Can Someone explain VCA faders to me please?

What I do now:

  1. 4 drum tracks. Each routed to a Group called Drum Master.
  2. Each of those drum tracks is also sent to a Group with a reverb.
  • And that Reverb Group is routed to the Drum Master Group also.

So, what I do when I want the drums louder or softer, and the reverb to change with it, I just use the fader on the Drum Master Group.

Is the VCA fader track functionally any different from my Drum Master group track for these purposes?

  • I know there are advantages with automation to the VCA fader over the way I have things now, but I’m just trying to figure out this part first.

Thanks!

Get away from this idea that VCAs equate to Group Channel’s. They don’t. VCAs are closely related to channel linking.

Group Channels are a completely different tool to VCAs, and the two will live quite happily together.

But to address your question directly… You are assuming that your reverb here is dedicated only to sources within the Group Channel. Let’s imagine you add a percussion track - you may not want that grouped in ‘Drums’, but you may want it to share the same reverb. There is also a subtle difference between lowering the input to a reverb versus lowering the output of a reverb, but other than that you can do as you suggest - it’s just that channel linking, or VCAs will do a similar job with simpler routing.

Plus VCA-linked (and channel-linked) channels need not be routed to the same Group Channel - this is a significant advantage. Now you can alter your ‘drums plus percussion’ VCA and hear them both change along with their reverb level simultaneously.

Well I actually appreciate there is a lot of difference between them (including how automation can be more flexibly manipulated with VCAs than groups), I was just wondering if in this specific scenario they behave the same, thanks for your reply!

Thanks for pointing this out, I hadn’t thought of that advantage!

It may - if you use sends, because in this case the relative levels are maintained, which is something groups can’t do for you.

In fact this is the main reason why I like to work with VCAs much more than with group channels.

Drums were always a BIG (!) problem in this regard, which is now forever solved.

Unless I’m mistaken, groups can do this also:

Drum 1 routed to Drum Sub-Master Group, and with a send to a verb.
Drum 2 also routed to Drum Sub-Master Group, sent to same verb.
Drum 3-8 the same as Drum 1 and 2.

The Verb channel is in turn also routed to Drum Sub-Master Group.

So now, adjusting the fader on the Drum Sub-Master Group - doesn’t it adjust the individual drum levels and their verbs “proportionally”, in the same way the VCA fader would?

Would love to understand if that’s not the case - thanks!

Yes, but a) this is far more complicated and b) you can’t reuse the reverb for anything outside that elaborate routing - and c) you can’t use that trick if you like to have snare drum and vocals on the same reverb effect (which is the inverse of b), to be honest).

VCA made things a lot simpler.

This is, btw, how I worked before Steinberg blessed us with VCA.

In addition to that there is a difference when reducing the send to a verb vs just turning down the output of the verb.

Simply…Cubase 8 doesn´t have VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifyer) or nothing that works similar to them.
So called “VCA faders” are NOT VCA Master faders as technitians worldwide know. And it´s a dragg. One of the main beneffits of working with VCA instead of groups is that you can controll one channel fader with several VCA Master Faders so you could work, for example, with all the drumkit in one VCA Master and also the KickDrum and the bassguitar in a diferent VCA Master.
You can´t do this in so called Cubase 8 “pro” VCA faders. Their are just grouping Faders with the ability to unlink the group if you touch the fader. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: I just updated my Cubase thinking that it was not a joke…
I´ve been working with cubase since VST24 (1998), and many times defended it in the typical ProTool-Cubase-Logic discussions. In this time I say Steinberg you are wrong!!! You are confusing people!!! If you want to get pro you can´t call pear to the apple

Because they work directly on the individual channel faders, they are a real workflow boost in terms of making noncommital mass automation changes directly on said individual tracks. This was mentioned previously by Loststereo. The VCA automation results in a delta automation which can either be discarded, or combined with the existing automation, totally different than using a group or group link.

I love them! I use them all the time and they save tons of time… Work as expected and wouldn’t go back… I hated having to link all my drums and then fix the sends… No more of that! :slight_smile:

But you never had to do that. Channel linking worked in exactly the same way as VCAs and didn’t require you to ‘fix the sends’.

I suspect that you’re talking about sending your drums to a Group channel aren’t you? Groups are completely different to VCAs/channel linking and are still very useful in addition to linking/VCAs, not instead of.