EXPORT stems problem / groups

Cubase
#1

Hi,
I am having the following problem:

I am working on a sound design project and will have to deliver individual tracks for final mix at another company.
I created subgroups but didnt use the volume automation or group inserts for the following reason:

If i automate the volume of a group but batch export individual tracks later (to deliver stems for the final mix session to remain flexible), the volume change of the group will not be reflected in the export.

The groups will have the automation, but not the individual tracks. So they sound like they have just been routed to stereo out/ main mix.

For example: i route the track “birdcall” into the group “animals” and automate the volume of that group to fade out, the individual track mixdown of the birdcall i get after batch-exporting will not include the fade out.

What is the best way to get around this except for automating the indiviudal tracks? That is not possible due to the amount of tracks…

I want to automate the volume of the groups and have that automation included in the individual tracks i export.

Thanks for any help, i am getting close to delivery day and still havent found a way around this…

THANKS!
David.

#2

Sounds like automating the individual channels is the best solution though it’s not your preferred workflow. But you could simply link all the channels that are routed to the ‘animals’ group, activate write mode and fade them all out at once. Remove the volume automation of the group track of course. This way you’ll have the automation on individual channels and on the group/s too. Dynamic processors on the group track (if you should have some there) may behave different as the fade is pre insert then.

#3

Thanks a lot for the suggestion marQs.

The reason i wanted to avoid automating the individual tracks is that each of their volumes is already automated in pretty complex ways. And the “fade out” was just an example to get my point across, the actual mix is pretty complex with lots of volume changes.

Any other ideas how to include the groups volume automation in the “multiple track” (stem) export?

#4

Do it the old way of soloing desired channels/groups and audio export, laborious and time consuming but works.

#5

Thanks Split, but i am looking at two projects with 50+ tracks each, and maybe i will have to repeat the process, so that isnt really an option…

Unfortunately i am on a mac, otherwise this might help me: http://www.meap.biz/

Any other ideas anyone?

#6

You could create extra group channels one for each audio channel… Then you could copy the fader automation from the real group channel to each ‘dummy’ group channel. This would in effect give you two volume faders for each channel then.

Alternatively you could add a simple plugin with just a volume fader control as a post-fader insert (or the last pre-fader insert) and automate that instead.

You could even petition Steinberg to add a fader trim automation curve like ProTools. This means each fader actually has two fader controls which add together - and you can merge them together into one curve too, it’s a great feature!

Mike.