Keyboard shortcuts

Cubase automation update: the unshipped working tree reviewed on top of app commit 7f59cff maps F6 to the envelope panel, Alt/Option+R to all-track Read and Alt/Option+W to all-track Write. These are Cubase-profile bindings; the default OpenStudio tables below are unchanged. Write also enables Read, and switching Write off leaves Read on. Master R/W is controlled separately.

The default OpenStudio keyboard profile, its mouse and scroll gestures, and the profile system that lets you borrow another DAW's conventions or build your own.

How to read this page

Every shortcut below belongs to the OpenStudio keyboard profile, the one active on a fresh install. Ctrl in the tables means Primary: Ctrl on Windows and Linux, Cmd on macOS. Where a gesture uses the physical Alt key, the tables say Alt/Option.

Other built-in profiles, per-platform bindings, custom overrides, and the active editor scope can change or deliberately unassign any of these keys. Open Help → Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad for the effective map on your machine; the action list there is searchable and shows each binding's scope.

Default keyboard profile

The first-session set is small: Space, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+M, S, B, Delete, Ctrl+S, F1, and Ctrl+Shift+P. Everything else in the tables is there when you want it, and Ctrl+Shift+P opens the Command Palette, which finds any action by name whether or not it has a key.

Transport

File

Edit

Tools

Insert

View

Screensets store which panels are visible and how they are laid out, so the three save and load pairs give you quick switches between, say, an editing view, a mixing view, and a mastering view.

Navigation

Options

MIDI

The named global MIDI transform commands above are unassigned by default. Inside the Piano Roll, use Up/Down for semitone transposition and Shift+Up/Down for octave transposition. Scope matters: M adds a marker globally but mutes a focused track; S splits clips but solos a focused track. Open Help → Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad to inspect the effective scope and bindings. See MIDI & piano roll.

Mouse and scroll gestures

Most gestures live on the timeline. Primary+Scroll zooms around the pointer, from 1 to 1000 pixels per second; the rest are in the table.

Time selections come from Primary+Drag on the timeline background or Shift+Drag on the ruler. Razor edits come from Alt/Option+Drag on the background and show as semi-transparent areas. Preferences shows the current mouse behaviour and the exact modifier overrides in force.

Input profiles

OpenStudio can adopt another DAW's input conventions without changing the project or the audio engine. Keyboard and mouse/scroll behaviour are separate choices, so Cubase-style keys with REAPER-style timeline scrolling is a valid combination.

1. Open Options → Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad (also available in Help).
2. Choose a Keyboard profile.
3. Choose a separate Mouse & scroll profile.
4. Search the action list to see the effective keys and their active scope.

The first-run profile card exposes both selectors too. There are 19 built-in profile families:

A profile maps documented source-DAW conventions onto equivalent OpenStudio actions. It does not claim to reproduce commands OpenStudio has no match for. Most profiles keep the OpenStudio binding where the source defines no override; explicit empty mappings prevent known collisions. Digital Performer, Waveform, and Renoise use a strict policy, so commands without a verified mapping stay unassigned. Esc for closing an active modal is the one deliberate exception and stays bound everywhere.

Every profile is selectable on every platform. When the source DAW is not native to your operating system, the selector labels it as cross-platform emulation. Printed key names are normalised for the current platform, including the Command/Control and Option/Alt distinctions.

Custom keyboard profiles

The Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad window creates named profiles on top of any built-in base. A custom profile can be created, duplicated, renamed, deleted, exported to JSON, and imported again. Custom shortcut editing lives here, not in Preferences, and named profiles currently apply to the keyboard only; mouse overrides are per-gesture settings on the selected mouse base.

For each action you can:

• add more than one key combination;
• create an all-platform binding or a macOS, Windows, Linux, or fallback override;
• intentionally disable the action for the selected target;
• remove an override and inherit the built-in base again;
• review conflicts before an overlapping binding is accepted.

Bindings resolve by scope, so the same key can mean different things in different editors. The scopes are global, Timeline/ruler, track controls, Mixer, Piano Roll, Pitch Editor, automation, browser, plug-in, modal, and contextual surfaces. Text entry and active shortcut capture take precedence, so typing in a field never fires a DAW command.

An imported profile is schema-checked, size-limited, and normalised, and it is rejected if it names unknown actions or unreachable key combinations. Imports land as a copy with a fresh local identity rather than silently overwriting an existing profile.

Printing a cheat sheet

In Help → Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad, click Print to generate a cheat sheet for the current profile and platform. It reflects your custom overrides and unassignments, which the static tables on this page do not.

If a key stops working, check focus first (a focused text field disables shortcuts until you press Esc), then confirm the selected profile, the platform override, and the action's scope in the shortcut window. The full checklist is in Troubleshooting.