Solo Group Channel Does Not Include Sends From Source Tracks

Cubase
1

Hey all,

So, wondering if this is normal.

Say I have 4 vocal tracks. Those 4 tracks are bussed to a GROUP called “vocals”.

On 2 of the vocal tracks I’m using SEND 1 to go to an FX CHANNEL with reverb.

If I solo the GROUP channel, the FX bus is not solo’d. So I only get the dry signals from the audio tracks only. The FX CHANNEL is not solo’d along with the group, even though there are source audio tracks that use an fx channel.

In order to get the FX channel I either have to 1) go to the FX channel and solo it manually. Or 2) unsolo / resolo each audio channel that uses a send in order to get the FX channel to solo too.

Is this normal behavior? This seems very odd to me - or something that could be a preference setting.

I would think, when you solo a group, that it plays all source tracks AND any FX channels connected to those source tracks. Otherwise, when you solo a group, you may not be hearing what it actually sounds like in the mix.

EDIT: I think I may have just figured it out - Solo Defeat should solve this?

2

Yes this is normal. If you’re not adding the FX return to the group it is not part of the group and therefore does not get soloed. And that is also exactly how the group itself sounds in the mix - dry. No change on the group channel will directly influence the sound of the FX retrrun at all, as long as it is not routed to the group also.

3

So here is the solution. You route the vocals to a group track called “Voice Dry”. This group and the effect tracks are routed to a group track called “Voice” or “Voice Wet”. When you solo this group, you hear the voices and the reverb.

4

I find it easier to just “Solo Defeat” any FX channels.

2 Likes
5

I’d either route the FX track to the group as well or send the group to the FX track.

You don’t want a situation where you mute the group track and you can hear the vocal in the send FX.

6

I get this line of thinking - but I’m hoping you can understand why this isn’t always practical. If the tracks being sent to the group are radically altered by their send FX, then soloing the group without those send effects would not always be ideal. There will be cases when you want to hear the sends of all source tracks for the group. At the moment you can do this manually, by soloing the group and then soling the fx channels. Or by solo defeating the fx channels.

But perhaps a handy feature would be giving 2 options for soloing groups. Keep it the same way as it is now, but add an option to “alt-click” on a group channel and have it also include any FX channels associated with the group’s source tracks. Simple and easy.

EDIT: I did notice that Folders work this way by default. If you take a group and it’s sources and stick them in a folder, when you solo the folder, it also solos any FX channels associated with any tracks within the folder. Cool.

7

That´s how it is now. The source tracks for the groups are soloed, those that are not a source of the group are not. The FX returns are source of the group, when they are routed to the group. And in that case, they get soloed also.