While writing a bass part in the Key Editor I found myself having to repeatedly click on the project window and then select the existing piano part to see what was going on. And then repeat the process to get the bass part back in the editor. It struck me that this would be a whole lot easier if I could have 2 (or more) independent Key Editors open at the same time - much the same way as I might have 2 word docs open at the same time one to read and the second to write a response to what I’ve been reading.
I realize that I can select multiple midi parts and switch back in forth between them within the Key Editor. But this is often unsatisfactory for a few reasons. First you are still flipping back and forth which can disrupt the creative flow. And yeah I know you can see the notes for the other part ghosted, but that is often not helpful. If the parts are in widely different pitch ranges you end up scrolling up and down. And if there are more than 2 parts in the editor, the ghost notes just create confusion about what instrument is playing what. Finally if the parts you want to compare are in different sections of the song, for example an intro and a bridge, having them both loaded is almost more work to scroll and flip between them than selecting each one to edit individually from the project window.
So I’m lobbying for the ability to open multiple instances of the various midi editors. Although I pray I never feel the need to open 2 list editors at the same time. That would be too scary.
Are you ‘coloring’ the differnt midi tracks distinctly from one another in the project window, and then selecting ‘Part’ from the ‘Event Color’ drop down box within the Key Editor after you brings the midi tracks inside it? This greatly enhances note/ part identification.
One improvement here is that I wish the track color was mirrored in the ‘Currently Edited Part’ label, to make quick visual confirmation that you are working on the intended part.
Maybe this would help with this part of the problem. If you use a multitimbral VSTi such as Halion SE, you could route the different midi parts to individual audio outputs through the instrument and mute what you don’t want to hear in the mixer.
A better way and useful improvement would be to add a function to the Solo button in the Key Editor so that only the top ‘locked’ part would play when multiple tracks were open in the key editor.
I’d never even looked at the “Event Color.” I guess I’d assumed it was more of a cosmetic thing for simply changing the color of events, much like setting a track color. But this looks to be very useful. Thanks for pointing this out.
As for your second point, I agree that would be a cool improvement.
I came to this thread looking for answer to how to open several Key Editors, and saw this, so I thought I would mention, they added this sort of feature in Cubase 7… Now when you have the both the solo button and ‘edit active part’ only turned on, only the active part plays.
Exactly the same as described in the 2nd post above. However this is for the Stand Alone Key Editor Window. In the Lower Zone you can only have one Key Editor, since that’s all there’s room for. However you can, like in the Stand Alone Editor, open multiple MIDI Parts in a single Key Editor Window.
hi m8 are you sure this is in the same place?
Its not in the “Editing” section or “Editors” section, i dont see the Link Editors option
where exactly is the menu in prefs you are talking about?
Editing: its not there
Editing->Tools: this is only about the little tools
Editors: this is only about default editors and event following, not Link Editors
im loosing it
there should be a SEARCH function in prefs by now!!!
