I’m doing some research on Midi Editors in DAWs and am
curious how each one of you prefers to work in that editor.
I would love to know more about your workflows in e.g. Logic, Ableton or Cubase.
Maybe you are using a couple of DAWs simultaneously and prefer one
Midi Editors workflow better than the other, tell me why that is.
I am mainly interested in how you handle small tasks like:
- Note selection: individual notes, a range of notes (contiguous or not)
- If you like using commands and/or shortcuts for things like selecting notes, duplicating notes, or do you prefer to do it manually
- Annoyances while doing those tasks etc.
- Things you love about the editor in general
Anything that comes to mind.
Appreciate any feedback from you, how small it might seem.
Thanks!
DJ RANN
When I'm using hardware, I seem to have no problem programming patterns to run in sequence, but with a DAW, my brain just won't work and has to use a linear editor.
For years I was a logic die hard (although I've basically used them all apart from any recent version of Ableton), and now I've switched to Cubase. My main beef with Logic was that notes simply do not snap to exactly where they're meant to - smart snap was anything but smart - and this problem got really bad with automation and triggering of events.
Cubase doesn't have any of these issues but honestly speaking, they both do exactly the same thing in very similar ways, from note selection to region duplication to auomtation - it's all the same, minus the bugs.
I see vids of ableton, especially like Airbases Vocal Chop Chop vid where the workflow is incredibly fast with key commands but I just think the interface and layout looks like dog and just can't get my head around it.
I always loved apps like battery for drum programming but recently I've been laying everything out (individual hits etc) in the arrange and somehow I prefer it as it reminds me more of when you're tracking / recording. The only bummer is not having an easy way to switch out an entire sample (i.e, the kick) when it's on an audio track. You could "trick" logic to do by renaming the sample and then when you reopened the project again, it couldn't find it and you located it with you newly named file et voila.
That's the only thing that I think all daws are missing - a simple way to replace every same sample on a track.
farris
Thanks Rann, appreciate your feedback and telling us more about your workflow!
What you are saying is that you actually like to work more in a lineair fashion, laying
audio in arrangement instead of having an editor and drawing in some notes, right?
Are there maybe ways that might convince you to work more in the Midi Editor if it somehow helped you in a visual way? I'm speaking of the UI here.
DJ RANN
quote:
Originally posted by farris
Thanks Rann, appreciate your feedback and telling us more about your workflow!
What you are saying is that you actually like to work more in a lineair fashion, laying
audio in arrangement instead of having an editor and drawing in some notes, right?
Are there maybe ways that might convince you to work more in the Midi Editor if it somehow helped you in a visual way? I'm speaking of the UI here.
Sorry, let me clarify; I mean linear like left to right, all laid out. What I can't seem to get my head around with a DAW is work with things like drum or pattern editors where you have to work with numerical patterns inside that AU or VST. For instance some programs like Ultrabeat in Logic or FXpansion Guru, make you use their own pattern sequencer within, and then somehow you're meant to keep track of that as well as the normal linear arrange sequencer. Bugs the out of me.
I just want it all on a linear timeline. Again, the one thing I'm missing is a way to lay out individual hits/samples as if they're midi notes, where you could then swap out the samples on a track or region by drag and drop. I'd basically like battery's functionality on the arrange view.
To be honest, what i'd really love is a 3 dimensional DAW arrange view.
Think like the spectrum thing in the video for BT's flaming june.
X would be time, Y is used for tracks in order of frequency and Z is volume.
So I can basically see the song play in terms of frequency vs volume by time.
2:20 min mark.
EDIT: lol, actually like your avatar Farris.
tehlord
I have no real preference for any one way of doing it (although I agree with T that Logic's snap is ridiculous.
I like the snappy speed of FL (although I haven't used it for 6-7 years), I like the immediacy and logic of Live and I like the fact that I know all the shortcuts to Cubase.
What I don't like in Live is that the length of your clip is quite rigid. For example in Cubase you can simply extend the clip by dragging the edge of the midi clip left or right on the timeline, the same as Cubase handles an audio clip.
One thing I'd like to see in a midi editor is that when you select a number of notes in the midi clip, the corresponding velocity (or any other attached value) to that note is left highlighted at the bottom of the clip while all other unselected notes are greyed out and non editable. The number of times I've edited velocity values when I didn't mean to.....
Also, all DAW's should handle drum midi like Live does. Utter genius.
evo8
I use Live - one thing i dont like is that you cant select all the midi notes in the window by dragging the mouse - you can only select the notes that you see. If there are notes that are out of view you cant drag the mouse up or down to capture them
DJ RANN
quote:
Originally posted by evo8
I use Live - one thing i dont like is that you cant select all the midi notes in the window by dragging the mouse - you can only select the notes that you see. If there are notes that are out of view you cant drag the mouse up or down to capture them
Really? In logic, you just click the track header. You can really only select what you can see in Live????
evo8
quote:
Originally posted by DJ RANN
Really? In logic, you just click the track header. You can really only select what you can see in Live????
yeah.. unless im missing something - it just seems so ridiculous that maybe i am missing something
farris
Some great feedback guys. Thanks! Really appreciate it. Funny to see how each one has their own small things.
evo8:
I think you can select notes that are out of view.
Drag the mouse over the range for which you want to select the notes.
You can see what the selected range is via the small blue strip at the top of the Midi Editor.
After you select the range, press Enter. This will select anything within the range,
visible or not. In Ableton’s terms it is called time marking I think.
You can of course always zoom out by dragging left on the piano roll to see every octave.
evo8
quote:
Originally posted by farris
Some great feedback guys. Thanks! Really appreciate it. Funny to see how each one has their own small things.
evo8:
I think you can select notes that are out of view.
Drag the mouse over the range for which you want to select the notes.
You can see what the selected range is via the small blue strip at the top of the Midi Editor.
After you select the range, press Enter. This will select anything within the range,
visible or not. In Ableton’s terms it is called time marking I think.
You can of course always zoom out by dragging left on the piano roll to see every octave.
ive read this about 5 or 6 times but still dont get you. Yeah of course i can drag out the piano roll but that wasnt my point :)
farris
quote:
Originally posted by evo8
ive read this about 5 or 6 times but still dont get you. Yeah of course i can drag out the piano roll but that wasnt my point :)
So, what do you mean? :)
Because you can select notes that are out of view (above and below the view).
evo8
there are notes in this clip, out of view.
How do I select them? Without scrolling the piano roll
