Please help! This is driving me crazy and killing my productivity and creativity

1. I Record an instrument track in Cubase 8.5 with a IK Multimedia sampleMoog or Kontakt keyboard sounds (such as retro machines) or Waves Element synth. Basically any VST keyboard instrument
2. during playback the pitch/key of the midi part changes
3. Resetting Midi in cubase will temporarily solve the problem for one or two playbacks but the pitch change returns again.
4. This can also occur while recording. It doesn't happen with drum tracks, strangely enough.

I'm using Win7 home premium service pack 1.
i7-2600 CPU @3.40 GHZ. 8 GB Ram
Cubase 8.5.

This problem also occurred with Cubase 8 as well.

That's weird. If you have multiple VSTi parts recorded do they all change key? Do they all shift by the same amount?

Great question, I don't believe so, no. Drum parts don't change pitch. I'm going to create a new project and put in a bunch of different VSTi's to test this but I've only ever noticed one track changing.I don't believe it's ever happened to multiple tracks simultaneously

You say that resetting midi resolves the problem temporarily, which makes me wonder if your midi keyboard/controller is perhaps sending some erroneous controller data. Next time the problem happens try turning off your midi keyboard and see if that has an affect.

Ok, The next time the pitch change occurred, I unplugged the keyboard from the audio interface. No change. :-(

I think I remember seeing on some kind of key editor, messages that were sent to the track. Where would I find those?

Thanks for the help so far. It seems, from what I'm gathering that I'm the only person this is happening to. Very strange

I'm just shooting in the dark but I'm still wondering if it's your midi keyboard or perhaps the midi interface in your audio interface. Your drum tracks don't get transposed. Do you use your keyboard to play your drum tracks? Are they perhaps the only tracks that you don't create with your keyboard?

What kind of keyboard and interface are you using?

Oh, and while this isn't a solution you might consider freezing completed midi tracks to prevent this random transposition bug.

I figured that you were probably on the right track and purchased a Nektar Impact iX61 controller. So far so good (except for losing sound from a VSTi until a restart and and the controller not making any sound until I moved the USB cable to a different port). So the verdict is out on the controller itself but I haven't had the pitch changing problem since getting the new controller. I appreciate the help, thanks!