Q. How do I adjust Velocity values of drum sounds in Cubase?

Published in SOS February 2007
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I'm using Cubase and have I just bought the BFD plug in. I've programmed in all the MIDI notes for the drum part, but I now want to draw in the velocity for each note by hand (hi-hats, kick, snare, and so forth). When I go to draw, my actions affect the velocity for every MIDI note on that beat, even if I have only selected one note. I have been told that it possible to hold the Shift key in Pro Tools to draw in velocity values just for selected notes. Is there anything like that for Cubase?

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qa 5.s
Cubase's Drum Editor allows you to edit velocity values for any individual instrument within a drum kit MIDI part, without affecting the velocities of the other instruments.
Cubase's Drum Editor allows you to edit velocity values for any individual instrument within a drum kit MIDI part, without affecting the velocities of the other instruments.

SOS contributor Mike Senior replies: It sounds like you're trying to edit your drum parts using Cubase's Key Editor, and this does indeed respond in the way you describe, when you 'draw' in the Velocity Controller Lane with the pencil tool. However, if you open up your drum part in the Drum Editor instead (right-click the MIDI region and select Drum Editor from the shortcut menu's MIDI submenu), the Velocity Controller Lane will only show velocities for notes of one MIDI pitch at a time.

Assuming that you're wanting to tweak just the hi-hat dynamics, all you have to do is select any hi-hat note in the main window using the pointer tool. This brings up only hi-hat values in the Drum Editor's Velocity Controller Lane, and you can then edit these with the drumstick tool. I tried this in Cubase SX2 and it worked fine. 

Published in SOS February 2007

 

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