Audio track - copy as independent track

cubase 5: i record a mono audio track using an external microphone–no problem.

then i make a copy of the track. i have done this in several ways: 1) alt+drag, 2) right-click and select duplicate track, and 3) ctrl+c then ctrl+v in a new track. in each case a “new” track appears in the project window. again, no problem.

however, now when i apply an effect to any of the tracks (original or copies), the effect automatically gets applied to all of the tracks. in other words, the copied tracks are for some reason not being treated as separate tracks but are combined/bundled behind the scenes somehow. in the project window they look like separate tracks but a change to any one of them affects all of the others.

please, can someone tell me how to make an exact copy of an audio track that i can tweak independently of the original?

Preferences → Editing ( probably) → “on processing shared clips”
Check the options

worked; thank you.

it is under the editing > audio section.