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Cubase Track Preset vs. Track Archive vs. Track Template

jneebz

jneebz

Senior Member
I'm exploring building a Cubase 9.5 template with Track Presets/Archives/Templates but am having a hard time finding information on the differences/advantages/disadvantages between the three.

The Cubase online manual doesn't even include an entry for "Track Template" (at least that I can find using the search box) which is an option under the settings cogwheel in Media Bay.

Any thoughts?
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Huh - not entirely sure what Track Templates are myself. Do they mean session templates?

Track Presets are half way to being great, but only half way. They have a fancy tag browser, which should be great. However, there are some pretty major shortcomings - they don't retain routing, aux send, quick control settings and a few other things like colours. There's no way to separate the gazillions of useless factory presets from the useful user ones, so people take to giving their own presets all 5 stars so you can order/search by star rating as a kind of kludgey workaround. As a final little dig, you can't route the audio out in a dropdown box like you can when creating new audio or instrument tracks. So in practice, its a sadly cumbersome way to work.

Track Archives have none of these issues, but they come with their own little nightmares. Buggy nightmares. If you use multiple outputs in your instrument tracks, they're liable to come back scrambled, duplicated, mixed in with other instruments in your project etc. Colours vanish. Also there's none of that tag browser elegance, its just a bunch of files on your hard drive (though you can of course at least see them in the media bay).

So sadly for me there isn't a good option currently. I've had a feature request to add critical functionality to the Track Presets, and had a bug fix request in for Track Archives for years. At least in this latter case, they are currently working on this though, so it could be fixed some time in C10's lifecycle.
 
Guy Rowland said:
If you use multiple outputs in your instrument tracks, they're liable to come back scrambled, duplicated, mixed in with other instruments in your project etc. Colours vanish
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Dammit. So frustrating.

I was at an industry conference when Studio One was released. The Lead Developer was really selling the notion that Studio One's features and even sound quality would be elevated over existing DAWs simply because the base code was brand new. I blew that off as fancy marketing fodder initially, but now with all these sh-tty Cubase bugs wonder if there's not a WHOLE LOT of truth there.

Thanks, as always Guy for your detailed posts.
 
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Yes, I think too there is truth in that jnbeez. No so sure about audio quality, but for efficiency and stability it makes all the sense in the world. I was using Cubase 30 years ago on an Atari ST. I just bet some of the code I'm using today is the same, and that's a nightmare.
 
So, Track archives aren't intended to be even related to the function of the other two. They're intended for migrating/archiving Cubase tracks--meaning the actual data--audio and MIDI between projects and versions of Cubase where the project files might not be compatible. They're not for creating template/preset type stuff.

I don't do much with the track and new mixer presets...so, I can't fully answer your question...but, take the archives off your mental radar for that kind of work.
 
jneebz said:
I'm exploring building a Cubase 9.5 template with Track Presets/Archives/Templates
Click to expand...

As mentioned you must mean templates as in when you open Cubase you have a choice to choose a template?

I too become confused as to when to use what. The problem is I think all these features have been added at different versions and then over time, attempts to improve them. So what we have today are Track Presets, Track Archives Import/Export, and you missed the 3 similar function Save Selected/Load Selected. But as Guy said...none of them really work as a typical user would like them to work, if you go beyond the very basic functions. It's a mess.

Save/Load Selected is good for adding multiple tracks keeping colors and track names intact. But you must remember when you save multiple tracks, then later you want to load these tracks, you must load the exact same number of tracks that you saved. For example, I use lots of Toontrack EZX and SDX expansions. If I call up an EZX expansion, then load the EZX drum kit and mixer, I can then use Load Selected (knowing the exact number of tracks in any given EZX) and I'll get the correct color, plus all the tracks properly labeled, and the EZX is ready to go. If you didn't do this you would need to re-name your tracks, and decide what EZX mix channels you want to correspond to what Cubase channels. i hope that makes sense.

(EDIT) none of the save selected/ load selected is necessary if you have already set up project templates i.e. with EZ Drummer and its corresponding tracks most likely disabled.

Also, I don't think Save/Load Selected works with Track Instruments...another difference between Rack Instruments and Track Instruments, not that you asked.

It's really a shame, but hopefully Track Archives will be fixed...thanks to Guys perserverence. If you run into an instance where you import something using Track Archives, and the sends are not also part of that Import, please let me know as this was tested and fixed with C10.
 
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greggybud said:
As mentioned you must mean templates as in when you open Cubase you have a choice to choose a template?
Click to expand...
Nope. If you click on the gear “Settings” icon in the top header of Media/Presets/Track Presets/Multi you’ll see there’s a “Track Template” option. No idea at all what it does...
 
Track presets are great in Cubase.
I used to have and still have a template which I don’t use anymore because I want to start on a blank page.
I use multitrack presets.
Everything is stored. Expression maps and outputs.
B
 
jneebz said:
Nope. If you click on the gear “Settings” icon in the top header of Media/Presets/Track Presets/Multi you’ll see there’s a “Track Template” option. No idea at all what it does...
Click to expand...

You mean this?
 

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My computer (Mac Mini) doesn't seem to like me trying to load track presets and often crashes.

I however do like to use the "Import from Project" function. I have a Project file with my "go to" instruments loaded along with their expression maps, routings and various settings, which just sits in an easily accessible place on my drive.

I then have a "bare bones" sketch project/template with piano, pad and string ensemble and all my expression maps, group tracks, FX tracks etc loaded which I use as my day to day project file and when I need strings for example adding, I just use the "Import from Project" function and import all my CSS/CSSS instrument tracks from that into my bare bones project. It seems to me to be the best of the bunch way of working.
 
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