I apologize if this is a repeated question, but I was not able to find an answer when searching, and it’s possible I’m not using the right keywords.
I’m using Cubase Pro 12, and I’m comping vocals for the first time. I was able to select the portions of each take that I liked, and bounced the results to a new WAV, choosing to replace what was there since choosing the other option does not create a new audio track with the bounced WAV (which is annoying, frankly). However, this turned out to be a mistake as I wanted to give it another try by bringing all of the takes from the Media Pool back into the Project in a new audio track, placing each take in it’s own lane.
This has turned out to be cumbersome. Intuitively, I should just be able to drag everything from the Media Pool into the Project as I’ve done before with other WAVs, but that apparently doesn’t work when there are multiple takes in one audio source. Selecting all of the takes, I can right click and choose to Insert Into Project > At Origin. Rather than create one audio track with multiple lanes, it creates multiple audio tracks.
I tried resolving that by dragging all of the files to one audio track after activating Lanes, but it only moves one over, and it overlaps the take in the first lane. So, I instead tried one at a time, targeting the next available empty lane, but it again overlaps what is currently in the previous lane. I have to move it from that lane to the next one for it to actually land on the lane I am targeting.
This is all very time consuming and aggravating!
Is there a better way to do this? Am I supposed to be using something other than Media Pool to bring these takes back into the project?
If there isn’t a solution, I hope Steinberg addresses this issue in future versions.
If you record an Audio track in a cycle and you make multiple takes (Lanes), this is one long audio file at the end. There are just markets in the audio files to let Cubase know, how to make the visual representation (show it in the lanes). So if you just drag and drop the file from Pool to the project, you get the source long audio file.
How did you ‘bounce’ this? If you are using Render In Place there are several options that retain the source Track & Disable, Mute and/or hide the Track. With most workflows there should be no need to rebuild or recreate the source Track.
@Sibben 's advice on copying things when you are exploring how they work is pretty solid.
This post has a couple of pics showing what @Martin.Jirsak is talking about
After I made my selections from the comps, I minimized the track by clicking the Lanes button, highlighted the resulting WAVs, chose Audio > Bounce Selection, and chose to replace what is there because otherwise, it just puts it in the Media Pool, and I have to drag it to the project.
As I said, it turned out to be a mistake, but that doesn’t solve the issue of bringing everything back to the project after I’ve already replaced everything with the bounced track.
Yeah you’ve got 2 different issues. One is recovering your audio and the other is figuring out the best workflow.
Do you by chance have any Cubase Backup files ( .bak) from before things got messed up? If so you could use Import Tracks From Project… to bring them back into your current project (or into a Save As… copy for safety’s sake).
Your initial Audio file should be safe & sound. If you put it on the top Lane and say your initial loop was 16 bars long - you could use the Split (scissors) Tool to cut it into 16 bar Audio Events. Then drag each Event down to stack them on new Lanes. Splitting Audio like this doesn’t do anything to the Audio file and if you drag the lower corners of these newly split Events you’ll find the previously cut Audio is still there. Take a good look at the pics I posted.
Render In Place is both newer & more flexible than Bounce and in most situations a better choice.
When selecting the WAV from Media Pool, you have the ability to expand a menu from it, which shows all of the takes, which as you pointed out, is really all one large file. Selecting all of them and choosing to bring them back to the project puts each take in their own audio tracks instead of in lanes for one track. I have tried just dragging the WAV file to the project with no success, but I haven’t tried right clicking it and re-inserting it into the project. Perhaps THAT will make it work as expected. I’ll give it a try tonight.