I recently started using Cubase 13 and I’m pretty confused about how Cubase’s master FX buses are reacting to track channels or group buses being soloed.
What I’m used to is that when I solo a track channel or sum bus on the mixer, master FX that are connected through a send, are soloed also, so I can listen to the complete result of the soloed tracks, together with the assigned master effects. I’m not really sure what Cubase is supposed to do, because the results differ quite a bit.
This is the situation: I have a whole bunch of track, like a standard mixdown for a rock song, I have a Master Ambient Reverb FX bus and a Main Reverb FX bus.
I sum tracks that make up one instrument together (kick in and kick out go into a sum bus, Snare top and snare bottom go into a sum bus, etc… And these sum buses and summed together into the main drum bus. I do the same for DI and Amp for bass, left and right for guitar/synth, etc. Then the track channels have a send to the Master Ambient Reverb and the sum buses have a send going to the Master Main Reverb.
This is what I’ve seen so far:
- When I solo track channels or sum buses, the connected Master FX buses (Ambient Reverb as well as Main Reverb) might be soloed too, but very often this doesnt happen.
- When I solo the FX busses that didnt turn on together with the track channel or sum buses being soloed, this might or might not turn on completely different track channels or sum buses, that have nothing to do with what I’m working on. For example, I’m working on a guitar channel, solo the guitar tracks, the Master FX busses that are connected by sends dont turn on, and when I solo the connected master FX buses, the kick and overhead sections (channel tracks going to their own sum bus) of the drums group are being soloed.
- When I turn off the tracks and buses I didnt ask for to be soloed, this might or might not turn off the Master FX channels’ solo.
- When I solo the Master FX buses again, this might or might not turn off the track channels I just turned off, as well as the tracks I soloed to start with.
- When I solo the track channels I started with again, this might or might not turn the soloed Master FX buses off again.
- And when I solo the Master FX buses again, this might or might not turn on solo for channels that arent supposed to be soloed…
And when I keep going around in this circle, the correct tracks and Master FX buses might or might not be soloed at some point. When this doesnt happen for a while, I can reboot Cubase and see if I achieve the correct results in a second attempt. All in all, it’s pretty hard to turn on solo for one instrument or instrument group, together with the Master FX that are connected.
Anyone who cares to chime in here? 