I use the latest version of Cubasis to play backing tracks for our live shows. Usually between 5 and 10 audio (WAV) files/tracks, just playing back in parallel, along with a small number of MIDI tracks to trigger external gear.
These WAV files are group stems that I export out of Cubase. As we refine our tracks, I need to often replace these WAV files in Cubasis, and I’m looking for the easiest (supported/recommended) way to do so. The files remain the same length, nothing in the Cubasis project changes, I simply want to replace the underlying WAV files that are playing back.
Right now, I transfer those files via iCloud to my iPad, erase the audio events in my Cubasis project, and then use the import functionality in Cubasis to load in the new WAV files.
This is really tedious, and I’d much rather be able to just replace those WAV files with refreshed versions wherever Cubase references them for playback. Much easier.
I also had instances where Cubasis (or, I guess the media bay inside of it) got confused somehow, and started either continuing to reference old files (I had to completely erase the Cubasis project and start from scratch to deal with that), or it started making copies of the WAV files with (1) appended to the file name, which I guess meant it kept the old ones around, and I don’t want that.
Surely there’s an easy way to simply replace WAV files that … just works?
Ah, good to know that I’m not missing anything. I’d love for this to be added in a future update though, so I’ll add the feature-request tag, since this is not an unusual use case.
What is your recommended way of doing this using existing Cubasis functionality? Erase existing audio events, and then import the new WAV files? Do I need to do anything (like cleaning out the “trash” etc.) to make sure Cubasis doesn’t get confused when trying to import files with the same name?
Hi @LSlowak, I’m trying to make this as least cumbersome as possible, so here’s how I do this:
(1) Erase all audio events in my project. In theory, those erased WAV files should now end up in the Cubasis Trash folder, but they don’t!
(2) However, when I load up a different project, and then load the original project again, those deleted WAV files show up in the Trash folder. So that seems to be a bug. Either way, I delete those files then by emptying the Trash.
(3) I now import the replacement WAV files into the Media Bay (which apparently just copies them into the My Audio folder), and make new audio events with these WAV files in my project.
(4) Lastly, I erase those imported WAV files from the My Audio folder (since they seem to be copied into the Audio folder of the relevant Cubasis Project when you incorporate them as audio events into your project.
This seems to work, and it avoids me having to duplicate the project. Is this an appropriate way of doing this?
So, there seems to be a bug (see step 1), and the whole procedure is really cumbersome. I’ve never really understood why Cubasis just doesn’t reference WAV files wherever they are, and instead introduces the concept of the Media Bay, which just seems like an unnecessary, confusing middle layer that doesn’t really add much value.
I would love to either have functionality built in for Cubasis to be able to replace WAV files with one click, or at least have a supported workaround. For example, could I just replace the WAV files in the Audio folder of the Cubasis project with refreshed ones?
Below please find some feedback from our engineering.
Best,
Lars
The manual workflow for replacing audio events by deleting the old and adding new ones sounds indeed cumbersome. A workaround would be to replace the wav files via the iOS Files app:
Quit Cubasis
Open the iOS Files app and locate the folder: On My iPad/Cubasis 3/Projects/YourProjectName/Audio
Note the original file names and be sure to name your new files exactly the same.
Optional: Backup all the existing audio files just to be on the safe side. For example, select all of them, long tap, tap Compress, keep the resulting zip file and delete the wav files.
Copy your new wav files (with the right names) to your project’s Audio folder.
Open Cubasis, open your project, and your new files should be there.
If your new files don’t have the same length as your old files, you may need to touch each audio event’s lower right handle and move it to the right, so that the event length matches the audio file length.
A few comments regarding your previous workflow:
ad (1) This is not a bug, Cubasis keeps deleted audio files in the Audio folder in case you use undo. Only when you close the project, will it move deleted audio files to the Trash.
ad (3) Instead of importing to the MediaBay’s “My Audio Files” folder, you could open the Files app (on top of Cubasis, by swiping up the dock from the bottom) and drag & drop your audio file directly onto a track.
I’m secretly hoping that a more streamlined ability to replace WAV files will make an appearance in a future version of Cubasis, but for now, I appreciate the help with these workarounds
