Pro or Elements best for MIDI input?

Cubase
1

I’m planning on getting Cubase solely for recording real-time MIDI piano, then cleaning it up and importing it into Dorico.

I’ve heard good things about Cubase’s MIDI input functionality.

My question is: do all the versions (Elements, Artist, Pro) have the same features in this regard? This is the only feature I need.

Thanks in advance!

2

No

3

Hi,

Cubase Pro is the only one with MIDI Input Transformer. This allows you to modify incoming data in the fly. This is the only one difference in this area of I’m right.

Question is about the editing. What editor do you want to use? Do you expect some specific functions or are you going to edit it more or less manually?

4

If you don’t need the features of the Input transformer and are happy with standard MIDI editing then Elements will probably do the job.

I’d certainly start there with a trial and see…though there are advanced editing features in Artist and particularly Pro it sounds like Elements will satisfy your needs. Additionally, the difference in price is effectively the same as an upgrade so you won’t lose much financially by starting off with Elements and choosing to upgrade at a later date.

5

Elements will do fine I think. Will you be playing to a click/metronome?

6

Thanks everybody. Yes, I will be playing from a metronome, and playing pretty accurately.

Input transformer was what I had heard was helpful. I did try a MIDI transcription with Studio One last night. The timing of the notes was no problem, but the cleanup of the score in Dorico was mostly related to the note lengths, which resulted in lots of tie chains.

And of course there’s the split point thing, which I don’t think anyone can really fix…

Is event length the sort of problem that could be easily lessened with some of the features of Cubase? What sort of options are available to me in regards to editing MIDI events? I do plan on downloading the trial if it could be an improvement over what I have, but it is helpful to get answers to some of these sorts of questions before jumping in. Thank you!

1 Like
7

Pro has length quantisation, which you can set at any note length, I don’t know about elements

8

Hi,

Apart from Note Length, I found more interesting Note End quantise, in fact. If your Note Starts is a bit out of time (because you play it live) and you don’t want to quantise Note Starts, then the Note End quantise is more useful then Note Length. If you use Note Length, the ends are again a bit out of grid, which could make it hard for scoring.

There are some other useful functions, like Fixed Note Length, for example.

9

If Elements does not have the Logical Editor that would be one feature worth going Pro for - assuming you’d use the LE. But using it in combination with Key Commands & Macros lets you do some really powerful midi manipulation. Great for cleaning up all sorts of performance issues, splitting notes in a chord into different voices or midi channels, muting all the voices except alto, etc.

Also I’ve found a lot of Cubase features that I never thought I’d use have become indispensable once I try them out.

10

What was your overall experience for this experiment, @dan_kreider I’m really curious! I’m mostly using Dorico, but also have lately been learning Cubase, and I might need to do the opposite of what you’re trying to do…