@Another User said:

DG, if you have time, I would be grateful to hear about your personal efficiency bottlenecks and MIDI recording/editing workflow =)

I'm not sure that I can be of much help, because:

1. I hardly ever do a MIDI mock-up these days
2. My sequencing is entirely based around the need to add things to live recordings, so a lot of it would not necessarily be appropriate when the mock-up is the final product.
3. I think that you're better off asking specific questions (as you already did) because I wouldn't know where to start.

However, your point 3. I can take a stab at. I use a keyboard, breath controller and Lemur for note and controller entry and a Faderport for volume automation/mixing. For editing MIDI I tend to use many KC and Macros for notes and mouse for CC.

DG

Hello,

I'm not familiar with Cubase and FL Studio and I think that not so many people use Samplitude Pro X2 Suite, but when I read your description about FL Studio, I think it could be a good suggestion to give Samplitude Pro X2 a try. (The midi part of the Standard version and the Suite version are the same, the Suite version has more plugins and more vsti instruments). For me the midi part works very well, also several plugins that comes with the program, are very useful to me (I work with midi and Vsti instruments, but also with recorded music, especially the Suite version has good tools to repair and manipulate .wav-files). You can try the program free for 30 days. Succes with finding a program that covers your needs!

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:

1. Transport - Locators to Select (default shortcut "p")
2. Edit - Cut
3. Transport - Return to Zero (default shortcut numpad ".")
4. Edit - Paste
5. Process Logical Preset - the macro we just created in Step 1
6. Edit - Cut
7. Transport - To Left Locator (default shortcut numpad "1")
8. 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!

Hi suon,

I had to check out on Youtube, how expression maps works, and no, Samplitude Pro doesn't have this feature.

I did try the time warp tool.  But maybe I am missing something.  It would be great

Let's take the example of a piano track + other tracks at the same time.   Suppose we have a scale run that we want to squeeze to go slightly faster.  How do we do that without affecting (a) the other tracks and (b) other notes in the same track?    At least for me, this is a pretty common situation when trying to tweak the nuanced performance or realism of an instrument.  I'm surprised more people haven't asked about this.  Are other people tweaking MIDI performances in a better way that entirely avoids this situation?

About the time warp tool.  It's not the same as stretching/squeezing selected notes only.  As I understand, that tool is intended for intuitive ways to automate the project-wide tempo track.  Trying to isolate tracks with musical or linear time mode before warping - almost works, but it's highly unintuitive.   It may be possible to create macros that (1) solo a track to musical or linear time as appropriate, (2) enables the user the opportunity to time warping to only one track while in the key editor (3) makes all tracks linear time and removes the tempo automation that got created, so the grid looks correct after the warping.  But then it (a) still affects un-selected notes in a track, (b) if I had tempo automation already, it's destroyed in the process, and (c) at that point, the macro I have now is already a faster workflow.  

Ultimately, whatever I figured out so far still does not parallel the smoothness of being able to simply select a group of notes and stretch/squeeze them together quickly and precisely.

Cheers =)

Missed a sentence - "It would be great to hear your solution"

Cheers!

OK, I'm now back in the studio and I think I used the wrong terminology. Sorry. So the way I do it is probably not as efficient as the one you're used to, but here goes. Note that I'm putting all the steps in to make a tuplet.

1. Make sure that the first note starts on the grid.
2. Make sure that there is an end note on a finishing beat, even if you delete it later.
3. Cut the MIDI part at the start of the first note and the start of the last note.
4. Hit the normal selection tool key twice to get the time stretching tool
5. Make sure that snap is on
6. Drag the right hand corner of your MIDI part to the beat you want your tuplet to finish at.

Some of these steps may be unnecessary, some may be possible to build into a Macro.

I also had a think about your Eraser problem, and I'm pretty sure it could be solved using something like AutoHotKey

DG

One last follow-up -

Thanks for your most recent suggestion, it's definitely useful to know about.  The macro I created fits my scenarios better, without having to exit/re-enter the key editor and splice/glue parts.

DG, I greatly appreciate your time and effort to help out, thank you!

I wouldn't recomment Samplitude for scoring work. Its MIDI features are too basic compared to Cubase, Logic or Digital Performer.