I wanted to open a discussion regarding the “Quantize All” feature in Cubase, specifically when pressing the Q button without any notes selected. In my experience, and I believe many of you might agree, this feature poses a significant risk of user error, potentially leading to unintended consequences in our projects.
When the Q button is used without selecting any notes, it applies quantization to all notes in the Key Editor. This can be a major issue, particularly in complex projects. Imagine working for hours on a detailed composition, only to accidentally press Q and find that all your notes have been quantized, potentially ruining the nuances and feel of your music.
The essence of music production is in its details and the human touch we add to our compositions. The indiscriminate application of quantization can strip away these subtle yet crucial elements. While quantization is undoubtedly a powerful tool, its application should be deliberate and controlled.
My suggestion is to reconsider the design of this feature. A safer approach would be to require an explicit selection of notes before applying quantization. This change would prevent accidental application of quantization to the entire project, which I believe no one intends to do. It’s about adding a layer of safety to our workflow, ensuring that such a drastic change to our music is always an intentional decision.
I am interested to hear your thoughts and experiences regarding this. Do you find this feature helpful as it is, or do you agree that it needs a redesign for better precision and to avoid unintentional errors?
To make it clear, in this case, Cubase quantitzes the selected object, which is the MIDI Part in that case.
Sometimes I’m using it (of course, my iQ is always enabled and set to reasonable value). And it’s one step less comparison to 2 steps: Select All, Quantize.
But I agree with you, it might be risky. What about to show the orange “info” message at the center of the screen in this case. If no MIDI Event has been selected specifically, and you hit [Q], the info message (The Quantize has been applied to whole MIDI Part) would appear.
The same message could appear even in other cases, like applying Logical Editor preset or any MIDI Function to all MIDI Events of the given MIDI Part. Because the Q is not the only case, which works like this.
Thank you for your response. That feature is the reason I can continue to use Cubase without despair. However, there is still a need for user-friendly feature improvements. If quantization is needed for all notes, pressing Select All + Q is sufficient. As it stands now, reduced steps can lead to unnecessary mistakes at any time.
