Help With Cubase Routing!

[josereyes]

hello all! can anyone shed some light on the routing issues that i've been having? i'm using cubase sx3 and i've just aquired some great plug-ins that i would like to use to simulate an external preamp/compressor. now it's my knowledge that i should be able to set up a kind of two track system, where i use the first of the two tracks with the preamp/compressor plug in, and then send that signal to record in track two, which could also have effects (reverb, dist., etc.). i have not been able to figure out how to route track one to track two though! i have tried creating new busses and sending those to corresponding ins and outs but not really getting it... another scenario: i want to be able to route my guitar, bass, and drum tracks to record on another instrument track so as to not have to export and render, just pull from project audio folder, like protools. kind of the same routing issue as the first scenario, yea? please! any help with this would be much appreciated!

[tacman7]

This doesn't need to be done in one take.

What I've been doing:

I hear my guitar through the FX but record dry.

I use a group bus to add FX. Playback of the track goes to the same bus, so record and playback sound the same.

Depending on how many tracks etc. I can just leave this alone and use it for the final mix as is.

But usually I want different tracks and things so I do an export. An export of the guitar bus so it gets the FX and export it back to the pool and to a track. Then I mute/delete the dry recording I had, and start over with a new guitar part.

[josereyes]

Thanks for the reply! Yes I see what you're suggesting and that would totally work. But why would you have to use a group track? Couldn't you just use a regular stereo track, send to FX track, and export from there? Why the group track?

[tacman7]

I just got used to using groups, one for vox and one for guitar.

If you do a lot of takes and different sections etc. it can make sense. But there's no right way to go about it, what ever works. Like for vocals I use a monitor track, that just sits there with the monitor button on so I can hear myself. Then I have two tracks setup to record. Usually just use the one unless I'm doing a harmony part.

I have button controls for my transport down by my hand so record a take, listen to it delete it, record new take is each done with one button push. So by having the monitor track I can listen without having to hit the monitor button every time. Trying to get the least amount of work because it can take me a lot of takes.

I put the tracks in a folder so it doesn't get so messy.

You could argue for the FX on tracks approach if you had different fx for different parts.
That way a track could hold fx settings, you would have lots of instances of plugins but they would be turned off till needed. I usually make wav files(as discussed) to lighten the processing load.

Groups are also nice for mixing so you can have one track with automation (I use the group) then I can change the track feeding the group if I want to lower/raise the overall guitar/vox but still use the same automation.

[josereyes]

Cool man thanks! Another question... What goes where in the effects chain? I experimented a bit and found that for me, things worked best when I routed two guitar tracks to a group channel and then put my SSL compressor to the group as an insert effect. Now, if I wanted to use say a distortion on both guitar tracks as a send to an effects track pre group compression, I would have to insert the distortion in the group and then send the group to the compressor which would then go directly out to monitors right? I want the dry audio track to go first to an effects track then send that to the group compressor and then go out. Is the way I've set up my signal chain correct/appropriate/most efficient?