Hello! I usually have a 2 Bus that I mix into, but this last project, I just put all of the plugins on the Stereo Out.
Is there a way to Import the Stereo Out settings and plugins from another Project like you would when Importing Tracks From Project?
Would just importing the Stereo Out track work??? The way that comes to mind for me, though, is to save the inserts as a preset, then just apply that preset to the second project’s Stereo Out insert chain.
Now that I look, I see an option to import “Input?Output”, which brings in all input and output tracks. However, it’s not bringing in the inserts or track color.
Is there something I’m missing? You could save the inserts as a preset, but since every project could have a different mix bus with different settings, making an output preset for every project you work on is a bit monotonous. It would be nice to be able to just import it from one you know you just worked on like the rest of the tracks. Am I missing something?
I took a quick look this morning, and it does not seem to be possible to import the Stereo Out track using the Import Track from Project feature.
I also tried importing a group track folder with only the FX tracks from it (I didn’t want the audio), and it came in with a different color than that of the original project. I’m not sure if that was some kind of anomaly (or bug) related to the new folder with group track feature, but the color it used also wasn’t the default color (in the project I was importing from, the tracks I imported were a shade of yellow, and they imported as a shade of turquoise). I also imported my main mix bus from the source project, and that imported with the color it had in the original project, but that was just the default color). In all cases, the inserts were imported correctly.
In my own projects I always have a Main Mix bus, which is my mix bus, and I use the Stereo Out as my master bus. While I don’t always use the same mastering chain, the plugins I use in it, and the order I use them in, are the same the vast majority of the time. Thus, for me, just saving that insert chain as a preset would be a quick way of recreating the signal chain, even if I’d still need to do any specific settings for the new project. And, if I was just wanting my Main Mix bus, I could import that to include not only the track itself but its inserts. (However, while I sometimes use the same basic signal chain there, it is much less frequent than for my mastering chain. In general, though, it is rare for me to use template-type features as most every project I do is different, and I tend to decide what virtual instruments to use as I’m working on the arrangement, often experimenting with different possibilities before making the actual decisions.)
Can’t you just setup a project templet that have all the settings that you want?
Got ya!
I see that you can import Input and Output (all or nothing; it would be great to choose which ones), but it won’t import the color, and I don’t think it does the inserts. Maybe it does, but I may be wrong. I don’t remember from last night.
You could set up an insert chain, but if those change, or if it isn’t the same all of the time, then you accumulate numerous chains that you have to come up with clever names to remember what it is that they have on them and what you need. It would be great if they included the option to choose which inputs and outputs you want so that you can get the exact chains you need without any guess work or making extra insert chains etc.
For example, if the inputs have effects on them that you are printing with, say some EQ to tape, you most likely want all of that if you’re doing an album. If you know it’s from the last song you worked on, just grab it from there and done. No need to fuss with chains or any of that.
You could for one specific song, but I think the inconvenient issue that arises is having numerous templates with unique names that accumulate over time. The ability to import these things already exists, so it would be a lot better if it all just happened under the hood, as in, go to the project you know you need, and import everything and be done.
It essentially works that way now if you’re starting a completely blank project, but, if you got a mix dialed and want to port that over, you have to start involving insert chains for your Master Out when it would be convenient to be able to do that from importing Tracks From Project. No guesswork, no saving and accumulating new chains with unique names;, no re-color coding, etc. Just simply importing what you need because Cubase already obviously knows it exists. Just streamline it. 
The CB pro 15 manual says:
Instrument Track Presets
Instrument track presets offer both MIDI and audio features and are the best choice when
handling sounds of simple, mono-timbral VST instruments.
Use instrument track presets to audition your tracks or to save your preferred sound settings, for
example. You can also extract sounds from instrument track presets to use them in instrument
tracks.
The following data is saved in instrument track presets:
• Audio insert effects
• Audio EQ
• Audio volume and pan
• Audio input gain and phase
• MIDI insert effects
• MIDI track parameters
• Input Transformer settings
• The VST instrument used for the track
• Staff settings
• Color settings
• Drum map settings
My concern isn’t necessarily about Instruments as much as it is about getting your Stereo Out or Master out imported from another project easily without having to create chains with unique names.
I’m not seeing anything related to importing Input and output:
Are we talking about the same facility?
True, but if you know the project you need to get them from, you could also open that project (since it has to be online anyway to use the import tracks from project facility) and save them as a preset. It might also be that you could open the project in the same Cubase session, activate it, copy the insert chain (by right-clicking on the insert field and choosing copy), then reactivate the new project and past the insert chain you just copied. However, if it’s an insert chain you’re likely to use in multiple projects, it would seem more convenient to have a preset.
Another workaround might be to put your master chain on a group track, rather than on the Stereo Out, in which case you could import it from the import track from project facility, and it will keep its inserts.
In this scenario (i.e. where you know you’re doing an album up front, and want to have the same master bus insert chain), I’d think it would make a lot of sense to create the preset, calling it something like AlbumName-Master.
In my own cases, though, I’m usually doing standalone singles, then collecting tracks for an album later on once I have enough tracks that could fit together (there will also be singles that won’t fit the album in between). So there would be different mastering chains on each song, and different LUFs levels, etc. Thus, last time I did this (last year), I did all my remastering in WaveLab, starting from the unmastered mixes, but then painstakingly going back to each original single project and saving meaningful presets (in the plugins themselves) and other information (e.g. plugin chain order, any master bus gain and fader level information, etc.) to first get as close as possible to the single mix in WaveLab Pro, then doing any rebalancing within the master chains there. Even for the new tracks that hadn’t been released as singles previously, I’d mixed and mastered them separately in Cubase, then done the same type of setup with the album mastering project in WaveLab. WaveLab at least made it significantly easier to deal with the balancing of mastering chains and levels for the album, and each song’s recording could have its own master chain.
My mastering chain these days is usually just the main Ozone 11 mothership plugin (with whatever chain I have within it), then a post-fader insert of PSP X-Dither (since the dithering has to happen after any fades).
Yessir! The Inputs and Outputs are on the left side with everything else at the very top. However, it’s ALL of them or nothing. It would be nice to be able to choose what you need.
The thing that would be better is avoiding having to do that altogether. Instead of opening the session, waiting for things to load going back and forth just to copy and paste some inserts or make an Insert Chain takes more unnecessary time when if the option to just simply choose Import > Tracks From Project and be able to have access to and choose any track or input/output you want independently just makes more sense because it’s a one stop shop for things like that.
I’m just noticing all these things that seem like workarounds or round about ways of doing things that could be streamlined, similar to how even something like Group Events and UNGroup events have two different shortcuts. Why not just make it a toggle with one shortcut? But that’s a different topic altogether.
That’s the thing, though, I’m not seeing it (in Cubase Pro 15.0.30 on Windows 11 here):
I also scrolled through the whole list, and it wasn’t to be found below, either.
Yeah, well one thing I suspect we can agree on is that Cubase is far from the most intuitive DAW in the world. I came from Cakewalk SONAR, which started for me as Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, and I’d previously been using Passport Designs’ MasterTracks Pro (and Texture – don’t recall the developer before that), not to mention physical tape even earlier (and in parallel with some of my early DAW use. I actually tried Cubase (SX???) when Passport Designs went out of business and I was looking for a replacement for MasterTracks (which I loved). But it was both impossible for me to grok and not stable on my system. Logic (still on a PC, pre-Apple) was even less stable. I used Samplitude a bit (low-end version that came with my audio interface) – powerful, stable, but a weird interface and didn’t do MIDI at that point (and my instrumental tracks were all MIDI). There were early ads out for Pro Tools LE, but it wasn’t quite available, and I was impatient. But I tried a trial version of Cakewalk Pro Audio, and it was immediately quite intuitive and extremely stable. I initially thought I’d just use it for MIDI and add on a higher-end version of Samplitude later when I could afford to do so, but it turned out Pro Audio worked well for audio, too, at least after adding some third party plugins (mainly from DSP/FX and then PSP Audioware), and I stayed there through many years (15-ish?) of SONAR. But when Gibson ditched SONAR, and prior to BandLab’s taking it over, after my Passport experience, I started looking for alternatives and tried a few, ultimately going with Cubase (first version for me was 9.5, but I didn’t make it my primary DAW for new projects until 10.5). While I’ve gotten to be somewhat of a power user, to a degree anyway, now, there are still plenty of areas I haven’t probed at all, and even some areas that I use regularly but still forget where to find them when I haven’t used them for a while.
As for group/ungroup and toggling versus different keystrokes, I don’t actually use shortcuts for those, but I’d probably be inclined toward different ones based on Photoshop use. (Keep in mind there can be multiple layers of grouping.)
And that is part of the thing for me with respect to intuitiveness. I use MANY applications outside of DAW/audio/etc. For example, pretty much all the Microsoft Office stuff (especially Outlook Excel, Access, OneNote, and Word), Adobe (mainly Photoshop and Lightroom), etc. And, even with in the Steinberg family, it is Cubase, Dorico, WaveLab, and SpectraLayers). Obviously, different applications have different needs, but there are some basics that cross all applications, like zooming in and out and scrolling, horizontally and vertically, basic file operations, certain common aspects of menu structure and dialog boxes, etc. At least for my sensibilities, Cubase seems to throw too many of those out the window, though not always consistently. Even in the DAW terminology world, where most DAWs talk about buses and auxes (after the audio hardware terminology), Steinberg has group tracks and FX tracks, events (if I’m remembering the term right – I keep forgetting) instead of clips, a key editor instead of a piano roll editor, list editor instead of MIDI event editor, and … It can be crazymaking! BUT, Cubase really is a powerful, and deep, DAW, and I have no regrets about having switched over from SONAR.
Interesting! It’s in mine on Mac Tahoe!
As a Pro Tools user for a long time now, I’m really enjoying Cubase! I’d love to see some features updated and or added that could streamline some workflows.
