CUBASE Q&A | How to EASILY COPY PASTE AUTOMATION

In today’s video, I answer 5 questions that were sent to me regarding CUBASE. If you’re a CUBASE user, you will definitely enjoy this video.

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(video transcript)

Check what I have. That was a gift from the people at Steinberg that I met at NAMM. Pretty cool cup. Well, don’t worry, this is not going to be a video talking about a coffee mug, but a Q and A video. Because I received a bunch of questions in the past few weeks, so I decided to make a Q and A video. This time, we’re mainly going to talk about Cubase.

Hey, what’s going on, my friends? Chris here from Mixdown Online. Now, since this video is mainly going to be about Cubase, I have a sponsor, myself. Look at the Ultimate Guide to Cubase, which is my online course. That is all Cubase. So if you want to get control over the software, you want to be a champ on working with Cubase, you can check the Ultimate Guide to Cubase. I’m going to leave the link down below.

All right, so now let’s jump into this video with the first question. “Hi, Chris. Is it possible to copy some automation from one track and paste it on another track?”

All right, so yes, it’s possible, and I am going to show you how I do it. Okay, now I have an automation, a volume automation on this track, and I want to just copy-paste it on this track. Okay, so I’m going to open the automation lane of the bass track that I want to copy the automation on. I’m going to make sure that I’m also on the volume automation right here. So there’s a couple of ways I can do this. First, what I can do is to use the range selection tool, select what I want to … just the region I want to copy, okay, that automation I want to copy. I’m just going to select my automation lane off the track. I’m going to copy from. I’m going to select that region with my range selection tool. Click on control C for copy, and then I’m going to select on the other track where I want to copy that automation on and select that automation lane off that track.

If you pay attention, we have the range that is directly on that automation lane. So from that point on, I’m just going to click on control and V to paste it.There you go. If I click on read, you can see the same automation going on. This is going to copy paste all automation within that range to the exact location, very practical. You can also just copy whatever you want to copy from that automation lane and just use your cursor, okay, or playhead. If you want to just paste it directly on the same track or on the other track, but on a different location, you can just select all of the points, the automation points, control copy, and then select the location where you want to paste it and click on control-V, okay, or command-V if you’re on Mac. This is going to copy paste those automation points on the other track or on the same track.

All right, so now let’s go to the next question. Will direct offline processing be affected if I add pre gain or clip gain after the fact?

Let’s go in Cubase and check it out. Okay, I have a drum loop right here. I’m going to select it, click on F7, which will bring up the direct offline processing window. I’m using the digital compressor that comes with Cubase. So basically, this will affect the audio event directly, and what I can do here is to apply that compressor. So if I want to listen to the effect of that compressor, I just click on audition on top. All right, so now I’m overdoing it just for the sake of this tutorial. So now, I’m going to close my direct offline processing window, and now I have that compressor directly on that audio event.

Okay, now the question is if I want … if I’m adding pre gain or clip gain for that matter, is that going to affect what’s coming into the direct offline processing window, okay? The answer is no. Once you have that processing on your clip, on your event, if you pre gain afterwards or clip gain afterwards, it’s not going to matter. The signal is still going to be compressed the same as it was before, okay? So if I bring my clip gain down, okay, listen to that, the effect of the compressor, it’s still there.

Okay, I’m going to bring it back up and then let’s pre gain that. Lower. It doesn’t matter. It’s still … I still get the same amount of compression of the direct offline processing option, okay. The reason is very simple. When you use direct offline processing, that will affect the audio event that was recorded, okay. So even if you add some pre gain or clip gain, the signal has already been processed before you apply those. So basically, direct offline processing is pre pre gain and pre clip gain, pre insert, pre everything. Basically, it affects the audio event itself even before you apply pre gain or clip gain. So if after adding your effects into the direct offline processing, you need to gain stage or signal a bit more, you don’t have to worry. Gain stage your signal. You can use a clip gain. It’s not going to affect whatsoever the effects that you have inserted as direct offline processing, okay. So I hope that helps.

All right, so now let’s go to the next question. Again, in Cubase, how did you make your HC, which is high cut filter and low cut filter gain as a knob instead of a bar?

Okay, let me explain to you what that means. Basically, if we go into a channel settings window, we have DEQ right in the middle of that window, and at the bottom we have the parameters of that EQ. As you can see, they have the look of knobs instead of bars, okay. So if you want to change that around and you’re working with Cubase 10.5, what you need to do is just to go on the top right of that EQ section window and click on equalizer settings. Then you’ll be able to select between knobs or sliders, okay. This is what you’re going to get between the two, okay.

So if you prefer to have the slider type look, just select the controls as slider, or if you’re like me and you like the knob look, just select the controls as knobs. Now, if you’re working in a previous version of Cubase, because this is only for Cubase 10.5, what you need to do if you’re working with 10 or 9.5 or Cubase 9 and so on, you need to go on the top right of the equalizer window and you’ll see a green arrow that is aiming down. That green icon, that green arrow icon is where you’re going to be able to toggle between those different looks, okay, so very simple.

Now, for the next question. Is there a way to send a signal an FX track pre insert with Cubase? For example, I want to be able to send my signal to a reverb before the signal hits the compressor or EQ, etc. Thanks again.

Now, the quick answer to this is no, there’s no option that will allow you to send a signal pre insert. When he talks about pre insert, that means that the signal is sent to an FX channel track or a group track before the signal hits the insert section. Because usually, what happens is when you send your signal to an FX channel track … Let me create one just to give you an example here. There you go. So let’s go with this quick FX channel track. Okay, now it’s right here. Okay, so now what’s happening here, if we bring down the sense, okay, we have that signal, the signal of that channel that is going directly into this new FX channel track. Now, what you can do is to send that signal pre fader or post fader, okay.

So that means that if you send the signal pre fader, the signal is going to be sent to that FX channel track before the signal hits the fader. That’s simple. If you add that post fader, that means that the level of the fader will affect the amount of signal sent to that FX channel, okay? So with that said, if you need to send your signal, the signal of a track to your reverb before your signal hits the inserts, what I would do is I would just duplicate that track and make sure that you don’t have any insert on the duplicator track. Okay, so you remove all plugins out of that track, and that this is the track that you’re going to send to your reverb, okay?

What you need to do is to send that pre fader. So if you send that pre fader, you can bring down the fader of that track so you don’t hear it in your mix. Doing so is going to send that signal without any inserts whatsoever to the reverb. By sending that signal pre fader to your FX channel track, you’ll be able to bring down that fader, the channel’s fader of the unprocessed duplicated track. You’ll be able to bring that fader down so you don’t hear it in your mix.

Now, let’s go to the next question. One problem I’m having is getting too much level into the plugin causing clipping in the plugin. Any thoughts about that? Do we ever need to insert a limit there before the compressor?

Now, he’s referring to my video on the vintage compressor. So now the problem that he has is he’s getting way too much signal coming into the compressor. So basically, what I’m going to do here … Let me just get rid of that track, and let’s look at what we have here on the drum loop track that I have here. Okay, I’m going to insert the vintage compressor, and this is the plugin he is referring to. So now, if you have too much signal coming into that compressor, and I’ve talked about that before, there’s a gain staging problem somewhere. That means that the signal coming into the compressor is way too loud. So what’s happening is maybe your recording is a bit too loud, okay? So maybe you need to gain stage the signal of your track down, okay, so you have a bit more control on what’s coming into your plugins.

For example, if you need to do so, you can clip gain down your actual event like this, or you can also use pre gain like we’ve seen earlier. Okay, by using pre gain, that will bring down the level of that track before the signal hits the insert section, so that is another way to do it. Maybe the problem is not that. Maybe your gain staging is good when you started your mix, and maybe it’s the plugin that comes before your compressor that is the problem. For example, on this track, I have this studio EQ that comes before the vintage compressor, so I don’t know. Check it out. Maybe your output … There’s an output level here. Maybe the output is way too high and you need to bring it down to balance your signal, the output signal of that plugin before it hits the compressor, okay?

So this is something that you need to check out. Check the plugins that comes before your compressor just to make sure the output of those plugins are not too loud, so there you go. This way, you’re going to avoid flipping your plugins, so I hope that helps.

All right, so this is going to be it for today. I hope that was helpful. If so, share, like, subscribe, leave your comments, your questions down below. Also, don’t forget that if you want to dive into Cubase way more and you want to gain control over the software, I have my Ultimate Guide to Cubase online course that is available. I’m going to leave the link down below. It has helped so far more than 500 people, okay, with more than 11 hours of video footage, all Cubase. Okay, so the Ultimate Guide to Cubase link is down below. All right my friends, until next time, take care and see you.