The heart of Cubase is arguably the Midi Part/Event in the arrangement window (the blocks containing events to be more specific). They have from early versions been the feature that set Cubase apart.
Sadly though the parts have little or no global management features that work seamlessly with the MediaBay, how many times have we ended up with complex arrangements with hoards of parts that become unwieldy and frustrating even to manage.
Solution
It is simply the ability to drag and drop midi parts to and from the media bay, that’s it! So these ‘parts’ can be organized into libraries and folders for recall later (in that project OR any other).
They should retain their ghost/real status so that changes to the part in the arrangement window changes all parts in the library.
Why?
Sometimes we have fantastic parts I want to recall easily (once again Steinberg seemed to have introduced a feature with midi loops and left it ‘incomplete’)
We want to declutter an arrangement full of ideas I don’t want to lose but have become an eyesore
We can drag samples from the media bay why not ‘parts’
We could build up fantastic libraries for easy recall
For something so key to Cubase’s MO I am surprised and a little frustrated it hasn’t been done, way before now.
It’s been the biggest temptation for me to leave and boy what I wouldn’t do for this feature.
This would actually be REALLY USEFUL. And also the same with audio. So if you have bounced a great audio part you could open the right zone media bay and go to a category section, and just drag and from that audio file straight into it. Currently it’s a whole rigmarole to do that I don’t bother which is a real pain.
Thanks. This too is some helpful input for others also interested too. Makes one wonder why implement it for the desktop but not the media bay? I only hope they’re listening.
Well with the desktop it only needs to create a very standardized MIDI file. Plus it is using drag and drop to basically execute the existing Export MIDI function.
But things in Media Bay tend to have a lot of metadata attached so it might simply be more complicated to sort out.
I’m not at my DAW to verify. But it seems you could store your MIDI files in Windows Folders arranged however makes sense. Then in Media Bay if you configured it to index those Folders the MIDI files would be available in Media Bay. Basically create it in Windows (or Mac) but access it from Media Bay.
This is a at least a step to some of the problem. Though as flagged by others it lacks the elegance of a comprehensive (two way) drag and drop and further as you have mentioned also it’s not storing part data as it is indeed simple midi files. So we lose the real/copy metadata.
It would be nice to see more things like this. You can drag MIDI part to Logic Pro X timeline too. Unfortunately not working in the other direction but thats not Cubase fault.
As per my post it is in regard to retention of real/copy status and ability to drag and drop and to retain their ghost/real status so that changes to the part in the arrangement window changes all parts in the library.
I couldn’t quite even get real/copy status to work with midi loops. Midi loops may be yet another example of a Steinberg solution that had potential but apparently got left behind.
