Addictive Drums and VEP - Mono track workaround

[Synetos]

I am wondering if anyone has a better way to extract the mono track portions of AD2 from VEP slave. Here is how I am doing it now, but I end up with a copious number of tracks & outputs in Cubase. It works, but what a cludge.

 

On my slave, I have AD expanded into the 9 stereo channels VEP chose to create instead of 14 in AD. I assigned each input pair to their own stereo output bus.

 

On Cubase, I create 9 routing outputs and send the 9 stereo VEP pairs to these outputs.

 

Then I bring them back into stereo input channels for each part and use panning to grab the mono parts and route that to a mono group channel. 

 

Example: Kick and Snare are on the same stereo pair from VEP. I create two audio channels and then use the associated output i created for this pair as the source audio to both input channels. Then, by panning the kick channel left on its stereo channel, and routing to a mono group channel, I get the kick on its own mono bus. Obviously, snare gets panned right and is routed the same way to it's own mono group channel.

 

I repeat for every thing i need to split out. I also create group channels for the stereo channels such as OH, Room, etc so I can mix in the group channels as a unit. 

 

I create one DRUM MIX group channel as a master drum channel and route all the associated drum group channels to this. Then finally the Drum Mix group goes to stereo output bus.

 

Man! I end up with 50+ input/output channels just to get the separation of what AD2 should produce (10 mono and 4 stereo channels). Has anyone got a better way to do this?

[civilization 3]

@Synetos said:

 

On my slave, I have AD expanded into the 9 stereo channels VEP chose to create instead of 14 in AD. I assigned each input pair to their own stereo output bus.

 

On Cubase, I create 9 routing outputs and send the 9 stereo VEP pairs to these outputs.

 

Then I bring them back into stereo input channels for each part and use panning to grab the mono parts and route that to a mono group channel. 

 

AD outs to VEP 

- see image via above link. Ok instead of 'the 9 stereo channels VEP chose to create', go to create 'input channel', control or command i, and click on where you see No Input; here are the 14 channels AD exposes to a host. So there absolutely is a better M.O., and that is to directly do in VE Pro what you're using up audio input channels from Cubase to do, use the power panner in VE Pro to make the channels more or less mono.

[civilization 3]

Well, the 13 beyond its master out anyway. Then if you require a separate bus to output the whole of your AD mix as stereo, create a bus and put the individ. outs in it. I recommend as few outs to Cubase as possible and mix in VE Pro via automation, rather than create all of this redundancy in Cubase. I finally decided to go with one stereo out per instance to keep resources overhead down in order to spend that more wisely.

[Synetos]

Facinating! So, when I just clicked on the + sign, on the Instrument track in the mixer, it only exposed 8 additional AD channels, with the mono channels splitting stereo inputs. By adding the audio tracks manually, without doing the plus sign way, I could choose from all 13. Thanks a ton! This will certainly cut down on the mess I had going into Cubase.

Automation, articulations, etc is a different world than using a live session audio track and then pounding it to fit and painting it to match. The ability to just redo something at will, vs living with what one captured in the recording session takes a but of rethinking for my whole workflow. My approach in dealing with the mono track workaround for AD Drums was fixated just on getting the raw drums in Cubase and recorded on an audio tracks for each part...as if I were tracking a live drummer in a session. Then process, time align, blah blah afterwords to get the sound I am after.  Automation is a much more comprehensive creative process, interatively tweaking over and over to get it right before it is even recorded in Cubase. 

Mixing in VE Pro via automation will certainly grow into a preferred strategy for me too. I am just so new to VEP and VSL...I have much to learn. Thanks for nudging me in the right direction today.