Hello Cubase users, I wonder if someone can advise me here.
I sent a bunch of vocal tracks thru a Group Track, because I want to apply the same FX to them all.
So I set up my Group Track, then sent the individual tracks there using “Sends” in the Mix Console. Everything is now playing thru the Group Track with the FX I want.
The problem is that I am still hearing the original unprocessed single vocal tracks (without FX) as well.
How can I rout the vocals thru the Group Track but silence the playback for the individual tracks?
Thanks for any advice?
I’m running Cubase Pro 11.
hi Mnatseah
It depends on the FX but in general I wouldn’t use the ‘Sends’ to assign the vocal tracks to the group track (if you want 100% wet and NO dry!) you should assign the ‘output’ of the vocal tracks to the group tracks. Currently I’ m guessing you have these sent direct to the main stereo out.
As a general rule (there are NO rules !) - ‘sends’ are for time based effects such as ‘reverb’ - where you want a mix of dry and wet signal - and ‘inserts’ are for dynamic FX where you want 100% wet…(there are NO rules !)
What FX are you wanting to apply to the vocal tracks ?
PS - sorry for the caveats there but somebody will find examples where you would use sends instead of inserts and visa-versa …there are no rules but only some basic guidance for beginners.
Thanks @Dr.Strangelove. I want to apply reverb to a chorus of twenty individual voices.
So should I assign the output of the vocal track to the Group Track.
If so, how do I do that, please?
Thanks again.
hi
To change the outputs of the vocal tracks look in the channel edit window:
where it says “targets” at the top you can change the output of the vocal track from ‘stereo’ to your group.
but for reverb I would normally use a ‘send’ - but create an FX track not a group track. This gives you individual control over the amount of reverb on EACH voice. To be honest an FX track is a group track but let’s ignore that !
It’s not that a group channel is wrong - and sometimes there are good reasons to do this.
let me know if that makes any sense ?
Thanks @Dr.Strangelove. Fantastic. Got it. I’ve done it as a Group channel for now, since I don’t think I need control over the reverb on each voice.
Many thanks again.
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no problems at all
As I say there are lots of ways to do this - and really no right or wrong way - If you want a wash of reverb on all the vocals together then your way works just as well as any other IMO 
oh - and if you’ve sent the output of the vocal tracks to the ‘group’ then you can lose the ‘sends’ as that will probably confuse things (two routes to the same destination) - although you’ve probably worked that out 
Solid advice from @Dr.Strangelove!
I just want to add that yet another way to do this is keep the sends as you have them, set them to pre-fader and then mute the channels themselves. Of course, for this to work you must deactivate the Preference>VST>Mute Pre-Send when Mute. (So that the channels don’t play in the master output because they’re muted, but their pre-fader sends keep feeding the group you’ve routed them to.)
Then, you’d probably want preference “Group Channels: Mute Sources as well” in the same page deactivated, so that when you mute and un-mute the group it won’t interfere with your manual muting the source channels.
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that’s not a good idea… it destroys the overview and the ease of use with FX channels
Best practice to apply a reverb effect to some signals is to use a FX channel.
And it is also best practice to set the reverb in the FX channel to 100% wet
now you can easy decide how much reverb you want to apply by changing the fader level of the FX channel.
With groups you can do that too, but I highly suggest the FX channel approach.
You can send a group signal to an FX channel as well, but now you have no influence at the balance of the signals that are sent to the reverb.
The group channel combines some signals and makes it easy to apply compression and EQ for a “group” of signals. You can route the signals to the main bus (Stereo Mix) and to some groups at the same time. But make sure that the group is routed to the main mix as well to get the combined signals hearable…
So far for the moment… I will try to find a video that explains how to do all of tha above.
I’m very thankful to all of your for your replies. But now another little challenge has arisen…
I sent all the dry vocal tracks to the Group Track where reverb is applied.
I then wanted to pan them left and right within the soundsphere. But when I go back to the original single vocal tracks, I find that the pan parameters are blacked out, and there seems to be no way to pan them. Is this normal? Should (or could) I have panned them before sending them to the Group Track. Or is this something that is just impossible when sending to a Group Track?
Is the group track mono?
I didn’t suggest this as a way to setup an FX send and return, rather as an additional routing option that is also possible in Cubase. (To use a send for monitoring purposes for example)
Yes, it seems to be mono. At least that’s how it looks. And I can’t seem to find a way to set up a stereo Group Track. When I click +Add Track, the Group Track always seems to be mono.
you get the option of the track type when you create it
Yep what he said. That’s the way to accomplish what you are looking for
Thanks to all. I found that.
Can I ask you one more question before I go. Like I said, I’m building a virtual choir here with 26 voices. On the first voice, I’m seeing something I never saw before. The name of the track/singer appears twice with a drop-down arrow. When I click the drop-down arrow I see id:1 and id:2. Here’s a pic.
Does anyone know what this is about?
You have two track versions. v1 and S. lydia. Maybe you pressed Ctrl Shift N at some point and didn’t notice?
You can switch between those two versions at any time. You can even delete the one you don’t want anymore.
Thanks. What are track versions for?
something totally different 
(new thread perhaps ?)
Absolutely. Thanks for all your help.
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if there is a new thread, could you add a link to this one for reference?
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