'Return To Start' On Stop

There’s two ways to return to start of playback after stop.

1.) Having the preference enabled.

2.) Pressing stop twice (If the preference is disabled)

Every once and a while, I hear something that needs to be fixed in a project and sometimes it’s so important to get to it as fast as possible before you lose the auditory imagined fix in your head - press stop - DOH - ‘Return To Start On Stop’ was activated! Where was that! (20 minute 100 instrument composition)

Simple solution

Once back at the start, pressing stop AGAIN (2nd or 3rd time), would return the user back to where they stopped (the end of playback instead of the start of playback).

And until the user presses start again, they could taggle back and forth between start and end as needed. This could also be a useful editing utility potentially.

Does this happen to anyone else who uses the preference often? Or is it just me??

edit

Improved Solution/Idea/FR taken from below post

Users could have two options * (in preferences), only one (or none) can be selected:
1.) StartStop (Spacebar default) Ignores ‘Return To Start On Stop’
This would then behave as Start / Pause

2.) Stop (NumPad0 default) Ignores ‘Return To Start On Stop’
This would behave as it normally does but never go back to start automatically, ie, press once to stop, press twice to stop and go back to start. (+ my idea, press again to go back to end, and vice versa)

I myself, would probably tick option 2, as I like my spacebar for fast action ‘Return To Start On Stop’ in many editing situations, and don’t mind reaching over to NumPad0 to stop in place.

But I still think my idea about being able to press Stop (NumPad0) multiple times to be able to toggle back and forth (after already having stopped playback) between where start and end of playback was… It could be useful in some editing situations, or sometimes, a client say “wait go back to that for a sec” after I’ve already returned to start.

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How abaout a key command to toggle the state?

I have a key command, ctrl+spacebar. I use it all the time.

The problem is, one never knows if it’s on or off, and having to always anticipate whether it is on or off and pressing it to check every time before stopping playback when I’m focusing on the project at hand is a bit of a chore.

It’s not a big deal, and I do check when I think to check, and I do sometimes just use double-stop instead of the preference, but when I am speed editing in certain situations the preference gets turned on, many times is left on without thinking - because the music takes the full focus when listening.

It’s a simple little detail, nothing big, but simple clever feature to resolve that accident.

I know the feeling… You never know if you wanted to stay there until you hit space and lose the position. It happens to me all the time.

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I’m not the only one!

The worse, is when you’re with a client and they’re needing to tell you where to stop and you’re sitting there, waiting for them to tell you, they say “right there”, hit stop, goes back to start… :unamused:

Better yet would be an actual Pause button and function. This is the biggest thing I miss after having switched to Cubase from SONAR. The way it worked there was that there were two functions (and two buttons). You could set your default for spacebar to be either the stop function (returns to start on hitting the space bar) or the pause function (stops playback at the point you hit the button, but it doesn’t lose the context of the playback start point, either – it’s been a while since I used Cakewalk/SONAR, so I don’t recall exactly how that worked). Whichever one you didn’t set as the default would be invoked by Ctrl-Spacebar.

When I came to Cubase, and got very frustrated by this – I generally prefer the Stop/Rewind to Start function, but there are times when I’m doing something specific, such as editing fades after a comp, where the Pause/Stop “Here” function is useful – I set up Ctrl-Spacebar to switch the behavior, but, as indicated in the thread above, it can get confusing as to which mode you’re in. I’ve also had the issue of doing something where I’d been using the Ctrl key prior to needing to stop playback, and didn’t release it quite quickly enough, so I got the mode switch without even trying. Not to mention, that once you change the mode, you have to hit the spacebar a second time to actually get the pause to happen, so it isn’t as immediate as just having a Pause function.

Additionally, my keyboard controller (Roland A-800PRO) has both Stop and Pause buttons, and I suspect most transport controllers would as well. So having a true Pause function alongside a Stop function would better correspond to the hardware controls.

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Interesting, thanks for the input.

Cubase has two commands

StartStop (Spacebar)
and
Stop (Numpad 0, press twice to go back to start).

The interesting thing is, the preference ‘Return to Start on Stop’ affects both of them, despite Stop/NumPad0 having the manual double press to go back to start.

I doubt Steinberg could change it now, as some people are accustomed to either or, or both… but perhaps there could be a preference similar to what you explain where one or the other negates the ‘Return to Start on Stop’ preference.

Users could have two options, only one (or none) can be selected:
1.) StartStop (Spacebar default) Ignores ‘Return To Start On Stop’
This would then behave as Start / Pause

2.) Stop (NumPad0 default) Ignores ‘Return To Start On Stop’
This would behave as it normally does but never go back to start automatically, ie, press once to stop, press twice to stop and go back to start. (+ my idea, press again to go back to end, and vice versa)

I myself, would probably tick option 2, as I like my spacebar for fast action ‘Return To Start On Stop’ in many editing situations, and don’t mind reaching over to NumPad0 to stop in place.

But I still think my idea about being able to press Stop (NumPad0) multiple times to be able to toggle back and forth (after already having stopped playback) between where start and end of playback was… It could be useful in some editing situations, or sometimes, a client say “wait go back to that for a sec” after I’ve already returned to start.

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Come to think of it, it may be the rewind function (button or hotkey, which was “w”) in SONAR that let you get back to the start if you used the pause function to stop at the current location of the play head.

I didn’t realize about the tap twice on the NumPad zero key to get back, but I’ve really never been a fan of using the NumPad for DAW functions (other than entering numbers, when applicable). That may be partly due to my desk setup (U-shaped, with keyboard in a keyboard drawer under the center part and mouse on the right side portion) and keyboard type (one of those Microsoft ergonomic types with the split in the middle, which makes it wider than the typical keyboard, and I often have a fair bit of the number pad under my desk due to the angle I use for the keyboard for trading off full keyboard access, mouse access, and various other aspects of use like dual monitors and a controller keyboard in the center section of the desk). I’ve also found myself using the transport buttons on my keyboard/controller a lot more since setting it up with the new remote control facility in Cubase 12, though I still probably use the space bar more than those.

I had not been aware of the double NumPad-0 press thing you mentioned, but just tried it now with the don’t return to stop on start option. I have to say I still prefer the Ctrl-Spacebar as a pause button since you can then use it to restart playback from the same button. Maybe a second Ctrl-Spacebar could do the rewind if playback is stopped/paused, though a more literal rewind button would still seem more intuitive. Then again, not a whole lot in Cubase is intuitive. :slight_smile: But I do understand about years of legacy interface considerations and longtime users. (I’ve only been using Cubase since 9.5, and only as my main DAW for new projects since 10.5.)

Then again, I don’t think Ctrl-Spacebar conflicts with any default key bindings, so it wouldn’t get in the way of what the spacebar does in the start/stop function and could conceivably work with either mode of the return to stop on start behavior. In the default pause case, where spacebar stops playback, the second Ctrl-Spacebar press could be like the second press of the NumPad-0 (and NumPad-0 could still work as it does now in that mode). In the default stop (rewind to stop case), Ctrl-Spacebar would do a pause, and a second Ctrl-Spacebar could still rewind to start. Normal spacebar would still start playback in either case if the transport was stopped.

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Hi Maggot, RickPaul,

thats interesting, I have been asking for a dedicated PAUSE command several times. Please check this thread:

There have been other requests in German forums, also for Nuendo.
Some users don’t seem to understand the usefulness of this at all, some have exactly the same problem as I have. It would add so much simple usability without having to fiddle with markers.

I use Nuendo a lot for composing so I play an instrument and have to go back and forth very often. To me it is hard to understand, why something as simple and common as a PAUSE transport CMD is not considered by Steinberg. It would very much simplify a lot of operation.

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I just read through the Nuendo thread you referenced, and another that was linked in that thread. I honestly don’t get why, independent of personal workflows, people wouldn’t understand the utility of a Pause command, especially given that any other DAWs I’ve ever used have one (i.e. why would all those developers put in a Pause if it’s not useful?).

The macro suggestions, even if they worked (but my understanding from the thread, and how I’d interpret what they are doing, suggests they don’t) would be workarounds. Not everyone is at home with making macros (I could be, but I haven’t yet created a macro in Cubase), and I’d imagine many people would use this function, even if some people might not.

The marker suggestions might be okay if someone wanted to have the same start position every time, but they don’t cut it when you want to change the start position relatively frequently and at semi-random points. I do actually use markers for song sections, but lots of times I’ll want to start playback a little earlier than a song section (e.g. due to pickup notes or wanting to hear a bit of pre-roll prior to whatever I’m working on). And I’ll change the point of start fairly frequently during the course of comping and editing.

Just thinking out loud a bit on the macros stuff, I do wonder if there could be some way to make a macro, or pair (or trio) of macros, that would do something that sets/resets a special marker, which would then be used with various combinations of keystroke shortcuts. In particular, the macro would need to know the current state of the rewind to start on stop setting, or maybe just assume one specific setting as the default. Let’s say the keystroke links would use spacebar for Start and Stop but Ctrl-spacebar for Pause. Now, if the transport is stopped, and you hit spacebar with the default of rewind on stop, it sets a special marker, let’s call it StartPosition, to the current position, changes the setting of the behavior to not rewind on stop, then starts the transport. If Ctrl-spacebar is hit, the pause happens. If the transport is running and Spacebar is hit (keeping in mind that the start function changed the behavior to pause instead of return to start), the macro stops playback, returns to the StartPosition marker, then resets the stop behavior to rewind to stop.

This obviously would require that the macros be able to sense whether playback is already running or not (and very possibly some other things I’m not thinking of in this “thinking out loud” mode). And, it would obviously still be a workaround, not to mention producing annoying visual messages like when the stop button behavior gets changed when there is a keyboard shortcut to toggle the function. And, to be honest, I’m not even tempted to experiment on this as there is music to make. :slight_smile:

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I realized that the problem (for me) is sometimes I want to stay where I pressed stop, but it returns to start and I will lose the information.
Almost all the time, the behaviour is correct, but only sometimes I want to go back to where I stopped.
So maybe, if I make a simple macro like;

  1. store current position to marker 9
  2. start/stop
    And attach it to the space key, whenever I want to go back to where I pressed the space, I can hit 9 on the keypad. I think it will solve my problem.
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… that’s exactly the point. You are describing my issue very precisely.

Reg. Macros: What Steinberg calls ‘Macros’ are in fact batch operations. They are linear sequences of commands with some very limited handling of parameters but w.o. any structured command language like VBA or Python. I played with them but I found it a bit frustrating, that whenever I want to do more than just triggering an invariable sequence of operations it isn’t possible.

Your post rightly points out, that a PAUSE cmd is something very basic, that should not require a complex configuration or macro writing to achieve. Steinberg is simply missing the point, as if complexity was desirable. No it is not. I want to create music and Nuendo is a tool. I need simplicity.

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I don’t think this will work. Because every time you trigger START a new start position will be set. Your macro on spacebar will do this:

  1. Hit spacebar from stop condition:
  • saves Start position
  • saves position in Marker 9
  • starts transport
  1. Hit spacebar from ‘run’ condition:
  • saves position in Marker 9
  • stops transport
  • returns to start position
  1. Hit Num 9
  • goes to marker position 9
  1. Hit spacebar
  • saves Start position (!!!)
  • saves position in Marker 9
  • starts transport

So everytime you start again from marker 9 position your initial start position is lost. It is then the marker 9 position.
PAUSE means to

  • stop transport when transport is running without going back to start position
  • start transport again when in PAUSE condition WITHOUT SAVING ANYTHING
    (I dont think that is possible with current macros)

… and I actually don’t want to spend more time with it …

Another reeason is of course that often people use more than 8 markers anyway. If the macros could take parameters like set marker (1000) then there could be a ‘marker space’ only for such temporary transport operations like PAUSE.

Well, it works. After the above post, I set up that on the space bar, worked with it and (almost) mixed a song. Whenever I want to go back to the stop position, I can hit numpad 9. The location is of course lost after I pressed start for the 2nd time. (return to start enabled.)
It’s not ‘pause’. But suit my need, I sometimes want to go back to the stopped position. And while playing and if you press space (macro), hit 9 then space, is the same as ‘pause’.

Sorry, I don’t understand this sentence.

Question1: Do you have ‘Return to Start Position at Stop’ enabled or disabled?
Question2: What is the macro on spacebar?

Brilliant workaround -

So. Just tried it. Doesn’t work because after 2 times pressing the spacebar the first start position is lost. It means, I can use PAUSE one time. That’s not what I am looking for.

I have set:
Macro on spacebar:

  • Set marker 9
  • start/stop

‘Return to Start Position at Stop’ is enabled.
num + 9 brings me to the last stop position. If I restart from there (simulating PAUSE) this is the new Start position.