Homebase for Sonar users

Cubase
#191

Hi guys,
this time I would like to know how I can get a quick way of working starting a mixdown; I usually saved track templates in Sonar… for this…

My scenario is:

while mixing a new CD, the first thing I mix is the drums (maybe 14 channels or so)…
I used to set up the drums tracks for an initial mixing, including levels, fx etc. as well as bussing (I like to route for example the snares to a snare bus, the toms to a tom bus etc.) and all the buses usually are routed to another bus that I call DRUMS that is routed to a final Master bus.

In Sonar I usually set up everything for the FIRST song, and then I am used to SAVE a Track Template which stores all those settings (including buses), so I can use the same setting (as starting point) for the other songs… (keep in mind that usually the drums are recorded in a couple of days in the same studio, so the drums tracks are more or less similar for each song).

In Sonar, I load the track template that I previously saved and everything works fine (the only thing I need to do is to MOVE the various drum clips inside the “correct” tracks that are created loading the track template… )

Now in Cubase I am not able to find a similar solution… I tried with the Track Presets, but it seems NOT to save the buses as well.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,

Giorgio

#192

Hi, ed. Just updated to halion 3.1 and I’m getting the “halion presets are missing” dialog. I installed both the library and the content.
Thanks. Loving cb!

#193

Hey, Mark. I have a similar question. In Sonar we can check input levels by switching track meters to Record meters. Then, with the track armed for recording, we wouldn’t have to look somewhere else to see the input levels.

There don’t seem to be any Record meter options in Cubase 9.5. Is that right? So, we have to look at the Input bus levels in the Mix Console to to check the record levels. Is that how it works? If so, lame.

#194

File -> Save as Template

When you start CB -> look under New Project -> ‘More’ and your template should be there

#195

You downloaded the update for the wrong version of Halion Sonic.
Take a look here: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=250&t=132106

#196

Greetings.
Another Sonar Refugee seeks a new DAW in Cubase.

In Sonar I have always had a custom startup template so that when I start Sonar it is immediately ready for me to record whatever fleeting ideas I might wish to capture.

I am struggling to accomplish this same thing in Cubase. I have searched the Internet, searched the Manual, and searched this Forum; all without success. So now I am here seeking assistance from you kind folks.

I have created and saved a nice custom template in Cubase, but:

  1. I can’t figure out how to make it the default startup template.

  2. Whenever I start Cubase and open my new custom template, all of my routings are gone for all of my interface inputs & outputs, and I have to reassign them all over again.

  3. Whenever I start Cubase and open my new custom template, everything that I had set up on my screen (window placements, locations & sizes) are all gone, and it has returned to some pathetic little window that is absolutely un-workable, and I have to set up everything all over again.

Surely there must be a way to accomplish what I wish to do with Cubase.

Thank you in advance for any and all assistance you might provide - your help is greatly appreciated.

#197

Thanks for your answer, but this way is not so good in my case:

the templates creates NEW empty songs.

Imagine that I have some different songs in which I recorded drums tracks and, after mixing the first song, I would like to use the same settings for the drums (incuding the group and fx channels) for the other songs.

Loading a new template should be fine, but then I have the problem to transfer all the tracks inside it and this goes to further different problems and complications.

The best thing is to let Cubase to save the console setting for some channels so I can use the same setting for aonther song… and this is already there BUT this procedure does NOT include gruop channels, fx channels and in/out settings …

Any other suggestion?

Thank you,

Giorgio

#198

I have two related questions I can’t figure out.

  1. I draw a continuous controller in the Editor window on a midi track (e.g. Volume). The Toolbar in the Editor window doesn’t give me an option to draw straight lines, which means the controller graph looks like a mountain range. How can I draw a straight, gradually ascending or descending line? The Toolbar in the Project window does give that option, but not the one in the Editor window.
  2. I’ve drawn the controller. Now, with Extracting Midi Automation (Midi->Functions) I should be able to make the controller appear in a separate lane in the project window. I do that, I see the controller disappear from the graph in the Project window, but where did it go? When I click Show Lanes of the track in question it’s not there.
#199

Anyone: Is there a way to change a Cubase track meter to “record meter” as it functions in Sonar? It seems like in Cubase, a track meter becomes an input meter only when the track monitor button is engaged. In Sonar, the track meter becomes a recording level input meter when the track is armed to record, regardless of the monitor button (in Sonar’s case, it’s called the Input Echo button). I always monitor audio signals to record through my hardware mixer, and so I want that Cubase track monitor button turned off. It seems that the only way I have to check the recording levels is to view the input channel meters in the MixConsole. Is that correct?

It would be a nice feature for Cubase to add recording input levels to individual tracks, regardless of the monitor button.

#200

In Cubase you monitor your input on the input channels and that is the only way. I know it’s a bit difference in Sonar as Sonar doesn’t have dedicated input tracks. But for better or worse, depending how you look at it, Cubase uses Input tracks which should be used to monitor incoming signals.

#201

For whom is interested:

answering my own question regarding:

loading into a project a channel structure including routing, groups fx etc. I found a solution:

1: select the tracks (including groups and fx) that you want to take as starting point into a different song
2: File > Export > Selected Tracks (before this DELETE all recordings in those tracks - remember, DON’T save the song now!!!) .
3: inside the new project File > Import > Track archive…

Voilà…

#202

Brilliant!

Thanks so much for finding this, and much appreciated you posting the solution.

#203

Any ideas on this?

#204

Hi gForceDude54,

Sorry, haven’t found a way to do that yet either. I’ll be keeping an eye out on this thread for an answer though.

Cheers from SF

#205
  1. Have you looked into workspaces yet? This is a good video to explain it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkLrlMxGGyA

If you Add the Workspace as a Project Workspace, then ‘Save as Template’ the layout should get saved with the template.

#206

Thank you for this. It is a possible/potential solution to my item #3 above. I will give this a try perhaps tomorrow. For now I am just too frustrated with Cubase, and have been spending my time investigating other DAW solutions (Studio One & Reaper). It seems that Cubase is just so very UN-intuitive, and so verrrrry UN-productive, that it just may not be workable for me.
It just seems so unbelievable that what I want to do is not possible. Do all Cubase Users spend the first 10 minutes setting everything up (AGAIN!), every time they use this program ?!?
That certainly will not work for me.

Thank you for your assistance ericyeoman !

#207

UPDATE to my original post (shown here below):

  1. No change, no success.

  2. I tried saving my inputs & outputs as a preset, which preset can then be selected after I open my template; but all of my track assignments are gone, and need to all be re-assigned again. These extra steps are not acceptable for me, or for my work flow.

  3. I tried saving my Workspace as a preset (both Global & Project), but that did not work - I still had to take the extra steps to select & open my saved Workspace. Although this is a slight improvement (thank you ericyoeman!), these extra steps are still not good for me, or for my workflow.

Here is a new one:
4) I created Instruments Tracks for Virtual Instruments in my newly saved custom template, but when I open my new custom template (from the HUB) they are all gone, and need to be re-created, all over again from the start. This is absolutely unacceptable for me, and for my workflow.

So far, my only solution/workaround is to save my new custom template as a simple project, instead of a template; and then to start Cubase by double-clicking on my new project (which is my template). In this manner everything is still there as I wish for it to be when Cubase starts with this project. This seems to me to be a bizarre way of doing this, but it does accomplish what I wish to do.
Surely there must be a way to do this with a template - some kind of a default start-up template - in Cubase.

Any ideas or suggestions ?

Again, thank you in advance for any and all assistance you might provide - your help is greatly appreciated.

PS: Fortunately for me, SONAR is still working - PERFECTLY !

#208

Basically your routing should be saved. The only thing I can think of to try is to delete your preferences folder and let Cubase recreate it. What you describe is not how it should work. Stuff like that sometimes happens when permissions are wrong or a configuration file is corrupted.

#209

I’m guessing that your post was for me and my Custom Startup Template issue ?
That sounds like MacOS stuff - I’m on Windows 10, and there is no such thing as a “preferences folder” .
But I do agree with you that ‘what I describe is not how it should work’. And I thank you for your assistance.

And, strangely, it works perfectly if I save my template as a regular Project file - when I then double-click on the Project file, Cubase starts up with everything just exactly as I saved it - all of my input/output track routings are there, all of my window placements & configurations are intact, and all of my Virtual Instrument tracks & instruments are there, with everything working fine.
I would just prefer to achieve this in a Template format, rather than as a regular Project file.
I think that I will try posting my question in the General area of this forum, and see if any of the ‘experts’ over there have any ideas.

EDIT - I just now did exactly that, so for anyone who wishes to follow along with this question, here you go:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=250&t=132688

#210

Windows preferences are here: https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro_artist/v9/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/customizing/where_are_the_settings_stored_c.html

I don’t know if it would help but save as project first then save as template.
Never had this problem.