To achieve lane-independent cuts in C6, YOU ARE NOW TELLING US WE MUST USE TWO TOOLS INSTEAD OF ONE !! This directly contradicts what you say in your post above!
Workflow before: (c5)
Use scissors tool Workflow now: (c6)
switch to range tool
select zero - length range where you want the cut
issue key command SHFT-X
switch back to scissors tool
A better approach would be having a modifier for the scissors tool (eg SHIFT) that cuts the selected lanes only.
Then we CAN use one tool - THE SCISSORS instead of two tools (range tool plus scissors plus key commands)
Many people have different ways of cutting there material.
I for instance mostly stay with the object selection tool and hold “alt” so it temporarily becomes the scissor or I place the cursor (mostly by nudging on the groove with Ctrl+ Num+, and Ctrl+ Num-) and then hit Alt+X to cut.
Anyway, as this thread is not mainly about cutting, I have summarized the technical complaints and suggestions in this unfortunately a bit mazy thread and reported in essence the central points to the respective departments so they can be considered. Just to let you know that you are not being ignored.
Thank you all for criticism and constructiveness,
Gr,
JHP
It took me a while do see what is behind the wish of bringing “old style lane editing”. I get it now.
The trouble started with a concept that was used for something it never had been inteded for - which is on the other hand encouraged by Steinberg (“You can decide what your workflow is”). To be more concrete here one example:
The drum editor in midi encourages to have all instruments in one single midi track. for convenience this directly implies that separating the instruments by using lanes is a good idea. On the other hand lanes where originally intended to allow comping of multiple takes of the same instrument/track. Do you see where the trouble starts? It is the ambiguity of concepts that leads to confusion.
Steinberg - with cubase 6 - obviously decided to have the lanes implementation for comping in the described sense and NOT for anything else. But this was possible in the past and even handy. Consequence is that users have to adapt their way of working - use separate tracks for what they have used lanes in the past. For midi drum recording this brings the drum editor under pressure: It would need a functionality that allows immediately to edit the whole drumset in one editor instance and at the same time separate the instruments to separate tracks. currently this is to my knowledge only possible by dissolving a given part (which contains multiple instruments, i.e. note values) to a couple of tracks by note value. (Here I have the question whether grove agent - an alternative to the drum editing in the arrange window - allows to control/create multiple tracks, one for each instrument).
I personally would prefare a clean concept, i.e. Lanes for multiple takes of the same instrument and comping. Other scenarios in editing would not have to be comprised in the lane-concept.
I do understand that this is a discontinuity in the way cubase could be used in the past. And I also understand that this hurts. But I would sacrificy continuity for the benefit of conceptual consistency in this case.
This is timely for me as I’ve been discussing this issue with some friends lately. (with respect to audio; I do barely any MIDI.)
For me Cubase’s (old) lanes behavior was perfect, and super elegant. I’ve found PT8’s playlist features lacking in comparison; the Cubase way was automatic and simple and fast. It was great for building a comp out of 6 similar vocal takes but also for building a comp out of a dozen radically different guitar solos that you were chopping and reassembling.
So I had to laugh when I saw this in Sound on Sound’s Cubase 6 review:
I was like “Wait! They have it all backwards! And I love Cubase lanes and I never use cycle recording!”
Anyway, the new implementation has confused me a lot so far – regions get auto-un-muted as I select them; scissors don’t work well when multiple takes have different phrasings; etc.
I’m not interested in the inevitable internet fight that’s happening in this thread, but I really loved the old feature. It never seemed unwieldily or confusing to me. I guess it was different than other DAWs, but I always found it to be better.
Yeah, I hope they look again at the lanes. The old version was just simple, flexible and worked brillianly, it’s not so flexible now. Comping adlibs recorded in a loop is tricky and also anything that involves musical interpretation, like recording a solo or singing words with different rythms. I’d like an option switch please.
Me too. But I hope the C6 way is kept (perhaps some tweaking, like bringing the ctrl+move back). But adding a C5 style lane behaviour in addition would complete my needs
I spent several hours yesterday, with a client, editing some not-very-complex vocal takes. It was a complete nightmare. It’s far too easy to unmute a lane by clicking on it without realising - the colour changes are far too subtle - shades of grey.
Moving lanes is now more difficult because Cmd-click (to lock lateral movement) now brings up the speaker, unless you click first, then Cmd, which risks an unintentional movement.
I’m not one who wants to go back to the old style because it was perfect, it wasn’t, but for me the new system is unusable.
I’ve been trying to adapt to the new lane behavior, but I have to admit, I just do not like it. It feels very uncomfortable to me. Also, I used to use the CTRL key to move events up and down without them moving in time. Now, that functionality is gone??? How do I do that now???
Wow… I usually try to give Steinberg the benefit of the doubt, but so far, I am really struggling with this new lane behavior. I seriously hope they change something soon. I hate it so much, that for the first time since I started using Cubase (sometime in the 1990s?), I am seriously considering going back one level to Cubase 5.
Also, it’s depressing to log on here, and see that this thread has been put in the music lounge. Is the music lounge the place where they put threads they want to see disappear? Wow… I am very worried about all of this right now… and very frustrated.
Ok… I just discovered that the CTRL behavior still exists… now we just have to hold CTRL + SHIFT while dragging. Not a big deal… I don’t remember seeing that in the manual though. I just discovered it by accident luckily. That helps some.
Still, I find the auto muting and automatic slicing of all events very difficult to work with. I wish it didn’t do this.
So today I was comping some vocal takes… I had maybe 7 lanes or so. I went ahead and sliced everything up and had it all set with the proper parts playing. I save the project. I reopen the project. Now, for some reason, Cubase has put a bunch of the various slices onto new lanes… the vocal now has approximately 40 lanes… this is just weird. I’m not sure what happened or why it’s suddenly like this. Oh well. At least it still works and the proper parts are playing. It’s just awkward and I do not even understand what happened.
