8 CUBASE TIPS That Will Increase Your MIXING Workflow

let's talk about eight cubase mixing tips to increase your workflow what is going on my friends chris selim here from mixdown online if you are new here on the channel feel free to subscribe to the channel and to click the notification bell so you don't miss anything and for all of you share and a like if you enjoy this video okay let's talk about those mixing tips the workflow is something very important when mixing if you want to speed up your mixing time you know the time it takes for you to mix a song having tools to work with that will increase your workflow is going to be very useful and those are what i want to share with you today so if you are using cubase you are definitely gonna love this one so let's jump in cubase and start with tip number one import tracks from project now this is an amazing feature that we have in cubase that was implemented in version 10 but they upgraded it in version 10.5 and now it is like like for me it's a kind of a no-brainer i use this feature on a regular basis let's check my mix session here i have this channel okay so this is a ks new york which is a parallel compression effects channel track that i use for kicks and snare i have my uad dbx 160. um let's say i don't want to use this plugin but i want to go back to one previous mix that i did not too long ago where i use another plug-in chain to achieve the same type of effect so i want to go back and import that channel straight into this mix session so what i'm going to do is first to go into file click on import and click on tracks from project then i'm going to look for my other mix project where i want to import that channel into my new project so let me check i'm going to open this project which is the one that i'm looking for and then it is going to show me the import options window so i have all of the tracks listed on the left side of this window those are all the channels that i have on this uh this old mixing session and now i'm gonna choose the channel or the track that i want to import into my current mixing session in this case it is this one it has the same name so i kind of always use the same name structure most of the time for these uh these effects channel tracks so i'm going to select this one and then i'm going to check the destination track so this is where this is actually the track it is going to create in my current mix session now i have the choice between a new track and i also have the choice to select an existing channel in my current session so i can only import the data of that channel into the current one and this is very powerful so let me show you so if i keep this one the destination track at new track what this is gonna do it's gonna import this selected channel into my current mix session on its own okay so i'm gonna have like one extra channel that is gonna be this one imported straight into my current session which can be what i want you know but in this case this is not what i'm looking for what i'm looking to do in this case is to only import the data of that channel into my current one in the one i'm using on the current mixing session so what i'm going to do here is i'm going to click on new track and i'm going to select the channel okay the track where i want to import that data into so it has the same name like i told you i most of the time use the same name structure and so i can simply select this channels so i'm going to import into the destination track all the data from the source track that simple something else that you can also do if you have the same name structure going on from one from the source the source project to the destination project you can simply click on select matching right here and that will by itself it's going to find that track in the destination project that has the same name as the one that you want to import and there you go it's gonna it's gonna select it right away now if i look on the right side the channel and inspector settings is gonna be checked on if you were to import instead of an effects channel track or a group track if you were to import an audio track that is possible you have the choice then to also import the events and parts of that specific audio channel that you want to import into your session and also even for this fx channel track i can also import the automation from this channel if i want to so this is also something very useful so once i am done i can just click on ok and check on the left side of the window what is going to happen to this effects channel track now i have my new plug-in chain that replaced the original plug-in that was inserted on this channel so this kind of feature helps me a lot with my mixing workflow every time i need to go into a project to import one the data of one channel or several channels or just to import one or several channels at the same time into my current project i just use this feature and you know everything is done in a very quick time now let's jump on tip number two using more than one mix console yes you heard me in cubase we have the choice of three mix consoles to work with if we click on studio on top as you can see we have the regular mix console and we also have mix console two mix console three okay so it allows us to work with several mixed consoles this can be useful especially in a situation where you have more than one computer monitor you can actually set up one of the mixed consoles two let's say just to show the group channel tracks for example so let's say let's open my mix console number two and let's bring this one and set this one up to so it only sees the group channels and this is what i'm gonna get i can actually bring that one to my second monitor or i can do the same for inputs your input channels which can be practical especially when recording also you know let's uh take the other one you know the other mixed console and this one let's click on configuration right here and i'm going to select uh all the fx channel tracks you know and there you go so now i have three mixed consoles so that can be useful that can be useful to speed up your workflow for sure again very useful if you have more than one computer monitor now talking about the mixed console my good friend dom segalas made an awesome video not too long ago sharing tips on the mix console so if you want to take a look i'm going to leave the link down below let's jump on tip number three let's use the mix console in the project window by activating the lower zone right here on top so by activating the lower zone you will have that zone at the bottom and at the bottom left of that zone we have the mix console tab and there you go now i have a version of the mix console visible from the the lower zone of my project window you can actually resize this zone if you want to so this can be also very useful if you prefer to work from the project window when you mix this way you always have a visual of the mix console in the same window so that can also be very useful let's jump on tip number four using zones in the mix console alright so now let's open the mix console now for this feature this is something that i get a lot of questions on and actually made a specific video a couple of years ago talking about this feature only so there it is as you can see when i browse within my channels on my mix console i have some channels on the right side and the left side of my mix console that are staying static they're not moving so this is a very cool feature that we have in cubase so basically how that works you need to make sure that the left zone is open the left zone you can activate it by clicking on the show and hide left zone on the top right of the mix console and that will open up the left zone then you have two tabs at the bottom one is channel and the other one is zone so select zones now you have the list of channels on the left and you have three uh dots here okay three circled icons the one in the middle is the default channel position this is where the channels are in the middle of those three zones and then we have the channel to left edge and also the attached channel to right edge and so if for example i want to bring my reference track now my reference track is set up to be attached to the left edge of the mix console so that's why it is right here to the left and it's not moving when i move the center channels okay and same for the right end of the mixer console where i have all of my instrument busses if you look closely all of them are straight going to the attached channel to right edge and that's why they are not moving and they are staying static on the right side of my mix console very very practical something else that you can do since we already talked about having the mix console a visual of the mix console in the project window once you have your layout uh set up okay with uh with your the left edge and the right edge of your mix console you can click on top right here the sync mix console and project make sure this is active so this way once you get back to the project window you will have the same layout from the mix console down in the lower zone okay so don't forget you just need to go on top right here and click on sync project and mix console you can also do this for mix console number two if you want the second mix console to be the one that shows in the lower zone just select mix console number two to this sync visibility option here okay so this is how you can work this out for the lower zone let's jump to tip number five using custom key commands key commands are super important to increase your workflow when recording when editing and especially when mixing something that i'm going to suggest you to do is to learn the default cubase key commands i'm going to leave a link down in the description if you want to download the main default key commands that cubase has to offer now not all cubase commands have a default key command already set up some key commands will have to be set up separately so you'll need to to set those up yourself so if you have like any types of commands that you are using on a regular basis you can use the key command window if you go right on top and click on edit you'll go down to key commands and that will open the key commands window and this is where you're going to have a list the full list of commands that cubase has to offer i'm going to just share with you a couple of commands that i use on a regular basis that i had to create myself one of them is quick link the q-link option this is found right here on the top of the mix console also if you uh you go to the bottom the lower zone uh the mix console lower zone in the project window you also will have the q link if you don't see this window in the lower zone make sure that the mix console toolbar is active and you'll be able to just to click on the show and hide the toolbar to make it appear okay so this is where you're going to find the queue link now the queue link is very useful if you want to select several channels and all together and let's say i just want to bring down the uh the volume of those channels now if i don't want to link them permanently i can use a quick link and just you know bring down those channels at the same time for a quick edit and then just deactivate the q-link and continue mixing so q-link is something very very practical so what i did is i created myself a key command so i went into key commands and i looked for q-link so you basically gonna find q link under under mixer that simple and q link is right here so you can search for the command and most of the time it's gonna lead you to the specific command you select it and then you just click on this black space right here and then click on some keys on your keyboard that you want to assign that command to and click on assign and that's it now mine is a setup to alt and q so if i click on alt and q it is going to activate the q link another very cool feature that i love to use in cubase is to uh to create a bus channel or a group channel track an effects channel track or a vca channel to selected track so i have those four tracks already selected if i right click i'm gonna get that option which is add group channel to selected channels and this is an option that i use a lot during mixing so i had to create myself a key command to speed up my workflow and this is what i did so let's say i want to add a group channel track to select the track what i have to do and this is the one i set up for myself is to click on control shift plus g and that will create a group channel track and this is very cool i have this window popping on and i can um i can create that channel track and if i click on add a track the output of those channels are going to be routed straight into that new group channel track so like if i want to do the same for an effects channel track i set it that up to control shift and f for effects channel track and this is what it shows and it works perfectly so now let's say i want to add a vca fader to those selected tracks same thing i'm going to click on control shift and v and that will create a vca channel for these channels by using only a shortcut to set that up what i did again i went into the key commands window and under mixer you will find the add track to selected effects channel group channel and vca channel and this is where i assign those to my specific key command very very cool so that helps me to increase my workflow like crazy another key command that i created on my side is it to go from one mixer to the other mixer like we saw earlier the defaulty command to get to the mix console is f3 what i did to get to the second mix console is shift f3 and that is going to bring up my mix console number two and for mix console number three i set it that up to control or command f3 and there you go so this this is how i can go from one mix console to another using a key command key commands are very useful and in my opinion are very important to learn and to set up on your own for the main commands that you use on a regular basis now let's look at the next tip create folders to manage your favorite plugins this is something that i like a lot about cubase is to be able to manage your plugin so you don't get lost when it's time to insert a plug-in and especially if you have like a bunch of plug-ins installed on your system so for example if i click on insert on this channel this is what i get i set myself up a chris favorite collection and this is what i have so within folders i have all my favorite limiters trends and designers gates de-essers channel strip delay reverb tape emulation plug-ins console emulation plug-in saturation compression and eq so every time i want to get an eq i'm just going to go and check my list of favorite eqs that i love to work with all of them are going to be there and instead of browsing within the regular effects plugin list so i just set myself a chris favorite and this time it's so fast to get to my to my top favorite plugins it you know i can insert a plug-in in the matter of time which increases my workflow so to do so what you need is to go to a studio go down to plug to vst plug-in manager and on top here on the top right you'll be able to create yourself a new collection so let's create a new one i'm going to create an empty one call this one test i'm going to click on ok and then i can just drag and drop any plugin that i want okay and i can also of course create a folder so let's call this folder test 2 okay so that is going to be a folder within my collection and i can also drag and drop any plugin straight to this folder so this is how i create myself different folders like one for compressors the eqs delays and so on and i just drag and dropped all my plugins related to those folders so you need to take the time to do the job once and afterward you'll always have access to your favorite plugin collection in cubase very useful let's go to the next tip i'm gonna go back on the project window and let's look at the top here we have some channels and i talked about that on other videos but this is the divide track list option which divides your project window into two different sections so there's going to be the main section and the top section here where you can you can have and insert some channels that are going to stay static so this is also very very useful when producing recording and mixing i love that tool i use it all the time so what i do is my reference channel i'm going to leave it on top and also my marker channel if i have a next ruler channel it is going to also be on top and same for channels like signature channels temple channels arranger track and so on those channels are going to stay on top so i always have a visual of in this case of my marker track which is so useful so this is how you can do it you click on this little icon here which is the divide track list icon and by doing so in my case it's going to make the uh the the upper track list disappear but if i want to bring it back again i'm just going to need to click on this divide the track list icon and there you go you'll be able to just drag and drop the channels that you want to to be static on top okay very simple you can also resize this section if you want so very very cool tool to work with now to the last mixing tip color grade your tracks something that i do all the time it's actually part of my mix template i have some color codes for all of those channels mix the effects channels will have their own colors same for my drums the drums will be in blue okay and the darker uh shades of blue will be for group channel tracks that are in that are serving my drum channels okay there are they're gonna have a darker tone of blue and so on then i have my base instruments that will be in a darker tone of pink i have also uh light blue for acoustic guitars orange for my electric guitars that's probably because i recorded so many guitars with the orange amp that i have in the other room um so i have them set up to orange then i have keyboards and pianos which are in a kind of a purple type of color then my lead vocals yellow and back vocals green my instrument busses will have a gray tone and my stereo mix bus will have a dark grey tone that helps me a lot when mixing to identify which group of instruments are in front of me so very easy to go from one group of instruments to the other to color grade your channels what you need to do is to first select the channels you want to color grade then click on top you will see the icon which is going to bring up your color palette and then you simply choose the color of your choice and that color is going to be applied to your selected channels that simple now if you're wondering how i was able to build that color palette it's not too complicated you click on project you go down to project the colors set up and this is where you'll be able to uh to to create yourself your own custom color palette it's not too complicated takes a bit of time but it it works pretty well now if you want to download my own color palette just click on the link down below and you'll be able to download my cubase project an empty cube based project that has this color palette so you can use it on your own the link is down below you can also color grade your channels individually if you want to and this can be done straight from the mix console by clicking on that select selected color icon and you pick the color of your choice and also from the project window if you just click on shift or control on the right end of the channel you will have access to the color palette and you'll be able to pick and choose the color of your choice for that single channel i encourage you to color grade your own tracks with the colors of your choice there you go my friends i hope those tips were helpful if so share like and subscribe to this channel if you are new here if you have any questions comments or if you want to share your own mixing tips you can leave everything down below in the comment section also if you like cubase tips like these check out my online course the ultimate guide to cubase designed to help you get control over the software alright my friends take care and until next time see you

Channel: Chris Selim - Mixdown Online

Views: 19,998

Keywords: audio mixing, chris selim, cubase, cubase pro, home studio, home studio mixing, home studios, mixdown, mixdown online, mixing, mixing audio, mixing tip, mixing tutorials, music, steinberg, tips, tutorial, Cubase 10.5, Cubase tips, Cubase Mixing Tips

Id: OjeLOoSwLO0

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020