(caveat; I’m on Nuendo and functionally VCAs are somewhat different unless that’s changed)
The actual bug(s) that have been discovered on both Nuendo and Cubase seem to happen when the controlled tracks don’t have an automation point on them. So there is really no “how” does that solve the problem, it just does as far as I know. Using that automation point means the bug goes away.
The workaround for having automation points is to use different automation modes on the controlled tracks to make them behave a bit more like they normally would. So if you have a VCA controlling a set of tracks that are for drums for example then you could place those tracks into an automation mode that allows you to move the faders freely - for example placing them in “latch” and then set the fill option to “start” and “end”, and then lock those in the automation window (or you do it on the respective drum tracks I suppose).
I think Fredo may have posted another way of doing it somewhere else…
Agreed, once one automation point is set, the problem goes away, and then it’s a matter of different ways of working with automation (the techinque of it)
What’s unfortunate with this issue, a little pity (and I’m still not sure that it’s really a VCA bug, in how VCA is designed that is) is that it’s the simplest use case that is affected. One who just needs to establish a rough static mix between some faders and then use a VCA to move them all relatively, but wants to still retain the option to make small adjustments very easily to each fader at any time to refine the balance. All would work fine up to this point. But the moment they decide to write some automation to the VCA fader… That’s the case where one will be surprised upon reopening the project at a different playback position than the last time.
If one uses automation from the very beginning for all tracks involved with the VCA fader, they wouldn’t even know what we are talking about here, they would have never encountered it.
it’s different from how it works in PT. you have to open the automation panel, enable trim, enable write, that’s soo many steps, not what i need. in PT you just draw points in the trim automation lane, and still can move the fader freely
Relate to this Bug, which won’t be fixed in the future to keep it’s feature (creating an automation line for each track, we can also delete VCA track and send all automation to those track easily), I wish to have a new feature in next Cubase: Traditional DCA track.
Just like a common digital mixer, a traditional DCA track won’t affect the track fader physically. It may not contain automation line for each linked track, but it give us an option to keep it work as the old days.
I remember there was a time the VCA track worked really well and simple. Still want to make it.
All the other solutions are still “workaround”.
A “DCA” is really just a “VCA” in the digital domain though, right? So really I think that the DCA you’re looking for is the VCA implementation in Nuendo… right?
Please note that I mean a “Traditional DCA/VCA”, I am working on both Live sound and Studio, and I see that this bug appear since VCA has the new feature “automation line for each linked track”. My suggest is just a name to separate them.
Even in my current console, there is also an option to keep the track’s fader un-changed, and it’s called “use Traditional DCA”. Then I can change that DCA while keeping the linked track’s fader at their original position.
In a Console we don’t use automation node, I think this is why this bug never appears.
Hope you understand.
Hi Matias
I don’t focus on how different compare to Protools cause I am a big fan of Cubase.
Depend on the bug (or not a bug as we have a solution that works), I just wish for a new (but old) feature if possible.
The different from Traditional DCA/VCA and the current VCA track we got:
The Traditional DCA (or old style of VCA which I believe it was on some very first Cubase Version) change the Volume of all Assigned/Linked tracks, without changing their faders.
The Current VCA from Cubase 12 (I think since Cubase Pro 7.5 or 8), VCA Track will also change the Fader of every linked track. It will also create an automation line if we add some automation node to the VCA track. And this is where the issue happen. I believe you still need to add a node to every linked track when using VCA in Protools.
As you mentioned, I agree that auto-latch automation write is truly a good solution, at least to me.
i was thinking of using this workaround, but you can’t move the fader if transport is in stop. definitely not what i’m looking for. moreover if you have inserts in the track, every parameter that you touch will create a new automation lane
