Problem Duplicating MIDI/Instrument Track Data

First-time poster and relative newbie here. I’ve been a bit mystified by a sporadic but frequent problem I am having when I try to duplicate midi data from one instrument track to another. Hoping someone out there in Steinbergland knows what is happening and how I can fix… I’ve tried searching online and in the forums but haven’t yet found an answer using a variety of search parameters so I apologize if the answer is already out there.

What I am doing:

  1. Select event(s) from an instrument track in the Project Window.
  2. Hit Copy
  3. Select the desired destination track with the playhead at the beginning of the track
  4. Hit Paste

What happens:

  • Data is pasted at the far end of the track (bar 6704 in my current attempt) with only empty data space between bar 1 and 6703.

This also happens when I drag (or option-drag, or shift drag, etc.) data from one track to another.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Robina Ritchie-Barker

Of course, as soon as I post my question, after weeks of trying to figure it out, I discover what is causing the problem:

When I record a track, the track extends before the first measure, no matter where the playhead is located. It’s empty space. That empty space explodes to fill the 6,500 some-odd bars in a project when it is copied or moved to a different track. If I slice the track right at measure one and delete the empty data before measure 1, then I can copy, paste, duplicate and move to my heart’s content and there is no mystery space added.

Not sure why the empty space inserts itself. Maybe a newb error somewhere, but at least I have a workaround that works consistently until I figure the empty space out.

Hope this helps someone else who is bewildered by the same issue…

Cheers,
Robina Ritchie-Barker

You can also alt/click a selection and drag a copy.