Cubase automation

[top sound]

Hi guys
Can anyone tell me how I can record a vocal delay on a track automated it only needs to be there the one time
I've tried searching on you tube and following what other people are doing but i must be doing something wrong
I'm using cubase 7
Help is much appreciated

[Mixedup]

Depends how you have the delay plugin set up. But usually I'd put the delay on an FX Channel. Then create a send from the vocal channel to the delay. Then automate the send level. That way you don't cut off any delay feedback tail (which automating a bypass would, and automating the wet/dry mix on some delay plugins can). Also, this allows you to use the effect for multiple instrument whenever you want. The other way to do it is to create another audio channel and 'mult' or copy the phrases you want to treat to a delay. Then create a send to your delay from that channel. No need to automate then... but you'd need to use the same processing chain as your main vocal track, before the send.

[Mike Craig]

Agreed.
I'm not at my music PC at the moment, but from memory.........

Right click and insert an FX track.
Load your delay plugin to the fx track.
Set your delay parameters making sure to set the delay to 100% wet.
Go back to the audio track that you want to send from and click the "e" to show the track edit window.
On the right hand side, select one of the "sends" boxes and choose the fx track / delay you set up previously.
Select the R and W (read and write) buttons on the edit window (next to the main fader) so that they are both on.
Play the track and alter the amount of "send" using the slider on the right hand side (below the name of your send track / delay fx) in the edit window.
After recording the automation, turn off write automation (W).

Going back to the main window, you should have a new automation track, where you can drag the line which relates to the amount of "send" to the delay plugin. This way you can tweak the amount of delay with respect to time.

Have fun

[top sound]

Right ok I'll try that now that does kind of make sense thanks guys

[top sound]

Ok something isn't working right I've set up the fx send and the fader on the right is controlling the audio volume of the vocals and not the level of the delay
Ideally I'd just like to manually control it to fade in and out with the fader think I'm missing something

[Mike Craig]

Ah, I think I see where you've gone wrong.
You're possibly moving the wrong fader when you are trying to adjust the send level.

Once you've loaded your delay plugin into a send slot, you need to activate it by pressing the "on" button above the slot you've loaded it into.

Next drag the horizontal blue line (slider) underneath the send slot.

The big vertical fader will control the volume of the dry vocal.
The small horizontal slider underneath the send slot will control the amount of vocal that is sent to your delay plugin.

[top sound]

Hi mike got it thanks !
I'm just having trouble getting the vocal to sit in the mix properly I'm not a professional so that is problem !
And I've recorded the vocal with too much reverb I don't know if one of the plug ins could sort that out it just redo it again I'm still learning

[Exalted Wombat]

Hi mike got it thanks !
I'm just having trouble getting the vocal to sit in the mix properly I'm not a professional so that is problem !
And I've recorded the vocal with too much reverb I don't know if one of the plug ins could sort that out it just redo it again I'm still learning

Yes, re-record. Cubase will let you put a little (or a lot!) of reverb in your "cans" while recording, if you find it helps your performance. But you don't have to record that reverb, and it's usually better not to.

The main reason a vocal (or other solo) doesn't sit in the mix is that the other instruments aren't leaving room for it. And it's better to compose, arrange and perform in a way that leaves room than to construct an over-busy backing track then attempt remedial mixing. If something's taking up space needed by the vocals, should that thing have been there in the first place?

[babaorum]

There is an easier way.
On the audio track you could choose as automation's parameter : bypass of the delay (send or insert you 'll find in the list) so click on 'R' of the automation track and create as points as you need to change the bypass 'on' or 'off' along your audio track.

[Mike Craig]

Yes, re-record. Cubase will let you put a little (or a lot!) of reverb in your "cans" while recording, if you find it helps your performance. But you don't have to record that reverb, and it's usually better not to.

The main reason a vocal (or other solo) doesn't sit in the mix is that the other instruments aren't leaving room for it. And it's better to compose, arrange and perform in a way that leaves room than to construct an over-busy backing track then attempt remedial mixing. If something's taking up space needed by the vocals, should that thing have been there in the first place?

That is great advice.

I would record your vocal dry, then you should add the delay and reverb at the mixing stage.

Then try and build the track around the vocal.

If you have a well recorded vocal, you should get away with just a high-pass filter, the delay you've already decided upon and a touch of reverb.

Then use EQ or filters on your other instruments to prevent your other instruments from clashing with the vocals.

As an example, we normally associate a hi-hat as being a bright sound and there is often a tendency for mixers (including myself) to try and boost the high frequencies to make the sound even brighter. If you listen to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", the mixer has filtered out a lot of the HF aspects of the hi-hat to allow for the HF aspects of the vocal to be heard clearly.

The human voice is one of the most familiar sounds to us. For this reason, over-processing the vocal (to make it stand out) can sound harsh and artificial. Hence, cut the clashing frequencies of the other instruments to allow the vocal to shine through.

[The Elf]

I've recorded the vocal with too much reverb

As others have said, record your vocal without reverb. You can add that when you mix the track. If you really are at the start of the learning process then I would also suggest that you forget about adding reverb as you are recording, even if it is for monitoring only. It adds complexity that you don't need when you are learning.

What you are saying above also implies one of two other issues:

Either you are recording your vocal to a stereo track, when it would be more sensible to record to a mono track, or...

...you are recording your reverb mono - which will leave your vocal lacking in a sense of space.

Either of the above really needs to be avoided.

[top sound]

Hi guys
Some really useful advice here it's all going in as I said it's more or less Home recording but I am getting some good results surpisingly
Yes I'm going down that road of adding to much processing Into the mix
Also I have recorded the vocal as a stereo mix so that probably wasn't a good idea
If I can upload a couple of the songs would anyone one be interested in listening and give me your opion ?
Thanks again

[The Elf]

Also I have recorded the vocal as a stereo mix so that probably wasn't a good idea

It's not a terrible thing, but it's wasteful of disk space and may lead to other confusion/problems later.

If I can upload a couple of the songs would anyone one be interested in listening and give me your opion?

It's what we do here - any time you're ready!

[top sound]

Well I don't think I will be getting any nominations for producer of the year that's for sure which is the easiest way to upload ?

[The Elf]

Most people use Soundcloud. Sort out your account with them and then place a link to your content here.

[top sound]

Ok I shall post a link tomorrow have tried to do it from my iPad with sound cloud doesn't seem to give me an option

[top sound]

ok guys ive put 3 songs ive recorded from cubase using backing tracks
one of the songs was copyrighted from the karaoke channel in fact they will all be as they are madonna songs
hopefully i wont get sued im just looking for your opinion on the recordings so this is my 1st attempt at putting together a track what do you think
my user number on soundcloud is 570193929 im not sure how to send a link to here just yet i would love your feedback be gentle imnot a proffesional
thanks

[Zukan]

Hi mike got it thanks !
I'm just having trouble getting the vocal to sit in the mix properly I'm not a professional so that is problem !

Book a half day class with the Elf and he will not only sort out any queries you may have but he's a Cubase Jedi.

[The Elf]

im not sure how to send a link

It's simple. Go to your track on Soundcloud; click on 'Share' just underneath the track; copy the text link it provides; when you create your forum post, add a URL and paste the text link you've copied into the URL dialogue.

[The Elf]

Listening to 'Open Your Heart'...

There's something very strange going on. I'm hearing the vocal wandering around the stereo stage, almost as if you have an auto-panner on it. This needs fixing.

I suspect that this could be about your recording the vocal as a stereo track and then falling into some sort of mono/stereo trap - maybe adding a mono insert processor to a stereo track? You could convert the stereo vocal track to a mono one, but a quick fix would be to route the stereo track to a mono Group track, pan the stereo track hard to one side, and then do all your processing in the mono Group. Make sure that you remove all processing from the stereo track.

As to the vocal... It is performed reasonably well, but it does need some tuning work. To do it properly you will likely need Cubase's VariAudio to help you out. It's a bit advanced, maybe, based on where you are right now, but maybe it would be worth digging into it as a learning exercise. Failing that you could try Cubase's Pitch Correct as a quick fix and see how that sounds.

To the mix... The vocal is much too loud in relation to the backing and need some dynamic control to sit it back into the mix. Tonally it's not bad, but there's a fair bit of mid resonance that would be worth taming to remove the sense of congestion. The reverb sounds a bit too heavy to me, but with the vocal sitting back in the mix it might work.

The intro piano is very loud, then the backing drops down in volume, which sounds strange. Both the intro and ending are not at all helpful and they sound glued on. The sounds in the intro and ending are also not at all good. I'd lose both of them.

Keep at it - you are at the start of a wonderful journey!

[top sound]

Elf thanks for taking the time to listen
Ok I'm getting the idea now
The original vocal was recorded as stereo I think your right there's probably too much reverb on it there
I used a mackie pro fx mixer the reverb came from that I didn't use cubase for that originally as the latency was quite high i. Using asio4all driver so I will try to take some of the reverb off and make it into a mono track
In terms of processing the vocal if I remember I think I used a plate reverb basically just trying out which ones sounded the best again still inexperienced in that department I used the cubase pitch correct although I don't think it's set up right
The intro isn't very good I was going to use the my rd800 for that as it has a really good bright pad/bells sound sampled from a Roland d50
As we are doing a Madonna tribute I'm trying to make it more live when we are playing it's difficult when there only me (keyboard player) ,!
But in terms of recording I'm still on a learning curve
I did a course at college NCFE music technology a few years back but we didn't go very deep into cubase so a lot of knowledge I've kind of gained from you tube
It would be great to spend time with someone who uses this a.l the time so I can pick up some tips it's a bit difficult when your just using s forum

[The Elf]

You mentioning ASIO4ALL suggests that you don't have an audio interface with native ASIO drivers? This may be something to address before you go much further. How are you currently getting audio in/out of your computer?

A few of us on these fora do provide personal tutoring/mentoring. Zukan and myself are two of them. Depending on where you are based one of us may be able to help. Drop me a PM if you are interested and I can give you more details, as we discourage personal promotion on the open forum.

I would suggest re-recording that vocal. Something is clearly amiss, and you're not going to remove much of that reverb without some significant side-effects - you will be compounding the problems and creating new ones.

[top sound]

Hi elf
No I don't have an audio interface just yet I'm using the mixers built in one or what ever that is
I will have to re do the vocals on all the tracks and start again that might be easier for me they were done in one take pretty much
I will do a couple takes of each and use the best one or parts of it
I'm in Stoke by the way
I'm taking all the advice in it's really useful

[The Elf]

I actually have another regular pupil in Stoke, so no problem for me. Just let me know if you're interested.

How are you connecting the mixer to the computer? USB? Which exact model mixer is it? What mic make/model? How are you connecting mic to mixer?

The more details we have, the easier to comment on what you're doing.

[top sound]

Elf
Mixer is mackie pro fx12 connected via usb to the laptop I'm not sure what the mic is it's the singers I will ask her tommorow
It's connected via mic lead into the mixer I'd be interested in the tutoring I will pm you tommorow