio tracks stops working towards the end of the track at times especially when tempo is low. Increasing tempo slightly brings scrubbing back only for a little more length towards right. However, after some time, scrubbing stops again as we navigate towards the right of the tracks (scrubbing still works towards left of the track) requiring to increase the tempo again. This issue continues as we keep increasing the tempo to make scrubbing work.

  6. Display Track Level meters on the left of each track even when Mixer is closed (see NS2, Auria, etc).

  7. Editing proportionately based on zoom factor - smart resizing, moving regions/notes/playhead based on zoom factor. In GarageBand, sizing, moving, etc of events, notes and playhead are more user-friendly. At higher zoom factor, we can do surgical editing, moving, etc and while at lower zoom, it is quicker in larger lenghts and coarse. Whereas, in Cubasis, editing/moving of events/notes/playhead is always at the same precision regardless of zoom factor which is hard to use when zoomed out. Also in GB, when we long press on one end of an event or note, it zooms the event/note (arranger’s zoom factor) so we can do more precise resizing, etc and returns the arranger to its previous zoom when we release the tap. These proportional zoom factor editing features would make the MIDI editor more user-friendly, powerful and fun to use.

  8. Open FX panel for a track eg EQ or Strip, tap on another track, FX panel still shows for previous track misleadingly even though there are no FX on the current track. Instead, it should close FX panel.

  9. At times, the preset used for the track is not highlighted in some FX panels.

  10. With MIDI editor zoomed in, if we move an event in the arranger (with MIDI editor open), the MIDI editor zooms out unnecessarily.

  11. Sub division lines in arranger and piano roll editor are barely visible. Make their color intensity brighter or configurable (Bright, Medium/default, Dull, etc).

  12. Metadata in File list in Media Bay - display their sample rate, length/duration, number of tracks, etc.

  13. Double tap in the arranger should select all events on the current track (it is currently drawing an empty event track-wide). Triple tapping should select all events on all tracks. Make the MIDI editor also behave similarly - select all notes of the same tapped key inside the event (double tap) or select all notes of all keys inside the event (triple tap).

  14. AM Ambient Kit 1 does not display Kick 1 (C1) beats on pads in playback mode.

  15. Expose Shared folder inside Media Bay for monitoring and housekeeping purposes.

  16. Show screen touches - useful in tutorial videos (see LumaFusion).

  17. Group events so they can be moved, copied, etc as a group.

  18. Zoom factor buttons for quickly changing visibility - Minimum (fit everything on the screen), Medium/Default, Maximum (zoom in).

  19. Micrologue Arp Presets - Filter out the ARP presets from the Factory Presets list as these already exist in Arp Presets folder. These Arp presets are duplicated inside the Factory Presets - cluttering the list unnecessarily and making navigation/searching difficult.

  20. Next/Previous toolbar icons should move playhead to next/previous nearest event of any track (see LumaFusion), double tap on these icons to move playhead to L/R Locators and triple/long tap to move playhead to the beginning/end of the project (see LumaFusion).

  21. MIDI events in the arranger for some instrument tracks display notes inside them very thin and barely visible (eg: Hand Claps in Rock Kit) while the notes are displayed thicker for other instruments.

  22. Auto Scroll in playback mode should CENTER the Playhead and scroll just the TIMELINE smoothly (see GarageBand, StaffPad, etc) instead of scrolling the arranger when playhead reaches the right edge to position it back to the center which is flickering and distracting to the eyes and serves absolutely no purpose. Smooth scrolling the arranger with playhead centered will offer positional integrity and look-ahead of notes and room on the right to the user.

  23. Playhead scrubbing happens on MIDI events of some instruments like Microsonic and Drums (not all types). Make MIDI scrubbing on all instruments possible and configurable - similar to playhead scrubbing of audio tracks.

About “Vertical resizing of tracks by pinching out in the arranger” listed above - see also: Auria

  1. Ability to specify Key Signature for MIDI/MusicXML export.

  2. After switching screen off and back on, CB2 goes to sleep and becomes unresponsive for some time, goes back to intro flash screen and starts over iPad Pro 11” with 6 GB RAM while no other apps are open… Screen turned off with CB in the foreground but still starts over, initializes everything to defaults like track heights, auto scroll, expanded state of inspector, media bay open, etc. This is where persistence of settings is necessary and highly desired to avoid frustration from having to reconfigure the whole interface all over (see suggestions on persistence above). Cubasis also becomes unresponsive for sometime on switching to another app and coming back.

  3. Ability to copy and paste individual effects and and individual automations from one track to another track in the same project or another project. This is similar to “Copy FX, AU, Automations and settings from one track to another” (track templates) listed above.

  4. Changing tracks with automation editor open shows automation of previous track misleadingly - even if there is no automation for the currently focused track. This behavior is similar to the FX panel glitch listed above that shows effects of another track as though they are on the current track while changing tracks with FX panel open. This also relates to the issue to “Show Automation Parameters of current track only” (not all tracks) listed above.

  5. Undo/Redo in Mixer doesn’t work at times - restore volume change but it doesn’t update the fader level.

  6. Make Automation work without having to draw/write them first like a hardware synth by just twisting the knobs and see the results how it sounds in playback mode and timing (for rehearsal, etc) - by tapping on the “W” button. Maybe a long tap on the “W” button to actually record automation.

  7. Mixer is using different level increments at different heights such as 3.04, 3.06, 3.08… and at another height I get increments like 3.08, 3.16, 3.18… The tallest Mixer height is using 0.08 dB increment. I don’t know if this is some kind of smart setting behavior or has some scientific reasons behind it but there is no benefit to it and it is confusing, inconsistent and frustrating. For instance, when I set the level to 3.16 for a track at a particular Mixer height and change the Mixer height, I am not able to get back to the same Mixer height to set the same 3.16 level using the same increment for another track. At least it is possible to set same level for more than one track in v2 after some tweaking because Mixer is not resizable and increment remains the same in v2 but not possible in v3 when Mixer height is changed. Level setting should offer all values and easy to set at any height. A better smart setting behavior would be to use increment of 1 dB at the lowest height and change increment to 0.5, 0.25, 0.10 (medium height), 0.05, 0.02, 0.01 (tallest height) as the Mixer height changes. Maybe round the value off to nearest 0.5 dB or 0.25 dB or 0.1 dB when user lifts the finger. This also means the Mixer should have 7 levels of height adjustments/increments (more fine height adjustments serve no purpose). Display help text in the Mixer panel title bar showing the current increment value being used for each slider movement as a training issue.

  8. Screen recording with headphones plugged in does not record sound track in the video. StaffPad does record audio with any headphones plugged in.

  9. Cannot import M4A but can import MP3 and WAV.

  10. Drawing velocity in Piano Roll editor in draw mode skips some notes while swiping across velocity bars and does not affect velocities of some notes as the swipe misses them - needs multiple passes to cover all notes.

  11. Factory instruments and drums are dull - need to be mixed and processed every time they are used. I heard drums in Cubase Groove Agent are already Mixed and no mixing is necessary.

About “Flexible opening and placement of panels” listed above - the Setup panel does not close open panels and works as expected - it simply opens and closes itself without affecting any open panels. Please apply this same logic and behavior to all other panels.

  1. There are Notes for tracks. Would be nice to have Notes for individual events too.

  2. Bookmarks feature in the arranger - useful in longer tracks (see: LumaFusion)

  3. Report to see list of all files used in a project (without having to open the project) for quick reference.

  4. MIDI Stretching - I recorded MIDI in a wrong tempo and changing to the correct tempo and re-aligning the notes to match the tempo was a huge pain, so much so that re-recording all the notes would have been quicker. Offer MIDI Stretch feature to change tempo but keep the MIDI as-is so I don’t have to edit the MIDI after tempo change.

  5. About Persistence features suggested above - you could also implement a Master Persistence Switch under Persistence settings section to control the state of all other Persistence switches with one tap.

  6. This refers to #159 above (MIDI issue). Unplugging headphones and screen recording plays drums inside an audio clip out of sync but it plays in sync while not recording screen.

  7. Apply all Persistence features to v2 too.

  8. Apply all bug fixes to v2 too.

If you like any of these implemented/resolved, please click VOTE on the top of this thread.

@lars
51. [PARTIALLY RESOLVED in v3] Zooming in Piano Roll editor in v3 is now implemented with a slider at the bottom right on per-event basis (item #51 in my bug list). Each event has its own zoom level and it is persisted for the current session only. However the zoom factor (vertical & horizontal) and editor height need to be persisted across sessions. It’s ok if the same horizontal and vertical zoom factor is used across all the events in the editor - as long as they (and the editor height) are persisted across sessions, that would be great. Applying the same zoom factor to all events - IN ALL PROJECTS (just a global setting) -is much more ideal and consistent.

  1. [PARTIALLY RESOLVED in v3] Zooming in v3 in Automation Editor is implemented with a slider at the bottom right and it zooms horizontally. This also needs to be persisted across sessions and across ALL PROJECTS.. Just use the same global zoom setting for both Piano Roll and Automation editors.

  2. [RESOLVED in v3] - Zooming in Arranger in v3 is implemented with a slider at the bottom right offering 5 levels of track heights (vertical zoom) and horizontal zoom (item #36 in my list) and it is persisted across sessions as expected.

On the iPhone version in the Arranger where tracks are fixed and cannot be resized, the horizontal/vertical controls (not the slider widget like it is in iPad version) are at the top of the tracks - just tap them repeatedly to see 4 levels of track heights vertically. At the shortest track height, I can see 16 tracks on the iPhone 6s as opposed to 3.25 tracks in the old/default tall track height. Horizontally, it just hides the track header column on the left for more horizontal room. Nice implementation!

Please apply all persistence settings and bug fixes to v2 as well.

  1. Feature to create our own reusable drum kit layouts using drum parts from the same drum kit or a global drum sound library (similar to how it can be done in FLSM) or mix-n-match drum parts from various other drum kits - for reuse on other tracks or other projects.

  2. As mentioned by Gravitas - Ability to save edited Chord assignments to Chords buttons as a reusable layout - for reuse on other tracks or other projects.

  1. There are 3 types of pads in v2 and 2 types of pads in v3 - Drum pads, Key pads and Chord pads. The Drums pads in CB v3.4 are messed up and are scattered all over the place!As per the GM standard layout, the Kick and Snare should be at the bottom-left . It’s fine in v2 but v3 is messed up if you check AM House Kit 1 MicroSonic Drum kit. There are other pads that are misplaced/invisible in v3. Drum pads are sorted by the key name in v3.4. Sorting of pads by their name may be done only for Key pads and Chords pads. For Drum pads, they should not be sorted by their key names to preserve their positional integrity .

Imagine if a manufacturer dishes out a keyboard that does not follow the General MIDI standard layout for percussion/Drums on the keys - that would be a chaos.

Playing on Drum pads would be confusing and screen-recorded Drum video clips would look chaotic - in v3.4.

  1. Please bring back the Key pads in v3 like they are in v2.
1 Like

Hi, I’m just getting back into Cubasis 3 on iOS & am really enjoying it so far!
One thing I’d love is:-

. Ability to show all mixer insert Fx (without having to keep pressing the ‘e’ button) on the mixer page. This’d be v.useful when having to change Eq & Limiter settings on the Master ch. for example. (This is also related to points 93+104 above)

. Also is it ok to request tempo automation again?

Thanks for reading, wishing you all the best,

Stop bothering Steinberg. They are not even capable of repairing just one f…ing bug.