Hello,
After contacting the Steinberg support, they send me here to post my request, so I do.
This was my request sended to the support :
I often received mono tracks from my clients. During my mixing process, I often need to apply some stereo effects directly as an insert on these tracks (e.g.: reverb, delay stereo, cloner, etc.). So I find myself constantly creating new tracks (stereo) to drag my mono clip on, and having to rename them correctly. You will agree that on a large project with many tracks, it quickly becomes restrictive and time-consuming.
Since stereo tracks can already handle mono clips/events, I wonder why it is not possible to easily switch between a mono track and a stereo track. On the track, there is already a non-clickable button that tells us if the track is mono or stereo (the one with the circle(s)), I wonder why it is not possible to simply click on this button in order to switch quickly between a mono track and a stereo track. This would save a lot of time, and to be able to add this function to the Logical Project Editor would make it possible to do this quickly on a large number of tracks.
Is there already a similar function that I don’t know about? According to my extensive research on the Internet and on your forums, no similar function is present on Cubase, while many other DAWs do not have this problem (either because they have this function or because they manage stereo more flexibly).
I know that there is some old topics about this subject (some from 2014), but this option is still not existing in Cubase. And the support told me to create a request here so I think I could lol.
Yeah, I would like to agree on this one, it would be really nice to have it.
You could (it’s an evil hack though and maybe not the best solution):
select all tracks you want to stereofy
press F3 and in the top press the “Link” button to create a linked group
be sure to check “inserts” and “sends” before hitting Enter
go to inserts and pick “MonoToStereo” Plugin
set it to 100% width and lowest possible delay and color
You’ll end up with 1ms delay between left and right and it’s probably not the best solution. Maybe there’s a better plugin for that out there somewhere that does nothing else then converting mono to stero.
Still a mono<->stereo button would come in very handy.
It is not so much the point of converting your tracks to stereo or even split back to mono (many ways to do that) it is so that Cubase and Nuendo can both deal with mono and stereo audio on a stereo channel. But once a channel is set to mono or stereo it can’t be changed. It is not about the audio itself but about the channel carrying the audio. Now what’s the deal?
If you for instance import a multichannel guitar recording existing out of 3 mic’s and a DI signal and all of them are mono (naturally…) there is mostly not so much of a problem with the mic signals. In practice they might need some EQ and leveling and maybe a FX send but even going to multi[le outputs (as I mix on a 48 channel large console) is no problem. Even if the recording would exist of way more mic’s I could still treat them as I’d like and ‘pan’ them in any chosen way so they’d end up ‘pre-panned” on 2 channels on my console or as a 2 channel group in your DAW as you like it. But what if I’d like to use the DI signal to virtually re-amp? Using the mono channel works but in my amp-sim there is the choice to use different mic’s and speaker setups for both the left and the right channel accompanied by a real room convolution. i.e. pseudo-stereo… That only works with the mono audio on a stereo channel. See the point?
Please drop the idea that creating pseudo-stereo with a plugin causing 1ms of delay is a good alternative. It is not! Think of it in a different way and consider the ease of live when Steinberg lets you decide what the channel should be like. Live would even be better as the choice would extend not only to mono-stereo, but with an extra option to all the surround options available. It would make my live a lot easier at least…
All the best and I hope Steinberg reads and reacts to this post.
I agree with the need for a channel ‘switch’ - but as a workaround you can drag your mono audio part to a new stereo track. Doesn’t copy any plugins that you have already but it gets you onto a stereo channel.
And it’s what I’m doing on every sessions when I receive mono tracks from other people. But is still very restrictive when there is a lot of tracks and when I need to rename each one after for example.
I also have project templates with mono tracks that some times I want to easily change (e.g. I record a mono vocal then I want to add a stereo effect on it during the mix). So I do the “new stereo track” trick but an easy switch button would be more efficient.
Going the other way would also be of benefit. If I have a synth that I want to be a mono source, it’s a pain involving a send and an extra track. Seems like it would be much easier if I could designate an instrument track as mono and tell Cubase to use the L, the R, or a mix of the synth outputs as the audio source.
The goal is to have a real mono track, not a stereo track panned to the center. It changes certain things, especially on the use of mono or stereo plugins.
Maybe this works…
Drag mono files in pool
Right click on files in pool → Convert files to stereo interleaved
Drag new files on empty project window (not on existing tracks)
Voila,… Auto name & Auto stereo tracks
S.
I believe this might also help those of us who have mono external hardware synths that, in order to apply stereo effects to them, we need to connect them to two dedicated hardware inputs.
it’s also very annoying when you assume a track is stereo but it’s actually mono without realizing it and you try adding some kind of delay/reverb/chorus to it… only to wonder why it’s not sounding as big as it should and then after a long search you realize the track was mono all along lol
I’ve posted here once or twice on this very subject, and never really got a satisfactory answer.
When recording a mono source, vox, electric guitar, mini moog etc, Why do all tutorials tell you to create a mono track? All these instruments will likely need stereo fx added at some point. Necessitating the creation of a stereo track and dragging the audio into it.
Surely, the better suggestion would be, whatever the source, create a stereo track. Which is now my usual practice.
it’s also very annoying when you assume a track is stereo but it’s actually mono without realizing it and you try adding some kind of delay/reverb/chorus to it… only to wonder why it’s not sounding as big as it should and then after a long search you realize the track was mono all along lol
Totally feeling it lol
+1, should be easy to fix
Not so easy obviously since this suggestion was already made several years ago, and Steinberg is aware of it
I’ve posted here once or twice on this very subject, and never really got a satisfactory answer.
When recording a mono source, vox, electric guitar, mini moog etc, Why do all tutorials tell you to create a mono track? All these instruments will likely need stereo fx added at some point. Necessitating the creation of a stereo track and dragging the audio into it.
Surely, the better suggestion would be, whatever the source, create a stereo track. Which is now my usual practice.
I mainly do only stereo tracks now too. But this requires more resources for the processor, while sometimes it is really not useful.
