The Cubase workflow and that of other DAWs

[luiza177]

So having switched, or attempting to switch to cubase from Sonar X1 has been proving a little harder than expected. Sonar and some other DAWs I tried had certain key functionalities I’m finding quite inconvenient to live without, so I’m wondering if I’m really just overlooking them.

0. Is there a list out there with all the key commands?

a.1) the spacebar controls Play/Stop. when you push play, the next time you hit the space bar, the cursor stops at the moment the you hit the spacebar to stop. if you want it to go back to the point you started Play, you have to hit “0” (stop) on the numeric keypad. Is there a way the cursor can just automatically return to the point you started playback upon hitting the spacebar to stop?
a.2) is there a key command to return to the beginning of the project (ie measure 1)?

b) is there an automatic way/button to collapse tracks, instead of having to manually resize them?

c) is the mixer window maximizable? if you maximize the project window, does everytime a new small window shows up, it restores down?

d) I own Waves plugins. Can I use the sidechain of the C1, for instance? I can’t seem to find out how to do that. I can, however, you the regular cubase sidechain. Is this a compatibility problem?

e) When starting to sequence midi. Do I have to start out being drawing a midi event the EXACT size it’s going to be? for instance, when sequencing drums (they are going to play the whole song) I can’t seem to be able to resize the midi event from the Piano Roll/Drum map view, and it doesn’t do it automatically like in Reason. Am I missing something?

Big thanks in advance!

[Elektrobolt]

@luiza177

0. Is there a list out there with all the key commands?

Operation Manual, page 546.

@luiza177

a.1) the spacebar controls Play/Stop. when you push play, the next time you hit the space bar, the cursor stops at the moment the you hit the spacebar to stop. if you want it to go back to the point you started Play, you have to hit “0” (stop) on the numeric keypad. Is there a way the cursor can just automatically return to the point you started playback upon hitting the spacebar to stop?

Use the “Numeric Pad” to control the play makes it (at least for me) easier.

Enter = Play
0 (while playing) = Stop
0 (when stopped) = Return to start of playback

1 = Go to Left Locator
2 = Go to Right Locator

3-9 = Go to programmed Marker 3-9

@luiza177

a.2) is there a key command to return to the beginning of the project (ie measure 1)?

EDIT

. (period) on the Numeric Pad (THANKS, Split!!!)

@luiza177

b) is there an automatic way/button to collapse tracks, instead of having to manually resize them?

Operation Manual, page 73.

I believe no.

@luiza177

c) is the mixer window maximizable? if you maximize the project window, does everytime a new small window shows up, it restores down?

The mixer windows are horizontally resizable, yes.

The project window does have a peculiar way of functioning in Windows, yes, but I believe its behavior is under discussion or that there is some future plans on this. Various rumours and posts exist. (Steinberg input, please?)

@luiza177

d) I own Waves plugins. Can I use the sidechain of the C1, for instance? I can’t seem to find out how to do that. I can, however, you the regular cubase sidechain. Is this a compatibility problem?

I do not use Waves plug-ins, but I believe they are VST3 and do support side chaining, though unfortunately I cannot help you further with this plug-in. Sorry, mate.

@luiza177

e) When starting to sequence midi. Do I have to start out being drawing a midi event the EXACT size it’s going to be? for instance, when sequencing drums (they are going to play the whole song) I can’t seem to be able to resize the midi event from the Piano Roll/Drum map view, and it doesn’t do it automatically like in Reason. Am I missing something?

I am not sure exactly what you are experiencing, but…

The Drum Editor uses preset sizes for the “hits”, you can of course change the lengths of these (using the Info Line).

The Key Editor uses the Quantize Preset for drawing notes (you select 1/4 note and click, the event will be a 1/4 note long), and these can be resized using either the Info Line or graphically with the mouse (various ways) by dragging the left or right side of the event(s). (If snap is ON then your resizing is restricted to the snap intervals.)

Also various functions can be utilized to resize one or more events.

[Split]

a.2 press the . on the numeric keypad.

[MoPro]

@Elektrobolt

@luiza177

d) I own Waves plugins. Can I use the sidechain of the C1, for instance? I can’t seem to find out how to do that. I can, however, you the regular cubase sidechain. Is this a compatibility problem?

I do not use Waves plug-ins, but I believe they are VST3 and do support side chaining, though unfortunately I cannot help you further with this plug-in. Sorry, mate.

Actually…the Waves C1 ver.8 VST3 without internal side chain functionality works identical to the Cubase VSTs! In other words, there is a Cubase side chain button available.

Do not use the Waves C1 with internal side chain functionality because that plugin doesn’t operate the same way as the regular C1 in Cubase…you can get it to work, but requires some creative routing techniques that you my acquire by Googling!

Al

[vbre]

b) is there an automatic way/button to collapse tracks, instead of having to manually resize them?

I have assigned key commad shift+cmd+pad +/- allowing me to zoom in/out vertically. Not sure it’s exactly what you’re looking for but it works for me.

[Bach]

@luiza177

0. Is there a list out there with all the key commands?

If you go to File->Key Commands you will find a full list of the key commands. There you can also set your own key commands, it is very easy, just choose the function and type the key command in the field and you are ready to go!

b) is there an automatic way/button to collapse tracks, instead of having to manually resize them?

You can set this in key commands if you want but I prefer to do this from my CC121 controller or by scrolling the mouse on the zoom slider on the side of the project window.

c) is the mixer window maximizable? if you maximize the project window, does everytime a new small window shows up, it restores down?

As Elektrobolt said, you are another proof that the window system in Cubase is not working as any user would have expected it to be. I personally find the Windows behavior of Cubase weird and time consuming because of the constant Windows resizing, I just hope that this will be changed in an update or a total GUI overhaul.

And hey! Welcome to Cubase!

[luiza177]

Thanks for your help, everyone. I still have some issues though:

a) good enough, I guess I’ll just have to get used to that.

b) works well enough.

c) I hope Steinberg fixes/betters this.

d) I have v8, but no matter what version of C1, I still can’t send another track into its sidechain.

e) what I’m trying to say is: in order to start sequencing midi, one has to use the Pencil tool to draw a blank midi event on the track, then double click it to open the Piano roll, then start sequencing. What I wanna do, is be able to draw events beyond the “border” of the blank midi event, in other words, be able to resize it from within the Piano roll.

F) Something else I remembered, in Sonar, if I double click a parameter, like the fader in the mixer, it returns to 0dB, or the pan, it returns to center. Is there anything like this in Cubase?

[system]

if you want the playback head to return to the posision it was in when you pressed play

under the preferances, go to the transport options, there is a checkbox ‘return to start position on stop’
check that

[Elektrobolt]

@Xtigma.

if you want the playback head to return to the posision it was in when you pressed play

under the preferances, go to the transport options, there is a checkbox ‘return to start position on stop’
check that

Nice, this must have been the case many moons ago, because I still push 0 thrice while playing to get back to 0, lol.

Thanks for the info, mate!

[luiza177]

@Xtigma.

if you want the playback head to return to the posision it was in when you pressed play

under the preferances, go to the transport options, there is a checkbox ‘return to start position on stop’
check that

Major thanks for that. Really going to make my life easier.

[Grim]

d) I have v8, but no matter what version of C1, I still can’t send another track into its sidechain.

This definitely works.
Make sure it is a vst3 instance that has the /// beside the name.
You should have a sidechain button just to the right of the Steinberg read & write automation buttons.
Rather than just saying you can’t do it perhaps say what you are doing & at what point you encounter a specific problem.

e) what I’m trying to say is: in order to start sequencing midi, one has to use the Pencil tool to draw a blank midi event on the track, then double click it to open the Piano roll, then start sequencing. What I wanna do, is be able to draw events beyond the “border” of the blank midi event, in other words, be able to resize it from within the Piano roll.

You can keep adding notes past the end of the part but this area only becomes active after you resize it (which takes about a second by dragging so hardly a workfllow killer.) Can’t think of any way to resize while inside the editor.

F) Something else I remembered, in Sonar, if I double click a parameter, like the fader in the mixer, it returns to 0dB, or the pan, it returns to center. Is there anything like this in Cu

Of course…it’s Ctrl Click.

[Kev_Vin]

You can resize the event from within the midi editor by clicking the show parts borders button from within the editor.
This will then show the beginning and end of your midi part. You can now grab the start and end points of the part from the tabs in the time line.

A useful tip… double clicking in the empty space of a midi track will create a midi part the size of your loop locators.

[luiza177]

@Grim

d) I have v8, but no matter what version of C1, I still can’t send another track into its sidechain.

This definitely works.
Make sure it is a vst3 instance that has the /// beside the name.
You should have a sidechain button just to the right of the Steinberg read & write automation buttons.
Rather than just saying you can’t do it perhaps say what you are doing & at what point you encounter a specific problem.

ok, so this is what I was attempting to do:
I’d go to the bass track, and within an insert, I’d place an instance of C1 (it does have the ///). Then I’d thought I’d have to go to, in this case, the kick drum track’s sends, and select the C1’s sidechain from there. Of course, there is no such option…

@Grim

e) what I’m trying to say is: in order to start sequencing midi, one has to use the Pencil tool to draw a blank midi event on the track, then double click it to open the Piano roll, then start sequencing. What I wanna do, is be able to draw events beyond the “border” of the blank midi event, in other words, be able to resize it from within the Piano roll.

You can keep adding notes past the end of the part but this area only becomes active after you resize it (which takes about a second by dragging so hardly a workfllow killer.) Can’t think of any way to resize while inside the editor.

I found the answer to that myself, within the Piano Roll/Editor, on the time ruler there are two small squares at the border of the “blank” event with the label “MIDI” on them, just click and drag that.

@Grim

F) Something else I remembered, in Sonar, if I double click a parameter, like the fader in the mixer, it returns to 0dB, or the pan, it returns to center. Is there anything like this in Cu

Of course…it’s Ctrl Click.

Thanks!

[Bach]

@luiza177

@Grim

d) I have v8, but no matter what version of C1, I still can’t send another track into its sidechain.

This definitely works.
Make sure it is a vst3 instance that has the /// beside the name.
You should have a sidechain button just to the right of the Steinberg read & write automation buttons.
Rather than just saying you can’t do it perhaps say what you are doing & at what point you encounter a specific problem.

ok, so this is what I was attempting to do:
I’d go to the bass track, and within an insert, I’d place an instance of C1 (it does have the ///). Then I’d thought I’d have to go to, in this case, the kick drum track’s sends, and select the C1’s sidechain from there. Of course, there is no such option…

What you need to do is activate sidechain for this plugin. In order to do that you should press the button that is right next to the write/read automation buttons. When you press it it will become Orange. When you have done that you can go to your kick’s sends and in the dropdown menu you will find the bass sidechain compressor

[luiza177]

Got it working, thanks.

more questions:

g) Can the markers be seen from within the Piano roll?

EDIT:
h) Can you select via the ruler (especially for copying a whole measure of midi sequence)? I’m aware there are other ways to achieve the same result, but that’s one thing I used to do in sonar a lot.

i) I’ve heard you can use the waves plugins (which are 32 bit) with Cubase 64-bit, anyone have any luck with that? my waves plugins don’t show up in 64 bit cubase.

j) can you monitor a track and listen to what already recorded at the same time?

[Grim]

@luiza177

i) I’ve heard you can use the waves plugins (which are 32 bit) with Cubase 64-bit, anyone have any luck with that? my waves plugins don’t show up in 64 bit cubase.

I think only by using a 3rd party program to bridge them… Jbridge. (Windows only)

j) can you monitor a track and listen to what already recorded at the same time?

If your interface has direct monitoring you can do this & it’s likely to be the best solution (no latency)…but monitoring via Cubase you only can hear one or the other signal (with latency) unless you record on a new track.

[luiza177]

an fairly unrelated question comes to mind… which version do you guys use? though jbridge isn’t all that expensive, is it worth the trouble?

EDIT: yet another question: Can I bounce two different tracks together? or do have to export them together then reimport them?

[Como_Baila]

@luiza177

Thanks for your help, everyone. I still have some issues though:


d) I have v8, but no matter what version of C1, I still can’t send another track into its sidechain.

Here’s a good pdf document explaining side chaining in Cubase using VST2 plugins with ‘external sidechian input.’

http://www.electrypnose.com/data/tutorials/Intellinoise_sidechain_compression_v1.1.pdf

VST3 introduced a new method where individual plugins had a option to click a button on the plugin GUI and ‘activate’ the sidechain. Once this is done, if you look in the ‘send’ options for any other audio channel, you’ll see that sidechain activated plugin as a send target.

So, simply put, Cubase does not permit routing of audio from one track to another … which is why this VST3 solution was developed.

However you can ‘fool’ Cubase by using a so called ‘Quadro’ track and using the routing explained in the link above with any VST2 external sidechain capable plugin.

Como

[vbre]

@luiza177

EDIT: yet another question: Can I bounce two different tracks together? or do have to export them together then reimport them?

You can use Mixdown to track, meaning that the new audio file will be placed on a new audio track in the project without having to manually import it.

[vbre]

@luiza177

g) Can the markers be seen from within the Piano roll?

Not that I’m aware of.

EDIT:
h) Can you select via the ruler (especially for copying a whole measure of midi sequence)? I’m aware there are other ways to achieve the same result, but that’s one thing I used to do in sonar a lot.

Set locators start/end point, then you can split range (shift-x), select range (no default command, but assign your own) and copy events within this area.