The Pool Window in Cubase—Part 3

The Pool Window in Cubase—Part 3

How to Fix Missing Files

Sometimes when working with huge projects, there are cases where the project files go missing. 

This might be because you renamed the folder containing the files, or moved the folder to save space or it could be due to another reason. Unless you specify  Cubase that the files have been moved to another location, Cubase will accept the files as missing and will continue the project without the missing files.

Cubase has an in-built function that helps find the missing files that are being used in a given project and it can re-link them into the project.

To do this, open the Find Missing Files option from the Media menu. In the dialog box that appears, you'll find the list of the files that are missing from the project. 

Select either of the three options:

1. Locate: With this option, select the location of the file manually. Use this option if you're sure of the location of the missing file or if you have moved the file to a specific location. This option helps manually select the file and re-link it to the project. If you have renamed the file to something else, this option is the best bet to re-link it back to the project
2. Folder: Selects the folder in which the file was moved. If you have moved the file to a new folder without renaming it, you can re-link it using this method. Select the folder and Cubase automatically detects the correct file and link it to the project
3. Search: With this option, select a disk or a folder in which Cubase can search and find the file that is missing. Specify whether the search term is case-sensitive or not. Once the drive or folder is , click on Start and Cubase will search the specific location and find the files for you. If there are more missing files in the project and they are in the location that you specified, they'll also be re-linked into the project. Once the missing files are found, click on Accept

Sometimes, if the file that is missing was created by an edit, you can use the Reconstruct option in the Pool window. This re-creates the files by using the original file and processing it to create the missing file.

Cubase also has an option to remove the files that are missing in the project. Select Remove Missing Files in the Pool window and Cubase will remove the missing files from the Pool and from the project.

This option is very useful when you have to share your project with someone else. By removing the missing files from the project, once the other person opens the project, there will be no warnings saying that some files are missing from the session. Doing this will help reduce the size of a project and enable easy sharing.

Auditioning Clips

Auditioning clips in Cubase is easy and it's possible to audition clips in many different ways. The three main methods are described below:

1. Spacebar: The easiest method to audition a clip. Just as in Pro Tools, use the spacebar to audition a clip. You need to activate the Playback Toggle Triggers Local Preview option found under File > Preferences > Transport. To stop the preview, press the spacebar again
2. Audition Button: Use the Audition button on the top left corner of the Pool Window to audition the audio. To stop the audio, click the same button again
3. Waveform: An interesting way to audition clips. Click on the waveform and the playback starts from the place you clicked. It plays from that position to the end of the clip. To stop the playback, just click anywhere in the Pool window or on the Audition button

To loop a clip in the audition stage, click on the Loop button besides the Audition button.

The clip loops until the Stop button or Loop button is pressed again. In this mode, if you click on the waveform of the clip, the playback starts from the point that you clicked on the waveform and again start from the beginning once the clip has been played back.

You can adjust the level of the playback by adjusting the fader on the right side of the audition button. 

The default playback route is via the Control Room, if the Control Room is set up, else the audio will be routed through the main bus itself.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, I've shown you how to fix the missing files in a project and to audition clips in the Pool Window. 

Including these methods in projects speeds up workflow. Let me know in the comments below how you use the Pool Window.