I have multiple, 14 mic drum sessions, being sent to me for the same song. Is there away to combine them into a single set of 14 instrument tracks so they can be comp’d? Thanks. (Cubase 14 Pro)
Miguel,
Route all your tracks to a group track (stereo) and name it ‘Drums Buss’. Insert a compressor of your choice into insert 1. Personally I use an API 2500 compressor, but Cubase’s Compressor can do a great job. I usually use a 2:1 ratio with a 10ms attack and .2ms release. I adjust the threshold to get about 1-2dB of gain reduction.
This compressor is used to glue the whole drum set together.
Personally I would work like this:
All kicks routed to a Kicks group
EQ and compress individually if needed and balance.
Use whatever processing you want at this level.
All snares routed to a Snares group
EQ and compress individually if needed and balance.
Use whatever processing you want at this level.
Toms, Hihat, Cymbals, Room, Overheads routed to Drums group
EQ and compress individually if needed and balance.
Use any processing you want at this level.
Route Kicks, Snares and Drums groups to DRUMS Buss group
It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
All sound advice but I may have written my question wrong. I am looking to “comp” not compress similar tracks as if I had recorded mutliple drum takes, 14 tracks into cubase. Instead the tracks are being sent to me. The drummer is recording multiple versions for one song. I want to load them all together, 4 kicks on track 1, 4 snares track2 etc, then have them appear as takes in Cubase, allowing me to use Cubase Comping to select the best segments across all takes making one version.
Sorry for any confusion as you shared some good info, though unrelated to my dilemma. Thanks.
I understand. I interpreted ‘Comp’D’ as ‘Compressed’.
I have a little difficulty in understanding what you want to do. I have often had to import tracks into Cubase and the procedure has always seemed simple to me. You create an empty file or use a Template previously organized according to your needs. Drag the WAV files or others from the folder containing them in the file window. Cubase may call you depending on the format determined in Cubase and those of your files.
The number of Kicks, snares or other tracks does not matter. Cubase will create an audio track for each imported track. However, you will have to organize your tracks in the file to be able to work at your convenience.
In some cases, I had up to 4 versions or more of the same score. Either I used one that suited or created a new track from the available versions.
It’s hard work. It takes time, there are no shortcuts if you’re looking for ‘perfection’… so much the better.
Thanks. If I understand, if I record, for example, a guitar track and then I record a second take on the same track, I can open that one track and and see the two recordings. I can then urilize the comping tool to pick the best parts of both takes. However, if I have multiple tracks / takes recorded outside of Cubase and are separate wav files, I can not import them as a takes to a single track. Is that correct? So, I can only do comping if tracks are recorded in cubase as takes?
Yes Cubase assumes each file should be on its own unique Track.
No. It’s easier in Cubase because you are repeatedly recording on the same Track, so it will put each Take on it’s own Lane as it gets recorded. But that doesn’t mean you can’t put each of your imported Tracks onto a Lane. But it does take a bit of work.
Once you have each drum take on its own Track, expand the Lanes on the 1st Track. You should see the Track’s Audio on the 1st Lane & the 2nd Lane should be empty. Drag the Audio on Track 2 onto Track 1, Lane 2. This should create a new empty Lane 3. Drage Track 3’s Audio onto Lane 3. Repeat until all your Audio has been moved onto the Lanes.
Alternatively you could Import your Drum Takes into the Pool and drag the files from there onto the Lanes & skip the intermediate Tracks.
Aahhh, thank you. So once lane one of each of my 14 instrument tracks consists of all the 14 indivdual drum mic’d tracks , I then put take two on the second lanes of the same 14 tracks and so on… then I can use the comping tool. I will try this tomorrow morning.