This tool creates gif with little data usage
https://www.cockos.com/licecap/
Bumping
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What if you could some key combo like command + option then click on any parameter to show automation lane?
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Found this thread via a google search and I wanted to add to it in case anyone else googles the same thing because I found out how to do it. It’s not exactly quick but it’s exactly what op is asking about.
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Click “show automation” in the lower left of the inst/audio track
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Click the parameter window. A bunch of options with appear in a drop down menu. Click “More” at the bottom.
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A new window should appear w Volume, Mute, etc. The third arrow down is “Ins.” These are your inserts. Click the arrow and you should see all your inserts on the selected track.
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select the parameter you’d like to automate and Cubase sets up the lane in the automation track.
Hi, this is what I would like to avoid, its too much menu diving to get an automation lane, plus can be difficult to figure out which param name goes to what on the plugin UI, especially on plugins with lots of parameters
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Gently bumping this issue <3 I recently had to work with Ableton Live for a project, and oh boy was automation easy there! I love Cubase and it’s definitely my DAW of choice, but setting up automation lanes really shouldn’t be as fiddly as it is now (C14 Pro).
By now it’s pretty clear that most major plug-in vendors like iZotope, UAD etc. don’t want to implement the VST3 format’s right-click feature, so maybe some other solution would be good at this point.
I think stux_io has a nice idea of a key combo – command+option+click on a parameter to show automation lane.
thinking of switching to Cubase as my main daw from Pro Tools, solely because of the bounce to disk features that Cubase offers ( I want the option to bounce stems with a limiter on all stems and have that limiter reacting as if all stems are hitting it and apply that limiting to the single stem). As of right now, I’m making music in pro tools, then doing tedious bouncing of tracks into stems with stereo eq and trim automation on them just so I can bring it into cubase so I can also bounce a set of stems with a properly behaved limiter on those stems as well.
But to switch to cubase from pro tools in terms of making music, the automation parameter problem that everyone is talking about in this thread is one of my main sticking points keeping me from switching. I will really miss the ease of automation editing in Pro Tools. If you do it the right way with keyboard shortcuts methods, etc. , I feel pro tools is really the easiest daw for editing automation (bold claim I know but to each their own, and just to be clear I used ableton for a long time too and I still feel this way).
Anyway, the reason im posting all this is because I am a guy who really values easy workflow. I have been messing around with cubase this morning to decide if I want to switch over from Pro Tools so I am able to have a simple all in one daw process and incorporate this new stem printing process that I would like to have available whenever I need it.
Below is what I think is the easiest way to make an automation lane in cubase. Someone else (I think it was stux io) mentioned it above too and I am just essentially agreeing with them and giving my own perspective in case it helps anyone trying to improve their automation editing workflow in cubase. it is essentially a one-press macro, a mouse move, followed by another one-press macro
I think you need to go to “transport” menu and check “return to start position on stop” in order for this to work right, or change the macro accordingly if you dont want to have that as part of your workflow
Macro 1:
turn on write mode
press play
mouse movement:
click on and move the parameter you want an automation lane for
Macro 2:
press stop (parameter should now return to where it was initially because of “return to start position on stop” is checked. Edit this macro accordingly if needed)
close plugin window using “edit instrument” shortcut
undo the automation you wrote
open plugin window up using “edit instrument” shortcut (this last step is optional depending on personal preference of whether or not you want the instrument window to still be up or not).
so if you think about it: you are pressing a key, wiggling a parameter, and pressing another key, and by doing those three things, you have created an automation lane for the parameter you want to edit and the parameter is at the same spot it was before you did all of the selections of the parameter.
Sure,it’s a little more cumbersome than pro tools, but I think almost as easy and quick as pro Tools!
now you have a lane and the parameter is in the same spot where it was before you did any of the macro and mouse wiggling stuff
so if you think about what I just described above, you can make macros and what not and essentially it is almost as good as pro tools. A little f’d up for sure, but I can see myself getting pretty quick at this.
That begin said, I might delete all this if I am missing a glaring mistake. just wanted to post it right now becasue it helps me work through how to make this all work as fast as possible. Also maybe if I am wrong about something at least some of this might help other people look in to macros and what they can do for your workflow
edoubleu; Sorry to derail… I wouldn’t know how to automatically achieve your stemming idea in Cubase. To me, the only way to do this is by sidechaining the actual (previously exported) summed output into all your buss processing. (is there a limiter that allows sidechain? dunno)
The Cubase export option does include the buss processing, but this doesn’t mean that it’s ‘responding’ to the entire mix when stemming.
I’d be SO happy to be proven wrong here though. Let me know what I’m missing.
oh dang! you are so right. I don’t know why, but when I saw the whole stemming options menu in Cubase, I automatically assumed it was set up that way to do what I was hoping it was doing haha. But I am wrong for sure. Cubase should totally make this as an option with this crazy setup they already have going for them, I am quite sure its possible (see my theories about why it is possible at the end of this post).
So to prove I am wrong and you are unfortunately right, I just a put a kick and a saw wave into a mix bus with a heavy compressor on it and bounced the stems with the “+master/group/sends” checked and you are totally right. What a bummer! I totally misunderstood what that setting was for. I feel dumb for not experimenting earlier haha. I’ll go back to my original post and point out it was wrong, thanks for catching that! I have used cubase in the past but Im definitely no expert
I have been having a good time so far with cubase today so I’ll probably still end up dabbling in it anyway, and that will also partly be because of the stereo sidechain capabilities that pro tools lacks. what you mentioned in your post about sidechaining might not be possible in pro tools but I think it is in cubase ( I think, again im no expert here)
your question “is there a limiter that allows sidechain? dunno”.
- Fabfilter Pro-L2?
so I think we are both looking to achieve the same thing. I have had discussions online about this in the past and many online people told me we shouldn’t really be looking to do what we are looking to do and it’s pointless, but I don’t care haha. I want to make a stem folder that is: raw stems, stems with stereo bus EQ and Trim automation on it, and stems with stereo bus eq and trim AND any compression/limiter being applied in the way we want it to be applied to each stem. of course for these three sets of stems to work without trouble you can only have compression after eq on stereo bus but that is how I tend to work anyway so im lucky haha. maybe for one customer I only send one of the folders of stems. For another all three. for another only two of them.
So anyway, the reason I want all three sets of stems is to have all options available to customer. Let’s say they like my version with the limiter, but an editor wants to cut up one of the stems and take out 2 bars and duplicate another two to replace a section of only one of the stems. and also maybe they don’t, but they want to be able to do it on the fly and they aren’t interested in needing to come back to me to make such a simple change. So nice, I give them limited stems and all they have to do is cut the stem and make sure their fades are nice. And sure, maybe that edited stem is reacting to the limiter “unproperly” but Id be willing to bet its probably just fine haha, and if its not, just come to me at that point, or if they have the ability to cut and paste they can probably figure out something that works within that stem, especially if its loop based stuff. or they can just go into the un - limited folder and pull from those stems. or the raw stems. See what Im getting at? Its flexibility that is very easy to explain to the customer. now if they still do come back to me to make the change myself, I will have the benefit of hearing exactly what they want to do and they will have the benefit of making decisions about that change in the track’s “final mixing form”. But regardless of all that, it probably will work just perfectly fine, and that way they can make the change and not worry about applying their own limiter. also, id rather have them use my limiter settings, not whatever they think is good haha.
Now look, I am only semi professional and that professionalism was years in the past, so I would love to hear anyones thoughts on this because the professional work I did in the past didn’t require stems very often so I dont have very much experience with them and that is the whole reason I am here in this forum ( meaning I am only in this forum becasue I am thinking about switching to cubase for stems but the automation thing sucks and is holding me back). to argue against myself and the need for properly limited stems, I understand a world where you would say to me “dude, it’s 3 dB on a limiter. Anyone could do that”. But I dont know how true that is in all walks of the industry. You know what I mean? Also, in the end, regardless of how needed it is professionally, I just want really to have the capability of being able to do this haha.
So now back to what you were asking Kearly, I believe Fabfilter Pro-L2 has sidechain and also they added it to Pro -L when pro -L2 came out. So here is what I think we would want to do and please let me know if I am wrong:what we would want to do is:
•Put a send on every track and send it to the sidechain of the limiter
•Enable the sidechain in the limiter
•bounce the stem of the track you are looking to make a stem of
havent had a chance to test all this out yet but I am thinking that is doable in a few clicks to make all the stems if you use sends? Maybe im missing something. on a side note, I am not sure if this is even possible in pro tools becasue their sidechain is mono only and then you are getting into dual mono and making decision about how the stereo field is being treated within the limiter and at this point its way too advanced so im out haha
okay so update after I been messing around. Apparently you cant add “undo” to a macro.
but I made the macros without the undo and have tested it a little.
I hit keyboard key to activate first macro. (" Automation -write all automation for tracks on/off" → “Transport - Start”)
I wiggle the knob/slider I want to automate
I hit a keyboard key to activate second macro (“Transport - Stop” → “Automation -write all automation for tracks on/off” )
I hit command z to undo the wiggling I did.
*make sure you have “return to start position on stop” checked in the “transport” menu, otherwise adjust your macro accordingly.
I mean in all honesty, it’s almost just as fast as pro tools even with the undo you have to do manually. Pro tools still wins here though in terms of speed, but if anyone looking for a fast way of adding an automation parameter in cubase this method is pretty dang fast! Im digging it
This whole assumption that Cubase can bounce stems with the limiter reacting to the whole mix is wrong as pointed out by Kearly, apologies for any confusion !!!
Sorry to continue 2 topics in one thread hah. I wouldn’t bother with sending from every channel… I’d just have a track containing my final mix, previously exported. Tho your method would allow you to change your mix on the fly, which is slick.
I had a similar conversation with someone a while and I kind of decided this whole thing didn’t matter for my workflow.
But I do appreciate the idea of having stems that sound exactly like my mix should sound.
Precisely.
I can’t believe this functionality is absent from Cubase. From what I’ve recently read in other forums, it seems Steinberg is digging in their heels on this one - who knows why. The fastest way to open up a specific parameter lane otherwise is to activate Write, then move a parameter controller (knob, slider, button) during playback.
I’m now looking into deciphering the Automation Panel (F6) and how that could figure into a more streamlined workflow, but the design is unintuitive and seems a bit archaic.
Awesome it finally got implemented!!!
If you activate Show at Top, the last touched automation parameter is shown at top of the automation track list.
Thank you!!!