Question re: Virtual Keyboard

Cubase
1

First let me say that I appreciate you all and have enjoyed more than a few hours at work gaining knowledge from reading all these posts!

That said - I have what is probably a very dumb question about an annoying problem. I am running Cubase 6.5.3 64 bit on Win 7 with 6GB of RAM.

I’ve really been enjoying the synths that came with C6, so much so that I even upgraded to Padshop PRO (how could you not for $9.99?). All this depite the fact that I am a guitar player. What can I say - it’s fun!

But - since I don’t have a keyboard controller yet (Christmas being not yet here), I’ve been using the virtual keyboard to trigger notes. I am a very middling keyboard player - I can finger basic chords with one hand and maybe a few lead notes with the other. What I have noticed is that there are certain combintions of chords/keys that will cause other notes to drop out. For instance, if I play a Cmaj with one hand (the Z/C/B keys), I can’t seem to get the IV/V notes (keys R/T) to trigger anything. If I play Dm (X/V/N), then it’s even worse - I can’t trigger anything beteen III to I (E/R/T/Y/U/I keys) to trigger any notes. At first I thought this was maybe a memory thing, or a number of voices thing, or a midi note-stealing issue or something, but since some combinations work and some don’t, I figure that can’t be it.

What gives? Is this some kind of known bug with the virtual keyboard? While I can get around it by, say. only playing 2 notes with the left hand (a I/III - say, keys Z and C) and it will allow me to play any other notes, my main concern was that I might somehow be limited when I get a full 61-key controller, as that wouldn’t seem right.

Am I missing something? Like some pref change I should make?

Thanks in advance for any input.

2

I tested and it seems to be this way with all the synths, not just Padshop. Strange, but I guess I’ll have to hope a full keyboard controller won’t experience this same limitation.

3

I think this is a limitation of the qwerty keyboard system. I’d say it has a max number of key combinations and it’s probably also doing some matrix thing which means the max depends on which keys are pressed. It certainly doesn’t happen with real midi or USB midi keyboards (well, except for plugins which have fixed voice limits…).

I personally keep a mini keyboard on my desk next to the monitor for quick playing (e.g. M Audio Keystation Mini 32 Note USB Controller Keyboard). Then I use other full sized keyboards for when I need to record properly.

Mike.

4

Same here, but with Akai LPK-25. Very convenient, and much much better than a PC-keyboard.

5

Awesome, that’s kind of what I thought. Looking forward to getting a full size keyboard come Christmas.

Thanks to you both for confirming that.