cubase pisses me off

[campersand]

My band just recorded an album on a friend's computer with Cubase. All fine and good except we're mixing somewhere else on Protools, so we have to manually mix every track down in order to import it into Protools.

This isn't so much a question as it is venting. How can Cubase call itself a professional recording program and not have a better export feature? It's taking us about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per song and we have 12 songs! That's almost 24 hours of just sitting in front of the computer, clicking things every couple minutes. And the computer we're using is a really fast one. ugh.

[warble]

I believe Cubase can export OMF (open media format) files, which basically take all the audio information (audio, track names, etc.), and pack it into one file that can be imported into an application that can handle OMF files. Not sure what version of Cubase you have, but you should be able to do it with the lastest versions.

I also believe ProTools can import those files, but I think you need to purchase an "adapter" to perform this. Seems like I stumbled across this on the board here somewhere.

To make things easier, record and mix all in ProTools.

[Greg_L]

im still a newb, but cant you just export the track as a wav file and import it as a wav file somewhere else?

[fraserhutch]

I can't beleive that Pro Tools calls itself a professional suite when it doesn't have better import functionality!

[campersand]

Originally Posted by warble

I believe Cubase can export OMF (open media format) files, which basically take all the audio information (audio, track names, etc.), and pack it into one file that can be imported into an application that can handle OMF files. Not sure what version of Cubase you have, but you should be able to do it with the lastest versions.

I also believe ProTools can import those files, but I think you need to purchase an "adapter" to perform this. Seems like I stumbled across this on the board here somewhere.

To make things easier, record and mix all in ProTools.

If only we could have recorded in ProTools...

I've heard that OMF can be a little buggy sometimes.

[campersand]

Originally Posted by Greg_L

im still a newb, but cant you just export the track as a wav file and import it as a wav file somewhere else?

That's what we're doing, it takes 2-3 minutes per track and we have 30-40 tracks for each song.

[Greg_L]

Originally Posted by campersand

That's what we're doing, it takes 2-3 minutes per track and we have 30-40 tracks for each song.

oh i see. 30-40 tracks per song! wow. thats phil spector-like.

[campersand]

Originally Posted by Greg_L

oh i see. 30-40 tracks per song! wow. thats phil spector-like.

Ha, I know it's ridiculous. I'm very afraid of what the mixing engineer will say . And that's after consolodating a bunch of the tracks, it was up around 50.

[xstatic]

Its not really fair to complain about Cubase because of your own misconceptions concerning it. Every program out there that is not directly compatible with Cubase is the same way. It would be the same if you were going from Pro Tools to Cubase. You CHOSE to record in Cubase and CHOSE to mix in Pro Tools. It's just a fact of life because you did not do enough advance research. Are you exporting your files with processing? Even a slow computer should not take that long if you were just exporting raw files.

[noisewreck]

You'd have the same issue if you were going from Cakewalk to Logic, or from Logic to Protools, or from Prostools to Cakewalk, or from Cakewalk to Nuendo...

OMF is buggy only because ProStools doesn't fully adhere to their standards... neither do any of the other big players come to think of it...

So, don't single out one software... they all suck equally at this.

[lanceNZ]

a little thinking at the start would have soved it what you could have done would be import projects into Nuendo then you could have exported them as omf files never mind at least ya got it done

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by lanceNZ

a little thinking at the start would have soved it what you could have done would be import projects into Nuendo then you could have exported them as omf files never mind at least ya got it done

Nuendo and Cubase have the same OMF support as far as I know, so there would be no benefit in importing them to Nuendo.

[lanceNZ]

on my copy of cubase sx 2 theres no option for OMF but on my later Nuendo version 2.1.1 there is sory it took so long to post back but im in class

[Carter]

Originally Posted by noisewreck

Nuendo and Cubase have the same OMF support as far as I know, so there would be no benefit in importing them to Nuendo.

This is correct , he just needs to export the wave files and be happy, or go buy Pro fools!!!!!

[seismetr0n]

lanceNZ: my copy of sx 2 has OMF as the first export option..? (i even checked for ya)

[legionserial]

Find the audio files in the folder for that particular cubase project. Copy them over to your Pro Tools project folder, import THOSE files into Pro Tools instead, and then place them manually. Probably quicker. Less sitting around waiting at least.

How can Cubase call itself a professional recording program and not have a better export feature?

I think its pretty unlike that the guys at Stienberg went, "Well hey, what if they don't want to use Cubase for mixing and want to use something else, like one of our competitors instead...hey lets make it so that they can do that real easily".

Its more likely that they said "Lets make Cubase so that people don't feel the need to mix in another bit of software".

For most of us, the audio export works better than fine for the purpose it is intended

You are unlikely to find much software that is made to be 'compatible' with a completely different bit of software. Especially if its a competitor. And you will find that if you want to migrate stuff from one bit of software to another, that it will be fiddly and time consuming. Thats just to be expected.

[warble]

Originally Posted by campersand

I've heard that OMF can be a little buggy sometimes.

May or may not be - I personally haven't used it. Regardless, Cubase does have another export option, which apparently you didn't know about before your rant.

[The Flame]

Hey i was just having a conversation about this. I am gonna see if cubase le has the OMF feature, but you can always do the wav way, and that can be a bitch. Why dont you like to mix in cubase, it has all I need, but i never worked with pro-tools so i was just curious.If you are gonna do the wav way, a friend of mine told me to make markers within the tracks, on the actual audio clips to line it up in pro tools or whatever program you are exporting. This can make it a hell of a lot easier. Good luck.

[apl]

However, if you punch something in and out, I don't think Cubase edits the original wav. I think it makes a wav for the punched part and uses both files.

[campersand]

Wow, my post sure did cause a stir; shoulda' known that it would, posting it in a Cubase forum. I'll try to respond to all the posts that warrant responding:

The Flame: We recorded it on a friend's computer who happened to have Cubase and we're mixing it in a real studio that runs ProTools, so it wasn't really a choice we made to use the different programs.

Warble: What's Cubase's other export option? I scoured the help file and the web and couldn't figure out any other way to do this.

legionserial: We have a bunch of edits on the tracks so we have to mix each track into one wav file.

xstatic: no processing, just raw files, but there are edits and such on most tracks. Don't know why it's taking so long but this is a brand new computer and everything's pretty top of the line on it as far as I know.


Everyone: It seems to be the consensus that I'm just being a whiny punk, since this problem isn't specific to Cubase. I wasn't aware of that and, if it's true, I guess my rant wasn't fair. I had read some stuff about other programs having a "bulk export" option or something of the like. Either way, the fact is that people do track and mix on different machines with different software quite often, so it'd be nice if the export process on all recording programs was quicker.

-Cameron

[legionserial]

Originally Posted by campersand

Everyone: It seems to be the consensus that I'm just being a whiny punk.

Dude I don't think anyone thinks that We.re just trying to help. I can certainly understand your frustrations, I've had to do a lot of annoying crap like that in the past. I hate watching progress bars crawl up the screen, it the worst thing in the world lol....

The best thing you can do is find something else to keep you occupied....like get wasted or something hehe

Truth be told I spend an awful lot of time doing boring preperatory work in cubase - sorting out the tempo track, signature changes, and then the evil drum programming, when all I want to be doing is playing some guitar or doing some mixing. I guess it aint all fun (well it is in a way, from 'looking to the finished product' perspective), thats why I always have some kind of intoxicant close at had to alleviate the boredom on those long late nights of endless mouse clicking, velocity adjustments, progress bar watching etc etc.

hmm perhaps I shouldn't be advising people to get wasted, but in my experience it can help sometimes What I'm really trying to say is, when you are doing stuff like that you'll find it way less frustrating if you are doing something else to amuse yourself at the same time

PS - Just a thought, but when you mix down a track at a time, are you mixing down from the master out, while muting the tracks you dont want/soling the one you do? Or are you in the mixdown window selecting the specific track to output the mixdown from? You may find the latter quicker as it doesn't have to run a bunch of muted tracks through itself aswell. Especially if you are running 40 or so tracks. Otherwise you are technically doing a full mixdown of everything everytime, only with certain things muted.

However I should say that this is a mere guess and it may not make any difference. Worth a try tho

[altitude909]

the other way to do the export thing is just make all your audio tracks play end to end and then export one big long audio file, then chop it in PT

[warble]

Originally Posted by campersand

Warble: What's Cubase's other export option? I scoured the help file and the web and couldn't figure out any other way to do this.

I was referring to OMF, but that could be an issue if the PT studio your stuff is getting mixed in doesn't have to ability to import the project - which I don't think PT has natively. But apparently OMF is buggy no matter what app you're using (can't verify this myself cause I don't have the need to do it), so I guess I'm done here.

[moelar2]

Originally Posted by legionserial

PS - Just a thought, but when you mix down a track at a time, are you mixing down from the master out, while muting the tracks you dont want/soling the one you do? Or are you in the mixdown window selecting the specific track to output the mixdown from? You may find the latter quicker as it doesn't have to run a bunch of muted tracks through itself aswell. Especially if you are running 40 or so tracks. Otherwise you are technically doing a full mixdown of everything everytime, only with certain things muted.

However I should say that this is a mere guess and it may not make any difference. Worth a try tho

Could you elaborate a little more on this process? As far as I knew, the only way to export was through the export function, which essentially, as you stated, is a muted mixdown.

[xstatic]

Originally Posted by altitude909

the other way to do the export thing is just make all your audio tracks play end to end and then export one big long audio file, then chop it in PT

This seems to me that it would take MUCH longer, as well as leave a lot of room for timing errors later. Not to mention you would be on the clock at the other studio paying for a lot of unnecessary editing.....