I want to comp a midi track in Cubase.
When I copy/paste a portion of a midi track into a new track/layer, in the midi editor I see all the midi info before & after the section copied (greyed out).
Can I not just do a clean copy/paste without the ghost data being carried over, like in Protools? There seems to be no pref to allow me to do this.
Surely I’m missing something. It should be simple, no?
Thanks Alfo, I used Protools for many years. Copy/pasting sections of a midi track was simple. In Cubase when copy/pasting a section of a midi track it carries over data from before/after the section copied, when viewed in the editor. That data is greyed out & inactive. How do I copy/paste without the greyed out/inactive data being brought along? Thnx.
Found my answer. You have to copy from inside an editor (inline or lower). Copying from a “clip” brings along extraneous midi. Not how Protools works. Bloody confusing. I prefer Pt. Anyhoo.
@Alfo not really sure what you’re trying to say with that link. This is not due to a copy and paste issue.
@kolchek That’s one way to deal with it, though I believe that in the Windowed Key Editor, if you deactivate Show Tracks from the Visibility tab it should work the way you want. There are other things involved too, so if you’re still interested in this post back.
I was trying to do a quick comp & hoping I could get the job done without having to open a midi editor. Ie. just copy from a clip & paste onto a layer beneath. Works that way in Protools, easy.
I think if you use the Range Tool you’ll get the desired result.
Brings up a question. Did you by chance, ever use Master Tracks Pro for midi in past centuries before evolving to Pro Tools? I always like to ask that in case I happen to run into someone with that history.
I’ve been meaning to try Pro Tools at some point to see if I feel it’s more like working with my tape machines & console in audio…and maybe maybe…a bit like Mt Pro was (is) for me in midiland.
I can move with lightning speed on MtPro on one of my win11 systems synchronized to the Cubendo audio machines. Cubendo midi has always been way overkill to my needs so I rarely use the systems that way.
Cut/paste of bars…or a page deeper into ranges of data…is just so darn intuitive for me with mtpro…even now 
Man, if Pro Tools studio is in the same zip code, I may bump up the calendar to allocate time to run through a pt demo. Not enough hours in the day
Tried the range tool first. When comping midi with that it brings along midi data outside of the range copied.
Pic 1. The original midi track
Pic 2. Four sections comped using the range tool
Pic 3. Those 4 sections viewed in editor. That’s ob’ unusable.
If I do the comping in an editor (in-place or lower) it doesn’t bring along the greyed out midi. Pt doesn’t have seperate clip & edit, which is what threw me
Never used Master Tracks.
For basic midi, Ptools is clean & simple. That might be just me.
This might sound weird to a pt user – do the command MIDI>Freeze MIDI Modifiers. this will remove the extraneous midi events. A macro like:
Paste
Freeze MIDI Modifiers
Possibly not much help though at this point…
Isn’t it strange there’s no pref like “copy without extraneous…”, or that it isn’t default? 
For composing, I like it. I think the Cubendo ethos is “can do everything, and in 10 different ways.” Which the cause of much celebration and contempt!
It is surprising that there’s no pref for that… I keep thinking maybe I forgot something…
That macro worked, many thanks for that, Steve.
I went down this rabbit whole after read this post and freezing midi modifiers is the quickest but not so good if you’re using midi modifiers.
Im going with copying the area I want, select all, delete and paste.
Isn’t it unbelievable that there isn’t a pref to do this BASIC BASIC BASIC task!!!
I thought Cubase was the all time King of midi 
Honestly I don’t think there is a perfect daw in existence, always gonna be some trade off.
It’s SUCH a basic task I woulda thought they’d have addressed it some time in the past 37 years!
I was looking for a bounce midi option, not bounce in place as audio.
Hopefully they will address it at some point but it’s not close to a deal breaker for me.
I’ve just made the process part of how things are done, it takes a couple seconds max to do so it’s not a deal breaker on my end.
