Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

So I have a project in the r16 with 4 mono files. I open Cubase and import the tracks, then make some changes to them. I copy the files from the pc to the r16 but the r16 still plays the original unprocessed tracks even after I've assigned the new tracks. In Cubase the project plays the processed tracks fine HOWEVER I see from the Cubase manual (page 113) something about the processing of clips not affecting the original imported files but, even so, the data in the files matches i.e. modified time etc. so I'm very, very puzzled.

You STILL have to "render" the tracks BACK out to .wav's to "burn in" any effects you might have within Cubase.

And you must render them out individually.

IF you have a Master Track within Cubase and you have some processing on that particular track, and you render the individual tracks out you might ALSO miss whatever processing needs to happen from the Master Track (like compression/limiting, etc.).

Probably the safest way to approach this is to EITHER:

1. do any and all processing on each track individually within Cubase and then render them out individually and skip using a Master Track altogether.

OR

2. Still do processing on individual tracks and if you have a Master Track, then simply render each track individually out THROUGH the Master Track by muting all other tracks and just render a single track through the Master Track.

In other words, if you have 4 mono tracks within Cubase AND a Master Track, then you'd put whatever processing you want on each track's FX bin, as well as whatever processing you have on the Master Track. Then, when you're ready to render the tracks out, you mute Tracks 2, 3, and 4, but leave Track 1 and the Master Track UN-muted and render the file out that way. Then UN-mute Track 2 (and Mute Tracks 1, 3, and 4) and render out Track 2 (and so on for Tracks 3 and 4).

It all has to do with signal routing and today's DAW's (Cubase included) give you such freedom and routing possibilities that you HAVE to "render" whatever processing you need because the DAW's are designed to be sort of "hands off" of the original .wav's. In other words, you have to do some extra steps to get the original .wav's processed into new .wav's (which I would probably do anyway...rather than write over the existing .wav's).

Hope that makes sense!

Ok, so as I don't have a master track in Cubase then I think the following option of yours is the best.........

1. do any and all processing on each track individually within Cubase and then render them out individually and skip using a Master Track altogether.

My problem is just the phrase "render them out individually". How do I do that?

Sorry for my ignorance.

[quote="theenglishman"]
My problem is just the phrase "render them out individually". How do I do that?
/quote]

In the manual for Cubase LE 4, it is the chapter for "Export Audio Mixdown" (I never got the Cubase registration system to work, so can't prove it).

You would need a mono "output bus", make sure only one track is soloed (others are muted; you could have all tracks loaded in parallel for testing purposes to a stereo bus, but use a mono bus and solo track when exporting).

The export operation creates a new file (unless you made the mistake of using the same file name for output) /applying/ all the compressors, levels, etc. to the active track(s).

Yeah...sorry about that. The correct term is "export" (or "export mixdown") in the Cubase world.

The term "render" is more of a generic term for taking a bunch of tracks and blending them together to create a mixed down output. Kind of like taking a bunch of chicken parts and blending them together in a big vat (e.g., "render").

"Render" is also used in the video world for taking the various clips and what-not and rendering out a final output video.

But there you go..."Export" your way to happiness!

Thanks to you both, testing to begin.

Ok, nearly there I think? So I've set up a mono output bus, then selected the range of the track I want to output and exported it. When I've imported and assigned in the r16 though I hear silence The only thing I noticed is that the file extension was in lower case so I renamed it in upper case but the file length, data size, date modified etc all looked ok, so puzzled again, sorry!

Presume the output was in WAV format, in a bit-depth and sample-rate compatible with the Rx project settings?

What does double-clicking on the file from (I'm assuming a Windows machine) do? I'd expect a WAV file to open something like Windows Media Player -- Does it play from there?

If you create a new project in Cubase and load this file, does it play?

On the Rx, did you run the fader control all the way up and down before setting a desired level? The faders are not direct controls since you can swap banks and don't want the setting on one bank to affect the other. As a result, you have to move the faders far enough to "catch" whatever level the track/bank currently has, before the fader will affect the level.

I've seen this before with Cubase. It has to do with the "Record Enable" and "Monitor" buttons inside Cubase.

Last time this happened to me, I attempted to Export with both of those buttons turned ON. In other words, the Record Enable button was red and the Monitor button was orange.

You must turn both of them OFF. Usually clicking on the Record Enable button will turn them both OFF (so that they are not colored).

I don't know WHY this is...and perhaps it has something to do with my particular installation of Cubase, but in MY case, when those two buttons were turned ON and I Exported to a .wav file, the resulting .wav file was empty/silent. When I turned those two buttons OFF and Exported, then the resulting .wav was exactly like it was supposed to be.

I've attached two screenshots showing the difference. Hope it works for you.

Thanks to you both, testing again