Part of how I use Cubase is for narrating audiobooks, and each chapter ends up with its own track. This is so I can end up with a separate audio file for each chapter. It would be super helpful to be able to have a running total of all the audio recorded so far. As it is, I keep a spreadsheet and input the length of each track as I complete it, but it would be nice to eliminate that step! Thanks!
Well thatâs a pretty niche request, good luck.
Try adding an additional Audio Track to your Project and Mute it - or even better donât route its Audio anywhere. Then when you finish each chapter copy its Audio onto the extra Track one after another. Then when you finish the book youâll have each chapter on a dedicated Track plus the entire full length book on its own Track - where you can also get the total length.
What Raino said.
Iâve been doing audiobooks for the past 15 years in Nuendo, and thatâs exactly what I do, except that I wait until the editâs done to drag all of the files from the pool to my âExport Audioâ track, which is routed to my mastering chain for export (facilitated by the âcreate markers from selected eventsâ function). Kills a whole bunch of birds with one stone.
As a member of the niche community, I can say I doubt Iâd ever use a new function that sums the tracks over the above method.
Chewy
Is there any other reason you use separate Tracks besides the need to generate individual audio files? Because if you had everything on one Track you could use Cycle Markers to specify what goes into each Audio File and Export them all at once using the Export Queue.
I think there are a lot of spoken recordings made using Cubase so maybe it will be considered, though yeah, and edge request.
@Chewy_Papadopoulos @raino I was answering this, then got sidetracked, but my solution was to put them on the same track to begin with, without a gap between the events. So now Iâm wondering why Chewy doesnât start out like that? Is it simply because editing all on one track would be unwieldly?
Anyway, to add to what the others have said,
@GraziTheMan in case youâre not aware, every time you stop, and then start a new recording on a given track, a new file is created, and an incrementing numeral is added to the name
Steve,
In audiobook production we typically get files broken either into chapters or hour-ish length files (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter). I guess everyoneâs got their own way of working, but yes, contiguous files would be unwieldy.
Also, Iâm doing full production and mastering, and I often have to send different files off to separate mastering chains.
Additionally, QC notes come time-identified from 0:00:00, so if I want to be able to address issues, ahmo have to find them first! 
Then thereâs identifying the pre-mastered tracks by name, which is much less error-prone when theyâre staring back at you in numerical order in big, readable letters at 3am.
There are other reasons, too⌠but I gotta get back to this audiobook!
FWIW, this is the way most of my colleagues work as well; I know thatâs not a great reason, but it informs how I developed my own workflow.
But the bottom line: out of all of the DAWs Iâve used, and Iâve used most of them, Nuendo (and Cubase by inclusion) has been the top of the heap in efficiency and elegance. The various improvements (including the file-naming schemes, batch processing and markers from selected events) over the past three versions have all been game-changers.
Back to it!
Chewy
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If you only care for total length you could (ab)use the Arranger track for that.
Its editor window will show the total duration (song time).
Create one event for each chapter and add it to the chain.
Thanks for all the responses. There are a lot of great solutions that I never thought of, and wasnât aware of. Iâm going to do some experimentation to see what works best for me and my workflow. I had no idea I could batch up a queue of mixdowns, and I never knew about the âcreate markers from selected eventsâ function.
Would an âevent,â in this case, be an individual audio file? If I were to record multiple chapters in a row and cut them later, would each cut still be considered a separate audio file? I ask because it is still physically all one audio file.
To answer some questions, one reason I like to give each chapter itâs own track has already been mentioned: Requested edits will come as a timecode stamp relative to the beginning of the track. Another less important reason is that I like to add ID3 data sometimes if Iâm doing a personal project. It helps me stay organized. I guess I could either forgo that or do it after the file has been created.
It looks like this is a feature of Nuendo and not present in Cubase. At least I couldnât find it (but would be nice to have).
No they would still be one Audio File. An Audio Event is a section of an Audio File - they can be just a tiny portion of the Audio File or all of it. In the Project Window you are never working directly with Audio Files. Itâs always Audio Events.
Even if you slice an Event into 2 sections to create 2 Events they are like âwindowsâ into the underlying Audio File. You can drag the lower corners of Events to show a larger section of the Audio File - like on the bottom Track in this screenshot (which shows 5 Events all based on 1 Audio File).
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I think youâre correct. I happen to have Nuendo but I posted the question on the Cubase forum because a friend of mine who has the same question as my OP doesnât have Nuendo
That makes sense, thank you. So if I cut an audio file into separate events, I would still be able to use Nuendoâs âcreate markers from selected eventsâ function to mixdown each event into itâs own file using the queue?
Yes, that should work.
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