Found out you don’t even need to use a Chord Track to use Chord pads. Just Make
An instrument track like A Halion Sonic piano instrument and then open Chord Pads
And start dragging the pads up onto the instrument Track . Works great .
So why even bother making a Chord track ? Only thing the manual says — it that a Chord
Track Allows you to “Easily Create Chord Events for a lead Sheet , for example”
I’m not familiar with lead sheets , what they are or why I would want one …
IS ‘creating lead sheets’ the only Advantage to using a Chord Track ?
BONUS Question
Is it possible for me to delete some of my past newbie stupid posts ? If so How ?
I can drag chord events using Chord Pads onto the Instrument track and those are midi parts aren’t they … they are NOT audio
I can make Custom voicings for the pads with the instrument track also
I can go to Media Bay and drag in midi loops onto the instrument Track that is using Chord pads also .
ex. If i put a pattern on a chord pad and then make an instrument track and put the playhead at the start of the Track and hit record while holding down the chord pad … then a pattern with midi information will be recorded on the instrument track
If I drag that same same pattern in from the media bay it will also drop onto the instrument Track and it looks like ‘midi bars’ to me ?
The rest I’m not sure about …i’m not exactly an expert or that familiar with cubase …but I’ll keep your post and maybe understand it better in the future.
The thing is, lots of functions in Cubase (or any DAW really) can seem fairly mysterious until you need that function when it then transforms into something that makes perfect sense. Folks don’t need a screwdriver until they have some screws.
Thanks, I spent all day on this and wasted a lot of time on trying to figure out what the Midi Record prefs for ‘Record Enable Allows Midi Thru’ actually did … i decided it was primarily for use when using ‘USE Monitored Tracks’ ’ was selected and allowing record enable to make the tracks playable when they were record enabled. If not checked in the prefs then apparently record enabling tracks with ‘Use monitored Tracks’ selected - would not output sound. Whereas if you monitored tracks individually they would sound even if that was not checked in the prefs.
I think i have an inkling of what you were talking about in the difference …but I’ll keep going until I really understand the difference myself and why Chord tracks add functionality that using a straight instrument track without them does not provide.
Why would you choose to Make a Midi Track which then needs an Instrument Track to output sound.
Versus an Instrument track alone .
What drives the decision to monitor/make a Midi vs Instrument Track with the Chord Track .
Bonus question :
I notice The inputs for both midi and instruments can be either ‘Chord Pads’ or “All Midi Inputs’ … does this mean anything important ?
Long ago only MIDI Tracks existed and you had to route them to a Rack Instrument to get sound. This approach makes you manage the MIDI and sound components independent of each other. Later they created the Instrument Track which integrated the MIDI & sound together. Nowadays most folks use Instrument Tracks for almost everything - you should too.
However the MIDI Track was retained for compatibility. And they also have some specialized application that some folks still use. The folks who score for films & video can have huge Templates (often over 1,000 Tracks) and like to have separate control over MIDI and Audio because it gives them more flexibility in managing Audio capacity, but at the expense of extra work to do that management.
Also if you have a multitimbral VSTi like Halion or Kontakt playing more than one instrument you can have MIDI Track(s) also feeding the Instrument Track so each instrument’s line can be in its own Track/Part. Some folks think this helps save computer resources, but it really doesn’t (and in certain situations can make things worse). But you can get the same end results by putting each instrument alone on its own Instrument Track.
My most common use of MIDI Tracks is use them to send control signals (like for modulating a parameter) to an Instrument Track. This too could be done on the Instrument Track itself. But if I look at the Project 5 years later, using the MIDI Track is a visual clue that I’m messing with something.
A person could easily use Cubase for years and not use a MIDI Track.
“All MIDI Inputs” is just a convenience that lets you group together some or all of the MIDI Inputs on your computer.
If you go to:
Studio>Studio Setup>MIDI Port Setup
you’ll find a list of all the MIDI inputs on your computer. On the left are checkboxes that let you choose which specific inputs are included in “All MIDI Inputs”
Say you have MIDI inputs showing for
A MIDI Keyboard controller
A Drum pad
A guitar effects unit that uses MIDI to configure it (aka how I spent yesterday)
You’d probably want to include 1 & 2 in “All MIDI Inputs” but not 3.
Thank you very much for that extensive Answer .
Part of My confusion is that when i see Midi bars in an instrument track my brain just says MIDI …not instrument.
So you seem to be saying … when I use A chord Track I should stick to Instrument tracks and not worry about midi tracks.
Thanks.
