My problem isn’t understanding what all these things are. As I said, I started composing and recording on a Teac A3440 reel to reel and a Moog Sonic 6 monophonic, two oscillator synthesizer back in the late 70s. Flash forward 30 something years and I’m now working with Korg’s Triton Rack and the Boss 8 track Digital Recorder. I can use all this equipment in my sleep. Again, understanding the technology is not my problem.
My problem is that when I want to do “X” I don’t know where “X” is even located or if it’s even doable in Cubase. If I create a blank MIDI track, I assume I should be able to go into that track and place whatever notes I want into it just as I did with my hardware sequencer. But it seems that the only way I can bring up the actual MIDI notes for a track is if there is already something in it.
My frustration is with the interface and it’s capabilities and/or limitations. I simply don’t know what it can and can’t do, how to do it and, if it can, where the function knobs, sliders, drop downs, etc., are to do it. With hardware it’s all pretty straight forward just by reading the manual, probably because, unlike Cubase, the hardware was very limited in what it could do. Even the most complex synthesizers and recording modules were relatively simple to use. Cubase, not so much.
But I’m making progress. And yes, today I’m going to work on composing a song in Finale, exporting it to Cubase and then reassigning sounds, adding effects, mixing, and so on. I’m not going to be concerned about how the song sounds but more with getting a feel for working with the software in a practical application that will probably be the norm for my purposes. If I hit a road block and try to do something I can’t do, I assure you I’ll come here and ask questions. Hopefully, they will be few.