What frustrates me most with both Link Group settings and with VCA faders is that once I assign any set of tracks to a group (either linked tracks or VCA Fader), all assigned tracks now record arm automatically when I select one of them, and there is no way (to my knowledge) to make it so they don’t! If I open the Edit Link Group Settings, I see options for Volume, Pan, EQ, Dynamics, Sends, Inserts, Mute/Solo/Listen, Automation Read/Write, Routing and Selection, but nothing to control record arm behavior! Someone please tell me there is an option to have all tracks of a group NOT record arm when one in a group is selected?
To see what I’m talking about follow these steps.
- Create a Kontakt (or halion) as an Instrument (or rack) track
- Assign sounds to as many midi channels as you want inside Kontakt / halion
- Create midi tracks for the sounds you’ve assigned
- Go into the mixer and select a few of the midi tracks
- in the mixer “link selected channels”
- Select one of the midi channels in the group
You’ll notice that all midi tracks assigned to this group record arm. This functionality can be useful if you are creating layered instruments, but in my case I simply want to group a few tracks together so I can quickly solo/mute them, and maybe draw some common automation. I am not looking at creating a sort of layered sound thats always playing together.
Is there some way to prevent all tracks of a group from record arming when you select one? If I Alt-Select a track that seems to work as a temporary group bypass, but I must admit I often forget to do this and I’m in for a surprise to find the violin part I thought I was writing turns into a string quartet because I’ve linked them and they automatically turned on when I selected the violin. Perhaps there is some sort of “toggle link on/off” function? Searched the key commands but came up empty. Or better yet, maybe Steinberg can add a “record enable” option in the link group settings options? Is that a feature other users would like to see? If so I’ll make a feature request.
Work arounds: I know I can output audio to a group channel for easy group automation and solo/mute functionality. I’m actually already doing this for stemming purposes (i.e. all my high strings go to a group, low strings to another, etc). I was hoping to use linked tracks to quickly solo/mute the individual groups of instruments before its sent to my stem group tracks. For example I use multiple string libraries and layer them together (e.g. a line might be a combo of VSL Chamber + LASS + Hollywood Strings). I load them in vienna ensemble pro both on a slave PC and my host mac, and each instrument from each developer comes back into Cubase on individual audio ports to be mixed and sculpted as needed (and eventually stemmed) in Cubase. Sometimes I want to just solo or mute one developers libraries to dial in the overall sound. So for example I link all of my Hollywood Strings midi tracks (staccato, legato, sustain, tremolo, etc) together so that I way I can quickly solo or mute them as needed. But if I do this, when I select my HS sus patch, ALL my HS strings record enable!
How are you guys dealing with this issue? Advice would be appreciated. Thanks!