Routing one track into another?

M

Mike_OHara

New member
Hi folks

I've been using Cubase SX3 for a while now, but there's one thing I've never been able to figure out how to do (and I'm not even sure if it's possible or not).

Basically, I'd like to know if its possible to somehow select as the input of an Audio track, the output of another audio track, i.e. to bus the output of one audio track into the input of another one

I know I can create a new Audio track by exporting the audio from existing tracks, but is this the only way to do it?

Am I missing something?

Cheers

Mike
 
I think what you need are group channels, if I understand your question correctly. Just go to project, add track, and then add a group channel. Then you can send any channel you want through the group channel by selecting the output on the regular channels to be set for the group channel, which would then be normally routed to the main outs, or whatever you need it for. Hope that this helped. :)
 
Thanks for the quick response :)

That's not exactly what I want to achieve though.

What I want is to actually create a new Audio track from the (effected) output of an existing Audio track, which I know you can do in Pro Tools & Logic, but you don't seem to be able to do in Cubase, unless you do an Export -> Audio Mixdown
 
Ah, I see. Now, if I understand you correctly this time, you want to permanantly apply an effect to an audio file? If you go to the audio menu, then plugins, you can permanantly apply an effect to a file. If you wanted 2 copies of it, one effected, and one dry, then you could just copy the file, and only apply it to one of the files. IF I understand you correctly! (I tend to think differently than most people. :rolleyes: ) And if not, I get one more try, right? :D
 
Yep, you've understood me correctly this time I think :)

And the solution you've suggested would work in most cases, BUT...

Maybe I should explain exactly what I'm trying to do. I have a vocal take that needs LOTS of tuning. Re-tracking is not an option.

So I'm using Autotune in graphical mode, to fix the various syllables that need fixing. It's not really an option to try to fix the whole track at once, I need to work on each phrase separately.

In Pro-Tools or Logic, I'd just pick the phrase I want to treat, apply my changes in AutoTune and route the output to a new audio track. Then I'd do the same with the next phrase (routed to the same track) and so on. But I don't seem to be able to do that in Cubase.

I know there are workarounds (export audio etc), but being able to route the audio from the track I'm treating to a new track would be a much more elegant solution, if it is indeed possible within Cubase.

Thanks in advance...

Mike
 
Perhaps (although I'm sure cause I've never searched) there's a function to apply all the insert effects to the audio at once. I know this function exists for MIDI, like first inserting a ramdomizer plugin and then actually putting the randomized data in the midi track. However, the easiest solution to your problem seems cutting the vocal track into parts and putting each part into it's on track. You will have to use a new AutoTune plugin for every track, but if that's too much processing for your computer, you can do one part, freeze the plugin (so the effect is applied to the audio, and the plugin does no processing untill it is unfrozen), and work on the next part.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing, i.e.

1) Apply the AutoTune effect to the part I'm working on, which is currently on track 4
2) Solo track 4
3) Export > Audio, which creates a new track 5 containing the treated vocal
4) Go to the next part that needs tuning on track 4 and apply AutoTune
5) Solo track 4
6) Export > Audio, which creates a new track 6 containing the treated vocal
7) Move the new part from track 6 to track 5
8) Delete track 6
9) Repeat steps 4 to 8 until I've treated the whole track. Track 5 now contains my tuned vocal.

Just wondered if there was an easier way...

Thanks for all the help

Mike.
 
Here's another idea. Using the scissors tool, cut the audio at points that you'd want to apply different FX. Onc you've cut them, right-click on the phrase and select Audio->Bounce selection. When the dialog asks if you want to replace the region, say OK (I don't remember the exact phrasing, not at the music computer right now). This will create a new audio file that contains just that region. Now, you can double click on it to open up the wave editor (which will obviouly only contain the phrase that you wanted), select the whole thing and apply autotune as an offline process to just that part.

BTW, when you want to export an individual track (or an individual VSTi or Group or FX output), you don't need to solo it. In this thread I explain how to do it.
 
Noisewreck is on the right track. I would also add to make a copy of the track first so you can easily go back and forth. I would just cut the portion you want to work on, right click on in it, select plugins and the plug you want to use, do your magic and hit process. Save the FXP so you can use it on other parts as a foundation
 
Why don't you just automate the autotune parameters on the vocal track? You could also automate the effect bypass so that it's not used when it's not needed. You could do it with only one track this way. If you need help with this, let me know.
 
Thanks folks, there's some excellent suggestions there.

Travis, the reason I don't automate anything in AutoTune is that I'm not sure if that's possible in graphical mode.

Basically, what I'm doing is:

1) select the part to edit from my audio track & set start & end points for that part
2) hit the "track pitch" button on AutoTune
3) hit the play button
4) hit the stop button at the end of the part
5) use the various drawing tools in AutoTune to correct the pitch for that part
6) hit the "correct pitch" button in AutoTune
7) hit the play button and listen to the results
8) if it's not right, go back to step 5
9) if it is right, then hit the "correct pitch" button again, and export the audio to my new track (btw Nnoisewreck, thanks for the tip on selecting the output channel - I didn't know that feature was there!)

Can this be automated? I don't think so as it's very much a trial and error process (i.e. steps 5-8)

Mike
 
I'm confused on how having one track routed to another would help you do this, especially being that one track can be routed to another by adding a group track.
 
Travis

I think basically I just have to engage my brain in Cubase mode rather than ProTools mode, then I'll get there.

Ta v.much

Mike
 
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