Setlists Questions #12 & 35

Cubase
1

OK, I’ve perused many questions and answers on this forum and the other interwebs, but I still can’t find an answer I like :slight_smile:

Going out to gig (finally!) with my duo, and of course cubase and my sound modules playing a bunch of the parts (all hardware MIDI, no VSTs, no samples, no audio files).

Right now all of my tunes are in individual ‘projects’, that being in quotes because the only element in the project folder is the .cpr file. So is there a better way to get tunes to play in a setlist type fashion other than dumping all the tunes into a single .cpr file and setting up Arranger to play them?

I’m dating myself here, but the model I was seeking is from “Cakewalk Live”, which I used back in the day when synth songs were actually on the radio :slight_smile:. (the 80’s!). The way that worked was you would create your midi files in cakewalk (their proprietary format was a .wrk file) independent of one another (just as I’m dong now with Cubase). Then you would simply drag-and-drop the .wrk files into the Cakewalk Live GUI (actually this may have been pre-mouse days, but you get the picture!) and set up other parameters like time between songs, do you want to stop after a particular song, etc. and then start the session and it would dutifully load up the .wrk files and play them in the order you set.

Best I can tell with cubase is I’d have to dump every .cpr file into a single one, linear-style, and then set up arranger to start and stop across different linear points in the entire long range. If I’m hearing that correctly, it sound extremely cumbersome- and not very easy to change on the fly, not to mention tweaking tunes after they are already loaded into the arranger project. And to complicate things, I’m using the MIDI inspector to set my patches for each tune, so I’d have to go back in and insert the patch changes into each track instead of relying on cubase to do it at load time.

So am I missing something here? Or am I really stuck CTRL-W, CTRL-O, click-click-click select to get to the next tune the way I currently have things constituted?

Thanks!

2

Hi,
I use cubase to play backing tracks live with my band.

  • First of all I use audio files because I trust them more than midi files so I bounce all my midi tracks to audio and import them in a new project where I have Guide, Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion and Backing Vocals, plus a midi track to send program changes to my pedalboard.
  • I use both the arranger track and cycle markers (to keep things organized) with songs in linear style (one after the other).
  • I have a tempo track and a signature track so the click follows the tempo and signature of each song (including tempo changes).
  • I use the “play until next marker” command so the song stops automatically when finished. I don’t like the arranger because it keeps playing the next event and we need a brake between songs to set some things.
  • Create macros to play each song automatically with one key command (using my iPad and cubase ic pro).

I hope my way of working with cubase in a live show is clear and gives some ideas to your setup.

3

Yes, it’s pretty clear, thanks!! What do the macros do- jump to a specific part in the timeline??