Cubase Gain Staging vs Metering

Cubase
1

Hi,

I don’t like to have the fader influence on the metering in Cubase (as I don’t think it should) and so set it up to “Input” instead of Post Fader or Post Panner. Now, why does the Input metering doesn’t take the Pre-Gain into consideration ? Isn’t that the whole point of the Pre-Gain ? To turn the Input of that specific track up or down ? I have to go into the plugin or sampler to turn down their respective outputs in order to have that level read on the metering. This has honestly been a pain for me, perhaps not for anybody else, but it seems counter intuitive. In ProTools this option is called "Pre-Fader Metering’ meaning it’s Post insert but Pre-Fader. That seems far more logical. And no, I’m not going back to ProTools. And yes, I know. “Trust your ears” but it’s just super easy for set up a track to see at a glance what volume your feeding it.

2

Can you write out the order in which you want things to occur? For some reason I felt like you said a couple of different things.

3

Sure, here’s a more complete explanation.

Cubase has 3 types of metering as you may know :

Input, Post Fader and Post Panner.

Input metering shows you the level of the audio going into the track, pre-Inserts. That is useful if you want to gain stage before going into your inserts, specifically if they are analog emulations like tape, or analog compressor which tend to have harmonic saturation and/or a “sweet spot” at which they operate best.

The easiest way in Cubase to change the gain of a sound pre-Inserts, is Pre-Gain, which is a very useful feature. My issue being, if you choose Input Metering, it shows you the metering BEFORE the Pre-Gain offset, which leads to having to open the sound source (a synth plugin or a Cubase sampler) to turn down it’s output in order to be able to have a reading on the level.

Even less convenient is the case of an audio track, where you have to manually clip gain the audio in order to be able to have a reading on its level.

All I would like is for Cubase’s Input Metering to be Pre-Inserts BUT post Pre-Gain. Or even better, I’d like the metering to be Post Inserts but Pre-Fader.

My issues is that when I have to turn down a sound that will be in the background like, a synth pad or something similar, with the fader, the metering being Post Fader I am left with a very very low signal, making it very hard to get any kind of information about if a certain insert is making your sound louder or quieter.

So I’d like :

Sound source > Pre-Gain > Inserts > METERING > Fader.

Does this make more sense ?

In the same vein, I find it very annoying that when I mute a track, it’s metering stop showing. It stems from what I consider the same design flaw.

Thank you.

4

I think there’s a feature request thread for that.
Find it.
Bump it.

That makes sense for my workflow. I don’t want to see signal if it’s not feeding my mix. But then I’m always looking at meters post-panner.

5
Making Input Gain Settings

The Pre-Gain slider allows you to change the level of a signal before it reaches the EQ and the effects section. This is useful as the level going into certain effects can change the way the signal is affected. A compressor, for example, can be driven harder by raising the input gain. You can also use gain to boost the level of poorly recorded signals.

Procedure

  1. On the MixConsole toolbar, click Set up Window Layout, and activate Pre to show the Pre section above the fader section.
  2. Drag the Gain slider to the left or to the right to cut or boost the gain.
6

Yes ? I do know that. It doesn’t exactly change the metering question ?