Converting from SONAR to Cubase? What are the "Gotchas"?

I have been spending quite a bit of time on Cubase in the past two weeks.  I have stumbled over numerous issues that are significantly different between the two platforms.  I offer this thread as a place for people making this transition to share the things that they had to overcome.
 
I will start with the "Control Room" feature.  This is a rather elaborate part of Cubase that doesn't really have a direct match in SONAR.  When I first looked at it, I thought it was more trouble than it was worth.  I eventually got to the point that I invested 4 hours in setting this up.  IMHO, it is almost mandatory, so plan to take the time to learn it and use it.
 
The control room is only available in t the PRO level of Cubase. That shouldn't be an issue here because the Steinberg offer to SPlat users is for PRO.
 
Why use it?  For me, the main reason is because I consider the regular solo and mute functions dysfunctional in Cubase.  The basic problem is that if you have an effects bus, you can't solo that bus.  When you solo that bus, Cubase automatically solos every track that sends to that bus and you cannot stop it.  In other words, there is no way (AFAIK) to listen to the reverb bus, for example.  That's a big problem. My first mix ended up being way too heavy on the verb.
 
In Cubase, this is overcome by the "L" (Listen) buttons that are right beside the solo buttons everywhere.   With "L", you can hear exactly what you want to hear, and you can also control how much of the other material is monitored while listening.  You can adjust the dim level all the way down to zero sound.  That works great, but it is only available when using the control room.
 
Another reason you practically MUST use the CR is that is the only convenient way to quickly test your mix for mono compatibility.  That is a built-in and very handy part of the CR. In addition, the CR also has support for surround modes.
 
The CR is good for many other things, such as:

• Managing multiple monitors
• Maintaining multiple headphone mixes for the musicians
• Quickly monitoring what the musicians hear in their ears
• Talkback mics for the musicians
• Soloing ( using the "L" buttons) without affecting the musicians' headphone mixes at all.

It is worth the time to set it up.  Once it is set up, you can save the preset and it will work for every project.  It isn't terribly complicated, but the big issue is the risk of multiple sources doubling up on the outputs.  You have to trace your hardware paths carefully.  In my case with the Scarlett 18i20, I had to go into the Focusrite control panel to disable some of the mixing that was going on there.
 
It is a very strong feature that one should not ignore.

LINKING TRACKS
I haven't quite figured this out. There must be more to the story than I have learned so far.  Most DAWs have an easy way in the mix window to operate on multiple tacks simultaneously.  For example, if you want to adjust the faders for 4 tracks proportionately, you can do something like selecting the 4 tracks and then hold down the Ctrl while moving one of the faders.  And likewise for effects settings in the strips for the selected tracks.
 
That doesn't work in Cubase.  All I have found is a function where you can select the channels, and then explicitly link them.  The linking operation pops up a dialog that allows you to specify what elements should be linked, and that can include the faders and many other items.  That is nice, but the problem is that the channels remain linked until you explicitly unlink them.  I suppose you can set up shortcuts for the linking and unlinking, but to me it seems really awkward.  Usually I want to operate directly on sets of channels, but the sets don't necessarily remain the same from one minute to the next.
 
Maybe I am missing something here.  And if the only answer is linking, it is manageable, just not very convenient, IMHO.  I find SONAR very easy to use in this respect and StudioOne even more intuitive.
 

cparmerlee
LINKING TRACKS
I haven't quite figured this out. There must be more to the story than I have learned so far.  Most DAWs have an easy way in the mix window to operate on multiple tacks simultaneously.  For example, if you want to adjust the faders for 4 tracks proportionately, you can do something like selecting the 4 tracks and then hold down the Ctrl while moving one of the faders.  And likewise for effects settings in the strips for the selected tracks.
 
That doesn't work in Cubase.  All I have found is a function where you can select the channels, and then explicitly link them.  The linking operation pops up a dialog that allows you to specify what elements should be linked, and that can include the faders and many other items.  That is nice, but the problem is that the channels remain linked until you explicitly unlink them.  I suppose you can set up shortcuts for the linking and unlinking, but to me it seems really awkward.  Usually I want to operate directly on sets of channels, but the sets don't necessarily remain the same from one minute to the next.
 
Maybe I am missing something here.  And if the only answer is linking, it is manageable, just not very convenient, IMHO.  I find SONAR very easy to use in this respect and StudioOne even more intuitive.
 

There is a Quick-Link button at the top of the console. That should do the trick.
 
Best,
Frank

bwbalint
What is the ‘bounce’ equivalent in Cubase? Any particulars with this, different from Sonar?

The bounce function in Cubase is rendering several audio events into one file. Actually you can do this also with just one file, which than creates a real copy. If a file was edited with offline FX, bounce renders the actual state.
Render in place offers several modi: from dry to including FX and busses.
You can also choose from the export menu "mixdown" and activate "audio track" in the "import into project" section.