Are they really necessary? I believe they are used to group a collection of similar instruments ( or vocals) so they can all be processed together thus saving computer resources,
I’ve been doing this recently and gotta admit it makes things more confusing…for me anyway…
I rarely have more than 10 tracks…(instruments and vocals)
total tracks in a project has never been more than 30,
so my question is…do I need to use instrument busses? or am I missing something?
I’m trying to be a reasonable producer of my material and went the group instrument way but not sure it’s doing me any good… 
I guess they are needed when you want to use them… In my (limited) experience CB is so flexible, it can adjust to many workflows…
For example, I use group tracks to group Bass and Kick into one compressor, for glueing purposes… same for the rest of the drums and vocals, each their own group… I also use a separate Master FX chanel, just before the master, so I can keep A/B audio out of the master processing
This being said, I can also understand you would not want to do that with a small number of tracks for better control, processing them individually and glueing them with a bus comp on the master…
Again, CB is very flexible in its routing, so if it rocks your boat (or not), do it (or not)!
Have fun!
cheers mate, I was just wondering if i was missing something regarding the group tracks thing…
I apreciate your take on things… 
Couldn’t do without group tracks.
For one if you recording with multiple microphones and multiple takes, group tracks with the group editing feature are the easiest/quickest way to edit.
If you need to produce stems for a publishing company/mastering - folders paired with groups are probably the way forwards.
If you’re working with backing vocals etc etc
Hi, thanks for your input, I realise that if there are several elements…(such as backing vocals) then it clearly makes sense to use group tracks…
I was using group tracks for everything and just starting to realise that (for me) it makes no sense…
one piano in a group track is daft innit?
cheers,
Yea absolutely - I experimented with replacing group tracks with linking but some plug-ins don’t always stay in-sync so it’s a pain.
For example if I’ve got an instrument that was recorded with multiple mics, I’ll put that in a group track but it can feel cluttered if there’s too much of that going on with a group track for every multi mic instrument. But like I said the linking of EQ’s etc isn’t always that reliable I’ve found.
Michael
Personally they improve my workflow and final ajustments to my mix. It’s great when you group your instruments and vocals down to a few groups near the fx channels and master fader. I also use them for side chaining, compressing, EQ and FX.
Well, actually …
I too have simple songs. What I like to do is have way to the right of the right most zone (just before the Pre-master group that I use for volume changes so I can keep my Master fader at zero) is:
- Drum Group
- Piano Group
- Bass Group
- All the above grouped into a “Non-Vox Group”
- Vox Group
One advantage of this is that even if there is only one piano in the group, if I want to adjust its volume, I can stay right there to the right, in the third zone, instead of having to scroll way over to the left somewhere to find “Piano” track.
And if I want to adjust the Vox compared to everything else, I just mess with two groups, #4 and #5 in the above example.
It’s just ergonomics that works for me, FWIW!
Interesting…will look into that way of working…
If you work using the control room you never have to touch the master fader in cubase.
Also, I’d adjust the master gain rather than adjusting the actual master fader.
Michael