I want to use an outboard comp for parallel drum compression. I have setup the option to create an external FX bus in cubase 5 with the correct send and return channel assignments. This is where I think im screwing up, I create a group track (drum group), insert the external comp on that channel, Then on the individual drum channels use the sends to route signal to the drum group channel, create a new stereo track, then from the drum group send signal to the new stereo track so i can record the processed drums. It works but just seems to complicated, anyone have a better or correct way of going about this?
Routing external FX in your DAW
- Thread starter musickey
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Mikaël-ange
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- Nov 7, 2008
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You need to bounce on real time and import back to a new track imo.
Don't know on cubase5 but it's how it work on my old sx3. Hope this help...
Don't know on cubase5 but it's how it work on my old sx3. Hope this help...
HeadCrusher
Member
Lasse Lammert
HCAF Blitzkrieg
I always exported (realtime) that track in cubase and imported it back into the DAW. that way I could also doublecheck the phase.
I don't trust cubace with latency compensation....
for example was I always wondering why people think blending amps (from the same DI) sounds good...sounded always horrible and phasey to my ears....until I tried it in PTHD....that makes me think that the phase in cubase (at least 4) is not as accurate as it should be, so I always ex- and imported just to make extra sure.
but your way of doing it is correct....set up a group track, insert the comp (doesn't matter if it's hardware or software), send the individual tracks to that group/aux (you might wanna send them PRE fader though...that way you can send more snare and less overheads than you're using on your "dry" tracks for example.
whether you wanna record into the project or export in realtime and re-import shouldn't make a difference....if you trust cubase and don't need the comp for anything else until you're finished with that project you could just use the aux/group/bus without printing it of course.
I don't trust cubace with latency compensation....
for example was I always wondering why people think blending amps (from the same DI) sounds good...sounded always horrible and phasey to my ears....until I tried it in PTHD....that makes me think that the phase in cubase (at least 4) is not as accurate as it should be, so I always ex- and imported just to make extra sure.
but your way of doing it is correct....set up a group track, insert the comp (doesn't matter if it's hardware or software), send the individual tracks to that group/aux (you might wanna send them PRE fader though...that way you can send more snare and less overheads than you're using on your "dry" tracks for example.
whether you wanna record into the project or export in realtime and re-import shouldn't make a difference....if you trust cubase and don't need the comp for anything else until you're finished with that project you could just use the aux/group/bus without printing it of course.
You use sends to send the drums to the drum group channel? You don't set the output of the drum tracks to the group?
Why?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but if you use sends to send the audio to a group channel, the signal is also being sent to the master bus through the track's output at the same time...Which seems not be what you'd want to do?
Sorry, OT to the intent of your thread.
Yeah Nate i use the sends becouse i want to hear the "dry drums" and processed at the same time, i just route the output of the group to a unused output so it isnt sent to the 2 bus twice. the additional stereo track that is recieving the processed signal is the only one being sent to the 2 bus. i know that seems fucked up, but thats the only way i can think of to do it.
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
The other day I had dual mic'ed a cabinet. I tried my best to physically phase match them as much as I could. When summed together they always sounded off and boxy. So we ran a click through the amp to phase match them visually. Turns out one mic was 5 SAMPLES behind the other one. We nudged it forward and it sounded fuckin great.
Phase is an absolute bitch...
Also, the way to do what you want to do here in real time is to create an FX track. Put your hardware comp as the first insert on that FX track. Now from your individual drum channels or your drum bus simply set up sends to that FX track, and send as much as you want over to the compressor. Boingo, instant parallel comp. As Lasse mentioned this puts a lot of faith in Cubase to handle latency compensation accurately, which it may not do.
Hey Ermz, I did initially tried setting it like you mentioned, the only problem was that using an FX channel would only allow me to export with the dry drums being mixed with compressed signal? I want to be able to hear the dry drums, and processed drums at the same time, so i can adjust the comp settings so it blends better, And then print just the compressed track and move on to another group and so on.
