Other DAWs that I used - Ableton, Bitwig, Reason, Studio One - all have some kind of tool/utility device(s) that can split the incoming signal into left or right, mid or sides, low or high frequency band, etc. and block one leaving the other for further processing with whatever effect chains I want?
Typical case would by a transient shaper + sidechain compressor vs. a kick applied to low-end of the bassline to tighten it up and chorus + delay applied to high-end for more space. With regards to frequency domain I can probably just use the channel strip’s equalizer in pre- mode, but what about left/right and mid/side?
Is there anything like this natively in Cubase, so that I could split the sound and send it to different tracks for parallel left/right, mid/side, low/high processing?
(yes, I’m aware of VST plugins like kHs’ Multipass or Blue Cat Audio’s MB-7 Mixer, etc. but for now looking for a native solution)
I’m sorry, there are so many use cases you could be talking about, could you give more clarity to what you are trying to do?
(1)
If you want to split the input signal, then you can of course use two mono tracks with mono inputs. But that isn’t what you are asking of course.
(2) You can use the routing editor:
(3)
You can pan sends, so you can create 2 separate group tracks (think “bus track”) or FX tracks, and pan the sends left and right in the channel strip. Now you have two mono tracks on which to put whatever processing you like.
And since you can send to multiple Groups or FXs, you can put your Pre Strip processing on the destination tracks so that you are splitting the frequency bands however you like.
Thanks. Typical example is what I gave in the OP. What I ended up doing for this was:
I have the bass played by 2 VSTs on two tracks
I’ve merged their output using a Group Track
from that Group track I’ve sent signal to 2x FX Tracks, pre-fader
I’ve muted the Group Track
on the FX Tracks I’ve set the Channel Strip to be pre-inserts and set up one of them to have a 12dB/oct Hihg-Pass Filter and for the other I’ve used a 12dB Low-Pass Filter; this gave me an effective low & high bands to put the effects on
I’ve put all of this into a Folder Track, so that I could hide it
Lots of work, frankly
In Bitwig (or Studio One, even) I’d just drag a multiband splitter device which creates 2+ virtual sub-channels and I can insert any FX chains on there.
I’m confused. isn’t the Splitter in S1 essentially the same as the Routing Editor?
I guess you would still need tracks for the filtering.
I would still use tracks for this anyway because when something like this is hidden away it get’s complicated. That’s my opinion. But then Michael doesn’t want opinions anyway.
Right? Other than the frequency splitting, they are the same, with a different interface. We aren’t communicating. It’s probably me.
I think I would still prefer the track based workflow even if the splitter was in Cubase. Even with the routing editor, the track workflow is easier to me. I guess the whole DAW could be laid out like Pd, or Max or Midi Lab. or the one from Montreal I can’t remember the name of. If that sort of view existed in the whole DAW that would be nice. I get why you like it.
The problem with having it hidden away in a track is just that, it’s hidden away, and a different UI paradigm. But when you make the whole system work with that sort of UI it starts to look like a circuit design, and you spend all of your time arranging the components so you can see what is happening. In the end, the track/channel paradigm is just easier all around.
Like I said, it’s all opinion based. But you did get it working, right? You have one group track it all comes back to, and it’s all tucked away in a folder?
Are you using the Brauer technique or getting creative with delays on different bands or something?
That makes no real sense… un-route the group track?
If you are using Cubase Pro, you can activate Direct Routing to send one signal to up to eight groups.
That’s why I created this post - I don’t yet know all ins & outs of Cubase. I’ll check this out!
EDIT: ok, I’ve checked the direct routing editor - I can’t see how it works. The editor doesn’t even show up before I put it any insert effect, which is what I don’t want. Also reading the manual I don’t think it does what you suggest it does.
