switching from PT to Cubase

[chazC]

Yeah, you just have to create a separate FX channel - not really a big issue but it does add a redundant fader to the desk. Can be hidden I know and I know they've done it to avoid the potential feedback loop but really on a pro program you should be able to route however you wish. Minor issue really but still...

[~ufo~]

agreed.

Don't need my pro DAW to hold my pro hand.

[clonewar]

Thanks,


I think it's a nice workflow to replicate in Cubase, if it cant do it on it's own, maybe DTouch can step in to help.
It doesn't need to be triggered by a marker of course, a key command is fine, that's how I launch it.

To me, it only makes sense that if you recall the drum visibility setup, that the plugins you had ope n last time you were on it, also open.
What's the use of quickly being able to show and hide tracks via presets, if you constantly have to manually open and close floating windows?
Not only does the protools way do that, but you can set it to recall track heights, zoom settings etc. It's quite nice.
Especially when you navigate huge sessions.

Steinberg loves them some floating windows! It's been slowly getting better with additions like the new 'lower zone' concept in Cubase 9. I wish Cubase had a proper plugin container window that follows the selected track like Studio One does, with tabs at the top for each plugin. Instead Cubase/Nuendo have the channel editor window, which follows the selected track, but requires you to open every single plugin in its own window.

The good news is that I tested workspaces and they do indeed reopen every window in the same location on the screen as when the workspace was saved, including plugin windows. That'll let you have key commands that will recall a workspace, show specific channels, and go to a marker, with one keystroke, which sounds similar to your PT workflow. (Very good workflow btw, I'm going to experiment with this). The only downside is that DTouch doesn't support workspaces right now because they open and close windows, change window sizes, etc.. But it looks like that restriction will be gone soon and we're going to have a lot more flexibility.

[~ufo~]

That's really cool, thanks a lot for testing that! I'll try workspaces in Cubase, bus it sounds like it'll indeed be a solution for me.

DTouch doesn't actually support it with Pro Tools either.
But since my mix and edit windows don't actually change in size, nor do the width of the 'zones' but it only recalls where the floating windows are, I've had almost zero issues DTouch and Pro Tools in that regard.

I imagine it will be similar for Cubase.

[clonewar]

That's really cool, thanks a lot for testing that! I'll try workspaces in Cubase, bus it sounds like it'll indeed be a solution for me.

DTouch doesn't actually support it with Pro Tools either.
But since my mix and edit windows don't actually change in size, nor do the width of the 'zones' but it only recalls where the floating windows are, I've had almost zero issues DTouch and Pro Tools in that regard.

I imagine it will be similar for Cubase.

No problem, I'm actually interested in this workflow so I've been doing more tests with DTouch.

Recalling a Cubase workspace does mess up the DTouch overlay mixer, Cubase must be doing something to the mixer window to cause the issue. You can hide DT Mix, which hides the DTouch overlay mixer. If you do that first and then recall the workspace it seems to work ok, the plugin windows open where you saved them. You could have DTouch macros to close DT Mix, recall a workspace, visibility config, and marker, and then another macro that would close all plugin windows and restore DT Mix.

Of course this is for the current version of DTouch, from what I understand it won't be a problem at all in future versions.

[~ufo~]

Awesome,

so if Erdogan doesn't end up nuking us, everything should be hunky-dory going forward.

[clonewar]

So much crazy political crap going on.... thank goodness I have music to escape to!!

[MichaelScott]

Yes I too am looking forward to using workspaces within dtouch once that limitation is removed. We are close!

[~ufo~]

Okay, I've got my elicenser, I've got windows and DTouch installed and I'm running a trial of Cubase Pro.

In order to get my workflow working, I'm going to need a few things.

I need to send alternate versions of the mix to a bus and I need several dynamics processors to react to that bus.
In Pro Tools, this is no problem, you just send to a bus and select that bus as the sidechain input on these processors.

I see that Cubase handles this differently and creates a sidechain PER processors as soon as you turn the sidechain on.
The first workaround I can think of is toe create some group channels that listen to my alternative mix bus and redistribute it to these processors. Thing is, I'll have up to 40 of these processors on a big mix. Have you guys any ideas on how to solve this problem more elgantly?

I need to have say: 20 dynamics processors keyed by mix B and twenty processors keyed by mix C.

Then, here comes the kicker: I need the controls of those twenty processors ganged. so that if I tweak one, the others follow suit.
How do I go about doing that?

Thanks a bunch!

[~ufo~]

Okay I found a way to link the plugins. I did before but somehow it didn't work.

But no there are major routing issues I'm running into.

I have a group of about twenty paralel channels (stems). I want to put compressors on there that are keyed from another channe/busl.

In Pro Tools you create a send to a any bus on that one or more channel(s), let's call it "SideChain" and then in the ganged plugins you select that bus as the key input.

In Cubase, however, it seems to work differently, which is admittedly quite handy for simple side chaining, but a appears to be a frigging nightmare for my scenario.

When you turn on the sidechain function of a compressor plugin, it automatically creates a bus for that compressor.
You don't seem to be able to choose an alternative bus for that compressor OR the same bus for all of these processors.
Okay, that sucks in my case. So as a workaround I need to add twenty sends to a group/bus channel? Not possible!
I'll need to make a paralel bus channel that listens to the same bus... Also, not possible! Because for some annoying reason, you cannot assign a different input to a bus/group channel in Cubase either. When you create a bus channel it creates a bus with that name.
So now I need to deal with another bus I need to send the same mix to, just to be able to distribute it to more compressors' sidechains.
And what if I want to change compressors? Yes.. *poof*, gone are all the sends, I'll need to make 20 more. No, manually, they are 20 different sends divided over two channels, there's no linking to help me there... Each time I want to change compressors, I'll need to re-create twenty sends. Great...

This is a messy workaround and I so hate messy workarounds, especially in 2017 in any DAW that suggests it's professional.
Is there an easier way to go about this that I'm missing? Is there not such a thing as a channel in Cubase?
Can I use Tracks on input listen mode for this? Will that work in a bounce?

Here's what I need to do:

twenty group channels need to each send to a bus, called sidechain.
These twenty group channels each output to a following group channel (so twenty more in total) on which there are ganged compressors (one on each).
All of these compressors need to be keyed from that sidechain bus.
How do I set this up (cleanly and elegantly) in Cubase?

I hope someone can point out that I'm missing something.
Thanks!