Greetings!
Most of the time when I use “Shift + *” for retrospective record, Cubase doesn’t paste anything I played — it just inserts a completely empty segment. Sometimes it works, but I don’t understand why it doesn’t function consistently.
I’ve tried both with monitor enabled and disabled, and retrospective record is checked in the settings.
What can I do to make sure it works reliably every time?
Thank you!
Hi,
the default key command is Shift + Num* and not Shift + *. However, this should not insert an empty MIDI part per default key command.
Have you tried to insert the retrospective recording via the Transport dialogue (Transport/MIDI Retrospective Recording) or via the icon at the bottom of your project window?
Have you by any chance assigned a key command to empty the buffer?
Or emptied the buffer manually?
What’s your buffersize for retrospective recordings in the preferences?
Don’t get me wrong, but you are aware that retrospective record adresses MIDI data only, right?
In other words, you won’t have any luck if you select an audio track.
Let’s take it from here, maybe it’s just a simple misunderstanding 
Hi, and thank you for your reply.
Yes, I was only referring to MIDI. I’m recording some jazz pieces and often improvise a few ideas that turn out really well, and I wish they had been recorded at that moment. That’s why I use retrospective record.
In the preferences, I’ve set the buffer to 10,000.
There is really not much of a setting in Cubase regarding this.
The thing is, retro-recording works well for others like myself and from our point of view it is hard to figure out why it doesn’t work well for you, too.
For testing purposes you can try to go to Edit → Profile Manager… and create a NEW profile there. Then please activate it and restart Cubase. Play around with RR if it works then.
If the problem still persists you can switch back to your previous profile at any time.
After getting a ROLI Seaboard 2 for MPE/Expressive work, I read the manual and it mentions this:
Nuendo allows you to recover MIDI data, including controller data, that was captured in Stop
mode or during playback.
The MIDI data is stored in the retrospective record buffer, and you can insert it as a MIDI part on the selected MIDI track.
The buffer captures up to 10000 MIDI events. This can amount to a MIDI recording of around 2
minutes and 30 seconds. However, if you use a keyboard that produces a large amount of MIDI
controller events, such as the ROLI Seaboard, this only corresponds to a recording of around 20
seconds.
Not sure if this applies, but worth knowing.
@bogdanrere
This is actually a good point. Additionally we should also like to ask whether you use a MIDI 2.0 keyboard and a Mac?
@Thor.HOG That’s an excellent point. Maybe the fact that @bogdanrere gets an empty MIDI part has something to do with it: It might be empty at first glance as in no MIDI notes but not so much empty in regard to constant controller data sent by the keyboard. Not sure though if this controller data would be captured in the first place without triggering a related note event. However, that would explain the “empty” RR part.
I seem to recall some manner of action (or inaction) that caused the buffer to reset itself, but I can’t find it now and don’t want to speculate. I can test between both systems what a human considers “idle” and what the system considers “idle.”
It also has to do with the “All Midi Input” setting on a track vs a specific midi input, which I’ll also test…
