I’m mixing a song. I would like to group edit the whole set of drum tracks so they follow the project’s tempo.
I didn’t record these tracks, so I don’t really know how they were produced, but when I click the group editing button, Cubase pops a message saying:
“The tracks in this folder are not completely in sync
Group editing could fail”
And indeed, group editing doesn´t work. When I select an event, Cubase does not select all the events on the folder. So the quantize panel doesn’t quantize the events properly. It’s a mess.
So here is my question: If the tracks are not fully in sync, How do I make them sync?
I don´t care if these were recorded or exported from a virtual drumkit, I need them in sync so that I can quantize all of the drum tracks using Group Editing and the Quantize panel.
I´ve tried bouncing them and still,they aren’t in sync.
What defines the “sync” status tracks within a folder? Can you recreate that through editing or processing?
Start and end times must be the same. So trim the events in the folder to have the same start and end times, and group edit will work.
Note that there’s a bug when working with events on different lanes. You must have lanes expanded on all the tracks in the folder - otherwise group editing will fail on the tracks with collapsed lanes.
It’s such a shame because group editing with lanes would make it so easy to perform take selection for multitrack drums. I guess I have to keep pushing drummers to record perfect takes LOL
You can still use group editing, just gotta be vigilant to expand all the lanes in the folder you’re working on. In another thread about this bug I posted some screengrabs of PLE commands you can use to make opening/closing lanes on multiple tracks easier.
Make sure to cut the events with the Scissor Tool… When you then choose the different takes/lanes, the same selection WILL be selected on all tracks (If you have the Group Edit button enabled that is).
DON’T try to use the Comp Tool for multitrack Group Editing…
That said… I find it easier to use Track Versions when tracking drums (especially to a click track)… and simply copy/move from Track Version X or Y to a master track version (Range Tool > select range > Copy > select target track version > paste - without moving the selected range).
Wow, you’re spot on, the scissor tool and subsequent selections do group properly with some lanes closed. Mute tool works too. So it just seems to be the comp tool and moving parts vertically up/down lanes which are broken.
Wow although group editing might be “workable” with the PLE and other recommendations you provided, I think Track Versions might be the better solution here. This is such a clever approach! Thank you!
For multimiced/tracked drums (and everything with many mics on the same source), I have found the Track Versions to work the best…
For vocal and other single miced sources, I will go for the Lanes way of doing it.
PS. The Lanes function in Cubase is the best out there… as it always has a “Master Track”. Especially useful when working section by section.
Try that in S1 (Layers), and you happen to loose your selection when working at another place in the song - a pain in the butt when working in sections, and works properly only when all recording is done prior to editing/comping IMO
We have been, or used to (gave up), telling to Steinberg since the day the Lanes feature showed up in Cubase that the Comp Tool didn’t work across multiple tracks… Nobody listened…
But I found that the event/take selection were working across multiple tracks when using the Scissor Tool to split the events, by mocking about in frustration.
It’s a mystery that Steinberg has not fixed this yet (and probably ever will)… I even got banned back then. That’s how hard I tried to argument
Fair enough. For me, the workflow benefits of using the comp tool with lanes (being able to see the waveforms and transients of all the takes; the ability to quickly listen through a stack of takes on one section using the “b” key [transport - locate previous event] to jump back to the start of the section while using the comp tool to select the next take) still outweigh the inconvenience, visual sprawl, and risk, of remembering to expand all lanes in a folder when editing
