How To Set Up Stereo Mastering Buss

Cubase
1

Sorry but im struggling to figure this one out.
I would like to creat a mastering channel that comes after my stereo out channel.
So looking at the mix console the 2nd last channel would be the stereo out and the last channel would be the Mastering Channel.
When i try to set this up,the stereo out doesnt have a send which of course means fhat i cant send that signal to the mastering bus.
I just cant figure it out.
Any advice would be appreciated,gus

2

I am not sure about your purpose, and maybe there is a more proper way to do it via Audio Connections, but the easy way is as follows:

  1. Rename existing Stereo Out to Mastering
  2. Select all your tracks, or if you have group channels - select all group channels only
  3. Right click on selected tracks - Add Track - Group Channel to Selected Channels
  4. Select :
    Configuration - Stereo,
    Audio Outputs - Mastering,
    Folder Setup - Outside Folder,
    Name - STEREO OUT

Click Add Track

3

Hi Yuri I dont want to have my mastering plugins on my stereo out,I would like to have my mix finalised,send it to a seperate mastering channel, thankyou for Informing how to do this with group channels, I also wo der if this can be done using audio connectio s,thanks gus

4

What is a mastering channel? And what you mean with “after stereo out”? There is just hardware after the stereo out, or control room…

Why not?

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5

Ive already explained

6

I think you guys have answered my questions ,done throgh a group track and there is only one stereo out, many thanks

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7

That’s not correct.

8

Steffen this is what i am trying to figure out lol,
If there is more than 1 stereo i cant understand why i cant route the send from one stereo bus to another instead of using the group track, you said there is only hardware after the stereo out,im confused

9

There are no busses like you expect them, these are outputs. They are the last step in routing.

10

Why don’t you just use insert effects on the master stereo out which can be bypassed as a whole with one click. That way you just switch between the mix and the mastering.

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11

Angus, I think you would have to have an interface with loopback / Mult to do that in hardware.

But as was mentioned if you simply create the following…

Mix Buss Group
Select all your tracks
Click Q-Link
Select sends on a track and choose “Mix Buss”

All your tracks will now go to Mix Buss so you can load it with Mix FX.
So you could then create your Master Track.
Stereo Out will be clean.

Tracks route to Mix Buss - Insert Mix FX
Mix Buss routes to Master Buss - Insert Master FX
Master routes to Stereo Out - Clean

So Stereo Out is always just a clean hardware destination. No FX

12

I have decided that when i have my final final final mix lol i am just going to export audio mixdown to a wav file,then open a new project for mastering, that way i can concentrate my efforts on mastering

13

Tom im totally listening to what you have advised and it makes perfect sense,im now thinking that i am approaching this from the wrong angle,i am thinking about getting everything done all in the same project,but as i mentione to Mkok in his reply, i think that it may be a better result if i get my final mix down to a vav file and do the mastering in a new project ,in my way of thinking that lets me solely concentrate on the mastering.

14

That is a good idea and in reality is what I do except I then use Wavelab.

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15

Mkok, what do you prefer about mastering with wavelab as

Opposed to using Cubase, thanks Gus

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16

To be honest I’ve used it for years before Cubase had all the tools so have carried on using it because I’m used to it and the tools it comes with. It does have some good mastering tools not in Cubase but it also advertises a few plugins which do come with Cubase. I’m sure you can master well in Cubase but Wavelab has a few more too,s at your disposal

17

Hi Mkok, wavelabs must do loads of stuff as i

18

Angus, The way I described is ok to get a ‘fake master’ so to speak.

I think you should render out your Mix. Take it to a different place if possible. Different room. Even let someone else master it. But if you can’t . If you have to do it all. By all means yes render it out and consider it a new project.

I would consider the ‘Mix + Master’ in one session to be a check on a Mix… ‘why can’t I get my Mix sounding like my Master’ type situation. That way you re-think your Mix.

It’s sort of like the old adage ‘we will fix it in post’. If you do the ‘Mix+Master’ and hear a lot of difference you know you need to go back to the front end.

Master as a whole new deal.

19

Hi Tom thanks for your advice,my knowledge is limited , could you please explain what is the difference between render in place and export audio mixdown,thanks gus

20

I am fairly new to Cubase as well and probably should not have said “render”.

But the short story is that render will make audio files from your VST instruments for instance.

Export is where you would select all the tracks for your stereo mix or whatever. Maybe you want to export stems for mastering for instance.

If you want to see render just take a midi track instrument and select the midi. Then edit- Render in place, you will see an audio track appear just below that midi track.

Now if you simply wanted to export a Stereo track to master you would not have necessarily needed to render that track. But if you needed that rack and say 6 more to create a Stereo Stem you would probably want to render those 8 tracks and make a Stereo Stem

Then you could export all that and more as say 4 or 5 Stems for Mastering

There are a lot more options in Export as well for file types, etc…