My wishlist features for Cubase 11.5 - Cubase 12

Just merge Rack Tracks & Instrument tracks & Midi Tracks
Having them as 3 separate things just bloats tf outta your projects.

It’s a MIDI track OR a MIDI track of an Instrument. Period.
We don’t need hidden automation tracks for each hidden instrument or racks track…it’s sooooo convoluted.

Open a Track, It’s a MIDI track w/an instrument assigned or just a MIDI track. Same for Multitrack Instruments.
Each track has its own automation for that track, PERIOD.
This thing of having to go to the instrument channel and drop down, highlight the track then drop down again Meanwhile the MIDI track for that channel is a totally separate track is mind boggling how this still exists in 2022…seriously.

I understand many people might not work w/multitiberal and external gear but this along w/ the infantile 4band EQ from 1995
has me scratching my head on what Steinberg prioritizes rn. I really believe by Cubase 12 if things don’t improve there will be a better alternative by then for some…

Cubase needs to clean the clutter

While I agree, I doubt that will happen until the code is written from the ground up. Rack Instruments and Track Instruments are the result of Cubase evolution over time. Going back now and “clean the clutter” would most likely be cost prohibitive without screwing up a lot of other functions related to Racks/Tracks. It’s amazing how much stuff here is related to functions you wouldn’t give a thought to…let alone automation.

The same can be said about:
Track Presets
Import/Export Track Archive
save selected/load selected (only works with Rack Instruments)

At least now we have Import tracks from project which is a huge feature for me.

2 Likes

Please don’t merge midi and instrument tracks, or rack and track instruments! - it will destroy my template!

A template that is 1500+tracks and has taken years of careful crafting to get an efficient workflow!

Midi tracks are great for using multi midi outs to VEPro and there is loads of flexibility for doing things like articulation switching at the like.

Instrument tracks are also great but the only thing they lack is midi send.

1 Like

thank u please add …
more than 4 cues like studio one is unlimited cues

How to Layer Sounds on a MIDI Track in Cubase | Q&A with Greg Ondo - YouTube

Layers are a great feature of Cubase, however they have a big inconvenience or a bad design in my opinion, since you can have 3 different instruments layered into a MIDI Track, but if you go in one of the instrument tracks to the transpose in the MIDI modifier and go up or down a scale or to create a chord with different instruments, when playing the layer in the MIDI Track, it will sound as if no separate instrument was one scale up or down… It could be good to have an imporvement regarding this issue on Cubase.

Unfortunately, this is another feature in which FL Studio is years ahead, since they achieved a good design in this aspect, not to mention the fact that there the layers are unlimited in terms of instruments.

2 Likes

@Alexander_D Great Idea - you should make this a separate topic. :wink:

1 Like

Thanks man! Probably need to do it, right?

2 Likes

How about multi takes for track automation in Cubase 12 ?
I do not thing any DAW has this feature.
Regards.

Besides the features above, I find this interesting:

A logical editor Value 4 that allows you to randomize rhythm and length of midi notes

1 Like

it seems to me that this is possible in Ableton, but I don’t know what you mean exactly.

I don’t think that it is possible in Ableton.

When you record MIDI or Audio you get separate lanes. (If you are cycle recording when you do this then they are actually all part of the same file. But if it is a different time you have started to record, they are different files. But they still show up as “lanes”, like sub tracks inside of the main track.) This doesn’t happen with automation, so it is destructive.

If you want to have separate takes of automation, then you can create a separate MIDI track on which you record the CCs for the automation. This will then be just like recording any MIDI, then you send the MIDI track to the destination where you want it to be automation.

Back in the day, automation and CC was one and the same thing, all you had were CCs. The reason for automation was that CCs only allow 127 values (and 127 different CCs), so the granularity wasn’t as fine as what is possible if you map those CCs to a more granular scale. With MIDI 2.0 this limitation will no-longer be there, so going back to treating automation as as just CC data should allow an easy transition to comping the automation as well as the notes, or audio.

This suggests a solution where by Audio tracks always accept CC input as well as Audio, without having to create a separate MIDI track to do so. And if you are going to allow CCs then you might as well allow the Notes as well, so a combined track with a separate lanes for MIDI and Audio makes a lot of sense.

But then it is convenient to treat the Automation separately, so that’s 3 sub regions of a track. Audio, Note and CC(i.e. Automation). It’s not so different than what we have now. And the UI wouldn’t really need to change. The difference would be that when you focus on Automation, it could be expanded to separate lanes one could comp. MIDI notes would just be another region, just like automation.

The added benefit of this would be that the Audio could also be treated like VC and used for modulation, MIDI and audio could reside on the same track.

To make this happen seamlessly, there is no reason to restrict the input and output of any track to any other. There is no reason for a “Track” to not simply be a Node in a DAG. (Directed Acyclic Graph)

So that is really the top of my Wishlist. But I don’t expect it in C12. Tacks are Nodes in a DAG, so Groups, FX (which are already the same thing) and Audio, and MIDI, are just how you use them, and the expectation for which part of the Node is the primary focus of the UI.

Oops, I Nerd-ed to far I think.

ah, I think I understand what you mean, and if I do then, this already exist in FL Studio, there you can make multi-takes of automations of a specific parameter and actually you can make multi-takes of everything… In a way it has its benefits but it is quite cumbersome to work with, since there does not exist lanes, and everything is about messy multi-takes, but well… we are talking about if this were added as an option to Cubase, it would depend on the way of working of each one, maybe it can be useful for some kind of tasks, so why not…

1 Like

Grousing about Multi-takes in FL… Why do I automatically think Glenn Fricker is going to yell at
me?

Bitwig also has Unified Tracks, or whatever they call it, but it seems to be an either/or, not both at the same time.

I keep not having a reason (or availability) to really try out DP, at least not in the past few years. But from what I remember from a course, the Automation seems to be at least similar to this model. But who wants to worry about transforming a clip into a … “clip”, what, why? so… no.

As I said earlier, you can -usually- already do this in Cubase, you just have to make a MIDI track for the “automation”, limit it to just CCs and PCs, and route it to where it needs to go. The downside is you also have to remember all the track settings to go along with it, and get them right when what you really want to do is just do a take.

I built a monstrosity of PLEs, Macros, and Generic Remotes to do exactly this, (among other things such as mimic a clip launcher using sampler tracks). But the basics of routing CCs from a separate track is simple… However, CCs are not really automation.

With MIDI 2.0 there won’t be any good reason for the separation of CCs and Automation any more, so one can hope.

1 Like

From this list of request, we have now this two features, the number 6 will come with the next maintain update :slight_smile: so cool! they listen us!

Can we please get a drill down search feature for key commands? It’s now implemented in the Functions Browser when mapping MIDI devices. Type what you’re looking for and it FILTERS! Not cycles through a list that if you go too far you have to cycle again to find. At a glance with just a few choices is so much faster! Works just like we need. Just port that behavior to the Key command window and Bob’s ur uncle!

As a workaround you can open the Functions Browser and use it to search for what you want in the key commands. Then, open the key command window and go right to the section you found in the drill down search.

2 Likes

In the new MIDI Remote API there’s a command called ‘Open Key Commands Launcher’ which doesn’t do anything. I do wonder, if there’s an incoming update that will improve the key commands screen(?), as I can’t recall any key command ‘launcher’ before?

We know there’s some C12 features due in a maintenance update (from Cubase 12 Release Notes | Steinberg). Such as Dolby Atmos support and Extended channel freeze (+Key commands for it). …So maybe! :slight_smile:

Also… The Preferences window should be searchable with the same filter functionality. Please! :slight_smile:

How about Insert FX “Link groups” so you can link insert plugins without having to have them on the same row in each channel? Similar to how the channel link function works but have plugin groups.

Then you could change the settings on one plugin and it would mirror on the others. Inverse link too. :slight_smile: