Quick controls for one Instrument on multiple midi tracks?

Cubase
, ,
1

I’m trying to use track quick controls to control aspects of an instrument. I have the instrument track, and do multiple takes on multiple midi tracks that each point to that instrument track.

However, quick-control movements that apply to and instrument parameter (e.g. “filter cutoff”) made while performing a take are recorded onto an automation track attached to the instrument track, not the midi track.

The result is that the control information for later takes erases all previous control information. There apparently can only be one “take” of the controller curve.

Am I missing anything? Or is it actually the case that one cannot have multiple takes of quick-control controller curves that apply to one particular instrument track (or I assume a rack instrument)?

I am currently using Cubase 10. Is this any better in 10.5 or 11?

Thanks…

1 Like
2

Still haven’t figured this out. I wonder if I’m just mis-conceiving something. At root, I consider the quick-control movements part of a specific performance, so their data should go with the individual takes. Rather than the instrument track that all the takes point to. Is there another way to do this? Midi-CC works in some cases, not in others. This is often due to VSTi design… sometimes the mapping I need is difficult to do, or doesn’t make sense, or is unavailable without unmapping something else (like in some u-he instruments where the midi-CC mappings are “global”). Not to mention that editing midi-CC “curves” is a different experience compared to editing quick-control curves.

Thanks for any hints or pointers!

1 Like
3

Hi,

Did you Write the automation of the Quick Control to the MIDI track?

4

Hello glittle!

I too experienced what you are for a long time. I’m going to explain what I do to get around it. Note however, it is a bit nerdy, so it may not be to your liking. In my opinion, the CCs need to be their own sub-track, but then I believe that every track should accept Audio, Midi Note, and CC as separate sub-tacks. It would be complex, but the alternative is also complex. I’m not holding my breath.

So, here is what I do, I create those sub-tracks as sperate tracks in a folder, mapped to the Instrument or FX, and I save these once I have set them up as a Track Archive.

So for an instrument that only every accepts MIDI, (the simplest case), I make the Instrument track, but I treat it as a rack instrument, so I go to the direct out and map it to whatever bus or destination I want for that instrument. Then I do nothing else with the instrument. (One could use a rack instrument but it still makes a hidden track for it, and I mess with what is hidden or not a lot, so having it as a track instrument is just as well.)

I then make a MIDI track for Notes, I usually want to limit the MIDI coming in to a MIDI track by channel anyway, so that is done in a transformer or in a local on the track. In addition I filter out all CCs and Program Changes So all you get is the note information, velocity etc. Only what would happen from pressing a key or pad. This track is of course routed to the Instrument.

I then make a separate MIDI CC track and in it’s transformer or local, filter out anything that is NOT a CC or Program Change, and rout that to the instrument.

What this gives you is the ability to have takes of CCs, to rout those CCs to another track, or even copy and paste.

The only time I ever touch “Write” is in mixing. So everything is CC data. Of course in some cases the instrument maps to QCs only, and you can’t “Learn” a CC.

And now that I am re-reading your last post, you probably do the same thing already. But I’m still going to post this.

Wouldn’t it be nice if EVERYTHING in Cubase would automatically be assignable to a CC? And wouldn’t it be nice if automation and CC were treated exactly the same?

With MIDI 2.0 is there any reason not to?

5

Martin, not sure what you mean? I’m not near the computer right now, but I think my issue was that I didn’t know how to (or if I even could) write QC automation to a midi track? At least in my fumbling around, it would only write to the instrument track itself. Which would then be replaced if I did another take onto a new midi track.

oqion, yeah, that’s nerdy! But interesting. I don’t take it that far, I may experiment with that later but at first read it does seem unweildy to say the least. :slight_smile: I do treat my instrument tracks like you do though: I have an instrument track with no data itself, then I do all my takes on midi tracks pointing to that one instrument track. It is indeed kind of like having an instrument in the rack, in effect. But it does have some of the advantages of tracks – being able to name them as I see fit and being able to organize, folder-ize, etc being a couple of the big ones.

6

Hi, (sorry for my delay)

I see, I got the point, now.

If you Write an automation of any MIDI parameter (like Volume of the MIDI track, Pan, Mute Sends 1-4; it’s 1-4, because these are MIDI Sends, not Audio Return Channel Sends), they are written to the MIDI track. If you write automation of any of the instrument parameter (or QC, which is controlling any Instrument parameter), the automation is written to the Instrument track.

There is no way around.

7

Okay, bummer! But thanks for confirming.