Cubase SX Tips and tricks #21
Those tips and tricks were first written for Keyboards / Home Studio magazine. They are published here with their kind permission, thanks ,o)
The year is coming over, you are tired and your noodle starts boiling, normal ! So, I will let you two months for stomaching the followings ! Have some good holidays !
The Ghost Parts [SX 1 and 2]
For the lazy persons who are followers of the copy/paste function... For example, you have created a Midi Event and you have duplicated it a little bit everywhere in the Arrangement. If you are induced to make a modification on the original Part, you would have to duplicate all once again, what a shaaaaame !
So, instead of using the Duplicate or Repeat functions, rather use the shortcut ALT+MAJ to drag and drop the Event to be copied. You will have then created some « Ghost » Events. Any change done to one of the copy will be automatically applied to the other copies as well as to the primary Part. Ghost Parts can be identified thanks to their name in italic and the two small superimposed squares which are located right below...
Uneasy updates [SX 2]
This is a part of the current worries met by the Cubasians : you try to install the latest Cubase SX 2 update and the process finally ends up with a crash while you are telling that it is unable to open the « Cubasesx.exe » file. Now what ! In fact, the problem is encountered by those who do an update from SX 1 and who want to keep it installed on their computer. This first version is probably installed in the \Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase SX folder. You must thus install SX 2 in an other directory, for example \Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase SX 2.
What is getting a little bit complicated, is that the update proposes sometimes (it
depends of the versions !) the SX 1 folder as a directory ! So, of course,
when updating the main program, all crashes. To avoid this,
you just have to take care about selecting the right folder during the installation process,
even if you must click on Explore to find it with the mouse...
Retrospective Record [SX 2]
Nor a VST 5 function which have disappeared in SX 1 and which is back in SX 2. You've just played a wonderful Lead synth lick and, no luck, you forgot unfortunately to activate the record button, your killing solo is definitively lost, except if...
In the Preferences, at the Record section, it is possible to activate the Retrospective Record. Cubase will then memorize in a buffer which size is adjustable, all that will be played in Midi. If you are meeting the situation evoked in introduction, then you will be able to recover the buffer content ! You will just have to hit a good SHIFT+* (numeric pad) after having selected the target Midi track, so that your keyboard part will be inserted into this track, where is located the tape head. Her, no, this doesn't work (still ?) with Audio...
Selecting the tools with shortcuts [SX 1 and 2]
Yes, I know, I am a little bit haunted with shortcuts ! To my own, doing a right-click in order to go searching the tool that I need in a list as long as a day without bread, this is boring me. That's why I rather like to use the keypads from 1 to 9 of the alphabetic keyboard to catch the expected tool. To be noted
that the F9 and F10 keys select the tools one after each other...
See ya soon, here or somewhere else, but after some well deserved holidays ,o)