CUBASE : is there a simple way to paste edits from one track to another ?

[TRUIE]

Hi,
There's a thing that's driving me nuts lately.
I use the old Cubase Studio 5 version.

I have this bass DI track ready to be reamped, with all the blank parts cut and sometimes some fades too :

Then, I reamp it through a bunch of amps, stomps...etc and I end up with this :

Now the question is :
Is there a quick way to copy/paste all the edits made on the original BASS DI track toward all of the reamped tracks ?

I already know and use the "Lasse Beat Detective macro", but it doesn't copy the fades, and can be pretty time consuming if you have a lot of edits/blanks parts and stuff like that.

If someone knows how to do that (if only there's a way to do it...), I would be so grateful as this will save me a lot of time.

 

[the1984]

If you've baked the fades to the DI you're reamping, they will do their thing when you send to an amp/sim/etc.

Best way to strip the noise is to select the event(s), right click, detect silence (which I believe is under the "advanced" menu).

That's the way I've been doing it for years; then just go back in and re-fade things that of course, change because of the added sustain inherent when going to an amp or sim.

 

[JeffTD]

There's a weird hack you can do that involves re-naming things and tricking the DAW into thinking it's editing a different file.

1. Duplicate the track and consolidate the new one (in this case, duplicate it a few times since you need to repeat these steps for every track that needs the edits).
2. Use the inspector view up top to rename the file to something like "edit_to_apply". Save and close Cubase.
3. Go into your "Audio" folder and delete that "edit_to_apply" file.
4. Find the file you want the edits applied to and rename it "edit_to_apply". Make sure it's in the Audio folder.
5. Load up the session - the DAW will have that same region/edits but will be now applying it to the other file.

This trick has saved my ass on many occasions where people have sent me drum tracks but left out a single mic and didn't realize it until I'd already edited half the album.


That said, if you've already edited the DI and just reamped the tracks I don't think editing stuff out is necessary unless the amp was super hissy or something.

 

[TRUIE]

Thank you guys for your replies.
Like I feared, there isn't a simple way to do this, something like "select track1, apply edits to track2".

the1894 : the "detect silence" function is nice for simple tasks/tracks where bass or guitars are almost always playing, but needs a lot of checks if the track is more complex (think about djent stuff with a lot of stop/play things).
It's also very important for me to apply the exact same processing on something that will use parallel tracks like bass, and this function will give slightly different results depending on the tracks (I know it will be very close but not EXACTLY the same ).

Jeff : I was hoping an answer from you on this one
Actually I was thinking about something like this (like creating a new project with the bass DI track only, then replacing the "BASS DI.wav" with one amp track with the same name, then open the project, rename the source file within Cubase, and finally copy/paste all of the edits/regions to the right project).

Your method seems simpler and quicker, but I'm not sure I understand it well.
Actually, it's mostly about your step1.
Are you talking about duplicating the original DI track or the reamped ones ?
And why consolidating ? If I do this, I will lost all the edits, right ?

Finally, I'm OK with this most of the time as I do it by hand or with the detect silence function, but right now I'm working on a djent album with LOTS of edits and blank parts every fucking second, and I want it to sound very clean and accurate so...

 

[TRUIE]

OK Jeff,
I thought more about this, and the only thing that I don't understand is the "consolidate the new one" part.

If I duplicate the source track, then I can only :
- "bounce selection", which kills all the regions/edits by creating one big file
- "events to part", won't work because it doesn't create a new file
- "convert to real copy", it create a new file for each part so I'm fucked

I understand the logic behind your method (duplicate a track, then consolidate/create a new source file while keeping all the edits/parts, then replacing this source file with the reamped track), but I don't find how to do that consolidating step.

Maybe it's a restriction with the version I use ?
Or I misunderstand something ?
How do consolidate ? ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[JeffTD]

Consolidate = bounce selection. You want your edited DI as one big edited DI but you want to preserve the edits. Duplicate the edited track once and bounce the selection so you have your edited DI track but still the tracks with the edits in the regions. Then start renaming that one to match the others you want edits applied to.

 

[TRUIE]

Oooh OK now I get it.
Not as convenient as I thought, but it might help.

If you use this in a "drum editing + forgotten track added later" scenario, you have to be fucking sure of your edits as you're obliged to "sacrifice" your source track, and you won't be able to go back later on what have been already done.
But it's better than nothing.

Anyway, thank you for your help !

 

[JeffTD]

Oooh OK now I get it.
Not as convenient as I thought, but it might help.

If you use this in a "drum editing + forgotten track added later" scenario, you have to be fucking sure of your edits as you're obliged to "sacrifice" your source track, and you won't be able to go back later on what have been already done.
But it's better than nothing.

Anyway, thank you for your help !

No, you don't need to sacrifice the source track; you can rename it something like "edited_source_track" and leave it all chopped up and shit and duplicate that.

 

[JeffTD]

The other thing to consider if you're just editing silence out is to set the cursor snap to "events" rather than 'grid' and manually chop it up.

 

[TRUIE]

No, you don't need to sacrifice the source track; you can rename it something like "edited_source_track" and leave it all chopped up and shit and duplicate that.

Of course, but then you have to bounce it, so you make all the edits you've done on that track permanents (for that track).
That's what I mean when talking about "sacrifice".
Or I still don't get it ?

The other thing to consider if you're just editing silence out is to set the cursor snap to "events" rather than 'grid' and manually chop it up.

It can also be a solution if you need to be perfectly accurate to the source track.
I recently found this "snap to events" option (after many years of use ) and it's pretty nice for a lot of things !

Still, the "BD cut" macro is fucking ace too (snap to next event > cut on cursor > snap to next event).

 

[JeffTD]

Of course, but then you have to bounce it, so you make all the edits you've done on that track permanents (for that track).
That's what I mean when talking about "sacrifice".
Or I still don't get it ?


It can also be a solution if you need to be perfectly accurate to the source track.
I recently found this "snap to events" option (after many years of use ) and it's pretty nice for a lot of things !

Still, the "BD cut" macro is fucking ace too (snap to next event > cut on cursor > snap to next event).

I mean you take the tracks with all the edits, duplicate it once and bounce the duplicate so it's a permanent track. Then you go back to the original that's still all chopped up and duplicate it again to rename as the blank file to apply edits to other tracks after renaming. Just staying safe by bouncing the original edits and tucking them away .

I haven't made that macro; I need to. Jesus.

 

[mickrich]

I use Logic but there is a trick for doing this.
Need to know 2 things before it will work though.
1. When you select multiple regions in Cubase, is the blank area between the regions also selected or just the regions ?
2. Does cubase have an option for no overlap where regions are trimmed if you copy another region on top ?

 

[mickrich]

You inspired me to do a tutorial for doing this in Logic.
Not sure if this method will work in Cubase but have a look and check for yourself.
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/f-o-h/958453-copy-track-edits-logic.html#post10924919

 

[TRUIE]

I mean you take the tracks with all the edits, duplicate it once and bounce the duplicate so it's a permanent track. Then you go back to the original that's still all chopped up and duplicate it again to rename as the blank file to apply edits to other tracks after renaming. Just staying safe by bouncing the original edits and tucking them away .

I haven't made that macro; I need to. Jesus.

Hmmm still a bit confuse about this.
I don't understand why you duplicate the original again, as both track (the original then the copy) will target the same file, so any file renaming within Cubase will affect both tracks, and any file change made from outside Cubase will affect both tracks too.

Let's say we have :
- a BASS DI track, all chopped up and with manual fades applied in some places, using one big BASS DI.wav source file
- a BASS AMP track, one big part, using a BASS AMP.wav source file
Can you explain step by step how the hell you proceed to have a BASS DI track AND a BASS AMP track, with the same cuts and fades at the same time in Cubase ?

Sorry to be that slow
But I want to perfectly understand it, as I'm sure I'll have the same issue with drum editing one day.

 

[TRUIE]

You inspired me to do a tutorial for doing this in Logic.
Not sure if this method will work in Cubase but have a look and check for yourself.
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/f-o-h/958453-copy-track-edits-logic.html#post10924919

Interesting,
Thank you for this !
I'm pretty sure Cubase has a "no overlap" function, I'll try to apply this !
The only downside is that you won't copy the fades from the original, only the cuts.
Seems even faster than the BD cut macro, where you have to hammer your shortcut and still need to check if everything went OK in the end, and it doesn't copy the fades too.

EDIT : OK the delete overlap thing works perfectly in Cubase !
I just had to set a shortcut to activate / deactivate the option, because most of the times I want events to overlap (when editing / fading...etc).
For Cubase users : just go to preferences > edition > tick the box "delete overlap" (don't know the exact words in english but it should be something like that)

Thank you a lot mickrich, that's a great new tool to use

 

[exoslime]

Hmmm still a bit confuse about this.
I don't understand why you duplicate the original again, as both track (the original then the copy) will target the same file, so any file renaming within Cubase will affect both tracks, and any file change made from outside Cubase will affect both tracks too.

Let's say we have :
- a BASS DI track, all chopped up and with manual fades applied in some places, using one big BASS DI.wav source file
- a BASS AMP track, one big part, using a BASS AMP.wav source file
Can you explain step by step how the hell you proceed to have a BASS DI track AND a BASS AMP track, with the same cuts and fades at the same time in Cubase ?

Sorry to be that slow
But I want to perfectly understand it, as I'm sure I'll have the same issue with drum editing one day.

look at the edited up track as a kind of mask only..

the filename that is used in the track is your variable "X"

you duplicate the chopped up track and consolidate into a new file containing all the edits like BASS DI Edited.wav.

as you duplicated the track, you still have the original edited track with all the edits

now you go into your audio directory of the project and replace the file "X" that is used in the original edited track, for example with the BASS DI.wav. you still keep your original BASS DI. wav but you rename it to something BASS DI XX.wav

than rename BASS AMP.wav to BASS DI.wav

open up your cubase project in it, and cubase thinks that BASS DI is Bass DI, but of course its not, its now BASS Amp track, but you fooled it, lol
so you you duplicate the editet rack again, and you consolidate it to render all the edits into it, and you name it like BASS AMP Edited.wav
voila done..

one important detail is, that all the files you work with that way, must have the exact same lenght, starts, etcs.. so that they will match of course

 

[TRUIE]

Yeah, I got it and did it like that with success.
But, correct me if I'm wrong, with this method you necessarily end up with one chopped track and one bounced track (with the edits and fades applied).
I want to end up with 2 chopped tracks, just in case, if I want to change the fades / cuts / wathever on both tracks later.

 

[exoslime]

Yeah, I got it and did it like that with success.
But, correct me if I'm wrong, with this method you necessarily end up with one chopped track and one bounced track (with the edits and fades applied).
I want to end up with 2 chopped tracks, just in case, if I want to change the fades / cuts / wathever on both tracks later.

yep, you are right, you only have one chopped up track, if you really want to have more chopped up tracks in the cubase project you could do this

duplicate the track into a new project (and of course different project folder)
rename the filename in cubase (not in finder or explorer) so that the reference in cubase and the real filename changes, now you can apply the replace trick again (and you dont need to rename it in explorer finder anymore, as you already renamed the reference in cubase)
and then just copy this track back into your original project onto a new track

now you have 2 chopped up tracks with different filenames referenced