I finally figured out a trick to stretch / squeeze / warp selected notes in Cubase key editor It's still not as fast or flexible as dragging to resize with a mouse in FL Studio, and it behaves badly when no notes are selected, but otherwise seems to work.
After that much struggle, the least I can do is share my solution so anyone searching over the internet might find this solution =)
Step 1. Create and save a logical editor script. The script is essentially the same as the "double tempo" and "half tempo" examples, with a different multiplier value. In order to shrink/stretch exactly the same, I used "Divide by 1.1" to shrink, and "Multiply by 1.1" to stretch.
Step 2. Create the "shrink selected notes" macro from the following Commands:
- Transport - Locators to Select (default shortcut "p")
- Edit - Cut
- Transport - Return to Zero (default shortcut numpad ".")
- Edit - Paste
- Process Logical Preset - the macro we just created in Step 1
- Edit - Cut
- Transport - To Left Locator (default shortcut numpad "1")
- Edit - Paste
Basically, this macro moves the selected notes to the beginning of the track before applying the tempo change, and then moves them back after shrinking/stretching. That way, the notes don't accidentally change position as well.
MMKA - as for Samplitude Pro - does it have something similar to expression maps? I downloaded the Samplitude demo, checked out the manual, tried out the piano roll. It's a totally different language... impossible to judge how efficient I would feel without spending months with it. I like the eraser, but the zooming was uncomfortable for me. Ultimately, it's too much time and effort to learn it in detail after having done that with two other capable sequencers already.
Cheers!