Okay so for the first question however a little before I answer:
I only have cubase LE 4 and Cubase 5 on my computer. I used to have Studio 5 but I upgraded to 5 in November. I doubt that SE has
macros but LE 4 definitely does not and I'm guessing LE 5 doesn't either (macros are different than key commands as they are not just one command but a string of commands). Not really sure if Studio has macros but YOU NEED THEM to perform this action so this might only pertain to full versions of cubase 4-6 (not sure if they had it back in the SX days):
Macros are very useful for work flow stuff though because (for example) with one keystroke you could select all events in a audio track, remove DC offset, normalize and duplicate them all with one stroke (taken directly from the manual).
So lets dive into making a macro that fits what the OP wants to do
AGAIN CUBASE 5 full version ONLY (and possibly studio just see if this button exists at this location):
1. First we need to pull up the same window as mentioned in my previous post but going file/key commands... in cubase 5 (I'm gonna assume this is the same for 4 and 6 as well, I have not upgraded yet).
2. We need to hit the "show macros" button at the bottom of this screen:
Now we need to setup our macro chain of events and assign it to a key that works for you (maybe Z since we told it to fuck off haha):
3. Hit the "show macro" button at the bottom and we now will focus on this screen mostly:
4. Hit the "new macro" button.
5. Name the macro, in the spirit of this thread we will call it ""hated it".
6. Make sure "hated it" is now selected as we will be adding commands to it (needs to be selected/highlighted for adding commands).
7. We need to scroll down to the Transport folder, expand it and scroll down to the "stop" command.
8. Now with both the "stop" command and "hated it" selected hit the add command button. If you do it right you should have it look like this (in succession):
9. Now we need the next command which will be "delete" (undo can't be used as a macro command and since the event is automatically selected after we stop recording delete will work fine). And easy and quick way to find it is to search for it at the top like so:
10. With undo selected hit "add command" button again. You will see it add to the chain you want.
11. Next we add another stop command (to return playhead to previous position):
12. Now we just need to add a final record command and we have our macro!
It looks like this:
Now to assign this macro to Z (what I plan to do):
1. Hide macros (just to make life easier)
2. Collapse the transport folder if it's still expanded.
3. Expand the macro folder:
4. Type in "Z" in the type in key box.
5. Hit the assign button directly above it.
If you did it right it will look like so:
Now hitting Z twice (once to stop) does what you want, or hitting the space once and then z does it as well.
Let me know if there are any questions.