Looking for Key Command or Macro Suggestions

Cubase
#1

Whenever I lay down vocal tracks I usually find I have to often go into the audio event editor and select certain sections and raise the gain in areas where the vocals are too low.

The other scenario I’m running into at times are vocals that are sung too low that requires the overall gain to be raised. For this, I’ve setup a key command to either increment or decrease the gain by selecting the audio event (outside of the editor) and pressing the key command I have assigned to increase or decrease the volume.

This works well except that the increments are preset within Cubase as +/- 1 dB at a time. Meaning if I need to raise or lower the gain by 5 dB, I have to hit the key command 5 times. Not a show stopper but can really slow things down

So does anyone have a Macro or suggested key command they could share that I could use to

  1. Increase or Decrease the gain in set increments after selecting a section of audio within the Event Editor
  2. Increase or Decrease the Volume of a selected audio event by an increment I define. Like 5 dB up or down

I’ve tried searching for some pre-existing command within the list but can’t figure a way to make it happen

Thanks

#2

Hi all

Couldn’t you just have a macro with the increase by 1db line repeated 5 times?

Best Regards, Dave

#3

I would start with normalizing the track to something that makes sense for your workflow.
I keep most tracks at -12dB and lead vocals at -6dB, that way they are nice and loud without any FX added.
Then I use the pencil tool to reduce any plosives, breath noises etc. Your approach using keys might be more precise for that part, something I have to try out.

#4

Thanks! Supposing I couldn’t see the forest for the trees I guess :unamused:

That suggestion actually works perfect for scenario 2. Now all I need is something similar for scenario 1 working within the Event editor after selecting a section of audio.

You got me 1/2 way there though so thanks! :slight_smile:

#5

@peakae I hadn’t considered normalization as an optional way to acheive a good incoming signal to work with but I’ll give it a shot.

The only difference I can see with that approach would be that raising the signal by say +5 dB isn’t quite the same as normalizing the signal which would increase the relative volume based off the highest peak. If my vocals had some subtle compression coming into the DAW prior to normalizing though, I “think” it would be closer to the same thing I attempt to acheive by raising the volume by 5 dB.

Either way, I’m going to try your way to see if the results and experiment working with it that way.

Thanks for the feedback